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Lilly Gayle Romance

Lilly Gayle Romance

Tag Archives: writing

Life Changes and Book Reviews

02 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by lillygayle in Uncategorized

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Andris Bear, author, Carcinoid, Lilly Gayle, Metastatic Cancer, Reading, Sandra Sookoo, writing

Where the heck did 2018 go? And how is it the third month of 2019 already? I’ve gotten so slack with my writing, but I have a ton of excuses. I’m tired, and life changes. BTW, I love the country song by that same name. But I digress. This is about why I’ve let my writing (and reading) slide for so long.

First, the good news. My oldest daughter who spent the last three years in Mississippi and the nine years before that has finally moved back to NC. They’re still getting settled so they are temporarily staying at my house and my younger daughter’s house. More good news: I get to see both my granddaughters every Friday. The bad news, is that once upon a time, that was my all day writing day. So, I’m distracted by granddaughters, ages one and four who are the light of my life.

I could write in the mornings before work or in the evenings after work, but my husband recently retired. That’s good. Right? Well, sort of. He’s always home. ALWAYS. I enjoy spending time with him, but I miss my home alone days and evenings.

The bad news? It was a medical retirement as he was recently diagnosed with a metatstatic carcinoid tumor. The cancer apparently started in the small bowel but went undetected for a long time so this slow growing cancer has now spread to his liver and is no longer curable. But…it is treatable. We pray he’ll be around another ten to twenty years, but in the meantime, we’re living.

There are so many cancer survivor stories, including my own, as I am an eleven year breast cancer survivor. There are also stories of people who’ve lost their lives to cancer, but you just don’t hear that many stories of people living with cancer. My husband is now one of those stories. He is now living with metastatic cancer, but he is living.

We are living.

In April, we’re going to a resort in Hendersonville, NC to spend a long weekend in the mountains. We’re going to see some of the 250 waterfalls in Brevard, NC and we’re going to spend at least one day touring Biltmore Estates in NC, as neither my husband nor I have ever been. Then in June, we’re spending a week at the beach.

We need to book these trips before the bills start pouring in as the Sandostatin injection my husband now gets every month to keep the cancer at bay and prevent his liver from failing costs about $35,000 per injection. As of now, we don’t know how much of that cost insurance will pay.Not that it matters. We can’t afford it, so it might as well be $1,000,000.00. But we’ll make monthly payments forever if we have too. Life goes on. Right? And I have started a new book, I just don’t know when I’ll finish it.

However, I have found time to read two books recently and posted reviews on Good Reads.

One was Sandra Sookoo’s  The Lady’s Chocolatier

A quick, fun read. The heroine, Evangeline, doesn’t want a husband, especially not her former fiance who seemed no different than every other man out to control women. The hero, Jasper, is a more Beta than Alpha but definitely heroic. He is a true gentleman who never tried to seduce Evangeline when they were engaged, believing all women wanted to wait until their wedding night, but was he too much of a gentleman?

Evangeline definitely wanted passion, but she was afraid passion would lead to losing control, so on the night Jasper proposed, she fled, moving away to go into business with her aunt selling undergarments, but a chance encounter with Jasper leads her to second guess everything she believed about marriage, love, and Jasper, who is no longer the perfect gentleman, and yet, he still treats her with more respect than any man she’s ever met.

Love and chocolate are a delicious combination.

I also read the first book in Andris Bear’s new series: Enter the Witch

A good witch, a sexy mechanic, and a lazy cat make for a good start to a promising series. Spoiler alert: this first book ends in a cliff hanger, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from reading the story, as the cliff hanger is actually the start of the next book in the series and not an abrupt ending that doesn’t finish the current story.

Truly a fun read, and I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

 

 

Life at Warp Speed

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by lillygayle in Uncategorized

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Babies, Donna Steele, family, Laura Browning, Megan Hart, Reading, Reading Writing, romance, writing

Dear Lord, where does the time go? My last post was back in April? April? Really? What did I do all spring, summer, and half of the fall? Publish a book?

No. Sadly, I will not get a book out this year. I did, however, complete a time travel that is now sitting in the hands of an agent. So, fingers crossed there. I also started the third book in my Western Hearts Series. This book will be Brett Henderson’s story. Brett was the ranch owner readers met in Wilder Hearts.

Reading? Yes. I’ve done a bit of reading this summer and can recommend a few books. There was a political spoof I read back in April. I don’t remember the name or the author, but it held my interest, despite reminding me how much I’ve come to detest politics and the media’s reporting on everything ugly in politics.

I also read a couple of romance novels and a romantic drama. Those I remember and can recommend. So, here goes:

Small Changes by Donna Steele

Blurd:

Melanie Daniels is back home, reconnecting with friends and taking over the family business. She’s content even if there isn’t that one special person in her life. Then she sees the man of her dreams stalking toward her.

Jonah Sanders and his daughter have been on the run for nearly two years. It’s time to regroup and rest. He doesn’t know what has drawn him to this small town but he’s learned to live by his instincts. So why does the woman next door override his instincts and cause him to think of a life he can’t chance?

My thoughts:

I’ve read several Steele stories, but I think this one is my favorite. It reminds me of an early Dean Koontz novel but with more romance, and there is a child in the story with special abilities secondary to genetic manipulation instead of a golden retriever. The hero, Jonah, is strong but vulnerable, and Melanie is self reliant and brave without being over the top.

It’s a good story with strong characters, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like romance with a dash of paranormal in the style of Dean Koontz’s early works, you’ll enjoy this one.

Next on my summer reading list was Laura Browning’s Healing Touch-

Blurb:

A Place to Call Home…

It’s exactly what widowed father Luke Allred is looking for when he brings his son and daughter back to his hometown of Mountain Meadow, Virginia. Luke knows he needs to be a better daddy for his troubled kids, but his work as a veterinarian made it difficult in the past. He’s vowed to change, but he needs help while he settles into his new position with the local animal hospital.
Rachel Hastings is a woman with a healing touch. She takes in injured and orphaned animals, so helping out with two new-to-town children shouldn’t be tough. What she hasn’t counted on is their sexy father, her secret crush from back in their high school days.
Their attraction is immediate, but so many obstacles stand in the way. Luke and his family still grapple with the shock of the accident that killed his wife. Rachel carries baggage from her own failed marriage. Worst of all, Luke’s children hide a secret that is tearing them apart and may destroy any chance Luke and Rachel have of building a future together.

My thoughts:

This was my first book by this author, and I wasn’t disappointed. I love stories set in the south, and I love romantic suspense. This story fit the bill perfectly.There was good character development, especially with the son, Jared. He came across as obnoxious while still being likable and sympathetic at the same time.

The hero, Luke is a jerk in several places, but the motivation is believable as is his behavior…just like real men. Both Luke and the heroine, Rachel, are wonderfully flawed and quite believable, and I fell in love with them both.

Browning’s writing style is reminiscent of Nicholas Sparks, only her stories are set in the mountains of Virginia instead of coastal NC. Hers has a guaranteed happy ending though. So, I can’t wait to read the second book in this series.

Last but not least, I read my first Megan Hart Novel, All the Lies We Tell, first in the Quarry Road Series.

This sexy romantic drama from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Megan Hart explores the tangled lives—and loves—of childhood friends.

My thoughts:

It was definitely a drama with very strong romantic elements. The sex was off the chart hot, and the characters were flawed to the point that I wanted to slap Nikolai and Alicia a couple of times over. But I still liked them both. They were sympathetic and likable with all the flaws of real people.

There were good supporting characters, and the author managed to redeem Alicia’s ex-husband toward the end so he wasn’t a total tool. There was also several hints within the book that a particular death might have been a murder. Or maybe that was just my interpretation. At any rate, I hope the lingering questions surrounding the death of Alicia’s sister are addressed in the second book.

So, what else have I been doing since April? Everything and nothing. Life has just been crazy chaotic.

My oldest daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter came up from Mississippi and joined my youngest daughter, her husband, their dad and me at the beach for a long weekend back in June. If you’ve never squeezed 7 people into a camper before, I don’t recommend it unless you’re a really close knit family. We managed not to kill one another and actually had an awesome time.

We spent time at the beach, ate out, walked on the pier, and squeezed an entire summer of fun into 4 days and 3 nights of cramped, family fun.

We spent very little time around the pool this year and didn’t make it to the beach much after that great weekend. And the times we did go, we spent repairing water damage to the camper and installing a new air conditioner.

We remodeled the kitchen, which looks fabulous, but some unforeseen circumstances led to some financial issues we weren’t expecting. In September, my oldest and her family made a second trip to NC to attend my youngest daughter’s baby shower, so that was another hectic, family-filled week.

Family was a big priority for me this year. My dad’s in failing health and made 3 trips to the hospital since April with COPD and congestive heart failure. He’s made some improvements and thank God, he’s still kicking, just not as high or as often.

There have been a lot of ups and downs this year from my dad’s health to job losses and career redirection to family weddings, and my mother-in-laws worsening dementia. For every up, there’s been a down, but the ups are still higher.

On October 19, my youngest daughter gave birth to our second grandchild–an adorable baby girl. Isn’t she just perfect?

So, as life moves ahead at warp speed and I feel as if I’m getting lost in the ups and downs of late middle age, I take some pride in the fact that I have an amazing family and some pretty good friends.

My day job may not be going in the direction I’d like, and my writing career may not be where I’d like it to be, but I’m still counting my blessings, and life is pretty amazing.

 

 

 

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