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Book Review:  Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage by Samantha Tonge  @SamTongeWriter @Aria_Fiction

Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage
by Samantha Tonge

 

Amazon  / B&N / Kobo / GP/ Apple

A new start can come from the most unexpected places…

It’s been years since Lizzie Lockhart spoke to her parents. But she was safe in the knowledge she knew everything about them. Once upon a time, they were as close as could be. Until they weren’t.
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After receiving the earth-shattering news of their passing, Lizzie decides it’s time to unearth some family secrets and find out just who her parents really were… starting with Streamside Cottage. A cottage Lizzie never knew existed, in a place she’s never heard of: the beautiful English village of Leafton.
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Leaving behind London, and the tattoo parlor she called home, Lizzie finds herself moving to the countryside. Faced with a tight-lipped community, who have secrets of their own, Lizzie is at a loss for what to do, until her rather handsome neighbor, Ben, steps in to help.
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As Lizzie finally begins to piece together the puzzle of her family history she realizes she has to confront the truth of the past in order to face her future.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘You’re talking to the person who a couple of years ago dabbled with online dating. I lied about my birth date to register. A woman asked me to send her a dirty picture.’ He covered his eyes with his hands. ‘I sent her a photo of me in my muddy cricket kit.’

 

I’ll buy us a big palace and they won’t have to work. We can eat all the chocolate we want and I’ll only wear clothes covered in glitter.

 

Have you never made a mistake? One you spent years wishing you could take back? Because if you haven’t already, believe me, it’s just a matter of time.

 

My Review:

 

I count sixteen books listed on Amazon for this crafty wordsmith and though I’d love to read them all, I’ve only gotten to four of those so far. While I have enjoyed each of those four, this one is definitely my favorite to date. There was a perfect balance of wit, family drama, villainy, curiosity arousing mystery, tragedy, and a budding romance for a young woman at a major life crossroads while uncovering long-buried family secrets. Ms. Tonge’s writing was smooth, lushly detailed, easy to fall into, and continuously engaging while shrewdly paced. She relentlessly poked at my inquisitive nature and had me fit to burst before finally revealing the well-contained family secrets, and there were several unexpected yet quite cleverly plotted outcomes. What a wily minx!

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Samantha Tonge lives in Manchester UK with her husband and children. She studied German and French at university and has worked abroad, including a stint at Disneyland Paris. She has traveled widely. When not writing she passes her days cycling, baking, and drinking coffee. Samantha has sold many dozens of short stories to women’s magazines. She is represented by the Darley Anderson literary agency. In 2013, she landed a publishing deal for romantic comedy fiction with HQDigital at HarperCollins, and in 2014, her bestselling debut, Doubting Abbey, was shortlisted for the Festival of Romantic Fiction best Ebook award. In 2015 her summer novel, Game of Scones, hit #5 in the UK Kindle chart and won the Love Stories Awards Best Romantic Ebook category. In 2018 Forgive Me Not heralded a new direction into darker women’s fiction with publisher Canelo. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association romantic comedy award.

 

 

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Book Review:  The Moonlit Murders (A Fen Churche Mystery #3) by Fliss Chester @Bookouture

 

The Moonlit Murders
(A Fen Churche Mystery #3)
by Fliss Chester 

Amazon  

When a journey to New York is interrupted by missing diamonds and a body in the lifeboat, there is only one woman who can help: Fen Churche!

1945. Fen Churche follows her dreams and sails for New York. She books passage on a steamship from France to America, excited to dance the night away in the glamorous ballroom and play games on deck. Nothing will stand in the way of her trip, not even when an eccentric heiress’s diamond tiara goes missing…

Looking forward to relaxing with her favorite crossword puzzles, Fen’s quiet passage is horribly disrupted by another crime – this time a murder. Fen finds Genie, a young actress bound for Broadway, strangled in her own cabin. With no police onboard and a frantic captain, Fen decides to do a little snooping of her own.

When another body turns up, hidden in a lifeboat, whilst the ship is in the middle of the Atlantic, Fen feels sure these dreadful crimes are linked. Through her sleuthing, she meets light-hearted lieutenants returning from the war, charming cabin boys, and snooty first-class passengers who look down their nose at her. But it isn’t until Fen realizes that one person is missing from the passenger list that she is finally on the murderer’s trail.

With only rolling waves and sea mists for company, can Fen solve the case before they dock in New York and the killer escapes for good?

You’ll be utterly hooked from page one of this warm and witty cozy! An absolute treat for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey, and Jacqueline Winspear.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I was told by Mama that I would be much better placed to marry well if I knew how to get out of a motorcar without flashing my own undercarriage.

 

Handsome? Heavens no, but he had two of the best qualities you can hope for in a husband…. a vast fortune and a dicky heart!

 

She’d scare Hades himself away from the Underworld… Churchill should have sent her into Berlin and cut the whole thing short years ago.

 

My Review:

 

This was a well-plotted, unpredictable, and slowly unwinding cozy mystery with lush descriptions and active storylines involving new friendships, post-WWII recovery challenges, transcontinental ocean cruise travel and hijinks, shopping and dining fare in three countries, crossword puzzle development, burglary, and murder. I couldn’t even begin to solve this one as Ms. Chester had me addled and intrigued with her well-contrived schemes, yet the clues were there, just to skillfully buried among the richly detailed and abundant aspects described in each crime scene and series of events for the little pea in my brain to put together.

 

The characters were an interesting and unusual grouping of personalities and circumstances with Americans including a radio showbiz entertainer, a wealthy American heiress, and her vile Aunt, who was a detestable and snobbishly elitist old dragon who bossed and insulted everyone and got away with it; as well as a Nazi scientist quietly hiding in cabin #13. I adore Fen Churche and her honorable and straightforward nature and keep hoping a romance will spark for her soon with the deliciously handsome and highly likable Viscount. I do loves me a HEA.

 

About the Author

Fliss Chester lives in Surrey with her husband and writes historical cozy crime. When she is not killing people off in her 1940s whodunnits, she helps her husband, who is a wine merchant, run their business. Never far from a decent glass of something, Fliss also loves cooking (and writing up her favorite recipes on her blog), enjoying the beautiful Surrey and West Sussex countryside, and having a good natter.

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Book Review: Last Day Alive (Detective Kimberley King #2) by J.R. Adler @JRAdlerAuthor @bookouture

Last Day Alive
(Detective Kimberley King #2)
by J.R. Adler

Amazon / B&N / Apple / GP

 

One hot summer evening, ten-year-old Piper Chase went off on her pink bicycle towards the dark woods on Black Heart Lane. She never came home…

Piper cycles off one hot Oklahoma evening for a sleepover with her new friend Miley from summer camp. But when she doesn’t come home, her grandparents raise the alarm.

Detective Kimberley King knows that the first twenty-four hours in a missing child investigation are the most critical, but with no witnesses, and darkness falling in the small town of Dead Woman Crossing, she begins to fear the worst. She longs to find the little girl with wide blue eyes and an infectious smile, but when her team discovers Piper’s body in a woodland clearing, lying on a bed of moss, something inside her dies.

Then she gets a call that chills her to the bone. Piper’s friend Miley has gone missing

Desperate to find the monster who has taken these little girls, Kimberley chases down all the leads she has. The summer camp counselor, who got too close to Piper and Miley and lost his job. Piper’s shifty uncle, who arrived back in town the day she disappeared…

And as another dark night descends on Dead Woman Crossing, Kimberley can’t stop thinking about Miley, trapped in the darkest place of all. With the clock ticking, Kimberley knows she must act fast before another innocent life is stolen.

A gripping, heart-wrenching crime thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, holding your breath. Last Day Alive is perfect for fans of Rachel Caine, Lisa Regan, and Carol Wyer.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Barb was their first line of defense. But Barb was feisty, and Kimberley had recently learned she had a conceal and carry permit. She kept her Glock in her top desk drawer when she was working and then had it holstered on her hip, underneath her flowery, flowy blouses when she was off the clock. She had named it Helen. When Kimberley had asked her why the name Helen? Barb had replied, “Because Helen was an ex-friend that stole my famous chocolate chip cookie recipe, and she was a real bitch. It seemed fitting.”

 

“What do I got to do to get you to call me sir?” … “Build a time machine and take me back to the nineteen-fifties,”

 

Yeah, her name is Ginger. That’s not even a name. It’s a root… There was a chance I would have gotten back with him. We have kids together, for God’s sake…but now, not a chance in hell. He can have the skanky root vegetable.

 

He’s trying to woo her… You gotta woo before you do.

 

You just gotta be patient with Sam. He’s like a ten-thousand -piece puzzle without the box for reference. It just takes a little while longer.

My Review:

 

I am continuing to enjoy this series and new author. It is surprisingly enjoyable to read a story that incorporates a small rural area that I was once familiar with. I felt so engaged and familiar with the unfolding story that I was expecting to see family names and gossip of the actual denizens reported. The storylines were active, tragic, and tense with anxiety, grief, and frustration as the small rural county police force labored to find a missing child, only to experience the heartbreak of finding her body and then endeavoring past exhaustion to solve her murder with little to go on. So much for a peaceful downsized job after leaving the NYPD.

In addition to the murder case bonus entertainment value was provided by additional servings and tasty offerings of family drama, potential romantic considerations, and observations of small-town issues and the off-beat and eccentric characters residing there.   I’m always eager to get the down-low on secrets and amusing sightings of quirk.  But, of course, my favorite character continues to be Barb, the ever cheerful, spunky, genius baker, and gun-toting senior citizen who seems to be three steps ahead of everyone’s needs, both in and outside the office. We all could all use a Barb in our lives.

About the Author

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Originally from Wisconsin, J.R. Adler currently lives in Ithaca, New York with her husband, Drew, and her English Bulldog, Winston. When not writing, you can find her reading, playing board games, traveling, and binge-watching The Office for the umpteenth time.
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Spotlight, Sneaky Peak, Excerpt: BEFORE SUMMER ENDS by Susan Mallery

BEFORE SUMMER ENDS
by Susan Mallery

 

A long, hot summer with her secret crush…

What could possibly go wrong?

Nissa Lang knows Desmond Stilling is out of her league. He’s a CEO, she’s a teacher. He’s gorgeous, she’s…not. So when her house-sitting gig falls through and Desmond offers her a place to stay for the summer, she vows not to reveal how she’s felt about him since their first—and only—kiss.

Desmond should’ve known better than to bring temptation into his house. He decided long ago that his best friend’s sister was too sweet, too good, for him. She deserves a guy who can give his heart. For her sake, he’s stayed away. But as her laughter breathes life into his lonely mansion, he’s not sure how long he’ll be able to resist.

From Harlequin Special Edition: Believe in love. Overcome obstacles. Find happiness.

 

Excerpt

He tried to shake off those thoughts and return his attention to his work, but quickly realized that wasn’t happening. He obviously wasn’t going to get anything done until Nissa arrived and got settled. For some reason, he was more focused on that than the Asian sales report.
He got up and crossed to the large window in his study. The late-June days were long and sunny, and the garden flourished. The grass was dark green, flowers provided plenty of color in
the planting beds, the trees looked healthy. The gardeners did a good job, regardless of the seasons, but in the summer, their hard work paid off.
He turned at the sound of the vacuum cleaner being turned on somewhere upstairs. Hilde had been in a state since he’d told her Nissa was coming to stay. There had been cleaning and
washing and other tasks he couldn’t begin to imagine. The refrigerator overflowed with food and there were fresh flowers everywhere in the house.
Her burst of happy activity made him feel guilty. His housekeeper obviously didn’t have enough to do in a day. The house was large, but there wasn’t anyone to make a mess. He rarely ate dinner at home, so she wasn’t spending much time cooking. He would guess she was bored working for him—a problem he didn’t know how to solve. If he’d stayed married to Rosemary, they would have had kids by now. That would have increased the workload. Of course, if they’d stayed together, he and Rosemary would have been living in different wings of the house, barely seeing each other, except when they passed in the hallway.
His phone buzzed. He pulled it out, then smiled when he read the text.
I’m here. Just giving you a heads-up because the house is so big, I thought you’d need an extra minute or five to walk to the door and I really don’t want to be kept waiting.
He was still chuckling when he heard the doorbell ring a few seconds later.

About the Author

 

Author Website

Twitter: @susanmallery

Facebook: @SusanMallery

Instagram: @susanmallery

Goodreads

 

SUSAN MALLERY is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of novels about the relationships that define women’s lives—family, friendship, romance. Library Journal says, “Mallery is the master of blending emotionally believable characters in realistic situations,” and readers seem to agree—40 million copies of her books have sold worldwide. Her warm, humorous stories make the world a happier place to live.

Susan grew up in California and now lives in Seattle with her husband. She’s passionate about animal welfare, especially that of the two ragdoll cats and an adorable poodle who think of her as mom.

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Book Review: JUST GET HOME by Bridget Foley

 

JUST GET HOME
by Bridget Foley

ISBN: 9780778331599

Publication Date: 04/13/2021

Publisher: MIRA

 

When the Big One earthquake hits LA, a single mother and a teen in the foster system are brought together by their circumstances and an act of violence in order to survive the wrecked streets of the city, working together to just get home.

Dessa, a single mom, is enjoying a rare night out when a devastating earthquake strikes. Roads and overpasses crumble, cell towers are out everywhere, and now she must cross the ruined city to get back to her three-year-old daughter, not even knowing whether she’s dead or alive. Danger in the streets escalates, as looting and lawlessness erupt. When she witnesses a moment of violence but isn’t able to intervene, it nearly puts Dessa over the edge.

Fate throws Dessa a curveball when the victim of the crime—a smart-talking 15-year-old foster kid named Beegie—shows up again in the role of savior, linking the pair together. Beegie is a troubled teen with a relentless sense of humor and a resilient spirit that enables them both to survive. Both women learn to rely on each other in ways they never imagined possible, to permit vulnerability, and embrace the truth of their own lives.

A propulsive page-turner grounded by unforgettable characters and a deep emotional core, JUST GET HOME will strike a chord with mainstream thriller readers for its legitimately heart-pounding action scenes, and with book club audiences looking for weighty, challenging content.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Sometimes there is a recognition between two people that hastens their transition from strangers to friends. Like falling in love, but without the hormones.

 

It will be chaos for days. Weeks. There will be looting. Riots. The earthquake isn’t the real disaster, Dessa. The disaster is what happens after.

 

What must it be like to have that power? To not be afraid, but to have others be afraid of you? Not just right now on this dark street, but on all the dark streets.

 

Beegie’d never thought of it before, but she realized most people sounded like animals when they laughed; Barb sounded like a donkey, brays with big deep breaths in between. And Eric sounded like a chimpanzee, kinda screaming and baring his teeth.

 

You know only white people camp, right? … Camping, hiking… all that is a white thing. Black people, Mexicans, Latinos, whatever, we don’t do shit like that… It’s rich people pretending to be poor. Sleeping outside. Eating on the ground and shit. Only white people are crazy enough to play homeless for fun. All ‘getting in touch with nature.’ Brown people, uh-uh. We don’t pretend. We don’t get in touch with nothing.

My Review:

 

Wow, this was a tense, insightfully observant, and all too realistic and disturbing revelation of the unchecked inhumanity and brutality once terror and lawlessness are unleashed following a natural disaster.

Dessa was socializing with friends on one side of LA while her toddler was at home with a new babysitter when an earthquake rips the town apart. The challenges from the lack of resources, destruction, and environmental hazards were a lesser impediment to her attempts to return to her child than the dangerous, surreal, malicious, and uninhibited cruelty and barbarism of the citizens she encountered along the way.

Bridget Foley ever so aptly captured the fractured underbelly of all levels of society while exposing their anxious inner musings, memories, biased observations, regrets, poor choices, and base natures. The storylines were fraught with distress and taut with angst and impending peril with each encounter. It was riveting, exhausting, compelling, and disheartening, and oh so shrewdly and cunningly paced. Ms. Foley is quite the storyteller, but her evocative words are not ones I’d want to peruse before heading off to the land of nod least I thrash in my sleep.

About the Author

Originally from Colorado, Bridget Foley attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television. She worked as an actor and screenwriter before becoming a novelist. She now lives a fiercely creative life with her family in Boise, Idaho.

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Book Review: Covenant (The Forbidden Series #1) by Jeanne McDonald  @JeanneMcDonald_

Covenant
(The Forbidden Series #1)
by Jeanne McDonald

Amazon  / B&N 

 

Verily I say unto you, one of you shall betray me this night…

For as long as she can remember, Cameron Scott has been plagued by migraines and nightmares of creatures, places, and events that couldn’t be real – no matter how realistic they seem.

Toby McCloud has spent his immortal existence bound by the laws established by the Guardians of the Covenant who were destined to protect him and his kind long before he was born.

When Cameron and Toby cross paths, everything seems to fall in and out of place.

A family secret.
A dark past.
A forbidden attraction.

Unseen dangers await as they embark on a profound journey of time, passion, mistrust, deception, and destiny.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

While other girls got boobs from puberty, I got migraines. I would have much preferred the boobs… Puberty was a bitch. Second cousin to Karma.

 

I shivered as I recalled the immortal signature of what I assumed was a demon lurking about the neighborhood. That thick, slimy sensation of being coated from head to toe with sludge made my stomach roil…

It was darker than sludge, but I didn’t catch the scent of sulfur, which was odd. Demons always carried the aroma of Hell on their flesh. It was a defining marker of their defiance in the game of souls.

 

It was at that very moment my stomach decided to truly embarrass me. It let out a sound that would frighten away wild dogs.

 

Several flights of stairs swirled around and around all the way up to the top of the domes. I imagined at any second they would start moving of their own accord, which brought a smile to my face. I’d finally made it to Hogwarts.

My Review:

 

I rarely read this genre as I am far too lazy for all the world-building that is typically involved, yet for this talented author I was willing to give it a go and I am ever so pleased with my brilliant foresight – this was the bomb! Although, I was anxiously second-guessing my choice during the Prologue which featured Jesus as the main character, as ugh – I typically avoid Christian books due to weirdly religious parents. Needless to say, I have more than a passing familiarity with their heavily biased and hypocritical interpretation of the Bible, although my parents’ odd zealotry seemed to have glossed over the existence of Nephilim and the wars and mingling of man and angels. So, of course, I felt compelled to consult with Mr. Google and fell down a rabbit hole, something that seems to occur all too often.

Shaking myself loose and trusting this beloved wordsmith, I read on. Hot damn, this was an intriguing, cleverly contrived, action-packed, and brain-itching page-turner. I had trouble putting it down and am currently on pins and needles and eager to see the next installment. Jeanne McDonald not only has me ensnared but wiggling on the hook. I fervently hope she is banging away on her computer this very moment and near the end at churning out volume two of this curiously addictive series. I never would have believed it possible that I could EVER find Christian mythology this enticing. Ms. McDonald has strong word voodoo and may well have used bewitched ink.

 

 

About the Author

 Twitter

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Jeanne McDonald enjoys writing contemporary romance filled with spice, drama, and humor. As JM Dodd, Jeanne explores the supernatural, relishes in the world of fantasy, and dabbles in contemporary fiction.

Jeanne is the founder of the author co-op, Enchanted Publications, and is an avid supporter of autism awareness.

When she’s not spending time with her amazing son or her dog, Bacon, she can be found reading, writing, enjoying a great film, or cooking for friends. In her house, there’s always music or a podcast playing.

A proud Texan, Jeanne currently resides in the Dallas/Fort Worth area with her son and Bacon.

You can learn more about Jeanne and her books at www.jmdodd.us

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Book Review: JUST MY LUCK by Adele Parks @AdeleParks

JUST MY LUCK
by Adele Parks

ISBN: 9780778331735

Publisher: MIRA Books

 

Adele Parks has brought her #1 Sunday Times sensation, JUST MY LUCK (MIRA Trade Paperback; April 6, 2021; $17.99) to the US! 

 

Be careful what you wish for… 

 

After spending happy hours, parenting classes, and barbeques together for the last 15 years, Lexi and Jake Greenwood have celebrated and shared almost everything with the Pearsons and the Heathcotes, including their lottery numbers. Then one night, the unthinkable happens. Someone has been telling lies – lies dark enough to burn bridges and tear the tight group of friends apart. When the Greenwoods win a stunning $23 million in the lottery with their group’s numbers shortly after their dramatic falling out, the Heathcotes and Pearsons believe they’re entitled to part of the prize… and the three couples will do anything to claim what is theirs. 

 

Reader beware: the last chapter will change everything. 

 

A compulsively readable portrait of the fragility of friendship, the corrosiveness of sudden wealth, and the dark side of good luck, Adele Parks’ latest domestic thriller will make you think twice about trying your hand at the lottery. 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

He is being crass. I am not sure what the elegant response to winning nearly eighteen million pounds is, but I doubt it is demanding the money like a highway robber.

 

These so-called friends of theirs are a bunch of sharks. There are more holes in their stories than there are in my kitchen colander.

 

I think we both wish we were in some sort of nineties cop show where she could open the drawer of her desk and pull out a bottle of whiskey and a couple of glasses.

 

Toma stares at me with unadulterated admiration. It’s the best look one human being can give another. He looks at me with respect, approval, gratitude and eagerness.

 

How do you manage it? … Caring so much for people you don’t even know? In my experience, it’s cruel enough caring for those you do.

 

I wish them well, but mostly I wish them well away from us.

My Review:

 

I couldn’t seem to start this review for over a day, as I needed to ruminate, ponder, and mull. This was a prickly pickle. Most of the characters were not likable or annoyed me greatly as they were snide, greedy, snobby, selfish, unreliable, and conniving. They also disappointed me, as even the few likable ones tended to be wishy-washy and weak. However, I am aware that most people, regardless of culture, have a bit of all of these failings in their bag of traits. And I am also highly aware that as much as the characters were antagonizing me, I couldn’t have stopped reading about them as I was intrigued and rather desperate to know what was going to result from their flailing. The plotlines were maddeningly paced but when I reached the conclusion and looked back, I registered the cunning and shrewd craftsmanship in the storytelling.   Adele Parks is a wily one.

About the Author

Author Website

Twitter: @AdeleParks

Instagram: @adele_parks

Facebook: @OfficialAdeleParks

Goodreads

Adele Parks is the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of twenty novels, including Lies Lies Lies and Just My Luck, as well as I Invited Her In. Just My Luck is currently in development to be made into a movie. Her novels have sold 4 million copies in the UK alone, and her work has also been translated into thirty-one languages. 

 

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Book Review: Staying Out for the Summer by Mandy Baggot @mandybaggot @aria_fiction

Staying Out for the Summer
by Mandy Baggot

 

Amazon  / B&N / GP/ Apple 

 

After a summer of staying in, it’s time to let your hair down and escape to Greece!

For Lucie Burrows, it’s time to embrace Greek life and put the past behind her! Having spent the summer of 2020 battling a global health crisis, Lucie Burrows is looking forward to a summer out of lockdown.

When best friend, Gavin, finds them the perfect Greek escape Lucie finally starts to think this summer might just go without a hitch. But after a landslide puts the village into a local lockdown, Lucie is thrown together with Michalis Andino, the super sexy village doctor. It’s not quite the holiday she had planned, but things could certainly be worse.

As Lucie relaxes into the Greek way of life, she begins to wonder whether this lockdown might just end in a new life, a new love…

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

She clamped her hands to the few inches of little more than dark brown stubble, now covering her entire scalp. ‘Gavin! What happened?! My hair! I was… I was… always getting called Sandra Oh and now I’m… I’m—’ ‘Sandra Oh No?’ Gavin offered unhelpfully.

 

‘Why does everybody want me to marry and breed?!’ She dropped her fork and folded her arms across her chest. ‘I am not a horse.’

 

‘You were the one who stopped talking, Michalis,’ Dimitri told him. ‘I never wanted to stop listening.’

 

Lucie eyed up the tiny test tube Melina was holding carefully like it contained tears of a dragon.

 

Simon’s softer and more cautious about everything. He literally caresses that coffee machine at work. Unlike Jez, who goes at it like he wants it to bleed.

 

They were both a little red-faced with the frenetic pace Mary and Ariana were setting, leading dancers holding handkerchiefs in a zig-zag formation around a little girl dressed as an effigy of a virus. Earlier there had been an interpretive dance with a troupe of schoolchildren in tortoise costumes battling against another group dressed as dark evil organisms…

 

My Review:

 

I adore Mandy Baggot’s cunningly wry, snort-worthy, and clever sense of humor. Her latest missive features a unique Greek odyssey in a tiny and quirky village with storylines infused with a bit of everything including family drama, well deserved vacations for exhausted pandemic fighting medical professionals, a new and an old holiday romance, diverse characters, terrapin home invasions, culture clashes, divinely amusing comedy, and an oddly conceived festival with fierce costumes for the Flying Tortoise King.   I savored Ms. Baggot’s comical and evocative words between family dramas of my own, which made her sweet and humorous tale exponentially sweeter.

About the Author

Amazon

Goodreads

Website

Twitter 

Facebook

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Mandy Baggot is an internationally bestselling and award-winning romance writer. The winner of the Innovation in Romantic Fiction award at the UK’s Festival of Romance, her romantic comedy novel, One Wish in Manhattan, was also shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year award in 2016. Mandy’s books have so far been translated into German, Italian, Czech, and Hungarian. Mandy loves the Greek island of Corfu, white wine, country music, and handbags. Also a singer, she has taken part in ITV1’s Who Dares Sings and The X-Factor. Mandy is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Society of Authors and lives near Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK with her husband and two daughters.

Follow Aria

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction

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Book Review: Under Pressure (Lessons Learned #1) by Allie Winters @SmartyPantsRom

Under Pressure 
(Lessons Learned #1) 
by Allie Winters

Read for FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon / B&N / GP

 

Mia knows stress. She’s dealt with it her whole life. So when she gets an opportunity to run a psychology study to help her get into grad school, it should be no problem dealing with the prickly guy she suddenly finds herself paired with.

The one she had a secret crush on last year. The one who refuses to let anyone close. The one she’s discovering by the day may have a softer side than he lets anyone else see…

Tyler knows stress. He’s grappled with it for as long as he can remember. And just because he has to share credit with this girl on his new psychology study doesn’t mean he has to be friends with her. Except she somehow keeps worming her way into his life. In school. In the boxing gym.

In his bed.

But everyone knows it’s safer to keep to yourself. You can’t hurt anyone that way. Even if it means giving up the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

As things heat up in the Stress Lab, will this match be able to work together without disruption, or will this growing attraction between them eventually… combust?

‘Under Pressure ‘ is a full-length new adult contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #1 in the Lessons Learned series, Educated Romance World, Penny Reid Book Universe. 

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

My heart is in your hands.

My Review:

 

This was my first exposure to the steamy delights of an Allie Winters story – and sizzle and snap – she had me gasping and seeking libation to rehydrate. I struggled with the heavy angst, which isn’t on my list of favorite things, but I enjoyed the premise and humor while also intrigued by the complexity and allure of the characters, although I wanted to give Tyler more than a few pinches and the name of a good proctologist to remove his head from his colon, although he finally achieved that on his own.

 

About Allie Winters

Allie is the author of the Suncoast University series, the Bishop Brothers series, and the Lessons Learned series. She lives in sunny Florida with her husband, daughter, and two cats. A librarian by day, she spends her nights writing happily ever afters. She enjoys reading, playing video games, and all things Disney.

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Book Review: Kill Me Tomorrow by Britney King @britneyking_ @EJBookPromos

 

Kill Me Tomorrow
 by Britney King
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From the bestselling author of The Social Affair and HER comes a mind-bending thriller that’s soaked with raw sensuality, as an investigator’s search takes a wicked turn when he meets a beautiful and provocative woman.
Ali is a sex therapist-slash-guru, famous for the work she does helping others find pleasure.
The problem: Ali can never quite find it for herself.
Her life’s work makes nothing taboo, nothing off limits. And she’s tried everything short of murder. Although, with the way things are going, it’s not off the table.
When Ethan Lane is hired to investigate the death of a wealthy bachelor, he isn’t expecting to stumble into a string of murders. The victims are men, and all members of a popular dating app. Operating undercover with a profile of his own, he meets the woman of his dreams—who also happens to be his best suspect.
The question: Can Lane stay alive long enough to prove his theory? And does he want to?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Ali is a fun instrument to play, the kind you’re forever trying to tune…

 

Trust me, no one wants a woman like that. Sarah Shepard is the stench of reality in your nose: the hard facts, the lessons you didn’t want to learn. It takes a lot of mental energy trying to figure out what to do with her.

 

I didn’t want to go the hit-and-run route. I really like my car.

 

We reach my bedroom, which is lit up by dozens of candles. I can’t know for sure whether it’s romantic or whether a human sacrifice is about to take place.

My Review:

 

This was an absorbing and cunningly paced page-turner that I found difficult to put down. Oh, that Britney King, she has clever craft and mad skills.   The storylines bent in on themselves and not once but several times, all while keeping me on my toes and slapping me around when I was so smug in my theories. Honestly, I should know better by now. This wily scribbler brings a multi-course meal with a heady mix of side orders including witty snark, flinch-worthy intrigue, family drama, sensuality, and twisty yet compelling characters that I shouldn’t like yet draw me like a starved dieter at a buffet. I cannot wait to see what she conjures next.

 

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Hello. I’m Britney.

I live in Austin, Texas with my husband, children, a dog named Gatsby, one ridiculous cat, and a partridge in a pear tree.

When I’m not wrangling the things mentioned above, I write psychological, domestic, and romantic thrillers set in suburbia.


Currently, I’m writing three series and several standalone novels.

The Bedrock Series features an unlikely heroine who should have known better. Turns out, she didn’t. Thus she finds herself tangled in a messy, dangerous, forbidden love story and face-to-face with a madman hell-bent on revenge. The series has been compared to Fatal Attraction, Single White Female, and Basic Instinct.

The Water Series follows the shady love story of an unconventional married couple—he’s an assassin—she kills for fun. It has been compared to a crazier book version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Also, Dexter.

Around The Bend is a heart-pounding standalone, which traces the journey of a well-to-do suburban housewife, and her life as it unravels, thanks to the secrets she keeps. If she were the only one with things she wanted to keep hidden, then maybe it wouldn’t have turned out so bad. But she wasn’t.

The With You Series at its core is a deep love story about unlikely friends who travel the world; trying to find themselves, together and apart. Packed with drama and adventure along with a heavy dose of suspense, it has been compared to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Love, Rosie.

The Social Affair is an intense standalone about a timeless couple who find themselves with a secret admirer they hadn’t bargained for. For fans of the anti-heroine and stories told in unorthodox ways, the novel explores what can happen when privacy is traded for convenience.

It is reminiscent of films such as One Hour Photo and Play Misty For Me. Classics. Without a doubt, connecting with readers is the best part of this gig. If you’d like to connect, shoot me an email. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and occasionally on Twitter.

 

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