Review: Loving Romeo by Laura Pavlov (Magnolia Falls #1)

Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author.

Introduced as Lincoln Hendrix's half-brother in On the Shore (Cottonwood Cove #3) and appearing briefly in After the Storm (Cottonwood Cove #5), Romeo Knight is getting his own shot at a happily-ever-after as he kicks off Laura Pavlov's new small town romance series, Magnolia Falls. In Loving Romeo, readers get to know the twenty-three-year-old (or maybe twenty-four?) former boxer turned owner of Knockout, a boxing gym, better. He's part of a band of brothers that include Kingston and River Pierce, Nash Heart, and Hayes Woodson (plus Nash's six-year-old, Cutler, aka Beefcake), and aside from Linc, has a younger sister named Tia, with all three sharing the same father. Experience has taught him to not have anything to do with the all-too powerful Crawford family in their hometown, but with twenty-two-year-old Demi Crawford opening her café, Magnolia Beans, next door to the gym, and his mother and grandmother being fans of her pumpkin spice drink, avoiding her is easier said than done. Hating the idea of her was easy; getting to know the real Demi, however, made it difficult to do just that. She was worth fighting for.

A new series from a go-to author always has me eagerly anticipating how they're going to introduce readers to this new setting and cast of characters. I already knew it was going to be about Romeo, who I already met in Laura Pavlov's previous series, Cottonwood Cove. The guy most certainly piqued my curiosity when he rode in on his motorcycle and announced who he was. I think that he was perfectly paired with Demi, and while their romance had a hint of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet because of his rather strong feelings against her family and her father's less than stellar opinion of him and his best friends, there's no tragic ending here and Pavlov adds her creative touches to it. Demi was such a strong heroine, a young woman who knew what she wanted out of life and going after those dreams of hers. Naturally, the romance was at the heart of the story, but this was also about family--both blood and found--and fighting for the people and things that matter most. Loving Romeo is a five-starred beginning to what promises to be the kind of series that makes you fall in love with a small town and its residents.

Release Date: 18 January 2024

Date Read: 02 January 2024

Learn more about Laura Pavlov.

Pre-order Loving Romeo on Amazon.