i'm also including my review courtesy RT Book Reviews
Enjoy!
ISBN-13: 9780778330837
Publisher: Mira
Swift River Valley #8
Release Date: 3-27-2018
Length: 384pp
Source: For Editorial Review
Buy It: Amazon/B&N/Kobo/IndieBound/Audible
Publisher: Mira
Swift River Valley #8
Release Date: 3-27-2018
Length: 384pp
Source: For Editorial Review
Buy It: Amazon/B&N/Kobo/IndieBound/Audible
ADD TO: GOODREADS
Overview:
n this charming novel about the search for love, home and family, New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers takes readers on a journey to an irresistible town they’ll want to return to over and over again
Felicity MacGregor loves organizing social events for others but her own personal life is a different story. After a brief but failed attempt at a career as a financial analyst, she returned to Knights Bridge where she enjoys running a thriving party-planning business.
Then Felicity’s life gets a shake-up when her childhood friend Gabriel Flanagan returns unexpectedly to their tiny hometown. Now a high-flying businessman, Gabe always vowed to get out of Knights Bridge, but he is back for the local entrepreneurial boot camp Felicity’s been hired to organize. Together again, they’ll finally have to face each other—and their complicated past.
Gabe and Felicity soon realize their reunion is stirring up long-buried emotions. While Gabe has big plans for his future, Felicity is discovering that hers doesn’t depend on fate—she must choose what’s right for her. But if they can find a bridge between their diverging paths, they may just discover that their enduring connection is what matters most.
Felicity MacGregor loves organizing social events for others but her own personal life is a different story. After a brief but failed attempt at a career as a financial analyst, she returned to Knights Bridge where she enjoys running a thriving party-planning business.
Then Felicity’s life gets a shake-up when her childhood friend Gabriel Flanagan returns unexpectedly to their tiny hometown. Now a high-flying businessman, Gabe always vowed to get out of Knights Bridge, but he is back for the local entrepreneurial boot camp Felicity’s been hired to organize. Together again, they’ll finally have to face each other—and their complicated past.
Gabe and Felicity soon realize their reunion is stirring up long-buried emotions. While Gabe has big plans for his future, Felicity is discovering that hers doesn’t depend on fate—she must choose what’s right for her. But if they can find a bridge between their diverging paths, they may just discover that their enduring connection is what matters most.
Read an excerpt:
We have to have badgers at your party.”
Felicity MacGregor knew her comment would raise
most people’s eyebrows, but she also knew Kylie Shaw
would be fine with it.
“Absolutely,” Kylie said. “Russ and I had a badger
couple on our wedding cake.”
That spring, Kylie’s whirlwind romance with Russ
Colton, a security consultant, had taken them both by
surprise, never mind everyone else in their small town
of Knights Bridge, Massachusetts. Felicity smiled. “Of
course you did.” They were seated across from each
other at the table on the balcony of Kylie and Russ’s
second-floor apartment in a renovated nineteenthcentury
hat factory. The balcony overlooked the river,
flowing gently on the warm summer afternoon. Russ
had spent the past two weeks in Southern California,
wrapping up his life and work there now that he and
Kylie had decided to settle in Knights Bridge. They’d
bought a house a mile or so farther up the river and
were having work done on it before moving in later
in the summer.
Kylie reached for her iced tea. “Russ let Sherlock
Badger oversee security for the wedding,” she said,
matter-of-fact.
Sherlock was one of her popular fictional characters.
“I’m sure Sherlock did a fine job,” Felicity said.
“He’s the best. Russ likes to say we’ll be fine provided
I don’t confuse my Middle Branch badgers with
real badgers.”
“Who says your Middle Branch badgers aren’t
real?”
Kylie beamed. “Exactly what I tell him!”
Felicity wouldn’t be surprised if Kylie was only half
kidding. Under her pseudonym of Morwenna Mills,
she was the creator of the Badgers of Middle Branch,
a popular series of children’s books. Felicity, an event
planner, was helping Kylie with a party to celebrate
the newest installment in the series, set in an idyllic
village on a river. The mom and dad badgers were veterinarians,
modeled after Kylie’s own family. A tiny
version of Sherlock Badger occupied a spot on Kylie’s
worktable. She’d made the mini badger herself with
scraps of fabric and tufts of dryer lint.
Unlike Felicity, Kylie hadn’t grown up in Knights
Bridge. They’d hit it off upon Felicity’s return to her
hometown in May, when she’d bought a house farther
up on the river, just down from the site of Kylie and
Russ’s new house. Felicity loved her house despite
her complicated personal history with it, seeing how
she’d lost her virginity there. Not in the house itself. It
hadn’t been built yet. But on a blanket in front of the
outdoor fireplace that still stood there…
“Knights Bridge is keeping you busy, Felicity”
Kylie said.
She yanked herself out of her thoughts. “Works for
me. I’m having a blast.”
Kylie studied her a moment, as if guessing Felicity’s
mind had wandered to someplace forbidden. They
were both wearing dresses, given the warm weather,
Kylie in a casual maxi, Felicity in a knee-length tunic.
Kylie had her hair pulled back, its pale blond making
her blue eyes stand out. Felicity had never been good
with hair. Hers was dark blond, shoulder-length and
unruly unless she fussed with it, which she rarely did.
“My book party is just a week after the launch of
the entrepreneurial boot camp,” Kylie said. “That won’t
stretch you too thin?”
“Not at all.” The one-day boot camp, the brainchild
of Dylan McCaffrey, another Knights Bridge newcomer,
was Felicity’s biggest event yet in her hometown.
“I did corporate event planning in Boston for
three years. I love being on my own, having the chance
to do more fun events. Baby showers, bridal showers—
your book party. I have a Jane Austen tea party on Sunday
at the local assisted-living residence.”
“The aptly named Rivendell. There’s a lot of knowledge
in that place.”
“No question,” Felicity said. “The tea includes a literary
lecture and Regency period costumes.”
“You must know almost everyone there.” Kylie
drank some of her tea and returned the glass to the
table. Lunch had been simple—salads from the local
country store, chocolate, iced tea. “I’m still fairly new
to Knights Bridge. I’m doing better with names and
faces, but I still get lost in the connections between
the locals. Russ does, too, but he figures sometimes
the less he knows, the better. He doesn’t want to know
who slept with whom as teenagers, that’s for sure.”
Felicity wondered if her cheeks had reddened,
given the turn her mind had taken a few minutes ago.
“I don’t, either, but since I did grow up here…” She
picked up her iced tea. “I’ll leave it at that.”
“Now that’s a tease! Not you and Mark Flanagan—”
“No,” Felicity said. “Absolutely not. Never.”
But Mark, the architect who’d renovated and owned
the old mill, had a brother, and he was another story
altogether.
Felicity shook off that thought, gulped her tea and
returned to planning Kylie’s book-launch party. They’d
chosen the Knights Bridge Free Public Library as the
venue. Written before Kylie had met Russ, this latest
installment featured a lonely badger aunt who helps
the mice and the badger kids with their fairy-house
dilemma and in so doing reunites with her own family
and friends. Felicity could sort of identify with Auntie
Badger. Kylie was also illustrating a series of classic
fairy tales that would launch over the winter with
Hansel and Gretel. Then came Sleeping Beauty and
Little Red Riding Hood. She was working on Beauty
and the Beast. Felicity assumed there’d be a launch
party for the series, but she and Kylie hadn’t gotten
that far in their discussions.
“I’ve been holed up here working for weeks,” Kylie
said with a contented sigh. “It’ll be good to be around
people again.”
“Going from solitude to a launch party is a big
change.”
“It is, for sure. I’ve kept up with my children’s story
hour at the library, and I sometimes run into people
when I’m out for a walk.”
Felicity had come to realize Kylie wasn’t the least
bit antisocial. She just had protracted periods of deep
work. Felicity thought she understood, but her own
work as an event manager was quite different. For
one thing, the events she organized were never her
parties, meetings or conferences. Kylie’s books were
very much hers. She was dedicated to her work. Felicity
liked running her own business, but she’d expected
to have a career in finance. When that didn’t pan out,
she’d ventured into event planning. She’d learned the
ropes working with a small, high-end business in Boston
and struck out on her own nine months ago, finally
returning to Knights Bridge.
In Boston, she’d never known her clients on a personal
level. These days she found herself planning
events with clients who were friends and neighbors.
She still had a handful of out-of-town corporate clients,
but her small hometown was bursting at the seams
with all sorts of parties and events. Weddings, milestone
birthdays, babies, retirements, new jobs, housewarming
parties. She didn’t plan every get-together in
town, and she didn’t focus on weddings—they were a
particular specialty—but with an experienced event
manager right there on the river, why not hire her?
“We need to throw a party for you one day,” Kylie
said, breaking into Felicity’s thoughts.
“Me? I’d need something to celebrate.”
“Pick something. It doesn’t have to be big. Paint the
kitchen. We’ll celebrate.”
Felicity didn’t for a moment doubt Kylie’s sincerity.
Kylie was incredibly genuine, with none of the ma-
neuvering and artificial niceties Felicity had too often
witnessed in her work. “Cake it is,” she said lightly.
“In the meantime, I’m enjoying your badgers.”
“If anyone can make badgers work at a party, it’s
you, Felicity.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that. I have some ideas I want
to explore. Feel free to let me know if you have any
suggestions,” Felicity said as they wrapped up the
party plans.
“It’ll be a fun evening. Thanks for stopping by.”
Kylie started to get up, but Felicity stopped her.
“I’ll see myself out. Enjoy the perfect summer day.”
“It is perfect, isn’t it?” Kylie sighed, the sunlight
catching her eyes. “I came to Knights Bridge never
thinking I’d stay. Now it’s home.” She shifted her
gaze back to Felicity, who was on her feet, collecting
lunch dishes. “I’ll get those. Sometimes I’m tempted to
throw my dirty dishes in the river, but the ducks would
have my head if Mark didn’t. Oh, wait. That reminds
me. He asked me to tell you that his brother is a lastminute
addition to the boot camp speaker lineup and
is hiring you to organize a party at the end of the day.”
“Mark—Mark Flanagan’s brother?”
“Right. Only Mark I know here.”
The only one Felicity knew, too, but she’d needed
to cover for her shock.
Kylie frowned. “You know his brother, don’t you?
Gabe, isn’t it? Short for Gabriel?”
Oh, she knew him, all right. She’d just been thinking
about him. That night before they’d set off for college.
He’d been working construction and had been
tanned and muscular, eager to get out of Knights
Bridge and make something of himself. She’d been
working at her father’s bank in the village and restless.
Felicity nodded. “Gabe is Mark’s younger brother.”
She tried not to sound too stiff. Keep it casual. Matterof-fact.
“It’s just the two of them.”
“That’s what I thought.” Kylie swooped up her tea
glass, no sign she knew she’d stepped on a hornets’
nest. “Mark had to be out of town this morning on
business and wasn’t sure when he’d return. It must
be late in the game to add a party, but if anyone can
swing it, it’s you, although I suppose you could always
say no.”
“Thanks for letting me know.” Felicity reminded
herself she’d been hired to do a job, and if Gabe had
been added as a speaker and wanted to sponsor a
party, she would have to manage. Even if her stomach
was churning. “It’s short notice, but the boot camp
is straightforward as events go—sort of an open house
with speakers. It’ll be fine.”
The one-day event was meant to provide a taste of
what Dylan had in mind for the periodic entrepreneurial
boot camps he planned to host in Knights Bridge
throughout the year. He was an ex-professional hockey
player and a multimillionaire businessman from California
who’d fallen in love with Olivia Frost, a graphic
designer who’d returned to her hometown last year to
open an inn. They were married on Christmas Eve. A
few months earlier, Olivia’s sister, Jessica, had married
Mark Flanagan. That was just one of the many
connections that were part of life in their small town.
Felicity smiled, trying to take any shock and dread
out of her expression. She was a pro. She needed to
act like one. She swallowed, breathed. “Gabe isn’t in
town yet, is he?”
“I don’t think so,” Kylie said. “Mark didn’t say.”
Felicity gathered dishes and started toward the glass
doors into the apartment. “I assume Gabe will be staying
with him. Doesn’t matter. Thanks for the information.”
“Mark will be back soon if you want to talk to him.”
Felicity thanked her again and headed into the
apartment. She dropped off her dishes in the kitchen.
The mill’s dozen apartments were spacious, sleek and
modern, with an industrial feel to them—Mark hadn’t
fought the building’s origins—given their tall, arched
windows, cement floors and brick walls. Felicity loved
the views of the winding, shallow river. Kylie had
added her own touches to her apartment, now shared
with her husband. Sherlock Badger, propped next to a
task lamp on her worktable, oversaw her sketches and
scribblings, as she liked to call them.
“Wish me luck, Sherlock,” Felicity said under her
breath as she headed out.
When she reached the parking lot in front of the mill,
Felicity forced herself not to break into a run. She had no
reason to run. She wasn’t late for anything. She wasn’t
being chased by a bear. She had her workload under
control. She was letting herself get freaked out for no
reason. So what if Gabe Flanagan was speaking on Saturday
and wanted to throw a party? Despite that night
between high school and college, they’d never been
an item. They’d been friends. They’d had a falling-out
and hadn’t seen each other in three years, and it was
natural that would be on her mind. The trick now was
to put it out of her mind.
She took in a breath, releasing some of her tension.
She’d walked to the mill, enjoying the mid-summer
day before heat and humidity had a chance to build in
over the next few days. Nestled on the river, the Mill
at Moss Hill had started its life in 1870 as a manufacturer
of straw hats, immensely popular at the time.
They hadn’t been made here since the first years after
World War I. The mill had enjoyed a few short-lived
incarnations before giving up life as a factory—well
before Mark had seen its potential for a new century
and got to work. Felicity remembered the sprawling,
abandoned property he’d gotten hold of, with its
boarded-up brick-and-cement buildings, Do Not Enter
and Danger signs and overgrown grounds.
She looked across the quiet road to woods that rose
steeply to the top of Moss Hill itself. The trees with
their lush foliage and evergreen needles were unmoving
under the blue summer sky. As teenagers, Mark
and Gabe both had vowed to get out of Knights Bridge
and never return. They’d been ambitious and driven,
determined not to repeat their father’s mistakes and
drift through life, dreaming and complaining about
what might have been. Mark’s vow never to return
hadn’t stuck. After a few years in Boston, he moved
back to his hometown, launched a successful business
as an architect and married Jessica Frost, who’d never
lived anywhere else.
Gabe had never returned to Knights Bridge to live.
Felicity hadn’t expected to return, either, but she
had never made any vows to the contrary. Her hometown
was small and a bit off the beaten track, changed
forever with the construction of the sprawling Quabbin
Reservoir early last century. Felicity’s own family
had been displaced from Prescott, the smallest of the
four small towns lost to history in the now-flooded
Swift River Valley. They’d been bankers, accountants
and bookkeepers, never farmers and factory workers.
She had to be the first MacGregor event planner…now
with a party to plan for Gabe Flanagan.
Mark trotted out from the main building and caught
up with her before she started up to the road to her
house. He was tawny-haired, blue-eyed and lanky,
dressed in a polo shirt and khakis. He and his younger
brother bore a strong resemblance to each other, but
Gabe’s eyes were a deeper marine blue, his build naturally
more muscular.
“Hey, Felicity,” Mark said. “I just got back from
meetings in Worcester. Did Kylie tell you about Gabe?”
“She did, yes.”
“Great. I hope it’s not a problem.”
“No problem. Did he give you a budget?”
“I’d spend what you need to make it nice and hand
him the bill. You know what you’re doing.”
“Will do.” Felicity hesitated but decided to ask the
question gnawing at her. “Does Gabe know I bought
the river house?”
“I might have mentioned it. He knows I sold it.”
Not the same thing but Felicity didn’t pursue the
subject. She motioned up the road. “I should get going.”
“You walked? Do you need a ride? I can drop you
off.”
“It’s a great day for a walk.”
Mark didn’t look convinced, but he simply said goodbye and returned to his office.
My Review courtesy RT Book Reviews
Meet Carla:
Carla Neggers is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sharpe and Donovan series featuring Boston-based FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan and the Swift River Valley series set in small-town New England. With many bestsellers to her credit, Carla and her husband divide their time between their hilltop home in Vermont, their kids' places in Boston and various inns, hotels and hideaways on their travels, frequently to Ireland. Learn more at CarlaNeggers.com.
I should try her one day
ReplyDeleteyou really should
DeleteGreat review for this one Debbie. This is a series I believe I'd really enjoy and I do love books set in New England.
ReplyDeleteYeah and you don't have to start from book one although it is better if you do
DeleteI've read and enjoyed this author. Delightful review Debbie.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kim
DeleteIt's been quite a while since I've read one of her books but I've enjoyed mot of the ones I've read.
ReplyDeleteI just love herMary
DeleteI like the setting. One of these days, I'll have a bookdate with Carla Neggers. :)
ReplyDeletefingers crossed Sophia Rose
DeleteThis author has been on my radar for a while, but I've yet to try her. Thanks for reminding me to try this author soon.
ReplyDeleteMelanie @ Hot Listens & Rabid Reads
my pleasure
DeleteShe always has such lovely covers :) I need to give her another try some day soon.
ReplyDelete