Book Review: Until He Met Meg by Sami Lee

Summary (GoodReads)

Meg Lacy came to Sydney to chase her dream, but the dream is somewhat elusive, so she finds herself unemployed, uninspired and on the verge of giving up. A chance encounter with wealthy single father Bryce Carlton gives her a temporary reprieve: a job as a nanny to his headstrong eight-year-old daughter.

The arrangement is supposed to be short-term, an easy way for her to save money while she pursues her dream. But her heart doesn’t understand, and before long she is growing attached to her charge and falling in love with a man determined not to risk his heart a second time.

When his first marriage ended Bryce vowed to never become seriously involved with another woman, but Meg turns his house, his life and his heart upside down.

She is his daughter’s nanny, he’s not the right man for her, and there are a million reasons why their relationship shouldn’t be. Everything was going according to plan…until he meets Meg

My Thoughts:

I found this Until He Met Meg quite delightful, it was like a sweet little morsel of fluff and just what I've come to expect from Escape Publishing (an Aussie imprint I quite love). 

The book was set in Sydney and moved a quite the fast pace but it was all in good fun even if a little surreal - like they meet and a day later she is his nanny and living in his house without so much as a background check - so I didn't mind. 

They were sweet to each other for the most part, and I liked that. Plus, Meg was really good for his daughter and didn't neglect the kid to run after the dad, she was responsible in that sense. 

I also liked Meg had dreams for herself - she wanted to be an interior designer because she and her mom loved making their home pretty when she was a little girl - and fought for them, even if she took a couple of steps back a couple of times. 

Like I said, as sweet story, perfect for a quick read to take your mind of things. Though, granted, not all the characters were very fleshed out. 

Book Review: Love on Location by Claire Baxter

At First Sight: Everything seems to be falling into place for Shayna, a location scout who is about to become location manager of a production for the first time in her career - a move that will take her one step closer to her dream of working in Hollywood. All she needs to do is find the perfect house for a high profile mini-series and the manager job is hers.

Luckily, she just found the perfect house, un-luckily the house's owner (and it's architect) wants nothing to do with the entertainment business and quickly runs Shayna off the property.

Lachlan might now spend his days designing beautiful homes and running a very successful architectural firm, but once upon a time he was a child-star, and part of a family that is considered royalty in the Australian entertainment business. A business that cost Lachlan his childhood, adolescence, first love and relationship with his parents.

But Shayna isn't one to give up and she keeps coming around, trying to convince Lachlan to let her use his house, and the more time he spends with her the more attracted Lachlan is to Shayna, making it very hard for him to keep saying no.

Second Glance: There was a lot I liked about this lovely Aussie romance (thanks, Random House Australia!). Even though the story is on the short side, I really got a sense of whom Lachlan and Shayna were and what drove them.

Shayna dreams of hollywood because, as a child in the foster care system, movies gave her something to strive for even when her life was bleak, and Lachlan has some really serious issues with his family because of the way he was raised to always be "on" for the cameras. And yet, they are pretty nice, well-adjusted adults and, in Shayna's case, even optimistic. I liked them.

I loved Shayna's job and how passionate she was about it - you do get a sense of what being a location scout and manager entails and how they are different to each other - it was pretty unusual, which I always adore.

There were a couple of downsides, though, like the fact the screw up/misunderstanding near the end of the story were a bit over the top for me (but I'll say that it was within character for the most part). And the fact that Lachlan basically lets Shayna use his house in the end because he wants to get into her pants. It's no actually sleazy but it did rub me the wrong way when it was happening. 

Other than that, I really enjoyed the story.

Bottom Line: I do recommend Love on Location a lot, it was a lovely, quick read that actually turned out to be one of the better contemporaries I've read this year. I really liked both main characters and Shayna's work in particular. 

Book Review: Lord Somerton's Heir by Alison Stuart

The Deal: Isabel, the now widowed Lady Somerton is on a mission: to locate her husband's next of kin and have him installed as the new Lord Somerton, and then finally move on with  her life. The last few years she spent married to Somerton were not happy, and Isabel is really looking forward to finally being free.

There is one small problem though, the man next in line to inherit the title is Captain Sebastian Alder, who is among the many injured following the battle of Waterloo.

Yet, Isabel finds him and brings him back to Somerton, where against the odds he pulls through. Sebastian might not be well equipped to be a Viscount but he's an honorable man and Isabel is happy to see his duty is done. 

Until a series of events - among them the fact that there is little money left in estate, as Isabel's husband spent it all, including her widow's portion - keep her in Somerton, where things are rarely what they seem; putting her life and her heart at risk.

My Thoughts: I enjoyed Lord Somerton's Heir, which was a bit odd for me since for the most part the story played like a mystery and there were plenty of lose ends regarding Isabel's husband and what happened to him; some stuff was easy enough to figure out but a few caught me by surprise, which is always welcome. 

The romance between Isabel and Sebastian is of the slow-burn kind, as they have both loved and lost before - Isabel married thinking she was pretty in love with her first husband, for example, only to have her dreams dashed as her marriage progressed - and they aren't eager to have that kind of emotional intimacy again. 

Watching them fall in love was a little odd though, sometimes I felt like there were scenes missing that should have better informed what was going on, plus the pace wasn't great. Early on I had the distinct feeling that Isabel and her husband (whose name, I'm honest, I can't seem to recall) had been married for a couple of years at most... but then it turned out it was close to 10 years in actuality and that threw me too. 

And there were many things like that, that just pulled me out of the story from time to time. 

The story is compelling though, even when it goes into "over the top" territory, which it totally does. 

Book Review: Unforgettable You by Georgina Penney

At First Sight: Jo Blaine just wanted to sleep in her own bed after working in an off-shore oil rig for months and then traveling for 24 hrs straight to get home in Perth, Australia; but when she got to her apartment, she found a man was in residence and had, in fact, taken over her home.

The man was none other than Stephen Hardy, whose family owns the big vineyard where Jo and her sister Amy had grown up and who once started a rumor about Jo that ruined her life. Stephen has always felt very guilty about it and wants to make it up to her somehow, even if that means looking after her place and her cat while she's away.

After a few blow ups, Jo eventually decides to let Stephen stay and they start developing a friendship and then a bit more, even if Jo's job keeps taking her away for months at a time. However, as they grow closer, Stephen realizes that it's something very wrong in Jo's life, something in her past that neither her nor her Amy are willing to talk about and which is coming back to cause her trouble. 

Second Glance: Unforgettable You is the companion novel/prequel to Irrepressible You and it tells the story of how Jo and Stephen (who are an item on Irrepressible You) got together, shedding more light into things that Amy's story just hinted at.

I enjoyed reading Unforgettable You, once I started and settled into the story, I couldn't stop reading it and Georgina Penney has a prose that flows very nicely, you kind of read it fast and progress quickly  without even noticing (which is always a plus in my book). Now, I didn't love Jo as much as I loved Amy, and I didn't always agree with her or with how she handled things, but Jo made sense to me. Her actions were congruent with who she was and what she had been through.

On the other hand, I really liked Stephen, he was a really decent guy trying to atone for past mistakes and to move on after a long-term relationship that had gone south, sometimes he was even too nice but I couldn't even get mad at him about it. Like I said, decent fellow.

Their story went back and forth and bit, but I totally give props to the author because, even though they were away from each other for long-stretches of time, I totally believed in their relationship.

Plus, I'm even more intrigued about the other members of the Hardy clan - like Scott, Rachel and Mike - and I would love, love, love to hear their stories.

Bottom Line: Unforgettable You was fun to read, it grabbed me from the start and I genuinely enjoyed spending time with these people, they felt like old friends to me and I always love when that happens. 

Book Review: Irrepressible You by Georgina Penney

At First Sight: Ben Martindale, a successful comedian and writer, decamped to Perth, Australia, partially to live down the scandal his latest fling with a reality tv 'star' brought down. One night, he was hanging out with a friend at a bar when he happened to meet Amy Blaine.

Amy owns a barber shop called Babyface, likes to dress up like a 50's pin up girl and is a generally nice and sunny person, even if her persona can be a little over the top. She and Ben don't like each other and at first, but after Ben goes to her shop, sits down for an old-fashioned shave and asks her out, Amy agrees and they start seeing each other.

Unbeknown to her, Ben has been using her in his writing, nicknaming her Babyface and using their budding relationship as fodder for his weekly column - which publishes in England. There is just something about her that makes his writing and his creativity flow.

But, as they start to open up to each other, Ben starts to see that under all that sunny disposition and kindness there is also a very hard past, which still haunts her; and that forces him to deal with a few skeletons in his own closet.

And then Amy finds out about his column... and all hell breaks lose. 

Second Glance: Irrepressible You has a weird sort of charm but it is very, very charming. I liked Amy a lot, even when I didn't always agree with her choices, they made sense for who she was and the life she had lived.

She has a loving but very complex relationship with her older sister Jo, who basically raised her, and a close relationship with Jo's best friend Scott, whom she sees as another sibling; and loves the life she has created for herself, even if not everyone understands it. I loved that about her, she's not a downer, even when things get crappy, she has her breakdowns and takes her a bit to process her feelings, but she keeps going and tries to be positive.

Ben was a harder sell. He's not a bad person and you can see that pretty early on, yet he does very jerky things, not out of meanness but out of obliviousness. And I think Georgina Penney did a great job in portraying that jerky, artistic type of guy who is a bit selfish and self-involved but still made him a sympathetic character.

I never hated Ben, even when I hated some of the things he did. And that's hard to pull off. 

Bottom Line: Irrepressible You was engaging and sweet and it really grabbed me from the start. I'm really looking forward to reading more from Georgina Penney, and I'm really interested on Scott! I want to read his story sometime. 

Book Review: This is Now by Maggie Gilbert

The Deal: No one really expects much of Jess other than falling in line and get back together with her drug-dealer ex, and get over her dreams of finishing high school (She can't imagine what her siblings would say if she let them know she not only wants to finish high school but also go to college someday). 

But Jess wants more for herself, even if that other life is all she has ever know, but she's also easily distracted by parties and clubbing with friends and drinking - which usually leads her back to her ex's bed, even if he's currently dating someone else - so her progress is rather slow. 

And then she meets Sebastien, a talented musician from a rich family who takes an interest on her, and the two of them soon begin dating. But Jess can't bring herself to tell her about her life or bring him home and she's puzzled that he wants to take it slow between them. 

Still, next to Sebastien, Jess starts to think she really has a shot at a different life, until her past catches up with her. 

My Thoughts: I was actually very excited to read This is Now, last year I read Maggie Gilbert's Riding on Air and I totally loved it, sadly This is Now didn't live up to it. 

To start with, is not always easy to empathize with Jess - she kind of shoots herself in the foot a few times, and she often comes off as lacking a backbone. Her one redeeming quality for me was that she was a hard worker, but half of the time I didn't feel like she took her dreams seriously. 

Then there is Sebastien, who comes of a bit snobbish more often than not, he is not necessarily a bad sort but I just didn't find the swoon factor with him. 

The rest of the characters weren't all that great either, they fade largely to the background and when they show up it's usually just to bring/keep Jess down. 

Also, this is one of those "what? no grovel?" books. Sebastien does something really crappy to Jess toward the end and I was not happy with how that was handled. 

Book Review: Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil

Aussie and Kindle Cover. Love it!

 At First Sight: Sam is a bit of a nerd and he's fine with that: he has a few really good friends, an encyclopedic knowledge of movies (particularly horror ones), and is counting the days so he'll finally be free of the teasing and bulling of the popular crowd of his school. 

He's prepared to keep his head down and avoid his nemesis - Justin - until graduation; even when his first day of Year 12 wasn't great. 

And then a new girl arrived at his school, tilting the fabric of his universe. Camilla is cool but not conceited, she tries and joins many clubs and quickly becomes widely popular, but she's also super nice to Sam and his friends Mike, Adrian and Allison, often pulling them along when she hangs with the popular crowd. 

US Hardcover

Camilla is smart and funny and a little quirky, and determined to make Sam and his group part of her life, even if he isn't sure why.

Second Glance: I'm being a little bit vague with the summary for Life in Outer Space because I really do wish people would read this book and be happily surprised by all the awesome and sweet things that this book is.

I loved Sam, he was adorable and I totally commend the author for making his a very strong and distinct boy-voice without resorting to cursing or crude behavior and even when he goes over the top, he's sweet and I love the relationship he has with his mom. He was wonderfully tridimensional.

I also loved his friends, particularly Mike and Adrian - they were a bit in the margins of the story but always in Sam's mind and I felt like I really got to know them. It also made tons of sense to me that I didn't get to know Allison as much because Sam didn't know a lot of how her mind worked either.

But, mostly, I loved Camilla. When she first showed up I kept saying "Please don't turn into a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, please don't turn into a MPDG" over and over inside of my head. And she didn't! That alone elevated this book to a whole new level for me. She was as well developed a character as Sam, even if she was more of a mystery.

There were some things that I didn't like all the way through - would have liked more depth on Camilla's relationship with her dad, and sometimes Sam drove me a little nuts - but I understand why those things happened, so they didn't bothered me as much as they would have otherwise.

And though I loved the Melbourne setting, I think it could have been fleshed out a little more. 

Bottom Line: I absolutely loved Life in Outer Space, it was a great reading experience and I totally want to thank the Vegan YA Nerds for turning me to this wonderful book. There should be more Contemporary YA like this. 

 

Minis: January Wish and February or Forever by Juliet Madison

The January Wish

The Deal: Dr. Sylvia Green is a practical woman, she works hard as a GP in her small costal town, she's dating a surgeon from a near by hospital and is generally happy with her own life. But a flight of fancy took her to the Tarrin's Bay Wishing Festival held every january at the town's park, and made her throw in a coin and make a wish, even though she knows it's silly. 

But, when a week later, her all grown up daughter - the daughter she gave up for adoption 18 years before, shows up she realizes you must be careful with what you wish for. 

Disruptive as this new development is, she's quite happy to reconnect with the daughter she never thought would get a chance to meet, even if her world is now upside down

My Thoughts: The January Wish was a quick and fun read. For me the main plot was about Sylvia and her daughter (who also had a few secrets up her sleeve), I was pleasantly surprised to see how mature they were about the whole "long lost daughter" thing. Sylvia's daughter Grace loved her parents and just wanted to know Sylvia on a curiosity level, she wasn't angry or anything. 

There is also a bit of a romance plot going through, which was well done and enjoyable, but to me that wasn't the focus.

All in all, a sweet read. 

February or Forever

The Deal: Chrissie Burns has plenty on her plate: she's just went through a divorce, and her son is till adjusting to the whole "Daddy doesn't live with us" anymore thing. She has moved to Tarrin's Bay to renovate the house her aunt left her there - a house she once loved but that also saw terrible things happen - and sell said house for profit. 

Meanwhile, she works as a yoga instructor at a local spa, where she meets singer/songwriter Drew Williams when she's assigned to be his private instructor for a month. Drew is nice and kind, and makes her smile - even though instructor/client relationship are forbidden - and the town starts to win her over little by little as the arrangement she thought was temporary starts to feel more permanent.

My Thoughts: In this book we return to Tarrin's Bay and get to see a bit of a different side to it. Chrissie was a lovely character, she was fun and I liked seeing her flirt with Drew. She's also a pretty good mom - I loved how she didn't give in into her son's tantrums much as it hurt her when he called her mean (and the boy was, like, 6 so he rang pretty true). 

I found this book to be a little more romantic than The January Wish, but pretty light hearted. Again, a quick and easy read with more romantic elements. I actually quite liked Drew, he was very down to earth. 

Both books get 1/2

Speed Date: Love in Writing by Elsa Winckler

The Plot (from GoodReads) :

Margaret Parker is a hopeless romantic whose fantasies fuel her writing. For Graham Connelly, science fiction is the perfect genre to express his cynical world view. A chance meeting in a lift leaves them both interested and aroused — with no clue as to the other’s identity. 

Margaret has been looking for a face to match her new fictional hero — and Graham’s is it. Graham has been looking for proof that innocence and optimism still exist — and he’s found it in Margaret. But fantasy isn’t reality, and both Margaret and Graham are used to controlling their fictional worlds. Can they step off the pages long enough to find their own happy-ever-after?

First Date: Well, Graham is an ass. No really, it's only page 5 and I kind of dislike him already, he is too full of himself. I like Margaret though, but she seems a little naive... I hope it's not too naive for me. I do love she owns a bookstore called Happily Ever After!

Second Date: All right, I'm really liking the references to South Africa and surfing and even writing - as both Graham and Margaret are writers and the book actually shows them writing sometimes, though these passages tend to go on a bit too long (in a book that's about 135 pages long). But I do like how they keep running into each other and the setting. 

Third Date: Well, that was a little too fast and too neat for me. And I guess Graham never completely won me over from his first encounter with Margaret, I kind of get where he's coming from but still. 

Relationship Status: There won't be a second date. 

This doesn't have to do with the writing, for the most part the story is quite enjoyable, but I just didn't click all the way with these characters, so I won't probably visit them again. But, still, if you're looking for a quick, funny romance read and like leading men who can be jerky, then Love in Writing is a good option. 

I just hoped I would love it more. 

What's a Book Speed Date, you ask? It's a quickie review--about 150 words or so--of any genre book (variety is the spice of life, after all).

If you want to join in or just read other speed date reviews, check out The Book Swarm