Bayou Beloved

This is a fantastic book. You never go wrong with Lexi Blake.

Bayou Beloved was my favorite of the series. I loved the overall storyline. The characters were hilarious!

I could hear Quaid's sexy, Cajun drawl in my head throughout this book. He captured my attention and my heart from the first time he stepped onto the page. He was easy to like and easy to love. The same cannot be said for Jayna, lol, because that girl made me struggle at the beginning. I couldn't figure out if she was arrogant or lost. Turns out, she's a little of both, at least in my opinion. The girl who "made it out" of her small town is back, and not totally willingly. But she grew on me as the story progressed, and by the end, I couldn't remember why we had such a rough start together. One of my very favorite things about Lexi Blake's writing is her dialogue. It's sharp and witty but can turn on a dime and be sarcastic or sweet, depending on the mood of both the characters and the author herself. Neither Quaid nor Jayna is a slouch in the words department and I often found myself laughing out loud at the way they held nothing back. Quirky characters are another draw for me in both the Bayou series, as well as others. Papillion is filled with colorful characters that liven up both the town and the main character's lives. From the ditzy young court clerk to Quaid's stuck-up mamma to the wild octogenarian, Geraldine, every citizen serves their purpose and adds color to this small Louisiana bayou town. Keep those stories coming, Lexi Blake. I'm eager to sit a spell and visit with these fine folks again real soon!

I knew that once I started laughing within the first 2 chapters that this would be a great book. Full of humor but also heart, I loved returning to Papillion again. (I've actually been going through the audiobooks of the prior stories for the last week). In this story, Jayna and Quaid have to overcome their differences and their past in order to achieve their HEA. Quaid is the rich boy who became the town lawyer while Jayna was originally from the wrong side of the tracks but she fought hard and rose above her past to become a successful lawyer, only to lose it all because of 1) doing what is right in her job which was not looked favorably upon by other lawyers and 2) because she wanted to keep her dog Luna (I immediately adored Jayna for that). Quaid felt immediate attraction to Jayna and overall, this is a hilarious and low angst story (Although I was not a fan of Jayna's mother at all and of Quaid's mom initially as well.) As always, the supporting cast added quirky fun, the cases that Quaid and Jayna covered made me laugh out loud, and there were plenty of swoons, both because of the main characters but also because of the extended cast made of multiple couples from prior books in the series. A wonderfully fun way to spend a few hours!