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5* review from Readfulthings Blog

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Check out this absolutely fantastic review of Hamlet’s Ghost from the wonderful Readful Things Blog. It has made my week. 🙂

* If you haven’t read any of Jane’s books yet, then you have been missing out. Jane Tara is an author that is well on her way to becoming a household name. I love her works and strongly encourage you to check them out. This latest book is one of my favourites of the year and I am so happy I had the chance to read it.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Much like Jane Tara’s other books, this is filled with magic, outstanding characters that are easily loved and quirky, fun writing. I love Jane’s stories for their ability to take you away from daily life and make you feel as if you are somewhere else. I also love her sassy writing full of quips that make you giggle.

What made me love Hamlet’s Ghost was not just the cast of unique and varied characters, but the setting. The connections between the name of the town and the goings on inside the theatre were brilliant and kept me turning pages. I loved the way she tied the past and familiar characters into this novel but still managed to make it feel new. This could easily be read as a standalone novel even without the primer of the previous books.

My favourite character was Crystal. She’s strong and independent and full of life and it affects the characters around her. I’d love to know even more about her story. This was a book that I was sorry to see go and it will be difficult to find something else to read after this–but this is the price you pay for reading Jane’s work.

If you are tired of reading books where the female characters are all perfect down to the last fake nail, then this is for you. This author values differences between her characters and they are not all cookie cutter shapes that have been done before. She uses real women of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds to fill her pages. I love that.

The love story(ies) are charming and the romance scenes mild enough for those who don’t want to jump into the deep end too soon. You get a sense of each character’s personality and that of their match before they end up together and things don’t always go exactly as one would expect. Overall I thought this was one of the most delightful reads of the year.

If you like romantic stories with lots of twists and plenty of magic, you can’t go wrong here. Definitely a book that deserves recommendation.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

The Happy Endings Book Club

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TheHappyEndingsBookClub_Jane_Tara

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.

5 star review of Forecast

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Mad About Books posted this wonderful 5 star review for FORECAST on Goodreads. 

Fun light hearted fantasy with romance, drama and magic. It is very chick lit but extremely enjoyable and abit different from others i’ve read in this genre.

Rowie is a witch, not just any witch mind you but one of the famous Shakespeare witches of old that were hunted during the witch trials. There are only 3 in America, Rowie, her mother and grandmother. All put their gifts to good use and run Second Sight as tradition has had it.

Rowie’s young though and knows her true love is out there somewhere and there’s a life waiting for her to live. Her gift of accurately fortelling the weather has come in very handy for her local neighborhood but she’s starting to think bigger much to the chagrin of her grandmother. Fortune come’s knocking though when the local news station hears of her talents.

Drew is young, attractive, newly single and dedicated to his job. So dedicated he fell through a roof while reporting on a Hurricane. He’s off on sabbatical and has to approve a replacement quick.

Chanced upon this while trawling through Amazon and the fun sounding write up drew me straight in to the whimsical sounding tale. Great fun read with a really intriguing plot line of the women not only being witches but of the incredibly famous Shakespeare line. Even their talents are entertaining with each having a special power unique to them and their personalities.

Rowie is the perfect leading lady for me. She’s attractive but doesn’t flaunt it, is humbled by her turbulent upbringing with the other kids and is generally a tough and feisty female. Not a thing I disliked about her.

Her leading man Drew could be perceived as abit of a jerk but when you realise his past you can completely understand why he’s playing the field but underneath the exterior there’s just a normal guy living his life who loves his job. Ideal guy really.

All the background characters tie in perfectly and really add depth and humour. All three Shakespeares get their story told with it ending lovely.
Really has that feel good factor.

A 4 star review of Trouble Brewing

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A new review on Goodreads led me to the book review site for Sallyfromoz, where reviews for both my books have been posted. Sally is also taking part in the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge 2013, so supporting Aussie writers. Here’s the review. It’s made my day. 

TROUBLE BREWING is the second book in a series about the Shakespeare women and like the first one I had such fun reading it.  The first book, Forecast, was set in the USA; now author Jane Tara takes her readers over to England to meet the other women in the family.  As with the first book there are quite a few back-stories going on which did leave me wondering how any future books are going to play out as all of the Shakespeare women on both side of the Atlantic now seem to have complete stories.  But no matter TROUBLE BREWING has romance, anger, passion, sadness, babies, magic and even fairies – both good and bad – cool!  Life is not all magic and roses – and there are some things that magic can’t cure.  Like all people, real and fictional, when faced with loss and everything is beyond your abilities to change life falls apart; it is how you put your life together that counts.  All the characters go through a crisis in one form or another.  It is how they react, cope and still keep their sense of humour and the book light that demonstrates Jane Tara’s talent.  I really enjoyed the journey the book took me on, loved the characters and want more!

A 4 star review of Forecast

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aww2013

A new review on Goodreads led me to the book review site for Sallyfromoz, where reviews for both my books have been posted. Sally is also taking part in the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge 2013, so supporting Aussie writers. Here’s the review. It’s made my day. 

I scored an review copy of Jane Tara’s second book, Trouble Brewing, from Momentum Books and decided I had better get my hands on the first in the series – FORECAST.  I am so glad I did – what a wonderful feel good romance it is.  The hero is a bad boy – a love them and leave them type of guy – but ready to find ‘the one’, he is a scientist and deals with what is known to predict what could be. Rowie (Rowan) is also looking for ‘the one’ but she is not scientific, the elements tell her what is going to happen, so you just know these two are destined for each other.  The fun part is finding out how Jane Tara is going to do it!  There are lots of back-stories that all help to propel the main plot forward – ghosts, magic, new loves, past love, conniving wenches and a battle with cancer.  Jane Tara captured the New Age world completely and was not afraid to include characters that think it is all bunkum. I also enjoyed the behind the scenes look at TV news and weather forecasting and how what you see may not be what is happening.  Science versus magic, man versus woman FORECAST is a jam-packed funny story full of great characters.  Looking forwards to reading the second in the series.

A lovely review for Trouble Brewing

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Image from the FW&FD site
Image from the FW&FD site

A lovely review from Fangs, Wands & Fairy Dust, also posted on Goodreads.

How Do You Know You’ve Met the Love of Your LIfe?

I really had a good time reading this book.  It was funny, sexy and occasionally a bit sad.
This is the second book in the series and I didn’t realize that until I sat down to write the review.  I did think, at one point, that the author was dumping a lot of backstory, but I thought there was just a  lot of history she needed to relate.  But, TROUBLE BREWING totally stands on its own.

I love how one of the Shakespeare women said she was glad to be born in a time when witches were ignored and not burned at the stake.  Ugh.

I like the unique idea behind this book as the gorgeous Calypso mixes cocktails that magically cure people of emotional, psychological and sometimes physical issues. She come from a witchy family, and witchy books are my first love (since I was like 7).  Calypso is a free spirit except she’s running from the past.  If she outruns love then she can’t get hurt, right?  While Tara includes some plot that feels extraneous (but which may be tying up loose ends from FORECAST, the first book in the series) she does a great job making that emotional conflict real. And, I really felt for the guy that gets pushed away.   But as odd as Calypso’s love interest is it evolves naturally.

Calypso also believes she has had her great love, the love of her life.  She may be missing something though if she gets stuck in her own mythology. How do you know when you have met the love of your life?

Jane Tara’s voice is edgy and honest, modern and sexy.

Witch-Doctor  cure thyself!  If only people would take their own advice and talk about things. But then the entire romance book industry would fail because most plots rely on poor communication to get going.

I’m looking forward to the next book in the series; and I may even go back to find the first.  I can honestly recommend this as a great book to read this summer.