The Love, California Box Set (Books 1-3)

Flawless: On the most auspicious night of her life, Verena receives bad news that results in the downward spiral of her family's beauty business and her relationship with her fiancé. Trusting Derrick, she listens to his advice, not realising that he is playing a separate game that serves his own ends. Trying to make sense of it all, Verena takes a breather and meets Lance, who immediately takes her under his protective wing and meets her most pressing needs. As Verena desperately seeks solutions to the ever increasing problems instigated by Derrick, she keeps bumping into Lance with his cheerful grin, ready wit and scrumptious meals. However, facing betrayal at every turn, she questions whether she can trust him when the one person who should have had her back has obliterated her trust. The romance between Verena and Lance is sweet, however most of the story revolved around the financial matters of the business and I personally found it fairly long winded, although it was the basis of the story. Beauty Mark: A legal suspenseful romance, Scarlett discovers that sexism is alive and well in the corporate world. When she forcibly declines her boss' advances, it opens a Pandora ’s Box and ultimately a mystery to be solved. Fortunately, childhood friend Johnny joins her on a trip to Spain and comes to her rescue when an attempt is made on her life. I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of Scarlett and Johnny's trip through Spain and it took me back to my own travels in the region. So many good memories were stirred. However, the idyll comes to an end and Scarlett has to face the music and the fallout from the events set in motion by her boss. Fortunately Scarlett has a keen lawyer’s mind and when she starts to link events together, they make for a disturbing picture. Beauty Mark is well written and while there is passion there are no long drawn out bedroom scenes, but instead the book focuses on the romance that ignites between childhood friends Scarlett and Johnny. Runway: Against her mother’s wishes, Fianna leaves Ireland to launch a career as a fashion designer in the USA. Encouraged by her best friends she holds her debut runway show with resounding success. There she meets Niall and not knowing anything about him, she takes a stroll on the beach with him. They get caught in a tidal wave that almost takes their lives and the connection between them is made, although it appears to fizzle out before the relationship can go anywhere. With her sister getting married in Ireland, Fianna returns home to face an onslaught of family and peer pressure to marry a local man, and she has her work cut out for her resisting their bombardment of pressure. Added to that, when her fashion show in Ireland is sabotaged, resulting in injury to the models, Fianna has to rethink her future and overcome the Fitzgerald Flop as the press has labelled her. However, Fianna is no shrinking violet and neither is she a quitter. With the help of Niall and her friends she has a breakthrough and the story comes to a happy conclusion at the Bow-Tie Restaurant that has featured so prominently in this series. I received a copy of this book as a gift and this is my honest and voluntary review.

I'm a huge fan of Jan Moran, her books are always a pleasure to read. This set is no different. Even though most of us aren't lawyers or we don't own our own cosmetics company etc, somehow the characters in these books are relatable. You find yourself routing for them and feeling as though you're part of their group of friends. A nice way to escape for a few hours (per book, this set kept me busy a few days). I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.