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Showing posts with label lynda simmons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lynda simmons. Show all posts

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Charmed, I'm Sure



Charmed, I’m Sure
by Lynda Simmons
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Laugh Out Loud Funny...With Just a Touch of Magic


One minute Maxine Henley is the happy bride-to-be and the next she’s the girl who gets dumped over the phone. Max has never believed in magic and fairy’s tales, but if wearing a love charm can warm her fiancĂ©’s cold feet, she’s happy to stuff that little wooden heart next to her own and wait. The charm came with a promise that the right man will find her, guaranteed, but how can that happen when her teenage crush Sam O’Neal keeps getting in the way!

EXCERPT:

“Excuse me, miss,” a male voice said. “I seem to have lost my phone number. Could I have yours?”

Max smiled. She’d know that voice anywhere. She just hadn’t expected to hear it in Schomberg. “Your lines don’t get any better with age, O’Neal,” she said, stuffing the charm into her back pocket as she turned around.

“I’m a little out of practice.” He grinned and stepped from the shadows. “How are you, Max?”

 “Better now,” she said, meaning it.

 Sam O’Neal had been the boy next door, her older brother’s best friend and the one voted most likely to get out of Schomberg. She’d had a crush on him once, the kind of heart-pounding, breath-stealing obsession that fifteen year-old girls do so well. Watching him come toward her now, she wondered if it was her imagination or perhaps some trick of the light that made him look even better than she remembered.

Max moistened her lips even as she felt the faint shift in her shoulders, the tiny flicker of awareness that was as unexpected as it was inappropriate. This was Sam, after all. The one who didn’t think twice about taking her baby-sitting money in a poker game, or daring her to steal peaches from the Jenkins’s’ orchard, and turned out to be the best friend she’d ever known.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” she said, rising up on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. “And without even a hint of elf anywhere.”

 “I hid until they ran out of size eleven curly toes.”

She looked up into his eyes and for the first time was glad she’d made the trip. “I have missed you,” she said softly.

 “Me too,” he said, kissing her on the cheek, the way any friend might, and pulling her close for a hug. She held on tight, feeling the strength of his hands on her back, the hard wall of his chest against her breasts and a warmth from both that reached through her fine cotton tank top, making her shiver. She started to step back and wondered for one brief moment if he would stop her, maybe hold on a moment longer, and what she would do if he did.

MY REVIEW:
I offered to review this book because I'd read a previous book by this author and liked it very much. Ms. Simmons didn't disappoint me this time either. I like the cozy little world she created, and I could see why even though people left the small town, they eventually were drawn back to it. Not that everything is perfect, though. The strong emotions and tragedies that sent both the hero and heroine running for the city are still there, and of course in a little town, everyone knows everyone's business.

The heroine Max must be the most stubborn woman in the world. Once she made up her mind nothing could change her even though it was obvious to everyone that she was making some bad choices. 

The hero Sam was my kind of man. I loved the way he dealt with Max and the pain of the past. 

I also liked the other characters in the book, but let's just say that Max's mother was almost as stubborn as Max. Like her daughter, she threw happiness away with both hands.

Don't worry, though. Toss in a little magic, and the book has a positive, upbeat ending that I loved. I can recommend this book without reservation. 5 out of 5 stars.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Lynda Simmons is a writer by day, college instructor by night and a late sleeper on weekends. She grew up in Toronto reading Greek mythology, bringing home stray cats and making up stories about bodies in the basement. From an early age, her family knew she would either end up as a writer or the old lady with a hundred cats. As luck would have it, she married a man with allergies so writing it was.

With two daughters to raise, Lynda and her husband moved into a lovely two storey mortgage in Burlington, a small city on the water just outside Toronto. While the girls are grown and gone, Lynda and her husband are still there. And yes, there is a cat – a beautiful, if spoiled, Birman. If you’d like to read the legend of Birman cats click here. If you’d like a link to allergy relief, click here.

When she’s not writing or teaching, Lynda gives serious thought to using the treadmill in her basement. Fortunately, she’s found that if she waits long enough, something urgent will pop up and save her - like a phone call or an e-mail or a whistling kettle. Or even that cat just looking for a little more attention!

Website www.lyndasimmons.com

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lynda-Simmons-Author/149740745067442

Twitter @LyndaMSimmons

Amazon Link http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=charmed%2C%20i'm%20sure%20lynda%20simmons

The author is giving away a $50 B&N/Amazon gift card via rafflecopter. Use the link below to enter. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, May 1, 2015

Review Perfect Fit

Perfect Fit
by Lynda Simmons

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Fast-paced, funny and incurably romantic

Rachel Banks has never believed in magic or moonlight, but if she’d thought that putting a piece of wedding cake under her pillow would conjure up a nightmare in the form of blue-eyed charmer Mark Robison, she’d have stuffed that cake into her mouth instead! Mark is only in Madeira Beach for some much needed R&R and his new neighbor is not the kind of woman made for vacation memories. But there’s something about the incurable romantic that just keeps drawing him back.

Jennifer Crusie. Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Lynda Simmons? Oh, yeah!


EXCERPT

Amanda snapped on her gear and opened the front door. “That was chance. But this.” She picked up a couple of bags. “This is fate.”

Rachel stopped in the doorway. “Do you really believe that? Do you think it’s possible for two people to be des¬tined for each other? Like soul mates.” She shook her head. “Forget it. Let’s go.”

Amanda blocked the way. “Who did you meet?”

“No one, and I’m late.”

Amanda planted her skates sideways. “You cannot do this. Not after I told you about the real estate broker.”

Rachel looked through the fringe of Amanda’s bangs into her frank green eyes and wondered if she should take a chance. “Let me ask you this. Have you ever heard of dreaming on a piece of wedding cake?”

“Sure, it’s an old custom. Like walking to church because it’s lucky and passing on a green wedding gown because it’s not. But most people serve the cake for dessert these days.”

Rachel tried a smile. “Not all.”

“Someone gave you cake to dream on?” Rachel nodded and it was Amanda’s turn to laugh. “Don’t tell me you did it.”

When Rachel didn’t answer, Amanda’s mouth dropped open and her voice rose. “You did, didn’t you?” She put the bags down. “Okay, I need details. Did you have a dream?”

It was on the tip of Rachel’s tongue to say no, to deny that anything out of the ordinary had occurred. But she found herself nodding and watched Amanda’s eyes grow even rounder.

“Did you see him? The man you’re supposed to marry?”

Rachel took comfort in the fact that her friend had been sucked into the fantasy as easily as she had and nodded a third time.

Amanda stepped closer. “Alright, this next part is really important. Where exactly did they get this cake?”

MY REVIEW:

I thoroughly enjoyed Perfect Fit. I was drawn at once to the heroine and the life she'd built for herself. She was doing something she loved, but ultimately she found the courage to try fulfilling a long standing dream. She also was willing to risk her heart in a relationship that might or might not last. 

Mark, the hero, had chosen a profession filled with danger. He didn't think he had much to offer in the way of happily ever after, but something about Rachel drew him in spite of everything. 

The secondary characters were all likable too.

This is the kind of story that draws you in and makes you happy that you spent a little time with the characters. I highly recommend it.




AUTHOR Bio and Links:


Lynda Simmons is a writer by day, college instructor by night and a late sleeper on weekends. She grew up in Toronto reading Greek mythology, bringing home stray cats and making up stories about bodies in the basement. From an early age, her family knew she would either end up as a writer or the old lady with a hundred cats. As luck would have it, she married a man with allergies so writing it was.

With two daughters to raise, Lynda and her husband moved into a lovely two storey mortgage in Burlington, a small city on the water just outside Toronto. While the girls are grown and gone, Lynda and her husband are still there. And yes, there is a cat – a beautiful, if spoiled, Birman.

When she’s not writing or teaching, Lynda gives serious thought to using the treadmill in her basement. Fortunately, she’s found that if she waits long enough, something urgent will pop up and save her - like a phone call or an e-mail or a whistling kettle. Or even that cat just looking for a little more attention!

Amazon Author Page:  http://www.amazon.com/Lynda-Simmons/e/B001KI3Z4O

http://www.lyndasimmons.com/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/958842.Lynda_Simmons

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lynda-Simmons-Author/149740745067442

https://twitter.com/LyndaMSimmons

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Fit-Lynda-Simmons-ebook/dp/B00P2OL0E4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1424018511&sr=8-2&keywords=lynda+simmons

The author is giving away a $50 Amazon/B&N gift certificate. Use the rafflecopter link to enter. You can find her schedule athttp://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/02/vbt-perfect-fit-by-lynda-simmons.html



a Rafflecopter giveaway