A Gift for All Seasons (Harlequin Special Edition, #2223) (Summer Sisters, #2)

by Karen Templeton

Recently widowed April Ross isn't looking for a relationship, especially since her about-to-open inn will take up much of her time and energy.

But when she hires Iraq war vet Patrick Shaughnessy as the inn's landscaper, she realises two things: first, his scars go much deeper than those she can see and second, she can't rest until she's brought him comfort...

• ISBN10: 0373657056
• ISBN13: 9780373657056
• Publish Date: 23 October 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: Harlequin Special Edition
• Edition: Original ed.
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[Rowena]

I haven’t read too many books by Karen Templeton and I’m not quite sure why. The few that I have read, I’ve enjoyed a lot so I really need to get over myself and read more of her stuff.
With the holidays just around the corner, I picked this story up and thought that it would get me into the holiday spirit and I think it has.

This book follows April Ross and Patrick Shaughnessy. April came into a lot of money is a restoring her grandmother’s big ol’ house and turning it into a B&B. She’s hired Patrick to help with the landscaping and right from the start, there’s an attraction simmering under the surface for the both of them. Now, Patrick is scarred from the war and when April first sees him, she sees the side of him that hides the scars. When she sees the scars, she’s taken aback by them and Patrick sees her reaction to them and swears off of her before they even go there. But the more time he spends with her, the more he wants to put himself out there again but his insecurities about his new lot in life come to the surface time and time again.

I thought that April was really patient with Patrick. She spent a lot of time trying to get him to be comfortable with the fact that she was attracted to him, scars and all. Throw in a little girl who is still hurting from the popping in and out of her life that her mother is doing, things are more than little complicated….but April knows what she wants and she spends the whole of this book trying to make Patrick see that he wants it too.

It would have been so easy for me to become highly annoyed with Patrick and his attitude toward dating, toward April and toward well, everything in his life but Templeton did a great job of making me understand where he’s coming from and why he’s acting the way that he’s acting. When he finally allows himself to love and be loved by April, I grinned like a crazy person.

This was an enjoyably sweet romance that I’m glad that I read. I definitely recommend.