Roping His Heart By: Jaclyn Hardy

Back of the book

The old mansion down the road from Rachel's ranch has always been her escape. No one has lived there for years, and she dreams of owning it herself someday. So when she finds a handsome city guy walking around inside who claims to own the home, her world turns upside down.

Patrick's career is just taking off in the city, and he couldn't be happier. The news of his father's passing brings a silver lining when he finds that he's left with a large mansion in a small ranching town—the perfect place to expand his business. 

But when Patrick meets the beautiful and fiery Rachel at the mansion, he begins to wonder if he made the right choice. Now he must decide if his business is worth going home to, or if he's willing to leave his city life for the woman who has roped his heart.

My thoughts

A refreshingly sweet romance set in a beautiful location with wonderful characters.  While considered a short novel, Roping His Heart is not short on a detailed plot, great scenes, and a romance full of depth and compassion.  Patrick is a perfect blend of kindness and loyalty with a desire to make everyone happy.  Rachel is also kind, hard working, and has a heart of gold, not only for her family, but the area she calls home.  Roping His Heart is the second novel in Destined For Love: Mansions, and while the first book was definitely worth reading, none of those characters appear in this novel.

Blue Moon Kisses By: Cindy Roland Anderson

Back of the book

At age twelve, Ashlee Nichols fell in love with her brother’s best friend, Beau Jacobsen. Everyone thought she was cute and that her crush was simply that…a crush. But her young heart had known he was the one, and she had planned on marrying him as soon as she was old enough. Unfortunately, when she confessed her feelings to Beau, he’d laughed, patted her on the head and told her he was flattered. Sure, Beau had been twenty-two at the time, but she knew she wouldn't always be a little girl. Just when she turned eighteen and was finally old enough to date him, Beau joined the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan. Now, six years later, Beau is back in Mitchel Creek, Georgia for a few weeks. He’s hotter than ever…and still ten years older, something he can’t seem to get past. He still sees Ashlee as a glorified little sister…or does he?

My Thoughts

The Perfect love story!  Blue Moon Kisses is a sweet, clean romance full of great family intervention.  Ashlee is a wonderful spunky person who is kind, loving, and loyal to her family.  Boa is the prefect description of an army man, he plans, ponders and does everything by the book.  What a perfect pair of opposites to fall in love. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed reading this book, I loved so many of the scenes it would be hard to pick a favorite.  Being the 3rd novel in the A Georgia Moon Romance series you will want to read the others.  Cindy Roland Anderson has again written an entertaining, sweet, & clean romance you will be sure to love.

Kiss Me in the Rain (Destined for Love: Mansions) By: Lindzee Armstrong

Back of the book

Cypress Grove has always been a treasured constant in Layla's perfect life. Now the mansion will be sold to the highest bidder if she doesn’t date an investor's son. The problem? The man she really wants just rolled into town.

Tyler is done being responsible and never going after what he wants. Layla's finally given him the courage to quit grad school and use his student loans to flip houses. And he's decided to move near Cypress Grove to do it.

When Layla happens upon suspicious ledgers at the mansion, her family's financial woes take a sinister turn. As Tyler and Layla work together to find the culprit, the attraction between them threatens to burst into flames. But admitting their feelings could spell disaster for Cypress Grove.

My thoughts

Kiss Me In The Rain is surprisingly full of great detail for a short story.  The plot is well thought out, and entertaining with the perfect conclusion.  Tyler and Layla are the perfect blend of personalities and while most short stories seem to lack back stories, Lindzee Armstong did an amazing job giving you enough information to understand the characters without wasting pages on useless facts.  While this is the first novel in the Destined for love: Mansions series there are a few characters from the Europe series so you might want to read those first.  

Hands down a wonderful novel that is perfect if you just have one day to read.

Horses, Hayrides and Husbands By: Jeanette Lewis

Back of the book

Enjoy this sweet romance from the Country Bride & Cowboy Boots series. 

Misty Epperson has her hands full with a toddler and a full-time job helping her billionaire brother, Ty, run The Epperson Foundation, a charitable organization he founded with his lottery jackpot. But all the chubby baby cheeks and conference calls in the world can’t drive away the emptiness hovering over her heart. She yearns for love, but Misty is wary. The last time she gave her heart away, it was returned to her battered and broken.

When Misty meets Clydesdale wrangler, Travis Harper, she’s drawn to his quiet strength and easy smile. But Travis quickly makes his hatred of rich people known and Misty’s brother is one of the richest men in the state. When Ty interferes with the Clydesdale’s grazing pasture in the name of environmental protection, will Travis consider it guilt by association or can Misty break this sexy cowboy with the giant chip on his shoulder?

My thoughts

More please?  Jeanette Lewis is a wonderful author and never shys away from writing characters with deep pasts and great emotion. Horses, Hayrides and Husbands tried to have all the depth, dialog and plot of a full length novel, but it left me wanting more.  Misty is such an awesome character with great personality, that I want more of her.  The same can be said for Travis, he is kind with a major chip on his shouder, and while you get a glimpse of their past I wanted more.  As a short story, this was a well written, cute story, I could feel Lewis wanted to add so much but was limited by pages.

Justice Buried By: Patricia Bradley

Back of the Book

In an effort to get her security consulting business off the ground, Kelsey Allen has been spending a lot of time up in the air, rappelling down buildings and climbing through windows to show business owners their vulnerabilities to thieves. When she is hired to pose as a conservator at the Pink Palace Museum in order to test their security weaknesses after some artifacts go missing, she's ecstatic. But when her investigative focus turns from theft to murder, Kelsey knows she's out of her league--and possibly in the cross hairs. When blast-from-the-past Detective Brad Hollister is called in to investigate, Kelsey may find that he's the biggest security threat yet . . . to her heart.

My thoughts

You can never go wrong with a Patricia Bradley novel.  Justice Buried has a unique plot with outstanding detail.  While it is part of the Memphis Cold Case series you can read it as a stand alone and not miss a beat.  Kelsey is an adventurous, creative, and well rounded character.  Brad was a little harder for me to understand at first, but as his character developed through the plot he became my favorite.  As the mystery twist and turns through the novel you will wonder if you really know anyone.  Justice Buried has the perfect blend of mystery and romance that everyone will enjoy.

Crisis Shot By: Janice Cantore

Back of the Book

Tess O’Rourke dreams of becoming the first female chief of police in Long Beach, California. As commander of the East Division, she is well on her way . . . until the night she responds to an officer-needs-assistance call and fatally shoots an unarmed teenager. Despite being cleared of wrongdoing by a grand jury, Tess is so hounded by the public that she takes a job in Oregon to escape the bad press.

Winning over the residents of Rogue’s Hollow might be more difficult than adjusting to her new role as police chief in the small, backwater town. Especially when her closest friend, the pastor’s wife, goes missing and the woman’s cousin is found shot. Tess finds an ally in sheriff’s deputy Steve Logan, but as they track down Rogue’s Hollow’s first murderer, she worries that she’s breaking one of her rules and getting too close to him.

My thoughts

Crisis Shot is a wonderful mystery with great twists and turns, you will need to read a few pages twice to catch on.  Janice Cantore has a writing style all her own, instead of weaving a characters backstory though the pages she has it all written up front which make the beginning of the novel a little slow.  Yet once the back story and main characters are introduced, you jump on a fast paced thrill ride as people go missing, murders are discovered, and lives are changed. Every aspect of the novel, from the small town to the people, was perfect for this type of novel.  I never once felt like saying "how could they not know that" as seems to be the case with so many other mystery novels.  

Crisis Shot is entertaining, clean, well written, and leaves you wanting more.