Living in a world full of colors, Sofia Brazier escapes a career gone south as a juvenile probationary officer in New Orleans. After moving to the small town of St. Fleur, Sofia opens a photography business in hopes of ridding her life of all the dark auras surrounding the damaged souls she once tried helping. Her comfortable new life is upended when widower, and ex-security-forces-turned-handyman hunk, Noah Tyler enters the local pub.

Noah attempts to avoid the voluptuous beauty who has captivated his every thought. That is, until his daughter vandalizes Sofia’s building and effectively seals their fate. After cutting his daughter a break, Sofia begins tearing down the walls he built after his wife’s death.

Just when life finally seems worth living for Noah, Sofia finds herself the victim of a string of crimes. Can he protect Sofia when he failed to protect his own wife?

What a hidden gem of a book. Okay so it’s not that hidden as it has just been released.

Welcome to St. Fleur!

Sofia Brazier has been living in St. Fleur for two years now. Orchid Photography and has become quite popular. She left her old life behind to start anew and has settled in with new friends and finally feels like home. Sofia sees auras of people. Green, blue, orange and red all have a meaning it tells her a lot about people. That is until one night at Whiskey’s….a hot buns hunk catches her eye.

Not seeing an aura around the man had been unsettling. It wasn’t a bad omen necessarily, but it was the first time that it had ever happened.

Which will make things very interesting. Very interesting.

Noah Tyler His wife Vanessa was murdered he blames himself. Hard trope the dead spouse but it was done well. Air Forces was a cop. The last two years have been tough for him and his daughter Lexi. They have been a drift at sea. That is until he sees a woman at Whiskey’s that takes his breath away that makes him feel again. Thinking that their paths will not really cross again he pushes her to back of his mind. But there is Lexi………

Noah had to let her hand go. He would either strangle Lexi for her latest act of rebellion or take this woman right here, right now with the sheriff and his daughter to witness it all.

Instead of pressing charges, Sofia gets Lexi to do community service and starts to mentor her. The interaction and love between the two was real. It is a rocky start for all three of them. Sofia gets some good advice though.

“No, you keep it. Whatever you do, don’t let him turn from you. He thinks that he needs to be punished for what happened, but it’s not what the woman wants. The girl will come around as well she just needs love.”

But then he was a goner.

After the first bit, he knew he was a goner. Not only was this woman gorgeous, but she was giving his kid a break, she kissed like a goddess, and God save him – she could cook.

This worked really well for me. It was engaging, captivating and I had a great time reading it. I couldn’t put it down. I was reading when I told the hubby that I only needed one more minute before bed. He reminded me ten minutes later that I was meant to sleep. Ops!

I love that the author built in a somewhat paranormal aspect into the book.

Both characters have depth and they mesh well together although they both have some things that they need to come to terms with. I felt that although Noah spoke about his deceased wife and it was mentioned that what he had with Vanessa was a slow burning love from friends to lovers. Whereas what he has with Sofia burning, consuming and passionate. There was no comparison and Sofia didn’t live in her shadow but just took on a different dynamic in the family that they have.

Even Lexi tried to match make.

Lexi said, “You should ask my dad out. It’s obvious you guys have the hots for each other, and he’s not manning up. You guys would be great together.”

I did not see that ending coming and there was suspense with what was going on but it wasn’t OTT and was done well that I had no idea who it could be and at the end I picked the wrong person and that hardly ever happens.

What bothered me was that he should have asked her if she could see his aura when she mentioned her ability. It felt kind of important to me that they would talk about it. And a term of endearment that drives me batty is “honey” there were quite a few of them. I love how they danced around one another and the build-up was great but that anticipation didn’t continue after they got together and I don’t really know what could be done to keep it going but it did pick up again.

Highly recommended.