Category: 5-Stars

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Book Review: Just One Bite by Jack Heath

JUST ONE BITE

by Jack Heath

ISBN: 9781335952844

Publication Date: June 4th, 2019

Publisher: Hanover Square Press

 

Buy Links:

Harlequin  / Amazon  / B&N  /  B-A-M / Powell’s

Timothy Blake, ex-consultant for the FBI, now works in body disposal for a local crime lord. One night he stumbles across a body he wasn’t supposed to find and is forced to hide it. When the FBI calls Blake in to investigate a missing university professor, Blake recognizes him as the dead man in his freezer.

Then another man goes missing. And another.

There’s a serial killer in Houston, Texas, and Blake is running out of time to solve the case. His investigation takes him to a sex doll factory, a sprawling landfill in Louisiana and a secret cabin in the woods.

As they hunt the killer together, FBI agent Reese Thistle starts to warm to Blake—but she also gets closer and closer to discovering his terrible secret.

Can Blake uncover the killer without being exposed himself?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The rent is surprisingly high for such a crummy place. Ideally I’d split it with someone, but I ate my last roommate. It’s safest for everyone if I live alone.

 

I’m too exhausted even to dream. A small mercy— my subconscious would have made Freud vomit.

 

The government was paying her to feed and clothe us, and she was making quite a lot of money, because she never bought any food or clothing.

 

Most people know that pigs feel stress and that cows grieve when their calves are taken away. They might feel guilty, but they still eat bacon and drink milk. So what use is the guilt?

 

It’s a dangerous meal, since I still don’t know how he died… Eating people is dangerous, anyway, because of bloodborne viruses. Doesn’t mean I can make myself stop. Don’t judge me. Heart disease is the number-one killer in the USA, but you still eat donuts. Your diet is killing you, too.

 

I drive just above the speed limit. Anything less is considered suspicious in Texas.

 

The field office director comes on the radio. “We’re pursuing several leads,” she says. “We urge anyone with information to come forward.” That’s code for: We’re shitting ourselves. The news anchor is back. “The victims’ names have yet to be released,” she says, barely managing to keep the glee from her voice, “but the details of the case have been described as ‘disturbing.’”

 

 My Review:

 

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I delved into this stunningly crafted page-turner. Despite the disturbing issues, I was enthralled, mesmerized, and riveted to my kindle. I was on edge and biting my cuticles and more than a bit distressed about being so deeply invested in such a gruesome tale – what was wrong with me? But much similar to how the character in the book described his compulsion/hunger, I just couldn’t help myself. The writing was simply stellar while brilliantly paced, intriguing and unpredictable, action-packed, and unexpectedly laced with wry levity. It was also diabolically addictive; I couldn’t have stopped reading unless my kindle had been forcibly removed from my possession. Jack Heath is most certainly an evil genius; I would advise his family to keep him happy as well as to either sleep in shifts or with one eye open.

About the Author

First published as a teenager, Jack Heath is the award-winning author of more than twenty fiction titles for young adult and middle-grade readers. In the course of his research, Jack has toured morgues and prisons, performed as a street magician and traveled through eleven countries, including Russia. His previous day jobs—in which he met many interesting characters—include fry cook, music teacher, TV salesman, call center worker, and bookseller. He plays several musical instruments and lives on the land of the Ngunnawal people in Gunghalin, Australia.

Social Links:

Author Website

Twitter: @JackHeathWriter

Instagram: @JackHeathWriter.

Facebook: @JackHeathWriter

Goodreads

 

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Book Review: One Hundred Goodbyes (An Aspen Cove Romance #9) by Kelly Collins

 One Hundred Goodbyes

(An Aspen Cove Romance #9)

by Kelly Collins

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA

 

Welcome back to Aspen Cove, the town where a stranger is simply a friend you haven’t met…

Eden Webster has always been generous to a fault. The word no isn’t in her vocabulary. That’s how at twenty-eight she finds herself homeless, alone, and pregnant in Aspen Cove. Abandoned by the one person she should have been able to count on, her sister Suzanne, she’s forced to accept the generosity of strangers. The last thing she expects is to meet Mr. Right at exactly the wrong time.

Handsome firefighter Thomas Cross lives by one rule—never trust a woman with your heart. After months of waiting for his baby to be born, he’s delivered the truth of his girlfriend’s betrayal. When Doc Parker asks him to put Eden up for a few months until her baby is born, he’s certain he’ll be able to keep his distance. But the more time they spend together, the more he realizes love is not something that can be overruled by logic.

Will Thomas allow room in his heart for Eden and her baby, or will he go back to being the man who cannot trust? Find out in One Hundred Goodbyes…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The old man finished off his beer. “Son, there are two things I never kid about. One is hemorrhoids and the other is women. It’s time you found yourself the latter because sitting on your ass at home alone will give you the former.”

 

DNA doesn’t make you a family. It just makes you related.

 

“You’re either a friend or a friend we haven’t met. We’ve met you, so now you’re a friend. No one turns their back on a friend.” Eden let out a semi-hysterical laugh. “No, you have to be related for that kind of dismissal.”

 

My sweetheart, Agatha. Damn woman is crazy to love an old fart like me, but she does, and I’m not investing in therapy to cure her.

 

Just let me know what you’re looking for. I have two bad habits. Loose women and garage sales.

 

It’s the detours that make life exciting.

 

Yes, there’s nothing like the feel of another woman’s child. At the end of the day, I get to go home and sleep eight hours. My boobs are still where they were years ago, and I can have all the wine I want.

  

My Review:

 

I giggle-snorted my way through this delightfully amusing and tender sweet small-town romance. This was a fun and satisfying read. I typically avoid pregnancy stories but since I will gleefully pick up anything Kelly Collins cares to print (although I’d have to think long and hard if she took a turned at zombies), I was willing to give it a perusal and lucky me, it was one of her best. The storylines were relevant, topical, and thoughtfully put forth with an interesting and colorful cast of quirky small-town personalities for extra flavor. I adored this couple and enjoyed spending time with them.

 

    ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive.

Always a romantic, she is inspired by real-time events mixed with a dose of fiction. She encourages her readers to reach the happily ever after but bask in the afterglow of the perfectly imperfect love.

Kelly lives in Colorado with her husband of twenty-seven years. She loves hockey, shiny objects and has a new-found appreciation for green smoothies.

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Book Review: Just One of the Groomsmen (Getting Hitched in Dixie #1) by Cindi Madsen 

Just One of the Groomsmen

 (Getting Hitched in Dixie #1) 

by Cindi Madsen 

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / B&N

 

Addison Murphy is the funny friend, the girl you grab a beer with—the girl voted most likely to start her own sweatshirt line. And now that one of her best guy friends is getting married, she’ll add “groomsman” to that list, too. She’ll get through this wedding if it’s the last thing she does. Just don’t ask her to dive for any bouquet.

When Tucker Crawford returns to his small hometown, he expects to see the same old people, feel comfort in the same old things. He certainly doesn’t expect to see the nice pair of bare legs sticking out from under the hood of a broken-down car. Certainly doesn’t expect to feel his heart beat faster when he realizes they belong to one of his best friends.

If he convinces Addie to give him a chance, they could be electric…or their break-up could split their tight-knit group in two.

Hiding the way he feels from the guys through bachelor parties, cake tastings, and rehearsals is one thing. But just as Tucker realizes that Addie truly could be the perfect woman for him—he was just too stupid to realize it—now she’s leaving to follow her own dreams. He’s going to need to do a lot of compromising if he’s going to convince her to take a shot at forever with him—on her terms this time.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The thing about this particular group of ladies was the way they could lob implications and casually insult you, their sugary-sweet smiles never leaving their lips.

 

You know, sometimes I think it’s sad that no matter how much makeup people put on, it doesn’t make their soul any prettier. Then again, it’s always nice to spot those people right away.

 

About as subtle as a gorilla wearing high heels in a bowling alley.

 

“I’d recommend a thong, too, to avoid panty lines.” Right. Because what was missing from this whole experience was a tiny strip of fabric riding up her ass. That way, when she inevitably tripped on her heels, she could expose her bottom half to the entire wedding party. Hey, maybe then the townsfolk and her friends would acknowledge she was a girl!

 

Her sexual experience was best summed up as few and far between, and even the during was nothing to brag about.

 

If you think what we’ve been doing is convenient, you need a vocabulary lesson.

 

If great-Nonna Cavalli rolled over in her grave as much as Nonna Lucia claimed, the groundskeeper at the cemetery would’ve called in those hot brothers from Supernatural by now.

  

My Review:

 

My first experience reading and comedic words of Cindi Madsen and I picked an excellent starting point, although now I want to go backward in time and read every book she has ever put out. And, oh my, she has put out quite a long list already, where have I been? I adored this effervescent group of friends and envied their tight bonds and respect for each other. The large cast of characters was well delineated, highly endearing, and cleverly amusing as they often engaged in flinging zingers and whip-smart banter. The storylines were fresh and entertaining and sparkled with wit and irreverent levity as well as quirky small-town observations and eccentricities.   It is always a good day when I can add a new favorite to the top of my list of authors to stalk.

About the Author

Amazon
Goodreads
Website

Cindi Madsen is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance and young adult novels. She sits at her computer every chance she gets, plotting, revising, and falling in love with her characters. Sometimes it makes her a crazy person. Without it, she’d be even crazier. She has way too many shoes, but can always find a reason to buy a pretty new pair.

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Book Review: An Instant Connection by Melanie Moreland

 

An Instant Connection

by Melanie Moreland

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA 

A chance meeting. An instant connection. Mitch and Mandy burn hot, but when the smoke clears, and things get real, can their feelings stay strong?

This story is a stand-alone with no cliffhanger. 

 

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“I thought you were the prettiest woman I had ever seen. Then I saw you help that lady, which meant you were also kind. I found your whistle extremely sexy. And I love your legs. They really do it for me. Roll all that together, and I liked the package.” He sucked in a deep breath and paused. “So, Amanda, I was hoping maybe you liked my package and would have dinner with me.”

 

This isn’t the norm for me. But then again, I don’t think you’re the norm… He shook his head, pulling me closer. “I think you’re going to be the exception.” His eyes dropped to my mouth. “God knows I want to be that for you.”

 

 My Review:

 

Written in my favorite dual POV, this was a quick, light, amusing, and deliciously satisfying read full of sizzle and a perfectly swoony BBF who was a master at three-step plans. Sign me up for more of this, much, much more of this. I adored this couple.

About the Author

New York Times/USA Today bestselling author Melanie Moreland, lives a happy and content life in a quiet area of Ontario with her beloved husband of twenty-seven-plus years and their rescue cat, Amber. Nothing means more to her than her friends and family, and she cherishes every moment spent with them. 
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While seriously addicted to coffee, and highly challenged with all things computer-related and technical, she relishes baking, cooking, and trying new recipes for people to sample. She loves to throw dinner parties, and also enjoys traveling, here and abroad, but finds coming home is always the best part of any trip. 
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Melanie loves stories, especially paired with a good wine, and enjoys skydiving (free-falling over a fleck of dust) extreme snowboarding (falling down stairs) and piloting her own helicopter (tripping over her own feet.) She’s learned happily ever afters, even bumpy ones, are all in how you tell the story.
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Melanie is represented by Flavia Viotti at Bookcase Literary Agency. For any questions regarding subsidiary or translation rights please contact her at flavia@bookcaseagency.com
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Book Review: I’ll Never Tell by Catherine McKenzie

 

I’ll Never Tell

by Catherine McKenzie 

 

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / B&N

What happened to Amanda Holmes?

Twenty years ago, she washed up on shore in a rowboat with a gash to the head after an overnight at Camp Macaw. No one was ever charged with a crime.

Now, the MacAllister children are all grown up. After their parents die suddenly, they return to Camp to read the will and decide what to do with the prime real estate it’s sitting on. Ryan, the oldest, wants to sell. Margo, the family’s center, hasn’t made up her mind. Mary has her own horse farm to run, and believes in leaving well-enough alone. Kate and Liddie—the twins—have opposing views. And Sean Booth, the family groundskeeper, just hopes he still has a home when all is said and done.

But then the will is read and they learn that it’s much more complicated than a simple vote. Until they unravel the mystery of what happened to Amanda, they can’t move forward. Any one of them could have done it, and all of them are hiding key pieces of the puzzle. Will they work together to solve the mystery, or will their suspicions and secrets finally tear the family apart?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

She leaned toward Liddie. She smelled like her father used to, a mix of coffee and marijuana. “Waking and baking these days?”

 

“Have you ever thought about what they must’ve been like before all of us? … I think about it. They met. They fell in love. They were regular people once.” “And what? We made them into irregular people?”

 

They always got the leftovers. The things left in the lost and found. If Liddie wrote a biography of her childhood, it would be called Nothing Was Ever Mine.

 

That was the bargain of being a twin. You didn’t need to talk about it; you simply knew that sometime in the not too distant future, you’d be living together in some old-age home, dressed alike the way you’d been as children.

 

He always smelled the same— slightly refrigerated. It was a smell Mary liked because it meant coolness to her. Not in a fashion sense but in the temperature way. He was calm, steady.

 

Of everyone in their family, the person she’d understood the least had been her mother. When Kate thought of her, she always seemed diaphanous. Like one of those Instagram filters had been applied to her, washing her out, smoothing away the lines. Nothing ever seemed to stick to her, not criticism or her children, not even her husband. She simply floated around, photographing it all, removed.

 

My Review:

 

Quite a clever gal, that Catherine McKenzie! This well-crafted mystery was full of simply explained yet brilliantly placed twists and turns that kept me on edge and off-center.   The storylines were highly eventful and ingeniously paced with tension and intrigue steadily ratcheting up the scale, and I was sucking it all in like the latest and greatest vacuum on the market.   I enjoyed the shrewdly discerning tale as much as the skill and cunning in the telling of it.

 

This family was well beyond quirky, they were each oddly peculiar and self-absorbed. I didn’t care for any of them by the time I finished the book, yet I was driven to know all about them. I had great empathy for the stalwart employee and held my breath for him and cringed each time evidence pointed his direction. Each character was fascinatingly flawed and I enjoyed unearthing their many secrets. This was only my second time reading her work but I am eager to see what Ms. McKenzie comes up with next, she now has a rather rabid fangirl on her hands.

About the Author

Amazon


Catherine McKenzie was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. A graduate of McGill in History and Law, Catherine practices law in Montreal. An avid runner and skier, she’s the author of numerous bestsellers including HIDDEN, SPIN, and SMOKE. Her works have been translated into multiple languages.

HIDDEN was a #1 Amazon bestseller and a Digital Bookworld bestseller for five weeks. SMOKE was a #1 Amazon bestseller and was named as a Best Book of October (Goodreads) and one of the Top 100 Books of 2015 (Amazon). FRACTURED was a Best Book of October 2016 (Goodreads). She is also the author of THE MURDER GAME under her pseudonym, Julie Apple (the protagonist of Fractured).

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Book Review: Only Ever Her by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

Only Ever Her

by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

 

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU / B&N

Paperback: 298 Pages

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (May 7, 2019)

It was to be the perfect wedding—until the bride disappeared.

Annie Taft’s wedding is four days away, and it will be one of the grandest anyone can remember in her small South Carolina town. Preparations are in order. Friends and family are gathering in anticipation. Everything is going according to plan. Except that Annie herself has vanished. Did she have second thoughts?

Or has something much worse happened to the bride-to-be?

As the days pass, the list of suspects in her disappearance grows. Could it be the recently released man a young Annie misidentified as her mother’s killer? Could it be someone even closer to her?

While her loved ones frantically try to track her down, they’re forced to grapple with their own secrets—secrets with the power to reframe entire relationships, leaving each to wonder how well they really knew Annie and how well they know themselves.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Louise is one of the richest women in town but not one of the smartest. She was once quite the beauty, but that ship has sailed. She spends most of her time standing on the dock waving a hanky, begging it to come back to her. Which means she spends a lot of time in Faye’s salon.

 

She has always respected and feared lawyers, as if they possess something she never could, some special insight into truth and justice, a gift bestowed on them at birth, like a pitching arm or a brilliant mind.

 

She is standing by Faye’s elbow, annoyingly close. Faye can smell the determination on her like alcohol on a barfly.

 

Faye has already grown to hate that word, missing, the snakelike quality of it, the way people’s tongues get stuck on the S’s. It makes her unfairly angry at Millicent for saying it just like that, a hiss instead of a word… She is already anticipating tragedy, tasting it on her tongue like the ham that comes with funerals.

 

He’s heard you don’t have to let cops in unless they have a warrant, so he has no intention of throwing open his door, of saying, Come on in, fellas. Cops are like vampires; they have to be invited in, but once you invite them in, they have the power.

 

 My Review:

 

I waffled a bit in how to rate this tautly written, absorbing, and well-crafted book. Yet when looking at my marked quotes, my indecision promptly evaporated as the sublime quality of Ms. Whalen’s writing removed all doubt. The evolution of the story was incrementally slow and told with a multiple POV, yet all the pieces proved to be necessary and an increasing level of tension and additional layers of intrigue steadily inched forward with each compelling chapter. I feared many loose ends – silly me! This cunning and cleverly perceptive wordsmith wrapped them all up rather neatly, and for the most part, unexpectedly. Lesson learned, I unswervingly pledge I will never second-guess her extraordinarily nimble skill for subterfuge again.

About the Author

Marybeth Mayhew Whalen is the author of When We Were Worthy, The Things We Wish Were True, and five previous novels. She speaks to women’s groups around the United States and is the co-founder of the popular women’s fiction site She Reads (www.shereads.org). Marybeth and her husband, Curt, have been married for twenty-seven years and are the parents of six children. Marybeth divides her time between the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina, and the coastline of Sunset Beach, North Carolina. You can find her at www.marybethwhalen.com.

Connect with Marybeth

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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Book Review: The Wonder of Lost Causes by Nick Trout

The Wonder of Lost Causes

by Nick Trout

 

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU

B&N/ HarperCollins

Hardcover: 464 pages

 Publisher: William Morrow (April 30, 2019)

In this unforgettable novel, perfect for fans of An Unexpected Grace and A Dog’s Way Home, a single mom and her chronically ill child receive a valuable lesson from an unlikely source—a very special dog who unexpectedly enters their lives and shows them that one person’s lost cause can be another’s greatest gift . . .

Dr. Kate Blunt will do anything for her son, Jasper. Well, almost anything. Since Jasper has the incurable lung disease cystic fibrosis, Kate’s always told him he couldn’t get a dog. It’s a tough call, but she’s a single mom taking care of a kid who fights for every breath he takes. The daily medical routine that keeps Jasper alive is complicated enough. Worse still, Kate’s personal resolve runs contrary to her work as the veterinarian in charge of a Cape Cod animal shelter, where she is on a mission to find forever homes for dogs in desperate need.

The scarred, mistreated wreck of a dog that turns up doesn’t stand a chance. Named Whistler, he’s too old, too ugly. But the dog forms an instantaneous bond with Jasper. Whistler never makes a sound, yet he speaks to Jasper in a myriad of mysterious ways. The clock’s ticking, the dog’s future hangs in the balance, and Jasper would do anything to find him a home; but Whistler has chosen them—for a reason.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Mrs. Fisher is a big, bosomy woman, with wild bushy eyebrows worthy of a cold war Russian president.

 

Grandma kind of scares me. She wears bright red lipstick like a hungry vampire, never smiles, and bathes in so much old lady perfume that even I can smell it. Her feet, if she has any, are always hidden under long skirts and dresses, but I think she levitates, never making a sound, able to appear from nowhere.

 

Loving a dog is not like picking up a remote and turning a TV on or off. You’re either into dogs or you’re not. The most useful thing Martha ever told me was, “Dogs are like herpes. Once you get them, you’re infected for life.”

 

I’m critical of those who live a so-called Facebook life, skewing the truth, letting the online world see only what they want you to see… That’s why I never post. I click “like” to be polite. I’d rather click “jealous,” “you’re killing me,” “I never thought I could hate you more,” or “No one gets to live like this.”

 

I follow her gaze to the little man lost inside an oversized blazer and the mutt who can’t take his eyes off him. “They’re an odd couple,” I say. “Not at all,” says Alice, taking them in. “Just different shades of beautiful.”

 

My Review:

 

This book took me completely by surprise and was only a thousand times better than I was expecting. I was immediately taken with the high quality and deft craft of Dr. Trout’s writing and instantly fell into the vortex of Jasper and Kate’s challenging world of CF. I adored Jasper and while I had great empathy for her struggles, I often wanted to give Kate a good pinch.

Written in my favorite dual POV, the story was well paced, multi-layered, and expertly textured. While often moving and highly emotive, the emotional tone was well balanced with unexpected pockets of levity as well as providing Jasper with a comedic wit in addition to breathtakingly profound perceptions and awareness beyond his years.   The storylines were engaging and engrossing and plucked relentlessly at the heartstrings while sparklingly entertaining with thoughtful insights, colorful descriptions, and humorous observations and inner musings. Dr. Trout cleverly cast his tale with vibrant and uniquely clever and quirky characters who were more than worthy of attention.

This was one of those exceptionally rare books that held captivated and held my interest, was first class entertainment, and chaste enough to recommend to my elderly mother’s church ladies’ book club yet still garners a Bedazzled Five-Star rating from me. Which are about as common as hens’ teeth.  😉

I was provided with a review copy of this superbly written tale by TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins .

About the Author

Dr. Nick Trout works full-time as a staff surgeon at the prestigious Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston. He is the author of five previous books, including the New York Times bestseller Tell Me Where It Hurts, and his writing has been translated into sixteen different languages. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Kathy; their daughter, Emily; their adopted labradoodle, Thai; and Emily’s service dog, a black Labrador named Bella.

Find out more about him at his website.

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Book Review: THE SCENT KEEPER by Erica Bauermeister

Amazon / B & N  / Books-a-Million / Indie Bound / Powell’s

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Erica Bauermeister, the national bestselling author of The School of Essential Ingredients, presents a moving and evocative coming-of-age novel about childhood stories, families lost and found, and how a fragrance conjures memories capable of shaping the course of our lives. 
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Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them.  As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the unforeseen happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world–a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that challenges the limits of her heart and imagination.
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Lyrical and immersive, The Scent Keeper explores the provocative beauty of scent, the way it can reveal hidden truths, lead us to the person we seek, and even help us find our way back home.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

We are the unwitting carriers of our parents’ secrets, the ripples made by stones we never saw thrown… We humans are almost entirely made of water, except for the stones of our secrets.

 

I remember the way the rain seemed to talk to the roof as I fell asleep, and how the fire would snap and tell it to be quiet… I could feel the tendrils of a fragrance tickling the inside of my nose, slipping into the curls of my black hair… I inhaled, and fell into the fragrance like Alice down the rabbit hole.

 

My father had told me that many things in fairy tales weren’t real, but my problem was I didn’t always know which ones.

 

Cleopatra the goat rapidly became Cleo, but both names fit. She was still young enough for a nickname, but she had aspirations of grandeur, my father said. She ruled us from the very beginning.

 

The woman’s pants hugged her so tightly I thought at first she had blue legs…

 

Looking at her was like gazing into one of those enchanted mirrors and seeing a beautiful, older, far more assured version of myself.

  

My Review:

 

Erica Bauermeister is a master storyteller, an expert wordsmith, and an agile weaver of creative and fanciful tales that transport the mind as well as painfully massage the coronary muscle.   I ran the gamut while reading, I was transfixed, intrigued, appalled, frustrated, enraged, despondent, deeply moved, entertained, impatient, brokenhearted, and nearly insane with curiosity; yet through it all, I was also 100% engaged and fully immersed in the tale.

 

The writing was lushly descriptive, evocatively detailed, insightfully observant, and simply beguiling.   I have a keen sense of smell and was all too easily slotted within Emmeline’s head. I was instantly taken with and understood her assignment of colors, sounds, shapes, and emotions to corresponding scents. Yet I could never have imagined the sense of carefree abandon and adult encouragement to believe in magic and fairy tales during her rustic early childhood on an isolated island, although I would certainly have reveled in that as a child.

 

The captivating storylines were ingeniously creative, undeniably consuming, and cast with tantalizingly elusive, and uniquely compelling and stunningly clever characters who were a bit unsettling as they appeared peculiarly off center and while most were not dangerous, several were more than a tad beyond slippery. I was reluctant to put this book down for any length of time and continued to ruminate over this consuming story whenever those displeasing tasks otherwise known as daily living rudely interrupted my reading. In sum, Erica Bauermeister has a new fangirl.

About the Author

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Erica Bauermeister is the author of the bestselling novel The School of Essential Ingredients, Joy for Beginners, and The Lost Art of Mixing. She is also the co-author of the non-fiction works, 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide and Let’s Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. She has a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Washington and has taught there and at Antioch University. She is a founding member of the Seattle7Writers and currently lives in Port Townsend, Washington.
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Book Review: Starfish by Lisa Becker

Starfish: A Rockstar Romance

by Lisa Becker

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA 

Ambitious graduate Marin Collins accepts a four-month internship at a prestigious public relations firm to work on a tech account, but her plans are derailed when she’s assigned to go on the road with touring rock band Kings Quarters, hailed by Rolling Stone as the next big thing. 

Enter Brad Osterhauser, the reluctant rock star who would rather be coding computer games than penning Grammy-nominated songs.

Traveling by bus, city to city with a group of practical joking bandmates and a greedy manager, Marin and Brad forge a friendship and forbidden romance over a shared love of Seinfeld episodes, stolen moments and Red Vines.

But when Marin’s accused of betraying her company and the band, will Brad come to her defense or believe she was disloyal to him for the sake of her career?

Told in alternating perspectives of Marin and Brad, Starfish is a contemporary romance of unexpected love, the redemptive power of music and hogging the bed.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“This body is a temple,” replies Jase, holding his arms out and shrugging his shoulder. “Temple of doom, maybe,” fumes Oliver.

 

“If you learned anything from living with me for all these years, you still should have knocked. Remember the incident with Chad?” Cheeky Chad, as he was forever known, in homage to the muscular naked butt cheeks I accidentally saw.

 

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to cramp your style,” she jokes. “I’ve got no style,” I respond. “I’m all substance,” I add with a smug grin.

 

“With your voice, even lip-synching is painful to those of us around you.” Her mouth gapes open in shock. “But you won’t even hear me,” she whines. “Doesn’t matter.” I shake my head. “We all know what you sound like and can hear it in our heads.”

 

 My Review:

 

This was a fun, entertaining, and sexy dual POV contemporary romance full of sizzle and sass between an up and coming rock star and the new intern handling their public relations on the tour bus. I adore Lisa Becker’s special brand of levity, she cleverly slides it in with pranks, colorful descriptions, witty quips, bantering, and games and hijinks between the vibrant and enticing characters.   The storylines were active and eventful as the band toured across the country, stirring up hearts, gossip, libidos, turbulence, obsessed fans, while also indulging in a variety of pastimes and antics.

 

About the Author

Lisa Becker is an award-winning romance writer who spends her time like she spends her money – on books and margaritas. As Lisa’s grandmother used to say, “For every chair, there’s a tush.” Lisa is now happily married to a wonderful man she met online and lives in Manhattan Beach, California with him and their two daughters. So, if it happened for her, there’s hope for anyone! You can share your love stories with her at www.lisawbecker.com.

Author: Starfish , Links and Clutch

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Winner: American Fiction Award 2018 Romantic Comedy – Clutch

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Book Review: Probably the Best Kiss in the World by Pernille Hughes

 Probably the Best Kiss in the World

by Pernille Hughes

 

Amazon / B&N / Google / iBooks

 

Jen Attison likes her life Just So. But being fished out of a canal in Copenhagen by her knickers is definitely NOT on her to do list. From cinnamon swirls to a spontaneous night of laughter and fireworks, Jen’s city break with the girls takes a turn for the unexpected because of her gorgeous, mystery rescuer.

Back home, Jen faces a choice. A surprise proposal from her boyfriend, ‘boring’ Robert has offered Jen the safety net she always thought she wanted. But with the memories of her Danish adventure proving hard to forget, maybe it’s time for Jen to stop listening to her head and start following her heart…

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“This ring was my great-grandmother’s, on Mumsie’s side,” he explained, plucking it off her palm as she stared shell-shocked at him, “apparently, it hasn’t seen daylight since the undertakers took it off her finger and handed it to my granny… Oh. It’s too big.” Great-granny must have had salamis for fingers, the ring would have fallen freely off Jen’s thumb.

 

I should wash your mouth out with soap. This is a haven of romance and dreams. Shame on you. I’m going to fill this space with old romance novels to ward off your bad vibes.

 

Ava’s mother, though short, filled the entire width of the doorway. Her penchant for floral two-pieces did nothing to lessen this spatial illusion, whilst also making her look like a walking sofa. Her enormous blonde curls were immaculately dyed and set, and doubled the size of her head, which might have appeared comical, had it not perfectly matched the size of each of her huge boobs. Height aside, everything about her shouted Big Personality and she hadn’t even opened her mouth yet. Jen braced herself.

 

Right now she was a cocktail of emotions. The Molotov kind.

 

 My Review:

 

I giggle-snorted with glee at Ms. Hughes generous servings of clever levity and highly amusing storylines, although I struggled more than a bit with her profoundly flawed, ridiculously inflexible, and greatly annoying main character or Jen, who really needed a kick in the arse. Jen was a pragmatic list maker and control freak whose issues and acquired traits created a considerable conflict for me, yet it was ultimately an enjoyable one with a satisfactory evolution.

 

Ms. Hughes’s characters were uniquely intriguing and enticingly quirky. I was highly entertained and engaged throughout by her witty and creative use of humorous insights and observations. Thankfully, Jen didn’t actually require a surgical procedure to fully dislodge her deeply wedged cranium from her posterior region, although she did require a considerable helping of misery and comeuppance to work it clear on her own.

About the Author

Pernille Hughes is a RomCom author and mum, whose debut novel was SWEATPANTS AT TIFFANIE’S, soon to be followed by PROBABLY THE BEST KISS IN THE WORLD (April 2019). Previously her writing has been printed in The Sunday Times and the fabulous SUNLOUNGER summer anthologies. Find out about her new books at www.pernillehughes.com

Pernille (pronounced Pernilla) studied Film & Literature at uni and took her first job in advertising, having been lured by the temptation of freebies, but left when Status Quo tickets were as good as it got. After a brief spell marketing Natural History films, she switched to working in Children’s television which for a time meant living in actual Teletubbyland, sharing a photocopier with Laa-Laa.

Now, she lives in actual Buckinghamshire, sharing a photocopier with her husband and their four spawn. While the kids are at school she scoffs cake and writes RomCom stories in order to maintain a shred of sanity.

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