GRR Reviews Signature Sweethearts Boxset Books 1-3 by Kelsie Rae

Note; 3 book collection

Liv: Liv's humble yet perfect life ended when her husband died in a car accident, leaving her alone and pregnant. She was so close to making it. Her husband's family never really liked her, but they eloped and went their own way. Now she has nowhere to turn to...  Except Luke, childhood friend, until she fell for the other boy and married him... Will the reunion be sweet... or salty? Will he still love her? What about the baby?

Good second chance romance with the complication of "left-over baby". 4/5

Breezy: Her name is Bree, but she's always known as Breezy, sort of a joke about her no-nonsense personality. Oh, and she's Luke's sister (see book 1: Liv) Breezy has an HR degree, but she's waitressing in a sports bar. She met Derrick when she spilled nachos on him. She later got a job at Derrick's company as the new HR assistant and wanted Derrick, now her boss, but Derrick's been hurt before and used the no-fraternization policy to refuse to date her... Until Jude decided to help them out by pretending to date Breezy...

The "spilled food" meet-cute had been done gazillion times. But the subsequent dialog may be a classic. Breezy's forthrightness is a delightful change from the meek female who can't speak their mind (it's never the right time). 4.5/5

Jude: Jude used to be an online gaming champ and when the company decided to sponsor a gaming team, he was assigned as the assistant coach for his name recognition and talent. He found himself drawn to Q (real name: Quincy), the only female player on the team, extremely quiet away from the keyboard. Turns out her father is having dementia and her gaming is the only thing keeping a roof over their heads. Jude wanted to help her, but he's much older, and even he can see that she doesn't trust easily, either in or out of the game. Can he teach her that men can be trusted, both for himself and the game, with the championship coming up soon?

Good use of the gaming world as a backdrop, with the championship sort of a parallel to their love life. 5/5

Overall, 4.5/5

GRR Reviews Abby's Promise by Rebekah Dodson

Joey and Abby were best friends and lovers. Until he left for the military, and they eventually lost touch. Abby ended up marrying Joey's best friend Evan, when she got pregnant, but he never really loved her... Then Evan died, and Abby became a single mom. Eight years later, Joey is back, taking a class in community college, when he found to his surprise that the history professor was none other than his Abby. She promised to never let him go, and so did he. Now he's back, but it seems she had moved on... Or did she?

This book has some weird plotting that sort of acted as complications, but they didn't quite make sense. Abby's mother-in-law and brother-in-law apparently were hostile toward Abby because she kept baby Zoey away from them. Joey's father was a strictly religious MD that claims to know secrets about the night of Evan's death (let's just say he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but was there someone ELSE in the room?) and wants to keep the pair apart.


SPOILER

AHEAD

I WARNED YOU!

Then out of nowhere, the brother-in-law Malachi resorted to kidnapping baby Zoey. Then somehow, the mother-in-law, who's using a cane and walked very slowly, was able to get baby Zoey out of the house down to the police station. WUH?  Then Malachi broke into Abby's house, and Joey had to charge in and save her, only to be arrested for "assault".  All of the evil are really flat and boring. The good parts are good, the bad parts, however, balanced out the good, leaving it a mess. 3/5

GRR Reviews The Heart Awakened by Daphne Emmerson

Hannah is settling into single motherhood when her husband left her when she announced her pregnancy and even signed away his parental rights. More than a year later, Hannah was surprised that her ex now suddenly wants back into her life, which she can never permit. Desperate for a solution, she hit on befriending Mike, the local high school coach, and friend of a friend. Sparks flew, even though it was supposed to be just a "fake" romance... // Mike had a traumatic past and never wanted to become his father... by never giving his heart to anyone. But he's sorta dating, and a single mom shouldn't appeal to him... Yet Hannah is always on his mind. Perhaps he can change his mind after all?

At merely 150 pages, there is quite a bit of plot, not too angst-y, though some of the characters are a bit shallow, like Mike's "girlfriend", who's like a remora, refusing to let go. The darkest hour is, as expected, fragile ego, sensitive ears/eyes. 4/5

GRR Reviews The Persistent Groom by Jennifer Youngblood

Silver divorced her no-good husband Riley when he was mean to their Downs-syndrome daughter. Riley cheating was the last straw. It took her two years, but her event planning business is now thriving when she got the plum job, organizing the charity auction by the Texas Titans football team. Unfortunately, it also means she had to meet Ace Sanchez, the man who really had her heart... and Riley's chief rival back in school. Ace is now a star running back for the Titans, and one of the most eligible bachelors in the city. He had a humble beginning working for his family restaurant, and seeing Silver against just means he wanted her back. But Riley and his mother are NOT ready to let Silver go... as his divorce had already ruined her social standing. And this ex-MIL is ready to ruin both Ace and Silver if she will not re-marry Riley... and she has some dastardly plans in the works...

I can understand the entitled boy Riley and the evil and doting mother, but the way the whole thing was resolved... Uh... It's basically a deus ex machina. It has good parts, but the lame ending kinda ruined it.

Category: Contemporary / Sports

Overall Rating: 3/5

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

GRR Reviews Bad Mother's Diary by Suzy K Quinn

Juliette had a baby with... a man-child who claims to be an out-of-work actor, but he does have a rich mommy. He was sweet though, and sometimes he almost said "I love you." But the baby is teething, the mother-in-law is a terror and the husband is a douchebag in addition of being a man-child... and Juliette doesn't know how to cook or bake or even put Daisy to sleep...

Written in diary form, it's absolutely hilarious to read, and yes, there's a plot. And it goes on for a couple of volumes. Let's just say the BF caused some major drama... when Juliette's best (girl) friend admitted to having an affair with the BF... and Juliette obviously had to cancel the wedding. And she's suddenly famous as the runaway bride. So she trained for a marathon as a way to psyche herself... and her old schoolmate, Alex... hotel magnate, wanted to woo her... Now that she's single, but is she going back to her baby-daddy? It's run and chick-lit too.

Category: Contemporary / Chick-lit

Overall Rating: 5/5

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

GRR Reviews Return to Totara Park by Shirley Wine

Winsome and Jared were married... Until a terrible tragedy tore them apart, and she moved out of Totara Park estate, never to return. But the death of Jared's father and reading of the will brought her back... Unless Winsome and Jared move back to Totara Park and live them for two years (and everybody else has to move out, including Jared's mother) Totara Park will be sold and proceeds donated to charity. Winsome reluctantly agreed, not wanting Jared to lose his family heritage. But Jared knew his father never does something without a reason. This is manipulation from beyond the grave, and it had EVERYTHING to do with that tragedy that sent Winsome fleeing Totara Park... And he will learn what it was, even if it breaks his heart again...

The revelation was shocking, and made TOTAL sense. And it took a lot of pushing for the secret to come out. And it was emotionally draining. There's a spoiler at the end if you want to spoil yourself the ending.

Category: Contemporary

Overall Rating: 5/5

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

Spoiler: On that day, Winsome and Jared lost their son Matthew. What Winsome was never able to explain to her husband was his mother (and her MIL) killed Matthew. Winsome went to a doctor's appointment to confirm her pregnancy with her daughter, only to return and find Matthew face down in a pond... and it was clear that his mother drowned her own grandson because his blood was "tainted" by Winsome's "less than reputable" heritage. Since Winsome's pregnant, she cannot allow herself to live in Totara Park. When Jared refused to leave, she left him instead.

GRR Reviews Helena's Colonel by Faith Crawford

NO LONGER ON AMAZON

Helena's Colonel is a story that doesn't make sense, followed by what I term "spam content" where a short story (maybe 50-100 pages) was followed by 1500 pages of OTHER stories that I've seen before in "spam books" (similar original stories stuffed with "bonus content" by the publishers )

To recap, Mom sent for mail order bride Helena, only to use her as nanny/maid and to entice the broken-hearted colonel out of his depression (after death of his first wife). Once the colonel was mostly recovered, mom sent Helena packing. Colonel found out and caught her and married her. The end. Does this plot even make sense? How does mom even know a mail order bride would work, much less make her work as a maid rather than a bride? And why send her packing after he's recovered? Who came up with non-sensical plots like this?

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Young woman lured as mail order bride to a colonel in severe depression. She got him out of it and was fired, he rescued her and married her. THE END.

Tropes: different worlds, mail order bride, evil in-laws

Overall Rating:  1/5

GRR Reviews Letting Go: A Contemporary Romantic Th by Anthony Awtrey

Letting Go is an interesting romantic suspense with good twists and turns and a nemesis that is evil, and his evil actually has a purpose rather than just being a sadist.

Alex Thompson is rich, but he had been living with the guilt that his wife had died at childbirth, giving birth to twins. A frivolous lawsuit, anonymous harassment calls and more kept him on the edge, even five years later. His latest move brought him and his family to yet another city, and encountered Molly McDill, a struggling single mom who lived next door. But Alex's nemesis has a timeline, and that involves getting rid of Alex... and Molly if she is in the way. Molly's ex-military ex-husband also reentered the picture, making things even more complicated. Who is after Alex, and why?

The nemesis is after something, and it involved Alex's kids, that's pretty obvious. But the twist that came later, was a bit of serendipity which I will not spoil, except to say, every character has a purpose. For once we have a MMC that's not much of a hero (heck, he hired a security firm) The ending was wrapped up nicely though, but as others pointed out, some details about guns are off (Glock pistols doesn't have a conventional safety), but that's a minor niggle.

Category: Romantic Suspense

Primary Plot: Rich widower with twins was target of assassination attempt while he fell for next door neighbor single mom, who was drawn into the conspiracy as well

Tropes: evil in-laws, single parent, different worlds, protector, woman in peril, triangle

Overall Rating:  4/5

GRR Reviews Protecting Kate: Dark Horse Inc. by Amy J. Hawthorn

Protecting Kate needs some major editing and continuity revisions. Trent the MMC came across as a bit bland.

Kate MacDonald left her controlling ex and her Miss Kentucky title behind, and went on to run the family ranch and wanted to start an animal rescue. However, when her ex and her ex-father-in-law, a US Senator, got back in town, wanting to talk to her about some sort of a deal, she refused contact altogether. However, as one of the "prizes" at a charity auction, Kate was dismayed to see her ex bidding on her, until a man she barely knew sniped the bid last second and saved her from her creepy ex. The white knight turned out to be Trent Dawson, a fellow ranch owner who mostly kept to himself, but also former soldier and horse trainer. But her ex's family is not giving up. What do they want? Whatever it is, it was centered around Kate. First her house got shot at, then her ex turned up dead, and Trent was being framed...

The suspense was not bad, once things got going, with escalation. But the end feels hurried and not that well executed. All in all, a merely average romantic suspense.

Category: Romantic suspense

Primary Plot: Woman trying to get away from her ex was rescued by a kind stranger, then her ex escalated...

Tropes: kidnapping, evil ex, evil in-laws, recluse, ranch, protector, woman in peril

Overall Rating:  3/5

GRR Reviews Montana Dawn (McCutcheon Family Serie by Caroline Fyffe

At over 500 pages, Montana Dawn is certainly an interesting western historical romance novel with a large cast.

Luke McCutcheon is half-blood but treated no different from either of his brothers. The shame is on the inside. On the cattle drive, he came across Faith Brown... on a stormy night, giving birth in her rickety wagon, with only her 8-year-old son attending. He brought her back to the group, fully knowing Faith is on the run from SOMETHING, which she won't divulge. Faith knew she should stay with Luke, who was kind toward both of her children, and the McCutcheons are good people, but she may be putting them in danger. When Faith's brother-in-law arrived, intending to take her back and marry her, Luke intervened. When bad things started on the ranch, Faith had to decide between staying and leaving.

Lots of angst on several levels for both the FMC and MMC. Nice characterization and details for even the supporting characters. I felt the evil brother in law could be explained better than "Faith, you belong with family,", and the novel is a bit long at 500 pages.

Category: Historical Western / Romantic Suspense

Primary Plot: Rancher on cattle drive found woman giving birth in a storm; what was she running from and will she want to be saved?

Tropes: ranch, single parent, woman in peril, protector, triangle, evil in-laws

Overall Rating: 4/5

GRR Reviews Baylee Breaking by Simone Beaudelaire

Baylee Breaking is a romance pivoting into romantic suspense, about opening oneself to love despite having been wounded before. While some of the plot was not totally believable, the details are relatively minor and did not distract from the overall plot.

Chase moved to another side of Texas after a bitter divorce with Candace, his childhood sweetheart. At the new place, he fell in love with the pretty and fragile Baylee, and her son Dylan, only to find she's actually homeless, and he took them in immediately. Baylee's ex, Blake, was in a gang, and he went to prison for 4 years instead of ratting out his gang, and Baylee cut contact, so Blake didn't even know he had a son. Blake's parents, however, knew and tried to force Baylee to give up custody. When she refused, they called child protective services on her. Chase offered Baylee a solution: marry him, and settle in his home permanently... Which will leave CPS nothing to talk about. But even as that problem is solved, Baylee's ex Blake escaped from prison and kidnaped Dylan...

SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD

I am surprised that head of a trucking firm would not know that parolees are not supposed to leave the state. But when reminded of this fact, that was quickly rectified. All in all, it's a fun read.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Guy falls for vulnerable single mom and cute kid, then her ex and her ex's parents started to mess with her life

Tropes: protector, single parent, scars, evil ex, evil in-laws, kidnapping

Overall Rating:  4/5

GRR Reviews India: Bride of Indiana by Ashley Merrick

India: Bride of Indiana is a mail order bride story that featured a strong FMC trying to fit into an existing family while fighting off unwanted attention from another woman.

To recap, India lost her job when her textile factory burned down (by its owner to cover up his embezzling) and with no local jobs, she embarked on being a mail order bride to a man in South Bend Indiana. Blake is a widower with two young children, whose wife perished in a fire and he himself suffered burns when he tried to rescue her. He did not expect to ever love again, but his children need a mother, and he is rich, one of the few coachbuilders with national reputation. India arrived to find the town welcome, except for Blake's mother Kay, who had always hoped for her son to fall in love with her best friend's daughter, Olivia (whom Blake cannot stand). And Olivia is not beyond trying to seduce a married man, not that India would have given up on Blake in any case... As the two slowly discovered that both are drawn to doing charity work around town (he being a secret santa, she started a pantry for the poor in the church), Blake's defenses started melting away...

While the ending is a foregone conclusion, there really isn't much keeping the couple apart other than a LOT of self-inadequacies and some misunderstandings that ballooned into something more. Still, it was enjoyable to read, just not extraordinarily so.

Category: historical western

Primary Plot: Mail Order Bride Tries to Fit into Family of Father and Two kids... and a disapproving mother-in-law.

Tropes: mail order bride, triangle, evil in-laws

Overall Rating:  3/5

GRR Reviews A Time to Give (About the Baby Book 1) by Kathryn Shay

A Time to Give is about revenge and love, about two people and their plans, and how love can change those plans. It was intensely emotional when the goals conflict with love, and the suspense builds quite naturally, as you were not certain about a certain character's motivations...

Ben Cassidy had been on top of his world, having taken his father's company to the peak of its field, only to lose it when his patent was delayed and a loan came due. For almost two years, he made weekly trips to this soup kitchen he had founded in honor of his father, just as a reminder he did some good in the world. At the soup kitchen, he met Emily, a volunteer there. Emily wanted to draw Ben out of his shell, until one night, she gave him a ride home, and they ended up in bed making passionate love. Next morning, Ben was angry and devastated to find that Emily was the daughter of the vulture capitalist that stole his company (she used her ex's surname) and he believed she was out to sabotage him in some way, when she wasn't even sure about his surname. When Ben found out that unethical tactics were used to steal the company from under him, he blackmailed Emily's dad into selling him back his own company for the same price, THEN dropped the bombshell on them... Emily is pregnant with his child, and they are getting married ASAP. But is this marriage just for the baby's sake? Or for revenge?

Normally in a revenge tale the story ends when the status quo was restored and karma satisfied, but this book did not end there. And I can't say more without spoiling stuff. This book is as much family drama as it is revenge tale and love story, and the complex tapestry made the book enjoyable


Category: Romantic suspense / contemporary

Primary Plot: Complex tale of revenge, love, sacrifice, and family drama between two people each with their own secrets and wounds

Tropes: disguise, scars, evil parents, evil in-laws

Overall Rating: 5/5

GRR Reviews Nellie (The Brides of San Francisco Book by Cynthia Woolf

Nellie is a decent variation on the mail order bride trope that sends a widow with two kids from the East all the way to San Francisco... as the wife of a saloon owner.

Nellie, the namesake of the novel, was married and bore two kids for her husband despite her husband being somewhat of a sadist in bed. But after the husband died in the Civil War, her in-laws don't really want her around. She married herself off to the West Coast to Blake Malone, a saloon owner in San Francisco. Nellie had a hard time loving the guy because she thought sex equals pain and she didn't want to confuse the kids.  Blake, despite being a saloon owner (who also employed a lot of "working girls") loved the kids, but his previous marriage didn't work out (not spoiling it here) and have a current woman after him (who's a bit psycho)...

The book was just slow as heck at times. Blake is just a little too perfect in the present despite his past actions, and Nellie, despite her marriage and kids, is about as shy as an ingenue. The tension started to creep up when the psycho ex of Blake started to plan her dastardly deeds, but that was drawn out for a LONG while with other characters introduced possibly for subsequent volumes. There were TWO separate darkest hours, one from her ex-in-laws, and one from the psycho-ex, and thus there were two endings.

All in all, the setup and the time period does make a different type of mail-order bride story, but the diffused threat from two fronts as well as some excess of plot points made the book less enjoyable than it could be.

Category: Historical western / mail order bride

Primary Plot: Widow with two kids married herself to San Francisco to a saloon owner with "working girls"... Can he show her that sex is actually wonderful and she can be loved?

Tropes: mail order bride, different worlds, scars, evil in-laws, single parent, widow, bar owner

Overall Rating: 3/5