Review: Rainy Day Friends

✩✩✩✩

Six months after Lanie Jacobs’ husband’s death, it’s hard to imagine anything could deepen her sense of pain and loss. But then Lanie discovers she isn’t the only one grieving his sudden passing. A serial adulterer, he left behind several other women who, like Lanie, each believe she was his legally wedded wife. 
Rocked by the infidelity, Lanie is left to grapple with searing questions. How could she be so wrong about a man she thought she knew better than anyone? Will she ever be able to trust another person?  Can she even trust herself?
Desperate to make a fresh start, Lanie impulsively takes a job at the family-run Capriotti Winery. At first, she feels like an outsider among the boisterous Capriottis. With no real family of her own, she’s bewildered by how quickly they all take her under their wing and make her feel like she belongs. Especially Mark Capriotti, a gruffly handsome Air Force veteran turned deputy sheriff who manages to wind his way into Lanie’s cold, broken heart—along with the rest of the clan.
Everything is finally going well for her, but the arrival of River Green changes all that. The fresh-faced twenty-one-year old seems as sweet as they come…until her dark secrets come to light—secrets that could destroy the new life Lanie’s only just begun to build.

Genre: contemporary romance

Publication date: June 2018

Mature content: yes

Review: Rainy Day Friends is a a nice, feel good romance novel about second chances and making the most of what life dealt you with.

The characters are well developed, the plot is compelling and there's just a tiny hint of suspense to make you want to read the book in one sitting.

But...there are places where the writing is repetitive, the same phrase repeated in exactly the same way by different characters in different parts of the book - and no, I don't think it was intentional. And here and there I also noticed a few holes in the plot - like Lanie saying she didn't have a bathing suit and a few days later - with no mention of her going shopping, suddenly she's changing into her bathing suit...Small details but that prevented the story to flow fluidly because I kept going back and forth to check if I as the one confusing the words. Also, not the type of editing issues I would expect from Jill Shalvis.

So, just four stars instead of five, but still a great book to read over the summer.

Happy readings,