Fated for Sanchez

Excited to have a Q&A today at AllRomance AreCafe today on Fated for Sanchez so I hope you will join me!

In thinking about ARe's questions, it made me realize how many elements come together to make a novel happen. I combine a fascination for Spanish cultural and romance themes with observations from a past trip to Barcelona, Spain into a contemporary romance.

The overriding theme however is about fate and how fate, or an unseen force, seems to meddle in our lives, sometimes for the good, though often the not so good. In Fated for Sanchez, I look at how Sanchez Varellano, a Malaga businessman, decides to take a chance on managing circumstances that come his way. He seizes the chance to bring Lilli Eden back into his life for some very unfinished personal business.

Please visit my Q&A !  ARe Cafe with Kristin Ravelle

Heir Untamed by Danielle Bourdon

Heir Untamed

Latvala Royals #1

By:  Danielle Bourdon

Publish Date:  December 9, 2012 by Wildbloom Press

Genre:  Romance, Fantasy, Suspense

Pages:  318 Kindle

Source:  Author Free Day on Amazon

Desperate for work to avoid eviction from her Seattle apartment, photographer Chey Sinclair accepts a rare opportunity to travel abroad and photograph Latvala Royalty. Encountering the Royals for the first time, Chey experiences an instant attraction to Mattias, second in line to the throne. He's charming, confident—and taken.

During a horseback ride to clear her head, Chey finds herself in a scuffle with Sander Fisk, head of security. Rugged, determined and sharp tongued, Sander is infuriating as well as intriguing.

Faced with conflicting emotions and a mystery unfolding in the castle, Chey must decide between men: a Prince of Latvala, or an arrogant rogue.

She discovers the hard way that this particular fairy tale was more than she ever bargained for.

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I loved the zany fantasy premise of Heir Untamed when I came across Danielle Bourdon’s first book in the Latvala Royals series so I couldn’t pass on the free day at Amazon from a USA Today best-selling author.

So, right off, the premise of Chey being approached by a foreign royal family to take family photos for several months at their castle for an outrageous amount of money is… crazy – and fun! The fantasy solution to encroaching money problems as Chey has lost her job. Wouldn’t we all love that? She’s quick and jumps on the chance grabbing an early bird bonus of $5,000 (LOL).

The story moves quickly with Chey flying to Latvala and getting to work immediately snapping photos of the royal family. Just because they’re royal doesn’t mean they don’t have unpleasant secrets and Chey starts to see these early on. I found it interesting to see royals portrayed this way.

Prince Mattias is apparently drawn to Chey for her quite different take on things and considering the fish bowl he lives in, this seems a real possibility. I like that he isn’t afraid to expose her to what the royal family is actually like, making him very real and likeable.

Chey also meets Sander Fisk, sexy security, who protects her from the mysterious assailant that tries to shoot her. It is a bit far-fetched that anyone would want to do in an unimportant photographer but I’m going with the whole fantasy thing here.

However, I feel that some of Chey’s actions make her appear frankly silly. She’s a professional modern day photographer and should have more sense. Some of the tough spots she gets into could have been written in using other methods that don’t make her out to sometimes seem witless (don’t go alone to a haunted castle in a strange country in terrible weather). Strangely, at other times she seems quite perceptive.

I love the unexpected twist I didn’t see coming though I also felt tricked. The murderous subplot actually rounded out the story nicely.

This is a fast, fun read if you want romantic escapism without anything too heavy to think about. Squeeking in at 3.8 stars for being entertaining though this would be higher if Chey’s character was written in a more mature manner.

You'll find Danielle Bourdon at these links:

Amazon | Author Website | Twitter | Pinterest | Facebook  

Anomaly by Caitlin Lynagh - Book Review

Anomaly

The Soul Prophecies

By:  Caitlin Lynagh

Publish Date:  January 27, 2016
by Troubador

Genre:  Paranormal Fantasy, Romance, Mystical, Science Fiction

Pages:  264 PDF

Source:  Bostick Communications/Author Publicist

After Kyle loses his childhood sweetheart, Alice Lynam, he spends two years trying to bury his past and move on with his life.

On his twenty-first birthday, he receives Alice's notebook and discovers that two pages are missing. Kyle is forced to revisit his past and realises that perhaps his life isn’t as coincidental as it seems.

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I was drawn to Anomaly because of the everything-is-connected theme portrayed through Kyle’s attachment to his sweetheart, Alice, even after her death, and the hint that there is something bigger at play here. Out of the box ideas always get my mind churning.

Right away we meet Kyle, Alice, Sophia, Ahrl of the Thirteen, and Kyle’s sister, Hailey, the main characters, some of whom are from different dimensions but are interconnected so the reader needs to pay attention. Sophia acts as a sort of living connector between alien watcher, Ahrl of the Thirteen, the deceased Alice, and living Kyle. Much of the time we are with Kyle as he very slowly works his way through his deeply heartfelt loss of Alice.

The time/space themes presented are intriguing. One such is that even after death, we are all still connected in some way that the living don’t comprehend. I liked reading Alice’s POV as she hovered around Kyle from the afterlife. It seemed too bad that he wasn’t aware of her at the beginning. The novel also suggests that there are non-earth beings involved in these processes.

Another interesting concept (pg 163) is that something which is not possible to a person at this present moment (because of current conditions) may become possible at a future time. Also, the concept is presented that there are physical possibilities available right now (one could leave their house and go to the grocery store), but there are also imaginary possibilities (teleport to Paris). All these possibilities are interconnected and affected by decisions made by us every moment of every day. It made me wonder if we could somehow access all of these possibilities from the now.

While the novel presents many interesting ideas, I found elements of the story too slow to unfold. I was frustrated that Kyle took so long to get into Alice’s journal, and to start getting to know Sophia. As well, the story is very evenly paced with too much ‘telling’ and daily routine stuff that makes it somewhat banal reading. Bringing in more of both Arhl and Sophia would have helped perk things along, as well as more varied sentence length, etc.

Fav quote pg 25:

“Hailey shrugged. She wanted to be a writer and the best way she could learn to write was by reading other authors’ books and to practise. Tank smiled and massaged his right shin.”

4.0 stars for interesting space/time concepts and overall well put together story for a debut effort. I feel the writing just needs tweaking to keep the reader avidly engaged throughout.

My thanks to author, Caitlin, for a reading copy via Bostick Communications for the purpose of an unbiased review. You will find her at these internet links:

Amazon 
Author Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook