Romancing the Holidays, Vol. 2

 During this busy season take a break to relax with Romancing the Holidays, Vol.2, a collection of 14 short romances released by the members of First Coast Romance Writers of Jacksonville, Fla.

 Our Review: so many emotions and feelings were evoked as we read these short stories, covering Halloween through Valentine’s Day and settings spanning war-torn France to present day Miami to the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. Genres run the gamut from romantic suspense, to paranormals to historicals.

 * Debby Grahl’s Fall Into Magic features a hard-nose US Marshal who meets a been-there-done-that witch in the middle of an old west gunfight.

* A warlock, dressed as Buzz Lightyear, is confronted by a witch in a Little Red Riding Hood costume in Melody Johnson’s paranormal, Fated by Fire and the fun begins.

* Sparks fly, in more ways than one, when a busy OB-GYN battles a TV set designer for the last can of pumpkin in Elise Darby’s Oh My Pumpkin Pie.  

* Barbara Whitaker takes us back to a different time and place in her World War II romance, Thanks for the Doughnuts. There’s nothing like a little shellfire from enemy forces to teach a timid Red Cross worker and a brash, pushy soldier lessons in life and love.

* Maggie Fitzroy uses an historic lakeside lodge in Maine for the setting of Christmas Peril, featuring a travel writer and a PI, who while posing as husband and wife, set out to get the goods on a potential gold-digging fiancé and end up with a dead body on their hands.

* San Diego is the setting for a contemporary military romance by Leah Miles. Stolen Christmas features a struggling widow with an intrepid five-year-old who steals the heart of their landlord: a macho US Navy SEAL. Bring on the tissues.

* For those who enjoy a good attorney bash joke, Karen Renee shows a new side of the law in Holiday Fixation. Nothing brings out the hero in a group of hard-charging lawyers when one of their own is threatened by a stalker.

* For a touching story of a family reunited in post-Civil War Georgia, Sara Walker’s Miracle de Noel is the one for you. War injures more than those who fought; the family left behind is equally harmed—and Walker shows those injuries very well.

* Vickey Wollan displays an obvious talent for snappy dialogue with The Secret Santa Surprise when two teens, in need of community service hours in order to earn a college scholarship, are forced to walk in each other’s shoes. The question ends up: which is more fun, the ‘breaststroke babe’ sitting high on her pity pot or the dorky superhero Inviso-Man? What a treat.  

* Just Four Days offers new meaning to wedding cruise from Hell when Maid of Honor Hailey runs slam bam into Best Man Don. Author Gloria Ferguson poses the ultimate problem: can two exes bury the hatchet long enough to see their best friends married without shoving each other overboard?

* When Dustin Biggs tells his ex-wife “I know you’d rather sled down a mountain on an ironing board than let me in but it’s freezing in here!” we were hooked by Abigail Sharpe’s second chance contemporary romance, New Year’s Ex-Pectations. A beauty of a fun story.

* Laura Salas gives readers a treat with an inside look into the celebration known as Three Kings Day in Love on Calle Ocho. Set in Miami, Carlos Flores has moved on after a serious betrayal; teacher Maddie Jones, also betrayed, has not. Together the two help each other in remarkable ways.

* In True Love Found, P.K. Brent brings enchantment fairy Marielle Charmaine face to face with her first crush, electromancer Alan Corben. As teenagers they helped each other survive loneliness, bigotry and misunderstanding. As adults, after finding each other again, new possibilities come to fruition.

* Winding up the series is The Matchmaker’s Valentine, a love story among shapeshifting werewolves. Jax is looking for a mate but where to find one? Those inside his pack find him too big, too broody, too crazy. And, as pack enforcer his reputation has gone out of control. In the middle of a noisy bar he finds Cece, a matchmaker self-described as ‘she’d walk through Hell with gasoline panties on before she ended up like her mother’. Laugh out loud.  

 On a scale of 1-5, Romancing the Holidays, Vol 2 deserves a 5.

 Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews

 

 

 

 

Crush by Christina Strigas

 Crush, a contemporary romance written by Christina Strigas, recently released by The Wild Rose Press from their Fast Track line.

It was love at first sight when Maria met Jack on a beach all those years ago. But when Jack suddenly disappears, Maria is thrust closer to Hunter, their long-time friend, taking them on a journey that changes all three of their lives forever.

Maria is a lonely young woman who finds love and acceptance with Jack, a free-spirited musician. In Maria, Jack finally has the girl of his dreams by his side. When Jack introduces Maria to his best friend, Hunter, he feels an instant connection to Maria, but he buries his feelings—along with his secret that he's a vampire—for the love of his friend.

Set in Saint-Tropez, Crush is a vampire tale with a twist. Spanning decades and delving into the past of each character in this thorny love triangle, it is about a woman who must choose between the man she's in love with and the man who is her soul mate. Adventure, love, romance, and vampires all collide in this unique novel filled with powerful emotion, heartbreak, and the question of undying love.

 Our Review: A story of love shared by three best friends, Crush is written in flowery, artistic prose and reflects the author’s talent for creative, stream of consciousness poetry. The pace is fast—often too fast—as it jumps abruptly from past to present, leaving the reader shaking their heads as to where they are in the timeline. Lovers of vampire lore will like this one.

 On a scale of 1-5, Crush earns a 3.

 Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews 

The Three Widows of Wylder by Julie Howard

 Three women. Three terrible secrets.

 Three women on the run.

After the death of her husband, Clara flees a hanging judge and seeks refuge with her brother in Wylder, Wyoming. With secrets of her own and good reasons to flee, spoiled and vain Mary Rose joins Clara on the trek to Wyoming. Surely a suitable man exists somewhere.Emma is a mystery. A crack shot and expert horsewoman, her harrowing past seeps out in a steady drip. She’s on the run from something, but what? After the three women descend on Wylder, a budding romance leads to exposure of their pasts. As disaster looms, will any of them escape?

 About the story: In a spin-off from the usual fare offered by the popular Wylder West series, published by the Wild Rose Press, author Julie Howard offers us three unique women characters. Each is driven by her own demons; each is determined to survive at all costs. No matter what it takes.

Our Review: Each time we read and review another creation by the talented Julie Howard, we come away certain this one is the best of the lot—and each one has been terrific. In ‘Three Widows’ each character has her own individual personality, driven by needs common to women of that time in history, with few resources and nowhere to turn—until she takes matters into her own hands. And we are better for having read it. Well done.

 On a scale of 1-5, The Three Widows of Wylder deserves an 8.

 Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews

My Only One by Charlotte O'Shay

 They have been the only one for each other since childhood. Has it lasted?

Research chemist Esmeralda Acosta is devoted to her father, and when he promises her in marriage to a wealthy businessman, as payment for an overdue loan, she feels she must honor him. Until everything goes horribly wrong and she goes on the run—only to be rescued by a man she’s not seen in years, but never forgot: Shane Fortunato.

Shane has loved Esme for what seems like all his life, never forgot her, never married because no woman could match her for beauty, brains and guts. Now, as an up and coming undercover narcotics agent, they two are thrown together after she is assaulted by the head of a notorious cocaine cartel. Working fast, Shane must convince Esme he can protect her—and her ailing father—if only.  

Our Review:  With her gifts for writing crisp, realistic dialogue and building suspense that feels effortless, author O’Shay has knocked her first attempt at independent publishing out of the park. We can’t wait for the next edition of the Fortunato Family Series. Well done and congratulations.

On a scale of 1-5, My Only One deserves a 7.

Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews

 

 

 

Arborview by Karen Guzman

 Ellen Cahill, fresh off an ugly divorce from a manipulative jerk—who continues to phone and text her at the drop of a hat, just to ‘check in’—needs to come up with cash, and soon, in order to save Arborview, a treehouse in the back yard of her longtime home, a haven where she often retreats to pray and think and dream.

          Just when things are beginning to look up and Ellen is feeling more confident, a tug of ginormous proportions yanks the proverbial rug from beneath her feet. Coming in the form of another betrayal, this one is even more astounding than those committed by the aforementioned jerkoff ex-spouse. Enter Rosa Escamilla, a young woman who reminds Ellen of herself at twenty, and who compels her to look at life’s vagaries in a new light.  

 Our Review: For a humdinger of one woman’s journey toward recovery and revenge, this is a book you’ll want to keep on the shelf, and pick up when you want to feel good about life and all it may toss at you, Arborview is the bomb. Well done, Ms. Guzman.

 On a scale of 1-5, Arborview deserves a 6.

 Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews

 

 

 

Murder Undetected by Roxanne Dunn

           Two women. One driven by selfish desire, the other by selfless love.

 The moment psychologist Brittany Ann Thornton thinks she has her life all dialed in, her perfect little family falls apart and the FBI seizes all her assets. Trouble follows her from Seattle to Paris to the south of France where Viane Thibaudet, darling of a quaint hilltop town in Provence, has been getting away with murder. But when she attempts to poison her husband, Brittany steps up to stop her.

Our Review:  And so begins an exciting romp through France for a woman trying her best to regain a firm hold on both life and her professional future. The fates have other ideas and toss a few wrenches into the works in the forms of a lying, cheating spouse, an ambivalent graduate advisor, the typical rebellious teenage daughter, and a nasty adolescent serial killer. But those are only cracks in the sidewalk of life when it comes to Brit surviving the machinations of a woman who wears two faces.

Author Dunn follows Murder Unrehearsed, her first thriller for the Wild Rose Press, with a tightly written, interesting murder-suspense set in the luscious south of France with a cast of well-drawn, layered characters, a gutsy heroine and a really nasty bad guy.

On a scale of 1-5, Murder Undetected deserves a 7.

Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews

What Happens in Denver by Liz Crowe

 New friends, a fresh start, a side order of romance—all with a nice cold pint.

           The morning after winning the coveted Best Beer Bar award, Andi Rigby discovers she’s been screwed her out of the same award-winning business. That’s what happens to a woman who’s spent years learning all aspects of the trade with the goal of making her ‘baby’ the best it could be. Not to mention being too consumed to be aware of the legal manipulations of her cheating, scumbag of a husband.

           After wallowing for months, aided by copious amounts of alcohol, she rises, albeit reluctantly, from the ashes and starts the slow, painful process of starting over. First in Denver, which leads to Grand Rapids and VanAnsel Distributors. As a side benefit, hunky James Burke of the infamous Burke Brothers brewery is one of her new clients. Attracted? Yes, by God she is. Still in mourning for all she’d lost? Of course. What Happens in Denver shows us how Andi triumphs over cheating spouses, misogynistic coworkers and desperate new best friends.

 Our Review:  Author Liz Crowe, known for snappy dialogue and riotus story arcs, does not disappoint fans with What Happens in Denver. Any woman who’s been done wrong by a man will easily relate to Andi, a hoot of a woman who will go to no end to help a friend, or a competitor, and come out better for it. For an in-depth look into the craft beer industry, as well as the big business of alcohol distribution, this is the story for you.   

 On a scale of 1-5, What Happens in Denver deserves a 5.

                Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews