Three Little Words

Tess Bucek had loved and lost. Now she works at the library and has rebuilt her life. It's a satisfying life...until Conner Reed walks into it. He reminds her of things she thought she'd long forgotten. But Conner's past is haunting him. And even Tess can't make him forget the horrors her was part of. Two wounded souls find each other in this sweet story of hope, forgiveness...and of course love!Author, Carrie Alexander truly shines in this one.

Tess Bucek can't help it that she has a wild imagination. Living in the small town of Alouette on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan can be pretty boring, so the librarian escapes the monotony through reading books and using her very active imagination. Fantasy is better than reality, after all, for in reality, she's the town spinster with a deceased fiance, and no one has treated her the same since the night Jared died. Once she sees a tall, dark, and particularly handsome man lurking around in her library, she's quick to imagine that he's a smuggler...Connor Reed is no smuggler, but he;s running from the big city in search of some peace and quiet. A true crime writer, Connor inadvertently uncovers evidence that sets a notorious murderer free, and now everyone is quick to blame him for what isn;t his fault. His elderly grandfather is in a nursing home near Alouette, and Connor is determined to fix up the lighthouse his grandfather used to run before his grandfather passes away. He;d also love for his grandfather to learn how to read, and Tess seems like the perfect teacher for him. Connor doesn;t realize, though, that Tess will be the one teaching him how to live again. I really enjoyed this book and the characters in it. Connor is a great hero, but sometimes he was way too hard on himself and was a little too angst-ridden for my tastes. There was an excellent cast of secondary characters, but sometimes I got lost trying to remember who was who and what ties they had to other characters in the book. There is plenty of room for several sequels, so I am looking forward to reading those in the future! I would especially be interested in reading a story about Cassia. This book is definitely a keeper!

In Alouette off of Lake Superior, librarian Tess Bucek lets her imagination run wild when enigmatic Connor Reed enters the library where she works. She pictures him as either the hero or villain in every detective book she ever read. When he looks at a book on Lighthouses, she assumes that the handsome stranger is a Canadian smuggler or a pirate. Tess sighs as she knows that growing up in limited environment with a single depressed mother led to her runaway imagination.Connor is actually escaping the nasty taint of his role in a New York City media trial event. He selected Alouette as his haven because he spent summers as a child here with his grandfather and his elderly relative resides in a nearby nursing home. After watching her work with children, he shocks her when the thirty-nine year old visitor asks Tess to teach him to read, but he clears the mix-up as he wants her to actually help his grandfather learn to read. As Connor and Tess become acquainted they fall in love, but he is big city and she is small town making a relationship impossible except perhaps the impetus of a crusty matchmaking geriatric who loves both of them.THREE LITTLE WORDS is a fun contemporary romance starring two wonderful lead characters and charming residents of a small Michigan town. The story line is relatively simplistic yet entertaining as neither Tess nor Connor expected love, but both relish and fear it as compromise seems impossible to find. The teaching to read to an adult adds depth to Carrie Alexander's fine tale that sub-genre readers will find quite pleasant.Harriet Klausner