Tag: Bell Bridge Books

Guest Review: Iain’s Plaid by Skye Taylor

Posted June 14, 2017 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Iain’s Plaid by Skye TaylorReviewer: Tracy
Iain's Plaid by Skye Taylor
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Publication Date: June 2nd 2017
Genres: Time Travel
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four-stars

Was she sent back in time to change Iain’s fate . . . or share it?

Caught between a job offer she should take and a marriage proposal she doesn’t want, Dani Amico is dying for some adventure. So she takes off to visit some of the places on her bucket list. The first - an abandoned island she read about while researching her American History thesis. While there, she tumbles into an abandoned cellar hole . . . and wakes up more than two centuries in the past.

It’s 1775 and Iain MacKail’s ship is loaded with contraband he is smuggling into Boston. This unknown Dani, the “boy” he found in his cellar, could be a spy for the British customs agents, so Iain is forced to take the boy with him to insure that he and his mission are not compromised. Only he soon finds out that this ”boy” is so much more.

As they travel through pre-revolutionary New England, Dani realizes she’s falling for the rugged Scotsman. But she can’t forget something she came across in her studies—the fate of Iain MacKail. He would be betrayed by someone close to him and suddenly disappear from history. Could this be the reason Dani fell through time—to save Iain? Could they live and love together in this war-torn time?

Then again, if she tries—and fails—to change his fate . . . will she end up sharing it?

Dani has been offered a job that her live-in boyfriend got for her.  Even though the job is a great one, she hates the fact that he got it for her.  Though she likes her boyfriend a lot she doesn’t love him and is scared about the fact that he’s been hinting about them getting married.  Instead of keeping things the same she turns down the job, breaks up with her boyfriend and heads off to do some things that are on her bucket list.  One of those things is to explore an island off the coast of Maine that she read about.

Dani heads to the deserted island by herself.  She accidentally falls into a cellar hole and wakes up in 1775.  She thinks at first that it’s all a reenactment but she soon discovers it’s very real. While in 1775 she is with Iain MacKail who she read about in one of her books.  In that book she read that at some point he just disappears and she fears he’s killed.  She decides that she was sent back in time to save his life.  While trying to do that she didn’t expect to fall in love with Iain but it happens anyway.  Can she save him though, and if she does what does that mean for his…their future.

I always love a good time travel book but I’m not normally a huge American historical romance fan.  Iain’s Plaid was a little different as it had so much to do with the Revolutionary War and that piqued my interest.  Obviously Iain MacKail was fictional but everything else was pretty close.  I like that Ms. Taylor stuck to facts as it made the romance so much more realistic.

Iain was a great character and one that was well written.  He had some serious struggles with what was happening as he was Scottish but loved the Colonies as well.  So when a war is imminent, who does he fight for?  I liked that the story took the turn so that it showed us a logical decision for Iain’s actions.

Dani was also an engaging heroine and I liked he a lot.  She did a couple of stupid things that made me roll my eyes, all under the guise of wanting to save Iain but since even she realized how dumb they were after the fact I couldn’t dislike her.

Overall I found the story worth reading and definitely recommend it.

Rating: 4 out of 5 

four-stars

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Guest Review: Sign Off by Patricia McLinn

Posted October 2, 2013 by Judith in Reviews | 0 Comments

sign-off-200Judith’s review of Sign Off by Patricia McLinn

Until a few months ago, Elizabeth “E.M.” Danniher investigated high crimes and national cases. Now, a messy divorce from her network-TV-exec husband, combined with her no-longer-quite-perky-enough sex appeal, has banished her to Wyoming, where she has to fulfill the remainder of her contract. She handles the “Helping Out” segment at Sherman, Wyoming’s only news station. Her latest assignment:assisting an elderly woman who wants her faulty toaster replaced.

But Tamantha needs her, and so Elizabeth goes back on the crime beat, trying to unravel the mystery of the missing deputy and track down a killer who intends to make sure she doesn’t live to go Live At Five with the scoop.

Is it any wonder that an author who has spent decades as a newspaper editor can write so convincingly about reporters?  I would think not.  And in this first in a new series of stories, Ms McLinn has brought us into the life of a woman who thought she had it made in the shade.  A marriage to a TV network executive, a top-rated national exposure due to years and years given over to a demanding career–both fell apart and left her hung out to dry. Now she’s working off the remainder of her contract in a Podunk TV station in Wyoming as a special interest kind of reporter who investigates scams and problems that folks can’t seem to get anyone else to care about.  It was one of those helpless and hopeless persons who called her, only this person was the young daughter of a man who had been accused of murdering the local sheriff’s deputy.  Even being released because of lack of evidence didn’t solve anything.  And because there was no clear absolving of his guilt, he is now kept apart from the daughter he adores.  It is also the circumstance that brings Thomas David Burrell into Elizabeth’s life–a recalcitrant and undemonstrative man who has deep feelings and old wounds.  But most of all he loves his daughter.  And she loves her daddy.

“You’ve got to prove my Daddy didn’t kill anybody,” second grader Tamantha Burrell tells KWMT-TV’s consumer affairs reporter, New York transplant Elizabeth Danniher.

“Now wait a minute . . . ” the startled journalist begins.

“You’re the ‘Helping Out’ lady,” Tamantha insists. “You have to help me.”

And so begins a journey of re-discovery for this intrepid woman who needs to reclaim who she is apart from all the glitz and glamour of the broadcast media, heal from the wounds of a divorce gone terribly bad, and re-embrace the investigative reporter that lives within her–a woman who can think outside the box, who can puts clues together, and who has the instincts that will lead her ultimately to solving this crime.

This is a novel about reaffirmation of one’s true self.  And as Elizabeth allows her inner self to emerge she also realizes that she can be authentic in her judgments about her co-workers, about those who seem to want to be her friends, and about the two men who come into her life and begin friendships with her.  This is one of those complex mysteries that will yank the reader all over kingdom come.  It’s the kind of story that will never allow the reader to get even a small smell of where the story is going and who the bad guy really is.  It’s also the story of the wonder Elizabeth experiences as she repeatedly realizes that she really can re-connect with that investigative reporter who dug for clues and who couple put murder mystery puzzles together.  There are lots of wonderful moments in this novel and it is one of those reads that made me feel like I had done myself a favor for having taken the time to read it.  Believe me, this wasn’t a book one could skim or speed read and make any sense out of it.  It was the kind of book that grabbed your imagination and didn’t turn loose until the last word had been read.

I hope you will pick up this book and give it a good chance to entertain you, especially if you are a mystery fan with a little bit of romance mixed in.  Really fantastic read, really fantastic story, and I happily give it a 4.5 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This title is available from Bell Bridge Books.  You can buy it here or here in e-format.

 

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Guest Review: Uncertain Fate by Ken Casper

Posted July 22, 2013 by Judith in Reviews | 0 Comments

17046645Judith’s review of Uncertain Fate (Return to Caddo Lake Trilogy, book 1) by Ken Casper

Nineteen years ago, Frannie Granger disappeared . . . Since then, the land at Beaumarais near Caddo Lake, East Texas, has hidden the secret of her fate. Now that secret is out, but a mystery remains: who is responsible for what happened on her last hectic morning so long ago? 

The local sheriff is convinced Jed Louis, heir to the antebellum plantation house, breeder of Percheron horses, and the eldest of the three foster children Frannie raised as her own, is responsible for what took place. 
Gwyn Miller, who leases land from Jed, is equally committed to proving the millionaire horseman was in no way involved.   She’s also determined to show Jed that nothing can ever threaten what they have with each other, not even his Uncertain Fate.

I was pleased to discover the works of Ken Casper a number of months ago and am happy to report that I have never been disappointed with any of the novels he has written.  Now he and two other authors have embarked on an ambitious writing project that will give each author one of the three books in the trilogy, an on-going murder mystery and the journeys of three young people back to the place where they found love and the sense of family that has stayed with them throughout their adult lives.

This novel is Jed Louis’ story.  A young man who was not wanted and who ended up being cared for and cared about by a woman of deep compassion and endless love, and woman who did above and beyond for the three kids who made up her family even though none were her own biological offspring.  Now he is accused of his foster mother’s murder, an idea that is so foreign to Jed he can scarcely comprehend it.  In spite of his wealth that has benefitted so many in his community, he is a man under suspicion and this is a novel that walks the reader through the pain of that uncertainty, the harsh reality of what could happen even though he knows in his heart of hearts that he would never have done anything to hurt the one woman who made him feel special.

The most unique aspect of this novel is that while the journey the reader takes through weeks and months of Jed’s life introduces them to special people in his life, the reader is also aware that there are large questions that are not being answered.  In fact, the solving of the mystery of Frannie’s murder doesn’t happen in this book.  But don’t be reluctant to read it.  This novel is one of Ken Casper’s best, one that weaves Jed’s life in and out of Gwyn’s, brings him face to face with a lot about himself that he has struggled over for years, clarifies relationships from the past and the present, and helps him to recognize that all of life is uncertain, all of our future days are assumptions, and that one can only live one day at a time.  It is the supreme lesson that Jed and Gwyn are poised to face.  Whether they will learn it is the question that drives this novel.

This novel was written late in 2012 and I am not really sure when I acquired it.  But I am sure glad that I did.  It is the kind of book that pairs sizzling romance with a mystery so profound that it is going to take more than one or two books to solve the crime.  It is also the kind of book that doesn’t hesitate to craft characters that aren’t always “nice,” not always comfortable, and which allows the tension between various people in Jed’s life to live and squirm and assume a life of its own throughout the story.  The sheriff is one of those characters I hope gets a dose of real life before this is all over, but he is a mystery in and of himself.  What drives him?  Why is he so angry at Jed, so determined that Jed is the killer?  These are questions that aren’t really answered here and are guaranteed to push us all on to the next novel in the series:  Uncertain Past.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough.  Bell Bridge Books has done well to give us this fine novel and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.  I know that I am off and running to the next episode in this trilogy.

I give it a rating of  4.5 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Bell Bridge Books. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

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Guest Review: Wildest Heart by Virginia Brown

Posted June 22, 2013 by Judith in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Wildest Heart by Virginia BrownReviewer: Judith
Wildest Heart (To Love an Outlaw #2) by Virginia Brown
Series: To Love an Outlaw #2
Publisher: Zebra
Publication Date: February 1st 1994
Genres: Historical Romance
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four-half-stars
Series Rating: five-stars

DRIVEN BY REVENGE

Scarred by his shadowy past, Devon Conrad was the deadliest gunman in the west ... haunted by desperate memories of one woman even as he was irresistibly drawn to another...

BRILLIANT AND BEAUTIFUL

Maggie Malone had come to cattle country to forge her future as a healer. Now she faced an outlaw wounded in body and soul ... a seductive rebel whose eyes blazed with fury even as his burning caress sent her spiraling into the darkness of her deepest desires...

WILDEST HEART

They came together in the heat of a Texas town about to explode in sin and scandal. Danger was their destiny -- and there was nothing they wouldn't dare for love...

Lovers of historical romance fiction set in the 19th century American West will be delighted that Bell Bridge books have seen fit to re-release this Virginia Brown novel, first released in 1994. Devon’s story really begins in book one of this series where he and his sister known then as Colorado Kate formed the Lost Canyon Gang with their other riders, robbing trains in order to gain revenge on the man who had murdered their parents and stolen their father’s mine. Now Devon wanders the Western reaches of the American territories, known as one of the fastest guns for hire, rumored to be a man without conscience, no roots, and little interest in anyone but himself. Few realize that he carries with him an old but as-yet unhealed wound, deeply grieving the death of his young wife of only a few weeks at the hand of the very man who killed his parents. It is in pursuit of another lawless and greedy man that Devon is gravely injured and thus comes into the small and new medical practice of Dr. Maggie Malone.

This novel tells the story of a woman who is not interested in being a society grande dame, carefully sitting in her spotless parlor, drinking tea out of fragile bone china cups. She is a woman who wants to amount to something and one who makes a difference in a world where women are little more than brood mares and who exist to do the super duper pooper scooping of the world. (Not a lot has changes in some ways, eh?) She is doing so in spite of her brother’s continuous objections, a man with a temper, a rather exaggerated sense of his own importance and one who has yet to appreciate the grace and intelligence of his sister. He is especially upset when he finds out that Maggie has been treating Devon, that her patient has been staying in her little house as he is being cared for. And throughout this novel it becomes patently obvious that John Malone is not a deep thinker, that he is driven by his own ideas and prejudices, and cares little for the opinions of others, least of all a woman even though she may be his sister.

Thus, these two people, both of whom are living on the edges of polite society, find each other. Their relationship is flawed and troubled, by Maggie’s insistence on honesty and openness, by Devon’s persistent routine of just showing up, spending time with her, and then disappearing. She knows he has some painful secrets and that no matter how generous her love, Devon won’t allow himself to believe that there is ever the possibility that love and joy can be a part of his future. When Maggie’s brother forces them into a true shotgun wedding, an event that he has manipulated with lies and deceit, it appears that any chance for Devon and Maggie’s future together is over and done. Throw in some really evil plotters, rustlers, an angry fiance, and you have a colorful, rip-snorter of a novel that will be a sure fire winner all around.

I know there are many who think reading romance novels is the stuff empty headed women indulge in for lack of anything worthwhile to do. Yet here there is a lot to learn and lessons that are taught in the lives of these fictional characters, wisdom shared through the voice of an Apache renegade, “ah-ha” moments that are critical to the story, and visits with characters from the previous novel. Most of all, I think one of the important lessons here is that “no man is an island” and that there is no pain too deep, no wound too profound, that the redeeming power of love and authentic caring cannot heal.

I am so glad this novel and the one before it have been released. I think you will be glad you experienced it. I give it a rating of 4.5 out of 5.

The Series:

Book Cover Book Cover

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Bell Bridge Books. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

four-half-stars

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Guest Review: The Harder They Fall by Trish Jensen

Posted July 31, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Tracy’s Review of The Harder They Fall by Trish Jensen.

Darcy Welham vows to learn the family business from top to bottom and to rid it of interlopers. Her fiery spirit, quick mind and slight klutziness scares off most men–except the one she wants to intimidate! Michael Davidson has no business interfering in her life, her job or her heart. But he will not be turned away.

Darcy’s family has run the Welham restaurant business for years. When her father decides to see she puts a stop to it and decides that she’s going to learn everything about the restaurants from the ground up. She goes incognito into one and becomes a server with only the manager knowing her true identity.

Darcy meets Michael Davidson after she manages to dump a tuna melt into his lap and then accidentally grabs his junk while she’s trying to clean him off. Michael is embarrassed but even still thinks that Darcy is incredibly hot. That doesn’t mean that he’s going to keep her around one the company he works for buys the restaurants. That’s right – he’s the guy that works for the company that plans to buy out the restaurants and he has no doubt that she’ll be the first casualty of the buy out.

When Michael finds out exactly who Darcy is he’s determined to find a way to befriend her – even though they’ve not liked each other at all up to that point. He is actually successful and the two start a relationship. Michael starts having second thoughts about what he wants in life because that he knows that he wants Darcy but how will that be possible when he’s out to take over her family business.

This was a sweet story. I really liked both Michael and Darcy a lot. They each had their bad points but I thought the good out weighed the bad by a mile.

Michael could see under all of Darcy’s klutziness. He saw the grace and poise that she just reeked of and figured out that she was basically getting in her own way. Darcy saw what a kind and loving person that Michael could be and that he wasn’t always a hard ass businessman.

There was a bit of misunderstanding and lack of communication with Darcy and Michael that easily could have been rectified but that part of it was done so well that I just couldn’t help but liking it.

I very much enjoyed Ms. Jensen’s writing and will definitely be reading more of her work in the future.

Rating:3.75 out of 5.

This book is available from Bell Bridge Books. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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