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Love Your Life–another fun Kinsella main character
Love Your Life
by Sophie Kinsella
Ava is the latest in the line of Sophie Kinsella’s over the top lovable main characters. She rescues almost everything—from her mischievous beagle Harold to books no one else would want to buy. She is passionate about her ever-changing interests but never seems to achieve any of her goals. Her conversations with herself and others can best be described as stream of consciousness. The word “tidy” is not in her vocabulary.
Ava’s support group from university choir days is a cadre of unlike souls who nevertheless get along fabulously. Ava goes to Italy at their urging for a writer’s retreat where she meets Matt whose family business is all consuming. He has a sterile apartment, weird taste in art, and two odd roommates. Their dynamic is amusing in a male supportive kind of way.
The rules at the writer’s retreat keep everyone anonymous and focused on their writing—in theory. Ava and Matt quickly focus on each other and reveal their identities to continue their relationship when they return home. Watching Ava and Matt interact is like watching the proverbial train wreck. You know disaster will happen, yet you can’t look away. Although much of the book is pleasantly predictable, there are some stunning surprises along the way. Love Your Life is a fun foray into chick lit: twenty-first century romance featuring online dating and What’s App and wacky but lovable characters. It is a humorous look at the glue that hold friendships together and the ties that bind hearts in love.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Random House (Dial Press) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Notes: Some foul language
Publication: October 27, 2020—Random House (Dial)
Memorable Lines:
Maud’s basic conundrum in life is that she has three children but only two hands.
Nell doesn’t normally do hope. Not since she got ill. She describes her life philosophy as “managed pessimism.”
For a few minutes we’re both silent as rain starts to thunder down on the car roof. Hurt is crackling around the car like a lightning storm.
Autumn Skies–sweet romance with action included
Autumn Skies
by Denise Hunter
Survivor’s guilt is a difficult subject, but it is a theme in Denise Hunter’s Autumn Skies, a touching romance. When Molly finds a buyer for the family business and home, it turns everyone’s world upside down at the Bluebell Inn, but that is nothing compared to the effect of her sister Gracie’s attraction to the mysterious guest, Wyatt. Both have secrets and neither wants to let the other get close.
Gracie and Wyatt are likable characters. Gracie is young, independent, and determined to show her brother and sister that she is an adult. Wyatt, a Secret Service agent, was shot in the line of duty. If he wants to prove he has psychologically recovered from the event, he has to reach back into his past and recover from an even worse childhood trauma. He comes to Bluebell Inn for that sole purpose. I recommend this excellent read. It’s a clean page-turner with some adventure and action. The characters are trying so hard that you will want things to work out for them despite what seems like insurmountable problems.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance, Christian
Notes: This is the final book in the Bluebell Inn Novels, a trilogy. It is perfect as a standalone, but you will find yourself wanting to read the other novels in the series.
Publication: October 20, 2020—Thomas Nelson
Memorable Lines:
Molly loved this about her man. While her first thought was worry, his was prayer. He offered a quiet, fervent prayer that hit all the points she was fretting over.
For a man with a poker face, he was wearing regret this morning like a neon suit.
Whereas Grace was like a balmy summer evening, her sister was like a whirlwind. And her brother a sudden storm front.
A Daughter for the Mountain Firefighter–past collides with future
A Daughter for the Mountain Firefighter
by Melinda Curtis
If you’ve been following the tales of the Silver Bend Hot Shot crew from Idaho, you know what a difficult and dangerous job mountain firefighters have. A Daughter for the Mountain Firefighter is the fourth book in this series written by Melinda Curtis. Itfocuses on Cole, also known as Chainsaw because his responsibility is to cut paths through the forest for fire barriers and roadways.
As this fire season draws to a close, Cole is preparing to attend medical school in the Bahamas. To his surprise, his path crosses with an old friend, Rachel, whose sister Cole dated. Rachel has become a mechanic and pilot employed to fly her tanker in support of the firefighters.
Cole and Rachel have complications and issues that go back to their birth families. Cole carries guilt and sorrow. Rachel suffers from PTSD and feels responsible for the well-being of her dad, her niece, Jenna, who has had to grow up too quickly, and her nephew, Matt, who never really knew his mother.
The discovery of the identity of Jenna’s biological dad causes tremors in family relationships. A nearly fatal airplane crash sends Rachel to the hospital and jeopardizes the family’s financial stability. Meanwhile, romance is brewing as Cole begins to wonder if he ever really loved Rachel’s sister, Missy. Rachel, on the other hand, has only ever loved one man. As they stumble through their current, seemingly insurmountable problems, will Cole and Rachel manage to overcome their pasts to find happiness?
I would like to extend my thanks to Melinda Curtis for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Romance
Notes: #4 in the Mountain Firefighter Series, but works well as a standalone.
Publication: June 26, 2020—Purple Papaya
Memorable Lines:
She understood that the callouses on hearts were’t reliable, that they sometimes softened and let the ache of loss back in.
“Every pilot knows they’re defying the laws of nature by taking to the skies. We weren’t born with wings. But every pilot loves to fly more than they fear the risk of falling.”
Rachel had boarded the denial train.
A Very Merry Match–romance with the kindergarten teacher
A Very Merry Match
by Melinda Curtis
What a book I chose to read on Christmas week! Melinda Curtis’ A Very Merry Match is a romance that involves serious threads. Mary Margaret, widowed last year at Christmas, is trying to survive the memories of the season. As a Kindergarten teacher with a strong sense of honor, she has been very disciplined with her finances to try to repay her husband’s debt accrued through shopping therapy at the end of his life. Just when the mountain of debts have been conquered, two unsavory characters show up on her doorstep wanting an obscene amount of money.
You’ll like Mary Margaret. She’s a dedicated and loving teacher always wanting to do the right thing. Sadly, she carries around the physical and emotional scars of childhood abuse. Kevin, the mayor of the little town of Sunshine, has a son in Mary Margaret’s class. His initial dilemma is a decision regarding a development project that has potential positive and negative impacts on the town and is thus quite controversial. He also develops an interest in his son’s teacher. Along the way we meet Barb, Kevin’s ex-wife, and Edith, Mary Margaret’s supportive and fun-loving grandmother along with the local Widow’s Club whose members are always interested in matching up lonely hearts.
Mary Margaret has, out of financial necessity and a love of dance, a second career as a burlesque dancer, and Kevin is being considered for political office at the state level. Although they are attracted to each other, a serious relationship seems unlikely. Christmas is the backdrop for the fun, romance, and conflict that permeate the plot. This is a clean romance you can enjoy at Christmas…or any time of the year!
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance
Notes: #2 in the Sunshine Valley Series, but I had not read the first book in the series and had no problem jumping right into this book.
Publication: September 29, 2020—Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
Memorable Lines:
Dancing always loosened up the stress, shook it off, made her feel free, moved her beyond her worries and fears. How could this be wrong?
“I’ll tell you a secret I learned growing up.” Her smile was tentative, as if her secret was sad. “Preacher’s kid wisdom. There’s always someone in a worse situation than you are.”
Doubt crept between his shoulders on spiked cleats.
Carolina Breeze–social media disaster
Carolina Breeze
by Denise Hunter
When an innkeeper desperate to fulfill his promise to his father to take care of his sisters is introduced to the world of glamorous movie stars and paparazzi, his own world is turned upside down. Levi Bennett tries to fix everything for everybody, but he takes on more than he can handle when he meets the gorgeous Mia Emerson retreating from heartbreak and a scandal.
Beautiful Bluebell, N.C., is the perfect place for Mia to recover with the sympathetic and discreet Bennett siblings taking up her cause. Romance is in the air for Levi and Mia as well as for Levi’s sister Molly who was the focus of the first book in the series. Just when things start to look up, there are realistic twists and turns that shake things up for the characters. But disasters and surprises can be part of God’s plan, and He can bring good out of them as the characters in Carolina Breeze by Denise Hunter, a clean romance with a bit of mystery, soon discover.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance
Notes: #2 in the Bluebell Inn Series, but works well as a standalone.
Publication: May 19, 2020—Thomas Nelson
Memorable Lines:
Using people is wrong. Using their feelings against them is even worse.
It was time to get serious about her faith again. She was learning to let down her walls with people, but she needed to let God in too. Him, most of all.
The movie had been going on for a while, but her mind was on other things…All of it was tangled up in her head like last year’s Christmas lights.
The Blackwell Sisters
When is a series more than a series? When each book in the series is written by collaborating authors who have already worked together on another successful series. In this case, Melinda Curtis, Amy Vastine, Anna J. Stewart, Carol Ross, and Cari Lynn Webb have teamed up to create The Blackwell Sisters, a series set in Montana and centered around the Harrison sisters who have discovered that the man who raised them is not their biological father. He is the mysteriously missing Thomas Blackwell. This group of authors’ first series is The Return of the Blackwell Brothers in which the manipulating grandfather of the cousins in both series interferes in his grandchildren’s lives in what turns out to be a positive way. The books differ in that the Blackwell brothers are returning to their roots whereas the sisters are discovering a family heritage they never knew they had. The two series share characters that you will enjoy meeting. Both series make for a clean, heartwarming read, and either or both would be a fun present under the Christmas tree!
You can read my reviews for these books by clicking on the titles below:
Montana Wedding–great finale
Montana Wedding
by Cari Lynn Webb
Georgie Harrison has always been singularly focused. She has a plan to honor her mother’s memory by discovering a cure so that other families would not have to experience premature loss of a parent as she and her sisters had. As a medical doctor she has turned her talents to research and has landed the job of her dreams in London. Now she just has to convince her dad and four sisters that this is a positive move. She convinces a friend and work colleague, Colin, to be her pretend date for her sister’s wedding at the Blackwell Ranch. Unfortunately, Colin doesn’t make the flight. Seated next to her on the plane, however, is handsome rodeo star Zach. He would fit right in with the Blackwells, the cousins she is about to meet, but what could possibly motivate Zach to assume the role of boyfriend?
Zach has his own family issues and dreams, but he loyally supports Georgie as promised. Since this is a Harlequin Heartwarming romance, you can be sure the couple will fall in love. The journey down the path to love is what is interesting, and the plot has several surprising twists, as in “I didn’t see that coming!” Author Cari Lynn Webb gives the viewpoint of both Zach and Georgie as they battle their growing attraction, giving the reader empathy for them in a situation neither sought out. The Blackwells are wonderful people who stand by each other with integrity, love, and quite a bit of teasing. They are the family Zach always dreamed of. Montana Wedding’sbackdrop of a Christmas wedding at a Montana working guest ranch will put you in a holiday mood regardless of the season. It is the perfect finish to The Blackwell Sisters series as it includes all the major characters from that series and from The Return of the Blackwell Brothers. It will leave you with that pleasing feeling of closure for the series and a satisfied smile on your face.
I would like to extend my thanks to Cari Lynn Webb and to Harlequin Heartwarming for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance
Notes: #5 in The Blackwell Sisters series. It could be read as a standalone, but I recommend reading the whole series.
Publication: December 6, 2020—Harlequin Heartwarming
Memorable Lines:
His mother had offered disregard and indifference as naturally as other mothers offered their children support and reassurance….His mother’s accusations had always been followed by those same two words, given in the same dull, detached tone: Go. Away.
He’d learned the truth during Cody’s final battle. Time refused to slow. There was no freeze button. And minutes were wasted wishing for impossible things. Life had to be enjoyed in the now.
“Hope is a powerful thing.” Every patient, every family member of a sick loved one relied on hope. Hope the medicine would work. Hope the doctors found the right treatment. Hope the surgeons removed every last cancer cell. Hope the damage wouldn’t be permanent. Hope that tomorrow would be brighter, better, pain free.
Of Literature and Lattes–reconciliation
Of Literature and Lattes
by Katherine Reay
I enjoyed Katherine Reay’s The Printed Letter Bookshop and was excited at the opportunity to read another book by this author—Of Literature and Lattes. This book is also a clean read dealing with real problems and is, in fact, a follow-up to the first book. I liked both novels, but I didn’t feel the second was as well organized or flowed as well as the first. In The Printed Letter Bookshop, the bookstore is almost another character as is Maddie, its former owner whose funeral initiates the action in the book. We depart from a focus on Maddie and her bookstore in Of Literature and Lattes where some characters continue with the focus on Janet who works at the bookshop and is rediscovering her artistic talent as well as trying to reconnect with her ex-husband, her daughter Alyssa, and her mother. That is a lot of reconciliation to accomplish!
Alyssa struggles when she discovers the success of her employer and his company are based on fraud, and she finds her only alternative is to return home. There she meets Jeremy, a new character who is also trying to start over both with a coffee shop he purchased and in his relationship with his seven-year-old daughter.
There are a lot of twists and turns as Alyssa tries to find employment. To her credit, she will take any job offered when she discovers no one in her field will hire her because she is under investigation by the FBI. Alyssa and Janet want to repair the long-term fracture in their mother-daughter relationship, but it is not simple. Meanwhile, Jeremy has difficulties with his ex-wife and his employees.
The storyline jumps around among the various characters and themes. The characters have to deal with ethical, moral, and legal issues and rely on the help of kind neighbors, family, and friends.
Although I found the first of the book to be a little disjointed, it came together as the story progressed. My favorite character is Becca, Jeremy’s young daughter. I enjoyed the novel, but did not make an emotional attachment to any of the characters. I assume there will be more books making it a series. Reay has written a number of fiction books based on her love of literature and especially the works of Jane Austin.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Romance, Women’s Fiction, Christian Fiction
Notes: 1. This book could be read as a standalone, but some of the characters’ relationships would be clearer if you read The Printed Letter Bookshop first.
2. I included this in the Christian Fiction category because the characters’ relationship to Christ is a background theme providing moral and relationship structure.
Publication: May 12, 2020—Thomas Nelson
Memorable Lines:
What before she had regarded as instances of Alyssa’s ingratitude, obstinance, and petulance were recast in light of her own issues of control, manipulation, and anger.
Father Luke had been telling her for months that her problem was no longer asking others for forgiveness, but accepting it herself. “It’s an odd form of pride, you know,” he had said over coffee one day. “You decide you know better than God and make your own ruling.”
Yes, the “bad” in life bumped down the generations with discord and pain, causing breaks and tumult as well, but it could be healed. It could be made new and, perhaps, made stronger.
Montana Match–overcoming family history
Montana Match
by Carol Ross
Fiona, the youngest of the Harrison sisters, is somewhat of a free spirit. She gets along with everyone, likes to move around, and excels at her jobs as a professional waitress. She also makes bad relationship choices due to her kind heartedness—a nice way of saying she dates losers. Fiona is convinced by Rudy Harrison, the man she always thought of as her dad, and Big E Blackwell, her biological grandfather, to come to Falcon Creek to change her ways by finding a “suitable” man and profession.
In the middle of online dating efforts, she meets Simon who is currently helping out his cousin Ned in his bar. Simon and Fiona both discover the advantages of being truthful to oneself and to others. A heartwarming book with a beautiful setting and characters you’ll want to meet, Montana Match has a plot with just the right amount of entanglements. Fiona wants so badly to do everything right from helping out at the ranch’s petting zoo to making Thanksgiving dinner for a crowd. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that “pigs and eggnog,” even separately, can be problematic. Both Simon and Fiona love antiques and golf, but will that be enough to bring them together? Carol Ross has woven a wonderful tale that will leave you wanting more of The Blackwell Sisters.
I would like to extend my thanks to Carol Ross and to Harlequin Heartwarming for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Contemporary Romance
Notes: #4 in The Blackwell Sisters series. This is a clean and heartwarming romance. Plenty of background support is included by the author to make it enjoyable as a standalone, but I think you’ll find yourself wanting to read the others in the series of 5 books with the last to be published in December.
Publication: November 1, 2020—Harlequin Heartwarming
Memorable Lines:
But the good memories were tightly bound with the painful ones. Like trying to untangle fine silk that’s been woven with razor wire, it was impossible to separate the two and come out unscathed.
Uncertainty swept through her with the force of an ocean wave, knocking her off balance and leaving her head swimming.
“A bit of trouble?” Luke repeated the words while his mouth curled slowly at the corners. “You could call it that. Be sort of like calling a hurricane a bit of a storm, though.” He chuckled and shook his head.
Montana Dreams–secrets within the family
Montana Dreams
by Anna J. Stewart
The five Harrison sisters were abandoned by their father, Thomas Blackwell, when the oldest, Peyton, was eight years old leaving a hole in her heart that could not be filled. For reasons to be discovered in Montana Dreams by Anna J. Stewart, Peyton, ostensibly close to her sisters, has kept the girls’ biological roots a secret. She is the only one aware that Rudy Harrison, their devoted father and a retired Navy admiral, is actually their step-father.
Their world is turned upside down by Big E, the girls’ grandfather they never knew existed; the discovery impacted none of the girls as much as it did Peyton who has tried to fill the hole in her heart with work. Because Peyton, a Vice President in the company she works for, has a stalker, her boss has hired Matteo as her bodyguard. Big E convinces the boss that his ranch in Montana is the safest place for Peyton to be.
In many romances that include childhood family issues as part of the conflict, the background of the main character figures predominantly into the plot. In Montana Dreams, however, both Peyton and Matteo have issues, past and current, that need to be brought to the forefront and dealt with. Their secrets are unwrapped with care, and their romance is depicted with ups and downs and highs and lows that keep the reader in anticipation of possible resolutions.
The devotion Matteo has for his understandably confused six year old son is heartwarming. Well integrated into the plot are characters you might have met in the Return of the Blackwell Brothers series. Although I would love to have had the characters from that first series have more interaction in this book, I realize that would not be possible within the scope of this novel. As it is, the plot is full of twists and turns. Each one of the books in The Blackwell Sisters focuses on a different sister as each meets her welcoming Blackwell cousins and their spouses and learns about the positive sides of Montana ranch living. They also acclimate to the idea that their mother and step-father had presented a false narrative of their family to them as children. Meanwhile, the subplot of their manipulating grandfather Big E plotting to reunite his Blackwell family while searching for Thomas Blackwell, his son and the girls’ father, with Rudy Harrison, the girl’s step-father, continues on with a little progress and more clues in each book.
I would like to extend my thanks to Anna J. Stewart and to Harlequin Heartwarming for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance
Notes: #3 in The Blackwell Sisters series, but the author provides the necessary support if you want to read this clean, heartwarming romance as a standalone.
Publication: October 1, 2020—Harlequin Heartwarming
Memorable Lines:
She scrunched her toes in her shoes, trying to keep a hold of whatever traction she had on her life.
The very idea of stepping foot on a ranch—any ranch, let alone an isolated one in the middle of Nowhere, Montana—shot Matteo straight back to a childhood that held zero appeal.
Somehow holding his son made the pain and loneliness from his own childhood fade to where it couldn’t hurt him anymore.
Rudy’s face split into a grin so wide Big E swore he saw his back molars.
education pathways 