One of These Nights by Kendra Leigh Castle (Harvest Cove #3)
Contemporary Romance
September 2, 2015
Signet
Reviewed by Helyce
From Goodreads: Moving to Harvest Cove has been like a dream come true for Zoe Watson, providing her with a job she loves and close friends she considers practically family. The only problem: a certain prickly—albeit handsome—park ranger who can’t seem to help tracking mud into her art gallery…or showing up in her dreams.
Jason Evans swore off relationships the day his ex-wife walked out the door, and the local gallery owner is no exception. But when an accident forces him to accept the one thing he hates most in the world—help—he discovers that with Zoe in his life, there are more highs than lows. Despite their long-simmering attraction, neither Jason nor Zoe thinks that two people with so little in common could possibly have a future together. But one of these nights, they may just discover how alike they are.…
I was so excited to learn that this next installment would be Jason and Zoe’s story. Jason had brought many humorous moments to this series in the previous two books as he continued to annoy Zoe each and every time he stepped into her gallery. You knew there was more to it and that the attraction was there. It was clear that something was going on with these too, their animosity was too obvious, even if they couldn’t see it for themselves.
Zoe had come to Harvest Cove three years prior to realize her dream of owning an art gallery. She’d looked around for the perfect place and settled in Harvest Cove because she fell in love with the town. She worked hard, filling her store with the many different forms of art, all created by artists in the area. She made a good life for herself, had wonderful friends, but had not yet taken the plunge into dating. Her focus was the store, and she was completely happy about that.
Jason grew up in Harvest Cove and never wanted to leave. Though his parents and younger brother had chosen to move to the city when the opportunity presented itself, Jason stayed behind. He loves his job as a park ranger, being outside just makes him happy. Jason is not estranged from his family per se, he’s just a bit of a black sheep. He doesn’t have a great relationship with his mother who never tries to hide her disappoint of Jason and can be counted on to embarrass him and compare him to his younger brother often and with great emotion.
I adored both these characters immensely. When Zoe learns that Jason broke his leg while rescuing a dog during a recent storm, she decides to check on him. This is a bit out of her comfort zone, but she wants to be a good friend so she goes to see him. During this visit she learns that Jason’s mom is coming out to “take care of him”. Jason is so distraught about it that he infers to his mother during a phone call while Zoe is in earshot, that his girlfriend is helping out and taking good care of him. This causes a host of things he didn’t count on, namely Zoe’s anger and disbelief, not to mention the fact that his mother now can’t wait to meet this woman. But once Jason shares a little about his mom and why he said it, Zoe relents and agrees to pretend to be his girlfriend for the duration of his mother’s visit.
This ruse of the “fake” girlfriend sets up the story nicely but quickly gets pushed to the background as Zoe and Jason begin to spend time together and find that they actually like each other in spite of the fact that they’ve really or bickered with each other. They ever so slowly begin to accept their attraction and as they get to know each other, we learn little things about Jason’s past and come to understand some of the reasons that Jason had never focused on a relationship following his divorce. We also see him struggle with his mother, Molly, once she shows up and literally tries to take over Jason’s life.
Molly Evans is a character you’ll want to hate, deservedly so. She is so self-centered claiming that she is there to help Jason, but she has her own agenda and really and truly is more worried about the impression she’s making with outsiders than trying to help Jason. She certainly has no problem sharing her opinion on everything. She even goes so far as to talk to customers about the art in Zoe’s gallery. Zoe absolutely does not stand for this and while I easily tired of Molly and her antics, she brought out a side of Zoe that proved to the reader that Zoe felt much more for Jason than she was letting on. Zoe is a fierce protector of Jason and she has Molly’s number pretty quickly. Zoe doesn’t hold back and while she doesn’t make a very good first impression with Molly, she certainly gives Jason something to think about.
Ms. Leigh takes the opposites attract view to a new level with Zoe and Jason. While I feel this could be read as a stand alone, the previous two books start the dance of Zoe and Jason long before the fake girlfriend ruse comes into play-so much so that you already have the expectation of a happy ending. But there are obstacles and Molly is not the only thorn in their relationship’s possibilities. Jason carries a lot of baggage and guilt with respect to his failed marriage and it steadily hinders the progress of his relationship with Zoe; so much so that the explosion near the end was inevitable. While there is always an expectation of conflict in a love story, so that our characters can make up–I liked how the author chose to force Jason out of his comfort zone so that he really had to step up and fight for Zoe.
One of These Nights is a lovely story of two people who are meant to be. It takes them a while to get there, but their struggles and obstacles along the way just make their happy ending that much sweeter.
Rating: B
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