Love in Secrets is a well written, emotional, and sexy story that I found impossible to put down and ends this series on a very high note. ~ Slick – Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews
Master distiller, Jake Dyer, is doing everything he can to keep his family-run gin distillery in business. Working seven days a week to maintain production volumes while overseeing a complex renovation of the distillery keeps him busy. There is no room for anything else in his life, especially not Cassie Cunnigham, his childhood friend, and daughter of the owner of the construction company completing the renovation.
Cassie Cunnigham hates leaving her project management job with a New York construction firm to return to Denver after a decade away. But when Jake Dyer calls to tell her about her father’s accident, she has no choice but to go home for six weeks to run his small construction firm in his absence. With her New York boss threatening to fire her if she doesn’t return, and her father pleading with her to stay, Cassie feels as though the men in her life are taking decisions out of her hands.
All except Jake, who is no longer the gangly-teen she left behind. And it doesn’t help that Jake can’t keep his eyes, or hands, off her, either. When friendly reunions turn heated in secret, Jake and Cassie convince themselves that friends-with-benefits sounds like a whole lot of fun.
But as walls go up in the distillery and refuse to come down from around Cassie’s heart, Jake wonders if he and the woman he’s falling in love with will ever add up to anything more.
Scarlett Cole brings the Love Distilled series to a close on a very high note with Love In Secrets. We’ve gotten to know
the Dyer siblings during this series and watch the two women fall in love while their brother toils away 7 days a week to keep the distillery moving. He does it for his family, as tribute to his dad, and to make sure he secures their future, but when a freak accident brings home his sister’s best friend, he suddenly realizes he wants more in his life than work.
You’ll let me just say Jake Dyer is a good guy hero and I flat out loved him. He’s one of those people that always puts others first and does the right thing and we’ve seen him throughout this series not only working hard but being there to rally behind his sisters when they need it and to welcome their men into the fold. It’s no wonder when Cassie returns to Colorado to take care of things while her dad heals that he begins to realize how small his life has become. Cassie makes him remember the carefree times they had as kids and teens and he can’t deny his intense attraction to the woman she’s become. I loved how intuitive Jake was which wasn’t all the surprising given what we’ve seen of him in the previous books, but he understood Cassie’s drive, her willingness to make her dreams come true, and the love she has for her work.
Just when the rug is pulled out of her by her boss in New York City, Cassie Cunningham must return to Colorado to be there for her dad. While they haven’t been all that close since his marriage to her stepmom, his condition is serious enough that she knows she’ll have to step in to help out at his construction company. When Jake picks her up she can’t believe how much he’s changed over the years or the fact that he makes her body hum. She dismisses it as being tired and stresses, but staying in his home she soon realizes she can’t deny the attraction.
I absolutely loved these two together, they were similar enough to have things in common that no one else seemed to understand yet different enough to keep things interesting. The fact they’d been friends for most of their lives, gave them a foundation on which to build and it was easy to see them falling for one another with each passing day even though they knew she would be returning to New York within a month.
There were quite a few touching and emotional moments in this book including one between Jake and his sisters Ev and Liv that left me a bit teary eyed. It also became quite clear how close Jake had become with Connor and Anders when they helped him through a pretty difficult time. It’s scenes like this that make a good romance a great story.
Love in Secrets is a well written, emotional, and sexy story that I found impossible to put down and ends this series on a very high note.
4.5 stars
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Meet Scarlett Cole
Born in England, spent time in the U.S. and Japan, before ending up in Canada where I met my own, personal hero – all six and a half feet of him. Both of us are scorpios! Yeah, I know! Should have checked the astrological signs earlier, but somehow it works for us. We have two amazing kids, who I either could never part with or could easily be convinced to sell on e-bay.
I’ve wanted to be a writer for a really long time. Check through my office cupboards or my computer and you’ll find half written stories and character descriptions everywhere. Now I’m getting the chance to follow that dream.
I am represented by Beth Phelan at The Bent Agency, NY.
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