{"id":27511,"date":"2021-07-30T08:47:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T12:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/?p=27511"},"modified":"2022-10-17T02:47:56","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T21:47:56","slug":"review-bayou-beauty-by-lexi-blake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/30\/review-bayou-beauty-by-lexi-blake\/","title":{"rendered":"Review \u2764\ufe0f Bayou Beauty by Lexi Blake"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-27511\" data-postid=\"27511\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-27511 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    \t\t\t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_bbbcac8 tb_first tf_w tf_clearfix\">\n\t    \t\t\t<div class=\"row_inner gutter-narrow col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n\t\t            <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-1 tb_49667e8 first\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module image -->\n<div  class=\"module module-image tb_7036296 rounded drop-shadow customBorderRad_top image-center auto_fullwidth tf_mw\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div class=\"image-wrap tf_rel tf_mw\">\n\t\t    <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"310\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/bayou-beauty-lexi-blake.jpg?resize=310%2C500&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-post-image wp-image-29459\" title=\"bayou-beauty-lexi-blake\" alt=\"bayou-beauty-lexi-blake\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/bayou-beauty-lexi-blake.jpg?w=310&amp;ssl=1 310w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/bayou-beauty-lexi-blake.jpg?resize=186%2C300&amp;ssl=1 186w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/bayou-beauty-lexi-blake.jpg?resize=400%2C645&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/>\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/image-wrap -->\n    \n    \t<\/div>\n<!-- \/module image --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_a1982ef customBorderRad_bottom repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Sylvie Martine was prepared to take Washington D.C. by storm, but she put that dream on hold when her beloved hometown of Papillon, Louisiana, needed her most. Now Sylvie&#8217;s the mayor of the tiny town on the bayou that holds her heart. But for Sylvie, this can only be a pit stop on the way to bigger and better things. The last thing she needs is an old love to resurface and threaten her goals.<\/span><br \/><br \/><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Rene Darois\u2019s whole life has been about serving his family\u2014no matter how much it hurts. He\u2019s used to sacrificing for his large extended family and the company his grandfather created. But he can\u2019t believe the latest demand: he needs to find a wife and quick or he could lose it all. It would be a horrible situation. But he has just the solution: his high school sweetheart. Sylvie is everything he wants in a wife\u2014smart, funny, and caring\u2014and he planned to woo her anyway.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Now he just has to convince Sylvie that their love is worth it all, or he and the bayou will lose her forever.<\/span><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-2 tb_23787e9 last\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_2d1ea91  repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25881 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smitten-recommends-banner-1.png?resize=296%2C72\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Jul 27, 2021<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Butterfly Bayou<br \/><\/em><strong>Book:\u00a0<\/strong>4<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Sensual<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Penguin Group<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong>\u00a0Berkley\u00a0<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $7.99<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<blockquote class=\"quotes\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>If she thought too long, she could come up with a hundred ways she was better off without him. She would remember that his family was terrible and that he wasn\u2019t great at expressing himself and she could do better. But he wasn\u2019t letting her go this time. She\u2019d slipped out his trap because he\u2019d had a conscience back then. Now the only thing that mattered was binding her to him.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This story has me conflicted about it because there are some really special things in here, but there are also things that drove me crazy as a reader. I did enjoy it, but there were some obvious problems that I encountered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Sylvie Martine<\/strong> and <strong>Rene Darois<\/strong> have always secretly pined for each other but were never brave enough to act on their feelings until one night right before Rene was to graduate college. He gathered up the courage to kiss her, but his better judgment won out when he decided that it was better to wait for their relationship so that she could finish school and find herself and her purpose. Ten years later, Sylvie has moved back to her hometown to act as the mayor, and that pushes her into the path of Rene quite frequently. She has mastered evading him until one day she literally walks right into him. Little does she know that Rene has a proposition for her: Marry him and help him save his company from his scheming weasel of a cousin, Charles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The things that I really loved about this book were obviously the amount of diversity that was included. It is set in a small town in Louisiana, and there were different cultures and perspectives incorporated. Louisiana is absolutely a melting pot of different nationalities so that was really special. I adored the supporting characters. Cricket, Louis, Delphine, and Marcelle were all super fun to read about. They were so funny. I laughed out loud at the number of times it was mentioned that Marcelle was going to \u201csage\u201d someone. \u00a0It was the main characters and the villains that I had such a problem with.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">First, Sylvie and Rene needed some work to be more well-rounded. I felt like I barely knew anything about either of them. This caused an issue because I stopped caring about their romance. Their dialogue was so repetitive, and they were in their heads a lot. I kept reading the same excuses from them about why their marriage wouldn\u2019t work or why they couldn\u2019t love each other. It got a little excessive. On top of that, Rene\u2019s family was awful besides his mother. There were so many of them, and they were all just over the top loud and whiny. I know Charles is a villain, but just the way he was in the end really turned me off. I had a problem dealing with how unnecessary all that extra drama felt. I wish that someone would have edited half of them out because they were a headache.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I think that fans of small-town romance authors such as <em><strong>Susan Mallory<\/strong><\/em> or <em><strong>Robin Carr<\/strong><\/em> may want to give this a try but be aware you may want to reach through the story and strangle half of Rene\u2019s family.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Michelle<\/em><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_eb0616c customBorderRad repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3CDCLEf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/3yGhJDV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">iBooks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/bayou-beauty-lexi-blake\/1138019020?ean=9780593335475\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">B&amp;N<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/bayou-beauty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Kobo<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Lexi_Blake_Bayou_Beauty?id=bwEHEAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Google Play<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n            \t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t<\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sylvie Martine was prepared to take Washington D.C. by storm, but she put that dream on hold when her beloved hometown of Papillon, Louisiana, needed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,122,128,48],"tags":[146,216,217,452],"class_list":["post-27511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berkley","category-michelle","category-penguin-group","category-reviews","tag-3-stars","tag-contemporary","tag-contemporary-romance","tag-small-town-romance"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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Now Sylvie's the mayor of the tiny town on the bayou that holds her heart. But for Sylvie, this can only be a pit stop on the way to bigger and better things. The last thing she needs is an old love to resurface and threaten her goals.<br \/><br \/>Rene Darois\u2019s whole life has been about serving his family\u2014no matter how much it hurts. He\u2019s used to sacrificing for his large extended family and the company his grandfather created. But he can\u2019t believe the latest demand: he needs to find a wife and quick or he could lose it all. It would be a horrible situation. But he has just the solution: his high school sweetheart. Sylvie is everything he wants in a wife\u2014smart, funny, and caring\u2014and he planned to woo her anyway.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Now he just has to convince Sylvie that their love is worth it all, or he and the bayou will lose her forever.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smitten-recommends-banner-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p> <hr \/> <p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Jul 27, 2021<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Butterfly Bayou<br \/><\/em><strong>Book:\u00a0<\/strong>4<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Sensual<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Penguin Group<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong>\u00a0Berkley\u00a0<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $7.99<\/p> <hr \/> <blockquote> <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>If she thought too long, she could come up with a hundred ways she was better off without him. She would remember that his family was terrible and that he wasn\u2019t great at expressing himself and she could do better. But he wasn\u2019t letting her go this time. She\u2019d slipped out his trap because he\u2019d had a conscience back then. Now the only thing that mattered was binding her to him.<\/em><\/p> <\/blockquote> <p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This story has me conflicted about it because there are some really special things in here, but there are also things that drove me crazy as a reader. I did enjoy it, but there were some obvious problems that I encountered.<\/p> <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Sylvie Martine<\/strong> and <strong>Rene Darois<\/strong> have always secretly pined for each other but were never brave enough to act on their feelings until one night right before Rene was to graduate college. He gathered up the courage to kiss her, but his better judgment won out when he decided that it was better to wait for their relationship so that she could finish school and find herself and her purpose. Ten years later, Sylvie has moved back to her hometown to act as the mayor, and that pushes her into the path of Rene quite frequently. She has mastered evading him until one day she literally walks right into him. Little does she know that Rene has a proposition for her: Marry him and help him save his company from his scheming weasel of a cousin, Charles.<\/p> <p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The things that I really loved about this book were obviously the amount of diversity that was included. It is set in a small town in Louisiana, and there were different cultures and perspectives incorporated. Louisiana is absolutely a melting pot of different nationalities so that was really special. I adored the supporting characters. Cricket, Louis, Delphine, and Marcelle were all super fun to read about. They were so funny. I laughed out loud at the number of times it was mentioned that Marcelle was going to \u201csage\u201d someone. \u00a0It was the main characters and the villains that I had such a problem with.<\/p> <p style=\"text-align: justify;\">First, Sylvie and Rene needed some work to be more well-rounded. I felt like I barely knew anything about either of them. This caused an issue because I stopped caring about their romance. Their dialogue was so repetitive, and they were in their heads a lot. I kept reading the same excuses from them about why their marriage wouldn\u2019t work or why they couldn\u2019t love each other. It got a little excessive. On top of that, Rene\u2019s family was awful besides his mother. There were so many of them, and they were all just over the top loud and whiny. I know Charles is a villain, but just the way he was in the end really turned me off. I had a problem dealing with how unnecessary all that extra drama felt. I wish that someone would have edited half of them out because they were a headache.<\/p> <p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I think that fans of small-town romance authors such as <em><strong>Susan Mallory<\/strong><\/em> or <em><strong>Robin Carr<\/strong><\/em> may want to give this a try but be aware you may want to reach through the story and strangle half of Rene\u2019s family.<\/p> <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Michelle<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3CDCLEf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/3yGhJDV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iBooks<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/bayou-beauty-lexi-blake\/1138019020?ean=9780593335475\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">B&amp;N<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/bayou-beauty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kobo<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Lexi_Blake_Bayou_Beauty?id=bwEHEAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29462,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27511\/revisions\/29462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}