Readers who love the opposites attract trope will want to be sure to grab a copy of Jessie’s Point!
In the first book in the Dungeness Hollow series, Casey Carpenter returns home to spend what little time there is left with her father, Tim. She’s shocked to discover the handsome contractor, Nate, is helping her father repair Jessie’s Point in preparation to sell her childhood home.
While facing her father’s fate and drudging up unresolved emotions from the past, Casey and Nate battle their own feelings and attraction. Casey’s story wouldn’t have been the same without the friendships portrayed in this book. The side stories of these supporting characters, Meg, Mary & Gage, left me hoping early on that their full stories will be written as well. (I was pleased to learn they will!)
Beautiful descriptions and serious attraction (with just enough steam🔥) are woven throughout this story of friendship, family, love, grief, fears and forgiveness. Definitely looking forward to book 2, Spring Tide.

5/5

Synopsis: After Casey’s mom pases away at a young age she just moves through life. Her dad, Tim never really lived after that. Casey is fortunate to have her best friends who were there with her and every day after. After she moves away after college an unexpected emergency brings her back to her hometown and all of her memories of her mother passing away are brought back to the surface.

Thought: I really enjoyed this book. I think it was the perfect mix of real life and romance. It showed that just because we haven't been loved in the way that maybe we should have before that we aren't deserving or incapable of feeling that love. I think that this book was well written and I really enjoyed all the characters in the books and the different struggles that they faced. I can’t wait for the next book in the series to definitely be added to my preorder list.

Jessie's Point is the first book in a new series by Tess Shepherd called Dungeness Hollow. This is a lovely romance with a small town feel and strong characters.

Ever since Casey's mother died when she was young her father never recovered, and she practically raised herself. Even though their relationship is strained she runs back to her hometown of Dungeness Hollow when she hears he's dying. She arrives home to a stranger named Nate repairing both her family home and family marina and is devastated that her father has decided to sell the last part of her mother they have left. She will attempt to mend her relationship with her father in the little time he has left. Furthermore, she will have to deal with growing feelings for Nate that she tries to keep casual since her life isn't in Dungeness Hollow anymore.

Casey and Nate, and all their friends, are wonderful characters. Casey is headstrong and underneath all her attitude is a sensitive little girl who lacked a nurturing childhood. Nate is just a big old softy right from the start. He was so charming and such a gentleman. While Casey decides they should have some no strings attached fun, Nate knows from the start he wants to know everything he can about her no matter how long they have together. Their relationship is lighthearted and honest and put a smile on my face. Like all of Tess Shepherds couples the intimacy between them is full of passion and steam. I also HAVE to add that the grand gesture/ declaration of Nate’s feelings at the end was quality and left me chuckling. :)

As always I loved Tess Shepherd's writing, it really flows and her characters and setting are always so easy to imagine. She tends to always include random point of views outside of the two main characters. It shows that the people around them can see their connection. However, in this, at one point there's back and forth POV between two side characters that doesn't add to Nate and Casey's story. It fully set up what I'm guessing is book 2 and completely took me out of the main story line. I mean I enjoyed the characters it was focusing on, and I would have loved to see the scenes just not in this book, they didn't feel like they belonged. The other thing that didn't work personally for me was the climax to Casey and her father's arc. He seems from his POV chapters to want to make amends after she finally confronts him but in the end only makes excuses for his behavior.

I really love the idea of the Dungeness Hollow series. Three best friends who are different in so many ways but have always been there for each other through thick and thin. I am really excited for the other friends' books.

The story of Jessie’s Point is something I think most people are familiar with: how to forgive and grieve, how to find your footing and roots in difficult situations, and how friendships can shape who you are as a person.
We are introduced to Casey, a twenty-something, successful woman, who one day gets a call from one of her best friends, from back at home: her dad is sick. She throws herself into problem-solving mode, hops on the first plane and suspends her life in order to help out her only living relative – even though he doesn’t really wants to do anything with her or her helping hand.
I struggled to understand what motivated Tim, Casey’s dad, to live his life like this, but then it’s dawned upon me, that I have first hand experience with someone, who just kind of devotes her life to grief, being numb to the joy and happenings around her. And I also realised, that it must be painstakingly difficult to face this state of affairs as a child, even as a young adult, feeling like you’ve been abandoned by your mother – by death – and by your father – by grief and depression – at the same time.
I appreciated that the complicated relationship between Casey and her dad wasn’t an easy road to take down Forgiveness Lane, it wasn’t direct or completely satisfactory, as it isn’t in most situations in real life.
Casey was a firecracker, emphatetic main character, with many a flaws and qualities of a great human being. She felt things deeply, even if she was sometimes too unsure, undecided about the happenings around her. Nate was the quiet, stoic and charismatic, and completely sweet. I would've liked a bit more of them, I think they kind of got lost in the shuffle.
I completely adored the tight-knit frienship group / sisterhood that Casey and the girls had, it made me kind of impatient, hurrying to devour their story’s too. And, Gage and Hayes sound right up my alley, when it comes to book boyfriends.
Tess’s writing style is captivating, and as with her other book, Public Trust, I was easily submerged into the storyline. However, as much as I liked the multiple POVs in Public Trust, here, I thought they were complicating matters a bit too much. I didn’t really liked Berty’s POV, and would’ve preferred to hear about Mary and Hayes’s romance from their own book, especially because they get to have their story written.
I have to say, I don’t know who does the cover arts – I have to check – but congrats to you, you manage to use the popular illustations in your favour and have a fresh and unique take on them!

My new favorite book by Tess!! I loved this one so much, and I I so glad this will be a series! I fell in love with this town and the people in it!

This is such a sweet romance novel that explores love through family, friends and romantic partners. This story was told from multiple POVs, and I absolutely loved that! You were able to see from the mind of some of the minor characters.

This was written so well and was funny, sweet, and heartbreaking. I recommend not reading this in public because I was hiding my tears on an airplane 3/4ths of the way through this book! This was a super quick read, and I cannot wait for Spring Tide: Dungeness Hollow Part 2!!

Thank you Tess for my early copy!!

If you haven't read any of Tess's other books I highly recommend those as well! The Fire Drill and Public Trust are out now!!

I loved it! This story is full of heart and characters that you empathize with, root for, and want to be friends with. I absolutely LOVED the relationship between Casey and her “sister” friends and I would like to know more about Meg (hint, hint Tess). I definitely went thru a roller coaster of emotions from laughing out loud to swooning and to even shedding a few tears. Of course, the best part was Casey and Nate’s journey. Tess Shepherd did a fantastic job and I can’t wait for the sequel!

TW: cancer, death, & abandonment

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars

Another fantastic book by this author, hard to believe Jessie’s Point is her third book. Her cover choices always pull me in, but her words and the way she tugs at my emotions will keep me reading. Her gift to keep her writing fresh with each story has me a reader forever.

I read this book in one afternoon. I love small towns and the relationships they create: Casey and her sisters by choice, Her father, Nate, and her neighbors in town. As with her previous books her characters have depth and pull you in. Her visuals created make you part of the experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Author for the advanced copy; this is my voluntary review.

Jessie's point is the perfect place to live. I do not understand why somebody would left. And I get the answer. But hopefully that channge. And all get to its place. I love the friendship between the girls and also boys. And story that ends positive for everybody. Ok still open possibilities for others caracters and I will read the sequels for sure. The perfect Sunday's read.

I got the free copy by netgalley.com

When Casey Carpenter hears her father, Tim, is ill and dying, she returns home to the small Pacific Northwest town of Dungeness Hollow. Her relationship with her dad has been strained ever since Casey's mother passed away twenty years ago, and now their relationship is under more stress as he intends to sell the marina that was her childhood home. Nate Kipling is a local contractor helping Tim fix up the marina. What starts as an antagonistic relationship between Nate and Casey blossoms into an attraction and partnership to bring the marina back to life. And suddenly Casey's got a lot to hold onto in Dungeness Hollow.

What a beautiful story! I cried and sobbed, I laughed, I swooned, I went through a full roller coaster of emotions with these characters and a day after finishing this I already missed them. I loved all the complex relationships in this book, between Casey and her lifelong "sister" friends Mary-Ann and Meg, her dad, Nate, and the town. There are so many layers to each relationship and unweaving those really pulls you into the story. The storyline is captivating and I easily read this in 2 or 3 sittings. I know this part of the world, the Olympic Peninsula, really, really well and Tess did a fantastic job describing it - I could see it, hear it, smell it - it smells so briny by the way! Her little details were perfect. This is mainly Casey’s story but there are multiple third person POVs which I enjoyed to get all the perspectives and it sets up well for the sequel. I can't wait to read the next in this series and head back to Dungeness Hollow!

Thank you to Tess Shepherd and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it all in one sitting which is a hard task for me I would say it was4/5 stars there wasn’t anything wrong with it I really enjoyed it had the perfect amount of romance that I was looking for with other aspects mixed in. Trigger warning for death of family and cancer. In the book I could almost picture Jessie’s point in my mind. Would definitely recommend. The friendships and family the main character had gathered was very heart warming and you could tell they meant the world to her

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for honest review. A wonderful story. It took me though different emotions and hard to put down. Lovely story that keeps you interested till the end.

Jessie's Point is Casey's childhood home, one that used to be a happy one. When Casey's father is fading away, she has to return home to deal with the outcome. There, she meets a helping hand around the marina, Nate.

The author is appreciated for providing more details on each character. Perhaps in the next book, there can be a bit more detail on Tim's personality or where his parents and home were before Jessie's Point, and maybe in the next book, we learn more about Meg. There are a lot of mixed emotions in this title, from dealing with past trauma and words left unsaid, to waves of lust, to guilt for what happened, to feeling comforted by of old friends during grief. The book is a quick read, a touching story, and I wish the author all the best in the book launch!