Book Review: Runaway by Lorhainne Eckhart

Runaway

Finding Love ~ The Outsider Series Book 5

by Lorhainne Eckhart

Kindle Edition
File Size: 5761 KB
Print Length: 257 pages
Publication Date: January 10, 2014
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Ratings: ★ ★ 

My thoughts:

I don't read a book series out of sequence (Runaway is already book #5) but still I downloaded this since it's free and I am so into second-chance-romance.   

Runaway is okay, at least during the first half of the story. I started to dislike Andy after knowing he is in love with another woman (Diana).  As for Laura, Andy's wife, I can't believe she had sex with him right after seeing him the first time in six months. It is as if they never had any problem at all! *sigh* This just didn't work for me.

About the book:

Andy Friessen has been looking for Laura for six months. After she walked out with her son, no goodbye, with no money and leaving everything he bought her, behind.

But he knew she’d come crawling back, she needed him. After all he married her to protect her. And any woman would give their right arm to be his wife.

And then for six months his conscience poked at what an ass he’d been:

​Until he’s served…for divorce.

​Even though Andy is the first man she’s every truly loved, and the first to break her heart, Laura plans to never see him again. After all to him she was nothing but a nuisance, someone he could order around, just another woman to warm his bed at night.

​But Laura is hurt and she’s thought nothing through including the fact she’s keeping the biggest surprise from him yet.

​She’s pregnant.

And when Andy finds out … all hell will break loose.

Book Review: Summer's Dream by Mary E Hanks

Summer's Dream

Second Chance Series Book 3

by Mary E Hanks

Series: Second Chance Series
Paperback: 314 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (October 20, 2015)

Kindle Edition
File Size: 2114 KB
Print Length: 314 pages
Publication Date: October 19, 2015
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Ratings: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

My thoughts:

I love second-chance romances, immediately purchased this without reading the whole synopsis. The story is sweet and heartwarming. I liked that the author wove a realistic relationship between husband and wife. The reconciliation with their newfound faith feels so right. Looking forward to reading Ms. Hanks other books in this series.

Purchase your copy

About the book:

Summer dreamed of becoming an artist and painting natural beauty on canvas. But all that changed when she married Joshua Hart, a man carrying a powerful dream of his own. With a temper to match his wild-boy good looks, he stormed out of their marriage to pursue a life as a musician, leaving her alone and, unbeknown to him, pregnant.

Five years later, Summer is busy raising her daughter and managing the family's camp and retreat center in the woods of Eastern Washington. With her artistic dreams all but forgotten, her world turns upside down the day Josh shows up with an offer to help her get the camp ready--and plans for divorce.

Only Josh didn't expect to find a blue-eyed darling who calls him "Daddy" living at Hart's Camp. Not to mention his surprise over the attraction he still feels for Summer Day. Can he make amends for the past? Or is it too late?

Ty and Winter Williams, marriage-retreat speakers, share their heartwarming story of second chances, and Summer and Josh must face the choices they've made. Is God's grace enough to carry them through the divorce? Or can He change their hearts and help them find their way back to love?

Book Review: Loving Ellie by Lindsey Brookes

Loving Ellie

by Lindsey Brookes

Kindle Edition
File Size: 2349 KB
Print Length: 273 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1494785072
Publication Date: May 5, 2015
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Ratings: ★ ★ ★   

My thoughts:

Girl got pregnant by a friend.
Friend is Boy's younger brother.
Girl is broken, wants to give up baby for adoption. 
Boy wants to adopt the baby because baby is his only living relative.
Girl doesn't want Boy to adopt because she is broken. 

Too many emotions reading the story: good, sweet, intense to meh. It was good, a sweet story of finding true love the second time for  Lucas, first for Ellie. Points for Lucas for being caring, sweet, and how he loves his brother, he truly got me there. Meh, I was constantly bored and annoyed reading Ellie's struggle to accept people loving her. You know that kind of friend that's always so negative? *sigh* Her story is predictably monotonous. 

I survived 'Loving Ellie' because of Blaine and Victoria. I was deeply interested, so absorbed in their story that I actually forgot that the book is about Lucas and Ellie. I don't understand why the author can write excellent story for minor characters but not for the major ones? 


About the book:

Ellie Sanders is pregnant and alone. Carrying a child she’d conceived the one and only time she’d lain with her closest friend, Jarrett Tanner. A man she’d agreed to marry for the sake of their child. A man she’d loved, but not as he’d deserved. And now he was gone. 

Lucas Tanner returns home to settle his younger brother Jarrett’s estate only to discover his brother left behind a very pregnant fiancée. Having lost his own wife and their baby she’d been carrying years before, he’s bound and determined to stick around and make sure Ellie’s child makes it safely into the world. Even if it means facing the ghosts of his past. 

Struggling financially and emotionally, Ellie is torn between keeping her baby and giving it up for adoption. She wants to give her child the chance she never had - to be raised by two loving parents. If only she could make Lucas understand. And, if only she wasn’t falling for a man with no heart left to give. 

Lucas finds himself wanting more. Wanting Ellie. But what if he gives in to his deepening feelings and loses her, too? 

One fears abandonment. The other fears loss. Can Ellie and Lucas put their painful pasts behind them and finally find true happiness? Or are the emotional walls they’ve built up around their hearts too strong to tear down? 

About the author:

Romance author Lindsey Brookes is a four-time RWA Golden Heart finalist as well as a past American Title III finalist and winner of Harlequin's Great American Romance Novel contest. She writes for Kensington Publishing, Amazon Publishing, and has indie-pubbed several of her young adult and adult contemporary romances. She is represented by Michelle Grajkowski with 3 Seas Literary Agency. 

Check out her website: www.lindseybrookes.com

Book Review: Blind Date, Checkmate by Veronica Blade

Blind Date, Checkmate

by Veronica Blade

Paperback: 118 pages
Publisher: Crush Publishing (December 24, 2011)

Kindle Edition
File Size: 2140 KB
Print Length: 118 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Crush Publishing Ink (December 24, 2011)
Publication Date: December 24, 2011
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.


Ratings: ★ ★ ★ ★  

Note: I received a review copy of this book free from the author, Veronica Blade. The review posted below is based on my personal thoughts while reading the book.

My thoughts:

It's always nice to read this kind of story, first love, first heartbreak... second chance romance. I immensely enjoyed reading Shelby and Logan's journey to finding each other again after so many years of no contact.The author was able to deliver a believable sweet love story with TOTALLY relatable characters. 

My only complain is that the book is short... I was not satisfied with ending the story too soon. Sorry, that's just me. I'm starting to think short stories just don't usually work for me.

About the book:

Should a woman who’s unable to forget her first love give “happily ever after” one more try?

Shelby Winters’ one great love went sour. If she can’t feel that way about a guy again, why bother? When Shelby’s best friend sets her up on a blind date with Logan, the guy who broke her heart, he pursues her relentlessly, forcing her to make a choice: give her heart what it’s always desired and risk total devastation or shut Logan out and lose her only shot at happiness. To Shelby, it’s a lose-lose situation. Or is it?

About the author:

Veronica Blade lives in Southern California with her husband and children. By day she runs the family business, but each night she slips away to spin her tales. She writes stories about young adults to relive her own childhood and to live vicariously through her characters. Except her heroes and heroines lead far more interesting lives — and they are always way hotter.