ARC REVIEW Tempting Fate by Stacy Finz

Nugget #10, I don't know if I ever said it in one of my reviews but I know I thought that I wouldn't care if Raylene ever got her own HEA, but I'm glad she did. She's the person everyone loves to hate and she finally meets someone who sees behind all the shine and snootiness and saw the head strong determined woman who regrets everything she did to the town she once loved; especially hurting the two people who loved her the most and now she's lost everything. She can't forgive herself because the town won't forgive her. I think this is one of those books that is best when you've read the other books in the series, but Raylene does have some flashbacks of her worst moments that fill in the blanks, or you can read Getting Lucky and Falling Hard those are the two with her story in them.

Gabe Moretti runs a business with Raylene's half brother, Logan. Logan asks Gabe to keep an eye on Raylene since she's not the most loved person in Nugget he wants to make sure she stay out of trouble and had back-up if she needs it. Gabe has heard the rumors about Raylene and it's not hard for him to believe it all but he finds it hard that the people from a the town that so far has been welcome and inviting can hate someone so much. Raylene has two things she wants to accomplish after Logan and Annie's wedding before she can finally move on from Nugget and never look back, find the gold her ancestor buried and sell off the last remaining plot of her family's land. After she finds her gold and sells off the land she can give the women's shelter she's been volunteering at the money they need to stay open and finally have enough start up money to start her own horse training ranch. But she has to find the gold first and Gabe insists on helping. Little things keep happening that raises suspicion that Raylene isn't the only ones out there looking for the gold.

Overall, this was a really good read. It was emotional not only between Raylene and Gabe but between her and the town she did some pretty low and horrible things and you can tell how much she regrets do them it really showed how much Raylene had changed since the beginning. The end was very exciting. I was surprised by how quickly the whole town flipped on their feelings for Raylene but hate isn't the opposite of love and they all loved her once they just needed something to love her for that was enough to forgive her of her past sins.   

ARC REVIEW Hope for Christmas by Stacy Finz

A little bit of Christmas Reading for your ever growing TBR list...

A Nugget Christmas story, book 10, more like novella. If you know the series, and you know the second book Finding Hope you can probably glean from the title what this one is about and you would be right. My big take away from the story was, YAY Clay wasn't a complete ass in this one. He was very sweet and understanding of the whole situation.

Emily has lived with the fact that her daughter is gone for the last seven years. She has started over remarried with a new baby and two step sons who adore her and a devoted (although kind of an ass sometimes) husband. As they get ready for the babies first Christmas Emily receives a disturbing letter about her daughter, and a couple days later a disturbing phone call. Clay is pissed and just like everyone else convinced it's just a sick joke, but Emily has hope, she's never going to give up on her daughter.

Overall, a very emotional story and so sweet. I absolutely love this series and this is a nice conclusion to Emily's story.

ARC REVIEW Falling Hard by Stacy Finz

Book 9 in the Nugget series by Stacy Finz stars the intelligent Annie Sparks whom we first met in the last book along with Logan Jenkins the illegitimate son of Ray Rosser, the convicted murder and no good sonovabitch of Nugget who died in prison. Logan didn't even know who his biological father was until he was contacted by a lawyer about being named in his father's will. Logan out of curiosity went to the ranch that use to be his father's, it now belonged to Gia Trendwell, he didn't care about any of that he just wanted to  know more about his father. Annie moved on to the Rosser ranch when she walked out on her boyfriend. She had enough with lazy moochers who did nothing but waste her time and this included her brother who continually made bad decisions and cost their parents lots of money and this time collateral on the farm they could not afford to lose. Annie wanted nothing more than to help Gia's tree farm succeed especially the part of the plan that helped women get back on their feet, learn money management and business.  

It was just suppose to be temporary, it was just suppose to be a fling until he left to San Diego and then Annie would get on with her life wherever that was heading and that was it. Annie and Logan never intended to fall in love, but they did and hard and neither of them knew how to handle that. It's hard enough trying to figure out where your relationship is going when moocher brothers cause problems and then there is Raylene, Logan's half sister who if you've read the other books you know how she is, getting in the picture just to rock the boat and stir up trouble for Logan. Logan, omg, he's such a freakin' sweetheart; even though it's "casual" he ends up buying Annie new boots because she needs them and a pair of cowboy boots just because he knows she'll like them. Logan is the opposite of what Annie normally goes for but he is exactly what she needs. Logan is the opposite of his father, he was raised by a good man and it shows he even goes out of his way to help Raylene after she acted like a twat.

Overall, this is another great read. I love this series it is one of my favorite small town romance series and they just keep getting better and better.

ARC REVIEW Riding High by Stacy Finz

Book 8 already! Wow! Riding High bring together Gia Treadwell who we meet in the last book as a financial genius who was swept off her feet by a scheming con-man who stole a butt load of money and ruined her professional reputation. And although the grand jury acquitted her the FBI still has her in sights to find her ex-boyfriend swindler who has disappeared with the millions he took. Flynn is a former FBI turned private practice lawyer/rancher and his family has been leasing the land she bought for graze land. Flynn, although he knows innocent until proven guilty, can't help but be sceptic about Gia's intentions. Flynn is soon confused by what he's read about her and how she acts, then again she pulled a rifle on him the first time they meet. This book also reinforced why I dislike the character Clay so much. There is a side story (which is typical for this series) of Clay and Emily, no spoilers, but he continues to be a complete ass.

Gia needed to get away from everything in her old life and to finally do something she really believes in, that is why she liquidated all her assets to have enough money to buy the ranch. Gia is now earning her money in day trading, going back to where she started. Unfortunately the FBI is still trying to pin her down so she can give them information on her ex to the point of harassment. She hires Flynn to help keep the wolves at bay, it isn't until then that he starts realize there is so much more to Gia then he ever thought, so much more than she ever let anyone see when she was a celebrity. While Gia tries to get her new homestead up and running and earning money and starting on her special project she is falling in love with Flynn, even with as gun shy as she is about trusting her heart again Flynn is a good guy and she can't help but fall in love. Flynn is taken with her beauty, impressed by her intelligence and despite trying to remain impartial he can't help but stand up for her and stand by her and fall in love with her.

Overall, another great Nugget Romance! P.s. I really do dislike Clay.      

ARC REVIEW Heating Up by Stacy Finz

This is book seven in the Nugget series by Stacy Finz. As usual I really enjoyed this one, I loved the main characters and the story. (Love Firemen!!!) The end of this one was predictable something similar happened in my hometown when I was little and remember my Dad telling me about it. But that doesn't take away from the story or the romance between Dana and Aidan. Aidan is the brother to Slone from the last book. Aidan's girlfriend of many years breaks up with him because he's doesn't want to marry her, so to get away he moves to Nugget joins Cal Fire as one of their arson investigators. Dana Calloway was introduced to us in one of the prior books she's a real estate agent who briefly dated Griffin but it ended when he finally got together with Lina. Dana swore off men especially since she tends to fall for the ones emotionally invested in other women, her fiance dumped her when the woman he really loved divorced her husband and then there was Griffin.

I love that Dana is shy, she a great real estate agent but when it comes to socializing with other people she gets very unsure about herself and doesn't know how to act. I love that Aidan is the opposite he's quick to make friends and has no problems in social situations. I especially like how Aidan was able to draw Dana out of her shell and make her feel like part of the gang make her feel welcome and show her that people are interested in talking to her about real estate and such. There was an unexpected side of Sloane to overprotective little sister who turned out to be kind of a bitch, but that's okay I forgive her.

Dana's house catches on fire and has nowhere to go. Aidan just moved into Tawny's old house and has an extra room, he feels bad for Dana and offers her the spare room. Dana turns the house into a home. Aidan realizes the reason he never married his ex, the only thing he has to do is convince Dana he really loves her and that he's not just settling for her. All the while trying to find out who the firebug is that is setting fires around Nugget.

Overall, I really did love this one it was nicely paced and the characters are fantastic. I adore this series.

 

ARC REVIEW Borrowing Trouble by Stacy Finz

Nugget, California book 6, already can you believe it! This little town is really securing it's way into my heart with every book. This one was a treat, and constantly was making me hungry with all that talk about food. I have been patiently waiting for Brady's story/backstory since he first appeared, I mean he's a hot tattooed southern boy who knows how to cook, rwar! I love Sloane she is such a girlie girl but a tough as nails when she's in uniform. When it first introduced Sloane in the last book I figured, I assumed, she was leaving LAPD because of a sexual harassment charge with a superior and being ostracized by fellow cops. Well I wasn't quite right. She was being ostracized but not for what I thought it was something much more. Brady's backstory finally comes out and honestly I had no idea what to expect from him and was kinda wishing it hinted more to it in other books, foreshadowing.

Sloane McBride had to leave LA, she was being threatened and feared for her life. The tiny town of Nugget was just what she needed but she wasn't sure if she could transition to small town life without dragging her problems with her. She doesn't want to get to comfortable afraid she's just going to have to pick up and move again. She doesn't realize how welcoming, understanding and protective Nugget is of it's citizens especially those who need it. Sloane is fitting right in when she unintentionally starts a youth program for some of the outcast kids at the high school. Brady Benson ran from his troubles too, he is in hiding from a potentially dangerous situation. He happened upon Nugget and stayed, keeping his past and who he was back in LA a secret finding it amusing every time one of old timers came up with another hypothetical backstory for him.

Trouble finds Sloane and Brady easily enough between the skeletal remains found in town and both Sloane and Brady's respective troubles finally showing up. Even though Sloane is a cop and very much able to take care of herself Brady has an urge to protect her, thankfully Sloane is smart enough not to argue with him; with a bunch of brother and her dad, all Chicago PD,she knows what battles to pick. Brady's crazy ended up kind of anti-climatic but Sloane's more than makes up for it.

Overall, I love these two. I enjoyed the gradual falling in love and acceptance of it. New character, Sloane's brother!! *excited*          

ARC REVIEW Getting Lucky by Stacy Finz

Getting Lucky book 5 in Stacy Finz's Nugget California series. This book was funny, aggravating, sweetly romantic and everything I've come to expect from Stacy Finz. Lucky starts off the book a complete moron. Blinded by first love and a fantasy that could never be. He has worked hard to be the best and to prove he isn't trash. Tawny is a strong woman, she has to be, she's been alone for most of her life. She has struggled with a sick father and then a sick child she has worked hard to be the best boot maker around. Lucky is so oblivious and obnoxious at the start but halfway through you start to see him change. Tawny is a hard sell though, when the truth finally does smack Lucky in the face Tawny is still hesitant; once burned twice shy.

Years ago Lucky left Nugget suddenly to avoid scandal. Lucky has been in love with Raylene for just about ever. He knows the dark truth about the family and even though Raylene didn't contradict her father when he accused Lucky of raping Raylene, when in fact they had been sexually active for years behind her boyfriend's back. Lucky was torn up, and in a fit of depression and misery he confided in the first person he came across little Thelma who had to drop out of school to take care of her father and unbeknownst to Lucky worshipped him from afar. Overly emotional and drunk one thing lead to another and  Lucky and Thelma had a one night stand.

Ten years has past and Lucky is back, he has made a name for himself in the rodeo circuit and now he's back home and ready to settle down, especially now since Raylene is divorcing her husband. Raylene didn't waste time pulling Lucky back into her web. The only things that could make Lucky happier is his cowboy camp construction finishing and Raylene bringing their relationship out into the open. But everything changes when Tawny shows up on his doorstep asking him to donate stem cells for the sick daughter he never knew he had. Thelma, now Tawny, found out she was pregnant and never able to get ahold of Lucky, and with all the crap he left behind she didn't want him to come back and ruin everything he worked hard to change; she didn't even tell his mother.

Katie is nine years old and is living with acute myeloid leukemia, she has already gone through chemotherapy and radiation, her only change is to find a stem cell donor that matches her HLA antigens. Tawny has done the best she can for her daughter and she really didn't have any other choice but to tell Lucky about his daughter and hope he is a donor match. The more time Lucky spends with his daughter the more he falls in love with her and with Tawny also. Tawny is more wary this time around even though she has never stopped loving Lucky.

Lucky isn't so lucky, Raylene's father is still out to get him and ruin Lucky's hard work. Also Lucky finds out the crew he hired to do the construction work on his cowboy camp is dealing drugs and rustling cattle on the side. Lucky is forced to work with police to get the evidence they need for arrest and things get messier when one of the workers is murdered by Raylene's father.

Overall, this book has action, emotion, laughs; everything I look for in a good book. Getting Lucky is definitely one of the better ones in the series.      

ARC REVIEWS Going Home and Starting Over by Stacy Finz

I thought it appropriate to review Going Home and Starting Over together as they are the first and most recent books of the Nugget series; and they center around brother and sister, Nate and Maddy finding love in the sleepy little town of Nugget California. I really enjoy this series, I love small town romance and for the most part these are second chance at love stories. Each character has a past that has jaded them and it creates a very believable and likeable characters (for the exception of Clay from Finding Hope I still don't like him).

Maddy needed a place to start over after her disastrous marriage and divorce and Nugget California was the perfect place. She convinced her brother into buying the old dilapidated Lumber Baron and turn it into a Bed and Breakfast. Although she isn't exactly welcomed with open arms she is slowly working over the locals. The owners of the local motel are self important and keep finding ways to try and keep Maddy from opening the Inn.

They say you can't go home but going home was the only option for Detective Rhys Shepard. It was only suppose to be temporary, take care of his father until he recuperates. But the longer Rhys is there the more he realizes his ailing father is worse off than he thought. The town is dangling the Sheriff position to keep him there he is torn between a father he never got along with and a town that wasn't very welcoming when he was younger or the promotion to Sergeant and a six figure raise back in Texas. The choice was easy until he found out about the two siblings he never knew about and is now he is responsible for them and the closeness he has started to feel toward his father after realizing all the sacrifices that were made for Rhys. The sexy new owner of the Lumber Baron Inn isn't helping matters.

It was all just suppose to be temporary, the position as Sheriff, staying with his father, and his affair with Maddy. Rhys realizes lots of things during his stay in Nugget but it takes but it takes Maddy almost killed by a meth head looking for his stash for him to realize where he belongs.  

Back again in the quaint little town of Nugget California. In the last book Second Chances we are introduced, quite dramatically, to Samantha Dunsbury and almost immediately you see sparks fly between her and Nate Breyer. Nothing really bad happens in this story for the exception of the cook leaving the Lumber Baron Inn with no notice, the Abernathy's still trying to sabotage the Baron, and the stubbornness and blind dislike Nate has for Sam.

Nate has his reasons for not liking Sam, but those reasons are erroneous. Nate was in love once she was from a well off family, stupid rich, and she was flighty, flaky, and seriously something wrong with her psychologically, not that Nate realized any of that he was blinded by love. But when she left him and ended their engagement he applied that stereotype to every woman from a rich family. When Sam showed up in Nugget and was given the job of events planner by Maddy, Nate figured it was just a passing phase for a socialite like Sam and she would quit as soon as she got bored just like his ex.

Samantha Dunsbury blew into Nugget and instantly won the hearts of all the locals, for the exception of Nate. Sam needed a place to start over and Nugget seemed like just the place. She drove off the night before her wedding after overhearing some truly hateful words her fiance, a man who proclaimed to love her, said about her everything just seemed to click into place that the path she was going on was the wrong one and if she continued down it she would be miserable. So off she drove until she was all the way across the country from her overbearing father and unfaithful fiance. The job as events planner for The Lumber Baron is the perfect job for her and with Maddy on maternity leave she is having to deal with Nate a man who doesn't trust or like her. She is determined to prove Nate wrong that she is there to stay.

As much as Nate doesn't want to like her the more time he spends with her the more he likes her. When things start to go wrong Sam is there to see things through and succeed, Nate is forced to realize she is nothing like his ex. The attraction is there already so the romance and love falls in line pretty quickly. The admittance and sharing of said love is a little more complicated.

Starting Over is a fun and witty read, overall, it's a great book.  

REVIEW Finding Hope by Stacy Finz

Finding Hope is book two in Stacy Finz Nugget California series. I love small town romances, but really my only major problem I had with this story is Clay. I really didn't like him at the beginning of the book, he was a little mean and a horn dog! He was going after the easy and good looking woman and then again after another. But as his best friend says in the book he is protesting too much when it comes to his feelings for Emily. He does get better when he finally admits to himself it's Emily he wants and in the end he makes up for the fact that he was a douche during the whole first half of the book. I did love Emily who for four years has lived in her grief, until she finally admits to herself she needs to move on. Guilty about her feelings for Clay have her pushing him away no matter how much she wants to hold him close.

Emily is an editor and ghostwriter for celebrity cookbooks, four years ago her six year old daughter was kidnapped right from under nose. The press dragged her through the mud and made her life even more hell than it already is, blaming her and making up stories about her being behind her disappearance. Emily blamed herself and let her marriage fall apart. Four years later she is ready to start over and moves to small town into a repurposed barn. Clay's late wife decorated the barn and used it as an office for her interior decorator business. She died in car accident and was shrouded in gossip. Now Clay and his two boys are dealing with that. Emily like Clay, after four years she is finally feeling something other than grief, but he can only see her as a drab mousy woman who is not very attractive. Clay while convincing himself he's not attracted to her but can talk to her easier than anybody else. Emily also wins over Clay's two boys. Emily's grief is keeping her from completely accepting them into her heart. Everything changes when word comes that they might have found Emily's missing daughter her world get turned upside down and pulls Clay and his boys as well as the whole town with her. The town stands by her and Clay and the boys stay with her. Clay kind of redeems himself after his wandering eye.

Also going on during the book is you meet Griffin, he falls in love with Lana the barely legal Sheriffs little sister. (Future book). Griffin came in to some money from a trust fund and a friend help him multiply it. He buys the local gas station and has big plans for that he also buys the big development that went belly up. Overall it was an enjoyable read, and i would recommend it to friends and I look forward to the next book, but this one was just ok, the ending was a lot better then the rest of the book.