Love is Grand by Rachel Blaufeld is a sweet, summery beach read. I couldn't put it down. It was really amazing story.

Highly Recommend to all.

Grand Caymans is the setting for this story it has a single mom Shell. She is always working since her husband took off. She meets Caleb Stern a bachelor at 41 and he is taken with the sassy mom. Shell lives and works on the Island so though she is taken with Caleb she knows his life is in New York. Caleb an attorney has been finding more and more reasons to go to the Island besides working with his brother he is drawn to Shell and her daughter. Can he finally be looking at settling down? Read this good story to find out.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for providing a digital review copy in exchange for sharing my honest thoughts on this book!

Love is Grand is book #2 in the Grand Love series. While this book could be read as a standalone, I highly recommend reading book #1 (Grand Escape) first as it provides additional context for the setting and supporting characters.

Love is Grand is Shell and Cal's story and picks up between the last chapter and epilogue of Grand Escape.
Shell, a hardworking, single mother and island native who desperately needs a break from her hectic life. Caleb (Cal) is a New York-based attorney that is accustomed to the bachelor life when he meets Shell who is his total opposite.

Overall, I found shell and Cal's story to be a very enjoyable read and a great continuation of the series. My only criticism is that I felt like the miscommunications and arguments between the characters were overdone and the resulting reactions didn't necessarily line up with the personalities of the characters. Shell was often described as being tough and self-sufficient and yet the numerous times she let Cal back into her life with a little apology on his part after major missteps seemed to contradict that.

My frustrations with the characters' arguments aside, I enjoyed the book and would definitely read another installment of the series!

🏝 Review: Love is Grand

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Romance, Women's Fiction

🏝 Synopsis: A true island beauty, single mom Shell needs life to give her one tiny break. Her husband took off, leaving her to work as a waitress and a coffee delivery gal. Surrounded by wealth and extravagance in paradise, she’s doing her best to take care of her daughter.

On a whim, Shell takes a quick breather in front of the jewelry store at the posh Grand Escape. Knowing it will be love at first sight with everything in the window, she tortures herself anyway. What she doesn’t expect is to meet the man who will soon occupy all her thoughts and dreams.

In command of every situation he’s faced with, Caleb Stern is a pro at the bachelor life. He works hard, plays harder, and has no regrets about any of it. That is, until he meets a sweet and sassy single mom in the Caribbean.

Certain he can have a fun time with Shell and let her go, Cal makes secret visits to the island to see her. But falling for this island girl seems to be the one situation Cal can’t control.

Both are doing their best, playing the hand they are dealt, until Shell challenges Cal to a showdown. With a spunky kindergartner leading the charge, Shell gives Cal a chance . . . but can he steal the heart of the one woman who has mesmerized him?

🏝 Im a sucker for a good romace story and this one had me glued to it from start to finish. The chemistry between Caleb and Shell was off the charts. It was sweet, fast paced, there was drama, and a good amount of spiciness. I was so invested that at times I felt fustration over Shell and Cals relationship. Overall its a great fairytale story any woman would enjoy reading. I 100% recommend it. A big thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC.

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This was a good read for me! I didn't know it was part of a series when starting out, but I was easily thrown into the romance aspect of the story and lost myself in these characters. A solid romance!

This is a good book. The two main characters are Shell and Cal. Shell is an abused mother of a six year old and Cal is a playboy. She’ll lives on the islands and Cal lives in New York. There is a mutual attraction. Shell tells Cal she is pregnant. They each have issues but together they work it out and declare their love.

Thanks Netgalley for a arc copy of this book for a honest review Love Is Grand was my first book I read by Rachel Blaufeld.. I didn't know this book was #2 in the series I still enjoyed the read I will read the first book series 4 star read 🌟🌟🌟🌟



Happy Reading 


Lisa

Love is Grand is book two in the Grand Love series but can be read as a complete standalone. Shell is a hard-working mother doing everything she can to take care of herself and her daughter with no help from her husband who up and left them. Cal is an attorney from New York who had a brief encounter one day with Shell outside of a jewelry store and has returned to the island periodically for business and to visit her, leading to them having a sort of casual relationship, until priorites shift for Shell, causing Cal to have to re-evaluate what he really wants in life.

I enjoyed the idyllic setting of the story (Cayman Islands). I really liked both Shell and Cal as the main characters as well as the secondary characters, who I believe may have been the main characters from book one. Cal and Shell had some great chemistry and an easy relationship; they just came from different backgrounds and led very different lives, calling in to question whether anything between them could ever work. I adored the scenes with Wheezie and especially Wheezie's relationship with Cal as the story progressed.

This was my first book by the author and I overall really enjoyed it. My only struggle at times was that there were a lot of things working against Cal and Shell (location, his commitment issues, his mother and her beliefs) and while they were all explained in the end, it seemed to all work out rather quickly and seemlesssly. I feel like maybe I would have liked to see some of this futher developed. I also think the end and conflict toward the end happened kind of quickly and needed a little further development. Overall it was a very enjoyable story and I would definitely recommend it.

Love is Grand, Rachel Blaufeld

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Romance, women's fiction

aannd once more, its 2022, not 1922. We don't need to segregate books into male and female fiction....

I've read several of Rachel's books, and enjoyed the stories she creates. ( how do authors do that? Create a story just from nothing? It always astonishes me) I'd not read first book of this series but they are each complete stories with connected characters so it didn't affect this book.

Shell was a great lead but....I understood her reasons for the no commitment stuff, but didn't feel her heart was really made that way. If I'm honest, as the story went on it began to feel she was a bit of a doormat for Cal, there when he wanted sex on the island, along with Sophia waiting for him in the City. That jarred with me a bit, although it did lead to some of my favourite scenes in stories like this, where Sophia's claws come out! And of course some great drama and heartbreak.
It took me a long while to warm up to Cal, to be honest it wasn't until I understood more of his background, and how his mind worked that I began to like him. I still could give him a good kick in the rear for what he put Shell through. Even when he was telling himself Shell set the boundaries in their relationship, he wouldn't acknowledge that her limits were because she knew where his were...that if he wasn't such a well known, no commitments playboy she might have felt differently, but she needed to protect her heart. ( As if that ever works!)

The supporting characters were great, from Shell's parents, her lovely, funny daughter, to her good friends. I enjoyed meeting them and seeing how they all pulled to support Shell, and by the three quarters mark she needed that.
Its was a fun read, full of Rachael's attention to detail, solid plots, and realistic characters. That's what I look for in a good story, one where I'm not rolling my eyes at scenes and thinking “as if!” I'd like to go back and read the first book, and will look out for more in this series.

Stars: 4.5. A great read, loved the drama, Sophia and her scenes were a real draw, the heartbreak, that played out so well. I love it when the sad parts are properly drawn out. Those make a romance for me, balance out the sweet, and the love feels stronger for it.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers

A-ma-zing!

Heartfelt, lighthearted with a touch of angst, this book gave me all the warm and fuzzy feels while there was a horrible storm outside!

OmG this book was so good, I read it in one sitting!!

Cal and Shell’s story is the ultimate in opposites attract stories. All the odds are stacked against them race, age, religion, economic level, countries of residence— spouses and partners and an adorable Weezie to keep them on their toes. Their differences were endless. Yet, they had a connection that was so natural and so organic I was rooting for them. This couple was everything I love in romance book couples. Sexy, passionate and honest with a lot of heart. Their chemistry was hot hot hot and their banter was so funny, sharp and on point. I couldn’t get enough of how their story developed and what happens between them.

The Grand Escape was at the epicenter of their love shack but when they step, out reality sets in and it’s not always so grand. How they felt with their challenges made their story simply delicious!
Cal and Shell were flawlessly developed and the story was so well executed and paced.
There’s so much I enjoyed about this story better you find out for yourself!

Cal and Shell have a casual hidden relationship that develops into more. There's complications: her friend is dating his brother, she live on the island with her daughter, he lives a very different life in New York. It nice to see them it's evolve and figure out how they will bridge their differences. I do wish the it backstory was more established in the beginning; it read like a synopsis from the previous book, which dampened their chemistry.

Love is Grand by R. Blaufeld is the second stand-alone in the Grand Love Series. The previous book is Grand Escape and tells Rylan and Adam's story.
This second book tells Cal and Shell's story.
Cal is Adam's twin and together they head a law office.
Cal is the eternal bachelor, a 41 year old set in his ways when a beauty from Caribbean puts his whole world upside down and inside out.
Shell is a single mom with a 6 year old adorable daughter. They're great together, but both have some issues. One of them is social awkward, the other lacks self-esteem. But even the mightiest men can be brought to their knees by the right woman, they say.
A beautiful picked fence story, elegant, unique. 5 stars.