The Edelweis Sisters by Kate Hewitt follows the story of the three Eder girls, Johanna, Birgit, and Lotte. Each one very differnt in their own ways, they’ve lived a relatively peacful and normal life until World War II approaches their doorstep. The invasion of Austria is swift and mostly non-violent, and suddenly life is drastically different.

Lotte – the youngest believes she will find peach at the convent through a vocation. Birgit finds herself falling for a soldier, and Johanna falls in love with her father’s apprentice, a Jewish man. The story of each sister wraps its way around the others – showing how connected the three are even when physical distance separates them. Each story is uplifting and heartbreaking its own way, and none of them end quite the way I expected.

The Edelweis sisters really highlighted how the lives of everyday people were altered by the war – and not everyone made it out alive, healthy, or able to return to life as it was before. Work camps, interrogations, worrying about those you care for the most, and trying to find a way to do what you think is right all take a toll on the girls, and the toll was a real one.

Kate Hewitt did not shy away from the horrors of the Nazi regime, but she did find the very delicate balance between showing what happened and being too graphic for many readers. So many very heavy topics were addressed beautifully and in a manner that really showcased how life during war might have been.

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Stalling for Time by Christy Hayes follows the high school couple into college. Emily and Zach seem like the perfect couple – the college football star and his supportive girlfriend. But not everything is good with them. It’s a very one-sided relationship, and I could tell from the get-go that things weren’t OK.

This story really shows why it is so important to be honest – not just in your romantic relationships, but in your friendships. Once Emily finds the ring and jumps to the wrong conclusion, it’s a series of misunderstandings and miscommunication for the rest of the story. At times it was a little humorous – especially the roommates and the part they played in getting the right people together. But after a little while, the confusion just got old and I really wanted everyone to just have a nice sit-down and sort it all out.

Emily’s plot (and the fact that her roommates seem to go along with it) seemed a little too juveline for a college student. And a little too cruel for a best friend. I feel like everyone mostly redeemed themselves by the end of the story, but it was touch and go there for a while.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**

Kate’s two great-aunts, Florrie and Edith, are really the stars of this book. Watching them grow up through Kate’s eyes as she reads through a diary offers an interesting view into their lives. Kate is only going through the diary because her life is in a bit of turmoil as well, but her story really takes a back seat to the past.

Florrie and Edith’s family actually does quite well in the war compared to those around them. They have set up a garden and are raising rabbits. But the boy Edith loves has gone to war and they may never see him again. As the years go by, the worry and unknown eat at Edith, and she begins to act very oddly.

Florrie, on the other hand, is quickly thrust into the role of caretaker. Even though she is the younger sister, she seems to be the only one holding the family together at times. The relationship between Florrie and Edith is the central point of the story. The sisterly disputes never outshine the love and devotion they feel for each other.

Meanwhile, Kate is navigating her relationship and career crisis in the present. The way her life changed and she came to appreciate the little things as she learned more about the past was quite sweet. I don’t really understand why her brothers and their families were such a prominent piece of her narrative. I feel like they mainly served to distract from her storyline and make her seem like an incredible person by giving me some awful people to compare her to. The book could have done without them.

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South Beach Love is a sweet romance that can really pull on your heartstrings. It’s a return to home and a culinary adventure into the unfamiliar. Tony and Sara are a fun couple, and their trip to a relationship isn’t all sunshine. It includes plenty of thunderstorms as well. They have intense personalities – especially when it comes to cooking.

The two nieces really help make the story a success. Both are sweet girls, but they have a fierce rivalry. These two girls were really the glue of the story, bringing Sara and Tony together and maybe playing a little matchmaker behind the scenes. My only complaint here is that there weren’t differentiated enough – I never knew which was which.

I loved seeing the culture and cuisine of Cuba. It was such a large part of the story and was a driving force behind the cooking and much of the competition between the chefs and the nieces. The families played a big part in the culture, and everything came together so nicely to build an amazing picture.

The ending was sweet and believable – it seemed like everything turned out just the way it was supposed to.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**

ed to see them in their own book.

Denise has lost a lot to the paranormal world. And as much as she would like to like to leave it in the past, it isn’t quite done with her yet. But this time it isn’t vampires and ghouls, but a demon out for revenge. While I applaud her for reaching out for help to a group she had hoped to leave behind, I never quite understood why she didn’t want to Cat know what was going on.

When Spade shows up to help her, he quickly tries to take control of the situation to try and save the day – and Denise mostly lets him. She has a few ground rules, but they really don’t last for very long. Especially when they turn to the vampire underworld to help track the demon down.

While at times Denise seemed a little “maiden in distress,” I can’t really imagine most people acting differently when a demon is out to eat you. Through the book, we learn more of how vampire society (especially the less up and up portion of it) works and I really enjoyed how Jeaniene Frost built the lore behind the demon. You will not want to put this book down – the story moves steadily with a fantastic balance between action and exhaustion.

Bite My Sass is a fun and quick shifter romance that I breezed through and really enjoyed. I loved the play on Romeo and Juliet, there were just enough elements of the play to make it memorable, but it didn't follow the actual storyline of the original at all. Just a few hints and really great fortune teller.

Juliet's camping trip starts off great, but it takes a surprising turn when she finds out there's a Scenting Ceremony nearby and one of her friends runs into a wolf on the prowl. But Juliet isn't interested in what the wolf might be offering, and when the pack starts to draw her friends into their midst, she quickly goes on the defensive.

While this was a quick and easy romance, it was a lot of fun. A great afternoon, one-sitting read, that didn't feel rushed at all.

I fell in love with the shifter lore in Ashes to Earth. Pulling from many different cultures, Sarah Ashwood was able to show the mythical creatures from around the world in one place. Many of the main shifter characters seem to be based on Greek myths, so fans of Greek mythology may really enjoy this fresh take on the classic mythological characters.

Ellie, the human, is wonderful. She’s very well-balanced and when the fluff hits the fan, she freaks out – as any good human girl would do when a minotaur shows up in front of them. But she also reacts quickly. She isn’t a damsel in distress by any means, but she does realize her own limitation when it comes to standing up against these shifters. It was quite refreshing to have such a down-to-earth character be the heroine of an urban fantasy story.

I’m still trying to figure out Carter. he’s hard and stubborn, but I saw glimpses of something much more, but I’m not sure what that “more” is yet. He has a very dry and sarcastic sense of humor, which I loved, but not everyone in the story did. I feel like he may have been a little flat with a lot of her deeper self being described from his past instead of showing up in his actions in the present.

Carter’s job throughout the book is the protect Ellie from the other team’s shifters. And both sides get pretty creative in their attacks and defenses, which just freaks Ellie out even more. The reason for the war between the two sides comes out slowly, and we discover more about it as Ellie finds herself slipping further and further into the shifter world.

I will definitely want to pick up the second book in the Stones of Fire series. The story ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, but even without that, I know there’s more to tell and I really want to find out who is going to win in the end.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**

When Neve wakes up in the Blackbriar Institute without her memory I suspected that there would be an evil doctor holding her against her will – and there was – but it was done a lot differently than other stories with similar tropes and themes. Neve will need to tread carefully to figure out who she can trust as a friend, and who is trying to hurt her.

While Neve was the main character, and I enjoyed her story, I found some of the side characters to be more intriguing and enjoyed their time on the pages a lot. Lily was one of my favorites, and the mysterious Tala is still a character I wonder about. Torbin, the strong silent one, had a somewhat predictable part of the story, but he was still fun.

The rest of the characters, including the bad guy and his friends, sort of blended into the background. I never got a real feeling for why they were the bad guys. I like my villains to have depth and backstory as well.

I like that while this featured some familiar characters from Snow White and Rose Red, it wasn’t an actual re-telling of their story (although I’m not super familiar with the original). There were a few spots that were a little repetitive or drawn out a little too much that I found myself skimming through.

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What if The Little Mermaid didn’t have her happily ever after? Where would she be today? Of Songs and Seashells by T.M. Franklin starts with a different ending to the classic fairy tale. Lily doesn’t get her happily ever after with her prince and instead finds herself in a small coastal town many, many years later. Right off the bat, this story had my attention.

Lily was one of my favorite characters from book one. Of Snow and Roses. and she didn’t disappoint as I got to know her better in her own story. A loner, all she wants is to be left alone. But she finds herself wrapped up in trying to save a town from an ancient being – and maybe letting a little boy and his family into her heart.

Young Wyatt enters the story with a bang and a tumble and quickly finds out that Lily isn’t quite as normal as she wants everyone to think. He’s a fun kid, and I fell in love with him. And even better, he has a cute, and equally charming, father. Bash starts off a bit rude, but it was a good way to introduce him to Lily and give them room to grow and come to trust each other.

Now, the villain (I won’t say who they are) was brilliant. She had motivation, means, and has a history with Lily that tied her past to her present. She was tough enough to bring everyone together without being the super-mega impossible foe that they need a miracle to beat. I loved it.

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Harper, Einstien, and the rest of the Cold Case Club find themselves on the trail of another criminal. And this is a very complicated case with lots of off links. I honestly couldn’t follow how they figured it out. It was just too convoluted and intermingled with a different case they had been working on.

While the mystery didn’t seem to flow for me, the last part of the book really focuses on Harper and her relationship with her past and her family. I loved this part and wished there was more of a focus on Harper and her character growth. I enjoy the other ladies in the Cold Case Club, but they tend just to run together, and I can’t keep them apart.

Much of this book takes place at a beautiful bed and breakfast on a cliffside with a gorgeous view, but I never really got to see a lot of it. After it was described once, it seemed like it was forgotten until parts of the location were important to the investigation. I wanted to feel the warm sun while they were talking at the pool and shudder as they looked over the edge of the cliff, but I never really felt any of that.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**