Tag: smalltown

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#BlogTour: All The Ways You Break Me by Melissa Wiesner

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a worthy successor and conclusion of this romance duology. For this blog tour, we’re looking at All The Ways You Break Me by Melissa Weisner.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / TheStoryGraph.com), YouTube, and Substack:

Worthy Successor. This is one of those duologies where the first book is *so* strong, how can a second *possibly* hold up to it? And yet the second one comes and shows that it is every bit the first tale’s equal.

Pretty well everything that was present in the first book is back in some form. The teen romance. The second chance a decade or so later. The mystery. The tragedy. About the only thing *not* here from the first book is the one thing the most people likely had the most problems with, except that in its place we get something that arguably even more people will have a problem with… though in this case (fortunately) it isn’t anywhere near as explicit.

As to what this thing is, I applaud Wiesner for having a webpage listing trigger warnings for this book rather than listing them at the front of the book and thereby making them unavoidable for those reading on eReaders, and I encourage any who may need to see a list of trigger warnings to go to that page, indeed it is directly on the book’s page on her website at melissawiesner dot com/books/all-the-ways-you-break-me. Even here, note that the warnings are all the way at the bottom of the page and thus fairly easily avoidable even here for those who do not wish to see them.

We do, however, get the jalapeno/ habanero level sex scene in this book as well, it just happens to be with a couple approaching 30 rather than a couple who still hasn’t hit 18. Still, for those who prefer to read books without such scenes… you’ve been warned. Once again, please don’t 1 or 2 star this book over this scene now that you’ve read my own review where I am making it a point to tell you of its existence. 🙂

And yes, this is the conclusion to a particularly strong romance duology. We get answers. We get happy endings for everyone (as far as the romances themselves go – no guarantees for anything else 😉 ). And yes, we get a few dusty rooms along the way too.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: All The Ways You Break Me by Melissa Wiesner”

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#BookReview: It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica

Solid Mary Kubica Thriller. That’s really all long time fans of Kubica need to know – she’s written yet another thriller that will have you breathlessly up way too late in the evening because “just one more chapter” keeps being repeated. One where the twists are coming almost literally until the very last word of the text.

For those new to Kubica, while I can’t honestly say I’ve read *everything* she’s written, I’ve read several – enough to know her current style at minimum, and like I said above, this is *exactly* her current style. So if you’re into books like what I described earlier, congratulations, you’ve found a new author you’re very much likely to enjoy quite a bit from, including this book.

Beyond the standard though, Kubica actually works several interesting tweaks into the story here that help it standout *somewhat* without necessarily being something you’re still going to remember a few hundred books down the road (whenever that may be for you). Enough to keep even voracious readers interested and guessing, even when you think you’ve seen every possible variation of every possible twist. Yes, you may have seen this one before too… but I can almost guarantee you that you haven’t seen it done *quite* like this.

Overall a very fun book and a great one when you need a distraction from the so-called “real” world for any reason at all.

Very much recommended.

This review of It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica was originally written on January 26, 2026.

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#BookReview: Night Terror by Vincent Ralph

Solid YA Horror. Weird Whiplash As Book 2 In Series. This book, taken independently, is pretty damn awesome. You’ve got strong 80s vibes, including strong RL Stine type vibes. You’ve got a mall – that quintessential 80s teen experience (says the kid who was never a teen until the mid 90s). You’ve got all kinds of ancient smalltown creepiness and secrets. Seriously, every bit of this is clicking on every level.

You’ve even got monsters that fans of Jeremy Robinson will recognize, as the way Ralph writes his zombies here is very reminiscent of the way Robinson uses at least some types of zombies in his book TORMENT, later retconned to be part of his INFINITE TIMELINE event. Which was nice to see – and possibly shows Ralph to be as … “creative”, let’s go with “creative”… as Robinson. 🙂 One thing Ralph’s version lacks, particularly from Robinson’s original incarnation of TORMENT, is the subtle yet also quite present religious allegory. Ralph’s tale here is instead more straight horror, zero subtext (at least that this reader picked up on).

No, where the whiplash comes in is that the first book in this series was set 40 ish years after this second entry, with the first book being bleeding edge tech and very human horror, whereas this second entry both sends us back in time *and* gives us a far more supernatural style of horror that wasn’t even hinted at in the first book. Read independently, both books are awesome. Read as a “series”… you almost have to envision each book as being the same town in different universes, all experiencing horrors unique to that universe’s version of the town? Which is a bit weird, but can also work well enough. (Indeed, Robinson himself did a horror series that was more akin to Sliders where the entire town slid between universes – he called that series REFUGE, and to date it remains one of his fans’ favorites.)

Still, for what this book itself is, this really was a quite solid YA horror tale that does a phenomenal job of showing its version of this town and its time period quite well indeed.

Very much recommended.

This review of Night Terror by Vincent Ralph was originally written on December 23, 2025.

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#BookReview: Whisper Creek by Allison Brennan

Tremors Meets Open Range. I truly think the best way to describe this book for an at least somewhat general audience – you still need to be familiar with these movies – really is the combination of the movies I use in the title of the review here.

In Tremors, you get an excellent use of a closed environment (in the case of the movie, a desert valley where the only road in or out has been blocked) to create a fun, intense survival type thriller where the good guys can only guess at what is going on. Brennan absolutely *nailed* that element here, using catastrophic flooding to great effect.

In Open Range, there are other issues going on between neighbors, with some neighbors being less than neighborly to their neighbors. Some might even say they were dirty, underhanded, cowardly snakes who were only looking out for themselves. Again, Brennan absolutely *nails* this element as well… while actually expanding on it in some rather interesting ways.

Ultimately, our central family truly is the heart of this tale, even as the events of the book keep them separated for so much of it. Brennan uses both environment and human quite well, and truly manages to give very nearly every character some level of weight to them such that you really want to see how this plays out for everyone… even the snakes. But especially the family cat who has run off in the storm…

Solid book that could get perhaps a touch too real for some when it is scheduled for release in the middle of the summer of 2026, this is absolutely a book fans of both family drama and survival tales are going to want to read, and it appears to be truly standalone to boot.

Very much recommended.

This review of Whisper Creek by Allison Brennan was originally written on December 19, 2025.

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#BookReview: Honeymoon Phase by Amy Daws

Spicy Trauma In Long Form. This is the third book directly in its series (fourth if you count its “backdoor pilot” book from another series where a key character + a few side characters to this book were all introduced) and is the longest by over 100 pages, according to Amazon’s count… and that length shows here. Now, given that this is a habanero spicy book at times… maybe you want that length. Or maybe you’re more a “motion of the ocean” type that would rather things just get to the point without a lot of extras. Either way, you’ve been warned about the extra girth here and you can now make your own decision based on your own preferences.

And yes, if sexual puns and innuendoes aren’t your thing… you’re really not going to like this book. As it is as deep (oh god) (crap) in the series as it is, you probably should have picked up on that by now, but maybe you picked this up thinking it could be read standalone. While it technically *can* be – its story isn’t directly intertwined with any other – the characters from the other books all play roles to some degree or another here, including one scene in particular here detailing in even more explicit detail a common event among all three tales… and other that is more background to the other books, finally fully explained here.

For those who are looking for solid romance tales with some laughs (including various animals that nearly steal the scene in most scenes they are in) and a ton of heart and you can handle cursing at at least the sailor level (programmers curse more, for what that’s worth) and the aforementioned habanero spice level, this entire series is excellent.

This particular entry, with as much trauma as is detailed on both main characters… maybe the extra girth was needed. Maybe it wasn’t. I’m honestly torn, as I *want* to say it wasn’t needed… but there are also no clearly extraneous scenes here. Every scene was done well and every scene works together in its sequence to tell a richly developed story of two traumatized people slowly coming together over a period of time, and it really works on so many levels that even though I *want* to say the extra length wasn’t needed, I also can’t really defend that position by citing anything that could have been cut and this book work as well as it does here.

Thus, the best I can say is prepare yourself for the extra length… and have fun with it. The conclusion reveals that we’ve got one more book left in this series, and it is the one person we haven’t really heard from yet… who becomes very obvious through the course of this tale that they’ve got their own story to (finally) tell. I for one can’t wait to see what happens there.

Very much recommended.

This review of Honeymoon Phase by Amy Daws was originally written on November 23, 2025.

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#BookReview: Tell Me Why by Kay Bratt

Another Solid Entrant Where Bratt’s Heart Is Tattooed On Her Upper Arm With Her Sleeves Down. For a series that was *supposed* to end at Book 7 or so to now have doubled that speaks to just how popular it has become among fans of the author. That the new books continue to sell and continue to bring in new fans speaks to how well the author is crafting both each individual entry and the overall arc of the series. I know in my own reviews I’ve noted before the series was supposed to end at this book or that book or whatever, but at this point it seems that Bratt will be containing this series through the rest of her writing days.

With this particular entry and its particular crime, Bratt’s heart shines through in more muted and subtle ways than in both previous entrants in this series and in Bratt’s prior works such as her True To Me series or (where I first “met” Bratt) in Dancing With The Sun… and yet equally powerful as those other books, when you know her story. (That she speaks of from time to time publicly, to be clear.) Bratt’s loves are never far from her mind, and always shine through in her writing when you know where you’re looking… and yet when you *don’t* know these details, she still provides an all-t00-real look into far too many of our own families and, in her fictional world, gives us hope that all can work out as well as Bratt makes it work out here. Which isn’t to say there won’t be tragedy, just that the family *will* work through whatever tragedies may come – and celebrate whatever successes may come too.

The heart of the Hart’s Ridge community – and of the Gray family in particular – is what makes this series so strong, so what is coming next for those hearts following the events here…

I for one am looking forward to finding out. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of Tell Me Why by Kay Bratt was originally written on November 21, 2025.

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#BlogTour: The Perfect Hosts by Heather Gudenkauf

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a solid tale in its genre that has a bit of a chaotic and potentially controversial opening. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Perfect Hosts by Heather Gudenkauf.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Don’t Let Your Opinions Of Over The Top Gender Reveals, Guns, or Multi-Perspective Stories Fool You – This Is A Solid Book. Seriously, this is one of those books where the *opening scene* has a lot of ick for a lot of people – me included, to an extent. Indeed, I delayed reading this book for a week in part because of the very inciting incident literally listed in the first sentence of the description as of publication day earlier this week as I write this review. (Yes, I’ve had it as an Advance Review Copy for months and yes, I’m officially running behind. Apologies.)

You see, while I have exactly *zero* problems with guns and enjoy a good Tannerite explosion from time to time (on video, never experienced one in person), the over the top gender reveal and thus making a pregnancy a central point of this story… that was the ick for me.

And I was wrong.

Yes, the opening scene is complex and more than a bit confusing and perhaps even accurately labeled as hard to follow.

But the story opens up from there and becomes much easier to understand, even as it revolves around small town and family secrets and decades long mysteries all coming to a head.

Gudenkauf creates here a truly layered story with many things going on at the same time, in the mold of some of the best soap operas – and yet with a fair degree more danger involved.

Overall truly a fun book once one gets beyond the chaotic opening scene, one that plays very well within genre norms without really pushing the boundaries too hard. In other words, a perfectly comfortable read for genre fans that works well enough for those looking to see whether they enjoy this genre.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Perfect Hosts by Heather Gudenkauf”

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#BookReview: Poison Wood by Jennifer Moorhead

Solid Sophomore Southern Suspense. This is a tale that builds on its predecessor, Broken Bayou, in an unexpected direction for readers of Broken Bayou – one of the secondary, yet essential, characters gets her own tale here. Which would be expected in the romance genre, but in mystery/ suspense is far less common.

And yet Moorhead absolutely makes this work. There’s enough of the Bayou here that there are at least a few spoilers from that book, but not so much that you absolutely *have* to have read it first, and thus new readers (who don’t mind a few minor ish spoilers) can come into this book without stressing about not having read Bayou first. (Though you *should* read Bayou too, as it is an excellent tale in its own right.)

Yet there is also quite the tale to be told here, and as deep as Willa’s tale was in the Bayou… this tale may even run a touch deeper. It certainly expands its world a touch, if only in that certain players have larger connections than just Ms. Meade’s home town. And yet as someone who grew up in and around similar connections – which I can’t really detail at all without revealing who some of the players in this tale are – this struck me as perhaps a touch *too* real in some aspects. Clearly, Moorhead has some similar life experiences of her own to get it *this* spot on.

Truly an excellent small town Southern mystery tale that manages to raise a lot of real world emotions without ever getting preachy about any actual real world issue, which is perhaps one of Moorhead’s great strengths as a storyteller, at least as shown in this series.

Very much recommended.

This review of Poison Wood by Jennifer Moorhead was originally written on November 2, 2025.

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#BookReview: Love By Design by Maddie Evans

Atypical Romance Offers Solid Trilogy Conclusion. This is a very atypical romance that some could potentially see as problematic… and others could possibly very easily feel all too seen in. And that all centers on our FMC here.

In the characterization of her rigidity of habit and how completely clueless she is socially, Evans here presents one version of a condition not named in the description, so it would be a spoiler to reveal here. To this writer, living in the real world with the same condition, the characterization here is perhaps a touch stereotypical… and yet while my own life and romances therein have been *wildly* different than portrayed here… I’m also aware enough of others living with this to know that there are indeed very likely some, perhaps many, who will feel quite seen in this characterization and indeed perhaps find hope that they too can find a love as portrayed herein.

Other irritations – and truly, these are *simply* irritations that your mileage will absolutely vary on – are that the author for some reason or another seems to have written “Disney” and then hit Replace All on the manuscript with a fictional name – that is how blatant the descriptions of the company are to real life, yet with the fictional name for the company. There are a few different reasons I can think of even off the top of my head that an author may choose to do this, but it was an irritant every time I encountered it and it did take away from the story a touch… which is unfortunate, given how critical it is at one point.

The other irritant is far more minor in its presentation… and yet it is also one I know many readers will want to be aware of, as it can be a deal breaker for some: without *actually* diving into spoiler territory, let’s just say there is a certain surprise in the epilogue that at least was hinted at briefly in the earlier text that it could potentially be a possibility in this exact situation, so at least it wasn’t a situation of the book before that moment either never mentioning this at all or even outright saying this wasn’t wanted at all.

To be clear though, this really was a solid romance of a very atypical form, between someone who thought he was going to be a priest and thus never have a romantic relationship and someone for whom relationships had always been rather difficult. Indeed, it is these exact two characterizations coming together that actually make this story as strong as it is, as it offers hope to so very many who perhaps are in similar boats of being on the verge of hopelessness for their own potential romances.

Another thing that was done quite well here is the integration of many elements of the Catholic faith, perhaps obvious with a potential priest as the MMC and with the author being so openly Catholic herself. Still, this is one element where at least some readers will want to be aware of up front and can make your own decision to thus read this book or not based on your own thoughts on the Catholic Church. Once again, I’m simply asking you, now that you’ve read this far into my own review, to simply leave this book be if you’re going to give it one star just because it features Catholicism and shows it so favorably or, more actually, normally.

The non-romance drama with the Brighthead Crafters is done very well once again, and this is where the trilogy conclusion comes to bear with both humor and heart, as is to typical of Evans.

Ultimately this really is a quite strong, if also very atypical, romance and a solid conclusion to this trilogy. So pick all three books up, read them, and leave a review for each wherever you find this review. Let us all know what you think – even if you think I’m a complete moron in my thoughts about these books, feel free to tag me anywhere and let me know! I’m just excited that you’re actually reading them, no matter what you think of them. 🙂

Very much recommended.

This review of Love By Design by Maddie Evans was originally written on October 10, 2025.

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#BookReview: A Merry Little Lie by Sarah Morgan

Another Solid Sarah Morgan Christmas Tale. The sun rises in the East. The grass is green. Some politician in your country is being an idiot. Some celebrity said something stupid. Baby animals doing cute things in short videos. The clock showing the same numbers twice every day. The tide comes in and goes away. Ohio State Football being severely overrated. Some things you can just count on, day after day, year after year. They just seem like they’re *always* going to be there, longer than the pyramids of Egypt.

Sarah Morgan writing a 300 ish page Christmas novel that feels like a warm blanket at a cozy fireside with the beverage of your choice on the table beside you and your cat (or dog, if you prefer) curled up at your feet is one of those things, and here, she doesn’t disappoint at all.

As usual, there is at least a touch of drama. A touch of romance. But at its heart is a family coming together for Christmas, and as usual yes, there is at least an element of a road trip involved for some of them.

Indeed, about the only thing to turn anyone off from this book or any of Morgan’s other Christmas romances is that she isn’t exactly a warm glass of milk level spice author. More of a jalapeno or so, *maybe* up to a habanero at certain key moments, but never more than once or twice or so per book. And even then, absent those scenes… yeah, about as spicy as a good eggnog. One where it is blended so well that you get all the flavors of the bourbon and rum and cognac without any burn whatsoever.

Seriously, if you’re looking for a Christmas romance author that you can just buy every year and not have to worry about quality or consistency and just *know* you’re going to get an enjoyable tale long enough to really sink into and spend a few hours with… Sarah Morgan absolutely belongs at the top of that list, and this book, her 2025 entrant here, is no different.

Very much recommended.

This review of A Merry Little Lie by Sarah Morgan was originally written on October 9, 2025.