Rainy Day Friends
Jill Shalvis
June 19, 2018
William Morrow Paperbacks
Following the USA Today bestseller, Lost and Found Sisters, comes Rainy Day Friends, Jill Shalvis’ moving story of heart, loss, betrayal, and friendship.
Six months after Lanie Jacobs’ husband’s death, it’s hard to imagine anything could deepen her sense of pain and loss. But then Lanie discovers she isn’t the only one grieving his sudden passing. A serial adulterer, he left behind several other women who, like Lanie, each believe she was his legally wedded wife.
Rocked by the infidelity, Lanie is left to grapple with searing questions. How could she be so wrong about a man she thought she knew better than anyone? Will she ever be able to trust another person? Can she even trust herself?
Desperate to make a fresh start, Lanie impulsively takes a job at the family-run Capriotti Winery. At first, she feels like an outsider among the boisterous Capriottis. With no real family of her own, she’s bewildered by how quickly they all take her under their wing and make her feel like she belongs. Especially Mark Capriotti, a gruffly handsome Air Force veteran turned deputy sheriff who manages to wind his way into Lanie’s cold, broken heart—along with the rest of the clan.
Everything is finally going well for her, but the arrival of River Green changes all that. The fresh-faced twenty-one-year old seems as sweet as they come…until her dark secrets come to light—secrets that could destroy the new life Lanie’s only just begun to build.
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SASCHA DARLINGTON’S REVIEW
Unlike Lost and Found Sisters, which definitely had the feel of a women’s fiction novel or relationship novel, Rainy Day Friends feels more like a typical, albeit layered, Jill Shalvis romance.
Lanie Jacob’s is a woman who feels unlovable after being raised by distant parents and then discovering that her husband had multiple wives. As such, she experiences a bit of culture shock when she’s thrust into the Capriotti family, who is anything but distant. Over the course of the novel, Lanie slowly opens up until someone’s deceit pushes her back toward her shell.
One trait that I love about Shalvis’ heroines is their humanness. Lanie acknowledges that some of her reactions make her seem mean, although I think most of us in her place might experience them. Shalvis’ characters have emotions that the reader can relate to. They aren’t glossed over to make a fairy princess or the perfect person.
Rainy Day Friends has all of the eccentric characters and sense of humor, along with an encompassing, feel-good warmth that you have come to expect from a Shalvis novel.
The only aspect of this novel that didn’t work for me was the secondary romance between River and Holden. River shows up at the Capriotti vineyard six-plus months pregnant, and Holden immediately becomes infatuated with her. I always wonder about insta-love, but in this case the fact that she’s obviously been in a recent relationship should have curtailed Holden’s immediate attraction. Also, I’m sure that they are supposed to be cute, but I wasn’t feeling it. The situation felt forced and off to me in an otherwise good novel.
While this is part of the Wildstone series, it can definitely be read as a standalone.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
rating: 
4 butterflies out of 5
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis writes warm, funny, sexy contemporary romances and women’s fiction. An Amazon, BN & iBooks bestseller, she’s also a two-time RITA winner and has more than 10 million copies of her books sold worldwide.
GIVEAWAY!
I love her books. Now I am behind, two I need to read! lol
She is prolific–but at least the quality is good! 🙂
lol