LOVE AND THE DREAM COME TRUE

 

State of Grace, Book 3

 

by

 

TAMMY L. GRAY

 

 

Contemporary Christian Fiction / Clean Romance

Publisher: Bethany House

Pages: 368 pages

Publication Date: August 2, 2022

 

 

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The Anticipated Series Finale to the 2021 Carol Award-Winning Novel, Love and a Little White Lie

Their faith will face its toughest test yet.

Four years after getting the biggest break of his life, Cameron Lee’s music career has taken a nosedive, leaving him two options: become a sellout or give up on his lifelong dream. He reluctantly returns home for his sister’s wedding, hoping to avoid his past and find his love for music again.

Single mom Lexie Walters has suffered her fair share of tragedies and setbacks, but she has finally scraped together the money to achieve her dream of going into business with her cousin as an interior designer. When Lexie’s life is at an all-time high, she runs into her teenage crush, Cameron Lee.

Lost in the emotional turmoil of failure, Cameron is immediately drawn to Lexie and her infectious smile and optimistic spirit. Moreover, he adores her mouthy, no-holds-barred daughter. But fantasies only last so long, and soon Lexie and Cameron must face the real world, the one fraught with heartbreak, disappointment, and questions that sometimes can only be answered by a leap of faith.

 

 

 

 

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Praise

 

“Cameron and Lexie’s chemistry is palpable, and readers will root for their happily ever after. This tender tale hits all the right notes.”—Publishers Weekly

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good things come to those that wait, and Lexie has waited a long time for her dream to come true. She has been in love with Cameron since she was a kid, paling around with Cassie, Cameron’s sister and Lexie’s best friend. Life threw some wicked curveballs her way, but she never gave up hope or her love for him. Perhaps some would call it obsessive and not realistic; after all, Cameron has become something of a music star and lives in another state. Cameron feels like something is missing in his life, especially when it comes to his music. He thinks he is pouring his heart and soul into the songs, but perhaps something is holding him back.

This book is filled with exciting characters and a wide variety of emotions and feelings that give it depth on a level that we could only imagine. Lexie has spent the last decade raising her sister’s daughter as her own. She wasn’t expecting to become a mother at 19, and thankfully, she was able to raise Morgan in a stable environment. That is until Morgan became a teenager, and we all know what happens with teen emotions and angst. Their relationship is like any other between a parent and a child, fraught with ups and downs. They seem to do well until Lexie uncovers a secret that Morgan has been keeping from her, which does not go well. Cameron has been living on the edge in his career and in a world filled with panic attacks, which doesn’t bode well for a performer. Watching his story unfold allows us to appreciate his issues and perhaps even relate in some respects.

I didn’t realize this was the third in a series, but that did not take away from my enjoyment of reading this novel. I had no preconceived notions of their past and any grudges that any of the characters might have held against another. The characters shared many emotions, both good and bad, and this added to the depth of the story. There are enough flashbacks for a reader to understand the backstory of the relationships between some of the characters. I feel like there is more to Mason’s story that is just touched upon, but the chip on his shoulder is massive. Perhaps he needs his own story?

The theme I keep coming back to is faith. Both Lexie and Cameron have it, but it isn’t perfect. They both have issues that need to be dealt with, which will take time. Nothing is perfect or easy for them, and this is a good reflection on life in general. No one has a perfect life, and we all must have faith as we deal with our struggles.

This was a lovely book, one that made me think about how I approach life and others.

We give this book 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tammy L. Gray lives in the Dallas area with her family, and they love all things Texas. Her nine modern and true-to-life contemporary romances include the 2017 RITA Award-winning My Hope Next Door. When not taxiing her three kids to various events, Tammy can be spotted crunching numbers as the financial administrator at her hometown church.

 

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ONE WINNER:

 

Complete STATE OF GRACE series in paperback

 

(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 9/2/22.)

 

 

 

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Visit the Lone Star Literary Life Tour Page

For direct links to each post on this tour, updated daily,

Or visit the participating blogs directly:

 

8/23/2022	The Page Unbound	Guest Post
8/23/2022	Hall Ways Blog	BONUS Series Spotlight
8/24/2022	Book Fidelity	Review
8/24/2022	LSBBT Blog	BONUS Promo
8/25/2022	The Adventures of a Travelers Wife	Notable Quotables
8/26/2022	Carpe Diem Chronicles	Review
8/27/2022	The Clueless Gent	Excerpt
8/28/2022	All the Ups and Downs	Excerpt
8/29/2022	Librariel Book Adventures	Review
8/30/2022	Rebecca R. Cahill, Author	Deleted Scene
8/31/2022	StoreyBook Reviews	Review
9/1/2022	Chapter Break Book Blog	Review

 

 

 

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Synopsis

 

In September 1939, Britain declares war on Germany. Bernard Sandler, a 17-year-old schoolboy from Yorkshire, is on a school trip to the United States and consequently finds himself unable to return home, separated from his close-knit Jewish family in Britain.

Stranded in cosmopolitan New York for an unknown duration, he must grow up quickly. He discovers the pleasures and excitement of Broadway theatre and jazz while developing his own social circle at New York University. But just as he finds his independence, the United States declares war in December 1941, which changes his life once again. Bernard is drafted into the United States Army, joining the 26th Infantry “Yankee” Division. Eventually, he returns to Europe, serving on the front lines alongside General Patton’s Third Army during the brutal Lorraine Campaign in Northern France in the fall of 1944.

The book also follows the remarkable story of Bernard’s family in England, and the fate of his wider family in Latvia (whom he visited in an epic journey in 1937, also as a schoolboy), during this period.

The English GI is a moving personal story about coming-of-age, the powerful bond of families, and the tragedy of war.

 

 

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Review

 

This is the first graphic novel I have ever read, and I have to say I was blown away by this author’s depictions of his grandfather’s journal and memories of WWII. I enjoyed each frame of the story and was swept away to the 1940s and his life in the US and how it was very different from England, away from family.

I enjoyed the snippets from Bernard’s journal interspersed between the drawings. While a graphic novel doesn’t tell the story in long chapters and descriptions, this book caught the energy of that timeframe, and each frame added to the history that some of us may know, but not in great detail.

This will be a book that his family can treasure for years to come and retain that historical information for the family records.

If all graphic novels are like this, I may find myself picking up another one in the near future.

We give this book 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

My grandfather came from a close-knit Jewish family in Leeds, England. In the summer of 1939, he had the amazing opportunity to go on a school trip to the United States. Soon after, Britain declared War, and he was unable to return. The graphic novel depicts his whole experience, from naive schoolboy alone in the vast metropolis of New York – through to his eventual call-up to the US Army, including him being sent back to Europe, serving in the brutal Lorraine Campaign in 1944 under Patton’s Third Army.

Jonathan Sandler studied Politics at Leicester University and has spent a large part of his career working in the software industry, leading and managing complex projects. Jonathan, a keen sketcher,  has always been passionate about World War Two History and Graphic Novels. In 2020, he combined these dual interests and commenced work on The English GI, which graphicmemoir.co.uk published in 2022.

Jonathan lives in North West London with his wife and three children.

 

Website

 

 

Synopsis

 

EVIL IN THE FOREST

When best friends, David and John, are made redundant, they decide to go away with another close friend, Grant, to David’s uncle’s farm up in Scotland in Rothiemurchus Forest. David soon learns of strange and terrible things happening on the farm, where some of the animals are found mysteriously mutilated and slaughtered.

David’s uncle also informs his nephew of other strange phenomena — including whispers in the wind, and a strange and constant sensation of being watched by someone or something. Driven by his concerns for his aunt and uncle and fuelled by curiosity, David is determined to travel up north, against the wishes of his uncle.

Things soon start happening even before David and his friends set off. They become targeted with frightening and inexplicable events, and messages warning them to STAY AWAY, so that one friend is too scared to go, leaving only the two to make the long-distance drive up to Scotland. Despite more frightening and unimaginable things happening on their way up to the Highlands, the two friends, now fearing for their lives, remain determined to reach the farm.

With their minds racing to all sorts of theories, they will soon face an unparalleled horror, with pure evil awaiting them, and an old Scottish folklore proving to be terrifyingly true …

 

 

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About the Author

 

Alan Golbourn was born in Essex, England. He has enjoyed writing stories since a young age when he was recognized early for his writing abilities. Amongst several interests and hobbies, including football and computer games, he holds love and compassion for animals.

 

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Synopsis

 

His time is now …

 

London, 1966

 

Fear grips the capital when a second ritualistically murdered victim is found in an alleyway — with their heart removed.

With no leads or motive, DCS Kendall Quincy is under intense pressure to find the sadistic killer before a third victim is claimed.

Out of luck Randolph Landon — disillusioned with his life as a private investigator and separated from his family, soon becomes embroiled with his biggest, challenging, and most terrifying case to date. The case leads him down a sinister road to a chilling discovery like no other, so that he regrets grumbling about his lack of work and misfortune …

 

 

 

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About the Author

 

Alan Golbourn was born in Essex, England. He has enjoyed writing stories since a young age when he was recognized early for his writing abilities. Amongst several interests and hobbies, including football and computer games, he holds love and compassion for animals.

 

Goodreads

 

 

Synopsis

 

It is 1990 and, while the country stands on the brink of war with Iraq, Kirby Russo is finally at peace with the world. At seventeen years old, he’s figured out some important lessons: how to stay out of trouble with the authorities; how to write muck-raking articles that expose the hypocrisy of said authorities; and, most importantly, how to avoid obsessing about his long lost girlfriend Izzy (who has run away and may be in trouble in Chicago). But when a rich classmate snags the editorship of the school newspaper out from under him, Kirby knows his brief career as a conformist is over. An opportunity to reestablish his hell-raising bona fides arises when his long-lost father shows up with a shady past and a half-baked scheme. Together, they embark on a cross-country road trip to connect with a family he never knew, and maybe even track down Izzy. Kirby soon realizes, however, that life’s biggest lessons – the ones that really matter – never happen according to plan.

 

 

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Praise

 

I couldn’t stop reading The Prince of Infinite Space. I read it in one sitting because I cared about the characters. The people in this story are credible and flawed. The novel is a journey of a young man to himself. We root for him. The writing is clean and engaging, designed to carry us along. We go with it. It’s worth the ride into infinite space. —Angela Jackson, poet, novelist, playwright

O, Kirby Russo, Prince of bad choices! Why do I still love you so? Is it your gadfly sense of humor, the way you turn a phrase, or how you keep making brave misguided plans in the face of adult hypocrisy and compromise? Thank you for letting me see the vulnerability you hide from everyone around you. Most of all, last-chancer, I love you because Giano Cromley created you too complex and contradictory to be pigeon-holed. You are always true and vitally alive. —Diane Lefer, author of Out of Place and California Transit (winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize)

Reading Giano Cromley’s fabulous new novel, The Prince of Infinite Space, is a little like taking a road trip with Holden Caulfield. Kirby Russo, Cromley’s narrator, is young and intelligent, and like Holden, he’s quick-witted and damaged. But Kirby is kinder and more vulnerable than Salinger’s narrator; he’s a young man searching for purpose, for love, and for family. In this engaging, funny, and moving love story/road story, things go right and things go wrong. Ultimately, though, they keep on going like the grumbling but mostly reliable Crown Vic that carries Kirby, his newly found father, and by extension us, toward Chicago and self-discovery, toward grief and toward grace. Once in these pages, we have no choice but to sit back enjoy the ride. —Patricia Ann McNair, author of Responsible Adults

In The Prince of Infinite Space, a sequel to The Last Good Halloween, Giano Cromley revisits his wise-beyond-his-years protagonist Kirby Russo, always whip-smart and disarmingly honest, now in military school with America about to enter the Gulf War. When Kirby’s estranged dad shows up to take Kirby on a road trip to heal old wounds, you’ll be hooked by this big-hearted tale that’s full of wit and vulnerability. You’ll want to follow Kirby to a third book as he grows up to inevitably ask: Do any of us ever really grow up? —Leland Cheuk, author of No Good Very Bad Asian

There may be no pot of gold at the end of all the various rainbows that Kirby Russo tracks down in his well-meaning misadventures, but there is for the reader who engages with Giano Cromley’s entrancing, comedic, and at times poetic coming-of-age-story which is true story-telling gold. —Joseph G. Peterson, author of The Rumphulus

With Cromley’s clear vision, a road trip to find a girl transforms into a quest much more meaningful and profound. Kirby Russo is an engaging and relatable anti-hero who can’t decide if he needs to blow up his life or put it back together. By turns funny, charming, sad, and beautiful, Prince of Infinite Space is a delightful read. —Darrin Doyle, author of The Girl Who Ate Kalamazoo and The Beast in Aisle 34

 

Excerpt

 

Chapter 6

 

[Context: It’s the first day of Kirby Russo’s senior year at Haverford Military Institute. His journalism teacher, Mr. Lombardi, is about to announce who will be named executive editor of the school newspaper, a position Kirby is expecting to be named to.]

 

My eyes are chalky, and there’s a gross film in my mouth. Plus, my nerves are making my stomach squirm like a net full of eels. There are maybe twenty bekhakied boys sitting around the two long wooden tables.

Andrew Thetford is sitting near the front of the room. Somehow, his khaki service uniform fits him better than anyone else’s. He says something to the guys sitting around him, and they all bust out laughing. Then he crosses his legs and laces his hands behind his head.

I’m sitting across from Marcus Greely, our staff photographer, who’s tinkering with some new lens he got over the summer. Mr. Lombardi walks in and everyone self-shushes.

“Welcome back, gentlemen,” Mr. Lombardi says. “I hope you all had productive summer vacations. I’m sure you’re geared up for what will be a rewarding year with the Haverford Bugle. The first order of business will be naming our new leadership team.”

The room goes silent. I can hear the hum of the fluorescent lights overhead.

“We’ve got a lot of talented individuals on staff, so choosing these positions was extremely difficult.” He pauses and looks around the room.

Across the table, Marcus hoists his camera and starts spraying photos around the room. With each shot, the aperture makes a grinding noise that sets my eyes twitching.

“I won’t hold you in suspense any longer,” Mr. Lombardi goes on. “For the position of Executive Editor, I’m naming someone who I’ve watched for a while now, and who I’ve really seen grow as a journalist.”

My face is burning. My hands are gripping my thighs. When he calls my name, should I stand up and wave? Will people start clapping? I hope I won’t be expected to make a speech, though I’ve got a rough outline in my head of what I might say, should the need arise. Marcus keeps snapping photos.

Mr. Lombardi takes one last breath and says, “I’m pleased to name Andrew Thetford as your next Executive Editor.”

People do indeed start clapping, but I can’t hear it because someone has sucked all the oxygen out of the room. I turn my head toward Andrew in time to see him put on a fake-surprised expression. The boys next to him pat him on the back. He high-fives the kid across the table.

“Your face looks blue,” Marcus says. He’s peering through his camera at me, squeezing off a fusillade of photos. “I don’t think it’s this lens. That might be, like, a health thing.”

My vision swims for a moment. “Andrew’ll do a great job,” I say, to no one in particular. “A really, really, really, really great job.”

Mr. Lombardi is droning on, naming the rest of the staff, but it’s all just noise.

Part of my brain is telling me to snap out of it, to be gracious in defeat. It tries to latch onto some aphorism about finding the true measure of a man when the chips are down or some other tripe they feed to losers when they lose. But another part of my brain is telling me to burn this place to its foundations, to plow its fields with salt.

I have no idea how long these two factions duke it out in my head. The next thing I know, the room has cleared and I’m sitting alone at the table. I feel a hand on my shoulder. Mr. Lombardi is hovering over me, a hangdog look on his face. I can see from here he hasn’t shaved in a few days. His beard is coming in gray.

“I know you’re disappointed, Kirby.”

“Try something stronger.”

“It wasn’t an easy choice,” he says, as if that’s supposed to help.

“Take your fucking hand off my shoulder,” I snap.

He pulls back as if he’s been bitten. It’s a fearful gesture, and knowing that I caused fear in him gives me an ounce of strength. I stand up abruptly, knocking my chair over backwards.

The hallways are empty. I’m adrift, unable to latch onto anything other than my own pain. And it’s telling me one thing: They’ll regret this. All of them.

 

 

About the Author

 

Giano Cromley is the author of the novel, The Last Good Halloween and the story collection, What We Build Upon the Ruins, both of which were finalists for the High Plains Book Award. He is the recipient of an Artists Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council and was a BookEnds Fellow with Stony Brook University. He is an English professor at Kennedy-King College in Chicago, where he is chair of the Communications Department and sits on the committee for the Center of Equity for Creative Arts. He lives on the South Side of Chicago with his wife and two dogs.

 

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Synopsis

 

A man mysteriously disappears in a lighthouse, as if dissolved by light, leaving behind a notebook filled with bizarre claims of a curse and a series of drawings entitled ‘The Death of the Jubilant Child.’ The investigation into the disappearance unearths hidden connections between the disappeared man, Helene and the strange figure of the Man With The Forks In His Fingers. Fifteen years later, the discovery of the detective’s copy of the notebook by Helene’s daughter seems to set in motion a repetition of the events of the past.

Circuitously structured and intensely lyrical, The Autodidacts explores the mythos of friendship, the necessity of failure, the duty of imagination, and the dreams of working class lives demanding to be beautiful. It is a prayer in denial of its heresy, a metafictional-roman-a-clef trying to maintain its concealment, and an attempt to love that shows its workings out in the margins of its construction.

 

Thomas Kendall’s THE AUTODIDACTS is a brilliant novel — inviting like a secret passage, infallible in its somehow orderly but whirligig construction, spine-tingling to unpack, and as haunted as any fiction in recent memory. – Dennis Cooper

 

 

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Excerpt

 

James ‘Jim’ Burke arrives at the hospital ten minutes after Lawrence leaves. This despite appearances is in no way premeditated, appearances being less than convincing on closer inspection. Jim is unshaven and wearing a suit slicked with patches of scuff and wear, a vinyl stickiness to the fabric akin to the wet scraped skin he used to find around his knees during the long lost and barely specifiable summers of his youth.

Here he is then, unshaven, unlaundered, his pupils an enlarging spot of black in the spoiled fruit of his eyes, thought patterns gone AWOL, defected in deference to a ragged swarm of digitised colour blown around like confetti by the jigsaw winds of his perception. There’s a bunch of flowers that he stole from an elderly woman’s garden in his hand, the dirt still nattily dreading the stems and forming an organic webbed candelabra under the base of his fist.

He is full of stories or anti-stories that knit and chain together, tangled in images that no mouth could shape nor ear disentangle. How to explain to Helene what happened to him today on the way to see their child or what looped Road to Damascus revelation lurked behind their sequence. Jim walks through the car park rehearsing all the things that he’ll shed, in an instant, on seeing Helene’s heart-shaped face.

He wants to tell her about the old lady on the bus with her wrists crossed stoically above her shopping cart. How she pointedly ignored what must have sounded to her like obscene chatter from the teenagers behind her but which Jim knew held all the necessary, ugly fecundity of youth. He wants to tell Helene about the old lady’s hands, how they were ridged with veins the way great rivers are rendered on a map. How he knew in this moment that he too was some celestial body, a planet amid planets coursing through exploded space, full of lifeforms and possessing only the burning consciousness of a star nudged from its path.

Jim steps forward and the doors of the hospital slide cleanly open, an airless hum sucking the sound from his ears. A cold regulatory blast of air conditioning straps around his body, his skin coming to attention now in a Mobius strip of goosebumps.

Jim feels a sudden rush of exhaustion that’s warm and vaguely sensual at first but which is followed by a quick disavowal of that pleasure. His cells grind. Jim feels the muscles of his body stretching like a long strand of spit. The flowers begin to weigh in his hand. He looks at them. They have wilted on the bus ride here and point downwards now as if peeled from the air.

They were supposed to prove something else entirely.

Jim ducks inside the gift shop. He picks up a bunch of expensive roses and begins to weave the stolen daffodils into their array. The bouquet has become clownish, smeared with a carnival yellow behind which the serious red of the roses break through in little patches of suggested depth.

– Another self-portrait Jim?

He imagines Helene laughing as she says this. Sees her touching his hand and leaving a white half-moon of shooed blood where her finger rests. He pictures their child being transferred to his arms, a weight his body has missed all these years and in which each of them swirl and gambol and mutate, the child a new being to go beyond each of them, bound for the stars or somewhere else at least.

The excitement is making Jim’s fantasies childish. All his hopes have this quality of having been arrested in youth by sadness. He has been sad for a long time. The sadness seemed to reproduce itself in all his wayward strategies to cope with it, a disease that proceeded to colonise all the settlements of his self.

The girl behind the counter of the flower shop is trying to flirt with him. He barely notices. She lays her fingers on the counter and rotates her hips towards the register. There are large rings on each of her fingers. She takes the flowers and scans them while lightly bouncing her hip against the drawer.

What are you here for?

I’m a dad… I think. I think I’m a dad.

The girl turns to him now, leans over the counter.

– You think?

– It’s complicated.

The girl presses the change into his palm.

– Best of luck with that.

 

 

About the Author

 

Thomas Kendall is the author of The Autodidacts released May 2022. Dennis Cooper called The Autodidacts ‘a brilliant novel — inviting like a secret passage, infallible in its somehow orderly but whirligig construction, spine-tingling to unpack, and as haunted as any fiction in recent memory.’ His work has appeared in the anthologies Abyss (Orchards Lantern) and Userlands (Akashic Books) and online at Entropy.

 

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Synopsis

 

Seattle teacher and part-time blogger Hayden McCall wakes sporting one hell of a shiner, with the police knocking at his door. It seems that his new crush, dancer Camilo Rodriguez, has gone missing, and they suspect foul play. What happened the night before? And where is Camilo?

Determined to find answers, pint-sized, good-hearted Hayden seeks out two of Camilo’s friends—Hollister and Burley—both lesbians and both fiercely devoted to their friend. From them, Hayden learns that Camilo is a “Dreamer” whose parents had been deported years earlier and whose sister, Daniela, is presumed to have returned to Venezuela with them. Convinced that the cops won’t take a brown boy’s disappearance seriously, the girls join Hayden’s hunt for Camilo.

The first clues turn up at Barkingham Palace, a pet store where Camilo had taken a part-time job. The store’s owner, Della Rupert, claims ignorance, but Hayden knows something is up. And then there’s Camilo’s ex-boyfriend, Ryan, who’s suddenly grown inexplicably wealthy. When Hayden and Hollister follow Ryan to a secure airport warehouse, they make a shocking connection between him and Della—and uncover the twisted scheme that’s made both of them rich.

The trail of clues leads them to the grounds of a magnificent estate on an island in Puget Sound, where they’ll finally learn the truth about Camilo’s disappearance—and the fate of his family.

 

 

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Review

 

This mystery was different from many of the others that I have read but in a good way. All of the characters are pretty unique, and I chuckled at the descriptions of everyone. I pictured Brendan Scannell from Bonding on Netflix as Hayden. I am probably not too far off the mark with that comparison.

The story starts with Hayden being kicked in the face accidentally when trying to tip a Go-Go dancer at the club. Camillo decides to take him home with him, but I’m not sure if that is because he is interested in him or if he feels bad for giving him a shiner. When Hayden awakes the following day, Camillo is gone, and he decides that the police don’t seem to care and will find Camillo. He ropes in two women, Hollister and Burley, to help uncover the truth. It is quite a twisty tale, and some parts don’t seem possible and weren’t really explained (I can’t give away too much because those details are what the mystery hinges upon).

I liked the fast pace, and of course, there is a dog in the story, Commander. Hayden becomes attached to him while they search for Camillo. I can only imagine how hard that will be to give him up.

One of the minor characters is Jerry. He is Hayden’s aunt’s neighbor and has to be around 90, based on a few comments. I think he could be a major player going forward in future books. He seemed wise and had sage advice for Hayden.

Now Hayden’s neighbor, Sarah? She must not have enough to do because she wanted Hayden out of there for a lease infraction. I do believe that the landlord was wise to her ways, and I think she had a soft spot for Hayden.

There are plenty of clues to uncover the “bad guys,” but not so many that you might figure out the “who” before the end.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to future installments in this series.

We give the book 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Prior to Devil’s Chew Toy, Rob Osler’s short story, Analogue, which was published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, won the Mystery Writers of America Robert L Fish Award as part of the 2022 Annual Edgar Awards. Rob lives in California with his long-time partner and a tall gray cat.

 

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Synopsis

 

The four McBride brothers have their worlds turned upside down when their precocious younger sister secretly places an advertisement for a mail-order bride.

Kit McBride knows that Buck’s Creek, Montana, is no place to find a wife. Between him and his three brothers–plus little Junebug–they manage all right on their own, thank you very much. But unbeknownst to Kit, his sister is sick to death of cleaning, cooking, and mending for her big brothers, so she places an ad in The Matrimonial News to get them hitched.

After Maddy Mooney emigrated from Ireland, she found employment with an eccentric but poor widow. When her mistress decides to answer an ad for a mail-order bride, Madd​y is dragged along for the ride to Montana. But en route to the West, Maddy is suddenly abandoned and left to assume the widow’s name, position, and matrimonial prospects….

With no other recourse in the wilderness, Maddy must convince Kit not only is she who she says she is, but she’s the wife he never knew he needed.

 

 

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About the Author

 

When not galloping through the Wild West, Amy is not-so-mild-mannered academic Dr Amy Matthews.

Amy is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Flinders University and also writes fiction and non-fiction under the name Amy T. Matthews and Tess LeSue. She clearly has too much time on her hands.

 

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Synopsis

 

Fall in love with a movie star? Check.

 

Get my heart broken? You know it!

Ready to do it all over again? Not on your life.

 

I’m the idiot. Yes, me! Over here with the sad face. I thought Maverick Langston, aka the biggest romantic comedy movie star in the world, was serious when he whispered sweet nothings in my ear. He talked me right out of my pants and straight into his bed.

And when I woke up the next morning, he was gone. Lesson learned. No more listening or speaking to Maverick – regardless of whether he’s the owner of the wildlife refuge where I work.

But someone’s not getting the hint. Oh no. Mr. Big Important Movie Star thinks the world revolves around him. If he wants something – or someone in this case – he’s going all out to get her.

Good luck. I am not giving in. Because I know him. He’s willing to Stay For Awhile, but he won’t Stay For Forever.

 

 

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This small town romantic comedy features a woman who loves animals more than people since animals never let you down and definitely don’t talk back, a movie star who realizes what an idiotic fool he was and is willing to pull out all the stops to win his woman back, a gaggle of sisters who think matchmaking is their true calling, and a whole town full of hippies who think being called a busybody is a compliment. 

Stay For Forever is a standalone novel in the Winter Falls series.

 

My Forever Love – Aspen and Lyric’s story

Forever For You – Ashlyn and Rowan’s story

Just For Forever – Ellery and Cole’s story

Stay For Forever– Juniper and Maverick’s story

Only Forever – Lilac and Beckett’s story

 

 

Review

 

Winter Falls is one of those quirky towns where you want to be a fly on the wall because what happens in this town is unbelievable. I love the citizens of this town; they make me laugh every time. Although, I don’t think I would want to live here, at least not as a single person, because they are definitely in your business and want to fix you up if you are single.

This book focuses on Juniper and Maverick. Their relationship is all over the place, and there are a lot of communication issues between these two. It takes a lot of discussions and building trust for them to move forward in their relationship. Maverick is all in, but Juniper is hesitant since he is a famous actor, and being in the public eye can cause problems. With the help of the townspeople and Juniper’s family, there is no doubt that it will be worked out before too long.

There is the mystery of some stolen cash from 60+ years ago that continues in this book. I have enjoyed this aspect of the storyline, and I wondered how it would all turn out. You will find out in this book, so read it since I’m not going to tell you!

This series has been a lot of fun to read, much like all of this author’s books. I always get a good chuckle from the various situations the characters find themselves.

We give this book 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

D.E. Haggerty is actually just plain old Dena, but she thinks using initials makes her sound like one of the cool kids. She was born and raised in the U.S. but has spent the majority of her adult life abroad, living in cool-sounding places like Istanbul, Heidelberg, and The Hague. She has job hopped from military policewoman to lawyer to B&B owner. She finally jumped off the job-hopping bandwagon a few years ago when she decided to turn her addiction to romance novels into a career. If anyone has ideas on how to turn a love of wine into a job, she’s all ears.

 

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Synopsis

 

Rose Hawthorne: The Irish Wanders follows Rose, a celebrity author in her early seventies, who dislikes the limelight but does like Hermes scarfs, round violet sunglasses, and old colonial hotels. One day, she receives a letter asking her to visit Newgrange, Ireland, and discover something that has been hidden there for a thousand years.

She asks her granddaughter Samantha to accompany her, but she hadn’t expected her to continually post photos of their progress on her Instagram account. An encounter with an old love and an unexpected discovery leads Rose deeper into the past, where she finds she must make a hard decision about her future.

 

 

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Read for free via Kindle Unlimited 

 

 

Review

 

This is the first book I have read by this author and in this series, but let me tell you that I was enchanted by this story and had a hard time putting the book down. I love a good mystery, and this book filled that desire and so much more.

Rose is in her 70s and an accomplished writer. Her daughter and granddaughter help her with social media and other administrative tasks so she can write. When Rose receives a cryptic email asking her to check a location in Ireland, she takes off with her granddaughter Sam. These two are in for the experience of their lives.

This book is a mystery, adventure, some romance, and magical all rolled into one. There are some aspects of the first book that are brought forward to this book, but nothing that really impacts the crux of this story. I really enjoyed the historical aspect and the experience that they have trying to discover the truth about certain artifacts. This brings in a character from Rose’s past, and sparks fly between these two.

Based on the descriptions of the scenery and the towns in Ireland, I felt like I was there with them on a discovery of the past.

This is a fantastic book, and we give it 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Shannon O’Gorman is a retired ESL teacher who has recently completed her second walk on the Camino de Santiago. She is currently training her dog to accompany her on a Camino one day.  She lives in California with her husband and daughter when the university is not in session.

 

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