ARC Review & GIVEAWAY…Summer in Napa by Marina Adair

To celebrate the release of Marina Adair’s Summer In Napa, the second in her St. Helena Vineyard Series, I am so happy to offer a signed paperback copy to give to one lucky winner (US residents only)!  

The rafflecopter is posted below my review with all of your chances to win!  

Good luck! 

Summer in Napa releases May 14

Buy from Amazon  ~  Buy from Barnes & Noble 

Synopsis:

When Alexis “Lexi” Moreau caught her husband, Jeff, sampling the sous-chef’s more intimate wares in their New York restaurant, she ran—all the way back to her hometown of St. Helena, California. Six months later, Lexi has no husband and no restaurant. But she does have a three-step plan: First, convert her grandmother’s bakery into her dream bistro. Second, ignore Grandma’s matchmaking attempts. And third, avoid Marco DeLuca, her ex’s commitment-phobic, distractingly sexy best friend.

In school Lexi was off-limits for Marco. After all, she was his buddy’s girl. But she’s still as smart and as gorgeous—and apparently as immune to his charms—as she used to be. Yet the simple fake romance they agree upon to dodge Lexi’s grandmother’s matchmaking plans soon turns deliciously complicated. And the sultry summer might bring together all the right ingredients for Marco to win the only woman he’s ever wanted.

My Review:

This is the second installment of Marina Adair’s St. Helena Vineyard Series and follows Kissing Under the Mistletoe.  I was so excited and looking forward to this story after loving Kissing Under the Mistletoe and it lived up to every expectation I had….and more!

Lexi Moreau is back in her hometown of St. Helena and looking for a new start after leaving her ex-husband, ex-restaurant and ex-dreams behind in New York.  What she isn’t looking forward to is running into all of her old friends and having to deal with all of their questions….and worse, their pity.  What she REALLY isn’t looking forward to is a calendar bursting at the seams with blind dates set up by her grandmother and her grandmother’s friends.  Lexi has a lot on her plate with trying to re-build her life and find a new future, certainly she won’t have time for love, but when she starts seeing old friend Marco DeLuca more and more, Lexi realizes that he may have been “the one” all along.

Marco DeLuca is up to his eyeballs in work.  He’s trying to get the old hotel, his hotel now, the one  in the center of town, up and ready to showcase at the Summer Wine Showdown…which is the biggest event in St. Helena every summer.  What he isn’t planning on is running into a very stuck Lexi Moreau hanging ass first out of her grandmother’s bakery window.  He always had a thing for her, but she had married his best friend, and even though they weren’t together any longer, she was still off-limits.  Man code dictated she was still off-limits.  So he should walk away, but Marco was never known to walk away from a beautiful woman.  His shoulder just may be the shoulder she needs to cry on….and he may end up realizing he should have never let her marry his dumb-ass of a former best friend.

Together, Marc and Lexi have more obstacles to hurdle than most.  Grandmothers determined to set her up, long-buried feelings, town snoops, bitter ex-girlfriends and an ex-husband that turns out to have a laundry list of dishonest deeds that threaten to ruin what Marc and Lexi have just begun to realize as a love they have denied themselves since they were teenagers at prom.

What a fantastic, feel good, honest and true romance read.  I freaking LOVED this book.  What Marina gives the reader is truly a gift.  I felt for each character.  Every laugh and every cry and especially every minute of sexual pull between Lexi and Marc.  Dear God….the heat from Marc was palpable.  There’s a scene in this book, in the pantry, that ranks as one of my fave hottest moments (a Frisky Friday post, perhaps?).  Marc has such a way with words that I don’t doubt for one minute that any woman would be putty in his hands.  He is sex on a stick and has such a big heart that when he finally finds love, you know it’s all-in, forever.  Lexi is a freaking dream character!  I love her!  I don’t love many heroines as much as I love Lexi.  The fact that she eats her weight in éclairs through this book and finds the strength to smile in the face of adversity all while still giving love a chance is so admirable.  I had more than a few laugh-out-loud-at-work moments while reading this story.  Lexi and Marc are a book couple I will be looking for in future installments in this series…they are just too great together! Oh, and don’t even get me started on the grandmothers! Those ladies are the best and I wish we all had women like them in our lives! Talk about fan-freaking-tastic characters!! Spunky, no-nonsense, loyal ladies with a love of life and their families….love those old biddies!

Marina is such a phenomenal storyteller.  I am lucky to have been giving the chance to read Summer in Napa Valley and be able to bring my voice to all of you in recommending it.  If you love love, happy endings and paddling through countless emotions to get to that happy ending, this is a book for you.  Thank you, Marina, for doing what you do….and don’t ever stop! Can’t wait to have another visit to St. Helena in the future!

Five Loves

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the author:

Every author can identify the exact moment of inception, when the skies parted, the heavens sang, and a divine being came forth, anointing them one of the chosen, blessed to spend the rest of eternity weaving stories of ‘ever after’ for mass consumption.

For me, it wasn’t so much a moment, but an intervention.

Sophomore year, my fellow Blockheads sat me down and explained that I had an addiction. I was a NKOTB–A-holic. Afraid of becoming enablers, they refused to listen to another one of my never-ending stories about our passionate intrigues with Jordan, Joe, Jon, Danny, and Donnie. What they didn’t understand was that New Kids on the Block wasn’t my obsession—they were my current romance-medium of choice.

Twenty years later, my romance addiction is a hard, bodice-ripping, half-dozen books per week. When I’m not reading it or watching it, I am writing it—or workshopping it—or editing it—or strategizing how my hands to get more of it.

In 2010, I realized I was closer to menopause than prom and got serious about my career, writing my way toward a post-graduate degree in creative writing (in the off chance that the first one didn’t stick) and becoming a published romance author.

January of 2012, I sold my first novel, TUCKER’S CROSSING, to Kensington Books and The St. Helena Vineyard series to Montlake Romance.  KISSING UNDER THE MISTLETOE, the first in the series is a National Bestseller and #1 Romance Series bestseller. SUMMER IN NAPA releases May 14, 2013 and AUTUMN AT THE VINEYARD releases October 2013. In 2014 the first in the Sugar Series, BUT SUGAR’S TWICE AS SWEET, will release from Grand Central’s Forever line.

I live with my husband, daughter and three neurotic cats in Northern California.

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