Book Review: "Snowed In" by Jenna Bayley-Burke

***** - This book is Hot. I was so excited to receive a free copy of this via Netgalley. I loved Compromising Positions by Jenna Bayley-Burke and so I jumped at the chance to read this book. I wasn't disappointed.

Marissa is the Maid of Honour at her best friend's wedding, and had agreed to share her room with a friend as a favour. When that so-called "friend" locks her out of her hotel room so that she can enjoy a hook-up with an old flame, Marissa decides to keep the peace and not call hotel security. Her one-time friend from school, Scott, has a cabin nearby and offers her use of his guest room.

Scott has been in love with Marissa from the moment he first saw her, but she had always been with his friend and team-mate, so he never had a shot with her. Now she's single, but only due to the fact that his friend had been cheating on her for years and dumped her at the altar. The betrayal Marissa felt was only made worse by the fact that Scott, who she'd counted as a friend, never told her the truth about her ex.

The two end up back at Scott's cabin, alone, and right at the beginning of a storm. Isolated for the night, they start to put their friendship back together, and as one night becomes several, it is impossible to deny their chemistry. But Scott has waited for years for this chance and refuses to let Marissa slip through his fingers, while Marissa refuses to dedicate her whole life to a man all over again.

Marissa and Scott have seriously hot chemistry, their flirty banter is delightful, and their history makes the story really interesting. I had so much fun reading this book, definitely makes my favourites list! I can even see myself reading it again.

Book Review: "Fat Fridays" by Judith Keim

* - I thought this would be like a cute, inspiring chick-lit filled cupcake with frosting. Instead, it was kind of like a half-baked fruit cake. When I have nothing nice to say I try not to say too much, so here goes.

On the box, this is the story of five women who meet together for calorie dense lunches and form solid friendships while supporting each other through various hardships. In this case, this means five disconnected stories with no solid conclusions and no great love or detail given to any of them.

Each woman gets her own chapter to start, so it takes five or so chapters for the story to even begin. This was a really hard slog and - I'm not going to lie - it took me a few days to even get through it. None of the women seemed relatable and none of them really had a hook that made me want to keep reading.

The main character is Sukie, recently divorced and with two adult children, she is sick of being the subject of town gossip and joins the Fat Fridays lunch group as there seems to be nothing else on her social calendar. Sukie is your typical house wife. Can't believe her husband cheated on her, overly concerned with her children's lives, loves to cook and is eagerly awaiting the birth of her first grandchild. She meets a younger man, and thus ensues the most unconvincing romance I have ever read. Her love interest may as well be a wet sheet of corrugated cardboard with a nice smile. Sukie spends most of the book in denial that he could be attracted to her, and while she eventually accepts that he is, I couldn't quite make that leap with her.

The other women don't fare much better. Tiffany is stuck in a suffocating marriage which includes her in-laws; Betsy has found an unconventional love that her family struggle to accept; Carol Anne is an air-head who needs a boot up the backside and thinks an attractive, wealthy man is all she needs to be happy. Lynn's story should have had a book to itself and is the catalyst for the climax of the story, but she barely gets a handful of pages devoted to her.

I was expecting strong female characters and got a box of tissues. Most of these women could have solved all of their problems by telling people to shove off and mind their own business. What's worse, the book ends with the stories only half concluded, and the fate of background characters is unknown. There is a sequel, which I only discovered when I jumped online to review the book, and probably should have been mentioned somewhere in the book.

The book is technically well written, although there is one scene which gave me some major deja-vu - it is nearly a carbon copy of an earlier scene, and I suspect one of them was supposed to have been edited out.

The cupcakes on the cover look appealing, but this book isn't. Thanks to netgalley for the free copy in exchange for my review - wish I could have said something sweeter.

Book Review: "Never Too Late (Appleby #1)" by Alyssia Leon

*** - I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Molly lives with her beloved Nan in a small country village called Appleby. Her Nan runs the household for a beautiful estate home, though the owner is often absent. After an unresolved break-up, Molly is waiting for her boyfriend to return when she is blindsided by the introduction of his beautiful new fiancee.

Jake, billionaire and Handsome Man, makes his fortune in real estate. He visits Appleby to see the estate and modernise the property. Molly and Jake have an instant physical attraction, and in an effort to get Molly into his bed, Jake lets Molly take the lead on the house renovation so that she can retain the charm of the house she loves and grew up caring for.

The story is well-developed and Alyssia Leon writes excellent supporting characters. The small-minded gossips of Appleby spend very little time on the pages but come to life spectacularly. I was also sold on the instant attraction between Molly and Jake. Unfortunately, I didn't find their transition from lust to love to be very convincing, and the sex scenes read more like a race announcement than erotic fiction.

Despite the excellent supporting cast, I had a couple of issues with the hero and heroine. Molly has no backbone at all, and despite us being told that she'd finally found one, it really didn't seem that way. She let every single mean and nasty person walk all over her, never setting the record straight and often back-flipping on her own resolve. It was incredibly frustrating to read. Jake intially seemed like more than your stereotypical leading man, with a secret in his past that I was eager to discover. When I did, it just didn't seem to deliver the emotional depth that I was hoping for. The time frame from heartbreak to new love was totally unbelievable, and that is where the book ultimately lost me.

As far as romances go, Never Too Late delivers in all of the appropriate areas and is a good read. For me, it was acceptable but not spectacular. I will still keep an eye on the series, I am intrigued enough about the other characters that I'd like to read their stories too.

Book Review: "Cowboy Christmas Homecoming" by Mary Connealy, Ruth Logan Herne, Julie Lessman and Anna Schmidt

** - I was given a free copy of this book by Netgalley in exchange for this review, so I wish I could say something nicer.

From a technical point of view, this book contains 4 well written novellas. From a story and character perspective... I struggled to finish.

One thing which was not clear to me before I started this book is that it is very much about the wholesome Christian sort of love. As an atheist and a romance enthusiast, this is really not my cup of tea. I might have tolerated it better or avoided it if this was obvious from the description or title of the book, but as it wasn't I was left with an incredibly bad taste in my mouth.

I don't like to dwell too much on the negative so I will simply say this: there is no passion in these romances. The love is pure and practical. The last story in particular, Connie’s Christmas Prayer by Anna Schmidt, involves a young girl reexamining the worth of her own goals and even her own name, to please the hero of the story.

This book was not for me. I am sure there is a market for wholesome, pure, religious courtships, but it should probably say so on the box, as it is a pretty significant deviation from the norm in this genre.