Three Makes a Family: A Clean Romance

I've had the opportunity to read several books in Cari Lynn Webb's City by the Bay series, and I have to say that this one was my favorite so far. Molly and Drew are old friends and fate seems to have brought them together again, as Molly has moved back to the area with her daughter and Drew is in need of a good lawyer to help him clear his name. You can tell that they go way back and were close back in the day. Molly is a strong, independent woman who is doing the best that she can with her baby, since her ex has washed his hands of them both. I fell in love with Drew immediately, especially because of the way that he took to Molly's baby, Hazel. (And I just love that name!) You cannot resist a man who loves and does well with children. [And I'm not one to often comment on covers, but this is the most precious cover I've seen in a long time!] Add in the drama and mystery of trying to clear Drew's name of witness tampering charges, and you have enough lawyer action to be reminiscent of a good John Grisham novel from back in the day, with plenty of romance to fill your heart. We get to see plenty of characters from previous novels, and you have to love the friendship that all of them have maintained and how seamlessly they embrace new people into their fold. I think the only thing that tripped me up was at one point, Molly was getting into more detail about her childhood with Drew, and how that shaped her and her dreams in life. I feel like that was more for the reader's benefit, and Drew would have already known these things about Molly, considering their previous friendship. Or perhaps he was completely clueless or she just didn't want to get into all of that back then. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it isn't that big of a deal. This book definitely works as a standalone, though I do recommend the other books in the series as well. I hope we have more books in this series so that I can check in on these two! I received a requested review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Three Makes a Family is an amazing, powerful story that contains puppies, a darling baby, abuse of power, corruption, manipulating witnesses and more. Drew is the fall guy who will lose his livelihood, Molly is the old friend who wants to defend him and establish herself in a new city. Will Molly and Drew be able to clear his name or will they both go down? This is an exciting book that kept my attention from page one. The characters are well done. The intricate plot is well executed and, of course, there is a romance. I highly recommend this book.