Love is ageless
Oceans in Your Eyes
Riviera Shores
Adult, Contemporary Romance
Independently published
May 3, 2024
Kindle, Paperback
328
I fell in love with the one man I couldn’t have. My husband. At forty, I’ll do anything to save my health shop, including marrying Angelo Marchesi, a decade younger, tattooed guitarist from Italy who needs a green card. To prove our marriage is real, Angelo moves into my tiny apartment and shatters my quiet routine. Now I come home to an unattainable, gut-wrenchingly gorgeous stranger who masterfully plays guitar on my sofa and sizzles beef in my vegan kitchen. Between staged couple pictures, and fabricated love notes, we unearth each other’s pained pasts. Angelo breaches my defences and unravels emotions I never knew existed. Our fiery arguments explode into scorching nights, blurring the lines between real and pretend. Before I know it, the man who put a ring around my finger has my heart in his grip. Now that this marriage feels painfully real, so are our differences. As our contract’s end nears, I brace for an inevitable heartbreak. Angelo could have any woman he desires, so why would he choose someone older, like me?
“And like I said, June; I’m not done with you. I never will be”
Lily Baines takes us back to Riviera Shores in the second book of her Riviera Shores series: Oceans in Your Eyes. June Raine has been a periphery character but now we get to follow her as she finds love in the circumstances she least expects it and at a time when she has pretty much written it off. For years her focus has been her health shop, not only because she is so passionate about it but because of growing up the child of a housekeeper in an affluent community. She maintains a rigid control of her life both personally and professionally as a way to deal with her childhood trauma but now at 40 that control is being stripped from her as she finds herself agreeing to an arranged marriage as a way to save her business and help her landlord secure a green card for Angelo Marchesi. As they work together to erect the facade of marriage and convince the government agents that it is legitimate it is apparent that there is truth to the old cliches of “opposites attract” and “things aren’t always what they seem”. From their appearances and lifestyles, June and Angelo should be quite incompatible, however love and attraction don’t always work that way but rather they see past a person’s shell to the person within.
“And I’m sorry it took me this long to admit it, but I was scored and didn’t even know how to deal with what I feel for you. I don’t have previous love experience to compare you to, but I know that no one compares to you. If there is perfect in this world, to me, it’s you.”
Romance but so much more
June and Angelo’s life experiences have shaped them, both good and bad, and pigeon-hold them with certain relationship expectations, especially with their age difference. It seems Life has other plans for them and orchestrates it through the unexpected marriage of convenience. Their journey of getting to know each other while in a sham marriage, makes them confront not only these expectations but also how they have viewed themselves. Their growth together and individually was one of my favorite parts of the book, it was authentic and heartwarming. Let’s be honest, all that might not make up for a lack of sizzle in a romance story. You need not worry, Oceans in Your Eyes is definitely not lacking in that area! There is a chemistry between June and Angelo from the very beginning which smolders and ignites as their relationship progresses no matter how hard they try to fight it. Eventually, it overtakes them both, leaving them and the reader wondering how they will go forward.
Go to Author
Having now read and reviewed a number of Lily Baines works I can say that she writes so much more that just a romance novel. Her books are love stories in a truly honest way that accurately mirrors love in real life. Oceans in Your Eyes is no exception. I thoroughly enjoyed not only the story but getting to know June and Angelo as well as reconnecting with people from her previous books. It was the perfect change of pace from some heavy, lengthier reads and wonderful escape from all the chaos in the world. If you are looking for a read that wisks you away and leaves you with all the feels, every time, then makes sure that Lily Baines is on your list of go-to authors. She is definitely on mine!
Tanya’s love for books has been a lifelong passion that she likes sharing with others. Reading is also the thing that relaxes her after a day of juggling the many responsibilities that come with being being wife to an amazing man, mother to four great kids spread around the world, business manager, and farm hand on their place in southwest Missouri; home to Akaushi cattle and a menagerie of pygmy goats, horses, chickens, dogs and cats.
