Finding Rose Rocks Contemporary Romance
The Wild Rose Press, Inc
May 20, 2016
372
When Jennifer Ellis’s business fails, she decides to leave Oklahoma in a cloud of red dust and return to her San Diego roots. Then Troy Stanhope comes along with a solution to her company’s woes, and she falls for his velvety voice and appealing confidence. As their relationship deepens, she is called to the west coast on a family matter and decides to stay for the summer. She meets a new man and is drawn to his irresistible charm. Her newfound self-awareness mingles with salty ocean breezes and eucalyptus-scented air to place her in his arms. Their liaison is heartfelt but brief, mid-life’s last hurrah. Jennifer realizes her heart is back on the southern prairie, but she may be one adventure too late.
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
Jennifer Ellis is in her 40’s, divorced and with a business that is failing. Once a thriving business her corporate housing has fallen on hard times due to a government change. When she gets a call from Troy Stanhope of Alcove Management looking for housing for forty men for a possible year she sees a light at the end of the tunnel.
When Troy appears there is an instant attraction between the two and he wants to see her on a personal level without any talk of renting from her. With these rentals she would once again be in the black and would not have to abandon her business. Four years ago she was given the property in her divorce and was putting her plans to relocate back to California where she grew up on the back burner, then everything crashed and without the rentals from Troy’s company she would once again consider moving away. Now she is in Oklahoma and all she has is her twenty-one year old son Aaron, a sister in California too busy with her own life to even look out for their aging mother and a mother who barely acknowledges Jennifer as her own.
When Troy’s company rents the apartments and she and Troy begin seeing each other she is shocked that all they do is kiss and that their physical relationship is at a stand still. In time Troy’s secret comes out and they make up for lost time. A call from the sheriff in her mom’s town alerts her to the fact that the kids she took into her home have been using her garage as a meth lab. Since Allison is too busy with her salon it becomes Jennifer’s job to deal with her mom’s legal problems. This puts her and Troy’s relationship on hold temporarily.
Jennifer longs to return to San Diego but Troy is a no nonsense man who owns a cattle ranch in Oklahoma and has no intention of living anywhere else. Even suggestions by Jennifer that they split their time between the ranch and San Diego fall on deaf ears. There is no compromise with Troy and Jennifer makes the decision to move in with him and forget her dream on returning back to her childhood home.
Another call from her sister sends her back to help their mother relocate to a senior development and while there she decides she wants to spend the summer at the beach. Things begin to cool off between her and Troy who is lonely and can’t understand her need to be away from him.
Being on her own and basically calling an end to her and Troy she finds herself involved with another man. I found it hard to understand where Jennifer was coming from, how she could so easily leave the man she professed to love and then pick up with someone else. There is no doubt she is going through a mid-life crisis and trying to find herself and what she truly wants.
What happens between Jennifer and Troy is not something I will reveal in this book and although at times I found myself disliking Jennifer and truly not understanding her the book was a story of second chances and rediscovering yourself.