“A Monday’s Pick Review of Be My Love by Lucy Kevin”

Be My Love was a free novella that I picked up at Amazon.  Just because a story is short, don’t think that those styles of tales don’t give a full, satisfying story.  This one certainly did, as well as being the opening story in the series, Walker Island.

Here’s the cover blurb for Be My Love:

Come for a visit to Walker Island where you’ll find stunning Pacific Northwest ocean views, men too intriguing to resist…and five beautiful, close-knit sisters who are each about to find their one true love.

After four years on the Seattle mainland, when Hanna Walker returns to Walker Island to make a documentary about the infamous Peterson-Walker feud from the early 1950s, she’s shocked to realize that passions still run high. Especially when it comes to Joel Peterson, the one man who is totally off-limits…but that she’s never been able to stop dreaming about.

The last thing Joel wants is for Hanna to dredge up the past, but when he realizes she’s determined to follow through with her documentary no matter what, he knows he has no choice but to join her. But despite vowing to hold back his growing feelings for her, as Joel works with Hanna to unravel the mystery of what really happened between their two families, he soon begins to see that love is an unstoppable force…and that sometimes two people are meant to be.

This one was enjoyable, so read on for my thoughts on Be My Love.

First off, let me remind you that author Lucy Kevin is a pen name for another author, Bella Andre.  I have enjoyed novels written under both names, each a bit different in style, and now you can too.  Personally, I love to discover pen names of authors’ whose works I’ve enjoyed in the past.  It really is like finding a brand new author to add to the list.

We already know some of the basics from the cover.  Sixty-some years ago, Poppy Peterson and William Walker were to be wed.  It would merge the two largest business families on Walker Island.  But it never happened.  William married another woman, Ava.  The families were furious, and to add fuel to the fire of anger towards William and Ava, one morning Poppy took off in her boat and never returned.  Neither the boat or her body were ever found.  Poppy loved to write poetry.  She left behind a final poem – one her family believed to actually be a suicide note.

And so began the now infamous Peterson-Walker Feud that continues to this day to divide Walker Island into sides.

Hanna Walker, the youngest Walker sister, loves filmmaking.  She has finished her degree and is now attempting to be accepted into a post graduate program.  She needs to finish one more documentary film, one with heart, one that shows her heart or her professor will not give his approval for her entrance into the program.

Joel Peterson’s heart belongs out on the ocean, at the wheel of one of his company’s ships.  Yet, as the last surviving Peterson, and head of the company – his days are now spent behind a desk.  It’s his duty, and duty is his family’s choice over dreams.

When Hanna returned to  Walker Island to begin her documentary she quickly discovered that Joel had blocked her access to archives about his family.  She now had no way to do any research from the Peterson’s side of this feud.  She confronts Joel and challenges his to go along on one of her interviews with an islander to see how she questions them, the way she works and to see for himself that she is after the truth, not to slant it in favor of one side or the other.  He accepts her challenge thinking it’s the fastest way to stop all of this nonsense.

The remainder of the story is how Hanna and Joel begin to unravel a decades old mystery to finally get to the truth.  And fall in love along the way.   I really enjoyed the mystery of Poppy and how the characters set about digging into the past when absolutely no one in Hanna’s family or the divided residents of the island wanted them to talk about the past.  I had my suspicions early on, but that doesn’t matter, the telling of the story was fun, lighthearted, the impression of sex with no details and at times, very sad and well worth my time.  I was entertained, and that was the entire point.

~What you, the reader, always must remember is this simple truth.  Any review is one person’s opinion. You might feel the same or totally different. The only way to know for certain if any novel is for you – is for you to read it. This was my opinion of this particular book.~

Walker Island

1.  Be My Love

2.  No Other Love

3.  When It’s Love

4.  All For Love

5.  Forever In Love

The rest of the novels are available at Amazon for the Kindle