Tag: smalltown

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#BookReview: Guilty Until Innocent by Robert Whitlow

More Southern Fiction Than Legal Thriller. Admittedly it has been several years since I last picked up a book by Whitlow, but back in the day this author was essentially a Christian form of John Grisham – he’s going to give you tight, exciting legal thrillers of some form (via inside or outside the courtroom itself), but a Christian version of it where people more openly pray and talk about “God stuff” and such.

This book… keeps all the “God stuff” *in spades* (seriously, if you’re openly hostile to anything Christian or even just not at all interested in anything Christian… don’t bother reading this book, you’re not going to like it) but ditches the legal thriller aspects in favor of a more Boo Walker or Nicholas Sparks or Pat Conroy ish Southern fiction tale.

The story is long, some might argue too long, drawn out, yet ultimately satisfying for what it actually is and the multiple sub plots it is running concurrently. There is a *touch* of action near the end, but it really is more of a “slight rise on a kiddie coaster” level than anything particularly suspenseful – more suspenseful than anything else in this tale, but that only serves to highlight just how little actual danger there seems to be at any point here.

Still a great tale for what it actually is, just in no way any form of thriller or suspense.

Very much recommended.

This review of Guilty Until Innocent by Robert Whitlow was originally written on January 16, 2025.

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#BookReview: A New Leash On Life by Patricia Sands

A Moving Ending. Yet again packing quite a bit of story into such scant page count, this is a great ending to this series that gives an epilogue of our dog breeder Leslie’s adventures while also telling a compelling story of life after your long time husband has been diagnosed with dementia. It *also* manages to spend the most time out of the United States than any other book, and only Collar Me Crazy, book 2 of the series, spends more time outside of Dragonfly Cove itself.

And yet the tale here is still absolutely centered around Dragonfly Cove and this most recent litter of puppies from Leslie. Here, Chance gets his time to star as the central puppy of the story – and yes, once again (as is so often in this series) he tends to steal the scene most times he’s around.

Again using an elderly main character (as the previous book, Teacher’s Pet did), this tale does a remarkable job of showing both blood and found family and how they all come together. Truly a great tale in a small package, and yet again more evidence of how page count doesn’t give any indication of just how good a story is, with this one clocking in just over 150 pages.

Very much recommended.

This review of A New Leash On Life by Patricia Sands was originally written on January 1, 2024.

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#BookReview: Teacher’s Pet by David Johnson

Best In Series For Making You Want To Explore The Author’s Other Works. With some of the other books in this series, the authors do a great job of referencing their other books, maybe even bringing in a character or two – or at least someone connected to them who can reference them in-story – to entice the reader of this series to explore their other books. It is very well done within the stories they are telling and doesn’t feel forced at all, just a casual “hey, there’s other stuff out there that may warrant exploration, if you’re into these characters” type of vibe.

Yeah… Johnson doesn’t go that route. He’s far more in your face about it – without being in your face about it at all. Instead, he brings in one of his major characters from some of his other work and gets you invested in this character’s story even within the context of the story he is telling here as part of Dragonfly Cove… and then tells you in the author’s note at the end “Oh yeah, if you want to see what actually happens with that character, well, this character just so happens to be the titular character in these other books I wrote”.

And yet the story here itself is at least as powerful as the one with that other character, here using a retiree set in her ways as our main character and telling a compelling story of an old “get off my lawn” curmudgeon (literally, in a couple of cases, telling people to leave her yard) who has very distinct thoughts about how things should be done learning to live again in a new situation. And, maybe, through the love and dedication of her puppy… maybe she just might fall in love again?

There are several subplots to this story that all show the complexities of elder life in various forms, which I know many readers are desperate for these days as seeming so few books deal in main characters of this particular age bracket – despite it being among the larger sets of the American population at the moment.

By far the longest book of this series at nearly 300 pages, this is also one of the most complex-yet-easy-to-read stories in the series as well.

Very much recommended.

This review of Teacher’s Pet by David Johnson was originally written on January 1, 2024.

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#BookReview: Unleashed Melody by Julie Carobini

Most Hallmarkie Book In Series. In a series built basically specifically for dog lovers who also enjoy women’s fiction/ romance type tales, this is perhaps the single most “Hallmark Movie” like book in the entire series – and it actually sticks out from the series because of it. More self contained than many of the other books in the series, it really works quite well as a corporate/ office type romance that happens to involve owning and running a boutique hotel in a small beach town. But it also has some of the “problems” (according to some) of many Hallmark movies – including the seeming inevitable third act drama. Still, the tale really is quite solid in itself, and as one of the shorter books in the series it *really* packs quite a bit of story into the few (sub 150) pages it has.

Very much recommended.

This review of Unleashed Melody by Julie Carobini was originally written on January 1, 2024.

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#BookReview: Coming Home To Heel by Jodi Allen Brice

More Evidence That Strong Stories Don’t Need High Page Counts. This entire series is testament to this, but this book in particular *really* is. There’s a lot going on here – grief from a somewhat recent loss of a mother and an even more recent loss of a marriage + the son is estranged due to how the marriage broke apart *and* a potential new romance already on the horizon… all of this in not quite 17o pages! And it all works incredibly well!

Indeed, this tale in particular is arguably at its strongest when Nora is using her newfound strength -yes, thanks in part to new puppy Charlie – to handle her divorce and her son’s issues around it.

Truly an excellent and short book, again, this entire series really is great for those who love dogs and who are at least somewhat interested in the women’s fiction/ romance genres who may be looking to start their 2025 reading strong- this will easily get you 9 books potentially on January 1, as I write most of these reviews, if you put an effort in. (Ok, so at that point you’re reading around 1100 pages in a day – which *is* daunting. But 150 ish pages/ day spread out over a couple of weeks? Nearly anyone can find that kind of time. :D)

Very much recommended.

This review of Coming Home To Heel by Jodi Allen Brice was originally written on January 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: Loyal & True by Ev Bishop

Crushing Grief Helped By Puppy Love. While the previous two books in this series – Hearts Unleashed and Back In The Pack – both dealt with grief, this is the first book that *really* makes you *feel* its power. Here, our main character starts out just a short period of time after tragically losing her much more vibrant sister… and now has to figure out how to achieve the dreams they were supposed to achieve together, alone.

Enter the power of Puppy Love.

When Leo maintains her commitment to pick up both of the dogs she and her sister were supposed to get from local dog breeder Leslie, suddenly she *has* to get out of bed – puppies aren’t so great about feeding themselves, and if you leave them cooped up in your bedroom with you… it is going to get very messy and stinky very rapidly.

Thus, just going through the motions of keeping her dogs fed and walked gets Leo moving more than she’d have liked… and begins her healing process.

Along the way Leo encounters more people in the community and with more interaction comes more healing… in its own time and manner.

Ultimately this is one of the more gray books of the series, but very powerful in its own right – particularly for those who are also experiencing such crushing grief. And hey, that’s the power of puppies, right there. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of Loyal & True by Ev Bishop was originally written on January 1, 2024.

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#BookReview: Back In The Pack by Barbara Hinske

Dog And Kid Damn Near Steal The Show. I’m not normally one to enjoy books where kids play outsized roles or steal scenes, but Hinske here absolutely makes it work to help elevate the adult storyline of a widower and father just trying to re-establish his life and help his daughter heal after the tragic loss of his wife/ her mother before the events of this tale. The interplay with both the overall Dragonfly Cove series/ community and specifically Marsha from Hearts Unleashed, the book immediately prior to this one in series order, is particularly well done, and here we actually get to see a pivotal scene from that book play out again here from a different perspective, which is always interesting. That two different authors were involved only shows just how skilled and talented both are as storytellers – and, likely, that both shared a strong editor as well. 😀

Yet another quick read at around 150 ish pages, Hinske too manages to pack quite a bit of story in such a small package. Really this entire series is a great boost for those looking to start their 2025 reading strong, particularly if you also happen to be a dog lover.

Very much recommended.

This review of Back In The Pack by Barbara Hinske was originally written on January 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: Pick Of The Litter by Kay Bratt, Tammy L. Grace, Barbara Hinske, Ev Bishop, Jodi Allen Brice, Julie Carobini, David Johnson, and Patricia Sands

Excellent Series Introduction For New Series Perfect For Dog Lovers. This is yet another of the multi-author series that have seemingly sprung up in the last few years, mostly in the romance and/ or women’s fiction realms, where multiple authors come together to offer up stories around some common McGuffin such as every book has to feature a cruise (2024’s Sail Away series, featuring many of these same authors) or every book has to feature a snowglobe in some manner (2019’s Snow Globe Christmas MM romance series) or any other common tie in. As in most cases, this introductory book is essentially the first chapters of all of the rest of the books, though this one also has a prologue and epilogue that extend its own story a touch, which actually leads directly into my next main point.

Having now read a few of these as I sit to write this particular review, I can tell you that what sets this particular series apart from all of its predecessors that I’ve read (a handful or so) is just how well everything is integrated. Every author gets their own dog(s) and their own characters and can tell their story their way, but other than slight differences in style one could almost see this entire series written by a singular author – that is how well the storytelling and editing through 4.5 books has been so far. If you know a bit about each particular author and their style and what is going on in their “real” (non-book) lives, you have a better sense of the distinctiveness of each voice, but otherwise the stories fit so seamlessly together, even when borrowing characters from other books, that it really is quite remarkable just how well everything fits together here.

And yes, as the McGuffin for this series is that all of our central characters are getting new puppies, this series really is perfect for dog lovers of all stripes (though to be clear, these are all Labradors in these books). Sorry, cat lovers. Maybe that will be the next project for these authors or perhaps a similar group. 🙂

Ultimately a great introduction to the series, and a very quick read at barely 100 pages to boot. Perfect for those times at the end of the year holidays / beginning of the year ramping things back up when maybe you don’t have as much time to read – or maybe you find yourself like me and trying to finish the back half of this series before it releases on Jan 1, 2025… *and* read 2.5 *other* books before the calendar flips over into 2025 in just over three more days! Eek!

Very much recommended.

This review of Pick Of The Litter by Kay Bratt, Tammy L. Grace, Barbara Hinske, Ev Bishop, Jodi Allen Brice, Julie Carobini, David Johnson, and Patricia Sands was originally written on December 28, 2024.

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#BookReview: Get Lost With You by Sophie Sullivan

Solid Small Town Romance With A Touch Of Spice. For those looking for Carolina Reaper level spice… this ain’t that. Yet it also isn’t a warm glass of milk. I’d say it hits around a habanero or so – spicy enough to zing the taste buds a bit, but also mild enough to excite those who generally prefer a warm glass of milk without giving them “the vapors”. 😉

On the actual romance side, well, there’s as much family drama going on here as romance, so your mileage will absolutely vary on that side. There’s a lot of drama to work through, though both halves of our couple wanted each other all those years ago… and that never really went away, despite our female lead marrying and having a kid with another dude in the meantime (one source of so much family drama).

Fans of small town insta love/ second chance Hallmarkie type romances will generally enjoy this one. Those looking for more spice or more glitz or more glamour or more action or some such… likely not as much.

Overall I thought this worked quite well for what it is, and I was quite happy with it as such.

Very much recommended.

This review of Get Lost With You by Sophie Sullivan was originally written on December 17, 2024.

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#BookReview: A Switch Before Christmas by Karen McQuestion

Solid Depression-Era Almost Dickensian Christmas Tale. This is one of those tales that effortlessly blends elements of A Christmas Carol, A Tale Of Two Cities, and The Parent Trap into a concoction uniquely its own and along the way shows two women in particular – and through them, many more people – the magic of Christmas as they see how “the other half” lives.

What McQuestion does particularly well is bringing a high degree of realism into this tale in all aspects – perhaps the only bits that feel weird to at least some in 2024 are when a particularly naive character walks into certain situations and actually comes out *without* being assaulted… but then, that is more on those types of readers as such assaults, while far more common than they should be (that they happen *at all* is too common, to be clear), are not the *actual* norm even in 2024. Far more common, however, are all the heartstrings being pulled – the young ones in the Girl’s Home nearly steal every scene they are in, and another encounter in a different situation later – one that starts out seeming like it could go very wrong, very fast, by 2024 standards – ultimately becomes one of the scenes where the room gets the dustiest while trying to read this book. In other words, put your 2024 assumptions in the other room while reading this book and simply enjoy the magic McQuestion creates here. You have my word that nothing actually damaging happens in this tale designed to be an uplifting Christmas story.

Overall a solid realistic, almost Dickensian, Christmas tale that at just under 200 pages is both an excellent read for those pressed for time when family and friends are gathered and you need some “me” time… or for those looking to finish out those annual reading challenges and need a short and quick book to help them meet those goals.

Very much recommended.

This review of A Switch Before Christmas by Karen McQuestion was originally written on December 17, 2024.