Christmas in Dogtown
Suzanne Johnson
Genre: Sweet Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Story Vault
Date of Publication: December 2012
ASIN: B009RBKTSG
Number of pages: 30
Word Count: approx. 11,000
Book Description
A woman who spent years escaping her rural past learns that Dogtown, Louisiana, hides more family secrets than just the recipe for boudin blanc…..
Resa Madere’s on the verge of losing it all. The boyfriend’s gone. The job’s history. Her beloved house is on the brink of foreclosure. She’ll do anything to save it—even spend a long Christmas holiday working in St. James Parish, Louisiana, helping her uncle run the family meat business. But the community of Dogtown, which has been home for seven generations of the Madere and Caillou families, has deep roots and deeper secrets. For Resa, going home is one thing.
Getting out might not be so easy.
Short Excerpt
“You are stupid,” Resa told her reflection in the tiny, scratched mirror of the White Castle’s rose-pink bathroom. “Stupid, ridiculous, and absurd.”
She’d been wrestling with her curly black hair for a half hour, and the brown eyes that stared back at her from beneath freshly plucked brows and carefully applied eyeliner looked more jittery than sexy.
“And idiotic.”
First, it had been almost a week since Chan had asked her to the Saturday night community dance, popping the question almost shyly as they hacked at the bodies of gigantic dead fish. They’d both been covered in blood and smelled like they’d been rolling in bait, which should have tipped her off that anything in Dogtown reeking of romance, well, reeked.
Second, her potential date had left immediately after asking her out so he could catch an alligator that had eaten somebody’s poodle in one of those backwater houses near the swamp. He burned rubber out of the Madere’s driveway after making sure he had enough duct tape to wrap around the gator’s jaws. Adequate duct tape was not an attribute she’d ever sought in a man.
My Review
The story starts off with Resa going through a very difficult time - losing her job, boyfriend and soon her home. Like it or not, she has to make her way to her hometown of Dogtown and help out with the family business. Her family immediately pushes her into a relationship with her childhood sweetheart, which is the last thing she wants. She has no intention of staying in her hometown. Her intention is to go back to New Orleans and put her life in order, but then she learns of a family secret that changes everything.
I love Resa. She's a strong character, but also has her soft spots. She's a character readers will be cheering for. You can't help but want her to succeed. I thought the writer did an amazing job of writing a sweet romance with a touch of the paranormal in a few short words. It's only 11,000 words and takes about an hour to read but it's a quick read with a holiday feel to it. It puts you right into the holiday mode.
FTC Disclosure: The author provided me with a copy of this book to review for this blog tour. This did not influence my thoughts and opinions in any way. All opinions expressed are my own.
About the Author
Suzanne Johnson writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance (under the name Susannah Sandlin) from Auburn, Alabama, on top of a career in educational publishing that has thus far spanned five states and six universities—including both Alabama and Auburn, which makes her bilingual. She grew up in Winfield, Alabama, halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis' birthplace, but was also a longtime resident of New Orleans, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football, cheap Mardi Gras trinkets, and fried gator on a stick. She’s the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series and, as Susannah Sandlin, the Penton Legacy paranormal romance series.
Website: www.suzanne-johnson.com
Blog: http://suzanne-johnson.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Suzanne_Johnson
FB: http://www.facebook.com/Suzanne.Johnson.author
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5046525.Suzanne_Johnson
I am not a fan of short but sometimes it works
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of this; I'll have to look for it.
ReplyDeleteWell, you know the title and cover drew me in. I enjoy short reads between deeper novels.
ReplyDelete