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Review and Giveaway: My Life as a Lumberjack by Sara V. Olds

June 17, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 13 Comments

My Life as a Lumberjack or How I Fell for the Wrong Guy(s)
By Sara V. Olds
Publisher: Astrea Press
Publication Date: May 30, 2013
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Source: Publisher for Blog Tour

Me, Mercedes Bennion? Working for the US Forest Service? I’ve never thought of myself as the outdoorsy, hard-working type. But one quick glance at those mouth-watering forest rangers and oh, baby, sign this seventeen-year-old up for a whole summer of fresh air, mountains and starry, starry nights!

Goodreads Summary

Purchase My Life as a Lumberjack:
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I think it’s my own fear of insects and sleeping outside that makes me take a second look at YA books that come along about summer camps. I actually was a Girl Scout and did camp successfully, but one year some sort of phobia set in and that was it and I haven’t set foot in a tent since then. I still love reading about them though – I love the friendships that develop over the summer and there are always a million stories to be told.

My Life as a Lumberjack begins with Mercedes “Merck” “Benz” Bennion – she prefers Benz – and her best friend Conor Perry showing up for duty for their new summer jobs with the U.S. Forest Service Youth Conservation Corps. Expecting nerdy dweeb phone recruiter Norm, Benz is blown away when Norse God Norm of the U.S. Forest Service shows up to gather the campers and escort them to camp. The kids are all divided into groups and each group is sent to a different area where something needs to be done each week, setting up new camps and heading home on the weekends.

Since the action was with Benz’s group, the detail the author gave to the jobs they did was really a blast to read. From building corrals, tarring troughs and seeding, I could see it all. I had the best time actually in the camps, when everyone sat around making s’mores, wanting to punch certain people, figuring out how to take showers and mooning over the opposite sex. I think I actually learned how to make an omelet in a plastic bag in boiling water.

Benz was a complete nut and gets in the most ridiculous situations. She’s kind of bratty – I think mostly without meaning to. She has absolutely no filter because she’s just that confident. She flirts a lot with Norm and Dan, Dan the Mountain Man, another Forest Service Ranger she meets and is completely oblivious to situations with other boys going on around her. She’s a serious klutz, which I admire as a fellow member of the Ridiculously Clumsy Club. Conor was absolutely adorable in the way only a jealous guy BFF can be. He’s cranky most of the time, which made me want to hug him. I just love guys like that! The members of Benz’s crew are all awesome, especially Adrienne who turns out to be a little spitfire, yummy Matt who’s always around when Benz is in trouble and the hilariously obnoxious twins David and Keith. I was flipping the pages just to see what on earth these kids were going to be doing next.

It killed me, but I had to take a trim to my rating because there were a couple of places where my credulity was stretched just a little too thin. I had a lot of fun with the story and was willing to let a whole lot of things fly in the name of a great story because they made me laugh, but let’s just say some things read a bit like a teenage girl’s fantasy. Not that that’s a bad thing. It also ended a little more abruptly than I’d have liked. I wanted more time to savor Benz’s happiness and maybe see some plans for later. I didn’t want the story to end.

This was just flat-out fun and diverting and would be a perfect light summer read. It would take some heavy persuasion to get me to go hiking, let alone camping, so it was great to hang out with the YCC. I loved the camaraderie that developed in Benz’s crew and the way their group and Conor’s turned into a big dysfunctional family by the end of the summer. As the summer came to a close, I had to believe everyone was coming back next year and they’d fall back into their friendships because it was just that good.

It doesn’t matter how many times I remind myself not to judge a book by its cover, I still get a little revved up by a pretty one. Those cute purple hiking boots had me hoping for a fun story and My Life as a Lumberjack or How I Fell for the Wrong Guy(s) delivered one. I loved it from beginning to end, along with every scratch, bug bite, swoon, undercooked pancake, bedhead, blister, leaking tent and camp crush in between. Sequel, sequel!

My Rating: B+

About the author:

Sara V. Olds has been telling stories for as long as she can remember. One of her favorite memories is of unfolding a tale for friends while they were all bundled in sleeping bags watching a comet shower in the Uintah Mountains.
Mother of three: Large, Medium and Small, she welcomes her newest role, that of mother-in-law.

Life has taken her from thither to yon and back again—she’s moved 22 times during her marriage. She breathes to travel. Longs to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning a horse. Is an addictive reader. Enjoys swimming, skiing, violin and movies. Wonders if she’ll ever get to SCUBA dive again. And has found a calling that fulfills her in ways she never could have imagined—teaching history to—wait for it—8th Graders.

Her stories consume her. There’s nothing she’d rather do than spend all day, all night and the next day conversing with her latest set of characters. History, adventure, action, romance, humor. Adults, YA and kids. Yep, she does it all. Looking for something to enjoy on a quiet rainy afternoon? Or wanting a pulse-pounding, stay up all night turning pages adventure? Or a you’ve-GOT-to-be-kidding romp? You’ll find them in her pages.

Connect with Sara:

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Sara is holding a tour-wide giveaway for 5 ebook copies of My Life as a Lumberjack (open to international entries). Good luck!

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Filed Under: *B Rating, 2013 Contemporary Challenge, 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 Standalone Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Contemporary/Romance, Giveaway, Young Adult Tagged With: Sara V. Olds

Review and Giveaway: Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

June 6, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 7 Comments

Charm & Strange
By Stephanie Kuehn
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: June 11, 2013
Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction
Source: Netgalley for Itching For Books Blog Tour

When you’ve been kept caged in the dark, it’s impossible to see the forest for the trees. It’s impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .

Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.

He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.

He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable.

Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present.

Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.
Goodreads Summary

Pre-order Charm & Strange (Amazon link is affiliate – not mine – all others are not):
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | iBookstore | Kobo

Sometimes when the opportunity to join a blog tour pops up and the spaces are at a premium, you don’t have a lot of time to research the book before you grab a spot. That was the case with Charm & Strange for me, a book I hadn’t even heard that much about when the tour opportunity came up. I thought I could tell where the story might go based on the synopsis, so I leapt. I found a story and character I can’t stop thinking of and a new writer to love. This book is that powerful.

This is the closest thing I’ve ever found to a book I want to say, “I’m not going to tell you a thing other than to trust me and go read it.” It’s the kind of book you have to just go along for the ride with as it unfolds and without any preconceptions, because as the narrator, Win is unreliable and damaged and to give him any credence can be a mistake. But I’m going to give you a general idea of the plot because I’d probably implode if I don’t. It’ll be a little one though and I don’t even know what to say past it. Win is the sum of his heartbreaking story as it pours out.

Win’s story unfolds in both flashbacks and the present. He seems like such a fragile, strange boy, and odd scenes flow past that I didn’t understand the reason for sometimes. Then the violent episodes start, he was told he was going to boarding school and he learned something about himself that was one of the reasons he found himself at the party that night. In his present, he seems like a cold, even slightly frightening young man. Even when it’s unsaid, I had the feeling that there was something violent under his story, something he may have done that was bad.

Tabitha Suzuma did it to me in 2010 with Forbidden and now Stephanie Kuehn has done it to me with Charm & Strange in 2013. They took my expectations, threw them out the window and gave me something different, something so much more and left me feeling a little out of breath and heart sore at the end. This isn’t the kind of book you read to make you laugh, but one to make you think and feel. Kuehn’s beautiful, evocative writing lulled me into a sense of calm only to jerk me out of it with a few simple, clear sentences more than once. In the end though, she delivered a story that was beautiful and frightening. Just go read it with an open mind and let it take you where Kuehn wants to.

My Rating: A

About the Author

Stephanie Kuehn is a YA writer who grew up in Berkeley, California, which is a quirky sort of a place with a ton of wonderful bookstores. Her very first job was working in one of those bookstores, and she’s been a freakishly avid reader for as long as she can remember.

Stephanie’s other passions include mental health advocacy, social justice, and sports of all kinds. She’s currently living in Northern California with her family and their wild menagerie of pets.

Connect with Stephanie:

Her Website | Twitter

And now for the fabulous giveaway! Stephanie is giving away a finished hardcover version of Charm & Strange to one lucky winner (it’s really a lovely book). This is a tour-wide giveaway and sorry for my wonderful international readers, it’s open to US residents only. The giveaway ends June 20th. Good luck!

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Filed Under: *A Rating, 2013 Debut Author Challenge, 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 Standalone Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Giveaway, Paranormal, Young Adult Tagged With: Stephanie Kuehn

Review and Giveaway: Sea Glass Island (Ocean Breeze #3) by Sherryl Woods

June 3, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 7 Comments

Sea Glass Island (Ocean Breeze #3)
By Sherryl Woods
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Publication Date: May 28, 2013
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Source: Netgalley

With her two younger sisters heading for the altar, will Samantha Castle exchange old dreams for new ones? Lately she’d rather be on the North Carolina coast with family than in New York with agents and actors. Though she vows not to let her teenage crush on Ethan Cole influence her decision, it’s hard to ignore her feelings for the local war hero.

Ethan lost more than his leg in Afghanistan. He lost his belief in love. Even being surrounded by couples intent on capturing happily-ever-after won’t open this jaded doctor’s heart. It’s going to take a sexy, determined woman—one who won’t take no for an answer.

Goodreads Summary

Purchase Sea Glass Island (Ocean Breeze #3):
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Also available in ebook format at most retailers

I started Woods’ Ocean Breeze series because of my fondness for this particular author and I’m ending it with my love for series romances centered around families and places rejuvenated. Each of these books can be read as a standalone, but they tell a much better story when read in order as a series since there’s an overall story arc. You also don’t want to miss a triple helping of Boone’s steaks, Castle burgers or warm chocolate doughnuts, do you?

After successfully “helping” her other two granddaughters find their happily ever afters, Cora Jane Castle is finally getting the chance to work more of her matchmaking magic with the entire family gathering in Sand Castle Bay for Emily’s wedding. Oldest granddaughter Samantha is still unattached and at a set of crossroads in her life – a perfect time for her to fall in love as far as Cora Jane is concerned. She’s even got the target picked out: Dr. Ethan Cole, someone Samantha had a crush on in high school.

As soon as Samantha gets there, the scheming starts. Cora Jane, Emily and Gabi do everything they can to get Samantha alone with Ethan. Since the last thing this group is capable of being is subtle, the pair know they’re being shoved together and they try to lower any expectations of a grand romance. Ethan isn’t interested in being anyone’s match, even the lovely Samantha’s. When he came back from fighting in Afghanistan as an amputee, his fiancée ruthlessly broke his heart and he’s too cynical to think he’s going to have a happily ever after with anyone. Samantha is attracted to Ethan, but he keeps coming up with excuses not to be alone for very long with her so she tries to keep things light and casual.

Samantha’s career as an actress was never blazing, but it’s definitely fizzling now. When she comes back to Sand Castle Bay for the wedding, she doesn’t tell anyone how bad it is, but she’s ready for a change and romance. Ethan’s kind of a hard case though – he’s emotionally scarred, vulnerable and completely averse to smooching, which she keeps pestering him to do. Their romance is a very, very slow starter – they talk a lot and negotiate a lot before getting down to the really swoon-worthy things.

I didn’t feel as strongly about Samantha as I did about Emily or Gabi. Emily had the first book without anyone else’s story in the way, so she was easy to define. Gabi had a big personality and a big issue book, so she was easy to define. Samantha is a relatively easygoing person who didn’t come across as having a deep burning passion for her career like her sisters’ do, no tormented love life or any other unusual history for me to pin any attachment onto. She’s a nice beautiful woman at loose ends with her career and a meddling family trying to fix her up with a guy with giant issues. Ethan seemed like a really quiet guy that needed someone to spike his punch. I don’t mean that in a not-nice way, just that he seemed so caught in a rut and serious that I couldn’t help but hope that when Samantha really got ahold of him, she loosened him up.

Sea Glass Island isn’t just Ethan and Samantha’s story, but it also finishes all three Castle sisters’ romances. Emily and Boone are having their giant wedding finally, Gabi and Wade are enjoying their new life together and making plans and now Samantha is back and thinking about making a future with Ethan. I didn’t think there was a lot of romance in Gabi and Wade’s book, but they’re so adorable here! I love both of them and Gabi is a lot of fun. Emily on the other hand – ugh. Emily is not a pleasant bride-to-be. I enjoyed her book and thought it was probably the most romantic of the three and still think she and Boone are the most swoony, but she was just horribly whiny and terrible to her sisters. The guys are fantastic, all of them – Boone is still my favorite, and now along with Ethan I got to add his medical clinic partner Greg, who was hilarious.

Samantha and Ethan’s story wrapped up perfectly, in a way that only this particular series could have. I admit to laughing a little over the last several pages. I enjoyed my time in Sand Castle Bay and look forward to seeing where Woods is heading to next.

My Rating: A-

Click on the covers to read my reviews of Sand Castle Bay (Ocean Breeze #1) and Wind Chime Point (Ocean Breeze #2)

Harlequin MIRA is offering a complete paperback set of the Ocean Breeze series (Sand Castle Bay, Wind Chime Point, Sea Glass Island) to two lucky winners (US/Can). Just fill in the Rafflecopter!

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About Sherryl Woods

With two other careers to her credit before becoming a novelist and four states in which she’s lived for extended periods of time, Sherryl Woods has collected friends and memories, along with way too much unnecessary junk.

“The friends are the only things I’ve brought with me through the years that really matter,” she says. “I could probably live without one more chintz teacup, another tin-litho sandpail or another snowglobe, but I need those friends.”

Author of more than 100 romance and mystery novels, Sherryl Woods grew up in Virginia. Over the years she had lived in Ohio and Florida, as well as California. Currently she divides her time between Key Biscayne, Florida and Colonial Beach, Virginia, the small, river-front town where she spent her childhood summers.

A graduate of Ohio State University School of Journalism, Sherryl spent more than ten years as a journalist, most of them as a television critic for newspapers in Ohio and Florida. For several years she also coordinated a motivational program for the more than 8,000 employees at the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Medical Center.

Her first book, RESTORING LOVE, was published in 1982 by Dell Candlelight Ecstasy under the pseudonym of Suzanne Sherrill. Her second book, SAND CASTLES, under the pseudonym of Alexandra Kirk, was published later that same year by Bantam. She began using her own name when she moved to the Second Chance at Love line at Berkley Publishing. In 1986, she began writing full-time and also began her long career at Silhouette Books with the Desire title NOT AT EIGHT, DARLING, set in the world of television which she covered for so many years.

In addition to her more than 75 romances for Silhouette Desire and Special Edition, she has written thirteen mysteries — nine in the Amanda Roberts series and four in the Molly DeWitt series.

When she’s not writing or reading, Sherryl loves to garden, though she’s not at her best on a riding lawn mower. She also loves tennis, theater, and ballet, even though her top spin has long since vanished, she’s never set foot on a stage, and she’s way too uncoordinated to dance. She also loves baseball and claims anyone who’s ever seen Kevin Costner in “Bull Durham” can understand why.

Biography courtesy of SherrylWoods.com

Filed Under: *A Rating, 2013 Ebook Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Contemporary/Romance, Giveaway Tagged With: Sherryl Woods

Review: Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid by Tiffany Allee

May 25, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 5 Comments

Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid
By Tiffany Allee
Publisher: Entangled: Covet
Publication Date: May 27, 2013
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Publisher

Alice Shepard needs one thing: a date for her sister’s wedding. And not just any date. A hunk who will make her fiancé rue the day he left her for her best friend. Her drop-dead gorgeous neighbor fits the bill—even if he is a bit quirky and never comes out during the day—and Alice has downed just enough appletinis to ask him. But she makes it quite clear that there will be no funny business.

Spending a week on a cruise ship full of humans while sleeping close to his sexy next-door neighbor sounds like a helluva bad idea to vampire Noah Thorpe. But his friends need time to get him out of a shotgun wedding—a vampire bonding that will tie his fate to a female vampire he’s never met. And Alice’s offer comes at just the right time.

What could possibly go wrong?

Goodreads Summary

Are you in the mood for something fun and sexy? I’ve been waiting for a nice little paranormal romance, something that doesn’t make me have to write down the genealogy, power structure, all about the world and how it got there, who’s going to kill them – you get the picture. I just wanted something uncomplicated, like a nice frisky werewolf story or a nibbly vampire tale. I was so happy to get my hands on Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid. It was fun, so, so smexy and a tiny bit angsty to round out the experience.

Alice Shepard is desperate for a hunky man to help her prove to her ex-fiancé that she’s moved on and she needs him really soon. Her sister’s getting married and she’ll be stuck with the cheating dirtbag on a cruise ship for a week – hence the need to find someone to prove she’s not a total loser at love. She’s noticed – okay, ogled – her yummy neighbor more than a few times and she screws up her courage and pops the question. He says no until he has a little problem of his own and has to skip town for a week and a cruise with Alice becomes a very good idea.

It’s not that Noah doesn’t like Alice or want to spend time with her, he just afraid it’s not a good idea. Vampires aren’t great with sun and the fun he wants to get up to with Alice is horizontal and includes his teeth in her neck at some point. He’s hoping he can stave off his cravings long enough to get back home, but when her ex starts bothering Alice again, he’s not about to let her get hurt. Noah decides it’s time he and Alice play girlfriend and boyfriend, which leads to a lot of steamy glances and smexy alpha behavior.

I loved both Alice and Noah, but the best part of the book for me was the romance of it. Alice had a lot of trust issues left over from her relationship with her smarmy ex but it was fun to see her brain go all foggy whenever Noah was around. She was so smitten with him, it was kind of funny how much she wanted to jump his bones and because of his own issues with the pointy-teeth thingie, he had to run away. Noah was ridiculously hot, protective of Alice and even a sweetie all in touch with his feelings – say it with me – awwwww. They were so good and smoking together that I loved the dance between them and since it felt like they had gotten to know each other as neighbors, it wasn’t rushed at all.

There are some terrific side characters, especially Alice’s vivacious sister Cindy and her outrageous mom Edna. Edna is a widow and now she likes younger men – she really really likes younger men and she’s hilarious about it. I hope if there are more books in the series that we see more of her. She and Cindy were a riot.

I had so much fun reading this that I’m going to go back and check out Allee’s backlist. This was just the right combination of paranormal and fun, sexy romance to make me happy and gave me a new author to check out. I didn’t see that there were any sequels already listed but by the cover and some hints in the book, I’m hoping that there’ll be more. I’ll definitely be there to read it.

My Rating: A

Filed Under: *A Rating, 2013 Ebook Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Paranormal Romance

Review: The Caged Graves by Dianne Salerni

May 21, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 13 Comments

The Caged Graves
By Dianne Salerni
Publisher: Clarion Books
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery
Source: Publisher

17-year-old Verity Boone expects a warm homecoming when she returns to Catawissa, Pennsylvania, in 1867, pledged to marry a man she has never met. Instead, she finds a father she barely knows and a future husband with whom she apparently has nothing in common. One truly horrifying surprise awaits her: the graves of her mother and aunt are enclosed in iron cages outside the local cemetery. Nobody in town will explain why, but Verity hears rumors of buried treasure and witchcraft. Perhaps the cages were built to keep grave robbers out . . . or to keep the women in. Determined to understand, Verity finds herself in a life-and-death struggle with people she trusted.

Inspired by a pair of real caged graves in present-day Catawissa, this historical YA novel weaves mystery, romance, and action into a suspenseful drama with human greed and passion at its core.

Goodreads Summary

I love historical fiction but with all of the other genres I review, don’t have time to read much of it anymore. When I saw the synopsis for The Caged Graves in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt catalogue I was completely captivated by it and immediately requested it, hoping it would not only be great but the YA genre would make it of interest to everyone who reads the blog. After reading it, I can only say that YA or not, perfect fit or not, I would have had to review this for you – this was an absolutely gorgeous, captivating story.

It’s 1867, and Verity has returned to the small rural town she was born in to fulfill a childhood promise to marry Nathaniel McLure. She was sent away from home by her father when she was two, so Nate is a stranger for all intents and purposes, except for the letters they’ve been exchanging. They’ve been sweet, romantic letters and Verity has developed a regard for Nate so she’s disappointed when they meet and he’s nothing like that. During one of their stilted conversations and walks, Verity comes across two graves near a church. They’re outside the church’s hallowed ground and have bizarre iron cages built around them. A closer look reveals them to be Verity’s mother and her aunt, who died within days of each other right before Verity was sent away.

No one wants to talk about the caged graves, including her own father. The more Verity searches for answers, the more ugly rumors she hears, from curses to grave-robbers, hidden treasure to witchcraft. When even her father won’t tell her the truth, Verity takes drastic steps to uncover why her mother and aunt were ostracized from the community after their deaths, why their names are whispered with venom and why even those who knew and loved them want to continue the cover-up.

This is one of those stories with a large cast of characters, nearly any of whom could have something to do with what happened fifteen years ago to Verity’s mother and aunt. It was a deliciously rural small town of that era, with all of its class snobbery and racism in place. The area had been a hotspot during the war and after being originally settled with British, Sioux and American, became the local melting pot. One family that had a generous line of Sioux blood was extremely prolific, very poor and discriminated against in the community. It was made known to Verity that most people in town thought Nate was marrying her to gain a large portion of her father’s extensive land through her dowry, even though his family was well-off. I loved having so many characters weaving in and out of the story both helping and hurting Verity’s search – there were suspects and motives everywhere.

Verity was a wonderful character, with flaws that I thought were consistent for a girl of her age in her time. She’d come from a sheltered, fairly affluent situation, expecting a happy reunion with her father and a romantic marriage and found a dusty, spare home, a father who doesn’t know what to do with her and a young man who isn’t what she’d hoped for. Her upbringing meant she was headstrong, outspoken, unapologetic and secure enough to think she could choose her own destiny, which wasn’t always the case with women in the 1800s. I loved her devotion to the mother she’d never known and the lengths she was willing to go to for her, to have her name restored and her grave placed on hallowed ground. I think it was realistic that a young girl like Verity would have doubts about her feelings for Nate, but I didn’t like the sort-of love interest triangle that developed between Nate, Verity and a young doctor’s assistant. I think it was taken a little bit too far, even if it was romantically dramatic.

I don’t want to say a lot about Nate or Hadley, the doctor’s assistant, because they’re both vying for Verity’s hand and she does choose one – the right one, in my opinion. They both brought different things to Verity in a relationship and in different places I went back and forth between them before settling on the one that I knew would have her heart.

The Caged Graves was more than just a good book I picked up. I was completely captivated by the occasionally dark story, by Salerni’s gorgeous writing and the search for the truth behind the burials of Verity’s mother and aunt. I loved that even though there was one true answer in the book there were a few other plausible answers too. The resolution of the mystery was well done and the romantic ending was satisfyingly sweet and believable. I can’t wait to see what Salerni does next.

My Rating: A

Filed Under: *A Rating, 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 Standalone Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult

Review: Desire by Design by Paula Altenburg

May 18, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 12 Comments

Desire by Design
By Paula Altenburg
Publisher: Entangled: Bliss
Publication Date: May 13, 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: Publisher

He stole her job, and now she’s stealing his heart.

Eve Doucette finally almost has it all. She’s free from her mistake of an ex-husband and just landed her dream job: project manager for a new City Hall and drafter of the final design. That is, until a handsome architect sweeps into town to commandeer her blueprints.

Famous architect Matt Brison is unsatisfied with his mundane life in Toronto. So when the mayor of Halifax asks him to spearhead his City Hall project, Matt jumps at the opportunity. There’s just one problem: the feisty and beautiful project lead, Eve, who isn’t exactly thrilled about her new “coworker” hijacking her design.

But when the sparks begin to fly, they both find themselves falling for the colleague they shouldn’t want. And before they know it, their already shaky foundation might come crumbling down…

Goodreads Summary

Whether I want it to or not, my reading seems to go in one direction or another that I often don’t notice until I look back on a week or so of reviews and books read on my Kindle. I’ve been on an adult contemporary romance kick lately – my personal buying choices have ranged from meh to ugh and it’s been a little disheartening. Being offered a title from Entangled’s Bliss imprint was like getting to pick the first chocolate in the box of adult contemporaries – I know what I’m going to get and I know I’m going to like it, it just depends on how much. Desire by Design was chocolate-covered toffee crunch – yummy.

Eve Doucette is the project manager for Sullivan Construction, the company handling the new city hall project and while she doesn’t have a formal degree, her draftsman skills have been highly regarded on past jobs. She’s worked up a design for this one and expects to be able to present it to the mayor sometime before she kills him for trying to mess with her budget, but that dream goes out the window with the arrival of his nephew, hotshot architect Matt Brison. Mayor Bob already gave the design job to Matt, whose sleek modern style isn’t what Eve had in mind for her lovely Nova Scotia town.

Following a cute meet-cute that’s a great indication of Altenburg’s sense of humor, the sparks flew between this unconventional couple. There’s no insta-love, and although the book isn’t long enough to let things percolate forever, Eve and Matt still take their sweet time working around each other’s prickly spots. Eve in particular has a lot of issues – as a woman in what’s typically a man’s job, she’s developed an aggressive exterior over what was already a tough hide from her weird family and a rotten first marriage. I sympathized with her, I really did – she kept getting knocked down as person after person hinted that she failed to meet their expectations, but she just got up again. It was frustrating that she kept Matt in the dark so long about her issues with her ex-husband Claude, but I might have done the same thing. I loved that she threw a punch just as well as any guy, not that I’m going to start enjoying heroines beating people up or anything. For this particular heroine though, it worked – Eve was a firecracker and I wanted her to be as physically able to take anyone on as she was intellectually.

I’m not normally a fan of beta heroes and I’m not sure if Matt was all beta, but he was close. He was a nice guy, a good complement to Eve’s storminess. I liked that he wasn’t a pushover for her but that he gave her space, made her come to him then pounced on her – then they repeated the process. It was a nice changeup, having the guy in the book being more in touch with his feelings than the woman, and I can’t believe I just wrote that, by the way. Feely Book Guys aren’t for me usually, but Altenburg made Matt really sexy in a cute, wish-he-was-my-boyfriend, way.

At some point, when I reach a certain number of books I’ve read from the Bliss line that I’ve loved, my reviews will consist entirely of, “Bliss – loved it, go for it.” Or maybe I’ll rate them just based on a box of chocolates and which ones are my top five or something, since none have been less than good. When I’m just in a blah mood, need something sweet and uncomplicated, I pick one of these up and am guaranteed a good story. Altenburg’s Desire by Design was fun, sexy and had some serious moments that made me sad for one of the characters, but ended with such a sweet note, I pulled out a Kleenex. This is a keeper for me and I recommend it if you’re in the mood for an adult contemporary romance.

My Rating: A