Claudia Y. Burgoa

Great way to start your holiday reading. The story of Audrey going to a quaint little town to purchase a B&B for her mean, nasty boss doesn’t go as expected. She gets in a car accident with Colin who is absolutely gorgeous. Colin is the perfect dad to his daughter Perry and the whole Bradford family is what Audey ever wanted. Audrey is unable to buy the B&B and while in the town of Winter Valley falls in love with the town, all its residents, and Colin and Perry. But she’s not sure it’s real and isn’t ready for Colin to tell her he loves her. A good-feeling romantic read.… (mer)

This was a very difficult read for me since my daughter (age 33) has several mental health issues and they don’t go away. I saw so much of her in this book. I wonder if the author has first-hand experience with it. I did enjoy the book and thought the characters were all well written. Describing each of them and what makes them the way they are was interesting. The story is about a women, Willow, trying to go on with life when she has a lot of baggage with her, and then meets Hunter, who also battles with mental issues after the death of his parents during 9/11. Mental issues are a big part of society that needs fixing. There is not a lot of places where people can go and learn how to cope with their issues. This book would be so good for everyone to read and see what people go through every day when they have a mental illness. Every day is a different day and sometimes, every day may be a day that they may not want to go on. The Semi Colon Project for mental issues has a phrase that my daughter has tattooed on her. The phrase is……My life isn’t over yet;
The purpose of the ; in the phase it because you still can go on. When the author puts a semi-colon in a sentence it’s a pause, there may be more to be said.
My only issue with the book was the “F” word. It really didn’t need to be there.… (mer)

I am caught here on how to review this.

I really wanted to like this book. It had been on my watch list for what felt like forever. However, I struggled. I felt lost for the first half of the book. I had to stop a couple of times because It felt like it was part of a series. There were characters that I felt like I should have already known in the story. Even with there presence, I was confused as to how any of it tied into the blurb of the story. Quite a few times I struggled to even keep reading, which is hard for me to say considering I really liked the premise of the story and the potential it had. Yet, that is also what hurt it in the long wrong as I didn't connect with the story, the characters, and the fact that it didn't live up to the potential that the blurb had.

Even liking this author, and appreciating all of her hard work and devotion to her craft, this book was almost a DNF for me. I am being generous with the three stars as again it was almost a DNF. I am not trying to disparage her hard work by any means. This is just my opinion. I am still a huge fan of this author and will gladly look for more of her work in the future. That being said, even though this book didn't click for me, it will appeal to others. That is the beauty of books.… (mer)