WILLOW SPRINGS by Toni Blake

Publisher:     Avon       

Published:     June 26, 2012

ISBN:        978-0062024619

Genre:       Contemporary Romance, Young Adult

Format:     Print

Obtained via:  Publisher  

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

TWO HEARTS

 

Amy Bright has long been the go-to girl of Destiny when someone needs a smile, a hug or just to feel good about life.  She’s stood by her friends, held their hands when they were sad, laughed when they were happy and done a fair share of match making about town.  Her cozy book store, Under the Covers houses more than books—lately quite a few stray cats have turned up and Amy has found them homes.  On the brink of becoming the spinster cat lady of Destiny, for the most part, Amy is okay with her life.  That is until one night she shares a toe curling kiss with her life-long friend, Logan Whittaker.

Logan’s always been there for his friends.  A fire fighter he has rescued them in more ways than one, including being the guy who has helped Amy rescue her kitty, Knightley from his forays up a tree.  But the one time he is unable to bring about a rescue, he is devastated and falls into a depression that even has Amy worried about him.  On the heels of that rescue gone wrong, his good friend Mike’s long lost sister, Anna returns to town.  Was that toe curling kiss with Amy true love?  Or is Anna the one for him.

I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of Toni Blake’s Destiny series books.  They follow a pattern of starting out with a fairly innocuous situation, such as Amy’s cat Knightley being in the tree, go into a kind of “fluff” phase and then deal with a difficult, life altering situation.  In those situations Blake takes her readers into the character’s experience—which is true to life in terms of the subject matter.  In past books she’s dealt with a kidnapping and the suffering a family goes through, a character struggling with Crones disease and in WILLOW SPRINGS, PTSD.  She paints a realistic picture of the struggle and takes the character to a healing place with compassion.  Unfortunately for me, in WILLOW SPRINGS, much of that compassion was buried under the “mean girl” love triangle created by Anna’s return.  Until the very end I didn’t feel very much compassion for Anna—and in part that was because of how Logan was developed.  There were words about him being a player, but I didn’t see it. 

And Anna’s own conflict – finding her family after twenty years—just didn’t ring true.  She shows up in town, gets the hots for Logan and makes a play for him—but except for a few words on her part, nothing of her struggle to accept her real family was raised.  The parents pop into town for a couple of days and go on their way?  No counselling? No big welcome home party?  No news media coverage that a kidnapped child was returned? Granted, this is fiction, but a little reality would not have been amiss.

Like all of the books in this series the women seem a little pre-occupied about sex—and yes, it IS a romance.  However rather than thirty-something women they seem more like high school girls.  For the most part the stories, and particularly WILLOW SPRINGS is more of a young adult than a contemporary romance.

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

HOLLY LANE by Toni Blake

Publisher:     Avon     

Published:     October 25, 2011 

ISBN:        978-0062024602

Genre:      Contemporary Romance

Format:     Print  

Obtained via:  Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

THREE HEARTS

The last thing Sue Ann Simpkins along with the rest of her home town of Destiny, Ohio expected was for her husband—high school sweetheart—Jeff to announce he’d fallen in love with another woman.  Six months later he devastates her again by telling her—in a letter no less—that he and his new wife are planning a family and he’s going to stop her alimony payments.  Worse, he threatens to take custody of their daughter, Sophie, if she fights him.  With the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays around the corner Sue Ann thinks the best thing for her is to get away for a few days and in quiet and solitude, figure out what to do next.  What she doesn’t expect is for Jeff’s best friend, Adam Becker, to show up at the same cabin she’s rented. 

At first she wants Adam gone.  After all, she was there first.  Adam, on the other hand, is not in the best of moods himself because he’s looking at the holidays without his twin boys, courtesy of his ex-wife’s parents.  Initially Adam decides Sue Ann can have the cabin—he’s heading back to Destiny.  But an easy escape is not to be.  It seems mother nature has sent a major snow storm their way and Adam soon finds himself back at the cabin.  As the evening wears on Sue Ann and Adam find themselves becoming closer and closer and as an the night wears on they find themselves confronting a smouldering attraction to each other, one that actually began long before they met their now former spouses. 

But attraction or not – it’s awkward.  Adam is Jeff’s best friend; Sue Ann his former wife and Destiny is a small town.  Then again, is that really enough to stop the power of true love?

There is a certain appealing innocence to the people of Destiny.  Everyone seems to really like each other.  Sure, they have their stories and their history, but deep down they like each other.  But even in a town as nice as Destiny I just couldn’t get behind everyone, including Sue Ann, thinking Jeff is just fine.  Okay, she does get irritated at him, but she just gives in.  She wants to be a strong person and hold her own, but really?  Your ex-husband threatens to take away your alimony and your child and you don’t get your own lawyer?  And this guy is your best friend and you’re torn between what a jerk he is and throttling him because you’re long-time friends?  It’s just not believable.

That said, Blake’s writing is entertaining and she does touch on subjects that at some point affect us all.  In this particular story she intersperses lines from Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CARROL along with a stray kitten named Dickens.  Parts of the story parallel Dickens’ famous story and it’s a fun twist. 

Each of the Destiny stories is a standalone and do not have to be read in order.  Each gives you a chance to catch up with or meet prior characters.

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

HALF MOON HILL by Toni Blake

A Destiny, Ohio Novel

April 30^th, 2013

978-0-06-202462-6

Contemporary Romance

Paperback ARC

Reviewed by Dawn (love2read28@gmail.com)

Obtained by Publisher

 

For Duke Dawson, all he wanted was peace and quiet so he could recover from an accident. But he never anticipated a sexy woman who will knock him off his game and makes him long to sooth the hurt he sees in her eyes. Anna Romo is running as fast as she can away from a past that still haunts her. So making a new life in Destiny, Ohio is a perfect backdrop until she finds herself longing for one man’s touch even as she tries to stay away from him.  But for both these broken people will find that love is the biggest gamble of all and it will take the strength in themselves as well as in their blossoming relationship to take that leap of faith and fall in love.

I haven’t read any of the previous books in the Destiny, Ohio series by author Toni Blake but I plan to go hunt them up after reading HALF MOON HILL. This was a delightful story of two hurt people who find the healing they need with one another. The writing is delightful, the cast of characters kept my interest and the town of Destiny made me long to visit it in real life. This is an author who really knows how to let her characters thrill and charm the readers. There is a sub-plot between Cathy and Robert that had me swooning and sighing as well.

Meet Duke Dawson and Anna Romo. Both are in Destiny to heal and for peace but when these two meet, well let’s just say with all the sparks all over the place, it is amazing the book didn’t go up in flames in my hands. I really like Duke and Anna together. Duke understands the pain and secrets that shine from Anna’s eyes and Anna brings out the heart that Duke thought he locked away. These two a re a perfect foil for one another and the author does a great job in keeping them flawed yet enjoyable, in my opinion. The secondary characters are well written and kept my attention as well.

HALF MOON HILL is a fun small town romance that kept me entertained through the afternoon and left me wanting more from Destiny, Ohio series. Ms. Blake is a talented author who knows how to keep her readers glued to the pages until the very end and lets her characters run the show. Lots of past characters pop up as well in this book so if you haven’t read their stories yet, don’t despair, you can easily keep track of who is who and whatnot as the author does a good job in keeping the reader caught up with everyone in Destiny. I do recommend grabbing the past books to enjoy as well. I know I am going to do that soon. I was intrigued by the series and look forward to experiencing more fun in Destiny, Ohio in the future.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement

 

Some fun facts from Toni about Half Moon Hill

·         Tessa’s brother, Jeremy, was originally supposed to be the hero.  I started planning that as early as Destiny Book 3, Whisper Falls.  But as the time to write it grew closer, something about it didn’t feel right.  I didn’t know Jeremy very well, after all.  But I did know Duke. Readers had started writing to me and asking me to give Duke his own book.  You ask. I listen. Duke just seemed like a much better match for Anna in my mind – even if only because I knew instantly how much Anna’s brother Mike would dislike this.  I loved fleshing out both Anna and Duke as characters as I wrote this story, and I couldn’t be happier with the decision to make Duke her hero.

·         About the cover of this book!  But the fun fact is—on the original version, the title was hot pink.  Rather gorgeous, I must say!  But sadly, I noticed that in thumbnail version on my computer screen, it was really difficult to read. 

·         The swing on the cover came before the swing in the story.  I had the cover long before I’d actually written the book, but that gave me the opportunity to add a swing to the story, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how that part worked out. 

·         I’m a big fan of butterflies. In the summer, I spend quite a bit of time stalking and photographing them.  So when I first saw the butterflies on this cover, I was ecstatic.  Then they decided to add more butterflies.  On the original cover, there were only two or three and now I count upwards of a dozen. I love having a cover with one of my favorite things on it!

·         I really, truly am very proud of this book. I love the way both characters developed, I loved revisiting everyone in Destiny and moving their life stories forward as well, and I loved the depth of emotions I got to explore in this story.