Whenever You Come Around

GIVEAWAY

HATCHER, ROBIN LEE
WHENEVER YOU COME AROUND

Will writing a romance help this author find a real-life hero?

Charity Anderson turned her back on Kings Meadow years ago, with good reason, and has avoided visits to her hometown whenever possible. But with her house in Boise damaged by floodwaters and a book deadline bearing down, staying in her parents’ empty home seems her only option. However, being in Kings Meadow dredges up a painful secret, and old fears threaten to overwhelm her.

Charity’s former high school classmate Buck Malone never left town, instead sacrificing his dreams to take care of his family. Now he enjoys an uncomplicated life as a wilderness guide and confirmed bachelor. The last thing on his mind is settling down.

When Charity’s dog causes an accident that leaves Buck with a broken ankle and wrist at the start of prime tourist season, Charity has little choice but to render aid while he recuperates.  Soon Buck becomes the inspiration for Charity’s hero, both on the page and off. Can he also help her face and overcome her fears so they might find their own happily ever after?

My Review:

A breathtaking story celebrating God's grace and second chances.

The hero and heroine's first meet had me laughing and wincing. Talk about making a first impression! I'll leave you to judge whether it's a good one or a bad one. There's definitely some sizzle going on between Charity and Buck. He kind of enjoys it and can be a bit of a flirt -- she's just running scared. Falling in love is so not on her agenda. Pretty hard to stick to the program though when you're writing a romance staging a real life cowboy hero.

As with all Hatcher's books, the setting takes on a life of its own. Loved revisiting Kings Meadow. Am enamoured with rural Idaho thanks to this author's descriptive words.

I think Charity's journey touched me the most. She's chosen to silently battle a difficult past and that unwillingness to share has left some deep scars. Shame, insecurity and keeping God at a distance are the caustic results of her silence. My heart hurt for her. Buck is just the person to bring her out of her self-imposed exile.

A stirring tale about the healing power of love -- both God's and man's.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of Whenever You Come Around please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you post a comment and add your email address, please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in the address to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so that it's easy for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday July 12 2015. Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

Loving the Country Boy

GIVEAWAY

ROSS, MIA
LOVING THE COUNTRY BOY

A city girl's second chance

City girl Tess Barrett hopes her move to Barrett's Mill, Virginia, will give her a fresh start. As she gets to know the family she's never met and begins work at their sawmill, everything starts falling into place. Until she meets Heath Weatherby. After narrowly escaping an oil rig explosion, Heath won't waste his second chance at life. He's committed to starting a family—and he wants Tess for his wife. Tess refuses to give in to her feelings for Heath, convinced they're just too different. But when the rugged mechanic is hired to fix her family's mill, her heart begins to recognize the charming country boy as her one true love.

My Review:

First things first -- cutest cover ever! If that picture doesn't make you want to read the book maybe my review will. :-)

Ross has taken us back to Barrett's Mill -- a fictional town in the Blue Ridge Mountains that seems so real I tried googling it (that's how I know it's fictional!) The author has captured the charm of small town life to perfection with characters that could have climbed out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

In Loving the Country Boy the author explores the strength of family as long lost cousin, Tess, discovers what it means to be part of the multi-generational Barrett clan. Small town life and rowdy know-it-all cousins are a foreign entity to her and it takes some adjustments for this only child who is estranged from her parents to find her place.

Tess's cultural shock is evident to Heath.  She's prickly and wary and a little too highfalutin for the likes of him. But he's intrigued too and has the uncanny ability to cut through Tess's façade to reveal the real woman within. And that's unsettling -- for both of them. There are some exceptionally entertaining spats, cutting dialogue, mischievous teasing and earnest soul-bearing that goes on between the two. And somewhere along the way they fall in love...and so does the reader. A love story that will leave you smiling.
 

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of Loving the Country Boy please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you post a comment and add your email address, please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in the address to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so that it's easy for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday July 12 2015. Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

July Giveaway - Week One

As always, I will contact the winners by email however thanks to the nefarious ways of the Internet my email might land in your spam folder so keep your eyes peeled! :-) If you haven't heard from me by Monday evening please email me your snail mail address at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca From time to time winners and I don't seem to connect, so I have a month time frame. If I can't reach you within four weeks your win will be forfeited.

LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK'S GIVEAWAYS:

A Perfect Square

GIVEAWAY

CHAPMAN, VANNETTA
A PERFECT SQUARE

There’s more to the quaint northern Indiana town of Shipshewana than handcrafted quilts, Amish-made furniture, immaculate farms and close-knit families. When a dead girl is found floating in a local pond, murder is also afoot. And Reuben, brother of Deborah’s best friend’s fiancé, is in jail as the suspect!

Reuben refuses to divulge any information, even to clear himself of a crime Deborah is certain he didn’t commit. So, with her English friend, Callie—fellow sleuth and owner of Daisy’s Quilt Shop—Deborah sets out to uncover the truth. But the mystery deepens when an elderly man seeks Callie’s help in finding his long-lost daughter, missing since the days of the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes. An old man who has lost his past. A young man who may lose his future. Once again Deborah and Callie find themselves trying to piece together a crazy quilt of lives and events—one that can bring unexpected touches of God’s grace and resolve the tragedy that has shaken this quiet Amish community.

My Review:

This is the second book in the Shipshewana Mystery series, published in 2012. It reads well as a standalone though there's a bit of a romance spoiler. Once again Chapman has woven together an incredible blend of mystery and the intricacies of plain living. Vivid descriptions bring this small town community to life, complete with laughter and strife and the deep, abiding faith of a simple people. Honestly, I was laughing over the antics of Deborah's children one moment and then howling in frustration over Reuben's stubbornness the next. And the mystery is just as complicated as the myriad of characters that become involved in solving it. Definitely the perfect read for cozy mystery fans.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of A Perfect Square please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you post a comment and add your email address, please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in the address to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so that it's easy for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday July 7 2015. Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

Safe in the Fireman's Arms

GIVEAWAY

RADCLIFFE, TINA
SAFE IN THE FIREMAN'S ARMS

Fireman to the Rescue

Running away from her sheltered life, Maggie Jones wants to start fresh. Instead, she finds trouble in Paradise, Colorado. Within days she's on the radar of fire chief Jake MacLaughlin. And when her family starts to play matchmaker, Maggie's plans for a quiet life are turned upside down. Though he's the small town's most eligible bachelor, Jake is far from a playboy. The widower isn't interested in dating. But when Maggie transforms from mousy to magnificent, and suitors start lining up, the fireman can't resist a rescue. Pretending to be a couple rekindles their spark for life…and for love.

My Review:

Romantic comedy at its best. I love the way Radcliffe puts a spin on scene endings that leave me chuckling out loud. But there are some lovely heart-tugging scenes as well. The perfect combination for a captivating read.

Best secondary character ever -- Bitsy Harmony. There's nothing bitsy about the impact she makes on the story...or the whole town of Paradise for that matter. According to Bitsy, "If you came here for quiet, fine. If you came here for privacy, well, good luck." And that's the problem Maggie runs into. There's plenty of folks in town who aren't shy of sticking their nose in her business and that's one of the things that makes this read so much fun.

Maggie and Jake don't stand a chance with what seems like the whole town conspiring against them (with Bitsy in the lead, of course.) And really, who can resist a fire fighting hero who rescues kittens? Not me, that's for sure! The kind of book that keeps you smiling long after the story is over.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of Safe in the Fireman's Arms please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you post a comment and add your email address, please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in the address to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so that it's easy for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday July 7 2015. Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

Emergency Reunion

GIVEAWAY

ORCHARD, SANDRA
EMERGENCY REUNION

Saved by the sheriff's deputy

Paramedic Sherri Steele refuses to believe someone's out to get her—until she's held at knifepoint in her own ambulance. It'll take her high school crush to convince her she needs protection—and deputy sheriff Cole Donovan is as persuasive as he is handsome. But when his brother rises to the top of the suspects list, Cole's torn between family duty and the woman he's never forgotten. With every emergency call to the paramedics turning into an attack on Sherri's life, Cole's convinced Sherri has a stalker. Cole needs to know whether his brother is the culprit before things spiral out of control. Survival—and a future with Sherri—depends on discovering who wants to cause trauma to this EMT.

My Review:

Intensely action-driven, Emergency Reunion is a nail-biter of a read.  Orchard's imagination knows no bounds when it comes to tormenting her hapless heroine. Sherri barely has time to recover from one attack before the next comes out of nowhere. And with nary a gun fired since the villain is cunningly diabolical and downright cruel. Another product of the author's vivid imagination. There's plenty of suspects to confuse the intrepid armchair sleuth and enough plot twists to keep a reader slightly off balance. And the romance? Delectable. Evident from the very first scene since both Sherri and Cole have harbored feelings for one another for years. I was entranced from beginning to end.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of Emergency Reunion please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you post a comment and add your email address, please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in the address to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so that it's easy for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday July 7 2015. Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

The Last Heiress

GIVEAWAY

ELLIS, MARY
THE LAST HEIRESS

Bestselling author Mary Ellis (A Widow’s Hope) presents The Last Heiress, a new romantic standalone that intertwines the lives of a British manufacturing heiress and an American merchant caught in the turbulent time of the War Between the States.

Amanda Dunn set sail from England for Wilmington, North Carolina, hoping to somehow restore shipments of cotton for her family’s textile mills, which have been severely disrupted by the American Civil War. But when she meets Nathaniel Cooper, her desire to conduct business and quickly return to England changes.

Amanda’s family across the sea deems the hardworking merchant unsuitable for the lovey and accomplished heiress. And when Nate himself begins to draw away, Amanda has her own battle for a happy future on her hands.

As the War Between the States heats up, Nate’s brother, a Confederate officer, comes for a visit. Nate begins to think about joining up—not in support of slavery but to watch his brother’s back. Yet will this potentially life-changing decision put the union between him and Amanda she so wishes for in jeopardy?

My Review:

Wow, I learned a lot about the Civil War reading this book. Little known facts (at least for this Canadian reader) that really brought this era to life. Such a tumultuous time when tradition and a whole way of life was being challenged and subsequently changed. I loved how Ellis put me smack dab in the middle of it. This story deals with the controversial subjects of slavery, women's issues, caste systems and the individual's right to choose what is worth fighting for. Utterly compelling.

Amanda lands in the middle of all this unrest -- a proper English lady with a backbone of steel and the audacity to know, and speak, her own mind. Loved her outrageous antics. The way she flaunts convention. Her resistance to being bullied. This is kind of a role reversal of the brash American heiress who scandalizes British aristocracy which is more typical in historical romances. Loved that this Brit sets Wilmington society (and humble merchant, Nate) into a tailspin.

The Last Heiress has some characters you love to hate as well. Like Amanda's brother-in-law and, to some extent, her sister who has become nothing more than her husband's puppet. Grrrr. They got my blood pressure rising a time or two.

Romance + Action = A page-turning read.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of The Last Heiress please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you post a comment and add your email address, please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in the address to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so that it's easy for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday July 7 2015. Offer open to international readers. Good luck!