Title: Bayou Beckons
Series: Fleur De Lis #3
Author: Linda Joyce
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published: June 3, 2015
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
My Rating: 4 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:
Party-girl and bayou babe Camilla Lind treats life like a game. After sleeping with her sister’s fiancé, she’s struggling to change, but karmic payback is a bitch. When the actions of her past crash into the present, they stand to ruin her future…and destroy any chance of love with the only man she’s ever wanted.
Rancher Jared Richardson guards his heart carefully after suffering the pain of infidelity. He never expected to fall for a woman like Camilla Lind, nor did he think he’d follow her across the country to beg for a second chance at love.
As Hurricane Katrina bears down on them, can they weather the storm and put aside past hurts to embrace their future together?
Read on for my thoughts on Bayou Beckons. No true spoilers, promise.
People deserve a second chance, especially when they’ve worked so hard to atone for a past digression and change their attitude and life for the better. And sometimes the one person we need forgiveness from is ourselves – the most difficult to acquire because for some reason it’s harder to admit we were young and stupid, and then turn around and forgive our younger and our present selves.
Years ago Camilla had done something so selfish, so stupid that to this day she cannot let it go or forgive herself. Even though the person she had wronged had long forgiven her, Camilla is finding it difficult to give herself that freedom of forgiveness. She had left the bayou and her family behind as she set out to change herself and find out who she truly was today. Finally she settles in the wilds of Wyoming where a second chance at love and a happy future find her- but only if she is brave enough to face the consequences of her past through the eyes of the man she loves.
Jared never expected the “thunderbolt” reaction when he laid eyes on Camilla. There she was, the one woman made for him. Which was surprising because Jared didn’t trust in fate easily or hand his heart over on a platter to just any woman. He’d been on the receiving end of being cheated on by his ex – and he normally would run as fast and as far as he could at the first indication that a woman was capable of doing that to him again. He knew that Camilla was holding on to secrets, and that those parts of her past were keeping her from accepting that they did belong together. He would follow her across the country right in the path of one of the most devastating hurricanes of history in order to convince her that they had a future together.
I enjoyed Bayou Beckons very much. So often we read about the hero who has things in his past that need addressing and forgiving — to see it from a woman’s past was a slightly different feel. Why is it so easy for the reader to forgive a man’s past transgressions? I truly don’t know, but not only in this story but others it does seem to follow a pattern. Even knowing the horrible thing Camilla had done to her sister, I couldn’t help but find her a strong character. When you see the ways that your life is messing not only you but others up royally – then you either continue without care or you dig deep and change your ways. Camilla changed, but self forgiveness was beyond her ability. When she fell in love with Jared she knew that what she had done to her sister was so close to what Jared had experienced that he’d never get past it. His love for her would die a fast death once he learned her truths. She didn’t consider that she was no longer that wild child of her past or that the woman she was today was the woman Jared wanted in his life.
I would definitely recommend this story for any reader that craves a good, solid romance with a few life twists and turns in it.
*I received an e-ARC of Bayou Beckons from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*
Available in paperback and for the Kindle
