This is a romantic lesfic story that is on the slower side but it is not boring. I really liked Kate’s character - she was well written and her struggles seemed real. She looked after her mother, had a crush on Shaw since she was a teenager, had to leave her job and so on...

Shawn’s character was less likable in my opinion - she was kind of whiny and annoying.

It was still a good story and I enjoyed it.

This is a romantic story, quite sweet and tender, between two women born in the same town, who know each other since they were little, but without having had a direct relationship in their childhood. Shaw is about the same age as Kate's sister, about 6 years older than Kate. Shaw and Kate's sister were friends when they were little.

Shaw is the daughter of a single mother and together they left town for reasons that she has never known. Her childhood has been somewhat unstable due to the constant changes of residence. After the death of her mother, she returns to the village to make a stop in her professional career, after some symptoms of fatigue and lack of motivation. Also a recurring dream that she has intervenes in the decision to stop and reflect on what to do with her life.

Kate also lives outside the village, but not as far as Shaw. She has to return to take care of her mother who has begun to show symptoms of dementia and can not live alone anymore.

Shaw and Kate are reunited and start a relationship that neither of them believes can be lasting, since Shaw has only returned to the village temporarily. Well, their relationship is not an immediate thing, both are very reluctant at first. But they can not help it, can they?

With this approach you can already have a little idea of ​​how the story unfolds, without much drama, with enough common sense and contention on the part of the two protagonists to face a temporary relationship and with the circumstances of Kate, who must take care of and watch her mother. During her stay in the village, Shaw also discovers her roots and the reasons for her mother's behavior. And she also retakes hee interest in art, which she had abandoned due to her work.

The rhythm of the story is slow but not to the point of been boring, somehow due to the rural environment and the state of mind of both main characters, who should acomodate to the circumstances they must face. Overall, it has been an interesting story that I recommend reading.

When Shaw Daily escapes San Francisco to her grandparents' town of Cooper's Creek to decompress from the stress of her corporate career, she finds there more than she bargained for. In the rural town she meets Kate Elkins, a beautiful school teacher in a sabbatical year to care for her aging mother. Along with love, Shaw discovers unexpected family secrets. Will Shaw be able to make peace with her past and take her budding relationship with Kate to the next level?

This book goes beyond the typical sweet romance and explores difficult subjects such as life choices, bereavement, aging and dementia. The author touches all these issues with tact and, at the same time, keeps our focus on the beautiful love story. The chemistry between the mains, the multi layered secondary characters and the well structured plot contribute towards a very pleasant read.

Overall, a very well written and sweet romance. 5 stars.

ARC provided by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Shaw Daily left Cooper’s Creek to study art and travel the world. Two decades of hard work and a gift for reading people has lead her to the top in sales and marketing. Having made her fortune, and with nothing to show for it other than possessions, she finds herself bored and longing for home.

Kate Elkins has lived in Cooper’s Creek all her life. Although she loves her teaching job, Kate takes a leave of absence to move back home to care for her ageing mum. She’s still coming to grips with the role of carer when Shaw blows into town.

Shaw is Kate’s first crush, and she’s still as magnetic as she was when Kate was a teenager. How is Kate, longing for a lasting relationship and children, going to find happiness with Shaw, a big shot who is only in town for a few weeks? And how will Shaw cope with the breath of fresh air that is Kate, and how long will she be able to avoid her responsibilities back in LA?

This is a fun romance set in small-town USA. Vaun grew up in North Carolina, where she set the book, and it shows. She has a really good grasp of how small towns work, and the sort of people who make it worth staying there. The minor characters add a lot of flavour to this book, and I really enjoyed their interactions with the two main characters.

Shaw is well written, and Vaun has captured her well in her state of flux. Kate is instantly likeable, but is offered to us with less depth than Shaw. Both characters have a sense of change and of destiny in the story, and this is deftly handled by Vaun. I did think that the two of them got together fairly quickly, but perhaps this suited the short period allotted by the plot. I would have found it more convincing if more time were given to the romance and connection of the two main characters.

There were some interesting side stories to support the main romance, and I really liked how Vaun mixed the plot lines to provide tension that felt natural. There was nothing forced about the way the people communicated with one another. It was an easy book to read and very well constructed.

I gather Vaun has written a number of other books. Based on this one, I’ll be buying a bunch of them. Enjoy.

Advanced reading copy provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

What a fun read from Missouri Vaun. Loved the characters, loved the detail and the storyline is so well written I could visualize each scene. The chemistry between the two main characters will keep your attention and pages turning. My students will really enjoy reading this book and discussing the beautiful romance between Shaw and Kate. I highly recommend. Very nice read.

I rated this book 3.5 stars.

This is my first book by Missouri Vaun and I wasn't disappointed. I enjoyed the banter and interactions between Kate and Shaw which were sharp and entertaining. It was clear through these interactions the chemistry the two had which was coming off the pages.

The story line was what was lacking for me personally. I just couldn't 100% get into the actual story which had my mind wandering at times. The interaction between the two characters did keep me reading anything in between was a bit of a struggle.

What do you do when you suddenly or in this case gradually realize that there is something missing in your life? You can continue on and hope that things get better. You can stop what you are doing and reassess what is important to you and whether or not your life has those components. The latter sounds like a plan. You also know that a change of scenery is a necessity. Time to go home. There were several aspects of the read that I enjoyed. First, Kate Elkins is a wonderfully written character with a much love to give and a precious heart. Second, Shaw Daily is to commended for taking stalk of her life and doing something about it. Third, each main character had issues and I appreciated the self talk because I was able to connect and feel right along with them. Fourth, family is at the center of this story and I absolutely loved that. Finally, interesting story with characters dealing with real issues that many can relate to.

Somehow this is my first Missouri Vaun??? I loved it! I can't wait to read all the other books by this author.

Shaw's life took an unexpected turn after college that had her hurtling at 100 miles an hour for years, moving up in her friend's company and becoming a successful business woman. It hits her all at once that she needs a break, she needs to figure out who she really is, and what she wants from life. She heads back home to Cooper's Creek to figure out her life and take a breather. It's there she bumps into Kate, an old acquaintance, and the two begin a friendship, until their attraction can no longer be denied. Is Shaw destined to return to her busy life in California? Or will she realize she belongs at home, with Kate.

The writing is fantastic, so polished. Kate is a dream girl. I also loved learning more about Shaw as the reader, at the same time as Shaw rediscovered parts of herself that were important to herself as well. It was brilliantly done. I love love love small town stories because when they're done as perfectly as they are done in this one, they envelop you in such a fantastic cast of characters that make you feel so warm and fuzzy inside. It's a much needed reminder that there is so much good in this world.

This is a stellar romance, with the perfect balance of sweet and steamy, well written, and and all around feel-good read. Highly recommend.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

ARC received via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I haven’t read any other books by this author, but am on a new (to me anyway) author kick so wanted to give this a try.

This is a well-written story, and the two leads are likeable enough. I could have done without the dementia storyline as it’s too close to home for me, but that’s not the authors fault, and her descriptions of dealing with such things were accurate.

The problem I had was that I was a little... bored I guess. Kate and Shaw know each other, but not really. They grew up in the same place and Kate had an unrequited crush on Shaw. Upon meeting again they have a contrived situation that leads to them sharing space for the night and Shaw immeadiately asks Kate out, they then spend a lot of time together, but don’t discuss anything of substance outside of Kate’s mother and Shaw’s family dilemma. They still manage to fall in love though.

There’s immeadiate acceptance from all in their circle, even though this is small town US, which seemed unlikely. There no real drama in this book, it just sort of floats along, and the ending was inevitable from the start. It’s a nice, straightforward romance, but nothing too substantial. 3.5 stars.

This book has two main point of view/main characters. <b>Shaw Daily</b>, and <b>Kate Elkins</b>.

Shaw Daily is five feet ten inches, 38, has short hair, and is constantly confused by others on whether they are looking at a man or woman. She is also an executive vice president over international marketing and sales. The book opens with Shaw on a business trip to Japan but, during a meeting, she has something like a panic attack and has to exit before the meeting was over. Before she was supposed to return, she finds herself back in the San Francisco airport having reached a specific decision – she’s going to take some time off and return to the place she considers home – Cooper’s Creek North Carolina (even though she and her mother seemed to be constantly on the move and rarely actually lived in Cooper’s Creek – it’s actually those occasions when Shaw was dumped with the grandparents in Cooper’s Creek that Shaw is remembering as home, not her time with her mother). On the family front: Shaw is alone now, she never knew her father, her mother is dead, and her grandparents passed long ago. On the friend front . . . I’m not sure it’d be fair to say she has none, because we never actually see Shaw in her ‘normal’ life, just ‘off finding herself’, though it is possible her boss is her friend. She’s friendly enough, though, since there’s mention of her being friends with Miriam, Kate’s sister, back when the two were growing up (though, as a show of this being her past not present – Shaw didn’t even know Miriam’s children status); and Shaw . . . continues whatever odd relationship/friendship she has with Jimmy (he looks over her place (well her grandparent’s old place that Shaw now owns), but you can tell the closeness by how Jimmy didn’t even know Shaw would be around the first time they bumped into each other in Cooper’s Creek.

Kate Elkins is 34 and an elementary school teacher. The book opens with her disengaging from her current life – living in her apartment, being a teacher, to take a year off to take care of her mother who had recently suffered a stroke and is suffering from a certain frailty and memory loss, a certain dementia. Kate, unlike Shaw, has several living relatives – in addition to her mother, there’s her sister Miriam and her husband Greg, and their children. On the friend font, a large cast of people were seen eating with Kate after the school year ended, and it was implied that they were all friends with Kate. Most aren’t actually seen much in this story, though. Her ex-girlfriend Karen, though, was spotted along the way.

The story: Kate has had a crush on Shaw for years – ever since both were kids, though she’d never before been able to act on it – for reasons, including the age difference and the part where Shaw had been more of Miriam’s friend than Kate’s. Now, though, both are in their thirties and literally live right next door to each other – though there’s a hill and stream between them. Still, it’s hard to act on these old feelings when Kate doesn’t believe she is in any position to get into any kind of relationship - as she has to take care of her ill mother; plus, Kate is unsure of how long Shaw will even be around. Despite desires one way or another, or maybe I should say because of desires, a relationship begins between Shaw and Kate, though Shaw upfront noted that she doesn’t know how long she’ll be around, and isn’t the best at relationships (I’m wording this a lot worse than Shaw did, mmphs, the point is that Kate and Shaw enter a relationship with both having their eyes wide open).

Family is a big part of this book – both Kate’s, and, surprisingly, Shaw’s. For, recall, Kate’s mother has certain ‘issues’ with memory – and people have a tendency to take a glance at Shaw and see a man. Well, fairly early on, Kate’s mother took her first look, I believe, at Shaw and called her ‘Charlie’. Confused and intrigued, Shaw spends part of the book investigating this mystery – is Charlie related to her? Are they actually that similar in appearance?

Good solid interesting story. I might be getting emotional as I get up there in age, as this is another of those books that forced me to ‘feel’ things.

On the sex front: occurred, is graphically detailed.

On the characters front: I liked both main characters, and, somewhat abnormal for me, liked the side-family characters. I will note, though, that the two main characters are more developed, more solid, than the others.

Book received from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

I had my misgivings when I read the premise of the story because it seemed similar to a couple of novels I’ve read. Feeling burnt out, Shaw leaves her executive job temporarily and returns to her grandparents home in Cooper’s Creek where she spent holidays. Nearby, Kate has moved in with her aging mother to assist her after a stroke has left her with some frailty and intermittent short term memory loss. Sounds nice enough, doesn’t it? Apparently it’s not the premise but what you do with it.

Vaun’s words created a high definition movie in my head that was just beautiful to watch. What could have been a run-of-the-mill easy romance ends up with as so much more because of the scene-setting and the characters. Shaw is interesting and not the two dimensional executive that she could so easily have been. I loved that she was often mistaken for a man and that it wasn’t an issue for her. She has an unexpected gentleness about her and for all her masculine appearance she is still feminine. Kate is a lovely character who is insightful and is integral to the journey Shaw takes to face unresolved issues from her past. Kate has also had a crush on her since they were teenagers.

This is a beautiful read from a powerful storyteller. It is only the second book I’ve read by Missouri Vaun but it definitely won’t be the last. I laughed, I cried and I couldn’t put it down.

Love At Cooper’s Creek is a sweet romantic love story. The main characters, Shaw and Kate, are likable, funny, and realistic. Both women are facing disruptions in their lives -Kate caring for her sick mother and Shaw needing downtime from a hectic career yet very successful. Their paths meet when they both return to their childhood homes.
Missouri Vaun’s characters are multidimensional, interesting, and intriguing. She is a great storyteller who engages the reader with her very descriptive writing style. The secondary characters also add depth to the storyline.
The author also allows the characters to deal with their own problems and feelings in a mature manner. I also enjoyed the way the author had Shaw deal with a group of bullying homophobic teenage boys. It demonstrated the strength of her personality and use of words without resorting to any physical altercations.
This book is well written and the story will warm your heart.