Review card – Page 116

Review Card – The Devine Doughnut Shop By Carolyn Brown

For Grace Dalton, her sister, Sarah, and her cousin Macy, the Devine Doughnut Shop is a sweet family legacy and a landmark in their Texas town. As the fourth generation to run the Double D, they keep their great-grandmother’s recipe secret and uphold the shop’s tradition as a coffee klatch for sharing local gossip, advice, and woes. But drama brews behind the counter, too.

Grace is a single mother struggling with an unruly teenage daughter. Heartbroken Sarah has sworn off love. Macy’s impending wedding has an unexpected hitch. And now charming developer Travis Butler has arrived in Devine with a checkbook and a handsome smile. He wants to buy the shop, expand it nationally, and boost the economy of a town divided by the prospect.

With the family’s relationships in flux, their beloved heritage up for grabs, and their future in the air, it’s amazing what determination, sass, a promise of romance, and a warm maple doughnut can do to change hearts and minds.

About The Author

Carolyn Brown is an award-winning author who has published 85 historical and western romance novels. New York Times and USA Todaybestselling author was born in Texas and raised in southern Oklahoma. These days she and her husband make their home in Davis, Oklahoma, a small town of less than three thousand people where everyone knows everyone, knows what they are doing and with whom, and read the weekly newspaper to see who got caught.
She has been married almost half a century to a retired English teacher that she calls Mr. B and he does not read her books before they are published because she cannot afford a divorce. They have three grown children.—and enough grandchildren to keep them busy and young.

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Book Review – Sweeter Than Chocolate By Lizzie Shane

Do the “Cupid chocolates” from Lucy’s shop
really help people meet their One True Love?
Dean, a TV reporter, has his doubts…

Lucy’s chocolate shop, How Sweet It Is, has been in her family for generations…along with the secret recipe for Cupid chocolates. Rumor has it that if you eat one on February 14, you’ll meet your soulmate. Lucy herself isn’t sure if it’s magic or just romantic optimism, but a family legend is at stake. Besides, with her grandmother to support and a rival bakery opening up across the street, it certainly doesn’t hurt to believe.

Dean, an ambitious and skeptical TV reporter, doesn’t like the idea of a business taking advantage of romantic desperation. He doesn’t count on Lucy joining him as he tracks down and interviews couples supposedly brought together by the chocolates. Together, they find that the truth can be complicated…especially when it comes to their own hearts.

Published Date: 17 January 2023

My Review

Lucy is a proprietor and chocolatier of a small candy shop. She worried about the competitor that is opening at shop near her. As valentine is around the corner, the cupid chocolate her best friend claimed that the cupid chocolate that she ate on Valentine’s day has helped her to find her true love in the socmed. Dean is a TV reporter who does not believe in love. He was assigned to cover Lucy’s cupid chocolate story. His first meeting with Lucy went badly when he commented that the story of cupid chocolate is a scam to Lucy without knowing that she is the owner. This has created an unnecessary tension between them.

This book is an enemy to lover story happened in a small town. I love the flow of the story plot especially at the point where Dean’s opinion of love start to change in the end. Both Lucy and Dean’s chemistry is palpable in the story. Overall it was an enjoyable read to me

My Rating

Review Card – Sweeter Than Chocolate By Lizzie Shane

Do the “Cupid chocolates” from Lucy’s shop
really help people meet their One True Love?
Dean, a TV reporter, has his doubts…

About The Author

Contemporary romance author Lizzie Shane was born in Alaska and still calls the frozen north home, though she can frequently be found indulging her travel addiction. Thankfully, her laptop travels with her and she has written her way through all fifty states and over fifty countries.

Lizzie has been honored to win the Golden Heart Award and HOLT Medallion, and has been named a finalist three times for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA Award®, but her main claim to fame is that she lost on Jeopardy!

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Review Card – A Change Of Heart For The Cornish Midwife By Jo Bartlett

A forever love…or a future dashed?

Midwife Ella Mehenick can’t wait to marry the love of her life, Dan Ferguson. They have both waited so long for their perfect day, and they know their future together will be everything they’ve ever dreamed of. But when Ella suddenly and unexpectedly collapses – all plans are put on hold.

Dan just wants Ella to get better, but Ella, so used to caring for others, struggles to accept she needs care herself. She doesn’t want Dan to give up everything for her and suddenly the life they dreamed of seems to be slipping through their fingers…

Once rock solid, Ella and Dan suddenly seem further apart than ever before. Can they find a path back to their happy ever after or will Ella’s change of heart risk everything they love?

About The Author

Jo Bartlett is the bestselling author of over nineteen women’s fiction titles. She fits her writing in between her two day jobs as an educational consultant and university lecturer and lives with her family and three dogs on the Kent coast. Her first title for Boldwood is The Cornish Midwife – part of a twelve-book deal.

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Review Card – Dreams Come True At Primrose Hall By Jill Steeples

Pia Temple has always had a soft spot for Jackson Moody following a passionate teenage love affair that burnt out over one long summer, more than ten years ago. First loves can be hard to forget, and the devastatingly gorgeous Jackson, is harder to forget than most.

After putting aside her ambitions while she cared for her parents, it is finally time for Pia to think about herself. So, when she’s offered the perfect job running the social calendar at Primrose Hall, with a dreamy flat included, how can she refuse? There’s only one problem… The new owner of the refurbished seventeenth-century manor house set in the idyllic Primrose Woods, is none other than Jackson, the man she’s thought about every day for years.

In a whirl of weddings and craft fairs, literary festivals and tea parties, Pia blossoms in her new role. But with the delectable Jackson a daily distraction, maybe this isn’t the dream job after all – especially when Jackson’s unfeasibly beautiful ex-girlfriend Tara, comes back to visit the hall…

About The Author

Jill Steeples lives in a small market town in Bedfordshire with her husband and two children. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, walking, baking cakes, eating them and drinking wine.

From an early age she fell in love with the fabulously funny romances of Jilly Cooper, and vowed, one day, she would have a go at writing one of her own.

Jill loves writing short stories, particularly those with a twist in the tail, and her work has appeared in popular womens magazines around the world and in a number of charity anthologies.

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Review Card – Her Unexpected Match By Lacey Baker

Travel writer Allie Sparks has one goal: to find the story that will save her career. So here she is, visiting her bestie on picturesque Crescent Island—with sun-warmed beaches, the briny smell of the ocean, and rumors of a secret astrologer-matchmaker who guarantees love. Of course, Allie doesn’t believe in any of that stuff. If anything, she’ll prove it’s a total scam.

Ryan Parker believes in love—just not right now. He’s focused on expanding his family’s barbeque business, finding investors, and keeping his too-big Great Dane puppy from jumping on everyone, including his sister’s pretty, whiskey-eyed best friend. Besides, falling for a tourist is definitely not in his astrological forecast.

Allie is doing everything she can to resist the charm of the town and its beauty, not to mention her attraction to Ryan. But there’s a lot more happening on Crescent Island than anyone knows…and when her story goes to print, this tiny, close-knit town might never be the same.

About The Author

Lacey is one of the luckiest women alive. Why? Because she gets to live out her lifes dream of writing emotionally fulfilling stories about relationships. A Maryland native she lives with her husband and three children in what most would call Suburban America, a townhouse development where everybody knows each other and each others kids. Family cook-outs, reunion vacations and growing up in church have all inspired Lacey to work towards her dreams and to write about the endurance of family.

For Lacey the writing bug bit early, when she was a sophomore in high school. From that point on shes been writing stories that depict the power of love and the spirit of living. A homebody at heart Lacey enjoys watching old movies and waking up to a nice hot cup of green tea.

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Review Card – Things I Wrote About By Kelsey Humphreys

Sadie Canton writes America’s favorite romance novels. She’s created one hit happy ending after another, all while avoiding her own painful cliffhanger.

But she can’t avoid him anymore.

Her sister’s wedding is forcing her to face her demons, her secrets and most of all her best friend turned bitter enemy, Shep Riggs.

The boy she knew is gone and the man before her is angry, arrogant, competitive, and hot as the Caribbean sun bearing down on them. Sadie planned for this. It’s time to be the hero of her own story, face her past and close that chapter of her life for good.

She’s ready for her villain and his jabs, his smirk, even his eightpack.

What she’s not ready for is Shep’s side of the story, and he’s determined to tell it — rough, unedited, and nowhere near The End.

About The Author

“If you don’t laugh out loud or get choked up, I’ve failed.” After tens of millions of video views, comedian Kelsey Humphreys has captured her hilarious, heart-warming characters in book form. Her steamy stories dig into deep truths about love, identity, purpose and family. When she’s not writing romance or creating comedy videos, she is reading, running, momming and wifeing in Oklahoma.

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Review Card – A Summer Changes Everything By Isabelle Grace

When his wife died, Reese was sure he’d never love again. Then he met Shelby.

Widowed horse and cattle farmer Reese Blackwood does not need a keeper. Not for himself or his two sons. They can manage just fine on their own. At least that’s what he keeps telling everybody, especially himself.

Elementary school teacher Shelby Corbett is no pushover. Just ask anyone who has seen how easily she handles a classroom full of boisterous kids. So spending the summer break looking after Reese’s two energetic boys is totally within her wheelhouse.

Which shocks Reese completely.

That’s only the first surprise, though. The second is the undeniable attraction that sparks between them. An attraction that’s totally unexpected but becomes increasingly difficult to ignore. As she helps Reese reconnect with his boys, Shelby shines a light into his dark and lonely world, bringing hope to his broken and grieving heart.

Hope that Reese fears will be lost again when Shelby’s six-week stay at Lone Oaks is over.

Unless he’s willing to risk everything by asking her to stay.

About The Author

Isabelle writes sweet to steamy contemporary romance primarily set in small-town Americana. Her books are full of heart, humor, and all the feels. So, if you like strong heroines, swoon-worthy heroes, snappy dialogue, and happily-ever-afters, you’ve come to the right place.

When not writing, Isabelle enjoys spending time with family and friends, watching movies and her favorite TV shows, and playing card and board games. Though she continues to work as a part-time adjunct college professor, Isabelle recently retired from public education (teaching in a pandemic was NO joke), where she taught Family and Consumer Sciences (formerly Home Economics) to high schoolers at her alma mater.

Isabelle lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in wild, wonderful West Virginia with her family and rescue Pomeranian, Bella.

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Review Card – Return To Lilacwell By Sasha Morgan

Will Lilacwell works its magic once more?

Times are changing in Lilacwell. Not only have Jasper and Adira settled into The Laurels manor, newly engaged and firmly casting off the shackles of their respective city lives, but Adira’s friend and ex-colleague, Rory, is now also looking to leave London for the quiet beauty of the Forest of Bowland.

Sparks flew when he and Lilacwell’s innkeeper, Cassie, met at the summer party a few months ago, but Cassie has been loved and left before and is reluctant to put all her trust in Rory, who might return to his promising law career for the right offer.

With Jasper and Adira’s wedding just around the corner, love is in the air for Lilacwell, and some big changes are coming to the sleepy village…

About The Author

Sasha Morgan lives in a village by the coast in Lancashire with her husband and has one grown up son. She writes mainly contemporary fiction, with a touch of ‘spice’, probably due to all the Jilly Cooper novels she read as a teenager! Besides writing, Sasha loves drinking wine, country walks and curling up with a good book

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Review Card – Turn Up The Heat By Kimberly Kincaid

Ingredients:

One big-city real estate analyst who gets dumped on national TV

One small-town mechanic with a past he wants to keep in his rearview mirror

One weekend getaway thwarted by a broken down car, a boss that makes Atilla the Hun look like a lapdog, and the snowstorm of the century

Mix well and add a whole lot of sparks under the hood.

Serve with a side of adversaries to lovers, opposites attract, sexy banter, and sizzling heat in both the kitchen and the bedroom.

About The Author

Kimberly Kincaid writes contemporary romance that splits the difference between sexy and sweet and hot and edgy romantic suspense. When she’s not sitting cross-legged in an ancient desk chair known as “The Pleather Bomber”, she can be found practicing obscene amounts of yoga, whipping up anything from enchiladas to éclairs in her kitchen, or curled up with her nose in a book. Kimberly is a USA Today writes contemporary romance that splits the difference between sexy and sweet and hot and edgy romantic suspense. When she’s not sitting cross-legged in an ancient desk chair known as “The Pleather Bomber”, she can be found practicing obscene amounts of yoga, whipping up anything from enchiladas to éclairs in her kitchen, or curled up with her nose in a book. Kimberly is a USA Today best-selling author and a 2016 and 2015 RWA RITA® finalist and 2014 Bookseller’s Best nominee who lives (and writes!) by the mantra that food is love. Kimberly resides in Virginia with her wildly patient husband and their three daughters

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