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Old Secrets
Gillian is a well-known travel blogger, who just suffered the loss of her beloved grandfather.
She is stunned to find out she inherited her grandfather’s wealth and an entire island he never ever talked about…with a dying request to have her revive the island.
Gleaming Isles is a small island off the coast of the Northern tip of Florida that was a thriving tourist place in the 1960s and then abandoned without any reason given, and honestly, no one knew about it in the family until recently.
She and her three best friends decide to take full advantage of the inheritance to start a co-op tourist spot on the island… if Gillian’s father does not stop them to protect the family secrets she is determined to uncover…
Thrilled about this new adventure that she will blog about as she is able to, she must select guests for skills they have in helping rebuild the little tourist spots around the island.
But as the reputation of the island grows and the guest list expands, so will the island’s mystery that it won’t give up easily.
When a secret stash of letters comes to light, it will reveal a secret about her life she might hope was left untouched.
This is a great read for all the lovers of suspenseful romance, suspense and romance, later in life romance, beach read, feel good reads, middle aged woman romance, women's fiction or just beach romance.
Book 1 of 6 in Gleaming Isles Series
She is stunned to find out she inherited her grandfather’s wealth and an entire island he never ever talked about…with a dying request to have her revive the island.
Gleaming Isles is a small island off the coast of the Northern tip of Florida that was a thriving tourist place in the 1960s and then abandoned without any reason given, and honestly, no one knew about it in the family until recently.
She and her three best friends decide to take full advantage of the inheritance to start a co-op tourist spot on the island… if Gillian’s father does not stop them to protect the family secrets she is determined to uncover…
Thrilled about this new adventure that she will blog about as she is able to, she must select guests for skills they have in helping rebuild the little tourist spots around the island.
But as the reputation of the island grows and the guest list expands, so will the island’s mystery that it won’t give up easily.
When a secret stash of letters comes to light, it will reveal a secret about her life she might hope was left untouched.
This is a great read for all the lovers of suspenseful romance, suspense and romance, later in life romance, beach read, feel good reads, middle aged woman romance, women's fiction or just beach romance.
Book 1 of 6 in Gleaming Isles Series
73 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 13, 2021
29 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Molly Maco
99 books28 followersMolly Maco is a best-selling author of several stories featuring cowboys, strong women getting a fresh start in life, and feel-good romance.
If she's not writing, she is serving in the world of two gorgeous, attention-demanding puppies. Annie & Calie.
If she's not writing, she is serving in the world of two gorgeous, attention-demanding puppies. Annie & Calie.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 23, 2021
Decent story, rather poor execution.
This title is the first in one of those (extremely annoying to me) "series" that is actually a single book chopped up into, in this case, six "books" that together comprise one actual novel. This is only the most recent example that I have encountered, and I truly hope that this trend will soon die out.
There's enough ongoing mystery and intrigue and questions to be answered to keep a reader engaged, but the mechanics of telling the story (and apparent complete lack of a good line edit) are troubling. I lost count of the times when the writer chose the wrong word out of two words that sound somewhat alike but mean very different things. Just one example in the final "book" involved a dead person's ashes being "interned." No, the ashes were not imprisoned. They were buried (interred). There were also some continuity errors. In one, the island where most of the story takes place magically migrated from off the southwestern coast of Florida to the eastern between "books" 1 and 5. And one character's name spelling changed back and forth, one time within the same paragraph. Finally, some of the author's sentence structure was so convoluted it took several read-throughs to figure out exactly what was being said, and this sort of thing breaks one of the most important rules of fiction--keep the reader in the story! Another important rule of fiction writing is "Show, don't tell." Alas, too little show and too much tell here.
The dynamics of the character relationships were far beyond believable, as successively-introduced new characters rather magically paired off, falling madly in love with little to no struggle or conflict. The characters were just not very interesting to me because of this. And I found it far beyond belief that several adults of different backgrounds and from different parts of the country would ALL use "super cool!" as a superlative.... That was just plain annoying. And of course all of them were breathtakingly good-looking. What are the odds of that?
But again, other than the poor storytelling mechanics, lack of character development and errors that should have been cleaned up with a good line edit, the underlying story was actually interesting and intriguing enough to keep me reading all the way to the end. But I am not eager to try any other books by this author, unless someone whose opinion and judgment I trust were to tell me that she has improved her craft significantly.
This title is the first in one of those (extremely annoying to me) "series" that is actually a single book chopped up into, in this case, six "books" that together comprise one actual novel. This is only the most recent example that I have encountered, and I truly hope that this trend will soon die out.
There's enough ongoing mystery and intrigue and questions to be answered to keep a reader engaged, but the mechanics of telling the story (and apparent complete lack of a good line edit) are troubling. I lost count of the times when the writer chose the wrong word out of two words that sound somewhat alike but mean very different things. Just one example in the final "book" involved a dead person's ashes being "interned." No, the ashes were not imprisoned. They were buried (interred). There were also some continuity errors. In one, the island where most of the story takes place magically migrated from off the southwestern coast of Florida to the eastern between "books" 1 and 5. And one character's name spelling changed back and forth, one time within the same paragraph. Finally, some of the author's sentence structure was so convoluted it took several read-throughs to figure out exactly what was being said, and this sort of thing breaks one of the most important rules of fiction--keep the reader in the story! Another important rule of fiction writing is "Show, don't tell." Alas, too little show and too much tell here.
The dynamics of the character relationships were far beyond believable, as successively-introduced new characters rather magically paired off, falling madly in love with little to no struggle or conflict. The characters were just not very interesting to me because of this. And I found it far beyond belief that several adults of different backgrounds and from different parts of the country would ALL use "super cool!" as a superlative.... That was just plain annoying. And of course all of them were breathtakingly good-looking. What are the odds of that?
But again, other than the poor storytelling mechanics, lack of character development and errors that should have been cleaned up with a good line edit, the underlying story was actually interesting and intriguing enough to keep me reading all the way to the end. But I am not eager to try any other books by this author, unless someone whose opinion and judgment I trust were to tell me that she has improved her craft significantly.
October 19, 2021
A new series from Molly Maco. Set on an island that has buildings that have been abandoned for unknown reasons. Gillian is surprised by the decision of her grandfather to leave her an island and all of his money. Excited to explore the island with her friends, Gillian is keen to rebuild and make this a wonderful place for people to get away from the pressures of life. I enjoyed this opening episode of the Gleaming Isles series and look forward to how it unfolds.
March 3, 2026
I enjoyed this book. It was an easy to read short story. However, I couldn't fully grasp the personalities of the characters. But, the plot and the setting were all to my liking, with bits of intrigue popping in and out of the short chapters. I love anything beach or coastal themed. The surprise ending and cliffhanger have me excited about reading the rest of this series. Very nice, sweetly developing love story with a mystery twist.
February 13, 2022
great read
Enjoyed ready and looking forward to the next one. I can’t wait to read more from this author to see what happens.
Enjoyed ready and looking forward to the next one. I can’t wait to read more from this author to see what happens.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews