Book Review ~ Brentwood's Ward by Michelle Griep ~ 4/27/16

 

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Blurb:

 

Place an unpolished lawman named Nicholas Brentwood as guardian over a spoiled, pompous beauty named Emily Payne and what do you get? More trouble than Brentwood bargains for. She is determined to find a husband this season. He just wants the large fee her father will pay him to help his ailing sister. After a series of dire mishaps, both their desires are thwarted, but each discovers that no matter what, God is in charge.

My Thoughts:

 

Michelle Griep is a new-to-me author.  I found her writing to be very compelling.  I love Regency Romance and was very pleased with the details.

 

This story was very emotional, witty, sarcastic and over-all delightful!

 

Emily started out as a very spoiled, hard-headed individual.  Throughout the troubles she came across in the story, her character developed into a great heroine.

 

Nicholas was such a fun hero.  He was a brilliant detective with wonderfully sarcastic wit.

 

The mystery and drama the author developed was highly entertaining.

 

I look forward to reading more novels by Ms. Griep.

 

 

 Thanks for stopping by!  Please leave a comment with a link so I can return the visit!

 

Linking up to  WholeHearted Wednesday, R&R, Word Filled Wednesday, Coffee and Conversation, Ladies Collective,   Party in Your PJs,  The Mommy Club, Works or Me, Wake-Up Wednesday and  Women with Intention , Literacy Musings, Saturday Situation, Booknificent.

Book Review ~ Prelude for a Lord by Camille Elliot ~ 4/20/16

 

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Blurb:

 

An awkward young woman. A haunted young man. A forbidden instrument. Can the love of music bring them together . . . or will it tear them apart?

Bath, England—1810

At twenty-eight, Alethea Sutherton is past her prime for courtship; but social mores have never been her forté. She might be a lady, but she is first and foremost a musician.

In Regency England, however, the violin is considered an inappropriate instrument for a lady. Ostracized by society for her passion, Alethea practices in secret and waits for her chance to flee to the Continent, where she can play without scandal.

But when a thief’s interest in her violin endangers her and her family, Alethea is determined to discover the enigmatic origins of her instrument . . . with the help of the dark, brooding Lord Dommick.

Scarred by war, Dommick finds solace only in playing his violin. He is persuaded to help Alethea, and discovers an entirely new yearning in his soul.

Alethea finds her reluctant heart drawn to Dommick in the sweetest of duets . . . just as the thief’s desperation builds to a tragic crescendo . . .

My Thoughts:

 

It had been quite a while since I had read a Regency Romance, a genre that I fell in love with many, many years ago.  I was so excited to find this book while looking through the many books at Ollie's.

 

I also love music so I was intrigued by the premise of this book.

 

Alethea was so bold and confident that it was hysterical at times.

 

Dommick was so unsure of himself after having to deal with the horrors of war.

 

The mystery of Alethea's violin brings them together along with their mutual love of music and composition.

 

I really didn't have the mystery figured out until the very end when it became apparent who was trying to get to the violin.

 

This was a very nice read.  It reminded me why I love this genre so much :)

 

 

 Thanks for stopping by!  Please leave a comment with a link so I can return the visit!

 

Linking up to  WholeHearted Wednesday, R&R, Word Filled Wednesday, Coffee and Conversation, Ladies Collective,   Party in Your PJs,  The Mommy Club, Works or Me, Wake-Up Wednesday and  Women with Intention , Literacy Musings, Saturday Situation, Booknificent.

Stacking the Shelves ~ 4/9/16

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

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This week I added the following to my shelf:

Dr. Neal Stradbroke has a secret past that could destroy everything he’s worked since childhood to build. But when he falls in love with the daughter of one of his patients, he must choose between revealing his past and risk losing everything or keeping his secret and watching her marry another man.

Cadence “Caddy” Bainbridge has worked hard as a seamstress since her vicar father died, and for a while, things went well. But then her mother fell ill. Now, most of Caddy’s earnings go for doctors, medicines, and trips to the seaside trying to get her mother better. The last thing she needs is a romantic entanglement—but she finds herself torn between two men: Oliver Carmichael, whose wealth could give Caddy’s mother the life of ease she deserves; and Neal Stradbroke, for whom her heart yearns.

Oliver Carmichael has always drawn the eye of all the girls with no exertion on his part—all the girls, that is, except seamstress Caddy Bainbridge. So, even though he has plans to marry Edith Buchanan, he places a bet with his friends that he can make Caddy fall in love with him before the opening day of the Great Exhibition. Edith Buchanan has been disappointed in marriage prospects already, so she is not about to lose another suitor to a woman of lower social status—especially not her own dressmaker!—so she spreads rumors about Caddy that could not only ruin Caddy’s business but cause Caddy’s mother to have a fatal relapse.

Courtship . . . cunning . . . candor. Who has an honest heart?  

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It is 1704 when Genevieve Gaillain and her sister board a French ship headed for the Louisiana colony as mail-order brides. Both have promised to marry one of the rough-and-tumble Canadian men in this New World in order to escape religious persecution in the Old World. Genevieve knows life won’t be easy, but at least here she can establish a home and family without fear of beheading. But when she falls in love with Tristan Lanier, an expatriate cartographer whose courageous stand for fair treatment of native peoples has made him decidedly unpopular in the young colony, Genevieve realizes that even in this land of liberty one is not guaranteed peace. And a secret she harbors could mean the undoing of the colony itself.
 

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Happy Reading!

Book Review ~ Sit Stay Love by Dana Mentink ~ 4/7/16

 

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Blurb:

 

Take one abrasive professional athlete, a quirky out-of-work schoolteacher, and an overweight geriatric dog, and you're ready for a lesson in love...Tippy style.

Pro baseball pitcher Cal Crawford is not a dog guy. When he inherits his deceased mother's elderly dog, Tippy, he's quick to call on a pet-sitting service.

Gina isn't thrilled to be a dog sitter when her aspirations lie in the classroom. Furthermore, she can't abide the unfriendly Cal, a man with all the charm of a wet towel. But with no other prospects and a deep love for all things canine, she takes the job caring for Tippy.

As Gina travels through Cal's world with Tippy in tow, she begins to see Cal in a different light. Gina longs to show Cal the God-given blessings in his life that have nothing to do with baseball or fame. When her longing blooms into attraction, Gina does her best to suppress it. But Cal is falling in love with her too...

Discover the charming story of Tippy, the dog who brought a family together. 

My Thoughts:

 

This was such a sweet story!

 

I absolutely adored reading about Tippy and her humans :)

 

I also LOVE baseball and enjoyed all the baseball references in the story.

 

This was a super-fun read and I'm looking forward to reading more by this author!

 

 

 

 

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review as part of a 

Litfuse Publicity Blog Tour.  
 

Book Review ~ The Wishing Season by Denise Hunter ~ 4/6/16

 

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Blurb:

 

Living side-by-side, a fledgling chef and a big-hearted contractor find a delicious attraction.

Trouble is, their chemistry could spoil their dreams.
Spirited PJ McKinley has the touch when it comes to food. Her dream of opening her own restaurant is just one building short of reality. So when a Chapel Springs resident offers her beloved ancestral home to the applicant with the best plan for the house, PJ believes it’s a contest she was meant to win.

Contractor Cole Evans is confident, professional, and swoon-worthy—but this former foster kid knows his life could have turned out very differently. When Cole discovers the contest, he believes his home for foster kids in transition has found its saving grace. All he has to do is convince the owner that an out-of-towner with a not-for-profit enterprise is good for the community.

But when the eccentric philanthropist sees PJ and Cole’s proposals, she makes an unexpected decision: the pair will share the house for a year to show what their ideas are made of. Now, with Cole and the foster kids upstairs and PJ and the restaurant below, day-to-day life has turned into out-and-out competition—with some seriously flirtatious hallway encounters on the side. Turns out in this competition, it’s not just the house on the line, it’s their hearts.

My Thoughts:

 

Sigh.... 

 

What a romance....

 

Denise Hunter is one of my all-time favorite authors.  Any book she writes, I read.  They have never let me down.

 

I loved the premise of this story.  Two people with opposing goals, having to live in the same house and after a year, finding out who will win the house!  I love it!

 

I loved the main characters as well as the secondary characters.

 

The romance was just plain swoon-worthy!  The author did a wonderful job keeping it nice and clean.

 

I loved EVERYTHING about this book!  lol

 

In case you missed it, I loved this book :)

 

A must-read!

 

 

 Thanks for stopping by!  Please leave a comment with a link so I can return the visit!

 

Linking up to  WholeHearted Wednesday, R&R, Word Filled Wednesday, Coffee and Conversation, Ladies Collective,   Party in Your PJs,  The Mommy Club, Works or Me, Wake-Up Wednesday and  Women with Intention , Literacy Musings, Saturday Situation, Booknificent.

Stacking the Shelves ~ 4/2/16

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week I added the following to my shelf:

1205 - the town of Chinon is beseiged by enemies of King John, and his young Queen calls upon a trusted servant to conceal her treasured jewels.

Emily Braden is intrigued by the medieval story of Queen Isabelle, and cannot resist when her cousin Harry, a historian, suggests a trip to the white-walled town of Chinon, nestling in France's Loire Valley. But when Harry vanishes and Emily begins to search for him, she stumbles across another intriguing mystery -- a second Isabelle, a chambermaid during the Second World War, who had her own tragedy, and her own treasure to hide.

As Emily explores the ancient town of labyrinthine tunnels, old enmities, and new loves, she finds herself drawn ever closer to the mysterious Isabelles and their long-kept secrets.

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Place an unpolished lawman named Nicholas Brentwood as guardian over a spoiled, pompous beauty named Emily Payne and what do you get? More trouble than Brentwood bargains for. She is determined to find a husband this season. He just wants the large fee her father will pay him to help his ailing sister. After a series of dire mishaps, both their desires are thwarted, but each discovers that no matter what, God is in charge.
 

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Happy Reading!