“Hearts like hers” is the second book of the Seven Shores Series by Melissa Brayden, involving lesbians in love in Venice beach, featuring one of the amazing women from the breakfast group at Cat’s Pijamas ran by Autumn.

If you have already read “Eyes like those” featuring Isabel and Taylor, you have already met the other amazing lesbian women living in Venice beach : Autumn, Gia and Hadley.

Every other book includes one of this gorgeous women falling in love.

In “Hearts like hers” the reader won’t find the Hollywood glamour from “Eyes like those”, as the main characters don’t really care about the acting world. They are peaceful, warm, caring, thoughtful and their worlds are totally different.

“Hearts like hers” is about Autumn, the owner of Venice’s most wanted coffee shops :  Cat’s Pijamas.

Autumn is a woman that knows what hard work means, since she started the coffee shop, she had no time for herself, not as if she desired. With her snob mom ever searching for men to financially support her and expecting Autumn, too, whenever she looks for Autumn she asks her for money. Autumn has never known her father and that has always been an issue in her relationship with her mother.

Autumn is a really beautiful and successful young woman, having this amazing coffee shop in Venice beach and all her friends around : Gia, Hadley, Isabel and Taylor, altogether with her employees, whom basically are her family.

After having a terrible former relationship, which ended with her girlfriend dumping her for the fitness trainer/nutritionist, now she wants to be sure she go all over the woman by attending her former girlfriend’s wedding with Hadley.

They get in ackward situations and Autumn feels somehow down, but still happy that she wasn’t feeling anything about her ex.

Autumn’s greatest dream is to have a baby, now that she’s 34 years old and to run Cat’s Pijamas on the road to success.

Of course, everyone is jealous on Isabel and Taylor, as all the other are single in need of the perfect woman to come.

I find that Autumn is presented in a bad light at the beginning of the book, and it shouldn’t be actually, especially the part where she goes to her ex’s wedding. But, maybe the author tried to show all Autumn’s character angles and wants the reader to watch her evolve throughout everything.

Kate Carpenter is a firefighter from a small town in Oregon, she has a brother that owns a bookstore and she is a really good, caring person. Because of her work swallowing all her time, she doesn’t really have time for relationships.

But, as the fire she isn’t herself anymore.

Before, the sad event, she met two young kids: a boy and a girl. She watched them play all alone in the streets until nightfall and she realizes something’s wrong in their family, that they are neglected. She has seen their father once and she was told they live together with their father, who had drug consumption issues before and was also incarcerated.

She tried to help them somehow, but couldn’t as their father took care of them, regarding a roof upon their heads and food.

On that terrible day when the call came, she heard it on the station, she wasn’t on duty, yet realized she knows the address and rushed for it entering the house inflames. She didn’t wait for help or backup, she rushed into the house and went to the girls’ room , took her, than she had to choose between the father’s room and the boy’s room as a big wooden pile was burning really fast, as well as the stairs. She saved the boy, took the kids outside, while the father burned in the house inflames.

Everybody calls her a hero, she ‘s adored in town, yet her psyche is down, she feels miserable that she couldn’t save their father and know what would the kids’ destiny be?

They were sent into hospital with minor burnings and then into a social home – shelter for kids. Kate has visited them as much as she could and one day she realized she needed a break, she couldn’t go to work with a full heart and a busy mind. She choose to live in Venice for a couple of months, until she will decide what to do with her life.

During her first day there, she meets a beautiful red haired woman on the beach, to whom she is very attracted, yet she never asked for her number, not even for her name.

She found an Airbnb condo where Isabel, Hadley and Gia lived.

One day she goes to Cat’s Pijamas and finally meets Autumn and she is more and more attracted to her with each day that passes.

All the girls are excited to their attraction and find Kate’s short blonde hair and amazing physique quite appealing. They are all glad for Autumn.

I really liked Kate’s confidence and free spirit. She is sure she wants Autumn, yet she doesn’t want to hurt her as she won’t know if she would be staying to Venice, as she had to do something about the kids’ future, she has even thought of adopting them.

She has tried to find her mother, who lived close to Venice. She reached to her and told her the whole story, yet their mother wasn’t ready to take care of them.

Autumn and Kate fall in love deeper and deeper with each day that passes, loving each small thing about each other, everything comes so natural, yet Autumn doesn’t want to be hurt again and tries to resist her attraction to Kate.

Of course, that she fails and their lovemaking is mind blowing each and every time and brings them even closer, and so do all the times Kate goes to the fertility clinic with Kate and when her former girlfriend comes by and Kate behaves very overprotective with Autumn.

The turning point comes after Kate’s couple of months pass by and she goes home, saying goodbye to Autumn, which is very weird, according to all the events passing by.

I know she needs to find a way to do something about the kid’s future, but what about Autumn?

The conclusion, the children’s mother takes them to her how with her new family and Kate returns to Autumn, yet Autumn is not ready to welcome her back and wants them to be friends, as now she is focused on her own goal: as she is now pregnant.

But, she won’t be able to resist for long as Kate knows now that she is in love with Autumn and won’t let her go. Autumn is grateful she has found Kate , because of her beautiful character, her kindness, her good heart and her lovemaking skills.