Always Her Love (The Steeles at Silver Island) – book review

Always Her Love
by Melissa Foster
Release Date: September 21, 2022
Publisher: World Literary Press
Book #4 in The Steeles of Silver Island series
Part of the larger Love in Bloom series
Number of Pages:  409
Contemporary Romance
Ages 16 and up
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Some fates are too tempting to deny…
When single-father Levi Steele offers to help his daughter’s beautiful aunt Tara find a home on Silver Island, their intense connection makes it even harder to resist the one woman he and his daughter can’t afford to lose. Come along for the fun, sexy ride and fall in love on the sandy shores of Silver Island, home to coffee shops, boat races, midnight rendezvous, and the sexy, sharp-witted Steeles.

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Haven’t all fans of this series been waiting for Levi to get his head out of his ass and see the amazing woman right in front of him? Tara has been in love with Levi her whole life, or so it seems. And while Levi’s little girl, Joey, is Tara’s niece, there’s never been a real relationship between daughter and mother. Tara is much more of a mother figure than an aunt to Joey. As Levi notes at one point, he never realized there was a hole in their lives because Tara has always been there for them.

There is such wonderful restraint between Levi and Tara while Levi is feeling things out. He doesn’t want to make a move or talk to Tara about his feelings without having some idea of where she stands. He’s afraid of ruining the wonderful friendship they have and the phenomenal relationship she has with young Joey. But man, the dude can be dense. To everyone else, their feelings are obvious. Levi and Tara are much more cautious because they have the most to lose. Once Levi finally drops his guard and makes his move, the gloves come off. These two are an inferno!

This couple doesn’t need to start from square one. Quite frankly, they’ve been in a relationship this whole time without the added benefits. Other than keeping things on the down low for Joey’s sake, they jump in with both feet. In fact, Levi seems to be making up for lost time. As much as they know about each other, there are things Tara has kept from him. As the truth of how her sister and mom treated her behind closed doors unfolds, Levi proves himself to be the man she needs in her life.

I’m so pleased with how the story of Tara, Levi, and Joey played out. While I believe everyone deserves an HEA, I’ve been rooting for this little family for a long time.

5 stars

Note: This story is published under a different publisher than the related Silver Harbor series and, for some reason, the other publisher has things on a different timeline. The author always writes her books so they can be read as standalone stories, but if you want to know where this falls in the timeline it actually comes before the first Silver Harbor book, Maybe We Will.