Tag: Claire Baxter

Guest Review: Love on Location by Claire Baxter

Posted August 13, 2014 by Jen in Reviews | 0 Comments

Genres: Anthologies (multiple authors)

Love on LocationJen’s review of Love on Location by Claire Baxter

A deliciously fun rom com about a girl who has big dreams and just can’t stop herself from falling in love.

Shayna is this close to getting her dream job as a location manager for a new TV soap, she just needs to find the right house to film it in, and the job is hers.

Luckily, she’s found the perfect place. Unluckily, the owner – who is tall, dark and more handsome than is fair – is stubbornly refusing to let her use it unless she goes to dinner with him. No harm in that, right?

Lachlan swore he’d never go back into show business – not after his heart was broken – and the last thing he wants is a film crew traipsing through his house, but there’s something about Shayna that’s making it hard to say no . . .

He won’t let anyone near his heart, and she’s not looking for love – what could possibly go wrong?

Love on Location is a novella about Shayna, a film location scout for a company in Australia. Her boss has promised her that if she can secure the location for an upcoming TV mini-series, he will promote her to the position of location manager, her dream job. She is ecstatic when she finds the perfect property; the only problem is the owner, Lachlan, wants nothing to do with the production. Lachlan is actually a former child star. He hates all things celebrity, so the last thing he wants to do is allow his home to be used for filming. Eventually Shayna convinces him, securing her new position in the process and ensuring she has to spend a lot more time around Lachlan’s home. Lachlan is attracted to her and despite her knowledge that it would look unprofessional, they eventually begin a relationship.

I thought the setting and details were fascinating. First, the descriptions of Lachlan’s property and of Brisbane were great and made me want to visit. I also loved learning more about the business of setting up movies/TV. I’d heard of location scouts, but the story provided more details about what they do and how they do it. I also enjoyed learning about location managers and the challenges they face. I have no way of knowing if the portrayal was 100% accurate, but it felt real and added a lot to the story.

The romance was lackluster, though. I didn’t feel much chemistry between Shayna and Lachlan. The sex is all behind closed doors, which is ok, but it does rob the story of some intensity. And their non-sex activities don’t do much to add to the tension. They weren’t an unpleasant couple, but neither were they very compelling.

I also found Shayna pretty frustrating. She supposedly really, really wants her dream job, but then she does something impetuous and irresponsible that she knows could get her fired. I understand she had the hots for Lachlan, but why wouldn’t she just wait until filming was over before starting a relationship? It made her “dream” seem petty and temporary rather than some sort of driving ambition. Add in a cliched meddling mother and shallow villain, and the story really fell apart.

Overall, this novella was just “meh.” The characters and plot were pretty forgettable, and even with the shorter length I still struggled to find the motivation to finish it.

Grade: 2.25 out of 5

This book is available from Random House Australia. 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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Guest Review: Anybody But Him by Claire Baxter

Posted July 24, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Anybody But Him by Claire BaxterReviewer: Tracy
Anybody But Him by Claire Baxter
Publisher: Random House Australia
Publication Date: July 1st 2013
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 150
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four-stars

A deliciously funny rom com from Random Romance. What happens when you fall in love with the man you hate?

Nicola Doyle's dating record is a disaster, and it doesn't improve when she returns to Redgum Valley, after an absence of twelve years, to look after her increasingly eccentric parents. There, she's thrown into regular contact with Blair Morrissey – the very reason she couldn't wait to leave town in the first place.

The decade-old scars are still raw from that humiliating day in high school – when Blair went from the boy she loved to the boy she hated.

Except Blair doesn't seem to be a ‘bad boy' any more – in fact, he's charming, infuriatingly helpful and extremely attractive.

If only Nicola could forgive and forget . . .

Nicola is back in her home town of Redgum Valley for three months while she house swaps with her sister. She also is watching over her eccentric parents who have always been a bit high maintenance so her sister needs a break from them as well. Nicola is between jobs so she agrees. She’s not got fond memories of her home town but she’s going to muddle through. Her friend Lainey gets her a temp position at her place of business that allows her the freedom to look after her parents as well.

Nicola is not happy when she runs into Blair Morrissey. Nicola was a bit of a nerd in school and Blair and the other kids made fun of her. Nicola had a huge crush on Blair until her love poetry was found by another student and shown to Blair. Now Nicola is determined to stay away from the man, even though he’s filled out quite nicely in the years since she’s seen him last.

Nicola and Blair keep running into each other and when Nicola needs help and no one else is available she calls Blair. They become something like friends and Blair keeps asking her out for a drink but Nicola keeps turning him down. When it gets closer to the time when Nicola is due to go back to her life in Sydney she realizes that she certainly doesn’t hate Blair like she thought – in fact she’s pretty sure her feelings run much deeper and much more positively than that. But has Blair had enough rejection and moved on?

This was a great little novella. It was a wonderful length for the story and gave us good insight into the characters without drawing things out. We saw Blair and Nicola’s friendship blossoming despite Nicola’s attempts to stop it. Nicola eventually sees into her own heart and her past and realizes that neither she nor Blair or the same people as they were back in school and that she needed to let things go. In doing that she could open herself up to something beautiful between the two of them and I loved seeing her grow.

The story also has lovely secondary characters in Blair’s dog, Dammit, Nicola’s parents who are a crack up and her best friend Lainey. The entire cast of characters made this book a quick and fun read that had me smiling most of the way through it.

Rating: 4 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Random House Australia. You can buy it here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

four-stars


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What I Read Last Week

Posted June 25, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 1 Comment

Howdy !

Whatcha all up to? Anything fun?

My week was pretty normal – work, home, kids, hubby – you know…normal.

So what did I read this past week? 

First for the week was a book that I’ve had for more than a while and finally picked up called A Rural Affair by Catherine Alliott. The story was based on Poppy who’s husband dies in a freak accident and though it wasn’t a close marriage at all she’s still shocked to find out he’d been having an affair for the past 4 years. The story follows Poppy as she tries to go on with her life – bumbling along – and then shoves a romance at us in the last few pages. Not a great book imho but at times entertaining. 3 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

Next up was Tangled by Emma Chase. I know a lot of people didn’t like this book because they thought the first person POV from the “hero” (I use the term loosely) sucked. I personally loved it. I didn’t love him but I thought he had a great sense of humor though he could be an ass at times. You can read my quickie review here on Goodreads. 4 out of 5 

Next was Temptation by Lee Brazil. The story is about Lake, a male model who has a bit of a hook-up with a guy named Solomon at a party. When Solomon doesn’t call, and they always call, Lake decides to seek him out at his office. He is introduced to Sol’s partner – in all things – and they end up having a threesome. Sol and Adonis want more but Lake has severe anxiety and insecurities about being a third wheel in an already established relationship. It was a good read though Lake got to be a bit annoying at times. 🙂 3.5 out of 5 (read for Book Binge) 

Next up was Awakening by Serena Grey. This was a very short story about an 18 year old girl who is basically swept off her feet by an older guy. They share a night together and then get married. There’s more to it than that but that was the gist. I’m curious to see what’s next because you could tell the guy wasn’t in love with Sophie by any means so why get married on the spur of the moment? The series is called A Dangerous Man so there’s definitely more. I have to say was saying WTF a couple of times during the story and was kind of stunned at the end when it was done. 2.5 out of 5 

Rift by Andrea Cremer is a prequel to the Nightshade series. The story takes place in the 1400’s but involves demons and wraiths and all the paranormal stuff. It was a good read but it had honestly been so long since I’d read the first two Nightshade books that I was kind of confused about the relationship. I have to go back and read those first two books again before I pick up the last in the trilogy. 3.75 out of 5 

Anybody But Him by Claire Baxter is about Nicola who house swaps with her sister and ends up back in her hometown to help take care of her aging and eccentric parents. She runs into Blair who she had a crush on in school but was also the bane of her existence. She wants nothing to do with him until she sees that they’ve both changed over the years. I really enjoyed this one. The humor took a little getting used to at first but the story was easy to read and quite enjoyable. 4 out of 5 (read for Book Binge) 

How to Marry a Highlander by Katharine Ashe doesn’t come out til the end of July but I sat down to read it early. This was a great novella. It has Teresa approaching a destitute Scottish Earl and asking him to marry her. She saw him a year and a half earlier and hadn’t stopped thinking of him. When her parents want her to marry a stick in the mud vicar she gets desperate. She makes a deal with the Earl even though he has no plans to marry her. The relationship grows and only happens within a months time but this was oh, so good. I really liked just about everything about it and definitely recommend it. 4.5 out of 5 

Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid is the story of Janie who finds out her boyfriend cheated on her and then goes to work and gets “downsized.” She then meets Quinn Sullivan who she kind of starts dating, but kind of not and he helps her get a job at his security company. The story is odd and humorous at the same time as it’s awkward and sometimes frustrating. I really enjoyed the writing though and definitely want to read more from this author. 4 out of 5 (read for Book Binge) 

Wicked as She Wants by Delilah S. Dawson is a steampunk fantasy novel that mixes the contemporary with the historical and I really, really liked this one. The story focuses on Casper who is trying to help a princess get back to her homeland after she’s abducted. The world they live in is wonderful and it was just really good. You can read my full review here at Book Binge. 4 out of 5 

Last for the week was Werecat: The Rearing by Andrew J. Peters. This is a short story about a guy meeting a man who he thinks might be “the one” and having it go all wrong when the guy transforms him into a werecat. I’ll post my review of this one later this week. 

My Book Binge reviews that posted since last Monday:
The Secret of Mia Danvers by Robyn DeHart
Wicked as She Wants by Delilah S. Dawson 

Happy Reading!


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