Tag: Gloria Schumann

Review: Called Home: Two Hearts Answer by Gloria Schumann

Posted March 23, 2011 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

Emma Benson’s view of life was crafted by the death of her brother as a child, abandonment by her father and later, the man she trusted she would marry, until David Schlosser-back in town after years in New York writing best-selling novels-threatens her neatly tended life. Romance blooms. Emma and David eventually persevere in the face of tragedy, refusing to leave their dreams behind.

Emma has quit her teaching job to return to her family’s Wisconsin farm to help her mother try and save said farm from foreclosure. David has returned home after 7 years because he finally realized that the Wisconsin area he grew up in wasn’t as Podunk as he thought.

David is on his way to his parents’ farm when a storm hits. Heads to the nearest farm – Emma’s home – to take refuge from what looks like a tornado. Emma isn’t thrilled with letting him in but finally agrees. Though David is pleasant to Emma and her mother, Emma is incredibly rude and wants no part of the friendship that David immediately offers. David starts hanging around on a regular basis and even saves Emma during an attempted robbery at the bookstore where Emma works.

The couple spend more and more time together but Emma is constantly rude to David. I honestly couldn’t understand David wanting to spend time with Emma after the foul way she talks to him – even the first time, but I guess his attraction to her was just too great.

Emma and David become closer – especially after someone seems to be after them – he doesn’t want to leave her alone. Eventually David breaks through Emma’s self-imposed barrier and get to the soft center of the woman.

As I’ve said Emma was quite impolite when David first came to her house for shelter. She continued her nasty behavior as the days went on and frankly I just didn’t like her. I thought that David was really the glue that held the book together but I just couldn’t see – even though it was explained in the book, what the attraction to Emma was besides physical. Yes, she did have issues because of the abandonment of her father, the death of her brother and the ill treatment of a previous relationship but I would have still expected common human decency. Thankfully Emma lightened up as the book went on and I understood and liked her a little better.

David was quite forward with Emma even when they first met but he felt a connection to her immediately. I began to feel that connection as the book went on but not as strongly as I think I was supposed to. He was quite a wonderful guy – caring, giving and patient and loyal – great qualities.

Overall it was a nice story of a couple from a small farming community coming together. I liked Ms. Schumann’s writing and descriptions of the countryside, I just wanted to like the heroine a bit more.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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What I Read Last Week

Posted March 21, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 18 Comments

Good morning!
So it’s going to be a busy day at work today. Yesterday we had quite a storm and got mucho rain. My office at work was flooded as well as the preschool that’s attached to it and part of the rest of the facility. Lots of work to do.
This past weekend I got the pleasure of spending quite a few hours with Lori, Holly and Nikki which was just a ton of fun. We had lunch, went to the local Borders (which is closing down so all the romance was on sale for 50% off) and then to B & N. We talked and laughed and just had a great time.
A funny thing that happened last Friday…I was assaulted by the Oatmeal Police. You didn’t know that they existed, did you? Well frankly, I didn’t either until I was in Starbucks. This is what happened…I got my coffee and oatmeal from Starbucks and was “fixing” my oatmeal at the counter when a man walked up to me and started spewing about how much milk I put in my oatmeal. Now, if you’ve ever had oatmeal from there you’d know that the cups are rather small so really I had probably put about 2 tablespoons in but apparently that was way too much in this man’s opinion. I asked him why he thought it was his business and he was just disgusted that I would put milk in and not let the oatmeal “cook” with just the water. I told him that it would “cook” by the time that I got to work, it would just do it with the milk in it. He just shook his head and walked off. This man was seriously disturbed about my oatmeal. I had to laugh but then I started thinking about the fact that this guy thought that it was really OK to tell me how to do something – someone he doesn’t even know. I have a sense of propriety and even if I think someone is doing something completely ridiculous I would never say it to them (unless they were harming someone else). Is this something that would just happen in America or would this happen in say England where (I think) they are very proper? Or any other place? I just don’t get why people think everyone else’s business is theirs as well. Huh. Something to think about.
So on to what I read last week:
My first read for the week was a YA fantasy book called Chime by Franny Billingsley. I don’t normally read YA or fantasy all that much, for that matter, but it was a decent read. You can read my review here if you’re interested. 3.75 out of 5
Next up was The Rake and the Recluse by Jenn LeBlanc – a book I read for The Book Binge. This was a time travel historical where a woman is sent back in time. The theory that her father had come up with is that there is that one person that we are destined to be with and that we could travel time in order for that match to happen. She thought he was nutty but obviously something happened. She falls in love with the recluse, a Duke, who finds her by almost running over her with his carriage. This was a decent read as well. There were parts of it that I didn’t care for but since it was so long (580 pages) there could be parts that I didn’t like and still like the book as a whole. 3.75 out of 5
After that was Shades of Gray by Brooke McKinley. This was an m/m about an FBI agent, Miller, who is determined to bring down a drug lord. He gets an ex-con who works in the drug lord’s organization, Danny, to help him out and ends up babysitting and protecting him when said drug lord comes after the informant. But there’s so much more going on here besides Miller trying to save Danny’s life. It’s Miller admitting to himself that yes, he is gay, and that yes, he has been living a lie his entire life and what will he do about it if he wants to be with Danny. This was such a great read. I loved the tension both sexual and suspense-wise. Danny and Miller’s relationship really had me on the edge of my seat and I loved not being able to figure out how the hell they would ever be able to be together. Just a damn good read. 5 out of 5
My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was Born to Be Wild by Christine Warren. Josie is a vet and Eli is the town sheriff and also an Other – a lion shifter. Eli brings in a wolf – who’s actually a shifted human – to her clinic and she tries to help the person. They discover that there’s something funky going on with the wolf as well as in the town and they’re determined to figure it out. The suspense part of this book was really the only thing I cared for in the story. It was pretty interesting and kept me guessing. The romance did nothing for me. I didn’t like Eli because he treated Josie like she was an idiot though she was really quite smart. However, she did have her TSTL moments and I ended up thinking they were perfect for each other. 2.5 out of 5
Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips was my next read. This was another good read about Meg who heads to Texas for her best friend’s wedding and realizes that these two people should not be getting married. She manages to get Lucy to realize that Ted is not who she will be happy with the rest of her life. The wedding gets cancelled but Meg is stuck in town because she has no money. Though they hate each other, eventually Ted and Meg start a sex only relationship but as does happen, Meg ends up falling in love with Ted. I wasn’t sure what to think about Ted at first but as the book went on I got to like him more and more. Meg and Ted were great together and I really ended up liking the book. 4 out of 5
Last on the list was Called Home: Two Hearts Answer by Gloria Schumann. This was the story of Emma and David who head back to their home towns for different reasons and meet up. I’ll be reviewing this on Wednesday so you can read more about it then.
My Book Binge reviews that posted this past week:

Happy Reading!

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