Jewel E. Ann

From USA Today & Wall Street Journal bestselling author Jewel E. Ann comes a beautiful, passionate, and powerful story about unexpected love, sacrifice, and daring to dream again. Forty-something Gracelyn Glock is living the dream. No husband. No retirement plan. And since her self-imposed man-ban-no need to shave above her knees. After a tragic accident, Gracelyn inherits her ten-year-old nephew. She signs a lease on a San Diego beach house and learns their neighbors for the summer are a sexy anatomy professor and his young daughter. Professor Nathaniel Hunt has spent the last decade being a single dad ... and not having sex. So when he discovers Gracelyn has a peculiar outdoor stripping ritual, a million inappropriate thoughts fill his responsible mind. When kisses are stolen, man-bans are broken, and summer comes to an end, will hearts stay in one piece and hope stay alive? Or will saying goodbye destroy everything?

A Standalone Contemporary Romance

Fortuity

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Sorry to say this one was disappointing for me. Like it pains me to leave this review, especially given how absolutely spectacular the Transcend duet was. This one is similar to the way I felt about Look the Part, actually. I felt like the Nate in this book was not the same Nate as in the Transcend duet and that he deserved a better story. Similar to Look the Part, I didn't feel any chemistry between the h and H in this book and I have no idea why either of them loved the other one. We're just told that they do. 

I was also disappointed that something as huge and life-altering as having your dead first love come back partially reincarnated in your daughter's nanny and all of the issues they went through related to discovering how his first love actually died was basically left out entirely until the very end of this book and even then, it was like an after thought. Given that Gracelyn has an experience where she also lost her first love and hears his voice regularly, I would think that this aspect of both of their lives would have featured prominently in their love story but it did not. At all. it was also weird to me that in the Transcend duet, it feels like most of Nate's grief is for his first love, not his wife. He barely mentions her. But in this book, he is all about missing his wife and never thinks about his first love. And even so, the reader feels nothing b/c the wife (Jenna) was never developed into a character. 

The forced separation between Nate and Gracelyn was also kind of silly. They supposedly have this big true love, but instead of staying in San Diego (where Gracelyn and Gabe live b/c she doesn't want to disrupt his life after he lost his parents), Nate and Morgan move to Wisconsin. Why? Because after traveling the world for the last 8 years of Morgan's 10 years of life and never once coming back home for even a visit, Nate told her they would move there to be near family and her mother's grave. Btw, the grave didn't exist b/c she was cremated but since Morgan wanted to visit the grave, Nate had her grandparents buy a grave site and tombstone. 

Then a year-ish goes by without any real contact between the two of them until they meet by coincidence at a conference (Nate) and wedding (Gracelyn) at the same hotel. Then we have a whole potential unplanned pregnancy thing, which is marginally ridiculous b/c Gracelyn is 41 and previously described having hot flashes etc so the overall odds of her being pregnant from one time of unprotected sex is pretty tiny. And about that - these people are in their 40s, way too old to be completely irresponsible. The whole situation felt very contrived. 

I'll also say that Morgan got on my nerves a fair amount - she's way too wise beyond her years but in an annoying way. She's also pushy and nosy. I'm disappointed that she turned out that way. 

It feels almost like this book was originally written as a stand-alone and then later, with some slight edits and a tacked on bit at the end about the reincarnation, it became Nate's story.

Ashlee

A million times, YES. 

The first book I read by Jewel E. Ann was Transcend. I had never read anything like it before and from that moment I was obsessed with her books. I’ve spent the last year, slowly but surely making my way through her backlist ... and becoming a HUGE fan. (I think I’ve read every book by Jewel but two, now?)

Needless to say, this story holds a special place in my heart. Not just because of grocery store guy and Swayze, not just the story of Daisy ... but the capacity of Professor Nathaniel Hunt’s heart and his ability to let go. The characters of this story will forever be favorites of mine.

This is the story everyone who fell in love with Nate deserves. I’ve been having so much trouble focusing and reading lately, but this story kept me up reading, late into the night, so I could finish. This story had me smiling, laughing and holding back tears. This story had me thinking, “Oh man, I’m getting too attached.” But let’s face it, I was attached to Nate the first time he held baby Morgan in Transcend, and this book just reaffirmed that attachment. 

Jewel, thank you so much for this story. Fortuity just walked in and filled my heart with such overwhelming joy and happiness. Thank to so much for giving Nate and Morgan and Gabe and Gracelyn this ending.

Fortuity A Standalone Contemporary Romance

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