I just finished Book Two in the Lavender Tides series.
I liked this one a lot but I liked Book One better.
STORY SUMMARY
Ellie Blackmore is single and is known as a house flipper. She buys old homes and restores them and then re-sells them. She has a younger sister Mackenzie. They have a father who isn't around and their baby sister died in a drowning accident when the girls were all little. Their mother killed her self shortly after the youngest girl drowned. Ellie has always felt responsible for her little sister's death and her parents had a hand in making her feel that way. Mackenzie has always been a bit jealous of Ellie.
Ellie's co-worker and very good friend Jason, is Mackenzie's ex-husband. They were only married for 2 years.
One day, Mackenzie disappears. She and Ellie were supposed to meet on Mac's boat and go out to dinner to celebrate Mac's birthday, but when Ellie got there, Mackenzie was no where to be found. All Ellie found was a large blood stain on the deck of the boat. Jason was annoyed with Mackenzie and wanted nothing more to do with her....but he wouldn't kill her! Or would he??
Meanwhile, Shauna and Zach from Book One are married and extending their honeymoon. They have tracked down Shauna's biological brother, missing since he was 2 years old, in North Carolina. He was adopted by two loving people who also have a daughter named Isabelle. Connor, his given name, is now known as Grayson Bradshaw. He is in the Coast Guard serving as an intelligence officer. He and Shauna meet and little does Shauna know but Grayson actually is stationed in Seattle and needs to go to Lavender Tides to figure out where a stash of stolen cocaine that was smuggled into the country disappeared. Grayson believes Mackenzie faked her own death after stealing the cocaine. He just needs to convince Ellie whom he meets shortly after arriving in Lavender Tides.
Ellie and Grayson want to get to the bottom of things. Ellie wants to find her sister whom she believes is still alive. And Grayson, who is also tracking down a terrorist with ties to North Korea, wants to find the cocaine, find the terrorist and help Ellie find Mackenzie. Little do they know that while they both are searching for the truth.....they will fall in love.
MY THOUGHTS
I preferred Book One but this second book has some good plot twists and character development. But honestly, that's really all it has going for it. It's a bit sappy and much too predictable. However, toss in a couple of minor characters who end up being characters you didn't expect and it becomes a little more exciting.
The ending is not all that believable and is just too perfect.
The romance seems a bit forced in this book and typical of Christian fiction, in my opinion.
There's a bit of terrorism involved and bombs, murder, etc to make it a bit suspenceful but honestly, I wasn't all that excited about the story overall.
One thing that was kind of neat was that Shauna and Zach found out that the baby sister Shauna saw her mother deliver (and whom she named Brenna) during the earthquake when she was 8 year old, is alive and has been taken by the very paramedic that helped Shauna during that earthquake! Again, a bit forced, a bit too early to be realistic, and I'm guessing book 3 is going to center around getting connected with Brenna.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest I rate this a 7.
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