I’m a sucker for romances and women’s fiction the feature animal lovers, so when I saw that Erin, the heroine in Seize the Day, worked at a zoo, and that the main  man in her life was a sloth (“the animal kind, not the lazy kind”) named Barry, I knew I wanted to read further.

I wasn’t familiar with BRCA (a strong genetic predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer) until I came across this book, but I love the idea of a book series starring women who live with this condition. In Erin’s case, it means that if she ever wants to have a baby, she must make it happen soon. Enter co-worker Xander Barnes, and a potential solution to Erin’s desire for a baby.

I haven’t read the book myself, so I can’t post a full review, but I am definitely intrigued by the premise. The book sounds lighthearted, hilarious and fun, and I like that it also explores a challenge some women face. And while I’m curious about Xander as a character, I must admit being even more excited to meet Barry the sloth, whom I hope plays a big part in the story. (I’ve read a lot of romances featuring dogs, but never one with the sloth, yet.)

Excerpt

“It’s not like you’re getting any younger, you know.”

Mackenzie laughs, flattening her voice to sound like our mother’s. If Mom’s said this once, she’s said it to me a thousand times. Mackenzie nails the impression. I know she’s trying to be funny, but I don’t need my sister to point this out to me.

I know.

Every single day, I know.

Most women my age probably hear a faint tick every once in a while. My biological clock clangs like Big Ben every fifteen minutes.

The moment you receive the news that you are BRCA-1 positive, that clock speeds up. Yah for the likelihood of developing cancer that attacks my reproductive organs!

Clang.

“I’m aware,” I mutter.

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Even though she now sounds like she’s in a wind tunnel, I can hear the change to her tone. Gone is the jesting. Concern fills her voice.  

As an aside, I hate when she uses speakerphone. It takes a minute for the background noise to settle down. I’d rather text than talk, but my sister is usually multitasking more than a circus juggler. I’m appreciative that she’s able to carve out any time at all for me, even if it means we have to talk. To each other.

Like in the olden days.

In the meantime, I stretch out on the couch.

“Nothing today.” I stifle a yawn. “I was at work until three a.m.” The late night has ruined all hopes of a productive day off.

“Everything okay there?”

“Another day in paradise at the Pittsfalls Zoo. Talbert, one of my spider monkeys, had to have emergency dental surgery. I wanted to stay until he was awake and moving around again.”

As such, my only plans today call for tacos and a nap. Maybe cruising the internet a little.

And when I say cruising the internet, I mean spending a few hours creating the perfect life on Pinterest.

I pinned the most adorable baby zoo animal collage today. It’ll go perfect with the giraffe mural I pinned last week.

Basically, the perfect day.

“Carpe diem, sis. You can’t keep putting this off,” Mackenzie says.

Even if my biological clock wasn’t going off like gangbusters, I’ve got Good Ole Kenzie to remind me that time is not on my side and encouraging me to seize the day.

She’s always good for a pep talk, whether I want to listen or not. Most of the time I feel lucky to have such support.

Most of the time.

“Oh, but I can and I will.” I cross my arms defiantly, even though my sister can’t see my pout.

It’s not as if a solution has magically presented itself to me. Nothing has changed since last month, last week, and yesterday, when we had the same conversation.

In other words, I haven’t found a husband. 

+

Thank you to the author for the excerpt.

When I was in grade school, I wanted a pen pal. Blame it on Sweet Valley Twins, where Elizabeth Wakefield’s best friend Amy Sutton had a pen pal who came to visit. This was before social media was a thing (ahem), and so the idea of connecting with a near-stranger hundreds, possibly thousands of miles away, seemed like a fun and inexpensive way to learn about life in other countries.

Now imagine having a pen pal, becoming BFFs with him over all the angsty, tumultuous teenage years, then having him grow up to look like this cover model. Oh, and he also happens to now live in the same country as you and be a world-famous rock star. Um, sign me up, please!

In all seriousness, while Dirty Letters does have a fair amount of steam (I can never look at a Furby in the same way again), it also has a lot of angst and pain and all sorts of emotions. Griffin and Luca have to work hard for their happily ever after, and Keeland and Ward make sure the payoff is well worth it.

See, while Griffin and Luca form a strong bond over the letters they exchange as children, both experience tragedies in their late teens that result in Luca ghosting Griffin completely, and Griffin never forgiving her for that. Fast forward eight years, and Luca is sorting out her deceased father’s estate when she finds Griffin’s rage-filled final letter, and decides to try to reconnect and explain why she stopped writing. Their low-key childhood crushes on each other have developed into more adult feelings, and their letters soon get pretty hot and heavy.

I love that Keeland and Ward don’t let the childhood misunderstanding and the letter-writing format drag on for too long, as the story really kicked off for me when Griffin and Luca finally meet in person. The bulk of the story focuses on the conflict between their wildly different lifestyles — Griffin is a rock star hounded by paparazzi, and Luca is living with severe anxiety (and I think agoraphobic?) with a huge fear of crowds. So the life of a rock star’s girlfriend is definitely not for her.

I absolutely loved Luca as a character. I loved the little details like how she shops at a grocery store after midnight so she can avoid the crowds, and I also love the quirkier details like her having a pet pig. The various aspects of her vulnerability felt real, and I loved how much she developed and worked through her fears over the course of the book. I liked her friendship with Doc, the bird-watcher therapist, who was such a sweet elderly man and very much a father figure to Luca.

To be honest, Griffin took a while to grow on me. I thought his angry letter to Luca when she stopped responding was immature, and honestly a bit scary. Even after they reconnected as adults, I was turned off by his letter being all judgemental about the “shallow” women he meets who “make it easy” to have sex with them. And I was especially turned off when Griffin hired an investigator to find Luca and take photos so he could see what she looked like now.

Fortunately, he improved as a character after they meet in person, and I think it’s because playing off of Luca allows him to show off his sweeter side. I love how much he was in love with Luca, and how committed he was to ensuring her comfort and happiness. In one absolutely beautiful scene, sets things up so she can listen to him perform without having to deal with the crowds and the noise.

Overall, this is a steamy romance that is surprisingly more sweet than the premise suggests. Luca and Griffin are both complex characters, who must move a bit outside their comfort zone to be together, and I love that the decision to do so was not at all easy, but is ultimately well worth the wait.

Giveaway

Want to read Dirty Letters for yourself? Enter here for your chance to win 1 copy of Dirty Letters by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward!

Giveaway Details:
– Canada Only (excl. Quebec—full rules found in the T&C on Rafflecopter)
– Giveaway begins on November 11th and ends on November 28th at 11:59 pm EST
– Winner will be drawn randomly through Rafflecopter, contacted via email & will have 48 hours to claim their prize

Blog Tour

Check out the rest of the Dirty Letters blog tour below:

• Nov. 11 – Xandria @ Beautiful Bitch Book Reviews
• Nov. 12 – Erin @ Sleep Less, Read More
• Nov. 13 – Milana @ A Couple Reads
• Nov. 14 – Joy @ Joyous Reads
• Nov. 15 – Allyssa @ Between the Spine
• Nov. 18 – Wendy @ Cupcake and a Latte
• Nov. 19 – Lisa @ RemarkablyLisa
• Nov. 20 – Jaclyn @ Literary Treats
• Nov. 21 – Amanda @ Stuck in YA Books
• Nov. 22 – Christine @ Padfoot’s Library

The Temptation of Gracie is a lovely read, the kind of the book to enjoy while wrapped up in a blanket with a cup of tea. It’s the story of three women — Gracie, who has lived the past 40 years in a sleepy village in Devon, her high-powered and workaholic daughter Carina, and Carina’s 17-year-old daughter Anastasia — who travel to a castle in Italy for a weeklong cooking class. What Carina and Anastasia don’t realize is that Gracie has lived in Italy before, and that this castle is linked to a passionate romance from Gracie’s past.

First of all, I love the idea of a weeklong cooking class in an old Tuscan castle. How incredible would it be to learn how to cook delicious pasta dishes — made with fresh, all natural ingredients! — in such a beautiful, evocative setting? The class is run by a mother-daughter duo, which just adds to the intimate, homey feel, and I love the idea that such an experience can shift your whole relationship with food and eating.

I love the family dynamics as well between Gracie, Carina and Anastasia. I love how they were all somewhat distant from each other in the beginning, but the location and the food help them let down their defences and become closer to each other. I found it sweet how Gracie and Anastasia bonded over a boy Anastasia had met in Tuscany. To Carina’s concern, Gracie responds that it’s good for young people to have at least one wild, passionate fling even though it’ll more than likely end in heartbreak, and that youth of Anastasia’s generation are savvy enough to know how to be careful. I found that whole subplot sweet, and love how the experience of love can forge bonds across generations.

One thing that fell short for me was the romance from Gracie’s past. I wanted to be swept away by this storyline, and I wanted to believe in a youthful passion so strong that Gracie still remembers it 40 years later. And to some extent, the affair was passionate. Gracie was certainly in love with a wealthy, powerful man, and he broke her heart (of course) due to external circumstances beyond his control. But I never quite bought into his love for Gracie (at least until the very end of the book, where it was a bit too little, too late). He makes Gracie do something that she feels conflicted about, and the way he convinces her to do it anyway made me wonder if he liked her for herself or for what she could do for him (in this case, have revenge on a greedy family member).

The present-day update on this romance also fell short for me. The conflict in the present-day hinges on a big reveal that comes courtesy of Anastasia and close to the end of the book. The problem was that this reveal was pretty obvious to me early in the book, and so it was more frustrating than anything that Gracie kept missing the signs and misunderstanding the situation.

I also wasn’t a fan of the subplot featuring a busybody from Gracie’s village in Devon, who wanted to organize a grand funeral for another resident, but hated not having Gracie around to do the grunt work. This character and subplot bookended the main story, and while it added atmosphere as well as provided insight on Gracie’s life in Devon, it just dragged on too long, particularly at the end. I would have much preferred to see how Gracie’s life turned out myself rather than hear about it secondhand in the midst of a flurry of activity over a funeral for someone we never even met.

Still, overall, I enjoyed the story. The Temptation of Gracie is a feel-good book that’ll make you emit a happy sigh and want to cook spaghetti with your family members. The conflicts and drama are heartfelt but fairly light, and you can just imagine what a beautiful movie this would make.

+

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.