Review: Very sweet beginning to a series of romances set in a coastal town in Australia
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 4, 2014
This is the story of Sylvia Greene, family practitioner in Tarrin's Bay. She doesn't believe in wishing but finds herself making a wish at the annual Wishing Festival in the local Miracle Park. The wish involves the daughter she gave up for adoption 18 years ago but she never expected it to come true.The arrival in town of Grace Forrester, her daughter, triggers a whole lot of happenings. It also coincides with the arrival of Mark Bastian, a Naturopath and Acupuncturist to join the clinic where Sylvia works.This story is really about Sylvia, with a fair scooping of Grace who is going through a transitional time in her life after the death of her adoptive mother. Mark too is going through a difficult time in his life and we get to see some of this as well. He is totally adorable, almost too perfect and *cough* celibate at present *does happy dance*.The set-up is a lot about the town and we get to see quite a few locals. At times I would have liked them to get off stage and bring Mark back on. *drools* However, this is the first of the series which I'm presuming are all small town romances set in the Bay so I'm sure they will provide a background for further books and may have stories of their own. At times I did feel the author used Mark's profession as a promotional launching pad for natural/complementary therapy. A bit preachy at times, but it did fit the story as Sylvia, like many doctors, did regard them with suspicion.Overall this is a very sweet story with a likeable cast of characters. It did get me wiping my eyes at one point near the end so I was well engaged. The ending was satisfying and I look forward to hopefully seeing Sylvia and Mark as background characters in further books.