Can first love turn into the real deal? Anything can happen in a sizzling new Fool's Gold story from New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery.
Isabel Beebe thinks she's cursed in the romance department. Her teenage crush, Ford Hendrix, ignored all her letters. Her husband left her for another...man. So Isabel has come home to dust off her passion for fashion and run the family bridal shop until her parents are ready to sell it. Then she'll pursue her real dreams. At least, that's the plan, until sexy, charming Ford returns and leaves her feeling fourteen all over again.....
Seeing Isabel all grown-up hits bodyguard trainer Ford like a sucker punch. Back when heartbreak made him join the military, her sweet letters kept him sane. Now he can't take his eyes-or his lips-off her. The man who gave up on love has a reason to stay in Fool's Gold forever-if three little words can convince Isabel to do the same.
Review Companies
MR Review
Rating:
Reviewer: Sabine
For some reason I love reading books that have at their heart small towns and the fun and quirky characters that inhabit them as well as the annoying and yet loving family members that seem to drive the main characters just a little around the bend. In the Fool’s Gold series written by Susan Mallery, Fool’s Gold is such a town. I would suggest you start reading this series because I am sure you will fall in love with it and its inhabitants like I have.
Three Little Words by Susan Mallery is the next installment in the long running Fool’s Gold series and I was waiting for this because I wanted to see how Isabel and hometown hero Ford would end up getting together. I enjoyed reading this book about the relationship between Ford and Isabel which had developed rather one-sided because as a young girl she wrote letters to him while he was overseas and she also thought she was in love with him. Her sister Maeve had dumped him shortly before they were to get married and Ford had taken the rejection and gone and enlisted and not come back to Fool’s Gold until recently.
The story had its funny moments and yet there was something about Ford that I just didn’t connect with and I am not sure what that was. I really wanted to, believe me and I really tried, but unfortunately I failed. Ford was kind and considerate and everything you could wish for in a guy. He was good looking, sensitive and even better in bed. He had some issues connected with his life in the military, but he pretty much stayed a closed book, I suppose you could say, and that was the one failing in the story for me. I really didn’t get when he took off like he did and even when Leonard appears at the end at the cabin, it isn’t really Ford who has that a-ha moment on his own, he is prompted by Leonard. He just didn’t get it and I also didn’t get him not getting it! Perhaps what I didn’t get about Ford was his lack of emotion in this respect, the feelings and emotions and the breaking down of barriers other guys usually have that alerts them someone special getting in past their defenses. Ford didn’t have this at all.
I appreciated and liked Isabel who came back home to save up so she could pursue her dream of a business in New York and is helping to run the family bridal business that looks like it will be sold because neither she nor her sister are interested in running it. Isabel is the one who really should have been a quivering mess after all she has gone through with her ex-husband and coming back to Fool’s Gold but she has inner strength and she forges ahead. I loved her banter with Ford. She is funny and also a loyal friend.
I particularly enjoyed the side story of Consuelo and Ford’s brother Kent. I really loved seeing the side of Consuelo she kept hidden and her vulnerabilities and her insecurities. Kent was man enough to see who she was and understand her and the fact that she had secrets he might never be privy to them because of the nature of the work she did. It was even more positive that he saw more than just the beautiful body. He saw inside to the person she was.
I enjoyed Ford’s mum’s attempts to find a wife for her son. This was what drove Isabel and Ford together in the first place. The incident with Ford’s best friend, now the husband of his former fiancé was hilarious. He was only doing what the guy asked and nearly got arrested and attacked by a maddened and very protective pregnant wife, who also happens to be Isabel’s sister.
I enjoyed meeting the residents of Fool’s Gold again and I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Ford and Isabel, even if there were times when I really didn’t get Ford. I also loved revisiting with the ladies who all come together at times to talk over things and help each other. These views of the characters are what make these books so great to read because with their appearance, their stories sort of keep going as well.
An enjoyable read and now I can’t wait to see who will be next to fall in love with Fool’s Gold and in Fool’s Gold!
* Disclosure: Reviewers are compensated for book reviews.
Aug 6, 2013 by julie
