The Secret Son - Joan Kilby (Secrets of Cherry Lake #1)

If there was ever a perfect day for a sweet romantic book, it was today. I was tired after this weekend, worn out from work, and not really looking forward to our Monday night ritual of football. I'm in third place in our fantasy league, I'm sure it can go without my attention for one evening. Lucky for me, I had a copy of The Secret Son just calling my name.

Rating: 4 Stars
Published: August 2015
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Alex is celebrating his thirtieth birthday with big plans to spend time in Mexico with margaritas and pretty blondes. His plans are interrupted by a birthday card from his estranged father that just won't leave his mind. Emma knows men like Alex, they waltz into small towns and shake up everyone's lives. She wants to protect her heart, and the community she calls family, but she didn't expect the feelings she has for the handsome business man. What starts as a drive-by stop in Cherry Lake to see his dad turns into a second chance, a chance at a family who doesn't know about him and maybe even a chance at love.

Alex and Emma are adorable, I could have easily read 500 more pages about their love story, but this was a quick read and tied up quickly with a neat bow. I read it in one sitting, in about two hours. Emma is a sweet girl, the kind of character I really enjoy reading. She doesn't have romanticized notions about life, she's smart, humble, and protective. Her parts of the story were my favorite. I also really felt for Alex, his father made me angry, but he handled it so well. There were times when the book could have grown and expanded, even gotten out of hand, but the family turmoil is believable. The secondary characters are very minor, there is not a lot of description to them, but you can learn a lot from the prequel, Small Town Secrets, if you read it first. This is a great family based series from what I can see so far and if the following books in the series are anything like this one, I will be hooked. The Jackson family has so many secrets and I am intrigued to see where it goes.

The Secrets of Cherry Lake series is a new contemporary romance series from Montana Born books by Tule Publishing Group. There are five books in the series from four wonderful romance authors, including The Secret Son by Joan Kilby. All five books are now out in the series, you can get started for free with the prequel, Small Town Secrets by Roxanne Snopek. I know I am really looking forward to getting starting on the rest of the books after reading these first two. They're wholesome, romantic, emotional, and realistic. I enjoyed that I went into this expecting an easy, flirty read and ended up with a story about second chances and a family I genuinely enjoyed reading about.