Friday, August 7, 2020

Book Review: The Plan

By Sara Steven

Bead shop owner Amelia Frothingham has been keeping a secret from everyone she knows.

She pretends to be the ultimate care-free bohemian chick, but the truth is, she’s the world’s biggest control freak. Much to the delight of her Southern family, Amelia’s life appears to be smooth sailing. That is, until bad boy rockstar Huck Wiley mysteriously blows into town like a spring tornado.

Like every other woman under eighty with a pulse, Amelia’s intrigued. So when Huck starts showing up in her shop with flirtation in mind, she finds herself getting sucked into the rock god vortex. But her previous attempts at long-distance love have always ended on a sour note, so Amelia has vowed never to repeat the experience.

What Amelia doesn’t know is that Huck has a secret of his own, and he has no intention of returning to Los Angeles before he’s good and ready.

Will Huck stay in town, scattering the beads Amelia has finally gotten sorted? Or will he head back to his glamorous life and take her last chance at spontaneity and love along with him? (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads)

Creek Water has welcomed me back with open arms!

I feel like the further I delve into this series, the more in depth the characters become. Amelia is the perfect example of that. On the surface she appears to be a control freak, yet there is so much more the reader discovers about her page by page, only endearing me to her and her experiences. In many ways, she’s relatable. We’ve all found ourselves in situations where we feel a loss of control and it creates chaos and insecurities. Nothing brings that up more than when Huck Wiley shows up.

I really enjoyed the dynamics between Huck and his famous rock star persona, with Amelia and her small town shop owner personality. It really worked well, creating a way for Amelia to assist in bringing out more of who Huck really is behind the visage everyone else seems to know him by, while Huck helps to bring Amelia out of her shell. It helped that Huck has a family of his own, too, with secondary characters who only add to Amelia’s need to prove herself as more than what her own family has known her to be. Little by little, we get to see this duo unearth secrets and hidden truths behind why Amelia and Huck behave the way they do, and all of it with a well-felt attraction that is classic Dineen.

While The Plan can certainly be read as a standalone, there are plenty of former characters from the other Creek Water series books that are in this one, and I love that! It always feels like I’m going back and visiting old friends. I got to discover what is going on behind the scenes for Amelia and Huck, and I felt there was a potential side plot for one of Huck’s best friends and a resident of Creek Water. A future series book, I’m hoping! Mrs. P is a new character we get to meet, a woman filled with sass and love and another great addition to the Creek Water family. Really, all of the characters add their own special flavor to the backdrop, with all of it focused around love.

Given it’s dynamic subject matter with memorable characters centered around a town I’d love to visit someday, it’s another five-star read for this Creek Water series fan!

Thanks to Whitney Dineen for the book in exchange for an honest review.

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