Romance

Welcome to Quayside

Welcome to Quayside
Title: Welcome to Quayside
ASIN: B0CKWQ2MSZ
Published: October 10, 2023
Author's Twitter: @TheSicilianMama
Forty-year-old Tanya Baker dreams of starting a new life and making friends when she moves to a block of flats by the River Thames with her thirteen-year-old daughter, Hattie. But as Tanya and Hattie knock on neighbours’ doors in search of a tin opener, it’s clear that the residents of Number One Quayside like to keep to themselves. Everyone, that is, except their next-door neighbours, Italian chef Giacomo Dalamo, and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Frankie. Between a delicious dish of lasagne (Giacomo’s) and a burnt salad (Tanya’s), they hatch a plan to set a library of things in their building, so that residents can borrow rarely-used items, from DIY tools to sports equipment and party supplies. As all the residents at Quayside pull together to make the library happen, dreams are fulfilled, a community is born and love blossoms again

Assessed for Awesome Indies Book Awards

7 June 2024

The English Heart

The English Heart
Title: The English Heart
ASIN: B077BCKKX2
Publisher:
Author:
Author's Twitter: @helenahalme
A stylish 1980’s Cold War love story based on true events. Young Finnish student Kaisa falls head over heals in love with Peter, a dashing newly qualified naval officer. Kaisa realised she’d never felt like this before. This was love. The stuff she’d read about in books since she was a teenager; the films she’d watched. This was how Ryan O’Neal felt about Ali MacGraw in Love Story, and Barbra Streisand about Robert Redford in The Way We Were. Kaisa grinned. She’d wanted to pose the same question to the Englishman that Katie had to Hubbell, ‘Do you smile ALL the time?’ ” When a young Finnish student, Kaisa, is invited to the British Embassy cocktail party in Helsinki to celebrate a Royal Navy visit to Finland, she’s not looking for romance. After all, her future has been carefully planned: she’s to complete her degree, marry her respectable, well-to-do Finnish fiancé Matti, and live happily ever after. Enter the dashing Peter, a newly qualified naval officer. Like a moth to a flame, Kaisa falls head over heels in love. Kaisa and Peter embark on a long-distance relationship, but at the height of the Cold War, while the Englishman chases Russian submarines, Kaisa is stuck in Finland, a country friendly with the Soviet Union. Can they trust each other? Can their love go the distance? A stylish 1980s Nordic love story based on true events.

Assessed for Awesome Indies (Previous title: The Englishman)

 

 

The Ahe’ey Series

The Ahe’ey Series
Title: The Ahe’ey Series
ASIN: B06XF7T8P1
Tag:
Published: March 8, 2017
Author:
Author's Twitter: @JamieLeFay
Thirty-four-year-old Morgan is a dreamer, change maker and art lover. She is a feisty, slightly preachy, romantic feminist full of contradictions and insecurities. Morgan uncovers a world where women have the power, and where magic is no longer just a figment of her wild imagination. Sounds like a dream, but it may, in fact, turn into a nightmare. The world of the Ahe'ey challenges and subverts her views about gender, genes, and nature versus nurture. The strong and uninvited chemistry between her and the dashing Gabriel makes matters even more complicated. His stunning looks keep short-circuiting her rational mind.

Assessed for 

The Curiosity Cabinet

The Curiosity Cabinet
Title: The Curiosity Cabinet
ASIN: B01N23HTHU
Publisher:
Published: February 6, 2017
A novel sure to appeal to fans of Outlander. When Alys revisits the beautiful Scottish island of Garve after an absence of 25 years, she is captivated by the embroidered casket on display in her hotel. She discovers that it belongs to Donal, her childhood playmate, and soon they resume their old friendship.   Interwoven with the story of their growing love is the darker 18th-century tale of Henrietta Dalrymple, kidnapped by the formidable Manus McNeill and held on Garve against her will. Despite the 300 years separating them, the women are strongly connected: their parallel lives are linked by the cabinet and its contents, by the tug of motherhood and by the magic of the Hebridean island itself.   But Garve has its secrets, past and present. Donal must learn to trust Alys enough to confide in her and, like Henrietta before her, Alys must earn the right to belong.

Assessed for 

 

Feast of the Epiphany

Feast of the Epiphany
Title: Feast of the Epiphany
ASIN: B01N8OCA7A
Publisher:
Published: November 7, 2016
Author's Twitter: @KathrynMHearst
Immortal and a member of the Sinistra Dei, a secret order designed to eliminate threats to the Vatican, Giovanna was created to do the dirty work of the Church. This requires creative thinking and the ability to tap dance on the line between right and wrong. As the commander she loves slowly sinks into insanity, she learns that dark immortals—the Execrati dedicated to destroying her kind— have snuck into New Orlean’s legendary French Quarter to hunt her friends. With the further discovery that one of Rome’s own has faked his death, and the unexpected evolution of her supernatural powers, Gia is no longer able to play by the rules. How can she defy the man she loves, break the trust of a close friend, and explain the new set of wings on her back? The answer is simple… she can’t.

Assessed 

The Likeness

The Likeness
Title: The Likeness
ASIN: B01LXDFQ8L
Published: October 14, 2016
Author:
Author's Twitter: @carver26
Aberdeen, 1841. Woodcarver John Grant has an unusual new commission - creating a figurehead to feature onstage in the melodramas of a newly-arrived theatre group. Simultaneously, he’s also trying to unravel the mystery of the death of a young woman, whose body has been found in the filth behind the harbour’s fish sheds. His loving relationship with Helen Anderson, which began in The Figurehead, has grown stronger but, despite the fact that they both want to be together, she rejects the restrictions of conventional marriage, in which the woman is effectively the property of the husband. As John works on the figurehead, Helen persuades her father, a rich merchant, to let her get involved in his business, allowing her to challenge yet more conventions of a male-dominated society. The story weaves parallels between the stage fictions, Helen’s business dealings, a sea voyage, stage rehearsals, and John’s investigations. In the end, the mystery death and the romantic dilemma are both resolved, but in unexpected ways.

Assessed for 

The Locksmith’s Secret

The Locksmith’s Secret
Title: The Locksmith’s Secret
Published: April 8, 2016
Author's Twitter: @TahliaNewland
Ella’s boyfriend Jamie seems to be her perfect match until a death in the family calls him back to England and it becomes clear that he’s hiding something. Can their relationship survive the revelation of something so astounding that it completely changes Ella’s perception of him and his place in her world? While Jamie struggles with family responsibilities, Ella’s steampunk murder mystery develops a life of its own, raising disturbing memories of her time as a striptease artist and a past life as a sexually abused Italian nun. She also dreams of an ephemeral city, where she seeks to unravel the locksmith’s secret and find the key that opens a door to other realities. All these, together with a lost brother, a desperate mother, a demanding cat, and a struggle to live up to Buddhist ideals, weave together in a rich tapestry that creates an extraordinary work of genre-bending treansrealist fiction    

Assessed 

Currents of Change

Currents of Change
Title: Currents of Change
ASIN: B00U8Q968I
Categories: ,
Published: March 20, 2015
Author:
Author's Twitter: @DarianWordSmith
Haunted house. Haunted heart. When Sara O’Neill goes on the run, she believes the tiny New Zealand town of Kowhiowhio is just the sanctuary she needs. Her family’s old colonial house needs repair, but it’s safe from the abusive husband she left behind. However, a hostile local holds a grudge and a dangerous presence haunting her new home threatens Sara’s chance at peace. How can she create a new life while dealing with ghosts from the old? For local electrician, Nate Adams, parenting his young daughter alone has not been easy – particularly in a town where he is still seen as an outsider. When he meets his new neighbour, he sees a chance at a new start for them both. Even with his help, can the house – or Sara’s heart – be repaired? Someone doesn’t want an O’Neill in Kowhiowhio. Sara’s return is awakening secrets hidden for generations. Why has the house never had electricity? What was the fate of Sara’s ancestors? Can she discover the ghost’s story before it’s too late? The truth will set…something…free.

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Tomorrow Is A Long Time

Tomorrow Is A Long Time
Title: Tomorrow Is A Long Time
ASIN: B00ODHR0NQ
Published: November 23, 2014
Author:
Author's Twitter: @TabithaVohn
Tomorrow Is A Long Time is an intertwining of two stories, both exploring the boundaries of romantic love and the consequences of pushing those boundaries. It tests preconceived notions of age, fidelity, and sacrifices made for love.

Assessed for Awesome Indies