COOPER (The Family Simon #6) by Juliana Stone-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 29, 2016

He runs, she hides. No one can do it forever…

Most of America think they have Cooper Simon figured out–he’s the playboy with no morals and a taste for married women. Cooper’s fine with that because he’s got secrets he’d rather keep buried. Who knew that spending a few months in Fisherman’s Landing would screw with his head. Or meeting a woman unlike any he’s met before, would be the key to unraveling all of his secrets…and maybe his heart.

After a horrific accident Morgan Campbell is grateful to be alive. So what if her life didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to? She lives quietly and keeps to herself. But meeting the most arrogant, infuriating, and sexy man will turn her world upside down. Because not only is Cooper Simon out of her league, he’d never be interested in someone like her. Can she be brave enough to step out of the box and reclaim the woman she once was? Or is she doomed to live in the shadows forever…

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REVIEW: COOPER is the sixth and final installment in Juliana Stone’s contemporary, adult THE FAMILY SIMON romance series focusing on the Simon family of New England- a family reminiscent of the Kennedy clan with their money, power and political aspirations. This is writer Cooper Simon, and Morgan Campbell’s story line.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Cooper and Morgan) COOPER focuses on the building relationship between Cooper Simon- a writer and all around playboy, and Morgan Campbell- a young woman whose life and Olympic dreams were destroyed by an horrific accident that left our heroine scarred both inside and out. When Cooper’s sister in law Charlie hires a cleaning service to help around the house, Cooper struggles with his attraction to the woman who hides a multitude of secrets behind baggy clothes and an air of independence. Several off-hand comments by Cooper find our heroine walking away without a second glance only to be rehired to ‘catalogue and search’ the attic of the old home that Cooper now owns. What ensues is the building relationship between Cooper and Morgan, and the secrets both keep hidden from one another.

The relationship between Cooper and Morgan is one of immediate attraction but each has been burned by a relationship in the past. Morgan’s life spiraled out of control on an icy road that claimed someone close; Cooper’s self-imposed seclusion pits the writer against the man when his muse suddenly goes quiet. The $ex scenes are intimate and romantic.

There secondary and supporting characters include Cooper’s mother, as well as his brother Maverick and sister in law Charlie. We are also introduced to Morgan’s long-suffering father Ryan Campbell, a man who lost so much more the night Morgan’s life was destroyed.

The world building focuses on the Simon family dynamics: the close-knit family whose matriarch comes to visit with disheartening news, and the brothers whose life in the spotlight is not conducive to a normal life or a relationship kept hidden from the media limelight. Cooper and Morgan both have demons in the past, and it is these demons who continue to control their future.

COOPER is the final chapter in Juliana Stone’s THE FAMILY SIMON- a family with prestige, power, wealth, and political connections that make for some entertaining times. Cooper and Maverick’s story lines focus on the extended Simon family wherein their connections to the powerful elite make fair game for the paparazzi and media giants. The premise is emotional and heartbreaking as two people struggle with betrayal and loss; the characters are colorful and charismatic; the romance is a second chance for two people whose lives were diverted down differing paths only to find one another when they needed it the most.

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Reviewed by Sandy