Convincing Cole

Shore Thing, Book 1

By: Jaclyn Quinn

Narrated by: Kirt Graves

Cole Sullivan

Life's been pretty amazing. Moving back to my hometown of Coral Pointe Inlet and opening Shore Thing Management with my four best friends is the best decision I've ever made. Falling back into old habits with an ex? Not so much. When Aiden, the sexy, straight owner of SandBar comes to my rescue and pretends to be my boyfriend—handing me the flashlight I need to make my way out of the darkness—lines begin to blur. Suddenly, I'm falling again, but is it stupid of me to want Aiden to land by my side?

Aiden Rafferty

I've made a name for myself in this town. Granted, sometimes it's passed around in a morsel of gossip over morning coffee. I've poured my heart and soul into SandBar, and despite some townspeople thinking I turned my back on the family business, it's become a tourist hotspot. I see and hear a lot as a bartender, but I never get involved—until Cole. There's something about him, something that makes me want to protect him. Problem is, he's been hurt before. This fake relationship was my idea, so how do I go about convincing Cole there's nothing fake about it?

Contains mature themes.

©2021 Jaclyn Quinn (P)2023 Tantor

Love the cove

You know you are invested in a story when you are routing for the good guys and really mad at the bad ones. I so wanted Cole to get his HEA. I wanted to yell and scream at Drake. I wanted Aiden to get his happiness too. This is a touching story from a fake boyfriends troupe. It's the start of a new series where 5 guys are the best of friends but each one has their own story. I love the set up to the next one, now I oh so patiently try and wait for it to come out.

Audio:
Kirt Graves does a good job at capturing Cole and Adian's personalities. Loved being back of the cove and seeing all these guys again.

Love LOVED it

No notes! I LOVE Cole and Aiden. Like… immediately obsessed. If you want a low-drama, bi-awakening, fake relationship that’s sweet and smutty without stressing you out — congrats, this is your book. This was my first Jaclyn Quinn read and yeah… I’m hooked. The rest of the series is already sitting on my TBR because she absolutely delivered. And Kirt Graves?? A certified 5/5 yet again. I will apparently listen to this man read literally anything and thank him for it.

Quinn has better books out there.

A fuller review to come, but for now - this will do. This isn't a terrible book, especially if you are drawn to 80's style romance books where the little lady is being verbally and mentally abused by her terrible on again/off again boyfriend, only to be saved by a big, strong, independent man. The only thing missing here is that in the 80's the bad guy was probably hitting her too. There is a lot of crying and literal hand holding in this book, kind of all over the place emotionally. As part of a series, Quinn is a bit heavy on guys awaiting their own books, something I have praised her for in other series for not overdoing.

Kirt Graves is one of my favorites, and a go to for Quinn. However in this book he is too often low key, and worse, he fails to individualize the characters. This is an alternating chapter book - also not my favorite, but even with the character announced at the start of each chapter, I was too often unclear on who was speaking.

This is a shorter book, requiring a credit that I didn't feel was well spent. I certainly am not going to entertain any of the others in this series, so I guess this is a non recommended title for me. Unexpected as Drawn To You and Appeal To You are among my favorite titles.