Anne McAllister

Valentine Charms by Anne McAllister

Heartwarming, wonderfully sweet romance with a happily ever after ending that swept me up in the story and charmed my soul…

Jane Kitto teaches second grade at the Catholic school she once attended. When Zack Stoner sweeps back into her life to do a story on the school they are both alumni of she is a bit taken aback. When she was seven he was the bad boy she was warned against but even then she found him…intriguing. Zack had a rough childhood and acted show more out but did make good by going to college and becoming a successful football player. Now retired he wants to help the school that he feels helped him move in the right direction. The two will need to work together to make the TV segment all that it can be but working together will also require them to spend time in close proximity and give them a chance, as adults, to get to know one another better and perhaps find a future together. And, that is just what Jane’s students are intent on helping happen for the teacher they love.

This is a delightful book. It has a secret admirer sending charms to Jane for years. It tells the backstories of both main characters. It captured me and made me feel part of the story and left me with a warmth and happiness not many books achieve. It may be simple in some ways but oh so very complex in others. And, it made me wonder if perhaps there are choices we have made as children or youth that have impacted someone as greatly as Jane impacted Zack one school day.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tule Publishing – This is my honest review.

5 Stars show less

I try reading a lot of free ebooks since currently that's what I can afford. There's good stuff to find in any price category, and this novel's a prime example of a gem among rocks, though I couldn't tell until I got to the fifth chapter, when I knew I'd have to finish reading it.

It is all told from Luke's point of view, and he is the quintessential cantankerous cowboy. I grew up among those. The worse they're hurt, the harder they'll turtle up. The ways the author uses to crack his shell show more are gorgeous. I can't think of a better word for it. There's not just one, they come from different directions, and it still takes time and danger, and then it's still not simple. The last few chapters had me in tears several times.

Yeah. Read this one. show less

Say you have a three-day fling with a dude that leaves you with a son. Aforementioned dude isn't a local and your best efforts to contact him about said child are unacknowledged for six years. Dude shows up, wants to be daddy now, and wants to sleep in your bed with you that night.

Do you:

A.) Tell him to leave or you'll call the cops.

B.) Say he can stay on the sofa or GTFO.

C.) Put up a token resistance for a few minutes before acquiescing.

Only read this book if option C makes sense to show more you.

Flynn Murray is a globe-trotting journalist and erstwhile Irish earl who just discovers he's had a son, with a woman he had a short fling with almost six years ago. Wanting to make up for the lost time, and avoid being the absentee father his own pater was, he flies out to Montana to see Sara McMaster and meet their five year old son Liam.

This is a plot perched upon one bizarre judgement after another. I couldn't buy Sara's angst over their 72-hour fling. I can see perhaps her building his memory into a larger-than-life sort of myth, and struggling to reconcile memory with reality, but being butt-hurt that a guy didn't propose after a three-day fling? Claiming to "still" love him after all these years, but wanting to push him away to keep from getting hurt? Didn't work for me, and if you can't buy the premise behind the angst, you end up just rolling your eyes at the resulting actions.

Sara was a weak-willed, emotional ninny and Flynn an assuming dynamo with daddy issues. When I imagine their future marriage, all I see are arguments that consist of "Baby, why are you mad at me?" "If you don't why, I'm not telling you", and his will always triumphing over her token resistance. show less

Romance novels are ... well ... let's face it. Fluff. We read them because we want a formula of boy-meets-girl, not-too-insurmountable difficulties, and then a happy ending where the girl gets the boy. On the way, hopefully the author will teach us something and make us fall in love along with the characters. This was one of the ones that met those goals.

Luke Tanner is poignant as the cowboy-turned-stunt double-turned-cowboy who retreats back into his original trade after the tragic death of show more his best friend after the friend died after insisting on doing his own stunt. Not only mourning his friends death, but also to escape unresolved feelings for his deceased best friends grieving fiance, Luke turns back to the hard, solitary life of a cowboy to find peace. When his best friends fiance suddenly shows up two years later to interview him for a memoir about their mutual movie actor/friend, old wounds are suddenly reopened.

Unlike most romance novels, this one was written entirely from the viewpoint of the hero. We get to inhabit Luke's head as he keeps pushing Jillian away despite his resurging feelings for her and realize he isn't doing so simply to be a jerk. His guilt over not talking his friend over doing the stunt the day he died and the fact he had always possessed feelings for the woman now at his doorstep feel palpable and genuine, not contrived.

Especially realistic was the authors descriptions of the daily duties of a cowboy. No glamor here. Just lots of hard, repetitive, lonely, dangerous work. I know little about the real life of a cowboy, but the job description felt gritty and real, not some watered-down romantic version of what it meant to be a cowboy. I learned something.

Keeping in mind a 5-star rating for a formula romance novel isn't the same thing as, say, 5-stars for Charles Dickens, I would say put this one on your reading list. You'll feel good at the end. show less