Ellie Greco left the nest but spent the last five years back home in Milborough running the Greco’s Deli, keeping it alive for its third generation. She's a little bitter about giving up her New York dream to make theater costumes, but she's determined to keep the deli alive. She's modernized it slightly into a gourmet deli, and is eking out a living, but there's a rumor that competition will be coming to town brought by the wealthy family of a peer, Theo Taylor, whom Ellie believes is a snob.

She reaches out to Theo to ask him to not bring competition to town, but an accident during their meeting renders him with amnesia. When the dust clears, Ellie finds herself masquerading—somewhat reluctantly—as his fiancée. The truth comes out, and Ellie and Theo join forces to fake the engagement.

The story is a romance, a mix of romance subgenres and tropes. There are some cute moments, no characters that really sucked me in to the story.

When Cheyenne, her sister, Presley and her mother, Anita arrived in Whiskey Creek, Cheyenne was home for the first time in her life. Before Whiskey Creek, they had gone hungry and cold, begged at street corners, and lived just ahead of the law. Their mother did what she had to do, whatever it was, to get by. Life was on the edge, and anything but respectable. When Cheyenne was fourteen, they arrived in Whiskey Creek. It had been home ever since. Miraculously, they were still there as Cheyenne made it through high school. They might live in the river bottoms, but Cheyenne she has real friends in Whiskey Creek. Life is pretty good.

Presley works in a casino, Cheyenne works at a bed-and-breakfast, and Anita is dying. There is the memory of a blond woman alive in Cheyenne’s head, and Cheyenne is afraid she will never know who the blonde woman is, or if she is just a fantasy she’d dreamed up. There are questions Cheyenne is afraid will never be answered.

When Snow Falls is my introduction to Brenda Novak’s Whiskey Creek series. The setting is a unique small town populated by lots of fully-fleshed characters, plenty of small town drama, and lots of stories behind the scenes. Although she has such a miserable start in life and a disreputable mother, Cheyenne is remarkably well balanced, and has a cadre of well-balanced, well-meaning, loving friends, at least two potential love interests (more than what you’d expect for a virgin in her mid thirties) and everything in life looks bright and shiny—as long as she doesn’t look at her mother and their tumultuous past. There might be a few little complications to be navigated, like the private investigator, Eugene Crouch hunting for Anita; Eve Harmon, Cheyenne’s best friend expressing interest in Joe DiMarco, the guy Cheyenne has been crazy about secretly, since she was fourteen; and running into Dylan Amos in the park. Some girls have all the luck.  

Highly recommended.

I found When Snow Falls a charming read. One of the best things about a series is that there are lots of characters with their own established realities. Beneath the surface stories, there are more stories lurking. Lucky for me, a reader with a short attention span, I didn’t have to memorize the whole cast, because Brenda sent Cheyenne’s friends on a trip, getting them out of the way so that Cheyenne could deal with the ethical consideration of her infatuation with Joe on her own. Only instead she…

but no! Can’t give away the story! 

Astrid and Leif Egilsson meet when he does not kidnap her, get acquainted at a wedding where Leif finds out she is from a prominent family, ward of her uncle now that her father is dead. Said Uncle betroths her to an unsavory fellow, and Astrid decides she'd rather walk on the wild side with Leif than abide by her uncle's wishes. Before this can be arranged, Leif is captured and enslaved by uncle. Hence the Domme cover. Then Leif is freed by his men, but only after getting overworked, seriously pissed off, and easily convinced Astrid was a willing lure to trap him. He then kidnaps Astrid for revenge.

I opened this expecting the old style bodice-ripper. I'm not sure what I found. It was a little hard to get into, but that may be partly due to formatting and other errors in the review copy I was reading. Initially, I was distracted by hopping from his head to her head and back, by Astrid's manic-depressive mood swings, and Leif's sporadic need for anger management, and possible treatment for PTSD. I never really connected with the characters, or lost myself in the story. I have read other books by Joanna Fulford which worked for me, but this one just did not connect the dots.

Angel of Syn, by Mertianna Georgia is the second is the Synemancer series starring witch Cara Augustine. Ever get in trouble for a mistake you didn’t know you made? Well if you did, it might be easy to sympathize with Cara. It appears she broke a law by making a werewolf her familiar. She didn’t know she broke a law. Unfortunately, the penalty is death. Just call her witch on the run.

What is worse than running from the Portalkind law? It might be deciding between three sexy supernatural males who are determined to make Cara and her emerging powers part of a power couple. Cara has a lovelorn Nephilim who is half angel and half witch. There is a crazy French werewolf, who wants her. His intentions may not be entirely romantic. Add to the trio, a sexy, semi-scary Nightkind who actually wants to marry her. The group follows Cara as she seeks sanctuary in the Garden of Eden, which has its own share of dangers.

This is a three part series as far as book goes. It is highly recommend reading the first book, Syn in the City before reading this one. It explains things like Nephilim, Nightkind and more of what Cara is up too. It is a little bit like walking into a conversation about people you don’t know and the conversation continues without any explanation. Most things can be figured out through context.

Ms. Georgia’s writing is fun and often steamy. It flows well making the story a joy even if everything isn’t clear. If you are looking for a paranormal with attitude and bite, then this is the book for you. Just make sure you read Syn in the City first.