THE BOOKWORM’S GUIDE TO DATING (The Bookworm’s Guide Book #1) by Emma Hart is the first book in a new contemporary rom/com series. The main heroines are three friends who own a bookstore in a small town in Montana and their long-time friends. The secondary humor comes from the retirement home where all their grandparents live.
Kinsley Lane is a bookworm and proud of it. She loves analyzing relationships in romance novels and is afraid she will never find a real-life man who will understand and love her for her awkward introverted self. For her birthday, she decides to start dating. She lets her friends convince her to sign up for dating apps on-line and has her brother’s best-friend volunteer to play matchmaker. She is not sure why he is helping, but if he can find one who meets her very specific guidelines and helps her with her awkwardness, she is in.
Josh Carter offers to help Kinsley find a boyfriend. He helps set Kinsley up and even takes her on a practice date, but there is something important he is not telling her. He is hoping by finding Kinsley a boyfriend, he will quit obsessing over her. He made a pact with her brother years ago that neither of them would date the other’s sisters, but Josh finds the bookish Kinsley is the one he wants.
This is a quick read full of laughter, love and quirky realistic characters. Kinsley and Josh’s banter and texting felt pitch perfect and their relationship developed at a realistic pace. The sex scenes were explicit, but not gratuitous. I loved the scenes in the bookshop between the three friends and all the bookish references. The secondary characters are all part of the three girls lives and add to the small town feel of everyone knowing everyone else. The secondary comedy plotline of the retirement home where all the grandparents live and have their own dramas had me laughing out loud.
I can highly recommend this first in the series rom/com and I am looking forward to the next!
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Author Bio and Social Media
Emma Hart is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty novels and has been translated into several different languages. She first put fingers to keys at the age of eighteen after her husband told her she read too much and should write her own. Four years later, she’s still figuring out what he meant when he said she ‘read too much.’
She prides herself on writing smart smut that’s filled with dry wit, snappy, sarcastic comebacks, but lots of heart… And sex. Sometimes, she kills people. (Disclaimer: In books. But if you bug her, she’ll use your name for the victims.)
TOTAL POWER (Mitch Rapp Book #19) by Vince Flynn/Kyle Mills is the latest thriller in the Mitch Rapp series and Kyle Mills continues to prove he was the right choice to take on this series after the death of Vince Flynn. The premise of the terror attack in this story is still theorized frequently and it is truly scary to picture the post-apocalyptic world in this book.
As Congress debates the perceived danger and the costs to fix and update the U.S. power grid, an expert in the field is shopping the destruction of that grid to our foreign adversaries. While he has the computer expertise, he needs some armed assistance on the ground in eliminating a few strategic power stations. When Mitch and his team are sent to intercept an international terrorist, they hope the plot is done, but it was only a decoy and the power grid goes off-line over the entire country on Christmas Eve.
Now as the government is in bunkers and the country begins to descend into anarchy as there is no longer a safety structure and it is every man for himself, Mitch and his team work to chase down the man responsible and get the codes that could begin to bring the power back on-line.
I could not put this new Mitch Rapp down! The premise is as realistic as it comes and having lived through the blackout of 2003, I could imagine each sequence of events occurring the longer the power was out. Mr. Mills research is evident throughout the story without it ever overpowering the action/thriller aspect of the story. All of the secondary characters play important roles in this story as they come together to survive the loss of power and work to navigate their new circumstances without all the state-of-the-art help that in one way or another relies on electrical power.
Mr. Mills has Mitch by the end of this book thinking several times about his future or lack thereof. He also shows Mitch becoming more comfortable with his family life and surrounding friends. Will Mitch eventually be able to retire with his loved ones or will he be taken out while once again protecting our freedom and way of life? I hope for the first with a new generation of protectors to take his place, but only Mr. Mills knows.
I highly recommend this action packed and thrilling new Mitch Rapp!
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About the Author
Kyle Mills is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty books, including the latest in Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series, Total Power.
Growing up in Oregon, Washington, DC, and London as a the son of an FBI agent, Kyle absorbed an enormous amount about the intelligence community, giving his novels their unique authenticity. He and his wife live in Wyoming where they spend their off hours mountain biking and backcountry skiing.
I am very excited to be on the October 2020 Harlequin Category Romance blog tour. Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for Christine Rimmer’s Harlequin Special Edition HOME FOR THE BABY’S SAKE (The Bravos of Valentine Bay Book #8). This book is easily read as a standalone and it will make you want to go back and read all of the siblings stories.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
He’d do anything for his son…including returning to the town he left behind.
Valentine Bay’s the perfect place for real estate developer Roman Marek to raise his infant son. But when he snaps up the charming local theater, he doesn’t bargain for tempestuous director Hailey Bravo.
Hailey won’t let Roman wreck the thing she holds most dear—and she’s certainly gotten under Roman’s notoriously thick skin. As the duo spar and sparks fly, Roman’s surprised to find that Hailey’s the perfect missing piece for his family. But how can he convince her that this partnership’s for keeps?
HOME FOR THE BABY’S SAKE (The Bravos of Valentine Bay Book #8) by Christine Rimmer is a contemporary romance that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. Even though this is the eighth book in the series each featuring a different sibling, it is easily read as a standalone.
Roman Marek is a hugely successful real estate developer who has relocated with his infant son and mother back to Valentine Bay upon his mother’s request. He purchased the old theater in town and plans to use its bones for a boutique hotel, but it is still in use by the community for local projects until the end of the year.
Hailey Bravo and her sister, Harper run H&H Productions and produce all the community shows and projects in the old theater. She loves the theater, her job and her community. When the theater sale is complete, she is worried about the future plans of the new owner.
When Roman and Hailey meet they are both attracted to each other even with the future of the theater between them, but Roman has been lost in love twice before and is not as open as Hailey even though he believes she is the missing piece for his little family. Roman is going to learn that Hailey cannot be managed like a business problem and he is going to have to learn to trust again for the love he truly wants.
This is a sweet and spicy quick read with plenty of family, love and ultimately a very satisfying HEA. Roman is a complex alpha hero who could easily run over a heroine who is not as strong, but Hailey has him matched with her strength, love and understanding. The sex scenes are realistic and not gratuitous. All the secondary characters add to the depth of the story and are not just fillers especially the secondary story revolving around Roman’s mother. I love the Bravo family and really need to check out more of this series.
I recommend this contemporary romance for a well written and heartfelt HEA!
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Excerpt
When she arrived at the fish place on Ocean Road, Roman was waiting outside for her, leaning against a sleek black sports car—the famous one made in Italy, with doors that opened upward, like wings.
“This car,” she said, shaking her head, trailing a finger along the gleaming hood. “You’d better write the arts council a check, Roman Marek.”
He put his hand to his broad, hard chest, right over his heart. “You have my solemn word on that.”
They went inside. The food was excellent, as always, and being with Roman was easy and fun. Even the silences were comfortable. He said he’d moved back to town from Las Vegas and bought a house on Treasure Cove Circle. Hailey knew the house. It was a mansion nestled in its own private oceanfront reserve, surrounded by beautiful old-growth forest, overlooking a secluded stretch of beach.
“I want to see you again,” he said as he walked her back out to her car. She gave him her number and when he gathered her close, she didn’t resist.
The kiss was just right, a tender, sweet getting-to-know-you kind of kiss. His lips felt so good brushing against her own, and excitement sizzled through her. They both pulled back slowly and just stood there at the driver’s door of her Kia Sportage, grinning at each other for a long string of lovely seconds.
“See you soon,” he said as he pulled open the driver’s door for her.
She climbed in and he shut the door. Then he stood there, the afternoon sun gleaming on his dark brown hair, as she backed from the parking space and drove away.
For the rest of the day, Hailey felt like the living, breathing representation of some old romantic song. She walked on air and danced on clouds. She’d met a guy she wanted to see again. That hadn’t happened since Nathan.
She couldn’t stop smiling as she sat at the kitchen table in the family cottage she shared with Harper and worked on her plans for the Christmas show—which desperately needed an actual name. Later in the afternoon, she was back at the theater, greeting the parents as they dropped off their children for Fall Revue rehearsals.
It was the usual circus, corralling all the kids, giving them instructions that they immediately forgot. There was some pushing and one of the little girls cried. Hailey consoled and coaxed and loved every minute of it—she always did. But somehow, more so today.
Because she kind of had butterflies over Roman Marek, and for three long years she’d honestly believed that all her butterflies had shriveled up and died.
***
Author Bio
Author bio: A New York Times bestselling author, Christine Rimmer has written over ninety contemporary romances for Harlequin Books. Christine has won the Romantic Times BOOKreviews Reviewers Choice Award and has been nominated six times for the RITA Award. She lives in Oregon with her family. Visit Christine at http://www.christinerimmer.com.
Today is my turn on the Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour for this well written and paced, atmospheric small town Sheriff/police procedural mystery. I am excited to be sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for Elena Taylor’s debut ALL WE BURIED: A Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery (A Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery Book #1).
Below you will find a book synopsis, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!
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Synopsis
For fans of Julia Keller and Sheena Kamal, All We Buried disturbs the long-sleeping secrets of a small Washington State mountain town.
Interim sheriff Elizabeth “Bet” Rivers has always had one repeat nightmare: a shadowy figure throwing a suspicious object into her hometown lake in Collier, Washington. For the longest time, she chalked it up to an overactive imagination as a kid. Then the report arrives. In the woods of the Cascade mountain range, right in her jurisdiction, a body floats to the surface of Lake Collier. When the body is extricated and revealed, no one can identify Jane Doe. But someone must know the woman, so why aren’t they coming forward?
Bet has been sitting as the interim sheriff of this tiny town in the ill-fitting shoes of her late father and predecessor. With the nightmare on her heels, Bet decided to build a life for herself in Los Angeles, but now it’s time to confront the tragic history of Collier. The more she learns, the more Bet realizes she doesn’t know the townspeople of Collier as well as she thought, and nothing can prepare her for what she is about to discover.
Genre: Mystery Published by: Crooked Lane Publication Date: April 7, 2020 Number of Pages: 304 ISBN: 1643852914 (ISBN13: 9781643852911) Series: Sheriff Bet Rivers #1 Purchase Links:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Goodreads
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
ALL WE BURIED: A Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery (A Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery Book #1) by Elena Taylor is a well written and paced, atmospheric small town Sheriff/police procedural mystery debut.
Elizabeth “Bet” Rivers has returned home to Collier from L.A. to her small hometown in the mountains of Washington state to follow in her father’s footsteps as Sheriff. Currently the interim Sheriff, she is not certain she wants to stay even as she runs for election against her father’s deputy.
A Washington State professor is studying the dead glacial lake by the abandoned coal mine outside of Collier when he discovers a canvas wrapped body floating in the lake. Bet has never handled a murder investigation, but she is determined to solve this one to prove her worth to the people of her town and herself. This murder is eerily reminiscent of a terrifying dream Bet has had for nearly nineteen years. Was it a dream or a memory she would rather forget?
As Bet digs deeper into the disturbing history around her hometown, two hometown sons have returned at the same time the body turns up. The more Bet digs, the more she learns that she does not know the town people of Collier as well as she believed and she may be the next victim of the dead lake and the ghosts of the old mine.
This is a wonderful mystery read that kept me guessing and turning the pages. I would never have expected a debut to be able to pull me in to not only the mystery and characters, but also the landscape and ecology of the small Cascade mountain town and lake. Bet is a wonderful new lead character that I am looking forward to following into the future. She is realistic and relatable as are the secondary characters. The mysteries from the past and the present are intertwined and paced perfectly in my opinion.
I highly recommend this debut and first in a series mystery!
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Excerpt
ONE
Sheriff Bet Rivers leaned back in her chair and gazed out the office window at the shifting light on Lake Collier. Bright sunlight cast up sparkling diamonds as a late-summer breeze chopped the surface—turquoise-blue and silver. The fragment of a song from her childhood teased her mind—silver, blue, and gold. She hummed the tune under her breath.
Red and yellow leaves turned the maple trees in the park across the street into Jackson Pollock paintings. Hard to believe Labor Day weekend ended tonight. Somehow summer had slipped by and fall had snuck up on her as she tended to her new position.
If she had still been in Los Angeles, she’d have been a detective by now. Instead, she was back in her tiny hometown with a job her father had tricked her into taking.
“I need you to cover for me while I get chemo,” he said. “It’s just for a few months. I’m going to be fine.”
With the detective exam available only once every two years, it meant putting her career on hold. But her father had never asked her for anything; how could she say no?
He never said he would die, turning her “interim sheriff” position into something more permanent.
Her father always knew what cards to play. Competition. Family. Responsibility. Loyalty. Collier. A perfect straight. He’d used them all this time, as if he’d known it would be his last hand. No easy way to extricate herself now, short of gnawing off her own foot.
The sound of instruments tuning up pulled her attention to a trio set up at a bench outside the market across the street. The raised sidewalk and false front of the old building made the perfect backdrop for their performance. Collier relied on tourism for much of its income, and the local musicians encouraged visitors to stay longer and spend more.
A beat of silence followed by a quick intake of breath, the unspoken communication of musicians well attuned to one another, and the trio launched into song.
Church of a different sort. Bet could hear her father’s words. I don’t know if there’s a God, Bet, but I do believe in bluegrass.
The music produced a soundtrack to her grief. The banjo player favored the fingerpicking style of the great Earl Scruggs. Loss etched in the sound of three-part harmony, Earle Rivers’s death still a wound that wouldn’t close.
She recognized the fiddle player. She’d babysat him years ago. It made her feel old. Not yet thirty, she wasn’t, but as the last generation of Lake Collier Riverses, the weight of history fell heavy on her shoulders. In a line of sheriffs stretching back to the town’s founding, she was the bitter end.
Looking down at her desk, Bet eyed the new fly she’d tied. The small, barbless hook would work well for the catch-and-release fishing she did, and the bright yellow and green feathers pleased her. The only thing she’d missed while living in California. Surf fishing wasn’t the same.
I should name it in your memory, Dad. The Earle fly. Her grandfather had named him after Scruggs, but her grandmother added the e because she liked how it looked.
Bet imagined her father’s critical response to her work, the size of the hook too dainty for his memorial.
Bet “spoke” with her father more now, four months after his death, than she’d ever done when he lived. Another burden she carried. The conversations they’d never had. Things she should have asked but didn’t.
She took a deep breath of the dry, pine scent that drifted in through the open windows, filling the room with a heady summer perfume. She should get up and walk around, let the community see she was on the job, but her body felt leaden. And it wasn’t like anyone would notice. She could vanish for hours and it wouldn’t matter to Collier; no one required her attention. Not like they had depended on her father. His death still hung over town like a malaise, her presence an insufficient cure no matter what Earle might have believed when he called her home.
Before her father’s illness, she’d had a plan. First the police academy, then patrol officer, proving she could make it in Los Angeles as a cop. She’d envisioned at least twenty years in LA, moving up the ranks—something with Chief in the title— returning home with a long, impressive career before stepping into Earle’s shoes.
Too late, she’d realized he wouldn’t get better. He’d brought her home for good.
Stretching her arms above her head, she walked her fingers up the wall behind her, tapping to the beat of the music. Anything to shake off the drowsiness brought on by the hot, quiet day and long nights of uneasy sleep.
The coffee stand beckoned from across the street, but the sound of the front door opening and the low, throaty voice of the department’s secretary, Alma, stopped her from voyaging out. A two-pack-a-day smoker for almost forty years, Alma sounded a lot like Lauren Bacall after a night of heavy drinking. She’d given up smoking more than twenty years ago, but even now, as she edged into her seventies, Alma’s voice clung to the roughness like a dying man to a life preserver. Bet hoped the visitor only wanted information about the community and Alma could answer.
No such luck. The efficient clop of Alma’s square-heeled shoes clumped down the scarred floors of the hallway, a counterpoint to another set of feet. Bet brought her hands down off the wall and automatically tucked a wayward curl of her auburn hair back up under her hat before Alma arrived, poking her birdlike head around the wooden frame of the door. Gray hair teased tall, as if that would give her five-foot frame a couple extra inches.
“Bet?” Alma always said her name as though it might not be Bet Rivers sitting behind the enormous sheriff’s desk. Bet assumed Alma wished to find Earle Rivers there. She wondered how long that would last. If Bet threw the upcoming election and fled back to Southern California, leaving her deputy to pick up the reins, maybe everyone would be better off, no matter what her father wanted.
“Yes, Alma?” “I think you’d better listen to what this young man has to say.” The “young man” in question could be anywhere under the age of sixty in Alma’s book, and as he stood out of sight down the hallway, Bet had little to go on.
“Okay,” Bet said.
“I think it’s important.” Alma waited for Bet to show appropriate attention. “Okay.”
“Seems he found a dead body floating in the lake.”
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CREDIT MARK PERLSTEIN
Author Bio
Elena Taylor lives on the banks of the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River in a town made famous by Twin Peaks. When she’s not writing or working one-on-one with writers as a developmental editor, she can be found hanging out with her husband, dog, and two cats. Her favorite place to be (besides home) is the stables down the road, with her two horses Radar and Jasper.
Today I am excited to be sharing on the Social Butterfly PR Blog Tour. My Feature Post and Book Review is for the latest book in the Hot Cakes series – SEMI-SWEET ON YOU (Hot Cakes Book #4) by Erin Nicholas. This is one of my favorite contemporary romance series with great characters, sweet and yummy baked goods and plenty of fun!
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
A semi-sweet second-chance rom com!
She broke his heart ten years ago.
Now he’s back — and her new boss.
And she might still be semi in love with him.
But that’s no problem, right? They can keep it professional.
Until her grandmother gets involved.
She’s thrilled to think that Whitney and Cam are still in love. And invites him to move in with her…and Whitney.
Of course, Whitney can handle that too. Yeah, everything is fine. Just fine.
Until Cam makes it clear that he’s all in.
Having him back is very sweet, but can she really have it all? Or will it all crumble around her?
SEMI-SWEET ON YOU (Hot Cakes Book #4) by Erin Nicholas is the latest contemporary romance in the Hot Cakes series. I have been anxiously waiting for Whitney and Cam’s second chance love story and it did not disappoint. Laughter, fun, family, friendship, love, smokin’ hot attraction and yummy baked goods are all used to solve even the toughest problems.
For three generations the feud between the Lancaster and McCaffery families has carried on in the small town of Appleby, but like Romeo and Juliet, Cam and Whitney fell in love in high school and hid it from their families. When it came time for Cam McCaffery to go to away for college, he wanted to stay and marry Whitney, but she knew he had so much more to accomplish, so she broke up with him and sent him on his way.
Now Cam and his best friends are back and have purchased Hot Cakes, the largest employer in town from the Lancaster family to save the town. Cam is now Whitney’s boss, but he realizes that Whitney is not the same girl he left behind.
Whitney has never had the chance to prove herself in her family’s company. Her father and brothers did not believe she had a place in decision making. Now with the new ownership she is determined to prove her worth and become a partner, but she is also dealing with her grandmother, Didi’s Alzheimer’s. Cam slides right into Whitney and Didi’s life with the promise that he will help and support Whitney as a friend only.
Cam is trying to be a friend to Whitney, but even Whitney is not sure this can work because every time they are together the sexual attraction is hot enough to burn anything Cam has baking in the oven.
PERFECT! Cam and Whitney are a great H/h couple. The sexual attraction is smokin’ hot between these two, but Ms. Nicholas has written a romance that shows them with feelings and emotions that have changed according to their new circumstances in life and are more mature than when they were together ten years ago. This relationship is everything I was hoping for and more.
The secondary characters all play a very important role in this story, also. The friendship of all the guys of Fluke, Inc. and that includes the talented Piper, too make this series very entertaining. In this book we get to get to know Didi, Whitney’s grandmother and her side of the feud story even as her mental cognition declines. (Have some tissues ready for these parts of the story.) Whitney’s emotional reactions and emotions for her grandmother I feel were realistically written and handled.
This book is the fourth book in the series, but it can be easily read as a standalone. I believe that after reading this book you will go back and read all the previous stories.
I highly recommend this second chance contemporary romance!
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Excerpt
He leaned in, close enough that she could feel his breath on her lips when he said, “Let me kiss you.”
Oh damn. She wanted that. She wanted it so much. She was weak.
“I—” she started.
“The tea is getting cold!” Didi bellowed from the kitchen.
Whitney and Cam stilled. Then she felt him sigh. But he didn’t pull back. “You going to let me do this or not?”
He was already practically kissing her. When his lips moved as he spoke, they brushed hers ever so lightly. His body heat surrounded her. She swore she could feel his heartbeat pounding. Or maybe that was hers.
They both clearly wanted this. She certainly wasn’t pushing him away or stepping back. But the only actual connection was his hand on her face. And their mingling breaths.
Clearly he was going to insist that she make this decision. He wasn’t going to just sweep her up and kiss the hell out of her before she could protest and then let the chemistry take over.
“Whit,” he said, his voice low and rough. “Push me back or pull me closer.”
She slid her hands up to his chest, not sure until the last moment if she was going to fist his shirt and pull him in or push him away.
Cam, however, didn’t look surprised when she pushed.
He let go and stepped back though. He didn’t seem angry or even frustrated. It seemed that he’d been expecting her reaction actually.
“Okay,” he finally said.
She wet her lips. “Thanks,” she said, hoarsely. And she meant it. She appreciated that he was giving her these choices. Kind of.
It would be a lot easier to just climb him like a tree and give in to everything zipping between them if he’d just back her up against the wall, seal his mouth over hers, and start running his big hands over her body. Then she could pretend she was just caught up in the moment and enjoy the hell out of it without actually admitting she wanted any of that.
Which he knew.
She could see it.
He knew that she wanted him, but that she didn’t want to admit it.
So, of course, he was going to make her confess before he did anything more.
“In case you’ve forgotten, I’m very stubborn,” he said.
Whitney gave him a nod. “I remember.”
“And something you should know about me and the past ten years,” he said, holding her gaze steadily, “I’ve also gotten very used to winning. “
That actually made her heart trip and her inner muscles clench.
See, she should really feel trepidation at that implied promise from him. But she didn’t.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said, trying desperately not to act excited about the idea of him trying again and again to get close to her.
He looked at her for a long moment and a thought flickered through her mind—he knows.
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About Erin Nicholas
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Erin Nicholas has been writing romances almost as long as she’s been reading them. To date, she’s written over thirty sexy, contemporary novels that have been described as “toe-curling,” “enchanting,” “steamy,” and “fun.” She adores reluctant heroes, imperfect heroines, and happily ever afters.
Erin lives in the Midwest, where she enjoys spending time with her husband (who only wants to read the sex scenes in her books), her kids (who will never read the sex scenes in her books), and her family and friends (who claim to be “shocked” by the sex scenes in her books).
Today I am excited to share My Feature Post and Book Review on the Blog Tour for THE WRECKAGE OF US by Brittainy Cherry.
Below you will find an interview with the author, a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section, the author’s social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!
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Interview with the Author
The Wreckage of Us takes place in the inauspicious town of Eres, Nebraska. Not exactly a place where happily-ever-afters are made. What made you choose this setting?
I wanted to tell a story about a small town that was overlooked by the world as a whole. Most people would overlook a town like Eres, Nebraska, but there are still people who are living, who are loving, and who are struggling in these small towns. I wanted to show their stories, and how even though the rest of the world may not see them, that they still matter. They deserve their happily ever afters just as much as the rest of the world.
Hazel, your heroine, is newly eighteen when her criminal step-father throws her out of the house. She literally has nothing when the story begins—not even her mother’s support. What choices does Hazel make? Do you agree with them?
Hazel chooses to find a job in order to help her mother from a distance. I think she acts on impulse, not exactly thinking things through. She doesn’t get the opportunity to think far into the future, she only has right in that moment. Second by second. I do agree with her choices in a way, since she isn’t harming anyone with these choices. She is just doing her best to make it to the next day.
Forget about healing, Hazel is in survival mode. What keeps her going?
Her twisted love and care for her mother is keeping her going—along with her unborn sister. She knew what it was like to grow up in her household, and she wouldn’t want her little sister to go through those same kind of struggles. So, that pushes Hazel to keep moving forward and fighting for her family.
Your hero is a very interesting mix of both the town’s “golden boy” as well as the town’s “bad boy”. Ian is…complicated. How did you get to know him? How does Hazel get to know him?
I believe Hazel and I both got to know Ian the same way—piece by piece. He has a wall of protection up from the world due to the trauma he experienced as a child. Being abandoned by his parents really did a number on Ian’s trust. Yet, the beautiful thing about Ian is when he loves, he loves fully. He does everything he can to make sure those he loves are taken care of. Once his pieces are discovered, he makes a beautiful complete puzzle.
Music is Ian’s whole life. He sees it as his escape, a way out of the stifling Eres, Nebraska. However, he struggles with his emotions and allowing himself to really feel the music he is making. What needs to change for him?
He needs to tap into his darkest struggles. He has to go to the edge of his anger, his hurts, and express those feelings on the page in front of him. Ian holds so much in that it becomes a creative block in a way. Once he starts breaking those walls down—with the help of Hazel—he discovers his real creativity. He finds his voice, he finds his songs. He finds himself.
Hazel and Ian are an unlikely pair. They really get on each other’s nerves and they want different things out of life. Yet despite their differences, they find a connection. What is the spark that brings them together?
I think it’s loneliness. They grew up without having the true love of their parents. And in the town of Eres, drugs are a big issue. Those drugs affected both of their parents lives in different ways, but it’s a connecting factor for them both. They are able to connect with one another because they both know what it’s like to hurt so deeply and dream of a parent’s love.
The theme of “impossible love” runs through your novels. Two people that can’t possibly make it work realize that they don’t want anyone else but each other. What excites you about these types of stories.
I think there’s something so exciting about a love worth fighting for. When the passion is given from not only one side of the equation, but both the hero and heroine know the feelings they have run deep. Sure, there are struggles, like there are in everyday life, but they know they wouldn’t want to struggle with anyone else in the world. They fight for their happily ever after, no matter what. And that, in my mind, is what makes the impossible love become possible and true. That’s what gives us the happily ever afters that we as readers crave.
Currently our country and the world are going through unprecedented crisis. The arts have become so important for people to feel a sense of normalcy. As a writer, how do you hope your story affects your readers?
I hope my stories give my readers hope. I hope it reminds them that even throughout the storms, the sun will always shine once the clouds move to the side. There’s beauty in the storms, too, if you are willing to look hard enough. There are lessons of self that can be learned, and I think my characters discover that from time to time. I just hope to showcase that this is still a time to believe in happily ever afters, and that the world’s story as a whole, is far from over. We still have so much beauty to still discover. We still have so much light to find. And those facts alone, give me hope, and I hope my stories do the same for readers. I hope I give them light.
How has our current situation affected projects you are working on now? (Any spoilers you can tell us about what is up next for you?)
I’m finding myself more forgiving of my writing pace! I fell off for a while, and found it hard to be creative, but now that I am in a groove, I am finding writing fun again. It’s my great escape from the issues around me. Words save me day in and day out, and I’m thankful for that. Up next for me is my second book in my Compass series, which is entitled Eastern Lights. It’s my first ever romantic comedy, that is filled with so much heart. I think readers are going to love getting to know Connor and Aaliyah’s story!
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BookSummary
I know I should stay away from Ian Parker.
But when my drug-dealing stepdad kicks me out, I have nowhere to go. Squatting in an abandoned shed on Ian’s grandpa’s farm seems like as good a plan as any.
Ian finds me there, of course, and he insists on me moving into his spare room. I should say no, but the appeal of a roof and a warm bed is too much. Not to mention Ian’s brown eyes and strong arms.
We’re nothing alike, but the spark between us is undeniable. My life is finally looking up.
Until I call the cops on my stepdad and unintentionally get my pregnant mom arrested.
Now I have to sacrifice my dreams to take care of my mom’s baby. She’s the only family I have left. Meanwhile, Ian’s band is taking off; his dreams are coming true.
Ian is my one chance at love. I just hope he doesn’t become the one chance that got away.
THE WRECKAGE OF US by Brittainy Cherry is a contemporary romance which has the H/h in the New Adult age range, but they have been through so much even before they meet that it feels as if they are older as you fall into their well written story by this new to me author.
Hazel Stone lives with an abusive drug dealer step-father and an addicted mother until her eighteenth year when they kick her out. It is a good thing she was hired recently on Big Paw’s ranch. She ends up squatting in an old abandoned shed until she is found out by Big Paw’s grandson, Ian and is offered a room in the manager’s ranch house.
Ian Parker dislikes the strange girl all in black that his grandfather hired and told him her had to train. Ian’s drug addicted parents left him on his fourteenth birthday and never returned. Big Paw and his wife Holly raised Ian and he wants nothing to do with the girl whose father sells the drugs in their small Nebraska town.
Ian and his three friends not only work on the ranch, but have a band called The Wreckage. They are on the verge of realizing their dream of fame. They just need that special level of emotion to take their songs to the next level. Hazel brings out that emotion and helps with the words.
Ian and Hazel find that special kind of connection, but Ian and the band are taking off and Hazel has responsibilities in the small town of Eres that keep her there. Can this new found relationship and love survive?
This book was a complete surprise to me. There are heavy subjects like physical abuse and drug abuse that I feel the author handled realistically, but the overall story is filled with the dream of forever love, family and hope. Ian closed himself off after his parents abandoned him, but he did have the love and support of his grandparents and bandmates. Hazel had a harder young life and yet she was willing to work as hard as necessary to obtain her goals step by step and was always hopeful. I loved the back and forth between small town life and the California rock star life with Hazel not wanting to stop Ian from reaching for his dreams for any reason and Ian counting on Hazel and the ranch to keep him grounded. All the secondary characters, good and bad were fully fleshed and realistic. The sex scenes were not gratuitous, but appropriate for the story.
I can highly recommend this N/A contemporary romance!
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Excerpt
A typical Eres Saturday night.
I wandered the ranch with a notebook and pen in my hand. I kept scribbling down lyrics and crossing them out before trying again to create something better, stronger—realer. I kept drumming my fingers against each other, trying to unlock the pieces that I was missing. As I paced back and forth, a voice broke me away from my mind.
“It’s the words.”
I looked up to see Hazel sitting in the rocking chair that Big Paw built for my mother years ago. I used to sit in Mom’s lap as she’d read me stories before bedtime all those years back.
There’d been times I thought about getting rid of the chair in order to forget that memory, but I hadn’t found the strength to let go just yet.
“What do you mean it’s the words?” I asked, walking up the steps of the porch. I leaned against the railing facing her.
She blinked and tilted her head in my direction. “Your words are trash.”
“What?”
“The lyrics to your songs, they are complete garbage, filled with clichés and bubblegum. Don’t get me wrong, the music style and tempos are brilliant. And even though it pains me to admit, your voice is so solid and soulful that you could be a star in a heartbeat. But your lyrics? They are pig shit.”
“I think the saying is horseshit.”
“After spending weeks in a pig pen, pig shit seems to truly sum up my feelings about your music. But my gosh, your voice. It’s a good voice.”
I tried to push off her insult, and tried to ignore her compliment, too. But it was hard. I had an ego that was easy to bruise, and Hazel was swinging her punches while also speaking words of praise. It was as if every bruise she made, she quickly covered with a Bandaid.
“Everyone else seemed to enjoy it,” I replied, tense with my words.
“Yeah, well, everyone else are morons who are drunk off their minds.”
“Oh? And you think you could do better?”
She laughed. “Without a doubt.” “Okay, Hazel Stone, master of lyrics, give me something to go with.”
She gestured toward the other rocker beside her—the one Dad used to sit in.
I sat down.
She pressed her lips together. “Okay. Give me one of your songs. One that you know is crap but are pretending isn’t crap.”
“They aren’t—”
“Lying isn’t going to get us far tonight, Ian.”
I narrowed my eyes and murmured a curse word before I began flipping through my notebook to find a song for Hazel to magically make better. “Fine. We can do Possibilities.”
“Hmm… What is it about?”
“A new relationship forming. I want to showcase those beginning feelings, you know? The fears and excitements. The nerves. The unknown. The—”
“First chapters of love,” she finished my thoughts.
“Yes, that.”
She took the pencil from behind my ear and took the notebook from my grip. “May I?”
“Please. Go for it.”
She began scribbling, crossing things out, adding things in, doing whatever came to her mind. She worked like a manwoman, falling into a world of creativity that I didn’t think she’d held inside of her. The only thing I knew about Hazel Stone was where she came from, and the clothes she wore. I hadn’t known anything else, but now she was pouring herself out on the page, and I couldn’t wait to see what the hell she was scribbling.
She took a breath and handed the notebook back to me. “If you hate it, no harm, no foul,” she said.
My eyes darted over the words. “It’s possible this is forever ours. It’s possible we’ll reach the stars. We’ll fight for this, we’ll make it real. Is it possible, possible, to show you how I feel?”
“Shit.” I blew out a breath of air. “Hazel…that’s… It’s like you crawled into my head and read the thoughts I couldn’t decipher. That’s the chorus. That’s it.”
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About the Author
Brittainy Cherry has been in love with words since she took her first breath. She graduated from Carroll University with a bachelor’s degree in theater arts and a minor in creative writing. She loves to take part in writing screenplays, acting, and dancing—poorly, of course. Coffee, chai tea, and wine are three things that she thinks every person should partake in. Cherry lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her family. When she’s not running a million errands and crafting stories, she’s probably playing with her adorable pets.
