Monday, June 28, 2021

BLOG BLITZ - Paws and Prejudice


In today's blog tour I have Paws and Prejudice. As it is the second book in a trilogy, I read the first book, Heart on a Leash, and the third book, Love and Let Bark. Since the third title comes out in November, in this post I will be reviewing the first two titles.


Title
:   Heart on a Leash
AuthorAlanna Martin
Series:  Hearts of Alaska #1
PublisherBerkley
Genre:   Romance
FormatKindle
No. of Pages:   346
Date of Publication:   April 27, 2021
My Rating:   4 Stars

DESCRIPTION:

Young pups teach frozen hearts new tricks when a pack of rescue huskies inspire love and romance in a coastal Alaskan town fractured by feuding families.

Taylor Lipin has made it her life's mission to leave her hometown and its ridiculous, century-old feud with the Porters behind. But when her sister needs help running the family inn, Taylor agrees to return to Helen, Alaska on a temporary, definitely not longer than two weeks, basis. Or so she thinks—until she's quite literally swept off her feet and into enemy territory by three happy huskies and their drool-worthy owner, Dr. Josh Krane.

Though Josh didn't grow up in Helen with the rest of his Porter cousins, he's heard the stories: Porters rescue huskies. The Lipins are cat people. Keep to your pack. But Taylor is too tempting to give up—plus, his dogs love her.

As Taylor and Josh grow closer, tensions in the town escalate and the need for secrecy starts taking a toll. Soon they'll need to decide whether their newfound love is just a summer fling or if they've found their forever home. 


MY THOUGHTS:
 
The Lipins and the Porters have been feuding over 100 years. Taylor Lipin had left the town of Helen, Alaska years previously and has returned home temporarily to help her sister with their family's inn. It should only be for a couple of weeks, but Dr. Josh Krane, part of the Porter family, just might change things for Taylor.

Whether it is Josh, or his gorgeous huskies, Taylor begins to wonder if her stay in Helen just might be extended. However, considering the long feud that most people would rather keep going, it hardly seems likely that Taylor and Josh have any chance at a future, no mater how powerful their attraction is made apparent right from the moment they meet.

Josh is a Porter cousin, so he feels he is removed from the feud. Unfortunately, that is not the case so he and Taylor are forced to keep their newfound romance secret.  While the gorgeous dogs on this book's cover drew me to the story, it is watching Taylor and Josh grow closer together despite the troubles they know will be facing them at every turn.

What an enjoyable story and a great start to a trilogy I have had the pleasure of reading. The next book, Paws and Prejudice, is available now and Love and Let Bark will be released in November.

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Title:   Paws and Prejudice
AuthorAlanna Martin
Series:   Hearts of Alaska #2
PublisherBerkley
Genre:   Romance
FormatKindle ARC
No. of Pages:   336
Date of Publication:   Jun3 29, 2021
My Rating:   4 Stars

DESCRIPTION:

It's up to a trio of adorable rescue huskies to make two lonely hearts in a coastal Alaskan town realize that true love is worth too much to turn tail and run.

Glaciers have nothing on Kelsey Porter when she decides to freeze someone out. After getting burned once, she's not about to let it happen again. And right now all that icy contempt is focused on one annoyingly attractive and entitled interloper: Ian Roth. Not only is he looking to take advantage of her quaint, coastal community, tainting the small-town charm of Helen, Alaska, but he has committed the one crime she can never forgive--he doesn't like her dogs.

Unlike what Kelsey believes, Ian loves Helen's charms as much as she does. That's partly why he's determined to open a brewery there, and he's not about to let anything or anyone stop his dream from coming true. But he didn't count on the beautiful, prickly woman getting under his skin. Or having to be within hand-biting proximity of her three huge huskies.

When Kelsey's family conscripts her into helping Ian get his brewery off the ground, she finds herself caught between a rock and a hard . . . muscular . . . man who has a fear of dogs. But the longer they work together, the more she can feel herself begin to thaw. Now she'll have to choose: let sleeping dogs lie to protect her heart, or mush head-on toward love.


MY THOUGHTS:

Kelsey Porter is undeniably attracted to someone new in the small town of Helen, Alaska, and that is Ian Roth. However, there is a deal breaker right from the moment they meet - he does not like her dogs and he makes that apparently clear. Kelsey will not even deal with a man who doesn't see how special her adorable huskies are and how they are very important in her life.

Ian has his reasons for wanting to keep his distance from Kelsey's dogs, but that is certainly not easy since he wants her from the moment he sets eyes on her. Ian may be new in town, but he is there for the long haul as he and his business partner are in the process of opening a brewery. 

Kelsey is nonplussed when she finds herself working with Ian as he is getting his brewery running. Oh how attractive he is. Can she help Ian to accept her dogs, all while seeing where their attraction goes?

What's not to love in this second book in a delightful series? I loved the first book, Heart on a Leash, as well as the third book in this series, set for release in November, Love and Let Bark. Although I am unrepently a cat person, I have never been able to resist a book with dogs on the cover. This book, Paws and Prejudice, was a wonderful read.

One thing I'd love to mention about this book is Kelsey's "secret" job. As an avid reader I love when a character has a career that matches one of my interests. This part of Kelsey's life as it was written into the story made this book all that more enjoyable. 

Many thanks to Berkley and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Please enjoy the following excerpt:
PAWS AND PREJUDICE by Alanna Martin

Berkley | On Sale June 29, 2021

Excerpt

Kelsey Porter had always feared that the lies she told would one day come back to bite her in the ass. She'd just never expected the bite would come in the form of work she had no business doing for a man she wanted nothing to do with. But lies were cruel. They built on themselves-words turning into sentences and sentences into paragraphs, until Kelsey had written a novel of falsehoods about who she was and what she did for a living. So when her father volunteered her labor to Ian Roth, Kelsey was triply screwed.

One, she wasn't about to confess that her alleged work experience was a lie.

Two, she was already extremely busy.

Three, and perhaps most important, Ian was a jerk who didn't deserve what little free time she had.

Despite never having spoken to Ian, Kelsey was absolutely positive of number three. The man had shown zero interest in her dogs, and that spoke of a cold, unfeeling heart.

Kelsey had tried convincing her father she was too busy to help Ian, but her reasoning had been brushed off as easily as the death glare she'd given him. That was no surprise. Kelsey's glare had a tendency to make people, particularly male people, want to pat her on the head and tell her how cute she was. Cherubic, even. Being taken seriously was hard when you were short. Add in her blond curls and blue eyes and it was damn near impossible. Her twin brother, Kevin, who shared her general appearance, at least had the advantage of being male. No one thought Kevin was cute when he scowled at them.

And no question, her father wouldn't have volunteered Kevin to do unpaid labor. That was the sort of BS demanded only of women. Her father hadn't cared one bit that Kelsey had deadlines to meet and a house she was renovating. Making Ian happy had been more important to him.

"You know I'm right," Kelsey said as she pointed out this last incontrovertible fact.

Josh had the good sense not to argue, which was why he was her favorite cousin. "You're probably right, yes. But try not to be so negative. Ian doesn't know your situation. It's not his fault."

So that was who the nagging Be nice voice in her head sounded like. She'd been telling it to shut up since her father had dropped this bomb on her yesterday, and Kelsey turned the full force of her glare on her cousin. It was a combination of displeased, dismissive, and disgusted that on another face might have been lethal. "Excuse me?"

Like her father had, Josh ignored the glare. Freaking men.

They had embarked on their semi-regular afternoon ritual, walking their combined six huskies around the park in downtown Helen. Kelsey had given Josh his three dogs when he moved here a couple of years ago, and they mingled with hers-Romeo, Juliet, and Puck-as they made a circuit around the park's perimeter.

What a difference a few weeks made. Helen hadn't entirely shut down for the winter yet, but the number of tourists had so rapidly declined, it was like someone had shut off a spigot. The park, just a couple of weeks ago, had been a maze to navigate with six dogs, but now it was an easy stroll. That was good, because the chillier weather made Kelsey want to keep a faster pace even as she delighted in the scent of the wet grass and salty bay water. Anything smelled better than the drywall compound she'd been inhaling all morning.

Well, almost anything. She was supposed to meet with Ian at his brewery in an hour, and Kelsey assumed the place would smell like beer. She hated beer. Even if she did have experience writing marketing materials, which she most certainly did not, she still would be the worst person in the world to help Ian.

"I'm not saying it was cool of your father to volunteer you," Josh said as he attempted to detangle a couple of leashes. "But how long can it take you to write some stuff for the brewery's website?"

"It's not only the website. It's also press releases, and a puff piece for the local paper. Maybe even a longer article to submit to some travel zines."

"And that." Josh winced, and Kelsey hoped it was dawning on him why she was being so negative.

Lies-spinning them for a living was called fiction. Living them was turning out to be a pain in the ass. Everyone in town, including Josh, believed Kelsey was a freelance writer, and they all had their own ideas as to what that meant. She'd never bothered to correct them, since it hadn't mattered. Until now.

Kelsey hadn't the faintest clue what the website work might entail, but she did have an idea how much time it took to write for the Helen Weekly Herald, because she did it on occasion. It helped keep her cover and paid for the occasional new doggie toy, but she hated it. The only thing Kelsey enjoyed writing was novels. Steamy paranormal romance novels about a pack of husky shifters living in the Alaskan bush, to be 100 percent precise, because romance readers knew exactly what sort of stories they wanted, and Kelsey aimed to provide them for the ones who liked hers. It wasn't what she'd planned to do with her life, but she enjoyed it, was apparently good at it, and had gotten extremely lucky to be able to support herself with it.

And there was no way in hell she could tell anyone in Helen about it. Thank goodness for pen names.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Growing up, Alanna Martin wanted to be an astronaut, a doctor, and an actor--possibly all at once. After nine years of studying psychology, she somehow became a writer instead. This turned out to be the best career choice of all because she can work in her pajamas while drinking wine. She firmly believes in the power of fluffy books, long walks in the woods, and that there's no such thing as too much coffee. Alanna Martin is available for interviews.


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