SNOWFLAKE BAY – Donna Kauffman
The Brides of Blueberry Cove , Book 2
Zebra Books
ISBN: 978-1-4201-3747-7
October 2015
Contemporary Romance

The Coast of Maine, Present Day

Fiona McRae closed up her very successful interior design business in Manhattan and moved home to Blueberry Cove. She plans to open a design business in the smaller community among people whom she feels would appreciate her personal style better than those in the big city. Before she can concentrate on that, however, she's agreed to plan her older sister Hannah's forthcoming wedding. She doesn't have much time left; it will be a Christmas wedding. As she enters her old home, who is there but Ben Campbell, her big brother Logan's best friend and the man she's had a crush on since she was thirteen. Ben teased Fiona and treated her as a little sister. He didn't realize that the nickname he called her hurt her then, and he called her “Fireplug” again when she entered the house all bundled up in layers of winter clothing. It still hurts.

Ben Campbell is back where he grew up with decisions to make. He has built a prosperous business as a landscape architect in and around Portsmouth, Rhode Island. But now that his parents have retired and moved south, he needs to decide what to do with their Christmas tree farm and holiday sales. He grew up with the business, and getting a tree from the Campbell farm is a special tradition for the folks in the area.The holidays are coming, and he will keep it open this year, but can he juggle both careers? Granted, the landscape business is slow in winter, but the tree farm needs tending the whole year.

Ben hadn't seen Fi for a long time, but he'd always felt close to the whole McCrae family. Once the diminutive Fi sheds her outer garments and Ben gets a glance at her lush curves, he no longer has big brotherly feelings. Is there something there?

Fi and Ben are mature individuals in their thirties. While Fi has had some relationships, none ever felt right to her, and Ben is recently unengaged. Is it possible Fiona will get over the hurt of his early indifference to her and they have a chance? It doesn't seem so from Fi's attitude. Besides, she has a wedding to plan in only seven weeks while getting a start on her new design business in Blueberry Cove.

The McCrae family is a warm and loving one given that the four children lost their parents at an early age. Brother Logan is the town's chief of police. Until recently moving back, Hannah practiced law in Washington, D.C. And Kerry, the youngest, is the wild child who has adventured in several exotic locales. She came to town for Logan's wedding and is staying for Hannah's. The mainstay of their lives became their grandfather's cousin, the crusty Fergus McCrae, their “Uncle” Gus.

SNOWFLAKE BAY follows book one in the series, SEA GLASS SUNRISE, Hannah's tale. And both books follow the three book Bachelors of Blueberry Cove series. A new sister was added to the three when Logan married Alex, who came to town to help renovate the family's (now Logan's) lighthouse. (See PELICAN POINT.) Quirky is the adjective many use to describe the characters who people the area where these fun novels take place. I must say, it fits! But they are also warm and caring. And there is a cohesiveness that turns Blueberry Cove into a living, thriving entity.

So go find SNOWFLAKE BAY and watch the McRaes handle a family crisis, see Ben make his choices, and enjoy his and Fiona's give and take turn from antagonistic to lively, lighthearted banter, and the relationship…well, read it for yourself and have your emotions stirred and your funny bones tickled. Then wait for Kerry's story in STARFISH MOON coming in May.

Jane Bowers