Rainy Day Friends: A Novel

Laine’s husband died six months ago and she is trying to deal with mess he left behind. She isn’t missing him since his death lead her to discover his double/triple/dirty life. She has come to realize that she was the only one who cared about her marriage. Her husband had :married” several other women who all thought they were his legal wife. Turns out that Laine is the only one legally married to him which also means that she is the one who is entitled to his insurance money. She has put that money into the bank and left town to try and heal. Laine’s impulsively accepts a job at a family owned coastal winery for six months. She is looking to heal and learn to trust again. She isn’t too sure how to fit in with the boisterous Capriotti family. They accept everyone and if you work for them, you are a part of their family. You are expected to eat lunch with the family daily during the family meal. Your business is the family’s business. It isn’t something she is sure she can deal with or accept. Laine has never really had a family so the dynamics of a large family are totally foreign to her. Laine is especially not sure how to deal with her attraction to Mark Capriotti. Mark left his career in the military to take care of his slightly mischievous twins. His ex-wife left the girls and Mark left the service to take care of them and moved back home to start a new career in law enforcement. Mark has chosen to move back into family compound on the winery since his family has…

*This book can be read as a complete standalone. Interestingly enough this book felt more like a women’s fiction story than the first book in the series but isn’t labeled that way. Don’t get me wrong, the romance element was a very strong centerpiece to this story but there was so much more to this story than just the budding relationship between Lanie and Mark. I feel like the strength of the story lied within Lanie’s journey to move on from the hurt caused by her husband and the relationships that she forged with the Capriotti’s and the most unlikely friendship she forges with River. I was really impressed with the way that Jill Shalvis told the story of Lanie and the betrayals she encounters with a raw honesty that felt thoroughly justified and real. If you’ve read Jill Shalvis before, you know that you can expect the best sort of hero. Mark, a single father two the most amazing 6-year-old twin girls, was extremely easy to fall for. A hardworking, morally fit, single father who has vowed to put his children before anything else and who loves his mother and sisters, you can’t help but fall for him. He was the perfect fit to Lanie’s closed-off, angry but still sweet character who was doing her best to move forward but had trouble letting go. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that besides the flirty banter with Mark, my favorite parts of Lanie’s story were when she was interacting with Sam and Sea. Having been betrayed and let down by pretty much everyone in her life, they…