Category: 4-Stars

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Book Review: The Sweetheart Fix (Blossom Glen #2) by Miranda Liasson @mirandaliasson

 

The Sweetheart Fix
(Blossom Glen #2)
by Miranda Liasson

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

Juliet Montgomery absolutely loves her small town of Blossom Glen, Indiana, and everyone loves her. Except for the fact that she’s a couples counselor who suffered a very public breakup that no one can forget. And now her boss asks her to take a step back…which is exactly when the town’s good-lookin’ and unusually gruff mayor offers her an unexpected job.

Jack Monroe absolutely loves being the mayor of his small town. Except when he actually has to talk to people. Can’t he just fix the community problems in peace? Like right now, he’s mediating the silliest dispute two neighbors could possibly have. When the town sweetheart steps up and solves everyone’s problems in five minutes flat, Jack realizes what this town really needs…is a therapist.

Juliet is able to soothe anyone—other than the surly mayor, it seems. But there’s a reason they say opposites attract, because all of their verbal sparring leads to some serious attraction. Only, just like with fireworks, the view might appear beautiful—but she’s already had one public explosion that’s nearly ruined everything…how can she risk her heart again?

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

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“If you really think you have a magic wand,” he said, gesturing to the two men, “have at it.” “I sure do, Mayor Jack.” She smiled sweetly and swirled her hand around in a spell-making gesture. “It also happens to match my broomstick.”

The man never lifted a finger to help anyone in his life. But he could sweet-talk a chicken across a five-lane highway.

Parents did devilish things to each other to get their kids into his class. One year some mom had broken into the office and erased a child’s name off the waiting list so her kid could move up. Who knew Blossom Glen Elementary’s kindergarten could be so cutthroat?

Juliet was never late. Except she did have a tendency not to show up at her weddings.

 

My Review:

 

This fun and well-paced small-town contemporary romance featured two well-known characters within their community who started off sparring with each other on the job as well as battling their histories and personal issues while trying to save face. They soon discovered they worked well together on and off the job and righted themselves in the process. The storylines were easy to follow and entertaining with a minimum of contrived conflict as well as amusing carryover and involvement of the endearing characters featured from the first installment, and topped off with a sweet and satisfying ending. There is one more sister to go, I have a feeling her issues are going to be far more complicated.

 

 

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: 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | Newsletter | Bookbub | Pinterest | Blog

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Book Review: Chaos at Carnegie Hall (A Fiona Figg & Kitty Lane Mystery #1) by Kelly Oliver

Chaos at Carnegie Hall
(A Fiona Figg & Kitty Lane Mystery #1)
by Kelly Oliver

Amazon /  Apple /  B & N  / GP  / BB

Can Fiona catch a killer and find a decent cup of tea before her mustache wax melts?

1917. New York.

Notorious spy, Fredrick Fredricks, has invited Fiona to Carnegie Hall to hear a famous soprano. It’s an opportunity the War Office can’t turn down. Fiona and Clifford are soon on their way, but not before Fiona is saddled with chaperone duties for Captain Hall’s niece. Is Fiona a spy or a glorified babysitter?

From the minute Fiona meets the soprano aboard the RMS Adriatic it’s treble on the high C’s. Fiona sees something—or someone—thrown overboard, and then she overhears a chemist plotting in German with one of her own countrymen!

And the trouble doesn’t stop when they disembark. Soon Fiona is doing time with a group of suffragettes and investigating America’s most impressive inventor Thomas Edison.

When her number one suspect turns up dead at the opera and Fredrick Fredricks is caught red-handed, it looks like it’s finally curtains for the notorious spy.

But all the evidence points to his innocence. Will Fiona change her tune and clear her nemesis’ name? Or will she do her duty? And just what is she going to do with the pesky Kitty Lane? Not to mention swoon-worthy Archie Somersby . . .

If Fiona’s going to come out on top, she’s going to have to make the most difficult decision of her life: the choice between her head and her heart.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Eliza had taken to calling me “Aunt Fiona.” Only seven years her senior, I was hardly old enough to be her aunt. Technically, I suppose I was old enough. Still, “Aunt Fiona” sounded positively hideous— the kind of homely aunt one locked in an attic and only allowed out when the company had gone home— and altogether too informal for my tastes.

I may have overdone it with the face powder, but she’d been overly enthusiastic with her rouge. She looked like a radish.

I had to admit, there was something reassuring about Clifford and his carefree manner— an ease born of a life of comfort, privilege, and abstaining from contemplation.

I was just telling Marc about my in-laws. The only obscenities they don’t use to describe me are the ones they can’t pronounce.

This was a task for Clifford. He could chat up a turnip and find out what lay beneath its roots.

My Review:

 

This was an easy, enjoyable, and lively read that kept me guessing and entertained. I admired Feisty Fiona, she was independent and ahead of her time. The writing style was easy to follow and descriptive and pulled colorful and detailed visuals to my mind’s eye. The engaging storylines were well-paced and populated with unique, amusing, and authentic characters. I’m already looking forward to more of Ms. Figg’s breezy adventures.

I

 

About Kelly Oliver

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.

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

 

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Book Review: Frost Falls at the Potting Shed (The Potting Shed, #1) by Jenny Kane @JennyKaneAuthor @AriaFiction

Frost Falls at the Potting Shed
(The Potting Shed, #1)
by Jenny Kane 

Amazon  / B&N / GP / BB

It has always been Maddie Willand‘s dream to take over her father’s plant nursery. But after his sudden death, she is devastated to discover that she might lose The Potting Shed forever.

Maddie’s bossy older sister, Sabi, is joint owner of the nursery, and she’s convinced that the best thing for both of them would be to sell up. Determined to keep the business going, Maddie can’t afford any distractions, but staying focused might be harder than she thinks when – after a major garden center chain puts in an offer – her search for legal advice throws her into the path of an attractive lawyer named Ed…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Grade-one snob syndrome.

Maddie glared at her houseplant. ‘Comments like that are not helpful.’

My Review:

 

This was a fun and engaging women’s fiction read featuring sisters at odds over their struggling family business in a small British village. The characters were well-etched and knowable, while not always likable – like most family members are in real life. Maddie was an endearing, driven, and lonely soul who not only talked to her plants but held intense conversations and arguments with them. The storylines were easy to follow, well-paced, and mild enough to recommend to my elderly mother’s church ladies’ book club.

I also gleaned a new addition to my Brit Words and Phrases list with berk, which is British slang for a stupid person. I have plants of my own to tell this one too.

 

 About the Author

Jenny Kane is the bestselling author of many romantic fiction series. These include the Mill Grange series, Abi’s Cornwall series, and the Another Cup series. She has had bestsellers in the Amazon Romance, Contemporary Fiction, and Women’s Fiction charts and multiple bestsellers. If you enjoy Jenny’s writing, then why not follow her author page, for updates on all of her new releases?

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Book Review: Knock Out (Fighting for Love, #4) by Jiffy Kate @JiffyKateWrites @SmartyPantsRom

Knock Out
(Fighting for Love, #4)
by Jiffy Kate 

Amazon  / BB

Knock Out, an all-new grumpy sunshine small-town romance from Jiffy Kate, is now available in Kindle Unlimited!

In the blink of an eye, Willow Bernard goes from stocking shelves at the Piggly Wiggly to kicking butt at Viking MMA.

Willow Bernard has taken a lot of hits in her twenty-two years but always manages to come back swinging. Hoping to fly under the radar for a change, she relocates to Green Valley. Her strategy works until one fateful phone call initiates a series of events that shakes up her quiet existence.

Tattooed adventure-seeker Ozzi Erickson goes where the wind takes him. When he blows into Green Valley for his big brother’s wedding—and to figure out his next move—he isn’t prepared for the knock-out punch coming his way.

With Ozzi sticking around the Tennessee mountain town, his brother gives him a temporary assignment as Willow Bernard’s trainer.

His job is to teach her how to fight. But will she have the skills required to protect her heart?

‘Knock Out’ is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #4 in the Fighting for Love series, Green Valley Chronicles, Penny Reid Book Universe.

Start the Fighting For Love series of standalones!

Read for FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Stud Muffin

http://bit.ly/300Pe1P

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

My dad laughs. “I hate to break it to y’all, but she never oohed and ahhed over any of you like she does this baby. What they say, about grandkids being your reward for making it through parenthood, is right.”

Those Erickson boys are finer than a frog hair split four ways… or five, I guess.

I will not cry today. I know the old song about it being my party and I can cry if I want to, but I don’t want to.

My Review:

 

The storylines were carefully built and slowly paced although still engaging. The storylines featured and carried over endearing and authentic characters from previous installments. The main character of Willow was admirable yet also rather heavy on the angst, which isn’t one of my favorite things, although I enjoyed the arc of her blossoming confidence and steamy romance and appreciated the welcome hits of wit and humor provided in the other characters’ encounters. There is one more brother to go, the grumpiest of the bunch, I’m already curious.

 

 

About the Author

Jiffy Kate is the joint pen name for Jiff Simpson and Jenny Kate Altman. They’re co-writing besties who share a brain. They also share a love of cute boys, stiff drinks, and fun times.

Together, they’ve written over twenty stories. Their first published book, Finding Focus, was released in November 2015. Since then, they’ve continued to write what they know–southern settings full of swoony heroes and strong heroines.

Find Jiffy Kate online

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Website: http://www.jiffykate.com/

Connect with Smartypants Romance

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Book Review: Play Smart (Work For It, #5) by Aly Stiles @aly_stiles @SmartyPantsRom

Play Smart
(Work For It, #5)
by Aly Stiles

 

Play Smart, an all-new enemies-to-lovers rockstar romcom from Aly Stiles, is now available in Kindle Unlimited!

Nash Ellis knows music. Producing, performing, writing—if it involves the creative process he’s there for it. He knows nothing about copy machines. Or financial reports. Or anything related to the stuck-up business world his best friends have been chasing since they were kids. But Nash also needs money, so when his roommate gets him a paid internship at Reedweather Media, he reluctantly agrees. At least his know-it-all intern competitor is kind of cute in a nerdy-librarian sort of way—especially when she’s being tormented by an angsty rocker she can’t stand.

The only thing Paige Andrews hates more than failure? Nash Ellis. She has little patience for incompetence and zero tolerance for indifference. He clearly doesn’t belong in their corporate world, so why does he insist on ruining her dream job? And the worst part—he’s not what he seems. In fact, it’s all the things he’s hiding behind those electric blue eyes that make him straight-up captivating in an ironic-slacker sort of way.

But their smoldering friction bursts into open flames when the feuding interns are forced into a high-stakes mission that requires intimate knowledge of the music industry. Yep, what could go wrong when the least-qualified candidate to ever walk the halls of a major corporation becomes their only hope of success?

‘Play Smart’ is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #5 in the Work For It series, Educated Romance World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

You didn’t get me a job. You sent me through a wormhole to Hell…

If lust was a competitive sport, pretty sure I just made Nationals.

He doesn’t look at me as he gets lost in some distant recess of his head. As usual, a part of me wants to follow him there. The other part is relieved I can’t.

We are fire and gasoline, and we’ve become addicted to the flames.

Another win for Zeros Being Heroes, I guess. We’re like the Accidental Avengers. We’re so bad at shit it goes full circle and kinda works.

My Review:

 

I enjoyed the clever humor, cunning snark, and crisp banter between Ms. Stiles’s complex characters. I delighted in the volatile chemistry and blossoming romance between the two main protagonists. Still, I got a bit lost and disinterested in the corporate politics, espionage, and double and triple spies storylines. I so wanted to befriend Nash Ellis, he was quite the tasty treat despite being anathema to his coworker Paige upon meeting. Both were whip-smart, more than a bit fractured, and had complicated personalities. The writing was emotive, heart-squeezing, as well as scorch the sheets and gasp producing steamy.

About the Author

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Website
Facebook
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From angsty and dark to snort-laugh funny, Aly writes romance from her soul to yours.

Connect with Smartypants Romance

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Book Review:  On the First Day of Christmas by Faith Hogan  @GerHogan  @Aria_Fiction

On the First Day of Christmas
by Faith Hogan

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

A gorgeous new festive read from the Kindle #1 bestselling author of The Ladies’ Midnight Swimming Club

When Liv Latimer says goodbye to her colleagues and finishes work for the holidays, she’s looking forward to a Christmas to remember with her boyfriend Eddie.

But before she makes it home, her phone rings, calling her back into work. And Liv is faced with a choice. Does she do as she’s always done, and put herself second? Or, will she say no, so she can finally begin the life she’s dreamed of?

Liv’s decision will turn her world upside down in ways she could never have imagined.

Because whatever choice she makes, Liv is about to discover, fate finds a way…

From the bestselling Irish author of The Ladies’ Midnight Swimming Club, comes an emotional and uplifting festive story about love, family and how a split-second decision can change your life.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

Go ahead, eat that frog.

My Review:

 

I struggled with this one and needed to ruminate for a few days before I could write a coherent review as I was rather disgruntled upon reaching the conclusion of the mystery. The book was unusually plotted with puzzling parallel timelines and similar events with the same characters. I was a bit baffled and bewildered with each shift, yet I was also quickly invested in the story and fell right into this wily author’s trap.

Multiple theories were developed, discarded, and circled yet again during my perusal – including parallel universes, dissociative personality, coma dreaming, reincarnation, paranormal spirits, etc. The characters were as thoughtfully constructed as the storylines with the beleaguered main protagonist being perversely stubborn and desperately clinging to her fantasy with an exasperating case of denial as a bonus. I wanted to give her a few hard whacks with my Kindle to dislodge her gray matter from her colon long before she got there on her own. But despite my irritation, I must give this crafty author her due, Faith Hogan is a perceptive and gifted scribe who kept me engaged and immersed in her story, even when it vexed or displeased me.

 

About the Author


Faith Hogan is an Irish award-winning and bestselling author of five contemporary fiction novels. Her books have been featured as Book Club Favorites, Net Galley Hot Reads, and Summer Must Reads. She writes grown-up women’s fiction which is unashamedly uplifting, feel-good, and inspiring.

She is currently working on her next novel. She lives in the west of Ireland with her husband, four children, and a very busy Labrador named Penny. She’s a writer, reader, enthusiastic dog walker, and reluctant jogger – except of course when it is raining!

.

 

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Book Review: Number One Fan by Meg Elison  @megelison

Number One Fan
by Meg Elison

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

A headlong rush of a thriller/horror that is Misery for Millennials, about a bestselling author who is abducted by her biggest fan and must figure out who he is, where she is, and how to survive and escape, set against the backdrop of fan and convention culture, the literati and the #metoo movement.

 

Bestselling fantasy author Eli Grey gets into a cab without checking it’s hers, and unquestioningly accepts a drink from the driver. Then she wakes up chained in his basement. With no close family or friends expecting her to check in, Eli knows she’s on her own to save herself. She soon realizes that her abduction wasn’t random–she was targeted. And though she thinks she might recognize her captor, she can’t figure out quite why, or what he wants. But it is clear that he is very familiar with her work, and deeply invested in the fantastical world she created in her books. What follows is a test of wills as Eli pits herself against a man who believes she owes him everything and is determined to take it from her.

 

With unflinching prose, NUMBER ONE FAN examines the tension between creator and work, fandom and source material, and the rage of fans who feel they own fiction.

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

It was a line that she had hated. Had, in fact, told the screenwriter that it dripped with cheese like a plate of truck stop nachos…

Some men have a way of eating you with their eyes, and she had been gobbled up before. She knew that look. He wouldn’t look anywhere but her face. He blinked slowly, like a creature of the depths of the sea that rarely saw the sun.

… relief welling up in her like an intensity like she’d never known. It was like every safe plane landing she’d ever had, the feeling when her credit card went through, the fall into a comfortable chair with her bra off at the end of a hard day all rolled together and sharpened into a needle.

My Review:

 

Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, what did I fall into? This was a tense and distressingly and painfully realistic read that was skin-crawling creepy. Much like coming upon a bad accident or train wreck, I was compelled to look but didn’t want to see at the same time. I cringed and flinched while reading but was also intrigued and couldn’t seem to leave it alone, and finished with ragged cuticles, my shoulders in my ears, and a sigh of relief. Tomorrow needs to be a spa day to work the knots of tension out of my neck. Meg Elison is one twisted sister but weaves a mighty tale.

 

 

Meg Elison is a California Bay Area author and essayist. She writes science fiction and horror, as well as feminist essays and cultural criticism. She has been published in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Fangoria, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Catapult, and many other places.

 

She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and the National Writers Union (@paythewriter).

Her debut novel, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife won the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award. Her novelette “The Pill” won the 2021 Locus Award. She is a Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Awards finalist. She has been an Otherwise Award honoree twice. Her YA debut, Find Layla, was published in fall 2020 by Skyscape. It was named one of Vanity Fair’s Best 15 Books of 2020.

 

Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley.

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Book Review:All the Broken Girls  by Linda Hurtado Bond @TLCBookTours @AuthorLindaBond @entangled_publishing

Amazon  / B&N /  GP/ Apple / BB

 

When one falls

Crime reporter Mari Alvarez was never able to solve her mother’s murder ten years ago. But when a woman is gunned down on the doorstep of her West Tampa neighborhood, Mari can’t shake the eerie sense of connection.

The others will break

Now there have been two murders in two days. Each crime scene awash with arcane clues?and without a trace of DNA from the killer. And for each victim, a doll. The first is missing an eye. The second is missing a heart. But are these clues leading to the killer…or messages for Mari?

Unless she plays the game…

Caught up in a maelstrom of Old-World superstition, secrets, and ties to her own past, Mari has only one option. Put the puzzle together before someone else dies?even if it destroys her career. But there’s no escaping the hungry spider’s web when it’s been made just for you…

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Lately, walking in and out of these meetings feels like walking across fire. Barefoot. Under a full moon with howling wolves watching.

In my darkest hours, I dreamed of finding my mother’s killer and shooting him or her. Right in the chest, like they’d murdered my mamá. An eye for an eye. And in those dreams, I never felt remorse. The lack of any guilt, that’s what woke me up those nights, gasping for air, gripping the sheets, sweating. It wasn’t that I’d killed, it was my fear someone would sense this darkness in me. And tell the world. Or incarcerate me forever because of it.

I usually don’t trust people. The reporter in me is a natural skeptic. But my heart is stretching, like fingers, reaching out to connect with this woman.

I want to look away, because this vulnerability is a coat I don’t like to wear. It’s hot and uncomfortable.

I exhale, thankful I let the right words fly while the real words stayed inside my head. Isn’t that what life is? A constant struggle with ourselves?

 

My Review:

 

This was a tense, angsty, and gripping read that kept me on edge. The storylines were laced together with heinous crimes, the main character’s prominent OCD traits, tons of family drama, loads of unfamiliar Cuban cultural issues, and the oddly mysterious practices of Santeria which are mingled with Catholic rhetoric, a practice and belief system I confess to being grossly ignorant of. The story progressed slowly and I often wanted to give a kick in the pants to the deeply flawed main protagonist for being so prickly, arrogant, and obstinate. But of course, I am a total delight 24/7.

About the Author

 

Linda Hurtado Bond is an award-winning journalist for Tampa’s Fox 13 by day and author of romantic thrillers by night. She has won 13 Emmy awards, numerous Society of Professional Journalist and Associated Press awards, as well as a Florida Bar and an Edward R. Murrow award. A breast cancer survivor, she’s also active in the Tampa community with The American Cancer Society, Hooked on Hope, and The Shoot for a Cure, raising money and awareness any chance she gets. She’s the mother of five, four athletes and an adopted son from Cuba. She has passion for world travel, classic movies and solving a good mystery.

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Book Review: Single All The Way Portia MacIntosh @PortiaMacIntosh

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

Will Dani find love this Christmas? Or will she be Single All The Way…?

When Dani’s boyfriend (and boss!) dumps her for a younger model, the only silver lining she can see is to be able to spend Christmas at home with her family after years away.

Determined to surprise them, Dani turns up unannounced in her hometown, excited to see that the festive season in Marram Bay is in full swing with Christmas lights twinkling on every corner. But disaster strikes when she finds her parents’ house is empty and they appear to have gone away on holiday!

Christmas alone and single is not ideal, and when Dani starts bumping into old friends, neighbours and potential love interests, she can’t face telling them the truth. So in a panic she claims to be home to throw a Christmas party for the whole town – easier said than done with 12 days to go before Christmas…

As the fake party approaches, little does Dani know that there may be someone there under the mistletoe for her, if she can just let her guard down and see them…

A laugh-out-loud festive romantic comedy from top 10 bestseller Portia MacIntosh, guaranteed to put a smile on your face this Christmas.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I’m definitely over him– and baffled why I was ever under him…

Also, and I know this sounds ridiculous for a thirty-something woman to say, but it felt so wonderfully naughty, to be breaking the rules. I got a real kick out of it. In a similar vein, I also got a kick out of drinking from my mum’s favourite mug, sitting in my dad’s chair, and listening to his records that no one is allowed to touch. I even allowed myself a cheeky five minutes to touch my mum’s collection of crystal ornaments– basically, all the things I’ve been discouraged from doing my entire life, that I can only do today because no one is here to tell me off for it. To be honest, I’m sure neither of my parents would care about any of these things now that I’m an adult (allegedly), but just let me have this.

I dash to the downstairs loo and check myself over in the mirror quickly. I was eating cheese puffs about half an hour ago and I still feel like I’m covered in orange stuff. I know, I know, it’s unfathomable how sexy I am. How is Rex resisting me?

I tell you what, one thing I didn’t need to worry about, being here alone this past week, was running out of the important stuff like toilet roll or shower gel. There’s a cupboard full of tinned food and bottles of water– something my dad has lovingly dubbed her ‘zombie supplies’– which is supposed to be for worst-case, unlikely scenarios like extreme weather or wars or wars or God knows what– but you better believe she’s ready for them.

My Review:

 

This was a lively and fun read, laced together with breezy and amusing humor and witty observations. It didn’t matter one whit to me that I was reading a British story occurring in heavy snow during the Christmas holidays while I was experiencing a humid August day in the tropics. The engaging storylines were pleasantly entertaining, easy to follow, delightfully original, refreshingly unpredictable, shrewdly paced, and held my interest throughout. I enjoy this crafty author’s sense of humor and I plan to weave more of her work into my bloated TBR.

 

 

Portia MacIntosh is the bestselling author of over 20 romantic comedy novels.

From disastrous dates to destination weddings, Portia’s romcoms are the perfect way to escape from day to day life, visiting sunny beaches in the summer and snowy villages at Christmas time. Whether it’s southern Italy or the Yorkshire coast, Portia’s stories are the holiday you’re craving, conveniently packed in between the pages.

Formerly a journalist, Portia has left the city, swapping the music biz for the moors, to live the (not so) quiet life with her husband and her dog in Yorkshire.

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Book Review: Big City Little Rebel by Kelly Collins  @kcollinsauthor

Big City Little Rebel
by Kelly Collins

Amazon  / BB

Opposites attract when a sexy builder falls for the little, blonde rebel intent on destroying his life.

When tragedy claimed the life of Beau Westhaven’s father, he didn’t just lose his dad, he lost his future. Now the project manager for Aspen Construction, Beau has two goals—to rebuild the family construction business and get his still-grieving mother out of her less than desirable circumstances. His plan was simple until a little blonde rebel named Bobbie Cruise arrived.

Bobbie Cruise lost everything to corporate greed. Despite a deathbed promise to her cancer-stricken mother, Bobbie wasn’t a real activist. But when the construction company responsible for her mother’s death showed up with yet another potentially lethal project, she chained herself to the front door to stop their progress. She wasn’t expecting the man in charge to be tall, dark, and unforgettable.

He’s focused on his success. She’s counting on his failure. Two lives pushed together by fate and torn apart by circumstances. Can they set aside their pasts in order to let love win and give them a future?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

“They were vagitarians.” He shrugged his shoulders and tossed back the second sample. “No way.” Beau laughed so hard the beer came out of his nose. “Leave it to you to find the only two lesbians in the room.” “I’m magical that way.”

My Review:

 

This was a quick and easy read with a satisfying, sexy, and supportive romance that every woman dreams of. The characters were endearing and instantly likable people who deserved all the good things in life, although those good things had to wait until they found each other. The storylines were easy to follow, active, amusing, and well-paced, and held my interest and curiosity in how their dilemma would resolve.

 

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.