Review: Enjoy! Due South
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 10, 2014
I was given a copy of the book to review. Enjoy!Due South.As a southern gal, this phrase is quite common. Due south doesn't have a specific direction in mind, it's anywhere south of where you are now. And of course, anything that is due south is better. I mean, come on, due south of Tennessee is New Orleans and Gulf Shores and Panama City and the Florida Keys.So when I was asked to review the series, Due South, by Tracey Alvarez, those thoughts naturally popped into my mind. Boy was I wrong. I mean I was way off course.Due South, the series, is set on Stewart Island, New Zeland. Wow, thousands of miles from where I am. And, Due South is also the name of the pub owned and run by Ryan Westlake, one of our main characters in book 1.After the initial shock, I was pleasantly surprised. I love to travel. And more often than not, I get to visit some of the world's most beautiful and interesting places through books.Again, Due South, is a series set on Stewart Island, and is the name of the pub on said island. But the connotation is so much more. It is a place that feels like the end of the earth, a quiet, peaceful place where one can live and work and fall in love, or lurv as the Harland sisters insist.Due South Book 1, In Too Deep, is Piper Harland and Ryan Westlake's story. Piper Harland is forced to return to Stewart Island after a nine year absence to help her older brother Ben, who's about to lose his business, a diving and fishing charter for tourists, and his home due to an accident that broke his ankle, and the leaving of two of his employees. This is so cool. I know it's not new, but it makes for great conflict, and I do love conflict in my romances.Piper returning to Stewart Island means she has to face her demons. She must face her guilt of the death of her father. He drowned while free-diving, and Piper couldn't save him. Piper must also face the man she once loved, Ryan Westlake, aka West. Boy, did West make a gigantic mistake nine years ago.This story not only has the conflict I love, but I believe Tracey captured the essence of the people. She lives in Wellington New Zealand, so that's not hard. Yet, their lives are so richly portrayed. I was there, walking down the wet, rainy road getting soaked with Piper as she made her way to West's home. Oh, did I forget to say, the only place for Piper to stay is at West's home?Anyway. And, I'm sure those of us who are middle children can relate to Piper. Or her being the oldest daughter who would rather hang out with her older brother and his friends instead of playing with dolls. I'm sure, and I know for a fact as a southerner, many of us have mothers like Glenna Harland who rule the roost with a glove as soft as velvet and as strong as iron.Piper isn't the only one facing her demons. West has to face the mother who abandoned him and his father, which definitely contributes to his reasons for pushing Piper away, when Ryan was fifteen. Ben and Shaye, Pipers siblings feel guilty over what they perceive as their negligence contributing to their father's death. And Glenna, their mother drops her bomb of guilt as well.