Sail Away With Me by Susan Fox
Blue Moon Harbor #3

Friendship – that is what shy Iris Yakimura offers famous musician Julian Blake when they meet and spend time at an abandoned hippie commune. She knows they are too disparate to be more than friends and he is unwilling or unable to be more than a friend or lover. So, they embark on a friendship that will change both of their lives.

Julian is home to help care for his injured father. Home to him is a place that he has avoided since his teens because it has more bad memories than good ones. Panic attacks still threaten when he thinks about what happened to him long ago. His music reflects emotions that speak to many who hear them.

Iris is shy and on her own bath to spiritual enlightenment. She is an interesting if rather solitary person who sells books in the family bookstore. When she meets Julian she feels his emotional turmoil and does what she can to bring him some peace.

This is a story of abuse that speaks of the trauma abuse has on the abused and as such it was not always easy to read. The feelings were raw and real. The decision to expose those emotions publicly could not have been easy just as it was not easy for shy Iris to stand by Julian when he did so.

Even knowing that this would have a happily ever after ending – eventually – it wasn’t easy watching Iris and Julian deal with the “how” of doing so. I think that Iris’s aunt may be up next for a story and I do hope she will get her happily ever after, too. This book speaks of things I have heard about but also about an issue I had not heard of before. I knew Japanese internment happened in the USA but did not know that it happened in Canada, too. Anyway, this book left me happy and also wanting to seek my own personal enlightenment, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington-Zebra for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest offering in this series. Iris and Julian projected such range of depth and emotions. They were really good for each other. In other words "soul mates". Both of them were a little broken; Julian more then Iris. Yet, when they were together they made beautiful music together. Example is when Julian and Iris shared their first kiss. Julian says "I think we should leave it there, a perfect first verse". In that moment, I felt the heartache and love at the same time. It was hotter then a sex scene. Which, they did not hook up until more then half way through the story. Iris and Julian were more about forming a true connection.

What happened to Julian in his past is relevant to the present. It shows that abusers can come in any shape or form and not just to women. The physical abuse may stop but the emotional one lingers. Julian was very thankful that he had Iris by his side. The other characters in this story helped add to it. They were not just second string. Ms. Fox writes a beautiful story filled with emotional characters that will draw you in and make you want to stay in Sail Away With Me. ( )