BOOK SUMMARY
Tobias “Slim” Jackson has the perfect life as a pilot on Gansett Island in the summer and in Florida in the winter. He’s happiest when he’s in the air, or at least that was the case before last summer when he met Erin Barton, Gansett Island’s newest lighthouse keeper. Now he can’t seem to find his usual enthusiasm for flying, winter in the sunny South or anything that doesn’t include her.
Erin has been stuck on pause since she lost her twin brother. She’ll tell you herself that her life has been a hot mess since Toby died. After dropping out of law school, she’s flitted from one pointless job to another, existing rather than truly living. Then she comes to Gansett Island to take over as the new lighthouse keeper and meets Slim, who happens to share her beloved brother’s first name. That small coincidence is enough to convince Erin that she needs to spend more time with the dashing pilot—except for the fact that he’s spending the winter more than a thousand miles from her.
Now Slim’s come home to Gansett for the holidays and to hopefully pick up where he left off with Erin. He’s got twelve days before he’s due back in Florida to finish out the remainder of his winter obligations. A lot can happen in twelve days, but will it be enough to convince Erin that it’s time to start truly living again? Read Slim and Erin’s story and catch up with the rest of the Gansett Island cast in Desire After Dark!
TBR/BUY LINKS
CAT'S REVIEW
"Desire After Dark" by Marie Force. Once again, Ms. Force brings the reader to Gansett Island where we revisit with old friends and meet new ones. It was wonderful to catch up with previous characters and getting to know Erin and Slim was a beautiful experience. Erin has suffered since the loss of her twin brother. She is just existing. After meeting Slim, there's a sliver of hope that life can shine bright again. Slim is exactly what the doctor ordered for Erin. He's patient with her yet pushes her to live outside of the bubble she exists in. I loved how he took his time to get to know her and, even when they were apart, he stayed in touch all the time. This book is filled with love and romance, yes, but it's not necessarily an easy road. My heart hurt for Erin - I cried often throughout the book, although it wasn't always sad tears. There are plenty of happy and uplifting times too. Ms. Force has, once again, written a tale that swept me up and had me turning each page, waiting and hoping for that HEA to come. Just a note, this story does revisit many of the characters from previous books. While I have not read the entire series, I enjoyed catching up with those that I had already met. Although not completely necessary to enjoy this story, I would recommend reading at least some of the previous books so you will know who this wonderful group of people that live on Gansett Island are.
(received copy from author for honest review)
★★★★★
AUTHOR INFO/FOLLOW LINKS
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On 50 Books and 50 Years: Things I Know for Sure
By: Marie Force
This week marks a major milestone in my publishing career. Desire After Dark is my 50th
book, and it releases 17 days before my 50th birthday. To those who
would ask, I didn’t plan that. Like many things in this life, it just sort of
worked out that way. I wish I could say I’d written a book a year, but in fact
most of them have been written in the last five frantic years that have gone by
like a flash.
I thought this 50-50 combination platter was a good time to
reflect on what I’ve learned writing 50 books and living for a half century.
(God, it sounds DREADFUL when I put it that way!) So in no particular order,
here’s what I know for sure halfway through my life. Note to my kids: I intend
to stick around for the entire second 50, so batten down the hatches.
1.
I’m acutely and painfully aware that too many of
my high school classmates didn’t live to be 50, so I’m thankful for every day
I’ve spent on the right side of the ground. I’m not planning on indulging in a
middle-age funk or crisis or anything like that because being 50 certainly
beats the alternative.
2.
I’ve accepted that my arms are never going to
look like Michelle Obama’s guns. I’m learning to live with that and letting
them out to see the world more often than I used to, taking comfort in the fact
that they are still smaller than my thighs. I’ve also learned that eating salt
and vinegar potato chips makes me happy, so I will continue to eat them in my
second 50 years. This is nonnegotiable as is my relentless war against all
forms of chin hair.
3.
My mom had a magnet on her fridge declaring that
FIFTY IS PRIME TIME. I believe that. This time next year, my youngest will
graduate from high school and next fall he will head off to college, leaving
his parents with now two empty
bedrooms and hearts full of memories. In my fifties, I’ll be able to do just
about anything I want any time I want. If that’s not PRIME TIME, I don’t know
what is.
4.
That said, being a mother has been the greatest
thrill ride of my life. There is, simply, nothing better in my world than my
two wonderful kids, who are both better people than I could ever hope to be. No
matter what they do or don’t do or achieve, all I care about is that they are
healthy and happy and productive. The rest is up to them, and I can’t wait to
see what they get done while I sit in my tub and eat bon bons, knowing I was
never a perfect mother, but I always tried to be a fun mom and I did my very
best for them always.
5.
Family is everything. Parents, siblings,
cousins, close family, extended family—if you got lucky in the family
department like I did, then you know what I mean. They know you better than
anyone and don’t let you get away with anything, which is actually a good
thing—until they tell people you look like Nick Nolte’s mug shot in the morning
with photographic evidence to prove their point. I’m grateful for the brother
who has traveled all but one year of this journey with me as well as our posse
of cousins who made us feel like we had a huge family when it was only the two
of us.
6.
I honestly believe the outcome of your entire
life can be determined by who you are born to. I was born to two of the best,
and they are as much responsible for the life I have today as I am.
7.
Friends who stick with you through bad times—and good—are worth holding on to.
Everyone is there for the bad times. The ones who show up during the especially
good times, who share in your joy selflessly and without reservation, are the
people you want on your journey with you. I have been enormously blessed in the friend department.
8.
I also got lucky in the husband department. We
don’t always see eye to eye (what fun would that be?), but I always know I can
count on him and so do our kids. He gives me Valentine’s Day cards that say
things like “I’m still not sick of you,” which is the perfect sort of card for the
nonromantic romance author. And his family is rather awesome, too.
9.
I’m grateful every day for the series of fortunate
events that led to my career as an author. If you had told me at 40 that THIS
would be 50, I probably would’ve laughed myself senseless at your delusions of
grandeur on my behalf. However… Here I am with 50 titles to my name, 5 million
books sold, 22 times on the New York Times list, my closest friends and family
members working with me, a new house that Mac McCarthy bought for my family and
a life that five years after it happened still feels like a dream in progress. For
that I thank the readers who’ve taken my books to heart and me along with them.
You have made all of this happen, and I never lose sight of that fact. I’ve
also learned that never allowing myself to be entirely satisfied with where I
am at the moment can lead to new challenges that broaden and expand my sense of
the possible.
10. I
have learned that I can do just about everything right, be the best possible
friend/family member/colleague/author (fill in your own blank) I know how to be,
and it won’t be enough for some people. What I know at 50 is that I’ll never
make everyone happy. I’ve learned to be okay with that and to know FOR SURE
that if I can make myself and those who matter most to me a little happy every
day, then I’m doing something right. And that is more than enough for me.
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