A Match Made at Christmas by Patty Blount

Elena avoided New York ever since 9/11, having lost mom in WTC. But now she's back, needing to help her sister in her final month of pregnancy, and spending Christmas together. Her guilt however, was still nagging at her after many years. Meeting Lucas did make her realize there's something nice in life, but his own grief and guilt may exceed her own... His mother also perished in 9/11. When Elena also found that Lucas was the boy who gave her one of the Christmas ornaments at Ground Zero, and may have saved her from suicide that Christmas, Elena only saw more guilt and grief, that her mother never forgave her. Can Lucas make her see the light, that it's actually a sign of forgiveness, and they need to forgive themselves to start loving others?

Nice use of 9/11 as background, and the blabbing about signs, with revelations, forgiveness, and perhaps, love.

Category: Contemporary

Overall Rating: 5/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews The Paramedic's Rescue (Heroes of New Y by Patty Blount

The Paramedic's Rescue is a romance between a paramedic and a single mom. The push-pull is good, but pretty typical for "men in uniform" romances. It's the little details that raised it above mediocre.

Reid is FDNY paramedic that had suffered a tremendous personal loss and is barely hanging on to sanity by teaching infant and child CPR courses in addition to his regular EMT shifts, where he taught Kara, a single mom with 18-year old daughter Nadia in one class. Later, Reid found little Nadia having wandered off in a department store while Kara was temporarily distracted during shopping, and returned the girl with some harsh words for mommy stemming from his own grief, which basically made them into mortal enemies, but later Reid apologized as he ran into the mother/daughter pair in the park, and offered several useful suggestions that made her life easier, but also somehow made her feel inadequate. Sparks flew between the two, but neither chose to act on them other than a temporary thing, for Reid has his personal demons to deal with, and Kara kept thinking she's too busy... or too UNdeserving of love after Nadia's father Steve basically left her as soon as he found out she was pregnant. When Steve came back with news that dropped the bottom out of Kara's world again (Steve has a congenital heart condition that may be hereditary) will Reid be able to conquer his own demons, and hold Kara together, and show her she is loved?

By leveraging 9/11 but only for minor details (Kara's mom was among the Twin Tower victims, and thus Kara has an idealized image of her formed when young) and using critical details of procedures without making them too boring, the author was able to introduce a LOT of mental anguish and stress on both MCs that interfere with their romance, as both characters are stubborn enough to claim they don't need help when they really needed it, and they have friends and family that knew they needed help too, and force them to accept help when it was needed (but not wanted). It is almost as much family drama as romance. Even the "villain" Steve, that abandoned Kara, turned out to be not totally evil, merely a douchebag.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Single Mom with Feelings of Inadequacy Meets Up with Paramedic with severe trauma involving a child

Tropes: paramedic, single mother, scars, 

Overall Rating:  4/5 (rounded up from 3.5/5)