Small Town Love by Susan Meier is book 4 in the Paradise Key series. It´s the last book in the 4 book series.
It´s set in the town of Paradise Key and with this series it´s a good idea to read all the books.
To me it was lacking in a few departments to make it a great romance novel, and I like it when I can read the books in a series as stand alone stories.

Evie lives in Philadelphia as an anchor on a morning show. When her estranged father gets arrested she is told to take a leave of absence until things settle down. She heads back to Paradise Key to hide out. She ends up working on the weekly video the mayor does to promote visitors. Although their attraction is strong - she knows the mayor is off limits. Not only is he a widower with a daughter, his life is there and hers is in Philadelphia. When her father decides to hide out in the same small town things heat up between Evie and Pax. Will they find true love or will she go back to her old life? Great read.

I enjoyed this book, what's not to love about a small town. Besides the gossip and everyone knowing your business. LOL LOL....... This story is about 4 friends who get together for a friends funeral. Evie a well known talk show hosts needs to hide out for a bit due to some trouble her father gets in. Where else would you hide out but in a small town.

Evie now bored with nothing to do decided to help out a friend, which involves managing the towns website and doing weekly interviews with the sexy towns mayor. She is instantly drawn to the mayor , but keeps fighting it as she has no time in her life for a man.

The mayor's wife had pasted away a few years back and he is left with raising their daughter, Which he has really know clue what he is doing. Evie to the rescue. She forms a bound with this little girl and the fun and games begin.

Small Town Love by Susan Meier is an interesting take on 'the sins of the father fall upon his innocent child'. The reader is introduced to Evelyn Barclay, a popular local entertainment personality, who has returned to resume her job after being away to be with friends mourning the death of another friend. As she reports back to work she is hit with a scandal brewing and soon to be announced that will affect her job and relationship with the network. Her boss suggests she hide out somewhere until the scandal blows over. Evelyn once again returns to be with her friends in Florida to lay low and regroup. While in Paradise Key, Florida she agrees to produce a small town 'what's happening in' video. Evelyn has to interact with the town's mayor, Paxton James. Paxton rents Evelyn a cottage he has refurbished, so she doesn't have to while her time away in a Bed and Breakfast. Meanwhile her father shows up trying to remain under the radar and make amends to his daughter. I highly recommend this as a summer beach read. It's easy reading with interesting subject matter and a highly enlightening ending.

Even though this is the fourth book in the Paradise Key series, it reads well as a stand alone. The story was engaging from the onset, with interesting secondary characters...including all the couples from the previous books in the series...weaved in to keep the story interesting and moving smoothly. The romance was laced with humorous banter, an original plot with unexpected twists, and dialog that was easy to loose your self in. There were also several tender moments between Pax and his tween age daughter Sam that tugged at the heartstrings. Over all this is a heartwarming story that leaves you wanting more stories in the series.

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher and NetGalley. I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

Fun read, I really enjoyed the chemistry between Evie and Pax. I hadn’t read any others in the series but I wasn’t lost or confused as to what was going on. A solid story with a great cast of characters and great writing.

This book is the 4th & final book in the series & it was a great story to end the series with though it can be read as a stand alone.

There were 5 girlfriends who would visit each other every year in Florida. However one died & the 4 met up again to reconnect with each other & to mourn the loss of their friend. In Small Town Love Evelyn is trying to get away from her father, after he is indicted for insider trading & goes to back to Paradise Key. She gets a job with a friend but then finds out that she is in charge of the mayor, Pax.

Pax doesn't want to have anything to do with the video Evelyn needs to produce for the city but he also knows he needs to do it. While they were working together they grew close. Pax was having issues with his daughter & Evelyn could relate as she had had issues with her own father. The more Pax gets to know Evelyn the more he realizes they have more in common than he thought.

Evelyn just can not get away from her dad and his mistakes. After finding out he's is being indicted she heads back to Paradise Key where she can hide from the press and spend time with her friends she has always felt like family. Pax has always loved Paradise key but now he is being pulled in every direction when the Pistol Evie decides he needs to be the face of Paradise Key whether he likes it or not. They have this attraction and both are healing can they come together or will it be too much for both of them and they are better off as friends?
I have read this series from the beginning and I just love these four girls they are fun and unique in there own ways and that goes with Evie as well. I loved Sam she is a pistol even though she is 12 she was just so easy to love reading about. I feel like while reading I was catching up with friends. Pain and forgiveness is a funny thing sometimes you have to get through the pain to get to the forgiveness and that was very much the case in this book. Both Evie and her Dad needed to stop dancing around each other and face the pain head on so they can get to the forgiveness to get to the living. This book was so worth the read and super fun. Some adult language but very mild. Grab this book you won't regret it.

This was such a sweet romance. I enjoyed Evie and Pax's journey and Sam made it so much more special. I will be reading the rest of the series.

Loved this story and the characters. When you think you are on the top of your world, it can change in a heartbeat. Who you are is what you do in this type of circumstance. It’s always good to have wonderful friends to both help you out and give you a hard time. I personally would love to visit Paradise Key, FL and just hang out with all my new friends. Check it out and see if you wouldn’t like to join us.

I really enjoyed reading Summer to Love by Susan Meier, book four in The Paradise Key series. I loved seeing Pax and Evie grow closer as Evie saw the trials and tribulations facing a single dad of a teen daughter in a new light and helped Pax’s daughter learn the tricks of using make-up, dressing appropriately, and hair styles fitting for her. When Evie’s dad turns up in Paradise Key it threatens to send her into hiding again and ruin her budding relationship with Pax. Pax knew exactly how to help Evie and her dad make peace as well as help her find a happy ever after with him and not losing who she is.

This was a fun book to read and easy to visualize the story as it occurred. I totally loved these characters and didn’t want to put this book down. Ms. Meier did a fantastic job creating her characters, keeping the story interesting, making me forget the world around me and not letting me go until I turned the last page, wanting more. I highly recommend this book to other reader and am sorry that this series has now ended.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

A quick, fun, beach read with great characters and a little drama. Although I found this book to be an enjoyable read, I did find that for me, it was missing something but can't seem to put my finger on what. This story does have a slow burn romance between our two main characters Pax and Evie, that was fun to read about. I also enjoyed the relationship between Evie and Pax's daughter, Sam. We find that Evie, Pax, and Sam all have things in common with one another.

This is a wonderful book to get lost in, its characters or easy to care about, the main one Evie is so nice and has had a rough life, for a rich girl and Pax, he’s a widower who really loved his wife, and after five years he should be ready to move on, but is he? And then there is Samantha, Pax’s twelve year old daughter and she really needs a woman in her life and warms to Evie right away.
So it has romance, family feuds and family ties, friends, a small town feel, oh yes a well written plot and hay a beach, what more does it need? You to read it for your getaway.

This is the first book I have read by Susan Meier. I could feel the love in the small town of Paradise Key, Florida where Evie Barclay goes to hide after her father is going to be arrested for SEC violations It was not her choice to hide out but the station where she has a talk show does not want her to work until the case with her father is resolved. I really like how Evie's character grows while she is in Florida and how she gets to find out who she truly is. She also develops close friendships that will change her life. She will finally take the walls down and enjoy life for who she is and not what people expect her to be. I received an advance copy of this book and I willingly chose to write an honest review.

Small Town Love is a well written romance. I enjoyed the plot, characters and setting. I also liked the author’s writing and will be reading more of her books. I recommend to fans of a good romance.

Loved this sweet romance between Evie and Pax, neither looking for love. Evie has a problem with trust issues and has returned to Paradise Key, to hide from her father, low and behold he shows up there too. Her father has costed her , her job. Pax is a single dad raising his twelve year old daughter after the death of his wife a few years back, the love of his life. Evie does not do forever until she meets Pax and Samantha, can they change her mind on happily ever after.

Loved these characters!! Both very true to life and just good people. This is the last book in the series, but they can all be read as a stand alone. It's sad to say good bye to this fun beach town. I highly recommend this book, for you perfect beach read this summer.

This is the fourth and final book in the Paradise Key series, and I think it was a great wrap-up to the series. As long as you’re familiar with the basic series premise, I think you could easily read this as a standalone. On a whole, these are such sweet reads, perfect for taking to the beach. I’m quite glad I discovered this series, and I’ll be looking up several of the authors to follow!

“The piece of your grandfather’s charisma you were lucky enough to inherit made you a star. Now, that same name is hurting you.”


After spending some time in Paradise Key coming to terms with the death of a friend, Evie is happy to be back in Philadelphia and ready to resume her life as a morning talk show host and minor celebrity. When her estranged father – who’d stolen from the inheritance left to her by her grandfather – is in trouble with the law again, her news station doesn’t want to deal with the fallout and tells her to go lay low until it all blows over. Evie, understanding that it’s going to take at least a year, heads back to Paradise Key, and one of her friends offers her a job filming the weekly tourism video with the town’s mayor, Paxton. There’s definitely some attraction there, but Paxton’s roots – and tween daughter – are in Paradise Key, while Evie’s life is back in Philadelphia. Then Evie’s dad suddenly shows up, and Paxton’s got his hands full trying to keep his town off the scandal map, let alone have time for a relationship!

This was delightfully sweet and heartwarming, not the least because it involves the romantic relationship between Evie and Pax, but also because of the relationship between Pax and his daughter Sam, and Evie’s budding friendship with her. Pax has a lot of baggage – besides being a widower, he’s got emotional scars from a childhood of being forced into acting by his mother. Sam’s twelve, and lost her mother at a young age, much like Evie. She’s increasingly pulling away from “dad stuff” to immerse herself in the world of makeup, dances, and social media. Evie’s train wreck of a relationship with her ex-actor dad has Pax worried that that’s where his relationship with Sam is heading, and he’s relieved when Evie steps in to help Sam out with girly things like makeup and clothes shopping. It’s a bit of a silly parallel, as the main issue is that Evie’s dad stole money from her trust fund. There are reasons behind the theft, of course, as Pax finds out somewhat against his will. As Evie and Sam grow closer (and Sam does a little tween matchmaking), the idea of a summer fling starts to sound appealing to Pax and Evie. But can Evie overcome her trust issues, and can Pax finally let go of his dead wife?

“You know, one minute it seems like you’re seducing me. The next, you’re taking me to Home Depot.” She met his gaze. “Are you confused?”


This all sounds angsty and serious, but it’s actually quite funny. There’s a particularly humorous bit where Evie’s trying to get Pax to admit he’s attracted to her, so she wears a flowing skirt that keeps blowing up in the breeze and a somewhat low-cut blouse to one of the weekly tourism video tapings, and then giggles as he gets distracted and has to do multiple takes. Pax fights his attraction to Evie hard, and watching them realize how compatible they are together was alternately sweet and silly. The more time Evie spends in Paradise Key, the more time she realizes how much that silliness is missing from her life in Philly.

As for cons, some of Evie’s tips for Sam struck me the wrong way. There’s a few about weight management – Evie points out that she walks everywhere in Paradise Key as a form of exercise (specifically for weight management), and also that she prefers to eat her calories rather than drink them (this doesn’t stop her from having several alcoholic drinks throughout the book, though) – and keeping makeup light and natural, and perhaps I’m being overly sensitive, but it struck a bad chord in me. These are certainly valid points and things I’d probably tell my own daughter, but as the only sort of advice offered from the mom stand-in, I didn’t like that the focus was on staying thin and wearing makeup.

Overall, I thought this was a great end to the series. If you’re looking for something sweet, heartwarming, and funny to read at the beach, you can’t go wrong with these books!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Even though this is book 4 in the series, it reads as a standalone. I haven't read the first three yet but after reading Evie and Pax's story, I'm definitely adding them to my TBR!

Evie is in Paradise Key seeking refuge from the bad press from her father's insider trading scandal. She's laying low until she can return to Philadelphia and her talk show. Pax is the mayor of Paradise Key, leading the quiet life and doing his best to raise his 12-year-old daughter.

Pax and Evie seem to be opposites but the more they get to know each other, and the more time Evie spends with Pax's daughter, the more they realize that they are not so opposite. Their experiences bonded them and their chemistry was palpable. I can't wait to go back and read the first three books!!

*This is my voluntary review of an advanced reader copy*

Sometimes we protect ourselves so well that we fail to see truthful reality when it stands right in front of us. The habit of not trusting, not sharing, keeping emotions tight and controlled works for a very long time – right up until something or someone causes us to take another look at our life. One of the most difficult things in life is making ourselves look at a situation from another person’s view point, to hear their truth even when it counters what we believed was the only truth. Right now that is a situation that Evie is facing and if she makes the wrong step, listens to her protective side and not the side that wants to believe that she is worth loving then she stands a good chance of losing two very precious, special people forever.

Pax is mayor of Paradise Key, a widower of five years, proud father of 12 year old Samantha and is in a new stage of parenthood… the dreaded little daddy’s girl is growing up and discovering make up, boys, and girly things. Yeah, he’s in trouble now. He’s also been holding on to the memory of his wife, not ready to truly move on and content to be Sam’s dad. Until Evie came back to Paradise Key in hiding and stirred up his safe and known world.

When Evie’s dad also comes to Paradise Key to hide out from the press until his trial he throws so many painful memories into the mix of Evie and Pax. Yet it’s here, with Finn in the mix that Evie finally has to face that listening to the other side perspective, and how she handles another side of truth will decide her own happy ever after.

Small Town Love is a compelling look at love, parents, memories and truth. Evie and Pax’s romance is sweet, steamy, full of contradictions and so very real that it, at times, hurts to read what they’re going through. Samantha is a charm, her exuberance at turning into a teen is contagious. Finn is many things, but he’s also a father who did what he thought was right for his little girl, even if it turned out all wrong. I loved this story, it felt so real and lifelike, full of humor, tears, anger, sadness and… reality. I’d definitely recommend this story and the entire Paradise Key series to any Contemporary Romance reader who enjoys a good, realistic love story and characters who bring the story to life.

I sincerely hope that one day the authors of this series will come together again and take us back to Paradise Key. I confess that I’m really not done with this small Florida town and would love a return visit soon.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

This is a wonderful story and one that's perfect for a relaxing day on the beach. Evie Barclay finds her world once again upended by her father. This time his actions have cost her the job she loves. To hide away from the press and her father she returns to Paradise Key. No way is she prepared for Paxton James or the feelings she's developing for him. When the father she's been estranged from for years shows up in Paradise Key she's once again ready to run but what she'll be giving up has her second guessing that decision. Is it possible to find a way to let go of her anger and claim the life she wants?

I highly recommend this one.