Review: Wait for Me by Susan May Warren

I usually love Susan May Warren’s writing, but this book didn’t really hit the same mark for me. Wait for Me is the final Montana Rescue installment, and it’s the tale of Pete Brooks and Jess Tagg at long last. Much of the story focuses on Jess’s personal history, a twisty romance, and the current drama of a sudden group abduction followed by a desperate search-and-rescue effort in the wilds of Montana.

Like Ian and Sierra’s romance, Pete and Jess’s story has been drawn out through several books, with scenes here and there advancing and regressing their romance. And like Ian and Sierra’s romance, by the time Pete and Jess’s story finally unfolds fully in Wait for Me, I was just ready for them to

Holiday Recommended Read: The Christmas Heirloom

It’s Christmas Eve, y’all! The presents are wrapped and under the tree, carols are playing on the radio, and the hot cocoa is chasing the chill away. I don’t know about you, but after all the hectic hustle and bustle of preparing for the holidays, I’m ready to curl up in an overstuffed armchair with a good book and watch all the Christmas lights turn on along my street as the sky gets dark outside.

What am I reading, you ask? Why, The Christmas Heirloom, of course.

This new novella collection from Kristi Ann Hunter, Becky Wade, Karen Witemeyer and Sarah Loudin Thomas is my

Review: Just Look Up

So, you know when you find a book at the library and take it to the checkout desk, all excited to take it home and dive in, and the friendly clerk says, “Oh, I liked that one. But the first book in that series was even better.” And you screech to a halt and go, “This is in a series?” Uh-oh.

If you’re a true bookworm, you’ll understand my readerly crisis. This is how I came to read Just Let Go before its predecessor, Just Look Up.

Big-city interior designer Lane Kelley comes back to her hometown of Harbor Pointe, MI, after her brother suffers a serious accident. With few pleasant memories of growing up as something of a loner there, Lane is ready to help her family and get out of Harbor Pointe as fast as possible. But as her career and personal life start to unravel, Lane begins to consider a future quite different from the one she’d planned. One that just might include reconciling with her family – and a chance at love with longtime friend Ryan Brooks.

Recommended: Just Let Go

I confess, I did not enjoy the first Courtney Walsh book I read. Bored me so much that I can’t even tell you the title because I honestly don’t remember it. But then I noticed this cover (SO. PRETTY.) on my library’s new shelf, and I had to look at it. Read a few pages and I was hooked!

Every time I read a book with a flower shop in it, I wish I’d studied landscape design in college or become a florist. Who knows? Maybe I will one day. But for now, I’ll spend awhile at Forget Me Not, Quinn Collins’s shop in Harbor Pointe, MI. Just Let Go is one of those sweet romantic stories set in a small town full of people who all know each other and step in and out of each other’s lives every day.

Quinn is determined to prove her worth to the mother who abandoned her without a backward glance 20 years ago. Her chance: she’s entering a prestigious Michigan floral design competition, and her mother is one of the judges. Her complication: Olympic skier-turned-local havoc-maker Grady Benson.

Review: Hidden Peril

Excuse my yawns, readers. It’s been a couple of late nights finishing Irene Hannon’s latest suspense novel. Just a warning – if you’re gonna pick up Hidden Peril, make sure you don’t have anything on your schedule too early the next morning. This novel will keep you turning page after page into the wee hours, and it is SO HARD to put down!

Long ago, Kristen and her two best friends, Colin and Rick, took a vow to make the world a better place. Kristen is doing that with her fair trade shop, selling products from around the globe. Then people connected to her store begin dying. St. Louis PD detective Luke Carter and the FBI want to know why.

Review: The Cost of Betrayal

I just love the tempestuous feel of that cover, don’t you? Let me tell you, that feeling definitely carries through all of the suspenseful stories in The Cost of Betrayal.

In Dee Henderson’s “Betrayed,“ Janelle Roberts is freed, thanks to an investigation by Ann and Paul Falcon, years after a wrongful conviction. The plot focuses on Janelle’s readjustment to life outside prison. Heartrending for sure, but I wanted a little more resolution or action. Maybe there’s more to come in a future book? An interesting take on life after a wrongful conviction is corrected, but I miss the suspenseful romance style of the O’Malleys and Henderson’s military series.

Dani Pettrey’s “Deadly Isle” has that style in spades! This novella introduces her upcoming

HIGHLY Recommended Read: An Hour Unspent

What an end to this Shadows Over England series! Barclay Pearce is officially my favorite member of this patchwork family of thieves and orphans, y’all.

An Hour Unspent is a fascinating mix of romance, espionage, and self-discovery. And the characters! Barclay is just this subtly brilliant, ordinary man with such skill at his profession and the softest heart. It’s no wonder he’s been able to “adopt” so many orphans and create a family, from Willa and Rosemary to Clover and baby Patch. And it’s heartbreaking to realize he started this after his own family was ripped apart.

This story really shows you the impact of the family’s changes. Rosemary’s and Willa’s stories took them

Review: Lynette Eason’s Called to Protect

In Called to Protect, it’s Chloe St. John’s job to protect Columbia, SC, and her loved ones from danger. With her K-9 partner Hank at her side, this St. John is just as determined to serve her community as the rest of her family. When the discovery of a trailer full of human trafficking victims provides the first real lead in her young cousin’s disappearance, Chloe races to find the girl before the case goes cold again. 

An old friend of the St. Johns, U.S. Marshall Blake MacCallum is horrified when his daughter is taken by the traffickers and used as leverage against him. When a task force assigned to bring down the

An Hour Unspent is Here!

Oh, happy day!

Release day, that is. It’s official, y’all: the third and final installment in Roseanna M. White’s Shadows Over England series has landed on shelves everywhere. An Hour Unspent looks fantastic, and I can’t wait to discover Barclay’s story. I’ve got my copy and my fingers are just itching to turn its pages.

Full review to come, but the first few chapters are intriguing and the characters charming. Evelina looks to be a spunky heroine, and I’ve been wanting Barclay’s backstory since we met in A Name Unknown. (He’s a bookworm AND all about family, after all.) Well, it’s back to the Edwardian era for me. Happy reading, y’all!

P.S. Here’s a link to Roseanna’s release day giveaway!

Recommended Read: Dead Drift by Dani Pettrey

I’ve been waiting for Luke Gallagher’s story since Cold Shot started the Chesapeake Valor series, and it does NOT disappoint. Whew! (Sorry, I’m still swooning.) Action-packed plot, heatstroke-inducing romance, dynamic characters you don’t want to let go…the only flaw is that it’s the series finale!

Dani Pettrey’s Dead Drift is inspirational romantic suspense at its best. Luke Gallagher, the mystery character of the series, finally steps into the spotlight, and boy does he return to the Chesapeake area with a bang! Former flame and private investigator Kate Maxwell has been searching for Luke since he disappeared almost eight years ago. But is the Luke who returns the man she remembers?