Bayou Beauty
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Love returns to Louisiana's Butterfly Bayou in a new small-town contemporary romance sure to charm hearts, from New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake.
Sylvie Martine was prepared to take Washington D.C. by storm, but she put that dream on hold when her beloved hometown of Papillon, Louisiana, needed her most. Now Sylvie's the mayor of the tiny town on the bayou that holds her heart. But for Sylvie, this can only be a pit stop on the way to bigger and better things. The last thing she needs is an old love to resurface and threaten her goals.
Rene Darois’s whole life has been about serving his family—no matter how much it hurts. He’s used to sacrificing for his large extended family and the company his grandfather created. But he can’t believe the latest demand: he needs to find a wife and quick or he could lose it all. It would be a horrible situation. But he has just the solution: his high school sweetheart. Sylvie is everything he wants in a wife—smart, funny, and caring—and he planned to woo her anyway.
Now he just has to convince Sylvie that their love is worth it all, or he and the bayou will lose her forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Blake returns with the sweet, steamy, but flawed fourth Butterfly Bayou romance (after Bayou Dreaming). Papillon, La., Mayor Sylvie Martine is "fairly certain she'd been born with a crush" on her brother's best friend, Rene Darois, the scion of an old Bayou family. The pair were close as children and grew closer in college; for a time, Sylvie was Rene's "first thought in the morning and the last thing he saw in his mind" at night. A decade ago, they shared a single kiss before their lives took different paths. But when Rene learns he must marry to maintain control of the family business, Sylvie agrees to a marriage of convenience. Given the match's financial motivation, Sylvie struggles to trust their feelings—and Rene's treacherous, greedy family only makes things harder. There's a hint that their relationship is complicated by class and race: Rene is white and old-money; Sylvie is Black and working-class. But the story shies away from the racial politics at play, focusing instead on the Darois family's respect for the Martine family's connections and Sylvie's mother's psychic powers. This awkward color-blindness drains an otherwise lovely story of some of the zest and specificity of previous installments. It's missing some flavor, but will still go down smoothly enough for most readers.
