GRR Reviews Hide Your Heart:by Tracey Alvarez

Hide Your Heart is about a woman went around the world to get away from her world, and met a neighbor who wanted to woo her, but is not staying long. It's sweet, but a bit on the long side.

Lauren Taylor fled the limelight of London all the way to New Zealand and her hometown with her young son. She wanted absolutely NO attention from anything... until she was rescued by their neighbor Nate Fraser. But Nate is just there to fix up the old property and flip it for a profit, hopefully turning it into a celebrity hideout. That horrified Lauren as she shuns all attention, having been traumatized once already. But she can't derail Nate's plan, even as Nate seems to be the only one who understands her... Can they fall for each other?

I've read this story before as a novella, and I think it works much better as a novella than as a full-length novel. The story just gave me the warm fuzzy and not much more.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Ex-model and single mother left London and moved to New Zealand to get away, meets a handsome neighbor who's not staying...

Overall Rating: 3/5

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

GRR Reviews Romance Down Under: New Zealand Romance Combo by Tracey Alvarez

Romance Down Under, a two book bundle, felt rather average and reliant on tropes.

In Too Deep -- Ryan "West" Westlake will never leave his island... even when his love, Piper Harland, walked out of his life because he will never deny her her dreams. Years later, she's back, and it's time for the two to face up to what they missed... and what they could have together...

Nothing too special about this "love interrupted" trope story. it could have been set anywhere or be almost anybody, nothing too special, really.  3/5

Hide Your Heart -- Lauren Taylor and her young son escaped the glitter of New York back to New Zealand until she got her car stuck and had to be rescued by a neighbor, who's way too sexy. He's interested in Lauren. But Lauren was once a supermodel who dropped out of sight to raise her son in isolation. And her neighbor was just trying to fix up and sell the run down house, so he ain't staying. But he won't take no for an answer, and he's so good with her son... She may change her mind... If he can understand the secret she had been hiding...

Okay, this one was better AND shorter. The 'car stuck and rescued by hunky neighbor' was a trope, and so was 'former model now single parent hiding out'.  Add the third trope 'I am not staying here, just passing through'. But this one was short, and the pace was good that made up for trope. 4/5

Together, I can only give this 3/5 in combination.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: N/A, collection

Tropes: collection, different worlds, reunion, small town, single parent

Overall Rating:  3/5