Review: Rocky Mountain Cowboy Christmas

Rocky Mountain Cowboy Christmas by Katie Ruggle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Widower and fire-fighter Steve Springfield returns home to Borne, Colorado with his four kids to live at his family's Christmas Tree ranch and store with his three brothers. His first call out is for a missing person, Camille Brandt, a girl he recalls vividly from school.

Camille isn't lost at all, she's foraging in a local scrap heap for metal to use in her art, a socially-awkward loner who avoids people she can't think of anything worse than being gawked at by a whole crowd of search and rescue teams, until Steve freaking Springfield, her high school crush, takes the heat by pretending to get his foot stuck in the scrap.

But mixed in with the burgeoning romance is a mysterious shadowy figure and a spate of fires ...

This was great, a holiday romance which was just the right level of cute (brilliant, cute kids, Christmas Tree farm, sleigh rides, home-made soup) without being sickly or cloying, to be honest right up until the end it didn't even feel very Christmassy. The suspense was good and I was cleverly misdirected. As befits a holiday novel (and a single father of four teenagers) the smexy times were rare and air-brushed.

Overall, loved it, although I don't think I would classify this as a cowboy novel, but that's semantics.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Hazard

Hazard by Devon Monk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fantastic start to a new series about a hockey league for 'Marked'.

Random Hazard has everything he ever wanted within his grasp as he is a rookie drafted into the NHL, until a potentially fatal accident forces him to reveal his magic in order to save a fellow rookie's life. Excluded from the NHL Ran is tricked into trying out for the Portland Thunderbirds, a hockey league for shifters, sensitives and other magical beings.

Imagine Harry Potter as a twenty-two year old hockey player, a magical novice with immense talent, an anomaly, fighting his magic and you have may some idea of how this plays out. It's part bildungsroman, part sports romance, part urban fantasy with great characters and a fascinating piece of world-building and exploration of magic use. This promises to be a great series.

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Review: Lord of Vice

Lord of Vice by Erica Ridley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Loved it!

Over the past few books we have seen the wicked Lord of Vice Maxwell Gideon preside over his exclusive gambling den The Cloven Hoof. Created to provide a club for men who were ostracised from the elite gambling hells, the Cloven Hoof has now become one of the most popular clubs where membership is purely at Maxwell's discretion. He's built a thriving business and has a hand in many pies but his sole aim is to buy out his silent partner so that he can truly be beholden to no man, if he only he knew his identity.

Similarly we have seen Miss Bryony Grenville as a brilliant financial wizard, investing wisely and using the profits to donate anonymously to her sister's school. She is ready to cash out her investment in the Cloven Hoof, brokered by her brother, until Maxwell's offer is so much higher than he should be able to afford that she becomes suspicious, has he been holding out on her all these years? In disguise she enters The Cloven Hoof only to be discovered by Maxwell.

Maxwell is blissfully unaware of the identity of his mysterious visitor, by turns vexing and intriguing she has a keen mind and a brilliant grasp of business. But as Bryony's mother becomes more strident in her demands for Bryony to get married to a suitable member of the aristocracy can there ever been anything more between the son of a dock worker and a member of the ton?

I'm a sucker for a clever woman romance, especially if her hero is a clever man and these two were just great together and apart. Even their disagreements were clever because they showed how others can misconstrue our intentions.

Erica Ridley writes lovable heroines, glorious heroes, wonderful families and she has surpassed herself with this one.

I received a free copy of this book from the author via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Lord of Vice

Lord of Vice by Erica Ridley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Loved it!

Over the past few books we have seen the wicked Lord of Vice Maxwell Gideon preside over his exclusive gambling den The Cloven Hoof. Created to provide a club for men who were ostracised from the elite gambling hells, the Cloven Hoof has now become one of the most popular clubs where membership is purely at Maxwell's discretion. He's built a thriving business and has a hand in many pies but his sole aim is to buy out his silent partner so that he can truly be beholden to no man, if he only he knew his identity.

Similarly we have seen Miss Bryony Grenville as a brilliant financial wizard, investing wisely and using the profits to donate anonymously to her sister's school. She is ready to cash out her investment in the Cloven Hoof, brokered by her brother, until Maxwell's offer is so much higher than he should be able to afford that she becomes suspicious, has he been holding out on her all these years? In disguise she enters The Cloven Hoof only to be discovered by Maxwell.

Maxwell is blissfully unaware of the identity of his mysterious visitor, by turns vexing and intriguing she has a keen mind and a brilliant grasp of business. But as Bryony's mother becomes more strident in her demands for Bryony to get married to a suitable member of the aristocracy can there ever been anything more between the son of a dock worker and a member of the ton?

I'm a sucker for a clever woman romance, especially if her hero is a clever man and these two were just great together and apart. Even their disagreements were clever because they showed how others can misconstrue our intentions.

Erica Ridley writes lovable heroines, glorious heroes, wonderful families and she has surpassed herself with this one.

I received a free copy of this book from the author via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Magic Triumphs

Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Eleventy billion stars. Sheer perfection, the grand finale to an amazing series that made me laugh and cry, that has introduced all kinds of folklore and creatures and history to me.

Kate and Curran and all the factions we have met over the past nine books come together to fight the worst enemy yet. All our old favourites are here one last time and it is EPIC.

Ilona Andrews did us proud, it could only have been better if it were 10 times longer.

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Review: Duke of Midnight

Duke of Midnight by Elizabeth Hoyt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

By day Maximus Batten is the stern young Duke of Wakefield, but by night he's the Ghost of St Giles desperately looking for the man who murdered his parents twenty years ago. He has spent his life trying to live up to what he imagines are his father's expectations of the Duke of Wakefield and doing everything within his power to remove the scourge of gin from London's streets. He needs a suitably genteel member of the aristocracy to marry and Lady Penelope Chadwicke fits the bill, no matter that he has nothing in common with her.

Artemis Greaves had an unusual but happy childhood until her twin brother Apollo was accused of murdering four friends and was bundled off to Bedlam rather than face a trial. Four years later Artemis is tarnished by her family's history of madness and is lucky to have a job as her remote cousin Lady Penelope Chadwicke's companion. Unfortunately Lady Penelope is rather shallow and thoughtless, she is determined that a beautiful wealthy heiress such as herself should marry a Duke, no lesser peers for her, and has set her cap at the Duke of Wakefield as he is young, handsome and wealthy as well as being a Duke. When challenged to go into St Giles and drink a glass of gin by an equally thoughtless young man she has no hesitation in wandering into one of the most dangerous areas of London, accompanied only by Artemis. When they are about to be attacked by a group of men they are rescued by a masked man in a harlequin costume - the infamous Ghost of St Giles.

Maximus has always overlooked the mousy companion that follows Lady Penelope around, but after finding the two of them wandering St Giles in the middle of the night he was astonished to see that Artemis was carrying a knife in her boot, the more he gets to know her the more fascinating he finds her, but marriage to a woman with insanity in the family is out of the question.

I liked this but I didn't love it. I hated the fact that Maximus called Artemis 'Diana' ALL THE TIME, I feel if you are naked with someone they should at least call you by your real name once. Also, I thought it was morally wrong for Maximus to ruin a young woman of quality that he had no intention of marrying and to continue an affair regardless.

Also I didn't quite understand why the man who murdered Maximus' parents suddenly reappeared (maybe I skimmed over that point and didn't realise what I'd missed), nor did I quite understand why he killed them in the first place. But maybe these issues are with me not reading closely enough.


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Review: Single Dad's Mistake

Single Dad's Mistake by Sam Destiny
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Knox Dyer's teenage son Callum has been hanging with the wrong crowd in Atlanta and getting into trouble so Knox gives up his career as a lawyer and moves to a small town to start over, although not as a lawyer.

On the first day, moving in, he and Callum get into another verbal fight on the doorstep which is interrupted by a woman out jogging who is cute and toned and funny. When she brings over pizza later that night as a welcome to the neighbourhood Knox could be in love, only trouble is, so could Callum! When Callum challenges Knox and says Sarah is interested in him, makes it a competition, Knox knows he needs to push Sarah away to avoid any awkward declarations of love from Callum.

Sarah Burke is a cop, she takes a keen interest in her community but has been single ever since her daughter died. When her captain insists she hosts the annual Police ball she is determined not to be sat on the sad singles table AGAIN so she lies and says she's bringing a boyfriend, and who better than the sexy single dad who just moved in down the road, perhaps she can bribe him to be her fake boyfriend with pizza?

Knox is the first man Sarah has felt anything for, the first man that has interested her at all since her child died, but she can't tell whether he's acting interested because he's her fake boyfriend or whether he feels the same way she does. And then he suddenly pulls away and says she can't come round anymore?

Fun novella that felt like it could have been a full-length novel, I had lots of questions about why Knox would give up being a lawyer and become a removal guy? Surely being a lawyer is a pretty portable profession? And why move home without even looking for a new job? And I didn't really understand why Callum's crush had to be a secret or why that meant that Sarah shouldn't come over to the house.

But overall, if you fancy a hot single dad and a sassy cop novella then this is right up your street.

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Review: A Village Affair: Perfect for fans of Katie Fforde and Gervaise Phinn

A Village Affair: Perfect for fans of Katie Fforde and Gervaise Phinn by Julie Houston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cassie Beresford is feeling pretty smug. She's happily married to practically her first boyfriend, living her dream life in a modern house with two children and about to step into her dream job as deputy head of the local secondary school. Then a drunken friend announces to the entire audience at a charity dinner auction that Cassie's husband has been having an affair with his wife (Cassie's best friend for almost as long as she has known her husband) for the past two years. Suddenly the life that was so different from her hippy mother's is disintegrating around her ears.

Suddenly alone, she finds out that she has been promoted to acting head after the head teacher died of a heart attack. Then, when things can't seem to get any worse, she finds out that local landowners are planning to build 3,000 homes on a beautiful piece of land backing onto her grandfather's house that he has planted with wildflowers and has become known as his field as a result.


Cassie is dealing with her grandfather, her hippy mother, her goth daughter, recalcitrant parents and children at the school, the school governors, her ex-BFF and her ex-husband and the realisation that she may have over-compensated for her what she perceives as the short-comings of her childhood.

I really enjoyed this novel, it had enough characters to be interesting, enough red herrings to make the love interest a surprise, enough plot to move the story along and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: A Country Escape

A Country Escape by Katie Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Delicious English romance about a London chef who is contacted by a distant relative and invited to spend a year looking after her farm in the Cotswolds, at the end of the year she could inherit the farm if she makes a go of it.

Fran comes down to her great aunt's farm to find it debt-ridden and unable to sell the milk from the special herd because of the terrible state of the farm track. Desperate not to waste any of the milk she starts to make cheese and cream and anything else she can think of. Assisted by the cowhand Tig and her BFF Issi Fran has to decide who she can trust. Is it her next door neighbour the suave, sophisticated and very wealthy Anthony who seems very helpful and willing to lend her money, but does he just want to buy the farm from her? Or what about her long-lost cousin from Australia, is he there to help or hinder?

This is the first Katie Fforde I have read recently which isn't about a trio of women, so that was a nice change! This is an easy read, no great surprises but very enjoyable with a have-a-go heroine and a delicious, very sweet hero. Perfect beach read.

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Review: A Country Escape

A Country Escape by Katie Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Dragon Storm

Dragon Storm by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fantastic start to a new series following on from the totally awesome Dragon Blood series - even better it was free on Kindle.

This first book in a new series focuses on a small team of relatively junior officers who have been brought together by General Ridgewalker Zirkander for a mission to find swords and other magical artifacts capable of slaying the dragons which have somehow opened a portal back into the world and to ultimately destroy that portal.

Telryn 'Trip' Yert and his friend Lu "Leftie" Lymander are dragon flier pilots. Trip has a secret, he gets hunches which are almost always right and sometimes, when he doesn't pay attention, he can break things without touching them.

Rysha Ravenwood is a strange recruit to the elite troops, from a noble family she is scholarly and short-sighted with an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of dragon lore.

The team also includes Jaxi (the soul blade), Captain Kaika the explosives expert, Major Blazer, Duck and a morose Cofah soldier.

If you like fantasy road trip plots with sarcastic sentient magical artifacts and pompous dragons then this is the novel for you. There's plenty of battles, big and small, humour, magic and a cracking plot.

Highly recommended.

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Review: Darkest Heart

Darkest Heart by Juliette Cross
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 44%. First off, let me just say, it's me not the book.

The angels and demons have started waging war on each other and the humans are caught in the cross-fire. Anya is an angel who has become disillusioned with the angels and their disregard for human life, she's been bitten by a demon prince and has very little time before she becomes his thrall.

Dommiel is a demon who has grown sick of the violence and the war, when a favour is called in he can't refuse, but soon the unthinkable happens, the demon and the angel have feelings for one another.

Let me be 100% honest, the reason I did not finish the book was because what I really wanted was an urban fantasy type arc where Anya and Dommiel love from afar but but do nothing for at least three or four books. When the plot veered towards instant resolution my interest waned. I wanted snark and unrequited love and angst but what I got was more instalove.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.


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Review: A Vintage Wedding

A Vintage Wedding by Katie Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Following what appears to be a trend in the Katie Fforde books I have read, this is about three young women, brought together by a village hall meeting, who, despite their differences become friends and start a wedding planning business.

Beth is currently between jobs, an ebay expert, she has escaped her mother's domineering ways by moving to small village in the Cotswolds, she has agreed to organise her sister's wedding on the cheap because her sister has spent the money their mother gave her for the wedding on overseas travel with her fiance.

Lindy is a divorced single mother of two, making ends meet by hemming curtains and turning up trousers. She is thrilled at the idea of making wedding dresses and bridesmaids dresses from things Beth has found on ebay.

Rachel is a recently divorced accountant, slightly obsessed with order and cleanliness she doesn't like anyone to come into her cottage in case they get things dirty or move something from its correct place.

Between the three of them they hope to organise Beth's sisters wedding, then Lindy's mother lets slip that she has rented the village hall out to a local girl and offered their services to the bride to help plan her wedding. Soon in a whirlwind of tulle and gypsophila the girls are becoming friends, improving their lives and organising weddings, there is also romance in the air from the local ne'er do well Lovejoy look-alike, Lindy's husband's older brother and the bride's older brother.

I liked this book but I felt it was overlong, maybe each of the women could have had their own books rather than having three romances and a fledgling business in a single book. Having said that, I had the opposite complaint about the previous book I read by Katie Fforde so maybe its just me being contrary.

If you like cutesy English villages, have an ebay obsession or are just mildly obsessive about nice smelling candles I'm sure you'll enjoy these wedding planners as they rejuvenate the village and rope all the villagers into their cottage industry.

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Review: The Cowboy's Last Rodeo

The Cowboy's Last Rodeo by Jeannie Watt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Shane Marvell is in his final year as a bronc rider, but he's facing a crossroads. He needs to win big in order to fund some kind of training for a future career, otherwise he's going to return to the family farm and share a bathroom with his adult siblings with nothing to contribute and nothing to show for a career in rodeo. His brutal rejection by his former girlfriend who said he wasn't husband material has also contributed to his feelings of being unworthy.

Ella Etxeberri is the only risk-averse member of her family of rock-climbers, fire-fighters and former bull-riders. An academic, she has just been overlooked for a role for which she is ideally suited and has run away to lick her wounds and pursue a potential masters thesis on the psychology of bull-riders and risk. She's interviewing cowboys at the rodeo when she sees Shane and there are instant sparks.

This is definitely an opposites attract romance. Shane didn't finish school and has nothing to show for his career, unless he wins this final year, Ella is an academic working towards her masters degree. She's risk-averse, he takes risks for a living. They are both trying to change their behaviour patterns but is love in the picture?

I liked this novel, there was more rodeo than some of the other books, more riding, more farming, more cowboys which I appreciated.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: A Prior Engagement: Special Forces #4

A Prior Engagement: Special Forces #4 by Karina Bliss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the surprise book for me. The series is about a group of four New Zealand SAS buddies who were all affected by an ambush in Afghanistan. The original premise was that Lee had been killed in action and the three surviving friends had to deal with variously: killing the fifth member of the team to prevent him from being tortured by the Taliban; being badly wounded and unable to return to the SAS; and feeling guilty for not being on the mission because of toothache.

Anyway, before he went on the fatal mission Lee had bought an engagement ring for the woman he had been dating for six weeks, Juliet (Jules) Browne. After his 'death' his friends gave Jules the ring, not knowing that she had rejected his proposal. In the 19 months since Lee's death Jules has become part of the group of friends, so much so that the goys persuaded her to go on a date with one of the local guys!

Lee can't believe that the guys consider Jules to be one of the family, how could she possibly have accepted that ring after rejecting him so brutally? Then he finds out that she has also cozied up to his late father and siblings, even holidaying in far flung destinations with his father and he is incensed to find that Jules has inherited money from his father. Clearly this woman is a scheming gold-digger who has lied to Lee's friends and family. So he pretends amnesia to see whether Jules will come clean when they meet face-to-face.

Jules has spent the last 19 months wishing she had told the truth when Lee's friends gave her the ridiculous engagement ring but they seemed to need it as much as she did. Now she wants to tell him the truth but she doesn't want to upset him when he is clearly suffering PTSD and has lots of other issues, including amnesia. Even worse, she invested the money she inherited in a partnership in the legal practice where she works, in order to pay Lee back all his money she will need to sell her house or the share in the partnership.

I really enjoyed this, despite having wished that strait-laced Jules would tame the rockstar that Nate has been bodyguarding in Hollywood. I love a pretend amnesia plot and this didn't disappoint, although I did think it floundered a little bit in the middle. I'm sorry to have reached the end of this series as I enjoyed the trials and tribulations that these guys have endured.



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Review: Mr. Imperfect

Mr. Imperfect by Karina Bliss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kezia Rose inherits a ramshackle hotel and pub from her grandmother, unfortunately it is run-down, practically falling down, mortgaged to the hilt and on the verge of bankruptcy. At her funeral bad boy Christian Kelly comes back to town, Kezia's childhood sweetheart, he loved Muriel Rose like his own grandmother but is horrified when her will spells out the dire financial straits the hotel is in but forbids him from gifting/ lending/ paying the money required, instead she demands that Christian stay and help Kezia come up with a plan to reverse the hotel's fortunes.

I'll be honest, there was so much angst in this book it was tiring. Christian and Kezia both bear a grudge, and feel like the wronged party, over the way their romance ended. In fact, they have both in their own ways being living their lives ever since in a kind of holding pattern. Being forced together brings out all the pain from the past, uncovers secrets and bares emotions. By the end the only person I liked was Roland the rat.

Overall, I would classify this as kitchen sink angst (ie the author has thrown in everything but the kitchen sink), alcoholism, orphans, MIA parents, abuse, neglect, gambling (and those are the ones which don't give away key plot devices!).

I really liked Karina Bliss' Special Forces series but so far I'm not so keen on the Lost Boys.

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Review: Lord of Darkness

Lord of Darkness by Elizabeth Hoyt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reading the earlier books in the series when you've the later books is slightly disconcerting because you know that certain people are married, or aren't who they seem, and it can be confusing.

Nevertheless, this was an entertaining read.

Godric St John's first wife died a decade ago. He was blackmailed into marrying Margaret by her older brother Griffin in exchange for Griffin's silence about Godric's secret identity as the Ghost of St Giles. Margaret was pregnant at the time with her dead lover's baby and needed a husband to save herself from being ostracised by society. Unfortunately Margaret (or Megs as she prefers) lost the baby shortly after the marriage. Since that time two years ago Megs has lived on Godric's country estate and Godric has lived in London. But now Megs desperately wants a baby and is determined to avenge the murder of her lover so she returns to London. The twist? She believes her lover was murdered by the Ghost of St Giles!

Godric and Megs are both in love with people who died and both believe that they can never love again. But as they fight and spend time together it seems there may be a second chance for both of them. But the real identity of the murderer is a mystery and leads the two of them into danger.

I enjoyed this, Godric was a bit irritating at times with his obsession with rescuing the people of St Giles but in the end he was quicker to realise that he loved Megs than she was to realise that she loved him - so it all worked out in the end.

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Review: Boy Toy

Boy Toy by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whew, what a relief!

I enjoyed the first book in this series but really could not get into the second book (Man Card) at all so I approached this third book with trepidation - I loved it.

Sadie is a divorced mother of three year old twin girls. After her divorce she has had a crisis of confidence as her husband said he found her unattractive after giving birth (charmer). Then she runs into Liam, a guy she used to babysit when she was 20 and he was 14 years old, he's now 29 years old, fit, and working at the new daycare centre she is leaving the twins.

What follows is a glorious romance between a gun-shy divorcee and a too-good-to-be-true younger guy who still holds a flame for his first true love (the babysitter). Liam was glorious, Sadie was sweet, the twins were the cutest moppets ever. I might even have rated this higher if it weren't for Sadie's friends Ash and Brynn who were super annoying.

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Review: Irish On The Rocks

Irish On The Rocks by Magan Vernon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

So, this series is based the premise that in this day and age a father can leave his multi-million euro pub and whisky business to his three sons on the proviso that they must each be married within six months (and stay together for at least six months), otherwise the business will be offered to the highest bidder by the board.

Jack Murphy is the oldest brother, the CEO, he has a bad reputation of being an exacting boss and can't keep an assistant for more than a few weeks, ever since his brother Connor married his best assistant Fallon. As a child he was cocky and obnoxious, especially to his younger brother Sean and Sean's best friend Grace. At a charity ball he meets Grace again, looking somewhat different to the short frizzy -haired girl with glasses he remembers. Things are going well, they flirt and then it all goes horribly wrong and Grace accidentally knocks a full glass of champagne all over him. Words are spoken and both Jack and Grace take offence.

Of course it turns out that Grace, a book editor who has recently been made redundant, is perfect for the job of assistant and despite their initial animosity it seems as though there are major sparks between them. But Jack needs a wife and Grace has vowed never to marry after her parents' acrimonious divorce left her mother heartbroken and destitute (although Grace's grandfather is a millionaire).

I really struggle to get my head around this series. The men are too young to be running a multi-million euro business and the board are all too old and cliched. The big misunderstanding between Grace and Jack I just can't get my head around at all. I don't understand why he was angry/ upset. Overall, everyone felt like a caricature.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.


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Review: The Bull Rider's Return

The Bull Rider's Return by Joan Kilby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Cody Starr has a reputation on the rodeo circuit as a bad boy, tats, drinking, stupid stunts, love 'em and leave 'em. He's the youngest son in a family of businessmen and over-achievers, content to waste his rodeo winnings on booze and gambling.

Then one day he takes pity on a struggling waitress in a diner with a sick son and hands over his $65,000 winnings (prize money plus a lucky streak gambling) to help pay for her son's heart operation. When his family ask how he's going to invest his winnings he lies and says he blew it all gambling.

Single mom Kelly Reid can't believe the change that Cody's generosity has made to her life and the life of her son Ricky. The two of them have travelled to Marietta to the 79th Copper Mountain rodeo to say thank-you in person, but soon one gossipy old woman creates a media storm about Cody's generosity and suddenly he might not be the no-good, unreliable bad boy that everyone thought he was.

Cody's harshest critic is himself - can he see himself the way that Kelly and Ricky do? Can he take a chance on himself?

I liked this but I had conflicted feelings about Kelly and Cody. I get that Cody is the youngest son and has never really grown up, even though he has been supporting himself since he was 16 years old, but his constant need to run away got tired. Kelly on the other hand was the romantic stereotype of the perfect single mom, except she dragged her son backwards and forwards on a whim following/ leaving a man and putting him and out of different schools. I think, maybe, I would have liked this better if Cody had had his epiphany earlier because neither of them came out of the last few chapters well (in my opinion).

But overall I still enjoyed this, there was more of the rodeo which I appreciated, no point in a series set around a rodeo if there's no bull-riding!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Cowboy Come Home

Cowboy Come Home by Sinclair Jayne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Boone Telford is the only child of Taryn Telford not to make a mark in the world. One of his brothers, Rohan, is a decorated special forces soldier, his brother Witt is a doctor, his little sister Riley is a successful country singer, all he is is a semi-successful cowboy on the rodeo circuit. His father was a mega successful bull rider who went on to save the family ranch, he wants Boone to work on the ranch but Boone doesn't want to be known as Taryn's son or Witt's younger brother, or Riley's older brother, he just wants to be known for his own achievements.

Boone has been dating/ travelling with Piper Wiley for four months. Polar opposites in temperament, careers and lives they are inseparable until the rodeo comes to Marietta, Boone's home town, and Boone gets paralysed by his need to prove himself which is in direct conflict with his desire for Piper.

I have to be honest, although I loved Kane, this book left me cold and just a little frustrated. Cold, because I thought Piper was a spineless Stepford wife running around crying that no-one liked her and Boone was flailing around in the dark wanting to be someone but having no idea what he wanted to do. Also I have zero tolerance for men who can't bear to have a difficult conversation but have no difficulty in having sex with the woman instead. Frustrated because somewhere in there was a plot I wanted to read but it was buried deep beneath sexual acrobatics and hand-wringing 'emoshuns'.

Overall, not enough rodeo, too much navel-gazing, and I didn't like the hero or the heroine.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Edited: annoyingly I reviewed a rogue version on Goodreads - now attached to the right one!

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Review: The Rodeo Cowboy's Baby

The Rodeo Cowboy's Baby by Heidi Rice
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Evie Donnelly is an Irish journalist with a relatively successful blog, in a local New York newspaper, called Evie8 which started out as a single woman's musings on life in New York and the vagaries of the dating scene. Then she met 'the one', got married and tried to have a baby, and tried, and tried. Her blog became about IVF, infertility and disappointment and the disintegration of her marriage. The cherry on the cake? Her ex-husband has got his new girlfriend pregnant 'by accident'.

Her pit-bull editor tells Evie that her blog has become too sad and depressing and needs new blood - and what screams new blood more than riding a cowboy? Not as off-the-wall as it sounds, Evie's BFF Charlie is a photographer and she lives in Marietta which just happens to be hosting the 79th Copper Mountain Rodeo. She's invited Evie to stay and cover the rodeo.

Evie is too emotionally battered to think about an affair, when Charlie tries to pimp one of her husband's cowboys Flynn as a fantastic guy who only does one-night stands Evie is horrified and gives Charlie her opinion of farm boys/ cowboys with extremely colourful language. Unfortunately Flynn is outside in the corridor, in turns furious at being judged by a total stranger (and of course being lumped together with farm boys as if they were remotely similar to cowboys) and turned on by the husky Irish accent.

Flynn is the sort of guy who gets on with everyone, so the antagonism he feels for Evie is unusual, but he is determined to make this beautiful, ethereal woman eat her words.

But when the rodeo is over, Evie and Flynn can’t forget those three stolen nights together in Marietta–especially when their wild, wonderful ride turns out to have even more unforgettable consequences.

I'm reading this series all out of order but I have to say this is the best one I've read so far (of three). It's earthy and funny and sassy and hawt. Phew-ee, Evie and Flynn have so much chemistry it just jumps right off the Kindle screen.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Cowboy Come Home

Cowboy Come Home by Sinclair Jayne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Boone Telford is the only child of Taryn Telford not to make a mark in the world. One of his brothers, Rohan, is a decorated special forces soldier, his brother Witt is a doctor, his little sister Riley is a successful country singer, all he is is a semi-successful cowboy on the rodeo circuit. His father was a mega successful bull rider who went on to save the family ranch, he wants Boone to work on the ranch but Boone doesn't want to be known as Taryn's son or Witt's younger brother, or Riley's older brother, he just wants to be known for his own achievements.

Boone has been dating/ travelling with Piper Wiley for four months. Polar opposites in temperament, careers and lives they are inseparable until the rodeo comes to Marietta, Boone's home town, and Boone gets paralysed by his need to prove himself which is in direct conflict with his desire for Piper.

I have to be honest, although I loved Kane, this book left me cold and just a little frustrated. Cold, because I thought Piper was a spineless Stepford wife running around crying that no-one liked her and Boone was flailing around in the dark wanting to be someone but having no idea what he wanted to do. Also I have zero tolerance for men who can't bear to have a difficult conversation but have no difficulty in having sex with the woman instead. Frustrated because somewhere in there was a plot I wanted to read but it was buried deep beneath sexual acrobatics and hand-wringing 'emoshuns'.

Overall, not enough rodeo, too much navel-gazing, and I didn't like the hero or the heroine.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Chase

The Chase by Elle Kennedy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dean Di Lauretis' little sister Summer has been kicked out of Brown for burning down her sorority and her father has pulled some strings to get her into Briar University. Unfortunately for Summer her sorority sisters refuse to let her join at Briar, citing her bad behaviour, so she is suddenly homeless just before term starts.

Dean arranges for her to take his room at the townhouse he used to share with Hollis, Hunter and Fitzy which is great, if Summer hadn't been dissed by Fitzy and retaliated by kissing Hunter at a New Years' Eve party - awkward!

Colin Fitzpatrick has spent most of his childhood and all of his adult life as a pawn in his parents' acrimonious divorce, he daren't tell anyone how he actually feels for fear it will be used as a weapon in a divorce battle that has never truly ended.

Summer may be the daughter of two successful lawyers and obscenely wealthy by anyone's standards but that doesn't mean she's had it easy. A form of ADHD means she finds studying difficult and writing essays a herculean feat, when the rest of your family are hot-shot lawyers it can be devastating when you are failing a fashion course for the written work. Self-esteem issues aside, Summer is Colin's opposite: outspoken where he is reserved, gregarious where he is a loner, fashion to his jock. Yet neither of them can deny their attraction.

I liked this, but I didn't love it. It was funny and sweet and sexy, yet I'll be honest, three hours after reading the book I couldn't remember the heroine's name.

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Review: Butterface

Butterface by Avery Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gina Luca is a wedding planner, she is also related to the Esposito family of mobsters, her grandfather was Big Nose Tommy who disappeared 20 years ago. She has become accustomed to the fact that she has inherited her grandad's nose as well as his Victorian house and she is comfortable with who she is, until a wedding cam catches her and one of the sexiest police detectives at Waterbury Police Department, Ford Hartigan. Ford is a by-the-book kind of guy, a rule-follower, the only thing he ever did outside the lines was to become a police officer instead of a fireman like the rest of his family.

Ford is attracted to the curvy, sexy wedding planner but he could never date someone related to organised crime, Gina's brothers are known to skirting the edges of criminality and he can't be associated with that kind of thing. Until his captain orders him to get closer to Gina in order to find out if her brothers are involved in a big drugs shipment expected to arrive soon. His bog opportunity when Gina discovers what seems to be her Grandad Tommy's remains in her house and Ford moves in 'for her own safety'.

Attracted to a woman who might be involved in criminality, Ford is torn between doing his job and falling for Gina. On her side, Gina knows a hottie like Ford isn't interested in her, she just can't quite work out what his angle is. Ever since she was labelled Butterface (good body, but her face!) Gina has known she's been hit by the ugly stick. So we've got a by-the-books cop lying to a woman with non-existent self-esteem.

This was a fun read, I liked Gina and Ford, and Ford's big noisy family. There's house renovations and cannoli and family dinners and insensitive jerks and bitchy women. A lovely funny romance.

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Review: The Cowboy Meets His Match

The Cowboy Meets His Match by Sarah Mayberry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

CJ Cooper is one of the first women to qualify as a pro bronc rider and her first competition is in Marietta, Montana. She meets a tall good-looking cowboy, Jesse Carmody who is her main competition but she can 't afford to get distracted or to get a reputation as a buckle bunny.

I would categorise this as a book of two plots. The first, shorter plot is abut CJ's first rodeo and the antagonism she faces from other competitors. The second plot is her insta-love with Jesse and his issues with his family, who live in Marietta. This longer second plot also seems to set up romances for each of Jesse's siblings.

I enjoyed this but I thought it was too light on plot generally, and rodeo specifically, and too heavy on the insta-love sexy times between CJ and Jesse. I was looking for a rodeo romance and this only half delivered on that.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Anyone for Seconds?

Anyone for Seconds? by Laurie Graham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

I haven't read the previous book but this seemed easy to pick up. Lizzie Partridge was a TV chef on a morning TV show, when she was replaced by a one-trick pony chef who was sleeping with the producer she may have had a spectacular final show ... At the time she was too busy with her new romance to seriously look for more work and since then she has bumbled along quite happily, then her relationship with Tom broke down and so we see Lizzie at the start of the book, alone and jobless. Her mother relies on her brother and doesn't need Lizzie, her daughter Ellie has her career and her son to keep her occupied. Lizzie has never felt more alone. Sixty-four years old, overweight, jobless and surplus to everyone's requirements.

Lizzie decides the easiest thing to do is run away, she thinks that her friends and family will discover she's missing and the next thing it will be the front page of the tabloids - British celebrity TV chef goes missing, a bit like when Agatha Christie disappeared. Not having thought things through before running away, Lizzie doesn't have her passport so instead of a week in Spain she gets on a train to Aberystwyth and spends the week talking to soil conventioneers and furries.

I could totally see this as a Sunday night TV series, maybe featuring Dawn French (I know she's not that old), on Sky One or ITV. It wasn't laugh out loud funny but it was humorous, Lizzie has a dry wit and a habit of creating newspaper headlines from the things people do and say around her. I could empathise with the politics of parents and siblings and children and organising Christmas in October and trying to please everyone all the time and ending up with everyone hating it.

New love, new career prospects, babysitting her grandson, trying to connect with her mother, watching her BFF in panto, this was a fun read, with some serious moments and some poignant ones too - when Lizzie's father used to say he went to war and lived to tell the tale but as Lizzie recalls he never told any tales of that time - that really struck a chord with me. Overall I enjoyed it but I thought the ending was a bit abrupt.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Tiebreaker

Tiebreaker by P. Dangelico
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I don't know where to start with this one. I have loved all the other books I have read by P Dangelico and I was super excited when I saw this had released. Unfortunately this felt like it was written by a different person.

Maren Murphy is a highly successful tennis player, dating her coach, she breaks her arm in the final of the US Open and discovers that her grandfather Rowdy has died and she is named as an executor of the will. Her grandfather's will has a number of stipulations, most of them involving the love of her life since she was 10 years old, Noah Callahan. Rowdy and Noah were business partners and if Maren is to inherit she must stay in her old home town and learn the business. Maren hasn't been back home for years, ever since Noah betrayed her most horribly. Now she is determined to come back a winner and rub his nose in it. According to the blurb Noah was a bad boy, he's reformed and he wants a chance to prove to Maren that he loves her. I have to say I saw very little evidence of any of that. Noah seemed to sulk and pout and be rude to Maren by turns, apparently she could see 'in his eyes' the feelings he isn't expressing. I call bulls&*t.

The previous books I have read (in the Hard to Love series) had endearing heroines and sparkled with humour. I have to say I didn't warm to Maren or Noah. I didn't see that either of them loved the other for the person they had become, their love seemed to be based on the teens they used to be. I certainly didn't find either of them loveable, or even likeable. I also have to say I am 'over' books where the main characters allude to 'something' which happened to change their lives and yet the reader is kept in suspense for most of the book as to what the 'something' is. Frankly by the time the secret is revealed I was (i) unimpressed and (ii) irritated beyond words. Also, it was a plot device I had read more than once before.

On the plus side, I want to read about Maren's sister Bebe - I see a twisted relationship between her and the dark and dangerous police chief as she tries to lose her pesky V-card in order to seduce Peter Perfect - some kind of sex guru romance.

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