Home to Cypress Bayou

by Susan Sands

Formats

Included in Subscription

It’s not true that you can’t go home again, but do you want to? Paris gallery owner Leah Bertrand returns to her historic, moss-draped Louisiana hometown to fulfill a deathbed promise to her friend and mentor. She’s been matched as a bone marrow donor to a stranger, yet the match is so close that doctors suspect a family relationship. But how? Leah’s family has always seethed with drama, but this visit home promises secrets as deep, dark, and mysterious as the water in Cypress Bayou. And then her ex arrives, and Leah realizes the feelings and secrets she buried years ago have come back to haunt her. Dr. Jake Carmichael returns to Cypress Bayou after years away and is shocked to see Leah, his childhood sweetheart and first love, back in town and on his patient roster. The sparks still burn, but when he tries to discuss what went wrong and perhaps rebuild their relationship, Leah refuses. Jake’s not ready to give up on their future together. But Leah fears she has even more to lose this time…

Formats

Open reader Upgrade Account

Included in Subscription

Book Details

Genre

Women’s Fiction

Subgenre

Women's Romance Fiction

Series

Louisiana • Book 1

Audience

Adult

Bell Peppers

🫑🫑

Profanity

1 None

Violence

1 None

Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco

1 None

Publication Date

May 31, 2022

Language Versions

English

Fiction Form

Novel

About the Author

Susan Sands grew up in a real life Southern Footloose town, complete with her senior class hosting the first ever prom in the history of their tiny public school. Is it any wonder she writes Southern small town stories full of porch swings, fun and romance?Susan lives in suburban Atlanta surrounded by her husband, three young adult kiddos and lots of material for her next book.

Small Town Romance

This book is described as Southern Romantic Fiction. Not only does the book take place in the (American) South, but the author describes details and traditions that are unique to Southern culture. Perhaps most charmingly, the reader doesn’t just get the love story of one couple. The reader is treated to several other mini-stories of individuals and couples whose lives are intertwined with the main couple.

𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙮:
The main couple, Leah and Jake, enjoy a long standing relationship until life circumstances, careers, and a secret separate them by an ocean. They are each secretly still in love with the other.

When Leah returns to Cypress Bayou from Paris to be a bone marrow donor, she is such a close match to the recipient, that the doctors suspect she may be a blood relative. Somehow this does not remain a secret and this opens up an unexpected can of worms for several people, thus creating more storylines!
Meanwhile Leah and Jake eventually rediscover each other.

Told against the beautiful backdrop of Southern Louisiana and New Orleans, the reader can almost smell the magnolias and taste the beignets! The story alternates between Leah’s and Jake’s perspectives. There are two more books in the series coming out soon and I am looking forward to reading them!

Read this if you like slow-burn, small town romance stories.

My thanks to @susansandsauthor for my digital copy. My thoughts are my own.

I love these characters, this book, and this series!

This is my review of Susan Sands’ Home to Cypress Bayou, book #1 in her Louisiana four book series. I have not read this series in order, but I have been enthralled by each story. This story is both a romance and a very well-crafted mystery. It involves the forever romance of gallery owner Leah Bertrand and Dr. Jake Carmichael. They grew up in the small Louisiana town of Cypress Bayou. Their romance has not been an easy journey and Leah currently lives in Paris. The mystery begins early and evolves throughout the story. It involves the Bertrand family and the politically connected Keller family.

Leah sadly had a mentor who passed from cancer. This resulted in Leah registering as a bone marrow contributor. Surprisingly, she receives a call asking her to return home to Cypress Bayou and contribute to a very sick lady. Leah returns, but she’s unable to avoid Jake. She needs his help medically to assist with her bone marrow donation, but Leah has been avoiding Jake for two years. He tries repeatedly to rekindle their romance and she repeatedly shuts the door. Jake has lost his forever love and his best friend.

The family dynamics of the Bertrands, the Kellers, and Jake’s family, the Carmichaels are crazy at best. Each family has loving normal members, crazy… definitely in need of professional help members and mean as snake members. Leah being home energizes old animosities between various members, and everyone wonders how Leah can be a perfect match for an unknown person.

The author does a wonderful job throughout a fast-paced series of events to untie this knot involving many individuals, thus exposing old secrets and betrayals. Will Jake and his brother Tanner negate the evil of their father Carson? Will the Keller family and the Bertrand family survive the exposure of truth? Will Allison, the critically ill person, respond to treatment and regain her health? What does the present and future hold for Leah and Jake? This story was wonderfully original, and very well crafted. My only request: Please make this a twelve-book series minimum in place of its current four book status. My rating: 5 STARS!

Great read!

Loved this one, as much as all of this author’s books!

Southern fiction that will steal your heart!

Thank you so much to @susandsauthor @katerockbooktours and @tulepublishing for my gifted copy of Home To Cypress Bayou and the opportunity to be on this incredible book tour. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.

Calling all Southern fiction lovers, family drama readers, and fans of writers like Ashley Farley and Lauren K. Denton: Have I got a book for you!

When Leah Bertrand, Louisiana native and co-owner of an art gallery in Paris, France, receives the call across the globe that she is a blood and bone marrow transplant match for a patient in her home state, she can't believe it. Though her roots, family, and memories are back in Cypress Bayou, her heart doesn't know if it can handle going back. Especially because her first love and ex, Jake Carmichael - the one she dreamt of forever with - is still there.

Full of long-held secrets, family both blood and found, strong female relationships, well-developed characters, picturesque descriptions of the bayous and New Orleans, mouth-watering food, a and perhaps a second chance at love, Home to Cypress Bayou will absolutely pull you in and steal your heart. I completed this book in two sittings, and even when I was busy, I was trying to cram in pages any second I could because I was completely hooked! Susan's writing not only flows beautifully, but completely envelops you in the story, and it kept me up reading well past my bedtime!

Home To Cypress Bayou is my first Susan Sands book, but Susan and Kate, sign me up for Book 2 of this series because I am 100 percent in! Friends, read this book and then come chat with me and wait with bated breath for Book 2 in August!