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Release date: August 1, 2017

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Genre: Women's Fiction

Blurb:

Set on the glamorous Italian island, Emerald Coast is a touching and humorous story about marriage and the difficulty of finding love and happiness at the same time.

Lily Bristol arrives at a luxurious resort in Sardinia for the grand opening of her newest home furnishing store on the Emerald Coast. She's a successful business woman with an international chain of stores from San Francisco to Milan. Thirty-two and newly divorced, she's ready to handle things on her own. At least until her private butler, Enzo, escorts her to a beautiful suite where she notices a suspiciously familiar pair of men's slippers and shaving kit.

Lily is horrified. Her ex-husband Oliver moved out of their restored Connecticut farmhouse six months ago, but they booked this trip when they were trying to save their marriage and never cancelled the reservation. Oliver, a food critic for the New York Times, is here covering Sardinia's hottest new restaurant. The only other available room is the adjoining suite; and worse, Oliver isn't alone. He's brought a twenty-something named Angela with him.

Lily is determined to make do and enlists Enzo to find her a suitable man. But it's not as easy to find new love as they both expected. When Lily and Oliver find themselves alone on a very important night, they turn to each other. Sparks begin to fly, but can they be together without breaking each other's hearts?

Review:

If you're looking for the perfect book to completely escape into, Emerald Coast is it! While I was reading it I felt like I was indulging myself, it had a decadent feel to it as most of the people visiting this exotic locale are glamorous. Though it wasn't quite as scintillating, I still felt a similar vibe to Nigel May and Jackie Collins, it had that same breezy style and stunning setting that their books both have.

The premise for this put a fresh spin on a standard romance; Lily and Oliver are already divorced so there is no brand new love story here. Instead, they both reflect on their relationship throughout the book so you learn about their past that way, which was fun. Both were pretty complex characters with their own quirks and habits that made them endearing. I connected more to Lily than to Oliver, she was a lovable scatterbrain while he was a bit annoying at times.

My favorite part of this was the gorgeous setting, Hughes did a fabulous job of bringing the Emerald Coast to life. The writing was rich and the descriptions were vivid and so easy to conjure up. Add in a little humor and a bit of raciness, what more could you want for a fun, summer beach read?!

Overall rating: 4/5