Summer of Love

A deeply engrossing, fully realized family saga about three independent women and how personal choices affect their lives. 

Feminist themes embody the soul of Kerri Maher’s novels. She’s fictionally explored the historical lives of fiercely independent public women like Kick Kennedy (The Kennedy Debutante) and Grace Kelly (The Girl in White Gloves). She’s also told the story of a humble woman who changed the world and the literary community of the 1920s in The Paris Bookseller. And in All You Have to Do is Call, she evoked the 1970s, extoling the power of female support systems. 

In Maher’s fifth novel, Summer of Love, she braids together two eras, 1967 and 2015, depicting how the past informs the present for three women of the Hartley family. 

Ambitious and inventive Miranda Hartley, the “first woman vintner” of Napa Valley, is inspired and challenged by overseeing the family-run winery. Miranda grew up with her free-spirited sister, Winnie, a poet, who bailed on the family business and took off to San Francisco in the 1960s. When Miranda’s now adult daughter, Dawn, a freelance set designer--and a closeted alcoholic grappling with sobriety and finding her place in the world--exhumes a family secret, the delicate balance of life comes undone and questions long buried about the sisters must get answered. 

Maher is an evocative storyteller whose literary prowess is on full display. Summer of Love delivers an impactful, surprising story about the bonds shared between sisters, mothers and daughters, and friends—and how hard it is to hold on to those we love and also learn to let go. 

Summer of Love by Kerri Maher

Berkley (Penguin Random House), $30.00 hardcover, 9780593816394, 368 pages

Publishing Date: July 7, 2026

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

Learn more about Kerri Maher HERE

Pony Confidential

In this madcap, comic mystery, an old pony sets out to find and exact revenge on his former owner, a woman extradited for a 25-year-old murder.

Christina Lynch departs from historical fiction themed on love and espionage (Sally Brady’s Italian Adventure, The Italian Party) and trots out an inventively clever comic mystery, Pony Confidential. 

 

A dual storyline threads the narrative that starts when Californian, Penny Marcus, an unassuming third-grade teacher, is arrested. Penny is charged for a murder committed 25-years before, when she was 12-years-old and living in New York. Stunned, Penny is considered a “wanted fugitive.” She’s separated from her estranged husband and mentally ill daughter and extradited to her old hometown.

 

Decades before, Penny’s sensitive, loyal riding pony--who accompanied her on the day of the murder--incurred a “primal wound” when he was sold. Cast adrift from home to home, the willful, mindful pony suffered from simmering resentment: “You make us believe we’re beloved family members (I’m looking at you, Penny!) and then you put a dollar sign on our heads and send us off with anyone who coughs up the cash.” Now aging, cynical, and fed up with his lot in life, the jaded pony escapes his current owner. He sets off on a cross-country adventure, enlisting the help of other whimsical, talking animals to find and exact revenge on Penny. En route, however, new details emerge into the cold case that put Penny behind bars.

 

Lynch wrangles up a searingly fun, imaginative story that shines with plausible, madcap plotting and keen, edgy observations about the nature of people and animal welfare.

Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch 

Berkley, $28.00 hardcover, 9780593640364, 384 pages

Publication Date: November 5, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (November 29, 2024), link HERE 

Pickleballers

A flirtatious romcom about a jilted divorcée, a craft artist, who takes up the sport of Pickleball enroute to carving out a brand-new life. 

A craft artist recovering from an abruptly severed marriage takes consolation via the sport of Pickleball in the competitively spirited romcom, Pickleballers, an amusing first novel by Ilana Long.

 

Meg Bloomberg--a 30something Seattle, Wash. native--is struggling after her dentist husband of two years walked out on her. Unmoored, Meg is emotionally cast adrift. But when her bestie from college encourages Meg to take up pickleball as a “mental distraction from her loneliness,” Meg soon finds meaning and purpose for her life again.

 

Meg crosses paths with a diversity of players—each with personal problems of his/her own. But as she sets out to competitively master the game, Meg learns her local pickleball courts are facing closure—environmentalists are intent to restore the area to a nature preserve. This sends Meg to practice with her partner on nearby Bainbridge Island. Via the 35-minute ferry crossing from Seattle, Meg is drawn to a charming stranger with “dreamy eyes” whom, she learns, also plays pickleball. As the two strike up a romance, Meg discovers that her new beau is the very conservationist intent on closing her local Seattle courts. This sets up a host of complications for Meg--both on and off the court.

 

Pickleball history and lore--as well as nuances about the game--flesh out this amusing, flirty romcom. Long serves up witty volleys of banter and clever plot twists that play out with winning aplomb.

 

Pickleballers by Ilana Long

Berkley, $19.00 paperback, 9780593642238, 368 pages

Publication Date: November 12, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (November 15, 2024), link HERE 

Effie Olsen's Summer Special

A fun, delicious romcom about a down-on-her-luck chef who returns to her small Maine hometown and rekindles a relationship with an old friend. 

Second-chance romance, culinary culture, and a beautiful seaside setting sweetly combine in Effie Olsen’s Summer Special, a deliciously appetizing romcom by Rochelle Bilow (Ruby Spencer’s Whiskey Year).

 

Broke and without a backup plan, Effie Olsen--a single, 33-year-old, professional chef--loses her “dream job” in San Francisco. She packs up her “knife bag and a few chef’s coats” and returns, after 16-years, to her “absurdly small, insufferably chatty” hometown of Adler Isle, Maine. Effie takes refuge under the pretext of a summer visit with her father and her younger sister, a “Generation Z financial prodigy.”

 

Effie’s return reunites her with Ernie Callahan, her still-single, former high school BFF. Ernie works as a chef at “Brown Butter,” a “farm to table… Michelin-starred restaurant” operated by a sexist male head chef who offers Effie a job. With Effie and Ernie working under the same roof, the two easily fall into favor and rekindle a “bucket list” of planned field trips of watching sunsets, indulging in giant lobster rolls, and even salsa dancing.  Along the way of their making fun, new memories, a situation arises at the restaurant that calls professional integrity into question—might the dilemma impinge upon the old friends turning into lovers?

 

Bilow’s insider knowledge of the restaurant industry is a key ingredient that adds depth and authenticity to this spicy, richly satisfying story that blends the pleasures of true love with elements of self-discovery.

 

Effie Olsen’s Summer Special by Rochelle Bilow

Berkley, 18.00 paperback, 9780593547908, 384 pages

Publication Date: April 30, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (May 2, 2024), link HERE 

The Dead Romantics

A refreshingly fun, energetic novel about a romantically disillusioned, blocked romance writer whose beliefs about love are transformed by a handsome ghost.

Ashley Poston’s fun, lighthearted novels for young adults offer a blend of magical realism infused with wit and romance. Geekerella is a clever send-up about what happens when a nerdy Cinderella-type attends a Sci-fi convention. In Heart of Iron, a princess in outer-space must find her way back home with the help of lovable misfits.

 

The Dead Romantics, Poston’s first book for adults, a romantic comedy, centers on Florence Minerva Day, a smart, snarky millennial who is nursing a broken heart and suffering from writer’s block. Florence is emotionally on the skids. Having published a romance novel that received a less-than-stellar reception, downtrodden Florence became an assistant-turned-ghostwriter for Ann Nichols, one of “romance’s greats”—a well-established, popular author who hasn’t left her home in Maine for the five years that Florence has been the secret source behind her writing success. In the midst of her depression, Florence is floundering, too turned off by love to write about it and meet a looming deadline--already extended three times--to finish and deliver Nichols’s next book to the new editor at her publishing house, Benji Andor. The handsome hottie is cold and no nonsense. He totally unnerves Florence by threatening legal action if the new Nichols book isn’t turned in asap.

 

Amidst Florence’s intent to finish the manuscript, she runs into her ex, also a writer, a man who stole the story of Florence’s own life—personal secrets she shared with him about her family and their funeral home business and how Florence interacts with ghosts--and turned her story into a book that sold at auction for a million dollars. Weary after seeing her successful, user-ex again and faced with the impending writing deadline, Florence’s life further tailspins when she is summoned from her home in Hoboken, N.J., back to Mairmont, South Carolina to deal with the devastating sudden death of a family member. Being back in a place she longed to escape suddenly resurrects the past and elicits the presence of a handsome ghost who wrenches Florence from her rut and upends her beliefs about love.

 

Romance, chaos and ratcheting complications are central components to Poston’s refreshingly fun, spunky romcoms—and The Dead Romantics is no exception. The beauty and charm of Poston’s storytelling continues to make miraculous happy endings out of the messes from which ordinary people often find themselves embroiled.

 

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Berkley (Penguin Books), $16.00 paperback, 368 pages, 9780593336489

Publication Date: June 28, 2022

To order this book on INDIEBOUND link HERE

 

NOTE: To read this review as published on Shelf Awareness for the Book Trade (May 3, 2022 ), link HERE

 

NOTE: To read a condensed version of this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (July 1, 2022), link HERE

Sadie on a Plate

A deliciously appealing romcom about a jilted Seattle-based chef who competes in a high-stakes reality TV cooking show competition.

Readers who hunger and thirst for juicy cooking show competitions will eagerly lap up every last drop of Amanda Elliot’s delicious romcom Sadie on a Plate.

Sadie Brooks Rosen--a saucy, 27-year-old, Seattle-based chef--has her up-and-coming career dismantled by her jealous boss and beau when local media highlights her menu dishes instead of his in a feature about his restaurant. Suddenly unemployed, with her confidence shaken, Sadie is selected to compete on Chef Supreme, a high-stakes reality TV show where chefs face-off to win big money and national recognition. 

On a plane bound for NYC, where the show is set, Sadie meets handsome and charming, New York-based Luke Weston. Instant chemistry bonds the two as they share passions for food and cooking. Sadie is lured by upscale presentations of Jewish foods; Luke leans toward Korean influences. When they get to New York, they have dinner together and soon part ways. Until the next day, when they learn they are both affiliated with Chef Supreme: Sadie’s a contestant; Luke, a fill-in judge. Keeping their attraction secret, Sadie competes among talented chefs with distinct personalities, quirks and modi operandi. Can she regain her confidence and rise to the top of the cut-throat pack? 

Under the name Amanda Panitch, Elliot writes thrillers and character-driven novels for young adults and middle-grade readers. In Sadie on a Plate, her first adult romcom, detailed food descriptions, recipes and kitchen culture--along with a diverse cast--spice up a well-plotted story warmed with romance, humor and heart.

 

Sadie on a Plate by Amanda Elliot

Berkley, $18.99 paperback, 9780593335710, 352 pages

Publication Date: March 15, 2022

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE 

It Started With a Dog

In the second installment of a cheerful romcom series, love percolates amidst the competition of two Austin, Texas coffee shops.

Julia London’s second installment of her cheerful romcom series is set in Austin, Tx., during the Christmas season. She cleverly brings together two 30something dog lovers with personalities and agendas as different as caffeinated versus decaffeinated coffee.

 

Aeronautical Engineer, Jonah Rogers, leaves his job to help out at the ‘Lucky Star,’ a charmingly humble--however lagging--coffee shop run by his parents, his aunt and uncle. With his father ill, Jonah--reliable and devoted, sacrificing and loyal--steps in to assist the long-standing family business that offers no frills, old-school coffee and desserts. Matters are complicated when he accidentally swaps his phone with Chicagoan, Harper Thompson, in town to launch ‘Deja Brew’—a trendy, two-story coffee house accented with gleaming chrome coffee makers, which serves upscale coffee and vegan food choices. The driven, only-child overachiever is up for a promotion riding on the success of ‘Deja Brew.’ However, can she contend with ‘Lucky Star,’ a local fixture in town, and a ‘Starbucks’ situated in the very same neighborhood?

 

Along the way, Jonah and Harper and their swapped phones lead them to romance as they discover they are business rivals. The ante is upped when a local dog competition, “King Mutt,” pits the couple--the lovable three-legged Dachshund mascot of ‘Lucky Star’ versus Harper’s mean old bulldog--against each other, as well.

 

A perfect blend of coffee, dogs and romance permeates London’s (You Lucky Dog, Charmer in Chaps) frothy romcom that will leave readers thirsty for a third helping in this sweet, enjoyable series.

 

It Started with a Dog (Book 2: Lucky Dog series) by Julia London

Berkley (Penguin Books), $16.00 paperback, 9780593100400, 320 pages

Publication Date: September 28, 2021

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (October 2, 2021), link HERE

You Lucky Dog

 

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A fun love story where the mistaken identities of two very different basset hounds unite their even more different owners.

Julia London (Charmer in Chaps) has written more than 30 romance novels in various subgenres. In You Lucky Dog, she tackles her very first romantic comedy and packs it with fun, over-the-top complications. The story begins when a professional dog walker in Austin, Tex.--who is also a covert pot-dealer while on the job--mistakenly sells to an undercover cop. When he gets busted, the dog walker enlists a friend to return each dog to their rightful digs--accidentally mixing up two lovable basset hounds who couldn't be more different in personality and temperament.

Hazel--a friendly, skinny female who likes macaroni and cheese and basks on furniture--belongs to Dr. Tobias Maxwell Sheffington III. Max, in his early 30s, is a bookish professor of neuroscience, working toward tenure at the University of Texas. He's devoted to his widowed father, who cares for his brother, a talented visual artist plagued with limitations from Autism Spectrum Disorder. The other hound, Baxter, an overweight male, belongs to driven 20-something Carly Kennedy, who reluctantly inherits the rescued dog from her sister. Carly--exasperated by her divorced parents and struggling to launch her own PR firm after a layoff--toes a strict disciplinary line with the skittish, sullen Baxter. Setting right the mixed-up hounds brings Max and Carly together in a crafty, opposites-attract love story.

 

London's first novel in the projected Lucky Dog series is comedic and fast paced. It is filled with an offbeat cast, zany coincidences and romantic moments and mishaps that will leave readers giggling in amusement. 

You Lucky Dog by Julia London

Berkley, $16.00 Paperback, 9780593100387, 328 pages

Publication Date: August 25, 2020

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (August 28, 2020), link HERE

Not Like the Movies

 

A colorful, upbeat romance about an overburdened, overly self-reliant 30-year-old who gets swept up in unexpected passions. 

Kerry Winfrey's quick-witted romantic comedy focuses on almost-30-year-old Chloe Sanderson, an overburdened bisexual whose life is in chaos. The Columbus, Ohio, native has a long-absent mother and a father with early-onset Alzheimer's who resides at an assisted living facility. Chloe's twin--her ne'er-do-well, charming, gay brother, Milo--ditched the family to pursue his own whims, leaving Chloe to bear all the responsibility for Dad.

 

Tending to her father, trying to finish up her degree and working at a coffee shop--while cultivating her penchant for baking pies--Chloe is also planning a wedding for her best friend, Annie, who scripted a rom-com loosely based on Chloe and Nick Velez, the handsome owner of the shop where Chloe works. With a trailer for the film released, media and townsfolk start nosing around the café, eager to draw parallels between Chloe and Nick, sizing up their fictionalized romance. The attention, coupled with a host of snags, including Milo's unexpected return to town, draws Chloe closer to the kind, supportive Nick. Is his attention what self-reliant Chloe has been secretly hungering for? Is she willing to surrender her conflicted heart?

 

Winfrey uncovers layers of her characters' lives and longings, burdens and passions. The cast was first introduced in her novel Waiting for Tom Hanks, but readers don't need to be familiar with that book to appreciate this one. Those who enjoy fast-paced, sparring banter will find much to savor in this sexy story where love may--or may not--conquer all.

Not Like the Movies: A Novel by Kerry Winfrey

Berkley, $16.00 Paperback, 9781984804044, 320 pages

Publication Date: July 7, 2020

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (July 7, 2020), link HERE