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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