An imaginative Beauty and the Beast retelling set against the Alaskan wilderness… musher’s dogs while searching for the truth about her father’s hidden past. But her cantankerous new boss comes with dangerous secrets of his own.
When a fire ravages part of the property, all will be revealed—and four-thousand miles away from the only home she’s ever known, Lauren will discover just how quickly everything can change.
Don’t miss the chance to lose your heart to Lauren, Shane, and their courageous team of sled dogs in this unforgettable tale of love, loss, and finding where you belong. Start reading THE LONELIEST COTTAGE today!
more
Let There Be Love is a story that kept me reading, and interested. And I didn’t have to skip over the violence or cruelty. The story is clean, yet still manages to tackle human frailties, which is my favorite part of any book, the characters.
The story depicts Lauren Dalton who is working at a dead-end job when she receives the news one morning of her father’s death. The father who raised her and with whom she was very close.
She finds a box of his things as she cleans out his house to ready it for sale, and comes across memorabilia that surprises her. Clippings on Alaska and on the dog races that take place there.
Wanting to find out this hidden past about her dad, she takes a job as a handler to Shane Ramsey. Shane, an upcoming musher, suffered a terrible accident and needs help with his dogs and the running of his household.
Sparks fly between them as she has no experience, and Shane is somewhat of a bitter recluse.
I enjoyed Lauren’s role in the story. She is edgy, energetic, a woman who will not take anyone’s guff, Shane’s or anyone else’s. Naturally, she has her hands full. Shane is not someone any woman likes to confront.
My favorite part was learning about the Iditarod. Believe it or not, since I’m like the penguin who hated the cold, my mind is forever anchored on sun, surf, and salt water. Alaska, and what people do up there, is unknown to me in every possible way. So this race was a learning experience for me. Being an animal lover, though, I hate to think of these sweet dogs running for days the way they do. I did like Lauren’s kindness and compassion toward them. Her position relieved some of my worries.
Finally, I did shed a few tears in the last chapters, which is a good sign. I was involved, smitten, cared about what happened to fictional characters, which also means their rendition was dead-on.
All in all, a must-read story if only to learn how to brave the cold, and manage ice-cold people.
This was a pretty good book. Not being familiar with dog sledding and racing detracted from my enjoyment, I’m sure. Not sure I’ll continue with the series on that account.
When her father passes suddenly, Lauren was at a loss how to carry on. She wasn’t really happy in her job; she didn’t have much going on in her life now with her father gone; and, she made some moves that changed her life. Having found information that her parents had once lived in Alaska, she heads there from New York and started over. This is a fun story with tragic topics of loss, fires and dog-sled races. I enjoyed every minute of this book and look forward to more stories by this author.
This is a good clean story filled with emotional events, a strong heroine with a don’t give up attitude, an Alaskan sled dog racing setting and a very positive HEA ending. I’d recommend this book!
Lauren’s dad passed, and it devastated her life, but there was more devastation after she discovered he’d hid something, a deep-rooted memento box that held memories of the secret life he lived. Lauren takes up seasonal work in rustic Alaska, taking care of an incapacitated sled dog runner, and soon finds out this crabby man has some dark skeletons in his closet as well. Shane favors to be standoffish, and he and endure some difficulties. This is a Christian fiction story dealing with mystery, romance, and friendship. It is a charming read for a quiet afternoon.
When Lauren Dalton’s father dies she finds out things about him that she never knew. She was not aware that he had been a musher in Alaska. She determined to pull up roots and go to Alaska to find out what else she did not know about him!
She managed to get a job at a musher’s house with all his dogs. He had been in a bad accident and needed someone to help him care for his dogs-and himself although he was not about to admit to that! They were like oil and water but Lauren was not about to give up-she sensed something about him but could not put her finger on it.
This is a story about human kindness and learning to live with others. The ending will flabbergast you as Lauren finds out about something she never knew!!
You can find my complete review on Goodreads or Amazon!
This was just okay for me. It was free so I had nothing to lose but time.
I didn’t feel a connection to the H/h as a romantic couple, as friends yes. This is a clean story with only kisses.
Romance was none existent for me. The best part was the friend fro the library, loved her!
The h seems to have gone from zero to 60 in how to handle dogs/sled etc. Seemed unrealistic in the time frame. Then we have the H not knowing where someone is (no spoiler’s), to the person appearing like magic at his door?
No cheating, no cliffhanger, HEA, no romance and clean. (ljb)
Dogs, mystery, friendship, romance, Melissa Storm manages to weave all four into a compelling story. Why did Mr Dalton hide his past, why is Shane so angry and walled off. Let There Be Love is great opening book for her sled dog series. Looking forward to the next one.
I had mixed feelings on this story. I’ve read n enjoyed other books by this author, so I dug in. I can see n understand the reviews both negative n positives better after finishing story. Loss, guilt, grief, settling not striving plays a part for both main characters. Shane, yes he was rude n had issues, but when you read the entire story, his background gives more depth to how he treated Lauren, not condoning him or anything, it just helped to understand his choices better.
I am looking forward to Scarlett’s story.
A sweet story. Sled dogs in Alaska, characters with complicated pasts and issues. What fun!
Lauren has a past she didn’t know about. Shane has a past that still causes him so much pain. Can these two work together? Can they help each other unravel the past and look to the future? Great start to this series. Loved the descriptions of the area – made me feel cold and want to bundle up then sit by the fire. I’m a dog lover so the sled dogs was a great story line. Can’t wait to read book 2 about Scarlet – what a great friend and crazy girl.
A MODERN BEAUTY & THE BEAST
THE LONLIEST COTTAGE is the first book in the Alaskan Hearts series. Each stands on their own. In fact, I have read the second book first.
What a cute way to retell Beauty and the Beast in modern times. Our beast is an Alaskan musher who has been injured in training and Beauty is an optimistic orphan looking for information about her father’s past as a musher!
I loved that this was a clean romance. I read a lot of racy romance and love it too, but every once in a while it is refreshing to enjoy the purity of clean romance. That’s not to say that there isn’t conflict. Shane is over-the-top grumpy, and Lauren has to deal with mourning the loss of her father and the secrets she is uncovering about his past in Alaska.
I loved the slowly building relationship, friendship, and finally love between Shane and Lauren. I also loved the dogs. It made me giggle when they were referred to as “husky pucks” when they curled up after the first race.
One key to this book (and the series) is that the author’s husband was a trainer and musher at one time and has shared his knowledge with her to add as much realism as possible to her stories. There is nothing to compare to ready access to anecdotes and experience.
I’ve already read the second book, so I’ll be reading the third book next! I’ll start as soon as I finish writing this up.
Note: while I was given this book as a gifted ARC, my opinions are my own and are given freely.
Title: THE LONLIEST COTTAGE
Series: Alaskan Hearts #1
Category /Genre: Contemporary Romance
Recommended for: 16+
Grammar/editing: A – near perfect
Received from: Melissa Storm (as a gifted copy)
Love in a COLD Place
Not a lot of time is wasted plunging into this story. Our heroine’s life is thrown upside down almost at once and remains in turmoil through much of the drama. Heathcliff, a/k/a The Beast–sorry, that’s Shane–has a number of secrets of his own to cope with. And then there are the dogs. LOTS of dogs. 27 dogs! Mush! Who wins Iditarod? You, the reader.
This was a heartwarming, well-written book. Lauren Dalton’s father dies and she is shocked to discover he had a hidden past he had never told her about. She travels to Alaska to learn more. She finds a job working for Shane Ramsey, an injured sled dog racer. Can Lauren reconcile her father’s hidden past with what she knew about him and figure out what she is meant to do with her life? Can Shane overcome his injury and his past? This book can be read as a standalone story. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more in this series as well as others by this author.
So much fun to read. Have always enjoyed reading about sled dog racing and this did not disappoint. Realistic characters who worked through their hurts, grew as a result and got their HEA. If you want books with steam in the romance, this is not the book for you.
I liked the beginning of the book very much. The banter between Shane & Lauren is so funny. I especially love the dogs in the story. Her first solo run with the dogs is so cute. Now moving on to #2. I read this story as part of the box set I received as an ARC from the author. This is my voluntary review.
In The Loneliest Cottage, after her father’s death. Lauren travels from New York to Alaska in search of answers about her father’s past life. She takes a job as a dog handler for Shane who is hoping to recover from a horrendous accident and return to racing. These two have a lot of sorrow to overcome. I love Melissa Storm’s books. She creates believable characters in well written romances. This one is set against the background of Alaska and sled dog races. Ms. Storm has written a great beginning to another series. If you like clean, heart warming romance, I highly recommend you read this book.
Let there be Love
This is a wonderful story about 2 people, each with their own struggles, finding their way to each other and falling in love.
I really loved the dogs in this story too.
If you are looking for a well written, sweet romance with a little steam and spice then this book is for you.
I enjoyed the story. I love working dogs and the sled dogs are some of my favorites. But this book asked me to suspend my disbelief just a little too far for me to be completely into the story. I’ve been owned by a husky/malamute cross and while they’re wonderful, affectionate animals they are also some of the most stubborn, uncooperative breeds for a novice to handle. There is a little bit of Jane Eyre in the cruel dark hero redeemed by the love of the fair maiden, but this part of the plot happened too quickly and too easily for me to find it believable. I liked the plot thread of the mystery surrounding Lauren’s parents, but this too I thought was resolved too simply. And family legacy or not, I find it highly unlikely that someone who’s never raced before could be Iditarod ready in only part of one racing season. I felt Lauren was incredibly naïve and Shane too broken for their romance to work properly. Shane especially should have had professional help dealing with his numerous emotional traumas – in the real world those aren’t healed by True Love’s kiss.