Review: Jewel

Jewel by Beverly Jenkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is #2 in the Grayson series. Eli and Jewel were first introduced in the book Vivid. Jewel Crowley is a resident of Grayson Grove and daughter of Adam Crowley, which is the husband of Abagail who is the mother of Eli Grayson. Eli Grayson, handsome ladies’ man is the cousin of Nate Grayson. After the decline of the town’s newspaper, Eli was approach by a Newspaper owner from D.C looking to invest in the Gazette newspaper, with the exception that he would only invest if Eli was married. Eli reached out to Jewel, to pose as his wife for one day. When I read a book, I always imagine the expressions of the characters, and when Eli asked Jewel to pose as his wife, I could see this wtf look on Jewel’s face. Like Ms. Bev would say, “like he had grown two heads.” However, the situation gets out of hand and to make things right for both him and Jewel, they legally get married. Angry and pissed off, Jewel is thinking how she got into this situation, although she always had a crush on Eli, but never intended to be married to him, so she plans to have her father and brothers build her a house, so she will have a place of her own, once she divorced Eli, once the charade was over.

Things start to get interesting when Nate’s ex-wife, Cecile shows back into town, which is also Eli’s past lover and part of the reason for Nate and his ex-wife’s breakup. Her intent was to get Eli back, especially knowing that he has a lot of money. Eli had no intentions of having anything to do with her. The guilt and regret of sleeping with his cousin’s wife was something he had a hard time forgiving himself for and erasing the shame that he carried. I like how smoothly Cecile was dealt with in the story, it made for a satisfying ending. I found the story well written and living in Michigan, I always appreciate the historical settings in Beverly Jenkins books.

Cast:
• Cross Thompson as Eli Grayson
• Andrea Bordeaux as Jewel Crowley


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