When I read that this story took place on the Gulf Coast, I had to read it. That’s my stomping grounds and I had to see if I recognized anything. Then I learned that the main character, Savannah, lived in Michigan. That’s where I was born. It was like a sign, telling me I’d love this book. And I did.
So kick off your flip-flops, grab a cool beverage, and check into The Gull Motel. Enjoy the fun excerpt and my review, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway.
The Gull Motel
by Amie Denman
My Review
Savvy needs a vacation. She’s earned it after finishing college, top or her class in hotel hospitality and management. She’s applied for a job at The Grand Chicago, a posh hotel, and decides to cool her heels in Florida while she waits for their decision.
From the moment Savvy arrived at her Uncle Mike’s and Aunt Carol’s place, The Gull Motel in Barefoot Key, I felt at home. I live on the Gulf Coast and there are many of these little beachside motels. Painted in bright colors, like the aqua blue of the Gull, they call to me and are my favorite places to stay.
Savvy’s Uncle Mike greets her with a big hug and her Aunt Carol breaks out the Margarita mixer. Now that’s true southern hospitality.
She barely has time to settle in before her aunt and uncle need to leave. Carol’s mother got arrested for stealing the neighbors grapes and they need to go get her out of trouble. Savvy agrees to run the motel while they are gone, anticipating they’ll be back from Michigan in a week or so. How hard can it be with an established clientele and long-serving staff? Plus there’s Rita, the receptionist, described as” thirty-something with the sun damage of a sixty-something sailor.”
Savvy’s given permission to improve the motel without changing anything. Hmm, there’s a challenge.
The other challenge is sexy Skip McMcComber, the proud new owner of the bar next door. Savvy and Skip have a long history as she spent many summers at the motel while growing up. Last year they mixed more than Maragarita’s and haven’t spoken since.
Things have changed in Barefoot Key. Big business is buying up property and somethings fishy.
A week turns into several and Savvy stays busy, drumming up business and sparring with Skip. She keeps saying her stay is only temporary. Who’s she trying to convince?
Everything about this book was fun. I loved the descriptions of the motel and town. I live in a small single tax colony on the bay and it all felt familiar. How the small business owners pulled together to help each other. How employees and employers were also friends and their lives intertwined.
I can’t say I had a Skip McComber but I bet someone around here did. Skip and Savvy had me snorting with laughter as they mixed it up. I had my fingers crossed for Skip. He worked on her, wearing her down, and an opportune hurricane helped his efforts.
I wanted to mention the characters. They were funny and flawed. You could come to my town and meet people very similar to the ones the author created. They felt genuine, familiar, like someone I knew.
The Gull Motel charmed me, tickled me, and made me view my town through new eyes. I had to finish reading it outside by the pool so I could lie back afterwards, close my eyes, feel the suns rays on my face, and listen to the gulls overhead. Made me smile.
5 Stars
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A scene with Savvy and Skip that made me laugh out loud:
“I know a lot about fixing things,” he said.
Of course he did. He had the benefit of owning a penis, a wonderful device imparting knowledge about cars, computers, pool pumps, and probably the space shuttle.
And this description of Rita, the receptionist:
An experienced multi-tasker, Rita could probably smoke a cigarette, do her nails, and handle three guest complaints at the same time.
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BLURB:
Savvy Thorpe needs a vacation. Finally finished with college, she heads to her favorite shabby motel on Florida’s Gulf Coast where her aunt and uncle always save her room twenty-four. She quickly finds out, though, that The Gull Motel is not just her home away from home. It’s hers to manage while her aunt and uncle take an extended trip.
Skip McComber, The Gull’s former maintenance man, has been working on Savvy’s nuts and bolts for years. Now the new owner of the bar next door, his mission is to renovate a pirate bar while being a walking temptation for the girl he can’t get off his mind.
For Savvy, keeping her cool running a motel in Florida heat is one thing, but navigating the steamy waters of a former fling takes a whole other kind of savvy. In addition to the motel and the man next door, Savvy stumbles on a plot to swindle land from the residents of Barefoot Key. Devalued properties tumble like dominoes until Savvy musters her colorful crew from The Gull Motel to make the pillagers walk the plank.
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Enjoy this fun excerpt!
Day four of what I had planned as a Gulf Coast vacation had me perspiring in the pool shed and wondering what I should do.
“Need any help?”
I whipped around, blood rushing from surprise and something else. Of course I knew the voice. Skip McComber leaned against the frame of the open shed door. Shirtless. Wearing low slung jeans and a grin that registered somewhere between caution and amusement.
He looked like a man who knew how to run a pool pump. From experience, I knew he could handle a lot more than that.
“I’m fine,” I said, trying for cheerful dismissal in my tone. “Just taking a look around.”
“Taking stock of your new property.”
“Temporary property.”
“Since it’s your place now and all,” he said, disregarding my comment, “looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”
A mild earthquake rolled under my sternum and sent shockwaves from its epicenter. Maybe I’d have better luck with the space shuttle launch pad configuration than I would handling Skip.
“Temporary,” I repeated.
He nodded, continuing to appraise me with his look. Perhaps appraisal was too glamorous a word. He was looking at me like a cat who’d just opened the bird cage and was wondering how much fun he could have with the bird.
Skip had been rattling my cage since we were both sixteen. Every time I came to visit my aunt and uncle for a vacation, an added perk had been the endorphin boost from their local boy turned maintenance man. A skinny handsome kid, he had matured every time I came back to the Gull until he was the full-blown man standing in front of me.
“I know a lot about fixing things,” he said.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Amie Denman lives in a small town in her native Ohio with her husband and sons. Her two cats and large yellow labrador are kind enough to share a sunny office where she lets her imagination run wild. Reading books was her favorite escape as a child, and growing up four houses away from the community library encouraged her addiction. When she’s not reading or writing, she enjoys walking and running outside. The helpless victim of a lifetime of curiosity, she’s been known to chase fire trucks on her bicycle just to see what’s going on. Amie believes that everything is fun: especially roller coasters, wedding cake, and falling in love.
Amie is the author of five contemporary romance novels:
The Gull Motel
Blue Bottle Beach
Her Lucky Catch
Her Lucky Prize
Will Work for Love
He’s on Her Trail
Please visit her at:
Purchase Links
Amazon ~ Smashwords ~ All Romance ebooks ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Turquoise Morning Press
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Amie will be awarding print copies of her three Barefoot novels from Turquoise Morning Press: Blue Bottle Beach, Will Work for Love, and The Gull Motel to one randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour (US ONLY).
Click on the Rafflecopter below to enter.
Click on the banner below to follow the tour. And make sure you comment. The more you comment, the more chances to win!
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