Caught by Love
by Melissa Foster
Release Date: February 9, 2022
Publisher: World Literary Press
Book #3 in the Steeles of Silver Island series
Part of the larger Love in Bloom series
Number of Pages: 388
Kindle Edition
Source: Pre-ordered through Amazon
Contemporary Romance
Ages 15 and up
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Archer Steele is one of the leading vintners on the East Coast. He’s arrogant, aggressive, and has never been interested in settling down, which is what makes his hookups with his sister’s beautiful blond best friend, hair and makeup artist Indi Oliver, the perfect escape. But Indi’s toying with moving to the island, and when she ends their no-strings trysts to focus on her business, Archer isn’t ready to let her go…
Finally, we get Archer’s story. And just as much as I wanted to get into Archer’s head, I wanted to see Indi find happiness. For a curmudgeonly guy, Archer can sure be swoony. He wants everyone to think he’s some big jerk. In fact, he thinks that of himself. But really, Archer is a softy. He may go through women (or he did in the past) and keep to himself, yet he always does the right thing and goes above and beyond to do so.
Indi’s past was not quite what I expected. I absolutely adore how Archer stood beside her and spoke up for her when it was needed. He may have been heavy-handed a time or two, but always from a place of respect. More than seeing Archer stand up for Indi, I enjoyed watching her find the backbone to stand up for herself. Once Indi finds the strength within to truly tell her parents how she feels, she gains more than she loses. The ups and downs of her relationship with her siblings was an added bonus to this tale.
There is a huge amount of groveling to be done in this story, and Archer does not disappoint on that end. Not that Indi is without blame at times, but not to the extent that she needs to actually grovel. That’s all on Archer…more than once.
I’ve complained in the past about this author’s habit of trying to fill in too many details about past stories and characters when it’s not necessary. It doesn’t always come across as organic to the story. In this case, she found a new and unique way to bring up some past connections without it messing with the story flow. I really appreciate the effort she made to keep the reader informed without stopping the narrative to do so.
Note: Because this story is published under a different publisher than the related Silver Harbor series, for some reason that other publisher has things on a different timeline. The author always writes her books so they can be read as standalones, but if you want to know where this falls in the timeline it actually comes before the first Silver Harbor book, Maybe We Will.
4 stars
All In Good Time 