PAWS AND PREJUDICE by Alanna Martin

 

Publisher: Forever
Date Published: June 29, 2021
ISBN#    ‎  ‎ 978-0593198858
Contemporary Romance
Reviewed by Gina (myreviewbooks@aol.com)    
Obtained via publisher

3 Hearts

Ian Roth, along with his best friend Micah, have set their sights on building a brewery with unique beers and because of a book he read long ago, Ian wants to build it in Helen, Alaska. Before arriving he wasn’t aware of the decades long feud between the Porters and the Lipins, but he quickly found out. Wallace Porter is anxious to help Ian and Micah get the brewery off the ground and to help he offers his daughter, Kelsey’s, talent as a writer…a blog and advertising writer. Ian is on board with having her help but there’s one problem…she has dogs. Three dogs. Three big dogs. And Ian is terrified of dogs.  Any dogs.

Kelsey Porter has a reputation as a tough as nails, not all that nice person. Her whole life she’s bought into “the feud” and done her part. Her three dogs, Romeo, Juliet and Puck are all she really cares about and she has nothing nice to say about anyone who doesn’t adore them along with her. When she meets Ian and he basically runs the other way from her and her dogs, she has nothing nice to say anything to or about him. But a promise is a promise. When Kelsey soon finds out that Ian’s not that bad of a guy. In fact, she finds him outright hot as well as a nice person, she considers giving him a chance. But Kelsey has a secret, one that Ian quickly stumbles on. When he quickly shows her how nice he really is the barriers between the two begin to come down. Or can they?

I enjoyed the first book in Alanna Martin’s Hearts of Alaska series and was eager to dive into book two, PAWS & PREJUDICE. Sometimes you just need to escape every day life and sit with a romance and Martin delivers that escape. I visited Alaska about thirty years ago and her descriptions remind me of that amazing vacation. She brings together what I like about small town romances with a love of dogs and a couple that defies the odds. Among the aspects I enjoyed about the story is how she handled Ian’s phobia about dogs.  She also touched on how it is to be Jewish in a small town.

The constant reminders of the feud go a tad old after a bit as did how often Ian and Kelsey thought the other one was hot. It was a much better read when they got past the thinking about the other’s hotness and got on with the relationship. I liked how Ian and Kelsey confronted their own issues and tried to help the other with theirs.

 

I’m looking forward to the next entry in this series.

 

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

                                                                           

HEART ON A LEASH by Alanna Martin

Publisher: Forever
Date Published: April 27, 2021
ISBN#    ‎ 978-0593198834
Contemporary Romance
Reviewed by Gina (myreviewbooks@aol.com)
Obtained via publisher
4 Hearts

Taylor Lipin left Helen, Alaska to pursue her dreams along with being tired of the decades long family feud with the Porters. Up until now she’s had a great life in Los Angeles.  She has friends, a job she enjoys and plenty of dates. Things are moving along until bad news hits…and the old adage of it coming in threes features in the bad news. She’s laid off from her job and then a phone call comes from her sister, Lydia, that their mother has taken off.  Not just taken off, but their parents are divorcing. Lydia insists Taylor come home and help run the family inn and without her job to fall back on as an excuse not to go, Taylor heads home to Helen. On her first day back she meets what could be the man of her dreams—Josh Krane.

Fresh out of medical school Josh opted to come to mellow, small town, Helen, Alaska. He didn’t want the pressure of a big city hospital and the loan forgiveness program for practicing in a rural community held certain appeal for him. Several of his family lived in Helen so it would be like coming home. He’s met a few women, but none of them caught his attention for more than a passing moment. That was, until, he met Taylor.

With the instant chemistry between them, what can go wrong, right?  Except their families have been feuding through several generations and it doesn’t look like any end is in sight. Can true love win out over a long time family feud?

Admittedly the two cute dogs on the cover of HEART ON A LEASH by Alanna Martin was what drew me to the story. There is just something about a story that features a dog (or a cat) that tells me it’s going to be the perfect fictional escape for me and HEART ON A LEASH was exactly that. The “Romeo and Juliet” story has been done over and over. The Hatields and the McCoys have nothing on the Porters and the Lipins. It could have been a pretty boring story since the feuding families has been done over and over, but Martin’s writing took me right into Taylor and Josh’s story. She goes beyond the family dynamics and takes her readers into the hearts and minds of the characters while they confront many of the issues we all encounter at some point in our lives.  The rural Alaskan town sounded like the ideal vacation spot and reminded me of a vacation I took in Haines, Alaska. Pristine, beautiful country, friendly people and away from the hubbub of city life. It was one of the best vacations I’d been on and there are elements in the story including a camping trip sounded like the perfect getaway.  The three dogs in the story, Jay, Pepper and Bella along with Merlot, the cat, make the story one that you just want to curl up and read from start to finish.  The romance between Josh and Taylor is the kind of major toe curler that makes me a major romance reader.

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.