Review: Butterfly Bayou

Butterfly Bayou by Lexi Blake
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The start of a new series from Lexi Blake is a must read. When it comes character development, Ms. Blake is a virtuoso at creating tormented protagonists. Lila Daley is a goal oriented and strong willed woman who basically raised her siblings due to her absent drug addict mother. When a child is straddled with heavy responsibility, it changes them. For some, they become depressed and break. For others, they are turned into forged steel. Lila has been tempered under hard conditions, survived and excels at her job as a trauma nurse.

The thing with people who are so successful and especially ones who feel responsible for other people's lives, when they fall or feel they have failed, it destroys them. For Lila, her guilt at not saving a life, one dear to her, wreaks havoc with her self-identity. Her response is a complete change in her life. This is where the story starts with a big boom.

I love how Lila's straightforward manner is out of place in a small rural town of Papillon Louisiana. Whilst Lila may be a Southern girl, these town out "Southern" her in some of the most "bless your heart" ways. My favourite is the slight of receiving cookies as a welcoming gift. Even if everyone else in town is horrified by the slight, Lila doesn't care because she loves cookies. Her response and personality is completely out of place with Papillon at first. But at the heart of it, she is one of them. It just takes them a little bit of time to warm up to her eccentricities.

There are so many traits of Lila I love. She is not perfect. She is a broken person trying to survive and get better. Her painful experiences make her ideal to help see other situations which others turn a blind eye. Other people like, Armie, a small town Sherriff who is done with the fast city life. I have mixed feelings for Armie as the love interest for Lila. Usually, I love Ms. Blake's male characters and find the female ones a bit lacking. In this story, I found Armie to be lacking in so many ways and not good enough for Lila. Lila is amazing and Armie stifles her with some unconscious chauvinistic condescension. Lila is made of sterner stuff and immediately volleys it back at him. Whilst I appreciate the sexual chemistry between them. I kind of wanted Rene to win Lila out from under Armie's nose.

This story is appealing for me more than the multilayered characters and the romance. It is the sense of community, bonding and friendship that pulls me in. Ms. Blake's most powerful talent in her storytelling is the sense of belonging she creates for her characters. And through her characters, the reader vicariously experiences this magical feeling. This contemporary romance is highly recommended to romance readers who love heartbreaks that mend into a happily ever after.

*provided by Edelweiss