Books Read & Giveaway: Wildflower Bay by Rachael Lucas

This little island has some big secrets...

Isla's got her dream job as head stylist at the most exclusive salon in Edinburgh. The fact that she's been so single-minded in her career that she's forgotten to have a life has completely passed her by - until disaster strikes.

Out of options, she heads to the remote island of Auchenmor to help out her aunt who is in desperate need of an extra pair of scissors at her salon.

A native to the island, Finn is thirty-five and reality has just hit him hard. His best friends are about to have a baby and everything is changing. When into his life walks Isla ... 

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Despite having both of Rachel Lucas' previous books that were also set on Auchenmor, Sealed with a Kiss and Sealed with a Christmas Kiss, on my Kindle Wildflower Bay is the first of her books that I've read as Emma reviewed last year's book Coming Up Roses.   

As soon as I started reading the opening chapters I knew I was in for a gem of a read as it had me grimacing and laughing in equal measure as Isla's dream job as head stylist in a top Edinburgh salon came crashing down around her, but it was the drunken exploits that followed that had me in stitches as I'm sure we've all done something similar and regretted it later... So what does she do now that she's burnt her bridges?  Well luckily for her she's offered the opportunity to look after her aunt's salon for 8 weeks on the island of Auchenmor, somewhere she hasn't been back to since she was a child, which will give her a chance to think about what she'd like to do with the rest of her life.  But as an outsider will she be welcomed with open arms and how will she cope with living on a remote island miles away from home? 

It was great to see Isla grow throughout the book as at first I didn't really warm to the career focused version of her, although there's nothing wrong with wanting to be the best at what you do, I just felt that her job came before everything else so she seemed to have no life outside of work.  Whereas once she got to Auchenmor she had plenty of time to herself to think about what she'd like to do next as well as fit into island life.  I particularly loved the way she helped mentor the salon apprentices Shannon and Jinny which in turn turned things around in the salon for the better.  But it was the unlikely friendship between her and elderly customer Ruth that seemed to bring out the best in Isla as they genuinely seemed to enjoy each others company despite the gap in ages and it didn't hurt that Ruth was trying to do a little matchmaking of her own for Isla. 

I loved the setting of Auchenmor and Rachael Lucas' stunning descriptions of the island made me wish it was a real place as it sounded like my dream location to escape from the real world... although I think in reality I'd probably be like Isla who initially was counting down the days until she could leave.        

Having finished reading Wildflower Bay I don't think it hurt me not having read the Sealed with the Kiss books as this is a completely separate story in its own merit, but I'm definitely looking forward to going back and reading them so that I can get to know the characters back story who did crop up in this one and of course revisiting the idyllic sounding Auchenmor. 

And now for the giveaway, I was recently sent a paperback copy of Wildflower Bay by Rachael's publicist but as I'd already bought the three eBook installments of this series I have decided to run a giveaway for the extra copy.  Giveaway is open to existing followers, enter via the Rafflecopter form below.  Winner will be selected at random next weekend and contacted for postal address to enable me to post the book to you. 
 a Rafflecopter giveaway