THE CHRISTMAS COTTAGE/EVER AFTER

THE CHRISTMAS COTTAGE/EVER AFTER     SAMANTHA CHASE

The Christmas Cottage / Ever After by Samantha ChaseLegend has it that any couple who spends the night in the Christmas Cottage shall have love everlasting...
THE CHRISTMAS COTTAGE
Lacey Quinn does not believe in happily-ever-after or the legend of the Christmas Cottage. But her best friend does, and she’s the one getting married. It’s Lacey’s job to make sure everything at the cottage is perfect for the newlyweds. Instead, she finds herself snowed in with the best man, and she begins to wonder if fairy tales really can come true.
EVER AFTER
Ava Callahan wants desperately to believe in love everlasting. But when Brian McCabe walks back into her life and upsets her carefully organized world, her commitment to perfection makes it hard to accept the love that’s right in front of her. Will it take a night in the Christmas Cottage for Ava and Brian to find their happy ending?
What readers are saying:
“Delightful Christmas romance with a twist ending.”
“Loved the layered plot.”
“Sweet holiday romance…love, love love!”
“An enchanting tale.”
“A five star story!”
“Instant connection with the characters.”
MY REVIEW:

The Christmas Cottage
     At fourteen Lacey Quinn was madly in love with family friend, Mo let me rephrase that, her best friend’s brother Ean Callahan who was, 18.  As if that wasn’t enough but at the end of summer he would be leaving for college and then his life.  She had to make her move and tell him.  She left Ava saving goodbye to her grandparents and follow Ean to the den in the basement.  She sat on the couch next to him startling him.  He looks around for his sister and sees she is alone and asks, “What’s up?”  She just tells him how great he is and that she hopes he has a great time at school and congrats on graduation.  He tells her he was ready to move on and move out then he says what throws her for loop.  That he’ll be finished packing and leaving tomorrow for Massachusetts for the summer semester on Monday.  She figures now was the time or her chance would be gone.
     She quickly leans over and kisses him.  He quickly pushes her away jumping off the couch and telling her, “What are you doing?  Are you crazy?  Why would you do that?”  To his surprise she said, “Why, I wanted to and because I love you!”  Ean’s eyes go wide, “Love Me? Are you crazy?  You’re 14?  I’m going to college!  You’re like family, a sister!  My sister’s best friend!”  That moment her happily-ever-after shattered forever.  She ran from the basement not to see him for 12 years.  She learned never to trust her instincts where boys were concerned.  Her heart had broken she never wanted to feel that again.
     So when Ava said she need her to work with the best man on the honeymoon cottage she thought OH NO!  Not the magical cottage but yes not only that Ava had a binder.  She asks indifferently who the best man is again.  Brian?  She says no he and Brian had a falling out and that Ean was coming home for the holidays so he is the best man.  She froze.  Tunnel vision and effect of being pulled into a tunnel happens.  She thought she would faint or at least that Ava would be able to hear her heart thunder out her chest.  But when she looks at Ava nothing.
     Once she got it together she thought over a month away she would start early working on it that way by the time Ean arrived it would be done and she could give him credit no time together no problem.  She avoided him 12 and 12 more would be too soon.  She start that very Friday no knowing a storm was coming or that Ean was going to the ranch to get away from everyone work, family, and life.  When he comes face to face with his past and Lacey come face to face with her demon.
     Time, a storm and unspoken words make this cute story that is a family saga with heart, emotion, and Christmas spirit.  I give it 5 stars.

Ever After

     Ava Callahan was a dreamer on a grand scale.  Not of her own making, yet still to a degree that defied all logic.  You see there was the legend of the Christmas Cottage…
     Ava’s grandmother had passed down the family lore of the loving history of the family ranch and attached to the property, “cottage of everlasting love.”  But it was oh so embellished to the point it would keep a young girl’s imagination fed at bedtime or story time.
     Fact:  More than few or more family members were married at the ranch.  Spending their honeymoon at the cottage.  Fiction: Insuring them everlasting love… 
     Most knew as grandma would tell them that it was mostly lore but not Ava she took it all to heart.  Especially, when she got engaged to Mason before it got so far out of hand that they mutually ended it.
     Part to her deciding to end it the night before the wedding was getting an earth shattering kiss from Mason’s ex friend and ex best man from their wedding, Brian McCabe.  Brian had professed his undying love for her and telling her things about herself that Mason never even knew or acknowledged.  Like what type of flower she like and what she liked to travel.  But his kisses were enough to make her question the relationship between her and Mason because Brian’s kisses had more passion than all of Mason’s together.
     See if this friend of Mason’s, Brian is worthy of being a good enough groom for Ava.  Can their love be for real or doomed as a rebound?  One step at a time.  I give this 4 stars.
Over all this book I give it 5 stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.

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SEEKING CAROLINA

SEEKING CAROLINA                                    TERRI-LYNNE DEFINO

Seeking Carolina (Bitterly Suite, #1)Johanna Coco is finally home in Bitterly, Connecticut to attend her beloved grandmother’s funeral—only to be confronted by the very reason she’s stayed away to begin with—Charlie McCallan. Her high school sweetheart is now divorced, and no longer the skinny boy Johanna once loved. Hometown handsome and dependable as always, Charlie is the kind of man she needs to lean on as she and her sisters grapple with their grief—as well as the mystery of their long-missing mother, Carolina. But Johanna’s heart isn’t only haunted by her ghosts; it is haunted by what happened between her and Charlie…

Charlie is determined to do things right this time, and he has to do it before Johanna vanishes from his life again. First he needs to prove to her that the past is past, and they can overcome it—no easy task when he’s up against the ghosts lingering in her life, trying to convince her that happily-ever-after is not in the cards for any of the catastrophe-prone Coco sisters, least of all Johanna. But her fearless first love is ready to do whatever it takes to win her back—ghosts be damned.
MY REVIEW:
     Dealing with those you love who have mental health issues from the very simple chemical imbalance that can cause anxiety issues to severe like bipolar and schizophrenia.  All can be treated by medication and some with just therapy.  But mental health is fearful to the ones that have it run in their family.  As the fear is there for Johanna Coco and her three sisters Nina, Emma, and Julietta.
     Their mother was bipolar and their father was the schizophrenic.  Leaving them to each wonder alone when it was going to happen to them.  You see the 4 girls eventually went to live with their mother’s parents.  One day their Gram received a phone call from the police saying Nina the eldest and Johanna had been taken into custody.  That their parents were in need of mental health care and being put into the hospital.
     All along their grandparents loved and cared for the girls.  They were enrolled in school but first records had to be established.  At this point they were no ones.  They had no birth dates or birth certificates nothing.  At school she made a dear friend that never thought Johanna odd.  Charlie Mc Callen was someone she could count on.
     Eight years later her grandparents received another call saying their parents were in a terrible accident their father had died and their mother seriously hurt.  The twist was the girls had two new sisters that were also in the accident.  Emma was unhurt and Julietta who suffered some minor injuries.  This time just Gram went to get the girls.  Their mama didn’t come back with them.  The fact of the matter is she escaped their custody of the hospital that they had put her in at the time of the accident.  So no one knew where she was at or maybe they did?  Charlie and Jo date the summer of their junior year the best summer of their lives.  Then the worst happens…
     Twenty years later Jo’s Gram has passed on like her Poppy (grandpa.)  She did not make it home in time for the funeral due to the storm.  She walks to the cemetery from the train station in the snow thinking her sisters are mad at her for not making it on time so that is why they don’t come to get her at the train station.  But due to the coverage they never got the calls or messages so Charlie offered to go pick her up and she wasn’t there so he happened to go to the cemetery.  She stood there in the snow soaking wet.  At first she doesn’t even know it is him but when she does her grief increases.  Charlie was the one that left her behind giving up on her.  Married with five kids one of the many reasons she had only been home a few times in 8 years.
      For Charlie who is now divorced and extremely happy one he has full custody of his kids and two he is free to openly love and win back the girl that took his heart when she left town.  His true love.  Jo Coco…
     This was a great family saga.  I loved that fact that there was so much pain to overcome but that they did it together and even when it hurt that they never really took it out on each other they gather together as a family and held on tight.  Mental health issues is so very hard to live with weather you are the patient or the loved ones that are on the outside looking in.  You feel so hopeless because you can’t do anything.  But pray and give them to God and make sure that you get them the best care you can.

     I give this 5 ++++ stars. Provide by netgalley.com.  Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

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