Love and Blarney by Zara Kean

Name: Love and Blarney (Ballybeg, #2)
Author: Zara Kean
Format: kindle edition
Pages: 104 pages
Release date: 15th August 2014
Publisher: Beaverstone Press LLC

Teaser

Married in Manhattan…
 
Ruairí MacCarthy abandoned his life in New York to deal with a family crisis in Ireland. Twelve months later, he’s traded his three-piece suits and Wall Street career for jeans and a job managing his family’s pub in Ballybeg. When his estranged wife bursts back into his life looking for reconciliation, Ruairí must decide if home is where the heart is.

…True Love in Ballybeg.
 
Jayme King wants Ruairí back. She’s prepared to battle sheep, floods, and crazy Irish in-laws to get him. Discovering he lied about his past was a shock, but Jayme’s had months come to terms with the betrayal. Letting Ruairí go was the biggest mistake of her life. Can she persuade him to return to America and give their marriage a second chance?


My thoughts

I kindly received Love and Blarney in exchange of an honest review by the author via Netgalley.

Love and Blarney is the second story (novella) in Zara Kean's Ballybag series. It can be read as a stand alone but  I recommend reading the books in order. Love and Shenanigans is the first book (full length novel) in the series and came out 17th May this year.

Love and Blarney is about Jayme and Ruarí (spoken as Rory). We meet Ruarí for the first in Love and Shenanigans were he gets introduced to us as Ballybag's pub ower. Ruarí left Ireland 10 years ago. He cut ties with his family and he never had the intention to come back home. After being in New York for seven years Ruarí met Jayme. They fell in love very fast and rushed things by getting after 6 months of dating. They were happy for more than two years until Ruarí suddenly dropped everything to go back to Ireland to sort out a family crisis.

A year later their divorce is about to become final. Their marrige was overshadowed with missunderstandings, secrecy and not enough communication. Now Jayme is sure of one thing: She wants Ruarí back and give their marrige a second chance. So Jayme flies all over the Atlantic to rural Ireland. Perhaps there was hope after all? 

The only thing I have to complain about Love and Blarney is that it's so short! I would have loved to read so much more about Jayme and Ruarí. I've read this in one sitting which was about one and a half hour. We are talking about a novella here, so things are moving fast. It fits perfectly for story. As we get deeper into the story we meet Ruarí's family which I thought was adorable (surely not his father!). They just have the typical irish charm and are so welcoming.

One of the most things I love about Kean's writing is that she always gets me and transports me right back to Ireland. I love how she describes the places her characters go to. Especially in this story, it's Blarney Castle. I've been there once and it's wonderful. I felt to connected to the characters, it felt like I was there with them. The tension between those two is great. It's not overdone in any way. When Jayme and Ruarí get closer again and it's getting steamy, the scenes are very well written!

I'm not telling any more no. Just get your copies of this great series and convince yourself. I am already looking forward the the next release of the Ballybag series. It's called Love and Leprechauns and is going to be released in November this year.