Barefoot Season by Susan Mallery

Mallery, S. (2012). Barefoot season: A Blackberry island novel. Buffalo, NY:

     Harlequin.

Mallery’s Best Yet, by Far

 Susan Mallery

Michelle Sanderson returns to her post army service life of running her family owned inn. The Inn is now hers only, but there are a massive number of problems. The problems include a bullet wound that caused a partial hip replacement, the recent death of her mother, and the current manager of the inn, Carly Williams. Carly and her daughter now live in the owner's suite at the Inn where Michelle grew up, and where Carly discovered Michelle in bed with her fiancé two days before Carly’s wedding. Michelle has to recover from her wound and PTSD, while Carly has to learn to deal with Michelle, her daughter, and a mother that ran off and left her alone with an alcoholic father.

I loved this book. The characters are so alive, and the situations believable since the fallout of the actions of selfish people affect those around them in a myriad of ways. The story pulls at the reader as Michelle and Carly struggle to work out the repercussions of the actions of their parents, along with Michelle's difficulty in transitioning back to civilian life.  I would definitely rate this a top read for the year in contemporary women's novels and recommend it for anyone looking for more depth in a novel without a huge side of depression.

Received Galley from NetGalley.com

I enjoyed this novel so much that I gobbled up several other Susan Mallery novels.  She has written several romance novels that are good romance novels, but not up to the quality of Barefoot Season, including her Fool’s Gold series and Hot on Her Heels. However, the only one that comes close to the quality of Barefoot Season is Already Home. I listened to the audio version of Already Home, and while I enjoyed it more than the Fool’s Gold series, it still is not as good as Barefoot Season.