From the author of Off Trail comes a hilarious mystery about what happens when a chilling trip leads to a lost fortune.
Nate and Lily knew their mother was different. All it took was a hunch or a bad feeling and the family would be uprooted and moving to a different apartment or even a different town. But when the two are torn out of their life in the ritzy North Bay for the summer and dropped in “the Mississippi of California” on the Sacramento River Delta, Nate Caldwell and his sister Lily see it as one more move in a series of lurching disruptions driven by their mother’s suspicion that something or someone is after them.
When they settle into life around their uncle’s House of Illusion roadside attraction, Nate meets Mia—who makes all the girls he knew in the North Bay seem shallow and dull—and begins to connect with local teens who couldn’t be more different than the privileged classmates he left behind.
It’s not until they learn that the story behind the attraction is more than just a tale for the tourists, that Nate begins to figure out what drove his mother’s suspicious nature.
“An entertaining, comic, but also thoughtful coming-of-age tale.” – Kirkus Reviews on Polito’s Off Trail.
As a career journalist and a former newspaper reporter, Rick Polito has covered everything from political scandals and natural disasters to taking his dog to a pet psychic seminar. Polito attended the University of Missouri School of Journalism and worked at newspapers in Arizona and California. Along the way, he won multiple state and national feature and news writing awards and fit in a stretch as a syndicated humor columnist. Jokes from that column have been quoted in places as varied as The Tonight Show and The New Yorker, with his viral Wizard of Oz synopsis tweeted, posted and shared hundreds of millions of times. Once told that he “views the world through smartass glasses,” Polito took it as a compliment and prides himself on “thinking three jokes ahead,” a skill he has taken on stage as an occasional standup comic. Off Trail is his first published novel, and Polito says he writes in the young adult genre because he appreciates the “urgency” of the teen years and believes it takes readers to a place that is both dramatic and familiar to everyone. A father of two and a native of Arizona, the setting for Off Trail, Polito now lives in Denver, sharing his COVID bubble with his girlfriend Angela and Rocket, the insane Jack Russell Terrier.
Title: A Place to Belong Author: Alexa Rivers Genre: Contemporary Romance
Horror author Felicity Bell moves to the charming town of Oak Bend after being shunned from the last place she called home. When she walks in the door of her new rental, she doesn’t expect to find a half-naked man standing in her kitchen. There’s just one problem: Wyatt Dawson seems to think it’s his kitchen. Misunderstandings aside, her new neighbor is lumberjack hot, and his grumpiness only makes her more determined to bring a little joy to his life, even if he’d rather be left alone.
Burned by his past, Wyatt isn’t about to let the cheerful free spirit next door into his heart only for her to crush him when she flits out of town again. But with his well-meaning, matchmaking, mother on the case, these two end up spending far too much time together and things between the unlikely pair quickly heat up. It may be true what they say—opposites do attract, but only if their relationship can survive Wyatt’s interfering ex-girlfriend and Felicity’s fear of history repeating itself. Welcome to Oak Bend, where blue-collar hotties work hard and love even harder, especially when it comes to landing their happily ever after.
Alexa Rivers is the author of steamy and heartfelt small town romances.
She lives in a small town herself, complete with nosy neighbors and quirky traditions.
She shares a house with a neurotic dog and a husband who thinks he’s hilarious.
When she’s not writing, she enjoys travelling, baking and decorating cakes, eating those cakes, cuddling fluffy animals, drinking excessive amounts of tea, and absorbing herself in fictional worlds.
Two chefs are catering the fifteenth birthday parties of two girls who are definitely not friends. Only one of the celebrations will be chosen to be featured in the local paper. And both chefs have something to prove.
Tony Sanchez, the established executive chef of a New York restaurant, is on a long-overdue visit home to Miami. He’s committed to making the celebration the best it can be—for the sake of his niece, the rest of his family, and his reputation.
Sara Kelly hadn’t known much about quinceañeras before she agreed to cater one for her niece. It’s a chance to both help her family and to promote her brand-new restaurant in Miami. From her Cuban sister-in-law, Sara learns about quince traditions, appreciating the meaning behind them.
When Tony was growing up, Sara was his best friend’s little sister; now, he sees her in a very different light. But his last relationship with another chef ended in disaster…and Sara knows that, once the parties are over, he’ll be gone. Can either of them entertain the idea of a new romance?
South Beach Love is a sweet romance that can really pull on your heartstrings. It’s a return to home and a culinary adventure into the unfamiliar. Tony and Sara are a fun couple, and their trip to a relationship isn’t all sunshine. It includes plenty of thunderstorms as well. They have intense personalities – especially when it comes to cooking.
The two nieces really help make the story a success. Both are sweet girls, but they have a fierce rivalry. These two girls were really the glue of the story, bringing Sara and Tony together and maybe playing a little matchmaker behind the scenes. My only complaint here is that there weren’t differentiated enough – I never knew which was which.
I loved seeing the culture and cuisine of Cuba. It was such a large part of the story and was a driving force behind the cooking and much of the competition between the chefs and the nieces. The families played a big part in the culture, and everything came together so nicely to build an amazing picture.
The ending was sweet and believable – it seemed like everything turned out just the way it was supposed to.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
