The Men of Thorne Island, by Cynthia Thomason

I'm still trying to read new-to-me authors and 2003 books. The Men of Thorne Island, by Cynthia Thomason, is both.

Fort Lauderdale CPA Sara Crawford learns that she has inherited Thorne Island on the Ohio side of Lake Erie from her Aunt Millie who she has not seen in fifteen years. Her aunt's Cleveland based attorney admits he has not seen the property, but the brochure he sent her makes it look wonderful. Sara changes her post April 15th vacation plans from Aruba to Ohio.

However, the island is nothing like the brochure, as the Cozy Cove Inn needs plenty of work to become habitable though four men live there. Apparently her aunt leased rooms to these recluses for twenty-five years at one hundred dollars per person. Though she wonders how these gents conned her aunt, to her surprise she finds one of the hermits Nick Bass quite attractive and he reciprocates. However, as they squabble and fall in love, he keeps a few secrets about his past from her including his true identity fearing that once she learns the truth it could end their relationship which was built without trust.

The best word to describe how I feel about this book is lukewarm. It was nice, but not really, really good. I had a good enough time reading it, but it was pretty easy to put aside. My grade (being generous, because certain elements were particularly enjoyable): B-.

It was a quiet book, which is something I like, sometime. It was very definitely not exciting (no suspense subplot, no big, explosive passions...), but it was kind of entertaining, in a restful way.

I really enjoyed reading about the whole process Sara went through trying to bring the island up to scratch again. This is something I always enjoy reading about, it being cleaning up the castle in a medieval or improving the ranch house in a western. Who would guess I hate housework as much as I do? ;-) Anyway, this element was well done here, even if some of it (namely, the vineyard) felt much too easy. I don't think making a good wine is as easy and work-free as Sara makes it to be here.

The relationships were nicely done, too, even though that between Nick and Sara, hero and heroine, wasn't the most satisfying one. I liked reading about the group dynamics better, actually. I guess I didn't completely buy Nick and Sara as the couple to end all couples (no big, explosive passions, remember!)

I did feel that 2 of the four men who lived on the island were a little underwritten. I felt I knew enough about both Nick and Brody, the cantankerous old fart, but Ryan (shy former jockey) and Derek Sweet (nice-guy former football player), were still only acquaintances by the end of the book.

Still, I spent a couple of nice hours with this one. It's a book to read when you're in a very specific mood.