Hadley Wells heads for home in this enjoyable summertime story of romance, rescue dogs and minor chaos. COMING HOME TO SEASHELL HARBOR after a breakup with a screen star, the Hollywood publicist is uncomfortable around reporters. She just wants to lay low until the media forget about the ill-fated relationship. Summer with her family and beloved Grandma will help her sort out her emotions and help family too.  
 
Seashell Harbor is changing, of course. Hadley’s grandmother’s boarding kennels known as Pooch Palace is almost empty. It turns out to be just as well, as the lady falls and breaks her hip. Hadley gets this news on arrival. If she can’t come up with a business plan for the downtown location, it will be sold to a neighbor. That’s unwelcome news, as retiring top footballer Tony Cammareri is anticipating starting a restaurant in the Victorian building. Seventeen years ago, Cam and Hadley were high school sweethearts, but they broke up and went separate directions in life. Now, all they seem to have in common is love of rescue dogs, their families, and the developing town.
 
While I enjoyed the adventure, it does seem formulaic. I thought one solution, not mentioned, would be for Hadley to take the money and set up her own enterprise on the edge of town, as dogs don’t need to be in the center, and they could have more space. But the two just had to fight over the building even when the roof needed work, and nobody mentioned anything else to bring it up to code. The insistence by her grandma that Hadley work with Cam on a charity project seems manipulative, though well-intentioned. Hadley has good friends to meet in town again, and they are some of the best characters in the tale. They encourage her to be strong and dynamic. But nobody from her other life ever gets in touch to see if she is okay or needs work. I previously read some similar romances in which the heroine is on the phone or email to contacts in her industry, and to her friends in the city.
 
Miranda Liasson has provided a lively, fun, no-stress romance to appeal to pet lovers, and fans of homecoming stories and second chance relationships. COMING HOME TO SEASHELL HARBOR is first in a series introducing “Seashell Harbor”. The second book is called SEA GLASS SUMMER, about a military widow coping with restarting her life. This town of busy, caring, cheerful folks seem like a good location to choose.

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