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Bayou #3
Bayou Sweetheart
Love In Bloom
For landscaper Callie Moreau, working in the gardens of Fleur House is a dream come true. Then she meets the owner, a mysterious millionaire with rumors following him wherever he goes. Callie finds herself drawn to Tomas Delacorte in spite of the darkness in his eyes. And Tomas can't resist the joy that Callie brings to his days. He could be the man Callie's always prayed for. But when Tomas's secrets come to light, and the people she's known all her life are threatened, Callie must decide if she can stand by the man who's stealing her heart.
For landscaper Callie Moreau, working in the gardens of Fleur House is a dream come true. Then she meets the owner, a mysterious millionaire with rumors following him wherever he goes. Callie finds herself drawn to Tomas Delacorte in spite of the darkness in his eyes. And Tomas can't resist the joy that Callie brings to his days. He could be the man Callie's always prayed for. But when Tomas's secrets come to light, and the people she's known all her life are threatened, Callie must decide if she can stand by the man who's stealing her heart.
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 2013
About the author
Lenora Worth
262 books341 followersLenora Worth has written 75 books for three different publishers. She reached a milestone when she received her 50th book pin from Harlequin. Her books have won both regional and national awards and she now has millions of books in print and is a NY Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author. Currently she is writing both Love Inspired and Love Inspired Suspense and Tule Publishing. Married to her childhood sweetheart, Lenora has two grown children and lives in Florida.
Pen name: Lenora Nazworth
Pen name: Lenora Nazworth
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 31, 2022
Callie and Tomas are opposite but still fall in love.
June 4, 2021
Great storyline... Excellent characters details and descriptions....Highly recommended
March 2, 2014
Callie Moreau has been hurt by her husband deserting her when she came down with cancer and she no longer trusts too many people. She has survived cancer for almost 5 years and things are looking up. Her landscape business has taken a big swing towards the good when she lands doing the gardens at Fleur House. This is a dream come true for her. Now she just has to deal with Thomas Delacorte, the owner.
Thomas has come back and purchased Fleur House which belonged to his father who never claimed him. He purchased the shipbu8ilding company and intends to shut it down in order to destroy his father's name and to show people he is back. Can he go through with his plans?
Meeting Callie is something Thomas never planned for. Can his love for her overcome his need for revenge? Can her Faith in God show him the way he needs to go? When her cancer returns, she shuts him out but he breaks down the barrier. Now will he stay for the duration?
Lenora Worth has written a great book about love and the guidance of God in a person's life. A great read.
Thomas has come back and purchased Fleur House which belonged to his father who never claimed him. He purchased the shipbu8ilding company and intends to shut it down in order to destroy his father's name and to show people he is back. Can he go through with his plans?
Meeting Callie is something Thomas never planned for. Can his love for her overcome his need for revenge? Can her Faith in God show him the way he needs to go? When her cancer returns, she shuts him out but he breaks down the barrier. Now will he stay for the duration?
Lenora Worth has written a great book about love and the guidance of God in a person's life. A great read.
April 9, 2014
Callie and Tomas meet while Callie is bringing the gardens at Fleur House to life. It's always been her dream to live at Fleur House and now she dances in the rain while excited that she gets to help make it beautiful.
The first time Tomas sees Callie, he wants to be angry but somehow she grabs his heart and won't let go. He pretends to be gruff with her but finds he's always seeking her out because there's just something about her that makes him feel alive.
But they both have their secrets and hardened hearts they have to work around and through. I enjoyed Bayou Sweetheart very much!!
The first time Tomas sees Callie, he wants to be angry but somehow she grabs his heart and won't let go. He pretends to be gruff with her but finds he's always seeking her out because there's just something about her that makes him feel alive.
But they both have their secrets and hardened hearts they have to work around and through. I enjoyed Bayou Sweetheart very much!!
February 15, 2016
Callie has beaten cancer for five years, but it took it's toll. Her marriage didn't survive. Tomas came to Fleur for vengeance, but Callie changed him. Can they weather the storm of life together? This one is a tear jerker...
December 22, 2013
My Nanny gave me this book to read - one of her favorite series. Very sweet of her...she knows I like to read. :-)
Just not my type of book...read it for Nanny! xo
Just not my type of book...read it for Nanny! xo
February 5, 2014
Loved it. Even though it wasn't a Love Inspired Suspense there was mystery involved in the story which made me really enjoy this story.
July 5, 2023
Third in the 'Bayou' series is "Bayou Sweetheart", or "story in which sweet and gentle man is forced to be grumpy against his nature by the author, then allowed him to turn into the sweet and gentle man that he already was, for the sole purpose of having a trilogy".
Not. Kidding.
The writing is good, don't get me wrong. Lenora Worth's wordsmithing is not shabby in the least. It's her stories that descend into slog-dom... or should we say 'slog-dumb'? I'm not sure.
HOW is it that we're in a Louisiana bayou, on our hands and knees in the dirt/bushes/overgrowth, and there is NARY a snake to be found?! I'm asking for a friend. Because I went to the Alabama bayous before. You know what I saw on our *ONE* walk out in nature? SIXTEEN SNAKES, I kid you not. If I wasn't on a boardwalk, I would've been back in the CAR and headed north at the first sighting. And they ain't little, non-venomous snakes, down there - THEY GOT BIG SNAKES ALONG THE WATERFRONT!!! Nasty, kill-you-on-sight snakes, not to mention gators.
There were gators in book #1. Back when we had Cajun French and gumbo, back when the story included a plethora of backwater characters and the flavor of the south shores. But not here. Here we're doing some sort of reeeeeeeeally sloooooooow 'Beauty and the Beast', except he was never a beast in the first place, which kind of defeats the theme.
No Cajun French. No flavor of the shores. No bonding with backwater characters. Sweet Mollie is a distant memory, Winnie is peripheral at best... it's all gone. And I'm left slogging thru this book I have NO DESIRE to read... for the sake of finishing a series. It's miserable. It's taking me a WEEKS, where I can read a book in two hours. It's not fun. It's not 'inspiring'.
I'm not okay.
Or happy with Lenora Worth.
Tomas is one of those cliched multi-millionaires who gets his money buying up and dismantling businesses, and also buying up old properties and flipping them. Only *THIS* time, he's bought up his father's old house and his father's old business, so... he's restoring the place to flip it, and planning on dismantling the business. Because it's... different than what he does, otherwise...?... wait, no. Nevermind.
((((sigh.))))
But then he meets *HER*. The gardener at the house. Dancing in the rain. She's in remission from breast cancer and doesn't seem to give a crap about taking care with her health, lost her husband and is jaded about relationships, but she's PERFECT... because... why, again?
And of course SHE is the reason he keeps the house. SHE is the reason he restores the business and changes his mind about dismantling it. SHE is the reason he reconciles with his father. SHE is the reason that he comes to faith in God (but not really)... and that's not how faith works, anyhow!!!!
Except he would stay away from her IRL, because his first wife had a 'disease' in substance abuse and he tried to help her thru it and failed, so... when Callie's breast cancer comes back a second time he would DEFINITELY sign right up to go thru all of that again, amIright? ((How about NO.)) If he's truly bitter/scarred emotionally and closed off? NO.
I have at least thirteen dog-ears in the book I could complain about, but... it's taken me so long to finish the dadgum thing, I have no patience for going over any of them.
Just... read the first in this series and ditch the other two. They're badly done and not worth it.
Not. Kidding.
The writing is good, don't get me wrong. Lenora Worth's wordsmithing is not shabby in the least. It's her stories that descend into slog-dom... or should we say 'slog-dumb'? I'm not sure.
HOW is it that we're in a Louisiana bayou, on our hands and knees in the dirt/bushes/overgrowth, and there is NARY a snake to be found?! I'm asking for a friend. Because I went to the Alabama bayous before. You know what I saw on our *ONE* walk out in nature? SIXTEEN SNAKES, I kid you not. If I wasn't on a boardwalk, I would've been back in the CAR and headed north at the first sighting. And they ain't little, non-venomous snakes, down there - THEY GOT BIG SNAKES ALONG THE WATERFRONT!!! Nasty, kill-you-on-sight snakes, not to mention gators.
There were gators in book #1. Back when we had Cajun French and gumbo, back when the story included a plethora of backwater characters and the flavor of the south shores. But not here. Here we're doing some sort of reeeeeeeeally sloooooooow 'Beauty and the Beast', except he was never a beast in the first place, which kind of defeats the theme.
No Cajun French. No flavor of the shores. No bonding with backwater characters. Sweet Mollie is a distant memory, Winnie is peripheral at best... it's all gone. And I'm left slogging thru this book I have NO DESIRE to read... for the sake of finishing a series. It's miserable. It's taking me a WEEKS, where I can read a book in two hours. It's not fun. It's not 'inspiring'.
I'm not okay.
Or happy with Lenora Worth.
Tomas is one of those cliched multi-millionaires who gets his money buying up and dismantling businesses, and also buying up old properties and flipping them. Only *THIS* time, he's bought up his father's old house and his father's old business, so... he's restoring the place to flip it, and planning on dismantling the business. Because it's... different than what he does, otherwise...?... wait, no. Nevermind.
((((sigh.))))
But then he meets *HER*. The gardener at the house. Dancing in the rain. She's in remission from breast cancer and doesn't seem to give a crap about taking care with her health, lost her husband and is jaded about relationships, but she's PERFECT... because... why, again?
And of course SHE is the reason he keeps the house. SHE is the reason he restores the business and changes his mind about dismantling it. SHE is the reason he reconciles with his father. SHE is the reason that he comes to faith in God (but not really)... and that's not how faith works, anyhow!!!!
Except he would stay away from her IRL, because his first wife had a 'disease' in substance abuse and he tried to help her thru it and failed, so... when Callie's breast cancer comes back a second time he would DEFINITELY sign right up to go thru all of that again, amIright? ((How about NO.)) If he's truly bitter/scarred emotionally and closed off? NO.
I have at least thirteen dog-ears in the book I could complain about, but... it's taken me so long to finish the dadgum thing, I have no patience for going over any of them.
Just... read the first in this series and ditch the other two. They're badly done and not worth it.
January 27, 2023
It was a nice story, though there were a lot of things that tripped up the flow.
The male lead, Tomas, does not seem to stay in character, going almost instantly from morose, vengeful loner to devoted, loving Christian upon seeing female lead, Callie.
Tomas and Callie are kind of fast on the heart to heart talks for people who are cautious and afraid due to past heartbreaks.
Callie tells her sister, “(Tomas and I holding hands) does not make us an item.” I disagree! An employer doesn’t just hold the hand of his landscaper!
Callie’s father has an accent, but it isn’t consistent. In some places, he says, “dat,” instead of “that,” and “dis,” instead of “this,” but he also says, “the” and “than” in the same sentences!
In several places, words or phrases were used awkwardly. Here are some of them:
“the house… shimmered with sweet light as the sun faded behind it, and the gloaming came through the fresh evening air.”
“Disturbing blue brooding eyes…Glinting. He was definitely a glinter.”
“his eyes doing a dance over her face”
“Alma hit a hand to the steering wheel…”
Callie saw something delightful. “One little gasp on that.”
“My marriage wasn’t strong enough to sustain cancer.”
“Tomas shot her a quick gaze…”
“her floral scarf twinkling with sequined clarity..”
“Callie woke out of a lace-covered sleep.” In the hospital.
At one point Callie’s name popped up as “Cassie.”
The ring (You knew a ring was coming. This is a romance, not a tragedy.) was described as “sweet.”
There were several others, but you get the point.
Contains: Premarital kissing, cancer, mentions of drug addiction.
The male lead, Tomas, does not seem to stay in character, going almost instantly from morose, vengeful loner to devoted, loving Christian upon seeing female lead, Callie.
Tomas and Callie are kind of fast on the heart to heart talks for people who are cautious and afraid due to past heartbreaks.
Callie tells her sister, “(Tomas and I holding hands) does not make us an item.” I disagree! An employer doesn’t just hold the hand of his landscaper!
Callie’s father has an accent, but it isn’t consistent. In some places, he says, “dat,” instead of “that,” and “dis,” instead of “this,” but he also says, “the” and “than” in the same sentences!
In several places, words or phrases were used awkwardly. Here are some of them:
“the house… shimmered with sweet light as the sun faded behind it, and the gloaming came through the fresh evening air.”
“Disturbing blue brooding eyes…Glinting. He was definitely a glinter.”
“his eyes doing a dance over her face”
“Alma hit a hand to the steering wheel…”
Callie saw something delightful. “One little gasp on that.”
“My marriage wasn’t strong enough to sustain cancer.”
“Tomas shot her a quick gaze…”
“her floral scarf twinkling with sequined clarity..”
“Callie woke out of a lace-covered sleep.” In the hospital.
At one point Callie’s name popped up as “Cassie.”
The ring (You knew a ring was coming. This is a romance, not a tragedy.) was described as “sweet.”
There were several others, but you get the point.
Contains: Premarital kissing, cancer, mentions of drug addiction.
October 30, 2022
Even though this was a short, easy read, it took me forever to finish it. I just couldn't get into the book. I think that the beginning was slow. The characters were likable, so I forced myself to push through it. I had a hard time buying the love between the two characters. Still, since I liked both characters, I didn't mind suspending my disbelief.
June 12, 2017
This is a very sweet romance. The story is clean, positive, and uplifting. I have enjoyed other books by Lenora Worth and was pleased that I wasn't disappointed in this one. I was able to read while waiting at the dr office.
July 7, 2017
Warning you'll need some Kleenex in some parts of this story. Great writing, believable characters, wonderful falling in love story.
September 17, 2023
This is easily my favorite book in this series! Just a beautiful sweet story of deep hurts and God's healing touch.
April 18, 2014
I hadn't read a Lenora Worth romance for a while. I still think that her Love Inspired The Wedding Quilt is a classic. And I was so delighted to read another of her romances. Bayou Sweetheart seems to be the third in a series, but it doesn't say so on the book. But occasionally sisters of the heroine would step on stage and some references were made to their recent romances. That didn't detract from the story and made me curious about them.
Lenora is a NY Times best-selling author and I know why. THE GIRL CAN WRITE! Her descriptions are lovely. Her hero is yummy but dark and mysterious. Her heroine was a free spirit with a wounded heart. It almost had the flavor of a Harlequin Presents romance with its dark commanding hero.
The only reason
didn't get 5 stars from me is that I rarely give 5 stars. And I thought that the plot needed a bit more action. But that might just be me. I tend to favor a fast-moving plot. And I had to love the opening--the heroine dancing in the rain--LOVELY.
But this story was like the bayou--slow, warm and sweet. Thanks for a good read, Lenora Worth!
Lenora is a NY Times best-selling author and I know why. THE GIRL CAN WRITE! Her descriptions are lovely. Her hero is yummy but dark and mysterious. Her heroine was a free spirit with a wounded heart. It almost had the flavor of a Harlequin Presents romance with its dark commanding hero.
The only reason
didn't get 5 stars from me is that I rarely give 5 stars. And I thought that the plot needed a bit more action. But that might just be me. I tend to favor a fast-moving plot. And I had to love the opening--the heroine dancing in the rain--LOVELY.But this story was like the bayou--slow, warm and sweet. Thanks for a good read, Lenora Worth!
Read
January 12, 2016"In the final installment in her Bayou series, Worth generates admirable characters, whose stories are tied up neatly with a subtle faith message. Scenes of forgiveness blend beautifully with the setting's historical feel (RT Book Reviews)". 4 1/2 stars
Read
January 12, 2016received 4 1/2 stars @ RT Book Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews