Category: Top Pick – Highly Recommended

The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling

On By TracyIn Contemporary, New To Me Author, Paranormal / Fantasy, Part of a Series, Romantasy, Time Travel, Top Pick - Highly Recommended, Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

The Wedding Witch (The Ex Hex, #3)The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling

Tracy’s Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: Grave’s Glen, #3

Release Date: October 8, 2024

After a spell goes horribly wrong and his best friend Declan is lost, Welshman and powerful witch, Bowen Penhallow dedicated himself to finding a way to reverse it. It has been ten years, and he is no closer to an answer, but he does have a plan, which will require the exclusive services of the best “Acquirer” he has ever worked with – TLB Acquisitions, Ltd. He sets up a meeting and is astounded to learn that the “T” of TLB is a gorgeous American woman, Tamsyn Bligh.

Tamsyn agrees to an exclusive contract with him, and she makes it clear that she doesn’t mix business with pleasure, but she also can’t resist a kiss under the mistletoe! And so, begins their relationship, for the next year they work together without meeting. As the Yule holiday approaches, Bowen makes plans to join his brothers and their significant others for the holiday in Georgia, leaving Tamsyn with time on her hands, time she decides to put to good use. Never expecting their paths to cross at a wedding in Wales or being sent back in time to 1957. Together they will have to work together to make their way back to 2024 and hopefully find their own HEA along the way.

I loved, loved, loved this book and finished it in a day! This is a new-to-me author and a genre that I rarely read – I love paranormal/fantasy romance, and I usually tend to choose historicals over contemporaries, but the blurb for this book caught my attention (which is saying a lot as I am not a fan of time travel) and I am so happy I requested it! This book pulled me out of a reading rut and sold me on a new sub-genre! This book has it all; mystery, witches, spells, grumpy/sexy hero, a vivacious/feisty heroine, witty dialogue, great secondary characters, second chances, steamy love scenes, surprising revelations and finally a very happy ending complete with an epilogue. This was the third book in the series, but I hadn’t read the previous books (but now I want to!) and had no trouble understanding the relationship between the characters, so it could easily be read as a standalone title. I really enjoyed the book and will be checking out the previous books and watching for upcoming books – Highly recommended!

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *

The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin

On By TracyIn Historical Fiction, Standalone Title, Top Pick - Highly Recommended, Tracy's Reviews, World War II Era (1939-1945)Leave a comment

The Booklover's LibraryThe Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin

Tracy’s Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Standalone Title

Release Date: September 10, 2024

Life has never been easy for single mothers and their children, but late summer of 1939 was especially hard for young widow Emma Taylor and her daughter Olivia. With England on the brink of joining WWII, Emma is doing her best to provide for her child, but with her meager savings running low and prices rising, she is beginning to feel desperate. She would willingly work, but with a marriage bar prohibiting married women and widows with children from working most jobs, she is having a hard time finding a job that will enable her to earn a living, but still care for her daughter. Her luck seems to take a turn for the better when she happens to be in the right place at the right time – in this case, the café in Boot’s the Chemist store. She overhears a librarian resigning her position as she is to be married, and she takes the opportunity to ask about a position and is hired to work in the Boot’s Booklover’s Library – a Lending Library. But with war looming, even having a job, might not be enough to keep her daughter safe, decisions will have to be made about Olivia’s future, decisions that no parent wants to make. Keep your child close and potentially in harm’s way or send them away to live with strangers and hopefully away from air raids?

This story is a heartwarming and at times heartbreaking story of not only a woman struggling to keep her tiny family together during the war but rediscovering her own love of books and sharing that love with her daughter and the patrons of the lending library and maybe even finding a happy ending for herself. The story takes place at the start of England’s involvement in the war and gives the reader a glimpse of life in Nottingham during the terror of the blitz, as well as Emma’s volunteer efforts and her relationship with her young daughter, her friends, coworkers and library patrons. In addition to a fantastic story, fans of Ms. Martin’s novel, The Last Bookshop in London, will be delighted when Emma is sent to London and happens upon Primrose Hill Books and meets Grace and Mr. Evans. If you enjoy well-researched, emotional Homefront WWII fiction with relatable characters and literary references, then look no further, you have found your next read!

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *