Christmas on Crimson Mountain - Michelle Major (Review)

Christmas on Crimson Mountain by Michelle Major 
Genres:  Fiction, Romance
Publication date: November 22nd 2016
Publisher: Harlequin 
Format: ebook, 224 pages  
How I got it: From Barclay for an honest review  
Buy it: Amazon     
My rating: 4/5

Summary: 
LOVE ON THE MOUNTAIN

Peace and quiet—that's all Connor Pierce wanted from the rented cabin on Crimson Mountain. Yet the caretaker turned out to be lovely April Sanders—a total distraction. As were the two little girls she was caring for. Connor's plan to forget his painful past soon detoured into giving the ladies a Christmas to remember.

Being named guardian of two motherless girls has upended April's world. Add to the mix a mysterious, brooding writer claiming he wanted to be left alone while going out of his way to bring a little joy to the girls, and she has quite the quandary. April had counted herself out of a happy ending. But maybe Santa still had a few surprises up his merry old sleeve…

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  Review

This is my second Michelle Major book and I loved this one more then the first one!! This book follows April who is the acting caretaker of Crimson Mountain Inn when Connor comes to stay to complete his book.  Connor’s major concern is he wants peace and quiet to finish his book, but April just became sort of the legal guardian for two girls who recently lost their mother.  Connor comes off as very upset when he sees the girls, but his issues lie much deeper down.  

I loved all the emotions that this book created.  The author did an amazing job bringing such tragedy to life.  I could feel the emotions that the characters where going through in the author’s writing.  I felt connected to all of the characters and wanted somehow for them to find peace during this difficult time.  I also liked how not all of the tragedies happened very recently, April has had time from her illness and divorce and Connor has had time since his loss.   As a reader it was good to see that some time passed between these events that the characters has time to process what happened. 

April was such a complex character.  First off she comes off as very put together in her new life, but as the story continues we get to see her underlying issues.  April is a strong woman, but she doesn’t know her true full strength in the beginning.  I loved that April tried so hard to keep everything together even if she didn’t know exactly what was going to happen in the end.  April was a very determined character as well. 

Connor on the other hand comes off as completely broken in the beginning of the book.  He had lost his wife and only child in a car accident and doesn’t know how to act.  The author made some great points with that in times of tragedy you never know how someone is going to react or what they need and that sometimes people don’t know what to say.   I loved the Connor has strong opinions on how he wanted people to act towards him because it showed how deep down his wounds went. 

The setting of the book was perfect for this story.  The characters had a lot of time to spend together so the relationships really were well developed.  Each main character had their own personality and issues.  The author did a great job telling the story of how people can begin to heal. 

I would suggest this as a nighttime read.  It was a very quick read that kept me wanting more.  I did feel like at points I couldn’t put it down, but I wanted to know how everything was going to end up.  Also, since there was a lot of emotions flowing it was hard to stop reading at some points because I wanted to see where these emotions where headed. 

I received a copy of this book from Barclay Publishing in exchange for an honest review.  This does not affect my opinion of this book.

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About the Author

 Michelle Major grew up in Ohio but dreamed of living in the mountains. Soon after graduating with a degree in Journalism, she pointed her car west and settled in Colorado. Her life and house are filled with one great husband, two beautiful kids, a few furry pets and several well-behaved reptiles. She’s grateful to have found her passion writing stories with happy endings. Michelle loves to hear from her readers at www.michellemajor.com.

Connect with Michelle: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

{Blog Tour} A Cunning Plan - Astrid Arditi (Review & Giveaway)

A Cunning Plan

Astrid Arditi

June 8, 2016

Romantic Suspense

89,000 Words

Determined to put her family back together, Sloane Harper stalks her ex husband and his annoyingly stunning mistress, Kate Stappleton. But she’s not the only one.

Handsome IRS agent Ethan Cunning is surveying Kate too, but for entirely different reasons. He is attempting to nail Kate’s playboy boss.

Ethan and Sloane decide to help each other, which sends Sloane’s wobbly life spinning out of control. She’ll have to face danger, humiliation, and – scariest of all – the dating scene, to lure her daughters’ father home.

Losing control was the best thing to happen to Sloane…until it turned lethal.

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GoodReads 

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Review

This books follows Sloane Harper a women who just lost her husband to divorce due to him seeing another women.  Sloane desperately wants to get her husband back and starts stalking the women he is seeing Kate.  While Sloane is stalking her husband's new girlfriend a handsome IRS agent seeks her out to do some spying on Kate's boss.  Sloane doesn't know what to do right away if she is going to help Ethan because she doesn't want to put her family in danger. 

The author does a great job with this story line.  I feel like we are presented with a lot of information up front to build the back story and who is who.  After you get the basic facts the author did a great adding in the suspense so that you kept wanting more from the book and you also started to fall in love with the characters.   I also think the story line is very unique since as a reader you really got to see what lengths a scorned women will go to and what it takes to get passed a major event in someone's life.  The author creates a whole world that you can submerge yourself in and feel connected.

My favorite character was Sloane although Claudia and Bizzy do come in second place.   Sloane doesn't really know what to do with her life and also at the beginning of the book ready to let her past life go.   Sloane really becomes an entirely different women during the course of the book.  I feel like she learns about her strength from all different sources in the book.  Sloane's children are very supportive of her and just want what is best for their mother.  I love the bond that we get to see between mother and daughter in multiple senses as we also get a look at Sloan and Bizzy's relationship.

The author did a great job with not including to much side stories that would be distracting to the book.  I felt like it was the perfect length and in the end everything fits together perfectly! 

I LOVED the ending! It was like what! 

 

The author does a great job giving us one final look at all of the characters in the end.  Also, we really get to learn about Sloane's ex husband and what her final decision is with her life.  The author also left it open for a great sequel! 

I would suggest this as a weekend read or when you have more time to sit down and read longer.  The book is very fast paced and I had a hard time putting the book down.  There was really natural stopping points you wanted to know what was going to happen next and how it was all going to end.   

I received a copy of this book from Masquerade Book Tours for an honest review.  This does not affect my opinion of this book.

My Rating 5/5

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About the Author

Astrid Arditi was born from a French father and Swedish mother. She lived in Paris and Rome before moving to London with her husband and daughter back in 2013.

After dabbling in journalism, interning at Glamour magazine, and teaching kindergarten, Arditi returned to her first love: writing.

She now splits her time between raising her kids (a brand new baby boy just joined the family) and making up stories.

A Cunning Plan is Arditi’s first published work.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | GoodReads

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Inseparable - Claire St. Hilaire (Review)

Inseparable by Claire St. Hilaire

Genres: Fiction, Family
Publication date: July 8th 2015
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform 
Format: ebook, 186 pages
How I got it: Claire St. Hilaire for an honest review
Buy it: Amazon  
My rating: 5/5   

In a world where nightmares are real, this is the story of a soldier's heroism and a woman's devotion.

Ryan is lost in a coma, living his own nightmare of deployment, and trying to find his way home.

While desperately fighting his family to keep him on life-support, will his fiance be able to influence his dreams and guide him home before he becomes trapped in this war forever?

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   My thoughts:

This book follows the relationship of Ryan and Vela during a difficult time.  Ryan was deployed before and having difficulty getting through what happened over their and being able to move passed it.  Vela was being patient and listening when appropriate for Ryan.  At the beginning of the book we can tell that  Ryan and Vela have a very deep relationship.  The two get engaged right before Ryan goes back to be deployed again.  I love how the author gave us a small bit of their relationship before Ryan gets into an accident and falls into a coma. 

Things I loved in the book was how loyal Vela remained to Ryan after the accident.  We got more details into their relationship and also the relationship between Ryan and his mother.  Vela tried really had to stay level headed about the whole accident, but when she started to have realistic dreams of Ryan she became completely sleep deprived.   The dreams are one of my favorite parts in the book.  We get a real feel that Vela is being transported to Ryan's side, but only she is aware this is a dream.  Also, I felt like the author did a great job making it feel very realistic that Ryan and Vela where in Iraq.  The descriptions and hardships the characters faced made it feel very real.

I love that the author made a clear distinction between Ryan being in a coma versus being brain dead.  The author must have done a lot of research on what happens to coma patients prior to writing it all felt very real and made sense.  I also enjoyed reading about the struggles that Vela went through because she was only engaged to Ryan not his wife.  

I would suggest this as a weekend read or a read when you have plenty of time to digest the book.   Once I started reading the book I needed to know what was going to happen at the end.  I felt like the author did a great job with adding suspense when needed to keep the book moving along at a great pace.  The book was the perfect length in my mind.  

I was received this book from Claire St. Hilaire for the purpose of providing an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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About the Author

Claire’s love of writing began at age six when she wrote her first short story – a total of three lines. Later, in college, she almost failed Math because, instead of algebraic equations, her notes were filled with poetry and book ideas. To this day Claire is never found far from pen and paper – or a calculator.

Claire believes that to tell a story you must listen to one first. Her books and stories are fictional tales based on the emotions and experiences of individuals who have shared their own stories with her. She is passionate about giving a voice to those who are not heard by creating fictional events and then bringing them to life with true human experiences.

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