Rainy Day Friends: A Novel
(Wildstone)
By Jill Shalvis
Following the USA Today bestseller, Lost
and Found Sisters, comes Rainy Day Friends, Jill Shalvis’
moving story of heart, loss, betrayal, and friendship.
Six months after Lanie Jacobs’
husband’s death, it’s hard to imagine anything could deepen her sense of pain
and loss. But then Lanie discovers she isn’t the only one grieving his sudden
passing. A serial adulterer, he left behind several other women who, like
Lanie, each believe she was his legally wedded wife. Rocked by the
infidelity, Lanie is left to grapple with searing questions. How could she be
so wrong about a man she thought she knew better than anyone? Will she ever be
able to trust another person? Can she even trust herself?
Desperate to make a fresh start, Lanie
impulsively takes a job at the family-run Capriotti Winery. At first, she feels
like an outsider among the boisterous Capriottis. With no real family of her
own, she’s bewildered by how quickly they all take her under their wing and
make her feel like she belongs. Especially Mark Capriotti, a gruffly handsome Air
Force veteran turned deputy sheriff who manages to wind his way into Lanie’s
cold, broken heart—along with the rest of the clan. Everything is finally going
well for her, but the arrival of River Green changes all that. The fresh-faced
twenty-one-year old seems as sweet as they come…until her dark secrets come to
light—secrets that could destroy the new life Lanie’s only just begun to build.
Rainy Day Friends is a heartfelt and funny
novel that warmed my heart with its story of friendship, love, and family. The story flowed so naturally, never feeling
rushed or slow - just perfectly paced. Right
from the very first page, I was instantly captivated and my interest never
dulled.
I
simply loved the Capriotti family, but the characters that stole the show were Mark’s
absolutely darling twin daughters, Samantha and Sierra. They were just to stinking cute!
Rainy Day Friends is the second book
in the Wildstone series and it can be
read as a stand-alone without being completely clueless. This
was my first experience with reading Ms. Shalvis’ books, but I loved this one
so much, I am going to read the first book in this amazing series very soon.
Although
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review, in
the interest of time, I purchased the audio version so that I could ‘read’ in a
timely manner. Karen White narrates this
book, and she did an amazing job with all the characters – each one sounding
unique. Her voice really brought the story
to life.
Rainy Day Friends is the perfect lazy
day read, and is definitely one you need to add to your reading list. Grab your wine, some cupcakes, have some
tissues ready, and be prepared to spend all day in Wildstone!
5 stars
Chapter 1
Anxiety Girl, able to jump to the worst conclusion in a single bound!
Most
of the time Karma was a bitch, but every once in awhile she could be
surprisingly nice, even kind. Lanie Jacobs, way past overdue for both of those
things, told herself this was her time. Seize the day and all that, and drawing
a deep breath, she exited the highway at Wildstone.
The
old wild-west California town was nestled in the rolling hills between the
Pacific Coast and wine/ranching country. She’d actually grown up not too far
from here, though it felt like a lifetime ago. The road was narrow and curvy,
and since it’d rained earlier, she added tricky and slick to her growing list
of issues. She was already white-knuckling a sharp turn when a kamikaze
squirrel darted into her lane, causing her to nearly swerve into oncoming
traffic before remembering the rules of country driving.
Never leave your lane; not for weather,
animals, or even God himself.
Luckily
the squirrel reversed direction, but before she could relax a trio of deer
bounded across the road. “Run, Bambi,” she cried, hitting her brakes, and by
the skin of their collective teeth, they all missed each other.
Sweating,
nerves sizzling like live wires, she finally turned onto Capriotti Lane and
parked as she’d been instructed.
It
took a moment for her pulse to come down from stroke level. She’d been taught
anti-anxiety techniques, but she’d never quite figured out how to make any of
them work while in the actual throes of an anxiety attack.
It’s all good she told herself but
because she wasn’t buying what she was selling, she had to force herself out of
the car like she was a five year old starting kindergarten instead of being
thirty and simply facing a brand new job. Given all she’d been through, this
should be easy, even fun. But sometimes adulthood felt like the vet’s office
and she was the dog excited for the car ride -- only to find out the real
destination.
Shaking
her head, she strode across the parking lot. It was April, which meant the
rolling hills to the east were green and lush and the Pacific Ocean to the west
looked like a surfer’s dream, all of it so gorgeous it could’ve been a
postcard. A beautiful smoke screen over her not-so-beautiful past. The air was
scented like a really expensive sea-and-earth candle, though all Lanie could smell was her forgotten hopes
and dreams. With wood chips crunching under her shoes, she headed through the
entrance beneath which was a huge wooden sign that read:
Capriotti Winery, from our fields to your
table…
Her
heart sped up. Nerves, of course, the bane of her existence. But after a very
crappy few years, she was changing her path. For once in her godforsaken life,
something was going to work out for her. This
was going to work out for her.
She
was grimly determined.
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2LJf2az
IndieBound: https://bit.ly/2xoymGO
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