Borrowed Dreams by Susanne O'Leary

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Borrowed Dreams There’s nothing like a romance set in Saint-Tropez, one of the most famous resorts in Europe, where the well-heeled escape from it all to their shiny yachts in the glorious sunshine.

Daisy Hennessy isn’t exactly well-heeled, though. She’s rather desperate, in fact, to find a job after splitting up with her rather unscrupulous on-off boyfriend. House-sitting a luxury villa amongst the mega-rich and looking after a couple of pooches is the perfect distraction…she hopes. But when she borrows some designer clothes from the absent owner’s wardrobe to attend invite-only parties, she finds herself caught up in an ever-decreasing circle of lies. Famous Irish author Liam complicates her situation. Not only does she have to extricate herself out of her web of deceit…which seemed a harmless bit of fun to start with…if she’s going to get anywhere with the handsome writer, she suddenly finds herself rather close to home, when there's a series of robberies from the glitteratis' luxury villas.

Susanne has a wonderfully uncluttered and refreshing style and never fails to provide characters who are easy to like; she lures you into their lives and into the beautiful setting—you can feel the warm sun on your skin, see the sparkling azure-blue sea and almost taste the fine French cuisine in the topnotch restaurants.

This book follows Selling Dreams, but stands alone, which is one of the things I love about Susanne’s books. Each book is complete but she leaves the door slightly ajar so that anyone of her characters can squeeze through and tiptoe into another book; it’s rather fun trying to guess who will slip into another adventure.

As always, highly recommended.

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Love Hurts by Carol E. Wyer

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Love Hurts by Carol E. Wyer

I love it when an author jumps out of a cake and surprises you. Well, not literally, of course. Metaphorically speaking. 

Carol is a wonderful writer of light-hearted, funny, witty and entertaining novels and non-fiction books. Her books are like pick-me-ups, and you know you are going to end up smiling and uplifted at the final click.

So, Love Hurts comes along—a selection of five short stories—and not only are you entertained, but you’re pleasantly—very, very pleasantly—amazed by a range of stories you just didn’t expect: a delicious mix of dark, sad, playful and cheering.

Love Hurts looks at how the very many facets of love make people react and the consequences of those reactions: sometimes joyful, sometimes…not. Each story is very different but equally delightful, and I defy anyone to not enjoy this quintet.

Love Hurts by Carol E. Wyer

See also:

Stay Tuned by Lauren Clark

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The Fault in our Stars by John Green

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I had no idea this existed until I realised there was a movie with the same title. I have a golden rule of never watching a movie until I’ve read the book, so decided to get that out of the way. With a host of good reviews on Amazon, I really wanted to see for myself if it lived up to its popularity.

I’m sure it’s fairly widely known that the story features two terminally ill teenagers (Hazel and Augustus), who meet at a cancer support group. It’s an instant attraction, both mental and physical, and the encounter impacts their (short) lives.

Despite the fact that it’s a little hard to believe the dialogue is coming out of the mouths of sixteen/seventeen-year-olds, the rather excessive use of Capitalized Phrases To Make a Point, and the plot stretching the imagination just a little too far, I really loved this book.

It’s easy to get into and easy to love the characters without feeling pity for them. It’s a love story, sprinkled with deep sadness and poignancy, but the writing is razor-sharp, witty, humorous, and engaging. I found it hard to put down, hard to accept that it had finished (note to self: read more John Green!) and can’t wait to see the movie.

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Kiss of Night by K. S. Brooks

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Kathrin Night is a special agent. Or rather…she was. She is reluctantly…and a little resentfully…forced to relinquish her special-agent duties by an injury. But a gutsy, no-nonsense, rather complex character isn’t the type of person to settle easily into a more relaxed lifestyle. With no choice in the matter, she is landed with a Russian bodyguard. A rather handsome, hunky, chunky, hockey-playing one, at that. How is he going to help her adapt to her new life?

I devoured this book rather quickly. It’s short, yes, but it’s so, so easy to get sucked into Kathrin’s life. It was my first encounter with her, and I like her a lot. The book is a sort of prequel and scene-setter for Night Undone, which follows. We learn how she acquired her injury, how she became a special agent, why she had to give it up and all neatly done in just over a hundred and twenty pages. Brooks writes very engagingly with wit and humour, and it was with no difficulty at all that I rushed eagerly over to Night Undone. I wasn’t going to let her go easily.

An excellent and compelling read.

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Round Robin by Joseph Flynn AudioBook

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Delightful book. Thoroughly enjoyed it. This is a romance, but not your full-on, gushy, hearts-and-flowers-type romance. It’s meaty, solid and robust. And how refreshing not to have a perfect female protagonist with gorgeous long blond/brunette/red hair, perfect eyes, bust measurement and legs up to her armpits. Equally non-perfect is the male protagonist: again, not the sort of hunk you’ve come to expect. Hunky, though, in quite a different way…

Robin is a bitter, overweight, mouthy woman with bad man-history, who works in a deli delivering as good as she gets, free of charge, along with the sandwiches she serves. She lives alone in a two-storey apartment, the ground floor of which she’s transformed into an indoor ‘park’. Somewhere to sit and reflect and forget. But her ambition to buy the deli from its soon-to-retire owner is becoming financially prohibitive, as it leaves her little cash for money for repairs to her haven. She reluctantly agrees to a live-in handyman: he does the d-i-y in return for lodgings. Enter Manfred. A German ex-powerlifter who’s been in prison for spying.

Two people both with ‘baggage’, both with demons. But how differently they each deal with it.

This was very well written (albeit a little rough around the edges editorially). There’s some cracking dialogue, some superb characters, all in a neat well-structured plot. Not a lot of male romance authors around, as far as I know, and I don’t think I’ve read many. But this author certainly nailed it.

A wonderful read.

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A Very English Affair by Faith Mortimer ebook epub download

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A Very English Affair by Faith Mortimer

Summertime, for some reason, seems to be a great time for romances…reading them, that is…and one to include has to be A Very English Affair. Faith has a few very enjoyable romances tucked under her belt, and this one is no exception.

Danielle, in her mid-thirties, seems to have done well: a successful travel agency and owns her own home. Then, the icing on the cake comes in the form of handsome Christian, who sweeps her off her feet and a passionate love affair leads to an undying love for each other they know will last forever. How long, though, is forever?

A Very English Affair by Faith Mortimer

A bit of a tearjerker, this one, but without being sloppy, cliched or oversentimental. As always, the story is perfectly balanced, and the characters likeable, credible and well portrayed. You’re always in good hands with Faith and you know what you’re going to get, whether it’s a romance or one of Diana Rivers’ adventures: a good, clean, structured plot with characters you can identify with, written with sincerity and feeling.

We’ve had A Very French Affair, now an English one…where next, I wonder…Italy, Spain?

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Hot Pursuit by Susanne O'Leary

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A third ‘Hottie’ by Susanne. (Hot Property, Hot Gossip). And it is a hottie! This time, we’re in the company of Rita, who made an appearance in Hot Gossip.

Lovelorn thirty-something Rita grabs an opportunity to start a new life in Dublin, working for a topnotch hairdressing salon. New life, new job, new friends: will this help her forget the object of her unrequited love? Will it help her forget the memory of a mistake she made as a naive sixteen-year-old?  A mistake she feels compelled to right if she is enjoy her new future.  She tries her best with the help of the dishy Ricardo, her hairdressing co-worker and Josh, the intrepid war correspondent. One is her lover, the other her best friend. But has she got them the right way round?

Once again, Susanne hits the spot with this romance. Colourful, interesting and funny characters against the backdrop of the gorgeous Irish countryside are the perfect ingredients for this story. It’s well balanced, the characters natural, the dialogue fluid and fun, and it’s all presented in Susanne’s usual, mellow, warm style.

Easy to read, easy to enjoy and very easy to recommend! Will we be Hotting up again, I wonder?

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