Posts Tagged With: Small Town Romance

Book Review: First Time in Forever by Sarah Morgan

Guest Reviewed by Ami

1Title: First Time in Forever
Author: Sarah Morgan
Series: Puffin Island #1
Heroine/Hero: Emily Donovan/Ryan Cooper
Genre: MF Contemporary Romance
Length: 384 Pages
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: March 1, 2015
Available at:  Harlequin, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Windswept, isolated and ruggedly beautiful, Puffin Island is a haven for day-trippers and daydreamers alike. But this charming community has a way of bringing people together in the most unexpected ways…
It’s been a summer of firsts for Emily Donovan. From becoming a stand-in mom to her niece Lizzie to arriving on Puffin Island, her life has become virtually unrecognizable. Between desperately safeguarding Lizzie and her overwhelming fear of the ocean—which surrounds her everywhere she goes!—Emily has lost count of the number of “just breathe” pep talks she’s given herself. And that’s before charismatic local yacht club owner Ryan Cooper kisses her…

Ryan knows all about secrets. And it’s clear that newcomer Emily—with her haunted eyes and the little girl she won’t let out of her sight—is hiding from something besides the crazy chemistry between them. So Ryan decides he’s going to make it his personal mission to help her unwind and enjoy the sparks! But can Puffin Island work its magic on Emily and get her to take the biggest leap of trust of all—putting her heart in someone else’s hands?
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, M/F, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Early Review: Every Little Kiss by Kendra Leigh Castle

Guest Reviewed by Ami

1Title: Every Little Kiss
Author: Kendra Leigh Castle
Series: Harvest Cove #2
Heroine/Hero: Emma Henry/Seth Anderson
Genre: M/F Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 Pages
Publisher: Penguin/Signet
Release Date: March 3, 2015
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  The second novel featuring small New England town of Harvest Cove, where the residents know that Emma Henry likes things nice and orderly—but everyone has to let loose sometimes…

Event planner Emma Henry is used to focusing all her attention on reaching her goals and letting romance fall by the wayside. But when her sister Sam’s bachelorette party prompts the most tightly-wound Henry to let her hair down, Emma’s night ends with the entire town linking her to a man who could lay waste to anyone’s best-laid plans.

Army vet Seth Andersen thought that joining the police department in sleepy Harvest Cove would offer a quiet, normal life. But when he finds himself responsible for uptight Emma Henry at the end of her wildest night ever, his world turns unexpectedly complicated—and he’s surprised to discover he doesn’t mind at all…

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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, M/F, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Sweet Surprise by Candis Terry

Guest Reviewed by Ami

1Title: Sweet Surprise
Author: Candis Terry
Series:  Sweet, Texas #4
Heroine/Hero: Fiona Wilder/Mike Halsey
Genre: MF Contemporary Romance
Length: 384 Pages
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Playing naughty or nice…

Fiona Wilder knows all about falling in lust. Love? That’s another story. Determined not to repeat past mistakes, the single mom and cupcake shop owner is focused on walking the straight and narrow. But trouble has a way of finding her. And this time it comes in the form of a smoking hot firefighter who knows all the delicious ways to ignite her bad-girl fuse.

Can lead to heartbreak…

Firefighter Mike Halsey learned long ago that playing with fire just gets you burned. He’s put his demons behind him, and if there’s one line he won’t cross, it’s getting involved with his best friend’s ex. But when fate throws him in the path of the beautiful, strong, and off-limits Fiona, will he be able to fight their attraction? Or will he willingly go down in flames?

Or a sweet surprise!

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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Sugar’s Twice as Sweet by Marina Adair

Guest Reviewed by Ami

1Title: Sugar’s Twice as Sweet
Author: Marina Adair
Series: Sugar, Georgia #1
Heroine/Hero: Josephina Harrington/Brett McGraw
Genre: M/F Contemporary
Length: 384 Pages
Publisher: Forever
Release Date: November 25, 2014
Available at: Forever, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  He’s trouble she doesn’t need . . .

Thanks to a cheating fiancé, Josephina Harrington’s perfect life just crashed and burned. Moving in with her overbearing parents is definitely not an option. No, she needs to prove she can make it on her own. And she will-by turning her great-aunt’s old plantation house into a destination getaway. She’s just not expecting her contractor to be so hands-on-and so totally irresistible.

. . . but everything she wants

Bad-boy golf champion Brett McGraw figured his hometown of Sugar, Georgia was the perfect place to lay low and get his life back up to par. The leggy blonde with a pint-sized pup is the kind of sweet ‘n sassy trouble he never saw coming. She doesn’t know a nut from a bolt and before long, he’s renovating her house . . . as she steals his heart. Can he convince Josephina that his womanizing ways are in the past and he’s ready for forever?
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, M/F, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Snow Angel Cove by RaeAnne Thayne

Guest Reviewed by Ami

1Title: Snow Angel Cove
Author: RaeAnne Thayne
Series: Haven Point #1
Heroine/Hero: Eliza Hayward/Aidan Caine
Genre: MF Contemporary Romance
Length: 384 Pages
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Release Date: October 28, 2014
Available at:  Harlequin HQN, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Nothing short of a miracle can restore Eliza Hayward’s Christmas cheer. The job she pinned her dreams on has gone up in smoke—literally—and now she’s stuck in an unfamiliar, if breathtaking, small town. Precariously close to being destitute, Eliza needs a helping hand…for her sick young daughter’s sake as well as her own. But she’s not expecting her holiday hero to almost run her down with his car!

Rescuing Eliza is pure instinct for tech genius Aidan Caine. At first, putting the renovation of his lakeside guest lodge in Eliza’s hands assuages his guilt—until he sees how quickly he could fall for her. Having focused solely on his business for years, he never knew that what his life was missing was Eliza and her little girl. But is he willing to risk hoping for a yuletide romance that could lead to forever?
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, M/F, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Carolina Blues by Virginia Kantra

Guest Reviewed by Ami

20949468Title: Carolina Blues
Author: Virginia Kantra
Series: Dare Island #4
Heroine/Hero: M/F Contemporary Romance
Genre: Lauren Patterson/Jack Rossi
Length: 304 Pages
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: October 7, 2014
Available at: Berkley, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Jack Rossi is Dare Island’s new police chief. The laid-back North Carolina community is just what he needs to recover from a rocky marriage and a big-city police department. He’s learned his lesson: no more high-profile women or high-pressure jobs. The last thing he wants is an unconventional alt girl rocking his world.

Grad student Lauren Patterson made headlines when she kept a bank robbery from going bad. She’s fled to Dare Island to clear her head and focus on writing her story. However, sexy Jack Rossi is a distraction that’s too hot to ignore, and it’s igniting an affair too combustible to resist—or quit.

But when their pasts come looking for them, Jack and Lauren find themselves fighting for the future they deserve, whatever the price.
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Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, M/F, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Mistletoe on Main Street by Olivia Miles

Guest Reviewed by Ami

1Title: Mistletoe on Main Street
Author: Olivia Miles
Series: Briar Creek #1
Heroine/Hero: Grace Madison/Luke Hastings
Genre: M/F Contemporary Romance
Length: 400 Pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing/Forever
Release Date: September 30, 2014
Available at: Forever, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Sleigh bells, snow, and second chances . . .

Briar Creek’s quaint shop windows, cozy homes nestled in snow, and neighborly residents are what Christmas dreams are made of–for everyone except Grace Madison. She left her hometown years ago to pursue a writing career. But when her father’s death leaves his bookstore empty, Grace must return to face why she fled Vermont in the first place: Luke Hastings, who still heats her up like a shot of smoky whiskey on a cold winter’s night.

Grace is back, and Luke is worried. How much has she changed as a bestselling author in the big city? What memories will she stir up? And was the choice he made five years ago the biggest mistake of his life?

Now, with their past, present, and future rocking around the Christmas tree, it’s time for Grace and Luke to face the music . . . and the mistletoe.
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Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, M/F, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: McFarland’s Farm by Cardeno C.

Reviewed by JustJen

3Title: McFarland’s Farm
Author: Cardeno C.
Series: Hope #1
Heroes: Lucas Reika/Jared McFarland
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 56 Pages
Publisher: The Romance Authors
Release Date: September 10, 2014
Available at: Amazon Smashwords and All Romance Ebooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Wealthy, attractive Lucas Reika treats life like a party, moving from bar to bar and man to man. Thumbing his nose at his restaurateur father’s demand that he earn his keep, Lucas instead seduces a valued employee in the kitchen of their flagship restaurant, earning himself an ultimatum: lose access to his father’s money or stay in the middle of nowhere with a man he has secretly lusted over from afar.

Quiet, hard-working Jared McFarland loves his farm on the outskirts of Hope, Arizona, but he aches to have someone to come home to at the end of the day. Jared agrees to take in his longtime crush as a favor. But when Lucas invades his heart in addition to his space, Jared has to decide how much of himself he’s willing to risk and figure out if he can offer Lucas enough to keep him after his father’s punishment is over.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Early Review: Return to Glory by Sara Arden

Guest Reviewed by Ami

1Title: Return to Glory
Author: Sara Arden
Series: Home to Glory #1
Heroine/Hero: Betsy Lewis/Jack McConnell
Genre: M/F Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 Pages
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Release Date: August 26, 2014
Available at:  Harlequin HQN, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  In Glory, Kansas, the best bakery in three counties may not only bring together ingredients for sweet treats, but be the place where—through the powerful mix of friendship, community and a well-stocked kitchen—a wounded hero can forge a forever kind of love.

Jack McConnell’s back in the hometown he left behind five years ago, battle-scarred and feeling like half a man. But Betsy Lewis only sees the hero who saved her life and set her heart on fire. Now she’s burning to save his life in return. She’ll use every trick she’s got up her sleeve, from her generous natural assets to her talent for baking, to coax Jack out from the bottom of his whiskey bottle.

At first, Jack responds to Betsy like any red-blooded man would. He’s always denied his attraction to the innocent girl he used to know, but he’s returned to find Betsy’s grown into a full-on woman with strength enough for both of them. Until Jack realizes the only way to conquer his demons and be worthy of the hero’s mantle she’s pinned to his shoulders is to save Betsy one last time—from himself.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, M/F, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Baby, It’s You by Jane Graves

Guest Reviewed by Ami

cTitle: Baby, It’s You
Author: Jane Graves
Series: Rainbow Valley #2
Heroine/Hero: Kari Worthington/Marc Cordero
Genre: M/F Contemporary Romance
Length: 400 Pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: May 27, 2014
Available at:  Grand Central Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance Ebooks and Kobo
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  With only the wedding dress on her back and her honeymoon luggage in the car, Kari Worthington is running away. Determined to put her controlling father, her rigidly structured life, and the uptight groom she left at the altar in her rearview mirror, she escapes to the Texas Hill country . . . and lands on a tall, dark, and gorgeous winery owner’s doorstep. All she needs is a job and a place to live until she can get back on her feet. So why is she fantasizing about losing herself in his powerful arms?

For Marc Cordero, freedom is so close he can taste it. He’s devoted his life to managing the family business and being a single dad. Now with his daughter away at college and his brother taking over the winery, Marc is ready to hop on his Harley for parts unknown-until a runaway bride bursts onto the scene. Free-spirited and tantalizingly sexy, Kari excites him like no other woman has before. But when irresistible passion turns into something more, will Marc give up his future to take a chance on love?
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, M/F, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment