Kerrigan Byrne and Cynthia St. Aubin, Star-Crossed (Townsend Harbor Book 4)

Title: Star-Crossed (Townsend Harbor Book 4)

Author: Kerrigan Byrne and Cynthia St. Aubin

Rating: Five Siren Stones

 Genre: Contemporary Romance

Sub-Genre: Romcom

Keywords: Small Town, Lawyer, Arborist, Shop Owner, Second Chance, Opposites Attract

Page Count: 260             

Print Book ISBN: 978-1648395079

Price: $12.99

E-Book Page Count: 277

ISBN E-Book: Amazon Digital

Price: $4.99

Included in Kindle Unlimited as of 10-27-23

Publisher: Oliver Heber Books

Buy-Link: https://www.amazon.com/Star-Crossed-scorching-Second-chance-Opposites-attract-Representation-ebook/dp/B0C8C1S1M7/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1698433625&sr=8-1

Reviewer: Stacey Krug 

Blurb/Summary:

Everyone thinks LYRA MCKENDRICK is magic. She’s not, for the record, just a lawyer who predicted a few outcomes that were blown out of proportion in the robust Townsend Harbor rumor mill. After a messy breakup in which she lost her thriving practice, she’s returned to her hometown to lick her wounds and is persuaded by a local town cook to capitalize on her cringe-worthy reputation by running the local new-age shop. How hard could it be to sell chakra-cleansing crystals, libraries worth of tarot cards, crops of candles, and enough incense to choke out Willie Nelson’s entire entourage? When one of Townsend Harbor’s many ancient trees threatens her plumbing, she engages Cypress Forrester, aka “Cy the Tree Guy” to rid her of the problem. Instead, he seems intent on becoming one.

Cy’s family have been arborists and healers for generations, and they’re firm believers in the mysticism of trees, among other things. When she hires him to chop down an endangered tree to save her business, they find themselves on opposite ends of a battle neither of them is willing to lose. As a man tethered by indigenous roots to the earth, Cy immediately realizes Lyra is a woman who lives in her head, which often disassociates her from her heart, body, and intuition. It’s how she always finds “practical” explanations for the series of unexplained, serendipitous coincidences that keep thrusting them together. Alone. But Cy knows better, and he realizes that he must tempt her out of her thoughts and back into her body, and what better way to do that than by a thorough seduction?

Review:

The best part about the Townsend Harbor series is that the authors have characters that are down-to-earth. They are not perfect, and most have an invisible illness. However, they all get treated with kindness and understanding by the people surrounding them. This alone makes Townsend Harbor a special place and one that I want to visit again in the future.

Lyra and Cy have off the chart chemistry and an unsettled past. It was fun to watch them navigate through their own misgivings. Their misconceptions were keeping them stuck in roles they were trying to fit into. Together they made each other better and were able to thrive instead of just survive. The best relationships happen when partners want to see the other succeed. Cy and Lyra wanted the absolute best for each other.

It was and enjoyable story, and wonderful to see Cy and Lyra achieve their second chance at a HEA. For any series readers, we get to see all the main characters of the previous books play secondary roles in Star-Crossed. 

Maggie Montgomery, Screw Me Once

Title:  Screw Me Once

Author:  Maggie Montgomery

Rating:  Four Siren Stones

Genre:  Erotic Contemporary

Keywords:  Graphic Language, Second Chance

Length:  Short Novel       

ISBN E-Book:  978-1-61118-776-2

Price:  $5.99

Publisher:  Loose Id

Buy-Link:  http://www.loose-id.com/Screw-Me-Once.aspx

Reviewer:  Ashleigh


Tagline:  A Night of Passion years in the past, could just lead to the best laid plans when two lovers come back to each other in the most unconventional way.

Blurb/Summary:

It's been fifteen years since Belle gave her virginity to her first love, a boy she'd only known for a week and never saw again. Fifteen years of anger and hurt and secrets. Fifteen years of wanting to tell him exactly what she thinks of him. But now that she has a chance, it's harder than she imagined.

For one thing, her body doesn't much care what her heart fears or her mind thinks. It's ready to jump Brian McKenna's grown-up bones in a remarkable variety of ways and in shockingly risky locations. For another, the atmosphere at the romantic mountain resort proves just as irresistible as it was when she was nineteen.

Add in a seven-year-old goddaughter determined to push them together and a long-hidden secret that could destroy the tentative trust they've established. Can she reconcile her undeniable attraction with her heartbreak, and when everything comes out in the open, and Brian's youthful mistakes are explained, can she let go of the past for a chance at a beautiful future?

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual situations, graphic language, and material that some readers may find objectionable.

Review:

Bella not only gave her heart and virginity away to Brian fifteen years ago, she gave him a piece of herself that has left her hollow for so long.  The only thing that keeps her going is hating the man that didn’t return the love she had for him, or so she thought.  The only problem with her hatred is, it isn’t a great bed fellow and it sure isn’t keeping her too warm at night.  Will seeing Brian again after all this time give her the courage to give him a piece of her mind or will her traitorous heart fall for him all over again?

She is still as beautiful as he remembered, is the only thing that Brian can think when he sees Bella after fifteen years apart.  If only he could say that they had spent the last fifteen years together, but Brian’s pride and Bella’s ambition caused such a canyon that neither knew how to cross it.  Will the revelation of a long lost secret bring these two old lovers back together or will it tear apart the budding romance that could have been?

This was a wonderful story that really got me vested from the first pages.  Maggie Montgomery is a new to me author, and if this is the caliber of her normal work than she has found a new groupie reader.  The characters were real and the story line was so easy to follow that I hated to see it end with the last page.  I can’t wait to see what else Ms. Montgomery comes up with in the future!