ARC REVIEWS Going Home and Starting Over by Stacy Finz

I thought it appropriate to review Going Home and Starting Over together as they are the first and most recent books of the Nugget series; and they center around brother and sister, Nate and Maddy finding love in the sleepy little town of Nugget California. I really enjoy this series, I love small town romance and for the most part these are second chance at love stories. Each character has a past that has jaded them and it creates a very believable and likeable characters (for the exception of Clay from Finding Hope I still don't like him).

Maddy needed a place to start over after her disastrous marriage and divorce and Nugget California was the perfect place. She convinced her brother into buying the old dilapidated Lumber Baron and turn it into a Bed and Breakfast. Although she isn't exactly welcomed with open arms she is slowly working over the locals. The owners of the local motel are self important and keep finding ways to try and keep Maddy from opening the Inn.

They say you can't go home but going home was the only option for Detective Rhys Shepard. It was only suppose to be temporary, take care of his father until he recuperates. But the longer Rhys is there the more he realizes his ailing father is worse off than he thought. The town is dangling the Sheriff position to keep him there he is torn between a father he never got along with and a town that wasn't very welcoming when he was younger or the promotion to Sergeant and a six figure raise back in Texas. The choice was easy until he found out about the two siblings he never knew about and is now he is responsible for them and the closeness he has started to feel toward his father after realizing all the sacrifices that were made for Rhys. The sexy new owner of the Lumber Baron Inn isn't helping matters.

It was all just suppose to be temporary, the position as Sheriff, staying with his father, and his affair with Maddy. Rhys realizes lots of things during his stay in Nugget but it takes but it takes Maddy almost killed by a meth head looking for his stash for him to realize where he belongs.  

Back again in the quaint little town of Nugget California. In the last book Second Chances we are introduced, quite dramatically, to Samantha Dunsbury and almost immediately you see sparks fly between her and Nate Breyer. Nothing really bad happens in this story for the exception of the cook leaving the Lumber Baron Inn with no notice, the Abernathy's still trying to sabotage the Baron, and the stubbornness and blind dislike Nate has for Sam.

Nate has his reasons for not liking Sam, but those reasons are erroneous. Nate was in love once she was from a well off family, stupid rich, and she was flighty, flaky, and seriously something wrong with her psychologically, not that Nate realized any of that he was blinded by love. But when she left him and ended their engagement he applied that stereotype to every woman from a rich family. When Sam showed up in Nugget and was given the job of events planner by Maddy, Nate figured it was just a passing phase for a socialite like Sam and she would quit as soon as she got bored just like his ex.

Samantha Dunsbury blew into Nugget and instantly won the hearts of all the locals, for the exception of Nate. Sam needed a place to start over and Nugget seemed like just the place. She drove off the night before her wedding after overhearing some truly hateful words her fiance, a man who proclaimed to love her, said about her everything just seemed to click into place that the path she was going on was the wrong one and if she continued down it she would be miserable. So off she drove until she was all the way across the country from her overbearing father and unfaithful fiance. The job as events planner for The Lumber Baron is the perfect job for her and with Maddy on maternity leave she is having to deal with Nate a man who doesn't trust or like her. She is determined to prove Nate wrong that she is there to stay.

As much as Nate doesn't want to like her the more time he spends with her the more he likes her. When things start to go wrong Sam is there to see things through and succeed, Nate is forced to realize she is nothing like his ex. The attraction is there already so the romance and love falls in line pretty quickly. The admittance and sharing of said love is a little more complicated.

Starting Over is a fun and witty read, overall, it's a great book.