Goddess Fish Promotions Book Blast & Review: Spring At The Little Duck Pond Cafe

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Rosie Green will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Fleeing from a romance gone wrong, Ellie Farmer arrives in the pretty village of Sunnybrook, hoping for a brand new start that most definitely does not include love!

Following an unscheduled soak in the village duck pond, she meets Sylvia, who runs the Little Duck Pond Cafe. Renting the flat above the cafe seems like the answer to Ellie's prayers. It's only for six months, which will give her time to sort out her life, far away from cheating boyfriend Richard.

But is running away from your past ever really the answer?

Clashing with the mysterious and brooding Zak Chamberlain, an author with a bad case of writer's block, is definitely not what Ellie needs right now. And then there's Sylvia, who's clinging so hard to her past, she's in danger of losing the quaint but run-down cafe altogether.

Can Ellie find the answers she desperately needs in Sunnybrook? And will she be able to help save Sylvia's Little Duck Pond Cafe from closure?

Read an Excerpt

I have never climbed a tree in my life.

But I suppose there’s a first time for everything.

It’s a gaspingly cold mid-January morning with an ice-blue sky overhead – not exactly the ideal conditions in which to be lurking on the pavement outside a stranger’s house, nervously eyeing up the oak tree in their garden.

Camera gripped in my freezing hands, I stamp my feet and blow out misty breath as I psyche myself up to be bold. I’ve driven sixty miles from Newtown, where I live, to the pretty, chocolate-box village of Sunnybrook in Surrey – with the ultimate goal of climbing this very tree and taking photos of the view from up there.

The tree is almost exactly how I pictured it in my imagination – old and gnarled with broad, evenly-spaced branches. My eye homes in on one branch in particular. It reaches out to the left, a little over six feet from the ground; the perfect place to sit and gaze out over the village green and the duck pond. (As I knew it would be.)

Tears fill my eyes. But I’m smiling, too.

It’s all in a good cause.

Stop dithering and just do it!

When I push it open, the garden gate swings inwards without creaking and the windows remain blank. I drop my bag by the gate and head for the tree.

It’s amazing how fear can give you almost super-human powers. Under normal circumstances, I’d need someone to give me a bunk-up into this tree. But today, with adrenaline pumping through my system, I manage to swing myself up there with no problems at all . . .

Review: Spring At The Little Duck Pond Cafe was a simple sweet romance/small town story. It's the first book in a series and its a pleasant bit of escapism for anyone that likes clean romances. OK, its not 100 % a romance, though there is something brewing with Ellie and Zack.

Ellie ends up in Sunnybrook in hopes of helping her mother, but has also found a new life there, almost by accident when she meets Sylvia after falling into the duck pond.

She's dealing with a failing relationship and the failing health of her mother that has early onset dementia.

I love Ellie's love for her mother, but I wish it would have been more realistic. There are medications that slow the progression of the disease.

I also loved all of Ellie's new friends in Sunnybrook and how she took to helping them, especially Fen.

This was a fabulous start to a series, and I really look forward to revisiting the characters in the next books.

Rating: 5 flowers

About the Author:

Rosie has been scribbling stories ever since she was little.

Back then, they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’.

Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger at all – unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

Spring at the Little Duck Pond Café is the first in Rosie’s brand new series of novellas centred around life in a village café. Each novella is a ‘stand-alone’ read.

You can connect with Rosie Green on Twitter: Rosie_Green1988
Amazon purchase link: https://amzn.to/2W8uXF7

 "Readers will be able to read the whole series on Kindle Unlimited"0

NOTE: Book is free

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Rosie-Green/e/B07CZYV7DW%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

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TLC Book Tours Book Review: A Reckless Promise

About A Reckless Promise

Series: The Little Season (Book 3)

Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: HQN Books (July 26, 2016)

London’s Little Season has never been so scandalous 

It’s the kind of vow often made on the battlefield. Darby Travers, Viscount Nailbourne, never imagines he’ll have to honor it. Yet here she is on his doorstep—his late comrade’s young daughter, and Darby’s new ward. Worse, she comes with the most overprotective, mistrustful, bothersome chaperone—the child’s aunt, Sadie Grace Boxer. Darby is quite sure that behind her lovely facade, the woman is guarding a secret.

Sadie Grace faced many trials working in her brother’s surgery, but none prepared her for the world she’s thrust into with his passing. Navigating the ton, with its endless ball gowns and parade of parties, is difficult enough, but hiding the truth about her niece while the sophisticated Viscount watches her every move proves nearly impossible—particularly when his searing gaze tempts her to bare all. But when her family’s past catches up with her, she’ll have to trust in Darby…no matter the cost to her heart.

“The story is filled with delightful characters and witty repartee”–Publishers Weeklyon A Scandalous Proposal

RT Book Reviews (Jan print edition): “Michaels, known for her comedic Regency-set romances, outdoes herself… For lighthearted fun, you can’t do better than this.”–RT Book Reviews on An Improper Arrangement

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Review: I've been reading a lot of regency romance novels lately. I think I'm on a roll. Some of them have been good and others ho hum, but this one was really great. I think that's because this was a Kasey Michaels novel and she always brings it.

Darby is an imperfect hero, having lost an eye in the fight with Napoleon. Sadie is the sister to one of his comrades and she shows up when he died with her brother's young daughter, Marley. There are so many secrets involving this little girl, and it takes awhile for Sadie to give up her part in the story and even longer to find out why Marley needs to be kept safe.

This is the third book in the Little Season series, but one that you can read without the the others, though it really worth it to read the others, because they are great too. You get so many fabulous characters from the other books too, that make this story fabulous.

There's a subplot involving Clarice that is both heartbreaking and hilarious, involving a visiting family from Virginia who are part of her past and a horse.

Darby is the dark brooding hero. (A bit like Heathcliff) At least that's how it seems at first, but as the book progresses, you can tell he's anything but. He's truly a fun hero that you love almost instantly and he truly loves Sadie. I really wanted them to get married before the very end of the book.

I loved everything about this book, romance, intrigue and even humor.  I only had one gripe with the book, I wanted more near the end. It came together a little quickly and would have liked to have some more with one of Marley's family members. (I don't want to give anything away)

If you are a lover of regency romance, you can't miss A Reckless Promise or any of the other books in the Little Season series.

Rating: 5 flowers:

2011 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge

From Reading With Tequila


The Rules:

• Challenge will run January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011. Participants can join anytime throughout the challenge.
  
• Create an intro post, linking back to this post.
  
• Sign up with the MckLinky below. Please link to your challenge intro post, not your blog home page.
  
• Chose your own books from the list. You can decide to read books only on the Top 25 list or from the entire recommendation list. You do not have to make a list of books before the challenge begins.
  
• All forms of books acceptable (audiobooks, eBooks, etc.)
• Rereads do not count toward
• towards the completion of the challenge. The challenge is about discovering books that are new to you.
• You don't need a blog to participate.
• Reviews, while always appreciated, are not mandatory.

Click here to see the entire 2010 Book Blogger Recommendation List. I'm going to try for level 2, which is 10 books.