Reviewed by: E
He’s about to make his own luck.
Ten years ago, Beau Dumont made the biggest mistake of his life by letting his high school sweetheart, Devyn Mauvais, slip through his fingers. Now the reformed bad boy will stop at nothing to get her back. Even if it means tricking her into taking a job on his family’s riverboat, The Belle of the Bayou.
When Devyn’s old flame offers her a stint at the boat’s day care center, she sees it as a chance to prove she isn’t just the descendant of Louisiana’s most infamous voodoo queen. Besides, it beats leading ghost tours around New Orleans. Yet when it comes to Beau, Devyn’s all business. She won’t give the sweet-talking playboy another chance to break her heart.
But there’s no escaping temptation in such close quarters, and Beau won’t be satisfied with a few hot nights with the girl he’s always loved. As he strives to make Devyn remember the good times, will his passion and heart be enough to regain her trust?
This blurb came from Goodreads
A while ago I read the first book in this series and while I thought it had some problems I found I liked a couple of the supporting characters enough to go ahead and request the second. I still thought the idea behind lovers turned enemies, a curse impacting generations, and resulting star-crossed lovers who were their own worst enemies intriguing.
Beau and Devyn were high school sweethearts and then he suddenly disappeared. When he showed back up and attempted to get on the good side of the Mauvais sisters Devyn was having nothing to do with him. He kept making overtures and she kept rejecting him. At first I thought it was just because of the curse but as I kept reading and Devyn revealed more of what was behind her resistance I really became invested in wondering how this story was going to turn out.
Devyn still believed in the family power and continued to practice on the side but she was having some financial difficulties. She spent most of her savings helping her sister establish the bakery of her dreams and refused to ask for help in return. As a result she was behind on just about everything – car, house to the point where the repo-man was looking for her car and her landlord had run out of extensions to give her. In desperation she was willing to consider a job as a tour guide/attraction peddling her grandmother’s reputation. Then Beau rescued her from a mortifying situation and in return she took a temporary job on the Dumont riverboat.
Beau grew up over the 10 years he was gone. He fled from Devyn, his hometown, and his dysfunctional family to join the military. Returning to help his brother on the family riverboat he had a ringside view of his brother’s rocky romance. Yet seeing the “curse” was broken through hard work and faith, he decided to go after what he really wanted, Devyn. Only it wasn’t quite as easy as he thought it would be.
I enjoyed watching Beau and Devyn circle each other and how neither one had the higher ground. Each used their married siblings as a sounding/venting board showing how family relationships remained key. I thought it was touching to see Beau try to rekindle their old relationship while encouraging Devyn to strive for her dreams instead of settling. Devyn on the other hand was trying to resist Beau while succeeding at her temporary job. I laughed several times as Beau would realize Devyn’s seemingly change of heart was actually a change of tactics as she tried to safeguard her heart.
I thought Make You Remember was a much stronger book. The characters seemed more developed and the pacing of their second chance romance was lovely. Once again the h/h had to take a chance and have faith if they were going to succeed in breaking the curse and their own past history. They had to work for their HEA which made it seem much more satisfying for me to read.
I give Make You Remember a B