You know what I like about Carla Kelly’s books? They have real people. I don’t just mean that she doesn’t pull out the marquesses and dukes, although she has eschewed the nobility in the last decade. I mean her characters act and speak like actual complex human beings. They don’t just shriek and sigh and…
This installment in the Cupcake Lovers series returns readers to Sugar Creek, Vermont to catch up on established couples and see where things stand between Luke Monroe and Rachel Lacey. What could have been a sweet, small-town romance suffers from a severe case of series-itis and a weak ending that left me thinking “That’s it?”…
Narrated by Ellen Archer I normally avoid novellas; they’re just too short for me. I like to learn more about the characters than is revealed in a novella. But in the case of a well-loved series I’ll make an exception. I’m a major fan of the Lady Julia series and have enjoyed Ellen Archer’s narration…
As a fan of Robyn Carr’s books and the Virgin River series as a whole, I wasn’t quite sure how to rate Bring Me Home for Christmas. Sometimes anticipation and expectations interfere with my perception on the first reading. So I waited a couple of weeks and reread it. This time it was easier to…
The best part of the holiday season is, for me, the holiday books. I do lots of baking, wrapping, decorating, and cooking but that is not really for me. It’s for the family. But the holiday novels are my little treat during the season. They warm my heart and keep me going, reminding me of…
I tend to stick with anthologies for my holiday reading, but I noticed a fair number of full-length holiday stories on shelves this year, so I thought I’d broaden my horizons. While it has a few cheesy Hallmark Hall of Fame-style moments, Christmas at Candlebark Farm is basically a well-written and very sweet little Christmas…
It’s not uncommon for a book to have a family tree, when it’s one in a series of connected stories focusing on a particular family – and God knows there are a lot of those. It’s never a good sign, though, when a single book needs a family tree to deal with all of the…
I’ll say this for the art department at Dutton: They have some serious love for Lauren Willig. Her covers are always attractive, but the one on The Mischief of the Mistletoe is absolutely stunning. Periodically I would find myself lost in a daze and realize I was doing it, again – staring at the cover,…
I bought Holiday Kisses by Gwynne Forster because I felt I should widen my horizons and read more African-American romance. It was probably not the best choice, as, although the book contained several elements I usually like, on the whole it disappointed. Kisha Moran is a dentist who moved to Baltimore several months ago. One…
I picked up my copy of A Christmas Promise at a library book sale a couple of months ago for a dime. My experience in the past with Mary Balogh has been spotty, but I thought there was a chance this might have resale value and my initial investment was hardly steep, so decision made….