Book Review: The Winning Season by Alison Packard (sponsored)

Are you ready for a sports romance?  The Winning Season by Alison Packard has all the makings of a great summer read - the boys of summer, a great story line and a fabulous female main character!

From the Publisher:

Kelly Maxwell has finally landed her dream job as publicist for the San Francisco Blaze. But the team's newest member, handsome bad boy catcher Matt Scanlon, is refusing every interview. She's got to get him to open up before the season ends, or she may not be back next year. And after everything she overcame to achieve her dream, Kelly's not about to let that happen.

Matt Scanlon just wants to be left alone to rebuild his life and his career. After a year of masking the pain of a recent loss with hard partying and fast women, he finally hit rock bottom and was traded to a team he's loathed his entire life—a team with little to no chance at the post-season.

Butting heads is getting Kelly and Matt nowhere but annoyed, and with the team's schedule on the road, they can't avoid close quarters—or their surprising attraction to one another. As the season winds down, Matt finds his growing feelings for Kelly have brought his numbed emotions back to life. But when betrayal shatters their fragile trust, winning it all seems more impossible than ever.

My Review: 

The Winning Season is a winning beach read!  Whether you are a baseball fan or just interested in a juicy romance with a little meat to the story, you are going to fall in love with Kelly and Matt! 

Both characters bring baggage and history into their relationship and it creates tension and fodder for great sex and even greater calamity... although you know that they'll pull it together in the end - cause it's a romance novel - there are edge of your seat moments where you want to shake Matt and cry along with Kelly...

I also love the intricacies of the secondary characters - Kayla and Sean from Love in the Afternoon return as supporting characters and the characters who I hope will star in a future book, Angie and J.T. start to build some tension... 

If you are looking for a great beach read or a fun book to curl up with for an afternoon, then you are going to definitely want to check out The Winning Season!

E- Book Review - Rakes & Radishes

Rakes & Radishes by Susanna Ives is an E-book from Carina Press and is also available from Amazon.com .

From the Publisher:

When Henrietta Watson learns that the man she loves plans to marry London's most beautiful and fashionable debutante, she plots to win him back. She'll give him some competition by transforming her boring bumpkin neighbor, the Earl of Kesseley, into a rakish gothic hero worthy of this Season's Diamond.

After years of unrequited love for Henrietta, Kesseley is resigned to go along with her plan and woo himself a willing bride. But once in London, everything changes. Kesseley-long more concerned with his land than his title-discovers that he's interested in sowing wild oats as well as radishes. And Henrietta realizes that gothic heroes don't make ideal husbands. Despite an explosive kiss that opens her eyes to the love that's been in front of her all along, Henrietta must face the possibility that Kesseley is no longer looking to marry at all...

My review:


You gotta love a story where a woman is determined to a) chase the wrong man b) change the right man and c) completely mess up her own life while trying to do the first two...  Susanna Ives manages to turn this madcap tale into a sweet story with a great historical flavor and heart-warming characters.  Henrietta is a determined young woman who can't see what's right in front of her - and that of course leads to a series of mishaps and missteps. 


If you're looking for a quick weekend download, I highly recommend Rakes and Radishes - it's fast paced, funny and engaging.


About the author can be found on her website

E- Book Review - The Sweetest Deal

The Sweetest Deal by Mary Campisi is an e-book published by Carina Press and is available for download in multiple formats to use on your e-reader or read right on your computer like I do... You can also purchase it from Amazon.com

From the Publisher:

An impossible demand...

Max Jernigan is ready to close the most important business deal of his life-all he has to do is agree to one request from Grayson Crowell: impregnate the mogul's daughter.

No way can Max do this. He's a decent guy. But he would love a child. He just doesn't want a wife.

An impossible man...

C.C. Crowell gave up on dreams of a family after Mr. Worse-Than-Wrong broke her heart. Hiding behind spreadsheets, boring suits and an icy attitude, she's more than a little suspicious when arrogant, handsome Max is suddenly chasing her. But she can't deny their chemistry. Until she learns about the deal and plans to pay Max back in kind....

My review: 

This is a quick read contemporary chick-lit romance that has some cute and funny moments, some deeper introspection and a conniving father who wants to be pulling the strings... The author takes many roads to reach her conclusions, including having the couple meet for the first time before either of them know who the other really is... which gives the reader some opportunity to get to know the characters better before they start their romance.  I love how the story unfolds in many different directions, including introducing two additional characters whose romance is sure to become a sequel to this e-book.  This book does follow the typical 'romance' formula but does it well enough to invoke some true thought and a few emotions along the way.  I recommend this book to anyone looking for a weekend 'escape' read... 

About the Author:

Mary Campisi should have known she'd become a writer when, at age thirteen, she began changing the endings to all the books she read. It took several years and a number of jobs—including registered nurse, receptionist in a swanky hair salon, accounts payable clerk and practice manager in an OB/GYN office—for her to rediscover writing. Enter a mouse-less computer, a floppy disk and a dream large enough to fill a zip drive. The rest of the story lives on in every book she writes.
When she's not working on her craft or following the lives of five young adult children, Mary's digging in the dirt with her flowers and herbs, cooking, reading, walking her rescue lab mix, Cooper, or, on the perfect day, riding off into the sunset with her very own "hero" husband on his Electra Glide Classic.
Mary is also the author of Not Your Everyday Housewife, A Family Affair, The Butterfly Garden, Simple Riches, Paradise Found, and Innocent Betrayal.

Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary copy of this e-book for the purpose of writing my review.  All opinions expressed are my own.