Her Maine Risk is the 3rd book in Rebecca Gannon's Pine Cove series. The books are all standalones so you can each one without having read any of the others - but every book is like reuniting with old friends at the The Rusty Anchor or the Blueberry Cafe and you fall in love with Ally, Ashley, Melanie, Ellie and Courtney all over again.
This book is Melanie's story. A nurse in New Jersey, she is tired of working herself to the bone for faceless patients she has no time to get to know, then coming to an empty apartment. After attending Ally and Jake's wedding in Pine Cove, Maine, she decides she needs a change. Pine Cove has done wonders for her friends that have already moved there, and she feels the same sort of peace whenever she has visited. So when Ally and Ashley's father-in-law offers her a job as the nurse in his family practice, she picks up and makes the move. Once she is there permanently, Alex, the hot, tattoo-covered bartender known for flirting with every woman that walks in The Rusty Anchor, makes his move. He has been after her since her first visit, and tried again at Jake and Ally's wedding, and now that she is living full-time in Pine Cove, he is intent on having her. In many respects, Melanie and Alex are complete opposites, and in others, they are exactly the same. Together, they head out on a journey unfamiliar to both and one admittedly scary as hell. But when chemistry exists between any two people the way it does between Mel and Alex, you have no choice but to hang on and enjoy the ride.
Melanie and Alex are each wonderful, authentic characters and it is difficult not to identify with the vulnerability in both of them. And as always, Rebecca Gannon surrounds her couple with an amazing supporting cast. The Tyler brothers, Courtney and Jack, and of course Dottie, enrich the fabric of Pine Cove and make it a place that all of us want to visit, if not pack up our belongings and make a permanent move. If only it was real!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.