Review - - The Groom Wore Plaid

The Groom Wore Plaid                       

By Gayle Callen

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: February 23, 2016 

The follow-up to The Wrong Bride, The Groom Wore Plaid’s hero and heroine, Owen Duff and Maggie McCallum have agreed to honor the marriage agreement that Owen’s father tried to cheat the family out of having to fulfill (see: The Wrong Bride). Maggie has loved Owen from girlhood and at first believes this is a dream come true. Until she has one of her prophecy dreams, in which she sees Owen die on their wedding day. Thus, she spends the rest of the book trying to convince Owen (a man of science, no less) that her gift-curse is real and if they marry, he will die.

Owen, of course, thinks she’s just saying whatever to get out of marriage, innocent that she is, and he keeps trying to reassure her their marriage will be fine. Nothing to be afraid of. She does a number of things to turn him off her: dressing as if she were getting fat and unattractive, acting in ways that would embarrass him, and a number of other tried and true marriage-killers. None of them work, because Owen—the man of science—knows she’s just being superstitious and silly and he will prove nothing is going to happen.

Of course, there are disturbing incidents made against Maggie—someone clearly doesn’t want her to be part of the clan. Owen rationalizes most of these, but does make sure there are more people around his bride-to-be, just in case. For reasons I’m still not clear on, they end up making love; and a week or so later, Maggie comes to Owen and says she’s reluctantly agreeing to marry him after all because she had another dream in which it was revealed she is carrying his child and she doesn’t want her child born a bastard.

On the day of their wedding, after a day of festivities, Owen is stabbed and left bleeding to die. Her dream is coming to truth after all. After some scrambling around, the culprit is discovered…and it is discovered Owen had requested a doctor to stay with them during the wedding festivities so Owen is saved after all. He didn’t believe her, per se, but he respected her fears enough to make sure a doctor was on hand.

I did not enjoy this one quite as much as The Wrong Bride. I could not read it straight through and I did not form attachments to either Owen or Maggie (i.e. I did not care about their outcomes). Part of me was annoyed by Owen’s rather patronizing way with Maggie, how he didn’t respect her gift, which while logical for the character did not make me believe this story could end in happily ever after when he couldn’t respect her beliefs. Maggie’s behavior confused me and I simply could not lose myself or believe in the romantic storyline of these characters. I give it 3 stars for these reasons.

~Hellie

Review - - Lone Heart Pass

Lone Heart Pass

By Jodi Thomas

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: April 26, 2016

 

Since leaving college, Jubilee Hamilton has focused on building her career as a political campaign manager. When her most recent boyfriend moved out because she had no time to be part of a couple, she hardly missed him. But when her candidate loses the election, the third such loss in Jubilee’s career, she knows that she has hit a dead end. Without career demands to fill her life, she realizes how little she has to show for her twenty-six years. No one in Washington is calling her, she is semi-estranged from her family among whom she has always felt like an outsider, and she has no friends. Her happiest memories are of a summer spent with her great-grandfather on his ranch, so when she learns that Grandpa Levy has died and left Lone Heart Ranch to her, she sets out for Crossroads, Texas.

Charley Collins expected to spend his life managing the Texas land that had been in his family for generations, but one foolish choice led to his wealthy father’s disowning him. With his credit cards cancelled and all money, including tuition payment, cut off, Charley is forced to drop out of college one semester shy of his degree. A single father, he supports himself and his five-year-old daughter Lillie, by a variety of day work and weekend bartending. The latter pays poorly, but it provides the small apartment where he and Lillie live. Charley is running low on hope when Levy Hamilton’s big-city granddaughter offers him a job as foreman for Lone Heart Ranch. He seizes the chance to do work he loves and also to save to buy land of his own in a year or so.

Jubilee and Charley begin as strangers wary of one another and gradually become colleagues with a common cause and then friends. Love catches them unaware, bringing with it more happiness than they dreamed possible and the family for which their hearts long. Part of the joy of the world Thomas creates is that even the minor characters have a presence and an individual identity. This is true of Charley’s daughter Lillie and of Thatcher Jones, a fourteen-year-old who is part eccentric, part philosopher, and part typical adolescent male. He becomes the fourth member of the family Jubilee and Charley create.

Lone Heart Pass is the third novel in Thomas’s Ransom Canyon series, and she does her usual superb job of crafting a compelling story filled with characters who engage readers’ interest and affection. Nobody is better than Thomas at providing credible HEAs for misfits and outsiders. Jubilee and Charley don’t fit the molds of typical romance heroine and hero, but they have an authenticity and courage that endears them to the reader. Their difference is a cause for celebration. I was invested from early in the story in seeing these two find their way to an HEA. Each book in this series has drawn me more deeply into the world of Ransom Canyon, and each visit to that world has been rewarding. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I am already eager to read Sunrise Crossing, the next book in the series (an August 30 release).

If you like contemporary romance with a Texas accent, a richly textured community, and lead characters who will claim a place in your heart and in your memory, add this one to your must-read list for May.

~Janga

Review - - Til Death Do Us Part

Til Death Do Us Part

By Amanda Quick

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: April 19, 2016

  

Calista Langley operates an exclusive “introductions” service out of her home in Victorian London.  She holds salons to introduce eligible gentlemen and ladies, who’re vetted by her younger brother, Andrew.

One of her clients, Eudora Hastings, has a two brothers who are very protective.  One of them, Trent Hastings, is a popular detective novelist.  He visits Calista because he’s suspicious about whether her salons are a scheme to take advantage of Eudora. He and his sister both bear emotional scars from a confrontation with their brutal stepfather before his death, and both are stuck in rut because of it, Trent because he feels he failed to protect his sister and Eudora because Trent bears extensive physical scars from acid their stepfather threw.

Trent arrives at Calista’s home as she’s trying to convince a former suitor, a man who rejected her for her lack of fortune and is now married, that she has no interest in a liaison of any kind. While Trent’s arrival helps speed the former suitor’s departure, he and Calista don’t get along.  They are intrigued by each other, but his suspicions and her irritation over them make for a prickly meeting.  When they part, she expects never to see him again.

Unfortunately, Calista has attracted the attention of a stalker who sends her gifts suitable for those in mourning and has even sneaked into the house to leave one in her bedroom. She finds such a gift in the cab she takes after a confrontation with her former suitor. The driver admits he was instructed to pick her up but cannot identify the person who hired him.

When Calista arrives home, shaken by this episode, Trent is waiting.  He has come to tell her he won’t stand in his sister’s way.  Eudora has convinced him Calista’s service is honest and respectable. In addition, he can see the positive changes going to Calista’s salons have produced in Eudora. Trent sees the latest gift and apologizes for intruding on a family in mourning. Calista explains about the gifts, and her distress becomes evident.  Infuriated but trying to hide it, Trent insists he will help her investigate.

The chemistry between Trent and Calista is immediate, and they make an effective team.  Andrew and Eudora soon join the investigation. Trent and Eudora’s brother, Harry, provides insights with the “new” science of psychology.  The hunt for the truth takes Trent and Calista across Victorian London.  Krentz adeptly weaves customs of the time into their investigation.  As it proceeds, the danger increases, and the attraction between Trent and Calista escalates.

An excellent combination of romance and suspense, the story builds to a tense confrontation that ties together the various threads of the plot.   The characters are sympathetic and well drawn, and the story moves at a good pace. My only quibble is that the romantic conflict could be a bit more prominent.

~ Nancy Northcott

Miranda Neville Winners

The randomly chosen winners of a digital copy of

Secrets of a Soprano by Miranda Neville are:

Catherine White

and

LSUReader

Congratulations!

Please send your email address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Review - - Magic in the Stars

Magic in the Stars

By Patricia Rice

Publisher: Bookview Cafe

Release Date: March 29, 2016

Magic in the Stars launches the new Unexpected Magic series, which features Patricia Rice’s Malcolm and Ives families. Rice has already explored these families’ lives in early Georgian England and in our contemporary world. Now we move to the end of the Georgian era with a story set in 1830.

Lady Azenor “Aster” Dougall is a talented astrologer who lives in exile from her family because her star charts show that she poses a danger to those she loves.  The charts are reinforced by the death of a younger sibling in Aster’s arms.  As the story opens, she comes to Iveston Hall, home of the Marquess of Ashford, a distant relative, with a grim warning.

The marquess is not at home, but his younger brother and presumptive heir,  Lord Theophilus Ives, admits the visitor. In introducing Theo, Rice also introduces his boisterous but charming pack of brothers and half-brothers.  Theo wades through them to greet the unexpected guest.

As is usual with a Rice heroine, Aster has a great deal of poise.  Entering a hall where young men wander about dressed so casually as to be slightly improper and dogs have the run of the place doesn’t rattle her.  She delivers her warning in the face of Theo’s skepticism. As an astronomer, Theo considers himself well versed in all true science about heavenly bodies and scoffs at Aster’s prediction.  He does warn his brother, however, but in vain.

The disaster that befalls the marquess puts Theo, as heir presumptive, in a difficult spot. He’s an astronomer with plans to manufacture new glass that will improve magnification in telescopes.  Estate management has never interested him but has now become his duty.  Because the marquess is not married, the begetting of an heir falls now to Theo, who figures that he may as well find a bride who can manage the estate. Then he’ll have time for manufacturing his glass and studying the sky.

In desperation, assuring Aster he doesn’t believe in astrology, he asks her to use her charts to find a “useful” woman. Aster agrees to help him, ignoring her own attraction to him as he is ignoring his to her.

Aster helps Theo arrange a house party consisting of suitable women at Iveston Hall.  Before the party is to begin, however, she goes there to start putting the house to rights.  Prior Ives fiancées have decamped in haste, and the disarray of the house is one reason.

As Aster works on the house, the attraction between her and Theo grows.  Her astrological charts say they are compatible, but she resists because the charts also warn that she’s a danger to anyone she loves.  She even plans to move her companion to a new job because they’re becoming attached to each other.  Yet she cannot quite resist Theo, who loses interest in pursuing anyone else.

Rice skillfully weaves issues of the period into the story, such as the hostility of farm workers to machinery and land enclosures and the concern for children working in dangerous jobs in textile mills.  The workers’ anger provides an escalating threat and leads to a fiery confrontation in which Aster uses the agitators’ suspicions against them.

I’ve known Patricia Rice for some years and would have passed on reviewing this book if I didn’t feel I could do so fairly.  After reading it, I found it to be what I expected, an interesting plot with engaging characters, sizzling attraction, and a fully textured world.  Aster and Theo are a charming couple it’s impossible not to root for, and the story held me all the way through.

~ Nancy Northcott

Anna Campbell Winners

The winners of a digital copy of 

Winning Lord West by Anna Campbell are:

catslady

and

Leslie Golding

Congratulations!

Please send your email address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Review - - The Unforgettable Hero and The Untamed Earl

The Unforgettable Hero

By Valerie Bowman

Publisher: Swerve

Release Date: February 2, 2016

Cecilia Harcourt, the orphaned daughter of the younger brother of a viscount, is desperate to see the novel she has written published. Its publication offers her the only way to escape marriage to her repulsive cousin Percy and also a means to provide medical care for her younger sister. Her maternal uncle and aunt are determined on the marriage in order to claim her small dowry. Cece, as her sister affectionately calls her, is discouraged and worried when the publisher rejects her manuscript, not on the grounds that it is poorly written but because publishing romance is a risk he is not willing to take. But before she can return home to share the bad news with her sister, Cecilia is the victim of a hit-and-run carriage driver.

Lieutenant Adam Hunt, recently discharged from the army, is on his way to the home of his oldest brother, military hero Derek Hunt, Duke of Claringdon (hero of The Unexpected Duchess, Playful Brides #1) when he sees the accident. Adam is determined to let his brother know he resents interference in his life and to refuse the money the duke is determined to give him, but that plan takes a back seat to the need to help Cecilia. That help becomes more complicated when the blow to the head Cecilia receives results in amnesia. The doctor assures Adam and the duke and duchess that the memory loss will likely prove temporary, but when her memory returns Cecilia believes she is Lady Magnolia and Adam is the heroic Duke of Loveridge, the lead characters in her rejected novel. What follows is a delightful romp, part farce and part melodrama, that takes some of the most cherished tropes of historical romance—villainous relatives, amnesia, mistaken identity, interrupted wedding, to name a few—and gives them a twist that will leave the reader smiling.

This novella that falls between the fourth and fifth novels in Bowman’s Playful Brides series was great fun to read. When the story opened with “And they lived happily ever after,” I expected clever humor, and the story delivered exactly what I expected. My reaction might have been different had I not anticipated the author’s promise of playfulness to be fulfilled. But I did, and it was, and I enjoyed the humor and the wit. The novella should have particularly strong appeal for readers steeped in the conventions of the genre who should enjoy the gentle send-up.

The Untamed Earl

By Valerie Bowman

Publisher: St. Martin’s

Release Date: May 3, 2016

Even at fifteen, Lady Alexandra Hobbs, younger daughter of the Duke of Huntley, knew that she would never be as adventurous as her younger brother or as beautiful as her older sister, but she nevertheless aspired to become more like them. But when she observed Lord Owen Monroe, heir to the Earl of Moreland, in a chivalrous moment, he instantly became the hero of heart. From that moment, Alexandra’s greatest aspiration became to marry Lord Owen.

Alexandra’s belief in the heroic nature of Lord Owen Monroe was unique. The rest of their world saw him as rogue whose primary interests were drinking, gambling, and womanizing. Owen seemed bent on reinforcing that opinion. If some of his activities challenged that view, he was careful that such actions remained secret. He was content to live down to his father’s opinion of him. However, the consequences of such behavior was his father’s announcement that it was time for his heir to settle down and marry, and the proper wife in the earl’s opinion was Lady Lavinia Hobbs, older daughter of the earl’s friend the Duke of Huntley. Although the two fathers have agreed that the marriage should take place, the duke has added the proviso that Owen must win Lavinia’s consent.

Owen has no interest in proper young ladies, but he has a major interest in seeing that his allowance continues to flow from the ducal coffers—and his father makes clear that the unimpeded flow of said allowance is contingent upon Owen’s successfully wooing Lavinia. Owen, accustomed to effortlessly charming any lady he chooses, hits a snag with Lavinia from the start. First, he confuses the identity of the Hobbs sisters and asks Alexandra to dance. Then he finds Lavinia, who has a reputation for being “difficult,” immune to his charm.

When Alexandra offers to teach Owen how to win Lavinia in exchange for his help in making Alexandra a belle, he eagerly accepts. Alexandra, once she is convinced Lavinia truly has no interest in Owen, turns her considerable gifts to seeing that it is the rogue rather than the shrew who is tamed in this exchange. But will even true love be able to thwart the marriage plans a duke and an earl have for their eldest offspring?

The Untamed Earl is the fifth book in Valerie Bowman’s Playful Brides series. Like the other novels in the series, this one is inspired by a classic. This time, appropriately for an April release, it is Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shew. I’m a fan of smart romance, and I have read all of the books in this series with delight at Bowman’s wit and clever twists of classic tales. I confess that the third book, The Unlikely Lady, inspired by my second favorite Shakespeare comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, and featuring a bluestocking heroine (a trope I love), is my favorite in the series. My feelings about a romance based on The Taming of the Shrew, a play I dislike, were less than enthusiastic. But I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Owen is an amusing hero who charms the reader even if he fails with Lavinia, but it is Alexandra who steals the reader’s heart. Her vulnerability and awkwardness are endearing, her heart is pure despite her deception, and she actively pursues her dream. I adored her! I’m also a series addict who loved seeing characters from earlier books make appearances. (Owen is the older brother of the Countess of Swifdon, née Lady Cassandra Monroe, heroine of The Accidental Countess, the second book in the series).

If you are a reader who demands historical depth and serious angst in your romance, this book is not for you. On the other hand, if, like me, you have room on your bookshelves for engaging romps with captivating characters and deliciously satisfying HEAs, I definitely recommend The Untamed Earl—and don’t be surprised if you find reading it is followed by a search for the rest of the series. I already have The Legendary Lord (a November 1 release inspired by Pygmalion—oh, joy!) on my book calendar, and at least four more books in the series will follow. I can’t wait to see what the inspiration for these will be.

~Janga

Today's Special - - Miranda Neville

Photo by Thomas Ames, Jr. 

I'm delighted to welcome Miranda Neville back to The Romance Dish today. Miranda grew up in England where she developed a fondness for the books of Georgette Heyer, Jean Plaidy, and other historical authors. She studied history at the University of Oxford and spent years writing catalogs for Sotheby's in London and New York. Her debut book, Never Resist Temptation was published in 2009. Several more historical romances have been published since then, many of which sit on the keeper shelf in my library. She now lives in rural Vermont where she enjoys cooking, gardening, and cross-country skiing. 

PJ: Welcome, Miranda! Congratulations on the release of your newest historical romance, Secrets of a Soprano.  What can readers expect from this story?

Hi Pj and Janga. Thanks for inviting me to the Dish and asking such juicy questions. The heroine and hero of Secrets of a Soprano are Europe’s greatest opera singer and the owner of Regency London's newest opera house. In addition to their clash of interests, Tessa Foscari and Max, Lord Allerton, share a past, a teenage romance that fell apart due to the manipulations of their relatives. Each blames the other for a broken heart. Readers can expect a second chance at love romance set in the highly dramatic setting of the London theater, at a time when opera singers were celebrities who fascinated the public.

PJ:  I was fascinated too, Miranda. I loved the "behind the curtain" look at opera in the Regency era. In most historical romances, opera singers are portrayed as slightly unsavory, secondary characters. What inspired you to create a story with an opera singer as your heroine?

I like to write stories about people who do things. Especially for the heroines of

historicals, there’s a limited choice of occupations beyond governess and companion. The great singers were actually the world’s most successful women for a century or so, achieving fame and riches on a par with modern day singers and movie stars. (An aside: a couple of days ago I read an article about women’s portraits on currency and learned that no fewer than five opera singers appear on their countries’ paper money, making it one of the top occupations.) I enjoy workplace settings, which add depth of background as well as being a splendid source of romantic conflict.

It is true that among the aristocracy, where most Regency-era romances are set, performers were not entirely respectable—mistress rather than wife material.  Yet some actresses and singers did make good marriages. The trick for the writer is to make the outcome plausible.

PJ: In researching Secrets of a Soprano, what fact about opera in the 1800’s did you discover that most surprised you?

I was fascinated by what I learned about the business of running an opera house or theater. The subscribers—like season ticket holders of today’s sports teams—were vital to the economics of the house. The users of the fancy private boxes provided money up front to fund expenses. However, box holders didn’t have the right to sell their tickets on nights they weren’t using them. They were supposed to tell the theater management if they weren’t using their boxes, then the theater could resell the tickets for extra income. However, box holders weren’t good about letting management know. So theaters employed “messengers” whose job was to find out what the subscribers were doing that night. I imagine them as a team of spies, grilling the servants of Mayfair and discovering all sorts of interesting tidbits about the aristocracy. Great plot fodder for a future book!

PJ: I'd read that book! 

Janga: I’m a reader who loves books rich in context, and one of the things I love most about your novels is that you make your reader aware of the world beyond ballrooms and house parties. Can you tell us anything about the contexts of your next novel?

I guess you can tell I enjoy delving into my settings! My next series, coming in 2017, concerns well-bred young women who lose their reputation and have to make something of their lives. Both the hero and the heroine of the first are writers. The hero is a somewhat Byronic poet, though a much nicer guy—I’m a fan of Byron’s work but not so much his character. However, the book isn’t as much about writing as it is about the literary and publishing world of Regency London. The couple in the second book is involved in science and inventing. As for the third, what can I say? The hero is a duke. People say dukes are overdone but I’m fascinated by the different ways that, historically, dukedoms have wielded power. In Confessions from an Arranged Marriage the hero inherits an immensely important political dukedom to which he is thoroughly unsuited. The Duke of Castleton in The Importance of Being Wicked comes from a family that is all about money, not politics. The Duke of Denford in The Duke of Dark Desires inherits his title unexpectedly and has to figure out what to do with it. My upcoming duke is an older man, in his late thirties, and completely comfortable with his own position and power, so I’ll have to give him some serious problems! That was a question about dukes, right?

PJ: What authors do you enjoy reading when you aren’t busy writing books of your own?

Too many historical romance writers to name so I won’t even make the attempt. I also have a weakness for the old traditional Regencies—shorter reads that have a lot of charm. Lately I’ve been getting into mysteries, which I haven’t read much in years. I recently enjoyed Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch, the first of a series set in modern London with a paranormal twist. I have the first of Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey books fired up on my reader. I’ve been meaning to read them for ages—better late than never!

Janga:  What unasked question do you wish someone would ask about your book?

What an interesting question! Thinking about it, I’m not sure there is one. Sometimes I read a comment on a character or scene in a review and think “That’s not what I meant!” But once a book is published, it’s in the hands of the reader who has the right to interpret it in any way she wants. I am always delighted to answer queries, but I also let the work stand for itself.

                   

Janga: Is there any chance that you will revisit the Montroses? I love that family!

I am so glad, Janga. I love them too and those four hunky sons are always in the back of my mind. I even have story ideas for the two eldest, Will and Rufus, the botanist and the archeologist. I’d probably have to self-publish their stories because I’ve switched publishers since the Burgundy Club, which introduced the family and the two sisters. Also, no titles! Not sure how four untitled brothers would sell in today’s duke-obsessed market.

PJ: I’m enjoying the bright colors and balmy temperatures of spring. What season is your favorite? What makes it so?

As I write this we have two inches of snow on the ground in Vermont. Brrr. But it’ll all be gone tomorrow, leaves are ready to burst out, and I can’t wait! I love the infinite promise of spring. The only thing it lacks is Christmas.

PJ: Where can readers find you online?

Readers can find out more about me and my books and sign up for my newsletter on my website. Or find me on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you for visiting with us, Miranda. Would you like to ask our readers a question today?

It’s relatively unusual for the heroines of romances to be celebrities, especially in historicals. Can you think of a famous woman, alive or in the past, whose story and character would make a great romantic story? Be brave, be bold! No idea is too far-fetched. I shall be taking notes. 

Two commenters will win digital copies of Secrets of a Soprano.

Great fame brings great heartbreak 

No one knows the perils of celebrity better than Teresa Foscari, Europe’s most famous opera singer. The public knows her as a glamorous and tempestuous diva, mistress to emperors, a reputation created by the newspapers and the ruthless man who exploited her. Now she has come to London to make a fresh start and find her long lost English family. 

Foscari’s peerless voice thrills all London—except Maximilian Hawthorne, Viscount Allerton, the wealthy patron of opera—and lover of singers. Notorious Teresa Foscari is none other than Tessa, the innocent girl who broke his youthful heart. When his glittering new opera house sits half empty, thanks to the soprano filling the seats of his competitor’s theater, Max vows to stop the woman he unwillingly still desires. 

Amidst backstage intrigue and the sumptuous soirées of fashionable London, the couple’s rivalry explodes in bitter accusations and smashed china. With her reputation in ruins, Tessa must fight for her career —and resist her burning attraction to the man who wishes to destroy her. 

Review Tour - - Doing it Over

Doing it Over
A Most Likely To Novel - Book 1
By Catherine Bybee
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Release Date: April 19, 2016







Ten years earlier...

High school graduation was taking them in different directions but best friends, Melanie, Jo, and Zoe made a vow to never forget their close bond and, no matter where they were, to return to their small hometown of River Bend, Oregon for their ten year reunion.

Present day...

Voted the senior most likely to succeed, Melanie left River Bend ten years earlier with plans to set the world on fire but the single mom is returning with no job, little money and a car that didn't even have the decency to wait until she hit the city limits before dying with a gasp and a shudder during a torrential downpour. She's there for her high school reunion but it doesn't take long for the warm welcome from the people of River Bend to remind her of how much she loved growing up there. Might the town that's at the center of her fondest childhood memories offer a second chance for Melanie and her young daughter, Hope?

Leaving the big city five years ago in search of a quieter life, Wyatt Gibson has made a place for himself in River Bend. The sexy contractor isn't looking for a relationship but he's charmed by both Melanie and her daughter and it isn't long before he's hoping they will decide to stay in town permanently. Experience has taught Melanie to rely only on herself. Will Wyatt be able to convince her to give them a chance? Or will a threat from Melanie's past derail their relationship before it has a chance to get on track?

Catherine Bybee is fast becoming one of my favorite contemporary romance authors with her vividly drawn characters, humor, sweet and sexy romance, and touch of suspense. In this new series, she has created a small town filled with intriguing - and a few quirky - characters who welcomed me home as if I had grown up in River Bend along with Melanie, Jo, and Zoe. I love the realness of her characters and the small town dynamics that she's nailed. And growing up in a town of 1800 people qualifies me to say that. The thread of suspense that she's added to this first book gives it the edge that keeps me flipping pages and guessing how she's going to tie all the loose ends together. And the secondary characters that are introduced as well as the hinted at mysteries surrounding them already have me anxious to read their books.   

If you haven't tried a Catherine Bybee book yet, Doing it Over would be a great place to start!

~PJ

Have you ever returned home for a class reunion? How did it go?

Have you ever wished for a do-over?

Have you read Catherine Bybee's books yet?

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New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee was raised in Washington State, but after graduating high school, she moved to Southern California in hopes of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full-time and has penned the Weekday Brides Series and the Not Quite Series. Bybee lives with her two teenage sons in Southern California.  

www.catherinebybe.com

catherinebybee@yahoo.com

catherinebybee.blogspot.com

facebook.com/AuthorCatherineBybee

twitter.com/catherinebybee

pinterest.com/catherinebybee

instagram.com/catherinebybee

Coming Attractions

Outside my condo door, my patio is bursting with beautiful blossoms and sweet-smelling herbs. Inside, it's bursting with deliciously delightful novels that I can't wait to read. And here on the Dish, the schedule is overflowing with a fantastic line-up of authors.  Welcome to the magical month of May!

We kick things off on Monday, May 2 with the Catherine Bybee Doing it Over blog tour. Doing it Over is the first book in Bybee's new Most Likely To series and reinforces why she's one of my auto-buy contemporary romance authors.












Miranda Neville joins me Tuesday, May 3 for a Q&A. Secrets of a Soprano, Neville's new, stand-alone historical romance, was released April 11 and has my enthusiastic recommendation.

Wednesday, May 4 brings Valerie Bowman's The Untamed Earl blog tour to the Dish with a review from Janga. The fifth book in Bowman's Playful Brides series, The Untamed Earl will be released May 3.













The Jodi Thomas Lone Heart Pass review tour stops here on Tuesday, May 10. The fourth book in Thomas's Ransom Canyon series, Lone Heart Pass was released April 26.

Stop by Sunday, May 15 to check out Janga's May On Second Thought review. Each month, Janga brings us a new review of a previously published book that has been reissued in digital format.







The third book in Adrienne Giordano's Lucie Rizzo Mystery series brings more "in the wrong place at the wrong time" trouble for Giordano's intrepid Mafia princess dog walker who does her best to stay on the right side of the law while keeping the peace between her Italian mafia family and her Irish Chicago Cop boyfriend. Stop by Monday, May 16 when the Dog Collar Couture blog tour stops at the Dish.

If you're looking for historical romances set during New York City's Gilded Age, don't miss Joanna Shupe's visit on Monday, May 23. Magnate, the second book in Shupe's The Knickerbocker Club series was released April 26. Publisher's Weekly named Magnate one of their best summer books of 2016.











Thursday, May 26 brings historical romance author Cathy Maxwell back to the Dish. Maxwell's May 31 release, The Fairest of Them All is the second book in her Marrying the Duke series and one of my all-time favorite Maxwell stories.

We close out the month Monday, May 30 with the Brynn Kelly Deception Island blog tour. If you enjoy romantic suspense with non-stop action, sizzling romance, and outside-the-box characters, you won't want to miss this compelling book that I could not put down. Deception Island will be released May 31.





I hope you'll join us for another exciting month at The Romance Dish.

What are you looking forward to in May?