What Happened in Vegas by Mika Jolie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Every dark cloud has a silver lining and I've found mine in Mika Jolie. Whether by heart or through humor she can always make me smile. When the heart comes out the gloves come off and the temptation gets explosive. Griff and Chelsea are a cute combination of sweet and sassy that proves itself a welcome edition to my favorites collection.
One Complicated Christmas by Mika Jolie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Alexandra AKA "Sasha" has come to Yeti, Vermont, a small town with snow and charm for her Christmas holiday. Her parents went on a cruise, and with no one special in her life she wants to get through the holiday without mishap. Not even knowing she would face her past.
Joe is surprised to see the one that got away, staying at his sister's. He is even more pleased when she is tasked to learn where he teaches people how to ski. With fate taking them both for a ride - he means to fix the past and right some wrongs. Now if Sasha will let him, it may be a holiday come true.
I am a big fan of this trope. The second chance is very heartwarming when done right. This story charms, and brings on the heat. I love the characters and how much of a delight some surprising secondary characters became. I sure hope we see this family again.
***This ARC copy was given in exchange for an honest review only.
View all my reviews
Alexandra AKA "Sasha" has come to Yeti, Vermont, a small town with snow and charm for her Christmas holiday. Her parents went on a cruise, and with no one special in her life she wants to get through the holiday without mishap. Not even knowing she would face her past.
Joe is surprised to see the one that got away, staying at his sister's. He is even more pleased when she is tasked to learn where he teaches people how to ski. With fate taking them both for a ride - he means to fix the past and right some wrongs. Now if Sasha will let him, it may be a holiday come true.
I am a big fan of this trope. The second chance is very heartwarming when done right. This story charms, and brings on the heat. I love the characters and how much of a delight some surprising secondary characters became. I sure hope we see this family again. I give this read a 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!
***This ARC copy was given in exchange for an honest review only.
There is a chicken on the front cover of this novel, and an axe hovering threateningly in the upper corner. The relevance of these objects is explained early on - as an adolescent Mennonite girl in a closed community, our first-person narrator Nomi (a childish version of Naomi) has few options for her adulthood but to work for years in the chicken slaughterhouse that partially sustains her community. You wouldn't think there's much kindness associated with that theme, but of course there are degrees of kindness associated with the slaughter.
The novel shows teenage Nomi becoming increasingly rebellious against her hyper-restrictive religion, shaving her head, smoking weed, pursuing a sexual relationship and the like, as well as trying to deal with a seriously ill friend and the breakup of her (also rebellious) family. Her mother and sister are both gone elsewhere, separately, by the point in the narrative where we begin. All through the cruelties, mostly inflicted by the church but also by her boyfriend Travis, we see through Nomi's interested, imaginative eyes, and we're made aware of little, complicated kindnesses in her life.
But we're left with the most desolate image of all - Nomi excommunicate and alone in the house of her broken family, deserted by the last person she loves, her father, who departs the town rather than force his own shunning on her (or having it forced on them) in a final complicated act of kindness.
It is the brilliance of the observation, the quirkiness of the plot, and the honesty of the depiction of co-existing resilience, apathy and despair that we all experience to a degree as adolescents, that save this novel from being merely, as my generation would have called it, a "downer." As an insider's view of a little-known world, a foreign subculture set in the borderlands of Manitoba - with the different foreign-ness of the U.S. only a short drive away - I can very much see how this book fits well into the Canlit establishment's agenda of promoting any work that describes and celebrates Canadian diversity.
Fortunately, it's also an intriguing read with a strong female personal voice.
This was a really enjoyable read and we loved it ! The title for this story really fits but, I think that this couple wasted a lot of time without each other because if they had just communicated with the other parties involved things may have been different and then maybe not but, in doing so they were creating a whole lot of other problems for them and a whole a lot of distrust..
One of the things we loved most about this couple's story is that the challenges that a parent or parents can go through when their child is different and born with disabilities.Even though this is just a book of fiction I am quite sure a lot of parents have been in several similar situations depicted in this story and how small towns can be and just how cruel and mean people can be .Kaler and his daughter never deserved the towns scorn they were shown and its shame that their prejudices got in they way of what could have been a friendship filled with love and kindness. The story made us feel that it was all the more real and that you were living in the here and now."We just loved that about this story !"
I fell in love with Kaler's character right from the onset of the story as he was just an amazing parent and just loved his little girl with everything he had and not only that he put her needs first especially when he was making decisions that would effect their future and he was always thinking of her first and foremost. "Can you say heart melting?"
"We loved the sexy as sin single dad !"
Jenna the friend and school teacher we found to be totally awesome as she had this vibrant and amazing personality who tried to enjoy all life's little gifts and she has this amazing connection with Kaler's little girl Willow."We loved Willow she was such a precious sweetheart that brought sunshine into all their lives."
Kaler and Jenna's chemistry was super hot and by the way they could keep their hands off each other just proved it . lol
We loved this sweet romance between Kaler and Jenna and the rocky road they had to travel and that it was filled with ton of scorn,and tons of town gossip and a whole lot of town drama.We have to say that they busy bodies made us laugh a time or to but, overall the story was emotional and heartfelt and we loved it from beginning to end. Second chances are possible and if your brave and persistent enough to go after what you want you might just attained the life you should have had all along....."We are rooting for you Kaler!"
" a well crafted story "
A recommended read to all !
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