Violet Kilbride returns to Duncarraig to sell her beloved grandmother’s cottage. To Vi’s consternation, Liam Rafferty is also visiting Duncarraig. Her first love (and first lover), Liam is now a divorced dad, parenting his defiant 12-year-old daughter while his ex-wife works in the Middle East.

Liam is also trying to figure out how to save his marine salvage business and not go to jail. Apparently, his business partner was engaging in piracy while Liam wasn’t looking. Not only is the business about to go under, but it’s only a matter of time before the subpoenas start to arrive. Liam has hope, however; he’s recently found evidence that the fabled Rafferty’s gold actually exists and is hidden on the land Vi inherited from her nan. Finding the gold would certainly solve his financial problems.

The first thing I noticed about this book is that the author does a marvelous job of using language to convey Irish speech. She does not club readers with misspelled words masquerading as dialect. Brava.

Another excellent element is the vivid cast of secondary characters. They all leap off the page – even the ones, like Vi’s grandmother, who aren’t actually there. Likable or not, they have big personalities and make the town feel like a real place.

Unfortunately, the author uses them as filler rather than making them crucial to the unfolding of the story. They provide color but most don’t much affect the course of the story.

For example, Liam’s daughter, Meghan, is an obnoxious brat. She’s realistically rendered, which means it’s no more fun for the reader to spend time with her than it is for Liam, but we do see the hero struggle to make contact with the daughter who’s a stranger. Then, with a quarter of the book still to go, Meghan leaves and the story continues as if she had never existed. As a reader, I then wonder why I had to spend so much time with this snotty child if she could simply drop out of the story without leaving a ripple?

Liam is a complex and interesting character in every way except the most important one – his relationship with Vi. After not seeing her for nearly seventeen years, he instantly falls back into lust with her, and very unsubtle lust it is, too. I get that one of the advantages of a ‘second chance’ story is that the protagonists already have a relationship, but even if they don’t need courtship, I do. I’m here for the romance, folks, and I don’t just want sex, I want chemistry and emotional connection.

There was a chance for some interesting conflict over the treasure, but the author skirted it. By the way, the reason Liam believes it belongs to him (even though it’s on Kilbride property) is because it’s always been called Rafferty’s gold. This seemed more than a bit obtuse for a salvage operator.

The least satisfying character is Vi. While Liam has had a life, she’s been living in a perpetual pity party. She stays there until one of her brothers makes a remark that causes an abrupt epiphany. When a character gets all the way to the end of the book, then slaps herself in the forehead and basically says ‘gee, why didn’t I think of that?’ – as a reader, my response is ‘um, yeah, why didn’t you?’ There really isn’t a plot; Liam and Vi walk around wanting each other and talking to people and fighting with their families. Then their problems practically solve themselves. The end.

Ms. Kelly writes effortless, readable prose and creates vibrant characters. She will write a fabulous book when she figures out how to put them to work with a really compelling conflict.

-- Judi McKee