I loved what many dismissive reviews apparently disliked - because it was different, unexpected, and it worked despite all the glaring CLUES because they're so freakin' obstinate! Calmes does in 80 pages what many fail to, she creates a little puzzle in the protagonist's head that we readers get to watch, and all the pieces are there by the end. It's lovely and I loved it and I feel sorry for those readers who couldn't appreciate this gem for what it was.

Honestly, this story's worthy just for that mom reveals her love life scene. God.

On to #3! (Yay library!) ( )

Quiet Nights is the second book in the Mangrove Stories series and is about Kelly Seaton a landscape designer who we met briefly in the first book. His best friend is Cosimo Renaldi, a cop. They both served in the military together where Kelly saved Coz’s life, but Coz lost an arm. The story is told in first person through Kelly’s eyes.
2.5 Stars


Kelly and Coz are best buddies living in Mangrove, Florida. We don’t find out how much they mean to each other until almost the end of the book. I would’ve preferred some tension building between the two to give us a hint of how Kelly felt. Instead we’re given a red herring with a guy who arrives in Mangrove that Kelly knew back when he was young and doesn’t want to face. There wasn’t really much character development or depth of character to either Kelly or Coz so I didn’t feel invested in them. They were less entertaining than Takeo and Dwyer in the first book. We get a brief glimpse of them which was nice. Evidently Takeo has turned into a little bit of a matchmaker.

To be honest, it felt like the story was slapped together like a formula. All the plot points with no depth to them. Again I felt cheated like I did in the first book, but I kind of expected it after reading Blue Days. The only entertaining part was Coz’s mother's introduction to her boyfriend and her explanation about their sexual encounters which was hilarious.

As in the first book, at the end, the author made the characters inconsistent when they finally get together. One moment Kelly is sure and confident, and Coz is not. Then Coz is confident and sure, and Kelly is not. This went on for pages as they hashed over their insecurities and ‘does he want me for me or is he only pitying me?’ sort of dialogue. It made the characters appear flakey, and then when it’s all done, all we get is one short sex scene with very little emotional depth. I wanted to feel the connection of love these guys supposedly had for each other but I didn’t.

There isn’t much more I can add about this book because there wasn’t much to it. I was disappointed with this story, more than with the first book.

Just like in the first book, we get cheated out of sixteen pages and get nothing but advertisements for those last pages. I suppose if you’re a Mary Calmes fan, you might like this story or even this series. But this being my first introduction to her writing, I have to say I’m not impressed. I have other books by her because the blurbs sounded good, but they’ll be going to the end of my TBR pile now, and I won’t likely be buying more but might borrow them instead if I have to read any.

I give Quiet Nights, 3 Stars only because I read to the end and it’s a fast read.
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