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Summer in Barefoot Bay: 2-in-1 Edition with Barefoot in the Sun and Barefoot by the Sea

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Fall in love with two feel-good beach romances from a renowned  New York Times  bestselling author—together for the first time in print!

BAREFOOT IN THE SUN

Ever since her great-aunt Pasha rescued her from a troubled childhood, Zoe Tamarin doesn’t dare stay still for fear of exposing her precarious past. But when her aunt’s health is at risk, there’s only one person who can help—Zoe’s childhood sweetheart, Dr. Oliver Bradbury. Oliver came to Barefoot Bay to start over after his divorce, never expecting to reunite with the girl he once loved. But one look is all it takes to rekindle their passion. Can Oliver help Zoe heal lifelong wounds. . . and keep her from running away with his heart?

BAREFOOT BY THE SEA

Professional gardener Tessa Galloway can grow anything—except what she wants most in the world. She’s finally ready to take a chance on single motherhood when a handsome new coworker enters her life . . . and her heart. Forced into the witness protection program, John Brown is desperate to reunite with his children. But first he has to prove he’s married and stable. Landing a job as a chef in Barefoot Bay is easy enough. And falling for Tessa is even easier. But will his secret be the thing that uproots their happy ending?

832 pages, Paperback

Published April 26, 2022

6 people are currently reading
84 people want to read

About the author

Roxanne St. Claire

266 books1,833 followers
I don’t know about you, but when I check out an author's bio, it’s usually because I’ve read a book I liked and wondered about the person behind it. Let's skip the formal bio and I'll give you the inside scoop on who Roxanne St. Claire really is.

First of all, call me Rocki. Everyone does. Evidently, when my mother brought me home from the hospital I seemed too scrawny and small to pull off “Roxanne” (she’d read Cyrano de Bergerac while pregnant or I would have been Judy) so they called me Rocki.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, the youngest of five (overachievers, every one), and fell in love with words and stories the summer I read Gone With The Wind. That year, for my twelfth birthday, my parents gave me a typewriter (with italic font – it was the coolest thing) and from that day on, I’ve had my fingers on a keyboard, pounding out love stories for fun. My AP English teacher taught me the two most important lessons an aspiring author ever needs: 1) verbs are the key to life and 2) a writer should get a real job. After attending UCLA and graduating with a degree in communications, I tried acting and television broadcasting. Oh, they aren’t real jobs? I learned that the hard way. I changed my last name from Zink to St. Claire because a news producer told me Roxanne Zink had too many harsh consonants for a TV personality – apparently Katie Couric didn’t get the memo. I got some fun gigs, and even met Tom Hanks when I did a guest appearance on Bosom Buddies. I liked on camera work, but wasn’t too crazy about starvation, so I moved to Boston and got that “real” job. In fact, I placed my foot on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder and didn’t look down until I’d climbed all the way up to the level of Senior Vice President at the world’s largest public relations firm. On the way up, I met the man of my dreams in an elevator. Two years later – in the same elevator! – he asked me to marry him and I wisely said yes.

I stayed in PR, moved to Miami, had a few babies, lost my home in a hurricane, built another one a few hours north and all along, I kept writing my “stories” for fun. One night, I read a particularly fabulous romance novel that changed my life for good. That night, I decided I wanted to make someone else feel as whole and happy as that author made me feel. (Everyone asks! It was Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.) With two small children and one big “real” job, writing my first novel wasn’t easy, but I did finish a manuscript that managed to get the attention of a literary agent. She told me to do one thing and one thing fast: write another book. (The first one is usually a “learner” book, honestly.) That second manuscript sold to Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books and was released in 2003 as Tropical Getaway. Since then, I’ve written almost thirty more, in multiple genres, and long ago replaced the corporate ladder with the rollercoaster of publishing as a full-time novelist. Finally, writing is my real job.

Today, I live in a small beach community in Florida with my husband and two dogs. Our kids are off to college and law school, which means my nest is empty! I spend my time writing, working with the kids at my church, enjoying my husband's gourmet cooking, and hanging with my many writer friends. Of course, I love to read. I’m still crazy about words and stories and hope to write at least a hundred books in my lifetime. And, yes, verbs are the key to life. My favorites? Love. Work. Believe.

xoxo
Rocki

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for Julie - One Book More.
1,348 reviews238 followers
May 13, 2022
Summer in Barefoot Bay includes books 3 and 4 in the Barefoot Bay series, Barefoot in the Sun and Barefoot by the Sea, and both stories are compelling and emotional romances filled with humor and heart. There’s a lot to love about the books – The setting is gorgeous, the love stories are swoon-worthy, and the friendships are amazing. I love this group of women, each so different yet united in their love for and support of each other. Lacey, Jocelyn, Zoe, and Tessa are friendship goals, and their relationship is one of the highlights of the series.

Barefoot in the Sun follows Zoe and Oliver and their second-chance romance. Their story was hinted at in previous books in the series, and I was so eager to learn more about what happened between them. Zoe is so funny and sarcastic and sometimes a bit flighty, but you quickly learn it’s a guise to protect some life-changing secrets. All of her walls come crumbling down when she reconnects with Oliver and faces her past.

The chemistry between Zoe and Oliver is palpable from the very beginning, and you can tell the love they have for each other has never gone away even though years have passed, but their road to happiness has many speed bumps. It’s interesting to see how they deal with complicated legal situations, family health problems, and, of course, their unrelenting feelings for each other. Zoe has spent her life running from everything – people, her feelings, mistakes she’s made, and more. She finds it a difficult cycle to break, and there’s a lot on the line if she reveals her past. Oliver is super swoon-worthy and so in love with Zoe.

The secondary characters, especially Zoe’s aunt and Oliver’s son, are also great. Oliver’s son Evan is comical. He’s smart and crass and precocious, and his relationship with Zoe’s aunt is very sweet. I also like that you get Pasha’s perspective and how she feels about everything that has happened in her and Zoe’s life.

Barefoot by the Sea follows the last woman of the four friends, Tessa, and her story is as moving as the others. Like Barefoot in the Sun, secrets are at the forefront of Tessa’s relationship with the enigmatic John, and Tess despises secrets even though she has one of her own. A man with a complicated past, John/Ian is desperate to reconnect with his kids but knows he needs more stability before he can. Marriage and a steady job are his main goals when he meets and falls for Tessa. Tessa wants to have a baby and is falling for John, but she starts to notice little things that suggest he’s not being entirely truthful.

Both of these characters are so layered and dynamic, and their chemistry is off the charts!! Tessa is so caring and nurturing, and her feelings about motherhood and her desire to carry a child have consumed her. John is equally interesting, though Tessa feels like he is too good to be true. Their story is emotional and sometimes heartbreaking as they work through their struggles and fears and slowly start to trust each other, but the way they feel about each other breaks through all the barriers in their way. If anyone deserves happiness, it’s these two, and I so rooted for them!

Barefoot Bay is a great series. They’re the kind of stories that make you laugh and cry and swoon and feel all of the feelings in between. I would definitely recommend it to readers who enjoy contemporary romance, and I’m very grateful to Forever Publishing for gifting me a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.
Profile Image for Tanja ~ KT Book Reviews .
1,568 reviews210 followers
April 20, 2022
Who doesn't love a BOGO! Barefoot in the Sun AND Barefoot by the Sea are now available in one robust book for summer. Dip those toes into the world created by Roxanne St. Clair.

Book one, Barefoot in the Sun, gives us a second chance at romance when Zoe Tamarin and Oliver Bradbury find themselves together again in Barefoot Bay.

Book two, Barefoot by the Sea, gives us a bit more drama when Tessa Galloway finds herself drawn to a new coworker who has some pretty weighty personal issues that involve more than just himself.

I am forever a fan of Roxanne St. Clair and this will definitely be in my beach bag this summer!

~Tanja

*Thank you to Grand Central and Forever Publishing for sharing this title with me.


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Profile Image for Charlene.
1,561 reviews54 followers
May 29, 2022
Summer in Barefoot Bay has the 3rd and 4th book in the Barefoot Bay Series. This is a fun 2-in-1 edition!

Barefoot in the Sun - 4/5. This book is the 3rd book in the Barefoot Bay Series. These are a set of companion novels, you do not have to read the previous books to understand the books, but they will add to understanding some of the previous characters. This was my first Roxanne St. Clair book.

Barefoot in the Sun is a second chance, small town romance. The main characters, Zoe and Oliver were torn apart by circumstances beyond their control, but they both experienced such strong feelings toward each other, years passed and they still think of each other. The chemistry between Zoe and Oliver is off the charts. Zoe doesn't trust herself to love, but what she clearly feels is love.

The main characters in this book were interesting, but all the side characters including Zoe's aunt Pasha and Oliver's son Evan added to the book. Zoe's girlfriend group were supportive and wonderful too.

This book isn't pure romance though. The contemporary adds a little bit of depth by throwing a mystery in. Learning just who Zoe's aunt is and what her history was, was interesting and heartbreaking to read about. All Zoe knows is running, because that is what she has been doing with her aunt since she was 10 years old. That is why she doesn't believe that she knows how to stick around. I think she also worried that she wasn't worth it, and really sells herself short thinking her value is only in sex.

This book made me laugh and cry. Some points in this book were so incredibly sad, but there was also hope.

Barefoot by the Sea - 2/5 - This is the 4th book in the Barefoot Bay Series. I didn't like this book as much as the 3rd book in the Barefoot Bay Series. I think it is likely because it had an infertility trope. I hate infertility tropes where there is either 1) a magical pregnancy, or 2) friends keep on saying that the person can just get pregnant. I'm also not big into instalove, which this book was definitely full of.

I found the relationship between Tessa and John/Ian to be wrought with chemistry, and it was an interesting take on the marriage/relationship of convenience. It is what gave this book a 2 star vs. a 1.

I found the books believability to be off too. Tessa spends her entire book (and if I am honest, the previous one too) talking about how much see hates secrets, and John/Ian holds major ones, and she just forgives them. I don't get it. She struggled with these issues, but then just forgives and moves on. I didn't get it. I also found it hard to believe that the witness protection would remove these two traumatized kids from their only parent and further, be "cool" with placing them in two separate foster homes, over the dad, who could be with them in the program. Even more, the social services agency asking the father be married to prove stability is completely off base!

I enjoyed the first book in this double book set, but the second one wasn't that great for me. I did enjoy the writing, even with the faults I found, so I plan to check out more of Roxanne St. Clair's books! Thank you to Forever publishing for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine.
Profile Image for Lauren | TransportedLFL.
1,741 reviews42 followers
April 22, 2022
I loved the 2-for-1 of Meet Me at Barefoot Bay, so I really wanted to read Summer in Barefoot Bay, books 3 and 4 of the series. I want to clarify that these are not light reads. I find them great romances, but they deal with some heavy topics that are not implied by the beachy cover.

The series focuses on four women who have been best friends since they met in college. In the first two books, Lacey and Jocelyn both find partners, as all four women slowly relocate to Barefoot Bay and establish the Casa Blanca resort. You don't need to read those stories first, but these books do include spoilers for them. So I recommend reading in order.

📚 Barefoot in the Sun

The previous books gave us insight that Zoe had some sort of past relationship with Dr. Oliver Bradshaw. But it was never clear what. Zoe is the sarcastic and funny woman of the group, and she has secrets she hasn't shared. In this book, they all come to a head, as she revisits her previous love and confronts her past.

I found the story unexpected in so many ways. I loved Oliver and even more his son, Evan. This was a great second chance romance.

📚 Barefoot By the Sea

The final story is for Tessa. Her story is heartbreaking in many respects. She divorced her husband after he got another woman pregnant. Now she dearly wants her own baby. When John shows up, he seems a good match for a sperm donor. Things get intense between the two of them quickly, but she's just not sure she can trust him.

This series takes so many twists. I enjoy the unpredictability, and I especially love the found family that the four women create.

Thank you to Forever for this book. These opinions are my own.

CW: off page abuse and murder, infertility, cancer
Profile Image for Maranda Ballard.
Author 2 books13 followers
September 29, 2023
First! Before you read this AMAZING two book combo, you need to get and read Meet me in Barefoot bay… that is the first two books in the series! Summer in barefoot bay is the final 2 books

I applaud Roxanne St. Claire on this well written series.

The first book Barefoot in the Sand introduces you to Lacy, Jocelyn, Tessa and Zoe. This book sets up for the rest of the series. Each book focuses on one of the girls love life, or life in general. The way Mrs. St.Claire flows from one book to another helps you stay connected to the characters, all of the characters. So even though Barefoot in the Sand focuses on Lacy, you still connect with the rest of the girls.

This series is a cute, beautiful story in complete! ❤️
1,480 reviews
October 5, 2022
This is two novels in one book. I've read the authors previous books but these two stories were a little cliched for my taste. After reading almost a quarter of the book I felt I could predict the outcome which was a disappointment. 2.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews

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