No Offense by Meg Cabot (Little Bridge Island #2)

Synopsis:

Welcome to Little Bridge, one of the smallest, most beautiful islands in the Florida Keys, home to sandy white beaches, salt-rimmed margaritas, and stunning sunsets—a place where nothing goes under the radar and love has a way of sneaking up when least expected... 

A broken engagement only gave Molly Montgomery additional incentive to follow her dream job from the Colorado Rockies to the Florida Keys. Now, as Little Bridge Island Public Library’s head of children’s services, Molly hopes the messiest thing in her life will be her sticky-note covered desk. But fate—in the form of a newborn left in the restroom—has other ideas. So does the sheriff who comes to investigate the “abandonment”.  When John Hartwell folds all six-feet-three of himself into a tiny chair and insists that whoever left the baby is a criminal, Molly begs to differ and asks what he’s doing about the Island’s real crime wave (if thefts of items from homes that have been left unlocked could be called that). Not the best of starts, but the man’s arrogance is almost as distracting as his blue eyes. Almost… 

John would be pretty irritated if one of his deputies had a desk as disorderly as Molly’s. Good thing she doesn’t work for him, considering how attracted he is to her. Molly’s lilting librarian voice makes even the saltiest remarks go down sweeter, which is bad as long as she’s a witness but might be good once the case is solved—provided he hasn’t gotten on her last nerve by then. Recently divorced, John has been having trouble adjusting to single life as well as single parenthood. But something in Molly’s beautiful smile gives John hope that his old life on Little Bridge might suddenly hold new promise—if only they can get over their differences.

My thoughts:

The second book in the Little Bridge Island series by Meg Cabot is as light and enjoyable as the first one, No Judgments. This time we follow the story of a new children's section librarian Molly Montgomery who finds a new born baby girl in the library bathroom. Sheriff John Hartwell promises to do everything possible to find the baby's parents...and (no spoilers) he does. In the meantime sparks of attraction fly between the attractive librarian and  the sherif, who also happens to be a newly divorced father of a teenage daughter. Molly and John do not always see eye to eye on how to proceed with the case. Understandably, the sheriff thinks Molly should let him do his job investigating the crimes, while Molly, a keen lover of amateur sleuths and true-crime podcasts, sometimes thinks John lacks empathy towards the victims.

Both John and Molly are extremely serious about what they do, especially Molly, who is passionate about libraries and reading. I really liked the way she was so non-judgemental about whatever people read, no snobbery at all. John is slightly older. Readers who grew up on Meg Cabot's YA novels may find it a bit more difficult to relate to the protagonists of this book. I must say a few times I felt annoyed by John's remarks and behaviour. He keeps refering to his four hour workshop on sexual harrassment that discussed objectifying women (and men), and then makes his moves on Molly a bit too quickly. Luckily, molly is as much interested in him physically as he is in her, so things work out in spite of their disagreements. It helps that the sides choose to apologise and admit the other side might have been right and do it with the help of various pies.

Overall, the story was sweet and it was great to revisit the setting  of a little island where people do not lock their doors and try to help out those in need. Meg Cabot has a great writing style- it is light, enjoyable and very easy to follow. You can always rely on her for an entertaining story with a bit of humour and lovely characters.

Thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow Paperbacks for the ARC provided in exchange for ah nonest opinion.