"All Summer Long" by Melody Carlson

All Summer Long (June 7, 2016) by Melody Carlson.*

While she isn’t sick of eating pasta, Tia D’Amico is sick of making it. Armed with a culinary arts school degree, she feels stuck working at her family’s Italian restaurant in a small town in northern Washington. When her Aunt Julie offers her employment as the chef for her upscale floating restaurant on an older, yet-to-be-restored luxury yacht, Tia jumps at the chance to return  to San Francisco. A wrench is thrown into the mix when Julie’s husband, Roland, has a heart attack. With Julie staying by Roland’s side, Julie is not able to help directly on the yacht. Fortunately, Julie’s yacht captain is Leonard “Leo” Parker. Tia is thrilled by the sight of him, as he was her first kiss ten years ago when they were at sailing camp. She is far less thrilled, though, to learn that he’s already set his eyes on someone else, a gorgeous lawyer and friend of his family named Natalie Morgan. Tia is miserable, though she tries to hide it by tamping down any more-than-friends feelings her heart tries to convince her of. Not everyone seems to think the Leo-Natalie match is the correct one – Aunt Julie and Leo’s own sister, Melinda, for instance – but still, how terrible is it to yearn for someone who’s already spoken for?

            While this story reads as a standalone, it is the second in Carlson’s Follow Your Heart series. As far as contemporary romantic fiction goes, it is charming. The characters are all likeable. Leo, as handsome as he is, is not perfect, though he seems close. And not only would Tia be five-star friend material based on her culinary skills alone, she’d also be the type of friend I’d want due to her down-to-earth attitude and no-nonsense thinking. On the one hand, Natalie would be too high-maintenance, but as a non-perfect person, star qualities (such as intelligence) and stunning appearance notwithstanding, she’d probably be a good friend. Befriending others hasn’t been easy for Natalie, and because of that, she is exactly the type of person I would’ve befriended. Be a friend to all, especially those that appear not to have many friends. (That is something my parents instilled in me from a young age, and it stuck.) The setting is detailed, the characters well-rounded, and the plot flows. This Christian fiction story is sweet, but my overall interest in the story was lacking somewhat.

* Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Revell Books. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions are expressly my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”