Tag: Haven Ridge

Instead of living the life you want to live, maybe you're living the one you think everyone expects you to live.

Book Review | The Larkspur House by Carla Laureano

Rose Cameron has escaped her wreck of a marriage and her thieving ex-husband with a beat-up car holding all her worldly possessions and arrived in Haven Ridge to take a job helping Erin Parker with a house in desperate need of a cleanout and repairs.

But Will, Erin’s twin, wants to sell the house, and gives Erin and Rose a month to come up with a way of making the house pay for itself.

This is a romance, so we know Rose and Will are going to get together once they get past their differences. But there’s also a house to clear out and hopefully something to find that will enable them to keep the house rather than selling their family heritage.

If you’ve read the previous books in the Haven Ridge series (The Broken Hearts Bakery and The Beacon Street Bookshop), you might remember Will as the somewhat uptight accountant. In The Larkspur House, we get to see more about Will and Erin, which means we get to know more about Will. He’s a true gentleman who will do almost anything to protect his sister – a professional cellist.

Rose is a good person whose life hasn’t gone as planned because of her ex-husband’s bad choices. But she also has some things to learn about herself and about life.

I enjoyed seeing the developing relationship between Rose and Will, but I also enjoyed Erin and Will’s sibling relationship, and the growing friendship between Rose and Erin.

This wasn’t a coming home story. This was a running away story, and in her experience, those had the potential to be so much more interesting.

The Haven Ridge novels aren’t Christian fiction, in that while some of the characters go to church, that reads more like a scene location than an underlying character trait. But they also aren’t general market romance, in that there isn’t any swearing or sex scenes (which, if you think about it, seems out of character for red-blooded adults who don’t have a religious or personal reason for not sleeping with their significant other).

But they are good contemporary romances which offer some solid insights into life and love …

In my experience, you can answer all someone’s fears and objections and they still won’t take a chance until you capture their imagination.

Overall, The Larkspur House is a solid contemporary romance with an element of mystery thrown in, and perhaps even a sprinkling of magic.

Recommended for fans of sweet contemporary romance from authors such as TI Lowe, Amy Matayo and Courtney Walsh.

About Carla Laureano

Carla LaureanoCarla Laureano is the RITA® Award-winning author of contemporary inspirational romance and Celtic fantasy (as C.E. Laureano). A graduate of Pepperdine University, she worked as a sales and marketing executive for nearly a decade before leaving corporate life behind to write fiction full-time. She currently lives in Denver with her husband and two sons, where she writes during the day and cooks things at night.

You can find Carla Laureano online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

About The Larkspur House

Rose Cameron holds the record for bad decisions. Not only did she drop out of grad school to get married, but her husband wasn’t who he pretended to be—and his shady business dealings threatened both her reputation and her freedom.
With no job, no friends, and her bank account nearing zero, an online job posting offers a place to escape from her shattered life: house assistant in a historic manor in the tiny town of Haven Ridge, Colorado.
But the Larkspur House isn’t the refuge she expected. For one thing, it’s not just a house, but a derelict, honest-to-goodness American castle. For another, the co-inheritor of the house—the brusque, uptight Will Parker—makes no secret of his desire to see her gone.
He’s more interested in selling the place before it crumbles into the Colorado landscape or bankrupts the trust that maintains it. Just when Rose is convinced she’s made yet another terrible decision, she stumbles upon hidden secrets within Larkspur House’s storied history—ones that could bridge the gap between her and Will, making Haven Ridge her forever home.
But try as she might, Rose can’t escape her past…and her own secrets just might destroy the new life she’s begun building.

Find The Larkspur House online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #351 | The Larkspur House by Carla Laureano

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m quoting from The Larkspur House, the third (and hopefully not final) book in Carla Laureano’s Haven Ridge series.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

When Rose Cameron was young, she'd thought novels that began with the heroine metaphorically limping into town with all her posessions lacked in the back of her beat-up car were dramatic and romantic.

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

 

About The Larkspur House

Rose Cameron holds the record for bad decisions. Not only did she drop out of grad school to get married, but her husband wasn’t who he pretended to be—and his shady business dealings threatened both her reputation and her freedom.
With no job, no friends, and her bank account nearing zero, an online job posting offers a place to escape from her shattered life: house assistant in a historic manor in the tiny town of Haven Ridge, Colorado.
But the Larkspur House isn’t the refuge she expected. For one thing, it’s not just a house, but a derelict, honest-to-goodness American castle. For another, the co-inheritor of the house—the brusque, uptight Will Parker—makes no secret of his desire to see her gone.
He’s more interested in selling the place before it crumbles into the Colorado landscape or bankrupts the trust that maintains it.Just when Rose is convinced she’s made yet another terrible decision, she stumbles upon hidden secrets within Larkspur House’s storied history—ones that could bridge the gap between her and Will, making Haven Ridge her forever home.
But try as she might, Rose can’t escape her past…and her own secrets just might destroy the new life she’s begun building.

Find The Larkspur House online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

The life you envisioned is gone. Don’t you think it’s time to get a new one?

Book Review | The Beacon Street Bookshop (Haven Ridge #2) by Carla Laureano

Olivia Quinn is a widowed and newly unemployed fiction editor who lost her husband a year ago and is now figuring out how to raise her teenage stepdaughter alone. Charlie Castro is a contractor turned handyman after losing his licence. Olivia hires him to finish her kitchen, and the two are instantly attracted to each other.

But Charlie is planning to leave, and Olivia feels it’s too fast to start another relationship.

When Olivia is asked to sell some old books by a friend, she and her stepdaughter, Taylor, somehow end up renovating an old building to turn into a bookshop. Fortunately, Charlie is around to help …

I’m not generally a fan of the instant attraction romance because I believe lasting love is built on relationship, not lust. However, the Beacon Street Bookshop shows that instant attraction can convincingly morph into a solid and believable relationship, given the right circumstances and an author who knows wheat they’re doing—as Carla Laureano certainly does.

The Beacon Street Bookshop is the third title in Carla Laureano’s Haven Ridge series, following The Brick House Cafe (a free introductory novella), and the Broken Hearts Bakery. All three stories are set in the slightly weird town of Haven Ridge and feature a romance as well as some tougher issues. In The Beacon Street Bookshop, the issues are around finding love again after losing a spouse, and with a teenager in tow. While that’s worthy, it didn’t have the depth of the issues in The Broken Hearts Bakery.

The Haven Ridge series is clean and wholesome rather than Christian romance. Some readers might find there is a little too much focus on the physical, and the characters clearly aren’t Christians. But there’s no on-the-page sex or violence.

Carla Laureano fans will enjoy The Beacon Street Bookshop, as will bibliophiles and fans of authors such as Denise Hunter and Liz Isaacson.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

About Carla Laureano

Carla LaureanoCarla Laureano is the RITA® Award-winning author of contemporary inspirational romance and Celtic fantasy (as C.E. Laureano). A graduate of Pepperdine University, she worked as a sales and marketing executive for nearly a decade before leaving corporate life behind to write fiction full-time. She currently lives in Denver with her husband and two sons, where she writes during the day and cooks things at night.

You can find Carla Laureano online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

About The Beacon Street Bookshop

Ever since Olivia Quinn lost her husband to a freak plane crash, she’s been focused on one thing—making a stable life for her teen stepdaughter, Taylor, of whom she’s the sole guardian. But when she loses her job as a children’s book editor because she refuses to relocate from Colorado to New York, all her hard-won stability is shattered.

Then the opportunity arises to open Liv’s dream bookshop in Haven Ridge, offering not only the solution to her financial problems, but a chance to bond with her stepdaughter and become a real family for the first time. Soon, the wild idea transforms into a thriving nonprofit, thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of the town—and a handsome contractor who stirs feelings in Liv she’d thought might be gone forever.

But just as she begins to lean into the new life she’s made for herself, a figure from her late husband’s past puts the life she’s been building with Taylor in jeopardy. And Liv must face the possibility that following her heart might just cost her a daughter.

Find The Beacon Street Bookshop online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #303 | The Beacon Street Bookshop by Carla Laureano

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m reading The Beacon Street Bookshop, the second book in Carla Laureano’s Haven Ridge clean contemporary romance series:

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

For the first time in her adult life, she was unemployed.

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About The Beacon Street Bookshop

Ever since Olivia Quinn lost her husband to a freak plane crash, she’s been focused on one thing—making a stable life for her teen stepdaughter, Taylor, of whom she’s the sole guardian. But when she loses her job as a children’s book editor because she refuses to relocate from Colorado to New York, all her hard-won stability is shattered.

Then the opportunity arises to open Liv’s dream bookshop in Haven Ridge, offering not only the solution to her financial problems, but a chance to bond with her stepdaughter and become a real family for the first time. Soon, the wild idea transforms into a thriving nonprofit, thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of the town—and a handsome contractor who stirs feelings in Liv she’d thought might be gone forever.

But just as she begins to lean into the new life she’s made for herself, a figure from her late husband’s past puts the life she’s been building with Taylor in jeopardy. And Liv must face the possibility that following her heart might just cost her a daughter.

Find The Beacon Street Bookshop online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #272 | The Broken Hearts Bakery by Carla Laureano

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’ve just downloaded my review copy of a book I’ve been looking forward to reading for ages, The Broken Hearts Bakery, the April 2023 release from Carla Laureano:

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

If Gemma Van Buren had learned anything in her thirty years on this planet, it was that heartbreak demanded chocolate.

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

 

About The Broken Heart Bakery

Fifteen years ago, the town of Haven Ridge failed its most important mandate—to be a sanctuary for heartbroken citizens in need. Now it’s getting a second chance to set things right …

When Gemma left her hometown of Haven Ridge, Colorado, years ago in a cloud of controversy, she swore she would never return. And she’s kept that promise, instead building her reputation as one of LA’s preeminent family law attorneys. But when her lifelong best friend begs her to come stay with her teen stepdaughter, Taylor, while she’s on a business trip, Gemma doesn’t have the heart to refuse. She’ll simply keep a low profile, do her honorary aunt duties, and be gone before anyone knows the difference.

But Haven Ridge seems to have a mind of its own, dragging Gemma unwillingly back into the community she’s tried so hard to leave behind and she soon finds herself caught up with new friends and old rivalries. When Taylor is the object of an ugly bit of teen bullying, Gemma does the only thing she knows how to do: ply her honorary niece with baked goods and words of affirmation. Soon, her temporary digs are ground zero for teenage girls seeking sugar and consolation for shockingly adult problems—which the girls soon dub The Broken Hearts Bakery.

Complicating matters is an unexpected reunion with Gemma’s high school sweetheart, Stephen, who is determined to change her mind about him, the town, and the nature of love itself. Because as it turns out, her niece isn’t the only one nursing a broken heart…

Find The Broken Heart Bakery online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!