About the Book

Book: Secret Beach Boyfriend

Series: Merriweather Island, Book 3
Genre: Christian Contemporary Romance
Release Date: September 29 , 2020

Author: Kari Trumbo

She met Rafe on the beach when she was just five and it seemed like fate tied them together. When a chance encounter returns him to the islands twenty years later, Annie finds her beach friend has grown up and now needs her help.

Damaged and scarred from a past that still hasn’t healed, Annie needs help of her own. True to character, Rafe comes up with a perfect solution, but a temporary island romance does not fit into his agenda at all.

Will an offer to be her secret boyfriend give her heart a second chance? How can it turn into something more and prove there’s power in prayer and that love can triumph over a painful past?

He was Annie’s hero long ago, but can the man he has become save her now?

Secret Beach Boyfriend is the third “Merriweather book” in a new series featuring five islands, six authors, and a boatload of happily-ever-afters.

The Independence Island Series: beach reads aren’t just for summer anymore.

Click here to get your copy!

My Thoughts

This was a sweet read. It was my first book by Kari Trumbo and it did not disappoint. This is book 3 on the Merriweather Island but just like the others can be read as a stand alone novel as the previous characters do not make any appearances which was a bit sad and disappointing for me but that's just my preference. I enjoy "seeing" the characters in a story when I am reading a series.

In this story we meet Annie who is a local to the island. She believes all marriages are a fairytale. She carries this hurt placed there by her father who abandoned her when she was younger. Because of this she feels like love and marriage is not something that can truly happen and she doesn't want it to happen to her. She associates it with hurt and that is not something she wants any part of. Rafe returns to Merriweather to help his parents believe in love once again and rekindle what they once had. In order to achieve this Rafe comes up with a crazy plan to do just that and enlists the help of Annie.

The author did a great job at tackling a bit of the subject of mental health with Rafe's mom. She struggles with OCD and its the cause of the strife between her husband. Definitely a bit different than the other books I have read from the series but equally as good.

My Rating: 3 Stars/ Liked it

(I received a copy of this book through Celebrate Lit Tours. I was not required to leave a positive review. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.)

About the Author

Kari Trumbo is a bestselling author of Christian historical and contemporary romance novels. Her books are known for characters who feel real, settings you could move to, and faith woven between the pages. She makes her home in central Minnesota with her husband of over twenty years, two daughters, two sons, and never enough time.

More from Kari

Have you ever hunted for seashells on the beach?

This sweet story actually starts twenty years before the moment you open the front cover. Years before, on a solitary beach, a little boy comforts a girl he finds crying by offering to help her find seashells. He doesn’t know why she’s crying, just that he can help. Even though he knows his mother will be angry with him.

You see, Rafe (that’s the little boy) has a mother who has minor OCD and doesn’t let him go on the beach. But when Annie (that’s the little girl) is obviously heartbroken, he can’t leave her sitting there and not do anything. At that moment, a hero is born.

It’s the little things that make a hero. That moment in time when he made a choice to put Annie above his own discomfort created a past for them both, an anchor they could both look back on. It was pivotal enough for them both that they remembered it years later. Rafe, because he hid the shells and cherished the one time he got to collect them. Annie, because she was going through something no child of five should have to. His kindness was a glimmer of hope.

Fast forward twenty years and these two meet again, but don’t realize right away they are the people they’ve been thinking about on-and-off for most of their lives. Interestingly enough, that part of my story is true. I had a friend I met at a local beach when I was too young to recall names or anything else of great significance other than the feeling that it was the best day ever. She made me her best buddy for the day, and that stuck with me.

When I think of this story beyond the printed page, where Annie and Rafe live on in my mind, I have to wonder if shells will continue to be a theme in their lives.