#NetGalley Book Review: Winter Takes All by ML Erdahl

This is a fun cozy – even in a cold setting.
Winter Takes All
by ML Erdahl

File Size: 2504 KB
Print Length: 202 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc (October 23, 2019)
ASIN: B07XCGWDRX
Genre: Amateur Sleuths, Cozy Mystery, Humorous, Mystery
My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0.

Crystal Rainey is aghast when she realizes her new year's resolutions haven't changed one whit from the previous year. Wanting to escape a future as dreary as a Pacific Northwest winter, she walks out on her dead-end office job, despite her tenuous savings account.
Stumbling across a job opening posted by a wilderness guide outfit, an intrigued Crystal bluffs her way into the position. With handsome fellow guide, the stalwart Conner Oakes, she leads a corporate retreat on a snowshoe hike to a majestic alpine chalet.
But when the company's detestable owner turns up dead in the snow, she fears her new life and budding romance slipping away. She finally has something worth fighting for and is determined to solve the murder and grab her chance at happiness before it's too late.

Review:
Crystal is already thinking about changing her life when her unpleasant supervisor scolds her for being five minutes late after walking through the rain. On a sudden impulse, Crystal decides to quit her dead-end clerical job. But she can’t be out of work long as she has bills to pay. She stumbles onto an advertisement for a wilderness guide. After bluffing her way to getting hired she needs to pick up snowshoes and learn how to use them.

When she arrives for her first outing, she is pleasantly surprised to meet her handsome fellow guide, Conner. Together they lead a corporate group on a hike up the mountain to a beautiful chalet. Crystal is pleased things seem to be going well, even the friendship with Conner, until late a night the guests get into a fight. The next morning the company owner turns up dead and the wilderness outfit has to shut down guide activities until the murder can be solved.

Crystal isn’t impressed by the young detective, so she sets out to interview all of the company employees herself. She tries to make it casual and gets through a couple before one of the employees begins to suspect she is sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong. Crystal continues to press on but will she press too hard and get caught up by the murderer?

I was pulled into the story right away by Crystal’s light character. Crystal is a fun, kind character and it is easy to root for her to make good on her new job. Of course, the reader can also see that Crystal is pushing herself into trouble. Conner is a nice romantic possibility who adds side interest to the mystery.

This is an easy read cozy mystery which I really enjoyed. I was pleasantly surprised myself to realize the author is a male. Nice job! I would like to read more in the series. I recommend this to fans of humorous cozy mystery.

Source: NetGalley 2019. This qualifies for 2020TBR, 2020NetGalley and 2020Alphabet goals.

#NetGalley Book Review: Christmas Once Again by D.K. Deters

I really enjoyed this quick, Christmas, time travel romance.
Christmas Once Again
by D.K. Deters


File Size: 2778 KB
Print Length: 43 pages
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc (November 12, 2018)
ASIN: B07HDG1GRC
Genre: Holiday, Romance, Short Story, Time Travel Romance
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

She's dead broke. And eviction looms. On Christmas Eve antique consultant Madison Knight takes a phone call from local rancher Zach Murdock. Through a mix-up at an estate sale, Madison's company purchased his grandmother's beloved painting. He offers double the money for its return.
Madison risks her job to track down the artwork, but success falls short when she's stuck in a blizzard. Stranded, she seeks help from a frontier family. Are they living off the grid, or did she somehow travel through time?
Zach's the only person who knows her plan. He also knows a secret about his gran's painting. It's up to him to rescue Madison, but maybe he's not cut out to be a hero.

Review:
Madison Knight is facing a rather bleak holiday: no money, no fiancé since she discovered his betrayal, and a job on the edge. She can’t have any mishaps at her work, Once Again Antiques, or her boss will terminate her.

She gets a call from a man with a sexy voice claiming that his grandmother’s antique painting was sold to the company by mistake. Zach Murdock offers to pay double for the return of the painting. At first, the piece shows up in inventory and Madison agrees to sell it back for the standard restocking fee. Then she learns the artwork was actually sold and she sets out to locate the piece. In the process of trying to recover the painting, Madison gets stranded in a blizzard.

Suddenly Madison finds herself in unfamiliar territory. She slowly suspects she is out of place even as she befriends a young boy despite the skepticism of his parents.

Meanwhile, Zach has set out to meet up with Madison but fears that he will be too late. Will Madison be able to get back to her SUV and her proper place? If Zach can help rescue her how will she react to what he reveals?

I enjoyed the lively characters of Madison, Zach, and even Zach’s grandmother. The writing is direct and the plot is engaging. The story is complete although short. It gave me a good taste of Ms. Deters's writing and I would like to read a longer story by her. Christmas is a nice time setting although not a crucial element. I recommend this story to readers who enjoy time travel and sweet romance.

Source: 2019 NetGalley. This qualifies for 2019NetGalley, #HoHoHoRAT and #SciFiMonth 2019.

#NetGalley Book Review: Forever in a Moment by Charlotte O'Shay

This is an enjoyable, light romance.
Forever in a Moment
by Charlotte O'Shay

File Size: 3791 KB
Print Length: 114 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc (April 10, 2019)
ASIN: B07Q5Q4XWW
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Holiday Fiction, Holiday Romance,
My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0

A stormy encounter...
Samantha DeMartino's Christmas wedding is two weeks away when her fiancé calls the whole thing off. Word on the street: his cold feet are being heated by an old flame. With her well-ordered world in complete disarray, Sam's friends convince her to go on her honeymoon—alone. A week at a charming Vermont inn away from the city and her demanding corporate career could be just what she needs to figure out her next steps.
Between his twenty-four seven work schedule on his family's dairy farm and teaching tourists to ski, Jed Armstrong's too busy to think about how lonely he is...until Sam sings her way into his life during a Christmas blizzard. Now he has to figure out a way to convince her to stay.
Can a vivacious city girl find forever with a reclusive farmer?
Will her secret keep her from trying?

Review:
Samantha’s friends convince her that she needs to take her ‘wedding’ trip as a break away after her fiancé cancels their wedding. Her week in Vermont starts with her car breaking down in a snowstorm, leaving her to be rescued by a local dairy farmer. Samantha is skeptical of her quick attraction to this stranger and finds herself being pulled along as she discovers he is her ski instructor.

Jed has a full work schedule on his family’s dairy farm and taking turns as a ski instructor. He had set aside his own personal life after a set back from a prior romance and an unexpected death in his family. Now he has found a snow angel by the side of the road. How can he convince her to give him/them a chance?

The cover is an immediate draw and the story set-up sounds like a Hallmark romance scenario … and it is. The very likeable primary characters are well developed with natural relationship fears and a conflict that will require strengths to take a chance. I enjoyed the local Inn desk manager who nudges Sam towards a relationship with Jed and the local pub owner who gives Sam the evil challenge eye.

The descriptions and dialogue are clean, crisp and engaging. I found this to be a quick, easy, feel good read. This would be a perfect holiday read but it is a nice warm romance for anytime. I recommend this to readers who enjoy light, clean, easy romance.

Source: 2019 NetGalley. This qualifies for 2019NetGalley goal.

#NetGalley Book Review: Heart of the Storm by Debbie Peterson

This was a good mix of time travel and romantic suspense.
Heart of the Storm
by Debbie Peterson

File Size: 2474 KB
Print Length: 277 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc (February 27, 2019)
ASIN: B07MBVKQ3K
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Time Travel
My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0

DEA agent Aliyana Montijo must stop a drug lord's killing orders and find a government mole. With a contract on her head, she trusts no one. While heading back to Florida with evidence, lightning strikes her plane. As it careens into the ocean, she thinks she sees a pirate ship. What she finds is a dashing and most unlikely ally.
Four centuries ago, Wolfaert Dircksen Van Ness captained a vessel for the Dutch West Indies Company. Then an unearthly storm in the Bermuda Triangle blew him into a parallel dimension. After rescuing Aliyana from a similar tempest, he finds himself drawn to the courageous beauty and wants to aid her mission.
In the midst of danger, the two find themselves falling in love. Then a misunderstanding tears them apart, perhaps forever…

Review:
Aliyana has been working undercover for a Columbian drug lord, Emil. Now that she is completing her security tech work she knows she must escape or face death. The local guards have commandeered her motorcycle so she commandeers Emil’s plane. On her way to Florida, Aliyana is caught in a storm and the plane is hit by lightning. While heading to crash into the ocean, Aliyana thinks she sees a pirate ship. She awakens in a lighthouse to find a handsome, strangely dressed man hovering.

Wolfaert is the Captain of a Dutch West Indies vessel who has been travelling between parallel dimensions. It isn’t easy to explain to this spirited young woman that she has fallen through a time tunnel. Before leaving Columbia Aliyana had stumbled upon information of an assassination plot by Emil against the families of the DEA. She is determined to get back to her world and time to protect those targets.

I enjoyed the steady action and intrigue in this story. This was augmented by the machinations and nuances of time traveling spirits. Then you have the pleasure of a growing romance with a twist very near the end. I found the story creative and the writing well-paced. I would be interested in reading more from Ms. Peterson. I recommend this to readers who enjoy romantic suspense and time travel.

Source: 2019 NetGalley. This qualifies for 2019NetGalley Goal.

#NetGalley Book Review: Somewhere The Bells Ring (Somewhere in Time Book 3) by Beth Trissel

This is another engaging Christmas romance with a ghostly presence.
Somewhere The Bells Ring (Somewhere in Time Book 3)
by Beth Trissel

File Size: 265 KB
Print Length: 78 pages
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press; Faery Rose edition (November 8, 2011)
ASIN: B006530S2Q
Genre: Ghosts, Holidays, Paranormal, Romance
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Ghosts aren't real, are they?
December 1968: Caught with pot in her dorm room, Bailey Randolph is exiled to a relative's ancestral home in Virginia to straighten herself out. Banishment to Maple Hill is dismal, until a ghost appears requesting her help. Bailey is frightened but intrigued. Then her girlhood crush, Eric Burke, arrives and suddenly Maple Hill isn't so bad.
To Eric, wounded in Vietnam, his military career shattered, this homecoming feels no less like exile. But when he finds Bailey at Maple Hill, her fairy-like beauty gives him reason to hope--until she tells him about the ghost haunting the house. Then he wonders if her one experiment with pot has made her crazy.
As Bailey and Eric draw closer, he agrees to help her find a long-forgotten Christmas gift the ghost wants. But will the magic of Christmas be enough to make Eric believe--in Bailey and the ghost--before the Christmas bells ring?

Review:
Bailey is a bit of a free spirit in a generation that tips between propriety, the traumas of the Vietnam war and ‘free love’. Bailey has been sent off to the ancestral home of her Aunt to spend Christmas and sort herself out. Things are calm, almost boring, until Bailey spots a ghost in the window and then meets the apparition in person. She creates a quick bond with the ghost and agrees to hunt for a long-lost Christmas gift.

Eric has returned home after being wounded in Vietnam, His spirits are low until he is encouraged that an old family friend, Bailey, is spending the holidays. She has grown into a little beauty who intrigues him although he is disturbed by her insistence of meeting the house ghost.
Eric is skeptical of the tales of a ghost but wants to help Bailey, even if it means humoring her quest.

I really liked Bailey’s empathy for the ghost and I enjoyed the attraction and caution between Eric and Bailey. The historical elements, the 1960s and an earlier war era, were nicely descriptive with the injuries being handled gently. There was a nice warmth to the story which I found engaging. I recommend this to romance readers who enjoy a touch of paranormal.

Source: NetGalley 2018; NetGalley Challenge.

#NetGalley Book Review: Consent of the Governed by Bernard LoPinto

This is a dystopian with political subcomments.

Consent of the Governed
by Bernard LoPinto

File Size: 2429 KB
Print Length: 107 pages
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc (September 1, 2017)
ASIN: B073XZ8QRF
Genre: Dystopian, Political
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0

It’s 2029, and the United States has fallen under the sway of an oppressive government where all citizens’ rights have
been stripped, Red Shirt platoons patrol the streets, and people die for voicing opinions. Into this chaos step Sid and Annie Winthrop. The elderly couple sets out on a deadly journey of revenge against the Red Shirts who murdered their son.
Red Shirt members Victor and Brooklyn have devoted their young lives to the cause of the president in protecting the nation. When attacks on their home town leave dozens of Red Shirts dead, Victor must help his superiors find the vigilante.
At their darkest moment, each couple finds a common bond in their suffering and must decide where their loyalties lie.

Review:
Sid and Annie Winthrop are children of the late 60s and 70s. Annie left her strict and strife-ridden home when they objected to her teen-aged rebellion. She moved in with Sid and they became a couple who stayed together for over 50 years. They remember the days when people got to speak in public freely and could vote for their representatives.

Times have changed. A dictatorial president has declared martial law and suspended the constitution, taking away many freedoms that Americans have taken for granted. The president set up an enforcement group of young thugs called the Red Shirts. They are not allowed to carry guns but they carry batons and swing them with vigor if anyone tries to speak out negatively against the current government.

The Red Shirts bludgeoned Sid and Annie’s son to death and the couple are ready to fight back. Although the youth do not know the history of freedom, there is a good group of older folks who remember and know the truth.

The author tells the tale between two love stories: Sid and Annie and a young couple who are members of the local Red Shirt troop. I enjoyed this engaging political dystopian and cautionary commentary. There are clear implications toward specific leaders, but I didn’t let that bother me. The writing is direct and the message reminds us not to take freedoms lightly. I recommend this to readers who enjoy political dystopians.

Source: NetGalley 2017. This qualifies for 2018TBR, Take Control, NetGalley and Alphabet Challenges.

Book Review: Love Takes Two by Patrice Moore

I was drawn by this cover and enjoyed this sweet romance between injured parties.

Love Takes Two
by Patrice Moore

File Size: 639 KB
Print Length: 234 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc (April 8, 2016)
ASIN: B01CB1BV8K
Genre: Contemporary, Small Town
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Single mom Molly Jenkins relocates to a small mountain town in hopes of removing her young son from bad influences. But Ken is caught in an act of vandalism on their neighbor’s ranch, and the no-nonsense owner informs Molly her son needs a man’s strong hand to keep him in line. Having been raised by a tough-to-the-point-of-cruel father, she doesn’t want her son to be guided by men like that. She believes he needs nothing more than security and lots of mother-love.

Nathan Jones knows what it’s like to be raised without a father, and he disagrees with the coddling Molly gives her son. His own upbringing led him to make some poor choices, and he wants to keep Ken from making similar mistakes. It is a complicated tangle of emotions and past hurts that prevent Molly and Nathan from agreeing, but can they come together to keep Ken from going down the wrong path…and maybe find their own path to love on the way?

Review:
Molly Jenkins was abandoned by her boyfriend and her overly strict father when she became pregnant at a young age. She struggled as a single mom to get through college and try to provide a decent life for her son, Ken. Now Molly is stymied by her sulky, twelve-year-old son who is making bad choices and leaning toward negative influences. Molly takes a job with a small-town school in Colorado hoping to remove Ken from serious trouble.

Before they can settle into their new home, Ken is caught throwing rocks on the neighbor’s ranch. Nathan confronts Ken and marches him home to announce his punishment will be to work off the harm he has done. Molly is wary, but agrees that Ken has to make up for the damage.

Nathan grew up without a father and was in trouble as a teen until his mother abandoned him to a boy’s ranch. Nathan doesn’t believe in love due to his mother’s abandonment. Nor does he believe in mother’s coddling as he is insistent that every growing boy needs strong male discipline to learn proper respect. Molly takes affront to Nathan’s attitude thinking he is insulting all the single mom’s that have worked so hard to raise good children.

Molly and Nathan butt heads, not only over Ken, but over Molly’s proposed project to open a community center for teens in the small town. Although Molly can’t deny that Ken’s behavior begins to improve under Nathan’s strong guidance, this doesn’t resolve the other conflicts between Molly and Nathan. It takes time for a loving family to help them to begin to soften their stubborn stances.

Ken witnesses a scene that triggers his rebellion again and the slow growing friendship between Molly and Nathan is challenged. Can they manage to find mutual ground to help Ken before he ends up in jail?

This is an easy read as the writing moved along well, although I noted several grammatical errors which may have been fixed before publication. The thirtyish characters were extreme in their opposite views but this made for the conflict that they had to work through. There is a puppy element so the cover was accurate to draw in a reader. I enjoyed the story and I recommend this to readers who enjoy small town romances with more mature (not YA or college) characters.

I received this title through NetGalley. It qualifies for my NetGalley Challenge.