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Category: Romance

Review: Dreaming of Mr. Darcy by Victoria Connelly

[ 5 ] January 30, 2012
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Reviewed by Meg Massey

Kay is unlucky in love and bored at her job, until she inherits a property from a friend. Inspired by her favorite Austen novels, Kay buys a bed and breakfast in seaside Lyme Regis. Much to her surprise, her bed and breakfast is booked up by actors filming an adaptation of Persuasion in the area. Among them is handsome movie star Oli Wade Owen, and Kay finds herself falling for him almost instantly.

Unbeknownst to Kay, the movie’s screenwriter, Adam, with whom she’s formed a fast friendship, has fallen for her. But when she gets the bright idea of playing matchmaker for Adam and actress Gemma, she’s setting herself up for a romantic disaster right out of the pages of Emma. And when Oli doesn’t turn out to be the hero she’s imagined, her whole world is turned upside down.

A delightful ode to all things Austen, Dreaming of Mr. Darcy is the second book in Victoria Connelly’s Austen Addicts’ trilogy. Anyone who loves Austen’s novels will enjoy this read as it contains numerous references to her life and works. Much like Emma herself, Kay fails to see the true love right in front of her throughout most of the novel. When she does realize that Adam is in love with her, will it be too late?

If you pick up this novel, you’ll fall in love with Connelly’s characters, and her delicious prose. It’s a fantastic escape from the everyday, and a step into the romantic seaside of Lyme.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Meg lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Ryan. Library professional by day, freelance writer by night, Meg writes about life, entertainment and everything in between on her blog.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Sourcebooks Landmark. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Plain Fear by Leanna Ellis

[ 3 ] January 19, 2012
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Reviewed by Jodi Horsley

Plain Fear: Forsaken by Leanna Ellis is an interesting piece of fiction. It combines Amish community and vampires in a captivating, unique story. The lead character, Hannah, is unable to move on with her grief after her love Jacob dies in an unfortunate farm accident. At least that is what everyone is told. Jacob is buried quickly and the family moves to Ohio. Everyone that is, except Jacob’s brother, Levi.

Levi is unable to move forward either, but his reasons are entirely different than Hannah’s. Although Levi is aware of how much Hannah loved his brother, he cannot help but fall in love with her. He also knows how his brother actually died and is prepared to take the secret to his grave.

Two years after Jacob’s “death” a rash of strange, gruesome murders and a missing Amish teen bring Detective Roc Girouard to the Amish community of Promise, Pennsylvania to investigate. These strange murders are a reminder to him of how he lost his Emily.

A stranger comes to the Promise, Pennsylvania and he brings along a secret as well. This secret will force Hannah to make a choice between the dark and the light. Levi will also be forced to confront that which he has been trying to hide while remaining true to his family.

Plain Fear is not a book I would normally read. This is the first book I’ve read where the lead characters were Amish, but, being a vampire fan, reading the description peaked my interest. The book moves a bit slowly at first; I feel like it could have been about 100 pages shorter. Also, I feel that the character of Roc Girouard could have been more developed. Still, I enjoyed it.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Jodi lives in the western suburbs of Illinois with her husband, her elementary school daughter, and preschool boy/girl twins. She is an avid reader and loves losing herself in a good book. She has a Master’s in Information Technology and has been a WAHM mom for 4 years now.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Sourcebooks Landmark. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Blog Tour: The Keeper by Suzanne Woods Fisher

[ 6 ] January 10, 2012
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Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Please welcome Suzanne Woods Fisher, author of The Keeper, who is touring the blogosphere with LitFuse Publicity!

Reviewed by Vera Pereskokova (Luxury Reading)

Following the success of her Lancaster County Secrets books, Suzanne Wood Fisher is back with more Amish themed fiction in her new Stony Ridge Seasons series.

After the death of her mother, Julia Lapp had to grow up fast in order to help her father with her younger siblings. Since her father’s heart problems took a turn for the worse, she also took over responsibilities around the farm. Despite the hardships, Julia loves her life in the Stony Ridge Amish community, and hopes to start her own family with Paul Fisher, whom she’s dreamt of marrying since she was a little girl.

When Paul delays their wedding – for the second time – Julia knows just whom to blame: Roman Troyer, the Bee Man. Roman is an oddity in the Amish community: he is a wanderer who travels year round renting out his bees, with no attachments or a place to call home. In Julia’s mind, he’s also a shameless flirt who corrupts other young men into cancelling their engagements.

Julia is determined to make things right with Paul, but things may work out a bit differently than she’s always envisioned…

I’ve read some Amish fiction before, and to me, The Keeper was different in that the Amish way of life was not really in the forefront. There were some mentions of the differences – driving buggies, no phones in homes, etc., – but overall the Lapps could have been any regular family living in any rural town. In some ways, I found this approach appealing since it allowed me to concentrate on the family dynamics instead of fixating on the lack of modern conveniences.

The Keeper is a heart warming story and the love between the characters in the book is readily apparent on every page. Fisher’s new book will appeal greatly to fans of Amish fiction, and cozy fiction in general.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Make sure to enter to win a copy of The Keeper here

The review copy of this book was provided free of any obligation by Revell. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

[ 2 ] December 15, 2011
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Reviewed by Christen Krumm

The Lady of the Rivers is the story of Jacquetta who is a descendant of Melusina, the river goddess. As a young girl, Jacquetta meets Joan of Arc and discovers her power of second sight. After sharing a tarot card reading secret, Joan and Jacquetta seem to become close friends. When Joan is put to death and Jacquetta is forced to witness, she discovers just how dangerous being a powerful woman can be.

At age seventeen the notoriously beautiful Jacquetta catches the eye of the much older Duke of Bedford, King Henry VI’s uncle, and is soon married off and whisked away to France. Following the death of the Duke, Jacquetta shocks her royal nephew by secretly marrying the Duke’s squire, Richard Woodville, and returning to England.

When King Henry VI marries Margaret of Anjou, Jacquetta is summoned to the courts to serve the new queen. The marriage is a rocky one and causes much conflict between the Lancaster and York families. As a result, Jacquetta finds herself fighting for her daughter’s life; she believes her daughter has a promising life ahead of her, one that includes power of the throne.

The Lady of the Rivers, the third installment of Philippa Gregory’s The Cousins’ War series, tells the real-life story of Elizabeth’s mother, the white queen. While a beautifully written story, it held no magic for me. The witchcraft and magical powers did me in early on and I could not enjoy the novel from there. That being said, this could be a fascinating novel for dedicated fans of historical fiction as it is filled to the brim with facts surrounding the reign of the House of Lancaster and the Wars of the Roses.

Rating: 2.5/5

Christen graduated from the University of Arkansas Fort Smith with a BA in English. She’s a coffee drinking stay at home mom by day and a freelance writer/editor by night. She currently resides in Arkansas with her husband and daughter and welcomed a son in August.

The review copy of this book was provided free of any obligation by Touchstone. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Beautiful Disaster by Laura Spinella

[ 4 ] December 8, 2011
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Reviewed by Vera Pereskokova (Luxury Reading)

Mia Wells, a holistic interior designer, may be finally getting a break in her career. But, while at a business dinner, Mia receives a call that shakes up her entire existence and threatens the content facade she’s built up over the years.

There’s been a motorcycle accident and the victim’s doctor – Mia’s best friend Roxanne – struggles to save the man’s life. Mia rushes to the ICU, desperate to get a final glimpse, to say goodbye before it’s too late. However, the man she’s rushing to is not her husband of two years. The man lying in the hospital bed is the one who abruptly disappeared from Mia’s life twelve years before, leaving her devastated.

A senior in college, Mia fell fast and hard for Flynn, an ex-special ops Marine blowing through town. Despite Roxanne’s warnings, Mia felt that she knew the Flynn no one else did. She believed him when he promised not to leave without a warning…until he did.

With Flynn’s reappearance – albeit under unfortunate circumstances – Mia may finally get the answers she’s been waiting for, and have the chance to reunite with a love she’s never forgotten.

Beautiful Disaster by Laura Spinella was – just like Mia and Flynn’s love – sweet, and sexy, and at times painful. I’ve seen others fall madly in love with people who were strangers just the day before, so to me, Mia and Flynn’s instant connection felt real and genuine. That said, however,I did want to see more of a back story about Flynn instead of only learning of his past through his conversations with Mia.

While Mia and Flynn’s characters were easy to admire, Roxanne was just as easy to despise. She did want to protect Mia and her intentions may have been good, but she only came across as rigid, conniving, and paranoid. Given, her behavior was a direct result of her older sister Rory’s disastrous fate at the hands of a drug-peddling boyfriend, but it didn’t make it any more acceptable. If anything, Roxanne’s antics made me more curious about Rory and I wanted more than just a few lines scattered about her here and there.

I truly enjoyed Beautiful Disaster - minor flaws and all – and found it to be reminiscent of Nicholas Sparks’ writing. Many of us have experienced that all consuming love or infatuation, or know someone who did, and will appreciate a walk down memory lane with this novel. I look forward to seeing more from Spinella!

Rating: 4/5

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Laura Spinella. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Trespass by Rose Tremain

[ 3 ] December 7, 2011
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Reviewed by Sara Padilla

Trespass, by Rose Tremain, takes place in the quiet rural beauty of southern France as well as in a antique shop located in the dreary chill of London. Anthony, a middle-aged antiques dealer, longs for the past that included a multitude of younger lovers, better health and a promising financial situation. Since he can’t have the fortune he so richly believes he deserves, he sets out to purchase a property in the countryside of France where he plans to spend the rest of his days.

In France, Anthony encounters Aramon, the mean spirited owner of a unique and beautiful property and older brother to Audrun, a woman whose own life was stolen from her years ago through a vicious cycle of abuse. The painful and mysterious relationship between the siblings, Audrun and Aramon, is revealed slowly, allowing the reader to gain insight into the reasons for which they are linked and yet also estranged, sharing land and a lifetime of raw memories.

Still another character introduces the story of Aramon, Audrun and Anthony to the reader. A young girl, recently relocated to the countryside from the elegance and modernity of Paris, is unhappy. The purpose for her role in Trespass is not revealed until the end, when the story culminates in a good vs. evil type of ending.

The story moved rather slowly for me, though the language was dramatic and dark. The tone of the novel was disturbing for many reasons, and I did not at times know which character to root for as they were all troubled and not particularly humanizing. But in the end, my sympathies landed with Audrun as she took real steps to make her life better.

Tremain makes sure to let the reader know that the argument over land and the distinction between city versus rural life is not necessarily at the heart of this story, but that only by exploring real and painful relationships between family members can we move forward and away from the past.

Rating: 4/5

Ms. Sara Padilla is a freelance writer and maintains a personal blog on family, health and wellness. She resides in the Pacific Northwest.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by W. W. Norton & Company. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: Delayed Flight by John J. Smith

[ 96 ] November 30, 2011
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Please welcome John J. Smith, author of Delayed Flight, who is touring the blogosphere with Premier Virtual Author Book Tours!

Reviewed by Melanie Kline

Veronica and Jared are teenagers in love. She is from a well-off family with privileges and he is from an abusive alcoholic family. Her father does not approve and forces Jared to go his own way.

Fast forward almost twenty years. Veronica is on her way to Texas to spend Christmas with her daughter. Jared is heading back to Texas from a business meeting. A chance encounter puts them both in Washington-Dulles airport during an ice storm that closes the airport and they speak for the first time since he left her as a teenager.

The story just gets better from that point. I never wanted to put the book down because there were so many things happening and it felt as though I was going to miss something if I stopped reading for even just a moment.

Intriguing, shocking and delightful are just a few ways to describe Delayed Flight. There are so many twists and turns that I felt like I was in a labyrinth. I absolutely loved the characters and situations they found themselves in and was practically cheering when everyone got along.

On another note, I read a finished copy of Delayed Flight and it desired much proofreading. The constant referrals to the “dinning room” and sentences that really made no sense – “It is then Veronica realizes at that their present has brought them together shrouded in the events…..” – drove me crazy! The entire book was full of them and had the story not been so engulfing, it would have become a huge problem. I enjoyed Delayed Flight completely and would love to volunteer to assist proofreading John J. Smith’s next novel just to get my hands on it!

Rating: 4.5/5

Giveaway:
I have 1 copy of Delayed Flight to give away! A U.S. or Canada winner will have a choice of a paper or an eBook. An international winner will receive an eBook.

Mandatory entry: Please comment here and include your e-mail address.

Extra entries (please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 posts for subscribing):
- Subscribe via e-mail, follow or subscribe to the feed. You must verify the subscriptions. (1 entry each)
- Enter another current giveaway and tell me which one you entered (1 entry each)
- Share this giveaway on a social network of your choice. Click the “Share/Save” button at the bottom of this post (1 entry each)

This giveaway is open worldwide. Deadline to enter is midnight on December 14, 2011.

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by Premier Virtual Author Book Tours. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Genie Knows Best by Judi Fennell

[ 3 ] November 25, 2011
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Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Reviewed by Jennifer Jensen

Judi Fennell’s books first caught my attention on Goodreads through their giveaway program called First Reads; I was positive I would enjoy her books because she has written about mermaids and genies, two mythical creatures I adore.

Genie Knows Best is the second in her series called Bottled Magic, but it’s not necessary to read I Dream of Genies first because they do not contain the same characters or a chronological sequence of events. In Genie Knows Best, Samantha Blaine becomes the owner of her late father’s genie lantern. During his life, he kept the genie’s lantern a secret from his only daughter. Kal, the genie, is looking forward to his retirement from the Service. Samantha will be his last master, and it is his desire to make her wish him free. But Kal never expected that he would fall in love with her; if he ever utters those words to Samantha, then he will become mortal and cannot become the vizier in his world.

Samantha is not the only one who knows about Cal, however. Her boyfriend, Albert, has long been waiting for the day he would marry into Samantha’s family and gain access to her vast fortune. One day he witnessed Samantha’s father conjuring up the genie. If Albert were to become the genie’s new master, he would no longer need Samantha or her wealth. Albert now has a new plan, but when Samantha discovers his true feelings about her, he will have to find another way to steal her genie.

Genie Knows Best is a romance novel, but I was more interested in the fantasy aspects of it. I actually found myself skipping over the pages and pages of sex scenes just to get back to the plot line. The characters in Genie Knows Best were hard for me to get attached to, though, and the pacing was really off. Rather than showing us how things are between Albert and Samantha, Fennell spells it out matter-of-factly, and then immediately thrusts Samantha and Kal in the magical land of Izaaz where almost the entirety of the novel occurs.

Judi Fennell has a wonderful imagination, but her writing style, characters, and pacing left a lot to be desired. This will be the last of her books that I will read.

Rating: 1.5/5

Jennifer graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in English. She occasionally dabbles with her own fiction writing, particularly with the Young Adult and Paranormal genres. She currently resides in Utah with her husband and daughter.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Sourcebooks Casablanca. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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