Wooing Cadie McCaffrey

BETHANY TURNER

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2019.

How acquired: Revell Reads Blog Tour Program

First line: Four years ago, on my thirtieth birthday, I had two very important realizations.

My thoughts: Part of what drew me to wanting to read this book was the line in the synopsis about Will using wooing tactics from Cadie’s favorite romantic comedies. That actually ended up just being a small part of the overall story though. But I still really enjoyed this rom-com of a book! Sometimes when two characters in a romance novel are torn apart because of the Big Misunderstanding it’s frustrating to the point of cliché. I want to yell at them to just talk to each other! But here that plot point worked very well. Cadie is a great character, and I could totally sympathize with her feelings about her relationship with Will. Well, my younger self could, as I was in a similar situation many many years ago. And I loved Will. A bit hapless and clueless but charming and devoted. The friendships they had with their coworkers and the boss were amusing and touching. My only complaint is that in the beginning the narrative jumping around in time was a little jarring and sometimes confused me a bit, though if I hadn’t been in the middle of a sudden house moving and had trouble finding time to sit and read for more than twenty or thirty minutes at once, it may not have felt that way, and I did like the engaging writing.

Synopsis: After four years with her boyfriend, Cadie McCaffrey is thinking of ending things. Convinced Will doesn't love her in the "forever" way she loves him, Cadie believes it's time for her to let him go before life passes her by. When a misunderstanding leads to a mistake, leaving her hurt, disappointed, and full of regret, she finally sends him packing.

But for Will, the end of their relationship is only the beginning of his quest to figure out how to be the man Cadie wanted him to be. With the dubious guidance of his former pro-athlete work friends and tactics drawn from Cadie's favorite romantic comedies, Will attempts to win her back. It's a foolproof plan. What could possibly go wrong?

Bethany Turner is back with more of the heart and humor readers love. Anyone who enjoys a good romance or binges romantic comedies on Netflix will devour this delightful story.

Desire's Captive (Harlequin Presents No. 609)

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT SOME MAY CONSIDER SPOILERS.

PENNY JORDAN

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Harlequin Books, 1983.

How acquired: Who knows. I registered it on BookCrossing in 2003 after retrieving some boxes of books that my husband had put in the attic when we moved into our house some seven or eight years previously.

First line: 'Saffron, my dear, you look wonderful – so like your mother!'

My thoughts: So many conflicting emotions. Saffron meets Nico, is entranced by him, he seems entranced by her. He takes her on a picnic. Next thing she knows three more people show up and she's taken hostage at gunpoint. And Nico is the leader of the gang of kidnappers.

So despite the kidnapping, and the ruthless way he treated her while she was held captive, I knew Nico was the hero. No other man is mentioned in the synopsis on the back cover. So he had to be. But I just couldn't see how. For the entire book I just couldn't figure out he could possibly redeem himself and not end up in jail. Because obviously if he repented for his deeds and went to jail in the end, there wouldn't be an HEA. Unless the book jumped forward to his release. But that just didn't seem plausible. If one of the other men had lured her to the remote area where she was kidnapped, then I could easily assume right off the bat that Nico was working with the kidnappers in an undercover capacity. Perfectly plausible. But he engineered the kidnapping.

Of course it all works out in the end. But after learning the truth, the whole truth, I was outraged on Saffron's behalf. Outraged that her father had allowed Nico to kidnap her. Outraged that Saffron seemed to harbor no anger at her father for allowing her to be put in that situation. In my head I wrote an epilogue in which, after the initial joy of being reunited with Nico and learning he was actually one of the good guys had worn off, Saffron would vent her anger on both Nico and her father. Oh, she'd still marry Nico, of course. But she would hold their actions over both their heads for awhile and make them both grovel for her forgiveness.

Whew. Ok. Now that I got that out of the way. I read the majority for this book in one day. I liked Saffron. She was strong. She was frightened but defiant. She was attracted to Nico and hated him for it. She was shrewd in her observations of Olivia, the female kidnapper who was jealous of her and the hold she seemed to have over Nico. And of course I liked Nico as well. I mean, I knew the anger he often took out on Saffron wasn't out of meanness, it was for show around the other members of the gang, and it was his own defense against the feelings he felt for her.

Ugh. I'm not a hundred percent sure I even liked the book. No, that's a lie. I did like it. But I'm not proud of that.

Goodreads synopsis: Her worst fears had come true. Being kidnapped by political terrorists was the realization of Saffron Wykeham's worst nightmares. And to be taken to an isolated primitive farmhouse and subjected to the volatile dangerous temperaments of her captors was worse than she ever could have imagined. For Nico Doranti, the man she loved, the one man to whom her whole being responded, had manipulated her descent into hell. Though calculating and callous, he was her only hope for escape-and for future happiness.

Touch of Smoke

KARISSA LAUREL

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Red Adept Publishing, 2019.

How acquired: Received from the author for review.

First line: The day I left Evansville, I twisted my rearview mirror until it reflected the ceiling of my daddy's '61 Apache and not the road behind me.

My thoughts: Isn't that cover gorgeous?

The paranormal aspect of this romance unfolded very slowly, and I loved the way that happened. Rikki has returned home to Evansville after being away three years. Arriving in town, she's greeted with a little hostility and a lot of hurt from her friends and family over the way she took off. She's here to face her demons and get some answers about the death of her best friend. The narrative jumps back and forth between the present and the past. We follow Rikki apprehensively greeting her mother, her friends, and her former love, Owen, who she blames for Mina's death. In between those chapters, we go back three years and follow Rikki as she first meets and falls for Owen. There are hints about the paranormal aspect sprinkled throughout the two narratives, and we gradually learn more about Owen and his abilities. And when it's finally revealed just exactly what Owen is, or rather why Owen is the way he is, it was quite a departure from the usual paranormal tropes.

Owen is also former military, which ticks one of my boxes, and I was quickly enamored with him. And I really liked Rikki as well. Watching their relationship slowly develop was fun.

“I'm named after my dad.”

"Was he hoping for a boy?”

I balled a fist. “Were you hoping for a fat lip?”

Along with a little humor there's a bit of brooding and plenty of angst without dipping into depressive.

But the ending threw me a little. The narrative is in first person POV from Rikki, and the logical part of my brain couldn't understand how Rikki could be telling us the story at the point. Unless there will be a sequel or a second book. We don't necessarily get an HEA, but there is the possibility of one so that didn't bother me.

Overall, I enjoyed this romance from a new to me author. Her other books, based on the synopses I read, sound a little intriguing but not something I would normally choose to read, not being a big fan of mythology, but I liked her writing here well enough that if I come across them I'm very likely now to pick them up. And I do hope that there will be another book about Rikki and Owen, or at least set in their world. I'd gladly read about Luke next.

Goodreads synopsis: Three years ago, Rikki Albemarle watched her best friend die at the hands of a supernatural evil. Certain she was slated to be the next victim, Rikki fled her small Smoky Mountain hometown, vowing to never come back. Plagued by nightmares and knowing she's the only one who believes Mina's death was no accident, Rikki returns with hopes of finding answers and holding the killer accountable.

Rikki is convinced the key to unlocking the secret of Mina's death lies with Owen Amir, the alluring young army vet who once claimed her heart. But the deeper Rikki digs into Owen's past, the more she's torn between the urgings of her heart and her memories of him on the night Mina died.

After falling further into the rabbit hole, Rikki lands at the feet of an ancient and powerful evil determined to finish what it started years before. To survive, she'll have to make a decision: believe Owen is the monster she always feared he might be or trust him enough to stay and fight for a second chance at love.

Precious Cargo: My Year Driving the Kids on School Bus 3077

CRAIG DAVIDSON

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Knopf Canada, 2016.

How acquired: Via Bookcrossing.

First line: I trudged across a field against a late-September wind that flattened my jacket against my chest.

My thoughts: Broke after some early success as a writer, Craig Davidson was desperate for any job that could provide some income. He had just applied for, and not gotten, a Lunch Supervisor position, when he found a flyer for bus drivers wanted. He called, and wound up driving a “short bus” with six special needs children.

I was a bit astounded at how easily he was hired to drive a school bus. I guess I just assumed that the drivers who pilot our kids around go through a rigorous screening process first. Of course, this is in Canada, and I live in the States (and in the interest of full disclosure, my kids only rode a bus for a few days of one semester and hated it so much I drove them after that), but maybe it's also that easy here.

It took me a little bit to get into the book. I guess I just wasn't that interested in the author's life before he began driving the bus. And at first the occasional excerpts from the “unpublished novel” irritated me and seemed pointless. But once Craig started his training it began to pick up for me, and as time went by the excerpts began to make more sense story wise.

And once the actual driving begins and Craig meets his charges, I was pretty riveted. I won't go into detail about each child and the challenges they faced, but his descriptions of them were vivid and thoughtful. As he gets to know the kids better, driving the bus becomes more than a job and his relationship with them becomes more than just being their bus driver. So it kind of puzzled me that when the school year ended, he just quit being a bus driver, and never really said why or what he was moving on to. Though I guess it started out as just a means to an end, to generate some income so he could afford to continue writing.

Regardless, this little peek into the lives of five extraordinary kids and their bus driver is heartwarming and feel good.

Goodreads synopsis: With his last novel, Cataract City, Craig Davidson established himself as one of our most talented novelists. But in his early thirties, before writing that novel and before his previous work, Rust and Bone, was made into an Oscar-nominated film, Davidson experienced a period of poverty, apparent failure and despair. In this new work of intimate, riveting and timely non-fiction, based loosely on a National Magazine Award-winning article he published in The Walrus, Davidson tells the story of one year in his life--a year during which he came to a new, mature understanding of his own life and his connection to others. Or, as Davidson would say, he became an adult.    
                                                                    
One morning in 2008, desperate and impoverished and living in a one-room basement apartment while trying unsuccessfully to write, Davidson plucked a flyer out of his mailbox that read, "Bus Drivers Wanted." That was the first step towards an unlikely new career: driving a school bus full of special-needs kids for a year. Armed only with a sense of humour akin to that of his charges, a creative approach to the challenge of driving a large, awkward vehicle while corralling a rowdy gang of kids, and surprising but unsentimental reserves of empathy, Davidson takes us along for the ride. He shows us how his evolving relationship with the kids on that bus, each of them struggling physically as well as emotionally and socially, slowly but surely changed his life along with the lives of the "precious cargo" in his care. This is the extraordinary story of that year and those relationships. It is also a moving, important and universal story about how we see and treat people with special needs in our society. 

The Poet Recusant (The Poet Series, Book Two)

STEPHANIE JO HARRIS

Stats for my copy: Paperback, Gatekeeper Press, 2018.

How acquired: Received from the publicist for review.

First line: Father Daniel shuffled across the kitchen to the note on the counter.

My thoughts: This book picks up shortly after the events of the first book. As with the first book, the writing was a bit stilted, a bit simplistic. In the first book I grew accustomed to it fairly quickly and stopped noticing it as much, but this time around it became a little tedious. Part of that may have been the plot. While Jack and Rebecca are vacationing in Italy, Rebecca is kidnapped by a mafia boss who is angry at Jack for refusing to do a job for him. He assures Jack of Rebecca's safe return once he finishes that job. We, and Rebecca, assume that job involves killing someone, but I never knew who, or else I missed that somewhere along the way. For most of the book, Jack is driving or walking around the city, spying on Don Dantori's men and trying to figure out where Rebecca is being held, while she is sitting on a couch in the Don's office, her wrists bound, and either being ignored or being toyed with. It all just dragged on and on and on. There are chapters that backtrack and show Jack staying with Father Daniel during that year before he finally sought out Rebecca, and I actually liked those parts of the story the best. Especially how Sister Bernadette was slowly won over by Jack and how devoted he was to the priest. Some of the scenes with Rebecca and the Don or his men also kept my interest, particularly her interactions with Harvey, who she and I both wanted to punch.

That's not to say I didn't like the book, because I did, but not nearly as much as the first book. And if there is a third book, I will definitely want to read it.

Also, I had to look up the word “recusant”, so in case, like me, you didn't know what it means, Google dictionary says “a person who refuses to submit to an authority or to comply with a regulation”. I like that.

Goodreads synopsis: “Rebecca?”

Jack walked to the bathroom and looked around. Scrawled onto the back of the bathroom door in soft pink lipstick were two things; ‘PD’ and a heart. Rebecca was gone.

He could tell by the room there had been no fight. She would go willingly with the police. Probably even quickly, hoping they would be gone before he returned. Expecting them, understanding why they were there, and seeing no cause to disagree she would have complied.

Except it wasn’t the police. It couldn’t be. The police would have waited for him.

Whoever had taken Rebecca wanted her alone; wanted her away from him. That meant only two possibilities; leverage or … punishment.

Jack Shelley returns in the second ruthless installment of The Poet Series by Stephanie Harris; and he’s been invited to kneel at the throne of the King.

Relentless and unforgiving, Recusant will leave readers decidedly uncomfortable, and begging for the next installment in the series.

Into the Jungle

ERICA FERENCIK

Stats for my copy: egalley, Simon & Schuster, 2019.

How acquired: Received from the publisher via NetGalley for review.

My thoughts: I loved THE RIVER AT NIGHT, by this same author, so much that when I saw this on NetGalley I immediately requested it without even bothering to read the synopsis.

This book could be subtitled Everything You Never Thought You Wanted to Know About the Amazon Jungle. Talk about harsh living. I can't imagine I would last even a week in the conditions that Lily and Omar lived in.

Omar is a native Amazonian. Lily is an American who has recently aged out of the foster care system and is living in Bolivia, working in a hostel for room and board with two other young girls. She has a meet cute with Omar one night and falls in love. When tragedy strikes the small village of Ayachero, where Omar is from, Lily travels home with him. She's not particularly welcomed by most of the villagers. Omar's mother in particular does not care for her at all.

From there we get an eye-opening look at daily life in the jungle, where a majority of a person's time is spent just surviving. The descriptions of the jungle and the myriad plants and creatures found there are evocative. Lily is an incredibly strong protagonist. Growing up in the foster care system hardened her, but Omar gets past all her defenses and sweeps her into a quick moving romance. You know it had to be true love if she's happy making a home in a remote village where the heat can be oppressive and the work is never ending. 

I very much liked both Lily and Omar. Told in first person POV, we get to know Lily very well. It's a great character study, with plenty of action thrown in. The secondary characters, seen through Lily's eyes, are also well written, from villagers to missionaries to evil poachers to an amusing river pilot named For God's Sake. They are all quite vivid.

And then along with all the hardships to overcome there's heart breaking tragedy. I can't imagine wanting to ever visit the Amazon, but I am quite interested in reading more about life there. I look forward to whatever Ms. Ferencik comes up with next!

Goodreads synopsis: Lily Bushwold thought she’d found the antidote to endless foster care and group homes: a teaching job in Cochabamba, Bolivia. As soon as she could steal enough cash for the plane, she was on it.

When the gig falls through and Lily stays in Bolivia, she finds bonding with other broke, rudderless girls at the local hostel isn’t the life she wants either. Tired of hustling and already world-weary, crazy love finds her in the form she least expected: Omar, a savvy, handsome local man who’d abandoned his life as a hunter in Ayachero—a remote jungle village—to try his hand at city life.

When Omar learns that a jaguar has killed his four-year-old nephew in Ayachero, he gives Lily a choice: Stay alone in the unforgiving city, or travel to the last in a string of ever-more-isolated river towns in the jungles of Bolivia. Thirty-foot anaconda? Puppy-sized spiders? Vengeful shamans with unspeakable powers? Love-struck Lily is oblivious. She follows Omar to this ruthless new world of lawless poachers, bullheaded missionaries, and desperate indigenous tribes driven to the brink of extinction. To survive, Lily must navigate the jungle--its wonders as well as its terrors—using only her wits and resilience.

The Poet (The Poet Series, Book One)

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT SOME MAY CONSIDER SPOILERS.

STEPHANIE JO HARRIS

Stats for my copy: Paperback, Gatekeeper Press, 2018.

How acquired: Received from the Publicist for review.

My thoughts: I occasionally get emails from some random author or publicist or the like, offering a book for review. I used to accept every request, but some of those books I ended up DNFing. They're often independently published, not always well written, and I would think to myself uh huh, there's a reason emails are being sent out to try to drum up some interest. But some of those books do sound interesting, such as this one and it's sequel. And the publicist was offering hard copies over digital, which I so much prefer. So I took a chance and accepted the offer.

I was a bit smitten as soon as I opened the package that came in the mail. They aren't the standard mass market size, being a bit larger, but smaller than the standard trade paperback. I liked the size, and the feel of the cover, but initially I set them aside to finish the book I was already in the middle of. I finally picked up this one, the first book, two nights ago.

The writing felt a little stilted, a little mechanical, almost a little distant from it's subject matter. Almost too much narration of each character's movements. But it only took a couple of chapters to start getting into the particular rhythm. One thing that really helps me connect with a character is likability. Wait, two things. And relatability. If I really like a character, and can relate to him or her, I enjoy his or her story more. I didn't relate to Rebecca at all, and while she seemed nice enough I still felt a little distanced from her. We're told quite a bit about her without really getting inside her head. Same with Jack, but with him it seemed more inevitable. As if the author intended me to feel that way about him. Of course, Jack brought up conflicting feelings. Is he a good guy? Is a bad guy, a villain? Can he be both? And then we meet William, and it didn't take much of a leap to figure out who he really was.

All that, and yet the book is imminently readable. 206 pages, which I read in two sittings. The night I first picked it up, I literally read a hundred pages before going to sleep. And then I finished it the next night.

Rebecca meets Jack at a resort, where she is spending her vacation. Alone, because her long time boyfriend bailed on the trip. She's having some quality “me time”, and thinking about their non-relationship. She meets Jack on her last night there, and is quickly drawn to him while being just a little nervous and frightened of him. But before things go very far, he has to leave for awhile. And then all hell breaks loose as men with guns take Rebecca and her fellow vacationers hostage.

It gets a bit violent. At one point Rebecca is in pretty serious danger, fighting for her life, and Jack is skulking around outside, and I kept thinking he was going to burst in and save her at the last moment, but he didn't. She saved herself, and it was freaking awesome. They did meet up shortly after, and he took care of her, took control, cleaned and bandaged her wounds. A johnny-come-lately hero, who did get a second chance to rescue her before the night was over.

Akin to classic film noir, this book was compelling and unputdownable, and I need to end this review so I can go start reading the second book.

Goodreads synopsis: When Rebecca Paige decides to vacation alone at an established resort in the woods, it's a welcome break from her position as the administrator of a psychiatric hospital. Little does she know, the Poet is also visiting this peaceful hideaway, and his motivation is far more sinister.

On the last day of her trip, Rebecca has an unusual encounter with Jack Shelley, the man in the cabin next door. After he leaves, men with guns suddenly descend on the resort and take Rebecca and the other guests hostage. Rebecca is accustomed to dangerous situations at work, but can that help her escape multiple-armed assailants?

Who are these men? What do they want? How are they connected to the man next door?

Who is the Poet? 

Love-Lines

SHERI LANGER

Stats for my copy: .pdf, Red Adept Publishing, 2019.

How acquired: Received from Absolute Entertainment for review.

My thoughts: While I was reading this book I kept thinking it would make a great rom-com movie. While it wasn't laugh out loud funny, it was quite amusing. Fordham is a divorced mother raising her young daughter, Whitty, with the help of her own mother, Dorie, who lives with her. Whitty is ten, if I remember correctly, and a bit precocious, which happily was never pushed into plot moppet territory. Fordham dates but like so many women out there, she's not having any luck finding The One. She had The One in high school, who became The One That Got Away. And then later she married another The One, who turned out to be The Wrong One.

So now suddenly two men come into her life. First she meets David, the new principal at Whitty's school. And while she's attracted to him, he's already pretty chummy with Whitty's substitute teacher. Then she runs into her high school sweetheart, Aaron, and since said substitute teacher is hanging off David's arm half the time she sees him, she turns her attention to Aaron and rekindling their lost love.

The book is a light read with some deepness at it's core, if that makes sense. It's told in third person from Fordham's POV, so we spend a lot of time inside her head, privy to her thoughts and feelings, which is my favorite narrative device. At times it's a comedy of errors, with one thing after another going wrong for Fordham. Not far in I thought this is going to be a three star, maybe three and a half. But somewhere along the way I became very vested in Fordham's life, not to mention quite enamored of one of those two men, and I was very happy with the way the book ended. 

From what I found when I looked up the author, her first book was a YA, which I don't read much of, but I'll have to keep an eye out for her next novel.

Goodreads synopsis: What if you could find the love of your life just by reading between the lines? Single mom Fordham Price is juggling her job at a small publisher, her precocious ten-year-old daughter, and her feisty mother. She wants to find time for men, but after a series of dating disasters, her relationship status is still stuck at single. As if her macchiato lite wasn’t already overflowing, a co-worker gets pregnant, and Fordham is expected to step in and deliver the company’s latest reality read from the Flowers from the Heart series. She must now supplement her own romantic misadventures with tales of cynical cat-ladies, identical-twin husbands, spunky monks, and countless other web-crawlers. As she wades through the submissions, she finds one from a widower whose story gives her tingles in all the places she forgot existed. His words draw her in until she finds herself daydreaming about him more than she’d care to admit. Could she have a love like that, or will her romantic fate be forever bound to her philandering ex-husband? 

Mending Fences (The Deacon's Family, Book One)

SUZANNE WOODS FISHER

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Revell, 2019.

How acquired: Revell Reads for review.

First line: A year had passed since Luke Schrock's exile from Stoney Ridge began.

My thoughts: Luke Schrock and Izzy Miller are two lost souls, and a little unique, at least in my experience. I don't think I've ever come across a main character in an Amish story who had a history of drug/alcohol abuse. But both Luke and Izzy have been in rehab. It was refreshing.

Izzy is a sweet character, young but not idealistic. She had a rough childhood in the foster care system. She's happy with her new life, and grateful to the community for accepting her and giving her a place to belong, even if she's not sure it's a permanent arrangement. The only thing missing is her mother, who she hasn't seen since she was five, and who she's desperately – and secretly - trying to find.

Luke is treated as a pariah by the community he was born into, after having terrorized nearly everyone with practical jokes and vandalism before being sent to rehab. He's a somewhat sweet character himself, and I felt the book was a little more his story than Izzy's. Or maybe I was just more drawn to him. He's a little bitter in the beginning. Upset that his mother can't be bothered to be there to greet him when Bishop David brings him home from rehab. And he's not too happy to learn that he'll be boarding at Windmill Farm, and sleeping in the barn. And when David presents him with a list of people he wronged and tells him it's time to mend fences, he's not thrilled at the prospect of approaching each person to apologize for his past transgression, and then having to ask them if his actions had any adverse effects on them. Which for some, the effects were very adverse.

From the synopsis I thought this would be more of a romance. And as Luke and Izzy got to know each other better it seemed to be headed that way, but it never quite got there. Not to say it wasn't an enjoyable story. It was more about Luke's redemption and Izzy's finding herself. But this is the first book in a series, so I suspect their story isn't over.

I really enjoyed watching Luke on his fence mending journey, and how his character developed and became more self aware. Izzy also grew over the course of the book, but her growth was more subtle, as her journey began off page, prior to the start of the book. For both characters, learning to trust in God and give themselves over to Him was also part of the journey. But it wasn't all serious. Some of my favorite scenes were about a mischievous raccoon and Bob the horse keeping Luke from sleeping at night. And watching Luke seriously dig in and try to help the people he had wronged was heartwarming. The ending was surprising, and I teared up more than once by the time I reached the last page.

Many of the characters in the book were introduced or appeared in one (or more) of the author's other series, none of which I've read, but I didn't feel I'd missed anything. All in all, this was an enjoyable, easy read, and while I don't feel the need to rush out and find everything else the author has written, I would like to continue with this series and will likely pick up anything else by her that I happen across. 

Goodreads synopsis: Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.
Luke Schrock is a new and improved man after a stint in rehab, though everyone in Stoney Ridge only remembers the old Luke. They might have forgiven him, but nobody trusts him.

Amos and Fern Lapp allow Luke to live at Windmill Farm under two conditions. First, Luke must make a sincere apology to each person he's hurt--a four-page, single-spaced list. Second, he must ask each victim of mischief to describe the damage he caused.

Simple, Luke thinks. Offering apologies is easy. But discovering the lasting effects his careless actions have caused . . . that isn't so simple. It's gut-wrenching.

And his list keeps growing. Izzy Miller, beautiful and frustratingly aloof, also boards at Windmill Farm. Luke's clumsy efforts to befriend Izzy only insult and annoy her. Eager to impress, Luke sets out to prove himself to her by locating her mother. When he does, her identity sends shock waves through Stoney Ridge.

Bestselling and award-winning author Suzanne Woods Fisher returns to her beloved Stoney Ridge for this brand-new series featuring some of her readers' favorite characters.

Never Let Go

ELIZABETH GODDARD

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Revell, 2019.

How acquired: Revel Reads Blog Tour Program

My thoughts: When I opened the email from Revell Reads and saw this book listed, I didn't even bother to read the synopsis before requesting it. I wasn't familiar with the author, but over the last year or so I've gotten more and more into suspense and psychological thrillers, and I also love books about agents and elite investigative groups. The cover and title hinted at the first, and the words “Uncommon Justice” under the author's name hinted at the second, so I was already sold, and was very excited when my copy came in the mail and I did finally read the back cover synopsis. Austin reminds Willow to trust her instincts and follow her hunches, and I'm glad I did the same.

Willow is a forensic genealogist, a career I've never come across in a book, and I'm pretty fascinated by it now. Not genealogy in general. I have family members who've gotten those DNA kits and I have no interest in doing that. But the investigative side, the forensic side, was fascinating. Austin is a former FBI agent, and that's one of my catnips. Agents, former agents, I love them all. They both live in Washington, but when they visited the ranch in Wyoming where Austin grew up, this happened:

Austin stepped up to an old-looking brown horse in a stall and pressed his hand against the horse's muzzle. “Hey, Jinx. It's been much too long since I've seen you.”

Realization slowly dawned.

Austin...he was a cowboy. Her heart rate kicked up a few notches and the barn tilted, but she put her hand against a wooden rail to steady her fluttering nerves.

Cuz who doesn't love cowboys?! Yep, also my catnip.

Willow and Austin had previously split up after Austin refused to tell Willow anything about his past or his family. She couldn't be in a relationship with a man who kept secrets, and he couldn't bring himself to reveal a part of his life that he escaped from and pretended no longer existed. But after Willow's grandfather dies, and it becomes apparent that someone is also trying to kill Willow, they join forces to tackle the case her grandfather had been working on – searching for a child who had been abducted from the hospital shortly after birth twenty-one years ago. A child that somebody does not want them to find. 

I liked Willow, and I loved Austin. Secretive, tortured heroes? Yeah, more catnip. The characterization is written masterfully, and I enjoyed the passages of Willow or Austin internally monologuing as much as the passages of tense action. The case kept getting more and more intriguing, and the tension and suspense kept ramping up more and more throughout the second half of the book. The descriptions of the Wyoming park land and wilderness was evocative, I felt as if I were there in the woods with Willow, running for my life.

Revell is a Christian publisher, but the religious aspects of this book do not hit you over the head, and the building rediscovery of feelings between the characters is tame, with just a few kisses. While I've nothing against reading sex scenes, it's refreshing to read a wonderful love story that doesn't need sex to drive the romance forward, and Revell is quickly becoming a name I seek out more and more. I'm very much looking forward to the next book in this new series, and in the meantime will be on the lookout for the author's other books.

A solid five stars for this book.

Goodreads synopsis: As a forensic genealogist, Willow Anderson is following in her late grandfather's footsteps in her quest for answers about a baby abducted from the hospital more than twenty years ago. The case may be cold, but things are about to heat up when someone makes an attempt on her life to keep her from discovering the truth.

Ex-FBI agent--and Willow's ex-flame--Austin McKade readily offers his help to protect the woman he never should have let get away. Together they'll follow where the clues lead them, even if it means Austin must face the past he's spent much of his life trying to forget. And even if it puts Willow's tender heart at risk.

In this fast-paced and emotional page-turner, bestselling author Elizabeth Goddard keeps the stakes high, the romantic tension sparking, and the outcome uncertain until the very end.

Black Hills

NORA ROBERTS

Goodreads synopsis: A summer at his grandparents' South Dakota ranch is not eleven-year-old Cooper Sullivan's idea of a good time. But things are a bit more bearable now that he's discovered the neighbor girl, Lil Chance, and her homemade batting cage. Even horseback riding isn't as awful as Coop thought it would be. Each year, with Coop's annual summer visit, their friendship deepens from innocent games to stolen kisses, but there is one shared experience that will forever haunt them: the terrifying discovery of a hiker's body.

As the seasons change and the years roll, Lil stays steadfast to her aspiration of becoming a wildlife biologist and protecting her family land, while Coop struggles with his father's demand that he attend law school and join the family firm. Twelve years after they last walked together hand in hand, fate has brought them back to the Black Hills when the people and things they hold most dear need them most.

Coop recently left his fast-paced life as an investigator in New York to take care for his aging grandparents and the ranch he has come to call home. Though the memory of his touch still haunts her, Lil has let nothing stop her dream of opening the Chance Wildlife Refuge, but something ... or someone ... has been keeping a close watch. When small pranks and acts of destruction escalate into the heartless killing of Lil's beloved cougar, recollections of an unsolved murder in these very hills have Coop springing to action to keep Lil safe.

Lil and Coop both know the natural dangers that lurk in the wild landscape of the Black Hills. Now they must work together to unearth a killer of twisted and unnatural instincts who has singled them out as prey.

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Jove, 2010.

How acquired: Bought.

First line: Cooper Sullivan's life, as he'd known it, was over.

My thoughts: I've only read two Nora Roberts books before this one, back in 2009 (Brazen Virtue, which I have no memory of now but my notes say “I really liked it”) and 2010 (Divine Evil, which I vaguely remember, and noted “I don't think of her as a great writer, I think some of her writing is cliched.”) Well, I'm here to tell you that Black Hills has put Ms. Roberts front and center of my radar and made a believer out of me. I loved this book. Seriously, loved it.

I loved Lil. I adored Cooper. Childhood sweethearts, lovers as young college bound adults, short long-distance relationship, breakup. Twenty years later Lil is still angry at Coop for breaking her heart, and we get a long ways into the book before Coop gets the chance to explain himself to Lil. I'd forgiven him long before then. Well, no, actually, that's not true, because I didn't feel he needed forgiving. Even not yet knowing the circumstances of the split, I certainly wasn't putting any blame on either of them. But maybe because it was inevitable that they would be together by the end of the book. It is a romance, after all! And from the moment Coop arrived back in town to help out his grandparents, I just knew he was a good guy, and it was obvious neither of them ever really got over the other.

Lil runs a wildlife refuge, and there is a LOT of detail about the refuge woven into the story. The day to day stuff. Updating the website, vetting the animals, feeding the animals, cleaning their cages, educating the public. And a lot of about the land, tracking, Lil's love of riding the mountainside. It all felt very real, and I've no doubt Ms. Roberts did a lot of research.

But there's not just cougars and romance. There's a serial killer in the hills, and he's got Lil in his sites. When I got down to the last 100 or so pages, my anxiety level kept ratcheting up. I knew something was going to happen, Lil would be in danger and Cooper would probably rescue her. But the end of the book kept getting closer and closer, with me waiting and waiting for it. And when it finally did, I was sitting up in bed, tired but too tense to sleep until the book was over.

The characterization is wonderful, not just Lil and Coop, but Lil's best friend Tansy, Coops grandparents, Lil's parents, and many others. I loved the side plot about Tansy and her reservations about a relationship with the younger Farley. I liked that it was an interracial relationship, and while that was mentioned it wasn't a big deal and was accepted by all their family and friends.

Now I understand why Ms. Roberts is so dang popular! 

Fire Possessed (Twin Rivers Possession, Book One)

SEPTEMBER STONE

Goodreads synopsis: Sophie has done her best to avoid the magical world for fear of the havoc her abnormal ability wreaks on other supernaturals. As a silencer who mutes the powers of those around her, she’s spent her life among the mortals her defect can’t harm. But when Mother Nature pushes her from her home to do her bidding, Sophie has no choice but to venture to the magical town of Twin Rivers. Instead of viewing her presence as a curse, four men see Sophie’s arrival as a blessing. Carrigan, a psychic who hears everyone’s thoughts at all times. Hagan, a bear shifter who transforms at the slightest provocation. Jonas, whose losses have left him isolated and jaded. And Valor, a vampire without conscience or remorse. Drawn to Sophie, these irresistible men find themselves caught up in a dangerous whirlwind of magic that runs deeper than they can imagine. But Sophie can’t allow her mounting attraction to keep her from her mission—because Mother’s wrath destroys everything it touches. 

Stats for my copy: Kindle Edition, 1/14/19

How acquired: Hidden Gems ARC Program

First line: The moment the stench of freshly-burning wallpaper creeps under my bedroom door and smacks my nose, my dream where I'm mapping out future lesson plans comes to a blunt stop.

My thoughts: Billed as a “full length reverse harem urban fantasy adventure”. What isn't mentioned is that it just abruptly ends with no resolution to the plot. Grr.

Now that that gripe is out of the way. It's really the only gripe I have. Well, that and the cover, which looks like it belongs on a completely different book. I can't even begin to picture Sophie dressed the way the cover model is. Anyway, I used to read a lot of paranormal, and got a bit burned out on it. But the synopsis for this book sparked my interest as it sounded a bit different. And it very much is. In the world of this book, there are magical creatures, most of whom live in Twin Rivers. Sophie is a witch, but her magic is quite different than other witches, in that when she is around, other's magic disappears. Obviously, this makes her presence a bit unwelcome to others in the magical community. So Sophie's father raised her away from Twin Rivers, in a community where magic is unknown.

Sophie has a connection to Mother Nature that I'm still a little unclear about. Mother Nature uses Sophie for her own purposes, and if Sophie refuses her bidding, Mother Nature retaliates by, say, burning her house down in the middle of the night. Mother Nature wants her to seek out a mage in Twin Rivers who can restore a lost river. So off Sophie goes, where one by one she meets up with the four men who I guess make up the “reverse harem”.

I was a little afraid that this book was going to devolve into just a bunch of sex scenes between Sophie and the four men, with some loose storyline to connect them (I'm looking at you Anita Blake!). I'm happy to report that did not happen. In fact, there's not really any sexual action until midway through the book, and did not involve every character. But even then, the story still took precedence. The connection between Sophie and each of the other characters was clear, or if not clear at first, became clear as you learned more about the characters. And the characters are well written. Of course they are all quite different from each other, what with one being a shifter and one being a vampire. A couple of the men do not make good first impressions, but as the author peeled away the layers of their personalities, they become more liable, more vulnerable, and more welcome to the party.

I read this book in two sittings. I probably would've read it straight through in one sitting if company had not shown up at my house. It did start out a little slow, but once Sophie met the first two men it picked up with some of the dialogue making me laugh. Also, I was on page 75 when it suddenly hit me that the narration is in present tense. My least favorite tense, and I didn't even notice until 75 pages in! Score one for the author, and I look forward to Book Two.