Everglades is a contemporary romance from Desert Breeze.  A smooth, easy read. Petie offers great details of the everglades, and I would be surprised to learn that she hasn't spent some serious time in them herself.

It was nice to revisit 1980s romance characters where the heroine immediately dislikes the hero for one scowling glance.  Plus, Everglades was a love-at-first sight romance, with the majority of the book covering two days in lives of Skye and Kayli. Their developing relationship is a slowburn lust rather than passionate kisses and too quick sex — so that's cool too.

This novel wouldn't be pegged as Christian fiction, but it had the worldview of God as Creator, some moments of panic prayers, and an Indian guardian angel element of the supernatural.  Plus, the main story theme was trust.

The ending was intense, but the story was so caught up in plot and love relationship that a few threads were dropped.  The heroine never had to fess up to her part in not being honest.  And the political subplot, particularly the villain, left a lot to the reader's imagination how that ended up. But imagination is a good thing, right?

I liked this one for the setting, the instant attractions between hero and heroine, and the action scenes. See if you do, too.

Cooking the Books is an interesting mix of cozy mystery and romantic suspense in that many of the suspects were the heroine's past or current love interests, that the heroine wasn't actually trying to solve a crime, but stay alive, and that all the loose ends were not tied up at the end … as this is the first in a mystery series.

Sloane Templeton is neither extreme in the archetype of female sleuths — a Jessica Fletcher nor an Eve Dallas.  Sloane isn't knowledgeable about a variety of topics. She isn't physically fit, her body honed into a weapon, nor even is she knowledgeable about weapons. Yet she is a defender of underdogs and willing to sacrifice her own comfort to help others.  Of course she has actrocious taste in men.

The problems:  Sloane has inherited half of her mother's bookstore and she has no interest in books. Sloane is divorced and her ex is suing her for her inheritance. A big corporation wants to buy out the building that houses her apartment and the bookstore. Two professors are squabbling over buying a rare book she possesses. Her ex-lover is a gangster. Her current boyfriend isn't that into her. Her mom's business partner wants to buy out her interest in the bookstore. And Sloane would like to get back into the world of computer forensics, but she's still grieving and emotionally unable to take the steps needed to realign her life.

As I've said before, I'm not that into snark, but Sloane didn't seem to be either. I liked her.  I didn't always understand or agree with her decisions, but she never annoyed me to the point where I wouldn't want to be her friend. In fact, if she were real, I would pray for her because I see her potential to be a mighty force for the Lord.

As was, Cooking the Books struck me as spiritually lite. Even Sloane's revelation about her ability to defend herself and not be a victim didn't hold long before she was questioning again. So she may have taken a few baby steps toward healing, but Sloane has a long way to go — which I suppose is okay if it is going to be a long series.

Guess I'll have to keep reading to see.

Conception, Future Savior Book One, by Jennifer Hartz was one of the first Christian fantasy novels Desert Breeze Publishing offered. Of course, I'm late to the game and she has two more books in the series published with the fourth soon to be released.  This is good news, because in this case, when she says series, it doesn't mean loosely joined by a location but stand-alone books, like I mean in my Children of the King series.  Here, the end of Conception leads right into the next book.  So be prepared to read a series. 

Here's what I liked about Conception:  Christian symbolism — all over the place. Know your Bible and you'll see reflections of God throughout the story.

Christina, the sarcastic heroine. She does well under pressure.  Not perfect, but certainly exemplary, given the circumstances of being dropped into a new world/realm/time.

The world building.  I liked that Meric was just a little bit different than earth. I liked that animals were named the same, but maybe a different color, or had extra horns. I liked that I didn't have to work to understand the scenery.  And I liked the insinuation that the atmosphere was the same as pre-Noah days, allowing for longer life.

I liked all the good-looking male characters. I'm not a reader who wants the bumps and worts of real life in my heroes, so I appreciated the prettiness of Jenn's characters. The only problem I had with Shaw's gorgeousness was that he was a shape-shifter, and if I'd been Christina I would have commented on his good taste in choosing such a pretty face rather than just being impressed by his bod.

And speaking of Shaw's shape-shifting, what was that ending about?  During the climax of the novel, did he forget that he had that ability? (I know for plot purposes, Jenn did what she did to bring about the conclusion she wanted — another good biblical mirroring), but I was yelling at Shaw to change back into a skinny kid, and he wasn't doing it.

Read the book and you'll know what I'm talking about.  If you get to books 2, 3, and 4 before me, just tell me it all ends well. Don't be giving away secrets.

Check out Conception at Desert Breeze Publishing.