Snowed In at The Little Duck Pond Café

The Little Duck Pond Cafe, Book 4

by Rosie Green

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU

The biggest snowfall in years has blanketed Sunnybrook, cutting the village off from the outside world. For Fen, who finds herself snowed in at The Little Duck Pond Cafe, it’s little more than a minor inconvenience. Her love life is finally running smoothly; it looks as if she’s found the perfect man for her.

But then a shocking secret threatens to destroy Fen’s new-found happiness.

Will being snowed in be the final straw? Or will Fen find a way through the snowdrifts to the perfect love?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

‘I’ll be okay, Lellie,’ Maisie assures her earnestly. ‘Daddy says you fuss too much because you love me like I love Goldie.’ Ellie laughs and turns to Zak, who’s next to her on the sofa. Zak grins. ‘It’s true. I’m not sure anyone could love a hamster quite as much as Maisie loves Goldie.’

Most methods of contraception are found to be slightly less than wholly effective. But two thick winter coats, I can confirm, are one hundred percent foolproof.

I definitely don’t wish her any harm. A small Chinese burn, perhaps, but nothing major.

My Review:

The clever wordsmith known as Rosie Green strikes again with another sweet and entertaining installment of her Little Duck Pond series, I’ve read all four and have enjoyed each one. This somewhat angsty and heart-squeezing novella continued the freshly bloomed relationship between Fen and Rob but trouble soon surfaced (within a week) when Rob was caught in a small lie of omission, which then snowballed when he was caught in another one, and then yet another rather big one… sigh. MEN! But Fen, being rather naïve and inexperienced and prone to social anxiety and humiliation over the least little thing, was crushed and stewed in her angst, oh the drama. But what holiday season would be complete without at least a little light drama?

In addition to the Fen/Rob saga, Ms. Green also continued with ongoing events of the café and small village community. I adore the denizens of this quirky little hamlet. And instead of new Brit words for my ongoing list, today I have gleaned two unfamiliar British idioms with “gone down a storm” (well received) and “pushes the boat out” (to celebrate lavishly). I can always count on Ms. Green to further my education.

Author Bio

Rosie Green has been scribbling stories ever since she was little. Back then they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’. Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all, unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

Rosie’s brand new series of novellas is centered on life in a village café. The first two stories in the series are: Spring at The Little Duck Pond Cafe and Summer at The Little Duck Pond Café.

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green1988

Fishing for Māui

by Isa Pearl Ritchie

Amazon US  /   UK  /  B&N /  Smashwords 

A novel about food, whānau, and mental illness.

Valerie reads George Eliot to get to sleep – just to take her mind off worries over her patients, her children, their father, and the next family dinner. Elena is so obsessed with health, traditional food, her pregnancy and her blog she doesn’t notice that her partner, Malcolm the ethicist, is getting himself into a moral dilemma of his own making. Evie wants to save the world one chicken at a time. Meanwhile her boyfriend, Michael is on a quest to reconnect with his Māori heritage and discover his own identity. Rosa is eight years old and lost in her own fantasy world, but she’s the only one who can tell something’s not right. Crisis has the power to bring this family together, but will it be too late?

“An accomplished story of a family in crisis – Ritchie’s great skill is her ability to conjure the inner lives if her characters. Fishing For Maui is a compassionate meditation on what it means to be well”. – Sarah Jane Barnett

My Rating:

3.75 Stars

Favorite Quotes:

The less they know the better it is for them. They sit on the fence between morality and legality, knowing as well as we do that the two concepts can be worlds apart.

It never made sense to me, this story. But I suppose myths don’t have to make sense – gods that became the world, why not? It’s about as likely as one very strict God who created everything in six days and then had a nap.

I don’t say any of what I’m actually thinking to her, because she doesn’t really want to listen. Most people don’t want to listen they just want to be heard.

That’s the thing with relationships; there are always two sides. No one’s ever innocent.

My Review:

I struggled valiantly with this book, it was not an easy read and required considerable mental expenditure, so know going in that this is not a book to pick up for a relaxing or leisurely perusal.   I grappled with the frequent use of unfamiliar words that were deployed without translation, and while I understood, respected, and appreciated why they were utilized and important to the story, it became so tedious to this non-native speaker that I gave up using the translator app. But, don’t get me wrong; this was not a poorly written or unpleasant book, quite the opposite. The narrative contained shimmers of brilliance with keenly insightful threads woven into uncommon and vividly detailed and emotive scenarios. The storylines were profoundly real and tackled a plethora of heavy hitting real-life issues faced by a completely dysfunctional family populated with hugely unlikable and extremely exasperating characters. This is the type of obnoxiously self-involved and rigidly judgmental family that felt uncomfortably familiar and of the ilk that any sane person would move far far away from to avoid; I should know, I highly recommend that technique as the best method for escape.

Author Bio 

Isa Ritchie is a Wellington-based writer. She grew up as a Pākehā child in a bicultural family and Māori was her first written language. She has completed a Ph.D. on food sovereignty in Aotearoa. She is passionate about food, wellbeing and social justice.

Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/isapearlritchie/

https://twitter.com/IsaPearlRitchie

https://www.instagram.com/isapearlritchie/ 

Family Trust

by Kathy Wang

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Hardcover: 400 pages

 Publisher: William Morrow (October 30, 2018)

THE INAUGURAL BUZZFEED BOOK CLUB PICK

NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE FALL BY

The Washington Post • Elle.com • Buzzfeed • Entertainment Weekly • Bustle • The Globe and Mail • Apartment Therapy • Town & Country • Harper’s Bazaar

“Reads like a brilliant mashup of The Nest and Crazy Rich Asians (with a soupçon of Arrested Development for good measure).” — Cristina Alger, author of The Banker’s Wife

Meet Stanley Huang: father, husband, ex-husband, man of unpredictable tastes and temper, aficionado of all-inclusive vacations and bargain luxury goods, newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Meet Stanley’s family: son Fred, who feels that he should be making a lot more money; daughter Kate, managing a capricious boss, a distracted husband, and two small children; ex-wife Linda, familiar with and suspicious of Stanley’s grandiose ways; and second wife Mary, giver of foot rubs and ego massages.

For years, Stanley has insistently claimed that he’s worth a small fortune. Now, as the Huangs come to terms with Stanley’s approaching death, they are also starting to fear that Stanley’s “small fortune” may be more “small” than “fortune.” A compelling tale of cultural expectations, career ambitions and our relationships with the people who know us best, Family Trust draws a sharply loving portrait of modern American family life.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Erika didn’t like most ethnic restaurants, and in particular the cheap authentic ones, an admission that in native Bay Area circles was viewed with the same muted horror as Holocaust denial or the use of trans fats.

…her fingers flew past an array of the graying and bald. “Here’s someone I went on a date with last week,” she said. “But he was only interested in, you know, a nurse with a purse.”

Do not speak to her again. Someone like that, you end all communication, immediately. Witches feed off attention. Take away the broom, they can’t fly. All right?

Linda was satisfied to note that Teddy, the alleged future husband of Shirley Chang, was at least the same height if not shorter than Winston and had the same pitch-black pomade hairstyle—it must be a trend with older Asian men, she thought, just like how all the women simultaneously emerged with the same enormous perms after sixty.

My Review:

This book was a bit uneven for me, but maybe it was just flying several levels over my head as I have zero interest in venture capitalism or corporate lifestyles as those topics are more than my tiny brain can comprehend and tends to scorch the little pea inside. However, I seem to quickly queue up for all the snark and salacious details mined from this unusual family’s tangled secrets and snide inner musings. The storylines were complex and highly nuanced with generous servings of razor-sharp wit and eviscerating observations. It was well worth wading through the more tedious detritus of their obsessive financial wranglings to get to their peculiar predicaments and curiously confounding choices. They seemed overly driven and nearly consumed with amassing status and money, and how they were being seen while doing so. The vast majority of this large and oddly intriguing cast of characters were rather vile, although Stanley was full-on heinous.   I was equally repulsed and fascinated, and couldn’t quite seem to get enough or a full grasp of what was transpiring – what does that say about me? I have not yet read Crazy Rich Asians, and while I really wish I had, I also know I’d actually rather be one.   I was provided a review copy of this clever tale by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours.  

About Kathy Wang

Kathy Wang grew up in Northern California and holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two children.

Visit Kathy’s website and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

My Gift is You

(Risking It All #3.5)

by Rachel Lacey

🎁 Amazon  🎁 B&N 🎁 iBooks

 🎁 Kobo  🎁 GP 

SOMETIMES THE BEST GIFTS CAN’T BE WRAPPED

All Mandy Carson wants for Christmas is a distraction…and maybe a date to her friend’s New Year’s Eve wedding. Ghosts from the past always loom larger this time of year, and Mandy’s having a hard time faking her usual fun-loving demeanor. But when her much-needed distraction arrives in the form of the man who rocked her world the long-ago night of their junior prom, she’s forced to confront the painful scars that caused her to bolt back in high school.

Wildlife rescuer Calvin Rocha always regretted letting Mandy slip out of his life, so when fate brings them together on a snowy mountain road with an injured hawk on Christmas Eve, he’s determined to make the most of this second chance. He agrees to be her wedding date, hoping the romantic weekend will bring them back together. And as the clock counts down to midnight, Cal and Mandy might just discover that the best gift they’ll receive this season is each other.

This novella closes out my Risking It All series. It crosses over into my new Almost Royal series, because much of it takes place at a wedding held at the castle introduced in If the Shoe Fits. But you definitely don’t need to have read that book to enjoy My Gift is You! Like all her books, it stands alone.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Their kiss was tentative but familiar, like rediscovering a favorite song, one he hadn’t heard since high school. She tasted like scotch and nostalgia, melting the winter night around them with memories of a red-checked blanket and the scent of warm grass.

Did you know I was voted ‘Most Likely to Get Arrested’ in our senior yearbook?

My Review:

This sweet and sexy story just flew by – I was rather surprised to realize I had finished it in one sitting. Despite its brief duration, the narrative was eventful, active, and enjoyable engaging while blending two popular series and crossing several genres. Impressive! This was a small-town, second chance, holiday, adult contemporary romance with a rockstar wedding and rescue animals in an English lord’s castle in Virginia, and completed in only eighty-four pages.   Wow, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around all of that goodness.

About the Author

Rachel Lacey is a contemporary romance author and semi-reformed travel junkie. She’s been climbed by a monkey on a mountain in Japan, gone scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and camped out overnight in New York City for a chance to be an extra in a movie. These days, the majority of her adventures take place on the pages of the books she writes. She lives in warm and sunny North Carolina with her husband, son, and a variety of rescue pets.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads 

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Faith failed him.

Ambition drove her.

Serendipity brought them together

They’ve never met, but their paths run in the same direction—home for the holidays.

Yet their reasons for leaving are as different as the reasons they return.

Meeting by chance along a 1400 mile stretch of highway when a snowstorm grinds traffic to a halt, they have no choice but to jointly ride it out.

Exposing a common thread, leading them from the past to the present, it’s through the innocent eyes of a toddler, they discover a future.

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Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.

Driven to make her books about ‘real’ people; with characters who are perhaps less than perfect, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills, and some hot, sizzling sex in their lives.

A recipient of the RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for best first book, “Slim To None”, and Finalist for the Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, Freya has not slowed down.

She continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!

Don’t miss any upcoming releases!  Sign up for release notifications today >>
https://www.subscribepage.com/FreyaBarkerReleaseNotification

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  Bagging Alice

(Babes of Brighton Book 3)

by Laura Barnard

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU

Synopsis:

Alice is used to taking photographs for a living – not having intimate pictures of herself posted for all the world to see, thanks to a disgruntled ex-boyfriend. Now her clients are canceling appointments, and she’s almost out of cash. What else could go wrong? Oh yeah, her roommate has scarpered leaving Alice completely out of luck.

Enter Tom ‘man-whore’ Maddens. Having disappointed his father one time too many, he moves to Brighton, ready for a new start. And where better to begin it than in Alice’s newly-vacant spare room? And if he tries to seduce her at the same time? Well he’s just living up to his reputation, isn’t he?

But then he didn’t bank on actually falling for her. Will his reputation as a commitment-phobe put a stop to any sparks between the pair? Or can Alice put aside her trust issues and take a leap of faith for Tom?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Suddenly it dawns on me. What the hell am I doing with this tool? I’m only twenty-six and I’m acting like he’s the last Neanderthal on the planet. I can do so much better.

But this woman doesn’t like me. I could tell it the moment she laid eyes on me. Bernice Shuttlecock. That’s right. Her surname is shuttlecock. And she insists on everyone calling her Mrs Shuttlecock. Every time I say it I can’t help but get a stupid grin on my face and have to literally bite my tongue to stop from laughing. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t like me?

He lays down on the pebble beach and immediately starts posing like Zoolander, pouting his lips ridiculously… ’‘What? You don’t like my blue steel?’ he asks, as if genuinely offended.

‘So, do you have any Irish in you?’ he asks… ‘Do you want some?’ he asks, throwing his head back on a chuckle.

Who knew I’d ever imagine Tom ‘Manwhore’ Maddens being a keeper? I suppose stranger things have happened. Like dinosaurs.

When you look at us on paper we’re opposites, but when you put us together we’re forced towards each other like magnets.

My Review:

This was a fun and saucy tale, I have enjoyed reading the two earlier books featuring this irreverent group of friends living in Brighton, they got into and up to the most ridiculous antics. Alice had self-esteem problems and devastatingly poor taste in men and learned the hard way about revenge porn. Snap, that was a new one for me as well. So dear Alice had learned not to trust her judgment when she found herself attracted to her sexy new roommate Tom, a known sex machine in her group of friends. Tom was a blindingly handsome, cocky, thoughtless, and arrogant womanizer who was well-known for his sexual skill set. Tom also proved hard to resist and more so when he brought home a cute but trouble-making puppy. The characters were endearingly flawed, foul-mouthed, and entertainingly quirky; yet with real-life problems. Written in my favorite dual POV, the storylines were well-balanced between angst and levity while dealing with career, family, and relationship issues.   I’m curious to see what Ms. Barnard does next with this vibrant group of friends.

 

Although a standalone, if you’d like to check out the first two books in the Babes of Brighton series here they are:

Excess Baggage (Book 1) – mybook.to/ExcessB

Christmas Camp

by Karen Schaler

HarperCollins | Amazon | B&N

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

From the screenwriter of the Netflix Original viral hit, A Christmas Prince, comes another heartwarming holiday story about a beautiful Grinch who’s determined to get her dream job even if it means spending a week at a Christmas Camp where she discovers an unexpected love.

Haley Hanson’s idea of the perfect Christmas is escaping to the Caribbean to work so she can avoid all the traditional Christmas distractions. Over the years, she’s sacrificed her personal life to climb the corporate ladder at a prestigious Boston advertising agency. Now she just needs to land a coveted Christmas toy company account to make partner. But first, her boss, Larry, thinks she needs a holiday attitude adjustment, so he ships her off to a Christmas Camp at Holly Peak Inn to help her find her Christmas spirit.

Arriving at the charming mountainside inn, Haley meets the owner’s handsome son, Jeff, and feels an instant spark, but resists the attraction, refusing to be distracted from her goal of doing all the required Christmas tasks as fast as possible so she can get back to work.

At first, Haley struggles with all the traditional Christmas Camp activities. It’s not until she finally allows herself to slow down, live in the moment, and let Christmas back into her heart, that she begins to grow closer to Jeff. But when he finds out Haley’s come up with a plan to help his dad save the struggling inn while he’s been trying to convince his dad to sell it, their relationship takes a serious holiday hit. Now it will take the magic of the season to bring these two hearts together.

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

Since she traveled a lot to visit her clients, she took pride in the fact that she never checked any bags, going with the philosophy that there were two kinds of luggage, carry-on and lost.

My Review:

I enjoyed this mild and sweet holiday storyline of a female workaholic named Haley. The writing was insightful and finely tweaked with those humorous and thoughtful touches that kicked the narrative up from good to cleverly exceptional. The main character of Haley wasn’t exactly a grinch but a mild female version of Scrooge.   She was exceptionally driven and prone to be selfish and thoughtless in what she said and did in her eagerness to get accounts and make partner. She worked all the time and didn’t make time to relax, date, or socialize outside of work.   She wasn’t vile, just obnoxiously ambitious and work-obsessed. Her boss staged a covet intervention as “a holiday attitude adjustment,” by sending her to “Christmas Camp,” an inn with traditional activities geared to bring families together during the holidays. This is one of those rare books that is chaste enough for my elderly mother’s Sunday School book club and Hallmark Channel wholesome, yet still entertaining to me. My favorite character in the story was the exceptionally clever Max – the Wonder Dog, whom I believe was largely responsible for Haley’s transformation.  I was provided with a review copy of this sweet tale by   HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours. 

About Karen Schaler

Karen Schaler is a three-time Emmy Award-winning storyteller, author, screenwriter, journalist and national TV host. She has written original screenplays for Netflix and Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies. Her travels to more than sixty-five countries as the creator and host of Travel Therapy TV inspired Christmas Camp. All of Karen’s stories are uplifting, filled with heart and hope.

Find out more about Karen at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.