I absolutely loved this book!
To say it was “magical would be an understatement”. To those of us who think our time may be past or running out for our own “happy ending” this gives hope. A totally feel good read with so much inspiration and insight.
The Happy Endings Book Club is the second novel that I’ve read from Jane Tara. This book is completely different from Tara’s novel Trouble Brewing– from writing style to character development. Though I enjoyed both novels, I must say that The Happy Endings Book Club is my favorite. The style of this book suits the author so well.
Happy Endings Book Club follows different members of a book club. Each of them are so different but they relate to each other so well. I found this reading easy to read and follow. Perfect for the Christmas Holidays!
What happens when the romance novel hero is legless or blind? Amy Andrews and Jane Tara both think that’s just fine… in fact, their latest heroes are more than “fine”… They are hawt and handsome and everything else a hero should be.
I’ve always wanted to write a bodyguard book. I love that delicious tension where he wants her bad but can’t do anything about it because he’s supposed to be protecting her. Honestly, I freaking love that hands off shit! It just calls to my ever-lovin’ romance soul.
So imagine my delight when my muse threw me one, finally! She’s really been very recalcitrant in that quarter. But, of course, she never just gives generously – she makes me work for it. She’s kinda bitchy like that because suddenly my “bodyguard” was an above knee amputee.
WTF??
I can’t have a hero who has to protect my super-model heroine from the bad guy be hampered by a prosthetic leg. I mean who ever heard of a one-legged bodyguard? I could, of course, have made him an ex kick-arse para-Olympic running champion but Oscar kinda put the kybosh on that!
So there I was, with my muse insisting and me wondering how the hell I was going to pull it off. But then things started to take shape in my head and before long I knew Blake was ex-military, I knew he’d had his leg blown off in Iraq and I knew after a harrowing couple of years he was in a reasonably good place.
And I think that was the most important thing to me. I didn’t want the book to be about an amputee hero. The book is about an average Joe who falls for a woman waaaay out of his league. It’s a romance through and through. He just happens to have one leg.
It was also important that I made him physically strong and able. He may have a slight limp, he may not be able to run like the wind but he’s fit and work-honed. He crafts wood and his pride and joy is the canal boat he spent a year of his life stripping down to the hull and renovating. Nothing like noisy power tools to help get your head back on straight.
And of course, all this is just code for good with his hands. Because Blake may only have one leg but he is very, very good with his hands!
To date she’s sold over a million books and been translated into thirteen different languages including manga.
She loves her kids, her husband, her dogs, cowboys, men in tool belts, cowboys in tool belts and happily ever afters. Please, DO NOT mess with the HEA! Also good books, fab food, great wine and frequent travel – preferably all four together.
She lives on acreage on the outskirts of Brisbane with a gorgeous mountain view but secretly wishes it was the hillsides of Tuscany.
Jane Tara’s blind hero
My favourite vamp and her real life boyfriend inspired me when writing this story.
When starting a new novel I usually have a clear idea of what I’m going to write. I’m not one of those let’s just wing it and see where we end up type authors. My characters are too pushy. If I let them have their own way one of them could go off the rails, party too hard and wake up married in a Vegas jail. My characters are like teenagers… Yes, they have certain freedoms, but they also need a lot of structure…
But the occasional character will stroll in, pretend to be all nice and easy-going… but then actually take the book in a direction that even I didn’t anticipate. I don’t get much of a say.
My latest book, The Happy Ending Book Club, contains one such character. The book has seven intertwined stories. In one of them (my favourite… there I’ve said it!) we meet Patrick. He’s tall, sexy… He’s a musician, he’s funny and smart… he has muscles… Sigh. Oh, and he’s blind.
No, not blind as in Friday nights at the pub blind… he’s really blind. Visually impaired.
He has a disability.
Romance heroes are notoriously “perfect.” Oh yes, they can have emotional wounds, but being anything less than physically flawless is unusual. I spent a lot of time trying to rewrite Patrick… but he was immovable… He made it clear: “Like it or not, this is who I am. I’m blind. Now do your job and write me!”
And so I did. More than that, I developed a massive crush on him. I saw him more clearly than any of my other leading men. His blindness didn’t make him less attractive. It didn’t make him needy. It also didn’t make him “extra special.” His blindness didn’t define him at all. Tilda the heroine recognised that being with him would present certain challenges, but her own issues far outweighed his.
In my mind, Patrick is everything a romance hero should be. For those of you who read my book, let me know how you see him.
Jane Tara has SchizoPENia. She finds it impossible to stick to one genre when writing. While most writers have a ‘voice’ … she has a few … her pen name should be Sybil.
After years living in Tokyo, Vienna, London and New York, Jane is happy to call Bondi Beach home. She lives with her partner Dom and their four sons. Wine helps with that.
The first review for THE HAPPY ENDINGS BOOK CLUB is in … and it’s great! Thanks to Nightly Reading for taking the time to review my book.
“How do you see the world? Happy endings come not through events but through a shift in perception.”I absolutely loved this book. Jane Tara brings us seven wonderful women, sorting through endings in search of new beginnings – some directly, some indirectly. A few of the characters are finding new beginnings to end happily ever after. This is such a feel good story with a great message of perception. Humorous, touching, just a joy to read. The characters are endearing and each vignette warms your heart. I know there will be at least one character you will be able to relate to, for me each woman in the story I felt a connection with. This book just warmed my heart, I laughed out loud and teared up but one thing is certain I sure felt warm and fuzzy after reading this little gem.
I will be looking for more writings from Jane Tara, great story, very uplifting, happy reading indeed, downright magical. Loved, loved, loved The Happy Endings Book Club.
Momentum Books provided a copy in exchange for an honest review
This Christmas, the women of the Happy Endings Book Club are about to uncover a world of love and magic as they discover how to have their own happy ending … or beginning, as they’re often the same thing.
Once a month, seven very different women come together to discuss books. They all love a happy ending, but have lost sight of how to get their own. Paige misses glimpsing the magic in the world. Sadie doesn’t see the beauty inside people. Amanda wonders what she ever saw in her ex husband. Tilda literally can’t see herself. Michi can’t bear looking at her family, while Clementine is blind to what’s right in front of her. And Eva looks for romance in all the wrong places.
But things are about to change …
Meet the women of the Happy Endings Book Club as they celebrate Christmas, and themselves, in London, Paris, Vienna, New York, Sydney … and in love.
Holding out For A Hero, by my friend Amy Andrews is out NOW!!! This is Amy’s thirty trillionth book… well not quite, but the woman is prolific, and she writes like a woman who knows her craft. Plus she’s hilarious. So support an Aussie author, and grab your copy now. Check out these reviews:
“Holding Out For A Hero is a fun sexy contemporary with an Australian flavour…” – Kaetrin’s Musings
“A funny, smexy contemporary romance with absolutely unique characters that are easy to love.” – Harlequin Junkie
“A heartwarming and inspiring story of never giving up, friendship, family and letting go.” – Beauty and Lace
“Andrews’ ability to capture the ups and downs of familial relationships has never been in doubt, but here it adds a depth to what is essentially a love story.” – Exploits of a Chick Lit Aficionado
When sensible schoolteacher Ella Lucas rides into her home town on a Harley and seduces the resident football hero, Jake Prince, she figures she can be forgiven and move on. After all, she’s just buried her mother.
Two years later, back in the city, their paths cross again but this time Jake is in the process of destroying her favourite dive bar. With her home facing a wrecker’s ball, her school being closed down and her 15-year-old brother hell bent on self-destruction, it’s the last straw. Throw in a dominatrix best friend who is dating a blue ribbon guy so straight he still lives at home with his mother, it’s no wonder the sanest person in Ella’s life is a dog.
With all this to contend with, the last thing Ella needs is Jake back in her life. But, as fate would have it, Jake is the only chance she has to save her school.
As the school football season heats up, old secrets threaten to surface and Ella takes on greedy developers, school boards and national tabloids. But can she save not just her home, her school and her brother, but also the reputation of the man she’s never been able to forget? And, more importantly, does she want to?
Holding Out for a Hero is a quirky, heartwarming tale of unlikely romance, friendship and family.
The wonderful Book’d Out reviewed Trouble Brewing (see below). Go and check out the site, which is packed with fantastic reviews, and enter the comp to win a copy of TB.
I love the Book’d Out logo.
Trouble Brewing is an enchanting romance by Australian author, Jane Tara. Though ostensibly the second book to feature the magical Shakespeare family (the first is Forecast), it can be read as a standalone.
Calypso Shakespeare is a witch whose psychic ability allows her to brew cocktails to, amongst other things, mend broken hearts, instill confidence or encourage love to bloom. Though based in her parent’s London pub, Calypso’s wanderlust sees her traveling the world, never staying in one place very long but eventually The Winds of Change finds her and Calypso is forced to consider if she is always running to, or from, something…or someone.
Heartbreak haunts Calypso and the arrival of former fling Taran Dee in London is the impetus for her to move on, despite only just having arrived. But this man isn’t willing to let her run far, following her to Vienna and then Paris before convincing her to spend just three days with him. Calypso and Taran’s relationship is fun and sexy, the chemistry is obvious and the push and pull is believable given their individual histories.
Though primarily a lighthearted romance, Trouble Brewing has some additional depth as it explores grief, loss and love. Calypso struggles with the fate of a former love and her family faces a frightening health scare, while Calypso’s Viennese friends are plagued by their unexplained infertility and Simon faces being disowned by his family.
Trouble Brewing is enhanced by its eccentric cast made up of Calypso’s family and friends, several of which have their own stories explored in the novel. For her sister Nell, the focus is on her search for a career, while for Calypso’s unconventional best friend Megan, it is finding love unexpectedly with the wealthy and repressed Simon. I adored the Shakespeare matriarch, known as Batty.
Fun, charming and contemporary, Trouble Brewing is a lovely read ideal for those that believe in the magic of romance.
Well now they’ve given Trouble Brewing 5 stars! Read the great review below, and click through to CUWAGB for other top reviews.
Love this book! Better than the first one in the series Forecast! I never like the second book better than the first but this one was an exception!
In Forecast the reader was introduced to the Shakespeare women that live in New York. In Trouble Brewing the reader gets lost in the mystical world of the Shakespeare women in London. Calypso Shakespeare is the young psychic who drifts all around world trying to help people through her magical brews. She is a special kind of bar tender that can make you a drink that will help solve all your problems!
Calypso thought she had loved and lost and would never love again until Taran Dee blew into her life! I was devouring this book so fast to learn what happen between Calypso and her first love. The connection that was revealed during the art show was mind blowing and awesome!!!
I highly recommend both Forecast and Trouble Brewing! I give this one 5 stars!
Another review in the inbox this morning, this time from Victoria’s Gossip. Gotta say, these reviews are a lovely start to the day.
And my new novel, Trouble Brewing. Drink up!
Reviewed By: Patricia
Story:4
Romance:4
Flames:4
Trouble Brewing is the second book featuring the Shakespeare women. I never read the first one but honestly you don’t really need to read the first one. This book can stand alone. The book is set in London and follows the lives of Batty, Calypso and Nell. All witches in their own right with flaming red hair and attitudes. Batty the mother and part owner of the family pub. Calypso the wild child that mixes potions for the people who need them. In her own small pub in the basement. Then there is Nell the most sensible of the two daughters . Calypso is wild and carefree, but is running away from heart break from her past. She is quite content traveling all over the world . Until one day the winds of fate changes her life . In walks a man into her life or should I saw renters her life. Taran , a tall hot witch from America, turns her life upside down and makes her rethink the one true love . As she runs from the love that Taran offers, he follows keeping her off balance as she falls in love again. She realizes that you can really have a second chance at love.
I truly enjoyed this book. It was a laugh out loud look at a family, friends and a second chance at love. The cast of characters were well rounded and loved the quirks of each and everyone of them. Makes me want to get the first book and get to know the rest of them. the English slang didn’t even bother me in the least.
I would recommend this book for anyone who wants a great summer read.