Showing posts with label Sharla Lovelace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sharla Lovelace. Show all posts

Monday, August 22, 2016

The Cottage on Pumpkin and Vine

This anthology has three stories revolving around the annual Halloween party at a B&B, Rose Cottage, in Moonbright, Maine which is apparently an October 31st mecca. There is a touch of fantasy with the owner of the Cottage having a crystal ball that sees the future. Most of the stories are okay but suffer from the regular issues that plague shorter romance books.
The Cottage on Pumpkin and Vine by Kate Angell
Charmed by You by Kate Angell
Grace Alden is trying to get the Cottage decorated with the help of Three Men and a Truck, one of whom is Cade Maxwell. He's having issues because she's a commanding woman and he doesn't like having a female boss. Explicitly, his cousins don't like working for a woman but you get that sense from him as well. While helping her aunt Amelia, the far-seeing owner of the Cottage, is having them set up her fortune telling table Grace sees a man's hands in the crystal ball. Later Cade sees a black cat tattoo. They end up together. I'm not sure why or how but it seems like it might be an HEA? 

Two and a half stars

Mesmerized by You by Jennifer Dawson
Chloe and Jack have been friends forever. All of their other friends wonder why they haven't just slept together and gotten it over with. Even her family wonders. Which is why her Aunt Iris, who they are visiting in Moonbright, decides to force the issue. There's only one bedroom left in the last B&B in town. This was also an okay story but there seemed like WAY too much set up as to why the two weren't already sleeping together and then SO MUCH angst about finally doing it.

Two and a half stars

Enchanted by You by Sharla Lovelace
This one was my least favorite of the three. Sidney Jensen works for a horrible human being. One who blames her for a deal imploding and then sends her off to the wilds of Maine to take care of her own (not Sidney's) family business. There, Sidney meets up with the boy (now man) who broke her nerdy heart in high school. They sort of talk and work things out a bit and then have an HEA.

Two and a half stars

Overall, intellectually, this book averaged to two and a half stars but it actually gave me enough good-feels that I'm bumping it up to three.