Customer Reviews

Fortunate Harbor (Happiness Key)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is never a dull moment in Happiness Key.

Tracy Deloche has been dating Marsh Egan. Things are heating up but they haven't had a quiet moment to themselves yet. Tracy has it all planned. Things quickly go from good to bad when she spots her ex-husband, CJ. CJ was in prison. He has been released and wants Tracy back.

Janya Kapur is ready to have a child. Unfortunately, there is one problem...her husband, Rishi does not want one. Lately things have become strained between them.

Wanda Gray has worked at the Dancing Shrimp as a loyal employee for a long time. The owners announce that they will be turning the Dancing Shrimp into a fancy tapas bar and that some of the employees are being let go. This includes Wanda. Wanda is devastated until Alice Brooks suggests to Wanda that she go into business for herself. Wanda does just that. She opens up Wanda's Wonderful Pies.

Dana Turner and her daughter, Lizzie may have just found the perfect place to call home in Happiness Key. That could all change, when something from Dana's past comes back.

Emilie Richards has just gone on my list of authors I want more of along with Robin Carr. Instantly, I felt like I was in Happiness Key. I plan to go back and visit again as I enjoyed this book so much. I had so much fun visiting with all the women. Though, I have to admit that my favorite person was Wanda. She had a bunch of spunk and charisma. All the different yummy homemade pies she made. If Wanda's Wonderful Pies really existed, I would have gained about 30 pounds visiting it. Fortunate Harbor is the perfect summer, beach read! I look forward to more to come from Emilie Richards.

The setting is the Florida Keys, this key specifically called Happiness Key, for which book 1 was titled. This is the second in a series centered around a few women neighbors who have become close friends in a familial way. With individual dramas of their own going on Ms. Richards weaves her novel around their specific situations and personalities and we feel we could just sit right down with them and have a piece of pie and coffee.

Wanda's Wonderful Pies was my favorite part of this story. Wanda is let go from a restaurant she has worked at for many years, feeling age-discrimination is the reason, which motivates her to open her own place. It sounds just like a place I'd like to visit and wish we had one in our home town.

Generally, I like all of Richards novels. This contemporary work did not rivet my attention as some of her other works have done (Sisters Choice, Whiskey Island and more) but I found it entertaining. It wasn't something that I just couldn't wait to get back to, and was a tad too-long, so therefore the 3-star rating. Recommended for light reading where you don't have to put too much effort or concentration on it, sometimes that is just what is called for, especially after intense reading.

Like all of Emilie Richards' books, a joy to read from start to finish.
Will be sorry to see these KEY stories end....but this was an extra
terrific way to pull together all the women's stories in every way.
Love this author. Highly recommend.

FORTUNATE HARBOR by Emilie Richards is the second book in the Happiness Key Trilogy and is filled with the interwoven lives, loves, losses, and friendships of five women who are the main characters in this series. The story is set on a twenty-five acre spit of land called Happiness Key on the Gulf Coast of Florida and so well researched and described by Richards that you will feel at home at once.

Emilie Richards centers FORTUNATE HARBOR around Tracy Deloche as she did in the first book, HAPPINESS KEY. Tracy owns the cottages that her friends live in. They are Wanda Gray, Alice Brooks and her granddaughter Olivia, and JanyaKapur. These residents welcome newcomer, Dana Turner, a single mother and her daughter Lizzie, and they help to calm her fears as they take her under their collective wings.

Tracy's has to deal with C. J., her husband who was recently released from prison. Theirs is a relationship with all the ups and downs of a roller coaster. C. J. can be charming, while also making everyone anxious as they wonder what he is really up to. He says everything he does is to help make up to Tracy for his past mistakes but is that true? Before C. J. returned, Tracy had been dating Marsh Egan and just as Tracy was planning their first quiet time together, C. J. had popped back into her life and of course, wanted her back, thus scrapping her plans for Marsh.

Dana, and daughter Lizzie, seem to have their own mysterious past that they were running from prior to settling in the one vacant cottage on Happiness Key. Things now seem perfect for the pair until something from Dana's past comes back that may cost her all that she treasures.

Janya Kapur very much wants to have a child, however, her husband, Rishi does not and so things are tense between them. After all poor Janya went through in HAPPINESS KEY with this relationship, will this be the last straw for her?

Meanwhile, there is the madcap Wanda who brings humor and good spirits to even the toughest of problems. She has worked at the Dancing Shrimp for a long time but now the owners are going to be turning the Dancing Shrimp into a fancy bar and letting go of some of their help. Unfortunately, one of those fired is Wanda. She is distraught until Alice gets involved. With Alice's help, Wanda realizes she can try opening her own business. Her pies are delicious and famous already and so she opens Wanda's Wonderful Pies.

Emilie Richards, Author of such books as A LIE FOR A LIE, SISTER'S CHOICE, and HAPPINESS KEY, gives readers stories rich with diverse characters as well as settings that often are as important as any character. And so it is no different when Emilie repeats this successful pattern in this latest novel, FORTUNATE HARBOR. One of the first authors who personally answered my plea for a review copy and interview was Emilie Richards. She has never let me down in any of her books and once again, Ms. Richards does not disappoint. With this second book of the Happiness Key Trilogy, Emilie's smooth writing style makes for a quick read as she once again has woven together the lives of her characters to give readers a rich story filled with intrigues, emotional confusion, financial despair, and even a possibility of new love. Thank you once again, Emilie!

Well, last summer I was caught without a book to read during a trip. I asked my friend (who has mostly my tastes in book) what she had I could read, and she handed me Happiness Key. Not my usual genre, but she was right- a great summer read.

So, when I had a chance to get the sequel, I accepted with alacrity. I wasn't disappointed.

Emilie's book brings summer to you with fun, well developed characters that you
would like to meet and hang out with (and have a piece of pie with!... mmm pie!)

Her visuals bring you right to the heart of the action and stay with you when the
book is finished. I think we can all relate to some of the situations her characters
find themselves in. The suspense is there, not really "a hold on to the edge of your
seat" type, but "a something isn't adding up here in spite of what they are saying" type.

I didn't expect the final twist.

Fortunate Harbor is an enjoyable sequal to Happiness Key and I'm looking forward
to another installment. Perfect on a beach, with a mojito in one hand and a nice slice of pie in the other.

Originally posted at:[...]

Fear, heartache, worry, suspense, and mystery prowl the twenty-five acre spit of land called Happiness Key on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The five ramshackle cottages on this land house an intriguing assortment of women who form a bond that proves to be a support system strong and faithful regardless of the circumstance.

Dana and Lizzie Turner, mysterious and secretive vagabonds, move into the only vacant cottage on Happiness Key. Tracy Deloche, the owner of the property, and her renters Janya, Wanda, and Alice weave their web of caring around the fearful Dana and her eleven-year-old daughter. As the lives of these five women entwine, the reader is lured in with intrigues, amateur sleuthing, emotional clutter, financial woes, and troubled love that cries out to be nurtured.

The men and children do keep things in a muddle much of the time. Some of the secondary characters add delightful humor while other do cruel, hurtful, and conniving things that keep the reader turning pages.

Tracy's coping with C. J., her recently out-of-prison ex-husband is a roller coaster ride from suspicion to guilt, from moments of an old attraction bubbling up to angry revulsion. His charismatic, wheeler-dealer ways keeps everyone uneasy wondering what he is really doing under the guise of saying he is helping Tracy because he wants to makeup for his past wrong doings.

The mystery of Janya and her husband Rishi's problems crops up in the story like a shadow of an ominous presence. Conversely, the irrepressible Wanda, even with her worries, brings a unique humor to even the managing of serious problems. Her encounter with her competitor on the evening of July 4th is not to be missed. Fortunate Harbor is chocked full of twists and turns, sparkling humor, heart-wrenching happenings, resilient characters that seem so real, and the unquenchable determination to survive and thrive.

Emilie Richards' writing style with its smooth flow and vibrant characters make Fortunate Harbor sparkle and throb with life, and its can-do attitude is wonderful.

When her ex husband CJ went to prison for a white collar scam, thirty-five year old Tracy Deloche could no longer could no longer remain a Bel Air, air head trophy wife. Her only asset is a few rundown seaside cottages off the Gulf Coast of Florida. Still she prevailed due to the help of her tenants.

Her relationship with Marsh Egan is at best on life support as his ex wife Sylvia wants him back so is working her magic on him using their son as a tool. Making life more complex is the return of C.J. who is out on bond awaiting a new trial. He wants to reconcile with her.

The arranged marriage between Janya and Rishi Kapur appears ready to die as she fails to become pregnant. At the same time Wanda Gray loses her job so she opens up a pie shop with the reluctant support of her spouse Ken the cop. Finally who is newcomer Dana Turner, accompanied by her daughter Lizzie, and why does she seem interested in a secret that Pete Knight may be able to help her with.

As with the first Deloche drama (see Happiness Key), Fortunate Harbor is a warm contemporary BFFs tale in which the cottage crowd comes across as a family supporting one another. The story line digs deep into the ensemble cast to include those above and grandmother-granddaughter Alice Brook and Olivia Symington. Although the profound character driven story line reads at times like a series of interrelated vignettes, readers will enjoy the engaging second look at the residents of seaside cottage community (obviously written before the oil spill).

Harriet Klausner

Fortunater Harbor is the follow up of Happiness Key, and Emilie Richards did a great job writing both. If you like stories about women, friendship, alittle mystery, and a good read try both. Again Amazon was able to find me the follow up book.

This is the sequel to Happiness Key. Tracy is facing some challenges with her relationship with Marsh- between his ex-wife returning and Tracy thinking she is seeing her ex-husband in the bushes, their relationship is on the rocks. When she finds out that CJ has been released from prison, she realizes that he really is lurking around and trying to worm his way back into her life. Her friends and tenants have their own issues. Wanda's restaurant changes hands and she quits in disgust over the mismanagement and decides to sell her delicious pies for a living. Rishi and Janya are trying to have a baby and Janya worries that her husband is disappointed in her. Added to the mix is Dana and her young daughter, who seem to have a transient lifestyle and a hidden past. While Wanda provides most of the comic relief, Dana provides the mystery for the group to solve. Add a handsome stranger and there is a touch of romance as well. It was a fun, beach style read.

This is a sequel to Happiness Key by Emilie Richards. This book picks up where lst left off. Great characters, and moves very smoothly. I enjoyed all the women in the book. Great.