Book Review, Contemporary, Enemies to Lovers, New Romantics Press, Romance

Take Me, I’m Yours by Lizzie Lamb

ABOUT THE BOOK

India Buchanan plans to set up an English-Style bed and breakfast establishment in her great-aunt’s home, MacFarlane’s Landing, Wisconsin. But she’s reckoned without opposition from Logan MacFarlane whose family once owned her aunt’s house and now want it back. MacFarlane is in no mood to be denied. His grandfather’s living on borrowed time and Logan has vowed to ensure the old man sees out his days in their former home. India’s great-aunt has other ideas and has threatened to burn the house to the ground before she lets a MacFarlane set foot in it. There’s a story here. One the family elders aren’t prepared to share. When India finds herself in Logan’s debt, her feelings towards him change. However, the past casts a long shadow and events conspire to deny them the love and happiness they both deserve. Can India and Logan’s love overcome all odds? Or is history about to repeat itself?

MY REVIEW

Lizzie Lamb definitely knows how to write an enemies-to-lovers romance. Her heroes are arrogant and smug, and her heroines are strong and spirited. What better combo for a good old-fashioned battle of wills?

It’s a family feud made from a gentlemen’s agreement gone wrong. The outsider and the homeboy. A match made in He…, well, you know. It’s a Mexican standoff. An impasse. An unspoken acknowledgment that, though they might be adversaries, they are also sexually attracted to each other. The poor little rich kids will both get their comeuppance.

The cool, calm India Buchanan is fast becoming an emotional wreck. Logan MacFarlane is pushing her to the limits of patience and endurance. From the moment she first met him, he always ends up with the final word and the last laugh. He is threatening to take her family home because it’s all the MacFarlanes have ever wanted and now that her Great Aunt Elspeth is ill, the vultures are circling. However, India has felt MacFarlane’s other side. The charming and kind side. The side she is falling in love with. But the house is the only place where she feels she belongs and her plan to make it a bed and breakfast will end whatever relationship she has with MacFarlane. She will have to make a choice. Her business or him.

Logan has never met such an infuriating and pigheaded woman. His grandfather warned him that the Buchanan women were ornery and he’s learning first hand. He’s never had a problem charming the ladies, but she brings out the beast in him. He’s never been turned down before. She’s different. He’s an aspiring District Attorney. He can legally take her home that belongs to his family. It’s about his promise to his grandfather and his duty as a MacFarlane. But things change and it becomes more about his feelings for India than his duty to his family name until she lied to him.

The love/hate relationship between India and Logan is volatile and very hot. They can’t deny the attraction they have despite their fight over a property that has caused havoc in their families for decades. Trust is an issue for both of them due to their upbringings. India has learned to be independent and self-reliant by realizing she couldn’t get everything she wanted–notably, love and affection from her parents.  Logan has done his duty for his family. He has become a powerful lawyer like his grandfather and father before him, but at the expense of his love for painting. Raised by bitter, selfish parents, he has stayed away from commitment. Watching India and Logan fight tooth and nail as they open their hearts to each other is captivating and heartbreaking. The picnic basket auction is a hilarious show of marking their territories, and India waking up in Logan’s guestroom is steamy. They’re two stubborn people who jump to conclusions and make stupid mistakes, but it’s worth the pain to see them finally admit their feelings for each other.

The lovely supporting characters of Logan’s grandfather, John MacFarlane, and India’s Great Aunt Elspeth are a big part of the plot concerning the ongoing feud and are essential to getting Logan and India to open their eyes and not make the mistakes they made.

I highly recommend this beautifully told story filled with so much emotion and compassion. The characters are headstrong, passionate, and generous. And the venue in Door County, Wisconsin, is gorgeous.

Thank you to Ms. Lamb for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review.

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Take Me, I'm Yours

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With Scottish, Irish, and Brazilian blood in her veins, it’s hardly surprising Lizzie Lamb is a writer. As a child, she wrote extra scenes for the films she watched and was almost drummed out of the playground for keeping all the good lines for herself. Luckily, she saves them for her readers these days.

After thirty-four years as a primary school teacher, Lizzie decided it was time to find out if she had it what it took to become a published author. Her last post was as deputy head of a large primary school in Leicestershire. Here you can see her taking her final assembly, bidding farewell to her pupils, and explaining why she wanted to become a writer.   

Leaving the chalk face behind, she joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association and honed her craft. At an RNA Conference, another writer encouraged her to write from her heart and not focus too overtly on what she ‘believed’ agents and publishers were looking for.  After some deliberation, Lizzie formed the New Romantics Press with three other members of the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme and went down the self-publishing route. It was the best decision she ever made.

All of Lizzie’s novels are available to read as downloads or as paperbacks. You can read them for FREE on  Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime.

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