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#SweetSat - 28/07/12

Thanks everyone for stopping by. Hope you enjoy this little sample from my first book "Sweet Dreams, Miss England"


Enjoy  :-D


Her heart was beating as if she had just run a marathon and it took all her strength to enter the hotel and ask for his room number. The hotel lift seemed to take forever to finally reach the third floor. She took a deep breath and knocked at the door. Nicky vaguely heard him say to come in.

“Hey, Miss England. I thought I was under strict instructions: Dinner only and that at a restaurant.”

Nicky felt her knees giving way underneath her. She felt her body shaking and wasn’t enjoying being there.

“Daniel, I cannot go out for dinner with you tonight,” she said very softly.

He moved closer to her, sensing that something was wrong.

“Daniel, I am married and even though my husband lives in the States, it doesn’t change the fact that we’re married.”Nicky felt the tears running down her face. “The thing is, though, since I’ve met you, all I do is think of you. I can’t get you out of my head. I keep thinking of the way you held me when we danced. I cannot sleep because I remember the way you kissed me.” She wiped away a few tears, and with a big sigh, went on, “I just cannot have dinner with you, because I have to do what is right and that means I shouldn’t see you again. I am really, really sorry.”

Daniel just looked at her for a while. The silence made her nervous and uneasy. Nicky wanted to say something, but he held his finger in front of her lips to stop her. He took her face in his hands and looked right at her.

“You did come, though. Please don’t go,”he whispered. He moved forward to her and gently kissed her. Nicky moved back, but he held onto her hand and pulled her closer. He kissed her again and she felt herself slowly giving in to him. She had yearned for his kisses for such a long time and didn’t want to fight them any longer. They had already made her too weak. He touched her neck with his lips, gently moving his hands down her arms to her waist, slipping his hands under her shirt, caressing her back. His kisses felt like an exciting rush to her body, something so gentle, but at the same time wanting, like she hadn’t known before. He looked into her eyes as if to get her okay, picked her up in his arms and eased her onto the bed. Nicky’s body trembled as Daniel kissed every inch of her body while removing her clothes. She enjoyed the way she was being loved in such a caring yet passionate way.








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JL Salter is talking Greenland and his new book

Today I have the pleasure to introduce you to Astraea Press author JL Salter. He’s recently released his novel The Overnighter’s Secrets and is currently busy “blogging” away in this “web world”.  Through FB and his very interesting posts on his website he shares with other Authors, I’ve become to appreciate Jeff’s knowledge, but also his witty nature. So there’s no doubt in my mind, that his new novel is well worth the read – but I’ve decided to dig a little bit deeper into Jeff’s past! He mentioned that he was stationed in Greenland, and that tickled my fancy!

Welcome to my humble blog, Jeff!

JLS ANSWER: 
Thanks, Iris.  We’ve been razzing each other, for several months, across 4 or 5 time zones.  It’s good to finally meet you in one spot.

First of all, congratulations on your current release. Well done! But before I ask you about The Overnighter’s Secret, tell me about your time in Greenland.


JLS ANSWER: 
I should begin by HOW I got there.  It was a standing joke in the Air Force at that time -- during the Vietnam Era -- that if you screwed up, you were often warned, "You wanna get sent to Thule?"  In other words it was a very UN-desirable location ... and it had a reputation along these lines:  if you were sent there, you either screwed up really badly ... or you ticked off somebody very ‘high up’.
So, with that as the background --- I was assigned to the Information Office (i.e., Public Affairs) of a Tactical Air Command base in New Mexico.   In my very small 'shop' (within the info office) of FOUR enlisted men, two had already been sent to Da Nang and one to Thailand.  [This was in 1971-72, when S.E. Asia was still quite 'hot'.]  We got replacements, of course, but I was the only guy left (of that original quartet) who had not received a remote tour assignment.  Naturally I assumed I'd go to 'Nam --- or thereabouts.
  One of my primary assignments was working on the base newspaper, of which I eventually became editor.  For part of that time, I wrote a satirical column called "Poor Kodac's Almanac" and one of those columns made fun of the base Civil Engineer Squadron ... which was sort of a running joke on military bases at that time. [You know, like how long it took for them to show up, and whether they’d fix it the first time, etc.]  Anyhow, to make a long story short (too late), the full colonel in charge of that C.E. Squadron complained bitterly to my boss -- a Captain -- and vowed to get even.  Within a few months, I had orders to Thule.  True story.  Those initial orders were cancelled.  But later I got a new set of orders to Thule, for a different time period.  I've always said that I was sent to Thule because I ticked off a colonel in the C.E. Squadron at Cannon AFB NM.
Despite the horror in everyone’s faces when my destination was announced, I was pleasantly surprised to be sent to a place with no bullets or mortars or rockets being fired at me ... as it had been with my buddies.  And I'm a pretty "solitary" guy anyhow ... so being in an isolated place didn't really bother me.
Now, that's more than you wanted to know, since your question was about my TIME at Thule.  To answer this question, I should explain that the base was run by Danes, who outnumbered the American military by some 3-1.  The Air Force personnel rotated in for their 12-month duty, but many of those Danes stayed there for years.  It was clear who ran things and to get anything done you needed to get along with the Danes who held all the key positions.  I wish I could remember how many military were there, but it's a dim picture now, after some 40 years.  Let's say it was 248 AF guys (and TWO WAF – i.e., female -- officers) ... amidst some 750 Danes. 
The weather was atrocious for most of the year, as you can imagine, being 930 miles from the North Pole, and about 700 miles above the Arctic Circle. 
The chief "entertainment" for most guys was getting drunk and/or doing drugs.  Let me say, quite honestly, that I did NOT do any drugs and most of those guys thought I was pretty square.  But I know how they got a lot of their stuff, like hash --- it came over from Copenhagen with the Danes who rotated back home for leave.
I did drink a bit here and there, but for the most part, I just went to movies at the base theater nearly every time the show changed ... and played a lot of ping pong.  I also wrote a LOT of poetry.

I like the story about you “ticking” off a Colonel. Not sure why, but an image of “Hawkeye” comes to mind. ;-). For someone who has an ignorant knowledge about the US Military and related matters, why would they station US troops in Greenland? What was the significance?


JLS ANSWER:
We had troops in northwest Greenland as part of the Distant Early Warning System, known as the DEW Line.  It was primarily a ring of radar stations which were supposed to allow us to alert Washington of incoming ICBMs (missiles) coming from the Soviet Union over the polar cap.  I’ve never seen this in print, but I was told that even if our Thule radar detected an approaching missile, Washington would have only a couple of minutes of warning before the ICBMs hit their assigned targets.  In fact, on the day I landed at Thule, I was informed that the DEW line system was obsolete.  Not at all the comfort I needed at that point.
To create this base, America needed a treaty with Denmark, which owns Greenland.  That treaty was very specific – no nukes, for example – and in order to get the most advantageous spot, inside a cusp of North Star Bay, an entire village of Eskimos had to be relocated.  So the spot where Thule was created was formerly Qanaq ... and its native inhabitants were all relocated some 30 miles farther north, along that coast.
Remind me later to tell you about the nuclear disaster near Thule just about three years before my arrival.

Don't tease! Tell us now  J

JLS ANSWER: 
Sometime in 1969, about 3 years before my tour of duty there, a B-52 flew out of Thule on a routine training mission.  Against the treaty stipulations, they had LIVE nuclear weapons on board.  I think it was 6-8 total, but I’m not sure.  Anyway, there was a fire in the cockpit or some other emergency situation and the B-52 crashed, just about 10-12 miles from the base.  Some of the nukes were recovered intact.  One or two – that were NOT intact -- were scraped off the floor of North Star Bay with a midget submarine.  Contaminated debris from the bay (and some from the nearby permafrost, I think) was bulldozed into numerous specially-lined cargo containers and shipped to the U.S. for disposal.
Besides being caught breaking the treaty protocol (and contaminating the bay and coastline), at least one – maybe two – of the nukes were allegedly NEVER recovered.  There are still scientific papers and legal papers about this affair, which I’ve seen described as the worst accidental American military nuclear disaster ever.  Some of the on-going concerns include:  contamination of the animal life which those Eskimos rely upon for food, rumors of birth defects among some of the natives, residual health issues among some of the Danish crews who helped with the clean-up.



Yes, cold indeed at those places. My daughter interviewed her uncle a few months back who went several times to the Antarctica for a year, and he told her a few interesting bits. Tell us, were you fortunate enough to see the Aurora Borealis? Did you get to swim in the cold water? I believe it’s tradition in the northern countries to have a quick dip.


JLS ANSWER: 
We never saw even a hint of the Northern Lights.  The way it was explained to me was that we were too far north to see them.  That makes sense when you learn that these ‘lights’ are actually reflections off the atmosphere, and you have to be farther south to see where the reflection ‘bounces’.
Let me tell you about the water.  We were given numerous safety briefings, of course, about the severe weather and conditions.  One detail which sticks in my mind is that if you were ever unlucky enough to fall into North Star Bay – in the parts of the year when it was not frozen over – that you would last approximately TWO minutes before you could no longer function.  And after you could no longer function, you’d just sink and drown.
But during the spring thaw, I did see some water running toward the bay from a melting glacier at a higher elevation.  I thought I at least ought to FEEL how cold it was.  So I did.  I thought my hand would freeze solid and shatter into a thousand pieces!  Gosh that was COLD.  I still can’t fathom how water that cold could still be liquid.

I can’t believe you missed out on the Northern Lights!
Yes, I have heard about the danger of“dipping” into the water. Brother in law was game enough to do it, and I can remember him saying that the guys at the edge constantly warned him of not“swimming” out of reach.
Tell us about Thule. About any difference to your “hometown” or where you had lived at the time.

JLS ANSWER: 
I’d been a southern boy for most of my life (except for a year in Iowa) ... so I was pretty accustomed to warm weather and humidity.  Very little of either at Thule.  Also we were told that there were NO insects at Thule, because they couldn’t survive in that climate.  I think that was a myth, however, because I got bitten all over by SOMETHING when we were sunbathing on a glacier one adventurous summer afternoon.
The ground up there was frozen solid, called perma-frost.  So there was no ‘soil’ such as we’d know it.  No trees in that part of Greenland either, so the tired old joke about “a girl behind every tree” was doubly sick.  The only plant life was some tufts of (what I’d call) weeds which somehow managed to grow in the perma-frost.
The only wildlife near our base was the Arctic Foxes, which hung around the Chow Hall, hoping for treats.  We were warned not to feed them, but lots of guys did.
When I get time, I can tell you about my ascent to the top of Mt. Dundas, the annual Eskimo Sledge Race, Operation Julemand, my flight to Point Alert, my flight to the Coast Guard station at Cape Atholl, my climb to the crow’s nest of a gigantic icebreaker ship, and the base exchange facility which stayed open only long enough to be completely renovated ... and then was closed.

 

No polar bears?
Living across the road from Dundas Place – tell us about your ascent! No doubt an achievement in this kind of territory, but are we talking about a “high” mountain here?


JLS ANSWER: 
We never saw any bears, but I know they had seals and narwhale up there because I purchased some of the hand-made artifacts at a tiny store which featured products from the nearby natives.
For that region, the 600+ foot Mt. Dundas was a prominent feature.  As Spring weather hit, it was tradition for the Base Commander and a safety team to ascend Mt. Dundas to replace the rope (for the final 35 ft up the steep part) and generally check out the place.  My CO, a captain, was invited and I was allowed to tag along.  We also had a few security police and other interested parties.  Later in the season, I went back up with a few buddies for my second ascent.
There was a rock on top which had been carved like a woman’s torso ... that was the closest I got to a woman for the entire time I was there.

Considering that you were stationed there a few years back. Tell us about the communications to the “mainland”, family, friends, wife (?).

JLS ANSWER: 
Great question.  A big plus was that each person stationed there was allowed a full 30 day leave at some point during the year ... to go home.  I had that leave and was also given a Temporary Duty (TDY) to go to the Pentagon and receive a newspaper award from the Air Force Chief of Staff.  Interestingly, both the paper I’d left (in NM) and the paper I went to (Thule’s) won in their own divisions for that year.  I went as representative for Thule, but I think I may have actually won for my work on the NM paper.  Anyhow there were only 8 or 10 of us there, so it was quite an honor.
Communication:  I wrote, and received, a lot of letters.  At one point my wife sent me about a dozen small cupcakes, individually wrapped.  Apple cake, as I recall.  They were sealed so well that they lasted several days after they made that long journey.  Best apple cake I’ve ever tasted.
We were allowed to place FREE long distance calls through some sort of military phone network.  They were called “Morale Calls”.  But the reception was terrible, you had to schedule them in advance, and then wait for the operator to call you, and then hope that happened to catch your loved one at home.  I found it way too cumbersome.  So the several calls I made to my wife were placed collect:  from the Thule operator to the operator at Cornerbrook Newfoundland ... and then to Louisiana.  It went on my in-laws’ phone bill.  When I was home on leave before my next assignment, I gave my F-I-L a check for those collect call charges, but he refused to take it.

 
Does the military station still exist nowadays?

JLS ANSWER: 
I believe Thule AB is still there, though it’s no longer with Aerospace Defense Command ... and most of the other units are different.  It was in 21st Air Division when I was there.  I bet they still have that mysterious “detachment” which (I believe) was present solely to check radiation levels ... but I can’t prove it.

[Side note:  I was one of three nominees from 21st Air Division for 1972 Outstanding Airman of the Year and the only nominee from the 21st Air Division for 1972 Information Technician of the Year.  I was also decorated with the Meritorious Service Medal for my work at Thule.  At that time the MSM was quite rare for buck sergeants.] 

CONGRATULATIONS !!!


Okay, finally … tell us about your book, which has been released by Astraea Press.
 


JLS ANSWER:
I think The Overnighter’s Secrets is a great story (romantic suspense) with memorable down-to-earth characters ... plus some cool action scenes.  But I’m still awed by how it began.
In April last year, I was in the garage of my friend, who thought I’d be interested in the contents of an antique overnighter (suitcase) which he’d acquired about 16 years previously from some dumpster divers in CA.  I thought, “Why not?” and we looked through those items.  My friend swears I was only the second person who’d ever seen those belongings.
At first, I assumed it was just whatever clutter happened to be in that particular dumpster.  But soon, we perceived there were groups of items: programs and playbills from Vaudeville productions all over the country; an elaborate family album with very large photographs; a diary from 1955; photos from an Asian country; photos of what looked like stage plays or silent movie sets.  Plus many other things, like legal documents and newspaper clippings.
With the deductive skill of detectives, we began to find threads which connected a name from the diary to a child’s name on the back of an album photo, to a different name on the back of a silent movie ‘still’.  Then the Rosetta Stone — a legal document which connected all those name variations to a single person!  The actress Lizette Thorne, who starred in some four dozen silent films and was in the same movie company with Charlie Chaplin during 1916, was the common factor among all those mementoes.
Fast forward several weeks.  After I’d conceived of a fictional plot which could USE such a find (and had written over 70,000 words on that new novel ms.), I came into contact with Lizette’s granddaughter!  We corresponded extensively ... and my friend readily turned over Lizette’s personal items to that granddaughter.


Blurb:


When Beth left suddenly, it broke two hearts ... but she’d had no choice. Shane, a rugged, ex-Airborne biker, handled it badly ... but so had she. Three years later and 2000 miles away, she desperately needs her ex-lover’s protection from a violent menace with ‘bad history’ who’ll do anything to reclaim a mysterious suitcase Beth possesses.

Long before Shane acquired that overnighter, a ‘silent movie’ actress kept secrets there ... and now several lives are in jeopardy. An ambitious female state senate candidate hires a ruthless investigator to eliminate potential campaign ‘problems’ like her dark family secret — a bizarre 1889 murder.

Is Beth’s terrifying ordeal simply because she unwittingly possesses the overnighter’s secrets? Or is it due to the meth-fueled dumpster-diver’s ‘unfinished business’?

Shane will likely return to California after he resolves this Tennessee ‘situation’ ... so Beth struggles to resist her reawakened feelings. But before she can sort out their renewed relationship ... Beth is kidnapped! To rescue her Shane enters an obvious trap in a dilapidated hotel. Only with Beth’s help can both survive the violent struggle against her kidnappers.
Thank you so much, Jeff, for taking your time recounting your time at Thule. It was indeed very interesting to read! And again, congratulations on your Meritorious Service Medal! And your book sounds just as fascinating! I look forward to reading it soon.
 
 
Jeff's Book "The Overnighter's Secret" is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and from Jeff's Publisher Astraea Press.
PS - and only 99c until the end of this month at Amazon ;-)
 
 
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Lindsay Downs - Emily Dahill CID 2

Publisher: Astraea Press
ISBN: 9781621350538
 
 
My rating: 4/5
 
 
Tears- Bullied at school, Mary Todd is just about to give up when Dakota and Emily come to her rescue.

Friends and Family- Dakota helps a she-wolf and her cubs while he continues to cause mis-chief with hilarious results.

Guardian- Against all odds Dakota works to protect Emily, from her boyfriend and herself.

The Loser- Emily and Dakota step into intrigue when a soldier can’t hit the target with any degree of consistency.
 
 
 
My thoughts
Lindsay Downs does not disappoint. Emily Dahill CID 2 is just as an enjoyable read as CID 1 was.
Downs offers four interesting short story, which will draw the reader in from the very start. Again, I find it a shame, that each story is so short - they all would be great as longer ones. But you will love the way Downs handles each issue with the appropriate amount of attention to detail, great characters and humour.
I'm sure you will like these stories just as much as I did!
Don't forget to check out the interview with CID's four-legged-hero Dakota here.

Rosamund Lupton - Sister


Publisher: Piatkus Books

ISBN: 9780749942014

My rating: 4.5/5


Nothing can break the bond between sisters …

When Beatrice gets a frantic call in the middle of Sunday lunch to say that her younger sister, Tess, is missing, she boards the first flight home to London. But as she learns about the circumstances surrounding her sister's disappearance, she is stunned to discover how little she actually knows of her sister's life – and unprepared for the terrifying truths she must now face.
The police, Beatrice's fiancee and even their mother accept they have lost Tess but Beatrice refuses to give up on her. So she embarks on a dangerous journey to discover the truth, no matter the cost. (rosamundlupton.com)


My thoughts


I would have loved to give this book a 5/5 - but then came the ending, and I thought 'what on earth did just happen?' Exactly, it was an ending so unworthy of the whole book, so dissatisfying for a reader.

Story is about Bea (Beatrice) returning to London when her sister Tess has gone missing - only to be found dead a few days later.

The books is terrifically written as a letter recounting the events, and within the letter again recounting events as told to Mr Wright for the upcoming trial. Rosamund did a brilliant job, getting this right and brilliant in its effect to have a more personal emotions against the more distant account of what had happened.

The mystery of the disappearance, the crime and the scientific reasons for it, woven amongst the emotional search by Bea, her 'discovery' of herself and the bond to her sister and her mother, coping and analysing her relationship to Todd, makes this a outstanding read. A jewel amongst all the publications thrown onto the market at the moment.

I can easily say, Sister is one of my top reads so far! No hesitation in recommending it!

On Sale - 99c - Journey to Her Dreams



Journey to Her Dreams

Would you travel around the world to uncover the reason for your dreams?

Hollie Anderson does.
A young woman from Tasmania who lives on a farm just outside Launceston, she has got good looks, likes her job and loves to hang out with her friends. She should be happy, right?
But it’s a recurrent dream that throws her daily life into chaos and takes her on a journey to Ireland. While on her quest for answers she meets Sam in Dublin under unusual circumstances and both women, so different in many ways, find out they have one thing in common - and it changes their lives forever

~~
 Now on Sale until the end of July on
and
99 cents
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Review by Frank Nolan, 99.9 VoiceFM
Ballarat writer Iris Blobel’s first book was titled Sweet Dreams Miss England and was set in London and Dublin. She returns to the subject of dreams in her recently published second novel Journey to Her Dreams. The story is set in two small islands – Tasmania and Ireland- and involves the lives of two young women. Hollie lives with her father on a farm near Launceston while Sam lives in Dublin. A recurrent, disturbing dream inspires Hollie to visit Ireland and the two women meet in extraordinary circumstances, with momentous effect on both of their lives.
A cleverly constructed plot, believable characters and lucid writing make Journey to Her Dreams enjoyable romantic fiction reading.



Review by J (Goodreads)
Half romance, half women's fiction. Totally absorbing.Journey to her Dreams has two main characters, Hollie and Sam (Samantha), who live half a world apart, in Tasmania and Ireland, respectively. They don't know each other. They've never met, never heard of each other. But they dream about each other. When something awful happens, the other sees the occurrence in her dreams. (Good plotting, by the way, putting them on opposite sides of the globe. One's asleep when the other's awake, see.)

Sam's marriage is coming apart, no matter how desperately she pretends otherwise, and so her life is currently pretty awful. Her quiet despair comes through Hollie's dreams, invading Hollie's life and preventing her from sleeping. Finally desperate herself, Hollie journeys to Ireland to find the truth of her dreams. What happens on both islands changes everyone's lives.

The story is moving and haunting. While it could have been trimmed (it's over 300 pages long), the characters and plotline easily carry it along. The ending's not a huge surprise, and if one accepts the dream premise, it's all believable, the characters especially so.

Four and a half stars



Nell Dixon - New Bay Wedding







Publisher: Astraea Press
 
ISBN:  9781621350460
 
My rating: 4/5
 
 
 
Emma has been busy organizing her older brother’s lovelife but now Noah plans to turn the tables on his meddlesome match-making sister. But is Ian the best man for this very particular bridesmaid?
 
 
My thoughts
 
This is a lovely short story and IMHO would've even been better if it had been longer and filled in places. The characters are easy to relate to, but again, the special something was missing because of the story's length.
 
Emma's brother Noah is getting married to Posy, and Emma is the bridesmaid. Noah's best friend Ian is going to be best man - unfortunately he can be a bit clumsy around Emma. So is it fair of Emma to worry that he might muck up the wedding?
 
Great little story, if you're looking for a quick read.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

#SweetSat Sample - 14/07/12

I've made it!!!

Sorry I haven't been part of Sweet Saturday Sample for the last few weeks, but life's been busy with two girls at home on their term break. But I'm loving it! :-)

This is another sample from my first book "Sweet Dreams, Miss England"



          Nicky had just come out of the shower when Daniel knocked at the door. She opened the door slightly and saw him smiling at her, with a towel her only cover. Then her mobile rang and she went back into the room. It was Shane, but she chose not to answer it. When she turned around, Daniel had already stepped into the room with her.

          “My timing seems to be just perfect,” he said with a big grin. Nicky rolled her eyes at him.

          “Okay – just a quick question. I just talked to Sash. Vonnie, her family, Erin, her little princess and Alex are camping down near Cork for a few days and are wondering whether we would like to join them on the way home. Sash could bring all the stuff,” Daniel told her.

          “You’re kidding me, aren’t you?” Nicky was slightly baffled. “Camping?” Her eyes grew big.

          Daniel moved closer. “Don’t tell me you’ve never been camping.” He smiled.

          “You don’t expect me to sleep in a tent, on a mattress out there with all sorts of crawling little bugs,” Nicky sighed.

          “Miss England, it’ll be great. I promise. You’ll camp with me and Sash in the tent and you’ll be fine. Come on.”

          She thought about it and looked into his begging eyes.

           “You owe me big time for this, Mr. Callaghan!” She quickly adjusted the towel that was in danger of slipping.

          He donned a smile of anticipation, took her face into his hand and softly touched his lips to hers.

          “They say nothing beats sitting by the campfire under the stars.” He looked into her blue eyes before brushing her lips with his again.

          “You’re taking advantage of the situation here, Mr. Callaghan,” Nicky said softly.

          He smiled conspiringly. “Shh,” he whispered into her ear and took her hands off the towel. He kissed her gently as he laid her down on the bed. Nicky closed her eyes in pure happiness as he caressed her body softly with his lips. It was an overwhelming sensation that made her give into her feelings.




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Susan Elizabeth Phillips - First Lady



Publisher: Avon
ISBN: 978-0380808076
 
My rating: 4/5

How does the most famous woman in the world hide in plain sight? The beautiful young widow of the President of the United States thought she was free of the White House, but circumstances have forced her back into the role of First Lady. Not for long, however, because she’s made up her mind to escape—if only for a few days—so she can live the life of an ordinary person. All she needs is the perfect disguise . . . and she’s just found it. While an entire nation searches for her, the First Lady is in the last place anybody would think to look—in the company of a seductive stranger with secrets of his own. (susanephillips.com)
 
 
My thoughts

If you like Susan Elizabeth Phillip's books, you will like this one as well. It more or less follows the same recipe!

Nealy Case has just lost her husband, but not her role as First Lady - and she is suffocating under the burden of public life.  So she "breaks out" ... and ends up with Mat Jorik and his two daughters, who are on a road trip to Iowa to meet the girls' grandmother.

As far fetched as it is, it's a very entertaining story. I have to admit, I enjoyed the way Nealy "sees" the little things and appreciates things we take for granted. And Mat is the perfect hero!

The book is written in true SEP style - with wit, humour and a lot of love!

What I didn't like was the ending. Nealy didn't seem to be Nealy or the First Lady, but someone to fit into the story to get a few more pages added.

Jill Shalvis - Lucky in Love

Publisher: Forever / Hachette Book Group

ISBN: 978 - 1 4555037228

My rating: 5/5


Mallory Quinn has had enough of playing it safe. As a nurse and devoted daughter, she takes care of everyone but herself. And as the local good girl, she's expected to date Mr. Right. but for once she'd like to take a risk on Mr Wrong and who could be more wrong than Ty Garrison? The mysterious new guy in town has made it clear that he's only passing through, which suits Mallory just fine. Besides, his lean, hard body and sexy smile will give her plenty to remember once he's gone ...
For the first time in his life, Ty can't bear to leave. Helping this sexy seductress-in-training walk on the wild side is making him desire things he shouldn't - including leaving the military for good. As their just-for-fun fling becomes something more, Mallory and Ty wonder if they could really be this lucky in love. After all ... anything can happen in a town called Lucky Harbor. (from the back of the cover)


My thoughts

Is there a petition out there I can sign up for Jill Shalvis to continue the Lucky Harbor series?

So this is a straight forward review. In short: We asked, Shalvis delivered. Another non-put-down-able story (I don't care if that word doesn't exist), in true Shalvis style with humour, wit and a few social issues ... as well as hot scenes. Mallory Quinn is the 'must-like' character, and Ty Garrison aka "Mysterious Cute Guy" the hottie who just kicked of Jax from the number one spot for 'my favourite heroes'.

Mallory, local nurse, wants to leave the "good girl" image behind, and gets lucky straight away, literally! - with Ty, Navy Seal, currently in Lucky Harbor recovering from a leg injury until cleared and deemed fit for his next mission. What starts out as a "one nighter" becomes more. More than both of them initially realise - In a wonderful "macho", yet straight to the reader's heart way, Ty shows Mallory that she needs to care for herself first and foremost before trying to save everyone else, and in return she helps him to address his grief and loss.

In the end, it leaves you wanting more. More Mallory and more Ty, because yet again the story is driven by strong and solid characters. Not to forget, the quirky Lucille has her part as well. And we get set up for the next book with Amy and Forest Ranger Matt.

LOVE IT!

Thank goodness, Amy's story arrived the other day ... so if you excuse me, I've got a date in Lucky Harbor!


Go and get'em - you won't regret it! I promise.
   

I signed up with Astraea Press - again :-)


Life's hectic, busy and sometimes, even somewhat overwhelming. Right?

Is this going to be a whining post? Not at all. Quite the opposite. I'm just saying all that, because it's taken me, like, a month to write this post and tell you all the wonderful news that I've signed up again with Astraea Press for my next story "Innocent Tears". I'm really really happy! In fact, this is kinda like me when nobody's looking!

The story is something like this:
Becoming a parent can be daunting at the best of times, but for Flynn McCormack, a business lawyer in Melbourne, it almost pulls the feet from right underneath him. He’s become a father to six-year-old Nadine literally overnight! And the girl is supposed to spend the holidays with him so both have time to “get to know each other”. He had no idea about her existence, and the news throws him into chaos.

With the help of Emma Gallagher, an employee at the hotel where Nadine and her grandparents are staying, and his parents, Flynn tries to do the right thing. Yet, the right thing in his eyes differs from his parents’, and Emma is voicing her opinion as well. And right in the middle is little Nadine.

To turn Flynn’s new life into a complete rollercoaster he feels more and more attracted to Emma. However, she is struggling with her own problems. One of those includes Jack, her flat mate and co-worker at the hotel.
But in the end, it’s a letter Flynn receives that helps him figuring out what to do
Stay tuned everyone for more details to come!