Review: Perfectly Matched by Heather Webber

I really need to find a way to have my reviews ready for Tuesday morning. With my WEM and Hauling Sunday features on the week-end, I find that Tuesdays are perfect to post reviews... However, I never seem to have them ready, sigh. Any tips?

Today, I procrastinate the whole day instead of writing this review for Perfectly Matched by Heather Webber. Once I came home, I finally sat down and wrote it... It was that or cleaning my room. Guess what I'm procrastinating away now? LOL.

Enjoy!

Perfectly Matched by Heather Webber
self-published in May 2012

The heat is on...

When Boston psychic Lucy Valentine finds herself involved in a group of eccentric psychics trying to learn more about their abilities, she is convinced a rare spring heat wave has flushed the crazies out of hiding.

Adding to her theory is her newest client in the Lost Loves division of Valentine, Inc., her family’s lucrative matchmaking firm. He’s an animal communicator who hires Lucy to find his purrfect mate—because his cat told him so.

But craziest of all is The Beantown Burner, a serial arsonist who is targeting private eye Sam Donahue, the brother of Lucy’s boyfriend, Sean. With the help of her kooky psychic group, Lucy must tap into abilities she didn’t know she had to catch the firebug before the fires turn deadly. What she never expected to discover is that the motive behind the flames hits a little too close to home...and her heart.

Genre: Cosy Mystery
Series: Lucy Valentine series, Book #4

The Story: As usual, Lucy Valentine has a lot on her plate. First, she has joined a group of psychics in order to learn more about her abilities and how to use them. Unfortunately, no luck so far which means she's still struggling and it's making her feel less than welcome with the other participants who are not shy to let their impatience show. Her newest client at Valentine, Inc. - the familial matchmaking business - doesn't seem to want to find his soul mate and admits to coming only because he's been prompted (read driven crazy) by Ebbie... his cat. He then vanishes without leaving a forwarding address or filling the questionnaire and dumps Ebbie in Lucy's lap! Then there's her grandmother urging her to move things along with Sean, her boyfriend, so she can get great-grandchildren. Her best friend Emerson is worried because her fiancé Aidan has been acting weird and distracted. Finally, Paige, Lucy's new friend who is also dating Lucy's new-found brother, seems to have some health issues. Yep, a full plate... But oh wait! Let's not forget The Beantown Burner, the recent serial arsonist scaring Boston, who seems to be targeting Sam Donahue, Sean's brother... but is Sam really the target? One thing is sure, life is never boring with Lucy :)

My Opinion: If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I've really been enjoying Ms Webber's Lucy Valentine series :) I find the mysteries interesting, like the touch of romance and really, really love the fluffy style. For me, that fluffiness definitively sets the series apart from other cosy mystery series, but also all other books in general :) As you can imagine, I was quite anxious to find out Lucy Valentine's fate as I knew Ms Webber was contracted for three books... I was ecstatic when I found out Ms Webber has written Perfectly Matched and was self-publishing it. It sucks that St. Martin's has not asked for more, but it's awesome that Ms Webber has gone ahead and continued this series for her fans!! And while Perfectly Matched had its flaws and was probably the weakest book in the series so far, I'm still glad I read it and I'm hoping for more!!

As you can read from my synopsis, there's a lot going on in Perfectly Matched. One would perhaps think too much, but Ms Webber makes it work. There are really three mysteries in Perfectly Matched: 1) the missing child the group of psychics are investigating, 2) the Beantown Burner and 3) who is Jeremy Cross, the man who left his cat behind. And to my surprise, not only did they blend well together, but there were also interesting connections. Another interesting aspect was how each case was handled and the investigative work it involved. That being said, I have to say the mystery in Perfectly Matched was the weakest element of the book ^_^; This really comes as a surprise to me because Ms Webber is usually so good with them. And actually, when I think about it, all three mysteries were interesting and I really enjoyed the twists - particularly in the missing child's case, I thought that was brilliant. The problem was in the execution.. I felt Ms Webber did a great job at setting the mystery up, but I felt the resolution was too abrupt and rushed, especially when it came to the Beantown Burner case. I thought the motive of the Beantown Burner was really weak and definitively could have been fleshed out more. And that's really Perfectly Matched's biggest flaw.

The rest of the book was great :) The fluffiness that is unique to this series is still there - yay!! And Ms Webber's writing is as usual - solid and enjoyable. And when it comes to the characters and relationships in Perfectly Matched, I'm a happy duck LOL. I like that they're all growing and evolving and that things are moving along. It's good that Ms Webber is not throwing in obstacles and conflicts just to stall or for drama. I like that Lucy and her two best friends, Marisol and Em, are still best friends and getting along well. I enjoy Lucy's growing friendship with Paige. I am sooo glad that Cutter has a slightly larger role in Perfectly Matched and that Lucy and Cutter's relationship is good - although I'm still waiting to read about it LOL. Lucy and Sean are still taking things slow because Lucy still fears the curse, but they do move in together and that's a good step in the right direction. I'm also glad to see Marisol and Em's love lives being developed, but in no way are they stealing Lucy's spotlights. I'm also curious about the new characters introduced, Jeremy and Dr. Paul, and I can't wait to find out more about them. Really, Ms Webber did a great job with this aspect of the book :) What's even more impressive though is that she did well without suddenly changing someone's personality!

Another thing that Ms Webber did well was the psychic aspect. There was just enough of it to make things interesting which is the way I like it :) I find that's always difficult because too little and the reader is like: "Where's the psychic aspect?", too much and the readers are rolling their eyes. Ms Webber understands that Lucy's gift helps her in her investigations, it does not solve them and that's what we get. I also think that Ms Webber has a good grasp of what she wants Lucy's abilities to be and that helps. Sometimes, I feel authors don't have a clear idea in mind and so, their characters become the Super Psychic with all the abilities you can imagine. Or they are supposed to have this kind of ability, but it blends in with so many others. But it's not the case with Ms Webber, she definitively has a clear idea. I also liked that Lucy is trying to learn more about her abilities and it's not easy :)

Finally, I want to bring up two little issues I had with Perfectly Matched. The first is that it really bothered me that in many instances, Lucy could not reach the people she called. I don't know, it's just a little bit too convenient :( The second has nothing to do with the story, but still has to be brought up and it's about the formatting of Perfectly Matched. I bought the epub version of Perfectly Matched at Kobo and for some reasons, throughout the book, the font alternates between being normal and bold. I don't know if it's only me or not... And I know this is minor, but it's still very annoying while reading ^_^; Also, I'm only now starting to buy more e-books and I'm still not a huge fan of self-publishing work. I admit, a lot of it is prejudices... but when there's a formatting problem like this one, it just doesn't help me overcoming those prejudices.

My Grade: I originally gave Perfectly Matched a B. I enjoyed the book and I loved the continuity with the rest of the series. However, when I started writing this review, I had difficulty remembering the plot ^_^; Unfortunately, not a good sign... and that's why B- it's going to be. The really good news is with the way Perfectly Matched ended, Ms Webber will definitively write another installment and I'll definitively be reading it :) Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long!

Review: Absolutely, Positively by Heather Webber

Woohoo, it's Friday!! The week has gone by so quickly! Usually this is a good thing, cos that means the week-end comes faster too... But in this case, because there's something for the job that I have to do on Fridays that I don't like it... well  it just seems too quick :( And today was such a long and crappy day... actually, the whole week was, sigh. Let's hope the week-end doesn't go by too quickly ^_^;

However, the good news is I finally got my review for Absolutely, Positively up! Woohoo!! I'm really glad, because I know many of you have recently read a Lucy Valentine book and that was a good source of motivation :) I wanted everyone to know how much I enjoyed this third installment :P So take a look and find out :)


Absolutely, Positively by Heather Webber
published by St. Martin's Press in February 2011

“Exposed” by a Boston Herald reporter, Lucy is suddenly the talk of the town. Long back-story short: Even though the rest of her Valentine ancestors were blessed by Cupid with psychic abilities, Lucy’s only special power lies in her ability to find things. This skill has proven quite a blessing for those who come to her matchmaking agency in search of finding their long-lost loves. Now that Lucy’s secret is out, she has more new clients than she knows what to do with. But soon a certain man of mystery steals Lucy’s spotlight…

No, it’s not Sean Donahue, the sexy fireman-turned-private-eye who’s stolen Lucy’s heart. It’s a masked man in a cowboy hat, dubbed “The Lone Ranger,” who’s been throwing handfuls of cash across the Common. Now all of Beantown’s abuzz. Can Lucy unmask the mysterious money man, track down all her clients’ old flames, and turn up the heat on her love life? Absolutely, positively...

Genre: Contemporary romance, mystery
Series: Lucy Valentine, Book #3

The Story: A lot is happening in Absolutely, Positively. First, there's the Lone Ranger, a masked man who literally throws money in the streets and who has Preston hot on his heels for a scoop. Then there's work as Lucy and Sean investigate for the Lost Loves, a division of Valentines Inc. One is an official case where a young woman is looking for someone she knew while in the foster system, but what is Lucy to do when she discover the young man is not walking the straight line? There's also an elderly man from Lucy's neighborhood who has disappeared and everyone is wondering what happened. If indeed he is dead, then was it fair play? Finally, there is also the personal front... Lucy is debating whether to take a step further in her relationship with Sean and ask him to move in with her; however, she worries because of the Cupid curse. Adds in her parents' new relationship and a brother who doesn't want to take up the succession of a family business and you have Lucy's head spinning in all directions :)

My Opinion: Seriously, I overlooked this series in my Best and Worst of 2010 posts, but it is really a gem of a series. What makes it so awesome is a combination of good writing, interesting storylines, great characters, but most importantly I think, freshness. I don't think there is anything out there close to Ms Webber's style and it just adds more to her books :)

I was quite looking forward to Absolutely, Positively and overall, it pretty much met my expectations :) I enjoyed this book a great deal, although it was less fluffy than the others... I think it had to do with the cases - although in previous books, the cases were quite serious as well, so perhaps it's how busy the book is, which as shown in my recap, very :P Still, it was well-balanced, not confusing and kept me hooked as I just want to find out more about everything LOL. Also, I was quite surprised how everything tied in together and I think Ms Webber did a good job :P

While the cases were interesting, varied and kind of suspenseful, the real strength of the Lucy Valentine series is the characters and that holds true in Absolutely, Positively. Lucy is a great heroine and really make this book :) I think it's because readers enjoy being in her head, seeing things from her POV and her thinking process :) She's very genuine, caring and level-headed. Just a balanced character, especially now that she knows where she's going in life. You can throw a lot at her, which her family often does, and she can deal with it. Then, there is this whole cast of quirky characters surrounding her that just makes this book fun :) Everyone of them is unique and adds a different flavor to Lucy's life.While they are funny, they also have this touch of wisdom and with it, they have Lucy's back. I really enjoyed Lucy's parents in this book LOL. The situation is really interesting and I'm looking forward to see how it'll work out in the future :P Sure to give Lucy a few more eye twitches LOL... and the couch scene! LOL. And then, there are Lucy's best friends Marisol and Emma. I like how they are part of Lucy's family, it really feels like they've been childhood friends :) I also like how everyone is supportive of Emma :) With her relationship with Aiden finally taking off, I'm hoping that the focus will switch a little to Marisol in the next few books :)

Another thing that I'm enjoying in this series is the timing of things :) I like that Lucy and Sean's relationship is not rushed, that they're taking their time to get to know each other and build the trust. I like that Sean is patient with Lucy and also understanding and is willing to wait till Lucy is no longer afraid :) That not everything is happening to Lucy at once and she's overwhelmed. So I feel it's good that Lucy has found her footing in life, being able to use her gift but also be part of the family business. At the same time, she's slowly building her confidence and coming into the life that she's always dreamed :) In many series, I'm pretty sure the heroine would have gotten there too fast and panic or not get there yet and be frustrated - all to create issues, conflicts... and sometimes, you don't need them and Ms Webber understands that :)

With all this being said, Absolutely, Positively was not a perfect read and I had a couple of issues with it. While the romance between Lucy and Sean is progressing very nicely, Sean is still somewhat of an unknown entity. There's no doubts about his feelings, but what about Sean himself? We know the current him, but we have very little about his past and what made the man who he is today. Learning that Sam and Sean are "foster" brothers was a great surprise and not just to the readers... So I really hope that the next book will focus on Sean. Another issue I had was with Lucy and the foster kids case. When Lucy learns that the man is a criminal, she decides to "protect" her client by keeping information from both parties... I know this was a dilemma for Lucy, that she had good intentions and was doing it in her client's best interest... but the choice really bothered me, because ultimately, it wasn't  her choice to make. It's good to care, but at the same time, I felt Lucy was too quick to judge. Okay, Tristan didn't help matters at all ^_^; Still, I wished she was a bit more open-minded. Finally, I was a bit disappointed that there was no more interaction between Lucy and Cutter. I was really looking forward for it and Cutter was just taken out of the equation with business trip... Of course, this won't go happen in every book as the succession issue has to be resolved... so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the next book :)

My Grade: B+. Another great installment to the series and I'm really looking forward to the next book!!

Review: Deeply, Desperately by Heather Webber

Nothing really to say. Life is quiet and work is busy. I thought the week-end was too short LOL. I mean, I really like doing nothing :P And I definitively cannot believe the end of the month is so soon! Where has time gone really? Hopefully, I'm going to be able to blog all I want to blog about in a timely fashion :P

Oh, guess what? I'm not done cleaning my room - that is always a WIP ^_^; However, I was able to find my copy of Deeply, Desperately! :P


Deeply, Desperately by Heather Webber
published by St. Martin's Press in August 2010

Lucy wants to breathe new life into her family's Boston-based matchmaking company. But how? Even though she comes from a long line of ancestors blessed by Cupid with psychic abilities, a freak accident left Lucy with only one special skill: finding things. Car keys, socks in the dryer, needles in haystacks...and now, in a stroke of professional genius, lost loves!

It's not long before Lucy's on a winning streak, helping old flames reunite and create new sparks. Business is booming. But when Lucy finds herself involved in a possible case of murder, she realizes she's in too deep. Enter Sean Donahue. Lucy's handsome fire-fighter turned private-eye neighbor, Sean is just the man she needs to help her on the job. Could he also be the man she's been looking for all along? When it comes to Valentine, Inc., falling in love is always serious business.

Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Lucy Valentine, Book #2

The Story: With Christmas fast approaching, it's normal that Lucy is busy... however, a lot more is going on than just the holidays. First, Lucy has a case with Lost Loves, Valentine, Inc.'s new branch, where a widower is looking for his first love. While Lucy loves her new job and is very interested in the case, she's less than happy about reporter Preston Baily shadowing her, looking for her meal ticket to bigger newspapers. There's also Preston's questioning about siblings and family that are weirding Lucy out. Then, there's Lucy's best friend, Marisol, who is planning an intervention to stop Emma, the third musketeer, from marrying a jerk. As if all that is not enough, Sean's ex-girlfriend is back in the picture and needs his help and support. Seriously, all this is enough to drive a woman crazy :P

My Opinion: I really enjoyed Truly, Madly, the first book in the series. I thought it was cute and fluffy and Deeply, Desperately pretty much continues in the same vein. A lot is happening in Deeply, Desperately and you'd think it'd be overwhelming, but it wasn't. Everything - the relationships, the romance and the mystery - blended and balanced out each other well, providing us, the readers, with a fun and enjoyable book :)

I think the success of this series so far is its heroine, Lucy Valentine. The best word that could describe her is normal :P Really, she might be a psychic with the ability to find objects and persons, but what she wants makes her a regular person. She wants a relationship with Sean, she wants to succeed at her job, she wants her friends to be happy and her family to live in peace and harmony. All of this makes her extremely easy to relate to and thus, likable. Same goes with Sean. He's a very nice guy, caring, responsible and trustworthy. And because Ms Webber has two solid main characters, she can go crazy with the secondary characters :) I mean, Lucy's family members are definitively a hoot, especially together LOL and while she loves them, she's not blind to their flaws. And her friends? Makes me envious to see such strong friendships :) All in all, I have to say I truly enjoyed Lucy's interaction with everyone.

The romance between Lucy and Sean is progressing well. While Lucy still worries about the Cupid curse, she tries hard to make her relationship with Sean work. Actually, it was heart-warming to see Lucy and Sean together, because you have two persons that are not afraid of commitments and really want this to work out. Ms Webber throws in some conflict by bringing back Sean's ex-girlfriend. For once, I thought it worked out well, I really liked seeing Lucy fight for Sean :)

Once again, I think Ms Webber did a good job with the mystery thread in this book. The series so far has been pretty light and fluffy, but the cases are well thought out, developed and satisfying. I mean, this after all is contemporary romance, not romantic suspense, so don't go out expecting a gory murder case or for them to be the focus of the story. Still, they are worked into the storyline well and add to the book's entertainment value :)

My Grade: B+. To me, Deeply, Desperately is another winner. There was nothing that bothered me. I read it in one sitting with a huge smile on my face. It simply was fun and fluffy and I'm really looking forward to the third book, Absolutely, Positively :)

Review: Truly, Madly by Heather Webber

Did you notice something different about the blog? LOL, it's not something big, but it's something I'm proud of. Last Friday, I was bored so I spent time cleaning up my labels :P I went from 401 to 345 labels! Seriously, I don't know what I was thinking making labels for things such as: pain, injury, gas, traffic jam (traffic jam!!) and so on. There are still a lot of posts back in 2007 and 2008 that haven't been labeled, but I don't think I have the courage to go back and label them on... Although, thanks to Ames, I now know that I can do it in the Edit Posts section with the Label Actions instead of going into each post and making the changes ^_^;

I also took away labels such as vampires, werewolves, magic, witch, wizard, etc. I was using them mostly to sub-categorize the paranormal romance and urban fantasy books, but I realized I wasn't consistently using them. Plus, you can find more than one of the supernatural species in the book, so there were too many labels... I figured if you wanted to look for werewolves books, you'd simply click urban fantasy or paranormal romance and go through my posts :P

In the meantime, I still have books from February left to review :D One of them is Truly, Madly by Heather Webber. This book first caught my attention on Kris' blog. It sounded like a cute story, plus it has psychics, so I wanted to give it a try :)


Truly, Madly by Heather Webber
published by St. Martin's Press in February 2010

Lucy Valentine is as smart as can be, as single as you can get, and so not qualified to run a matchmaking service. But when her parents temporarily step down from the family business, Valentine, Inc., it’s Lucy’s turn to step up and help out—in the name of love.

Plus, her rent is due.

Here’s the problem: Lucy doesn’t have the knack for matchmaking. According to family legend, every Valentine has been blessed by Cupid with the ability to read “auras” and pair up perfect couples. But not Lucy. Her skills were zapped away years ago in an electrical surge, and now all she can do is find lost objects. What good is that in the matchmaking world? You’d be surprised. In a city like Boston, everyone’s looking for something. So when Lucy locates a missing engagement ring—on a dead body—she asks the sexy private eye who works upstairs to help her solve the perfect crime. And who knows? Maybe she’ll find the perfect love while she’s at it...

Genre: paranormal romance - psychic
Series: Lucy Valentine, Book #1

The Story: Generations of Valentine have been blessed with the ability to read auras - except their own - and thus, have been very successful in the matchmaking business. Lucy wishes she could join her father in the business Valentine, Inc.; however, she doesn't feel "worthy" - having lost her ability to read auras and gained the ability to find lost objects. Only, things change when Lucy's father has a heart attack on the beach in company of his mistress. Going away to recover while the bad publicity quiets down sounds like the perfect solution and thus, Oscar leaves Valentine, Inc. in the hands of Lucy. She doesn't want to, but what choice does she have? Plus, she needs the job.

Everything goes well till a young man walks in and upon contact, Lucy "sees" his grandmother's heirloom engagement ring that he has given to his ex-fiancée on the finger of a skeleton... Wanting to find out answers, Lucy decides to ask help to SD investigations, the PI agency located in the same building as Valentine, Inc. Instead of meeting with the owner, she meets Sean Donahue - the brother... who triggers the kind of visions Lucy never had before...

My Opinion: I enjoy books with psychic characters and this one sounded different and lighter, so I wanted to give it a try.  Truly, Madly turned out to be a good choice, as it was a light, fluffy and fun read. What surprised me most was despite the fluffiness, the mystery thread had depth and I thought the plot was very well constructed.

Lucy was a very lovable heroine with a head on her shoulder. While no fault of her, she feels bad having lost her ability to read auras and let say, she hasn't come to term with her new ability either because it makes her different than her family. As a result, Lucy has declined entering in Valentine, Inc., but also using her trust fund. Instead, she's been taking odd jobs and paying rent to her grandmother. It's clear that for Lucy, the ability to read auras is very important and is part of her identity. Not having that ability anymore, Lucy is looking for herself, exploring and trying to see if she can make it by herself. A lot of characters in books try to make something of themselves, not wanting to be like their parents, but it's the opposite for Lucy. She's always wanted to be part of the family business, but until she finds herself, she can't. In a way, Truly, Madly is in part Lucy's journey to finding herself and I really liked the resolution of it.

Aside from Lucy, Truly, Madly has a colorful cast of secondary characters. There's Lucy's family: her parents - while they lead separate lives, they are still very good friends, and her grandmother LOL. There's also Emma and Marisol, Lucy's two best friends since childhood, Raphael, the family chauffeur, and of course, Sean. All of the characters are quite interesting and have a role in the story, they're not just playing filler or there to provide comedy-relief. They're Lucy's entourage and obviously, very important to her.

As I mentioned, there's also a mystery to Truly, Madly. I was quite happy with it and thought it was well constructed. It was logical which allowed the readers to guess who did it and what happened, but at least, it wasn't obvious. Know what I mean? More importantly, I thought it really blended well with the other storylines. I thought Ms Webber did a great job balancing everything in Truly, Madly. I mean, there was a lot of characters and a lot going on, but it never felt too much and Ms Webber was able to keep it light.

My only complaint would be that the romance between Lucy and Sean was very light. However, this is the first book of a series, and it seems Ms Webber was setting things up. I'm sure - or at least, I hope, that Lucy and Sean's relationship will be explored further in the next book :)

My Grade: B+. Truly, Madly was a fast and very enjoyable read to me. It was cute and light and cheered me up :) I'm definitively looking forward to the next book, Deeply, Desperately, coming out in August :)