What Eden Did Nest by Sheila O'Flanaghan

 

A long novel that stalls out several times in the storyline. There is so much aggravating family intrusion and manipulation that is bothersome.

As the story goes, friends until age ten when Eden was uprooted from her home in Galway, she and Mac (Rafe) reconnect twenty years later. Both are widowed with small daughters. They develop a new relationship based on mutual attraction. His family and her in-laws butt in at every chance. Her mother-in-law is especially manipulative and always inserting what Eden’s deceased husband would want. All you want is for Eden to stand up to her and tell her to back off.

The Montana Rancher by Paula Altenburg

 

Secretive Ryan holds the reins on how the money for Endeavor Ranch is used by him, Dan and Dallas. He is closed off but trusting of his two friends. Marriage and especially family are not for him. 

Enter Elizabeth, hired as the social worker for the ranch’s boys home and the only female on the property. Also enter a love Ryan cannot stop even if he tried.

A story of walls being breached and of life being changed and of answers finally given. Great story and characters.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

How to Fake It in Hollywood by

 

A very engrossing novel detailing the tumultuous relationship of two actors who have been brought together by their mutual PR agent. Very high highs battle with very low lows creating a novel you won’t put down.

The Vanishing Tide by Hillary Tailor

 

A story filled with secrets, insecurities, jealousy and mystique. The telling became tiresome and too drawn out. It is not until the last third of the book to really get going. Then it turns into a very interesting book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A Summer Love Affair by Holly Chamberlain

A Summer Love Affair is an engaging story of how four women learn to cope with a long buried secret that changes everything they thought they knew.

Elizabeth has finally come to relate the biological father of her youngest daughter, Petra. There was never a doubt that her father, Hugh, was not her true father. Elizabeth had had a short lived affair with Chris, her husband’s best friend who she always loved even though she married Hugh. The relating of the affair affects her daughters in ways relative to their personalities. Petra is searching for her purpose and finding and getting to know her father is what she needs. Cam has marriage struggles of her own and is more grounded in the secret and in her advice. Jess is a no gray area woman and feels betrayed by her mother’s affair. Elizabeth is hopeful the revelation will not permanently change her relationships with her daughters. The story is an examination of the interactions between mothers and daughters when life is not all it seems to be.

A Summer Love Affair is an engaging story of how four women learn to cope with a long buried secret that changes everything they thought they knew.

Elizabeth has finally come to relate the biological father of her youngest daughter, Petra. There was never a doubt that her father, Hugh, was not her true father. Elizabeth had had a short lived affair with Chris, her husband’s best friend who she always loved even though she married Hugh. The relating of the affair affects her daughters in ways relative to their personalities. Petra is searching for her purpose and finding and getting to know her father is what she needs. Cam has marriage struggles of her own and is more grounded in the secret and in her advice. Jess is a no gray area woman and feels betrayed by her mother’s affair. Elizabeth is hopeful the revelation will not permanently change her relationships with her daughters. The story is an examination of the interactions between mothers and daughters when life is not all it seems to be.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Escape Girl by Michelle Dayton

 

Running away from a husband she really loves, Emily has spent the last six months working almost round the clock at her lawyer job. Then Bella comes in with a case of stolen coding property and Emily knows she must take the case.

It leads her to Chicago from New York and running into her husband, Bobby. Things really get interesting from there.

I loved both sides of the story-the coding case and the Bobby and Emily relationship. Just the descriptions of Emily’s struggles, fears, and love are perfect reading. I began to really care for Emily and Bobby and to root for them.

Flirting with Fifty by Jane Porter

 

What an amazing novel. The details and expressions of all the jumble of emotions felt by the main characters were extremely well written and on point.

Paige Newsome, professor of mathematics, is a complex woman. She adores her work and her three grown daughters each with their own personalities. She is thrown for a complete loop when she learns she is to team teach with Jack King, a man she knew very intimately thirty years ago in Paris. Their chemistry is still off the charts but a lousy marriage and an even worse husband has created walls around Paige’s heart. Jack is determined to really get to know her and she utterly disrupts his world and life.

You will definitely enjoy watching their relationship evolve, even with all of Paige’s struggles and doubts.