Brewbies

Townsend Harbor, Book 2

De: Kerrigan Byrne, Cynthia St. Aubin

Narrado por: Teddy Hamilton, Stella Hunter

Darby Dunwell is not a Bond Girl, though she's been blessed with the body of one. An east coast, ivy-league, trust fund kid, she flees a life of expectation, elocution, and executive board rooms to follow her one true love: Coffee. The deeply eccentric seaside tourist hamlet of Townsend Harbor throws its doors wide open for her sex-positive, bikini-themed coffee shop named Brewbies.

Compulsive rule-follower Sheriff Ethan Townsend is known for helping old ladies across the road, breaking up bar fights, and keeping the sleepy town safe from the flood of seasonal tourists. After having his heart publicly stomped on, he no longer bothers to ask the name of the woman he's going to forget in the morning. A policy he regrets when the woman who blew his mind turns out to be his nemesis. Not only is Darby's salacious coffee shop causing traffic incidents, its proprietress keeps making his life—among other things—as hard as possible.

Darby finds herself embroiled in a feud she never wanted with the cop who is as tight assed as his trousers suggest. But even as their animosity sizzles and the town begins to take sides, Ethan can't seem to keep his eyes off Darby's double D's.

Contains mature themes.

©2023 Cynthia St. Aubin and Kerrigan Byrne (P)2024 Tantor

small town feels

I read nevermore bookstore and loved it. Then waited patiently for this book. This really gives me Archer's voice (nevermore bookstore) and Travis (Brewbies) by mia Sheridan vibes. If you read both you'd get what I mean. No they are not identical, or even the same plot. But the small town. The recluse. and in brewbies, the redeemable sheriff. and I say this with high praise and admiration. I loved Nevermore bookstore and Brewbies.

In Brewbies we get to know Darby, the pink haired, freebird, hold nothing back, soft hearted heroine. and Ethan, the sheriff who always tucks his shirt, always polite, and overly helpful Hero. The pair come together for 1 night, where Ethan is not so reserved, then meet again in Ethan's hometown when he serves Darby with a petition to shut down her business. Darby brings an entire circus to town in protest. and the 2 continue to fight and fu... well, you get the picture. Enemies to Lovers. Opposite attract. Romcom. All the small town feels.

I really hope to get more from these authors. I looked for other books from them but only found historical, which I don't read. But for the first time ever was tempted to try, just to get more of author's work. Maybe someday.

5+stars. HEA.

Not my favorite in the series, but okay...

I can't put my finger on why, but the romance plotline just felt forced in this installment of the series. Still, I enjoyed the unfolding of the story around this community and the extended cast of characters. Looking forward to reading more.

Female narrator too inconsistent

I’m finding it hard to listen when the female lead narrates. When narrating, she is using a typical speaking voice, but when she is speaking for the book leads, she whispers or speaks very quietly. I turn up the volume to hear what they are saying & then it’s super loud when she narrates. Very frustrating. I’m constantly turning the volume up & down.

Odd story.

Not sure what it is about this series, but the stories are just odd to me. Nevermore Bookstore, however, at least had some chemistry and build up that made it feel like there was payoff in the end.

With Brewbies, I just never really bought what was being sold: the relationship/attraction/emotional development between Darbie and Ethan didn’t feel genuine, the small town stakes seemed too high for what was really at the heart of the situation, and overall while there certainly was a declaration of love… I never really understood how the characters got there. The sex scenes were hot, but that is insignificant to me if the emotional stakes don’t rise to the occasion, too.

Another one bites the dust.

I absolutely love Byrne’s other books, and I recognized her work in this one, but then it devolved into the same old petulant feminine whining and vocab is substituted by repetitive profanity. If you’ve survived—I mean, read one, you’ve read them all. Throw in all the diversity hot topics and wrap it up in some superficial rambling, and you’ve got another one identical to all the other tripe that’s been mass produced since about 2019. This is what the death of enjoyable fiction looks like. Narration was pretty good, but there just wasn’t much enjoyable content for me.