Pump Up Your Book Book Review: The Marvelous Mechanical Man

THE MARVELOUS MECHANICAL MAN
By Rie Sheridan Rose
Steampunk/Adventure/Romance

The Marvelous Mechanical Man is the first book in a Steampunk series featuring the adventures of Josephine Mann, an independent woman in need of a way to pay her rent. She meets Professor Alistair Conn, in need of a lab assistant, and a partnership is created that proves exciting adventure for both of them.

Alistair’s prize invention is an automaton standing nine feet tall. There’s a bit of a problem though…he can’t quite figure out how to make it move. Jo just might be of help there. Then again, they might not get a chance to find out, as the marvelous mechanical man goes missing.

Jo and Alistair find themselves in the middle of a whirlwind of kidnapping, catnapping, and cross-country chases that involve airships, trains, and a prototype steam car. With a little help from their friends, Herbert Lattimer and Winifred Bond, plots are foiled, inventions are perfected, and a good time is had by all.

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I was debating just what I should do next when I heard the sound of a key in the front lock. Hurrying back to the laboratory, I was just in time to see Alistair Conn step inside.
            “Professor Conn! Am I glad to see you.”
            He set the bundles he was carrying down on the counter.
            “What is it, Miss Mann?”
            “Your mechanical man...can it walk on its own?”
            He frowned, glancing quickly at the rear door and back.
            “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
            I rolled my eyes.
            “We don’t have time for shilly-shallying. Yes, I know I didn’t have your leave to look in the back rooms, but I did. I saw the automaton, or statue, or whatever he was, but when I opened the door to the hallway this morning, the door to the storage room was ajar and the man was gone.”
            “Gone?” All the color fled his face, and he pushed me aside, practically running down the lab to the rear door. He threw it open and darted to the storage room. “No...no! This is impossible! How could he be gone?”
            “That’s what I was asking you.”
            “He can’t move on his own, Miss Mann. He has no power source. He’s just a big metal doll without his heart—and that doesn’t work yet.” He wiped his hand across his lips then turned and ran back to the lab, searching furiously amid the items I had so carefully arranged—apparently to no avail—on the counter. “It’s gone!” he cried. “They got that, too? Oh, this is disastrous, indeed.”
            “Got what?” I asked, following him back to the lab, where he seemed determined to destroy all my neatening efforts of the day before.
            “The heart, Miss Mann, the heart! I showed it to you yesterday morning—it’s an oblong machine, about so big….” He held up his hands about six inches apart. “You asked me what it did.”
            I stepped over to the counter and opened the drawer beneath it. Rummaging in the back, I withdrew the silk-wrapped package I had placed within it the night before.
            “Is this what you’re looking for?”
            He practically snatched it from my hand.
            “Thank God! Oh, that was most clever, Miss Mann. Most clever.”
            I decided there was no need to tell the man it was only chance that had protected his precious...whatever it was. Let him think it had been foresight.
            “You say that’s the statue’s heart?”
            “Well, it will be, if it ever starts working. This little object will provide the power necessary to move the automaton’s limbs, to let him think. He will be a true mechanical man.”
            “But it doesn’t work.”
            He sighed.
            “Not yet.” He set the oblong down on the counter. “I’ve done everything I can think of, but I just can’t make it do anything.”
            I looked down at the funny little machine. I couldn’t tell him I had played with it and added things. He would never forgive me.
            Something looked odd about the assembly. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what, so I put my finger on the machine instead. There was a tiny lever half-hidden by the new gear assembly. It shifted under my fingertip, and suddenly, the heart began to beat.

Looking for a fast paced Steam punk novel. It was a super easy read. I loved Jo Mann and her story along with the Professor/ Inventor Alastair Conn.

It reminded me of the old science fiction movies that are on the Comet network.

It is a well written novel that will entertain any age, though I definitely felt it would work best as a young adult/new adult read. The relationship between Jo and Alastair is a clean one. There are definitely some underlying feelings there that didn't get explored much but we do know that Jo has some feelings for the professor.

The mechanical man, who is dubbed Phaeton is a wonderful character too! I wasn't sure what type of character he'd be good or bad when I decided to read this one. In fact I was really envisioning the Autons and the Cybermen from Doctor Who at first. I was pleasantly surprised Phaeton was nothing like that.

Jo was super spunky and a strong heroine, but she's definitely a girlie girl,especially when you compare her to Fred, another girl with a boy's name that they meet while trying to protect Phaeton.

It was a pleasant way to pass an afternoon and I look forward to reading more of Jo's adventures and to see if Alastair really gets a clue.

Rating: 5 flowers

Rie Sheridan Rose multitasks. A lot. Her short stories appear in numerous anthologies, including Nightmare Stalkers and Dream Walkers Vols. 1 and 2, and Killing It Softly Vols. 1 and 2. She has authored twelve novels, six poetry chapbooks, and lyrics for dozens of songs. These were mostly written in conjunction with Marc Gunn, and can be found on “Don’t Go Drinking with Hobbits” and “Pirates vs. Dragons” for the most part–with a few scattered exceptions.

Her favorite work to date is The Conn-Mann Chronicles Steampunk series with five books released so far: The Marvelous Mechanical Man, The Nearly Notorious Nun, The Incredibly Irritating Irishman, The Fiercely Formidable Fugitive, and The Elderly Earl’s Estate.

Rie lives in Texas with her wonderful husband and several spoiled cat-children.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

Website: https://riewriter.com/  and https://theconnmannchronicles.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RieSheridanRose
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheConnMannChronicles/

 

 

Pump Up Your Book Book Tour Review: The Summer Retreat

THE SUMMER RETREAT by Sheila Roberts, Women's Fiction/Romance, 384 pp., $6.47 (paperback) $6.99 (Kindle)

Title: THE SUMMER RETREAT
Author: Sheila Roberts
Publisher: Harlequin/MIRA
Pages: 384
Genre: Women’s Fiction/Romance

Celeste Jones has plans for a perfect summer with her boyfriend (and hopefully soon-to-be fiancé)—until he dumps her to be with the woman he’s had on the side for months. Heartbroken and furious, Celeste resolves to move on. When the going gets tough, the tough…okay, the not-so-tough go to the beach.

As soon as school lets out for the summer, she waves goodbye to her first-graders, packs up her bikini and heads for Moonlight Harbor, where she knows her big sister, Jenna, will receive her with open arms. Jenna could probably use some help at the Driftwood Inn, and Celeste is happy to do chores around the place in exchange for a relaxing summer escape. She just needs something—or someone—to distract her from her troubles.

Finding The One can be tricky, and Jenna is determined to make sure Celeste gets it right this time around. Not that Jenna’s an expert. She’s still trying to sort out her own love life. But if both sisters listen to their hearts, eventually they’re bound to discover that life—and love—is good at the beach.

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______________________

Review: Celeste is getting over a breakup by spending her summer with her sister at Moonlight Harbor.

This is a small town story, filled with loads of unique characters.  I wasn't totally on board with Celeste's "love loser" thing.  She's an older heroine, which I really like. You don't see the ladies in their 30s much in an honest to God romance, but her almost "boy crazy" need to have a man and be married, irked me a little, ok, it irked me a lot.  Her behavior at times didn't really match at 36 year old woman either. If you would have told me she was in the 22-26 age range, than her behavior was more suited. However, even though Celeste was boy crazy and liked to party? and gave up her job as a teacher FOR NO REASON except for a possible proposal, she was really sweet and more than a bit naive.

There was a lot going on in Moonlight Harbor too. There was drama on the town council and drama in the church, especially has Celeste caught the eye of the pastor and anyone can tell, Celeste isn't going to make the perfect pastor's wife at least in the viewpoint the author has set up for us, where ministers aren't allowed to enjoy anything in life and they have to be totally judgmental etc. Seriously, when Paul didn't like Nemo, I didn't like Paul and it made me wonder why Celeste, when she was clearly NOT REALLY IN LOVE with this guy, wanted to stick with him. I mean being a wife shouldn't be someone's life goal, and it was obvious that was Celeste's only goal.

Then there's Henry. I don't think enough time was really spent with him, yet he was the important part of the weird, yet sweet love triangle that Sheila has created in this story. He was fun and funny and more human in his actions that then the other characters.

This is definitely the perfect get ready for summer read for a lazy afternoon. You'll love getting to know all the townspeople as well as Celeste's relationship woes. Its also pure unadulterated fluff.

Rating: 4 flowers

Celeste Jones had kissed so many frogs looking for her prince, she should have turned green and grown warts on her lips. But she’d finally gotten it right in the man department. Emerson Willis was strong and smart. And sexy. Masculine and excitingly alpha. And a spectacular dancer. And sexy. And a cop. Did it get any sexier than that? They’d been together a year, and what a great year it had been. He’d spent so much time at her place, he might as well have moved in, but he felt it wouldn’t look good, with her being a teacher and all. As if first-graders knew anything about the birds and the bees or cared what their teacher did in her off hours. As if anyone cared what anyone did with anyone else these days. It had been sweet of him to think of that, though, and she loved him all the more for it.

Still, why not make what they had official since it was so great? “We’re having a good time,” he was always saying. “Relax and enjoy the ride.”

She could do that. Spring had come, and she was looking ahead to a summer of off-roading, trips to Eastern Washington to visit the wineries, hitting the The Summer Retreat, Sheila Roberts

 

Best-selling author Sheila Roberts has seen her books published in a dozen different languages and made into movies for both the Hallmark and Lifetime channels. She’s happily married with three children and lives in the Pacific Northwest. When she’s not hanging out with girlfriends, speaking to women’s groups or going dancing with her husband she can be found writing about those things near and dear to women’s hearts: family, friends, and chocolate.

Her latest book is the women’s fiction/romance, THE SUMMER RETREAT.

Website Address:  http://www.sheilasplace.com
Twitter Address:  http://www.twitter.com/_Sheila_Roberts
Facebook Address: https://www.facebook.com/funwithsheila/

Pump Up Your Book Book Review: The Mentor

Title: THE MENTOR
Author: Lee Matthew Goldberg
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 336
Genre: Thriller / Suspense / Mystery

Kyle Broder has achieved his lifelong dream and is an editor at a major publishing house.

When Kyle is contacted by his favorite college professor, William Lansing, Kyle couldn’t be happier. Kyle has his mentor over for dinner to catch up and introduce him to his girlfriend, Jamie, and the three have a great time. When William mentions that he’s been writing a novel, Kyle is overjoyed. He would love to read the opus his mentor has toiled over.

Until the novel turns out to be not only horribly written, but the most depraved story Kyle has read.

After Kyle politely rejects the novel, William becomes obsessed, causing trouble between Kyle and Jamie, threatening Kyle’s career, and even his life. As Kyle delves into more of this psychopath’s work, it begins to resemble a cold case from his college town, when a girl went missing. William’s work is looking increasingly like a true crime confession.

Lee Matthew Goldberg's The Mentor is a twisty, nail-biting thriller that explores how the love of words can lead to a deadly obsession with the fate of all those connected and hanging in the balance.

PRAISE FOR THE MENTOR:

From Booklist - A junior editor at a Manhattan publisher reunites with his college mentor with disastrous results in Goldberg's second thriller (after Slow Down, 2015). Kyle Broder has just acquired a probable best-seller for Burke & Burke publishing when he hears from his former literature professor, William Lansing, who pitches the still-unfinished opus he’s been working on for 10 years. Lansing’s book is not only badly written, it’s also disturbing, featuring a narrator literally eating the heart of the woman he loves. Lansing turns vengeful when his "masterpiece" is rejected, but Broder’s concerns about his mentor are dismissed both at home and at work: Broder’s girlfriend considers Lansing charming, and a rival editor feigns interest in Lansing’s book. Broder revisits his college and delves more deeply into the cold case of a missing ex-girlfriend, and as the plot darkens and spirals downward, it’s unclear who will be left standing. The compelling plot is likely to carry readers with a high enough tolerance for gore to the final twist at the end.

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Amazon

FROM FAR AWAY the trees at Bentley College appeared as if on fire, crowns of nuclear leaves dotting the skyline. Professor William Lansing knew it meant that fall had firmly arrived. Once October hit, the Connecticut campus became festooned with brilliant yellows, deep reds, and Sunkist orange nature. People traveled for miles to witness the foliage, rubbernecking up I-95 and flocking to nearby Devil’s Hopyard, a giant park where the students might perform Shakespeare, or enter its forest gates at nighttime to get high and wild. William had taken a meandering hike through its labyrinthine trails that morning before his seminar on Existential Ethics in Literature. It had been over a decade since he’d entered its tree-lined arms, but today, the very day he was reaching the part in his long-gestating novel that took place in Devil’s Hopyard, seemed like a fitting time to return. 

            His wife Laura hadn’t stirred when he left at dawn. He slipped out of bed and closed the mystery novel propped open on her snoring chest. He often wrote early in the mornings. Before the world awoke, he’d arm himself with a steaming coffee and a buzzing laptop, the wind from off the Connecticut River pinching his cheeks. His chirping backyard would become a den of inspiration, or he’d luxuriate in the silence of Bentley at six a.m. when the only sound might be a student or two trundling down the Green to sleep off a fueled night of debauchery.

            He’d been at Bentley for over twenty years, tenured and always next in line to be department chair. He refused even the notion of the position for fear it might eat into time spent writing his opus. His colleagues understood this mad devotion. They too had their sights set on publications, most of them well regarded in journals, only a few of them renowned beyond Bentley’s walls like William dreamed to be. Notoriety had dazzled him since he was a child—a time when his world seemed small and lifeless and dreams of fame were his only escape.  

            His colleagues often questioned him about this elusive manuscript he’d been toiling on for years, but he found it best to remain tight-lipped, to entice mystery. It was how he ran his classroom as well, letting only a few chosen students get close, keeping the rest at enough of a distance to regard him as tough and impenetrable but fair. Maybe he’d made a few students cry when a paper they stayed up all night to finish received a failing grade, or when his slashes of red pen seemed to consume one of their essays on Sartre’s Nausea, which he found trite and pedestrian; but that only made them want to do better the next time. They understood that he wanted his kingdom to be based on fear, for creativity soared in times of distress.

            William’s legs were sore after his hike that morning through Devil’s Hopyard. The terrain was hilly and its jagged trails would challenge even a younger man, but he kept fit, wearing his fifty-five year old frame well. He was an athlete back in school, a runner and a boxer who still kept a punching bag in the basement and ended his day with a brisk run through his town of Killingworth, a blue-collar suburban enclave surrounding Bentley’s college-on-a-hill. He had all his hair, which was more than he could say for most of his peers, even though silver streaks now cut through the brown. He secretly believed this made him more dashing than during his youth. Women twenty years younger still gave him a second glance, and he often found Laura taking his hand at department functions and squeezing it tight, as if to indicate that she fully claimed him and there’d be no chance for even the most innocent of flirtations. He had a closet full of blazers with elbow patches and never wore ties so he could keep his collar open and expose his chest hair, which hadn’t turned white yet. He had a handsome and regal face, well proportioned, and while his eyes drooped some due to a lifetime of battling insomnia, it gave him the well-worn look of being entirely too busy to sleep. People often spoke of him as a soul who never enjoyed being idle, someone who was always moving, expounding, and expanding. 

            “Hi, Professor Lansing,” said Nathaniel, a tall and gangly freshman, who after three weeks into the semester had yet to look William in the eye. Nathaniel’s legs twisted over one another with each step. William guessed that the boy had recently grown into his pole-like body and his brain now struggled with how to move it properly.

            “Nathaniel,” William said, wiping the sweat mustache from his top lip. He could smell his own lemony perspiration from the intense jaunt through Devil’s Hopyard. “How did your paper on The Stranger turn out?”

            Nathaniel’s eyes seemed to avoid him even more. They became intent on taking in the colorful foliage, as if it had sprouted overnight. 

            “Well…” the boy began, still a hair away from puberty, his voice hitting a high octave, “I’m not totally sure what you meant about Meursault meeting his end because he didn’t ‘play the game’.”

            William responded with a throaty laugh and a shake of his head. He placed a palm on Nathaniel’s shoulder.

            “Society’s game, Nathaniel, the dos and don’ts we all must ascribe to. How, even if we slip on occasion, we’re not supposed to admit what we did for fear of being condemned. Right?”

            Nathaniel nodded, his rather large Adam’s apple bobbing up and down in agreement too. He stuffed a bitten-down nail between his chapped lips and chewed away like a rat, leaving William to wonder if the boy was on some new-fangled type of speed. He liked Nathaniel, who barely spoke in class, but once in a while would give a nervous peep filled with promise. The students he paid the most attention to weren’t the heads of the lacrosse team or the stars of the theater productions, those students would have a million other mentors fawning over them. He looked for the hidden jewels, the ones who were waiting for that extra push, who’d been passed over their whole lives but would someday excel past their peers. Then they would thank him wholeheartedly for igniting a spark.

            “Is that why Camus didn’t personalize the victim that Meursault killed?” Nathaniel asked, wary at first, as the two entered the doors of Fanning Hall past a swirl of other students. “So we sympathize with him despite his crime?”

            William stopped in front of his classroom, its cloudy window offering a haze of students settling into their desks. He stood blocking the door so Nathaniel had no choice but to look in his eyes.

            “Did you sympathize with him?”

            “Yes…umm, it’s hard to penalize someone for one mistake,” Nathaniel said. “I know he shot the Arab guy, but…I don’t know, sometimes things just happen. I guess that makes me callous.”

            “Or human.”

            William stared at Nathaniel for an uncomfortable extra few seconds before Kelsey, a pretty sorority girl with canary yellow hair, fluttered past them.

            “Hey, Professor,” Kelsey said, without looking Nathaniel’s way. William could feel the boy’s sigh crowding the hallway.

            “Come, Nathaniel, we’ll continue this debate in class.”

            William led the boy into the room. The students immediately became hushed and rigid as he entered.

            Nathaniel slumped into a chair in the back while Kelsey cut off another girl to get a prime seat up front.

            William placed his leather satchel on the table, took out a red marker, and scribbled on the board, I didn’t know what a sin was. The handwriting looked like chicken scratch and the students had to squint a bit to decipher it; but eventually the entire class of twenty managed to correctly jot down the quote. They had gotten used to his idiosyncrasies.

            “At the end of the novel, Meursault ponders that he didn’t know what a sin was,” William said. “What does that mean?”

            A quarter of the class raised their hands, each one eager to be noticed. Kelsey clicked her tongue for attention, as if her desperation wasn’t obvious enough. She looked like she had to pee. In the back, Nathaniel was fully absorbed in a doodle that resembled Piglet from Winnie the Pooh.

            “Nathaniel,” William barked, sending the pen flying out of the boy’s hand. Nathaniel weaved his long arms around the desk to pick up the pen and then gave a slack-jawed expression as a response.

“Why does Meursault insist to the chaplain that he didn’t know what a sin was?” William continued.

            Nathaniel silently pleaded for William to call on someone else. He let out an “uuuhhhhhhh” that lasted through endless awkward seconds.

            Kelsey took it upon herself to chime in.

            “Professor, while Meursault understands he’s been found guilty for his crime, he doesn’t truly see that what he did was wrong.”

            William turned toward Kelsey to admonish her for speaking without being called on, a nasty habit that happened more and more with this ADD-addled generation than the prior one, but a red-leaf tree outside the window captured his attention instead, its color so unreal, so absorbing. The red so vibrant like its leaves had been painted with blood.

            “Professor…professor.”

            The sound came from far away, as if hidden under the earth, screaming to be acknowledged.

            “Professor Lansing?”

            Kelsey waved her arm in his direction, grounding him. She gave a pout.

            “Like, am I right, or what, Professor? He doesn’t truly see that what he did was wrong.”

            William cleared his throat, maintaining control over the room. He smiled at them the same way he would for a photograph.

            “Yes, that’s true, Kelsey. Expressing remorse would constitute his actions as wrong. He knows his views make him a stranger to society, and he is content with this judgment. He accepts death and looks forward to it with peace. The crowds will cheer hatefully at his beheading, but they will be cheering. This is what captivates the readers almost seventy years after the book’s publication. What keeps it and Camus eternal, immortal.” 

            Kelsey beamed at the class, her grin smug as ever.

            William went to the board, erased the quote, and replaced it with the word IMMORTAL in big block letters, this time written with the utmost perfect penmanship.

Lee Matthew Goldberg’s novel THE MENTOR is forthcoming from Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press in June 2017 and has been acquired by Macmillan Entertainment. The French edition will be published by Editions Hugo. His debut novel SLOW DOWN is out now. His pilot JOIN US was a finalist in Script Pipeline’s TV Writing Competition. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his fiction has also appeared in The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, Essays & Fictions, The New Plains Review, Verdad Magazine, BlazeVOX, and others. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series. He lives in New York City.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

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Review: I don't always read thrillers, but when one has such a great premise as this one, I have to dive in, and OMG this one was fabulous.

This is a literary thriller. I have to say I love books about people who create books or get books to readers. Books about books = joy.

The principal characters are all intriguing. Kyle and his backstory are exceptionally so, especially as you see his life tied in to the novel that Professor Lansing wrote.  As the story goes on, you really sit on the edge of your seat to find out what happens next.

This is really the type of thriller that you can't put down. There was only one point in the novel that really bugged me. There was an animal that was killed, and that's one thing I have a hard time dealing with as an animal lover. I had to step back from the book for a bit then, because animal deaths bug me.

I finished this book in one day, so that should say something.  There was manipulation and murder and so much stuff that really made me shudder. This wasn't a typical tale of a murderer or a psychopath.

Professor Lansing was the most amazing kind of villain.

I can't begin to say how awesome this book was and how many hours of sleep I lost because Lansing was so creepy!

The ending just blew me away.

Rating: 5 flowers

 

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Pump Up Your Book Book Blast: Occult and Battery

About the Book:

Title: OCCULT AND BATTERY
Author: Lena Gregory
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 304
Genre: Cozy Mystery

A murder mystery weekend becomes a little too real in the latest Bay Island Psychic Mystery from the author of Death at First Sight—
 
Cass Donovan uses her skills as a former psychiatrist to get away with pretending to be psychic, but she’s not about to let anyone get away with murder...
 
The outlook is not so good for Cass’s psychic shop, Mystical Musings. With winter winds discouraging tourists from riding the ferry from Long Island to Bay Island, Cass hopes to draw in more customers by hosting a murder mystery weekend, complete with a séance, in a supposedly haunted mansion.

But Cass begins to lose her spirit when her ex-husband shows up, along with his fiancée—Cass’s ex-best friend. Then, after one of the guests is found dead, a blizzard blows in, trapping everyone inside with a murderer. Now Cass must divine who did the deed before her reputation and her livelihood fade away.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Book Excerpt:

“Stop the car!”

Bee Maxwell slammed on the brakes, skidding to a stop on the sand-covered shoulder. Without loosening his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel, he turned a glare on Cass. “Are you crazy? What’s the matter?”

Cass released her hold on the dashboard and shot him a grin. “We’re here.”

A hand the size of a baseball mitt fluttered to Bee’s chest, with all the drama of a true diva. “You nearly gave me a heart attack because we’ve arrived at our secret destination?” Gritting his teeth, he shifted gently into park. No way would he jam the shifter into gear, even though she could tell he badly wanted to. The black Trans Am was his baby, always to be treated tenderly. Cass, on the other hand, was a different story. Bee looked about ready to throttle her. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to just tell me where we were going?”

Stephanie Lawrence poked her head between the seats to stare at Cass. “Not that I want to agree with Bee, but really, Cass, you could have just told him where to go. Then maybe this maniac wouldn’t have nearly put us through the windshield.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t think he’d agree to take me if I told him where we were going.”

Bee waved a hand in dismissal and glanced out the window, as if realizing for the first time where they were.

The old, supposedly haunted Madison Estate perched in the center of the highest ground on the island, amid dried-up beach grass, trees long since devoid of leaves, and garbage from whatever kids were brave—or stupid—enough to ignore their parents’ warnings. Thick, grey clouds gathered overhead, lending credence to the haunted stories Cass had heard since childhood.

A dainty shiver ran through Bee’s bulky frame. “Well, if your destination has anything to do with that house, you can just count me out.”

“But it’s perfect.” She opened the door and shot him a quick grin over her shoulder.

“Hey. Where are you going?”

Ignoring Bee’s protests, Cass climbed from the car. She closed the door behind her, effectively cutting off any further arguments. Bee happened to be deathly afraid of ghosts. Not that he believed in them.

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Pump Up Your Book Book Review: Wooing The Wedding Planner

Title:

WOOING THE WEDDING PLANNER

Author: Amber Leigh Williams

Publisher: Harlequin (Superromance)

Pages: 380

Genre: Series Romance/Contemporary

Romance/Superromance

No more

wedding marches for her! 

Wedding

planner Roxie Honeycutt can make happy-ever-after come true for anyone except

herself. Freshly divorced and done with love, she's okay with watching clients

walk down the aisle. What's not okay? Sharing a charming Victorian house with

accountant Byron Strong. He's frustratingly sexy and determined to keep her

confused. 

Roxie thought Byron's expertise was

numbers, yet somehow he sees her for who she really is. Somehow he understands

the hurt she hides behind a trademark smile. Suddenly romance is tempting

again, even if it means risking another heartbreak.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Amazon

Book Excerpt:

“What was wrong with the old Roxie?”

His words stuck with her. And his kiss.

It was difficult to forget a kiss like that, especially

coming from someone…well, someone like Byron. Roxie had spent more time than

she’d like to admit trying not to think about the kiss – about how sweet it

was. She’d forgotten kisses could be so sweet. She’d tried extra hard to forget

how his lips had lingered. And how in lingering he’d awakened starbursts inside

her. Starbursts of eternity.

She frowned deeply. Being touched…it had been so long

since she had

really been touched. The hollowness in her had turned into a resounding

ache, and for a few moments she’d thought about bringing Byron’s mouth back

down to hers. For a few moments, she’d craved more than his companionship.

She’d craved the contact. The promise of heat that came with it.

But had she wanted it – had she wanted him – for the single reason

that heat could erode loneliness? There was trust there. There was affection.

For those small starbursts of eternity, there had been longing and the promise

of flame. It had been too long since she’d felt the sheer, electrical pulse of

new chemistry.

Why had Byron’s kiss made it seem like so long since

she’d felt the flame? The passion?

Book Review: Always a wedding planner, never a bride. I love wedding planner romances. But this wasn't really one of those. This wedding planner has fallen for a house, but when she tours the house they find a man shaving. 

Roxie is the wedding planner who had a bad divorce and now doesn't think happily ever after is for her and Byron, the shaving guy, is a widower, who doesn't want to do marriage again, cos well death parted him from his wife.

Of course they start to fall in love.

What sets this story apart from other romances is that Byron and Roxie have a history, but their past is keeping them from finding happiness with each other. Its easy to see early on that they really have feelings for each other, but Roxie can't seem to get over Richard, who had an affair with her sister. I wanted to shake her because if any man slept with my sister I would be rid of him, and her.

Byron believes something his father told him about Strongs having a one true love, yet these two click and they always manage to screw things up. The screw things up a lot. I couldn't quite understand why she wanted to see if things could have been patched up with Richard.

I loved watching the relationship between these two grow. They had great banter and I love stories with Greek families. I always have and Byron's family is just perfect. I loved every one of them.

Roxie's family, however was awful. I felt sorry for her, having the mother and sisters that she did. I would have run away from home if I were her.

A great easy read for a quiet weekend


Rating: 5 flowers

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About the Author

Amber Leigh Williams is a Harlequin romance writer who

lives on the US Gulf Coast. She lives for beach days, the smell of real

books, and spending time with her husband and their two

young children. When she’s not keeping up with

rambunctious little ones (and two large dogs), she can usually be

found reading a good book or indulging her inner foodie. Amber is

represented by the D4EO Literary Agency.

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