Up to the Challenge (By Terri Osburn)

 

About the Book

 

Opposites attract in a sexy tale of unexpected love

When the Dempsey patriarch suffers a heart attack, Lucas Dempsey steps up to keep the doors of the family restaurant open. The proverbial prodigal son returns home to Anchor Island—putting family first and his quest to make partner at his high-powered law firm on hold. Sporting a bruised ego after losing his fiancée to his older brother, Lucas would rather walk on glass than spend six weeks within spitting distance of the happy couple. But family duty calls. And that duty includes working side-by-side with a tantalizing spitfire intent on driving him mad.

Tough-as-nails boat mechanic Sid Navarro is happy to trade her tools for an apron to help the Dempseys in their time of need. That is, until she realizes she’ll be working alongside Lucas, the man she’s loved from afar since she first laid eyes on him in high school. Lucas could charm the paint off a schooner, but Sid knows she doesn’t fit his girl-next-door type. To show her true feelings would mean certain heartbreak, but the temptation of Lucas in her bed might be more than she can resist.

After a rocky start punctuated by verbal barbs and exasperating arguments, things heat up between them—big-time—but their steamy affair turns more than casual in a matter of weeks. Sid’s life has become the dream she’s always wanted, and Lucas has fallen hard for the last woman he ever expected to love.

But this affair has an end-date, as Lucas must return to his life and career in the big city, a place where Sid would never fit in. When the end comes earlier than expected, walking away turns out to be a challenge neither of them wants to win.

Up to the Challenge is a sexy, fast-paced, romantic story of family, island life, and finding love in unexpected places.

 Review
 
I loved the fact that the heroine in this book was not your average damsel in distress. Spunky Sid Navarro reminded me from the very start of Jo Polniaczek from the 1980’s sitcom The Facts of Life. I’m showing my age here, don’t look – but wait, they still play that on TV Land don’t they? Ok maybe I am redeemed. I loved Sid more than any other female lead character I have read in a long time. I relished how she put everyone (and I do mean everyone) in their place. Even her crude language and obscene t-shirts made her endearing because they were her and she was not going to apologize for it.

However, you just knew under all that rough and tumble don’t ‘eff’ with me exterior there was a soft and vulnerable women inside that was just too scared to really trust anyone. And when the man she has been pinning for since she was an awkward teenager happens to show back up in her little town, she just does not know whether to put up more of her tom-boy front or show him the soft side of her that has wanted him for so long. And as you get to know Sid and see her though the eyes of Lucas (ahhhhh….Lucas Dempsey….swoon) you can see Sid as the sexy little thing that she really is under the oversized t-shirts and grubby jeans. She is not the tom-boy she leads everyone to believe she is and he starts to see that in vivid detail and so will you.

The ending was abrupt but I think that was by design. You’ll see what I mean when you get there. It will not disappoint and you just have to remind yourself that the book cannot go on forever – even if you wished it would.

Ok, I do not want to give away any juicy details because this book is chalked full of them and you will savor every one. Terri Osburn has a hit with Up to the Challenge –pick it up, download it, check it out TODAY! And let me know how you liked it.

Declaration by Rachael Wade

    Declaration
          (Preservation #3)

       Author: Rachael Wade

       Release Date: October 15, 2013








About the Book

Carter Montgomery spent most of his life blending in, and he liked it that way. It was always better to be seen, not heard. And while a theatric streak and friendly demeanor might have fooled most people, he knew the truth - he was the shy one. The quiet kid most people forgot about. Some might have considered that a bad thing, but those people all wanted to be in the spotlight.

The only place Carter didn't mind attention was on stage, with the Hellions. Once content in his comfort zone in Seattle, Washington, he only knew three things: confrontation was to be avoided, keeping the peace was priority, and the moment he lost Kate Parker to Professor Ryan Campbell, he had no clue what to do with his life. Playing gigs, working at Pike Place Market, and watching BBC after the love of his life sailed off into the sunset just wasn't going to cut it anymore.

Desperate to escape his rut, he takes a cue from Kate and chooses a random place to relocate - a small island across the country, where no one knows his name and memories of unrequited love aren't found at every turn. Just when he thinks he's found the perfect place to unwind and sink bank into the shadows, in bursts Whitney Sinclair, a saucy firecracker who loves life ad refuses to settle for second best. Full of contagious energy, she dares him to be brave, convincing him that it might finally be time to tell the world what he wants.

It might be time to make a declaration.


Review

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. And here it is.

Declaration is book #3 in the Preservation Series by Rachael Wade which includes Preservation and Reservation. I had started with Preservation a few weeks ago and enjoyed it so much that when I learned there was a 2nd book ready and waiting, I was eager to pick it up. Then I found out that Carter Montgomery, who was an important character in the first two books was getting a book of his own (Declaration) - I was stoked! Truly, I liked Preservation and Reservation but I just fell in love with Carter from the start. He is just a likable guy who you cannot help but find yourself rooting for. I was super happy to get to read more about him and just knew that Rachael Wade would finally give him a happy ending. And so, in comes Declaration.

This entire series is like being dropped into the middle of a group of average friends and getting to see them for how they really are - warts and all. You feel triumph when they succeed and feel their love and desire when things are working well. But their anguish is also palpable when they screw up. The same sort of emotions you go through in life with your closest friends. Rachael has written these books in such a way that you feel like to you are just another one of the friends in this group.

I recommend all three books and you will really enjoy them more if you have the entire background of the characters. But if you are just not ready to jump into a three book commitment, do read Declaration and you will find yourself rooting for Team Carter too!



https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/746101401

Why I love reading....my 6th sense

So I have posted several book reviews at this point in my newly birthed blog. So far so good. I am enjoying sharing my thoughts on a particular book and in many instances reminiscing about the characters and places in those stories. Many times I find myself thinking about the characters long after I have finished a book. They sort of continue to live with me for a while. And for the rare book which truly touched a cord in my heart, I'll find myself thinking of their "story" many months or even years after I've finished the reading. To me, that is truly the sign of a well written story. When it affects you so much that memories of the story pop up in your mind much the same way as memories of times with your family or your childhood spring into your thoughts at a given moment. That is not to say I cannot draw the distinction between reality and fantasy - I most definitely can keep this all in perspective. I wonder if this feeling of a book being a "part of you" is a kin to the feeling that many authors have when they say that their characters "speak" to them and "live" with them for a time. I wonder if this is a 6th sense sort of experience. Perhaps it is that connection that the author has to their characters and story that make their books have a similar affect on their readers?

As a kid I never really liked reading. I would read what was required of me as a student, but if the Cliff Notes version of a required novel was available - or better yet a movie! - I was all about taking a short cut. I guess the classics just did not peak my interest. I did read To Kill A Mockingbird all the way through. The same with The Scarlet Letter and Romeo and Juliet. But The Handmaid's Tale? Withering Heights? Cliff Notes baby! Shhhh...don't tell Mrs. Hall my high school English teacher. However, somewhere in my teenage years I discovered a book series called Sweet Valley High - don't look up copyright dates please let's all just pretend we are still 20-somethings. m'kay? This was a teenybopper version of a romance series and there must have been 100+ books in it. I think I read them all. And truth be told - they were not even that good. Reading choices for teens and young adults abound today as compared to when I was younger. However, many of the offerings cross a boundary into what I would consider to be adult reading material. I suppose this is the way of the world and not a shock when you compare that to what the kids are watching on TV and movies and listening to on their iPods these days. Still, I would steer my teenage daughter to better, more age appropriate alternatives - and then read those New Adult novels myself. <grin>.

I also find my tastes changing back and forth from time to time. I guess it is a little bit the same way with certain foods or taste in music. I was on a Subway sandwich kick for a while there. Tasty, cheap, easy...until I could not stomach the idea of one more 6" turkey on wheat or even the smell of the bread when you walk in the store. So I moved on to other culinary desires. I'm sure I'll be back in a Subway one day and will again sink my teeth into a good old meatball sammy with extra pickles. The same thing happens with my tastes in reading. My love for fiction really re-sparked several years ago with a series by Diana Gabaldon called Outlander. These are ginormous 900+ page novels (and to date there are 7 in the series) about a time traveling woman who goes back in time (accidentally) to the mid 1700s Scotland and falls in love with a highlander. It has romance, history, travel, sci-fi and is absolutely hands down my favorite of all time. When I took a break from the historical nature of that series I tried a few easy romance novels by the likes of Nora Roberts. Mehhhh...kinda like a Lifetime movie on paper. They are okay, just not moving or memorable in any way - kinda like that turkey sandwich. So I bounce around mostly within the genre of romance novels - but ones that have some substance. I even enjoy the occasional New Adult book. Many of these I have reviewed on Good Reads. Right now my kick seems to be on the contemporary romance but stories that provide more than just the same old-same old "boy meets girl" storyline. And as intriguing as Fifty Shades of Grey was (yes, I read all three...yummy!) those novels that are all about sex are not all that tantalizing after a while. Now a slow burn, teasing, smoldering "let's get to know each other" storyline - that is way sexier to me.

If you have a good book to recommend, please let me know. I'm all ears! Or should I say I'm all eyes?

The Story Guy by Mary Ann Rivers

                   The Story Guy by Mary Ann Rivers

At just over 100 pages, The Story Guy by Mary Ann Rivers is a lovely romantic “snovel” (shorter than a novel).  Carrie West is a 30-ish librarian in the city. Carrie finds reading the online personals interesting and sometimes funny. Never would she respond - she is just in it for the pure fun of perusing them. That is until she comes across one that grabs her attention…the man in the photo is so attractive with sensitive eyes but it is what he is offering that makes her want to answer his ad. “I will meet you on Wednesdays at noon in Celebration Park. Kissing only.”

Completely out of the norm, Carrie replies to his ad and with nervously anxious anticipation she sets out for their Wednesday rendezvous.  Brian is all his picture made him out to be and more. He truly wants just what his ad said, kissing only. And that first kiss…..WOW! Carrie is eagerly watching her calendar for the next Wednesday to arrive.

Carrie finds herself wanting to know more about Brian but he is a closed book. She can sense there is more to this guy than his seductive kisses but she cannot get him to open up to her more or agree to anything more than kissing for an hour on a park bench once a week. Or does she?

I don’t want to give it all away but needless to say, there is a lot more to this story than kissing on the park bench.  The 100 pages go by quickly but are very fulfilling. Makes a great Saturday afternoon read.

 

Check out my Goodreads review at: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/728652353

Five Days in Skye by Carla Laureano

                        Five Days in Skye by Carla Laureano

I am a sucker for anything and everything about Scotland. Visiting Scotland is on my bucket list in position #1. So I was excited to sink into Five Days in Skye. Much of Scotland’s landscape is picturesque and you can experience everything from city life to rolling fields of heather to the craggy hills of the highlands. But the Isle of Skye is a dreamer’s paradise and Carla Laureano has painted a gloriously vivid picture for her readers.

Andrea Sullivan works in the high pressure and fast paced corporate environment as a hospitality consultant. Having been burned in the past by her chauvinist boss she finds herself having to land the account of a well-known celebrity chef in order to save her career with the company. She has to ditch her plans to take a much needed tropical vacation and head to what she feels is dreary Scotland to meet a celebrity she is sure is going to be full of himself and determined to bed her…just like the other men she has had to work with.

However, Scottish celebrity chef James McDonald turns out to be nothing like she expected.  James’ public persona as a womanizer has Andrea putting up her guard from the point of their first encounter. Despite what the public might think of him, James has been hurt in the past by the one woman he thought he loved. It was the pain he endured from the loss of that relationship that caused James to wall himself up and not let another woman into his heart. That is until he meets Andrea and finds out there is more to her than the polished professional appearance she has on display. He slowly cracks away at Andrea’s soft side and learns about who she really is, apart from her career. And even while Andrea is trying to keep the walls up around her, she starts to feel like she can trust again and she softens up and remembers who she really is inside. As Andrea and James become more comfortable with each other, Andrea starts to realize that their connection is much more than a business relationship.

The five days Andrea gets to spend in Skye with James is transforming for both of them. And the magic of their surroundings adds to their blooming romance. This is where Carla Laureano’s writing really impresses me. The description of the surroundings made me feel like I could feel the temperature and see the beauty of the land that James loves so much and wants to introduce to Andrea.

 If you are expecting the normal hot and heavy sex scenes typical of many romance novels today, you will not find them in Five Days in Skye. But please do not let that turn you off on this novel.  You will find yourself wanting and hoping for a “hook up”. When you are instead presented with a slow and tender kiss filled with the simmer of desire, you will remember that hardcore sex is not nearly as swoon-worthy and heart melting as a soft romantic kiss from a man you trust when you have been hurting and not trusting for such a long time. The will power of the two to not let sex drive their budding relationship but instead to be faithful to letting it build out of something more meaningful makes you feel their connection all the more.  This is not to say there is not sexual tension between the two – there most definitely is and it is well written and endearing. Now would I have been turned off if they’d have taken it into the bed…maybe, for that would have taken away from what they were trying to accomplish in their courtship.  Therefore in this case, no sex was sexy.

I would definitely recommend Five Days in Skye to my friends and I could even in good conscious recommend it to my mother without blushing – something I could definitely not do with Fifty Shades of Gray. It would make a great book club read as well.

I give Five Days in Skye 5 stars. Read it and take a staycation to the Isle of Skye.

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17879360-five-days-in-skye

 

Losing Hope

Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover is the follow up to her book Hopeless. Where Hopeless was told from the point of view of the heroine, Sky, Losing Hope is told from the point of view of the hero, Dean Holder (aka Holder).

I read Hopeless several months ago and was blown away! I thought the book was very well written with excellent character development and a plot that pulls you in deep. The subject matter is dark at times but for me that just made me love the characters even more and made me feel like I really understood them better. There were several shocks delivered that I did not see coming and for me, that is what really makes a great story! I find predictability to be the epitome of boring.

I am not sure when the whole phenomenon of retelling the same story from the point of view of another character came to be vogue. I’m thinking the heat everyone put on Stephanie Meyer to retell Twilight from Edwards POV started it all. I totally get the appeal of getting to relive a story you love and “see” things in a different way.

I have been known to read and re-read books I love time and time again – and with those re-reads I often find details I missed on the first go around. But when you get a chance to revisit a story from another character’s POV it can shed a whole different light on circumstances, emotions and just about everything that happened. That was most definitely the case with Losing Hope.

This book is somewhere between Young Adult and New Adult as far as the genre is concerned. Having said that, I am myself neither a young adult nor a new adult and I find that I really enjoy books in those categories - sometimes. The main characters are still in high school but the subject matter and sexual situations are more mature than I would want to consider for the Young Adult category.

I would recommend reading Hopeless before you read Losing Hope but it is not strictly required. I just feel like the information you gather by reading the story from Sky’s POV sets the ground for the flip side of the coin when Holder is in charge.

It is difficult to give a synopsis of either the Hopeless or Losing Hope without laying down major spoilers.  So treading lightly here… Sky is a 17 year old high school student. Homeschooled all of her life by her over protective mother, she is given the opportunity to finish high school by attending the “real” high school in her hometown. As you might imagine, she does not fit in well to the established catty, chick clicks that are notorious in every high school. Though she is quite attractive and catches the eye of many of the boys in her school, she just cannot seem to find it in her to “feel” anything for any of them. That is until she bumps into the school outcast, Dean Holder, at the grocery store. Dean (known to everyone simply as Holder) is back in town after being “sent away” - as popular public opinion would have you believe. When he sees Sky for the first time it is quite a shock to him. He simply has to get to know more about this mysterious girl who has lived only 2 miles away from hi m for years but yet he does not know her – but she seems so familiar to him. Holder’s patience and understanding is what makes me love him so much in these books. Certainly not typical of any 18 year old young man I have ever met or known. His maturity would put 30 year old men to shame. Does that make this book unrealistic? Probably. But who cares, Holder is awesome! And smokin’ hot. Again a little too smooth for his age but again ladies, it is fiction after all. And honestly, who really wants to read about how gangly, awkward, self-centered typical teenagers truly behave – that is not awesome.

Holder gets to delve more and more into Sky as she slowly open up to him. Holder wants to take it slow and make sure she “feels” something with him where she has not felt anything before.  It is this point of the story when reading it from either of the sides that is swoon-worthy! Sky feels a comfort and ease in confiding and trusting Holder that she has not before experienced. It is the slow walk they are on together that leads them down the path of acknowledging things in both of their pasts that they had long since buried in their subconscious. It is as those “revelations” start to unfold that the story really takes off. And by the end, they have come full circle. The story does not leave you wanting or feeling like there is unfinished business. Colleen does a great job of tying everything up so you are left satisfied that Sky and Holder’s story has been told and their future has possibilities. Whether Colleen feels moved to write of their future or leave it to the reader to imagine – well I am good either way. And I have a great imagination!

I definitely recommend Losing Hope and give it 5 stars!

-- This book is available now by ebook version but will not be available until mid October 2013 in print.

Mountain Charm by Sydney Logan

Howdy Ya’all, Mountain Charm really struck a cord with me because it is set in the mountains of Tennessee. Living in Nashville myself, I have visited this area many times and there are few places on earth as beautiful as the Smoky Mountains. Angelina is a mountain witch in a long line of witches from her family tree. I was not aware that mountain witches were in a category of their own. Magic and spells plays only a minor role in the telling of this story. The spell Angelina casts on her thirteenth birthday is done to draw her true love to her. This is pretty much where the magic begins and ends for this witch. There is another talent or two that pops up here and there throughout the story but again, it is just not a big part of the story. Now that did not disappoint me in the least. Though I do like a good witchy book every now and then – the setting being my own backyard does not lend itself to the mystical notions of witches and such. For some reason I always want to place a good witch story either in a quaint coastal New England setting or an Ivy League university. Maybe them thar hills is crawlin’ with witches and such. Better keep my eye open the next time I do some hiking in the woods.

The rest of the story is endearing enough. It is a typical boy meets girl romance. Dylan Thomas travels from Nashville to the small mountain town of Maple Ridge on an assignment to write an article for a magazine. The article is about mountain witches of course. I did like the way Angelina met Dylan for the first time. Not a typical meeting to say the least.

Angelina is at first skeptical about the possibility that the spell from her 13th birthday would really work. Then when she sees it working in action she becomes concerned that this man who has entered her life is only there because of the spell. Dylan setting her mind at ease about this concern was perfectly romantic and convincing.

Now there are some romances novels I could recommend to my own mother with a clear conscience – not Fifty Shades of Grey, for example. And this book might be one I could recommend to her. There were some decent love scenes but nothing that caused me to get all hot and bothered. I would have liked a little more tempting and teasing and more drawn out southern lovin’. However, that might just not be where this author wanted to take her story. I wonder though, because she did not leave the hot and steamy out completely. I felt like the build up could have been better developed. You know what they say about bringing the reader right to the edge and then the delay… and another scene that gets you almost there but not quite all the way… before ahhhhhh FINALLY! Now that’s what I’m talking about! That is what was missing for me in this novel. It’s all about the build up baby!

The potential story between Angelina’s mother and a gentleman friend referred to a few times throughout the story would be one I’d like to read about. The hinting of a relationship between them and where that relationship could go and the “powers” her mother has would make for a good story indeed ya’all. Don't think I'm talking about a gray haired grannie witch here - mama is probably all of 45 years old seeing as Angelina is only 21. But that's another story for another day - if Sydney writes it.

I’d give this one a good solid 3 stars.