Review: Year of Living Blonde by Andrea Simonne

Posted May 21, 2015 by Marsha in Contemporary Romance / 0 Comments

Year of Living BlondeTitle:  Year of Living Blonde
Series:  Sweet Life in Seattle #1
Author:  Andrea Simonne
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  May 17, 2015
Publisher:  Liebe Publishing
My Rating:  5 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Synopsis:

A funny and sizzling romp about discovering your inner pin-up girl….

Plain-Jane bakery owner Natalie Anderson has always followed the recipe for a safe life. When her husband dumps her for a seductive older woman though, it’s time to throw out that recipe and start from scratch. She cooks up a plan to transform herself from mousy brown to sexy blonde. Meanwhile, she’s trying to expand her Seattle bakery, La Dolce Vita, but runs into an obstacle in the form of her irritatingly handsome landlord.

Astronomer Anthony Novello’s good looks and charm usually guarantees him a free pass with women, though that’s not the case with his new tenant, Natalie. Plain, plump, and persnickety—he’s never met a woman more annoying. But when Anthony returns from a telescope observing run, he makes a discovery of the non-celestial kind—Natalie has changed. He’s amazed to find himself attracted to her. Sparks fly as he tries to convince her there’s more to him than meets the eye.

However, when Natalie’s ex-husband tries to win her back, she’s forced to choose. Is her year of living blonde over? Or is this the start of a new and much sweeter life.

Read on for my thoughts on Year of Living Blonde.  No true spoilers, promise.

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A Memorial Day Truth

Posted May 20, 2015 by Marsha in Discussion Post / 0 Comments

While we in the USA make our plans for the upcoming Memorial Day 3 day weekend – I’d like to put this meme graphic out there as a reminder.

To all who have served our country – thank you.  To all of their families, friend and employers who made that possible – thank you.  To all who serve and protect in any capacity – thank you.  God Bless you all.

memorial day truth

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Review: Unbreakable Bonds by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

Posted May 20, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Unbreakable BondsTitle:  Unbreakable Bonds
Series:  Angela Panther #2
Author:  Carolyn Ridder Aspenson
Genre:  Paranormal, Romance, Mystery
Published:  March 18, 2014
Publisher:  Booktrope
My Rating:  5 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Synopsis:

When Angela first discovered her gift to gab with ghosts, she fought it tooth and nail. But the second she decided it wasn’t so bad, tragedy hit and the universe decided to teach her a lesson.

Now she’s unable to chat with the other side and is crying out for a re-do.

When her best friend Mel suspects her husband of cheating, she asks Angela to help her prove it. They concoct the perfect plan to get the goods on him, but to make it work they’ll need help from Angela’s mother, Fran.

There’s just one tiny little problem–Fran’s dead.

As the two best friends set out on a cheater-catching adventure, they hope Fran can use her celestial super powers to help, and prove that the bond between those who’ve crossed over with the ones they’ve left behind is never broken.

Read on for my thoughts on Unbreakable Bonds.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Review: Matronly Duties by Melissa Kendall

Posted May 20, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 2 Comments

Matronly DutiesTitle:  Matronly Duties
Series:
Author:  Melissa Kendall
Genre:  Dystopian, Romance
Published:  May 21, 2015
Publisher:  The Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing House
My Rating:  4 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Synopsis:

Hundreds of years after an asteroid slammed into Earth and sent it into a new ice age, what remains of the human race lives on in underground sanctuaries. Now, as the bicentennial anniversary of the impact approaches, a new leader prepares to take her place at the head of the government. At least, that’s what she thinks.

Bethanie Greene’s life has been planned out for her since the age of thirteen. Beautiful and intelligent, she’s spent the last twelve years training to become the next Matron of the underground nation of Oceania. But when Bethanie is kidnapped by rogue extremists just six weeks shy of taking office, her world is turned upside down by the handsome stranger who rescues her.

Howard James’ life has been the polar opposite of Bethanie’s. Struggling to survive in a world where those in power wished he didn’t exist, he harbors a deep-seated resentment of the government and all its representatives. Together with his unconventional family, he shows Bethanie a life she never knew was possible, while at the same time, opening her eyes to the injustices of the government she is meant to lead.

But can she trust a stranger? And can a few days change everything she believes and desires? Against all odds, Bethanie must decide if her heart and her duties can coexist.

Read on for my thoughts on Matronly Duties.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Waiting on Wednesday #15

Posted May 20, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 20 Comments

Print“Waiting on” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating… cannot wait to get our hands on… having hissy fits at having to wait… you know, waiting for the book is exhausting work!

 

As a long, long time Kay Hooper fan and a devoted follower of her Bishop/Special Crimes Unit novels – I was delighted to see the preview of the next novel in that ongoing series.  I will have to wait until October 2015 to get my hands on Fear The Dark – but these novels, in my opinion, are well worth the wait.

 

Fear the Dark - biship special crimes unitSomething strange is happening in the small mountain town of Serenity, Tennessee. People going on routine errands never reach their destination. It’s as if they simply disappear. Over the past few weeks, it’s happened to five men and women—and now a child.

The local police chief calls the FBI, and a team from the Special Crimes Unit is immediately sent in. Agents Lucas and Samantha Jordan, partners in work and in life, have very different abilities. Samantha is clairvoyant and Lucas possesses a unique ability to find the lost or abducted. With them are new partners Dante Swann, a medium, and Robbie Hodge, a telepath.

The town is already on the edge of panic, but the mysterious events take a sinister turn when a body unrelated to the missing persons case surfaces and one of the SCU agents vanishes. Now, the team’s hunt for the lost has turned into something very personal…and very dangerous.

 

Anything upcoming that you’d anxiously await this long for?

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Review: Defying the Earl by Anabelle Bryant

Posted May 19, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Defying The EarlTitle:  Defying The Earl
Series:  Regency Charms #1
Author:  Anabelle Bryant
Genre:  Regency Romance
Published:  April 30, 2015
Publisher:  Carina UK
My Rating:  5 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Synopsis:

Game…
Matchmaker Wilhelmina Montgomery helps cupid’s arrow find its mark in the drawing rooms of the Ton, effortlessly pairing even the most unlikely couples for a discreet fee. Perhaps not an appropriate pursuit for a lady…but with an ailing sister to care for, it’s Whimsy’s only hope at securing their future.

Set…
Meanwhile, penniless aristocrat Valerian St. David, Earl of Dashwood is society’s favourite matchbreaker; assisting those who want to escape engagement without being sued for breach of promise. Cynical, yes…but with no intention of falling in love himself, Valerian considers himself ideally suited to the role.

And match!
When Whimsy discovers that Valerian has set out to break the very engagement she has been painstakingly arranging, she refuses to allow this mysterious saboteur have his way. Yet she didn’t expect to find the handsome Earl so distractingly alluring. And suddenly, it seems that the Ton’s last two loneliest hearts are in danger of finding their match…in the most inopportune of places.

Read on for my thoughts on Defying the Earl.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Review: Wish You Were Here By Phillipa Ashley

Posted May 19, 2015 by Marsha in Contemporary Romance / 0 Comments

wish you were here

Title:  Wish You Were Here
Series:
Author:  Phillipa Ashley
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  June 1, 2011
Publisher:  Sourcebooks Casablanca
My Rating:  3 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Synopsis:

Beth Allen has moved on…

It’s been eight years since she and Jack Thornfield met on an exotic holiday and sparked up a seriously promising romance. But then he disappeared without a trace, and Beth’s life got dreadfully busy, demanding, and altogether complicated.

Then Jack and Beth run into each other again…while she’s applying for an exciting new job in London-at his company. For necessity’s sake, but against her better judgment, she takes the job, and from that moment on, complicated doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Read on for my thoughts on Wish You Were Here.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Teaser Tuesday # 12

Posted May 19, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 10 Comments

teaser tuesdayOne of the fun parts of taking part in blog hops (aside from getting to visit new to me blogs) is finding great ways to interact with other book lovers.  This is one:

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers

TateTate felt as though he’d been underwater too long, and blood thundered in his ears.  He was a man poised on the precipice of something big, something life-changing, and as much as he wanted Libby Remington, he was scared.

 

While I don’t read Western Romance as my main Contemporary Romance choice, I do read more than I expected to.  If I’m not lost in Marietta, Montana (smile) – then I’m most likely to pick up one of many series novels by Linda Lael Miller – an author I’ve read for more years than I’d like to admit to.  This is the one I’m in the  middle of now.  Gotta love a good rancher series with a super hot guy.  At least I do.

Cover Blurb:

This McKettrick man is about to meet his match…

There aren’t enough hours in the day for everything divorced dad Tate McKettrick has to do: run the Silver Spur Ranch, do the suit-and-tie thing for his business and ride herd on his adorable six-year-old twin girls. But then Libby Remington returns to Blue River, Texas, and suddenly…time seems to stand still.

They were high school sweethearts, Tate and Libby, but he was never able to convince Libby that he loved her. He still loves her and wants to try again. Nothing–not even cattle rustlers, a killer stallion and a vindictive ex-wife–can keep him from the attempt.

Libby has her hands full taking care of her mother and running the Perk Up Coffee Shop. Caffeine, she needs. Tate McKettrick, not so much. Oh, heck–yes. But can they really hope for a second chance?

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Review: Forget Me Not by Erika Marks

Posted May 19, 2015 by Marsha in Contemporary Romance / 2 Comments

Forget Me NotTitle:  Forget Me Not
Series:  Loveless and Dunn #3, Magnolia Bay
Author:  Erika Marks
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  May 19, 2015
Publisher:  Tule Publishing
My Rating:  4.5 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Synopsis:

When aspiring-writer Mallory Reynolds packed up for New York City, she ditched more than her quiet hometown of Magnolia Bay—she left her high-school sweetheart, Josh Loveless, behind. But when the big city didn’t deliver big contracts on her novels, she turned to writing erotica under the pen name Farrah Ivory to spare her family any embarrassment. Soon, her scandalously-sexy series, The Lost Diaries of Scarlet, is a break-out hit. Just as Mallory begins to enjoy her sweet success, her publisher leaks her true identity and a media firestorm ensues. Exposed, she decides there’s nowhere to hide—except for home.

For Josh Loveless, getting over Mallory Reynolds hasn’t been easy, but he’s done his best to move on. For starters, he’s turned his love of the outdoors and rock-climbing into his own business. And just as things are starting to settle for him, he learns Mallory’s coming home to ride out her scandal, and suddenly his world is turned upside down again…

Can Mallory convince her friends and family that she’s still the same good-hearted girl they knew? And more importantly, can Josh trust the woman she’s become, and give her a second chance to rewrite their love story with a happy ending?

Read on for my thoughts on Forget Me Not.  No true spoilers, promise.

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