Christmas at The Little Duck Pond Cafe

by Rosie Green

Amazon US / UK / CA/ AU  

Fen has always hated being the center of attention.

She loves her new job, working behind the scenes at the Little Duck Pond Cafe and baking the scrumptious cakes that have helped its reputation soar. But frankly, she’d rather scrub the public toilet floor with a toothbrush than have to come out and talk to the customers.

She’s always been happy to stay in the background as long as she has a good supply of books to escape into. That’s her kind of romance – the fictional sort where she can read about other people taking a chance on love, but she doesn’t have to risk her own heart.

But that was before Ethan Fox arrived in the village and turned her world upside down. Ethan is a leading light in the local amateur dramatics theatre company and Fen knows he’s way out of her league.

But when the popular village Christmas pantomime hits a crisis, Fen and Ethan find themselves thrown together. Can Fen overcome her shyness and find the courage to step on stage and save the day?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I’ve always hated my blushes. You can’t have any secrets if you turn as red as a ripe tomato at anything that’s even mildly unsettling. When I was younger, I used to wear a weird green-coloured cream on my face that was supposed to hide the blushes. Then my latest crush commented loudly, in front of the whole class, that I always looked like Casper the friendly ghost. So the tube of cream went in the bin.

He of the hard muscles yet adorably soft centre.

I prefer muted colours. (Mum describes these colours ‘jokingly’ as ‘shades of sludge’ and is always trying to encourage me to dress more colourfully.)

I wish I had more confidence. So when I’m pitching for an important business contract and I know I’ll be nervous, I do my ‘Superman pose’ before I go to the meeting… It’s a little-known fact that you can con your brain into believing you’re confident, which then makes you feel more confident. And one way to do that is to adopt what they call a “power pose” to make you feel more powerful. In private, of course. They might carry you off if you were to do it on public transport.

My Review:

This was book three in the series and my favorite to date. I continue to adore these quirky characters and have been curious about the excruciatingly timid yet talented Fen since her first introduction. Fen was painfully shy and suffered from feelings of inadequacy and paralyzing anxiety, which was superbly captured and cleverly portrayed by this wily author.   The multiple and equally intriguing storylines were well-crafted and shrewdly paced with equal measures of levity, family drama, and attempts at romance as Fen and company were attempting to push past her restrictive comfort zone as well as deal with the community, work, and family concerns. I enjoyed Fen’s inner musings, confused insights, skewed observations, gradual ripening, and finally her personal shackle shattering awareness and epiphanies.   I was highly amused by the manner Fen drew plot similarities and concepts from her favorite romance novels and beloved heroines to draw confidence, check her deportment, or assimilate her feelings while attempting to interact with men she found attractive. Now that Ms. Green has dealt with the three women working in the café, I am eager to see whom her keen writer’s eye hones in on next.

I’m trying something new – I’m taking part in the lovely Jo Linsdell’s Booktastic link up Thursday – she is such a precious little thing.

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

Lone Star Christmas:

Cowboy Christmas Eve

(A Coldwater Texas Novel)

by Delores Fossen

Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: HQN; Original edition (October 1, 2018)

Amazon | Books-A-Million | B & N

A family crisis brings him home…

Just in time for Christmas

Cattleman Callen Laramie has no intention of returning to his hometown of Coldwater, Texas until a Christmas wedding and a family secret convince him he has no choice. And when he’s reunited with his childhood crush, the girl who’d always been off-limits, Callen knows leaving might not be so easy this time.

Shelby McCall is as pretty as a Christmas snowfall, and Callen wants to kiss her under the mistletoe…and the Christmas tree…and the stars. But once Shelby knows the whole truth behind this homecoming, will their holiday fling come to an abrupt end? Or will she accept the gift of his heart?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

It was Gopher Tate, and he threw open his heavily lined raincoat to flash her. He had a blue bow tied around his wrinkly junk that was covered by a pair of whities that weren’t so tight. They were at least three sizes too big, and the elastic in the waist was shot… Shelby gave him a glare that was colder than the sleet pelting his thinly covered privates. “Close your coat, Gopher, before you have to explain to the ER folks why you got frostbite on your wanger.”

She was reasonably sure that had she been wearing toenail polish, it would have melted, too.

Seems a shame to let the pizza go cold after you slaved over the phone to order it…

The cat was there, sitting by a nearly empty food and water dish and glaring at Callen as if he were responsible for multiple crimes against felines and humanity.

My Review:

Delores Fossen has gifted us with the early Christmas present of a new series, and she has started it off with her own special blend of damaged yet sexy and lovable heroes, clever wry humor, heart squeezing storylines, colorful and quirky small-town characters, and a sweet romance with delectably steamy bits. I always look forward to meeting her amusing and uniquely peculiar characters and she didn’t disappoint with the introduction of Rosy – the armadillo obsessed geriatric bride-to-be with a taxidermy shop called Much Ado About Stuffing; and Gopher – the pervy elderly flasher who was well known yet never actually naked under his raincoat. As always, her storylines were engaging, entertaining, and well-paced.   I’m already primed for the next installment.

About Delores Fossen

USA Today bestselling author, Delores Fossen, has sold over 70 novels with millions of copies of her books in print worldwide. She’s received the Booksellers’ Best Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award and was a finalist for the prestigious Rita ®. In addition, she’s had nearly a hundred short stories and articles published in national magazines.

Connect with Delores

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

The Secrets We Carried

by Mary McNear

HarperCollins | Amazon | B & N

 368 pages
William Morrow Paperbacks (September 25, 2018)

Readers who love Susan Wiggs and Susan Mallery will adore New York Times bestselling author Mary McNear newest novel. A young woman travels home to Butternut Lake, confronting her past and the tragedy she and her friends have silently carried with them for over a decade while also facing an unknown future.

Butternut Lake is an idyllic place—but for one woman, her return to the lake town she once called home is bittersweet…

Sometimes life changes in an instant.

Quinn LaPointe grew up on beautiful Butternut Lake, safe, secure, sure of her future. But after a high school tragedy, she left for college and never looked back. Becoming a successful writer in Chicago, she worked to keep out the dark memories of an accident that upended her life. But now, after ten years, she’s finally returned home.

Butternut is the same, and yet everything is changed. Gabriel Shipp, once her very best friend, doesn’t want anything to do with her. The charming guy she remembers is now brooding and withdrawn. Tanner Lightman, the seductive brother of her late boyfriend, wants her to stick around. Annika Bergstrom, an old classmate who once hated Quinn, is now friendly. Everyone, it seems, has a secret.

Determined to come to terms with the tragedy and rebuild old relationships, Quinn settles into Loon Bay Cabins, a rustic but cozy lakeside resort, where she begins writing down her memories of the year before the accident. Her journey through the past leads her to some surprising discoveries about the present. As secrets are revealed and a new love emerges, Quinn finds that understanding the past is the key to the future.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Northern Superior High School had been built in 1930, when Americans still had a reverence for public education, and the two-story brick building, with a white stone arch over the entranceway and two white stone columns flanking it, spoke to the seriousness of the work to be done inside.

Her closest girlfriend, Katrina, referred to these relationships as Quinn’s “eleventh-month specials.” This wasn’t intentional on Quinn’s part. It wasn’t as if she kept an eye on the calendar as the anniversary of their first date approached. It was more like an inner mechanism of hers sensed a shifting of the light, a changing of the seasons. Either way, she was apt to end things before the earth had made a full rotation around the sun.

My Review:

This is one of those books that is hard to put down as I sense something important to the plot is coming that I really need to know and it is right around the corner, and it was true, but there are several more somethings, and then a few more I wasn’t expecting. I went at this book like an alcoholic on a binge as I couldn’t find a stopping place, nor would I have been willing to stop had I found one. Ms. McNear’s compelling characters and insightful and emotive writing held me in place and while it wasn’t a thriller or a suspenseful read, my curiosity was tripped while my heart was being mercilessly squeezed.   This was the second well-textured and maddeningly paced book of Ms. McNear’s that I have devoured – and in much the same manner. I am greedy for all her words as this talented scribe has strong word voodoo.   I was provided with a review copy of this excellent book by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours.

About Mary McNear

Mary McNear, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Butternut Lake series, writes in a local doughnut shop, where she sips Diet Pepsi, observes the hubbub of neighborhood life, and tries to resist the constant temptation of freshly made doughnuts. Mary bases her novels on a lifetime of summers spent in a small town on a lake in the northern Midwest.

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

Christmas on Lily Pond Lane

By Emily Harvale

Amazon US / UK 

Snow is falling in Little Pondale, lights are twinkling and the smell of pine trees and roasting chestnuts fills the air …

But Mia Ward is in a bit of a jam. She’d planned to rent out Corner Cottage for Christmas but thanks to best friend, Ella Swann, it’s double-booked. Now Mia’s got to let one ‘party’ down, or find another cottage – fast.

Best friends and single mums, Cathy Cole and Christy Franks want their kids to have an old-fashioned Christmas. Ice-skating, carol singing, making decorations, and tobogganing are on their list of festive fun and Little Pondale is the perfect place. Especially as it has no mobile phone reception. That will make it harder for Cathy to be found.

City banker, Leo Hardman is wondering if renting a cottage for Christmas as an anniversary surprise for his parents, was such a good idea. Little Pondale may be where his parents met, but his mum doesn’t seem pleased to be back, and his brother, Hal isn’t happy that the village is so tiny and only has one pub.

Meanwhile, Jenny Lake is settling in at her cousin’s bakery, having left her (broken) heart in Florence, but Christmas was never her favorite time of year. And Reverend Glen Fox has taken over at St Michael and All Angels. He’s glad it’s a temporary post because village life is not for him.

But luckily, for locals and visitors alike, there’s a sleigh-load of Christmas magic heading for Lily Pond Lane; enough to put a sparkle in everyone’s festive season. Although Christmas may not go quite as each of them has planned.

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

I’ve got the kind of voice that makes a dog sound like a prima donna. Believe me, no one wants to hear me sing. Although I could make you a fortune if people had to pay to get me to stop.

My Review:

Reading this book gave me a contented and relaxed feeling, similar to that satisfying sense of pleasure felt after a good stretch or peaceful sigh. It was quick and enjoyable read and if you haven’t read the previous books in the series, this may pluck at your curiosity and lead you to do so. It will also put you in a festive frame of mind, even though it was months ahead of the holiday season when I read it. Love and good cheer were in the air of Little Pondale and visitors and residents alike are pairing off and getting all loved up during the week leading up to Christmas. Surprises always seem to be on the menu for this group and one visitor gave the gossipy old dear Heddie an eye-popping secret to expose. I adore these characters and this sweet series.

Author Bio –

Having lived and worked in London for several years, Emily returned to her hometown of Hastings where she now spends her days writing… and chatting on social media. Emily is a Member of the SoA, a PAN member of the RWA and a Pro Member of ALLi. She’s an Amazon bestseller and a Kindle All-Star. Emily loves writing and her stories are sure to bring a smile to your face and a warmth to your heart.

Emily says, “I write about friendship, family and falling in love. I believe in happing endings.” When she isn’t writing, she can be found enjoying the stunning East Sussex coast and countryside, or in a wine bar with friends, discussing life, love and the latest TV shows. Chocolate cake is often eaten. She dislikes housework almost as much as she dislikes anchovies – and will do anything to avoid both.

Social Media Links –  https://www.facebook.com/emilyharvalewriter

https://www.twitter.com/emilyharvale

https://www.instagram.com/emilyharvale

Odyssey In A Teacup

Ruth Roth #1

by Paula Houseman 

Amazon US / UK  / B&N

Author Bio 

 Paula Houseman was once a graphic designer. But when the temptation to include ‘the finger’ as part of a logo for a forward-moving women’s company proved too much, she knew it was time to give away design. Instead, she took up writing.

She found she was a natural with the double entendres (God knows she’d been in enough trouble as a child for dirty wordplay).

As a published writer of earthy chick lit and romantic comedy, Paula gets to bend, twist, stretch and juice up universal experiences to shape reality the way she wants it, even if it is only in books. But at the same time, she can make it more real, so that her readers feel part of the sisterhood. Or brotherhood (realness has nothing to do with gender).

Through her books, Paula also wants to help the reader escape into life and love’s comic relief. And who doesn’t need to sometimes?

Her style is a tad Monty Pythonesque because she adores satire. It helps defuse all those gaffes and thoughts that no one is too proud of.

Paula lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband. No other creatures. The kids have flown the nest and the dogs are long gone.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: https://twitter.com/paulahouseman

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/PaulaHouseman

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulaHousemanAuthor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulahouseman

 I Know You Know

by Gilly Macmillan

HarperCollins | Amazon | B & N

Paperback: 384 pages
 Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (September 18, 2018)

From New York Times bestselling author Gilly Macmillan comes this original, chilling and twisty mystery about two shocking murder cases twenty years apart, and the threads that bind them.

Twenty years ago, eleven-year-olds Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby were murdered in the city of Bristol, their bodies dumped near a dog racing track. A man was convicted of the brutal crime, but decades later, questions still linger.

For his whole life, filmmaker Cody Swift has been haunted by the deaths of his childhood best friends. The loose ends of the police investigation consume him so much that he decides to return to Bristol in search of answers. Hoping to uncover new evidence, and to encourage those who may be keeping long-buried secrets to speak up, Cody starts a podcast to record his findings. But there are many people who don’t want the case—along with old wounds—reopened so many years after the tragedy, especially Charlie’s mother, Jess, who decides to take matters into her own hands.

When a long-dead body is found in the same location the boys were left decades before, the disturbing discovery launches another murder investigation. Now Detective John Fletcher, the investigator on the original case, must reopen his dusty files and decide if the two murders are linked. With his career at risk, the clock is ticking and lives are in jeopardy…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

If you can control where an interview takes place, you are part of the way to controlling the interview itself. Location matters. Fletcher’s wife announced she was leaving him when they were in the Costco car park. He didn’t see it coming. He remembers acutely the humiliation of loading bags into the boot of the car while she explained across the laden shopping trolley that their marriage was over. “Well, why are we buying in bulk then?” was all he could think to ask.

It’s a resting place for cold cases, and Fletcher thinks of it as an archive of failure. For every high-profile solve, there’s an unsolved crime shelved here. In each tidily filed box, Fletcher thinks, there are not just papers, photographs, and other case materials, but other things, invisible things. There are traces of the open emotional wounds an unsolved crime leaves on the families and detectives affected by it. There is also the shadow of something more rotten: the person who got away with it.

Like a nodding dog ornament on a dashboard, she moves her head laboriously to look at Danny. Everything she does is so slow it makes Fletcher’s joints feel as if they’re liquefying under the strain of being patient.

I said you’re a prat, John Fletcher. Always have been, always will be. I’m fed up of you strutting about like you own the place when you passed your sell-by date years ago. The only time I’ll look forward to seeing you will be at your retirement party.

I did a bit of unscientific research on the subject—by which I mean to say that I looked it up on the internet…

My Review:

I was unprepared for the twists and turns of the diabolically clever Gilly Macmillan. Her fascinating yet despicable characters were as compelling as the well-crafted storylines they inhabited. They squeezed then broke my heart while holding me captive to my Kindle as I hissed and huffed my distress. No one was innocent, except for the condemned patsy, and no one was as they had initially appeared, it was brilliant.

Gilly Macmillan has strong word voodoo. Cunningly woven into this adroitly written book were the gut-churning savagery of children, blackmail, police coercion, nefarious manipulations, greed, ambition, corruption, and desperation. The writing was exquisitely nuanced, the wily characters were deeply damaged and irreparably flawed yet keenly described and depicted in a cleverly magnetizing manner. It was riveting, yet tragic and heartbreaking. I was enthralled and even though she turned me inside out, I covet her mad skills and greedily want all her words.

New additions to my Brit Vocab list include tearaways which Mr. Google tells me is a wild or reckless person; bung which is a bribe or payoff; and cobblers which apparently has two meanings as it is nonsense to some, and testicles to the Cockneys – although those two things are pretty much the same thing to me 😉

I was provided with a review copy of this stunningly well-crafted book by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours.

About Gilly Macmillan

Gilly Macmillan is the Edgar Nominated and New York Times bestselling author of What She Knew. She grew up in Swindon, Wiltshire and lived in Northern California in her late teens. She worked at The Burlington Magazine and the Hayward Gallery before starting a family. Since then she’s worked as a part-time lecturer in photography, and now writes full-time. She resides in Bristol, England.

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