Reprise Review: Prancing Around With Sleeping Beauty by Stacy Juba

 

Genre: Romantic Comedy/Young Adult/Chick Lit

Description:

“Dance instructor Rory Callahan likes to play it safe. When she meets Kyle, he’s impulsive, persistent, and her exact opposite. He’s pushing her to tango way past her comfort zone and keeping Rory on her toes more than twenty years of dance teachers ever had.

Unfortunately, he’s the grandson of her family’s archrival and she doesn’t want to disappoint them. After all, her parents imagine her as a proper princess - hence her namesake Aurora, AKA Sleeping Beauty. Complicating matters, Rory’s also dealing with a surgeon boyfriend who’s perfect for her (sort of), an obnoxious boss, and desperate dance moms. Kyle wants to change her whole life, but Rory doesn’t like the stakes. After all, princesses are the ones who get the happy endings. . .aren’t they?”

Author:

“Stacy Juba loves to write about Characters at a Crossroads: individuals who are finding themselves and getting on the right life path after overcoming obstacles. Her goals are to entertain readers of all ages as well as inspire them through her mystery, romance, and contemporary fiction books for adults, teens, and children. She has written about ice hockey, sibling rivalry, and sportsmanship, teen psychics, U.S. flag etiquette for kids, and determined women sleuths solving mysteries.”

Find out more about Ms. Juba on her website or follow her on Facebook.

Appraisal:

Aurora Callahan, nicknamed Rory, is floating through her life. She’s dating a doctor in residency. Their relationship is comfortable but going nowhere. When Rory trips into Kyle’s life they both enjoy a lively banter. Which entices Rory and Kyle alike.

Rory’s brother, Dylan is general manager for the family-owned Storybook Valley Amusement Park, who we met in book one. Wants to start a princess program for young girls that will incorporate dance, crafts, and games. He wants Rory to teach it. Grandmother is quick to offer her services for etiquette lessons as well. Rory agrees to start the program but can’t see how she can continue to work the program while she is teaching ballet and running interference between competitive dance students, their mothers, and other dance teachers who are tired of dealing with their overly competitive boss. It’s beginning to be a full-time job for Rory to smooth things over for everyone involved. Things are working to a boiling point.

I really enjoyed the way this story was told. I kept waiting for Rory to end up in a coma like her namesake Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. That would have devastated me, because I grew to love all the characters. That’s not to say I didn’t want to slap Rory a few times or perhaps just shake her and yell, ‘WAKE UP’. It was fun watching her learn to stand up for herself and go after her dream job and dream guy with or without her family’s approval. It was also nice to learn more about Rory’s family’s past. What a quirky family with grandmother all prim and proper, and grandfather with his feud that stems from a high school classmate and his garden gnomes. This is a quick easy, enjoyable read.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Prancing Around With Sleeping Beauty is book 2 in Ms. Juba’s Storybook Valley Series. These novels can be read in any order. The series starts with Fooling Around With Cinderella.

Format/Typo Issues:

I found no issues with proofing or formatting.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Reprise Review: Finding Fiona by Donna Fasano

 Genre: Romantic Comedy/Chick-lit/Mystery

Description:

“If her husband turns up alive—she'll kill him!

Explaining to the seriously sexy cop why she hasn't noticed her husband has been missing for three days is both embarrassing and sobering. But the day Fiona Rowland lifts her head above the churning chaos of kids, carpools, and a million things to do, annoyance turns to fury...then to worry. Where is Stanley?

Having one of those wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee moments changes the way a woman looks at things: marriage, money, family, and friends. And when her best pal from high school arrives (packing her own secrets) to lend support, it turns out even the past isn't quite what it seems. Scrambling to make sense of the drama unfolding, Fiona discovers there's an upside to having your whole world turned upside down. It's easier to grab the good stuff.”

Author:

“USA Today Bestselling Author Donna Fasano has written over 40 women's fiction and romance titles that have sold over 4 million copies worldwide.”

Appraisal:

Finding Fiona is many different, sometimes contradictory things. It starts with a mystery. Where’s Stanley? Fiona’s husband disappeared and there aren’t many clues as to where he might be. There’s romantic comedy in a few different ways as romance threatens to take hold, but there are times when the romantic side of things is way too serious to be funny. Fiona’s best friend from her high school days stumbles into the middle of this crisis and alternates between helping and exacerbating the situation.

This was a fun story that kept me guessing, both about the mystery part, but also the romance and relationship part. I wasn’t sure who was going to end up with who, or how the different conflicts would resolve. It kept me guessing and, even more importantly, I liked the characters enough to care how it turned out.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Reprise Review: Boy Toy by Beth Orsoff

 

Genre: Chick-lit

Description:

“Sabrina Mayerson is turning 40, and all she wants for her birthday is one night of hot, sweaty, twenty-something sex.  Twenty-eight-year old Andrew Whelan is happy to oblige.  But when one night becomes a weekend, and a weekend turns into a relationship, Sabrina knows she's in trouble.  Because Sabrina's desire for Andrew is rivaled only by her desire for a child.  And the responsibility of fatherhood is something Andrew definitely does not want.”

Author:

“Beth Orsoff writes chick lit, romantic comedy, and humorous mystery/suspense novels. She recently attempted to write a dark and brooding book, and even that one turned out to be funny (see The Billionaire Who Wasn't). So Beth has decided to feed her dark side on Netflix, and embrace her love of witty repartee in her books.”

Appraisal:

The book kicks off with us meeting the protagonist, Sabrina. She’s turning forty and the Silicon Valley corporate lawyer is celebrating by spending a weekend with her best friend Gillian in Napa Valley. Needless to say, wine is consumed. Sabrina’s reasonably happy with her career, but her personal life, not so much. That becomes apparent as you get to know a bit about her ex-husband (aka “the lying bastard”) and she ruminates on her desire to become a mother, but the lack of viable father candidates is a concern.

Enter Andrew, the man serving up drinks at the winery where Sabrina and Gillian are currently hanging out. He’s too young and in a completely different place in life than Sabrina, but when the sparks fly a short fling doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, right?

As you should be able to guess, things get complicated. Then they get even more complicated. Then they get … well, you get the picture. How all of this happens and subsequently gets resolved is humorous (since it is happening to someone else), entertaining, and a fun read.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language and content.

Format/Typo Issues:

My review is based on a pre-release copy and I can’t judge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Reprise Review: For the Love of Katie by Erica Lucke Dean

 Genre: Romantic Comedy/Chick-Lit

Description:

“Newlywed Katie Maxwell is ready to settle down and leave her amateur detective days behind. But when the veil of secrecy surrounding her husband’s latest project takes them to Europe, her penchant for sleuthing lands her in some serious hot foreign water.

Katie will need to think quickly to talk her way out of handcuffs and a Parisian jail cell. Too bad she doesn't speak French.”

Author:

Erica Lucke Dean: “After walking away from her career as a business banker to pursue writing full-time, Erica moved from the hustle and bustle of the big city to a small tourist town in the North Georgia Mountains where she lives in a 90-year-old haunted farmhouse with her workaholic husband, her 180lb lap dog, and at least one ghost.

When she's not busy writing or tending to her collection of crazy chickens, diabolical ducks, and a quintet of piglets, hell bent on having her for dinner, she's either reading bad fan fiction or singing karaoke in the local pub. Much like the main character in her first book, To Katie With Love, Erica is a magnet for disaster, and has been known to trip on air while walking across flat surfaces.

How she's managed to survive this long is one of life's great mysteries.”

To learn more about Ms. Dean and her books please visit her website or follow her on Facebook.

Appraisal:

Katie, who is now four months pregnant, gets arrested in Paris trying to spy on her husband, Cooper Maxwell, at his latest film shoot.  Unfortunately she isn’t carrying any ID to prove who she is. It could happen! At the end of To Katie With Love, the prior book in this series, the book skipped forward a year. While Katie is trying to convince the Paris police inspector, Henri Gaspard, who she is, the story jumps back, using this book to fill in the gap.

The hijinks and miscommunications at work are hysterical. All of Ms. Dean’s secondary character interactions are just as enjoyable as her main characters. They always add depth to the scenes. Vivian Allen, Cooper’s publicist, is a thorn in Katie’s side, and Cooper seems oblivious to Vivian’s advancements, which gives Katie the opportunity to rely on her own devices. We are then given the privilege of getting to know Katie’s parents, I think Katie takes after her mom a little more than she’s willing to admit. There is also no denying Katie is a gem in her father’s eyes. Cooper’s parents were both gems. Lizzie, Cooper’s mom, is excellent at reading people and knows how to get what she wants. Colin, Cooper’s father, is now enjoying his life since retiring from Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service. One would expect him to be a stuffy old Englishman, which is far from the truth. They are both delightful and will be wonderful grandparents. And I’m not just saying that because they have chickens and goats on their estate in England.

The storyline moves at a good pace with a couple wrenches thrown in to complicate things. A lot of For the Love of Katie is a comedy of errors that were no fault of her own. Then there are memorable scenes that are Katie’s fault, these all involved too many adult beverages. The ending is perfect as Cooper defines being the perfect man by accepting and relishing Katie for who she is. For the Love of Katie is an enchanting read I highly recommend.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Original review published May 9, 2017.

For the Love of Katie is book two in The Katie Chronicles. This book can be read as a standalone.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Reprise Review: For the Love of Katie by Erica Lucke Dean

 

Genre: Romantic Comedy/Chick-Lit

Description:

“Newlywed Katie Maxwell is ready to settle down and leave her amateur detective days behind. But when the veil of secrecy surrounding her husband’s latest project takes them to Europe, her penchant for sleuthing lands her in some serious hot foreign water.

Katie will need to think quickly to talk her way out of handcuffs and a Parisian jail cell. Too bad she doesn't speak French.”

Author:

“After walking away from her career as a business banker to pursue writing full-time, Erica moved from the hustle and bustle of the big city to a small tourist town in the North Georgia Mountains where she lives in a 90-year-old haunted farmhouse with her workaholic husband, her 180lb lap dog, and at least one ghost.”

Appraisal:

In To Katie with Love (the first book in this series) between the penultimate and final chapter, the story jumps ahead a year. A lot of things have changed for our protagonist, Katie, and her love interest, Cooper, during that interval. This story looks back on that period and tells the story of how Katie and Cooper jumped from point A to point B.

While a lot changes in that year, the things that don’t change are just as critical. Katie is still clumsy. She worries just a little too much. And she’s … snoopy might be a nice way to put it. In other words, none of the things that made Katie so loveable and her first story such a fun read have changed which made For the Love of Katie a fun read as well. For what it’s worth, I think Cooper is a saint.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Original review published May 9, 2017.

Mild adult situations.

While this is the second book in a series it can be read as a standalone.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Reprise Review: For the Love of Katie by Erica Lucke Dean

 

Genre: Romantic Comedy/Chick-Lit

Description:

“Newlywed Katie Maxwell is ready to settle down and leave her amateur detective days behind. But when the veil of secrecy surrounding her husband’s latest project takes them to Europe, her penchant for sleuthing lands her in some serious hot foreign water.

Katie will need to think quickly to talk her way out of handcuffs and a Parisian jail cell. Too bad she doesn't speak French.”

Author:

“After walking away from her career as a business banker to pursue writing full-time, Erica moved from the hustle and bustle of the big city to a small tourist town in the North Georgia Mountains where she lives in a 90-year-old haunted farmhouse with her workaholic husband, her 180lb lap dog, and at least one ghost.”

Appraisal:

In To Katie with Love (the first book in this series) between the penultimate and final chapter, the story jumps ahead a year. A lot of things have changed for our protagonist, Katie, and her love interest, Cooper, during that interval. This story looks back on that period and tells the story of how Katie and Cooper jumped from point A to point B.

While a lot changes in that year, the things that don’t change are just as critical. Katie is still clumsy. She worries just a little too much. And she’s … snoopy might be a nice way to put it. In other words, none of the things that made Katie so loveable and her first story such a fun read have changed which made For the Love of Katie a fun read as well. For what it’s worth, I think Cooper is a saint.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Original review published May 9, 2017.

Mild adult situations.

While this is the second book in a series it can be read as a standalone.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Reprise Review: She's the Boss by Lisa Lim

 

Genre: Romantic Comedy/Chick Lit

Description:

“The Devil Wears Prada meets The Office. Twenty-something Karsynn is now a boss, but she's not so much The Devil Wears Prada as she is The Angel Wears Payless. With a brighter career, things should be going better for her, right? Wrong. There's now a new director at the office, Carter Lockwood, and he's brought his reputation for wreaking havoc amongst the ladies. Karsynn prides herself on being the only one impervious to Carter's good looks. In fact, she takes great pleasure in blowing on the embers of Carter's hostility.

Karsynn thinks Carter is arrogant and obnoxious. Carter believes Karsynn is an ignorant, sassy spitfire. Once they start working closely together, they discover first impressions can be deceptive. Karsynn may be winning the battle against Carter, but will she lose the war? And more importantly, will she lose her heart?”

Author:

Lisa Lim’s debut novel, Confessions of a Call Center Gal, was shortlisted for “Goodreads No Young Adult Best Chick Lit Reads” and featured on the Wall Street Journal online.

For more, visit Lim’s Amazon Author page.

Appraisal:

She’s the Boss largely takes place in the same call center as Lim’s Confessions of a Call Center Gal, but with a focus on different characters and no need to have read the prior book to easily follow what’s happening in this one. Humor abounds, with idiot customers (the characters may have to pretend that the customer is always right, but I don’t have to), and the normal hijinks you’ll find in any office full of young, energetic people.

The main character, Karsynn, is, as the book description says, a “sassy spitfire.” As a relatively new supervisor, she’s finding her way, learning how to balance the demands made on her from above with supervising those people who were recently her peers and are still her friends. Anyone who has gone through this balancing act will empathize with her experiences.

It would be fair to describe She’s the Boss as Chick Lit, as it has all the elements of that genre, primarily the humor in the situations the protagonist faces as she grows as a person. But the book is also being described as a “Romantic Comedy,” and has all of those elements too, with a potential love interest who is unappealing in many ways, yet Karsynn is unaccountably drawn to him. Categorize it however you want. What’s important is it’s a read that won’t leave your funny bone alone.

Buy now from:    Amazon US    Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language and situations.

Added for Reprise Review: She’s the Boss by Lisa Lim was a nominee in the Chick Lit/Women's Fiction category for B&P 2014 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran May 6, 2013

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words

Reprise Review: Suddenly Sorceress by Erica Lucke Dean

Genre: Chick Lit/Paranormal

Description:

"PMS can be a real witch.

Ivie McKie isn’t your run-of-the-mill kindergarten teacher. After an encounter with a horny goat, followed by a confrontation with her lying, cheating fiancé, Ivie is shocked when the big jerk suddenly transforms into a skunk—the black and white furry variety.

Enlisting the help of her shopaholic friend Chloe and sexy club magician Jackson Blake, Ivie is forced to play a literal game of cat and mouse as she races against the clock to change her ex back before she's arrested for his murder... Ivie soon discovers what every witch worth her spell book knows: There’s nothing worse than a bad case of Post Magical Syndrome."

Author:

“After walking away from her career as a business banker to pursue writing full-time, Erica Lucke Dean moved from the hustle and bustle of the big city to a small tourist town in the North Georgia Mountains, where she lives  in a 90-year-old haunted farmhouse with her workaholic husband, her 180 lb lap dog, and at least one ghost.

When she’s not writing or tending to her collection of crazy chickens and diabolical ducks, she’s either reading bad fan fiction or singing karaoke in the local pub. Much like the main character in her first book, To Katie With Love, Erica is a magnet for disaster and has been known to trip on air while walking across flat surfaces.

How she’s managed to survive this long is one of life’s great mysteries.”

To learn more about Ms. Dean check out her website.

Appraisal:

I’ve read books that combine something paranormal with another genre - romance, thriller, and horror immediately come to mind - but I don’t think I’ve ever read one that tossed chick-lit and paranormal together before. Both the story conflict and much of the humor in Suddenly Sorceress come about due to Ivie, the protagonist, finding that she can cast spells, although she’s not sure exactly how she’s doing it or how to undo what she’s done.

While I felt sorry for Ivie and wondered if she was going to find a way to turn her ex-fiancé back into a human, I was also laughing at her the entire time. Some of that was because of the situations she found herself in (getting attacked by a horny goat) and some was the author’s sense of humor or way of describing something. One example is the pop culture reference when Ivie as the narrator said she, “felt the wintry air soak into me and shook like Bruce Banner in the throes of a temper tantrum.” Another was prompted by her hair which changed color over time (although she wasn’t dyeing it) starting out with red highlights and eventually turning bright red, which prompted this:

I look like Ronald McDonald’s slutty younger sister. “Would you like a happy ending with that value meal?”

This was a very fun read, even for this non-chick.

Buy now from:    Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Adult content and language.

Added for Reprise Review: Suddenly Sorceress by Erica Lucke Dean was the WINNER in the Paranormal Romance category for B&P 2014 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran February 20, 2014.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Reprise Review: Click: An Online Love Story by Lisa Becker

Genre: Chick-Lit

Description:

“Fast approaching her 30th birthday and finding herself not married, not dating, and without even a prospect or a house full of cats, Renee Greene, the heroine of Click: An Online Love Story, reluctantly joins her best guy pal on a journey to find love online in Los Angeles.

The story unfolds through a series of emails between Renee and her best friends (anal-compulsive Mark, the overly-judgmental Ashley and the over-sexed Shelley) as well as the gentlemen suitors she meets online. From the guy who starts every story with ‘My buddies and I were out drinking one night,’ to the egotistical ‘B’ celebrity looking for someone to stroke his ego, Renee endures her share of hilarious and heinous cyber dates. Fraught with BCC's, FWD's, and inadvertent Reply to All's, readers will root for Renee to ‘click’ with the right man.”

Author:

“Lisa Becker had endured her share of hilarious and heinous cyber dates, many of which inspired Click: An Online Love Story. She is now happily married to a wonderful man she met online and lives in Manhattan Beach [California] with him and their two daughters.”

Appraisal:

Click has a couple things in its premise that are guaranteed to grab my attention and, if done right, suck me into the story. One of those is building the story around computers in almost any way, but especially how our interactions are different with each other because of computer technology. This book does that in two ways, with computer dating and being made up entirely of emails between the protagonist, Renee, and her best friends. The last might spook lovers of dialogue or the flipside, haters of extended narration (and I’d put myself in the last group), but Becker managed to not trip any of my triggers in this regard. That she managed to slip in this joke that appealed to both my computer-geek and language-nerd sides was also a mark in the book’s favor:

I’m not certain I want to be with a man that even knows what a UNIX system is. But, I guess UNIX is better than Eunuchs. Ha! Ha! Okay, obviously this situation is making me a bit uncomfortable and as a result I’ve resorted to homonym humor.

Renee’s experience reminded me of Beth Orsoff’s book, Romantically Challenged, which is one of my favorite chick-lit books, in that she had to date a lot of frogs before she found a potential prince. And this was the second big attention grabber for me. As with Orsoff’s book, it gave me a chance to compare myself to the frogs and usually (okay, sometimes) come out okay in the comparison. But for the main target audience (which I’m not), you might find Renee’s experiences familiar and everyone will find them funny. I found that once I started reading this book I had a hard time putting it down and although it ties the story up nicely at the end, I wanted to know more about what happened to the characters afterward. Luckily, the sequel Double Click was queued up on my Kindle, so I was able to jump right in.

Buy now from:    Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Limited adult language and situations.

Added for Reprise Review: Click: An Online Love Story by Lisa Becker was a nominee in the Chick-Lit/Women's Fiction category for B&P 2014 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran June 10, 2013.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words

Reprise Review: The Baker's Man by Jennifer Moorman

Genre: Contemporary Fantasy/Chick-Lit

Description:

“Moorman weaves the tale of a young woman whose grandmother’s secret—and the ancestry of her grandfather—are about to change her life forever.

Anna O’Brien has inherited more than her grandmother’s talent for baking and her bakery. When her boyfriend of two years accepts an architectural job with a firm in Napa Valley, with no plans to include her, she is forced to face an uncertain future. One late night in the bakery with her best friend, Lily, they have a little too much to drink and follow a mysterious recipe of her grandmothers with a secret ingredient. The next morning she wakes up to find Elijah, a handsome stranger, baking donuts in her kitchen and things rocket out of control.”

Author:

Jennifer Moorman was born and raised in Tifton, Georgia and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She majored in English/Creative writing at MTSU. I picked this up from her website. “My life is a writer’s journey through the ramblings in my cluttered mind, the stories demanding to be written, my travels along forest pathways, and my search for the ever-elusive unicorn and the end of the rainbow.”

The Baker’s Man is her debut novel.

For more, visit Moorman's website.

Appraisal:

I found this book to be a magically enchanting tale that weaves in just enough reality to suspend my disbelief. Anna has always lived her life to please others, but when Baron decides to take a job across the country, she decides she needs to take charge of her own life and follow her heart. Anna has internal and external forces pulling her in different directions; she knows she wants to continue making pastries, but perhaps not in her hometown of Mystic Water. There is a perfect place by the sea and an offer has been made, but to move there will disappoint the hometown folks, her mother, and her friends. The relationship with Baron is also unsettled, they were both comfortable with each other and neither is ready to give it up, although they know it is over. Anna’s biggest problem is she is not ready to believe this mysterious force that draws her to Elisha is real, she doesn’t trust the magic. When her friend, Tessa, falls head over heels for Elisha, Anna tries to take a step back. This story explores friendship, forgiveness, and the possibilities of following your own heart. When Elisha, her dough-boy, starts growing into his own person things get very complicated and there are a couple of unexpected twists. The dialogue reads true and humor is expertly woven into this heartwarming journey.

I couldn’t help but love Jennifer Moorman’s prose, each of her characters and places had distinctive smells that Anna identified with them. Her mother smelled of ripe cherries or rotten cherries depending on her mood, her father like green pine or freshly cut grass. Elisha smelled of rosemary, cinnamon, spicy chocolate and melted sugar. How could you not love that?

This is one of those stories I had trouble assigning a genre to, so I went back to Donna Fasano’s guest post defining romance and chick-lit. I decided it was chick-lit with a strong romantic element, although I do not claim to be an expert on this subject. But I will tell you, if you like foodie fiction or chick-lit you will love this story.

Buy now from:    Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Added for Reprise Review: The Baker's Man by Jennifer Moorman was a nominee in the Chick-Lit category for B&P 2013 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran February 24, 2013

Format/Typo Issues:

I found no significant errors or issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words

Reprise Review: Thought I Knew You by Kate Moretti

Genre: Mystery/Chick Lit/Romance

Description:

“Claire Barnes is shattered when her husband, Greg, goes on a business trip and never returns. Unwilling to just wait for the police to find him, Claire conducts her own investigation. Her best friend Drew helps her look for answers, but all she finds are troubling questions. With every clue, she discovers that Greg may not be the man she thought she married. While battling her growing feelings for Drew and raising her two young children, Claire must learn to live with the knowledge that the truth behind Greg’s disappearance may never be revealed.”

Author:

 “Kate Moretti lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, two kids, and a dog. She's worked in the pharmaceutical industry for ten years as a scientist, and has been an avid fiction reader her entire life.

She enjoys traveling and cooking, although with two kids, a day job, and writing, she doesn't get to do those things as much as she'd like.

Her lifelong dream is to buy an old house with a secret passageway.”

For more, visit Moretti’s blog.

Appraisal:

It’s a good thing I don’t have to shelve Thought I Knew You at the local bookstore. I’m not sure where I’d put it. It could fit in romance, although the typical man who doesn’t read romance, but enjoys books with a female protagonist, would never stumble on it, despite its being a book he might like. Chick-Lit presents the same problem. The female lead is working through issues, not unlike what you might find in that genre; however, chick-lit is typically lighter and more humorous than you’ll find here. We’ve also got a mystery at the heart of the story, but that isn’t a good fit either. There is both much more to the story than that, and not as much mystery as a typical reader of that genre would expect.

Luckily, I don’t have to shelve this and you won’t need to know where to look to find it. From my ramblings above and the description, you should have a reasonable idea of the kind of story you’ll find. Anyone who reviews a lot of anything, whether music, video games, or books, loves to find something that is different enough to push the normal boundaries, while still being high quality and not going so far as to exceed the typical comfort zone. This is one of those books. Claire and Drew, the main characters (in addition to the missing Greg) are people I cared about, always important to grab and hold my interest. I assumed the main story conflict would come to a resolution, but I was constantly flip-flopping among the various ways that might happen and, when I finally got there, was still surprised. This is an engaging debut novel that deserves to do well.

Buy now from:    Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Added for Reprise Review: Thought I Knew You by Kate Moretti was the Winner in the Chick Lit category for B&P 2013 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran October 9, 2012

Format/Typo Issues:

Review based on an advanced reader copy.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Reprise Review: Vlad to the Bone by Beth Orsoff

Genre: Chick-Lit

Description:

This continuing saga of Alex and Gwen picks up two years after Vlad All Over ends. Alex and Gwen seem to have found a way to put their animosity aside for the sake of their son, David. They have joint custody worked out, perhaps a little too well, according to Gwen’s new boyfriend Robert. When it becomes necessary for Gwen to return to Romania because of her claim as a legitimate heir to Vlad Tepes, old habits return and animosity takes another hold.

Author:

When Beth’s parents told her they didn’t send her to college to be a professional lifeguard, she moved to California and enrolled in USC Law School to become an entertainment lawyer. She also became a regular attendee of the UCLA Extension Writers Program workshops. She lives in Los Angeles with her daughter. 

To find out more about Beth visit her web site and read the author interview she gave here at Books and Pals with BigAl.

Appraisal:

I was quickly drawn into this fascinating and multi-layered story line, honestly how do authors come up with this stuff? Beth Orsoff was able to capture Gwen’s and Alex’s complex personalities perfectly as well as all the supporting characters. The story never lags and gets quite racy at times, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I found the relationship between Gwen and her best friend Zoe was one of my favorites. Their conversations were realistic and humorous. Zoe was a steadfast, honest friend Gwen could always depend on.

The journey that Alex and Gwen were on was a hard one, I sympathized with both characters. Alex was the perfect alpha male who would take charge and thought he always knew the best way to handle any situation. It was difficult for me to watch when he got scared. I would not want to be the one to oppose him, he was ruthless. Gwen never hesitated to oppose him, she was as strong willed and proud as he was. As a result, she would make decisions just to spite Alex, not really taking her or her son’s best interest into consideration. Her pride was a problem for me.

The children in this story I felt were captured very well. Isabella is now a sassy ten year-old and David an adorable two year-old. The well-being of both was in the forefront of everything Gwen did concerning her and Alex’s joint custody of David. It was interesting to watch how she and Alex handled the kids and the single-parent dating scene. Since the story is mainly told through Gwen’s point of view, we mainly saw how she handled it with her boyfriend Robert (Dr. Bob) and only one of Alex’s girlfriends, Brianna, who was the latest and most serious.

The twists in the plot about Gwen’s claim to Vlad Tepe’s blood line drove the plot forward in interesting ways. I found them captivating and compelling. It is clear how Ms. Orsoff’s storytelling skills are growing as well as her understanding of the human condition. I will not hesitate to buy her future books; they are always creative and unique.

Buy now from:    Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

This book contains adult language and sexual situations that may be offensive to some.

This is a sequel to the book Vlad All Over. That book should be read first for an adequate understanding of the backstory to the events in Vlad to the Bone.

Added for Reprise Review: Vlad to the Bone by Beth Orsoff was a nominee in the Chick Lit category for B&P 2013 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran January 17, 2013

Format/Typo Issues:

I found no errors or issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words