A small town, a big lake, old secrets and ever-raw losses--Share the Moon, first in the Blue Moon Lake Series, grabs all of those in a top hat, stirs it up a bit, and manages to pull out magic.
Sometimes trust is the toughest lesson to learn.
Sophie Shaw is days away from signing a contract that will fulfill her dream of owning a vineyard. For her, it’s a chance to restart her life and put past tragedies to rest. But Duncan Jamieson’s counter offer blows hers out to sea.
Duncan still finds Sophie as appealing as he had during boyhood vacations to the lake. Older and wiser now, he has his own reasons for wanting the land. His offer, however, hinges on a zoning change approval.
Bribery rumors threaten the deal and make Sophie wary of Duncan, yet she cannot deny his appeal. When her journalistic research uncovers a Jamieson family secret, trust becomes the hardest lesson for them both.
Excerpt
A traffic jam blocked the intersection below. A driver attempted to make a left hand turn from the far right lane. Right now, her emotions were in the dead center of an internal jam, confused by the unexpected turns of Duncan Jamieson. She wished Gabby were here instead of her.
Awareness of his presence from behind fell over her, followed by the waft of his familiar cologne.
“Gorgeous view, huh?” His softer, less businesslike voice landed near her ear.
“Lovely.” Her peripheral vision caught him close enough to touch yet far enough away to be appropriate.
“Especially over there.” He pointed at the horizon and his arm brushed her shoulder.
She followed his finger and noted a space in the distance, where dots of evergreen added color to leafless treetops. His arm returned to his side, but an invisible impression where he’d grazed her shoulder remained.
His tone dipped, quiet enough to be a thought he didn’t intend to say out loud.
“Reminds me that my new home in Northbridge isn’t far away.”
The motives for his closeness left her suspicious. “Well, Connecticut’s the third smallest state in the nation.” She took a step to the side and faced him. “You can pretty much see everything if you stand dead center.”
He provided a pity grin to her stupid remark.
She vowed not to say one more sarcastic thing for the rest of this meeting.
Professional Reviews
A Warm Winter's Tale
Share the Moon is such an enjoyable and intriguing novel that I was sorry to have it end. I found the main character, Sophie, to be an interesting gal who is smart and independent yet vulnerable. Her relationship with Duncan, the “Dark Knight”, once a childhood friend, grew tentatively and naturally. Also, the supporting cast of characters (especially Sophie's prickly pal Bernadette) were multi-faceted and believable. No corny romance here! This was a well written human story with a twist and a mystery that is set in lovely northwest Connecticut in wintertime, a perfect time for a mature love affair to blossom (and where gun shy lovers to learn to trust again). I am looking forward to Harvest Moon , the next volume in this series, which will feature a different romantic pairing from the same cast of interesting town folk.
Compelling Story with Captivating Characters
I loved Sharon Struth’s first novel, The Hourglass- and recently finished Share the Moon- another great story. Struth’s second novel captured me right away because the characters were so real that I couldn’t wait to see what happened to them and because I wanted to live in the fictional setting for the novel, the charming Northbridge, New England. Sophie, a middle-aged single mom, faces the challenge of reporting on the struggle between a resort developer and a local family bidding for the same precious land. Adding to the complexity, her own family is the one that wants the land for multiple reasons, the developer seems to have committed illegal or at least questionable activities, and most interesting, the president of the development company is a sudden irresistible love interest. Sophie is instantly likeable and believable- someone I would like to have in my book club. I also enjoyed the New England metaphors, like “the task of pulling details from him required more dragging than her rake got during foliage season" (94). Finally, I relished all references to the Scottish Nana, which reminds me of my own Scottish grandmother.
Sweet, Sensual; the perfect HEA
This was my first book of Sharon Struth's, and I absolutely loved her writing style. First and foremost, I was happy that the heroine was a 40-something divorced mother of two rather than the typical young and new-in-love woman. Sophie Shaw is a strong woman, a small-town journalist in Connecticut. After she is outbid on a piece of farm land near Blue Moon Lake (she wants to turn the farm into a winery) by a big New York corporation, she has the unfortunate task of having to report on the special zoning meeting objectively. Enter Duncan "Carter" Jamieson, the New York corporate big-wig, widowed with some interesting family baggage as well. He moves to Blue Moon Lake, uprooting Sophie's so-called perfect life.
I liked Sophie right away. She's no-nonsense and intelligent. She's conflicted because she's attracted to the man who took her dream away from her - there's a sentimental reason she wants that land (I'm not going to give away spoilers). At the same time, Duncan is a complex man, more than just your typical rich New York CEO, and he has his reasons for wanting the land on Blue Moon Lake as well. They both uncover some sordid happenings from the past, and a small mystery ensues as they both do their research to find out what happened at Blue Moon Lake all those years ago.
Duncan goes out of his way to bump into Sophie throughout town, and inevitably they fall for one another. This is a sweet/sensual, feel-good story, perfect for anyone who wants a wonderful HEA without a lot of steamy sex scenes. Both Duncan and Sophie have a lot of depth, and Sharon does a wonderful job developing the characters and placing them in the small, New England town. I'm looking forward to other books in this Blue Moon series.
Blending Southern Gothic mystery romance, fantasy, theater, dance, music, and flashes of humor, tells the story of a pair of lovers in two separate time periods who find themselves battling an evil fifty years apart.
