Lured In by Laura Drewry

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: Lured In
Author: Laura Drewry
Series: Fishing for Trouble #2
Published by: Loveswept
Release Date: September 27, 2016
Format: eARC
Pages: 284
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Source: NetGalley
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:

Blurb:

The O’Donnell brothers continue to cast their lines and find love in this alluring romance from the bestselling author of Off the Hook (“A must-read for fans of second-chance love stories.”—Lauren Layne).

Seasick. That’s how Jessie Todd feels when her best friend and boss, Finn O’Donnell, tells her that the Buoys will be featured on a popular fishing program—which just so happens to be hosted by a guy she used to date. She’s still friendly with her ex, but her new feelings for Finn are making things . . . complicated. His life is out on the sea, and though Jessie works at the resort, her paralyzing phobia of water keeps her on land, where she’s safe. To take a shot with Finn, she’ll need to face her fears—and her innermost desires—head-on.

Finn has been nursing a crush on Jess for a long time, so when she suddenly asks for swimming lessons, he dives right in. Holding her shaking hand as she steps into the ocean makes his heart swell—despite the sinking feeling that she’s just doing it to impress that smarmy TV host. Finn doesn’t trust anyone with his bruised and battered heart, but he’ll be forced to lay it all on the line to keep Jess from being the one that got away.

My Review:

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4 stars — Well that was much better than the first book for me!  As I was suspecting from their appearance in Off the Hook, Finn and Jess were more my kind of characters and so I was more easily sucked into their story.  Not only did I genuinely like both characters, but I really loved their backstories — both individually, and their history together.  They gave me so many feels and both had me crying.  And DAMN!!  Chemistry was definitely not a problem in this story!  I LOVE that the cover reminds me of a scene in the book, and I could totally picture it in my head, so when I looked at the cover again I was like “AHA!”

So what did I love about the characters?  Well Jessie was sassy and strong, never afraid to stand up to those boys and put them in their place, and I loved the way she loved The Buoys and making it a successful business.  But she was also so damaged from her past.  I was worried I wouldn’t get all my questions answered, but I totally did and really felt for how her past shaped her.  I genuinely felt her fear and terror and I loved how they worked through her fear, and didn’t minimize it.

And Finn was such a strange contradiction!!  He’s definitely not an Alpha guy, but he’s not quite a Beta boy either (which are my faves).  Is there such a thing as an Omega, or am I just making shit up?  I don’t know.  But he was so sweet and caring, and genuinely damaged in his own right.  I LOVED that Jess didn’t minimize or excuse what happened to him in the past, but just listened to him.  I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to grow up with that hanging over his head, and so I genuinely understood why he was the way he was with respect to relationships.  That was another thing I found refreshing — Finn’s aversion to commitment came from a genuine place, and what can sometimes be kind of cliché in other books felt real in this case.  And just because he was averse to commitment didn’t mean he was some playboy or manwhore either.  THANK YOU!!  I mean, maybe I’m just reading the wrong books, but usually those things go hand in hand with heroes.  But not with Finn.  And OMG did he break my heart so many times with how humbled he was to be trusted by Jess.  And I loved the way the relationship progressed in his head…it wasn’t filled with long misunderstandings or him holding on to his commitment-phobe ways, but was more about how others saw him and expected certain things of him.  Finn was a solid book boy, I genuinely enjoyed reading him.

So yeah, this one was all about the characters for me, and it definitely succeeded in that aspect.  I also pretty much squealed in delight when some of the minor secondary characters came from my city (Edmonton).  And LAKE DIEFENBAKER!!!  You can call me crazy all you like, but I grew up 30 minutes away from the river that connects to Lake Diefenbaker, so to see it mentioned in a book is just balm to my soul.  This Canadian loves to read about Canadian things, and so I always look forward to Ms. Drewry’s books.

So the question becomes — what in the world is Ronan’s story going to look like?  I seriously have ZERO clues.  Anyone else?