Heir Untamed by Danielle Bourdon

Heir Untamed

Latvala Royals #1

By:  Danielle Bourdon

Publish Date:  December 9, 2012 by Wildbloom Press

Genre:  Romance, Fantasy, Suspense

Pages:  318 Kindle

Source:  Author Free Day on Amazon

Desperate for work to avoid eviction from her Seattle apartment, photographer Chey Sinclair accepts a rare opportunity to travel abroad and photograph Latvala Royalty. Encountering the Royals for the first time, Chey experiences an instant attraction to Mattias, second in line to the throne. He's charming, confident—and taken.

During a horseback ride to clear her head, Chey finds herself in a scuffle with Sander Fisk, head of security. Rugged, determined and sharp tongued, Sander is infuriating as well as intriguing.

Faced with conflicting emotions and a mystery unfolding in the castle, Chey must decide between men: a Prince of Latvala, or an arrogant rogue.

She discovers the hard way that this particular fairy tale was more than she ever bargained for.

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I loved the zany fantasy premise of Heir Untamed when I came across Danielle Bourdon’s first book in the Latvala Royals series so I couldn’t pass on the free day at Amazon from a USA Today best-selling author.

So, right off, the premise of Chey being approached by a foreign royal family to take family photos for several months at their castle for an outrageous amount of money is… crazy – and fun! The fantasy solution to encroaching money problems as Chey has lost her job. Wouldn’t we all love that? She’s quick and jumps on the chance grabbing an early bird bonus of $5,000 (LOL).

The story moves quickly with Chey flying to Latvala and getting to work immediately snapping photos of the royal family. Just because they’re royal doesn’t mean they don’t have unpleasant secrets and Chey starts to see these early on. I found it interesting to see royals portrayed this way.

Prince Mattias is apparently drawn to Chey for her quite different take on things and considering the fish bowl he lives in, this seems a real possibility. I like that he isn’t afraid to expose her to what the royal family is actually like, making him very real and likeable.

Chey also meets Sander Fisk, sexy security, who protects her from the mysterious assailant that tries to shoot her. It is a bit far-fetched that anyone would want to do in an unimportant photographer but I’m going with the whole fantasy thing here.

However, I feel that some of Chey’s actions make her appear frankly silly. She’s a professional modern day photographer and should have more sense. Some of the tough spots she gets into could have been written in using other methods that don’t make her out to sometimes seem witless (don’t go alone to a haunted castle in a strange country in terrible weather). Strangely, at other times she seems quite perceptive.

I love the unexpected twist I didn’t see coming though I also felt tricked. The murderous subplot actually rounded out the story nicely.

This is a fast, fun read if you want romantic escapism without anything too heavy to think about. Squeeking in at 3.8 stars for being entertaining though this would be higher if Chey’s character was written in a more mature manner.

You'll find Danielle Bourdon at these links:

Amazon | Author Website | Twitter | Pinterest | Facebook  

Anomaly by Caitlin Lynagh - Book Review

Anomaly

The Soul Prophecies

By:  Caitlin Lynagh

Publish Date:  January 27, 2016
by Troubador

Genre:  Paranormal Fantasy, Romance, Mystical, Science Fiction

Pages:  264 PDF

Source:  Bostick Communications/Author Publicist

After Kyle loses his childhood sweetheart, Alice Lynam, he spends two years trying to bury his past and move on with his life.

On his twenty-first birthday, he receives Alice's notebook and discovers that two pages are missing. Kyle is forced to revisit his past and realises that perhaps his life isn’t as coincidental as it seems.

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I was drawn to Anomaly because of the everything-is-connected theme portrayed through Kyle’s attachment to his sweetheart, Alice, even after her death, and the hint that there is something bigger at play here. Out of the box ideas always get my mind churning.

Right away we meet Kyle, Alice, Sophia, Ahrl of the Thirteen, and Kyle’s sister, Hailey, the main characters, some of whom are from different dimensions but are interconnected so the reader needs to pay attention. Sophia acts as a sort of living connector between alien watcher, Ahrl of the Thirteen, the deceased Alice, and living Kyle. Much of the time we are with Kyle as he very slowly works his way through his deeply heartfelt loss of Alice.

The time/space themes presented are intriguing. One such is that even after death, we are all still connected in some way that the living don’t comprehend. I liked reading Alice’s POV as she hovered around Kyle from the afterlife. It seemed too bad that he wasn’t aware of her at the beginning. The novel also suggests that there are non-earth beings involved in these processes.

Another interesting concept (pg 163) is that something which is not possible to a person at this present moment (because of current conditions) may become possible at a future time. Also, the concept is presented that there are physical possibilities available right now (one could leave their house and go to the grocery store), but there are also imaginary possibilities (teleport to Paris). All these possibilities are interconnected and affected by decisions made by us every moment of every day. It made me wonder if we could somehow access all of these possibilities from the now.

While the novel presents many interesting ideas, I found elements of the story too slow to unfold. I was frustrated that Kyle took so long to get into Alice’s journal, and to start getting to know Sophia. As well, the story is very evenly paced with too much ‘telling’ and daily routine stuff that makes it somewhat banal reading. Bringing in more of both Arhl and Sophia would have helped perk things along, as well as more varied sentence length, etc.

Fav quote pg 25:

“Hailey shrugged. She wanted to be a writer and the best way she could learn to write was by reading other authors’ books and to practise. Tank smiled and massaged his right shin.”

4.0 stars for interesting space/time concepts and overall well put together story for a debut effort. I feel the writing just needs tweaking to keep the reader avidly engaged throughout.

My thanks to author, Caitlin, for a reading copy via Bostick Communications for the purpose of an unbiased review. You will find her at these internet links:

Amazon 
Author Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook 

In America by Nina Romano - Book Review

In America

Wayfarer Trilogy: Book Three

By:  Nina Romano

Publish Date:  July 19, 2016,
Turner Publishing

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Pages:  325 PDF

Source:  Turner Publishing

Beautiful, headstrong Marcella Scimenti has the affection of a handsome neighborhood boy, the love of her large Italian family, and serious dreams of singing in Hollywood. But the course of true love—nor the journey to finding one’s true self—never did run smooth.

In America follows the story of Marcella, the daughter of the characters at the center of Nina Romano’s continent-spanning Wayfarer Trilogy, as she comes of age in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, in the late 1920s. In the trilogy’s heartwarming conclusion, Marcella must learn to balance new friendships, promising suitors, and life as a modern working girl with the expectations of her tradition-bound family, all against the backdrop of a looming economic depression and a changing world.

Along the way, she unearths a devastating family secret that shakes her to her core and tests the boundaries of her love, loyalty, and faith.

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My thanks to Turner Publishing for an ARC the purposes of an unbiased review; In America publishing date is July 19, 2016.

Author Nina Romano’s third book in her Wayfarer Trilogy brings the reader to Brooklyn, New York of the late 1920s. Really, nothing could be more iconic than the Italian experience in New York and here the story of Giacomo (The Secret Language of Women) comes to completion with the story of Marcella, his daughter, coming of age.

Marcella is a wonderfully complex character who has a definite mind of her own and is somewhat pigheaded to boot.  I love that she’s rebellious against her so-Italian family’s designs for her, and she even cuts her long hair just at her 16^th birthday to show what’s what. Like all young girls, she’s dreaming of and seeking the one. She also has competing big career dreams that she strives to make a reality.

The first half of the novel leads the reader mostly through everyday occurrences and Marcella’s forays into life though author Nina Romano has a gift for infusing her stories with abundant, rich detail that make this very pleasurable. The gustatory delights are parallel to book 1 of the series and I always came away wanting to plant my own herb garden for cooking and get real busy in the kitchen. I also find the author has so many details to share in fact that I found this occasionally gets to be a bit of a grocery list (sometimes, a little less is more).

Halfway, when things seem to be settling into the predictable, there’s a great and unfathomable twist that brings Giacomo’s earlier days in China to full circle to Marcella and his family in present day. This is a fantastic way to tie in Giacomo’s haunting memories of his earlier life.

The ending eventually wraps up a little too easily and quick. I would have liked to see Marcella make greater strides in her career hopes as her ambition and ability indicate this but these are seemingly halted abruptly with the culmination of her romantic aspirations. Considering the times though, love and romance mostly still trumped career as a priority. Perhaps it still does.

But I am getting some of what I call ‘Anna Karenina syndrome’ here and that is the theme that women in books/movies should not stray from their socially prescribed course or something terrible might happen to them. In the end, Marcella’s decision is probably right for her but I got the feeling that all that early rebelliousness was for naught.

Overall, this coming of age experience is something that speaks to all of us in one way or another and Nina Romano’s lush, detail-infused writing reminds us of the incredible richness of life if we but pay attention. Here’s a tip; the secret to amazing ravioli filling is to add a little nutmeg! I heartily recommend reading In America to everyone. 4.5 Stars!

You will find Nina Romano on the internet at these links:

Amazon | Nina's Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook