Before beginning this post I just wanted to mention that I was sent this book by Suzanne Stengl to give my honest review.
Book Information
Title: The Thurston Heirloom
Author: Suzanne Stengl
Publisher: Mya & Angus
Publication Date: 2016
Edition: 1st
Pages: 163
ISBN: 9780988036598
Book Summary
In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains—the resort town of Harmony, a hundred-year-old hotel . . . and a ghost. With her debts finally paid, Mariah Patrick has enough money for a Greyhound ticket south and a peanut butter sandwich. The funny thing is, once she arrives in Harmony, the town looks so welcoming—and familiar. Almost as if she's been here before. Teague Farraday, businessman, owner of Mountain Jewel Sports, and mountain guide—mostly, mountain guide—is about to leave the bus station, when something makes him turn around, and he sees the young woman stepping down from the bus. When he offers to help her with her luggage and she rejects his offer, he can’t resist following her. He needs to find out who she is . . . and why he thinks he’s met her before. (A stand-alone sweet romance.)
Book Review
Before beginning this review, I loved this book and I am really going to try and avoid spoilers, that being said sometimes I do slip and add a spoiler simply because in order to explain why I liked a piece of the book you need to know the context.
The story begins with Mariah Patrick aboard the Greyhound heading from Fort McMurray to Harmony. She was recently dumped by her fiancé and she wanted to start over. She heard the name Harmony in a dream and decided that is where she needed to be. When she arrives in Harmony we meet Teague Farraday, he is a mountain guide and business owner in Harmony. He immediately feels like he knows Mariah but she turns down his help at the bus depot.
Teague follows Mariah to the Thurston Hotel where Mariah ends up getting a job as a maid. The former manager and the still part owner Mrs. Jamieson hires her and she is convinced that she knows Mariah from somewhere. The day after she is hired, Mariah is paired with another maid Tessa to get taught the ropes. After they finish lunch Mrs. Jamieson and Mrs. Arbuckle decide to join them, and they follow them to the honeymoon sweet and help them finish getting it ready.
Somewhere between them getting the honeymoon suite ready and the honeymooners arriving Mariah figures out that the bride and groom are actually her ex-fiancé and her ex-best friend. She ends up leaving a surprise for them in the honeymoon suite. It's pretty funny actually and resourceful what she does. Her ex-fiancé and ex-best friend figure out that she is working at the hotel and demand that she be fired, she isn't fired but rather she is sent with Teague the next day so that she avoids seeing them. Teague takes her on a hike. While on this hike Mariah tells Teague a bit more about her life. She opens up to him which was really nice to see.
Due to her trying not to be seen by her ex, she is sent on another job, this time a bookkeeping job at Teague's store. However, she is not told it's his store and feels like he is creating jobs to help her out.
Mariah was staring at him. "You own this store." "I own this store. Along with my guiding business." She folded her arms. "I see." Something about the way she said that ... "You see what?" "You invented this job," she said. "For me." "No. I didn't. I need help with the books." "Then why didn't you tell me it was your business?" he drew in a deep breath, let it out. " Because I thought you'd make a fuss about me helping you out. And you..." He ran his hands over his head. Best not to finish that thought. "Yes. I am making a fuss," she said. "You don't have to invent a job for me. I can find my own job. I don't need any help." pg. 138
Even from the beginning of the book you get the sense that Mariah hates asking for help, and as you read it becomes clearer why she has those feelings. I loved that even though she really had problems asking for help, she remained a decent person when people were helping her for no reason. There are a couple of other events that happen before the book ends and because I don't want to spoil anything I guess you're just going to have to read it to find out what happens. I will say this by the end of the story Mariah acts like a different person or rather becomes her true self at least in my opinion. You also find out what the Thurston Heirloom actually is.
I loved that when describing the scenery it really felt like you were there. That you were experiencing the views alongside the characters. When a author can describe the scenery that well it really immerses the reader into the story.
Overall I loved this story and I want to read the rest of these interconnected standalones, there are 12 in total and each book represents one month. The Thurston Heirloom represents September.
Thurston Hotel Series
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