The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date #3)

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Maddie and Theo have two things in common:

1. Alexa is their best friend

2. They hate each other

After an “Oops, we made a mistake” kiss, neither one can stop thinking about the other. With Alexa’s wedding rapidly approaching, Maddie and Theo both share bridal party responsibilities that require more interaction with each other than they’re comfortable with. Underneath the sharp barbs they toss at each other is a simmering attraction that won’t fade. It builds until they find themselves sneaking off together to release some tension when Alexa isn’t looking.

But as with any engagement with a nemesis, there are unspoken rules that must be abided by. First and foremost, don’t fall in love.

Source: advance e-galled provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review


The first two books in The Wedding Date series - The Wedding Date and The Proposal - have been delightful romances about people coming together through unlikely happenstances. Meeting each other has changed their worlds for the better. The Wedding Date this time involves Maddie and Theo who are friends of Alexa from the first book. Theo works with Alexa in the Mayor's Office and Maddie is her best friend. Alexa might be the only thing they have in common though because these two do not get along. They've somehow managed to rub each other the wrong way with Maddie thinking Theo is a snob who likes to throw his education in people's faces and he thinking she's a flighty, superficial twit. The remain civil for Alexa's sake, barely tolerating each other when they are in the same company. But then one night, after a few drinks and some goading in to a dance off, Maddie and Theo wind up tangled in the sheets and neither are sure of how to proceed.

First off, you knew this was going to go one of two ways: they either continue hating each other or they finally let off steam. The latter is way more fun but it's what happens after that's far more interesting. Neither want a relationship especially with the other but they're also hopeless at making their one night stand stick. They agree to just be sort-of-friends-for-benefit and agree not to tell Alexa. Even though they might not have much in common at first, Maddie and Theo do get on surprisingly well when they loosen up their defenses. I did get a kick out of their tendency to piss each other off because of miscues. They just communicate differently and it's a matter of getting used to the other' language. I think that's every relationship but they tended to latch on to things mainly to "convince" themselves why they shouldn't be an item. Nothing funnier than watching a couple trying to avoid the inevitable. And nothing sweeter than watching two people finding common ground. Both Maddie and Theo have personal dreams that their careers are built on. Something so personal and deeply meaningful means putting themselves out there and risking failure. These two who could barely go a few words without slinging insults turn it around to become each other's biggest cheerleaders. The magic times may be fun but there's something profoundly sexy about a couple building a genuine connection together, and that's the aspect of the story I liked the most.

Fans of the previous books in this series will definitely enjoy The Wedding Proposal. Maddie and Theo, two seemingly opposites who slowly fall for each other and fall hard...isn't that a love story we all want?

~ Bel

The Trouble with Mistletoe by Jill Shalvis

I couldn't resist the promo ad with the hot guy on it!  

If she has her way . . .

Willa Davis is wrangling puppies when Keane Winters stalks into her pet shop with frustration in his chocolate-brown eyes and a pink bedazzled cat carrier in his hand. He needs a kitty sitter, stat. But the last thing Willa needs is to rescue a guy who doesn’t even remember her . . .

He’ll get nothing but coal in his stocking.

Saddled with his great-aunt’s Feline from Hell, Keane is desperate to leave her in someone else’s capable hands. But in spite of the fact that he’s sure he’s never seen the drop-dead-gorgeous pet shop owner before, she seems to be mad at him . . .

Unless he tempers “naughty” with a special kind of nice . . .

Willa can’t deny that Keane’s changed since high school: he’s less arrogant, for one thing—but can she trust him not to break her heart again? It’s time to throw a coin in the fountain, make a Christmas wish—and let themistletoe do its work . . .

Source:  Advance copy in exchange for honest review.

The Trouble with Mistletoe has all the hallmarks of a Jill Shavlis book - heart, heat, and hilarity!  I love a good holiday story and when you throw one of my favorite authors into the mix, I'm a happy girl!  

Keane is hilarious with the devil cat.  Willa is crazy and full of heart.  I could totally identify with her trust issues.  It's been a while since we've had a Shalvis heroine that owned her own crazy when it causes problems in the burgeoning relationship, so I loved that.  And with that crazy Keane and Willa together are a steamy mess!

As always, I love the supporting cast of a Shalvis book.  The "gang" reminds me of the best of friends - they love you, always have your back, and call you on your shit.  Willa's gang is great.  Elle and Archer's book, Accidentally on Purpose, hits the shelves in February and promises to be all full of stubborn people refusing to admit they are falling in love.    

Grab your copy here:

The Trouble with Mistletoe Buy Links:

Kindle: bit.ly/MistletoeAmazon
iBooks: bit.ly/MistletoeiBooks
Nook: bit.ly/MistletoeNook
Paperback: bit.ly/MistletoePaperback
GooglePlay: bit.ly/MistletoeGooglePlay
Kobo: bit.ly/MistletoeKobo
BAM: bit.ly/MistletoeBAM

~ Shel

Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach

* * * *

A young man overcomes a crippling loss and finds the courage to live after meeting an enigmatic girl.

“Was this story written about me?”

I shrugged.

“Yes or no?”

I shrugged again, finally earning a little scowl, which somehow made the girl even more pretty.

“It’s very rude not to answer simple questions,” she said.

I gestured for my journal, but she still wouldn’t give it to me. So I took out my pen and wrote on my palm.

I can’t, I wrote. Then, in tiny letters below it: Now don’t you feel like a jerk?

Parker Santé hasn’t spoken a word in five years. While his classmates plan for bright futures, he skips school to hang out in hotels, killing time by watching the guests. But when he meets a silver-haired girl named Zelda Toth, a girl who claims to be quite a bit older than she looks, he’ll discover there just might be a few things left worth living for.

Wallach’s debut We All Looked Up was so stunning that I jumped at the chance to read this. Since WALU was about an impending disaster, I wondered what kind of tone Thanks for the Trouble would have. This fanciful tale featuring two strangers meeting and discovering a camaraderie who go on to create their own adventures, is both hopeful and serious.

Parker seems like a normal kid except that he refuses to speak. All the therapy he’s been through can’t unlock what’s disturbing him the most since the death of his father a few years before. He's simply not ready. He depends on his journal to communicate with people and also to write the many stories that bound through his imagination. Being the odd kid, he resorts to stealing as a hobby. One of his favourite things to do is to hang out at hotel lobbies, which is where he notices Zelda who seems to be lost in her own world. When she leaves the hotel, he sees that she’s left her bag behind and he decides to steal it. Only he can’t bring himself to do it. In the meantime she returns and confronts him about his pitiful attempt at theft. Instead of being upset about it though, she’s intrigued. She announces that they should spend time together. That is until she receives a life-changing phone call that she’s been expecting and at which point they'll part ways.

I was so tuned into this story. Zelda is a larger than life character who’s own personal story is quite unfathomable. Parker doesn’t believe her at all but gets wrapped up in her persona none the less. She’s determined that Parker needs to come out of his shell and also look to his future. She strikes up a deal with him that to him seems one-sided. Parker can’t help but worry about her welfare despite her assurances that she doesn’t require any help. He is such a sweetheart and a good-natured guy. Meeting Zelda has lifted his spirits and given him the push he needs at this crucial time in his life. The best is when it dawns on him that even though he’s retreated into himself, he isn’t alone and that he can still be a part of a social circle that embraces him wholeheartedly. 

Once again, Wallach’s writing is solid and alluring, weaving together Parker's contemporary world with Zelda's fairytale of a life. What I admire about his books so far is that he writes his characters as smart and insightful. He's great at capturing significant moments that are set within a limited timeframe. And the location being in San Francisco, one of my favourite places ever, made me enjoy the story that much more. 

Thanks for the Trouble is charming, witty and heart-warming and I have nothing but fondness for this little treasure!

~ Bel

The Play by Karina Halle

* * * *

A troubled Scottish rugby player who doesn't play by the rules. 

A vivacious man-eater who's given up on love.

When it comes to Lachlan and Kayla, opposites don't just attract - they explode.

Kayla Moore has always been comfortable with her feisty, maneating reputation. At least it was fine until she hit her thirties and saw her best friends Stephanie and Nicola settle down with Linden and Bram McGregor, leaving Kayla to be the odd one out. Tired of being the third wheel with nothing but one-night stands and dead-end dates in San Francisco, Kayla decides to take a vow of celibacy and put men on the backburner.

That is until she lays her eyes on Linden and Bram’s cousin, hot Scot Lachlan McGregor. Lachlan is her sexual fantasy come to life – tall, tatted, and built like a Mack truck. With a steely gaze and successful rugby career back in Edinburgh, he’s the kind of man that makes her want to throw her vow right out the window. But Lachlan’s quiet and intense demeanor makes him a hard man to get to know, let alone get close to.

It isn’t until the two of them are thrown together one long, unforgettable night that Kayla realizes there is so much more to this brooding macho man than what meets the eye. But even with sparks flying between the two, Lachlan can’t stay in America forever. Now, Kayla has to decide whether to uproot her whole life and chance it all on someone she barely knows or risk getting burned once again.

Sometimes love is a game that just needs to be played.

Holy cow! This achingly sweet and intense novel has given me THE biggest book hangover! So many feels going through me now that I’m still recovering from.

The Play is a case of opposites attract. Kayla is swearing off men – in theory that is until she’s introduced to Lachlan, a hot Scottish rugby player who’s in San Francisco for a visit. He makes her weak in the knees and she wants to do many things to him. Lachlan who’s in town with the sole purpose of helping with his cousin’s business venture, has no intentions of getting involved with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Kayla is a different matter. Both are interested in each other but the fact that he’s only in town for another week makes it illogical for them to start something. Her outgoing personality is a contrast to his dour one, so it’s unsettling to him that she actually gets under his skin. For Kayla, she’s simply beguiled by this guy who shows moments of tenderness behind his gruff exterior. Their hooking up is inevitable and thank the gods because these two together are positively combustible!

I admire Karina Halle for writing a fierce and brazen character in Kayla. It’s not too often that I come across a heroine who owns her sexuality and states exactly what she wants. At the same time, she’s floundering career-wise. I thought it was an accurate portrayal of someone in their 30’s who’s attempting to make sense of how their original ideals and goals hold up against their present situation. Just because you have it all figured out in one area of your life doesn’t mean that’s how it is all the way around. Then there’s Lachlan. To say he needs a massive hug is an understatement! I liked that we are given brief glimpses into his turbulent past, just enough to understand that he’s been through some terrifying things that have scarred him. While on the outside he’s guarded, the walls do come down unleashing a flood of serious emotional distress. Lachlan’s problems go way deep, and the complexity of them are described cleverly and sympathetically.

By the time I was done with The Play, I was a bit of a mess. My emotions ran the gamut thanks to Kayla and Lachlan’s heated romance, their various issues, and Lachlan’s love of rescuing dogs, particularly pit bulls. I have to admit, I didn’t realize how misunderstood and vilified pit bulls have been made out to be. By making Lachlan an advocate for stray animals, Halle has also shed light on a serious cause: that of abused or unwanted dogs in desperate need of good homes. She’s so passionate about this cause that she has even donated $1 from every pre-sale and first-week sale of The Play towards various animal shelters! (If you'd like more info on how much money has been raised from sales and where's it's going click here.) 

The Play is the second book by Karina Halle that I've read (Where Sea Meets Sky being the other one) and it contains the same passion and heat that drew me in. Set in two of my favourite locales, San Francisco and Scotland, it was like I was sight-seeing again as I immersed myself in the story. As a new fan of her writing, I will definitely be making my way through her catalogue. If you need more encouragement to read this book, will it help to know that the muse for Lachlan was based on none other than Tom Hardy, another advocate for rescuing and adopting dogs? Yeah...go ahead and drool. And pick up The Play while you're at it!

~ Bel

Photo: Esquire UK May 2015 issue

*The Play is a stand alone novel. The Pact and The Offer also feature the same recurring characters and can be read in any order.

The Moment of Everything by Shelly King

* * * * * 

In the tradition of The Cookbook Collector comes a funny, romantic novel about a young woman finding her calling while saving a used bookstore.

Maggie Duprès, recently "involuntarily separated from payroll" at a Silicon Valley start-up, is whiling away her days in The Dragonfly's Used Books, a Mountain View institution, waiting for the Next Big Thing to come along.

When the opportunity arises for her to network at a Bay Area book club, she jumps at the chance -- even if it means having to read Lady Chatterley's Lover, a book she hasn't encountered since college, in an evening. But the edition she finds at the bookstore is no Penguin Classics Chatterley -- it's an ancient hardcover with notes in the margins between two besotted lovers of long ago. What Maggie finds in her search for the lovers and their fate, and what she learns about herself in the process, will surprise and move readers.

Witty and sharp-eyed in its treatment of tech world excesses, but with real warmth at its core, The Moment of Everything is a wonderful read.

Review:

Sometimes stories just kind of sneak up on you.  I knew I would probably enjoy this book.  But I was not prepared for how much I was going to love it. 

Our story begins with Maggie and her landlord, Hugo, sitting in the only two chairs in Hugo’s used bookstore, The Dragonfly.  Here were learn that Maggie is unemployed and instead of spending hours on hours searching for a new job, she is spending hours on hours reading romance novels, hanging with Hugo and barely tolerating his employee, Jason (who is none too amused that Maggie is hogging that other chair). 

Maggie’s best friend, Dizzy, is only interested in the next big thing.  He’s happy going from position to position and company to company.  And he’s more than happy to have Maggie along for the ride.  After all, they’ve been conquering Silicon Valley together since they left college.  So when he hears that a number of execs at his current company (the one that he and Maggie started up) have a book club and have room for a couple new members, he convinces Maggie to join.  This will be the perfect networking opportunity since Maggie’s college degree is in literature and she can wow them with her knowledge.  Well, she does wow them.  Just not necessarily with her degree.  Because the copy of Lady Chatterly’s Lover that Hugo found for her in the bookshop is filled with notes from two lovers.  And those notes are what help her engage the book group and then spur Maggie’s unconventional project meant to impress and convince them to give her job back.

Using the intensely romantic notes written by Henry and Catherine in that old beat up copy of Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Maggie embarks on a campaign to make The Dragonfly a successful money making venture.  As much as Hugo hates The Man, he allows Maggie to use his store to further her career opportunities.   You can tell he sees possibility in Maggie’s quest.  Not the possibility of making money but the possibility of Maggie finding something she really loves. 

Maggie grew up in a home where she felt unloved and emotionally neglected.  It didn’t help that every moment of her mother’s day was planned in advance to make Maggie’s father (her greatest love) happy.  Needless to say, Maggie has a dysfunctional and complicated view of love.  Her experience is that it is controlling and that it asks too much of people.  But through the friends she makes while promoting The Dragonfly she learns that “for a love big enough, the sacrifices aren’t sacrifices,” and the complications can be worth it.

I loved so much about this story.  The irreverent humor towards technology and corporations that only someone with experience could write and understand.  Hugo’s many relationships.  Rajith and Maggie’s romance that was not the focus of the story but was still absolutely essential in the telling of it.  The beautiful and affirming words whispered in Maggie’s ear by someone close to her.  I won’t tell you who or what because spoilers…but I will say that the words and the situation made me cry a decent amount of tears. 

The Moment of Everything left me with a feeling of rightness.  I kept thinking, “This.  This is what I want my life to be.”  Okay, maybe not EXACTLY like in the book.  I mean, I’m not willing to trade in my Executive Officer for a Rajith (not because Rajith doesn’t have a certain appeal because, trust me, he most certainly does).  But what I loved was Maggie’s inadvertent search for love and fulfillment and how and where she finds those things. 

This book also left me with a fun to do list:

• Read Lady Chatterley’s Lover
• Buy a vintage bike
• Find more used book stores
• Eat some ramen for the sake of nostalgia
• Spend hours visiting thrift shops and used books store so I can scour the pages of ancient books for secret messages from secret lovers
• Buy and run a used bookstore

Now to just find the time….

If you are look for a beautiful and fulfilling story about a woman searching for love in all aspects of her life then I highly recommend you pick up The Moment of Everything by Shelly King.

Nat

Transcendence by C.J. Omololu

* * *

When a visit to the Tower of London triggers an overwhelmingly real vision of a beheading that occurred centuries before, Cole Ryan fears she is losing her mind. A mysterious boy, Griffon Hall, comes to her aid, but the intensity of their immediate connection seems to open the floodgate of memories even wider.

As their feelings grow, Griffon reveals their common bond as members of the Akhet—an elite group of people who can remember past lives and use their collected wisdom for the good of the world. But not all Akhet are altruistic, and a rogue is after Cole to avenge their shared past. Now in extreme danger, Cole must piece together clues from many lifetimes. What she finds could ruin her chance at a future with Griffon, but risking his love may be the only way to save them both.

Full of danger, romance, and intrigue, Transcendence breathes new life into a perpetually fascinating question: What would you do with another life to live?

Give me a book with some sort of historical element and I’m all over it. The Tower of London is awe-inspiring with its long history and many, many untold secrets. I was hoping for an alluring story with this splendid set up that also features one of my favorite cities, San Francisco.

Cole’s déjà vus  are becoming more familiar as they occur more regularly. It gets heightened when she meets Griffon and with his help she begins to understand them. Only a small part of the book takes place in London before Cole returns home to San Francisco. She's trying to live a normally as possible but still riveted by what she experienced in London and her strange encounter with Griffon. When they meet up again, there’s an undeniable attraction along with more questions than answers. She’s apprehensive but can’t keep away from him and what she might learn. After a string of near misses they’re convinced that Cole is in danger and that it’s from someone from her past life.

If you're looking for a different kind of paranormal, then Transcendence is a slow-burning but thrilling mystery to hold your interest. There’s Cole discovering who her present day enemy is and her trying to understand how her past lives are affecting her today. It made me question every new character introduced and what their agenda was, including when learned of the obscure group the Ahket. It was nice to read something different and I have to say there were elements of this book that made me think of the similarly themed movie Dead Again.

As much as I enjoyed Transcendence, I’m really looking forward to the next in the installment – Intuition coming in June. I’m hoping it will delve further into the Akhet and also further into Cole’s past. I’m making a guess here – certain things hinted at previously should play out on a larger scale. And those things may have some impact on Cole and Griffon.

~ Bel

If you're interested check out C.J. Omololu's site where you can take a tour of the Tower of London. It's nice to see the locations mentioned early on in the book.