Reading Fanatic Reviews
Contemporary RomanceLies and Solace by Jana Richards
Lies and Solace*
Big Dreams In Small-Town Romance
What a sweet and lovely small-town romance! The hero and the heroine have complex backstories that are revealed in a perfect dripwise fashion that show the basis for their goals and motivations, allowing the reader to easily empathize with them as they struggle with inner conflicts dealing with their secrets and what they have withheld from each other.
The book starts off dramatically with a scene from the distant past when the heroine’s parents died in a drowning accident when Harper was a child. The book then fast forwards to her at the age of 32 when she is trying to obtain investment capital to help restore the lodge that’s been in her family for three generations. Ethan, the hero, is a complex character, on the one hand sweet and caring and on the other fearful of rejection or maltreatment due to his secrets.
Now, when I said the book was sweet up above, I didn’t mean it wasn’t steamy! They have a caring bond that does carry over into intimacy towards the end of the book. Will their secrets tear them apart? Will Harper have the lodge of her dreams? Will her sisters start pitching in?
This book was refreshingly light on punctuation and grammar issues. It was a delight to read in that aspect as well as the good storytelling as detailed above.
If you like small town romance with complex characters, you’ll find this book a treat.
Bursting Out by Ceri Grenelle
Bursting Out*
Real Estate and Personal Mysteries in Manhattan
This contemporary romance had ongoing humor and an air of mystery which surrounded both the hero and the heroine that kept me turning the pages. The heroine, Adele, is a sassy up-and-coming real estate agent. Mr. Zelig was referred to her by a mutual friend. Mr. Z is very particular about what he is looking for in a property. He is so demanding that Adele nearly drops him as a client. They’re both intrigued by each other, but each is wary of pursuing any relationship beyond realtor-client. Will this stand? And what are their mysteries? What will Adele think when she finally learned his identity?
The book has some of the standard issues with punctuation, grammar, and usage, but it did not overly detract from the story.
If you are looking for a contemporary romance with good humor, a broody hero, and a little bit of mystery, this book might be for you.
The Claddagh Trilogy by Amanda Heartley
The Claddagh Trilogy*
A Fun Collection of Interwoven Irish Romance
What a fun collection of interwoven stories just in time for St Patrick’s Day! Characters introduced in one book become a couple in the next, and we also get to see what happens to the previous couple(s) as well.
The Irish Affair starts with the heroine, Amelia, in dire straits. She had hoped to surprise her online boyfriend in Ireland, but she is the one who is shocked when his wife answers the door! Nursing her wounds at a bar later, Amelia meets Rory Maguire, a man who is a country music star in Ireland. She doesn’t recognize him. He enjoys having someone react to him as just a person and not a superstar.
In the second book, Irish Love, we move from Ireland to Los Angeles and then on to Vegas. This story focuses on Siobhan, Rory’s sister, who is visiting him at his new place in America. He wants her there when he proposes to Amelia during a concert. This is Siobhan’s story, though, and her brother has warned her against his touring manager, Ben. So, of course, they meet, and romantic sparks fly. What happens when a nice Irish country girl meets up with a guy who isn’t known for going to bed alone often?
The final book of the set, Irish Heart, stars the bad girl who convinced Siobhan to go to Vegas on her first night in America. Will the wild girl be tamed? Can she find true love? You’ll just have to read it and see!
This set has some problems with grammar, punctuation, and usage, but the books were so fun that the mistakes did not detract from the enjoyment of reading.
If you enjoy light, funny contemporary romance with a little bit of Irish flair and music star panache, you might enjoy this delightful collection of three books.
I received a free advance copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
The Legend of Lady McLaoch by Becky Banks
The Legend of Lady McLaoch*
Promising Start that Failed to Deliver
I so wanted to like this book! I adore all manner of Scottish books, fiction and nonfiction. It had a promising start with not one but two out-of-time-sequence chapters. The first was very strong, of a dying young woman in long-ago Scotland cursing her father and her family for generations because of how he had made her suffer. The next prologue (can a book have 2 prologues?) was a rather intense battle scene that took place 3 years before the main text’s time frame.
Once contemporary, the book starts with Cole (and the rest of her family) finding out that they are not really Bakers but Minarys, her grandfather having taken the former name of his mother’s second husband (not Grandpa’s biological father). Grandpapa dies before revealing anything else. After graduating from college, Cole decides to research more about the name, and this brings her to the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
I only like to give a tease about the first part of the book. Aside from the set-up above, the first 25% of the book had little action; yes, Cole meets the current laird, Rowan MacLaoch (one of the fighters in the prologue battle scene), whose history is bound up with that of her family’s. In that first 25%, she learns about her family altered history and meets the laird twice (thinking him a caretaker of the castle, not the laird). That’s it. In a book that promises “mystery” and “quest,” I found it a very slow and boring start.
I found Cole to be rude and disrespectful, not “feisty” as the description promised; I could just never warm up to her as a character. Some of Cole’s reactions to people in Scotland just seemed bizarre. Her mother seemed a stock character of a middle-aged Southern lady, and some of the Scottish people seemed to stereotypes of what one would think of those living in that country; these secondary characters fell flat. The book’s formatting was annoying; just one skinny space of paragraph indentation and no padding between paragraphs made the narrative appear like giant blocks.
I received an advance review copy for free, but–obviously–that did not affect my review.
Welcome to New York by Luana Ferraz
Welcome to New York*
Not Your Regular Contemporary Romance…Slow Build, Sweet
This is not quite your normal contemporary romance. It is slow and sweet. There’s no big meet-cute. The hero and heroine just work at the same place It even takes a while for Harry and Alana to become friends, let alone lovers. They both have pasts that they don’t want anyone to know about. They are both scarred by their pasts but learn to trust and love again. They both have dreams for careers but are held back by confidence and opportunity, and slowly, they just help each other realize them. They heal each other’s past wounds and find true happiness. A lovely, sweet read!
It is written in 3rd person present, which was a little awkward to get used to…but it was worth it! There were some awkward phrasing and some grammar errors but not enough to detract from the story.
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