Mardi Alexander

Charlie is going to Australia to participate in a rescue animal exchange program. She's had some problems in the United States and needs to find herself again.

Pip is an Australian wildlife rescuer who is charged with mentoring Charlie for a year. Pip also has a sorta secret at the beginning of the book that she doesn't want known, and honestly, I thought that it was a sorta 'lame' secret, but, then again, I know multiple people with this 'secret' and my opinion and treatment of them has never changed one iota.

Pip doesn't really want to have to mentor Charlie either. She's a bit of a loner. And that makes their first meeting very chilly. And honestly for a lot of the story Pip was quite a douche, and Charlie wasn't that much better. It also sometimes seemed like some of the narrative kept pushing that Pip is perfect and can do no wrong.

Thankfully it wasn't all the time, and as the book went on it slowly stopped being quite like that and the two women got closer.

My favorite part of the novel though, was the stuff with the animals. The romance was okay, but, it was the different sorts of animals and their stories that really kept me hooked.

It was a different book (I don't read many set in Australia) and I mostly liked it a lot.

I got this galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.… (plus d'informations)

Originally posted @ http://readaholiczone.blogspot.com
I found this to be book average finding both good and bad characteristics. I will start out with the aspects of the book that I found positive. The prose is descriptive and humorous. Also, the author is creative with her wording. It is innovative making Thomas deaf then providing a connection with sign language between him and Mac who knew sign language since her late brother was deaf and also tying in Nell the deaf dog. Another great aspect is how dedicated Mac is to her job as a firefighter likewise having an immense internal strength.

There are some things about the story that I found faulty. Both Mac and Sarah had not been in relationships for a long time. For Mac, that was due to a tragedy. For me, it did not seem right that they jumped into a full blown relationship so fast. Next the violence at the end was too much. It is incredibly overdone and very brutal. Overall this was not a bad book. It is just one of those reads that you read once and move on.

Thanks to Netgalley for letting me give an honest review
… (plus d'informations)

This is the story of two women. There's Sorla. She's back home on her father's (and grandfather's, and great grandfather's) cattle and horse ranch. She wants to revitalize it with her friends, Ed and Claire from Military Service. Make it a working ranch again. She's also trying to deal with her PTSD and other feelings about her time in combat.

When she walks into one of the stores in town she meets Riley. Riley runs the store, as well as being the local horse whisperer who also works with and makes saddles and such for those in town and in the rodeo that comes through once a year. She also has quite a bit of a secret too.

Once they meet they of course fall in love, this is a romance after all, but there were a few more bumps, twists, and turns than in the usual general lesbian romance, but I thought that that made this a multi-layered novel and more interesting.

I will say that here and there it did feel a little overwhelming the number of story lines that were being juggled. But by the end nearly everything was put in its proper place in the story.

I seem to have read a ton of Bold Strokes Books books with horses, and this one was additionally cool because it was set in Australia and you could even tell that from the dialogue, etc. An all around good novel.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.… (plus d'informations)

This novel was the story of Mac, a firefighter who's very hard on her dress uniform shirts, and Sarah, an ER doctor in the same town where Mac works and lives. The story takes place in Australia, and the only reason that I point that out is because apparently I have not read enough Australian literature because it took me quite awhile longer than usual to get the lingo straight in my head. Not the stuff like 'jumper' and such, but there were some new names for things I had to get used to for the book to flow seamlessly.

But, back to the story, Mac and Sarah meet when Mac brings in someone that she and her rescue partner John have rescued from a car crash. And soon the two women run into each other again and again in unexpected places. Mac then gets introduced to Sarah's nephew Thomas, who's deaf, and slowly but surely Mac and Sarah start a relationship. Next, surprisingly and unlike a lot of other lesbian romances, it's not anything between the two women that provides the high drama (although there is some lesser drama here and there between them during the story), but it's outside forces drama (and it's quite intense).

There were things I liked and things I disliked in the book. I thought in parts it told a bit too much instead of showing, and here and there the dialogue seemed very stilted to me as well. But, on the other hand I loved the characters, both Mac's 'found family' as well as Sarah's sister and nephew. And I liked the dogs and cats too. Especially all we got to see of Nell the dog. I also liked how the signing was worked into the dialogue.

Overall it was a good book as well as a fun read.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.… (plus d'informations)