Tempted in the Tropics

If you are looking for a sweet, nicely developed escape from it all, this is the book for you.

*I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for this honest review*

This is the second in the "Suddenly Smitten" series. The first book was the lovely “Practice Proposal,” which was Liza and Cole’s twisting and turning love story. Paige is Liza’s feisty best friend who is dealing with the oft-familiar happiness with her friend finally finding love, while wondering when her turn will come. By the way, Practice Proposal is really lovely, I highly recommend reading it if you haven't already. For those of you that have read PP, there are some great parts with Cole and Liza and Liza's mom that just made me smile.

I was excited to read Paige's story after Practice Proposal. She is a funny, quirky heroine that left a successful pastry chef gig in DC to help her dad after her mother died. She is uprooted to the small town where she grew up that is mostly retired folks so being single seems to be a permanent condition. She meets the cute temporary doctor, Lane Anderson, in town for only a month and sparks fly.

Lane is sweet and he and Paige go from hate to lust to love in a cute progression that was very endearing. The scenes in St. Lucia are more than worth the price of admission and had me wishing I could go there for every vacation in the future. Ms. March has two clear strengths: humor and visual imagery, and she really brings them to bear here. Some scenes with Paige are laugh out loud funny. I wish I could describe them here but I won’t spoil your fun. You will know them when you see them!

There is some conflict between them two of them based on an arrangement she and his doctor uncle (whom he is filling in for) where she made healthy recipes that he can't participate in that causes a rift between. This conflict was a bit weak and forced for me (hence the 4 star rating) and it brought out a bit of the shrew in Paige, but Ms. March didn’t push it too hard. This issue was not overdone and was really the only weak point of the book. They resolved it nicely and it proved to help the plot develop, so I was fine with it overall.

Overall, this is a nice installment in a delightful series. Its like Paige's dessert treats - yummy, with just enough nutritious heart to make it stick with you and make you wish for another tasty morsel. The cast of characters is expanded in this book and set up for some great future books. Paige and Lane delivered what a good Entangled Bliss is supposed to - honest people, cute issues and sweet romance.