The Palisade is Book 1 in Rosalind Abel’s Lavender Shores. Rosalind Abel is actually Brandon Witt, but books by Rosalind will be different than Brandon’s typical books of angst and drama. Just to be clear, that’s not an insult, I love Brandon Witt’s writing!
The Palisade takes place in small town Lavender Shores in California and sounds like a fantastic place to live! Joel is sent to town by his father to find the perfect location for the coffee shop they plan to open, just another store in their chain of stores. Joel is persuasive, a little used care salesman type personality, and always working for daddy’s approval. On his first night in town, he notices the beautiful Andrew. After a hot night together, Joel plans to go about his business of conquering the town and getting what his father wants. Only, things aren’t going as well as he planned and he’s struggling to find away to get around the rules of the town. Plus, he has to spend his day being shown real estate with Andrew, who he wants more than any man he’s ever met.
For his part, Andrew’s family are founders of their small town. He loves Lavender Shores and doesn’t want to live anywhere ele, which is why he remains single. Andrew longs for a family of his own but doesn’t have any prospects in his small town. Andrew feels like Joel is the person he’s meant to be with and falls in love quickly, like in a day. I absolutely adored Andrew, his family, and all the characters of Lavender Shores. Andrew’s family, especially his dad, were absolutely hilarious, embarrassing and lovable. Honestly, I’d take a book just on his dad so I hope he shows up in the other books in the series!
The narrator of this story is Kirt Graves, who always does a great job with his narration. He has an easy to listen to voice, keeps a good pace, and has no weird pauses. He’s able to bring the story to life and give characters individual voices. He really just let me fall into the story through his voice!
This story is an instalove story, but not necessarily an instaHEA one. The men will have to work for their HEA, especially when the truth of who Joel is and what he wants comes out. This is definitely a sweet love story, and one I’d recommend you check out. Especially the audio!
Overall: 4.5 Stars
Narration: 5 Stars
Story: 4.5 Stars