WILDFIRE AND ROSES by Hope Malory is a sweet contemporary romance. This romance is about a hero and heroine who you know are perfect for each other, but they are established in their careers on opposite sides of the country.
Beasley McLemore is driven to make her landscaping business in the foothills of the Tennessee Smoky Mountains the best. She wants her family and the community to be proud of her. She has always fantasized about her best-friend’s brother because she believes she is too busy to deal with a real relationship. On a rare break from her business, she is in Yosemite to climb El Cap and volunteers when needed for a search and rescue mission.
Will Gregor is a hot-shot smoke jumper and firefighter from California in Yosemite to climb. He volunteers for the search and rescue, too. He is ready and eager to help the park ranger, but is not impressed by Beasley. When Beasley easily assists Will after he falls, his irritation turns into intrigue. Will has just broken up with his long-term girlfriend and even though Beasley is everything he wants in a girlfriend, he is not ready to commit.
Beasley and Will cannot forget each other, but neither is willing to give up their current life situations and locations. Is it best just to forget and move on or can they find a way to be together?
Besides the sweet romance that does not have any sex until the last chapters, the author has included a mystery in Beasley’s family to be solved. The descriptions of the locations on both sides of the country is inspiring. The family and friends in this story are as interesting and entertaining as the H/h. This is an easy to read book, but at times I felt it should have had an increase in pace in the romance and less secondary characters. There were also a few times I was exasperated by how hard-headed Beasley was during some scenes which I felt slowed the pace, too. Overall though, it was an enjoyable romance read with interesting main characters and family dynamics.
Written for and posted first on The Romance Reviews.
Today is my turn on the book blitz for THE DOLL COLLECTOR by Joanna Stephen-Ward. Below you will find a book blurb, my book review and the author’s info.
This book was not exactly what I was expecting. It starts out with you following a truly despicable and twisted serial killer, but then it twists into something else. At times darkly funny, sometimes sinister and at times I had to put it down. I believe this will be one of those books everyone will have differing opinions about when they are done.
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Book Blurb:
Murders that look like accidents. An accident that looks like murder.Book
A couple and their young son burn to death in a house fire.
A girl dies from a nut allergy.
A woman falls under a train during the rush hour.
An accountant falls down the steps to his basement.
Their deaths appear to be accidents but Gloria knows they were murdered because she murdered them. And every time Gloria kills she buys a doll.
But how many dolls will she need to keep her satisfied?
When Gloria takes a room as a lodger her behaviour starts to spin out of control. Gloria wants love and happiness and friendship and she will do anything she can to get what she wants…
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My Book Review:
RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
THE DOLL COLLECTOR by Joanna Stephen-Ward is a psychological thriller that is twisted and not exactly what I was expecting. You start by following a despicable and vile serial killer, but then the story twists.
Gloria is a jealous, amoral, and sadistic serial killer. If she believes you have more than her, criticize her or just don’t agree with her, you could end up dead and a doll purchased in your honor to add to her collection. She has been evil since she was a child.
Maurice takes Gloria in as a boarder to help with his rent. Maurice does not realize who he has let into his home and Gloria’s delusions have her believing she has finally found a man to love her. But Maurice has secrets of his own and he finds himself becoming more desperate as each situation escalates.
This book started out as I was expecting from reading the blurb, but it quickly turned into more of a psychological thriller with an intertwined second plot-line with more despicable characters that are the cause of Maurice’s secrets and problems. Maurice was pathetic and not in any way heroic. Gloria was emotionally twisted and evil. There are times when I had to put the book down because Gloria and some of her actions disturbed me that much and yet there were also few times when the writing was darkly humorous.
I had a difficult time rating this book. Gloria is a killer to remember and her demise has a twisted justice to it, but then Maurice’s story goes on for a second plot-line resolution. Another ending is added where the second plot-line characters come out ahead or are served justice, but the two endings feel disjointed. I also had a problem with the doll collection. It was a great idea, but I felt it was not utilized enough times by Gloria during the book.
This is a book that I liked, but it had flaws for me. I do believe there will be a lot of discussion/opinions revolving around this book and characters.
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About Joanna Stephen-Ward:
Joanna Stephen-Ward was born in the Australian outback, and grew up in Melbourne. Her school days were spent dreaming about being an opera singer or a writer. To the exasperation of her parents and teachers she spent her final year sitting at the back of the classroom writing a novel set in WW2.
When she left school she went to an opera school where she was taught drama, movement and language pronunciation and had small roles in the workshop productions. She was not good enough to become a professional opera singer, but the seeds of her novel Vissi d’arte were sown.
She left Australia and spent a year travelling around Europe and the UK. While working in outpatients for the NHS she met Peter and they married in 1985. They lived in Richmond Surrey and she worked at The National Archives, an enthralling place for anyone interested in history or crime.
Having been brought up as a lonely only child, she was astonished to discover in 2010 that she was one of eight children. She and her sister had last been together on a verandah in the outback when they were babies. They had a joyous reunion in Cornwall in 2012.
Joanna has written seven novels and is working on her eighth.
SHELTER IN PLACE by Nora Roberts had my emotions all over the place, but isn’t that what a good book does? Part psychological thriller, part romantic suspense and part coming of age for a group who survive one of the horrors of present day life, a mass shooter event.
This book starts with a mass shooting perpetrated by three teenage males at a suburban mall.
Simone Knox and her two best friends are in the movie theater. When Simone starts to leave the restroom, she hears screams and gunshots. She returns to a restroom stall and is the first to call 911 as she shelters in place.
Reed Quartermaine waits tables in an Italian restaurant in the DownEast Mall. On his way back from his break, he is confronted by people running the opposite way and pops of gun fire. He picks up a bloodied little boy who appears to be alone and runs for cover.
Essie McVee is a police officer with her partner, dealing with a minor traffic accident in the mall parking lot when they receive the call of active shooters. She is the first on the scene at the movie theater and is able to take down one of the shooters.
From this point on, the story follows the intertwining lives of these three main survivors and how all of the survivors dealt with the trauma of that day and death of their family or friends throughout their lives. What becomes apparent though as time goes on is there is one person who is not finished with that day and is seeking revenge against all of those who survived.
I loved all of these characters! Reed and Simone had such differing ways of coping with their lives after the shooting. Reed is such a strong hero who refuses to let evil win. Essie is the mentor Reed needs at just the right time. Simone runs from the memories at first, but through her art she begins to heal and then begins to memorialize the loved ones lost on that day in the mall. Even all of the secondary characters bring such life to this book. I absolutely loved CiCi, who was the best grandmother character ever.
This book is written covering many years. Ms. Roberts has the characters growing stronger and coming together to fight the evil that has tracked them for execution. I found this book difficult to put down. I love Nora Roberts’ books and characters.
INDIANAPOLIS: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year-Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man by Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic is one of the most engrossing and riveting nonfiction books I have read. I enjoy reading nonfiction books set during WWII because I truly do believe they were written about an extraordinary generation. This book not only vividly describes the history of the Indianapolis’ war service, sinking and the five days of terror in the sea waiting for rescue, but continues with the survivors’ fight to clear their Captain’s record.
The Indianapolis was a historic ship that had seen major battles in the Pacific, survived to be repaired after a kamikaze attack, delivered the first atomic bomb to the Air Force to be dropped on Hiroshima and then was sunk by a Japanese submarine just after midnight on July 30, 1945. The night began with 1,195 men going about their duties or off-duty past-times. It is estimated that approximately 300 men went down with the ship with the remainder entering the sea. When the survivors were accidentally spotted from the air and rescued, only 316 men lived. The description of burns, dehydration, delirium, drowning and sharks had me in tears several times.
This was an extremely well documented and researched book. From the survivor’s firsthand accounts, naval documents, and previous historical books on this subject. The two authors interweave two timelines, one beginning in 1945 that takes you back to the ship and one that begins in the 1990’s that centers on the fight for justice for Captain McVay. I could not put this book down and I could vividly mentally picture every paragraph past and present.
I HIGHLY recommend this book!
(After reading this book, I watched the documentary USS Indianapolis: The Legacy on Amazon Prime. It was made by the authors of this book and was told in the first person by the survivor’s. It brought faces to the names I read about in the book. Extremely emotional.)
NIGHT MUSIC: A NOVEL by Deanna Lynn Sletten is a beautifully written genre story that is a cross between a sweet romance and women’s fiction. The time period is 1968 to 1971 and the setting a small college town in Illinois. Ms. Sletten takes you back to the social and cultural turmoil of the Vietnam War. A soldier’s return to build the life he has only dreamed of in the jungles of Vietnam, a charismatic student anti-war leader and a girl finding herself, loved by both.
Charlotte Parsons lost her older brother after only three months in Vietnam. Her family is devastated, but proud of his service. Charlotte wants to know more about this war that took her brother, so she lies about her age and joins a group that writes letters to soldiers overseas. She corresponds with a soldier named Joseph Russo. Char tells Joe all about the small town life she loves and Joe shelters Char from the horrors of the war that took her brother. After only a few months, the letters stop. Char does not know why they stop, but she moves on with her high school life.
Two years later, Char begins college. Char is dating Deke Masterson, her brother’s best friend from high school. Deke is the leader of the anti-war movement on their college campus. He is dedicated to the cause and wants Char to participate. Char hates that she lost her brother, but she does not really have her own opinions on the war. He father fought in WWII and her parents believe their son died doing his duty, while Deke preaches that all the men fighting in Vietnam are baby killers and killing innocent villagers.
Joe has come home wounded. He will have a life-long limp, but he feels blessed to be home alive. He moves to Grand Falls to put the war behind him and go to college in the small town of his letters from Char. He cannot believe his luck to meet her in person. She is as sweet and beautiful as her letters. He befriends Char and her parents. As Deke becomes more radical, and Joe shows Char only respect, kindness and understanding, Char has a choice to make.
I so loved this book and will remember the characters long into the future. I was a preteen in the time period of this book and can understand and identify with all the characters. My family is full of veterans and we were taught to always respect their service, but I was also watching the horrors of the war nightly on the news and heard of the atrocities. Ms. Sletten’s book captures all sides of the conflict with believable characters. I also loved the character development of Charlotte, growing from a sheltered high school girl to a college coed who learns to think for herself and realize all the shades of grey in the world. This is a sweet romance with no sex scenes on the page.
ONE NIGHT WITH THE ARMY DOC by Traci Douglass is a medical contemporary romance which thoroughly entertains and leaves you with that HEA glow. It is easy to read with a hunky hero and a socially awkward, but brilliant heroine. Being set in Alaska also gives the story a unique background flavor.
Dr. Molly Flynn is a brilliant diagnostician with her own medical TV show. Her latest episode is based on a case in Alaska. She is excited to get away from the high expectations of her family and the recent breakup of her relationship by text. While Molly may have a brilliant mind, her social skills are not as well developed. For her show the camera is always following, but the patient’s best friend is the head of the ER and refuses any on-camera time. There is an instant friction between the two doctors, but as they work together that friction starts to lead to understanding and attraction.
Dr. Jacob Ryder is the head of the ER, an ex-army doctor decorated for valor and extremely media shy. He was burned by an ex, who left him for a high profile media job, so he throws himself into his work. Molly is brilliant, but he does not see eye to eye on some of her choices for treatment. As they work together, Jake begins to see the real Molly and begins to like and respect her uniqueness and quirks.
Both know their time together is limited. As their feelings grow, can Molly believe that Jake really sees and likes the real person inside? Can Jake trust another woman who is in the media spotlight and not get burned?
Molly and Jake are an H/h duo that will go straight to your heart. They have survived so much and managed to thrive separately, but you know they would be great together. The romance is wrapped around a medical mystery that is easily understood and very intriguing. The scenery and attractions described by the author in Alaska, add to the story without taking over. The romance grows at a realistic, but time limited pace and the sexual interactions were hot. I found this to be a romance that you will want to read in one sitting, because you will not want to put it down. I loved Molly and Jake and I know you will, too.
Written for and posted first on The Romance Reviews.
