Author Archives: setaian

Take me Home for Christmas (by Brenda Novak)

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Contemporary Romance

After her violent and abusive husband defrauds the townsfolk of Whiskey Creek, Sophia DeBussi is left destitute and hiding out in her now empty house.  Despised by most of her neighbors, she has few options and nobody she can turn to.

Ted Dixon was betrayed by Sophia many years earlier. While he was away at college, she stepped out on him, became pregnant and married the boy who would become her abuser.  He more than anyone has a right to resent Sophia but when he sees how she is being treated he reluctantly agrees to offer her a job as his cook and housekeeper.

Sophia loves Ted, she always has, but she accepts that any chance she had with him disappeared years earlier. Now with her daughter being bullied at school, someone making threats against her, and those in authority unwilling to intervene, she just wants to make enough money to flee Whiskey Creek with her daughter and start over.

Take me Home for Christmas is very good Contemporary Romance about a woman who has been beaten down so often that she has started to believe what her abuser and his parents said about her. As she works for Ted she slowly learns to value herself again and finds hope for a second chance.

Loved this book. 5 Stars.

Many thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

Up to the Challenge (by Terri Osburn)

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Contemporary Romance

Sid Navarro is Anchor Islands smart-mouthed boat mechanic. She has been in love with Lucas Dempsey since high school, but Lucas always had his sights set on bigger and better things and as soon as he finished school he left the island.

After his father suffers a heart attack, Lucas returns to the island to look after the family business for the summer. He’s thrown together with Sid and sparks immediately fly but the women he’s attracted to are quiet, reserved…pastels, and Sid is anything but. She’s brash and in your face, she could swear a sailor under the table.

Despite not being his usual type, Lucas is attracted to Sid. But she will never fit into his world and he needs to return to the mainland by the end of the summer so the best he can offer is a summer fling. What he doesn’t know is that beneath her hard shell is a vulnerable young woman and when he leaves, he will break her heart.

It’s difficult to know what to say about Up to the Challenge. No matter what I say, it just won’t be enough. If I take the very best books by Jill Shalvis and Robyn Carr, wave my magic wand and somehow make them 20% better, then we are probably getting close to how good this book is. Solid gold 5 Stars!

Many thanks to Montlake Romance and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

Miracle Lane (by Edie Ramer)

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Romantic paranormal suspense…fairytale

After being run over by a car Nia has been left with no memories of her life before. All she knows is everyone in her family despises her and one of them tried to kill her. Her only ally is Bast, a talking cat who is determined to guard her come what may.

Returning from Afghanistan with his own ghosts, Rob the identical twin brother of the local cop, shows up at her house after she calls about an intruder. After failing his comrades in Afghanistan, he is determined to save Nia from whoever it is that wants her dead.

I don’t quite know where to put Miracle Lane. It’s contemporary romance, romantic suspense, there is a bit of the paranormal going on and it reads like a fairytale.  The writing style is conventional, perhaps a little whimsical, but the thing that really hit me from the very first chapter, that sets this book apart, is the concept. It really is wonderfully odd. While I was reading Miracle Lane I kept thinking of that old Jimmy Stewart film Harvey (where Jimmy Stewart has an imaginary friend who might be a six foot tall rabbit), and a Japanese cartoon from about 20 years ago called Kiki’s Delivery Service.  It’s probably the first time those two movies have been mentioned in the same sentence.

Great fun, but there is an almost oppressive undercurrent to this book.

Many thanks to Blue Walrus Books and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

Accidental Cowgirl (by Maggie McGinnis)

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Contemporary Romance

In quick succession, Kyla’s fiancé cheated both her and her grandparents of their savings; she was in a serious car accident which left her broken and scarred; and her grandparents who were forced to leave their home passed away.

With the court case behind her and her now ex-fiancé behind bars Kyla’s two closest friends drag her to a dude ranch in Montana to help her regroup and plan her next step. One of the first people she meets in Whisper Creek is Decker, the quintessential tall dark and handsome cowboy. She’s attracted to him but with so much baggage weighing her down she doesn’t trust her judgement.

Decker has his own problems. After kicking him out many years earlier, his father used the ranch to back his out of control gambling. Now his father has died and left Decker with the mess. He needs to find the money to pay back the debts or the ranch will be lost.

Nothing happens in Accidental Cowgirl that I haven’t seen before, but it’s exactly what I want from this genre. A simple story well told, characters I like and nothing too tricky. It’s a light and satisfying read and among the better Contemporary Romances I’ve read recently.

Many thanks to Random House and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

Rhythm and Bluegrass (by Molly Harper)

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Contemporary Romance

As an historian working for the Kentucky Commission of Tourism, Bonnie Turkle lives a transient life.  She spends a few months in a town, before moving onto the next town and the next job. When she hears about an old music hall which is slated for demolition to make way for a factory, she immediately goes to Mud Creek to try and save as much of the heritage as she can.

Mud Creek is a town fallen on hard times and desperately needs the hundreds of jobs the factory will bring. The mayor of Mud Creek, Will McBride will do just about anything to ensure the factory is built so when Bonnie threatens the very future of the town they butt heads. And when they aren’t butting heads, they’re fighting to keep their hands off each other.


Rhythm and Bluegrass is cute a quirky romance with characters that you want to get to know. It’s a laugh out loud funny story, which occasionally delves into the more serious issues facing small towns across the U.S..  A lot of love for this book.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and Pocket Star Books for providing me with this ARC.

Down and Out in Beverly Heels (by Kathryn Leigh Scott)

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Cozy Mystery 

Meg Barnes was once an A-List actress. She lived the glittering Hollywood lifestyle and had everything she could ever desire. Then her con-man husband swindled her of everything she owned. Now homeless, penniless and living in her old Volvo she is desperately trying to hold onto her dignity and to find a job. But her husband didn’t just steal from her, he stole from some very dangerous people and Meg finds herself in the firing line of the the Russian mafia, while the FBI continue to suspect her of being a part of her husband’s schemes.

When I picked up this book I had some preconceived ideas of what I was getting. I was expecting a ditzy and clueless Hollywood starlet who bumbles around, makes a bit of a mess of things but still manages to solve the crime. Three chapters in and I was well and truly put in my place.

Meg is a woman who despite finding herself in difficult circumstances manages to make the most of things. She is homeless but still manages to hold onto her dignity. She is intelligent and independent. Honestly in a genre where Stephanie Plum clones abound, she is a breath of fresh air.

I loved this book. It had me from beginning to end. I can’t think of a bad thing to say about it.

The Secret of Everything & The Garden of Happy Endings (by Barbara O’Neal)

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Chick Lit

The Secret of Everything.

Tessa is a professional guide. Tourists who want a little more adventure than they can get at a five star resort pay her to lead them on hikes. After tragedy strikes on a hike she was leading, Tessa is left broken both physically and emotionally. With all consuming grief and despair she returns to Las Ladronas, the New Mexico town where she spent her earliest years.  Years she can’t remember.

As she starts to pull at the threads of her past, she discovers things about herself and those closest to her. With the help of a man and his young daughter she finds the strength to move forward.

The Garden of Happy Endings.

After a young girl in her congregation is brutally murdered, Reverend Elsa Montgomery has a crisis of faith. Depression consumes her and she returns to Pueblo, Colorado, to the parish she left behind many years earlier and the man who abandoned her to join the priesthood.

While there she finds herself working in the poor community to create a community garden, and as she works in the garden her broken heart finally starts to heal.

 

 

 

It’s hard to avoid superlatives when talking about these books.  Barbara O’Neal writes honest books about depression, grief and PTSD. Her books are unconventionally spiritual and about finding healing and the strength to keep living.

Mr Strangeway (by Karina Cooper)

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Steam Punk Novella

After the death of her parents Cherry St. Croix found herself for a time working as a pick pocket.  While on the street she became addicted to Laudanum, a tincture of opium and alcohol. After being plucked from the street by the executor of her father’s will she finds herself living in a beautiful home where her every need is provided except for her laudanum.  Wanting to get more of her drug of choice than the pitiful drizzle she is allowed she decides to become a bounty hunter.

It’s difficult to know what to say about this book. It’s a novella on the shorter end of novellas and it’s very much the warm up act for book three in the St. Croix Chronicles which is due out on September 23rd.  If this were a free gift for the diehard fans I think it would have worked. As it is, I’m not a diehard fan, I haven’t read the first two books in the series and I paid good money for this.  There isn’t much story or character development…to be honest the heroine of the story Cherry doesn’t do all that much.  For me it was a waste of time but I think people who have been reading the series will enjoy it, I don’t know if they’ll enjoy paying for it, only time will tell.

Plum Deadly (by Ellie Grant)

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Cozy Murder Mystery

After being falsely accused of embezzlement and fired, Maggie returns to her home town in North Carolina to lick her wounds.  Penniless and all but unemployable, she finds herself waiting tables at her aunt’s pie shop, Pie in the Sky.  

Then her former boss turns up at Pie in the Sky and tells her he knows who stole the money and has called a press conference in which he will name the real thief and clear her name. But after he turns up dead that very night she has gone from fry pan to fire and become the number one suspect in his murder.

With a little help from Ryan, a local newspaper reporter, she sets about clearing her name and finding the murderer.

Plum Deadly reminded me a lot of the Cats in Trouble mysteries by Leann Sweeney and the Coffee House mysteries by Cleo Coyle.  If I have a criticism it’s that some things were left unexplained and hanging. But it’s possible those things will be revisited in the next books in the series and for the most part I enjoyed this book.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and Gallery Books for providing me with this ARC

The Hero (by Robyn Carr)

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Contemporary Romance

After escaping from a secretive cult, Devon finds herself walking along a back road with her young daughter. When Rawley sees her on the side of the road he knows she is running and offers her a lift and a safe place to stay until she can decide where to go next.

Recently widowed, Spencer is still in mourning over the death of his wife.  Thunder Point is a chance for a new beginning as the coach of the local high school football team. So when Rawley helps Devon to find a job and start building a life in Thunder Point he immediately pushes thoughts of the beautiful blonde from his mind.

But as the weeks pass he finds himself drawn to her and they take some tentative steps towards a relationship. But both have baggage. Both have children. And Devon has a controlling and manipulative cult leader on her trail.

The Hero is what readers expect from Robyn Carr.  It is a well written contemporary romance which is about more than just Devon and Spencer.  Stories from previous books are revisited and characters are introduced who will appear in future books. The Hero reminded me a little of Shelter Mountain (Virgin River Book 2).  That’s not a bad thing, Shelter Mountain is probably my favorite in the Virgin River series and I enjoyed this book almost as much.

Many thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.