Book Review – Serendipity (Southern Comfort #1) by Lisa Clark O’Neill

4 stars

“I knew the minute I saw you walk into the bar in that red dress. My heart stopped. And when it started again, it beat for you.”

This book was quite different than my usual reads but I really enjoyed it! I’d say its probably the perfect book to read if you are on vacation, or having a busy week or don’t have time to fully commit 100% to a book because the odd thing about it was that despite finding it very put-down-able, while I was reading it, I really enjoyed it. I loved that I was able to pick this book up, fall right into the story, but easily set it aside without my heart falling to pieces or suffering a nervous zomg-need-to-keep-reading break down. It was just a fun, witty yet serious mystery romance that I enjoyed despite not being completely ‘taken over’ by it.

Lets start at the beginning, this book grabbed my attention right from the first line and by the end of the first page I was grinning to myself and totally knew that I had to read this book.

Ava is just trying to lead a normal life, but when she finds a badly beaten man in the trunk of a car outside her crime lord uncle’s club (his goons had gotten the wrong dude!), she feels compelled to help him. She doesn’t condone her uncle’s illegal activities and besides, the bleeding guy is absolutely gorgeous and only barely conscious enough to be grumpy. So, she does what she considers to be the right thing and drops him off outside a hospital hoping he won’t remember her and drives off.

When Jordan, who as it turns out is a prosecutor, wakes up in the hospital, he has no memory of what happened to him other than the fact that he was beaten and maybe some woman might have tried to help him. But the who, why, where, how questions are just coming up as blanks.

And a whole story is then built up involving a crime lord, a string of chilling serial murders, Ava’s mother’s mysterious disappearance and, of course, the budding romance that begins to develop when Ava and Jordan meet again by chance.

She of course, is forced to fight her attraction to him as the price for keeping the secret of her involvement in his ‘accident’ but Jordan is both persistent and determined to get to know this girl he feels drawn to better.

“Jordan Wellington was a complication she couldn’t afford… And it was just her bad luck that he seemed to keep popping up whenever she least expected.
Did the man have to be so darn cute?
Why couldn’t she have yanked a buck-toothed, mullet-sporting redneck out of the trunk?“

Ava and Jordan were wonderful, likable characters with great chemistry and some awesome banter. Ava was a strong, tough heroine, and Jordan was a sweet, lovable guy with a great sense of humor. I really loved their scenes together.

“You’re like a damn Sheltie,” she muttered.
“A Sheltie?”…
“You’re all cute and playful, and though you look pretty easygoing, you’re really not. You just nudge, nose, circle around and herd your quarry until you’ve got them boxed into whatever corner you’ve chosen. The damn sheep doesn’t even realize what’s happening…”
“I’m not sure which one of us should be more insulted by that analogy.”

I really loved the writing style. The whole book was witty in a very subtle way. It wasn’t funny per say, but had just the right kind of clever spark to keep me reading with a little half smile a lot of the time despite the seriousness of some of the situations. It just has a catchy feel to it, you know? Its all about the little things – the choice of one word over another that just brings a smile to your face.

The book almost a bit of a romance novel meets Law&Order/CSI kind of feel to it.

I have to admit though, this book was less romance heavy than I’d usually prefer but I liked the writing style enough to keep me interested even in the more mystery focused scenes. But at the same time, I had a bit of a harder time becoming quite as fully emotionally connected to the story as I normally do with a full-on romance. I do wish there had been a tad bit more focus on Ava and Jordan.

They were, however, functional as a couple and this book had no unnecessary stupidity or Kindle-throwing scenes. Its all safe!

The point of views switch up a lot without clear breaks – it was enough that I noticed it, but not enough to strongly detract from the story. But in the interest of honesty, I feel I should mention it. There are also some typos and such, but as per my usual way of looking at things, if the story rocks, I’m more than willing to be forgiving on that front.

The author also sets up a whole slew of Wellington brothers, all of whom are gorgeous, hot and alluring do-gooders… we’ve got a lawyer, a prosecutor, an FBI agent, a doctor… as well as other interesting main characters that I’m sure will end up getting their own books.

It was a pretty laid back book. Like I said, I found it easy to put down, but easy to pick back up again. There was a bit of an ending climax but everything was all wrapped up in a resolved HEA and epilogue. No cliffhangers here! *whew*

I’d consider it “New Adult” in terms of steam (despite the couple being in their 30’s). There’s sex and light steam – nothing overly graphic, but at the same time, no closed doors. Oh, and we get a little chapter at the end giving a teaser for the next book.

This is the author’s debut novel and I really enjoyed her writing style and am looking forward to more of her books in the future.

4 stars.

Honest review requested by author.

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CASTING:

• Jordan –> Click here
• Ava –> Click here