The Palisade

Lavender Shores

By: Rosalind Abel

Narrated by: Kirt Graves

Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Confident businessman Joel Rhodes sees the small California town of Lavender Shores as nothing more than a business opportunity and a final stepping stone to the position he's been working toward his entire life. It was supposed to be just one night in town to close the deal, and sleeping with one of the local men, no matter how gorgeous, meant nothing more than a few hours of fun.

Andrew Kelly is perfectly content with the life he has in his hometown. So much so that the only thing missing is someone to share it with. Going to bed with a tourist was never meant to be the answer to his dreams, just a beautiful distraction. He could get back to looking for Mr. Right the next day.

Both Andrew's and Joel's worlds are turned upside down when a few hours of pleasure get extended to a couple of days. Even that shouldn't have been a big deal. You can't fall in love in that amount of time. That isn't how it works. However, if destinies collide, a few short days may be all it takes to find your soul mate. Even so, when secrets and motivations get tangled, fate may do nothing more than leave two hearts in pieces.

©2017 Wings of Ink Publications, LLC (P)2017 Wings of Ink Publications, LLC

Awesome

Loved The Palisade. Kirt Graves did an amazing job narrating this book. I really enjoyed listening to this book and can't wait to listen to the rest of the Lavender Shores series.

3 good stars, upgraded to 4!

Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.


Heir to a coffee shop empire, Joel is in Lavender Shores to secure a property for their flagship store. Andrew was only supposed to be a bit of fun while in town. But then the overnight stay turns into a weekend, and Joel finds himself in far deeper with Andrew than he ever imagined could be; Joel knows when he leaves, and he HAS to leave, it won't only break Andrew's heart, Joel's will be shattered too.


First person, multi point of view is not my most favourite way for a book to be written but I quite liked it here. Didn't love it, but I liked it. It got me a little more into both man's mind.


While It's very clear that Joel is hiding something from Andrew, it's not immediately clear what that is. I liked being kept waiting.


I'm not one for declarations of love so early on, and it happens here. Put me off a little bit, to be honest.


BUT! major points for not shortened Andrew, not at all!


A really easy read, one of those you can fall into, and lose the world around you, and before you know it, you've finished the book and it did not seem like the 200 odd pages listed on Goodreads. A touch long for a usual hangover cure book, but it landed in my queue just at the right time to be classed as one. I've filed it as such.


I have book two to read shortly. I am looking forward to that because there are hints here to what happened to Gilbert, Andrew's best friend. And I want to know more. I'm thinking, from those hints, that book might have a little more bite.


3 GOOD solid stars.

Audio Review.
Kirt Graves narrates this book.

I tried to listen to another of his work and I did not like it. Not because of the narration, that was because of the other book. So I was a little wary going in, but I am so glad I gave him another chance!
I am finding, much to my surprise, I am loving listening to first person/multi point of view books! Strange because I don't usually like to READ books written like that. But I LOVED Graves' narration here!
His voices for Andrew and Joel were clearly different, and each chapter was told in the respective voice required. Graves reading voice is deep and even, and other voices are clearly defined, and I had no trouble following multi person conversations. He managed to get across all the emotions that I maybe missed reading. Because I found I enjoyed this book so much more by listening to it!
And because of that, I'm upgrading my original star rating for the book from 3 to 4 stars.
4 stars for the book,
4 stars for the narration
4 stars overall.


**same worded review will appear elsewhere**

The Palisade

The Palisade is Book 1 in Rosalind Abel's Lavender Shores. Rosalind Abel is actually Brandon Witt, but books by Rosalind will be different than Brandon's typical books of angst and drama. Just to be clear, that's not an insult, I love Brandon Witt's writing!

The Palisade takes place in small town Lavender Shores in California and sounds like a fantastic place to live! Joel is sent to town by his father to find the perfect location for the coffee shop they plan to open, just another store in their chain of stores. Joel is persuasive, a little used care salesman type personality, and always working for daddy's approval. On his first night in town, he notices the beautiful Andrew. After a hot night together, Joel plans to go about his business of conquering the town and getting what his father wants. Only, things aren't going as well as he planned and he's struggling to find away to get around the rules of the town. Plus, he has to spend his day being shown real estate with Andrew, who he wants more than any man he's ever met.

For his part, Andrew's family are founders of their small town. He loves Lavender Shores and doesn't want to live anywhere ele, which is why he remains single. Andrew longs for a family of his own but doesn't have any prospects in his small town. Andrew feels like Joel is the person he's meant to be with and falls in love quickly, like in a day. I absolutely adored Andrew, his family, and all the characters of Lavender Shores. Andrew's family, especially his dad, were absolutely hilarious, embarrassing and lovable. Honestly, I'd take a book just on his dad so I hope he shows up in the other books in the series!

The narrator of this story is Kirt Graves, who always does a great job with his narration. He has an easy to listen to voice, keeps a good pace, and has no weird pauses. He's able to bring the story to life and give characters individual voices. He really just let me fall into the story through his voice!

This story is an instalove story, but not necessarily an instaHEA one. The men will have to work for their HEA, especially when the truth of who Joel is and what he wants comes out. This is definitely a sweet love story, and one I'd recommend you check out. Especially the audio!


Overall: 4.5 Stars
Narration: 5 Stars
Story: 4.5 Stars

Good Story Great Narration

I liked this introduction to Lavender Shores series. The Joel and Andrew's romance was an entertaining insta love story and created a good setting for the series. Narrator did a great job and I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

AMAZING! great writing and fantastic audio!

love Rosalind Able and Kurt Graves on audio is fantastic! made the great boo come alive even more for me. looking forward to more in the future for sure!

Buy This Book!

I cannot believe I waited so long to start this series. This, to me, is the absolute perfect book. Hallmark swooning love with fire 🔥 hot sexy times. No cheating, no bs. Love , love, love everything about it! Narration on point. Highly, highly recommend ! 💕

Sweet story

The Palisade is very much a sickly sweet, instalove story. There is a little drama and angst but not too much. The characters were very realistic. Kirt Graves did a fantastic job with this narration.

Amazing!!

This book was great before the audio and with the narration by Kirt Graves it was amazing!! I love that the Lavender Shores people felt more real and I loved every minute of it! Kurt just bring these characters to life and it made me so happy. If you haven't read this book or if you have you really need to get the audio.

Awwweeee!

I am not going to give anything away but I loved this story. It did pull at your heart strings and made you "feel" what the characters felt. I love being drawn like that. The details and descriptions were awesome and the narration was excellent. Thank you.

Audio book is awesome!

i fell in love with Joel and Andrew! The author created multi faceted characters that you dream and cry with. Lavender Shores is now a real place in my heart and i want to go visit and celebrate with everyone!