REVIEW: A Timeless Christmas by Alexis Stanton

 Title: A Timeless Christmas
 Author: Alexis Stanton
 Publisher: Hallmark Publishing
 Publication Date: October 2018
 Genre: Time Travel Romance / Christmas Holiday
 Buy the Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

 Description: They’re from two different   centuries, but they’re perfect for each other.

 Megan Turner is in love with the past. As a tour guide at a beautiful historic mansion, she tells visitors about its original owner, Charles Whitley. An inventor and businessman in the early 1900s, he rose from poverty to wealth…only to disappear without a trace.

Charles was always intrigued by the future. He just never expected to go there. But when he repairs a mysterious clock he bought on his travels, he’s transported to the twenty-first century, with his home decorated for Christmas and overrun by strangers.

Charles is determined to find a way back to his own era, especially when he learns about what happened after he left. But as Megan introduces him to the wonders of smartphones, pizza, and modern holiday traditions, they both feel a once-in-a-lifetime connection. Could it be that, somewhere in time, they belong together?

My Thoughts: A sweet story about a man who travels from 1902 to the present day to discover his home has been decorated for Christmas and turned into a museum with strangers walking about. Charles Whitley was a man ahead of his time in 1902. A wealthy and successful businessman and inventor, he made his mark on the world in 1902, lives in a beautiful mansion he designed and has a fiancée that he keeps at arm’s length. Upon returning from a trip to Paris, he begins working on a clock and in the blink of an eye is transported to the 21st century.

He meets the staff that run the museum that used to be his home and despite the amazing changes he has seen and the attraction he feels for Megan Turner, the historian who reenacts the role of his housekeeper, Rosie, he is determined to return to his own time to live the life he was meant to have before he disappeared.

Megan loves her job at the museum and loves history. Her dream is to teach history at the university. The last person she ever expects is to meet the real Charles Whitley in his study, newly arrived from 1902 and quite annoyed at the intrusion of strangers in his home.

This story was a very quick read. Charles adapts exceedingly well to his surroundings but when he learns what has transpired since he left his time, he is determined to go back. Megan and the rest of the staff at the museum easily suspend disbelief and accept Charles assertions that he is THE Charles Whitley. In the present day, he learns to let his hair down a little bit and enjoy the festivities of the holiday. I had a little bit of an issue how Megan bought him a cell phone, food and personal care items and loaned him a bunch of her brother’s clothes without really knowing him, but since it’s Christmas and she’s moved by the spirit of giving, I can accept it. Charles is a true gentleman throughout the story and though their attraction to one another is plain to see by everyone around them, they never get past the hugging stage.

I really enjoyed this story and thought Charles and Megan were fantastic characters, well written and easy to relate to. I recommend this book to readers who love time travel and Christmas themes but also readers who are looking for something sweet to add to the flavor of the holiday.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of A Timeless Christmas from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: A Better Man by Leah McLaren

  

  Title: A Better Man
  Author: Leah McLaren
  Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
  Publication Date: July 2015
  Genre: Women’s Fiction
  Buy the Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

  Description: Every couple has a wish list.

  Maya wants
  Nick to come home earlier
  To engage with their children
  To engage with her

Nick wants . . .
A divorce

Having decided that their marriage is over, Nick is determined to leave quickly and with dignity. But when he looks into the financial realities of splitting up, he realizes that more of his hard-earned income than he can handle will go to Maya. Then a mutual friend proposes that Nick improve the marriage in order to end it amicably, because the better father and husband he is, the more self-sufficient Maya becomes and the cheaper his pay-out will be at the end.

But as Nick sets out to be a better man, he starts to feel like one. Time with his kids, dinners with his wife, fewer hours in the office has the strange effect of making him happier. As Maya starts to feel appreciated by her husband again, she starts to blossom, to unclench her fists from the parenting reins and start to do things for herself.

Nick and Maya feel like they are falling back in love. How odd, how funny, how serendipitous. But if Maya knew what had promoted this marital metamorphosis? Then it would be war.

A BETTER MAN is the story of a modern marriage on the rocks, how we constantly change in and out of relationships, and the price of love.

My Thoughts: Of all the species on the planet, humans have been given the amazing ability to think and feel, not just behave on instinct. We have the ability to feel empathy and compassion, make decisions based on logic, facts and evidence. Humans also have the ability to resolve conflict. Unlike the animals we share this planet with, humans can also demonstrate selfishness, greed, corruption and hate, just to name a few.

Nick and Maya Wakefield are that couple that appear to have it all. Amazing careers, beautiful twins, secure, cushy lifestyle. Somewhere along the way, she and Nick have lost the spark that brought them together in the first place. Maya gave up her career in law to be a stay at home mother and is consumed with over-protectiveness, bordering on obsession. I got the impression that Nick is a bystander in his home, not quite participating, just observing. Nick decides he wants out and after he talks to his best friend, Gray who is a divorce attorney, Nick is given the news that divorce will cost him more than he is willing to give up. Gray suggests to him that he should improve his marriage, become a better husband and father before splitting up so that the settlement will weigh more in his favor.

This whole premise knocked me back a little bit. Become a better husband and father, improve your marriage BEFORE YOU END IT? Wait, what? Isn’t the point of improving your marriage is so you don’t end it? This philosophy, though seriously messed up, was quite intriguing to me and what drew me into this story. Nick takes Gray’s advice to heart and actively sets out to be a better husband and father. Devoting more time to the family, spending time at home, picking up the slack and taking a more active role in the relationship. Nick is thoroughly shocked and amazed that he actually begins to FEEL like a better man. Maya notices it too and though she is confused and suspicious in the beginning at the practically overnight change she is seeing in her husband, she quickly embraces and accepts it and begins to relax more and be less obsessed about maintaining control over the household and everyone in it.

Though I thought it was shady of Nick to speak to Gray behind Maya’s back and thought it exceedingly underhanded of him to change on the surface so it would benefit him, I sensed that he really did change. I hoped he would come clean to Maya about not only why he changed his behavior on the outside, but how it also changed him on the inside. Just when I thought these two had struck the mother lode with the fix to all relationship problems, the proverbial cat is let out of the bag. Saying Maya doesn’t react well to the news is an understatement of epic proportion. She quickly moves out of their home with the children and starts divorce proceedings. She is completely unwilling to speak to Nick at all, which I totally understood, but it still frustrated me.

I liked both of these characters and wanted to see them succeed in their marriage. I didn’t agree with Nick’s tactics and I didn’t agree with Maya’s “take no prisoners” reaction but I could relate to both of them and where they were coming from. I couldn’t help but think if they had applied this kind of drive into making their marriage a priority in the first place, they wouldn’t be in this mess. As the most advanced and evolved species on the planet, humans sure know how to muck it up and do it well. I enjoyed this author’s voice and writing style. The story moves at a nice pace with enough detail to keep the reader engaged.

My Final Verdict: An all too realistic story-line for the times we live in but underneath the few top layers of two people all too ready to throw in the towel are two people who learn that sometimes pride needs to be chucked out the window and fighting for love is worth it. I recommend this story to anyone who has been in a relationship, which is most, if not all of us. We’ve all been there, at that cross-roads, when we have had to decide whether to throw in the towel or give it another shot.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of A Better Man from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: Danger in Plain Sight By Burt Weissbourd

  Title: Danger in Plain Sight (Callie James Thrillers #1)
  Author: Burt Weissbourd
  Publisher: Blue City Press
  Publication Date: September 2020
  Genre: Mystery / Thriller
  Buy the Book: Amazon | B&N | Audible

  Description: It took fourteen years to construct a safe world for her and her son--      and only one night for her ex to unravel it.

  Celebrated Seattle restaurateur Callie James is more than a little thrown when her ex-husband, French investigative reporter Daniel Odile-Grand, shows up after fourteen years asking for her help. Even more disturbing: as she throws him out, Daniel is deliberately hit by a car, hurled through the front window of her restaurant--broken, bloody and unconscious. He flees from the hospital and breaks into Callie's apartment, where he passes out. Reluctantly, Callie hides him. When she gets back to her restaurant, two assassins walk in, insisting that she find Daniel for them by tonight or pay the consequences.

Overwhelmed and hopelessly out of her depth, Callie hires the only man she knows who can help her: Cash Logan, her former bartender, a man she had arrested for smuggling ivory through her restaurant two years earlier, and who still hasn't forgiven her.

The assassins blow up her restaurant. It's Callie's nightmare. And the worst is yet to come as she and her unlikely, incompatible ally discover that the most perilous dangers are far closer to home than they'd imagined.

My Thoughts: The story started out really slow for me and there were a lot of characters to meet and get to know before anything of noteworthy importance happens. Callie James has rebuilt her life with her son after her marriage to a French philandering journalist ends with her pregnant and her husband not wanting anything to do with the child. Fast forward fourteen years and Callie has found success in Seattle with her restaurant and raising her son. Her life is moving forward as she wants it until the day her ex-husband comes into her restaurant asking for her help. She throws him out and after he is deliberately run down in front of her, Callie agrees to hide him. Getting to this point seemed to take a long time, but the story quickly takes off from here. She is confronted by some hired thugs looking for Daniel who threaten her and that’s just the beginning. Callie decides to seek the help of Cash, a former employee she turned in to the authorities for smuggling a few years prior. She knows he has connections and will know what to do.

I was really surprised Cash agreed to anything, especially helping Callie. He is pretty bitter and appears to carry a grudge. He demands an exorbitant amount of money and the deed to her restaurant in exchange for his help and, of course, Callie agrees. I really liked Cash and his associates, Doc and Andre. On the surface, they appear to be laid back without a care in the world but are really seasoned mercenaries who take their assignment of protecting Callie and her son seriously.

Things go from bad to worse when her restaurant gets blown up and it seems there is no where she can go and be safe. I understood why she was helping Daniel, but I really resented this character through most of the book. He cheats on her, flushes their marriage down the toilet and tells her she has no right to have a child he doesn’t want, but has the unmitigated gall to show up expecting her to help him because his latest investigative story has gotten the attention of some very bad people who are not going to sit back and allow themselves to be exposed by Daniel. Sucks to be you, Daniel. Luckily for him, Callie has a bigger heart and believes it’s important for her son to know his father.

My Final Verdict: I ended up enjoying this story, though the romance between Callie and Cash seemed ill-timed and out of place in this story. I feel that plot device would have better introduced in the second or third book. With their previous history, I had a hard time accepting their feelings were legitimate. I am curious to see where this series goes next and fans of the thriller genre will find this an enjoyable read.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Danger in Plain Sight from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.