Tara Chevrestt's Blog, page 91

The Bungalow by Sarah Jio

Confession: I sort of cheated.


It was three in the morning, I'd been reading for two hours straight, my eyelids were heavy...

But I knew I would not be able to sleep until I knew how this book ended...so with a quarter left to go, I skipped to the ending to assure my wildly beating heart it would end in a way I wanted it to.

I was finally able to get some shut-eye and I went back and read the entire last quarter  the next day and even knowing how it would end, I actually got tears in my eye when it read again anyway.

Sarah Jio is just that kind of writer. This story is well done, engrossing, and totally transports the reader to another place and time. It's one of those books in which as you're reading, you believe you ARE the heroine.

Even though it's 300 pages, I devoured this in a day and a half. It's just that hard to put down.

In a nutshell: It's Bora Bora during WWII. The heroine and her best friend are nurses. There's love, heartache, doubts about an engagement, war, bloodshed, murder, secrets, and the timeless, age-old emotion that seems to ruin all: JEALOUSY.

It all seems to center around a bungalow, where it all happens or begins. I confess, I find some things preposterous: a bungalow remaining practically untouched a hundred years, and then 70 more? No... Nobody sees this place? With a base full of people right next door? Also, the knife...buried 70 years and easily found again? Her very first day back, she just happens to run into the people who can help her during her very first walk on the beach?

I didn't buy some of it and that's that only thing keeping this from being a five-bike book. I also saw the twist with the evil, slutty Kitty coming a mile away. I didn't find that very original.

But I gotta say, I did love this book. If you're looking for a historical fiction about timeless love, about how we lose our path but find it again...this one is for you. Despite my quibbles, it all came together beautifully in the end.

The Heart of a Legend by Amy Lignor

Billy the Kid...psychotic killer or a man trying to make a wrong world right?


This novel portrays him as the latter...and a man very much in love with a spunky, headstrong woman. The novel follows young Paulita as she arrives in New Mexico territory after getting schooling in TX. After a run-in with outlaws, in which she shoots one of them herself, she meets Billy, and he steals her heart, despite her vowing he'd never been in her bed.

The story continues, exploring Billy's so-called crimes... In this version, the "law enforcement" was pretty much just blackmailing people and taking over towns with threats and cruelty, and having just watched The Quick and the Dead today, it felt somewhat like that at times. Billy does what's right, not what's easy...I'm not going to explain that. You have to read it. But it lands Billy on many a crap list. Meanwhile, Paulita waits and pines and tries to understand what's going on.

There's a secret wedding, shoot outs, tons of history, a major betrayal or two...there's no end to the excitement. I LOVED the banter and dialogue. This was superbly done. Paulita...is just really cool and knows how to put men in their place. She cracked me up a time or two. Billy is likable and I got the impression he was a much misunderstood man.

The prose...was really good. The descriptions of Paulita's and Billy's love...

"It was a kiss one only read about as Billy and Paulita left the room, locked in their own little world of peace and heaven that nobody could touch. No one could steal that place from them because they owned it. They felt each other in the very core of their bodies and there was nothing between them, no barriers, only a love that ran so deep that not even time could take from them."

I really enjoyed this book, but I have some quibbles. My edition is a print copy from 2005 so the issues very well may have been fixed since then...but this version was hard to read at times. It could use another round of edits. The then/than errors, tho noticeable, didn't bother me so much as the missing commas before names when people were address in dialogue. I had to read many a sentence twice. Also there was more telling than showing toward the end. The novel told us second hand what was going on in Billy's life of crime. People tell Paulita, and that's how we get the story. Why, when this wasn't a first person POV?

Four bikes. I got this a few years ago via Goodreads swap.

Be Your Own Hero

Growing up, I remember all the cartoons of princesses sitting there looking beautiful but miserable...and they never found happiness until a rich and handsome prince rescued them from whatever was ailing their lives.


I don't write love stories like that. My heroines always meet their prince (or princess) but they aren't sitting there waiting to be rescued.

Take Kimberly for example. She's got the handsome Carlos helping her, but in the end, she really rescues herself by coming to terms with who she is now.

There's no contest what song I choose for this book and as you read it, I'd love for you to keep the lyrics in mind and remember...


There's a heroIf you look inside your heartYou don't have to be afraidOf what you areThere's an answerIf you reach into your soulAnd the sorrow that you knowWill melt away...

So even if or when a hero comes along, save yourself by looking deep within you. The hero is right there. As the song says, YOU can survive. If you look around you, you will see survivors everywhere. You may not even know their stories. Like Kimberly they may have hidden disabilities.
Try to take a moment everyday to remind yourself of this.
Thumbs up to Mariah Carey for her song, Hero.

My Ever-Growing TBR Pile 7/13/2013

Been a while since I did this. For a while there, I posted every Sunday (or Saturday?) about books I've found, how I found them, and why they'd made it on my TBR. I just quit posting due to the lack of comments, but it did have page views, so I figure ya'll must be interested. Hopefully there's something for you on here.

So here we go again. Random Reading, I called it, as I find books often in the most random ways. Regardless, these are the books that came to my attention this week and why I decided to read them: (Lots of strong women books this week!!!)

Desperate Situations by Abby Holden was free on kindle. I decided to give this a go because it features a woman helicopter pilot.

An ex-Ranger, Jake McGrew, leaves the military to join a mercenary group in Afghanistan. Here he meets up with Megan Cartwright, the best helicopter pilot he’s ever met and his new boss. She has a problem with Special Forces men and has sworn off romance only to find herself attracted to this ex-soldier. As she leads them through many desperate operations, each one more harrowing than the next, she ends up revealing to McGrew her deepest secrets. Will they survive to ‘live happily ever after'?


Taming GI Jane by Debra Webb was free on Kindle and I just love women in the military stories. It also sounds funny.
After six years of active duty, army drill sergeant Jane Passarella is ready for a new challenge. Running a fat farm for the general’s wife and her friends is not what she had in mind. Jane is caught completely off guard when her own willpower goes AWOL while teamed with sexy camp director Tom Caldwell.

With a camp rife with contraband ice cream and crawling with rebellious dieters, romance is the last thing on Tom’s mind…until he sees petite and pretty GI Jane. The two have just fourteen days to transform a dozen couch potatoes into svelte, disciplined beauties. But how will they ever be able to keep their minds on the task when they can’t keep their hands off each other?
Spotted on netgalley, Smokescreen by Nancy Hartry. I like this publisher. I've read a few of their titles so I have faith this will be good. It's about two girls facing sexism and a forest fire.
Nothing in Kerry’s life prepares her for her first summer job. Stationed as far north from Toronto as Florida is south, unqualified and inexperienced, she perceives hazards around every tree. What does she know about fieldwork? Or black bears? Or men? Absolutely nothing—all she’s done with her life so far is competitive dance. If her mother only knew what this job required!

Kerry’s new partner, Yvette, is unlike anyone she’s ever met and something about her doesn’t add up. Her boss is a chauvinist pig and out to get them. When forest fires break out, Kerry and Yvette are drafted for fire duty and sent deeper into the bush—even closer to the fire. As all of northwestern Ontario goes up in flames, Kerry vows to find out what is really going on and uncovers a crime of international scope and scale that will threaten her life.

Smokescreen is an adrenalin pumping adventure, pitting two resourceful young women against nature and man at their most greedy. Truth and lies. Fire and darkness. Who will triumph when nothing is what it seems?
Come Looking for Me by Cheryl Cooper is on my wishlist after spotting its sequel on Edelweiss. A woman aboard a ship...forming a friendship and working alongside the men. A love story, but it doesn't appear to be one of those cheesy bodice rippers.
In Come Looking for Me, a mysterious young English woman named Emily risks a crossing of the Atlantic during the War of 1812 for the promise of a new adventure in Canada. But she never arrives.

Captured by Captain Trevelyan, a man as cold-blooded as his frigate is menacing, Emily is held prisoner aboard the USS Serendipity. Seeking to save herself, she makes a desperate escape overboard in the midst of a raging sea battle and is rescued by the British crew of HMS Isabelle. Yet Emily has only exchanged one form of captivity for another, and remains in peril as England escalates its fight against the United States on the Atlantic.

On board the Isabelle, Emily encounters a crew of fascinating seamen and strikes up unexpected friendships, but life on a man-of-war is full of deprivations and dangers to which she is unaccustomed. Amidst heartache and tragedy at sea, she struggles to find her place among the men until a turn of events reveals her true identity. And when Trevelyan's ship once again looms on the horizon, Emily fears losing the only man she has ever loved and falling into the hands of the only man she has ever loathed.
House of Bathory by Linda Lafferty is on my wishlist after I read and enjoyed another book by her this week, The Drowning Guard. I've read..hm...three Bathory books now, so I have a fascination with this woman. 
In the early 1600s, Elizabeth Báthory, the infamous Blood Countess, ruled Čachtice Castle in the hinterlands of Slovakia. During bizarre nightly rites, she tortured and killed the young women she had taken on as servants. A devil, a demon, the terror of Royal Hungary—she bathed in their blood to preserve her own youth.
400 years later, echoes of the Countess’s legendary brutality reach Aspen, Colorado. Betsy Path, a psychoanalyst of uncommon intuition, has a breakthrough with sullen teenager Daisy Hart. Together, they are haunted by the past, as they struggle to understand its imprint upon the present. Betsy and her troubled but perceptive patient learn the truth: the curse of the House of Bathory lives still and has the power to do evil even now.

The story, brimming with palace intrigue, memorable characters intimately realized, and a wealth of evocative detail, travels back and forth between the familiar, modern world and a seventeenth-century Eastern Europe brought startlingly to life.
Spotted on New Age Mama--some blog/blurb tour--Hunka Hunka Nursing Love by Kathryn Maeglin hit the wishlist too. It caught my eye because it's a unique twist and men are the ones being objectified for a change!
Imagine a visiting-nurse service with hot young guys as caregivers. What golden girl wouldn’t dig that?

Valerie Palka is a savvy businesswoman who is obsessed with keeping her elderly mom, Helen, safe from all the lethal disasters that can befall widows living alone. Helen thinks the workaholic Valerie should focus on having as much luck in the bedroom as she does in the boardroom. But when Helen takes a spill and is rushed to the ER, a handsome male nurse, Keith Nuber, strikes her fancy, and she tells her daughter, “If you could get a handsome devil like that to take care of me, I’d be willing to consider it.” So Valerie creates a care agency, Home Health Hunks, staffed by attractive younger men.
Spotted on Negalley, another Tundra book, Touched By Fire by Irene N. Watts has caught my interest and is on my Kindle. Interests me for so many reasons...It's about immigrants, discrimination, a historical fire.
Touched by Fire, Irene N. Watt's exquisite new novel, explores one family's journey as they flee from the pogroms of Russia in 1905, where the Cossacks burn villages to the ground, to Berlin, Germany, where Jews have a hard time living and working in peace, to the streets of the Lower East Side in New York. Teenage Miriam gives a first-hand account of the excitement everyone feels about going to America, the "Golden Land," the journey in steerage, the arrival at Ellis Island, and the discrimination the immigrants feel while seeking employment. When Miriam finally lands a job at the Triangle Shirt Waist Company as a cuff setter, she believes her future in the New World is finally secure. But on March 25, 1911, the fire that starts from overflowing bins of material scraps rages into what becomes known as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and Miriam's life is forever changed.
Montana by Gwen Florio. Another Netgalley book. This one caught my attention because it not only takes place in Montana, my favorite state, but it's about a woman seeking the truth. She's also a reporter who was in Kabul. You gotta be a tough woman to face that. It doesn't hurt that her name is Lola....I hope to read this one soon.
Foreign correspondent Lola Wicks is pissed. Downsized from her Kabul posting, her editor reassigns her to a stateside suburban beat formerly the province of interns. Arriving in Montana for some R&R at a friend's cabin, her friend is nowhere in sight.

Anger turns to terror when Lola discovers her friend shot dead. She can't get out of Montana fast enough, but finds that she can't as she's held as a potential witness, thwarting her plan to return to Afghanistan on her own and have her editors change their minds. Her best hope lies in solving the case herself. But this surefooted journalist who deftly negotiated Afghanistan's deadly terrain finds herself frighteningly off-balance in this forgotten corner of her own country, plagued by tensions between the locals and citizens of the nearby Blackfeet Nation.

Lola's lone-wolf style doesn't work in a place where the harsh landscape and extreme isolation compel people to rely upon each other in ways she finds unsettling. In her awkward attempts at connection, she forms a reluctant alliance with a local reporter, succumbs to the romantic attentions of a wealthy rancher, and fences warily with the state's first Indian candidate for governor, the subject of her friend's final stories.

Ultimately she comes to truly care about the people she meets in Montana, only to miss the warning signals that her own life is in danger.
On my wishlist: The Goddess Letters by Vicki Matthews. I actually found this via an ad on an ebook site freebie site. Why I want to read this? I have a fascination with the old Pagan ways and beliefs...when women ruled the world. The idea of a woman prophet...well, hell, yea.
Chicago economics professor Rob Harris has it damn good: dream job, devoted wife, adorable daughter. Selena Richards has it even better - she's a wildly popular Hollywood actress with awards and men galore. Yet each has a dark secret that only the other knows.

Since college, Selena has had alarming dreams where she's asked to encourage women to create a radically different future for our world. Rob, her old college boyfriend, is the only person Selena's told about these dreams. The devoted family man, Rob never mentions to his wife that he was secretly engaged to Selena when they met. Or that he and Selena still correspond.

Rob and Selena's secrets collide when her dreams take a frightening turn. The powerful Jacobi appears, violently warns her to stop meddling with the world, then vanishes. Terrified, Selena reaches out to Rob, who wonders if she's a prophet, or merely mad.

Unable to abandon her, Rob is slowly drawn into Selena's haunting world of forgotten knowledge, ancient ritual, and demigods quite interested in controlling mankind. The line surrounding reality continues to blur and Rob finds himself in Selena's dreams, face-to-face with Jacobi, who is happy to kill to hide the truth that will change the world. As Rob fights to keep himself and Selena alive, his concepts of reality crumble, as do his once-rigid views on nature, divinity, and even love. To his amazement, he finally accepts that the greatest hope for our world may actually rest with Hollywood.
Spotted on LibraryThing, The Tattooed Witch by Susan J. McGregor. You got the Spanish Inquisition and a magical tattoo. That is just too cool. I don't think I need to say more.

When Miriam Medina and her father are accused by the Inquisition of murdering a high priest, Miriam knows justice is impossible. Their accuser, the Grand Inquisitor, is in fact, the real murderer. Miriam's only hope is to resort to her long dead mother's magical legacy: the resurrection of the dead through a magical tattoo.
Even Nectar is Poison by Mercer Addison. On my wishlist and found while doing an Amazon search for suffragettes.
After Donald McShane is forced to flee Ireland on a ruse created by his nefarious brother, he joins a surge of immigrants landing in the squalor on Manhattan’s East side. He sends for his wife and two young children who are sailing to him on the Titanic. When the ship sinks, it opens up a steamer trunk full of mysteries. Donald goes to Halifax, Nova Scotia where the dead from the Titanic are taken. There he’s shown a strangled woman matching his wife description and who has his wife’s identification on her. She’s not his wife. Donald, unable to believe his wife and children have perished in the freezing Atlantic goes on a mission to find them. Who is the silent little girl rescued from the Titanic by suffragette, Olivia Marsh? What has happened to Donald’s son? This is a drama of family betrayal, murder, class warfare, suffragettes fighting for equality in the workforce, but most of all love.
Kindle Freebie, Marblestone Manor by Marti Talbott caught my eye because it sounds like the castle Glen Eyrie, which I've been to, in Colorado Springs. But what really ended up convincing me to download it was when I looked up book two in this series and discovered there was a woman with multiple husbands involved. What a nice change!!!! LOL
A Duke by inheritance, Hannish MacGreagor soon learned the title came with very little wealth, so he bought a silver mine in Idaho, left his wife of two weeks in Scotland, and sailed to America. Two years later, he sold the mine and became one of the wealthiest men in Colorado. Yet, all was not well with his marriage. Never could he have imagined the disaster that was headed his way.
On my wishlist: Flight Risk by Nicole Helm. The blurb doesn't sound like much to me, just another boy and girl fall in love story that just happens to be set at an airport. It's actually the "warning" at the end that convinced me to read this. I LOVE women in aviation. 'Nuff said.
After losing his mother to cancer, Trevor Steele has taken a leave of absence from the FBI to get his little sister through her last months of high school. But once she’s settled in college next fall, he’s leaving Pilot’s Point and heading back to Seattle.

Now if only he could keep his mind off childhood friend Callie Baker. Especially since she’s asked him for a big chunk of his spare time to help save her family business.

Once the town bad girl, Callie has had to get her act together to keep Antiques in Flight airport from falling apart. Swallowing her pride to ask for Trevor’s help is the hardest thing she’s ever done—next to trying to forget the sizzling kiss they shared two years ago.

Working side by side leads to a complicated dance of almost-moments, until their repressed urges finally break free. But just as Trevor begins to think staying for good might be the right path, Callie closes herself off, afraid to believe in promises…even Trevor’s.

Product Warnings
A woman who’d rather face an airplane engine than falling for her best friend, a man who’d rather face a gun to his head than going home, and a love that will test what they both want.
Kindle Freebie I look forward to reading: A Stolen Life by Stacey Coverstone. Woman pirate. ARGGH! She decides she's tired of pirating and takes over another woman's life...and fiance.
Eighteen-year-old Kit Malone has lived a pirate’s life for ten years, though not of her own choosing. When ruthless Captain Tory orders young women kidnapped from a seaside village and Kit is instructed to watch them until ransoms are paid, she makes a startling discovery. One of them is her mirror image.

Bonding over their likeness, Tamsin Mallory tells Kit about her privileged life, as well as her fiancé, Christopher. Longing for family and to be a proper lady, the seeds of a plan form in Kit’s mind. When Tamsin dies, Kit sets her plan of assuming Tamsin’s identity into motion. After narrowly surviving a storm at sea, she is rescued by Matthew, a trapper who lives in isolation after a devastating heartbreak.

When Kit finally arrives at Mallory Manor, she becomes Tamsin in body and soul. But how long will it be before someone discovers the truth? And how will her attraction to loner Matthew affect her upcoming marriage to charming Christopher?

Found via a random Amazon search for women pilots. (I do this weekly as women in aviation books are just my "thing") I found Grace and the Secrets of the Beech 18 by Judi Stephensen. Woman pilot. Tomboy. WWII. WASPS (discovered that tidbit in the reviews.) On my wishlist for sure. I suspect it's a time slip.

Grace was practically raised at the historic airfield, where her father works long hours as a mechanic. Set at the base of the Rocky Mountains, she and her older brothers have spent many summers exploring the surrounding hills and prairie lands, stirring up adventure with their imaginations while their father toiled away. This summer, Grace must find ways to pass the time alone. She is spiritless until she discovers the abandoned twin-engine airplane parked on the ramp and her curiosity about the timeworn beauty begins to grow. Suddenly Grace realizes that she is embarking on the greatest journey of her life as she unravels the secrets of the old Beech 18...
A Hazard of Hearts by Frances Burke, a freebie today, promises to be full of strong women! It's also a historical about nurses in Australia.
From the bustling energy of Sydney Town to the brawling goldfields of Victoria comes a compelling saga of three passionate women who pit themselves against society’s restrictions to carve their place in history.

Elly Ballard, spirited and intelligent daughter of an eminent surgeon, rallies from violent betrayal to take on an outdated, vermin-infested hospital and its officious and self-serving board of directors.

She is aided by the diminutive and fiery Pearl, who has escaped slavery and the horrors of war-torn Nanking, and by Jo-Beth Loring, a spoiled beauty who has lost everything, including the man she loves, in a shipwreck off the Australian coast.

Denying her own need for love and her strong attraction to Paul Gascoigne, a man haunted by his past and ambitious for the future, Elly fights to establish nursing as an honourable profession, and a woman’s right to be considered an intelligent force in society.
Though the reviews are not very good, I've decided to give this one a go as well: The King's Daughter by Penny Ingham. Why? It's about a king's daughter who fights to save her kingdom and leads an army, though it sounds like the romance overpowers this story line.
King Alfred The Great of Wessex lies dying, and his beautiful headstrong daughter, Elflaede, swears to continue her father's quest to drive the Vikings out of England. But, alongside bloodshed and battle, Elflaede must endure the jealousy of her brother Edward, the cruelty and callousness of her husband Ethelred, King of Mercia, and the surprising and forbidden love for her greatest enemy.

In an age of superstition and fear, when bloody battles laid the foundations of the English nation, The King’s Daughter is a powerful story of love and war, jealousy and betrayal - and the bitter choices of divided loyalties. (This book was previously published as Lady of the Mercians)
That sums up my random finds and ever-growing TBR pile this week. Be watching for reviews for some of these soon. I hope there's something for you on here! Some of these titles are still free. Go look for em on Amazon.

A Day in the Life of an Author...

This is just a moment of complete and total honesty. It will probably offend some...but the truth, hey, someone has to say it.

I keep getting these sad, heart-wrenching emails... "I have a lot of vet bills. My dog was sick. I have no money left after making my car payment. School is expensive..."

Always at the end is a request for one of my books. "I can't afford them."

I'm not without sympathy. But it's important to remember my dogs get sick too. I also eat and drink. Thankfully, my vehicle is paid off. I paid it off before I decided to be a stay-at-home writer and editor...and thank the Goddess for that, because, tell me, what kind of car could I maintain and pay for off this?


Dear Broke Reader, Your email the other day regarding your car payment and your financial difficulties broke my heart. Please, cash these author royalties I just received and put it towards your next car payment. Apparently, I don't need it. Best wishes, Tara.
Don't answer that..I know it's HOT WHEELS. LOL

I'm not mad by how little I make, though I do make jokes about it at times. (see above caption on photo. *snicker*) As my friend Rosa said, I should be proud of every cent I make and I am. But it's important to remember, you aren't the only one the economy or just life in general affects.

I love reviewers and if someone has a really awesome blog and wants to write me a review, I'm all for handing over books. But the folks just looking for free stuff...I have something to tell you and I don't make this up.

Authors sign contracts. Those contracts state just how few copies we're allowed to give away of our books (this is not about Kindle Freebies). Almost every contract states, "Author can give away only __ copies of work for promotional purposes." The exception to that rule is when we are seeking reviews.

Since I've already revealed the big secret about how much money I make, let me take this opp to distill a few myths.

Myth: Authors have unlimited copies of their books just laying around.
Truth: I have to pay almost full price for my own paperbacks. Though publishers may give a discount, I merely end up paying that discount right back in shipping fees. I may as well just buy them on Amazon--like you--and get free shipping. Thus, I do not have copies of my books laying around...at all.

Myth: Authors receive huge 6k advance payments.
Truth: If you don't see a Big 6 label as the publisher, this is so far from the truth, it's a comical assumption.

That being said, how do ya'll like my ride?


By
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Tasty Review & Giveaway: Anything But Sweet (Sweet Texas Series) by Candis Terry

A man who doesn’t like change . . .
The Wilder family is something of a Sweet, TX institution: between their yearly BBQ blow-outs and their Hardware and Feed store, they’re an institution—an institution that ex-marine Reno Wilder has tried to preserve, in honor of his lost loved ones. But it seems like he’s the only one who’s got any respect left for traditions when a new TV makeover show rolls in to renovate Sweet to bring in more tourists. Everyone is pleased except Reno—and this cowboy is determined to keep everything just the way he likes it.

A woman who wants to change everything . . .
Inquisitive. Stubborn. Smart. Drop dead gorgeous. That would be makeover show host and designer, Charlotte Brooks—the woman Reno has declared war against. And yet, he can’t seem to keep away from her, or to get her off his mind. Charlotte isn’t afraid to back down from a challenge—of any kind—and she’s promised to prove to Reno that change can be sexy, hot, and very, very sweet, if Reno and Charli learn to let go of their pasts and grab hold of a future full of promise. 
**My Review**
Ms. Terry is an exceptional writer. I was very impressed with her prose, with her dialogue, with her balance of everything. As far as writing, this was a perfect book. I fell in love, absolute love, with the town and its members. I chuckled many a time at the antics and just the way Ms. Terry described some things...an example would be the old man's stiff Wranglers. LOL

You got to read it for yourself, but the prose is pretty good. It's solid writing laced with humor. 

The banter between the hero and heroine is fantastic too. They're constantly ribbing each other--even if they don't mean to, and it's funny at times.

But I wanted to read this as soon as I saw the words TV show. I like watching those shows where people go to others' houses and tear it down, rebuild, etc. So I was hoping for some more details about shooting the shows themselves. Surprisingly, there was very little of that. I mean,  yea, she sews curtains and stuff, but as far as onset drama, TV crew, cameras (where are they?), there was very little of that.

I was also hoping for more than just a romance. I like romance, but I confess halfway through this, I was ready for something besides the hero and heroine pussyfootin' around. I prefer there be some kind of side story going on. I found myself waiting for someone to sabotage the show, steal the paint supplies, her dog to run away with his dog and start a massive dog search, just something besides "he finds her attractive, she finds him attractive, they go to a barbecue and talk".

My only other quibble: It got a little over-pounded into our heads that she wanted a home, was tired of moving around, was never home, her dad was a Marine and they moved around a lot... It felt like every conversation she had with someone, it just managed to come up that she'd never had a real home. I got it the first time...and the second...and third. ;)

But a solid, sweet read. If you don't at least fall in love with the town, you'll get a few chuckles.



Buy Links B&N / Amazon / IndieBound / Powell’s Books / BAM  Author Info
Candis Terry was born and raised near the sunny beaches of Southern California and now makes her home on an Idaho farm. She’s experienced life in such diverse ways as working in a Hollywood recording studio to chasing down wayward steers. Only one thing has remained the same: her passion for writing stories about relationships, the push and pull in the search for love, and the security one finds in their own happily ever after.
Author LinksWebsite: http://www.candisterry.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/candis.terry Twitter: https://twitter.com/CandisTerry
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4935263.Candis_Terry
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Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Rielle Mainline

Book: Getting Real
Author: Ainslie Paton
Heroine: Rielle Mainline

Posts about heroines...why does that seem so rare? Why does it seem to me that all anyone wants to write about is the heroes and the heroines get stuck with being deemed "good enough" for him – or worse – unlikable.


Which brings me to the point. I wanted to write a heroine who was playing the role in the rock star sub-genre normally associated with the hero.

Reille Mainline is the lead singer in a band called Ice Queen. She is the ice queen. She’s young, athletic, talented and obsessive about being the best. She’s also tortured by a family tragedy, an accident she believes she caused that killed her mother. As a consequence she can’t stand her own appearance because she looks like her Mom and disguises it with hair pieces, makeup, coloured contact lenses and provocative clothing and behaviour.

As a performer and a business woman she is in a class of her own. As a person she is insecure and introverted. She shies away from personal relationships and puts distance between herself and the rest of the world outside the band. Her real self is the opposite of her public image.
It’s not her position, her profession, or her talent that makes her strong however, it’s the choice she makes to face the tragedy in her past and heal herself so she can be worthy of the boy next door hero and start to live a real life.

She does this by choice, alone, fighting her inclination to continue to hide her real self and when she’s completed her transformation she goes back to get her boy.
Blurb:
A romance about confronting fears, making music, and learning to be true.
Rielle Mainline is a rock star with a hardcore image, a troubled heart and a twenty-five city tour to front with her band, Ice Queen. She should be ecstatic. But the tour includes Sydney and Rielle has spent years trying to deal with the tragedy that happened there.
Roadie, Jake Reed knows Rielle’s reputation as a prize bitch will make being Ice Queen’s tour manager a challenge. Jake’s comfortable he can handle her, until he meets her, and then he’s thrown off-balance, unsure if he wants kiss her or throttle her.

Sparks fly, tempers flare and boundaries are crossed. It’s rock star verses roadie, alpha girl verses the boy-next-door and neither of them will survive unchanged.



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Tasty Spotlight & Giveaway: More Than Rivals by Mary Whitney

BlurbSome seats in Congress turn over once in a lifetime, and the election isn’t a race; it’s a crowded, mad dash for Washington, D.C. When the local congressional seat opens up for the first time in forty years, Sonoma County Supervisor Ursula “Lily” Robles knows it may be her only opportunity. Though she’s a long shot, she likes her chances.

The night before she announces her candidacy, she meets a handsome stranger at a coffee shop. He’s the first man to catch her eye since her husband, and she’s taken with him—until she realizes he’s her leading opponent in the primary. State Senator John “Jack” Bengston can’t place where he’s seen her face, but he’d like to get to know her more. There are times when politicians want to put their identities aside.


Excerpt:
When she turned to Jack, he silently ushered her over to an empty part of the auditorium. His path required her to walk past her mother who was in deep conversation with another older woman. Lily tried to ignore her, but Martha’s suspicious stare burned through her. She turned to see her mom’s furrowed brow in full investigation of what was going on with her daughter and the handsome candidate. With no better answer or reaction, Lily shrugged and followed Jack to a side table.

Half-sitting on the table, he extended his long legs out and offered her the edge next to him. She joined him, but gripped a chair to brace herself. His smile did little to soothe her nervousness.

“So…,” he said, meeting her gaze. “I’ve been replaying how we met the other night. I’m pretty sure you were the first to omit the truth.”

“What?” She chuckled.

“I’m not saying I didn’t leave out some facts. I’m just saying I believe you did it first.”

“You said your name was Jack.”

“My family and friends call me Jack. You said your name was Lily. That’s not exactly close to Ursula.”

“I was named after both of my grandmothers. My grandmother on my father’s side was named Ursula which is my given name. Lily is the name of my mom’s mother. It’s my nickname.” She gave him a skeptical look. “But back to the fibbing. You live in San Francisco. In fact, you live in Marin; otherwise you couldn’t run for this Congressional seat.”

“I still have a house in San Francisco. I have an apartment in Marin.”“Which, no doubt, you only rented to run in this district,” she said throwing a hand on her hip in playful indignation.

“Maybe. Regardless of your point here, you were the one who fibbed first.”
She smiled and looked down for a moment. “Well…” When she looked up, she stared up into his hazel eyes. She noticed they had more green in them than brown, and the green stood out against his sandy blonde hair. “I was honest when you asked if I was a med student.”
“Ah…But when I asked if you worked in Petaluma you said ‘no.’ You said you were a nurse at CPMC. You failed to say that you were a supervisor in Sonoma County.” He snickered. “Which I might add is really your job. It’s what you do full-time and most likely where you draw a bigger paycheck since you don’t work that often at the hospital.”“Okay. That’s all true, but I didn’t lie.”
“I didn’t say you lied. I’m just saying you omitted information. Why’d you do that?”
“Oh come on,” she said, throwing up her hands in disbelief. “It was almost ten at night, I’d just come back from a run, and I looked like crap and was sweaty. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.”
His smile slowly turned into a grin. “I believe I said you looked quite the opposite of crap.”
Buy Links http://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Rivals-ebook/dp/B00BSGI50C/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2
Author Info Even before she graduated from law school, Mary knew she wasn’t cut out to be a real lawyer. Drawn to politics, she’s spent her career as an organizer, lobbyist, and nonprofit executive. Nothing piques her interest more than a good political scandal or romance, and when she stumbled upon writing, she put the two together. A born Midwesterner, naturalized Texan, and transient resident of Washington, D.C., Mary now lives in Northern California with her two daughters and real lawyer husband.

Author Links http://www.wordymary.com/   https://twitter.com/WordyMary https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Whitney-Author/196470473800100 http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5165049.Mary_Whitney http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Whitney/e/B009HCJC5Q/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1370800224&sr=8-2-ent
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Tasty Cover Reveal: Everlasting Hunger by Brandy Dorsch

Blurb: Temptation, thy name is Ian Lochlan.

That was the thought running through Ellie Dawson's head when her boss offered to escort her to a local vampire bar. Who would suspect that it was owned by him and that he would be the one to introduce her to all the pleasures of a vampire's kiss?

Passion is a different beast when vampires are involved and Ellie faces love from two very sensual creatures. Tragedy strikes and Ian relinquishes her into the arms of his best friend - Jasper. Ellie struggles with the feelings aroused in her by both men but she knows nothing can stop the Hunger.

Can she survive loving two men and the past that continues to haunt her?
Goodreads LinksGoodreads link for book:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18102910-everlasting-hungerGoodreads link for Brandy:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7141824.Brandy_Dorsch
Author InfoBrandy lives in North Dakota and dreams of running away and being an extra on The Vampire Diaries.  She is a diehard reader that can't breathe without adding something to her TBR list. She loves anything romance but has a special place in her heart for all things vampire related.  She works and goes to school but her favorite activity is spending time with her husband and two sons.  For more information on Brandy, check her out at www.brandydorsch.com
Author LinksAuthor Page:  www.brandydorsch.comEmail:  authorbrandydorsch@gmail.comAuthor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorbrandydorschTwitter:  www.twitter.com/romancebookworm Blog:  www.romancebookworm.comBlog Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/RomancebookwormsReviewsBlog email:  romancebookworm@gmail.com

Daughter of the Sky by Michelle Diener

This is an incredible story. It's so rich in history--a history I knew nothing of before reading this, people I knew nothing of, a battle I knew nothing of. It touches on so many things and is so much more than just a story.

It's about countries waging war for the wrong reasons, about underestimating others merely because they are different. It's about the life of a soldier and doing what one's told whether it's right or not. It's about divided loyalty. It's about how everyone believes they are right and their way is the right way, without regards to others.

It's Africa and the British empire wants to kill its way into owning all in site. The Zulu people intend to fight for their land and they need a little help...from a former British girl who now lives among the Zulu people. She dresses as a boy, enters, the camp, and spies for the Zulu...and through her we experience the conflicting emotions that goes with this betrayal. She's faced with some difficult choices and her turmoil radiated off the page.

She's a terrific heroine: spunky, brave, honorable, smart. She finds ways to damage their ammo as well as deliver the required data. The war itself we experience through the hero--a man willing to keep Elizabeth's secret. There's romance and drama aplenty. Elizabeth falls in love. A jealous warrior causes trouble. The life of the Zulu people...is just so fascinating. I wish there had been more of it.

The action was intense. I truly didn't know what was going to happen next. There really is no happy ending for this chick. I actually got misty eyed as I read the last page. It was so well done. The author didn't throw us a perfect ending tied in a bow, cause it would have been implausible, and I appreciated that, especially when it seems everyone is writing the most cheesy HEAs nowadays.

My only quibble is the father's journal. I didn't care about the battles in India. I was really only interested in Zululand and Elizabeth.

Four bikes. I got this from netgalley. I highly recommend it.

Favorite passages:

"Where I come from, men don't stare at women's breasts that way. I forgot that. Forgot you would consider it my duty to cover myself, not yours to turn away."

"These whitemen cannot control their lust. Their woman must wear clothes from neck to toe, I hear, because even the sight of an ankle makes them lose their composure."