Release Reviews: Dashing Through The No: Tara Sivec
Tara Sivec
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*Will be exclusively in Amazon Kindle Unlimited after 11/28/20
Release Date November 20, 2020
‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through Summersweet,
Tess Powell was annoyed and wanted to retreat.
With a BIC in her hand and a frown on her face,
everyone knew she needed a break from this place.
Wanting the holiday to be nothing but the best,
Bodhi took his girlfriend to the mountains to rest.
While visions of fire happily danced in Tess’s head,
soon she would see she had everything to dread.
Crying kids, singing hippos, and a stalker with a van,
definitely wasn’t part of Bodhi’s evacuation plan.
But all he wanted for Christmas was for her to say yes,
to the question he kept asking with zero finesse.
With some help from new friends and their holiday cheer,
Tess and Bodhi get much more
Bhodi and Tess have always been unique and unpredictable. But now we get to know more about why they are the way they are and get a better insight into their relationship.
Bhodi currently seems like a weed smoking, easygoing wanderer who just takes each day as it comes. He has spent years as Palmer's caddy, surfing and traveling the world, and loves adventures. His past taught him what he did not want to become so he changed his lifestyle. And his current recreational activities also help to hide some deep issues and anxiety. He might have spontaneously proposed to Tess once during an inopportune time, but maybe she did not hear him?
Tess is unfiltered, bossy, prickly, loyal, and fiercely independent. Her own past has helped shape her, and sometimes she is kind of intimidating and unstable. She has a bit of a fire fetish and is not afraid to burn things that bother her. And she is currently not feeling quite herself for the past couple of months. She might be feeling some things and may even be considering a future she never expected to. But it has her all kinds of messed up and freaked out.
These two seem like opposites and have extreme personalities. But they know each other's baggage and accept the other for who they really are...faults, quirks, and all. And somehow they balance and bring out the best in each other while also tolerating some unique behaviors. Deep down they both have good hearts and love hard and truly crave love, stability, and a true home. But at the same time they are terrified of rejection or failure. They are a perfectly imperfect couple that just fit.
One Christmas getaway to leave their equally odd and vocal friends behind in Summersweet Island leads to even more adventures and crazy people at the Redinger House in West Virginia. Old friends, new friends, wild kids, a stalker, and an explosion of Christmas chaos and cheer invade their idea of peace. Bhodi would love to dive into everything Christmas while Tess would be happy hiding out in a bubble, but these two can find ways to deal and compromise. Shenanigans, big decisions, and grand gestures make it a holiday they will never forget.
These two seem like opposites and have extreme personalities. But they know each other's baggage and accept the other for who they really are...faults, quirks, and all. And somehow they balance and bring out the best in each other while also tolerating some unique behaviors. Deep down they both have good hearts and love hard and truly crave love, stability, and a true home. But at the same time they are terrified of rejection or failure. They are a perfectly imperfect couple that just fit.
One Christmas getaway to leave their equally odd and vocal friends behind in Summersweet Island leads to even more adventures and crazy people at the Redinger House in West Virginia. Old friends, new friends, wild kids, a stalker, and an explosion of Christmas chaos and cheer invade their idea of peace. Bhodi would love to dive into everything Christmas while Tess would be happy hiding out in a bubble, but these two can find ways to deal and compromise. Shenanigans, big decisions, and grand gestures make it a holiday they will never forget.
This might be the cookiest and most over-the-top story yet from this group, but it is fast-moving, sexy, romantic, unpredictable, and full of a whole lot of fun and Christmas cheer. I might be triggered now every time I hear "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" from now on. But it will make you smile, laugh, and possibly yell "WTH?" at times while also making you feel some kind of way.
Bodhi is well known in this series as the weed-smoking, not a care in the world caddie, but we get to learn how he came to be that persona here. His backstory is exposed in a few key scenes, and though he took a 180° turn from who his father wanted him to be, he is completely comfortable with the direction his life is taking him.
Tess has emotional scars from her childhood that she hides behind a prickly exterior. There aren’t many people she lets get close, and even those she lets inside don’t know the extent of her baggage. She is quick to anger, but fiercely loyal to those who show their worth to her.
A trip out of town during the most stress-filled part of the year is just what Bodhi thinks Tess needs to unwind a little (and maybe make her less likely to grab her Bic in frustration). But what they find when they reach the West Virginia bed and breakfast he booked isn’t quite as peaceful as he imagined.
I have loved watching these two as side characters, and seeing them front and center was certainly entertaining. This had all the off-the-wall humor I expect from Tara, as well as a good helping of Christmas cheer. I couldn’t help but laugh at so many of the holiday themed elements that I would have never expected. This series has always been full of crazy antics, but Bodhi and Tess pretty much take the cake on antics. This Christmas trip is full of new characters, big questions, and hilarious mishaps.
Kiss My Putt
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Our 4.5 star reviews
“Palmer ‘Pal’ Campbell has epic breakdown on the 18th hole of the Bermuda Open! Video at 11.”
After spending my entire pro golfing career being known as the quiet, controlled, no-nonsense golfer on the tour, there’s nothing more humiliating than throwing all of that down the drain—or into a water hazard—on national television. Needing some place to hide, to lick my wounds and figure out what I even want to do with my life once this blows over, I can only think of one place I need to be. Summersweet Island, where everyone treats me like one of their own, and they’ll all be happy to have me home again.
Well, except maybe one person. It’s been two years since I last set foot on Summersweet Island or spoke to anyone there. But I’m sure Birdie Bennett, my best friend since I was 15 and the clubhouse manager of my favorite golf course, has had plenty of time to forgive me for that tiny little misunderstanding where I blocked her on social media and blocked her in my phone. Oh, and I guess I kind of, sort of accused her of being a stalker. It’s fine!
Once my sexy, spunky, former best friend gets over the shock of seeing me again and stops trying to drive a 9-iron into my skull, I can finally let her know I’ve also kind of, sort of always been in love with her...
Even though my soul leaves my body every time she says she hates baseball and has never watched me play, a year’s-worth of messages filled with laughter and sarcasm only remind me how amazing my “pen pal” is. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how fine I look in a pair of baseball pants; I’m still 3,000 miles away, and she’s taken... or so I thought. Maybe I should have thought a little harder before I dropped her like a seeing-eye single into the outfield.
When an injury has me questioning everything about my life, I can only think of one place I need to go and one person I need to see. Home, to Summersweet Island, to get back my “pen pal.”
Now I just need to make sure single mom Wren knows I didn’t come back for a change, and I didn’t come back for a job. I’m swinging for the fences, and I’m finally coming home to make her mine. If only she’d stop insulting me and stay in one place long enough for me to tell her. She wouldn’t try to drown me with a tub of ice cream, right?
I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Swing and Mishap
(Summersweet Island #2)
(Summersweet Island #2)
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Kim's 4.5 star review
“Hawks fans still in shock after centerfielder, Shepherd Oliver, sustained season-ending injury last night in the 5th inning of the playoffs against Chicago.”
Two years ago, I was a pretty big deal. I thought I had it all, until a blast from my past popped up on my social media feed, keeping my ego in check and reminding me how basic I am. Except sassy Wren Bennett isn’t just a blast from my past. She’s the only woman I ever saw a future with.
Two years ago, I was a pretty big deal. I thought I had it all, until a blast from my past popped up on my social media feed, keeping my ego in check and reminding me how basic I am. Except sassy Wren Bennett isn’t just a blast from my past. She’s the only woman I ever saw a future with.
Even though my soul leaves my body every time she says she hates baseball and has never watched me play, a year’s-worth of messages filled with laughter and sarcasm only remind me how amazing my “pen pal” is. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how fine I look in a pair of baseball pants; I’m still 3,000 miles away, and she’s taken... or so I thought. Maybe I should have thought a little harder before I dropped her like a seeing-eye single into the outfield.
When an injury has me questioning everything about my life, I can only think of one place I need to go and one person I need to see. Home, to Summersweet Island, to get back my “pen pal.”
Now I just need to make sure single mom Wren knows I didn’t come back for a change, and I didn’t come back for a job. I’m swinging for the fences, and I’m finally coming home to make her mine. If only she’d stop insulting me and stay in one place long enough for me to tell her. She wouldn’t try to drown me with a tub of ice cream, right?
I’m sure it’ll be fine.
First and Tension
(Summersweet Island #4)
(Summersweet Island #4)
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Tara Sivec
Tara Sivec is a USA Today best-selling author, wife, mother, chauffeur, maid, short-order cook, baby-sitter, and sarcasm expert. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two children and looks forward to the day when they all three of them become adults and move out.
After working in the brokerage business for fourteen years, Tara decided to pick up a pen and write instead of shoving it in her eye out of boredom. Her novel Seduction and Snacks won first place in the Indie Romance Convention Reader's Choice Awards 2013 for Best Indie First Book and she was voted as Best Author in the Indie Romance Convention Reader's Choice Awards for 2014.
In her spare time, Tara loves to dream about all of the baking she'll do and naps she'll take when she ever gets spare time.
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