Heartsong Cottage. Emily March

Heartsong Cottage
Emily March
Published: St Martin's Press
Date: November 3rd 2015
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 320
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Source: Publisher via NetGalley


Heartsong Cottage is # 10 in the Eternity Springs series by Emily March. Could you read it as a stand alone - of course, but why would you when there are just so many wonderfully heartwarming stories in the series.

This time its the turn of Daniel Garrett - he had a small part to play in a previous book when he found Holly the little girl that belongs to Hope from Miracle Road #7 in the series. His speciality is tracking down lost children. And it's usually not a happy result so he has a special place in his heart for Holly. Usually he sees the evil side of life as he brings home dead bodies. He has a special reason for doing this difficult work, involving his son's abduction and murder and his wife's suicide. Hope says of Daniel "He has the heart of a warrior and the dedication of a knight in shining armor. But he's also the loneliest man I've known."

Shannon O'Toole runs the local pub in Eternity Springs and has just finished renovating the beautiful small home of Heartsong Cottage.  However she has secrets hidden in her past, secrets that keep her on edge and in fear. She is a strong loving woman but even she can only cope with so much.

Daniel and Shannon connect and as they do so in many ways their healing begins, hope begins to replace fear and evil. Darkness recedes somewhat as the warmth of love and friendship blossoms. In Eternity Springs there is a strong community of friendship that bonds the town folk, and when trouble comes visiting they're a formidable team. Add in some of the Callahans from Brazos Bend and strength is added to strength. And on top of that there is the angel/woman Celeste who is always there at the right time with her support, encouragement and healing presence.

The story moves along at a good pace, with plenty of action, there are times of conflict and strong feelings on the part of the characters, that has them acting out before thinking things through. There is much sadness and heartache alongside healing and hope.

If you like books about friendship, strong community bonds and books that are about second chances, healing and hope then this is one for you. And one that will keep you on the edge of your seat to the very end.

This story does take place around Christmas but it's not really a Christmas story as such, this is the perfect time of the year to read this book!

The Last Time I Was Me. Cathy Lamb

The Last Time I Was Me
Cathy Lamb
Published: Kensington
Date: 2008
Format: Paperback
Pages: 404
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: Own book

I wrapped up my grandmother's tea cup collection and my mother's china, then grabbed a violin I'd hidden way back in my closet that made me cry, a gold necklace with a dolphin that my father gave me two weeks before he died of a heart attack when I was twelve and, at midnight, with that moon as bright as the blazes, I left Chicago. When Jeanne Stewart stops at The Opera Man's Cafe in Weltana, Oregon, to eat pancakes for the first time in twelve years, she has no idea she's also about to order up a whole new future. It's been barely a week since she succumbed to a spectacularly public nervous breakdown in front of hundreds of the nation's most important advertising and PR people. Jeanne certainly had her reasons--her mother's recent death, the discovery that her boyfriend had been sleeping with a dozen other women, and the assault charges that resulted when Jeanne retaliated in a creative way against him, involving condoms and peanut oil.

Now, en route to her brother's house in Portland, Jeanne impulsively decides to spend some time in picturesque Weltana. Staying at a B&B run by the eccentric, endearing Rosvita, she meets a circle of quirky new friends at her court-ordered Anger Management classes. Like Jeanne, all of them are trying to become better, braver versions of themselves. Yet the most surprising discoveries are still to come--a good man who steadily makes his way into her heart and a dilapidated house that with love and care might be transformed into something wholly her own, just like the new life she is slowly building, piece by piece.

The Last Time I Was Me by Cathy Lamb was not quite what I was expecting, however I loved it and read it any chance I had.  This book covers a large number of important issues, but with such humour the reader does not ( or I didn't) become burdened by everything that has happened. I am not going to list all those issues, because to do so may give away some of the plot. There are a number of secrets, and by the end of the book I wasn't sure if we'd found them all out or not!  Jeanne is a real character, Brigid Jones on steroids and then double it.

The story is revealed step by step, when we meet Jeanne she is moving to Oregon after having delivered a very impressive speech to her advertising colleagues and having also dealt to her cheating boyfriend.  The treatment to the boyfriend  has led to a pending civil court case, that is hanging over her.  The speech has led to no longer having a job in advertising! While she relies on drinking to drown her sorrows, she is still a straight talking woman that I just had to take sides with the whole way through. 

She has been told by the court she has to take an anger management course which she does when she settles down in Weltana.  The facilitator is Emmaline and she takes quite an interesting approach to the group.  In the group are two men and another woman, and their meetings and activities take a significant part of the story.  As the book moved along I really came to care for these characters. They have all lost an important part of themselves and this group works towards helping them come back to their true selves.  As they do this I had the feeling they were forming bonds of friendship that would last a long time.

Jeanne is a very intelligent, capable person and thanks to her brother Charlie she becomes the communications person on the Oregon Governor's team as they build their case for re-election.  She handles all the speeches and press no problem, also the pest member of the team very ably.  If you don't like her already, then her delight in wearing the right pair of shoes for the occasion might do it. As well there is a little romance thrown in that becomes a delightful addition.

Loved all most of the characters - so courageous, great writing, loads of funny dialogue, and some serious issues explored.  In combination this made for  compulsive reading.

Ten Tiny Breaths. K. A. Tucker.

Ten Tiny Breaths
K. A. Tucker
Published: Simon & Shuster 2013
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Elizabeth Louise
Length: 8hrs 58min
Genre:
Source: Own audiobook

After a terrible car accident destroys her life as she knew it, 20-year-old Kacey escapes to Florida, where she encounters an irresistible man determined to capture her wounded heart.

Just breathe, Kacey. Ten tiny breaths. Seize them. Feel them. Love them.

Four years ago Kacey Cleary's life imploded when her car was hit by a drunk driver, killing her parents, boyfriend, and best friend. Still haunted by memories of being trapped inside, holding her boyfriend's lifeless hand and listening to her mother take her last breath, Kacey wants to leave her past behind. Armed with two bus tickets, Kacey and her 15-year-old sister, Livie, escape Grand Rapids, Michigan, to start over in Miami. They're struggling to make ends meet at first, but Kacey's not worried. She can handle anything - anything but her mysterious neighbor in apartment 1D.

Trent Emerson has smoldering blue eyes, deep dimples, and perfectly skates that irresistible line between nice guy and bad boy. Hardened by her tragic past, Kacey is determined to keep everyone at a distance, but their mutual attraction is undeniable and Trent is determined to find a way into Kacey's guarded heart - even if it means revealing an explosive secret that could shatter both of their worlds.

Ten Tiny Breaths by K. A. Tucker has been in my view since 2013 when I watched it on NetGalley and saw many, many reviews for it.  I just passed it by, it didn't seem like it was for me!  I am not sure what made me finally give it a go, I must have read an audio review because that is the format I chose.  So I found out then that it was not only New Adult but first person POV and written in the present tense.  Hate that! Well I used to anyway because a sentence or two was only spoken and I was hooked and totally in for the ride.

Kacey was in a car accident, where her parents, best friend and boyfriend were killed and she was left holding her dead boyfriend's hand until she could be cut out hours later.  Kacey and Libby now need to escape the place where they are living because the uncle is not all he should be.  They set up in a small apartment and Kacey finds work through a neighbour Storm.  

Kacey is a hard nosed young woman, but she has not coped well with the loss and anger that she experiences from the accident.  She has tried many avenues and still nothing works.  She hates anyone touching her hand.  Her anger can be triggered and when it does - Libby is worried by what may happen.  She forms a strong loving relationship with Trent the guy next door, yet this has its difficulties.

I loved the cast of characters, they became like Kacey's and Libby's family.  I smiled sometimes and I admit to a few tears too.  I was able to predict what was to be a big shock for Kacey before it happened, yet  I don't hold that against the book.  I think most if not all readers would see what was coming.

As I listened I was struck by how much damage happens by those who drink and drive and cause accidents that need never have happened.  It impacts for sure those who lose their lives, but what about those on the wider circle who are victims too - the family and friends. Or those who live through the accident.  

The narrator was perfect for the book and I will certainly listen to some more in this series. One prejudiced reader won over!

Teardrop Lane. Emily March

Teardrop Lane
Emily March
Published: Ballantine Books
Date: 27th January 2015
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 336
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Town physician Rose Anderson hides a well of sadness behind her cheerful and capable professionalism. Heartbreak has only reinforced her belief that marriage and children aren’t in her future. Yet she’s a woman with a pulse—and when sexy, brooding artist Hunt Cicero shows up at her office with his young nephew, the sheer physical attraction he ignites in her is both exciting and unsettling.

Hunt has an artist’s passionate temperament and a bachelor’s lifestyle. So when he becomes guardian to his sister’s children, he’s riddled with conflict—and in way over his head. Without Rose and her warm maternal instincts, he’d be lost. Still, she’s a woman who guards her own heart, and he’s a novice when it comes to commitment. Can the healing magic of Eternity Springs shine on this patchwork family and allow Hunt and Rose to trust that love is the fabric holding them together?

Teardrop Lane by Emily March is #9 in her Eternity Springs series.  I have followed this series with eager anticipation as each book has been published. Books that explore the story of healing and love for the two main characters.

Rose and Cicero had already been introduced in previous books so it was easy to pick up with their lives and those of their friends and relations.  Both of them have stories from their childhood and early adult years that had wounded them. Yet they have grown into gifted, creative adults.  Rose is a caring and competent physician, Cicero a gifted, passionate artist crafting exquisite works of art  with glass blowing.  He learns that Gabi Romano, his apprentice, has entered his work in a competition, that could see him winning a prestigious award, it he can come up with a piece of art that embodies a stanza of poetry form the poet Emily Dickinson about hope.  This turns out to be  a significant part of the story, providing many a crisis and numerous points of growth for Cicero.

The first half of the book moved slowly as the relationship between Rose and Cicero developed.  I thought it was okay but I was a little disappointed - I was wanting a little more 'explosion'.  Then at about half way through - wham, things picked up and I was fully hooked.  There are challenges that confront both Cicero and Rose, things happen and their worst fears and anxieties are aroused.  While there was fear and tension present, I loved how they managed to work their way through with challenging conversations that established trust and hope.

I loved the four children who come to stay with Cicero, those of his sister who died from cancer.  She had left the custody to her dead husband's sister and husband.  They had decided to put them in foster care because they were expecting their own first child and it was all too much.  It might have been all to much for Cicero too, but he loved those children and all of Eternity Springs came out to support him as they do.  Celeste had again her own little delightful input, and I had almost forgotten her usual last little act until it happened too for Rose and Cicero.  So deserved.  

When I had reached 99% of the story I guessed I was coming to that dreaded end.  And it wasn't quite turning out as I had hoped.  It was good - but not perfect for the characters and what my heart hoped for.  However there were still surprises to be had in the 1%! 

Another excellent, rewarding story about the characters of Eternity Springs.