Review: Starts out sort of slow, but ends with a really big bang!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 5, 2012
Both Daniel and Claire are in a rut as far as the whole dating scene goes. Daniel doesn't have time for dating, because he's too busy trying to run the family business, as well as his own. He's also trying his best to hold his family together, after his father has lost his eye sight and his mother starts to sink further and further into a deep depressed state.His brother who is grateful to Daniel for taking the time and effort to bring him back from the brink of death a little over a year ago, when his parents had abandoned him over his previous career choices. He is now happily married and is expecting his child. Carl wants nothing more than to see his older brother find his own soul mate and to be as happy as he is right now.. So unbeknownst to Daniel, Carl signs him up for a internet dating service. Daniel only learns about his brother's meddling ways right after arriving in London from a long trip. Carl sends him a text message saying that he has a date is waiting for him at a hotel dining room. Being the gentleman he is, Daniel goes to the hotel to meet the woman his brother had set him up with, although he arrives about 15 minutes late.Claire Harris is badgered into joining a internet dating sight, by her best friend. She reluctantly agrees to twelve dates or twelve months, whichever comes first. At least it would get her friend off her back, or so she hoped anyway. On her final date, she's convinced that all the princes must have already been taken and now only frogs are left in the dating pool. She is so relieved that it's nearly over...that's when she meets Daniel Marchant.When they first meet face to face that night, Daniel makes it very clear that he's not interested in dating anyone at all. His blunt confession sort of relieves Claire, since she isn't really looking for anyone either. But they do agree to have dinner together, and they end up hitting it off better than either of them ever expected too.After there night ends, Claire doesn't hear another word from Daniel for over a month. She figures he must not have like her as much as she'd liked him. But then one day he walks into the library where she works and offers her a job. She's hesitant about accepting her dream job, for one... it would involve her moving so far away, and in another country no less. And two... because she wasn't sure if she could handle being around Daniel all the time, when she was starting to have really deep feelings about him. Could she accept the job and still be able to hide the feelings she was having about him?Daniel is looking for someone to work in his developing conservation research company. That's when he discovers that Claire has the photographic and cataloguing skills he needs, so he offers her a dream job in Florida. But that's not the only reason he offered her the job. The real reason he offered her the job, was that since their date over a month ago, he hadn't been able to get her out of his mind. For now though, he'd have to keep that information to himself and pray that she'd accept the job. He'd have plenty of time to romance her, if he could get her to agree to take the job he'd offered her in Florida.To Claire... Dolphin Key seems like such a magical place to live and work, but soon she finds that there are too many secrets and too much heartache surrounding the Marchant family. On top of all that...she has been hiding a secret of her own and she doesn't know if she'll be able to survive that secret very much longer.YES...this story does start off pretty slow, but it also gives you a little bit of insight into the main characters heads, a look back into their family history, as well as why each of the characters feel the way they do now about the subject of the dating scene.I do promise you though, that if you do decide to read this book and really stick with the story as it slowly unfolds, you'll not regret it. I myself, almost gave up on the story, but I am soooo glad now that I didn't.Would I recommend this book? Yes.