Fighting Mad by Kathy Bryson – a Review

Fighting Mad by Kathy Bryson – a Review

 

Fighting MadAmazon

Description:
Laid off from her job at the bank, Carla turns to her friends for support only to find they’re more concerned about their jobs. The one person she can count on is local bartender Murphy, but what kind of example is that to set for her daughters? Having learned the hard way, Carla’s not depending on any man, even if he is cute, charming, very kind, and some kind of leprechaun?

Murphy is used to sneers. Clurichauns are the redheaded stepchildren of the leprechaun world and then there are the late-night throw-downs at his bar. What he wants, however, is to protect the dainty little mom who ogles him when she thinks no one’s looking. He knows she’s fighting overwhelming odds, but she’ll need more than bravery when the conflict between the King and Queen of the Fairies becomes outright civil war!

 

Review:

Fighting Mad by Kathy Bryson is another great story to her fun series. You don’t have to read them in order, and it will stand on its own, but the other books in the series will give you an insight to the world and the characters.

Carla is our heroine, and I’ve enjoyed her in the previous books. I had hoped she would get her own book, and it’s a great story. Very well written, very descriptive, and the narrative will have you in stitches.

Carla decides to start a wedding business after the bank lays her off, but her first (and possibly last) wedding is a disaster; with the bride threatening to sue. What’s a woman to do ? There are a few things that happen at the wedding which are pretty important, (and no I won’t spoilt it) to the story.

The attraction between Murphy and Carla is very sweet. She has loved him for ages, and has only recently been able to talk to him without stuttering or making a fool of herself. When Murphy rescues her from the wedding fiasco, things trot along nicely.

Murphy is a redheaded cousin of leprechauns (yup, we don’t get enough books on those guys), but they aren’t little men with beards and pots of gold… no, these are gorgeous men, and poor Carla is not immune to his looks and charms. He has noticed that the mother of two teenage daughters likes to stare at him, when she thinks he is not looking. Murphy has been aware of her for a while 🙂

The other story going on in the background, the one involving the King and Queen of the Fae. That’s an ongoing battle, and things are getting rather hostile! It’s a well written story, very descriptive, and the funny moments will have you laughing to yourself 🙂

I’ve read them all, and I have to say, this one has been my favourite. It’s a great read, and one I’m happy to recommend.

Reviewed by Julie B.

Copy provided by Author

 

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Restless Spirits by Kathy Bryson – Review, Guest Post & Giveaway

Restless Spirits by Kathy Bryson – Review, Guest Post & Giveaway

 

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Restless SpiritsAmazon


Description:

Marilee Harper is desperate to find another job after she accidentally set fire to the home of the richest woman in town. Converting an old hospital into a bed and breakfast seems like a golden opportunity. But faucets and lights turn themselves off and on, and old baseballs fly without help. Stressed and aggravated, Marilee wants nothing more than to redeem herself, even if it means hands off her sympathetic boss!

John Smith has every confidence in the bossy, strong woman he hired to launch his bed & breakfast. She handled difficult customers at the bank and now she’s handling electricity and plumbing and whatever unseen force keeps throwing baseballs. Who can blame him if he starts to admire the woman in more than strictly professional terms? But when the angry, treacherous King of the Fairies shows up, can Marilee become his champion?

 

Review

Restless Spirits is my second book by Kathy Bryson, and I have to say, I loved it.

It was good to catch up with old characters.  It basically starts where the last book ends.

Marliee is a bit accident prone, but she’s a great character. I will admit to not being a fan of Marilee’s in the first book, but reading her book, I grew to like her more. 

Not sure about the relationship with her mother, but as the story goes along it gets better. You see why they have an antagonistic relationship in the beginning. The incident where she almost runs her new boss was funny.

And from there on, its a roller coaster of a ride, as Marilee begins a new career in a (haunted) B&B.  It was a little slow in places, but well worth persevering. As always attention to detail is important and the characters who come to life on the page.

John Smith is a great character. He seemed to be a perfect balance for Marilee. He is calm to her chaotic.  Their working relationship soon turns into romance. And their first kiss was a lot of fun to read.

It’s a great read, with mystery and a few ghosts thrown in.  A great afternoon read 🙂

Reviewed by Julie B

Copy provided by Author

Guest Post-White and Mint

How Far Would You Go, Especially For A Good Man?

Thank you so much for having me at The Reading Cafe today. There is nothing I love better than a good book and a nice, hot cup of something warm, even where I live in hot and sticky Florida!

We all have little indulgences and they usually don’t do us any harm. But in my latest book, Restless Spirits, Marilee Harper indulges in a cigarette and accidentally sets fire to her best friend’s house. Oops! Since her friend is a wealthy woman and the darling of the bank and town where Marilee works, this presents a problem.

When you go too far, the only thing you can do is change direction. So Marilee takes a job managing a B&B. The building once housed a hospital for the terminally ill, and now it shows all the signs of a classic haunting. But if ghosts weren’t enough, Marilee also has the challenge of working with her difficult mother, a cook who channels Elvis, and contractors who act like paparazzi!

Marilee’s character was so much fun to explore. How does a modern, competent, professional – well, except for that one little arson incident – deal with the supernatural? Marilee’s usual practical directness doesn’t always succeed! What was more difficult to write were some of the customer service scenes. Like Marilee, I may have gone too far on the phone once or twice.

The real challenge for Marilee, however, turns out to be her boss. He’s cute, charming, compassionate, and crossing a line. Would you date your boss or is that going too far? What if, as Marilee discovers, it’s not just a case of lust, but of true compatibility, even love? John makes her happy, believes in her, and helps her manage all the mysterious occurrences that persist at the B&B.

Then the haunting goes too far and John goes missing, taken captive to the Otherworld. Which leads me to the question of the day – how far would you go for a good man? Maybe I’m just an incurable romantic, but I’ve always been drawn to the story of the lover who defies death. From the Greek Orpheus to the Celtic Tam Lin, there’s always been that one person who crosses over to the land of the dead to reclaim his or her love, challenging even the gods.

Both my books, Feeling Lucky and Restless Spirits, share the same background in fairy folklore though each can be read independently. Shakespeare may have brought a long-standing feud to light in 1590-something with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but it’s heating up in the modern-day Midwest. As if the ladies of Fayetteville didn’t have enough to manage with jobs and family, they also have to deal with fairies squabbling over a practical joke about falling in love with a donkey? Talk about going too far!

As for Marilee – oh she’s headed off to the Otherworld, armed with a short temper and a cast iron frying pan. Hmm, this may not end well!

 

about the author
me_smilingKathy Bryson knew she wanted to be a writer when she finished reading through her school and local children’s libraries. She spent 20 years honing her writing skills on marketing brochures, websites, and several unfinished manuscripts before going into teaching and finishing a book with all the stuff she enjoys most – from coffee to love to Shakespeare! Kathy lives in Florida where she caters to the whims of two spoiled cats and wonders what possessed her to put in 75 feet of flower beds.

Her first book, Feeling Lucky, won the 2014 National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award for Best First Book.

You can follow her on the following links:

Blog / Amazon / Facebook / Goodreads / Google+ / Twitter

 

MintgreenGiveaway

Kathy is graciously offering an e-copy (amazon kindle format) of RESTLESS SPIRITS to ONE (1) commenter at The Reading Cafe

1. If you have not previously registered at The Reading Cafe, please register by using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

2. If you are using a social log-in, please post your email address with your comment.

3. LIKE us on FACEBOOK and then click GET NOTIFICATION under ‘liked’ for an additional entry.

4. LIKE us on Twitter for an additional entry.

5. Follow us on Goodreads

6. Giveaway is INTERNATIONAL

7. Giveaway runs from August 23 to 27, 2014

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Feeling Lucky by Kathy Bryson – a Review

Feeling Lucky by Kathy Bryson – a Review

feeling lucky

Links to order Feeling Lucky: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Description:
So, Megan O’Malley gave in to drunken temptation and pinched a cute guy’s ass at her cousin’s wedding. Who’d have thought a perfectly normal guy—okay, a bit short—was a leprechaun or that he’d have such a bad attitude about giving away his money?! Now that she’s captured him, Megan may be five million dollars richer, but she’s also got an angry leprechaun camped out on her sofa, doing his best to prevent her from becoming the business mogul of her dreams!

Fergus O’Reilly cannot figure out what he’s done to upset the Queen of the Fairies. He was working hard to rebuild his family’s honor when he took one small break to help friends play a wedding. Then some drunken lady pinched his ass, the Queen declared him caught, and now he’s broke, homeless, and hustling to stop the lovely lady with the wandering fingers from spending his money! This would be so much easier if she wasn’t cute and caring and determined to help with his so-called money addiction!


Review:
                                                                                                 

In Feeling Lucky by Kathy Bryson, we meet the heroine early. Megan is drunk at her cousins wedding, when she spies a cute guy in the band looking at her, a little eye contact, and Megan boosted by drink and her friends urging her on, Megan pinches his butt. But then all hell breaks loose, lets just say that the bouquet wasn’t the only thing thrown !!

Megan wakes the following morning with a hangover and a blurry memory. She goes to work, and from here it gets interesting. She finds out that’s she won the local lottery 🙂 and this is where it goes a little round the houses ! Yes she had won, but she loses her job in the process ! And too add more misery onto Megan’s plate, her friends turn on her !!

So finding herself jobless, she goes to find her mother, finding her in the local diner, Megan tries to tell her mother about the winning. But there is a meeting going on, so Megan pulls up a chair and finds out what’s going on.

To shorten the story, because it does get a little technical. Fergus has been caught by Megan, they are bound together, so unless he can get Megan to release him from their bonds, he won’t see a penny of his fortune again !

To say Megan is mortified, horrified and downright pi$$ed, is an understatement. She thought they had a little sparkle at the wedding, but there was no way her and Fergus were stuck with each other, the money was hers, and she will spend it how she likes.

Megan meets the queen of the Fae !! A little tense, but now Megan nows what to expect, she has decided to help Fergus with his addiction (because that is how she sees Fergus’s problem,) he is addicted to earning and keeping his fortune. (there is a reason why he hoards his money.)

But the money is hers, so she decides to help the community. She wants to set up a fund for people to approach her with ideas for business for the community. And this is where it starts to wander, and i get a little bored.  I love detail, don’t get me wrong, but i think i got an overload of facts, figures and enough details to start my own trust fund.

Fergus now decides it’s time to step up his game. He starts with being obnoxious, and when that doesn’t work, he begins his routine of bored and aggravating male. He eats his way through all of Megan’s cupboards.  He leaves his dirty socks EVERYWHERE !! and hogs the remote, he also makes himself an unwanted guest, and tells Megan she has to put up with it, or all she has to do is say leave, and it will all be over.

This part is funny, and i did chuckle at his naughty antics. But when he began to seduce her, and callously stop as he seduced her, I could have happily throttled him, he was so mean !!!                                                                      

So the story motors along at quite a nice pace, the storyline of Megan setting up the fund, and various characters applying for it. And there is also the underlying story of Fergus and his family, he cousins who hope that Megan will help Fergus, as well as help them to grasp their own happiness and fortunes. The story of the antagonism between the Queen and Fergus is also explained. There are a few surprises that I didn’t see, and a few I could see coming a mile off 🙂                     

The characters did take their time to get to know it each other.  And for anyone that read Midsummers Nights Dream, by William Shakespere, the characters come alive in a whole new way in this book. 

I really did like the book, and I loved the world that the author created in her book. I could see a series here, and I would read more. I hope that Fergus and Megan have their own wedding, and her friends all get drunk and fight over the bouquet, THAT I would like to read. 🙂  So, now we come to the end of our story, do they get a happy ending ? Yes they do, but they also learn a lot about each other, themselves, and everyone around them.

Reviewed by Julie B.

Copy provided by Author

 

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