Pride 2023 - Books and Authors Day 23 - Fever Falls

 Hello and welcome to Day 23 of 30 Days of Pride - Books and Authors! 

For Pride Month 2023, I’m sharing some of the fabulous books and authors I’ve discovered featuring LGBTQ or LGBTQ-friendly characters or written by LGBTQ or LGBTQ-friendly authors. 

Welcome to Fever Falls! 

Fever Falls is a fictional town created by authors Riley Hart and Devon McCormack that is home to a series of six books featuring firefighters (swoon) and sports stars. Oh - and maybe even an actual prince. I've read all of these and am tempted to read them all again; they were so fun. 

Here's a quick description of the series, but if you have a few minutes, I highly recommend checking out the Fever Falls website itself. It's got a lot of fun information about the town and the characters themselves. It's super well done! 

Things heat up real quick in Fever Falls, and if you’re not careful, you won’t just catch a fever—you just might fall in love.

For some, it’s home—others, an escape. Between the booming job market, fabulous real estate prices, and exotic nightlife, Fever Falls has become one of the hottest cities to live in the country. This place has it all, including an inordinate amount of hot, curious, eligible bachelors who learn the hard way that there’s an unexpected consequence to living here: you just might fall in love. So we invite you to take a tour of our friendly town, but first, grab a fan and a couple of buckets of ice water…because things are about to heat up here in Fever Falls.

Click on the covers below to be whooshed over to GoodReads for more details.  

For more information on Riley Hart and all her books, visit her official website. 

And for more information on Devon McCormack and all his books, visit his official website. 

Take care and happy reading!

- Heather 

As always, my reviews can be found on Goodreads and other retail sites. 

Pre-order your e-Copy of WAYWARD GUILT - Heroes of Grant's Crossing Book 1! (Print version will be available for pre-order in early July.)

AMAZON - KOBO - BARNES & NOBLE - APPLE

Find me online! 

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown

Bookbub - @GrantsCrossing

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Pride 2023 - Books and Authors Day 22 - Atlanta Lightning

Hello and welcome to Day 22 of 30 Days of Pride - Books and Authors! 

For Pride Month 2023, I’m sharing some of the fabulous books and authors I’ve discovered featuring LGBTQ or LGBTQ-friendly characters or written by LGBTQ or LGBTQ-friendly authors. 

Back to sports romances with shirtless, muscular men on the covers... 

Ahem. I'm taking a break from hockey and moving on to football today because, yes - I love sports romances. That takes me to the Atlanta Lightning series by Riley Hart.

The Atlanta Lightning is a fictitious professional football team at the center of this two-book series. Both books are great reads, but I especially love how the first one starts - a meet cute at a bar between a football player and a Senator who has no idea the guy he's hitting on is a professional athlete. 

Riley Hart does a better job of setting the scene, so better read it yourself!

Riley Hart is a prolific writer. I've read a bunch of her books, so be sure to visit her official website to learn more about them. 

Take care and happy reading!

- Heather 

As always, my reviews can be found on Goodreads and other retail sites. 

Pre-order your e-Copy of WAYWARD GUILT - Heroes of Grant's Crossing Book 1! (Print version will be available for pre-order in early July.)

AMAZON - KOBO - BARNES & NOBLE - APPLE

Find me online! 

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown

Bookbub - @GrantsCrossing

Follow me on Facebook

Review - Beating the Wrap

Julie Anne Lindsey's latest release in her Bonnie & Clyde series is officially out today! 

Beating the Wrap takes us back to Bliss, Georgia to Bonnie Balfour's second chance dress shop, Bless Your Heart. This time around, the problems start with her troublemaking feline, Clyde. 

(Full disclosure, my cat thinks Clyde gets a bad rap this time around. Read on for her thoughts.)

From the cover: 

Bonnie Balfour adores the changing seasons, fabulous fall activities and holiday hoopla, but will a corpse on the porch squash her holiday plans?

Thanksgiving is right around the corner in historic Bliss, Georgia, and Bonnie is trimming display tables at Bless Her Heart, especially for the occasion. A Gift of Gratitude display, beside the front door of her second chance dress shop, encourages shoppers to leave messages of good tidings for neighbors and friends. Unfortunately, someone has left a cornucopia of complaints instead.

And they’re all about Bonnie!

When the scrooge turns out to be a neighbor, fed up with Clyde’s habitual petty theft and trespassing, Bonnie’s claws come out in defense of her kitty. The heated exchange leaves a bad taste in Bonnie’s mouth, but the man turns up dead before she can dish out a proper apology.

Determined to see justice served, Bonnie and Clyde dig into the case with gusto, only to land in hot water with the handsome Sheriff Wright. A series of anonymous attacks soon have the town wondering if Bonnie can find the killer before it’s time to cut the turkey. Or if she’ll be the next one on his carving board.

From my Goodreads review: 

I SOOOOO enjoyed this book! These keep getting better and better! Bonnie has a suggestion box that keeps yielding negative messages - presumably by someone who is not at all happy with Clyde, her adorable cat. A little deductive reasoning leads her to the man who owns another shops whose pieces keep disappearing thanks to a certain feline. After a public argument, Bonnie decides to apologize. 

When the man is found dead… Bonnie’s busy defending herself and delving into another mystery. 

I like this story because we learn a little more about Detective Wright’s backstory. Plus, his friend from Cleveland makes more appearances thanks to falling for one of Bonnie’s friends and moving down to Georgia. All our favorite characters make appearances including Bonnie’s parents and the ever-awesome, Gigi, who you can’t help but love as she starts up her new bakery business. Plus some fun, new characters, namely Thelma and Louisa!

Detective Wright solves the mystery (with Bonnie’s help, of course) and then, at the end of the book … Oh man - I can’t tell you, but you’ll love it. (FINALLY!) it’s awesome. I’m so happy with the ending of this book and cannot wait until the next book in the series comes out. 

Beating the Wrap is book 3 in the Bonnie & Clyde series. Book 4, Eyelet Witness, will be available next month!

Find all of Julie Anne Lindsey's books on her official website - Goodreads - Barnes & Noble - Amazon

If you're looking for a great writer of cozy mysteries that are slightly more intense than your average cozy, Julie Anne Lindsey is the writer you want to follow. Her official website has all her different series linked, but the Seaside Cafe mysteries were the books that got me hooked. Then, I moved on to the Christmas Tree Farm series. Then, the Cider Shop mysteries started. (Colton. Swoon!). Then...I got hooked on and have now read all of her Harlequin Intrigue romance novels (Not mysteries, but definitely action-packed and clean romances) and then... I've just traveled down to New Orleans and am listening to her Kitty Couture mysteries with Lacey and Jack. And (stops to fan myself) if you thought Colton was swoon worthy, wait 'til you meet Jack!

Now, she's tempting us even further with these terrific Bonnie & Clyde Mysteries. Yes. I'm hooked. And you should be, too. Heck - even Michonne agrees with me! 

Happy Reading! 

        - Heather

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing 

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing 

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown - for this and all my book reviews

P.S. My cat, Michonne, gives it two paws up. That is, if she decided to actually compliment something. She's pretty judgy. This is her happy look. I think. Ok, fine. She's definitely on #TEAMCLYDE.

Review - Burden of Poof

I was so excited to read the first installment of the new Bonnie & Clyde Cozy Mystery series by Julie Anne Lindsey whose brilliant writing ensured I was not disappointed! 

One of my favorite authors, I jumped at the chance to read her new series which features Bonnie Balfour, a recent, soon-to-be divorcée who has moved back from Atlanta to her hometown of Bliss, GA, to open her new dress shop, and her trusty stray cat, Clyde. 

I love the premise of her shop - she renovates and redesigns vintage / out-of-style dresses and makes them more fun and modern.

She discovers the murder victim and thanks to circumstances both beyond her control and some bad timing, she becomes the target of the murder investigation. Enter Ex-FBI agent and now detective on loan, Mason Wright. Mr. Wright? Love the pun. The witty banter between Bonnie and him is super fun to read. He’s just not - buying - her - story. 

The story is great fun to read because you’re introduced to a whole cast of characters including her loving parents who own a flower farm outside of town. Her friend Cami who works to advertise all that is wonderful and good about their town of Bliss, other shop keepers including one with a haunted book shop, another with a coffee shop that isn’t, but may be up for sale, and one who talks to plants because they’re pretty much troublemakers anyway. (The plants, that is) 

Things I liked

• While still younger, I like that the FMC of this book is at least closer to my age. 
• She also works with kids who may not be able to afford their own dresses which I think is awesome. 
• The snarkiness of Detective Wright, a.k.a. Detective Grumpy
• I also like that he’s sneakier than typical detectives in a cozy series 

Things I didn’t like 

• That I now have to wait for the second book in the series. So rude! (Just kidding - I just received the ARC for book two, Seven Deadly Sequins! It'll hit the shelves on October 15, 2021.)

One oddity which probably says more about me than the book. 

Detective Wright, from Cleveland, calls something a potato puff. What the heck is that? I live in Ohio, but I’ve never heard of that. FMC called them tater tots, but what? Huh? Of course they’re tater tots. (I may have to revisit this particular topic!)

This was a fun book with a good whodunnit wrapped inside a fun group of characters. Until it was revealed, I didn’t know “whodunnit,” which is exactly how I like my mysteries. 

I can't wait to delve further into this series. Julie Anne Lindsey is an author worth knowing. Her stories are fabulous, slightly more intense than your average cozy, but filled with fantastic characters and terrific mysteries. Whichever series you start reading, I guarantee you'll be hooked from book one! 

Find all of Julie Anne Lindsey's books on her official website - Goodreads - Barnes & Noble - Amazon

Happy Reading! 

        - Heather

P.S. As for the dress that was destroyed… I’m a little bummed about that and hope a similar iteration can make an appearance. It sounded SO COOL! 

Twitter - @GrantsCrossing 

Instagram - @GrantsCrossing 

Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown - for this and all my book reviews