Badass Bloggettes: ***REVIEW*** MY VALENTINE ADVENTURE by Amber Daulton

My Valentine Adventure

Publisher: Resplendence Publishing

Release Date: February 10, 2016

ISBN: 9781607359333

ISBN-13: 2940157886424

ASIN: B01BMSI3ZC

Genre: Contemporary Valentine’s Day Romance

Word Count: 20k

Heat Level: 2 Flames

Parker Townsend raised his children alone after he lost his beloved wife to cancer. When his two little hellions placed a ‘Mom Wanted’ ad in the local paper, Parker found himself roped into an unwanted blind date.

Claire Lauer answered the want ad with few expectations and met Parker on Valentine’s Day, a day she hated with a passion. As an animal rights activist and a divorcée, she felt more comfortable with a placard in her hand than in the company of a handsome man with emotional baggage.

After a protest takes a turn for the worse, she seeks shelter in her date’s arms and loses time in his bed. Will Parker and Claire find the courage to lay their fragile hearts on the chopping block by morning, or will they forever live in a world of gray?

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29087071-my-valentine-adventure

This was a new author to my reading portfolio and someone who I would look up in future. I love when an author does a novella; I always feel it is a further insight to characters.

This novella was lovely; it really tugged at my heart strings with the fact that initially it was the children and their uncle who were the instigators of the whole newspaper ad. Priceless!!!!

The way the characters start out in the novella was lovely to read, the way their Valentine’s Day date and the next morning was good to read about, however, when we then jump ahead to their lives now I was a bit “Oh is that it” as after that the story concludes.

As much as I really enjoyed the writing, I really would have liked to see these characters develop over the time gap and how everyone got along, I do know that doing that would not make it a novella but it still would have been nice to have more in there than the time jump.

I did enjoy this book though, don’t get me wrong, I think it if was longer into a novel it would have been more enjoyable for me.

4 STAMPS

AMAZON US / UK / B&N / ARe / Resplendence Publishing

EXCERPT

“You’re not a coward.” Claire gripped the steering wheel hard as she parked her beige car across the street from the Italian restaurant. A few minutes ahead of schedule, she stayed inside the warm vehicle and listed aloud all the reasons why she’d agreed to the date. As it stood, she couldn’t remember more than two. “Don’t drive off. Could you really stand a man up on Valentine’s Day? Just give him a chance.”

She pried her hands off the wheel, grabbed her clutch purse and opened the car door before she lost her nerve. Beautiful shades of purple streaked across the darkening sky and a cool, soothing breeze ruffled her hair. Car exhaust filled her lungs as an old station wagon chugged by and she bit her tongue to not shout a few greenhouse statistics at the driver. Her friend, Marybeth, definitely would have. Claire hurried across the asphalt to reach the awning of the two-story building and a well-dressed doorman opened the door for her. She wished Parker hadn’t suggested the uber-romantic La Volare Giardino. She loved to window shop in this side of town, but she couldn’t afford anything in the boutiques.

If he flashes money at me and offers to get a room, I’m outta here.

Unlike her mother’s ridiculous claim, Claire would savor a few words of love compared to gifts but she didn’t know or love the man she planned to meet. Hell, she wasn’t sure if she even liked him but she couldn’t stand another Valentine’s Day alone. She’d been on several first dates since her divorce, a few second dates but no thirds, and none on February 14^th. Her friends usually helped her forget her single status as they protested or shared dinner, but her failure as a wife sometimes clogged her throat as she tried to sleep in her comfy bed. A simple date might make all the difference in the world to how she slept tonight.

If Parker proved to be a gentleman.

Writing is the fruit to happiness.

Amber Daulton lives her life by that one belief even though she normally isn’t so Zen.

Author of several novellas, she published her first book in 2012 and hopes to publish countless more in the future. As a fan of contemporary, paranormal and historical romance novels alike, she can’t get enough of feisty heroines and alpha heroes. Her mind is a wonderland of adventure, laughter and awesome ways of kicking a guy when he’s down. She probably wouldn’t be too sane without her computer and notebooks. After all, what’s a girl to do when there are people jabbering away in her head and it’s hard to shut them up? Write! Nothing else works.