Title: Barefoot in the Sand (Barefoot Bay, Book One)
Author: Roxanne St. Claire
Publisher: Forever
Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
Release Date: April 24, 2012
ISBN-10: 1455508217
ISBN-13: 978-1455508211
Review copy provided by Net Galley
Book Blurb and Excerpt ( from Roxanne's
website. )
When a hurricane roars through Lacey Armstrong’s home on the coast of Barefoot Bay, she decides all that’s left in the rubble is opportunity. A new hotel is just what Mimosa Key needs, and Lacey and her teenage daughter are due for a fresh start. And nothing, especially not a hot, younger architect, is going to distract Lacey from finally making her dreams a reality.
Love has already cost Clay Walker everything. And if he's going to have any chance of picking up the pieces of his life, he needs the job as Lacey Armstrong's architect. What's not in the plans is falling for the headstrong beauty. Her vision of the future is more appealing than anything he could have ever drafted for himself. Will Clay's designs on Lacey's heart be more than she can handle, or will she trust him to build something that will last forever?
Lacey angled the phone and eyed the architect’s name, imagining the conversation with a man she considered a legend. She’d seen his picture on the company web site and on the Internet. The guy looked like Colonel Sanders with all that white hair and a Southern gentleman bow tie. How scary could he be?
Okay. It was time. She turned from the beach so the sight of her daughter wouldn’t distract her and put her finger on the phone to call Clayton Walker.
Wait. Should she call him Mr. Walker? His email seemed so...casual, at least for an architectural genius. So maybe he wouldn’t want --
A voice floated up from the beach. A male voice.
Lacey glanced over her shoulder, inhaling a quick breath at the sight of a man five feet away from Ashley. A half naked man, wearing nothing but low-hanging board shorts and sockless sneakers. Shaggy hair, big muscles, and, dear God, was that a tattoo on his arm?
Was he a tourist? A surfer? More likely one of the many debris scavengers who’d popped up all over the island since they’d reopened the causeway, ready to make a buck off the misfortune of others.
Ashley laughed at something he said, and he turned just enough for Lacey to get an eyeful of sweat-glistening chest and abs and...wow.
Ashley flipped her hair and the man took a step closer.
“Excuse me.”
They both turned at her words, Ashley’s body language screaming disgust as she rolled her eyes. But Lacey barely saw her. Her gaze was locked on the predator, preparing her counter attack in full mother lioness mode, quickly assessing his danger level.
His danger level was...hot.
Ridiculously so.
He stunned her with a blinding smile. He disarmed her with a shake of his honey-colored locks, revealing a handsome, tanned face and a tiny gold hoop in one ear. Then he stopped her in her tracks by stretching out his hand.
“I’m Clay Walker.”
What?
“Are you Lacey Armstrong?”
“No. I mean, yes. But...” She froze, completely thrown, her brain short circuiting at his words.
Colonel Sanders he was not.
He looked nothing like his picture. No white hair, no bow tie - no shirt! He couldn’t be thirty years old and he absolutely couldn’t be Clayton Walker because, well, he was gorgeous.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded, not caring that she was a sweaty mess of venom-spewing, short-short wearing, almost thirty-seven-year-old mom staring at his washboard abs. Or that she still held the phone that she was just about to use to call him. Well, not him. Colonel Sanders.
“I told you I’d check out the property.”
“Oh, I expected someone...” Older. Dressed. Not gorgeous. “...after I called.”
“I didn’t want to wait,” he said. He kept his hand out and she had no choice but to take it, instantly lost in big, calloused, masculine fingers. “I was too intrigued by the idea of building here.”
“So am I.” Intrigued, that was. Intrigued and wary.
“I hope you don’t mind.” He gave a cursory glance to his naked torso. “It’s hot as hell here.”
“It’s no problem,” she lied, extracting her hand and forcing her eyes off his body and onto his face. Like that was any less stupefying. “But there’s been a mistake.”
Dark brows shot up, revealing eyes just about the color of the water behind him. “What’s that?”
“You’re not Clayton Walker.”
“I go by Clay.” He smiled, kind of a half-grin that crinkled his eyes and revealed straight white teeth. “Got ID in my truck if you want me to get it.”
The hint of a drawl fit him as well as the shorts that hung off narrow hips. “That’s not necessary because I’ve been to the web site and I’ve seen Clayton Walker, and he’s not...” Sexy. “You.”
“Don’t tell me.” The smile turned wry. “You were expecting Clayton Walker Senior?”
Senior? Like...his father? “I was expecting the owner of the firm.” The man who designed some of the most stunning hotels in the world, who probably didn’t have hair to his shoulders or an earring or a tattoo of a flame-encircled star on a sizeable bicep. “The Clayton Walker. That’s who I emailed.”
“I got the contact off the web site.”
He shrugged a sizable shoulder. “I guess my name’s still there. It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s made the mistake.”
“Do you work for him?”
“No, I don’t have anything to do with my father’s business.”
“Oh. That’s a shame.” Disappointment dribbled in her stomach and mixed with some other unfamiliar tightness down there.
“But I am an architect,” he said, an edge taking some of the smoothness out of his voice.
“But you aren’t the Clayton Walker.”
He laughed softly, a rumbly, gritty, sensual sound that reverberated through Lacey’s chest down to her toes. “Look, I’ve been checking out this property for a couple of days and, based on that email you sent, I’m totally capable of doing this job for you.”
Except he wasn’t capable because he was too young and too inexperienced and too...shirtless.
Links to purchase book:
Amazon / B&N
Next book in the Barefoot Bay Series...
 |
| Book Two
Expected Release November 2012
|
I am so damn happy that Roxanne has a new series! I have been hooked on her books since the Bullet Catchers Series.
This new series is hot, humorous, and addictive.
I was hooked from the horrific, heart-pounding beginning of Barefoot in the Sand. Roxanne knows how to draw the reader in with such descriptive scenes. I felt like I had suffered along with Ashley and Lacey, huddled underneath the mattress as hurricane winds tore off the roof of her home.
The sexual chemistry is great between Lacey and Clay-instantaneous and scorching. What woman could resist a tattooed, dirty-blond-haired, ear-pierced, nekked-chest hottie with a killer smile? I could easily visualize Clay Walker in his board shorts and panty-dropping smile.
But it wasn't just about the sex, people. Although, it was good-VERY GOOD-and had me sticking my head in the freezer a few times, lol.
What I love about this book is the emotional tug at the heart. This is a story about the power of forgiveness, standing up for what you want and believe in, as well as rebuilding your life from the ground up after tragedy. It is also about owning up to past mistakes, as Lacey's ex-boyfriend struggles to come to terms with leaving Lacey alone and pregnant fourteen years ago.
There is some world building going on with the really likable secondary characters. And I am eager to read about each characters journey---bring it on, Rocki!
Lacey has three gals she has counted on since college...Jocelyn, Tessa, and Zoe. All have very distinctive personalities and an unshakable bond as friends. I so love a great story about gal pals that stick through the good and the bad. And those that know how to make a mean margarita are good to know, too, lol.
This book made me want to sit on the beach, sip on some fru-fru fruity drink, heavy on the Patron or The Captain, while listening to the waves and smelling the salty air. I'm a beach gal, born and raised, so maybe I'm a little bit partial. But for me, the beach is the life. And I can't wait to visit Barefoot Bay in the next installment of Roxanne's newest series. Barefoot in the Rain has an expected release date of November 2012.
For Barefoot in the Sand, I'm giving it a SPECIAL 4.5 Palm Tree Rating-to celebrate her new series and the approaching summer.
And also as a special treat--I'm giving this a 4 SUN RATING for it's hotness factor.
HAPPY UPCOMING SUMMER AND HAPPY READING!
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