Review: The Summer Escape

The Summer Escape by Jill Shalvis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

He gave her a small smile. “Keep your friends close...” 

“And your enemies closer.” 

After finding an old gold coin in a box of her father's things, Anna now finds herself on a mission to prove that he didn't steal it, along with a Ruby Red necklace. Owen's been wanting to find his great-aunt's heirloom necklace for her for years and when he sees a news story about a gold coin that could be the first clue in years, he's not going to leave Anna's side. As a private investigator, Anna feels she has it covered but Owen's worried she'll lie to protect her father's reputation, so they find themselves working together and deluding themselves that “Once to get it out of our system!” is the solution for the building chemistry they find between themselves. 

Owen honestly hadn't known he was into sharp, cynical, feisty firecrackers with a side of sweet, but apparently there was a first time for everything. 

The Summer Escape is in the Sunrise Cove series but borrows from the setting, rather than continued character story lines, you could just pick this up. Anna's our late twenties character, who has the more interesting job of private investigator, but other than a grab your attention beginning dealing with the consequences of such a job, I'm not sure it was fully utilized to it's potential. Her father died a year ago and she's still dealing with the grief when she finds the gold coin. With her older sister Wendy pushing her, she takes it to a pawn shop to get appraised, which kicks off the whole chain of events. Wendy plays a decent sized role in this, she's eight months pregnant with triplets and because she's on bed-rest, feels the need to “come along” with Anna on her investigation (Go-Pro and Air Pods). We also get povs from Wendy, which fine, but your enjoyment of this story is going to come down to if you get annoyed with Wendy being “there” in a good portion of Anna and Owen scenes. I fell more on the annoyed side, especially when Anna and Owen were getting to know one another and some chemistry was trying to build, only to be “humorously” interrupted by Wendy. Your mileage may vary. 

“We said this wasn't happening. We're wrong for each other.” She didn't like the desperation in her voice. 

If you're a frequent Shalvis reader, you'll get some of that easy flowing sweet and flirty chemistry that she's known for, but a little less of the fun and light. This had Anna dealing with her grief, and fear that her dad was a thief, tarnishing his halo a bit to her and Owen having some of his own grief with his great-aunt suffering and declining from dementia. These two ruminated in these emotional upheavals, along with Anna not thinking she was good enough for Owen and Owen, faintly, because he seems just about all in pretty quickly, shaking off his playboy demeanor/past. I missed more of the fun falling in love, with some emotional hurdles, that I love Shalvis for, because this was more of rinse and repeat Anna saying a relationship between them would never work. If you like your characters to therapist chair talk to each other (this could be me being a tad dramatic) instead of flirt on, like, a kitchen counter, this would be more for you. 

She met his gave. “We can't get too attached, right?” 

And wasn't that the problem, because he was beginning to realize he was already very attached, and...he wanted more, far more. 

The investigation to find out who stole the coins and necklace, was fairly weak, I kept waiting for our private investigator Anna to do a lot more. She has a police officer friend give her the name of suspects from the original theft case, and there is some going to talk to a few people, but overall, didn't feel super active (which, I guess, real but not real entertaining) A danger blast from the past arrives later in the story to give us some action in the end and answers to the coins and necklace questions. The danger gives Anna a chance to open her eyes and realize what she really wants from life to give us the HEA. 

He was pretty sure her smile made his heart skip a beat. 

If a very pregnant sister cutting in and more emotional rumination than fun flirting, with a little side investigation that delivers some danger sounds good to you, then Shalvis always has that smooth flowing writing that is easy to pick up.

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