The Suite Spot by Trish Doller – Review

Tags

5 stars, Book Review, cats, Contemporary Romance, romance, Trish Doller

Review of The Suite Spot

Upon being falsely accused of making a sexual advance toward the customer who groped her, Rachel is fired from her night concierge job in Ft. Lauderdale.  She finds a new job at a brewery hotel on Kelleys Island, Ohio.  After driving cross country with her daughter Maisie, Rachel meets owner Mason who informs her that the hotel does not yet exist.  But if she wants the job of building the hotel from the ground up, it is hers.

Unable to resist the opportunity, Rachel takes the job. She finds her boss sometimes gruff and moody, sometimes kind.  And Mason is always willing to talk about brewing.  I enjoyed reading about Rachel becoming a part of the small island community – making friends and making impressions, all while trying to get to know her boss.  While she is building her new life, Maisie’s father challenges Rachel, adding complications to the budding romance. 

Maisie is adorable.  She immediately charms Mason by agreeing that Woodstock beats Snoopy and informing him that their names are kind of alike.  But Mason is reluctant to get too close to Maisie because she stirs sad memories. 

Rachel’s new BFF, Avery, is also a great character.  As the island insider, she provides guidance and balance as well as introductions to the rest of the island characters.  There is a great cat who doesn’t like anybody, but immediately hits it off with Maisie. 

I liked that both Rachel and Mason are family-oriented.  Even though Rachel left her mom in Ft. Lauderdale, Mom continues to be a part of the story.  And Mason’s family are not to be left out.  His Japanese mother had a big influence on Mason’s life, taste and even on the beer he brews. 

The story of building a hotel from the ground up was fun.  Floorplans, antiques, art, and beer menus keep the reader interested in what could be a dull construction project.  As the hotel comes together, so too do Rachel and Mason.  Which was pretty predictable, but so much fun to read about!

This book is a charming, refreshing contemporary romance that made me want to visit Kelleys Island in Ohio.  The Suite Spot is the warmest thing I’ve read all winter. 

I won an early copy of this book from the publisher. My review is my honest opinion.

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About The Suite Spot by Trish Doller

Rachel Beck has hit a brick wall. She’s a single mom, still living at home and trying to keep a dying relationship alive. Aside from her daughter, the one bright light in Rachel’s life is her job as the night reservations manager at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach—until the night she is fired for something she didn’t do.

On impulse, Rachel inquires about a management position at a brewery hotel on an island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, Rachel packs up her daughter and makes the cross country move.

What she finds on Kelleys Island is Mason, a handsome, moody man who knows everything about brewing beer and nothing about running a hotel. Especially one that’s barely more than foundation and studs. It’s not the job Rachel was looking for, but Mason offers her a chance to help build a hotel—and rebuild her own life—from the ground up.

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Sisters of the Forsaken Stars (Our Lady of Endless Worlds, #2) by Lina Rather – Review

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5 stars, Book Review, Lina Rather, living ship, revolution, scifi, series

Review of Sisters of the Forsaken Stars

The setting for this series is a liveship carrying a group of nuns from world to world.  At each stop, the sisters are engaged to tend to spiritual rites, healing, and anything else a group of colonists far from Earth might need.  Each sister has her own reason for being there.  Some reasons are spiritual, some are more worldly. 

In Sisters of the Forsaken Stars, two new women join the ship, one as a supplicant and one seeking asylum.  Both withhold information, so you can guess where this is going.  The sisters travel to a university where they hope they can get aid to see them through the dilemma they find themselves in.  The dilemma: being hunted by the old Earth’s Central Governance because of what they did to save settlers on a remote world.

The sisters are on the edge of a revolution they unwittingly started.  Decisions about how much they should take part in the revolution face the sisters.  Maybe they should steer clear. 

At the same time, Gemma, who left the sisterhood and is now on another ship has become part of a fascinating discovery about liveships.  The events surrounding Gemma and the nuns are loosely connected. 

Sisters of the Forsaken Stars includes themes of faith, forgiveness, and family bonds.  The precipice of war and the desire for peace put the nuns in the middle of a seemingly impossible situation where any action they take could affect vast numbers of people.  You don’t have to read the first book – hints at what happened in Sisters of the Vast Black, give you a basis for what is going on.  But having the details will enhance the reading experience.  Both books are short novels, so I recommend you start at the beginning.  There is enough resolution for me to not brand it as a cliffhanger, but it seems likely that there will be a third book, considering where this story ends.

Through Netgalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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About Sisters of the Forsaken Stars by Lina Rather

“We lit the spark, maybe we should be here for the flames.”

Not long ago, Earth’s colonies and space stations threw off the yoke of planet Earth’s tyrannical rule. Decades later, trouble is brewing in the Four Systems, and Old Earth is flexing its power in a bid to regain control over its lost territories.

The Order of Saint Rita—whose mission is to provide aid and mercy to those in need—bore witness to and defied Central Governance’s atrocities on the remote planet Phyosonga III. The sisters have been running ever since, staying under the radar while still trying to honor their calling.

Despite the sisters’ secrecy, the story of their defiance is spreading like wildfire, spearheaded by a growing anti-Earth religious movement calling for revolution. Faced with staying silent or speaking up, the Order of Saint Rita must decide the role they will play—and what hand they will have—in reshaping the galaxy.

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I Believe in Dragons – 3

Tags

5 stars, Book Review, Coreene Callahan, dragons, fae, fantasy, G.A. Aiken, Genevieve Cogman, Isabel Cooper, magic, romance anthology', Savannah, Scotland, Stefan Keller

“5 Signs You’ve Pissed Off a Dragon-Shifter:

1. His eyes start to glow.
2. Twin columns of flame rise from his nostrils, much like mini tornados.
3. The air fogs as steam rolls off his scales.
4. His spiked tail begins to rattle, like a venomous snake’s right before it strikes.
5. He develops a facial tick that pulls the side of his lip up and bares one huge fang.”

― Coreene Callahan, DRAGONFURY SERIES: A Reader’s Companion to the Dragonfury World

Over the years, I’ve read a few of Coreene Callhan’s Dragonfury series and most lately, some of the Dragonfury: Scotland series.  These stories are different from the fantasy books reviewed the last two days because they are set in contemporary times, and actual earth locations.  Day 3 of I Believe in Dragons is a review of a book that releases on February 15. 

Bonuses: Quotes about dragons begin and end each post. Plus, featured art by Stefan Keller, via Pixabay.

Review of Fury of Isolation by Coreene Callahan

The dragons of the Dragonfury series are in-your-face, bad%&&, males that are often described with words such as toxic and lethal.   They all love to trade insults and are always looking for a fight against foe or friend.  Basically, they are dragons that would probably annoy me.  But then, they meet their mate. And….they get all gooey.  Which is kind of delightful.

At the beginning of Fury of Isolation, Rannock has already met Cate who is sister to Nicole (see Fury of Persuasion).  On the phone.  They’ve been talking regularly and have become quite close.  The book does not give the backstory on how they ‘met’, but that does not seem to be important to the story.  They’ve become close enough so that when Cate is in trouble, she calls him rather than the police.  And Rannock is an ocean away.   

I really like this heroine.  Cate has a delightful direct attitude.  Like when she says things like “Ran gives me orgasms.  I’m much nicer to him.”  And when she considers being called “odd” a compliment. 

This book introduces some new supernatural beings.  Fae Shadow Walkers are the ‘Albanian mob’ mentioned in the book blurb.  They are evil, but not really, dragon-like in temperament and make a great adversary in this story.  It seems like they could be part of the ongoing Dragonfury story. 

While Cate’s dad is sort of a background figure, it becomes obvious that there is much more to him than the story reveals.  More possible Dragonfury fodder?  And speaking of unfinished stories, at the beginning of the book, Rannock is hunting rogue dragons in Scotland – but that part of the story never progresses beyond his unsuccessful hunt.    

Readers of the Dragonfury series recognize the long story arcs that are present.  While you can read each book as a standalone, it can be a bit frustrating if you are a stickler for wrapping up loose ends. 

The verdict:  Fury of Isolation is what I call a palate cleanser.  Light and romantic, with just the right among of danger.  Great between heavier novels and always fun to read.

Thanks to the publisher who provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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About Fury of Isolation

Sometimes the person you need is the last one you expect…

When the Albanian mob shows up at her door, Cate Biscayne knows her father is up to his old tricks. Determined to force him out of hiding, the criminals he conned take her hostage. The clock is ticking and few options remain. She’s forced to decide—risk her life and do what they want, or accept help from a man who might be even more dangerous.

Brutal by nature, Scottish dragon-warrior Rannock has little patience for humans. But when the woman he longs for goes missing, he flies halfway around the world to investigate her disappearance. With few clues to follow, he infiltrates a network in the criminal underworld, only to discover a magic more sinister than his own.

Can he find Cate before time runs out? Or will he lose the woman fated to be his forever?

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In three days, I’ve barely scratched the surface of dragon fiction available.  There are authors like G.A. Aiken who writes the laugh-out-loud Dragonkin series and Isabel Cooper, who’s centuries old dragons actually seem to be centuries old.  Genevieve Cogman’s Invisible Library series features the serious and orderly Dragon race who are balanced by the chaotic Fae.  Movies like How to Train Your Dragon, Dragonheart, and Eragon bring dragons to readers and non-readers.  Do you have a favorite dragon book or movie?  I’d love to hear about it in the comments. 

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“He had only heard of dragons, and although he had never seen one, he was sure they existed.”

― Dee Marie, Sons of Avalon: Merlin’s Prophecy