Review of The Hideaway (Lavender Shores #5) by Rosalind Abel

 by Rosalind Abel

3.5 stars

Lavender Shores’s resident tattoo artist, Connor Clark, looks the part—six foot six, musclebound, and covered in ink—and most definitely doesn’t blend in. Grafted into the Bryant family as a teenager to escape his abusive father, the Bryants saved his life, but Connor has never truly felt a part of the founding family royalty. And if his heart’s desire were revealed, it would betray everything the Bryants have done for him.

Micah Bryant was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He’s always had everything he ever wanted—save the one he desires most. Even moving to New York City for a few years didn’t dampen his passion. Not that Micah had expected it to. He’s known his destiny since he was nine years old, the moment it had walked through his door.

After years of longing, years of secrets and stolen moments of passion and love, Connor weakens enough to allow the town to see how he feels, and let the Bryants know his love for Micah is anything but brotherly. But no sooner had the decision been made than Connor’s biological family returns and shatters it all. Still, Micah holds on to the belief that their romance was written in the stars, but maybe he’d been wrong all those years…

This is book 5 of the Lavender Shores series by Rosalind Abel, and although we really enjoyed it, it left us wanting more?  As a stand-alone it is okay, but with the other 4 books of the series being amazing, the Hideaway just didn’t measure up.  We think we may have enjoyed the story if we hadn’t ready The Shipwreck first…..

What did we love?

- The characters:  We really likes Connor and Micah, independently they were great characters with really great stories. 

- Visiting our Friends:  This is a series, and while you don’t have to read the previous books, it does help.  And it is really nice visiting all the couples we fell in love with on the Lavender Shore journey.

- The Romance:  We aren’t huge in to super sweet romance, but it really worked in The Hideaway.  Well let’s amend that, when Connor and Micah formally got their schmoop on, it was fantastic.  They waited a long time for their Happy Ever After so we liked that they really gave it all their love.

The meh?

- Brother to Husbands:  We think this is a really great story idea, but somehow didn’t work for us with Connor and Micah.  Maybe the fact that it took years and year and years for them finally to admit their feelings to their family, when we have only seen their family be SUPER accepting in the other books, was a bit hard to swallow.

- Angst:  This is an Angst read, and yes, the other Lavender Shore don have angst, but this one was so much, we felt it took away from the love-story.

The Hideaway by Rosalind Abel is a great little story, full of so much love.  We are really enjoying the Lavender shore series and can’t wait for the next book!