This is another story about the Beck Sister series. These books can be read alone but you definitely miss out on the connections between the characters.

In book 1, Float Plan, Anna Beck turns the tragedy of losing her fiancé, Ben, into the adventure he had meticulously planned to Puerto Rico. Fortunately, she meets up with Keane Sullivan in a manner which seems clandestine. Ultimately, she hires him to help her maneuver the boat through the rough waters. Keane accepts the job as he was travelling to Puerto Rico for a job opportunity. During the trip, Anna and Keane learn more about each other including the challenges and pains from the past. The story explores love and loss, finding your place in life, and when to let go of the past. The boat trip provided healing as just like the sea, Anna encountered many unexpected situations in which she learned to be open and flexible allowing her to discover her authentic self.

In The Suite Spot, Rachel Beck, is a single mother still living with her mother since Anna has been living on a boat with Keane in the Caribbean. The father of her 4 year-old, Maisie, is not responsible or reliable parent. Rachel enjoys her night job in a concierge reception desk at a Miami Beach hotel, Aquamarine. After working there for 9 years, an inappropriate encounter with an influential patron, Mr. Blackwell, results in her termination. Wanting to start a new life, she packs up Maisie and moves to Kelley's Island in Ohio for an opportunity to work for a brewery. When she gets there she realizes that the owner, Mason Brown, is in need of her experience in hospitality than he originally disclosed. Her first impression was disappointment after moving so far for the job with her daughter. But, it soon turns to optimism when Mason confesses to having little experience with the hotel part of the Limestone Inn and Public House. Of course, life isn't all sunshine and roses. Maisie's father, Brian, decides he wants to be involved in his daughter's life and Mason deals with his own past issues. Ultimately, Rachel and Mason need to work together to make the hotel a success. Themes address family, starting over, resilience and compromise. ( )

As in The Float Plan, change is what happens when it’s more painful to stay than leave. When single mom Rachel is unfairly fired for rebuffing the inappropriate advances of a powerful guest, she leaves behind not just her crappy job, but her mom and her ex, who barely parents, and signs on to manage a boutique hotel with an brewery–agrotourism, if you will. Unfortunately, when she arrives on an island in Lake Erie in Ohio, she doesn’t find a brewery hotel to manage, but rather an incomplete vision of one. Owner Mason is grouchy and guarded and intends to rely on the experience, expertise and taste of his new employee to bring the vision to life. She’s hooked! Details of the scenic setting and antiques shopping rounded out the romance nicely.

A few things didn’t ring quite true. Custody being what it is, you can’t just walk away with your kid, dads have rights. And technically, Mason is Rachel’s boss, irregardless of chemistry, it’s a big gamble, with a kid, to put financial security and physical safety and home at risk. Hence, things move at a slow pace. While Anna and Keane make an appearance, this is stand-alone romance. I’m an unabashed fan of heroines with curves and books with food or design details, so this was a 4 star rating for me.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #TheSuiteSpot from #NetGalley back in March, but it expired and I checked it out as an ebook from my local library system.

https://hiplibrariansbookblog.com/2022/10/19/the-suite-spot-by/ ( )

This is a gentler, more removed look at grief than presented in Float Plan, but it's still very heavy. It's just not the narrator experience. Had we had a look in the hero's head (Mason), I feel this would've had the same weight of Float Plan. I level my same criticism here as I have for Float Plan: something is too simple with the characters. In this case, despite Rachel's small insecurities and mistakes with men in the past, she's difficult to fault. And eventually, so is Mason. Despite this, I enjoyed the book, but given the content, I tend to want more flaws. Maybe this was Doller's intention, since her afterward directly states that she needed something gentler because of 2020.

I am once again left appreciating Doller's settings and detail. They keep these a notch above many other novels. Unfortunately, they aren't enough to lead me to reread, which is why I give it a 3.25. ( )

I really enjoyed this story! Rachel is a single mother living with her mother in Florida. After losing her job, she decides to take a chance on a new position at a new hotel in Ohio so she packs up her daughter and makes the trip. It turns out the hotel isn’t even built yet so she gets to be a part of the process of designing and planning for future guests. Her new boss, Mason, is more of a mystery.

I loved Mason and Rachel together. Mason has been through a lot and I liked the fact that he is trying to move forward with his life. I thought that Mason and Rachel had fantastic chemistry together and I really liked the way that Mason was with Rachel’s daughter. The residents of the small town where the hotel is located were all wonderful and I loved the way they embraced Rachel and Maisey.

Sarah Naughton did a fabulous job with this story. I really felt the emotion of the characters and I thought that the voices that she used really helped to bring the story to life. Once I started listening to this story, I did not want to stop. I know that her performance added to my enjoyment of this story.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to fans of contemporary romance. I thought that this romance felt very realistic and I quickly fell in love with both Rachel and Mason and wanted to see them have a future together. ( )

This was a breezy read and I really enjoyed it. The setting on an island in the north was wonderful and everyone wants to go to a boutique hotel like the one being built on the story! This was the second in a series but I was able to read it as a stand alone, but will probably read the first one also. ( )