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jenafyre's review against another edition
5.0
I love Christie Rigdway, and I was so very excited to be able to review Bungalow Nights, Book 2 in the Beach House No. 9 series.
Vance Smith is an army medic who has just returned from war and is on a mission. He promised his dying friend Col. Parker that he will take his daughter on a month long vacation to Beach House No.9 and help her to complete the "Helmet List" of all of the things that he never got to do with his "Little Girl". Seeing a picture of Layla Parker, Vance thinks that she is a 9 year old girl. What a shock when the little girl proves to be a brown haired 25 year old woman with big brown eyes and a body that makes him want to rethink this vacation.
Layla Parker is the Karma Cupcake Queen. She and her uncle own a traveling food truck that sells gourmet cupcakes. Her uncle has arranged her to spend the month at Beach House No. 9, but when she meets Vance, the unexpected and unexplainable pull he has on her makes her want to run for the hills. But her father's dying wish was for her to spend the summer at the beach house, so like a good little soldier, she decides to try to ignore her attraction to Vance and make the most of the time that her father planned.
Along for the ride with Vance and Layla are Addy and Baxter. They have their own subplot in the story and it did not detract at all from Vance and Layla, it only enhanced the story. Vance has family issues. He sees himself as a screw-up in his families eyes, and not half good enough for Layla. Layla looks at Vance and sees a strong man, with a gentle heart who she deems her only personal hero.
I loved Vance and Layla together. Both fight their attraction for one another, but they keep getting drawn in, and eventually give in. I love that it was not a wham, bam, thank you ma'am" kind of thing, but something that built at a good pace and by the time that they stopped fighting the attraction, you were ready for them to get together. I loved the dynamic of Vance's family. He loved his family and the loved him, but misunderstandings and miscommunication kept preventing them from showing it. I loved how Layla tried to help them out and eventually helped them reconcile. I would recommend that book to everyone. I will definitely read the rest of the books in this series.
Vance Smith is an army medic who has just returned from war and is on a mission. He promised his dying friend Col. Parker that he will take his daughter on a month long vacation to Beach House No.9 and help her to complete the "Helmet List" of all of the things that he never got to do with his "Little Girl". Seeing a picture of Layla Parker, Vance thinks that she is a 9 year old girl. What a shock when the little girl proves to be a brown haired 25 year old woman with big brown eyes and a body that makes him want to rethink this vacation.
Layla Parker is the Karma Cupcake Queen. She and her uncle own a traveling food truck that sells gourmet cupcakes. Her uncle has arranged her to spend the month at Beach House No. 9, but when she meets Vance, the unexpected and unexplainable pull he has on her makes her want to run for the hills. But her father's dying wish was for her to spend the summer at the beach house, so like a good little soldier, she decides to try to ignore her attraction to Vance and make the most of the time that her father planned.
Along for the ride with Vance and Layla are Addy and Baxter. They have their own subplot in the story and it did not detract at all from Vance and Layla, it only enhanced the story. Vance has family issues. He sees himself as a screw-up in his families eyes, and not half good enough for Layla. Layla looks at Vance and sees a strong man, with a gentle heart who she deems her only personal hero.
I loved Vance and Layla together. Both fight their attraction for one another, but they keep getting drawn in, and eventually give in. I love that it was not a wham, bam, thank you ma'am" kind of thing, but something that built at a good pace and by the time that they stopped fighting the attraction, you were ready for them to get together. I loved the dynamic of Vance's family. He loved his family and the loved him, but misunderstandings and miscommunication kept preventing them from showing it. I loved how Layla tried to help them out and eventually helped them reconcile. I would recommend that book to everyone. I will definitely read the rest of the books in this series.
jbarr5's review against another edition
4.0
Bungalow Nights
Layla Parker runs the bakery and Vance Smith is the one soldier who returned to recuperate.
Summer nights on the coast where avacado is grown and it means it's the fertility fruit.
Problem is Layla's uncle hired her a nanny Vance, not thinking she is no longer 10.
He's recuperating from the war and he's heading back after he heals. There are hot steamy sex scenes. Love the area of the beach scenes.
#9 cottage appears to have magic as Griffin and Jane will marry soon and they spent a month there. Loved hearing of the rum runners as we had them here in RI in the day.
Story also follows Addy March and Baxter Smith and their relationship ups and downs.
Recipes included
Layla Parker runs the bakery and Vance Smith is the one soldier who returned to recuperate.
Summer nights on the coast where avacado is grown and it means it's the fertility fruit.
Problem is Layla's uncle hired her a nanny Vance, not thinking she is no longer 10.
He's recuperating from the war and he's heading back after he heals. There are hot steamy sex scenes. Love the area of the beach scenes.
#9 cottage appears to have magic as Griffin and Jane will marry soon and they spent a month there. Loved hearing of the rum runners as we had them here in RI in the day.
Story also follows Addy March and Baxter Smith and their relationship ups and downs.
Recipes included
bookloverchelle's review against another edition
4.0
Bungalow Nights, book two in the Beach House No. 9 series by Christie Ridgway, was just as enjoyable, fun, and flirty as book number 1. Even though this is in a series I think it could be read as a stand-alone. You do run in to some reoccurring characters but I don’t think that their impact on the storyline would affect a reader’s enjoyment of the story. Now, that doesn’t mean you should skip Beach House No. 9 because that was also a great contemporary romance from Ms. Ridgway.
In this story we meet Vance, a combat medic who has returned to the states with the promise to a fallen soldier that he would spend a month at Crescent Cove with his daughter. With the way her father spoke of her, Vance is expecting to meet a ten year old but when Layla walks up Vance realizes his comrades daughter is all grown up. Layla has had a pretty odd upbringing, being raised by her military father and hippie uncle, but she’s learned to embrace life. She can’t help but be drawn to Vance who tries his hardest to keep a “hands off” policy where she is concerned. But when circumstances throw them together they can’t help but let the sparks fly.
I really enjoyed this story. There was a lot of character growth between Layla and Vance plus a fun secondary romance that added to the storyline. I’m really excited for the third book, Ms. Ridgway has done a great job leading the reader up to the final HEA.
In this story we meet Vance, a combat medic who has returned to the states with the promise to a fallen soldier that he would spend a month at Crescent Cove with his daughter. With the way her father spoke of her, Vance is expecting to meet a ten year old but when Layla walks up Vance realizes his comrades daughter is all grown up. Layla has had a pretty odd upbringing, being raised by her military father and hippie uncle, but she’s learned to embrace life. She can’t help but be drawn to Vance who tries his hardest to keep a “hands off” policy where she is concerned. But when circumstances throw them together they can’t help but let the sparks fly.
I really enjoyed this story. There was a lot of character growth between Layla and Vance plus a fun secondary romance that added to the storyline. I’m really excited for the third book, Ms. Ridgway has done a great job leading the reader up to the final HEA.
jendoyleink's review against another edition
4.0
Started off a little on the slow side, but picked up and became one of my favorites among the books I've recently read. I really liked the whole family drama on Vance's side (although is it really that easy to get out of the army, medical issues and all?) and found Layla's responses at the end heartbreaking and yet wonderful at the same time. I wanted more with the family! But as disappointments go, that wasn't a biggie.
Spoiler
The green flash, well, of course that played out the way it did, and yet once again I will go on record saying how much I don't care. It didn't matter that I knew how it would go, I loved it all the same. I also liked that the final coming together didn't play out quite as smoothly as it usually does (see above re. Layla's responses); my only real issue with the book overall was that when the HEA did finally come, it was over and done.scoutmomskf's review against another edition
5.0
Very good book. Colonel Parker is the one man Vance wasn't able to get off the battlefield alive. But he made a promise that he would take the man's young daughter on a vacation and do the things he had kept putting off with her. So Vance set everything up and waited to meet the girl. He was stunned when he discovered that Layla was actually a full grown and beautiful woman. He is instantly attracted to her, but considers her to be "hands off."
I really liked both Layla and Vance. Layla has always kept a tight hold on her emotions. Her mother left when she was two, so she was raised by her soldier father and his hippie brother. While she knew she was loved excessive emotions were not something that were shown in her family. Also, as a military brat, relationships of any kind tended to be brief and fairly superficial because their lives were so transient. When she met Vance she too was attracted. She also didn't want to do anything about it because the inevitable end would be too painful. She considered Vance to be a hero so she was determined to go along with his plans. Because of her years of burying her emotions she still hasn't really dealt with her father's death. She also sees Vance's issues with his family and wants to help him get back together with them. Never having had a family like his she doesn't want to see him lose it forever. There is a lot of growth in Layla as she learns to open herself up to possibilities. She still has a tendency to retreat when the feelings get intense, but she also sees the happiness that is possible if she can just reach out and grab it.
Vance's guilty feelings for not saving the colonel are what caused him to agree to spend the month with the colonel's daughter. When he discovered that she was an adult he was ready to run. His intense attraction to her was not in his plan and it made him feel even guiltier. He was also trying to avoid his family who he'd been estranged from for years. He had been a wild teenager, mostly in reaction to what he saw as his older brother's perfection (loved his nickname for his brother). This caused his father to refuse to bring him into the family business, claiming that Vance was too irresponsible to do the job. Then his fiancee dumped him for his brother causing even more tensions. It was heartbreaking to see just how much Vance wanted to reconnect, but refused to allow himself to admit it. He had some really eye opening moments that helped him come to terms with his family and finally find some peace. That caring transferred to Layla and I loved the way he tried so hard to do the things her father wanted done. He tried so hard to resist the physical attraction but every time he thought he had a handle on it something would happen to reinforce it. He too would retreat when he was trying to resist. I loved the way that he would find himself telling her things that he never told anyone else and how much it would surprise him. He spent a long time refusing to admit the strength of his feelings to himself much less to her.
I loved the way that both Vance and Layla understood each other far more than they understood themselves. There were some very emotional moments between them and also some very fun ones. I loved the way that Layla would step in to defuse tension between Vance and his brother - some of those times were really funny. Vance was also very good at sensing Layla's emotional needs and being there for her.
I really enjoyed the secondary romance between Baxter and Addy. He was so uptight and OCD that seeing him deal with her laid back side was pretty funny. She did a great job of needling him into letting go. I liked his unwilling possessiveness and how he ended up showing it. The mystery she was working on was pretty good, but only partly solved. I really hope we get the rest of it in the next book.
I really liked both Layla and Vance. Layla has always kept a tight hold on her emotions. Her mother left when she was two, so she was raised by her soldier father and his hippie brother. While she knew she was loved excessive emotions were not something that were shown in her family. Also, as a military brat, relationships of any kind tended to be brief and fairly superficial because their lives were so transient. When she met Vance she too was attracted. She also didn't want to do anything about it because the inevitable end would be too painful. She considered Vance to be a hero so she was determined to go along with his plans. Because of her years of burying her emotions she still hasn't really dealt with her father's death. She also sees Vance's issues with his family and wants to help him get back together with them. Never having had a family like his she doesn't want to see him lose it forever. There is a lot of growth in Layla as she learns to open herself up to possibilities. She still has a tendency to retreat when the feelings get intense, but she also sees the happiness that is possible if she can just reach out and grab it.
Vance's guilty feelings for not saving the colonel are what caused him to agree to spend the month with the colonel's daughter. When he discovered that she was an adult he was ready to run. His intense attraction to her was not in his plan and it made him feel even guiltier. He was also trying to avoid his family who he'd been estranged from for years. He had been a wild teenager, mostly in reaction to what he saw as his older brother's perfection (loved his nickname for his brother). This caused his father to refuse to bring him into the family business, claiming that Vance was too irresponsible to do the job. Then his fiancee dumped him for his brother causing even more tensions. It was heartbreaking to see just how much Vance wanted to reconnect, but refused to allow himself to admit it. He had some really eye opening moments that helped him come to terms with his family and finally find some peace. That caring transferred to Layla and I loved the way he tried so hard to do the things her father wanted done. He tried so hard to resist the physical attraction but every time he thought he had a handle on it something would happen to reinforce it. He too would retreat when he was trying to resist. I loved the way that he would find himself telling her things that he never told anyone else and how much it would surprise him. He spent a long time refusing to admit the strength of his feelings to himself much less to her.
I loved the way that both Vance and Layla understood each other far more than they understood themselves. There were some very emotional moments between them and also some very fun ones. I loved the way that Layla would step in to defuse tension between Vance and his brother - some of those times were really funny. Vance was also very good at sensing Layla's emotional needs and being there for her.
I really enjoyed the secondary romance between Baxter and Addy. He was so uptight and OCD that seeing him deal with her laid back side was pretty funny. She did a great job of needling him into letting go. I liked his unwilling possessiveness and how he ended up showing it. The mystery she was working on was pretty good, but only partly solved. I really hope we get the rest of it in the next book.
alwaysreadingreview's review against another edition
5.0
This is the 3rd book in the Almost series. I love this series and Beach House No 9. This book had a lot like grief, family, love, and family. I loved that it was about letting go of the past. Vance is an army medic, who tried to save the life of his Colonel Parker, who was the dad of Layla. Vance promised the Colonel that he would do his bucket list, which he gave a great name to, with Layla. I think her dad did this on purpose to get them together as a couple.
Great writing. Believable story. From the first page, I was pulled into the book.
☆☆☆☆☆
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
Recommend this book? Yes! Author? Yes!
Read more from this author? Yes!
Happy Reading!
Melissa
Great writing. Believable story. From the first page, I was pulled into the book.
☆☆☆☆☆
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
Recommend this book? Yes! Author? Yes!
Read more from this author? Yes!
Happy Reading!
Melissa
xiotisa00's review against another edition
5.0
Another great book by Christie Ridgeway! This is book 3 if the Crescent Clove series and the series just keeps getting better and better. Can’t wait for the next book and to finally get Skye’s story
shobeteener's review against another edition
5.0
Almost Everything is book 3 in the Almost Series. Each one of these books can be stand alone. Though we do get to revisit with characters from prior books in the series.
Vance Smith is honoring a fallen officer's last request, to fulfil his helmet list of items he wanted to do with his daughter. They are going to spend a month on the beach in Crescent Cove. He's very surprised that the daughter, Layla Parker is an adult.
Vance pushes Layla through her emotional struggles to complete each one. Layla in turn pushes Vance to deal with his estrangement from his family.
I don't think I'd consider this a romance story. It is so much more. I think of it as a healing of the hearts.
Vance Smith is honoring a fallen officer's last request, to fulfil his helmet list of items he wanted to do with his daughter. They are going to spend a month on the beach in Crescent Cove. He's very surprised that the daughter, Layla Parker is an adult.
Vance pushes Layla through her emotional struggles to complete each one. Layla in turn pushes Vance to deal with his estrangement from his family.
I don't think I'd consider this a romance story. It is so much more. I think of it as a healing of the hearts.
bookly68's review against another edition
5.0
"Love didn’t force the two of us together, Layla. The two of us together create the love."
Vince is a Combat Medic and he made a promise to his dying Colonel that he would help his daughter have an amazing summer at Beach House # 9 in Crescent Cove. He’s determined to fulfill that promise.
After her father is killed in Afghanistan, Layla Parker has come to Crescent Cove to complete a bucket list of things he always wanted to do with her and that he always carried with him in his helmet (his helmet list).
Vince and his family are estranged. He and his brother had a major falling out. His father won’t allow him to have anything to do with the family business. When Vince goes off to Afghanistan, he only send his family an email to let them know he went. No personal goodbyes, he does not keep in touch regularly, he cuts them off from his life. Except for his one cousin, Baxter, who he’s very close to.
So this is more than just a romance, but a healing of hearts! A healing of Layla’s hearts, Vince’s heart, and his family’s too. This was a beautiful story!!!!! There was a side romance between Vince’s cousin, Baxter and Addison. I thought at first that I wouldn’t be interested, and got irritated because it was interrupting Vince and Layla’s story. But the story of Baxter and Addy grew on me. There was a healing of hearts there too.
I really loved this book!!! I’m not surprised when it’s written by one of my go to authors. This Always Series has been SO special!!! Beach House #9 truly is magical!! I am really looking forward to the next one, Almost Paradise!!! If you enjoy really good romance, with so much depth to it, then I highly recommend this book and this whole series to you! They can be read as standalones, but are much nicer read as a series.
Vince is a Combat Medic and he made a promise to his dying Colonel that he would help his daughter have an amazing summer at Beach House # 9 in Crescent Cove. He’s determined to fulfill that promise.
After her father is killed in Afghanistan, Layla Parker has come to Crescent Cove to complete a bucket list of things he always wanted to do with her and that he always carried with him in his helmet (his helmet list).
Vince and his family are estranged. He and his brother had a major falling out. His father won’t allow him to have anything to do with the family business. When Vince goes off to Afghanistan, he only send his family an email to let them know he went. No personal goodbyes, he does not keep in touch regularly, he cuts them off from his life. Except for his one cousin, Baxter, who he’s very close to.
So this is more than just a romance, but a healing of hearts! A healing of Layla’s hearts, Vince’s heart, and his family’s too. This was a beautiful story!!!!! There was a side romance between Vince’s cousin, Baxter and Addison. I thought at first that I wouldn’t be interested, and got irritated because it was interrupting Vince and Layla’s story. But the story of Baxter and Addy grew on me. There was a healing of hearts there too.
I really loved this book!!! I’m not surprised when it’s written by one of my go to authors. This Always Series has been SO special!!! Beach House #9 truly is magical!! I am really looking forward to the next one, Almost Paradise!!! If you enjoy really good romance, with so much depth to it, then I highly recommend this book and this whole series to you! They can be read as standalones, but are much nicer read as a series.
bookishlyfab's review against another edition
5.0
I am having a hard time deciding between 4 and 5 stars on this one. I loved both couples in this book. The secondary storyline was amazing, and I think it would have made a great stand alone novel, to tell you the truth. Vance and Layla had a very poignant story also, and I think that I would have liked for both stories to have a full novel. Aside from that, I loved this one and couldn't wait to get back to it whenever I had to put it down.