Becky Cochrane

This book is wonderful!

I adored the characters, the plot line and the humor that is sprinkled throughout this book in such a joyful manner. Keelie (the main character in A COVENTRY CHRISTMAS) is a character that is so real, and so HUMAN in her attributes that you'll wish that Keelie existed - if only so that you could have her as a friend in your life.

Ms. Cochrane has a writer's gift (and an artist's soul) which is impressively displayed in her weaving of a very enjoyable storyline, the names of her characters, their quirky personalities, the naming of pets found in the story (that Ms. Cochrane even INCLUDED pets in her storyline is unique and fun!) and her naming of towns (and the shops within those towns) make this such a marvelous reading experience that one just can't help smiling. In fact - several times within this book - I found myself laughing out loud...

Oh, that Coventry - and the inhabitants of such a friendly place really existed!

Anytime I find myself wishing for some lightness in life - I will happily return to Coventry.

During any season of the year this is a fresh and well-written approach which makes the world seem just a bit brighter and certainly more carefree. Keelie's romance - as well as the friendships which lovingly surround her - make this book and the characters within it a believable and truly enjoyable read.

This book has been added to my permanent collection.
I plan on re-visiting Coventry, often.

Purchase a copy of this book for yourself, one for a friend -
You'll be glad that you did!… (plus d'informations)

Ms. Cochrane's novels are true classics in their genre - and stand out in the genre because they are so adeptly crafted and (if you'll please pardon the pun) bound in reality. Her plot lines are fashioned in a believable manner and in such a way that eye-rolling (which is somewhat typical in the romance genre) does not happen - nor is the reader left feeling that horrific sugary sweetness that some readers experience when they read other books in this genre. You know the feeling. The one that makes you feel that you've just downed one entire box of candy. In one sitting...

A COVENTRY WEDDING (like its predecessor A COVENTRY CHRISTMAS) never makes you feel that way.

Written in a friendly and believable manner (and again including pets!) this storyline will warm your heart and make you believe in the romance that Jandy, ultimately, wins. Ms. Cochrane has a way of weaving quirky personalities into well-crafted story lines which leaves you wanting to read more - until late into the evening, if required.

As a person who has felt "at home" in an area having nothing to do with where I had formerly lived, or was born - this book pulled at my heartstrings. I identified (very closely) with Jandy and her experiences. I could feel her story, as it unfolded, echoing my own experiences and I could feel Ms. Cochrane's words flow into my heart.

Sweet in its appeal, and exceptionally amusing at turns - this is very true-to-form accounting of what happens during the time that people forge a relationship which is unique and unprecedented. Relationships such as Jandy's unconventional union seems to follow no written rules or guidelines.

Ms. Cochrane captures the entire experience of all of the heart-welling emotion found during the entire evolving process of that type of relationship so well.

A COVENTRY WEDDING will make you want to return to the comforting town of Coventry, Texas again and again... to be able to relive her blooming romance, and to witness, once again, when Jandy is finally able to come in to her own being both in life - and in love.

Purchase a copy of this book for yourself and one for a friend.
You'll be glad that you did!… (plus d'informations)

This is a little buried treasure, and one of the most enchanting romance I read lately. Phillip is 23 years old, young, gay and living in New York City. He is from a wealthy family who “disowned” him, or maybe he disowned them, but in a way or the other, I have the feeling that, if he was really in need of something, they would be there for him. So Phillip is not having a bad life in NYC, but it’s clear that he has some loose strands to close in Pass Christian, Mississippi, the small town he left in is running away from trouble.

When Phillip talks of his family, even if he describes all of them like a bunch of nut people, it’s clear that he loves them; when his grandfather comes to NYC, with a proposal for Phillip, it’s also clear that he will agree to that: his grandfather has to go to China for six months for a job and he doesn’t want to leave his daughter, Phillip’s mother, alone; she is not stable, and everyone, from her father, to her 4 sisters, to a whole lot of other people think she needs a caretaker, and so Phillip agrees to be the one. But the same night he accepts his grandfather’s offer, he also meets Kieran, one possible very good candidate to the role of Mr Right in this story: they have only one month, but it’s a perfect month, and when Phillip goes back to Mississippi, he has the feeling to have forgotten something in NYC, his heart.

Many young men fly from their small home town to big city to find themselves; here instead Phillip has to go back to that small town to do that. In New York City, Phillip was stalling, it was not his real life, and in any case, he has to much closure to do in Pass Christian to be able to really enjoy his life in the big city. Phillip is an artist, but instead of feeding his art, the life in NYC was almost exhausting it, and only coming back to Pass Christian, Phillip is able to “create” again. Even his story with Kieran, thought interrupted, gains from the distance: I don’t know, but I think that, if Phillip was living in New York City, when the time come for Kieran to go back home in Ireland, their story would have ended like that, like a good cherished memories in Phillip’s walk on his memories lane.

In Pass Christian Phillip has the chance to confront himself more than he had in New York City; a former best friend, Chad, who was probably more than that; a buddy friend with benefits, Dash, some new best girl friends, Shanon and Jess, who replace Alyssa, former best girl friend from NYC, who moved out month before and maybe one of the reason why Phillip was not so much enjoying his life in the city. Plus instead of letting him go, his previous life in NYC seems to come to Pass Christian with him, and Carlos, Claude, Kieran and even Bunny, in a way or the other, all of them will come to small town to help Phillip to understand who he is and what he wants, or better who he wants. And Phillip will understand that, for once, small town is probably a better place to live than big city, and that he has many, many more chance to find love here than everywhere else.

Three Fortunes in One Cookie is a choral book, with a lot of interesting supporting characters, all orchestrated by Phillip, or maybe all of them giving a little piece of advice to the man to help him find their way. All of them is an important piece, a little burst of energy that will drive Phillip to his happily ever after ending.

Unfortunately I don't understand why this book is out of stock, as are some of the previous novels from two of these co-author, Becky Cochrane and Timothy J. Lambert, two of the four authors who were the team under the pen name of Timothy James Beck. Until now, not one of the romance I read by them was disappointing, and I strongly recommend to some publisher to consider to re-print these books, or at least to who wants to read them, to search on the second hand market.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/155583910X/?tag=elimyrevandra-20… (plus d'informations)

Don't skip editor Timothy J. Lambert's introduction, in which, despite describing himself as someone whose "most successful relationship to date has been with my dog", he reveals himself to be an unreconstructed romantic.

And that's what this collection is all about: romance in its myriad forms, romance expected and unexpected, romance beginning, blooming and ending. The characters range from teenagers just coming out (Josh Helmin's Like No One's Watching) to the fifty-something men "like a quartet of maiden aunts" of Andrew Holleran's Two Kinds of Rapture. (And may I say here that this anthology has a nice mix of writers: "grand old men" of gay fiction such as Holleran and Felice Picano; younger, yet relatively established writers like Greg Herren and Rob Byrnes; and never-before-published authors like 'Nathan Burgoine (whose Heart just might break yours) .

Toss-up for best opening line:

"Ending up in the trunk of a car headed for Houston was not what Bobby'd had in mind when he came to New Orleans." (Trunk, by Trevor Healey)

"It was the morning after my boyfriend told me he wanted to seek freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ that I decided to knit the brain." (De Anima, by Joel Derfner)

'Fess up - you want to read both of those from the get-go, don't you? But read them all. I don't think there's a bad story in the bunch.… (plus d'informations)