Tag: Susan Mallery

Guest Review: Christmas on 4th Street by Susan Mallery

Posted December 24, 2013 by Tina R in Reviews | 0 Comments

christmas on 4th street
Tina’s review of Christmas on 4th Street (Fools Gold #12.5) by Susan Mallery

There’s nowhere better to spend the holidays than with New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery in the town of Fool’s Gold, where love is always waiting to be unwrapped… Noelle Perkins just got a second chance at life, and she intends to make the most of every minute. That’s why she ditched a frustrating legal career to open her own store in Fool’s Gold, California. The Christmas Attic celebrates everything that’s magical about her favorite season. Business is booming, and as a bonus, gorgeous army doctor Gabriel Boylan has offered to help out during the holiday rush.

Gabriel’s memories of Christmas past contain more sour grapes than sugar plums, thanks to a drill sergeant father who ran his home like a boot camp. Spending the holidays with his family while he recuperates from injury sounds as appetizing as last year’s eggnog. Still, there are some enjoyable distractions in town, including sunny, sexy Noelle…and the red-hot mistletoe kisses they can’t stop sharing.

Gabriel didn’t think he was made for happily-ever-afters. But when fate hands you a love as sweet and surprising as this, only a fool could refuse….

Christmas on 4th Street is the newest story in the Fool’s Gold series. I was so glad that the series included a holiday story. Fool’s Gold is such a great place that I was looking forward to returning there for the holidays. I have read every book in this series, and have enjoyed them all. The residents of Fool’s Gold are the kind of people you want to know – the kind of people that you want to be your own neighbors. I was thrilled when I received the book in the mail, and even more when I saw the gorgeous sparkly cover! It really added to the festive feeling of the book.

Noelle Perkins loves Christmas. And being frustrated with an unsatisfying legal career, she decides to open a shop called The Christmas Attic in Fool’s Gold California. Gabriel Boylan is an army doctor and is home recuperating from an injury, and he just happens to be the twin brother of Gideon, who we all met in a previous Fool’s Gold story. Not at all excited about his overbearing father coming to visit during the holiday, he decides to work part time at Noelle’s shop. This is where the attraction begins.

I really loved this story of Noelle and Gabriel’s budding romance. I thought they made a cute couple, and I love the snarky humor that Noelle brought to the story. Although Gabriel is attracted to Noelle, he is afraid to get hurt again. And Noelle, being the strong woman that she is, decides that although she too has been hurt, she will not let that stop her from finding love again. Their story is proof that you should never give up on love.

Susan Mallery has done it again with another great couple from the heartwarming town of Fool’s Gold. There are so many other great characters to find out about – I am definitely looking forward to more! Christmas on 4th Street is a sweet holiday romance that will make you smile, and maybe even laugh a little . And it is a must-read for any Fool’s Gold fan!

I would like to thank the author for allowing me to be part of her Review Crew for the Fool’s Gold Series. I received this book in return for an honest review.

I rate this one a 3.5

This book is available from Harlequin HQN Books.  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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Review: Only His by Susan Mallery.

Posted October 3, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment


Rowena’s review of Only His (Fool’s Gold Series, Book 6) by Susan Mallery.

Hero: Tucker Janack
Heroine: Nevada Hendrix

Wedding bells are ringing in Fool’s Gold, but not for Nevada Hendrix. Her triplet sisters are engaged, and even her mother has a more active love life than she does. Determined to make a fresh start, she applies for her dream job, only to discover that her new boss is her first love. Maybe she could overlook the fact that they’ve seen each other naked, but she’ll never forget the way he broke her heart.

Tucker Janack agrees to Nevada’s “business only” ground rules. After all, love is a trap that the construction millionaire has avoided his whole life. But when great business partners turn out to be so much more, every rule gets broken. Will either of them be willing to try again…or will their past get in the way?

The last of the Hendrix triplet’s gets their happy ending in Only His. This book follows Nevada Hendrix as she goes after a job that she wants, working for a guy that broke her heart. When Nevada was eighteen years old and away at college, her older brother Ethan gave her the name and number of a childhood friend who would show her around and help her if she ever needed it. Nevada wasn’t really planning on using the number but when Ethans asks, she caves and gives him a call. She wasn’t expecting Tucker to remember her or even be excited to see her but when she’s proven wrong on that front, Nevada agrees to meet him and from then on out, she was never the same.

Nevada fell hard for Tucker but he had a girlfriend. He had a girlfriend named Cat who was everything Nevada wasn’t and he was obsessed with her. He had no eyes for Nevada and even though hanging out with him hurt like hell, she couldn’t stop herself from seeing him. When Cat and Tucker break up, Nevada goes to him and Tucker dicks her over and that was the last she saw of him until ten years later when he comes storming back into Fool’s Gold, heading up a job that has Nevada salivating at the mouth for.

The romance between Tucker and Nevada was my absolute favorite part of this book. It was so easy to fall into their story and to be anxious for more from these two. Whether we’re learning about their past or watching them in the present, I enjoyed that part of the book. I loved seeing Tucker going soft on Nevada and seeing Nevada fight her attraction for Tucker. I loved how up front Tucker was about his attraction to Nevada and the way that he went after her was so freaking sexy.

My issues with this book was all of the corniness from the other people in this book. Will and Jo’s secondary romance left a lot to be desired from me. I wanted to like it but it was just okay. Will’s reaction to Jo’s confession had me rolling my eyes down the street. I thought it was so dumb and then every time they talked to each other, I could see the cheese oozing from their mouths. It was like that with everyone in this series and it makes me sad because I think I’m done with this series after this one. I don’t think I can take anymore of this happy, happy, joy, joy crap that’s going around Fool’s Gold.

The whole Cat and the giant vagina thing was another thing that I didn’t feel added anything to the story. It could have been left out and I probably would have enjoyed the story more. Cat’s part in this book should have been small and making her have lesbian feelings for Nevada did nothing but make me think, “WTF?” over and over again.

My issues weren’t with the main romance between Tucker and Nevada. I adored the two of them and watching them grow to love each other. It was all the other stuff going on around that made me want to throw up because there was just too much. All these pregnancies, all of these engagements and then the triple wedding? It was just too freaking much and even though I knew the triple wedding was coming (because how could you not?), I knew that I was done with this series. I know that there are more books in the work because there’s Charlie, Annabelle and Heidi wanting their own men and I don’t think I can sit through more cheesiness.

I think I enjoy my small town romances in threes. This series hooked me with six but I think I’m done with this series for now. I spent most of this book, rolling my eyes and complaining to Ames and Izzy. I mean, I know that eventually everyone gets married and what not but why can’t a happy for now ending be okay from time to time? Especially if the couple isn’t even the main couple. I know that we got that with Denise and Max but still, it didn’t feel the same.

The romance between Tucker and Nevada was great, it was everything I hoped for Nevada and Tucker was everything I was excited for and I’m glad that I got to know him. He was one of those sexy heroes that I adore and while he made some bonehead moves at the end, I still loved him.

Overall, the romance was great but the rest that came with it- I could have done without so for the romance alone, I’m giving this book the grade that I’m giving it.

Grade: 3 out of 5.

Reading Order:

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

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Review: Only Yours by Susan Mallery.

Posted August 26, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments


Rowena’s review of Only Yours by Susan Mallery.

Hero: Simon Bradley
Heroine: Montana Hendrix

Montana Hendrix has found her calling-working with therapy dogs. With a career she loves in a hometown she adores, she’s finally ready to look for her own happily ever after. Could one of her dogs help her find Mr. Right…or maybe Dr. Right?

Surgeon Simon Bradley prefers the sterility of the hospital to the messiness of real life, especially when real life includes an accident-prone mutt and a woman whose kisses make him want what he knows he can’t have. Scarred since childhood, he avoids emotional entanglement by moving from place to place to heal children who need his skillful touch. Can his growing feelings for Montana lead him to find a home in Fool’s Gold, or will he walk away, taking her broken heart with him?

Montana Hendrix gets her happily ever after in Only Yours by Susan Mallery. Of the triplets, Montana was my favorite. For some reason, that she considered herself the family screw up made me like her more. When we first meet Montana in Chasing Perfect, Montana befriends Charity and she talks her ear off. She’s friendly and she’s chatty and I immediately liked her. She’s like that with everyone and when Mayor Marsha comes to her and asks her to take the new doctor in town around, show him the hot spots of Fools Gold in an effort to keep him around, Montana does it because that’s the kind of person she is.

Dr. Simon Bradley has been a loner by choice. A victim of child abuse from his mother that left him with angry burns on his body, he keeps the burns around as a reminder to himself that love doesn’t always exist where its supposed to exist. Not all parents are good and not all people are good. He’s shy to start up relationships and he’s never in any place long enough to form attachments because he prefers it that way but all of his carefully thought out plans are shot to hell when he comes to Fools Gold.
This book was such a delightful read. I really enjoyed getting to know more about Montana and getting to know Simon. They were such opposites and yet they were so good together. Montana and her never ending capacity to love and Simon and his inability to see himself ever happy made for some great reading. Seeing Simon come to grips with his feelings for Montana, seeing his confusion at how fast and immediate his attraction was to her had me grinning from ear to ear throughout most of this book.
A scarred hero is always sexy to me and Simon was just that. He had scars from his past (but emotionally and physically) and I enjoyed seeing the wall around his heart thaw just by being with Montana. I loved that he saw the goodness in her and wanted to keep her that way. He liked her just the way she was and wanted to protect her innocence which I thought was super sweet.
I really enjoyed Simon and Montana’s characters but they were just a small part of what I enjoyed about this book. I liked getting to know Kallinda and Reese. I thought it was cute the way that they became friends and I thought Reese was adorable when he wanted to make Kallinda happy by giving her the suggestion about the marriage back up plan. I’m curious to see if we’ll get more Denise and Max (I’m itching to know what really went down between those two) and I’m wondering if Kent Hendrix is going to get his own book. I’d enjoy that, I think. A math teacher hero? I can dig it, for sure.
I’m also anxious for Nevada’s story. I need to meet Tucker Jannack. I need to know who he is and what happened between him and Nevada. I just know I’m going to enjoy their story. It should be a good one.
Overall, this story is filled with the same small town goodness that the other Fools Gold stories have and it’s got a hero and a heroine who will make you smile and characters that will keep you coming back for more. Mallery does a great job of telling Simon and Montana’s story. There’s a lot of that cheesy goodness in this story but I didn’t mind it so much because I enjoy the characters. This book is light and perfect for a lazy day at the beach. I recommend this book to fans of Mallery’s previous Fools Gold books and of small town contemporaries.
Grade: 4 out of 5

Reading Order:

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

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Review: Only Mine by Susan Mallery.

Posted August 8, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments


Rowena’s review of Only Mine by Susan Mallery.

Hero: Finn Andersson
Heroine: Dakota Hendrix

Her town’s lack of men may make headlines, but it isn’t news to Dakota Hendrix. The beautiful blonde has bigger problems to deal with, such as overseeing the romance reality competition filming in Fool’s Gold. Screening eligible bachelors is a difficult enough task, but Dakota hits an unexpected snag when a sexy stranger comes to town.
Finn Anderssen will do anything to keep his twin brothers — the perfect contestants — off the show. Despite Dakota’s better judgment, she finds herself drawn to the mysterious outsider. Like her, Finn knows about heartbreak and how a family can fall apart, so she doesn’t dare to hope for anything more than a fling. After all, even in the Land of Happy Endings, finding true love is never as easy as it looks on TV.

I can’t believe we’re already at Book 5 in the Fool’s Gold series. Susan Mallery wrote another enjoyable story about the small town that I’ve come to love to bits and pieces. This story starts off the three books that will hit us this year, three books for three sisters. Ethan from Almost Perfect’s sisters. The triplets finally get their happily ever afters and first up is Dakota. If you remember, Dakota is the sister that works with Raoul from Finding Perfect at the camp that Raoul started in Fool’s Gold.

Dakota has been roped into the town’s reality show and she’s not very happy about it since she has better things to do than babysit a bunch of Hollywood wannabe’s and make sure that the producers and director’s of the show don’t paint Fool’s Gold in a bad light. While on the job, she meets Finn Anderssen. Finn is not happy about being in Fool’s Gold because his twin brothers decided to drop out of college one semester shy of graduating and pursue a career in Hollywood by way of trying out for the reality show, True Love or Fool’s Gold? After Finn’s parents died when the boys were just about thirteen, Finn has been their primary guardian and step in parent. He’s done everything he could to do right by these boys and he’s pissed to high heaven that they would throw their college educations away for some stupid reality show.

What’s a pissed off parent to do when their kids run off to do some idiotic thing? Run after them of course. That’s why Finn finds himself in Fool’s Gold. He’s trying to get his brothers to come back home, finish college and then, only then will he let the reigns go. Only problem is, they won’t budge. Sasha and Stephen are determined to stay in Fool’s Gold and there’s nothing Finn can do about it.

Except stay with them, of course. So he does and while he’s staying in Fool’s Gold, he gets close to Dakota Hendrix. Dakota was struck with some bad news a few years ago and in just a moment, all of her dreams about becoming a mother are flushed down the toilet by the news that there is a one in a million chance of her ever having kids. After coming to terms with this, Dakota grieves for a little bit but decides to move on with her life and looks into adopting her own kid. Someone who needs her just as much as she needs them.

While all of this is in motion, Dakota finds herself getting closer and closer to a man who is determined to butt his nose into his fully grown brothers lives. Before she knows whats what, they’re dating and she likes it. She likes him but as much as she likes him, she knows that nothing much could come of them seeing since he won’t be sticking around after the show wraps because he’s got a life in South Salmon, Alaska that he’s determined to get back to. Pushing those thoughts aside, she lets herself live in the moment.

Mallery does a great job of sucking you right back into Fool’s Gold. While I enjoyed seeing everyone again and appreciated that the recurring characters didn’t steal Finn and Dakota’s thunder, this book didn’t grab me the way that the previous books did. I still enjoyed it but I’m not sure if all of the pregnancies that popped up in this book took away some of my enjoyment. I mean, does everyone need to be in a mad rush to get pregnant and have families? Everyone is pregnant in this book and then the whole thing with Dakota, I kept thinking, “Really? Did that really need to happen for her to have her happily ever after?” I guess, I just ODed on babies but other than that, the book was enjoyable.

Finn was a stand up hero and I liked how everything with his brothers wrapped up. I thought Finn was a bonehead in most of the beginning because I couldn’t believe how unreasonable (no matter how valid his reasons were) he was being with his brothers. I got why he was there but his whole run their lives mentality he had, made me rolls my eyes across the room. I enjoyed the secondary romance between Stephen and Aurelia though. That was a cute addition and I enjoyed seeing the sisters (Dakota, Montana and Nevada) all together too. Overall, it was a cute read with some cheese that I could have done without but not a bad read at all.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

Reading Order:

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

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What I Read Last Week

Posted July 25, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 8 Comments

Happy almost end of July!!
What’s up in Tracyland?
I continue to have bizarre reading weeks as I continue to get up early. My daughter’s summer school ended last week but since I originally thought it ran until the 29th of July that’s how I planned my schedule at work. There’s only 1 week left – woohoo! I hate getting up early but I love, love, love getting off early from work. But then I hate having to go to bed earlier in order to get enough sleep to wake up early again. It’s a vicious cycle! lol
So this past Saturday I drove down and saw Holly for a girls day. We talked about family, and friends, and kids, and rhino and panther dicks (which you can read about in Holly’s post here) and laughed and ate and just had so much fun. I ended up coming home with a large stack of books to review for The Book Binge – bigger than the original pile she had to mail me. lol
Holly also showed me the wonderful app that Goodreads now has and it’s awesome! I was using the mobile site on my phone and it was kind of a pain, I must say. For those of us who still read print books it’s got a barcode scanner and you can direct the scans to exactly which shelf you want to put the books on. The rest of the app is incredibly easy to use as well and I entered all of the books that I got from Holly all in the space of 5 minutes (I had to enter some by hand since they were ARC’s). If you use Goodreads a lot, as I do, and you have an app capable phone I suggest you get this one – it’s the perfect price: free!
Update on my oldest: She’s doing great. We had a follow up with our regular doctor. He had her give blood again to check her levels, scheduled her for an ultrasound to check things out a little more closely and then set up an appointment for us with a Gynecologist so that we can talk about the cause of the cyst and how to avoid them in the future, etc. She’s back to her normal self and doing well which is a huge relief.
It’s going to be a hard week this week. My boss, the one I’ve worked for for the past 10 years, is retiring. This is her last full work week and then her last service (she’s a priest) will be on Sunday. I has a great big sad. I know that things will be ok after she leaves but I love her so much. I’m pretty sure 75% of my love for my job is her. She’s been a wonderful boss and a great friend and I will miss her something fierce.*sniff*
I was thinking this past week that I need to take a vacation and do nothing but read. I could head to my bosses cabin near Lake Arrowhead and have peace and solitude and read my ass off. Doesn’t that sound good? Of course I think I might have to make it a 3 week vacation: 1 week to read just from my m/f TBR – 1 week to read all of my Book Binge review books and write reviews – 1 week to read nothing but m/m. Heaven. It sounds like sheer effin heaven.
Oh, and I’m over at DIK today and for the next couple of days.
Enough about me…how are you? What did you do this past week or weekend that was fun and exciting? Anything.
I started the week with my TBR Challenge Read which was My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger. This was an wonderful book and I loved it. You can see my review here if you’re interested. 5 out of 5
Next was a novella for The Book Binge called Surrounded by Woods by Mandy Harbin. It was the story of mountain lion shifters who live to eat and mate. They stay away from society because if they are around an unattached female they’ll go feral, mate with the woman against her will (can you say rape?) and that has deadly consequences for both parties involved. Mikaela heads to Woods estate to help with some legal issues and she’s safe because they think she’s engaged…which she’s not any longer. Mikaela and one of the four sons, Josh, hit it off in a big way but what happens when they find out she’s not really engaged? A cute story in some aspects, and a bit ridiculous in others. 2.5 out of 5
Next was Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer. This is book 2 in the Nightshade series and it starts off where book 1 left off. Calla is now with the Searchers but she doesn’t know who to trust and what’s happening back in her pack. She wants to get her pack and make sure they’re safe…along with Ren. Shay isn’t too thrilled that Calla is still thinking about Ren but he deals with it. Things don’t go as planned with the rescue mission and Calla finds out she has a traitor in her pack. Another good story – I’ll be posting my review this week for this book.
I started The Summer of You by Kate Noble but halfway through I put the book down. I was a little bored and though I normally like sweet, somewhat non-angsty romances this was a little too slow for me. I may go back and finish it some other time as I started and stopped Compromised as well – went back later and loved it. DNF (for now)
England’s Perfect Hero by Suzanne Enoch was my next read and it was so good! As much as I loved the story and the romance it was really Bit that made this book for me. He was just so emotionally scarred and I wanted to hug him for most of the book. The story was about Lucinda who has decided to teach her “lessons” to the fourth son of a duke but feels quite guilty about it since she’s really vying for marriage. The man, Geoffrey is courting Lucinda’s father, a general, as much as he’s courting Lucinda. Bit overhears about the lessons and offers to “help” Lucinda with them. Lucinda and Bit get closer and spend more time together and though they each say they’re only friends love grows between them. 4.5 out of 5
When I head to Holly’s I always get an audio book to listen to. This time I got Irresistible by Susan Mallery. I listened to about 4 of the cd’s before I got home and then read the last part of it via ebook. I liked the book but had an issue with the reader. I didn’t like her voice all that much and she made everyone but the hero and heroine have what sounded like southern accents. I could hear the where the lines were supposed to be humorous but frankly she didn’t have much inflection in her voice and it was all lost in the translation. She also made the heroes voice sound like he had no personality at all. I think she was going for stoic but didn’t quite manage that.
Also – a note to audio book readers: drink water. I really have no desire to hear the pastiness when you get dry mouth. Ewwww. lol
The story itself was about an ex-marine who moves into an apartment and becomes emotionally involved, against his will, with his neighbor and her daughter. It was a cute book. 3.5 out of 5
Last on the list was a soon to be re-issued book called The Husband She Couldn’t Remember by Maggie Shayne. The book is about a woman who has been thought dead for 2 years by her husband and his family who shows up not knowing who she is. I’m posting my review of this later this week. 🙂
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:

Happy Reading!

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