Into the Tide

Cottonwood Cove Series, Book 1

By: Laura Pavlov

Narrated by: Connor Crais, Mackenzie Cartwright

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

She’s my best friend’s little sister. Completely off-limits. But every man has his breaking point.

Lila James is my best friend’s little sister, and I’ve always looked out for her.
She's five years younger than me, and when she left for college, she was just a kid.
But now she’s home for the summer—and she’s definitely not a kid anymore.
She’s beautiful, smart, and everything I didn’t know I needed.
Dark eyes. Long wavy hair. And legs that are meant to be wrapped around me.
I'm the guy who likes to have a good time.
Keep things light.
When her brother asks me to hire her at my restaurant, it's a no-brainer.
There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her.
Until she asks me for one more favor.
She wants me to be her first.
Take her V-card.
Go where no man has gone before.
Her words, not mine.
And damn, if I don’t want to go there more than I’ve ever wanted anything.
She's only here for the summer, and she says it will be our secret.
It’s temporary.
We’ll go back to being just friends at the end of summer.
She promises that she won’t fall for me.
She knows better.
But Lila isn’t the one I'm worried about.

**This is book one in the Cottonwood Cove Series. Each one can be read as a complete standalone. A HEA is guaranteed!**

Cottonwood Cove Series:
Into the Tide
Under the Stars
On the Shore
Before the Sunset
After the Storm

©2023 Laura Pavlov (P)2023 Laura Pavlov

Hugh is dreamy

Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 /5
Spice Level: 🌶🌶🌶/5
Recommend: Yes
Re-read/ re-listen: Yes
Trope: Brother's best friend/ Boss-Employee.
Narrators: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5. Connor Crais and McKenzie Cartwright

Characters:
Hugh Reynolds (cousin if Dylan from Honey Mountain Series) & Lila James (Travis James, little sister and Hugh's best friend)
Story:
Hugh Reynolds is super amazing. He puts his family first. He puts pretty much everyone he cares about first. He runs his family businesses and does not hesitate to include Lila in whatever she needs. He cares deeply about her. I mean, it's his best friends little sister. How can he not care.... Lila James doesn't know how to live in the moment. She is so busy on the go and running from how people perceive her, too busy proving she made something of herself, she has forgotten to live.
Favorite parts:
The family banter, I loved how effortless and how fun the Reynold's family is. It really makes me super excited to read the rest of the siblings. I loved the check boxes that Lila had. ALSO!!! the nick names. Sigh** Snow and Bear! Loved this. It was so sweet. I really do enjoy how Laura uses unique nick names for her characters
Thoughts:
This book was super sweet. I was a little iffy with it. I didn't immediately love it like the Honey Mountain series. Which surprised me. I really enjoyed the connection between all the characters, the chemistry thT built between Hugh and Lila. There wasn't a lot of conflict, which I appreciated. It honestly was a sweet, fun love story. I did get slightly annoyed with the constant reference of hears best friends sister and virgin. And at one point, I did not like Lila's friends. BUUUTTTTT I still highly enjoyed this book. I can't wait for the next one. I will be revisiting this town again.

Narrators:
The Narrators were excellent!!! they are so fun and listening to Connors voice is so dreamy. McKenzie has such a sweet voice. I have zero issues listening to these two. I hope you enjoy

A lovely small-town romance with a dose of humour.

This is a lovely small-town romance with a dose of humour too. Laura sets the scene perfectly giving us plenty of descriptions so we know just what Cottonwood Cove is like. I definitely felt transported there. She writes about a family who just loves and supports one another and another that is fractured and falling apart. Lila and Hugh have known each other forever and after a situation with Lila’s dad, she goes to live in Hugh’s Casita. She’s just back in Cottonwood for the summer and is determined to work her way through her “Snow Day List”. There are plenty of fun things to check off and she enlists Hugh’s help. After fighting their attraction they finally give in and there’s heat and feelings galore.

I loved the family group chats. This is fast becoming one of my favourite things in books. You get a sense of the family and often the banter is hilarious. Hats off to Connor who had to voice a bunch of different characters in quick succession. That is no easy feat but he does it well. Connor brings this big ‘ol teddy-bear feel to Hugh, and I enjoyed his performance thoroughly. Mackenzie gives us the headstrong Lila determined to lose her V-card. She is youthful and sensitive but also accomplished and we see her confidence grow as the book progresses.

This was a great introduction to Laura’s writing with performances from two narrators I love to listen to. I am definitely keen to hear about the others in the family, so will be sure to hit more in this series.

Good book

Very good story. Such a sweet storyline. I will definitely listen to the next book

Can’t wait to continue

This was my book club pick for the month of June and I’m so glad I got to start this series! I loved it and I can’t wait to continue on within the series!!

A great start to this series!

I love small towns and forbidden romance and this one checked all the boxes. Brothers best friend and a funny family in a small town? I loved it! This was the first Laura book I’ve ever listened too and it sparked my love for her books.

Great small town romance

So Hugh is in love with his best friend’s little sister. Lila is back in town for the summer and together they embark on a summer bucket list. Loved this story and loved the narrators.

All the small town feels!

I loved Into the Tide, book one in the Cottonwood Cove series and am so excited for the rest of this series! The new cast of characters and the small town feel with the everyone knows everything dynamics definitely put a smile on my face.
This is Lila and Hugh’s story and these two characters were so easy to fall for. They have known each other for years since Hugh is Lila’s brother’s best friend.
Lila is in town after graduation before she heads into the city for her real job. She wants to help her dad get his life back on track and loves being back in her hometown. Hugh has hired her in the interim and has given her a place to live but the one thing neither of them expected to happen, did and it is easy to see that their chemistry is off the charts but their relationship is only supposed to be temporary and they don’t want to hurt her brother. However, the heart wants what the heart wants so, read, enjoy and see if they take the leap!
I also had the added benefit of listening to the audio version of this story and the narrators did an amazing job that absolutely added to my enjoyment of this book!

loved!!

I have had this book/series sitting on my tbr for awhile. So so so glad I finally got to it. Absolutely adored this book.

It has me giggling out loud and smiling ear to ear.

Absolutely loved Hugh and Lila.

Boring and predictable

Narrators were good but the book got really boring half way through. Had to fast forward at times. I picked this book to listen to because I listened to Georgia's book first and loved it. This book not so much.

Sweet and sexy small town romance

This is as a gem! I can’t wait for the next book in the series!