Day: July 7, 2015

Guest Review: A Bond Between Strangers by Scarlet Wilson

Posted July 7, 2015 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: A Bond Between Strangers by Scarlet WilsonReviewer: Tracy
A Bond Between Strangers by Scarlet Wilson
Series: The Most Precious Bundle of All #2
Publisher: Harlequin
Publication Date: February 15th 2015
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three-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Yesterday John Carter and Lily Grayson were strangers.

Now, following an IVF mix-up, their genes are bound together for ever – only someone else is carrying their child! John’s only thought is to get his baby back...until he realises that Lily is the person he truly needs to complete his life…

Tracy’s review of A Bond Between Strangers (The Most Precious Bundle of All #2) by Scarlet Wilson

John Carter and his wife Tabitha were unable to have children. Because of this they created embryos for IVF with a donor egg. Unfortunately the IVF didn’t take and the whole situation put such pressure on their marriage that they ended up divorcing.

Now it’s two years later and Carter gets a letter from the fertility clinic telling him that there was a mix up and one of the embryos got implanted in another woman – who thought that she was getting an embryo that she and her deceased husband had created. Talk about a clusterfuck! Wow! Carter had always wanted to be a father and from the moment he finds out about the mix up he decides to fight for custody of the baby. His attorney says that it would be helpful to locate the egg donor to see if he can get her support in court. He tracks down Lily Grayson to do just that.

Lily is a woman who is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. When Carter finds her she’s getting ready for a parachute jump. He ends up taking someone’s place (as he’d jumped multiple times before) and talks to her in the plane. Once she finds out that he got her name from the fertility clinic she thinks he’s a psycho and tries hard to get away from him. Unfortunately all that did was distract her and she ends up with a broken leg for her trouble. Conveniently Carter is an orthopedic surgeon so he rushes her to the hospital and takes care of everything. He then moves her into his house so that he can take care of her for the next few weeks. She agrees because even though she thought he was crazy she couldn’t deny the spark of attraction that she felt from the first moment she saw him.

Lily and Carter become closer and fall in love but she’s not sure how she feels about the whole custody issue. She’s torn between wanting to do what will help the man she loves but she’s not sure she can take the baby from the only mother it’s known.

This book was an interesting one as it was a really tough conundrum for both Lily and Carter. He’s always wanted to be a father and here’s a baby that’s going to be his…but is it. Sure he provided the sperm but it was supposed to be for him and his wife – does he really have a claim on the baby? What about the woman who’s carrying the baby? Even though technically the child isn’t biologically hers doesn’t she have a strong emotional connection to this small life that she’s carried around for 9 months? Not an easy decision. I thought that the author did a good job of having both Lily and Carter consider all of these issues throughout the book, while still weaving in the romance. It also focused on Lily making a decision that was not in Carter’s favor would do to the relationship between the two MC’s.

Unfortunately I never felt a strong connection to Lily which put a damper on the book. She was obviously torn about what she should do but her though processes were so back and forth I couldn’t get a handle on her until almost the end of the book. Carter was a much easier character to like. He was obviously confused but I could still get the feel for who he was despite that.

The other thing that bothered me in this book, and this was strictly a personal preference, was the fact that the book was set in San Francisco but a lot of the terminology was European, as the author is from Scotland. I guess I felt that if a book is set in the US that it should sound like the people are from the US. We don’t call blankets rugs and we don’t call showers wet rooms or the OR in a hospital the theatre. There were a few others that stood out to me and they threw me out of the book whenever I came upon them. I liked the SF setting but it could have easily been set in Scotland or England and been just as good. Like I said, personal preference.

I had a few issues with the book but in the end it was a good read.

Rating: 3 out of 5

This tile is available from Harlequin Medical Romances. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

three-stars

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Review: Jesse’s Girl by Miranda Kenneally

Posted July 7, 2015 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

jesses girl
Rowena’s review of Jesse’s Girl (Hundred Oaks #6) by Miranda Kenneally.

Practice Makes Perfect.

Everyone at Hundred Oaks High knows that career mentoring day is a joke. So when Maya Henry said she wanted to be a rock star, she never imagined she’d get to shadow the Jesse Scott, Nashville’s teen idol.

But spending the day with Jesse is far from a dream come true. He’s as gorgeous as his music, but seeing all that he’s accomplished is just a reminder of everything Maya’s lost: her trust, her boyfriend, their band, and any chance to play the music she craves. Not to mention that Jesse’s pushy and opinionated. He made it on his own, and he thinks Maya’s playing back up to other people’s dreams. Does she have what it takes to follow her heart—and go solo?

This series is one of those series that I will probably read until the very last book (and there’s two more books coming, woot!). These books are comfort stories for me. They’re about characters with real problems and real dreams and Miranda Kenneally does a great job of telling stories that readers can enjoy and introducing characters that they’ll can connect with.

Jesse’s Girl follows Mya Henry, Sam Henry’s younger sister (Sam in the love interest in Book 1) as she meets and falls in with Country Music Superstar, Jesse Scott. For some reason, I was thinking of Hunter Hayes as Jesse Scott when I was reading this book.

Anyway, it’s time for career mentoring at Hundred Oaks High School and Mya Henry wants to be a musician. She thought she would spend time at like a record store but when she finds out that she’ll be shadowing country music star Jesse Scott, she’s excited…until she meets him, finds out he’s kind of a douche and walks out. Jesse of course thinks that Mya is probably another groupie, only around to use him to get famous or whatever so when he finds out that Mya is a legit musician, he grudgingly agrees to help Mya out. Oh, the link between the big superstar celebrity and Hundred Oaks High School is Jesse’s uncle is the principal at Mya’s school. He’s doing this as a favor to his uncle.

Both characters are surprised at how well their career mentoring has gone. Mya wants a real shadow day, filled with anything and everything Jesse can teach her about music and crafting her music to make something of herself in the business. Jesse isn’t sure what he wants at first but over the course of the book, you realize that he needs a friend. Someone that likes him without any strings attached. You see him struggle with trying to accept that Mya can be that person for him, if he’ll let her.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought Kenneally did a great job of making me fall in love with these two young kids that are just starting to dream and reach for the stars. Jesse wants things money can’t buy and Mya’s dreams are too expensive to reach for but with a little bit of hope and a lot of hard work, you really see these two grow into themselves.

My favorite part of this book was probably Mya. I enjoyed seeing her grow into that girl in the end. She’s a survivor. She survived betrayal, the paparazzi, crazy Jesse Scott fangirls, money woes and she came out on top in the end. I really liked seeing her with Jesse, with her best friend Dave and with her family. She may not have been rich but she led a rich life. I liked that she knew she was lucky to have the love of family and I really liked that she wanted to share all of that with Jesse.

Jesse was hard to take at first because he was so suspicious of everyone. I understood why he was the way that he was, I mean, I can’t imagine that it would be easy to live your life under a microscope but I really liked the young man he grew into as the story progressed. I really liked the young man he came to be for Mya. Once he let go of the worries and the drama, I liked the way he was with Mya. Their romance was sweet and it rang true and it was everything that I have come to love about this series. I can’t wait for more!

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from Sourcebooks Fire. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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