Tag: #series

Book Review: Cowboy Pride by Anne McAllister

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

COWBOY PRIDE (Code of the West #5) by Anne McAllister is a second chance romance that is part of a contemporary cowboy romance series that can be easily read as a standalone. The strong, silent and brooding ranch foreman gets a second chance with his high school sweetheart and daughter of the ranch owner turned famous and talented artist after eleven years.

Widowed and pregnant, Brenna Jamison returns home to run her father’s Montana ranch while he is in a nursing home recovering from a stroke. When asked if she could tutor a talented artistic child, Tuck, she agrees, but doesn’t know what she will do if she runs into his uncle and guardian. He walked away from her once before and broke her heart.

Jed McCall cannot believe that Brenna is back home. He states he doesn’t want anything to do with her, but when Tuck tells him of the troubles she is having on the ranch he goes over to check it out. He gets rid of her unreliable hired cowboys and rounds up her old friends to help her get the round-up done for the year.

Without knowing of their pasts, Tuck decides that Jed needs to marry Brenna so the child welfare people don’t take him away from his uncle and Brenna needs a husband to help run the ranch and take care of the place while she is pregnant and give her the help she needs to bring her father home. They reluctantly agree to the idea for these reasons only, but they each have personal unstated hopes, too.

Brenna is a wonderful heroine. Talented, loving, caring and determined to find out why Jed walked away from her. She makes her life choices based on love and you are seriously involved with her finding love again. Jed is a good, caring protective, hardworking man, but he is not an outgoing or happy man. This hero had me sighing over how he took care of others and wanted to love, but he also made me want to shake him over how often he hurt others by not explaining why he walks away.

This is a quick read with minimal sex only in the final chapters of the book. I enjoyed the HEA for all the characters, but I was not satisfied with how long it took the author to get to Jed’s true motivation for what he did. The story otherwise was satisfying read.

Written for and posted first on The Romance Reviews.com.

Book Review: Stark September by C.D. Bradley

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

I have added to my book boyfriend list! Owen Stark is HOT, HOT, HOT!!!

What an amazing start to a new trilogy by new author, C.D. Bradley. Stark September has characters that could walk off the page, a story that keeps you reading and sex scenes that had me pulling out the fan. Owen Stark and Kira Riley are well matched and the cast of secondary characters are interesting and as well fleshed out as the H/h.

Captain Kira Riley has reached her dream of becoming a physician and now she owes the Army time for their investment in her. She knows all about the Army having grown up an Army brat until the age of 12 when her father in Special Forces was killed. She wants to pay back the Army and get out with no attachments or complications.

Owen Stark has other plans the minute he sees Kira as he accidently knocks her down. Stark is a Special Forces sergeant who has used the past decade to become a member of a band of brothers he can always count on as he heals from a personal tragedy. Both have secrets that they are afraid to share, not to mention that fraternization is against military regulations, but they just can’t stay away from each other.

As Kira and Stark’s relationship grows, you learn about Kira’s sexual assault and stalking while in college and that Stark dealt with his personal pain in the Special Forces, but also in a BDSM club and at home with a housemate named Paige. I feel the author did an excellent job of growing this relationship and revealing their differences and the problems that popped up because of those differences. The sex scenes were never gratuitous, but were perfectly suited to the growing romance and Kira’s sexual experimentation. Be warned that there is some BDSM and spanking in this book.

I cannot recommend this forbidden love story enough. There are two small problems for me though. First, Stark and Kira exchange one dog tag each. Although this is very romantic, it would never happen in the real military. Second, I wish the author would have wrapped up the suspense portion of this story in this book, while only leaving the romance open ended for the next book. Ms. Bradley’s writing is strong enough and her characters intriguing enough to carry me into her future books without the cliffhanger epilogue. That said, I still loved this book and am getting started on the next in this trilogy right away!

Written for and posted first on The Romance Reviews.com.

 

Book Review: A Teaspoon of Trouble by Shirley Jump

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

A TEASPOON OF TROUBLE by Shirley Jump is the first in The Bachelor Bake-Off series all set in Marietta, Montana and written by various authors. This is both a funny and heartbreaking contemporary romance that is an enjoyable read.

Carolyn Hanson left small town Marietta and her high school boyfriend in her rear view mirror after graduation for her dream of being a top chef in NYC. For ten years she is singularly focused and is about to realize her dream and be named the sous chef of a trendy Manhattan restaurant when she gets the call that her sister and husband where killed in a car crash. What she finds completely surprising is that her sister named her the guardian of her 4 year old niece, Emma and her puppy, Roscoe. She returns to her hometown hoping her parents will take Emma, but they are devastated with grief and barely functioning.

Matthew West has stayed and flourished in his home town of Marietta as a small animal veterinarian. When a beloved first responder is killed, the town proposes a Bachelor Bake-Off to raise funds to build a Boys & Girls club in his memory. Matthew enters to help, but he can barely boil water let alone bake. He is shocked when his old girlfriend walks into his clinic with a little girl and puppy in tow.

Carolyn and Matthew make a deal. They will swap their talents to help the other out for the time Carolyn is in town. Carolyn will teach Matthew how to bake and Matthew will teach Carolyn how to train Roscoe. When the old sparks start to fly, Matthew begins to hope that Carolyn will stay in Marietta to raise Emma and be a part of his life again.

I laughed as much as I teared up while reading this story. It is well balanced between fun with the dogs, Emma and learning to bake with the grief Carolyn and her family were dealing with, not always well. At first, Carolyn came across as self-centered, but when you learn more of her fears and grief, you begin to empathize with her and watch the growth of her and Emma’s relationship. I felt the author handled the scenes where the family dealt with their grief were realistically written. This second chance story leaves you with a HEA smile and is well worth your reading time.

Written for and posted first on The Romance Reviews.com.

Book Review: Reservations by Gwen Florio

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

I love the descriptive writing, plotting and characters of the Lola Wicks mystery series, but this fourth book emotionally wrecked me and yet I had to keep turning the pages and reading late into the night to the end. RESERVATIONS (Lola Wick, #4) by Gwen Florio deserves 5 BIG stars!

Lola hasn’t been the same since her last adventure. Charlie decides it is time to take a honeymoon and visit his brother, wife and niece on the Navaho reservation in Arizona. Charlie has a strained relationship with Edgar, but when they arrive there is an underlying tension in the entire family.

There is an eco-terrorist setting off bombs to try to get rid of the main employer, the coal mine on the reservation. The water and air on the mesa has become so polluted, people can no longer live there. Edgar is an executive for the mining company and his wife Naomi is an attorney for the Navaho and hates the mine, but wanted Edgar to work there so that they have inside information on the company. Naomi and Edgar are both Ivy League educated, but returned to help the People and they use this as a way to demean Charlie and Lola.

Lola begins to return to her hard-driving reporter mode as there is another bombing and death. The tension builds and as Charlie seems to side more with his brother and family than Lola, she does everything she can to figure out what is really happening on the reservation, even as the danger escalates for herself and family.

I was so wrapped up in this plot. It is intricate, fast paced and I did not figure out the whole picture on my own. The descriptions in the writing of the Arizona land, with its natural and deadly beauty take you there and make you feel every bit of the heat.

Lola is taken through extreme physical conditions in this story as well as emotional. If you are like me and have a personal stake in your favorite characters, get the tissues ready! This book is a great read on a mystery/thriller level and an emotional roller-coaster for one of my favorite characters. Excellent!

Thank you very much to Midnight Ink and Net Galley for allowing me to read a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. It was my pleasure!

Book Review: Brothers In Blue : Marc by Jeanne St. James

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

Another HOT book about a Bryson brother from Manning Grove!

BROTHERS IN BLUE: MARC (Brothers in Blue #2) by Jeanne St. James has the second Bryson brother having to train the new police recruit who just happens to be female. For an alpha male like Marc, who also happens to still believe there should not be any female officers, being made her FTO (field training officer) by his brother the chief seems like a sick joke.

Leah Grant is determined to be a police officer just like her deceased father. She has fought all the stereotypes and risen to the top of her training class to have no one, but Max offer her a job. Manning Grove is very small town to her old home of Philly, but she is determined to make it, even with the chauvinist beliefs of her FTO.

As Marc and Leah train and ride together, their chemistry starts to override their common sense. They try to keep their work life separate from their increasing attraction, but Marc wants her in his bed as much as Leah wants to prove she is as capable as any male officer. The taboo of trainer and trainee does not stop these two, but they do keep it out of work hours.

These two have explosive chemistry in bed and are so perfect for each other. There are explicit sex scenes that are well written and have a surprising appearance of nipple rings and other sex toys. I also loved that Leah stayed at Marc’s parents’ house when she moved to town so that we continue to be involved with the whole family from Max’s story in Book #1. This romance can be read as a standalone because of its own HEA, but the family ties and small town life carry over.

I love that Ms. St. James has made each of these books in this series unique so far. I appreciate that they are not both the same premise with new names inserted. I am looking forward to what happens with the last Bryson boy, if he ever comes home!

Written for and posted first on the Romance Reviews.com.

Feature Post: Lola Wicks Mysteries, #1-#3 by Gwen Florio

  

RATINGS: 4 out of 5 Stars for All Books

I am featuring this series because I am currently reading Reservations, Book #4 in this series from Net Galley. This is a very solid series that has a strong female protagonist, Lola Wicks, who was a foreign correspondent and now writes for her small town paper. The plots are all interesting, entertaining and well written. The secondary characters are developed and realistic. Ms. Florio’s very special talent is in her description of the scenery in Montana and Dakota and the type of people that populate it. Below are my reviews for these three books and I will be adding the fourth soon. This is a series that is worth getting hooked on!

BOOK #1 – MONTANA

Lola Wicks has been pulled from her foreign correspondent post in Afghanistan because her paper has downsized. She is told to use her vacation time and decide if she wants to continue stateside with the paper on a suburban beat. Extremely upset, she decides to visit her best friend, Mary Ellen, who quit her job as a fellow reporter to relocate to Montana.

Lola discovers her friend shot dead on the hill by her cabin. When Lola is told to stay in town, upsetting her plans to return to Kabul, she decides the inexperienced sheriff is not moving fast enough and sets her reporter skills to the case. What she finds is that the techniques she has been using overseas do not translate to small town Montana or the Blackfeet reservation. She has to ingratiate herself to the locals, Blackfeet and sheriff for information to follow the trail to who killed Mary Alice and why. Racial discrimination between the towns people and the Blackfeet, drug smuggling and politics are all twisted into this mystery.

Lola is a developed, three dimensional character. She is tenacious, intelligent and everything a reporter should be and she also steals a trinket from everyone she deals with. She did come back from overseas with what appears to be PTSD and this makes her interactions with people more difficult and abrupt. I really like this protagonist. As she solves this case, she becomes more attached to the people and animals around her. My only problem was the ending of the case seemed to come very abruptly and Lola’s personal life also shifted quickly, But I will definitely be back for more.

BOOK #2- DAKOTA

This book starts three months after the death of her friend in Book #1 and it can be read as a standalone.

Lola is living in Magpie, Montana with Sheriff Charlie Larendeau on his small ranch. She is a reporter for the small town’s paper and living with the sheriff leaves her with two problems: 1. she is supposed to report on the Blackfeet, but Charlie is half Blackfeet and 2. it keeps her off the crime beat since he is the sheriff, but you know that won’t stop her.

Several Blackfeet girls have gone missing over the past year, but they were just written off as runaways until one of the girls is found dead in a snowbank. Lola is hearing rumors that the girls are all known drug users and were working as prostitutes in the oil boom shanty town outside of Burnt Creek. Lola sets off with her dog, Bub, to the North Dakota oil patch. Fracking, big oil money, prostitution and drugs all come together in this boom town with its influx of male population and law enforcement that looks the other way. Lola just wants to uncover the truth, but she ends up in a fight for her own life.

A gritty mystery with people who just want to take advantage of a money boom, but the consequences are harsh, if not deadly. Lola’s story just keeps getting more intriguing. Ms. Florio brings the oil patch and the people it attracts to life. She also once again realistically depicts the Blackfeet and their problems. I can’t wait to get the next Lola book!

BOOK #3 – DISGRACED

Lola is forced to take a furlough from the paper and so she leaves for a vacation with her young daughter, Maggie and dog, Bub on their way to Yellowstone.

Her friend asks her to stop and check on her cousin, Pal, who is a returned vet from Afghanistan who lives on the way in Wyoming. What Lola finds when she arrives at Pal’s are small town friends who served together, but when they returned, one was dead and disgraced, one gets a hero’s welcome, one commits suicide, two nearly beat a man to death and Pal, the only female of the group is traumatized. Lola smells a story and the vacation is postponed while she gets to know the vets. Secrets, truths and lies all need to be sorted and the truth can get Pal, Lola and her daughter all killed.

I liked this Lola book the best so far. It can be read as a standalone in regards to the main plot, but Lola’s personal life does carry over. It focuses on the returned troops and the many problems they face at home. There are violent scenes in this book. The author depicts prejudice, rape and a conspiracy of lies.

This is a series that makes you think was well as entertains and this is another great addition.

Check out this series and author!