Out of the Dark

by Josie Kerr

Amazon / B&N

Daniel Beaujardin spent fifteen years serving his country in the United States Marine Corps until a roadside bomb ended his military career. When a former teammate offers him a job in Atlanta, Dan, left scarred and partially blind from the accident, jumps at the opportunity for a fresh start.

Three years after his partner’s death, Alexander Westport is still simply going through the motions. Work, softball practice, and the occasional family dinner is how he spends his time, but Alex knows he’s not really living.

An anonymous encounter at a local gay club first brings Dan and Alex together, and after a second chance meeting, the men strike up a friendship that quickly turns romantic. When professional and personal troubles threaten their fledgling relationship, Dan and Alex learn battles fought together are won more easily than those faced alone.

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

I know you’ve always liked eyes. You have since I caught you kissing that photo of Elijah Wood when you were fourteen.

My Review:

Sizzle and snap – this book was a scorcher, it started off steamy then bloomed into a tender sweet love story between two lonely, mature, and swoon-worthy men. Sigh, why do all the best ones bat for the other team? I adored this couple, they were extra special and Ms. Kerr has created an engaging, heart squeezing, and insightful story to showcase them while kicking off her new series. What a bold move to start off with an M/M romance as an anchor, although the storylines easily meshed and connected with her DS Fight Club crew. I enjoy her unique brand of clever and snarky levity and thoughtful and emotive HEA tales.

Josie Kerr   

Tales from the Pays d’Oc

by Patricia Feinberg Stoner

Amazon US / UK 

Twenty-one tales of life, love, and laughter in the land of sun and vines.  

What is Matthieu doing up an olive tree?  Why won’t Joséphine ever eat pizza again? Who went four by fourth? And who rescued two hapless Americans at Armageddon Falls?

Travel to the Languedoc, feel the scorch of the sun on your shoulders, smell the dust and the lavender and the ripening grapes and follow the adventures of the Saturday Club and the regulars at l’Estaminet.

In this collection of stories, Patricia Feinberg Stoner revisits the territory of her memoir, ‘At Home in the Pays d’Oc’ with a whole host of new and familiar characters.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Any big, butch vehicle with large knobbly tyres and an excess of mud flaps would set his eyes a-spark, but what he really loved were Land Rovers. And by Land Rovers, of course, he meant Series and Defenders. Not for him the high-falutin’ Range Rover, nor the serviceable but still sleek Discovery – these he called Bland Rovers, and he treated them with disdain.

Morbignan la Crèbe, a small village in the Languedoc…

Principal industry, winter and summer: gossip.

Secondary industry: wine.

Today Jeannette and her husband were coming to stay, and bringing the new baby. On the whole, Gaston approved of the fact that the baby was grey and white and fluffy rather than pink and squalling. As a grandfather of seven he was blasé about small humans, but dogs he loved.

Perhaps this was a teeny exaggeration, but Matthieu was never one to let a few facts spoil a good story.

The ladies of the village clung to their old ways: tightly-permed heads in steel grey or the eye-watering auburn universally referred to as menopause red.

My Review:

Being a complete Philistine, I had no idea what or where the Pays d’Oc was, so I went to the source of all things – Mr. Google – who informed me it is a very productive wine region along the Mediterranean coast.   I like wine, and I like Mediterraneans, so it seemed like a good fit. This was a collection of amusing and inter-related short stories featuring a large cast of international characters and their precocious pets.   Each well-written story was laced with clever humor and delightful observations. My favorites were The Boar Wars and those involving the precious little dogs named Visitor and Useless.

About Patricia Feinberg Stoner

Patricia Feinberg Stoner is a former journalist, advertising copywriter, and publicist. For four years she and her husband were accidental expatriates in the Languedoc, southern France.  During that time she wrote a series of magazine articles which eventually became her first book about the Languedoc: ‘At Home in the Pays d’Oc.’

Now back in the UK, she lives with her husband in the pretty West Sussex village of Rustington, where Michael Flanders encountered a gnu and the mobility scooter is king. 

 She spends much of her time writing short stories and comic verses. Her first book, ‘Paw Prints in the Butter’, is a collection of comic poems for cat lovers and is sold in aid of a local animal charity.  In 2017 she published her second book of comic verse: ‘The Little Book of Rude Limericks’.

In the autumn of 2018, Patricia returns to the locale of ‘At Home in the Pays d’Oc’ with a new collection of stories: ‘Tales from the Pays d’Oc’.

Patricia welcomes visitors to her Facebook page (Paw Prints in the Butter) and to her blog www.paw-prints-in-the-butter.com.

You may occasionally find her on Twitter @perdisma.

My Quickie Wedding

by Christie Ridgway

Amazon / B&N

Instant. Attraction.

It heats the blood, causes the heart to race, and messes with the making of rational decisions. A person, may, for example, find themselves saying “I do” to a near-stranger on an impulsive overnight in Sin City.

The next morning, an aghast Connor Montgomery and Jojo Thatcher stare at each other over the tangled bed sheets. How had this happened? Neither is eager to acknowledge they followed a reckless urge and got hitched. Surely, it’s a bad nightmare.

Or maybe, just maybe, the beginning of a dream come true.

My Quickie Wedding is book three in the Heartbreak Hotel series and is a STANDALONE NOVELLA.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

That aghast expression would make any man take off, even as he’d briefly hoped—like an idiot—that the previous hours had all been a teenage-style wet dream followed by the kind of nightmare where you had to take a test buck naked in a language you’d never studied.

I’m your time and place, Jojo. I’m your person to share things with, sad and happy and all that’s in between.

My Review:

This installment was fast-paced, scorching the sheets sexy, a quick and easy read, and such a pleasant way to spend the part of the afternoon. I enjoyed Jojo and Connor as a couple, the instalove trope worked perfectly for them as they had more natural chemistry than they knew what to do with. Their story moved along at a brisk pace yet even had time for brief glimpses of the previous pairings from books one and two.   The Heartbreak Hotel’s reputation for love connections remains safe and well-merited.

About the Author

Snowed In at The Little Duck Pond Café

The Little Duck Pond Cafe, Book 4

by Rosie Green

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU

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

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

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

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

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

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

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

My Review:

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

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

Author Bio

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

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

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green1988

Fishing for Māui

by Isa Pearl Ritchie

Amazon US  /   UK  /  B&N /  Smashwords 

A novel about food, whānau, and mental illness.

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

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

My Rating:

3.75 Stars

Favorite Quotes:

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

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

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

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

My Review:

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

Author Bio 

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

Social Media Links –

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

https://twitter.com/IsaPearlRitchie

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

Family Trust

by Kathy Wang

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Hardcover: 400 pages

 Publisher: William Morrow (October 30, 2018)

THE INAUGURAL BUZZFEED BOOK CLUB PICK

NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE FALL BY

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

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

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

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

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

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

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

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

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

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

My Review:

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

About Kathy Wang

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

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