“Passion Bay (Moon Island #1)” is a very enjoyable story of two wary women fighting their mutual attraction on a secluded tropical island. There is also an extensively detailed side story of the life of MC Annabel’s deceased aunt, and as the mysteries of that story are revealed, it ties into the present time and affects Annabel’s relationship with her family.
New owner of Moon Island, Annabel regrets how she’s lived her life so far. After years of sleeping around and hurting women who wished to be closer to her, Annabel is concerned by being attracted to Cody as more than a physical object.
Cody is dumped by her girlfriend for a man, and laid off from work. The severance check ends up having too many zeroes, so she decides to cash the check and take off for a tropic island where she’ll never be found. Errr….right. I’m sure that’ll work out for the rest of her life. Well, guilt eats at her, she considers herself a fugitive from justice, and given that she’s only going to be on Moon Island for a short time, she resists her growing lust for Annabel. Until she doesn’t. And Annabel doesn’t.
And then the next morning…it’s self doubt time, lack of communication time, and….angst appears from multiple directions. Well, our lovers have a second chance, then the ex arrives and then Hurricane Mary arrives (a real hurricane, not a person).
Ok, I really enjoyed the book up until this point, even with the angst, self-doubts, inner thinking etc. But then Annabel makes a decision during the hurricane that disappointed me, even though she believes it was necessary for her relationship with Cody. She says they each tried to run away and couldn’t, so they were meant to be together. Well, at some point certain efforts to run away would succeed in ending a relationship in my book; but it’s not my book, it’s author Jennifer Fulton’s book.
One amusing inside joke within “Passion Bay” is that author Rose Beecham appears. That’s pretty funny.
I particularly liked the Brittni Pope’s languid narration and evocative descriptions of the tropical island. Overall, I really liked the audiobook and look forward to the two sequels to the Moon Island series, but I’m recommending “Passion Bay” with 4* instead of 5* because of my disappointment with Annabel at the end.