Exploring Jenns Cove (Jenns Cove Eco-romance #2)

ECO-ROMANCE:  Ecologist Jess Everston grew up in a small town in West Virginia before crossing the country to work for Eco-Systems Services Institute. Rand Gallagher is the retired U.S. Army Ranger who is assigned to her team as their wilderness guide. The fallout from their individual traumas creates similarities that generate as much conflict as empathy between them. 

Jess' boss tells her “…there’s a solid sense of community and closeness that’s amazing, and the Jenns Covers really pull together whenever anyone is going through hard times…”, it’s the perfect description of the vibrant and dynamic sense of place that the author has created. Marc Sanderson smoothly integrates the pros and cons of small-town living with environmental concerns related to preservation and development. These concerns offer a relevant backdrop of overarching group issues while each character in this organically inclusive cast deals with their personal challenges: fear of rejection for Jess, and PTSD for Rand. 

Jess has a high intelligence quotient and a low emotional quotient, often making her seem like a self-centered academic credentials snob. Since Rand is both intelligent and proactively self-reflective, he and Jess frequently seem mismatched in maturity despite being the same age. Add a rushed ending and scene breaks in need of asterisks or some other obvious visual cue to Jess’s habit of making condescending assumptions about other people and the potential for a great story overall drops to a good story with elements of greatness in its rendering of the overlapping connections between families and friends, people and nature. 

Cardyn Brooks