Six months after Lanie Jacobs’ husband’s death, it’s hard to imagine anything could deepen her sense of pain and loss. But then Lanie discovers she isn’t the only one grieving his sudden passing. A serial adulterer, he left behind several other women who, like Lanie, each believe she was his legally wedded wife.
Rocked by the infidelity, Lanie is left to grapple with searing questions. How could she be so wrong about a man she thought she knew better than anyone? Will she ever be able to trust another person? Can she even trust herself?
Desperate to make a fresh start, Lanie impulsively takes a job at the family-run Capriotti Winery. At first, she feels like an outsider among the boisterous Capriottis. With no real family of her own, she’s bewildered by how quickly they all take her under their wing and make her feel like she belongs. Especially Mark Capriotti, a gruffly handsome Air Force veteran turned deputy sheriff who manages to wind his way into Lanie’s cold, broken heart—along with the rest of the clan.
Everything is finally going well for her, but the arrival of River Brown changes all that. The fresh-faced twenty-one-year old seems as sweet as they come…until her dark secrets come to light—secrets that could destroy the new life Lanie’s only just begun to build.
Rocked by the infidelity, Lanie is left to grapple with searing questions. How could she be so wrong about a man she thought she knew better than anyone? Will she ever be able to trust another person? Can she even trust herself?
Desperate to make a fresh start, Lanie impulsively takes a job at the family-run Capriotti Winery. At first, she feels like an outsider among the boisterous Capriottis. With no real family of her own, she’s bewildered by how quickly they all take her under their wing and make her feel like she belongs. Especially Mark Capriotti, a gruffly handsome Air Force veteran turned deputy sheriff who manages to wind his way into Lanie’s cold, broken heart—along with the rest of the clan.
Everything is finally going well for her, but the arrival of River Brown changes all that. The fresh-faced twenty-one-year old seems as sweet as they come…until her dark secrets come to light—secrets that could destroy the new life Lanie’s only just begun to build.
Release Date: June 19, 2018
Avon Harper Collins
Contemporary Romance
Wildstone #2
Review copy provided by publihser
Liza's review:
Seriously Rainy Day Friends was like book crack to me. Once I started reading this story, I didn't want to put the book down. This book made me laugh out loud in public while reading, gave me happy signs and even a few tears.
Lanie Jacobs needs a break from her life in after discovering her husband not only married her, but several other women. I loved how Lanie was a bit of a fish out of water around the Capriotti clan in the beginning. As she never had a close knit family, suddenly being drawn into a boisterous and all up in your business family really was a shock to her. I loved the Capriottis accepted Lanie into their family pretty much from the moment she walked on their property. I honestly think if this had just been a story about Lanie finding a family with the Capriottis, it would have been great. However Ms. Shalvis took it so much further.
I loved seeing Lanie and Mark both find their way back to love. As they both had been burned pretty badly in the love department in the past, I loved watching them navigate their way through their relationship. I have to say I also adored Mark’s twin girls. I really think it can sometimes be a distraction to have kids in a romance, but felt the balance and humor with the girls was absolutely perfect in Rainy Day Friends. I think I fell in love with those two precocious little girls every bit as much as I fell in love with Lanie and Mark as a couple.
I figured out immediately that River has something to do with Lanie’s husband. Her story along with everything Lanie had discovered pretty much broke my heart for them both in the very beginning. However as the story progressed and Lanie and River spent more time together, I started to feel like they had become sisters of the heart. While I hated what they each had to go through to get to this point in their lives, I loved seeing them make such a strong and lasting connection to each other, as neither had a family like the Capriottis. I felt like they each finally had found a home among the Capriottis and finally had a sister in each other.
I’ve always adored books from Jill Shalvis, but have to say there is something about Rainy Day Friends that makes it one of my favorite books ever from Ms. Shalvis. It gave me all the emotional feels and I honestly didn’t want to put it down. I loved the story so much, I’ve already listened to the audiobook just so I could read it again, and it was like having the story brought to life all over again. I highly recommend Rainy Day Friends to everyone who loves and emotion filled romance with lots of humor. I really hope we get to spend more time with all these characters on our next visit to Wildstone.
Rating: 5 Stars (A)
