Love, Camera, Action by Noel Stark is a contemporary romance - with a good deal of humor! Of course, I need to say upfront, that this book is steamy, so for my readers who prefer closed door sex scenes, this book is more than that and skipping the scenes isn't really possible. That said, despite not usually reading steamy myself, I became quickly hooked by the characters and wanted to see it through.

The premise is that Cali, an up-and-coming TV director, is great at directing sex scenes, so she is hired for a show for a couple of steamy episodes. She meets up quickly with Jory, a hot but smug photography director. And sparks fly - on all levels.

But what caught my attention was that, although a spicy romance, the characters had great depth. Cali is dealing with long-held views about life and love because of an absent father and unstable mother. And Jory? He lost his mother to cancer at a young age and is worried that he may have inherited the gene. For their own reasons, both are drawn to love while also pushing against it. Plus, Noel did a great job describing what happens on a TV set, which I found fascinating.

Noel is an amazing author because despite not being a romance reader and despite not liking books with chili pepper ratings, I was all in by the end of the first chapter. This book definitely gets five stars.

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(Review by Carole O'Neill)

Maribelle's Shadow by Susannah Marren is wonderful women's fiction novel. Lucinda Barrows, a controlling mother, is the head of the Barrows corporation, and she runs her family the same way. Even though she comes from humble beginnings, she treats her three daughters as if they had been born with silver spoons in their mouths. Certainly, with erased memories of her being a ninth-grade teacher. But now they all live in a world without color. Everything is either eggshell or fawn.

Her daughters, Maribelle, Caroline, and Raleigh pretend to be loyal while underneath that façade, they are extremely competitive. Mirabelle is the oldest and her husband, Samuel has just died. She is aware that he has been having an affair and almost too quickly his potential crime, leaving the corporation with a loss of nine million dollars, is discovered, and the rest of the family immediately place Mirabelle aside. They expect her to make up the money that Samuel has supposedly taken and move on with her life. She quickly decides to put all her energy in her own magazine, PB Confidential.

The middle sister, Caroline has worked at the corporation along with her husband who she feels knows more about what happened than he is willing to share. She does believe she would be the best person to take over running the company and is spending her days trying to convince anyone who will listen.

The youngest sister, Raleigh – ten years younger than Maribelle - is married with a young child. She is not happy, and we quickly learn her thoughts of another man in her life are taking up all her time. She calls him North and is sure there’s a future with him.

Palm Beach becomes its own character in this book. The fashion, the expectations and the competition are constantly woven throughout the chapters to make sure the reader feels the impact. In any other town, what you wore to a meeting would hardly be noticed. These three sisters are constantly reminded how they should dress and where they should shop.

If style and fashion along with family unrest make a book enjoyable, then Maribelle’s Shadow is definitely for you. But if you think you can figure out an ending before the author is ready to tell you, this book can offer you a challenge and a surprise ending you won’t see coming. Happy reading.

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(Review by Carole O'Neill)

His first line – “Lynn is leaving us faster than I expected,” stayed with me for days.

This heart wrenching memoir tells the story of Tony Stewart and his wife, Lynn, who spent years navigating through the promising and devastating times of their final days together. They went through several storms and spent many days in the shadow of death. Yet, their determination to find the right doctors with the correct treatments for Lynn’s terminal cancer kept them treasuring their nights together throughout the journey, even when their days were full of pain.

Carrying the Tiger documents the days, weeks, and years that Tony and Lynn followed the advice, suffered the setbacks, and eventually found a way to accept how Lynn lived while trying to make peace with what she was experiencing.

Lynn was a New York City artist who exhibited still life paintings and felt that art brought beauty and meaning to a chaotic world. She spent months in the fall of 2014 suffering from indigestion, acid reflux and diarrhea. That’s when she stopped enjoying meals and started losing a lot of weight. The doctors gave her every possible test without finding the cause. Eventually an MRI showed signs of something in her spine that brought her to her first oncologist.

Lynn and Tony set up a private web page on CaringBridge where they could post information in one place and their friends could respond at their convenience. That’s how her journal was born. Friends liked reading the posts and learning about the setbacks and side effects. The numbers reached over 200 friends reading and sending comments. She felt it was like having her own cheerleading squad. And it was those same friends who made her smile during her final days.

In Carrying the Tiger, Tony was able to expertly weave scenes of real-life along with photographs, emails, and internet posts into an intimate narrative. I held my breath when she would stop eating and he would stop encouraging her, certain she wouldn’t make it through the night. Yet, she would wake the next day to fight the battle again. And, certainly there were quiet moments of joy, like the time they sat in their kitchen looking out at the river as he read her emails from her journal that made her smile.

By February of 2021, after treatments, three major spinal surgeries and experimental drugs, Lynn seemed to be at peace. Hospice was in place as she developed a form of dementia from her brain tumors. Her inability to swallow any foods or liquids told them she is in her final stage.

On February 24, 2021, Lynn died at 8:00p.m.

This tale of love and loss is one you should add to your TBR list.

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