Bell of Eternity by Martina Boone #Bookreview

Title: Bell of Eternity
Author: Martina Boone
Publisher: Mayfair Publishing
Published Date: August 22nd, 2017
Genre: Adult Fiction, Romance
Page Count: 341
Format: Kindle
Source: Author and YA Gals Review Team

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
A timeless, modern romance in a magical castle in Cornwall, filled with food, memorable characters, and small town warmth, heart, and intrigue--perfect for fans of Poldark, Susanna Kearsley, Sarah Addison Allen, Nora Roberts, and Debbie Macomber.

Emma Larsen put her life on hold after the accident that left her famous mother paralyzed and cost a man his life. For four long years, Treave Nancarrow, the deceased man’s son, has often been the only friend Emma had to lean on. But when he suddenly proposes marriage after her mother’s funeral, Emma can't help being dismayed. She’s already trying to decide between transforming her home cooking hobby into a profession or going back to college. She can’t afford to jump from one commitment to another before she’s had a chance to find out what she really wants. Still, when Treave begs her to accompany him to a wedding at his family’s castle in Cornwall so he can show her how compatible they would be, how can she refuse?

She falls in love with the romantic Cornish coast, a world rich with legends, hauntings, and ancient superstitions—like the one about the ghostly bell that tolls only when a pair of lovers are destined to be together forever. When a tragedy rocks the small community and everyone pitches in to help, though, Treave seems like a different person—one Emma begins to fear. Then, too, there’s Brando MacLaren, the handsome, kilt-wearing Scotsman who shows her things she’s forgotten about herself and makes her feel adventurous and alive. But Brando has his own healing to do. He also has a secret, one he’s keeping from her. Can Emma afford to trust him with her heart? Can she trust either one of the men? An ancient Cornish legend might help guide her choice between them—if she can find the courage to believe in herself and trust her instincts.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 My Review:

"Emma couldn’t deny that fairy tales sometimes did come true. Maybe not because you wished on a stone or a star, but because you simply believed in the outcome so hard that you made it happen. Wishes could too easily turn to dust, but belief created its own reality. Fear, after all, wore many masks, and caution was one of them."

Thank you to the author for giving me a review copy in exchange for my honest review!

I read Boone's YA book compulsion (still need to read the rest of the series) and really enjoyed it, so when I saw she had a adult/na clean romance I was really intersted in reading it.

Bell of Eternity didn't dissapoint. Emma is a young woman who has taken a break from her own life/ambitions to take care of her sick mother, but now that her mom has passed away, she has to figure out what she wants to do now along with her mom leaving her some expectations in order to get her inheritance.

"Fortunes took ages to build, an instant to vanish."

The expectations though is one that Emma doesn't want right now for good reason. But with Treave who is someone that has helped her with her mom over the past few years also in her life and having expectations for her as well, things get complicated.

“People think cooking is easy, but it takes understanding thousands of different ingredients and their properties, knowing what happens when you heat them, or cool them, or combine them. Cooking is chemistry and physics and psychology and pure backbreaking work done at breakneck speed,"

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was a really quick read for me and even though it is a little bit out of my comfort zone with it being a romance book, I really liked that it was clean. As for the characters, I really loved Emma. We get to see her grow from being this person who was always in her mother's shadow to someone that is finally starting to live out her own dream and figure out what she wants to do with her life. She also stands up to someone that is incredibly overbearing and forces her into an uncomfortable situation.

"between Treave and Brando, it was Treave she associated with temper while Brando made her think of fire, of passion. Not only for food and cooking, but for life."

I suprisingly really liked her friendship into romance with a certain someone as well. It did happen rather fast, but it felt natural for a change and you could tell they really did care for eachother and were planning a possible future with one another. Also I found him fascinating with how he was able to turn his life around for the better.

"That’s what you do when you love someone. You trust and you protect, and you give them room to fly while doing everything you can to make sure that they don’t fall."

All of the side characters I did find a little confusing, but I think that had more to do with me not having read the first book before this one. I was still able to understand what was happening and enjoy all of the side stories and the friendships they all shared.

“Changing for the worse is easy. People slide into that without realizing they’ve done it. Changing for the better requires the desire to change, and understanding why you need to. Understanding why you have to for survival, sometimes. Even then it’s hard.”

As for Treave, I found him to be one of the most unlikeable character ever. Not only was he incredibly overbearing towards Emma, but he was just rude as well among several other things. I am so happy with the way this book ended and how he finally got put into his place.

I really want to read more of Boone's work now and I can't wait to get back to her YA trilogy!