Tag Archives: romance

Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes (by Denise Grover Swank)

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I didn’t know anything about saving anybody. I didn’t even know where to go, let alone have a car to get there. But I did have a gun, even if I’d never shot one before. I unwrapped it, careful to point it away from me. I couldn’t find the round spinny thing for the bullets. Then I remembered, those were the kind of guns they used in prehistoric times. That covered most of the television shows I’d watched pre-cable. I was looking for the thing at the bottom of the gun. After a lot of fumbling and, I hate to admit it a little bit of cussing, I got it opened. 

 

Rose has a mundane job at the Department of Motor Vehicles. She lives with her mom and dresses like a nanna. The most interesting thing about her is she has the “second sight”, but even her visions are pretty unremarkable. She sees visions of toilets overflowing or dogs getting out of yards. Then one Friday afternoon while at work, she has a vision of herself dead in her home. Later when her mother turns up dead, suspicion immediately falls on her.

With dead bodies turning up, gangsters gunning for her, the police suspecting her and pretty much the entire town convinced she’s a murderer, things aren’t going so well for her. The one bright spot is her sexy neighbor, Joe who seems to be the only person in her corner. But he has his own secrets and at a time when she needs him most pulls away.

Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes is a seriously good fun murder mystery set in Arkansas. It’s a laugh out loud funny story with a quirky heroine. Most of the books I read have interesting heroines. Look at the books I read an you’ll see it time and time again. For me Rose stands out in that long list of interesting heroines as something a little more. I put her in the same league as Lisbeth (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Nora (The Siren), Angel (My Life as a White Trash Zombie) and Justine (Mind Games).  I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next story about Rose Gardner.

Tab Bennett and the Inbetween (by Jes Young)

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The first time it happened I was completely unprepared. I was in the kitchen making a peanut butter and banana sandwich when I started to feel light headed. I steadied myself against the the counter, closing my eyes so the room would stop spinning. When I opened them, I was with Molly, I was Molly, and I was in the dark gasping for air. I panicked until there was nothing left to breath and then she died…

https://i0.wp.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1335929498l/13630560.jpgTab Bennett has lived her entire life without knowing who she really is. Then she starts having visions of a world that has been hidden from her. A world in which dark elves are trying to kill her, and the people she thought were her family are actually guardians, sent to protect her.

After her mother, the queen of the Elves was killed, Tab was sent to the human world to protect her from those who meant to do her harm. Now in her twenties and coming into her powers, her enemies are stepping up their efforts to kill her.
Adding to her problems, there are two men vying for her affections, Alex to whom she was promised at birth and Robbin one of her guardians.

Tab Bennett and the Inbetween is an unusual book. It reads a little like a Young Adult novel but then I would be hit with a very adult sex scene. There are elements of Paranormal / Fantasy, Romance and even a little Mystery there. I could spend hours trying to figure out where it belongs, or I could just say it’s a very good book which doesn’t quite fit anywhere.

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

Forever and a Day (by Jill Shalvis)

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“Mallory nodded and toasted a cupcake to that. Then she set the cupcake down and got serious as she turned to Grace. “Honey, just promise me something.”

“What?”

“That you won’t be so driven by your past that you throw away your future.”

Forever and a Day is the sixth in Jill Shalvis’ popular Lucky Harbor series. It’s the third and final book in her 2012 trilogy and centers around Grace and Josh.

Grace has lost her way. She has spent her life trying to live up to her parents’ very high standards. After running away from a job in which she was expected to provide “other services”, she finds herself in Lucky Harbor, broke and without any prospects. On the day she arrives in Lucky Harbor she gets trapped in the Eat Me Café by a blizzard (Book 4, Lucky in Love), but as luck would have it she is trapped with Mallory and Amy. The three form a friendship which is the thread running through the three books released this year.

Grace is doing every job she can to keep the wolf from the door. She isn’t picky, she’ll do anything from delivering flowers to working as a life model. When someone calls her number asking about her dog walking services, a wrong number, she sees an opportunity to make a few more dollars. That someone turns out to be Josh, an overworked Doctor with a young son who won’t talk and a younger paraplegic sister who is angry at the world.

Despite losing the dog five minutes after it has done it’s business in the house, Grace manages to hold onto the job. Gradually she finds herself not only looking after Tank (the dog) but also providing a mother’s nurture for Toby (Josh’s son) and acting as something like an older sister to Anna (Josh’s paraplegic sister). But Josh is a very different story, Josh has his busy life, and Lucky Harbor doesn’t fit into Grace’s long term plans. Despite their chemistry a relationship doesn’t look like a good idea to either of them.

Jill Shalvis writes uplifting and optimistic contemporary romance. Her books are light enjoyable reads that will leave you feeling good. Of the three Lucky Harbor books published this year, Forever and a Day is the stand out.

Recommended for fans of Robyn Carr and Kristan Higgins.

With thanks to Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.