Genre: Romance
Description:
“Sara Carson is a 30-something widow with a busy life. Two fun-loving
best friends, a caring mom who needs her, and a thriving sweet shop. What more
could a woman want? But when the ancient plumbing in her shop springs a leak
and a gorgeous, dark-eyed stranger rushes to her rescue, hilarity unfolds--and
Sara quickly sees exactly what she's been missing.
Something most peculiar draws Landon Richards to Ocean City,
Maryland--and to the lovely Sara. This woman touches his heart like no other,
and the two of them explore the heady attraction that pulses between them. But
haunting dreams have a way of encroaching on reality, and the strange
phenomenon that brings these two together will also threaten to tear them
apart.
This is the first book in the Ocean City Boardwalk Series, where life
for three enterprising women, Sara, Heather, and Cathy, isn't just fun in the
sun--love is waiting on those sandy shores!”
Author:
Award
winning and bestselling author Donna Fasano has written more than twenty novels
over the course of her career with almost four million copies sold. She’s not
only popular among the reviewers at Books and Pals, but apparently our readers
as well, winning our Readers’ Choice Award in the romance category in both 2013
and 2014.
For more, visit Ms. Fasano’s website.
Appraisal:
You’ve heard the cliché that says “every story has already been told,”
right? At a certain level of abstraction, that’s true. The specifics of
character and plot may differ, but there are a limited number of basic stories.
It amazes me how authors are able to put their own unique twists on a basic
story and end up with something that still feels fresh and new. This goes
double (or maybe quadruple) for the romance genre where every book is the same
basic story.
Following
His Heart made me go “wow” in this regard. At its core, it is the basic
romance. Girl meets boy, they take a romantic roller coaster ride fluctuating
between, if not love and hate, at least dislike and like a whole bunch, then
the happily-ever-after ending. There are minor characters that act as
confidants and comedic foils for the heroine and hero, while giving the story
more depth. (Primarily the heroine’s disabled mother, plus her best friends,
Heather and Cathy.)
But the twists, what set this story apart from a typical romance, is a
strange turn the story takes that I’ve described as a combination of a little
supernatural and horror-lite, although I’d be quick to say that romance readers
who don’t normally gravitate to these genres shouldn’t find this too much of a
departure from the norm to be objectionable. I found it thought-provoking in
ways I’d have never anticipated.
FYI:
Relatively mild adult situations.
Added for
Reprise Review: Following
His Heart by Donna Fasano was the winner in the Romance category for
B&P 2015 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran January 6, 2015
Format/Typo
Issues:
This review is based on a pre-release beta copy. I’m unable to judge
the final product in this area.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 40-45,000 words
1 comment:
I love the "supernatural" and "horror-lite" descriptions! Those genres never entered my thoughts when I was writing the book.
Thank you for featuring FOLLOWING HIS HEART. I really appreciate it.
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