Amber Affairs by Patricia Rice

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, MysteryLeave a comment

Amber Affairs (Crystal Magic Book 6)Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Crystal Magic #6
Publication Date: 5/14/19
Number of Pages: 358

What an enticingly lovely second-chance romance! This exhilarating addition to the Crystal Magic series has it all – romance, murder, mayhem, angry ghosts, possessions, and perverted Hollywood moguls. What more could you ask for in the small town of Hillvale, California? I am thinking this might be my favorite book in the series – but, I think I say that with each new release. What can I say – I love the series.

As we’ve read each new addition to the series, we’ve seen Amber. She was always there, but sort of in the background and to me, she seemed to be the most ineffectual of the Hillvale Lucy’s. As if she didn’t have a lot to contribute at all. Well, not anymore. Amber Abercrombie has come into her own – and what a formidable person she turns out to be!

Amber keeps many, many secrets and she is terrified that someone from the outside will discover her real identity and she’ll be exposed. She has spent years putting herself back together from her traumatic childhood and she is still not in a good place mentally to deal with the exposure. She’s found a measure of peace in Hillvale – she’s eating better, she’s sleeping better, she’s come to terms with her large body (well, sort of). Yes, she’s poor as a church mouse, but she’s calm.

Well, she’s calm until Josh Gabriel strolls into town. Josh was her co-star in a long-running adolescent TV series (Jack and Ginger) – and the love of her life. Here he is – on the eve of his wedding – and he’s just walked into her shop. Maybe he won’t recognize her. But he does. He’s shocked to find her here because he has spent years and years and all the money he could muster to find her. She had just run off – leaving him no word, no explanation, nothing – and now by gosh – he’d have one – because she was the love of his life too.

Josh invites Amber to the lodge to have dinner with him and his bride-to-be (Willa), but Willa had to go back to Hollywood on urgent business. Amber has dinner with Josh and they swim in the pool together and begin to rekindle their friendship. The next morning, Willa is found murdered – near Hillvale – and all eyes begin to turn to Josh and Amber.

If seeing Josh and a murder isn’t stressful enough, Amber gets a call from her nephew Zeke who is living with his grandmother since his mother died. This is the same woman who abused and let others abuse Amber – and now, she’s putting Zeke in the same situation. Zeke runs away and takes a bus as close as he can to Hillvale and calls Amber, who doesn’t drive, to come to get him. She panics but finds a way to get him to Hillvale, now she has to spend resources she doesn’t have to get custody away from her treacherous mother.

Add another murder, an angry spirit possessing the town’s medium, and Hillvale is in an uproar. Josh is the main murder suspect with the sheriff, but Amber and her friends know he isn’t guilty – they just have to prove it by catching the real murderer(s).

This is a wonderful, fast-paced, exciting read with two lead characters who deserve their HEA more than any I’ve read in a very long time.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Highlander’s Lost Lady by Anna Campbell

On By TracyIn Georgian Era (1714-1837), Regency Era (1811-1820), Scottish/Highlander, Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

The Highlander’s Lost Lady (The Lairds Most Likely, #3)The Highlander’s Lost Lady by Anna Campbell

Tracy’s rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Lairds Most Likely, #3

Release Date: May 6, 2019

The last thing Diarmid Mactavish, Laird of Invertavey, ever expected to find washed up on his beach is the love of his life – but that is exactly what he finds while out riding the night after a wicked storm.

Fiona Grant is on a mission to reclaim her daughter. Orphaned at 15, her father’s clansmen took custody of her and married her to the Laird’s brother – a man 30 years her senior. After 10 years of abuse at the hands of the Grants, Fiona is a shell of the woman she once was, now widowed, she thinks she might finally be free but when she learns of their plans for her daughter Christina, she will move heaven and earth to save her. Fiona escapes and with the help of Colin, a fisherman, she sets out to find Christina. When Fiona wakes, she learns that Colin is dead and she is on the lands of her clans most hated enemy – the Mactavishs – she is weak and in no condition to continue on with her search, she needs time to heal and form a new plan. Convinced the hated Mactavishs will send her back to her clan, Fiona pretends to have amnesia – a ploy that Diarmid clearly doesn’t beleive.

Fiona begins to heal and plans to run, but when her brother in law comes to Invertavey and says the mystery girl is his brother’s wife, Diarmid has no right to keep her and hands her over to them, even though she is clearly terrified. Later his friend convinces him to go after her and when he finds her tied to a bed, he knows that he can’t leave her, even if he has no legal right to her. He rescues her, but he wants answers.

After learning her story, Diarmid vows to help her find her daughter and will do whatever is necessary to reunite her with her child, even endure a loveless, chaste marriage. So with the help of Fergus, Marina and Hamish, Diarmid forms a plan – but will Fiona agree? After 9 years as a wife, she has no desire to marry again and submit herself to a man, even one as kind and handsome as Diarmid.

This was not your typical, boy saves girl and they fall in love story, it is much deeper than that, both Diarmid and Fiona have valid reasons to avoid love and Fiona has endured years of abuse. She is not broken, but she is deeply bruised and may never be able to be the wife Diarmid deserves, but to save her daughter the same fate she had, she will marry him and try to be the best wife she can. These two will have a very long journey to their HEA and it kept this reader reading long into the night, unable to put the book down until I knew how it would end. The book is well written, but it was a little repetitive in the beginning as we learn why Diarmid doesn’t trust love and why Fiona doesn’t beleive in it, but once her identity is revealed, the story takes off and doesn’t stop until the final page. There are cameos with Fergus, Marina and Hamish, steamy-ish love scenes, a lot of emotion, some chilling, nail-biting moments, evil villains and an unexpected ending. This is the third book in the Lairds Most Likely series, but it could be read as a stand alone title with no problem – but, I will give you fair warning, once you meet Fergus and Marina in this book, you are going to want to read their story!!! I am happy to recommend this book and can’t wait for the next one!!