In the second installment of USA Today bestselling author Olivia Dade’s Harlot’s Bay series, a mistaken obituary leads to the reunion of two former high school crushes. Sparks fly in this hilarious grumpy/grumpy romance, packed with Dade’s signature body positivity and a delicious amount of spice.
Karl and Molly were never together. There was a time, right after high school, where it seemed like they might finally cross the line from friends to lovers…but instead, a foolish misunderstanding meant they never spoke again. Molly went to LA and got married. Karl stayed in Harlot’s Bay and bought a bakery.
The only connection the pair has shared over the years is painfully one-sided: Now divorced, Molly narrates monster romance audiobooks, and Karl is an ever-diligent listener, clinging to his only piece of the one that got away.
Still, Molly hasn’t totally left Harlot’s Bay behind. When she hears that Karl’s obituary has run in the local paper, unexpected grief prompts her to hop on the next flight to Maryland…where she finds Karl very much alive, the victim of nothing but an accidental obituary.
As the pair reunite, they finally hash out their missed connection. True, Molly isn’t quite ready to trust again, but Karl is determined to prove himself worthy of her faith and devotion. And as her remaining time in Harlot’s Bay ticks down, Molly, the habitual cynic, just might find that Karl, the cranky town curmudgeon, is impossible to leave behind a second time.

My Review:

There are towns named Climax in Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia, and those are just the ones that are officially incorporated. There are towns named Intercourse in Alabama and Pennsylvania. Why couldn’t there be a town named Harlot’s Bay in Maryland? Why shouldn’t there be come to that? And why shouldn’t the town lean ALL THE WAY into their name? Think of the opportunities!

The first book in this series, At First Spite, definitely put the ‘harlot’ in Harlot’s Bay. Literally. Into the air, as the FMC (female main character) broadcasts her love of extremely spicy romance over the rooftops of Harlot’s Bay by playing erotic audiobooks at high volume through the open window of her ‘Spite House.’

The FMC of THIS second book is the professional narrator of those audiobooks, Molly Dearborn, who once upon a time managed to stick a couple of years in Harlot’s Bay, long enough to graduate high school and actually make friends and put down roots. Roots that were ripped out by the, well, roots when her father’s wandering everything caught up to the family and she had to leave.

She left behind some unfinished business in the person of Karl Dean. Not an ex, not the one that got away – but more of a best friend and definitely an opportunity missed. Missed like an aching limb in spite of the twenty years and 2,500 miles that lay between them, along with her seventeen year marriage and acrimonious divorce, as well as Karl’s on-again, off-again relationship with one of their classmates.

They have history – just not the type of history or as much of it as either of them wished way back when. Still, it’s more than enough to make the news of Karl’s death hit Molly like a punch to the gut – or a kick in the head. She doesn’t even try to confirm it all that hard, she just gets on a plane from LA to Harlot’s Bay to attend his funeral.

Which is when she discovers that reports of Karl’s death, to paraphrase Mark Twain, were greatly exaggerated.

Discovering that Karl is alive after all just about brings Molly to her knees – and her heart into her sneakers. Even though they never were, he’s still the one she never got over. And very much vice versa.

Karl has a month to convince Molly that he’s worth her trust. She has a month to get this famously taciturn man to use his damn words for once in his damn life – although those cusswords wouldn’t be “damns” if Karl had even thought that sentence.

Their 20-year high school reunion is coming up, and the scene is going to be epic one way or another. The question is whether it’s going to be epic like a 90’s high school romcom or epic like a 90’s teen slasher movie.

Everyone in Harlot’s Bay has their cameras poised just waiting to capture the moment. Whatever it turns out to be.

Escape Rating A-: I wanted to say this was a romance featuring a ‘cinnamon roll’ character who also bakes delicious cinnamon rolls. But Karl is a bit too salty for that. Or it’s true if the recipe not only overdid the cinnamon but maybe included some pumpkin pie spice that went a bit too heavy on the ginger, cloves and allspice.

On the inside Karl is a marshmallow. Or, as one of his friends describes him, a Cadbury Creme Egg – “hard shell, gooey innards, very sweet, albeit somewhat off-putting to many and widely unavailable most times of the year.” That Karl is hesitant to let anyone close enough to even BE a friend, as well as his reluctance to admit that he even has actual friends, is definitely the icing on this particular cinnamon roll.

The title of this book doesn’t lie, this is very much a second chance romance. Even if they technically didn’t back in high school, they both knew that’s where they were headed if they could manage to get out of their own way – or get over their individual fears about trusting themselves and each other.

The central conflict is both freaking HUGE and totally real. Molly knows Karl can’t tell a lie to save his life, so whatever comes out of his mouth is the absolute, honest, well, everything. But he doesn’t EVER talk about his own emotions. While Molly, OTOH, has been lied to and betrayed by both her father and her douchecanoe ex-husband. Even though she admits they did – and in the case of her ex still very much DO – all their lying and betraying with words, she still needs to hear them from Karl if she’s going to uproot her whole life.

Women, in particular, are all too prone to trying to read a partner’s mind through their actions and being taken in by even scraps of affection and care. Molly’s not doing that again and Karl isn’t giving her what she needs, even though he’s damn good at giving her everything else she needs.

(I’ll fully admit that this part of the story, as important and real as it is, made its point way a whole lot faster than the page count devoted to it. It’s what made this an A- read instead of an A for THIS reader. Your reading mileage may vary.)

Still and all, I do like Harlot’s Bay quite a lot, both the town AND the people in it. At First Spite was a lot of fun and Second Chance Romance absolutely was too – even if, or especially because, it’s another book NOT to read when you’re hungry. I also adored the positive, realistic, body images AND aches and pains, not just that neither Karl nor Molly is a size zero or the male equivalent, but also the realism of pushing 40 – or 50 in the epilog – and the way that 40 and 50 push back, but that love has neither a size nor an age even when the lovers have a bit of a backache or a twinge in the knees.

In the end, I enjoyed the romance and LOVED the characters (in multiple senses of that word) in Harlot’s Bay. (I have a big soft spot in my heart for the Nasty Wenches Book Club.) I really hope we get to go back.

OMG it just hit me that the author’s paranormal romances, Zomromcom and the upcoming World’s Okayest Oracle (Reluctantly) Seeks Demon, are awfully close to the kind of books that Sadie Brazen, the monster romance author featured as a side character (so far) in the Harlot’s Bay series, writes. (Minus the finned cocks and beakgasms [not a typo, I swear].) Maybe, possibly, hopefully, one of these days we’ll have Sadie Brazen’s very own Harlot’s Bay romance to look forward to. She’s earned it, she deserves it, she’s entitled to it – and so are we!