Seaside Surprises by Stacy Claflin

Synopsis:

Work hard. Play often. Love unconditionally.

Tiffany Saunders is on the run. When she winds up stranded in a seaside town, she wants nothing more than to forget her horrific past and kept moving. But a chance meeting with a handsome local changes everything.

Jake Hunter has some deep emotional scars and is trying to cope with running the family business. The last thing he wants is a relationship—until a mysterious brunette walks into his store and complicates it all.

Tiffany prefers to keep the painful memories of the past where they belong—in her rear view mirror. But dark secrets cannot stay hidden forever. Just as the walls around Tiffany’s heart start to come down, the past catches up with her. Will true love be able to conquer all?

My Review: 3.5 Stars

When Tiffany's husband becomes too abusive, she turns to her grandpa for help. Between him and his poker buddies they are able to get her a used car, new identity and money for her to escape and start fresh somewhere where her ex will never find her. She had been on the run for several days when she stumbles upon Kittle Falls. Exhausted and in need of sleep, she decides to stay for a night. While shopping for food she meets Jake. There is just something about him that draws her in. But she is hurt, broken and trusts no one. Will she ever be able to undo the damage her ex has done and open up to anyone again? 

Jake has spent years putting everyone else's needs in front of his own. Between taking care of his dying sister for two years and then having to take over this parents convenient store so they can mourn the loss of their daughter, he is beyond physically and mentally drained. He needs a break and he needs things to change like yesterday. When he meets the beautiful Tiffany for the first time, he starts realizing all the things he has been missing out on. 

Jake is definitely intrigued by Tiffany and will do anything and everything in his power to get to know her better. She is resistant at first but slowly realizes that Jake is one person that she'll never have to worry about hurting her. But is she willing to put his life in danger to see where things could lead between them? Or will she move on to the next town before she gets in too deep?

Seaside Surprises was a cute, quick read that I enjoyed. There were a couple things that bugged me while reading. There were a few inconsistencies here and there but the main one was his parents. Ugh! I get that they were stressed, I get that they had lost their daughter but hello! Jake lost her too! They were absolutely horrible to him for the majority of the book in my opinion. He is the one that put his life on hold to take care of all their needs. And they pay him back by treating him like the red-headed step child?! Nope! Not liking that at all! That storyline really left a bad taste in my mouth for his parents. Especially when they treated his other brothers (who were never around mind you) a lot better than they treated him. I really wish we could have seen them actually admitting they were in the wrong and see them make an effort in fixing their broken relationship. 

But I am not going to let them stop me from moving on to the next book in this series! I am looking forward to Brayden's story! :) 

And of course my review wouldn't be complete without a casting... ;) What do you think?!