The Perfect Hope (2013) (Piatkus)Nora Roberts
Grade: B+
Genre: contemporary romance
Sex scenes: mild
Source: library
Inn Boonsboro: (1) The Next Always, (2) The Last Boyfriend, (3) The Perfect Hope
Hope Beaumont is the innkeeper of
the new Inn at Boonsboro, having
escaped the city-life that she had believed was perfect. Manager at a big
city-hotel chain and in what she believed was a long-term, committed
relationship with the son and heir of the company, Hope’s life crumbled when
she discovered that Jonathan was actually engaged to someone else all along,
and that the whole family had been in on the secret. Hope relocates to
Boonsboro on the advice of Avery Montgomery, a friend from college, and falls
right into small-town life.
The Montgomery brothers are renowned
for their first-class construction work and the new inn is their pride and joy.
The oldest building in town, it became derelict before Justine Montgomery,
matriarch of the clan, hatched plans with her three sons to restore the inn to
its former glory. Business is booming and two of Justine’s sons have already
found love. Last is Ryder Montgomery, proud bachelor, who has been resistant to
Hope all along. Ryder doesn’t like the idea of an outsider running the family
business, but he can’t deny that she’s fantastic at her job. Hope and Ryder
also can’t deny the electric sparks that fly between them …
The Perfect Hope was always going to be my favourite book of the Inn Boonsboro series; any book where the
hero and heroine initially hate each other is an automatic win in my book, and The Perfect Hope was no exception. Ryder
has been forced to accept Hope on a number of different levels all throughout
the series, from her efficiency, suitableness for the role and finally his
attraction to her. It’s absolutely wonderful.
Ryder’s your classic romance
hero: happy in life with his job and dog, and convinced that he’s going to
remain a bachelor forever. He has no plans to fall in love, get married and
have children, and certainly not with the perfect Hope Beaumont. He’s avoided
her like the plague ever since she arrived in Boonsboro and almost goes out of
his way to be curt and abrasive so that she’ll stay away from him too. When it
comes down to it, she gets into his head and he can’t get rid of her – and doesn’t
want to either. Really, what more could you want in a romance hero? Ryder and
Hope are complete opposites but complement each other perfectly. Of the three
heroines, I identified most with Hope and to be honest, I did expect it to be
that way. She’s methodical in her approach to her work, a perfectionist in all
things and after her bad experiences with love, she’s determined to put any
thoughts of love on the back burner.
This was a pretty good end to the
series. Loose ends are tied up and the Inn is like another character in itself.
You get the benefit of seeing previous protagonists live out their happy ever
after without their addition being forced and the kids are the cutest. A great
story from NR, as always.
Image courtesy of Fantastic Fiction.
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