Author: Empress DJ

Empress DJ AKA Honolulubelle is a Rabid Reader, Unabashed Reviewer, and All-Purpose Goddess
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Book Review: Arsenic at Ascot Fiona Figg Mystery #7 by Kelly Oliver @KellyOliverBook

Arsenic at Ascot
Fiona Figg Mystery #7
by Kelly Oliver

Amazon  / B&N / BB

Downton Abbey meets Agatha Christie in this clever locked-room mystery.

“A delightful English countryside mystery with two handsome suitors and twists and turns worthy of Agatha Christie herself!” – Amanda Flower, USA Today Bestselling Author

London, 1918

Fiona Figg finds herself back in Old Blighty saddled with shuffling papers for the war office. Then a mysterious card arrives, inviting her to a fancy house party at Mentmore Castle. This year’s Ascot-themed do will play host to a stable of animal defense advocates, and Fiona is tasked with infiltrating the activists and uncovering possible anti-war activity.

Disguised as the Lady Tabitha Kenworthy, Fiona is more than ready for the “mane” event, but the odds are against her when both her arch nemesis, dark-horse Fredrick Fredricks, and would-be fiancé Lieutenant Archie Somersby arrive unexpectedly and “stirrup” her plans. When a horse doctor thuds to the floor in the next guest room, Fiona finds herself investigating a mysterious poisoning with some very hairy clues.

Can Fiona overcome the hurdles and solve both cases, or will she be put out to pasture by the killer?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I’d learned the best way to defuse a cocky man was to ask his advice.

I glanced into a full-length mirror next to the clothes rack. The face I saw looking back at me was the spitting image of my Uncle Frank. Features a tad too strong to be considered feminine. It was going to take more than a Harrod’s gown to turn me into a passable lady.

A smile played on my lips. Forget about provisions and housework. I was a proper British Intelligence agent about to embark on a top-secret espionage mission for the War Office. My chest expanded to the point of bursting a button off my blouse.

 

My Review:

 

This well-plotted and humorous cozy mystery was quite the head-scratcher, I didn’t have it anywhere worked out and am still up in the air about the trustworthiness of several characters, I guess spies are like that. The situations were unique and well-contrived with clues that prickled my curiosity and tickled my gray matter. Kelly Oliver is a master storyteller and paints colorful pictures with her well-chosen words.

Kelly Oliver grew up in the Northwest, Montana, Idaho, and Washington states. Her maternal grandfather was a forest ranger committed to saving the trees, and her paternal grandfather was a logger hell-bent on cutting them down. On both sides, her ancestors were some of the first settlers in Northern Idaho. In her own unlikely story, Kelly went from eating a steady diet of wild game shot by her dad to becoming a vegetarian while studying philosophy and pondering animal minds. Competing with peers who’d come from private schools and posh families “back East,” Kelly’s working-class backwoods grit has served her well. And much to her parent’s surprise, she’s managed to feed and clothe herself as a professional philosopher.

When she’s not writing mysteries, Kelly Oliver is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. She earned her B.A. from Gonzaga University and her Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She is the author of thirteen scholarly books, ten anthologies, and over 100 articles, including work on campus rape, reproductive technologies, women and the media, film noir, and Alfred Hitchcock. Her work has been translated into seven languages, and she has published an op-ed on loving our pets in The New York Times. She has been interviewed on ABC television news, the Canadian Broadcasting Network, and various radio programs.

Kelly lives in Nashville with her husband, Benigno Trigo, and her furry family, Mischief and Mayhem.

 

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Book Review: When I’m Dead (Black Harbor, #3) by Hannah Morrissey @hannahmorrisseywriter

When I’m Dead
(Black Harbor, #3)
by Hannah Morrissey

 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

One girl murdered. Another one missing. And a medical examiner desperate to uncover the truth in the latest Black Harbor mystery by acclaimed author Hannah Morrissey.

On a bone-chilling October night, Medical Examiner Rowan Winthorp investigates the death of her daughter’s best friend. Hours later, the tragedy hits even closer to home when she makes a devastating discovery—her daughter, Chloe, is gone. But, not without a trace.

A morbid mosaic of clues forces Rowan and her husband to question how deeply they really knew their daughter. As they work closely to peel back the layers of this case, they begin to unearth disturbing details about Chloe and her secret transgressions…details that threaten to tear them apart.

Amidst the noise of navigating her newfound grief and reconciling the sins of her past, an undeniable fact rings true for Rowan: karma has finally come to collect.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

If there’s one thing she’s actually learned at school, it’s that rumors are like fingerprints: everyone has their own special set, and like it or not, they are part of our identity.

The girl has a lurchiness about her, a furtive expression and andante shrinking inward that suggests she’s always trying to disappear from the space she inhabits. The elephant in the room desperately wishing it were a mouse.

Sometimes, she wonders if finding nothing is worse than finding something.

Teachers shouldn’t be airing their dirty laundry in the classrooms, not like Ms. Allouez, the recently divorced chemistry teacher who allegedly had students destroy her wedding photos over Bunsen burners.

I figured I’d save myself the cost of a divorce. They’re a hundred percent preventable if you don’t get married.

Her heartbeat thrums in her ears. She can feel her temples pounding and she’s convinced that if someone were to look at her dead-on, it would appear as though there’s a pair of Beats headphones screwed to her skull beneath her skin.

How easily madness strips us of who and what we once were. It changes us into something we don’t know how to navigate.

 

My Review:

 

This addictive and twisty series has been dark and moody, bewitchingly atmospheric, and brilliantly plotted with barbs of sharp wit, keenly honed insights, and canny as well as uncanny observations. Hannah Morrissey is a special kind of evil genius.

 

About the Author

Hannah Morrissey is the author of the Black Harbor suspense series which includes Hello, Transcriber, The Widowmaker, and When I’m Dead. A three-decade survivor of Wisconsin winters, Hannah enjoys putting her characters (and readers) in bone-chilling atmospheres that permeate beyond the page. Naturally, her books have carved out their own sub-genre of “Midwestern Noir.”

Between roles of bookseller and copywriter, Hannah was inspired to write her debut novel while transcribing reports for her local police department. Far from home in a grim, crime-ridden city, it was her job to sit alone in the dead of night, listen, and type as detectives divulged the city’s darkest secrets. There, she realized that every case was a story, and every story started with the same two words: “Hello, Transcriber.”

Hannah graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison where she majored in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She grew up in a small northern town and now lives near Milwaukee with her husband, three pugs, and a TBR pile that never seems to get any smaller.

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Book Review: Famous for a Living by Melissa Ferguson @our_friendly_farmhouse

Famous for a Living
by Melissa Ferguson

 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

She’s Insta-famous. He uses a flip phone.

When her business partner is accused of serious financial crimes, superstar influencer Cat Cranwell—an engineered marvel of beauty, energy, and fun—falls from her penthouse perch. Des­perate to get away from the online trolls and paparazzi docu­menting her disgrace, Cat accepts her uncle’s offer to work with him in Kannery National Park, Montana. About as far as possible from life as she’s known it.

Cat’s world shifts from the swirling haze of likes and comments to lit­eral blizzards of frostbite temperatures and waist-deep snow. In place of negotiating brand deals, she finds herself negotiating at the ledge of a frozen lake with her die-hard Polar Bear Plunge coworkers. Instead of padding through the marble kitchen of her Manhattan loft, she’s sharing a tent-sized cabin with a roommate eager to bond like characters in sitcoms. But something curious is also happening in this overwhelming breath of fresh air as she reacquaints with the most honest parts of herself and begins to ask the hard questions. Can Cat love herself with, and without, the world watching?

Then there’s that other tiny problem—she’s falling for Zaiah, the ruggedly handsome park ranger—and he hates anything remotely connected to social media, quite possibly her included.

Written with bestselling author Melissa Ferguson’s signature wit and charm, this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy of opposites attract is full of hilarious romp and a romance that will melt readers’ hearts.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I don’t know what it is about him, but he makes me feel like my hand is always caught in a candy jar.

I’m pretty sure that if I wanted to even get on Zaiah’s radar— really be on his radar— I’d have to throw away my phone, makeup, 99 percent of my clothing, take up making deer jerky and canning on the weekends, and start going on long walks while reciting Thoreau.

The woman, Hannah, seriously injured Mark and another person because she had been on her phone. This turned her life, and Zaiah’s life, and Mark’s, upside- down and she went to jail. Mark lost the use of his legs permanently. Zaiah feels guilt despite Mark’s forgiveness and rather impressive ability to forgive and make the most of his life. Zaiah is now single.

 

My Review:

 

This is a sweet and humorous tale with considerable insights about social media addictions and influencers that gave me pause and something to ponder.  The main and secondary characters were uniquely endearing and inhabited story threads that were engaging and entertaining as well as informative and thoughtfully contrived.  I enjoyed the breezy writing style as much as the main character’s journey and transformation.

 

About the Author

Bestselling author Melissa Ferguson lives in Tennessee, where she enjoys chasing her children and writing romantic comedies full of humor and heart. Her favorite hobby is taking friends and acquaintances and turning them into characters in her books without their knowledge.

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Book Review: The Widowmaker (Black Harbor #2) by Hannah Morrissey @hannahmorrisseywriter

The Widowmaker
(Black Harbor #2)
by Hannah Morrissey

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

A wealthy family shrouded in scandal; a detective tasked with solving an impossible cold case; and a woman with a dark past collide in Hannah Morrissey’s stunning new Black Harbor mystery, The Widowmaker.

Ever since business mogul Clive Reynolds disappeared twenty years ago, the name “Reynolds” has become synonymous with “murder” and “mystery.” And now, lured by a cryptic note, down-on-her-luck photographer Morgan Mori returns home to Black Harbor and into the web of their family secrets and double lives. The same night she photographs the Reynolds holiday get-together, Morgan becomes witness to a homicide of a cop that triggers the discovery of a long-buried clue.

This could finally be the thing to crack open the chilling cold case, and Investigator Ryan Hudson has a chance to prove himself as lead detective. If only he could stop letting his need to solve his partner’s recent murder distract him. But as Morgan exposes her own dark demons, could her sordid history be the key to unlocking more than one mystery?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Pierced and gangly with a death stare that could intimidate a bull, Morgan didn’t really fit anywhere,

She had to tip her head back to look him in the eye. At five foot two, Miserelli was the personification of a firecracker: small, compact, and explosive. Some people joked that she’d stand taller and walk straighter if it weren’t for the chip on her shoulder weighing her down.

There was something about Eleanor Reynolds. Perhaps it was part of her enchantment that she reminded him of an icicle— delicate enough to shatter, sharp enough to kill.

She’d found Saoirse Reynolds as all people find one another these days: on Instagram.

 

My Review:

 

This ingeniously plotted tale kept me guessing throughout the entirety of the book. I developed and cast aside multiple theories but would never have foreseen the story threads coming together to weave these conclusions. Hannah Morrissey is a gifted scribe.

 

Hannah Morrissey is the author of the Black Harbor suspense series which includes Hello, Transcriber, The Widowmaker, and When I’m Dead. A three-decade survivor of Wisconsin winters, Hannah enjoys putting her characters (and readers) in bone-chilling atmospheres that permeate beyond the page. Naturally, her books have carved out their own sub-genre of “Midwestern Noir.”

Between roles of bookseller and copywriter, Hannah was inspired to write her debut novel while transcribing reports for her local police department. Far from home in a grim, crime-ridden city, it was her job to sit alone in the dead of night, listen, and type as detectives divulged the city’s darkest secrets. There, she realized that every case was a story, and every story started with the same two words: “Hello, Transcriber.”

Hannah graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison where she majored in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She grew up in a small northern town and now lives near Milwaukee with her husband, three pugs, and a TBR pile that never seems to get any smaller.

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Book Review: My Husband’s Lies by Liz Lawler

My Husband’s Lies
by Liz Lawler

Amazon  / B&N  / BB

 

The police are coming, they’re going to arrest me.’ My blood runs cold at his words. My husband is accused of murder. He swears he is innocent – so why won’t he tell me where he really was that night?

I feel so lucky to have my handsome husband Mark and our blue-eyed little boy. Everyone says we’re the perfect family. I used to believe them.

But everything changes when Mark comes home from a work trip with dark circles under his eyes. That night I jumped at a hammering at the door. The police want to question him about the murder of a beautiful, blonde young woman. Mark swears he had nothing to do with it, that she was a colleague, nothing more.

Mark is a respected airline pilot, and a model husband and father. It seems impossible that he would be involved in something like this. But he won’t say a word about where he was. I believe he’s not a killer – but I know he’s hiding something. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Then my husband is attacked. I sit by his hospital bed praying for him to wake up, tears streaming down my face. The police say it’s an accident. But what if someone has done this to him?

I go rigid with fear when I see someone hidden in the garden, watching the house. Are they coming to hurt us too? I’ll do anything to protect my precious little boy – and I have to start by uncovering my husband’s lies…

An unbelievably tense and twisty psychological thriller that will leave you breathless for more! Perfect for fans of Kathryn Croft, T.M. Logan and Ruth Heald.

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

The only way to tell with certainty if someone was capable of murder is when they killed another human being.

My Review:

 

This was a slowly evolving tale with many red herrings that kept me spinning with theories. I conjured multiple suspicions and was only fractionally correct by the story’s conclusion. The writing and storylines were easy to follow and populated by unique and authentic characters with multiple quirks and foibles. And while they weren’t always likable, they remained compelling and held my interest.

 

About the Author

Liz Lawler grew up sharing pants, socks, and occasionally a toothbrush, sleeping four to a bed. Born in Chatham and partly raised in Dublin, she is one of fourteen children. She spent over twenty years as a nurse and has since fitted in working as a flight attendant, a general manager of a five-star hotel, and is now working with trains. She became an author in 2017 when her debut novel Don’t Wake Up was published by Twenty7.

https://twitter.com/authorlizlawler?lang=en

Sign up to be the first to hear about new releases from Liz Lawler here: https://www.bookouture.com/liz-lawler

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Book Review: Hello, Transcriber (Black Harbor Novels Book 1)  by Hannah Morrissey @hannahmorrisseywriter

Hello, Transcriber
(Black Harbor Novels Book 1) 
by Hannah Morrissey 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

Hannah Morrissey’s Hello, Transcriber is a captivating mystery suspense debut featuring a female police transcriber who goes beyond the limits to solve a harrowing case.

Every night, while the street lamps shed the only light on Wisconsin’s most crime-ridden city, police transcriber Hazel Greenlee listens as detectives divulge Black Harbor’s gruesome secrets. As an aspiring writer, Hazel believes that writing a novel could be her only ticket out of this frozen hellscape. And then her neighbor confesses to hiding the body of an overdose victim in a dumpster.

The suspicious death is linked to Candy Man, a notorious drug dealer. Now Hazel has a first-row seat to the investigation and becomes captivated by the lead detective, Nikolai Kole. Intrigued by the prospects of gathering eyewitness intel for her book, Hazel joins Kole in exploring Black Harbor’s darkest side. As the investigation unfolds, Hazel will learn just how far she’ll go for a good story―even if it means destroying her marriage and luring the killer to her as she plunges deeper into the city she’s desperate to claw her way out of.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

His head moves in small jerks, like a robot malfunctioning at the end of its battery life.

Old Will reminds me of a twentieth-century Rip Van Winkle who fell asleep at the end of the Vietnam War only to wake up two decades later in a mosh pit at a Metallica concert.

Clothes lie like deflated bodies, sprawled near his closet as though they’d crawled out of it.

If Shakespeare’s right that all the world’s a stage, then Elle is the leading lady and I am the stagehand who maneuvers the levers for the trapdoors and curtain, a master of smoke and mirrors who ensures each act runs so seamlessly that no one even notices me.

“Do you ever feel like you’re in the wrong story?”… “No,” he says, finally. “But,” his gaze shifts to me, his eyes taking in my cuts and bruises, the hollow thing I’ve become, “why don’t you just write a better one?”

My Review:

 

I am woefully years behind in my TBR pile and innocently pulled out this little gem to peruse before making my way to the author’s newest release in this series. I had no idea what I was in for but was soon kicking myself for my tardiness and sloth.

I was instantly consumed by Ms. Morrissey’s evocative prose as the first paragraph sucked me into a dark, itchy, and enthralling vortex of a troubled and crumbling community. Her characters were complicated, compelling, and multi-faceted. Each new person introduced brought a unique type of nightmare as they all seemed to be teetering between a train wreck and a dumpster fire. And I couldn’t get enough. Luckily for me, the second and third books are already locked and loaded on my beloved Kindle. The Widowmaker is currently beckoning.

About the Author

Hannah Morrissey is the author of the Black Harbor suspense series which includes Hello, Transcriber, The Widowmaker, and When I’m Dead. A three-decade survivor of Wisconsin winters, Hannah enjoys putting her characters (and readers) in bone-chilling atmospheres that permeate beyond the page. Naturally, her books have carved out their own sub-genre of “Midwestern Noir.”

Between roles of bookseller and copywriter, Hannah was inspired to write her debut novel while transcribing reports for her local police department. Far from home in a grim, crime-ridden city, it was her job to sit alone in the dead of night, listen, and type as detectives divulged the city’s darkest secrets. There, she realized that every case was a story, and every story started with the same two words: “Hello, Transcriber.”

Hannah graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison where she majored in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She grew up in a small northern town and now lives near Milwaukee with her husband, three pugs, and a TBR pile that never seems to get any smaller.

 

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Book Review: Because of Her (Jack & Jill #6) by Jewel E. Ann @authorjeweleann and @valentine_pr_

Because of Her
(Jack & Jill #6)
by Jewel E. Ann

Amazon / BB

“If sin weren’t pretty, it wouldn’t be so tempting.”

I was an accomplished music professor.

Happily single.

Perfectly content.

 

Now, I’m unemployed.

Pining for a dark, brooding guy named Jack who lives in a garage with a piano.

And I’m plotting to seduce a married man because his daughter is responsible for my nephew committing suicide.

 

I don’t know why teenage girls are so mean.

I don’t know why rich men cheat on their wives.

And I don’t know why Jack has serial killer vibes, even though he leaves me speechless every time he speaks.

 

All I know for sure is that I feel safe in a stranger’s arms and understood by someone I don’t understand.

“You should be a little scared of everyone because humans are unpredictable.”

 

How far will I go for revenge? More than that …

How far will he go to save me?

*This book contains material involving sexual assault and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.

 

  Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

John and I were inseparable, not just because we were twins. We complemented each other perfectly— my weaknesses were his strengths, and his were mine. We always said we were accidental twins, meant to be one person. Instead, we were two out-of-balance humans: either extremely good at something or extremely bad.

Her overly shiny Botox face makes a sad attempt at showing emotion, like reeling in a kite when there’s too much wind.

My Review:

 

Angst is one of my least favorite things on the planet. Yet, oddly enough, I adore and am enamored with Jewel E. Ann’s tales despite her love of angst, as her engrossing and emotive writing makes it well worth swallowing my personal annoyance. Her characters are endearingly broken yet soldiering on while hampered by real-world issues and vulnerabilities. Her writing style flows with an impossible eloquence that keeps me holding my breath while riveted to my Kindle. Her narrative hits all the feels multiple times as she does seem to enjoy bedeviling her fractured characters before bringing them to their well-earned HEA.

 Jewel is a Wall Street Journal & USA Today best-selling author with a quirky sense of humor. When she’s not saving the planet one tree at a time, you can find her role-modeling questionable behavior to her three boys, binge-watching Netflix with her husband, and writing mind-bending romance. 

 

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Book Review: Death By Theft (A Josiah Reynolds Mystery 19) by Abigail Keam @AbigailKeam

Death By Theft
A Josiah Reynolds Mystery 19
by Abigail Keam

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / BB

Josiah is happy for her pals Lady Elsmere and Shaneika Mary Todd when broodmare Jean Harlow gives birth to a male foal sired by Comanche. The owners of both horses have high hopes the foal will become a stakes winner—maybe even win the Kentucky Derby. The foal has a broad chest, indicating significant lung capacity—important for winning races, but just like his daddy, the foal is ebony with a bad attitude.

Josiah and Shaneika visit dam Jean Harlow early one morning and are shocked to find the prized foal is missing. They frantically search Lady Elsmere’s and Josiah’s farms without success. It’s urgent they find the foal fast as he is not yet weaned and is too young to be separated from his mother. Who would snatch the feisty foal from his mother’s care? And equally important, why?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I’m famous for stumbling over dead bodies. It’s a curse.

“What have you got against rich people?” Asa giggled. “Only that I’m not one of them.”

The guard raised his thick eyebrows in need of a trim. They looked like two caterpillars mating on top of each eye.

I do what I have to do. Sometimes a cowboy in a white hat is not sufficient for what needs to be done. Sometimes it takes a dark knight with proficiency for violence. Know what I mean?

 

My Review:

 

This amusing contemporary cozy tale was quite the conundrum and despite conjuring multiple theories as I read, I would never have come up with the end result as written by this conniving wordsmith. The mystery was well-plotted and an interesting one to follow. I was invested in the story and worried for all involved.

I enjoy Ms. Keam’s complex characters as they are uniquely quirky, well-nuanced, at least a little bit sketchy, and all realistically fractured. Being somewhat new to the series, this was my introduction to the character of Asa whose story threads intrigued, compelled, and had more twists than a snake’s trail. My fingers are crossed she shows up again and again in future installments.

 

About the Author

One thing Miss Abigail loves to do as an author is to write real people and events into her stories. “I am a student of history and love to insert historical information into my mysteries. My goal is to entertain my readers, but if they learn a little something along the way—well, then we are both happy. I certainly learn a lot from my research, and I hope my readers come away with a new appreciation of beekeeping from my Josiah Reynolds Mysteries.”
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Book Review: One Hundred Merry Memories (An Aspen Cove Romance # 24)  by Kelly Collins 

One Hundred Merry Memories
(An Aspen Cove Romance # 24)
by Kelly Collins

 

Amazon  / BB

She’s a city girl looking for change.
He’s an ex-soldier looking for stability.
What happens when fate brings them together?

After a tough breakup, author Amanda Anderson swears off men forever. When a pink envelope finds its way to her, offering a charming cabin on a vast piece of land in the mountains of Aspen Cove, she heads west, looking to start over—alone. But when she arrives at the dilapidated cabin, she is faced with more than she can handle, so she enlists the help of the only person a sexy bartender who offers free labor in exchange for a place to stay.

Jackson Knight is no one’s savior, but just as he’s looking for a place to call home, Amanda Anderson offers him the deal of the century—free room and board in exchange for his brain and brawn. How hard can fixing up a cabin be? Turns out, pretty hard, especially when Amanda looks at him like he’s her knight in shining armor.

As they prepare the cabin for Christmas, they fight an undeniable attraction growing between them. She’s not looking for love. He’s not ready for it. But can two people outwit, outfox, and outmaneuver the townspeople who are rooting for them?

This heartwarming last addition to the Aspen Cove Series showcases the transformative power of love and the magic of Christmas in a small town where no one is a stranger. They are only a friend you haven’t met yet.

My Rating:

My Review: 

This was a total delight to read from beginning to end. I have been a fan of this series and am enamored with its clever and talented creator. Ms. Collins’ writing style is easy to follow with lush and vivid descriptions that paint complete vistas as well as hit all the feels. However, it was bittersweet to realize that this was the last of the Aspen Cove series. I had hoped it would continue into perpetuity.

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

 

  Goodreads  / Website  / Amazon / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Bookbub

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.

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Book Review: The Sweetheart Crush (Blossom Glen #3) by Miranda Liasson  by Miranda Liasson @mirandaliasson

The Sweetheart Crush
Blossom Glen #3
by Miranda Liasson

 

Amazon / B&N / GP  / Apple / BB

Photographer Viv Montgomery’s dreams were bigger than her small hometown of Blossom Glen. Following them meant leaving everything and everyone behind—including her sweet and funny best friend, Logan Matthews. Now, twelve years later, the town’s “sweetheart” is back, broke, and…well, working in the town’s famous Christmas store until she figures out her next move.

Enter her former best friend who she hasn’t seen or talked to in years. Only the cute, funny guy she remembers is gone—replaced by a famous, bestselling author who seems aloof, jaded, and is much, much hotter than any book nerd she’s ever seen. Seeing him in the news is one thing, but up close and person? Whewf, it’s warm in here.

Now he’s offered her a job she desperately needs (blissfully free of Santas), and suddenly it’s like no time has passed at all. Their friendship is just like it was…with one very unexpected difference. Because somewhere between the blossom festival and snuggling in front of a crackling fire, their friendship is definitely turning into something more. Only, Logan’s been hiding the secret of his enormous success…and the sweetheart of Blossom Glen is about to read all about it.

Each book in the Blossom Glen series is STANDALONE:
* The Sweetheart Deal
* The Sweetheart Fix
* The Sweetheart Crush

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

She was staring at him as if he was a raccoon peeking out at her from under the lid of a garbage can.

A strange feeling came over him, a cross between heartburn and an eye twitch.

She rolled her eyes and flashed him a half smile. “It was… okay.” It was the best she’d ever had. Ever. Sex with him was Christmas Day. Her birthday. Cake and ice cream. Make that chocolate ice cream. Wildflowers in a field bursting with rainbow colors. Yellow and purple and bright green bursting on a sea of gray. With glitter sparkles. And every perfect day she’d ever had, all rolled up at once. Of course, she said none of this.

 

My Review:

 

I have enjoyed each installment of this lively and entertaining series but I do believe this one is the best of the bunch and is my absolute favorite. Ms. Liasson is a smooth and beguiling storyteller who laces her tales together with amusing observations as well as clever perceptiveness. The storylines were engaging, well-paced, and easy to follow and were populated with relatable and endearing characters with real-world issues. I am looking forward to more of the same in the next installment.

 

Author Bio:

Miranda Liasson loves to write stories about everyday people who find love despite themselves because there’s nothing like a great love story. And if there are a few laughs along the way, even better! She’s a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart winner and an Amazon bestselling author whose heartwarming and humorous small-town romances have won accolades such as the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence and have been Harlequin Junkie and Night Owl Reviews Top Picks.

 

Connect with Miranda: 

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