REVIEW: No Accounting for Love by L.M. Gonzales #Contemporary #Romance

Laura Cortez, a single mom, works full-time and takes classes toward an accounting degree for a better income for her family. She meets her dream man on a blind date set up by their siblings but thinks she should have stayed home. When he asks her to his company’s Christmas party, she agrees against her better judgment; she’s attracted to him despite all the reasons she shouldn’t be.

Tony Alvarado has spent his life, ever since his marriage, building his accounting firm because his ex-wife nagged him constantly about money. When she divorced him, claiming he was always working, she took half his money, and his son. Now he believes women only date him because he’s rich. His reactions to Laura puzzle him, but he continues to see her because he can’t figure her out.

Will the holiday season help them forget the liabilities and balance out the miracle of love in adding together two lonely hearts?

Purchase Links: 
http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=195&products_id=6500

REVIEW:

RATING: 4.5 Stars 

Laura Cortez and Tony Alvarado are both divorcees who have not quite recovered from the pain of their failed marriages.  Tony threw himself into expanding his accounting firm, spending very little time with his son, who lives with his mother – and her ever-changing list of boyfriends.  Laura threw herself into raising her two sons, with virtually no contact with their father; she is working on finishing her accounting degree, and also works full-time.  Neither one is particularly interested in finding another serious romance.  But a blind date brings them together right around Christmas, and despite themselves, the attraction is undeniable.

No, this is not a love-at-first-sight story.  There is a definite mutual physical attraction, but they both try to fight it off, despite siblings and co-workers who keep encouraging them to get – and stay – together.  And then there are three young boys, who might be able to accept a new relationship for their respective parent, but have trouble accepting each other.  Drop in Laura’s plan for starting an accounting career, mix it with Tony’s very successful accounting firm, and this chemistry experiment keeps growing.

This is not a totally unfamiliar plot for a love story, especially with Christmas always in the background, so, as with most books in this genre, for it to succeed, the development of the characters has to overshadow that plot.  L. M. Gonzales definitely achieves that here.  Both primary and secondary characters are interesting, believable, and understandable People.  Laura and Tony are very well-portrayed, with their own plans, goals, and problems, with sympathetic, attractive, growing personalities.

‘No Accounting for Love’ is a nicely constructed, smoothly developed feel-good story.  I recommend it to any fan of the contemporary romance genre, and rate it at 4.5 Stars.  Read it, relax, and enjoy.

I am very grateful for the reviewer’s copy I received.


Reviewed by: Roberta

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REVIEW: EVE'S NEW YEAR BY SARAH CASS

Eve Ellery has been in love with her best friend for years, but an old wound keeps her from telling him how she feels. Certain she's been forever relegated to being the fat friend and naïve girl he has to protect, she jumps on a job offer three hours away. When her mother's illness worsens, Jake's there to help her, but is it just his white-knight act?

Jake Gardner has been fighting his growing attraction to his life-long friend tooth and nail. The last time he tried to bridge that gap, she cut off their friendship. He decided he'd rather have her in his life as a friend then not at all. Lately, the feelings are harder to ignore, but when she says she has a job offer that can help her out of a tight spot, he knows he has to let her go if he really loves her.

A drunken night leaves both of them thinking it's over for good.
Will Jake and Eve’s bold resolutions bring them closer together or farther apart?



Available at Amazon

REVIEW:

 

RATING:  4 Stars

‘Eve’s New Year’ is a short, nicely written love story, involving two characters, Eve Ellery and Jake Gardner, who started a relationship in high school that they both called ‘friendship’ – because that’s what each of them thought the other one wanted.  Eve was one of the unpopular girls in Lake Point high school, and is convinced that the only reason Jake pays any attention to her was that he felt sorry for her.  But Jake no longer sees her as a shy, lonely girl who needs protection; he just believes that friendly protection is all this attractive woman will accept from him.


On top of her unpopularity, Eve had a lot of other struggles in Lake Point, mostly because her father abandoned her and her mother when she was still in high school, but she still managed to get her college degree.  His father has retired, so Jake has taken over the family business, and Eve is now his assistant in the store. She’s very good at her job, and with her help, Jake has kept the business running quite well. Then Eve gets a very tempting job offer that would require her to move several hours away, but it would pay considerably more, helping both Eve and her mother, who has Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home.  Jake is torn; he wants Eve to stay, but he still believes she only wants him as a friend, he can’t pay her any more, and so the new job could help her. Things continue to tangle up, especially when Eve’s mother’s ex-lover comes back into the picture.  So, will Eve leave Jake to take the new job?  Will they lose any chance of getting together, or will these two long-time ‘friends’ finally get past the fake wall they built between themselves?


Sarah Cass did a good job putting all this together, especially in her careful characterization of Jake and Eve, blended in with other small town events and relationships, making this an enjoyable story.  Although certain elements are predictable, what the characters do to cope are pleasantly appealing – and, in some ways, still surprising.  All told, this is a believable, interesting romance, with likeable characters and very nice settings.  I would have liked to see more of Eve with her mother, and learn more about her experiences getting her college degree, but it was still a fun book to read.  So, I give ‘Eve’s New Year’ 4 stars.

I am very grateful for the reviewer’s copy I was given.


Reviewed by: Roberta 

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