I read the first of Ms. Bowen’s new True North series earlier this year, Bittersweet. It was okay. I skipped her second in the series because recovering drug addicts getting together with ex-girlfriend, whose brother he just happened to kill, aren’t exactly my thing. But I was looking forward to book three, Zachariah, the lovable, quiet farmhand. What a disappointment it was. Zachariah was thrown out from a cult 4 years ago, and has been since living in Vermont as a farmhand. He’s sweet and […]
Can I Just Stare at the Cover for Three Hours?
If I may take a moment, I should like to express my profound approbation for the return of facial hair to mainstream men’s fashion. All hail the lumbersexual! The first book in Sarina Bowen’s new True North series, Bittersweet hits a lot of great notes, but doesn’t quite live up to her best work in her justly loved Ivy Years Series. The hero and heroine of this contemporary romance are two people trying to sort out their lives. One is tied down, the other at the end […]
The Non-Romance of Male Tears
I started this year with a plan to review every book I read, but that fell by the wayside pretty quickly, because there are just some books about which I have nothing to say. It may be that they are neither good, nor bad, or they are fine, but not interesting, or they are bad, but not offensive. I recently read two installments in Sarina Bowen’s True North series, and initially thought they would remain among the unreviewed. Alwaysanswerb’s review of The Chocolate Rose made […]
Bittersweet symphony (minus most of the angst)
Bittersweet is the first book in Sarina Bowen’s new Vermont foodie series True North. I loved most of her Ivy Years series so when I had a credit from Amazon I decided to give this one a go. It was free, what did I have to lose? Griff Shipley is an ex-attempted pro football player, organic apple farmer in Vermont. I know, that’s a hell of a bio. Audrey Kidder was a 2 night stand in college, and now a trained chef trying to work […]