Whitehall Baby
by Laura Barnard

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

The whole place is in darkness apart from pumpkin LED lights which are draped amongst crime tape. Well, she definitely went to town. Not that Charlotte didn’t warn me. She said last year they got complaints from the neighbours because their window display was too terrifying for children.

My eyes widen the second I smell it. I thought it would stay in the fake leather maternity leggings longer, sadly not. They’re so tight I imagine them inflating instead. I grab Arthur and drag him away. I have turned into a treacherous beast of a woman and he is never to know.

My eyes widen in horror. It’s the beginning of the end. ‘Ugh, what is that smell?’ He starts coughing… it’s so potent it’s going to kill him. I have no other choice. I turn and run before anyone else has a chance to smell it. Out of the shop and away from the nuclear gas that came out of my arse. I’m sure someone will run to his aid if he is dying. People don’t ignore sexy people struggling.

This is where I kiss goodbye to ever being able to look him in the eye again. It’s my only hope though. I need to get home somehow… Oh god, what has my life come to? I’m a disaster. I get my phone out and write out a text to him. I need you to please go and buy me a new pair of maternity jeans/ leggings and a loose t-shirt. Bring it into the toilet and leave it by the sink with a packet of baby wipes. I also need you to never speak of this again.

My Review:

I smirked and laughed aloud with gleeful snorts and giggled my way through this irreverently amusing romantic comedy. It was a quick and enjoyable read that sparkled with delightfully cheeky levity and flippant humor. Ms. Barnard’s writing was laced with lethal comedy and maternity bodily function mishaps. I don’t generally enjoy pregnancy tales but I was continually engaged by the mischievous and lighthearted wit as well as characters who were improbably endearing and others who were oddly entertaining as the type I love to hate.

Laura Barnard lives in Hertfordshire, UK, and writes romantic comedy or ‘chick lit’ as it is so often described. In her spare time, she enjoys drinking her body weight in tea, indulging in cupcakes the size of her face, and drooling over hunks like Jamie Dornan, Ryan Gosling, and Leo Dicaprio.

She enjoys wearing yoga pants and reading fitness magazines while sitting on the sofa eating chocolate. She’s a real fan of the power nap and of course READING!

She writes not to get rich or famous, but because she LOVES writing. Even if one person tells her they enjoyed her book it makes the midnight typing worth it!

Dewey Belong Together
(Green Valley Library #7)
by Ann Whynot

Dewey Belong Together, an all-new enemies to lovers small-town romance from Ann Whynot, is available now in Kindle Unlimited! 

Librarian Maxine Peters lives her life behind the scenes. By day, she’s a buttoned-up cataloging whiz in the basement of the Green Valley Public Library. By night, she’s secretly dominating in an online role-playing game as the legendary Maximus_Damage. Her in-game persona has the skills to back up the hype. But every hero has an enemy; every saga, a villain. And by her own invitation, Maximus’ arch-nemesis, Wrath, has just landed in Green Valley.

Jonathan Owen is not at all who Maxine expects when she meets Wrath face to face. Eager to leave the past in the game, Jonathan takes this golden opportunity to win Maxine’s heart. There’s just one wrench in that plan: he may have, on a few occasions, acted like a bit of a jerk online. And to his puzzlement, she has taken their fun rivalry to the level of epic dislike.

When Jonathan and Maxine are unexpectedly alone for a weekend, secrets are revealed that make love hard and hatred even harder. Jonathan quickly learns fighting his own demons will take more than one elite gamer. And Maxine, who is busy rebooting her life in Green Valley, might not be up to the task.

When real life starts to override the game, can Maxine and Jonathan find a way to make it work? Or will it be game over for this player versus player adventure?

Dewey Belong Together’ is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #7 in the Green Valley Library series, Green Valley Chronicles, Penny Reid Book Universe.

Check out the Green Valley Library series of standalones!

Read for FREE in Kindle Unlimited

http://bit.ly/3r75tq0

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

His scent evoked sandalwood, cut grass, and sunshine. It made me want to snuggle him and breathe in that delicious, manly smell over and over. The jerk. Of course he would just happen to smell like catnip for my ovaries.

I was as angry as an armadillo stuck in a screen door…

Each time Wrath brought up his childhood, it sounded like something out of a Southern version of Dickens…

I hoped that this wasn’t some big rager we were headed to because being the only sober person at a party is about as much fun as watching paint dry, only the wall sometimes vomits and tries to get into your pants.

I’d shown him the trifecta of disdain: snark, sarcasm, and derision.

You’re a man of many layers. Like an ogre.

My Review:

While I have never seen the Great Smoky Mountains, I have delighted in every virtual trip I’ve taken through Penny Reid’s various series of Smartypants Romances that feature the uniquely quirky residents of Green Valley, Tennessee. I am continuing to discover a wealth of crafty authors who are new to me as well as some who are new to publishing, as is the case with this artful wordsmith with an obvious yet wily pen name of Ann Whynot.

Ms. Whynot has delivered a welcome and refreshing change from the high angst and contrived conflict of most romance tropes. I reveled in how her characters struggled with myriad issues yet consistently displayed patience, clever humor, and thoughtful support for each other.   However, I am most impressed with how this shiny new author deftly nuanced the complex shadings of emotional and mental illness and embedded these insights within several entertaining, crisply written, and engaging storylines.

Through ten years of online gaming and an out of the ordinary and shocking real-life meeting, a merging of their online game personalities and off-line hearts fueled a profound transformation for the basement dweller librarian known as Mousy Maxine, while Jonathan’s challenges caused “The Bipolar Express” to jump the track. I am not a gamer and not at all interested in taking it up, but that didn’t hamper my ability to follow their story as they engaged each other in play, although those segments probably didn’t mean as much to me as it would to someone in the know.

I was unsure how to rate this tale so I did what I always do when indecisive and checked my saved highlights and favorite quotes, which left no doubt. Ms. Whynot’s amusing levity, evocative and insightful observations, and unique and clever arrangements of words clearly rate 5-stars.

Excerpt

After the group sang and twanged through a ton of damn fine bluegrass, the crowd began to thin a bit, and the banjo player declared the quartet was retiring for the evening. Max grabbed my arm and gracelessly hauled me through the audience toward the banjo player.

Our arms still linked, and with a megawatt smile on her face, she shouted, “Cletus! That was incredible tonight.”

“It was, man. You’ve got a great sound,” I offered.

Cletus looked from Max, to our joined arms, again at me, and then back at Max. I didn’t want to engage in stereotypical jealous guy behavior, but I did want to sniff out who this Cletus was to her. What had he done to earn her smiles and respect?

“Thank you,” he replied, then looked pointedly behind us. “Maxine, you seem to have misplaced the rest of your guests from your game. I suspect you noticed this, which is why you’re hanging onto this one so tightly.”

“Oh!” Max said in surprise and dropped my arm like it was a hot potato. I instantly disliked Cletus. “All the others couldn’t make it. Just him. Cletus, meet Wrath—er, Jonathan Owen from Florida. Jonathan, this is my friend Cletus Winston.”

         Not one to let my manners fail me when needed, I stuck out my hand and Cletus gave it a firm shake. “Jonathan Owen, would you happen to be the same gentleman who enjoys harrying Maxine at every available turn?”

         I spun to face Maxine. “You told people that about me? What else did you say, that I like to hunt people for sport?” I felt my face redden in embarrassment as I recalled the time I had also besmirched her good name to the other guild officers. I wasn’t sure what to do with the information that she was talking unfavorably about me to her friends. I felt like every time we made some progress and I got to show her more of who I really was, something popped up to remind me of her animosity.

         “Wrath, calm down. Of course not. I was telling Cletus about the game, that’s all.”

         “Oh, I see. That’s all,” I said sarcastically.

         “It would seem to me,” Cletus said, inserting himself into our fight, “that you two need to have a tête-à-tête, but allow me to suggest not tonight. We’re fixing to take things back to my brother’s place up on Bandit Lake. Scarlet and Billy will be there singing, and I’ll have my banjo and a dulcimer. If you can sit in your own stew for the rest of the evening, you can imbibe and listen to more fine music.”

And with that, he packed up his banjo and gave Max a little salute as he left the room.

“So, feel like hitting up a party?” Max asked, almost cautiously.

I thought about it. I was mad as hell that not only did Max hate me, she had told her offline friends I was some kind of dastardly character. That being said, I didn’t want to piss her off by saying no when she probably wanted to go. Plan Seduction would suggest that I be pliable to her wishes, even if I thought she was a jerk at the moment. I hoped that this wasn’t some big rager we were headed to because being the only sober person at a party is about as much fun as watching paint dry, only the wall sometimes vomits and tries to get into your pants.

“Fine,” I answered. “Party it is, princess.” I couldn’t help poking the bear, just a little. Her eyes flashed fire, and I smiled, gesturing with my arm that she should lead the way.

About Ann Whynot

Ann Whynot has been writing stories since she was five, and always dreamed of one day being a published author. She is a voracious reader and book collector, and used book stores are her kryptonite. She also is passionate about video games, crafting, baking, laughing, and travel.

She lives with her family, dog, and two cats on the Canadian east coast, and is inspired by both the forest and sea.

Find Ann Whynot online

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnWhynotWrites

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ann.whynot/

Website: http://www.annwhynot.com/

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Money. When you have it, you don’t think about it, and when you don’t, it’s all you think about. Unless you’re me: Captain Denial of the good ship Penniless.

The walls are adorned with the usual “I’m really qualified” certificates, along with oil paintings depicting calm scenes of shorelines, sunsets, and gardens. The color of the room is soothing. I suspect it has some pretentious name like “Coffee Breath” or “Buffalo Turd at Sunset.” I guess if they just called it “Brown,” they wouldn’t be able to charge as much.

It’s just that I’m taking particle physics and applying it to hair ribbons. I’m struggling with my professional credibility and twenty years of dogma here. If you ever tell anyone about this conversation, I’ll kill you.

My Review:

I rarely read this genre, as in never, but I was intrigued by the synopsis while also feeling the need for a drastic change-up and due for a jackpot – bingo! I’ve struck gold, as this was an unexpected treasure chest of believable oddity that persistently taunted and poked at my curiosity while squeezing my heart.

The well-crafted storylines and agile writing style were engagingly emotive and deceptively evocative, yet despite the bit of imaginative world-building required, it is easy to follow and highly absorbing. I may have done a bit of time traveling myself as I fell right into Mr. Jones’s clever arrangements of words and was lost in Joe’s story for hours before looking up. I vastly enjoy witty snark and the main character of Joe was assembled with a heaping helping. And while it wasn’t a cliffhanger, there is obviously more to come and I will be eagerly awaiting Mr. Bridgeman’s return.

As a bonus, I scored a new addition to my Brit Words and Phrases list with lovely jubbly, which Mr. Google indicated is an exclamation of joy or delight to good news, which is an apt expression of how I felt about stumbling upon this peculiarly compelling tale, it was indeed lovely jubbly.

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Nick Jones was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and now lives in the Cotswolds, England. In a previous life, he ran his own media company and was a 2nd Dan black belt in Karate. These days he can be found in his writing room, working on his latest mind-bending ideas, surrounded by notes and scribbling on a large whiteboard. He loves movies, kindness, gin, and vinyl.