Forbidden Kisses: A Blushing Bay Novel

2.5 stars from me... Call me crazy, but I am not a fan of step sibling romances. Even if their parents are now divorced. To see, it is a little creepy. I always seem to think there is something odd about it. Maybe because at one time they were family. Because of this, it was hard for me to like this book. Jack and Grace meet up again after their parent's messy divorce and Jack offers Grace a job. Knowing his family will be upset because of their bitter feelings towards her mom, Jack still does it anyways. Jack and Grace then fall into a secret relationship, that know one can know about. I though when Jack's dad found out it was going to be a bigger deal, but it wasn't for him.

I loved, loved, loved Rains' Hero's Welcome series and I was very happy that many of the things that made those books great translated well to a new series. I enjoyed the relationship that develops between Jack and Grace. The whole former step-sibling thing isn't icky at all and I think their friendship from years ago helps to give them a good basis for something new. The bond among the Sawyers is great and Grace befriends a couple of women that are definitely getting their own story soon. Characters and connections are a couple of things that Rains does so well - they feel real and work together in a natural way - and I was thrilled that they show so strongly here. I did have a couple of issues that were specific to this story (and have nothing at all to what a fantastic storyteller Rains is) - the death of Jack's friend and the dealings with Grace's mother. We know that Chris and Jack were out on a boat fishing together and that he ... disappeared, I guess? Did they actually find a body? As I understand it Jack doesn't know when or how he went overboard, that he never heard him cry out or any kind of impact. Everything is so vague about what happened to Chris that I never really figured it out. I don't know if it is intentional and will come into play more later on or if we're just supposed to make assumptions. But I really wanted some kind of closure to it :) The other is all tied up with Grace's mom and how she treated the Sawyer's all those years ago. Grace has had years living with her mom and can see that she's not the woman she was then but the two families have been avoiding each other all this time. To expect that the guys will just forgive and forget in about two minutes isn't realistic. They've been nursing their wounds for a while and it is going to take them a bit to get over them, even if Jack is sleeping with Grace. I see her side of it but I also understand his and it's not a good situation for either of them so a little patience on everyone's part is needed. It adds some extra drama to what is already a pretty troublesome situation. Like with her other series, there are a lot of secondary characters that help drag you in and keep you turning pages. I'm definitely looking forward to what comes next for Jack's brothers. I'm pretty sure those two are going to have some more hardship to deal with before they can find their own happy ending. *** I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s. ***

This was a great start to The Blushing Bay series. Grace and Jack were once step-siblings but after their parents' marriage imploded, they had no contact with each other and there was bad blood between the families. Fast forward 15 years and Grace is in need of a job and Jack is in need of a new office manager. There was an attraction between them as teenagers but with all that has transpired between their families it seems like any kind of relationship would never work. There were definitely parts of this story that the two main characters were so frustrating but once they got it together, I loved them as a couple. Both Jack and Grace have been through a tremendous amount of grief but they have so many amazing people in their lives and are great together. I really liked all of the characters introduced in this story and am looking forward to where this series goes. *This is my voluntary review of an advanced reader copy*