Book Review – Where the Heart Is

22 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Book Review

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Book Review, Darcy Burke, Ribbon Ridge series, Where the Heart Is

Home is more than a place . . .

Breaking free from her structured life, Chloe English quits her high-powered job and moves across the country to work as an art teacher. The simple life is all she hoped it would be until her house burns down, leaving her homeless. When a handsome firefighter swoops in to save the day, she can’t believe her luck. He’s laid-back and unassuming, everything she’s looking for in a man—or so he seems. It turns out he’s as ambitious as her ex, comes with a family who could be more stifling than hers, and harbors dark secrets he may never be able to share.

Orphaned as a teenager, Derek Sumner has found a place in his best friend’s family. However, the love and support of his surrogate parents and siblings can’t erase the grief and loss he struggles every Christmas to banish. But this year he meets the fun and sexy Chloe, whose optimism and sense of joy are incredibly contagious. Can she help him face his bleak past so they can forge a happy future?

I found Where the Heart Is to be a touching and sweet contemporary romance. Granted the characters seemed to fall in love awfully quick, but they realize that too so it makes it more realistic. Both Chloe and Derek are engaging and their relationship has warmth and charm. Their problems aren’t necessarily as dark as the blurb makes it seem – they really have to figure out whether they are moving too fast and if they can get past their own hang-ups to make a relationship work. I can easily relate to them and their problems, and the story totally work for me.

We also get introduced to the Archers, Derek’s adopted family. They are going to play a role in upcoming stories and I’m looking forward to everyone one of them. There is a good mix of personalities and difficulties in the siblings and it promises to supply a lot of material for other books.

At a little over 100 pages, Where the Heart Is is a fast-read but it is also satisfyingly real-life. I’ve read one of Darcy Burke’s books before, Never Love a Scoundrel, and loved it so I shouldn’t be surprised that her contemporary stories are just as good. With believable and fun characters, an interesting and heartwarming story, and the promise of some great books coming soon, Where the Heart Is is a must read.

Never Love a Scoundrel

24 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Book Review

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Book Review, Darcy Burke, Never Love a Scoundrel, Secrets and Scandals series

New review is now up.

*****

Lord Jason Lockwood has a horrible reputation, full of madness and vice. A family scandal almost a decade ago has left him on the outside of society, left to find his own place in the world surrounded by those considered without respectability … like him. He blatantly throws wild parties full of all manner of debauchery, uncaring that he will not be able to rejoin polite society. Then he meets Lady Lydia Prewitt. Lydia is also not well regarded by society, but for a different reason. Thanks to her gossip-mongering aunt, she is feared instead. Wanting to find acceptance and a husband to create a family with, Lydia sees the opportunity to improve her standing by helping Lockwood reenter society. But as they spend time together, Lydia’s feelings for Lockwood grow … can she chance a relationship with him if it means being exiled as well?

Never Love a Scoundrel is the fifth book in Darcy Burke’s “Secrets and Scandals” series and delivers a nice mix of intrigue and passion that is guarantee to keep readers enthralled. Her characters are wonderfully complex, with flaws and quirks that will draw you in and steal your heart. Lockwood has scars, not only from his most recent family scandal but from his childhood too, that cause him to exist on the fringes. He has his reasons, and they are good ones, but they definitely affect his dealings with Lydia. And there’s a mystery surrounding his half-brother, Ethan, and his activities that are at the core of the book, and Lockwood’s reason for being back in society, that is very engrossing. Readers of the previous stories will recognize Ethan and the good news is his story will finally be told in the next book.

This is the first of this series that I’ve read and there are some characters and plot points that move throughout the series (or at least from book to book), but I was easily able to keep up. It does end with a bit of a cliff-hanger that will be resolved in the final book, Scoundrel Ever After (due out this fall), but there was enough of a resolution in this one to feel satisfying. I’m definitely hooked enough to want to read the next one too … and get my hands on the previous four stories as soon as possible!