Book Review: Meet Not (Winter Falls ~ Dempsey Sisters, #2) by D.E. Haggerty   @dehaggerty

Meet Not
(Winter Falls ~ Dempsey Sisters, #2)
by D.E. Haggerty

 

Amazon  / BB

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been stupid enough to fall in love with your best friend.

It’s not my fault. I was perfectly happy to keep my budding feelings to myself until the ‘kiss’.

Now, all I can think about is how good River smells and tastes. How it would feel to have his hands on my body.

Too bad convincing a player who doesn’t believe in love to take a chance on me is more difficult than succumbing to his charm and ending up in his bed. Oops.

Lucky for me, I have the entire town of Winter Falls on my side. The residents of this kooky small town think they’re the world’s answer to matchmaking. Match away, Winter Falls. Match away!

With their help, maybe I can convince River there’s more to us than friendship because this chemistry between us doesn’t lie.

This friends to lovers small town romantic comedy features an awkward woman who sprouts sexual innuendos on accident when she’s nervous, a player who thinks love exists for everyone in the world except him, a pair of sisters who don’t understand the word ‘privacy’, and a whole town of hippies convinced they’re the best matchmakers this side of the Mississippi.

Meet Not is a standalone novel in the Winter Falls ~ Dempsey Sisters series.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I’m happy for Gabrielle, but it turns out you can be happy for someone and be consumed by jealousy at the same time.

Whatever happened in college must be embarrassing. My older sister doesn’t have a problem sharing her adventures unless she comes out sounding like a fool.

My Review:

 

This series is so much fun I can’t wait to start the next one. An environmentally green town founded by hippies and populated by endearingly odd and eccentric characters that love to match-make, banter, and place bets on each other. But all that is happening while fledgling romances are starting to sizzle and pop. I am enamored with them all and must clear my calendar to catch up with all the quirky denizens as I am currently suffering from a serious case of FOMO!

D.E. Haggerty is actually just plain old Dena, but she thinks using initials makes her sound sophisticated and maybe even grown-up. She was born and raised in the U.S. but considers herself a Dutchie and not only because it sounds way cooler. After a stint in the U.S. Army, she escaped the US to join her husband in Holland. She fled Holland over ten years ago when she couldn’t stand the idea of being a lawyer for one single second more. Turns out Bed & Breakfast owner in Germany didn’t do it for her either. When the hubby got a job in Istanbul, she jumped ship and decided to give this whole writer thing a go. She’s now back in Holland, which she considers home. Sorry, Mom.

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Book Review: Meet Disaster (Winter Falls ~ Dempsey Sisters, #1) by D.E. Haggerty  @dehaggerty

Meet Disaster
(Winter Falls ~ Dempsey Sisters, #1)
by D.E. Haggerty

 

It’s just a little crush. I can fake date him and not get my heart broken. Really. It’s not like this situation has disaster written all over it.

Meet the newest resident of the quirky, small town of Winter Falls. Clean slate here I come.

Unfortunately, my ex-boyfriend isn’t ready to wipe the slate clean. Maybe because I skipped town and ghosted him?

When the residents of Winter Falls hear my ex is trying to find me, they jump in to help. Their idea of help? Asking Phoenix to pretend to be my boyfriend.

There’s one little problem with this scenario. I have a major crush on the sexy goat farmer, but he doesn’t want a relationship. Even if he did, it wouldn’t be with me. No, I’m too ‘nice’ and ‘soft’. His words. Not mine.

But do I say no? Of course not. I’m not stupid. A chance to be in close proximity to my crush on a daily basis? Where do I sign up?

To my surprise, this fake relationship feels anything but fake once we’re spending all of our days together. Feather-light touches, hair kisses, and scorching looks make me start to wonder.

Can we turn this fake relationship into something real?

This fake relationship small-town romantic comedy features a shy woman who insists shy and timid isn’t the same thing, a goat farmer who needs to learn his lesson before he loses the girl, a goat named Pan that believes she’s a person and should be treated as such, a gaggle of sisters who think matchmaking is their true calling, and a whole town full of hippies who think being called a busybody is a compliment.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

…my idea of exercise is speed walking to the café when there’s a sale on hot chocolate.

“I’m glad marriage hasn’t changed you.” He smirks. “I’m still the same man, except now I need to drink more fluids.”

My Review:

 

I enjoyed this entertaining and amusing introduction to Winter Falls and now have a strong compulsion to go backward and read the previous series leading up to this one as I adored the quirkiness of the characters and the wit and smirk-worthy humor of their storylines. Each volume can stand alone although the author has cleverly interwoven the previously featured characters into each installment.

D.E. Haggerty is actually just plain old Dena, but she thinks using initials makes her sound sophisticated and maybe even grown-up. She was born and raised in the U.S. but considers herself a Dutchie and not only because it sounds way cooler. After a stint in the U.S. Army, she escaped the US to join her husband in Holland. She fled Holland over ten years ago when she couldn’t stand the idea of being a lawyer for one single second more. Turns out Bed & Breakfast owner in Germany didn’t do it for her either. When the hubby got a job in Istanbul, she jumped ship and decided to give this whole writer thing a go. She’s now back in Holland, which she considers home. Sorry, Mom.

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Book Review: LOATHE TO LOVE YOU (The STEMinist Novellas #1-3) by Ali Hazelwood @EverSoAli

LOATHE TO LOVE YOU
(The STEMinist Novellas #1-3)
by Ali Hazelwood 

 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

Under One Roof: An environmental engineer discovers that scientists should never cohabitate when she finds herself stuck with the roommate from hell—a detestable big-oil lawyer who won’t leave the thermostat alone.

Stuck with You: A civil engineer and her nemesis take their rivalry—and love—to the next level when they get stuck in a New York elevator.

Below Zero: A NASA aerospace engineer’s frozen heart melts as she lies injured and stranded at a remote Arctic research station and the only person willing to undertake the dangerous rescue mission is her longtime rival.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Under One Roof

Honestly, your boss is a shit nugget and he doesn’t deserve you and you should quit and leave him to stir in his shit broth!

“Could it be that we’ve just been exceptionally unlucky?” There is some noise on Hannah’s side of the line. Maybe she is sharpening a shiv. “Could it be that the tides will turn and we’ll finally meet dudes who don’t deserve to be fed a bowl of thumbtacks?”

Stuck with You

Wait. What you’re saying is that all this time we’ve been doing weekly summoning circles to give this guy disfiguring genital warts and toenail funguses and those giant subcutaneous pimples people get surgically removed on YouTube . . . but he did not, in fact, deserve any of it?

I missed you… I only knew you for twenty-four hours, but I’ve never missed anyone so much.

Below Zero

Mara and Sadie have managed to worm their way into my heart, causing me to amend my previous I did not come here to make friends stance to a slightly altered I did not come here to make friends, but hurt my weird Cheez-It friend or my other weird soccer friend and I will beat you up with a lead pipe till you piss blood for the rest of your life. Truculent? Perhaps. I feel little, but surprisingly deeply.

“Hey, he’s my cousin-or-something.” Sadie pats her on the shoulder. “It’s the or something that gets me every time. You can really feel the unbreakable family ties.”

 

My Review:

 

This collection was my introduction to the amusing and clever scribblings of Ali Hazelwood and I couldn’t have picked a better selection to start with. I gleefully smirked my way through all three wittily written novellas and sighed contently upon completion. Each character was uniquely contrived yet authentic, as well as endearingly awkward and socially inept. I adored them all. I have a new favorite author and have added her entire listing to my TBR.

 

Ali Hazelwood is the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, as well as a writer of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the US to pursue a PhD in neuroscience. She recently became a professor, which absolutely terrifies her. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her two feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband).

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Book Review: One Hundred Dreams (An Aspen Cove Romance Book 22) by Kelly Collins  @kcollinsauthor

One Hundred Dreams
(An Aspen Cove Romance Book 22)
by Kelly Collins

 

He’s a man trying to keep things under control.
She’s a woman yearning to break free.
Is this a disaster waiting to happen or a love story in the making?

Actress Cameron Madden is sick and tired of being tired. With her last movie failing at the box office and her career in question, she heads to Aspen Cove to lick her wounds. The small mountain town is the perfect place to escape the prying eyes of a critical public, the demands of her career, and the rules set by her team. Expecting a female bodyguard named Valery, she’s shocked to find the script has been flipped and Valery is a tall, dark, and annoying man who goes by Val. The first thing he does is hand her a set of rules—his rules. And she plans to break every one of them.

The last thing bodyguard Valery Armstrong wants to do is babysit an actress, but when the job comes in, he is the only one available. Saving the day and picking up the pieces is what he’s been doing since his father passed away. That single event ten years ago taught him one thing—prepare for every possibility. Before agreeing to take on Cameron, he asks himself how difficult could one woman be? When he arrives, he hands her the list, then watches as she gifts him with a heart-stopping smile—right before tearing the page to pieces. How difficult could one woman be? Cameron Madden is about to show him.

Aspen Cove, where rules are made to be broken…

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Cameron never knew her father. According to her mom, she was an angel’s gift. Her mother simply woke up pregnant one day. All Cameron could think was the night before had to be a doozy.

The director yelled cut, and he did just that… he cut one that cleared the set. I nearly fainted from methane poisoning. Seriously, he has digestive problems. The man stinks any way you cast him.

Time is a precious commodity. It’s like money. You have to know where you’re going to spend it.

I know what I see. That man cares about you, and you look at him like he’s the last steak you’ll eat before you go vegan.

My Review:

 

I have relished each amusing installment of this sweet series and adored this couple, they were lovely together. The storylines were engaging, realistic, insightfully observant, and easy to follow while populated with the endearing and ever-quirky characters of the tiny town of Aspen Cove. Every time I’ve finished one of these satisfying tales, I’ve started looking forward to the next.

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

 

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International bestselling author of over 30 novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.

 

Book Review:  One Last Secret by Adele Parks @adeleparks

One Last Secret
by Adele Parks 

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Everyone has secrets, don’t they?

One last client
A week at a beautiful chateau in the south of France—it should be a straightforward final job for Dora. She’s a smart, stunning, and discreet escort, and Daniel has paid for her services before. This time, all she has to do is to convince the assembled guests that she is his girlfriend. Dora is used to playing roles and being whatever men want her to be. It’s all about putting on a front.

One last chance
It will be a last, luxurious look at how the other half lives before Dora turns her back on the escort world and all its dangers. She has found someone she loves and trusts. With him, she can escape the life she’s trapped in. But when Dora arrives at the chateau, it quickly becomes obvious that nothing is what it seems…

One last secret
Dora finds herself face-to-face with a man she has never forgotten, the one man who really knows her. And as old secrets surface, it becomes terrifyingly apparent that one last secret could cost Dora her life…

From the Sunday Times number one bestseller Adele Parks comes a blisteringly provocative novel about power, sex, money, and revenge.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I turn back to the students; I marvel at their verve, their carelessness. It’s beautiful and painful to watch the very young people. Like looking at a photo of your favorite place but knowing you’ll never visit there again.

I’m used to walking into rooms and dealing with whoever and whatever I find. Every time I arrive at a hotel or a villa or a party, it’s like the first day in a new office and I don’t know where the photocopier is, but I can never let the client know that.

He thinks I’m better than I am. And maybe, just maybe because he thinks it, I can be. Now and in the future.

My Review:

 

Soon after starting this tale, I fell into an intense, all-consuming, and prickly vortex that left me unwilling and incapable of putting my Kindle down for love or money; the phone went unanswered, kittens rampaged and created chaos unchecked, and I told my husband to forage for his own food. The writing was exceptionally perceptive with taut and itchy storylines full of uncomfortably realistic twists, explosive reveals, and heart-wrenching insights.

Adele Parks navigated brutal, excruciating, and harrowing events with breath-stealing agility. She has mad skills and I often marveled and greedily coveted her word voodoo throughout perusal.

 

About the Author

Author Website

Twitter: @AdeleParks

Instagram: @adele_parks

Facebook: @OfficialAdeleParks

Goodreads

 

Adele Parks is the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of twenty novels, including Lies Lies Lies and Just My Luck, as well as I Invited Her InJust My Luck is currently in development to be made into a movie. Her novels have sold 4 million copies in the UK alone, and her work has also been translated into thirty-one languages. 

Book Review: Snowed In for Christmas by Sarah Morgan @SarahMorgan_

Snowed In for Christmas
 by Sarah Morgan

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A family gathering

This Christmas the Miller siblings have one goal—to avoid their well-meaning family’s endless stream of prying questions. Ross, Alice and Clemmie have secrets that they don’t intend to share, and they are relying on each other to deflect attention.

An uninvited guest

Lucy Clarke is facing a Christmas alone and the prospect of losing her job. Unless she can win a major piece of business from Ross Miller, the season promises to be anything but festive. She’ll just deliver her proposal to his family home and then leave. After all, she wouldn’t want to intrude on the Miller family’s perfect Christmas.

A Christmas to remember

When Lucy appears on the Miller family’s snow-covered Highland doorstep, she’s mistaken for Ross’s girlfriend. By the time the confusion is cleared up, they’re snowed in—she can’t leave, even if she wants to! But does she want to? As secrets spill out like presents from an overstuffed stocking and the chemistry between her and Ross ignites, this is going to be either Lucy’s worst Christmas ever or the best mistake of her life.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

This was the fairy tale, but she’d never liked fairy tales. Occasionally growing up she’d read them to Clemmie, but her sister had been unimpressed by Alice’s version of the stories. The princess doesn’t punch the prince, Alice, and she doesn’t cook the frog in garlic butter.

Look at that. He’s as handsome as his car. Dark hair. I used to love a man with dark hair, although of course as you grow older your standards change. Now I love a man with any hair.

I want to spend all my todays with you.

My Review:

 

I love reading Sarah Morgan’s enticing and evocative tales any day of the year, but I have to admit that her holiday books are extra special. No one does Christmas better with contemporary women’s fiction. Snowed In For Christmas achieved the perfect balance of humor and tension with well-textured, complicated, and multi-faceted characters each with their own struggles, secrets, and family friction. My favorite character was the sassy and spry Nanna Jean, whose cleverness I can only aspire to emulate.

 

USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah Morgan writes romance and contemporary women’s fiction and her trademark humor and sensuality have gained her fans across the globe. She is a 3-time winner of the prestigious RITA® Award from the Romance Writers of America and has been nominated five times. Sarah lives near London, England, and when she isn’t reading or writing she loves being outdoors.

 

 

Book Review: The Golden Oldies’ Book Club by Judy Leigh @JudyLeighWriter @BoldwoodBooks

The Golden Oldies’ Book Club
by Judy Leigh

 

Ruth the librarian fears she’s too old to find love, but a discussion about Lady Chatterley’s Lover makes her think again.

Aurora doesn’t feel seventy-two and longs to relive the excitement of her youth, while Verity is getting increasingly tired of her husband Mark’s grumpiness and wonders if their son’s imminent flight from the nest might be just the moment for her to fly too. And Danielle is fed up with her cheating husband. Surely life has more in store for her than to settle for second best?

The glue that holds Combe Pomeroy together is Jeannie. Doyenne of the local cider farm and heartbeat of her family and community, no one has noticed that Jeannie needs some looking after too. Has the moment for her to retire finally arrived, and if so, what does her future hold?

From a book club French exchange trip to many celebrations at the farm, this is the year that everything changes, that lifelong friendships are tested, and for some of the women, they finally get the love they deserve.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

He listened to Led Zeppelin for a moment, his face creased with disgust. ‘Are you sure that’s not a woman?’ ‘Definitely.’ Aurora folded her arms. ‘Well, he sounds like a proper girl’s blouse to me.’

The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.

Life was so difficult: you fell in love, then you fell out again and landed with a thump, giddy and stunned.

 

My Review:

I revel in Judy Leigh’s insightful, clever, and wryly amusing storytelling. She never fails to put a smirk on my face and keep it there, even when she is simultaneously squeezing my heart. Her tales are easy to fall into with fully populated villages of authentic and realistically quirky characters that intrigue, annoy, and entertain me to no end. I thoroughly enjoyed this convivial group of golden gals and can only aspire to be as feisty and cunning as Violet at the tender age of ninety-five.

About the Author

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Website
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Judy Leigh is the bestselling author of Five French Hens, A Grand Old Time, and The Age of Misadventure, and the doyenne of the ‘it’s never too late’ genre of women’s fiction. She has lived all over the UK from Liverpool to Cornwall, but currently resides in Somerset.

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Book Review: Drama King (Three Kings #2) by Penny Reid @ReidRomance  @SmartyPantsRom

Drama King
(Three Kings #2)
by Penny Reid

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She’s his bodyguard. Nothing more.

Until it starts to snow.

Drama King, an all-new swoony, hilarious, opposites attract standalone holiday romp from New York Times bestselling author Penny Reid, is now available!

Stuck with her off-limits, taciturn, hunky movie star client during a sudden snowstorm on Christmas Eve, an extremely capable and highly professional bodyguard must keep him alive and warm without letting the tension building between them get too hot.

Bathsheba (Beth) Ryan can’t thank her best friend enough for helping her land the job of her dreams. After being relegated to second-string security for politicians in DC, being hired as an undercover personal security specialist by a giant Hollywood studio is exactly the kind of action she’s always wanted.

Until she meets her first assignment.

Cyrus Malcom can’t thank his agent enough for arranging a blind date with seemingly the woman of his dreams. After spending the past several years playing all the parts and climbing all the ladders, the lonely mega-movie star finds himself actually enjoying a night on the town for the first time in ages when he meets the gorgeous, funny, and genuine Ryaine O’Rourke.

Until she shows up at his studio meeting the next day with a completely different name.

A worldwide press tour and too many late-night parties later, Beth simply needs to get through a short, one-day visit during the Christmas holiday, and then she’ll be free of Cyrus Malcom’s confusing hot looks and cold shoulders for good.

But just as they leave the airport, it starts to snow . . .

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

You socialize like it’s a biological imperative despite being the loneliest person I know.

My Review:

 

I adored every character and enjoyed every word in this book. Penny Reid stays at the top of my list of Ride or Die Chicks and continues to earn her well-established spot with every bewitching and cleverly penned tale she spins. This one kept a smirk on my face throughout perusal and I couldn’t have loved it more.

Each character was authentic, insightfully detailed, and well cultivated; but I will confess that I was utterly and thoroughly besotted with Cyrus. He was a constant source of delightful surprises.

 

 

Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she writes kissing books. Penny is an obsessive knitter and manages the #OwnVoices-focused mentorship incubator/publishing imprint, Smartypants Romance. She lives in Seattle Washington with her husband, three kids, and a dog named Hazel.

Book Review: Last Place Seen by Alessandra Harris @AlessandraH17

Last Place Seen
by Alessandra Harris

Amazon  / B&N / Apple  / BB

In the aftermath of her husband’s life-altering mistake, Tiana Williams grapples with lingering resentment while working full-time and raising their toddler. But when Jay becomes a person of interest in the kidnapping of ten-year-old Zoe Miller, Tiana is torn between trusting her husband and believing the growing pile of evidence. After she gets dragged further into the mystery and discovers her connection to the missing girl, the shaky ground beneath her crumbles.

With the odds stacked against him, Jay does everything in his power to prove his innocence. Racing against the clock, he must uncover the truth about Zoe’s kidnapping before he loses everything he loves—including his freedom.

During a sweltering heat wave and a raging California wildfire, Tiana and Jay will stop at nothing to find Zoe, even if it means tearing apart their marriage and risking their own lives in the process.

My Rating:

My Review:

 

This tale was packed with teeth-grinding and ire-producing family drama in all directions as well as tense plot lines of suspense including a hideous child kidnapping under peculiar circumstances. The details were intricate and I began to feel the tediousness and fatigue of the oppressive heat and the smell of polluted air from the nearby out-of-control wildfire that essentially became a secondary character in the story. The human characters were complicated, well-textured, and not always likable yet realistically flawed and authentic. I despised most of them except for the hapless yet well-meaning Jay, he was more of a victim than the kidnapped child.

 

Alessandra Harris doesn’t shy away from controversial topics and writes novels that reflect the diversity of her world. She loves stories that break your heart but leave you smiling at the end, so that’s exactly what she writes: made-up stories about almost-real people.

She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and four children and is the organizer of San Jose Novel Writers, a group of eclectic writers offering fellowship, support, and tips on all forms of writing.

Alessandra’s debut novel, Blaming the Wind, was published by Red Adept Publishing in 2016, followed by Everything She Lost in 2018.

Book Review: The Christmas Trip (Christmas Romance series Book2) by Sandy Barker  @sandybarker

The Christmas Trip
(Christmas Romance series Book2)
by Sandy Barker

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Another year has passed and it’s Christmas again. This year best friends Chloe, Jules, and Lucy are all loved up but living worlds apart.

Chloe is madly in love with her celebrity beau, Archer, but after a whirlwind year in Hollywood’s limelight, she’s desperate to get away and spend some quality time together.

Jules loves her Melbourne life – and gorgeous winemaker Matt – but a crowded flat share has her longing for a place of her own.

Meanwhile, Lucy is stuck in a long-distance relationship, jetting back and forth between Colorado and London to see Will.

When Archer’s plan to whisk Chloe to Paris goes awry, he surprises her by bringing her friends together for a Christmas to remember…

The perfect feel-good holiday romance for fans of Sarah Morgan, Jo Thomas, and Holly Martin.

 

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

God, this was like having a conversation underwater. With a turtle.

Chloe thought any occasion was worth a toast. She’d actually toasted toast once.

My Review:

 

Another fun and breezy installment of the May Ladies on holiday, I adore this sassy trio of gals as much as I do their wittily written series. I am enamored with Ms. Barker’s smooth and captivating storytelling. She craftily pulls me into a cleverly constructed vortex of smart, funny, gorgeous, and multi-layered characters who are endearing, successful, realistically flawed, and adorable, yet complicated. I want to be a May Lady as an additional member of their exclusive group but will have to settle for joining their holiday escapades and amusing adventures on my Kindle.

About the Author

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I’m a writer, traveler, and hopeful romantic with a lengthy bucket list. I love exploring new places, outdoor adventures, and eating and drinking like a local when I travel, and many of my travel adventures have found homes in my novels. I’m also an avid reader, a film buff, a wine lover, and a coffee snob.

My first novel, a romantic comedy set in Greece and inspired by my real-life love story, was published in June 2019 by One More Chapter (HarperCollins). In 2020, two follow-ups in the Holiday Romance series hit the shelves: That Night in Paris and A Sunset in Sydney. My novel, The Christmas Swap, is a stand-alone inspired by some of my own Christmas adventures, and I am currently writing my 5th book (the 4th in the Holiday Romance series) and 6th book (a stand-alone), with plans for 7 and 8!

I am represented by Lina Langlee of The North Literary Agency.