Ami's Hoard

3.5 stars

"Redemption Bay" is the second book of RaeAnne Thayne's series set in fictional town of Haven Point, Idaho. It featured the feisty female Mayor, McKenzie Shaw, and Ben Kilpatrick, Aiden Caine's (from book #1, Snow Angel Cove) right arm man. I was quite intrigued with the two of them because I got the glimpse of McKenzie's animosity towards Ben from Snow Cove -- she practically hated his guts and I wondered what had happened.

This is a (very) squeaky clean romance (we only had kisses!). Thayne took her time to present her characters to me as a reader. Both McKenzie and Ben had their fair share of heartbreak. Interestingly, both were also results of a secret love affair. But they totally had different point of view when it came to Haven Point.

McKenzie LOVED the town. She loved that the town had given her 'new hope', so to speak. A town that embraced her. She came to Haven Point when she was ten years old, thrust into a new family after his mother died. While Ben hated the town. He hated what the town reminded him about: a bastard of a father who just made his life, and his mother's life hell).

I thought that part was written really well, I liked the layers that Thayne gave to her characters. What I missed, however, was the emotion. I felt that as a couple, Ben and McKenzie came rather flat and not as emotional as I would expect it to be. At one point, I also thought that Haven Point became that one hurdle between them. That McKenzie approached Ben because she wanted Haven Point to strife, while Ben's bitterness towards the town just made him dismissed it altogether as a possibility for a place to stay. Not sure I liked it.

BUT, I had to be honest that one scene that involved the whole town made me a bit choked up. I also couldn't stop loving both Ben and McKenzie's dogs *sigh*. This was a sweet story, it just lacked that IT factor for me.