Review: The Texan's Wedding Escape (Heart of Stone) by Charlene Sands

From friendship to passion…to forever?

Only if she doesn’t marry the wrong man first…

Lauren never got over her childhood crush on Cooper, but she’s grown up now and ready to settle down. She even agrees to plan her upcoming wedding at his ranch, but in close quarters, she’s second-guessing her groom and yearning for Cooper’s forbidden embrace… Then she discovers the rancher’s ulterior motive. Will she walk down the aisle with the wrong man?


My Review:

It’s been a year since the death of Copper Stone’s best friend, Tony Abbott, and he still blames himself for the accident that took his life.  When Tony’s mother, Loretta, asks Cooper for help stopping her daughter Lauren, from marrying Tony’s corrupt business partner, Cooper agrees to help her.  He will do anything for that family.

Lauren has finally found true love and is in the process of planning her wedding when her mother realizes Roger isn’t being honest.  She can’t let Lauren marry him.  Loretta comes up a plan to get her out of the house and them both living at Cooper’s ranch where they can work together to keep Lauren from making a big mistake.  Lauren has never gotten over her crush on Cooper and staying together brings up some confusing thoughts, especially as time gets closer to the wedding.  Will Cooper be able to pull the plug on the wedding before it’s too late?

This was a really good story.  When I got near the end of the book, I had wondered how Lauren and Cooper would get their happily ever after because it sure looked like they wouldn’t be granted it.  But, Lauren took care of Roger in the end, and boy did she do it in a memorable way. 

Review: Resisting the Doctor (Marietta Medical #2) by Patricia W. Fischer

After being hired as the temporary director of Marietta Medical ER, Dr. Lucy Davidson meticulously plots the course she wants the quickly growing facility to take. She’s laser-focused, determined to prove herself worthy to become the permanent director. No distraction will sway her…not even the brilliant and disturbingly handsome new Emergency Room physician, Thomas McAvoy.

Fulfilling a promise, Thomas has come to Marietta to help the woman who saved his life then leave as soon as possible. Still sustaining injuries from the near fatal attack, he realizes how much he appreciates the slower pace of his temporary assignment at a rural hospital. It’s a soothing balm after years in an hectic urban ER.

The charm of Marietta and the friendliness of his colleagues lure Thomas into thinking he might like to make his temporary position permanent, especially since he and Lucy have become closer. As their relationship begins to heat up, Thomas realizes Lucy is everything he dreamed of in a life partner, and he can’t imagine letting her go. But when they both realize they are up for the same promotion, will they be able to keep their personal and professional lives separate?

My Review: 

Two new doctors, Dr. Lucy Davidson and Dr. Thomas McAvoy, start out butting heads in Marietta Medical ER when it comes to a drunk driving accident victim.  But they soon find themselves becoming attracted to each other which might not be the best idea since they work together.  

Lucy and Thomas are both working temporary positions at Marietta Medical.  Lucy is working as the temporary director and if everything goes as planned, she could soon see herself in a permanent position.  But it seems someone is out to make her job more difficult.  Thomas is the new emergency room physician.  He is only in town until he finishes helping his friend Jade make repairs to her father’s house before she sells it.  When things start heating up with Lucy, Thomas just might change his plans and stay in Marietta.  

This was a good story, but in the beginning, during the ER scene, I spent a lot of time googling words.  I don’t know anything about doctors, hospitals or medical terminology.  So, it did slow me down a little bit.  But once I got past that part the story started to flow really well.  I can tell the author has a lot of medical knowledge or did thorough research to get details like that.  I liked how Lucy and Thomas were both stubborn and set in their ways and how they eventually found a way to put their differences aside to get to know each other.  There are also some very steamy intimate scenes in this book too.  I look forward to reading the rest of this series. 

Review: Punk Rock Cowgirl by Kasey Lane

When Kendall Kelly's career as the free spirited punk country crossover queen ends in a fiery ball of doom and humiliation, she has no place to go but back to her hometown Blackberry Cove, California, where she abandoned her secret husband years ago without so much as a note. She’s hoping to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and finally cut the last tie to the only man she ever loved.

As part owner of Kelly Family Farms, Damian Sloan has spent the last few years rebuilding the floundering business into a growing organic farm. He thought he'd moved on from his broken heart, but when Kendall barges back into his life—broken but beautiful as ever---he soon realizes he hasn’t forgotten. Or forgiven. Kendall threatens everything he’s built, but he can’t quite turn her away.

Damian and Kendall must put aside their differences for the success of the farm they both depend on. Maybe, in the process, they can rebuild what they tragically lost.

My Review: 

  

Kendall Kelly, also known as the punk rock cowgirl, was burned out.  She was tired of touring and always being told what to do.  Plus her manager embezzled the advance her record label gave her and now they wanted their money back.  She was back in Blackberry Cove, the town she grew up in and couldn't wait to leave, for her grandmother's funeral.

Kendall planned to stay for the funeral and will reading and be gone as quick as she got there.  But there are a couple glitches in her plan.  She still married to Damian Sloane, even though she walked away from him four years to start her music career.  Kendall's grandmother left Kelly Farms to both of them.  Now, Damian wants Kendall to stay and pick up where they left off and Kendall is starting to enjoy being with him and life on the farm.   But when Kendall gets a call from her record label and they want to meet with her in Los Angeles, Damian doesn’t take it too well.  Will leaving Damian this time be their final goodbye?

I always enjoy a good second chance story and this one grabbed me from the start.  I liked the characters and enjoyed seeing how their story played out.  I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series.

Review: Liberated (The VIP Desire Agency Book 4) by Mel Teshco

Can two men conquer one woman’s heart?

Eloise Chand isn’t just any woman, she’s also Savannah, stunning call girl. But it doesn’t stop unprofessional thoughts about her favorite clients, Saxon and Julian. She knows she’s in trouble. She doesn’t want her career destroyed by personal attraction. She’s a business woman first and foremost, and the Wolfe brothers aren’t part of her career plan.

Adopted brothers, Saxon and Julian, share more than just their billion dollar real estate development business. But never in their wildest dreams did they expect to fall for the same call girl. She’s a woman whose hot-blooded sexuality and independence stirs something deep in them both. That she’s beyond willing to share the same bed with them is just a bonus they want to further explore.

But how do they permanently attain the one woman who just might be unattainable?


My Review:

This is not your mother’s romance!

Eloise Chand escaped an abusive arranged marriage in Napal years ago.  Now she is one of the most popular call girls at the VIP Desire Agency and goes by the name Savannah.  Recently, Eloise has been having trouble keeping a couple of her clients off her mind.  Normally, when she leaves her customers, she has no problem moving onto the next.  But the Wolfe Brothers, Julian and Saxon, have gotten into her head and she can’t quit thinking about them. 

Self-made billionaires, Julian and Saxon, have both fallen in love with Savannah and they will do anything to have her as their own.  They just need to convince her how much they really want her.  But their love does come with a cost.  Savannah will have to give up her career, and she has no plans on doing that.  How far with Julian and Saxon go to get their way?

This book is not your typical romance.  For starters, there are two men as the love interest and some very steamy scenes.  But the story is well written and the characters are some that you will be cheering on all the way through the book.  Although the ending was easy to predict, I still enjoyed reading this book and there were some surprises.  I have read all of the books in the series and this one is now my favorite of them.

Review: The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman

Growing up in northern Michigan, Samantha “Sam” Mullins felt trapped on her family’s orchard and pie shop, so she left with dreams of making her own mark in the world. But life as an overworked, undervalued sous chef at a reality star’s New York bakery is not what Sam dreamed.

When the chef embarrasses Sam, she quits and returns home. Unemployed, single, and defeated, she spends a summer working on her family’s orchard cooking and baking alongside the women in her life—including her mother, Deana, and grandmother, Willo. One beloved, flour-flecked, ink-smeared recipe at a time, Sam begins to learn about and understand the women in her life, her family’s history, and her passion for food through their treasured recipe box.

As Sam discovers what matters most she opens her heart to a man she left behind, but who now might be the key to her happiness.


My Review:

“You bake for someone because it is familial and familiar, new yet ancestral, a way of connecting generations.”

This was an easy book for me to get pulled into.  The story is set among the backdrop of northern Michigan and New York City and follows Sam Mullins when she suddenly quits her dream job in New York City and returns home to Michigan.  Her family is there with open arms, lots of encouragement and words of wisdom to help her decide what to do about her career and her love life. 

The story flashes back and forth between Sam and her relatives, with the stories about their life at the Mullins Family Orchard and Pie Pantry and how they prepare it for future generations.  It’s an inspirational story that will remind you of the importance of family.  I liked how each section of the book was titled with a dessert and the recipe is pulled from the recipe box and prepared during that part of the story.  The recipes are included after each section so you can recreate them.  It even made someone like me, a non-baker, want to start baking.  I had a hard time putting down this book.  Not a detail was missed and everything was so vividly written that it felt very real to me.  I could easily visualize this book as a movie.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book