Beck Anderson

This has to be the most beautiful and unlikely tale of love I have read in a very long time. Although the story sounds far-fetched, if not impossible, you still find yourself believing in the characters.

The writing is well paced giving you time to get to know the characters, and really feel their emotions. I could connect with Kelly best, she is in such a vulnerable place in her life now, yet strong enough to cope with the rigors of life with her 2 boys and the extra difficulties a romance with Andrew entails.

Overall this is a great book for anyone even if you don't like romance you'll enjoy this.… (altro)

The Jeweler by Beck Anderson
Source: Author
My Rating: 3/5 stars
My Review:

Fender Barnes spends his days enabling those lost in love. Couple after couple comes into his jewelry store buying and enhancing love in the form of diamonds in platinum settings. With the divorce rate being what it is, Fender has very little respect for love and even less for the institution of marriage but he has to pay the bills and so he continues to enable the fools in love. Case in point, the guy who comes in right at closing time to buy an engagement for his girlfriend. The guy is intent on buying “the perfect” ring and thus ensuring a happily ever after and Fender is intent in dumping a custom ring that was never claimed. Though Fender gets his way, the man does not for seconds after leaving the jewelry store, the man is struck down on the sidewalk by a car.

For months following the death of her boyfriend, Ginger Stevens has struggled to get back on her feet. Though she misses her boyfriend, part of the struggle comes from facing the fact that he may not have been her forever man. Ginger is somewhat of a free spirit with a love of skiing, skate boarding and, nature. For the time she was with her boyfriend, Ginger often gave into his desires for her life and abandoned some of the things she loved in favor of her relationship. With his death, Ginger has slowly begun to reclaim her life and some of the reclamation includes working as a ski instructor. On the mountain, Ginger can not only support herself but indulge in two of the things she loves most, nature and skiing. Her clients range from dynamic and fearless kids to free-wheeling blue hairs who love to spend the day with Ginger as much as on the slopes.

Convinced he should give Ginger the engagement ring that was meant for her, Fender arranges a private ski lesson and quickly figures out two things, he actually likes Ginger and, he is a terrible skier. Braking Ginger’s heart is the last thing Fender wants to do and with every encounter, he falls a little more in like with her and finds yet another excuse not to give her the ring. As the weeks drag on, Ginger becomes increasingly more interested in Fender but knows he is hiding something. When the truth finally comes out, Ginger has to not only deal with the knowledge that she was more than just a girlfriend, the harsh reality of what her answer to “Will you marry me?” would have been and, her now totally confused feelings for Fender.

The Bottom Line: The Jeweler is Anderson’s second novel and like her first, I found it to be a decent though not overly exciting read. Ginger is not necessarily broken by the loss of her boyfriend but more by the truth of her feelings for him. She feels guilty over her true feelings and liking Fender only enhances her guilt. Fender is basically a lost soul with no belief in love until he meets Ginger but he meets her under false pretenses and out of fear of losing her, waits far too long to tell her about the ring. Like Fix You, The Jeweler is a sweet love story that holds very few surprises. With that being said, this sweet, heartfelt romance will appeal to lovers of the genre and fans of HEAs.… (altro)

Fix You by Beck Anderson
Source: Author
My Rating: 3/5 stars
My Review:

There is a large portion of the population that has what Mr. RoloPolo and I affectionately refer to as the “Freebie List.” For those of you who don’t know what a Freebie List is, it’s the list of celebrities we get to run away and sleep with the moment they knock on out front door. Don’t judge, you know you have one too 
For Kelly Reynolds, if there ever was a Freebie List, it and its playfulness died two years ago with her beloved husband, Peter. For two very, very long years Kelly has done the best she can do every day to survive. Her two young sons, Beau and Hunter have gone a long way to help heal her wounds but a love taken too soon is hard to just get over. In an effort to save herself and her sanity, Kelly takes up running and it is on one of those early morning runs that Kelly runs into a man that is on many women’s Freebie List.
Andrew Pettigrew is handsome, charming and, one of Hollywood’s hottest commodities. He is internationally known, often chased by the paparazzi and, has a past that often comes back to bite him on the butt. As long as Andrew is busy, life is good and the demons can be held at bay. Turns out, a widowed mother of two who enjoys a good morning run and hot tea can also help hold the demons at bay. From the moment he meet Kelly Reynolds, Andrew is taken with her. With little to no thought about the absurdity of their situation, Andrew pursues Kelly with every intention of making her his own.
Being the girlfriend of a celebrity is no easy task what with the keeping it a secret, trying to make time to see one another and, dealing with all of the media that often includes your boyfriend with other women. To be fair, Kelly comes with her own baggage but being with Andrew is helping her work through some of those issues. For several months, Kelly and Andrew make things work but before either can even begin to think about an HEA, things fall apart in a very spectacular and public way. Andrew’s demons come back in full, ugly force and rather than stand beside Andrew, Kelly allows her own demons to control her life and her feelings and she runs from the thing she wants the most.
The Bottom Line: Fix You is a sweet love story about two very broken people doing their best to keep themselves and their lives together. From the beginning, Kelly is a hot mess who is, at times just barely hanging on. Andrew is much the same but with a much greater capacity for hiding how truly broken he really is. That the two would find one another and ultimately be able to find happiness is pretty astounding given what each has been through and carries with them on a daily basis. From beginning to end, there aren’t really any big surprises or plot twists but that’s OK. At the end of the day, Fix You is a simple romance about two people from very different worlds who find acceptance, forgiveness and, healing through love.… (altro)

This scrumptious morsel had me hunkered down like it was a cold winter’s night—with an uber-soft blanket and a steaming mug of thick hot chocolate. However, the storyline was so highly entertaining by the time I took a break, I was on the final page and my chocolate cold from neglect. Now, the heat of this cup of goodness wasn’t steaming enough to burn my tongue—no one took off their wrappers…a la another oh-so-hot read that’s been popular in the headlines…but it left this Chick to do her own imaginative confectionary work.

It was easy to lose myself in the character of Kelly; her voice, mannerisms, and self-doubt were highly relatable. She also had an edge to her way of thinking and reactions that made her a gal I would split a cupcake with or be myself. That once-in-a-lifetime lottery moment she finds herself winning by crossing paths with a smoking-hot movie star is actually realistic. That’s the beauty of Anderson’s writing; it pulled me in and was so smooth that I didn’t realize how deeply I had delved into this lip-smacking read until the final page when I looked around and said, “What? Wait! I can go back for seconds, right?”

What was especially fresh and delectable were the split settings and locations. I found myself wound up in the typical Hollywood glitz associated with a popular movie star, but it was tempered with the peaceful backdrops of a western state—Idaho—a place a reader often doesn’t get to travel to on the printed page. The other half to the dynamic duo of main characters, Andrew Pettigrew, was easy on the palette both in description and personality as well. Again, when I was finished, I wanted sequel seconds.… (altro)