Falling for You

Sapphire Bay #1

by Leeanna Morgan

alternate cover edition of ASIN B07CW4CHWV

After six years of focusing on her career, Natalie Armstrong craves the peace and tranquility that only Sapphire Bay can give her. But returning to her grandparents’ cottage isn’t as easy as she imagined. No one told her about her houseguest or the unexpected changes in the small town she calls home.
 


Gabe Lanigan is a former NYPD detective. His new career as a bestselling crime writer has brought him everything he didn’t want—fame, fortune, and a deep distrust of strangers. When Natalie arrives in Sapphire Bay, their unlikely friendship sparks into something he never expected. But he needs to be careful. The real reason he left New York City is closing in fast and Natalie is standing in his way.


FALLING FOR YOU is the first book in the Sapphire Bay series and can easily be read as a standalone. Each of Leeanna's series are linked so you can find out what happens to your favorite characters in other books. Happy reading!

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Amazon, Ebooks, Chick Lit

248 pages, ebook

First published August 3, 2018

About the author

Leeanna Morgan is a USA Today bestselling author. She lives in New Zealand surrounded by green hills on one side and the ocean on the other. She enjoys going for long walks, especially if she can convince her husband and two children to go with her!

Leeanna writes contemporary romances set in Montana. Her books contain all of the things that are important to her; good friends, family, a strong sense of community, and a happy ending.

Reviews

[CD {Boulder Blvd} · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally, I'm done. I'm not sure what to say except I was incredibly bored through most of this book. It's fairly short, took 5 days to get through and I had to skim just to keep going. There's some suspense like let's leave the h alone so something bad happens. But these instances are pretty quick and then you don't have any investigation. I didn't feel the romance between the h and H. It seemed pretty cliche and there's a lot of boring "tell".

Won't continue this series.

[Mercedes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was so boring it absolutely went nowhere. This was more of thriller/mystery than a romance. There was nothing romantic at all about this book except the fact that they ended up together at the end. Both Gabe and Natalie were one note and had no depth of character at all. Natalie was constantly crying and Gabe was not interesting at all. My favorite character in this entire book was Sherlock the dog. =/ The “romance” was lacking. There was no intimacy and their conversations made me want to fall asleep. They both would talk about how much they loved or cared about each other but when they were together their actions didn’t convey those feelings effectively. I skimmed the last 20% of the book because I couldn’t take it anymore. There were side characters, dialogue and conversations that seemed like fillers to me that did nothing to advance the plot or storyline.

[Coco.V]

🎁 FREE on Amazon today (6/20/2019)! 🎁

[Marran · Rating 2 out of 5]

I though this would going to be a cute fun read but sadly no.

SPOILERS AHEAD. But not so much it gives the story away.

He rents half of her cabin (a two apartment cabin) and the become friends. he got a stalker after him and tells her that pretty much right away. Så he's the one in danger But still have to go with her when she's meeting her mother to protect HER! *jeee* after that it just got worse.. Teetering on the edge of to sugary sweet and really bad suspense.

I had high hopes on finding a new cute series to read but this ain't it.

[Melissasfandomworld · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mostly, maybe too much so, basic romantic suspense story. Did like the characters and their dynamics so that made me finish the story in the end but developing-wise I think it remained too superficial to me. Also wish the dog would’ve had more ‘presence’ in the book. Think there was more possible with this story in the end, but even though I had quite some remarks, it was a fast paced read which I still enjoyed, superficially, as an in between quick romance read.

Have to give it some time to see if I'll pick up the next companion novel in the series, because I do like the characters and am open to reading a story set around another couple set in this small town though, so who knows haha...

[Jacquie South]

This was a pretty ‘blah’ book. It was like it couldn’t decide whether it was a romance or a thriller and ended up as neither. The characters were rather lame (except for the dog!) and the ‘thriller’ back story was inconsistent and rather silly.
I could be generous and give it 3 ⭐️ - and that IS generous - 2⭐️ for the romance and 1 ⭐️ for the thriller !

[Susan Stephens Ballain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Falling for you is a small town clean romance . Gabe and Natalie are the main characters one is a writer and the other is an artist! But there is suspense mixed in with the romance! I highly recommend this book! I give it 5 ⭐️

[Bibliophile at large · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is my second attempt to read a book by the author but for some reason it can't hold my attention for long. I end up not finishing it :( sorry...

[Jeanne Johnston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much suspense, danger- or romance-wise. The rest was fairly saccharine.

[Racheli Zusiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

יותר 3.5 כוכבים מאשר 4 כוכבים, אבל נהניתי לקרוא אז החלטתי לפרגן.
נטלי היא אמנית בינלאומית שחיה באיטליה. לאחר שפרצו לדירתה וגנבו ממנה עבודות שלה, היא מחליטה לחזור לעיירת ילדותה בארה"ב, ספיר ביי, כדי לעבוד על ציורים חדשים לתערוכה הקרבה שלה בונציה. כשהיא מגיעה לקוטג' שבו התגוררה בעבר עם אמא שלה ביחד עם סבא וסבתא שלה, היא מגלה שאמא שלה השכירה אותו לגייב, בלש לשעבר במשטרת ניו יורק וסופר ספרי מתח מפורסם בהווה. גייב מסתתר בעיירה כי מישהו החל לשלוח לסוכן שלו מסרים ותמונות מאיימות המיועדות לגייב, ולשחזר סצנות מספר המתח הראשון שלו. גייב גר בצד אחד של הקוטג', ונטלי גרה בצד נפרד, תוספת שנבנתה לבית. גייב עובד על ספרו החדש ונטלי על ציוריה. בין לבין הם מתיידדים, נטלי נקשרת לכלב של גייב, והם מטיילים ביחד באזור. המשטרה מנסה למצוא את מי שמאיים על גייב, אך ללא הצלחה, והאיום עליו הולך ומתהדק והוא חושש לחייו וגם לחייה של נטלי, כי המסרים והתמונות מתחילים לכלול גם אותה. גייב גם מתמודד עם טראומה מהעבר שמשפיעה עליו.
הספר מאוד נעים, נחמד וזורם לקריאה, ומזכיר בסגנונו את סדרת "וירג'ין ריבר", ואכן לדעתי היה ממש מתאים להפוך אותו לסדרה או סרט טלוויזיה. מה שהפריע לי זה שהאהבה המתפרצת בין גייב לנטלי התפרצה לטעמי קצת בפתאומיות ומבלי שיהיו לכך סימוכין בעלילה ובכתיבה, וזה נראה כאילו בן רגע הם הופכים מסטטוס של ידידים מרוחקים לסטטוס של מאוהבים עד כלות, וזה קצת מוזר, ומאוד קיטשי וקלישאתי. גם החברה שנטלי רוכשת לה, ברוק, הופכת מסתם מישהי שהיא פגשה בסופרמרקט לחברה קרובה מאוד באופן פתאומי משהו, וגם זה היה לי קצת מוזר. זה כאילו שהסופרת דילגה על חלקים מהעלילה... מצד שני, יש הרבה פוקוס על עלילת המתח ובגלל זה הספר כל כך זרם לי והיה מעניין. גם הדמויות נהדרות, ואהבתי את זה שגייב הוא גבר רגיש שלא מהסס לבכות, להתרגש, ולדבר על כמה שהוא דואג. בסך הכל היה לי מעניין וכיף לקרוא.

[Anna Hargett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really read these kinds of books, but I needed to read something that didn't take too much thinking and it was free on my Nook. I enjoyed the beginning of the book but the last 1/3 of the book kind of lost me. The girl character started to come off as super clueless to me. There was a time when her and the main character guy came across an abandoned shelter in the woods and the guy had pulled out his gun (because there was a crazy stalker stalking him the book), and the girl was upset because he had that gun as protection because "someone could get hurt." Well, duh, lady. A crazy stalker is stalking your boy so he needs that gun lol. And then the author waaayyyy overused the expression, "so and so said with a frown" "he frowned" "she said frowning" All I could picture was sad faces. It's like don't they have any other expression?!? Then at one point the character was in the hospital because she had been shot and then she asks, "Why do I feel drowsy?" Ummmm.....maybe because you're on meds? Like I said, the beginning of the book was pretty good and I enjoyed it, but then the last 1/3 of the book I could have found better things to do with my time.

[Brigitte · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good storyline, but somewhat lacking in development. What seems to be a main part of the story isn't addressed. The synopsis indicates that it's a standalone, but leaves a lot of question marks around one of the issues.

Gabe, an ex detetective turned writer has moved to this quiet location mainly for privacy and anominity.

Natalie moved to Europe to further her career as an artist. Unfortunately, some unpleasant occurences drives her back home.

Gabe and Natalie start off by sharing a cottage, and end up falling in love. Gabe is persued by a mysterious stalker. This side of the story takes up most of the concept whereas Natalie's predicament is brushed upon, but not resolved. The chemistry between them is barely there. The drama towards the end isn't very convincing. It has good prospects, but the pace and the unresolved issues around the paintings are disincentives. It's not something that I would read again.

[Bridget Burke · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ratings were very good for this book but I couldn't see it. I couldn't not get a connection between any of the characters besides the mother and daughter. I know it was suspenseful, keeping you guessing, but I was bored at 25% of the book. I kept reading, hoping to catch the hook, but it never came. Disappointing.

[Tammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn' t believe the love was real. It seemed forced.

[mer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is ...

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It had romance tied in with some mystery and that made it a bit more interesting to read.

Natalie is a successful artist who goes back to her hometown after a break in at her apartment in Italy makes her long for the peace and quiet of Sapphire Bay.

Gabe is a retired Detective with the NYPD, turned author, who sought the peace and quiet of a small town to finish his next book and evade a stalker.

He is renting a cottage and to both of their surprise Natalie shows up to stay there too. It belonged to her grandparents. They work out the logistics and the story really takes off from there. They find out the identity of each other and why they sought out peace and quiet.

I loved their relationship and how it built from a quick friendship to love. The secondary characters are great and the overall storyline kept you waiting and intrigued. Overall...⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Lori Tremain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gabe and Natalie. Gabe is an ex NYPD police officer who turned author after losing a female officer who he loved. He took her dog and came to Sapphire Bay to write and escape. But someone is stalking him in New York. Another reason for being at the cottage. Natalie is a world known artist. Her family owns the cottage. She has come to Saphire Bay to paint and fit peace and quiet, and to get thru the guilt, she feels for not making it home from Europe for her grandparents' funeral. They originally owned the cottage. With Gabe renting the cottage, they decide to divide the space into 2 places as the cottage actually has 2 sides due to adding one. But Gabe and Natalie cottage constantly run into other and fall. In.the meantime, a stalker is on the loose.

[Marisela M. Chavez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely enjoyed Gabe and Natalie story. It had everything I love about a great small town romance. 💙

[emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stumbled across this book out of sheer luck, wanting a nice easy read. And actually? I really did enjoy it. There was a lot of suggestions for me to read Morgan and I gave it a shot because why not.

Plot:
This was like any other small town romance novel, with two people looking to escape from their busy lives to a different world. I’m a sucker for novels like this, as you probably have gathered, and even though you know what’s coming, you still can’t stop reading. This had the typical tropes of a small town love story but it was also really unique. It had elements of a thriller storyline as-well as the relationship storyline - which threw me at first but made it interesting. I actually really loved how it intertwined two genres but still had the reading style of a romance. It’s clever actually.

Style:
The writing style was mainly from the perspective of our main character Natalie, who is an artist looking to leave her past behind and start a fresh. It switches from her perspective and Gabe’s - a retired NYPD detective who now writes bestselling crime novels, who needed an escape for inspiration for his next book. It didn’t switch often enough to get confused which I really liked and it was easy to follow the story. It was broken up in the way that you knew what was happening throughout and even though there were a lot of characters introduced, each person had a place within the story.

Summary:
A really great feel good read with a twist. I loved how two genres were mixed together to create a seemingly typical romance novel. Two characters meeting in complicated circumstances and essentially falling for one another. I’m a sucker for these types of reads.


☆☆☆/5

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the absolute best books I've ever read

I LOVE this book. I very rarely re-read books, but I have a feeling I'll re-read this one.

The story telling reveals a deep knowledge of art, police procedure, writing, family ties, & even the evil to which a mind can descend. It also reveals a knowledge of how the brain processes extreme trauma. There is love, danger, intrigue, intuition, & teamwork as the group, including the artist's mother, seek to piece together the facts of a major issue.

All this is skillfully woven together on a backdrop of an almost pristine rural area near a small but thriving town. Two famous people in hiding share a cottage, one that belonged to the painter's grandparents, who added on to the cottage when there was a family need. Essentially, it was made into a duplex. The probelm is, the person who owns it didn't know it had been rented out. For her, the good news is that the renter, the author & former NYPD detective, lives only in the grandparents' part of the cottage. He reluctantly allows that he can put up with sharing the place as long as his solitude for his writing, his current project/book with his previous books as best sellers, is uninterrupted. She agrees, since her grandparents created a studio for her painting in the other half, & she needs to replace 2 paintings stolen from her place in Italy, which she just left after 2 breakins, the 2nd of which resulted in the theft of 2 paintings. And so the tale begins.

Soon, they become friends. His other friend in the area, an IT guy who works on security stuff which requires confidentiality be maintained, becomes a friend to both, & eventually a refuge as well.

The author has a stalker. For a while, until they find a suspect based on fingerprints left when he broke the glass to enter the artist's half of the cottage (but with no thefts of her paintings), they stay at the IT guy's rather isolated home. They apprehend the suspect, get enough to charge him with stalking, & move back to the cottage. But they're not really safe...something the author/detective senses is that they have missed something. And they have.

They are both targets, but once the guys leave, and the artist finishes her 2nd painting, she is about to come face to face with what they missed.

Will she survive & get to exhibit her paintings? Has their frienship evolved into a love that can survive his city ways with her desire to stay where she is? And just what, or who, is it that they've missed?

For that, you'll need to read this CLEAN, SEX FREE book. I want to THANK the author for writing a clean romance/suspense/crime novel that shows a true depth of knowledge & research into human nature. It is so delightful to read a book that doesn't have page after page of what amounts to a sex manual that outlines sexpextations that are physiologically impossible. One that assumes the reader knows what is involved in a sexual encunter & chooses instead to focus on the interplay of personality & knowledge & talent in a background of page turning suspense. I confess that the first book I read by this author stooped to sex manuals that interrupted an otherwise lovely love story with sexpectat

[Tanja Glavnik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another really great read for me where the reasons why the main couple don't actually become a couple are very well done and written about, but I knocked down a star for some things I'll mention down below.

I thought Natalie and Gabe's interactions were really good and I loved the progress of their relationship, though I honestly thought something might happen in Caleb's cabin when they were alone haha. Still, it was an entertaining read, bar a few points down below.

I don't think it was ever explained why Gabe was being stalked. What were the brothers' motivations? I know it's a romance book, but I'm still curious.

Natalie's burglaries were also sort of just swept under a rug, and considering the humbug about them initially I figured there'd be a parting word in there, somewhere?

Also, how did Natalie's mom not go and talk to Mabel about posting stuff on social media if she claimed to know her so well? That one made very little sense, either.

And finally, considering Gabe was formerly a member of the NYPD, you'd think his former colleagues in arms would have hustled a bit more to solve a case against one of their own, not let a security firm do all the leg work in the span of moments.

Other than that, however, it was an entertaining afternoon read!

[Lisa Lanay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good storyline, but missed the mark on romance

The book was well written, and I was able to visualize all of the scenery as it was very descriptive. The suspense was there but not the romance. The first time each of the characters admitted feelings for the other, I was like how did that happen as there was absolutely no chemistry between them? I liked the secondary characters. While I wasn't looking for erotica by any means, I was looking to read a romance and honestly as close as they came was a kiss on the cheek that could have been between a sister and brother. Because it was so well written, I would try the author again to see if this was just a one off and not typical of her storylines.

[E H · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me months I think to finish this book, it was so dragged out boring...
Almost 7/8 of the book in, the events started to get more exciting, and I was able to advance in my reading this book a bit faster, and eventually finish it. The ending was also kind of meh...
I don't know.... The whole book was just not my thing I guess.
Some clues - it is a thriller there closer to the end, so it was getting more interesting, for an otherwise very boring book. The characters seem very awkward, some of the details in the story are completely obscure why they are there.... Maybe the details are there to get me interested in reading other books in the series, but I think the author did a horrible job at convincing...

[Anita (Hearts and Whodunits) · Rating 3 out of 5]

After six years of focusing on her career, Natalie Armstrong returns to her grandparents’ cottage in Sapphire Bay. But no one told her that part of the cottage was rented to a handsome man. Gabe Lanigan is a former NYPD detective turned crime writer who is being stalked by someone recreating scenes from his books. Can he protect Natalie without falling for her?
I really wanted to like this romantic suspense more. It had a lot of suspense, but it lacked in the romance department. I didn’t feel any sparks between the two main characters, they never changed their behavior towards one another from the first page to the last. The only difference was that they said, “I love you.” I hope to read more books from this series.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars....maybe three and a half

This one was hard for me to rate. I loved the setting, and loved the characters. However, it almost seemed too short. I didn't feel like I had enough of an introduction to some of the characters, and it didn't really conclusively answer some questions for me. What was the history behind Gabe's stalker? What was the robbery in Italy all about, or why was it even brought up? How did Gabe and Caleb come to be such close friends? And there are other questions that came to mind as I read. But for the most part, I liked the book; it just seemed like it needed more "rounding out".

[Marie Vayer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I normally enjoy books by this author, however this one fell way short. It was an ok read, but very dry and slow.. i picked it up and put it down at least 4 times, I started it on 5 July and finished it on 11 Aug. So very slow...... the part about who broke into Natalie's house in Italy and stole her paintings was left hanging - never found out who or why... there were also some lazy editing errors - another thing you don't normally get from this author. Overall I think it was an ok ready, since it was 0$. I won't pay for the rest of the series..

[Didi Ps · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice, short story that was somewhat predictable. All books are, to some extent, but this book also seemed to drag on a bit in some parts (stretched out for the sake of making the story longer). The two main characters seemed to like each other, but didn't seem to have a lot of chemistry. At the end of the book, the stalking case was closed, but we never find out what happened with the burglary of Natalie's paintings...

[Teri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story is slow, disjointed and still predictable. As a fan of Robyn Carr I fell for the blurb comparing this series to her Virgin River series. This didn't have character development and the dialogue and situations were eye rolling. If you are hoping for something on the level of Robyn Carr this is not it in my opinion

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have been a much better book if there was a reason for his stalker. Never gave a reason. Liked the characters and the setting but the story never was completed. Also, never got a resolution to the reason she left Italy.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, EXCEPT...where is the explanation regarding who broke into Natalie's gallery/apartment in Venice? Her side of the cottage? That was never answered. There were other unresolved issues as well.