Tag Archives: small town romance

Review ~The Baby Bombshell – Victoria James

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ABOUT:

Lily Cookson has a few rules for the New Year, the most important being don’t fall for Jack Bailey. The gorgeous, rugged man returned with a new look and a determination to win her back, catching her off guard. After a forbidden night in his arms, she vows never to let it happen again. But when morning sickness kicks in a few weeks later, Lily realizes staying away from Jack just got a whole lot harder.

Jack Bailey left Shadow Creek behind five years ago when his world imploded around him, knowing it would be best for everyone if he was gone…including Lily. It took him a long time to get his life back on track and grow into the kind of man she needs him to be. Now he’s determined to prove to Lily that he’s back for good and ready to commit, but the secrets she’s holding onto are nothing compared to the bombshell he drops…

I only recently discovered Victoria James but I like her writing style and the small town stories she weaves so I decided to give The Baby Bombshell a try. Plus this story contains two of my favorite tropes! Continue reading Review ~The Baby Bombshell – Victoria James

Review ~ Mann Cakes – Mysti Parker

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Love makes men do desperate things, if desperate things means opening a rival cupcake shop to drive your ex-girlfriend crazy.


Twin brothers and Air Force vets, Tanner and Garrett Mann, return from deployment to find their thriving business burned to the ground. Time for Plan B: Move back to their hometown of Beach Pointe to start over.

But that means running into Paige and Morgan Baxter –gorgeous, curvy, and owners of Two Sisters Cupcakes.

There’s an old diner for sale across town, Garrett’s a great cook, and Tanner has an idea. They’ll make savory cupcakes that men would like. We’re talking bacon and Cheez Whiz. Even better? They’ll call it Mann Cakes. Problem is, they end up attracting an unexpected crowd.

Paige is furious. Every man in her life has left her behind, including Tanner. She’s sacrificed everything for her shop. She won’t lose it over some egotistical ex-boyfriend, even if he does have an Air Force-chiseled body. Her younger sister, Morgan, isn’t helping matters. She’s been gaga over Garrett since high school.

To hell with that. If it’s a fight Tanner wants, it’s a fight he’ll get. But how much is Paige willing to risk to win a cupcake war?

Mann Cakes tells the story of two brothers, Tanner and Garrett and two sisters, Paige and Morgan. Tanner and Garrett had a PC business in the big city but during their final deployment it burned to the ground with a good friend inside. So they return to their hometown of Beach Pointe and right back on the radars of the two women they can’t seem to forget. But when the boys open up Mann Cakes to compete with, what else, Two Sisters bakery the heat is on! Mysti Parker has created a wonderfully interesting romance between two sets of siblings with two very different pasts.

Morgan and Garrett were just friends back in high school, both nursing unrequited crushes on the other that they never acted on. But now they’re older and Morgan isn’t quite as shy as she used to be so one coffee date kicks off their sort of second chance romance. I loved watching these two because Garrett who may or may not be a genius, still has that quiet geeky thing going on that makes him stumble over his words or get lost staring at her lips. He was so adorably shy but sweet and kind of bossy at times that he quickly won me over.

Now Paige and Tanner were a different matter altogether. It took me awhile to warm up to them both because he’s kind of a cocky playboy with no problem taking off his shirt to sell a few cupcakes (not that I mind a little six-pack action, I in fact encourage it!) and Paige sometimes acted like a wounded bird or an angry teenager. While I understood where Paige was coming from to an extent, they both took their little rivalry too far in my opinion.

Once they cleared the air, which admittedly did take awhile, I was eager to see if this was a romance that could be rekindled.

I liked that Mann Cakes was kind of a two-in-one romance and Mysti Parker did a great job of giving us all four perspectives without being confusing or pulling the readers out of the story. It also was a great way to keep the story moving forward without adding a lot of unnecessary content. This is a straight up romance with a dash of mystery, not a crash course in owning or operating a bakery which this reader totally appreciated!

This book is definitely a 4.5 cocktail read. So good you’ll get tipsy on it!

*Just $0.99 at time of this review!

Review ~ A Tempting Friendship – Kylie Gilmore

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ABOUT:

Even Angels have their limits…

Widow Julia Turner is finally ready to date again after five years of mourning her husband. She confides to her longtime friend Angel Marino that she’s signed up for an online dating site and is shocked when it’s Angel that shows up at her door on the night of her first date. And the look in his eye is anything but friendly.

Angel has secretly been in love with Julia since college, and after fulfilling his promise to his deceased best friend to watch over her these past years, he can’t stand idly by and watch her date another man. It’s time to unleash the sexy for a seduction that’s been a long time coming.

 

 

I have kind of a hit or miss relationship with Kylie Gilmore’s books. I usually love them but the ones that I don’t love…I really don’t love. A Tempting Friendship falls somewhere in the middle.

I loved the idea of these two friends who secretly pined for one another until her desire to move on kicks them both into action. But there was so much more to this story and not all of it good. But I will say that both Angel and Julia were at fault for the years they could have had together. Angel could have stepped up and asked her out anyway instead of letting his friend have her. And Julia, girl! When it became clear she had feelings for both guys, it was time to step up and figure out what you want!

This is why I guess I judged Julia a little more harshly. Not because of her so-called sins but because she got married for a really crappy reason and then continued to punish herself for the way she felt. I thought she went a little overboard in her need for absolution. Forgiveness and all that jazz. A dead guy isn’t going to give you anything and if you need it that bad, you should ask yourself why.

Of course this is a romance novel so things go a little differently but I wish there would have been more Julia and Angel and not as much Damon and Mia. It took me out of their real story and honestly I just didn’t care for it that much, though it was steamy as hell!

Bottom line is that I liked this story but I didn’t love it. I wish there had been less hand-wringing. And I wish that Brad hadn’t died in such an honorable way because he deserved a great big smack upside the head! I mean a really good, Southern grandma style head smack. Though I do appreciate that A Tempting Friendship didn’t take the easy way out and make Brad a cheater or a bad guy. He did one REALLY bad thing but otherwise he was a good husband.

The story could have been a tad shorter but I’m not complaining. It was a good read that kept my interest.

Sadie’s Interview with Ropin Romance!

Check out my character interview with Sadie from Feels Like Love!

Feels Like Love (Mustang Prairie Book 3)
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Review ~ Slow Burn Cowboy – Maisey Yates

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In Copper Ridge, Oregon, a cowboy’s best friend might turn out to be the woman of his dreams… 

If Finn Donnelly makes a plan, he sticks to it. After his brothers left Copper Ridge, Finn stayed behind, determined to keep their ranch going by himself. And when he realized his feelings for Lane Jensen were more than platonic, he shoved that inconvenient desire away. It was easy…until it wasn’t. Suddenly his brothers are coming home to claim their share of the property. And Lane is no longer just in his fantasies. She’s in his arms, and their friendship is on the line…

He’s been her buddy, her handyman, her rock. But until that one breathtaking kiss, Lane somehow overlooked the most important thing about Finn Donnelly—he’s all man. They’re right together, no matter how much his volatile past has bruised him. Finn wants to hold Lane’s body, but he doesn’t want to hold her heart. But Lane is falling fast and now she’s got a plan of her own…to show Finn there’s nothing hotter than friendship turned to slow-burning love.

I am an unabashed Maisey Yates fan and a Copper Ridge super fan so it’s safe to say that I loved Slow Burn Cowboy. Finn and Lane have been friends almost from the moment she landed in town to live with her brother. One of the things I liked most about this book was that they had real baggage, which is usually something I try to stay away from because I don’t need a lot of angst with my romance. And of course there wasn’t a lot of angst for the sake of it, because Lane and Finn both had some MAJOR baggage.

The third star of this novel was their friendship. They were basically a married couple who didn’t live together or have sex. She kept him fed and bought clothes when he needed them and Finn, well he killed spiders, changed light bulbs and all the other things that were ‘male jobs’.

Things were going just fine until Finn’s life is shaken, first by the death of his grandfather and then when he learned he wasn’t the sole heir for the ranch he’d worked since he was sixteen. Yep, old grandpa screwed it and split it among the estranged brothers.

Okay so here my mini rant about one particular part of Slow Burn Cowboy. Everyone, including Lane, acted like Finn should just be okay with their grandfather splitting the ranch between all the brothers when the other three hadn’t been completely absent for years. Not just absent but they hardly ever even visited. He had a right to be pissed and hurt, and for them to just brush it off, well it didn’t endear any of the brothers to me. At all. (But I’m sure that will change when we get their stories!)

Okay, rant done!

All the stress in Finn’s life makes it impossible to keep resisting his attraction to his best friend. He’s a guy who likes control and right now nothing in his life is within his control. So he risks it and holy smokes is it so worth it! To me at least. J It wasn’t just the sex and chemistry that was hot, it was watching them both shed their baggage so they could go after what they both wanted.

There’s always a family element to Copper Ridge stories and this one has the big hunky brothers. Although right now they’re kind of in my doghouse, I can’t wait to watch them all fall.

In fact I’m calling it now…Cain & Allison!

Review ~ Confessions of a Reformed Tom Cat – Daisy Prescott

Source: Review ~ Confessions of a Reformed Tom Cat – Daisy Prescott

#MustangPrairie SALE!!!

❤💜💙💚❤Welcome to Mustang Prairie❤💜💙💚❤
A small town filled with quirky residents, sexy women and the men who love them!

SHELLIE is standing up for herself and her town when a handsome big city executive NOEL comes to town thinking he’s gonna change things in CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Continue reading #MustangPrairie SALE!!!

EXCERPT: It Must Be Love

Have you been to Mustang Prairie yet? It Must Be Love is book 4 in the series, featuring childhood (sort of) friends and former next door neighbors Trixie & Jack.

About this book: 

Trixie is a Mustang Prairie girl, born and raised. At least until her parents up and moved her to a commune in Oregon and far away from the love of her young life. Jack Thorpe.

But grownup Trixie is back in Mustang Prairie and ready for the next chapter in her life, which includes her lingerie store Under the Skirt and starting her own line of sexy lacy things. When her past collides with her present in the form of a tall, blonde artist, Trixie has to wonder if her girlish crush could be the answer to her grownup dreams?

Jack married his high school sweetheart, only it didn’t turn out so sweet and he never got to tell her it was over. Now he has to smile and pretend while the world goes on and on about how great Marissa was, especially now that he’d brought his girls back to Mustang Prairie for good.

The one bright spot in town was the new and improved girl next door. Little Trixie wasn’t so little and Jack was more than a little interested. Too bad he wasn’t interested in another round of the rollercoaster known as love and commitment.

Too bad he can’t stay away.

Continue reading EXCERPT: It Must Be Love

~Review – Back To Us – Rachel Hanna

Get it HERE today!!! BLURB: Indy Stone is a well regarded professional therapist with her life all planned out. She’s spent her life trying to escape her dysfunctional up…

Source: ~Review – Back To Us – Rachel Hanna

Review ~ Royal Scandal – Marquita Valentine

Buy it HERE TODAY! ABOUT THIS BOOK:  Forced to flee to the United States with his siblings after their parents’ assassination, Crown Prince Colin Sinclair takes it upon himself to beco…

Source: Review ~ Royal Scandal – Marquita Valentine