Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas
Friday Harbor, Book 2
St. Martin’s Griffin
Contemporary with Paranormal Elements
ISBN: 9780312605889
Reviewed by Shayna

Glass artist Lucy Marinn loves her job and she thinks she has everything in life that she wants. Then her boyfriend springs it on her that he’s cheating on Lucy with her sister, Alice, and he wants Lucy to move out of their house so that Alice could move in. Shocked, hurt, and betrayed, the last thing Lucy wants is to jump into another relationship. Then Lucy crosses paths with vineyard owner Sam Nolan. Sam makes Lucy’s pulse pound like no other man has, but he’s utterly commitment shy. Still, fate repeatedly throws Lucy and Sam together and the more time they’re in each other’s company, the harder it is for them to stay apart. Can it be long before Sam and Lucy go from lovers to being in love?

Love isn’t the only kind of magic to be found in Rainshadow Road. Lucy and Sam are two wonderful characters readers are sure to fall in love with right off the bat. Lucy has been dealt a bad hand numerous times and her boyfriend cheating on her with her sister is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. My heart broke for her and it made me all the more eager for Lucy to find happiness with Sam. Sam’s generous heart and total geekiness made him a hero to die for. Together, Lucy and Sam give life to Rainshadow Road and the dynamic between the two makes their story move at a fast pace.

Rainshadow Road is the second book in Ms. Kleypas’s Friday Harbor series, but you don’t have to have read Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor to enjoy Lucy and Sam’s book. However, readers who liked the first book will be happy to see how Mark, Maggie, and Holly have grown and changed over the past year. What’s more, in , we get to see more of the third Nolan brother, Alex, and I am definitely on the edge of my seat, waiting for his story. Ms. Kleypas also introduces two new wonderful characters, Zoë and Justine, who I can’t wait to read more about.

I’d have absolutely loved Rainshadow Road if it weren’t for two things. First, there’s Alice, Lucy’s sister. I won’t spoil the book, but I will say that I was incredibly disappointed that at one point, Ms. Kleypas seemed to be making excuses for the woman’s poor behavior. Lucy spends most of the book frustrated by the fact that everyone made excuses for Alice’s actions, so the resolution of Alice’s storyline was extra annoying. The second problem for me was the paranormal elements in Rainshadow Road — they didn’t work for me. Ms. Kleypas has included paranormal elements in her books before, but when she’s done so the paranormal elements felt organic. But in Rainshadow Road, the paranormal scenes were awkward and inorganic to the story, which was very disappointing. Still, even taking my dislike of two elements to Rainshadow Road into account, I thoroughly enjoyed Rainshadow Road and I can’t wait to read Dream Lake!