Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Joshua’s Rainbow 
SERIES: Rainbow Key #1
AUTHOR: Victoria Sue
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 236 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 20, 2018
BLURB:
Rainbow Key – an idyllic island retreat off the west coast of Florida. Think wedding destination, white sandy beaches, lurve… except at the moment Joshua is struggling to pay the electricity bill, they’ve no paying customers, and even if they did they can’t afford the repairs from the devastating hurricane that struck three years ago – and to top it off they have to take in Daniel, a grumpy businessman who has been ordered by his doctor to take some time off before he has a heart attack from too much stress.
Funnily enough, Daniel owns a very expensive hotel chain that has been trying to buy the island for the past two years. Not that Joshua knows that yet, and boy are sparks gonna fly when he thinks he’s been set up.
Of course, sparks of a different kind are also soon flying between them.
Then there’s Matt who just got let out of prison, Charlie who ran away from home, and Ben, a famous model until a devastating house fire destroyed his face.
Welcome to Rainbow Key – held together by love, family, and sticky tape.
REVIEW:
It is a pretty well known trope. Rich guy who owns a hotel chain ends up on a island where a struggling hotel is barely holding on. Rich guy ends up falling for a worker/owner of said failing hotel, and things get complicated. Truths must out, and feelings will be tested.
But there is something about the way that Victoria sue wrote Daniel (our rich guy) and Joshua (our poor struggling hotel owner) that made the trope a bit more than all the rest. And while I won’t say that this book was flawless, I will say that despite the fact I went in almost convinced I had read this actual book before since the blurb sounded so familiar, I came away rather pleased with what I got.
Firstly, it was just well written. I cared about all the characters, even the secondary ones, and never felt like strangling them even when they were being stupid. And I really appreciated how this author choose to write Joshua as a overweight man. He was treated like a real human being and it was very refreshing.
I will say though that this didn’t get a higher rating because there were just too many time that the book gave into the cliche of a given situation. Had it taken a few more chances, subverted or just swerved around the expected action or situation, I would have enjoyed this a bit more. What it did didn’t make the story unreadable, but it certainly made it a bit more predictable at times, and that is a shame.
Overall, though, I really did like this. And for all that I went in expecting this book to be nothing but a rehashing of this trope, it gave me plenty to enjoy.
RATING: 
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