Book Review: Cider Brook by Carla Neggers
Reviewer: Kate I received a copy of Cider Brook by Carla Neggers in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Unlikely partners bound by circumstance…or by…
In My Mailbox: Week of February 3
Title: How To Get a (Love) Life
Author: Rosie Blake
Received: Novelicious
Synopsis: Some people book last-minute holidays, walk barefoot in the grass or party on a week night. Not Nicola Brown. Nicola is the kind of girl who double-locks the front door, leaves the plastic covering on new furniture, sticks to a super-strict diet and definitely, absolutely Does Not Date.
Her colleague Caroline – loopy, warm and exasperated by her, knows that Nicola’s reluctance to lose control means she’s living only half a life. And so she lays down the gauntlet: Nicola must cast aside her hang ups and go on as many dates as it takes to find true love in time for Valentine’s Day.
The pick of local men is, quite frankly, a bit rubbish. And there are only three months until February 14th. Surely it’s an impossible task? But, as Nicola is about to find out on her dodgy dates, letting go isn’t quite as scary as she imagined. In fact, it’s rather a lot of fun…
Title: Tempting Fate
Author: Jane Green
Received: St. Martin’s Press
Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling author of such beloved novels as Jemima J, The Beach House, Another Piece of My Heart comes an enthralling and emotional story about how much we really understand the temptations that can threaten even the most idyllic of relationships….
Gabby and Elliott have been happily married for eighteen years. They have two teenaged daughters. They have built a life together. Forty-three year old Gabby is the last person to have an affair. She can’t relate to the way her friends desperately try to cling to the beauty and allure of their younger years…And yet, she too knows her youth is quickly slipping away. She could never imagine how good it would feel to have a handsome younger man show interest in her—until the night it happens. Matt makes Gabby feel sparkling, fascinating, alive—something she hasn’t felt in years. What begins as a long-distance friendship soon develops into an emotional affair as Gabby discovers her limits and boundaries are not where she expects them to be. Intoxicated, Gabby has no choice but to step ever deeper into the allure of attraction and attention, never foreseeing the life-changing consequences that lie ahead. If she makes one wrong move she could lose everything—and find out what really matters most.
A heartfelt and complex story, Tempting Fate will have readers gripped until they reach the very last page, and thinking about the characters long after they put the book down.
Title: One Night at the Jacaranda
Author: Carol Cooper
Received: Carol Cooper
Synopsis: One man dying of cancer. One struggling journalist. A group of single Londoners. One night that changes everything.
The trouble with speed dating is that three minutes can last a lifetime, and ever since he was diagnosed, Sanjay doesn’t have a lifetime to waste.
For one booze and hope-fuelled night, the lives of a group of 30-somethings criss-cross. As well as Sanjay, lawyer Laure, divorced doctor Geoff, beleaguered mother-of-four Karen and traumatised ex-con Dan all face each other across the Jacaranda’s tables in their quest for love, solace or amazing sex.
Undercover journalist Harriet is after a by-line, not a boyfriend. She’s a struggling freelance with a live-in lover, who unexpectedly has to choose between the comfortable life she knows and a bumpy road that could lead to happiness.
As Laure, Sanjay, Geoff, Harriet, Karen, Dan and the rest of the bunch discover, it’s not just about finding someone who’s dynamite between the sheets. It’s about finding yourself, and that’s not always where you expect.
Title: Cider Brook
Author: Carla Neggers
Received: Meryl L. Moss Media Relations, Inc
Synopsis: Being rescued by a good-looking, bad-boy firefighter isn’t how Samantha Bennett expected to start her stay in Knights Bridge, Massachusetts. Now she has everyone’s attention –especially that of Justin Sloan, her rescuer, who wants to know why she was camped out in an abandoned old New England cider mill.
Samantha is a treasure hunter who has returned to Knights Bridge to solve a 300-year-old mystery and salvage her good name. Justin remembers her well. He’s the one who alerted her late mentor to her iffy past and got her fired. But just because he doesn’t trust her doesn’t mean he can resist her. Samantha is daring, determined, seized by wanderlust –everything that strong, stoic Justin never knew he wanted. Until now…
New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers’ books have been called “riveting,” “magical” and “stunningly effective.” Now she returns to the lush Swift River Valley with the irresistible story of one woman’s quest for treasure and redemption.
Cold Dawn by Carla Neggers
When Rose Cameron finds a body, burnt nearly beyond recognition, the small town of Black Falls, Vermont fears a killer could be a on the loose-again. Smoke jumper Nick Martini joins the community from California after an arson investigator is killed, a hunch that the death may be connected to the recent Black Falls murder. Now, Rose and Nick must deal with the one night of passion they shared months ago, to figure out if it could be anything more. But with Nick best friends and business partners with one of Rose’s highly over protective brothers, neither are sure the relationship could work- or if they really want it to. But both need to push aside their feelings of lust and romance and catch the killer lurking in Black Falls.
I knew Cold Dawn by Carla Neggers would be on my Favorites List after the first chapter. Even though this mystery novel is part of a series, readers will easily be able to pick up with the characters and the plot even if they have not read the previous books. The suspense was enough to keep me up at night, frantically flipping the pages to figure out who the murderer was and how all the subplots would tie together. The romance between the lead couple was very well written, full of drama and cliff hangers at the end of chapters, that kept me hooked on this story. My only issue was the amount of characters that contributed to the story, I began to feel overwhelmed after trying to keep track of all of them! But besides that little fact, this is a great story that gets a definite recommendation from me. After reading Cold Dawn, Carla Neggers has shot to the top of my favorite authors list!
Rating: 4.5/5
Interview with Carla Neggers
Q: When did you decide to get serious about writing?
I’ve always been serious in the sense that I’ve always been dedicated to writing the best book I can — even when I was eleven and climbed a tree with pad and pen! I entered college as a music major but graduated with a degree in journalism. After college, I freelanced and kept writing fiction. I finished a manuscript and finally got up the courage to submit a query letter to a New York literary agent. That was a big step! She took me on, and now here I am.
Q: You have over fifty novels published! Where does the inspiration for your stories keep coming from?
I’ve asked myself this, too, and I think coming up with new stories is a natural, intuitive process for me. I don’t have to hunt up ideas so that I can write. I write because I have ideas! For example, I was on vacation in Ireland a few years ago. No writing! But we visited a stone ruin and an ancient stone circle…and next thing I knew, I had a stories and characters percolating that eventually became THE ANGEL, THE MIST and THE WHISPER.
Q: Can you describe your latest novel, Cold Dawn, in twenty words or less?
Okay, let me give this a shot: A search-and-rescue expert and a smokejumper go after a deadly serial arsonist who strikes the small Vermont town of Black Falls. How’s that?
Q: Do you have a certain writing schedule you stick to?
Yes and no. I write most days and work hard, but I’m not regimented. I don’t write X number of pages a day or work X number of hours. What I get done and how long it takes depends on where I am in the book. At the beginning of a book, I tend to work more in fits and starts. I need little breaks for the story to meander and then settle. Toward the end of a book, I’ll write for longer periods at a stretch.
Q: What are you currently reading?
I just re-read the last 100 pages of MJ Rose’s THE HYPNOTIST. Fascinating book!
Q: What are your thoughts on the rise of technology for the writing industry- e-readers and self-publishing?
It’ll be what it’ll be. I love to write and I love to read, and that’s not going to change.
Q: When writing, do you often start from Chapter 1, or do you work backwards, or start somewhere in the middle?
Chapter 1, but I’ll jot down scenes or snippets of scenes that occur to me as I write. Sometimes I’ll start in on Chapter 1 with no synopsis, just to get a feel for the story; other times I’ll have a brief synopsis before I start.
Q: Are you currently working on a project?
Yes, I am. I’m deep into my latest work-in-progress. It’s a brand-new world, and I can’t wait to tell you more about it!
Q: You have been to some amazing locations around the world. Where is your favorite place to vacation?
My husband and I adore the southwest Irish coast. We stay in the pretty village of Kenmare and wander the hills of the Iveragh and Beara peninsulas. Stunning scenery, great food, wonderful people. Just love it there!
Q: What is your advice for aspiring writers?
Write what you’re driven and love to write, but don’t postpone happiness until you achieve a certain goal. Be happy now! It’s too easy to say to yourself, “I’ll be happy when I finish a book.” Then it’ll be, “I’ll be happy when I’ve sold a book.” Then…”I’ll be happy when I make the bestseller lists.” Then…see how it works? It’s corrosive. Focus on writing the best book you can and living your life. Easier said than done some days, but,, FWIW, that’s my advice.
In My Mailbox: Week of Septemeber 12
In My Mailbox: Week of September 12th
Title: Sammi Ever After
Author: Soma Helmi
Received: From Soma Helmi
Synopsis: Girl meets boy. They fall in love. Girl moves across the world to be with boy. Boy dumps her at the airport…via email. Sammi’s fixation with Prince Charming has her in trouble again. Now she’s in London, sleeping on a friend’s couch and no ‘Happily ever after’ in sight. From Bali to Greece, Sammi’s journey to find her own fairytale ending may take her to a place she never expected.
Title: Her Fearful Symmetry
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Received: From Audrey Niffenegger
Synopsis: Fortune’s wheel is a harsh chastiser, and those lucky writers who have found heady success with their first books often come crashing down with the second, never to rise again. What’s the cause? Do they succumb to nerves from external expectations? Do they secretly feel unworthy? Are our expectations as readers unreasonable? Have they merely been sport for the gods?
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger’s first book, was Cinderella at the ball — a book that got published without a literary agent behind it, a popular success that was a critical one too. Its distinctive (and, I assume from Niffenegger’s acknowledgments, long-steeped) flavor completely eluded the dumb movie made from it. Describing the novel as blending fantasy, science fiction, romance, mild philosophy, and epistolary traditions is technically accurate, but fails to capture its unusual charm: its balance of inevitability and suspense, the importance of conversations both humorous and tersely poignant, the cultural riffs and bookish background of Chicago in the ’80s and ’90s, the bubble of optimism that buoys it up even in the face of death and decay. It’s a great read. Given the weight of expectations (and money) riding on her second book, the conditions were ripe for Niffenegger to dig her own grave. But it turns out that in her second book, Her Fearful Symmetry, Niffenegger gets her characters to do the grisly digging for themselves while she floats out smelling like a rose.
Title: Cold Dawn
Author: Carla Neggers
Received: From Alana Signor @ Truth Be Told PR
Synopsis: A search-and-rescue dog handler and a California smoke jumper search for a violent arsonist in the snowy mountains of New England, in COLD DAWN (MIRA Books, November 2010, $7.99 U.S./ $9.99 CAN.), the third novel in New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers’ riveting Black Falls series.
With the network of paid killers that disrupted life in Black Falls exposed, the people of the small, picturesque town in the heart of the Green Mountains are breathing a collective sigh of relief. That is, until search-and-rescue expert Rose Cameron discovers the charred remains of Derek Cutshaw, a ski instructor, with whom she shared a brief, troubled relationship. The fire looks like an accident, but Rose believes it was deliberately set and that Derek was murdered.
But Derek’s not the only former flame to reenter Rose’s life. Nick Martini, a wildfire smoke jumper with whom Rose shared a night of passion in Los Angeles, appears in Black Falls.
Still reeling from having ever gotten involved with Derek and, especially, from the tragic death of her father on Cameron Mountain, Rose ended her relationship with Nick by running back home to Vermont.
Nick has no desire to disrupt Rose’s life again or to earn the ire of her tough mountain-men brothers. But he’s on the trail of a firebug he believes is responsible for setting the fire that killed a California arson investigator.
Nick is convinced the same killer is responsible for the fire that killed Derek Cutshaw. But was his death a murder for hire or was the killer voluntarily disposing of a man who had hurt Rose Cameron and other people in Black Falls? Or had Derek stumbled on the arsonist’s identity?
Only Nick and Charlie Neal, the 16-year-old genius son of the vice president of the United States, believe a string of fires and explosions over the past year are connected. Nick is determined to follow the evidence—even if it takes him straight to Rose Cameron—to root out a ruthless firebug who has wormed his way into her hometown.
Title: Call Me Mrs. Miracle
Author: Debbie Macomber
Received: From Alana Signor @ Truth Be Told PR
Synopsis: This Christmas, Emily Merkle (call her Mrs. Miracle!) is working in the toy department at Finley’s, the last family-owned department store in New York City. And her boss is none other than Jake Finley, the owner’s son. For Jake, holiday memories of brightly wrapped gifts, decorated trees and family were destroyed in a Christmas Eve tragedy years before. Now Christmas means just one thing to him ¿ and to his father. Profit. Because they need a Christmas miracle to keep the business afloat. Holly Larson needs a miracle, too. She wants to give her eight-year-old nephew, Gabe, the holiday he deserves. Holly’s widowed brother is in the army and won’t be home for Christmas, but at least she can get Gabe that toy robot from Finley’s, the one gift he desperately wants. If she can figure out how to afford it. Fortunately, it’s Mrs. Miracle to the rescue. Next to making children happy, she likes nothing better than helping others and that includes doing a bit of matchmaking! This Christmas will be different. For all of them.
Title: A Chesapeake Shores Christmas
Author: Sherryl Woods
Received: From Alana Signor @ Truth Be Told PR
Synopsis: After years apart, Mick and Megan O’Brien are finally ready to make it official…again. Most of their grown children couldn’t be happier about their rekindled love and impending marriage this holiday season. Only Connor is a holdout. Driven to become a divorce attorney after what he views as his mother’s abandonment of their family, Connor’s not about to give his blessing to this reunion romance.
The last thing Megan wants to do is hurt her family again. After all, is she really sure she and Mick can make it this time around? And when an unexpected delivery causes chaos, it seems only a miracle can reunite this family.
Of course, it is Christmas—the season of miracles.
Title: Well Read and Dead
Author: Catherine O’Connell
Received: From Catherine O’Connell
Synopsis: The return of blue-blooded fashionista Pauline Cook, whose search for a missing friend leads her from an iconoclastic book group to the deepest and most unfashionable reaches of the Far East.
Back in Chicago after a disastrous European love affair, socialite Pauline Cook finds her finances nearly depleted, her co-op a shambles, and her best friend mysteriously missing—vanished along with Pauline’s cat. Though Whitney Armstrong’s husband offers a substantial reward for the return of his lost wife, Pauline can’t help suspecting that his grief is merely an act. But it’s a shocking suggestion by a member of Whitney’s book club that really gets Pauline moving—halfway around the world, in fact, to Thailand . . . in spite of a psychic’s warning of terrible danger.
In Asia, a morass of dark motives and deadly corporate intrigues await the intrepid globe-trotter. And all the high society connections in the world aren’t going to ensure that Pauline makes it home alive. . . .
Title: Well Bred and Dead
Author: Catherine O’Connell
Received: From Catherine O’Connell
Synopsis: Newly widowed Pauline Cook was once the toast of the Windy City elite—but now she’s practically broke. At least she’s in better shape than her dear departed friend Ethan Campbell, whose corpse Pauline has had the misfortune to discover. A writer who chronicled the lives, loves, and ensembles of the Gold Coast’s most elegant ladies, Ethan apparently took his own life—while inelegantly clad in old boxers, no less. And since no relatives are coming forward to claim Ethan’s remains, it falls to Pauline to settle his final affairs . . . with her own dwindling funds.
However, there are things about Ethan’s suicide that don’t seem to add up: the ratty undergarments he “chose” to die in, for example . . . and the multiple birth certificates the police turn up in his apartment. Before she can truly lay her friend to rest, plucky Pauline’s determined to get to the bottom of his increasingly suspicious death.
