The Cottage on Juniper Ridge by Sheila Roberts ~ Goddess Fish Virtual Book Tour ~ Giveaway ~ Review

The Cottage on Juniper Ridge

by Sheila Roberts

Sheila will be awarding a $25 B & N gift card and an eCopy of The Cottage on Juniper Ridge to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Please be sure to leave a comment below along with your email address so you may be contacted if you are the lucky winner. To increase your chances of winning please visit the other tour stops. You may find those locations here.... http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/01/virtual-book-tour-cottage-on-juniper.html

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BLURB:


Can a book change your life? Yes, when it's Simplicity, Muriel Sterling's guide to plain living. In fact, it inspires Jen Heath to leave her stressful, overcommitted life in Seattle and move to Icicle Falls, where she rents a lovely little cottage on Juniper Ridge. And where she can enjoy simple pleasures—like joining the local book club—and complicated ones, like falling in love with her sexy landlord, Garrett Armstrong.

Her sister Toni is ready for a change, too. She has a teenage daughter who's constantly texting her friends, a husband who's more involved with his computer than he is with her, and a son who's consumed by video games. Toni wants her family to grow closer—to return to a simpler way of life.

Other women in town, like Stacy Thomas, are also inspired to unload their excess stuff and some of the extra responsibilities they've taken on.

But as they all discover, sometimes life simply happens. It doesn't always happen simply!

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EXCERPT:

She and Bill Will chatted for a few minutes, mostly about him and how he was saving up to buy a place of his own. “Except I only got about a thousand in the bank,” he said with a shake of the head. “I need to find me a rich woman. Got any money, Jen?” he added with a smile.

“Yeah. Tons. Can’t you tell?”

“Aw, well. There’s more to life than money, right?” He set down his mug. “Let’s get started. I’m itchin’ to try out that machinery.”

She’d already marked off the area where she wanted the garden. “I figure I’ll put it over there,” she said, pointing to a sunny corner of the yard she’d marked off with string and some small yard stakes. 

“Okay,” he said with a nod.

She watched, feeling a tingle of excitement, as he let down the tailgate of his truck and pulled out the tiller. Home-grown lettuce and spinach and peas and carrots. This was going to be great.

Bill Will took the tiller over to the future home of Veggie Central, started it, and began to churn up the earth. She should plant sunflowers, too, she thought watching him.

She was so into her garden daydream that it took a minute for her to realize that the tilling had stopped. “I think we got a problem,” Bill Will called.

Had he hit a rock? She hurried over to where he was squatting in front of clumps of grass and sandy soil, examining what looked like some sort of network of pipes. “What’s that?” she asked. Whatever it was, something was wrong with it, she thought, looking at the water gurgling from several that had been severed.

He pushed back his hat and scratched his head. “Well, I’m no expert on stuff like this but if I had to guess I’d say that’s your drain field.”

“Drain field?”

“You know, your septic system. I think we just tore something up.”

A sick feeling landed in the pit of her stomach. “Can you fix it?”

He looked at the mess in front of him and shook his head. “If you need a horse broke or a fence mended I’m your man. This, well, you better call your landlord.”

The sick feeling swelled. “Oh,” Jen said weakly.

Bill Will straightened up. “Sorry to ruin your day Jen, but I don’t think we better till any more until you know where all your drain field is. You don’t want to do any more damage.”

She’d just done more damage ... to her tenant-landlord relationship. Oh, boy.

“You’d better call Armstrong right away,” Bill Will advised.

She could hardly wait. 

Her trepidation must have shown on her face because Bill Will threw an arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug. “It’ll be okay. He’s a good guy. He’ll understand.”

Jen wasn’t so sure.

After finishing his shift at the fire station Garrett had gotten his groceries, stopped by his folks, and called his sister in Yakima. That checked everything off his to-do list. Timmy was with his mother – so far so good there – and the rest of the day was now all his. 

How to spend it? He could do some work on his place, go for a hike, camp out for a while at Bavarian Brews with his laptop and surf the Net. The possibilities were endless.

His cell phone rang. Oh God, please don’t let it be Ashley. 

It wasn’t. But seeing who was calling left him just as rattled as if it had been. An image of a short redhead with freckles danced before his eyes. Jen Heath, a.k.a. Lucy Ricardo the Second. What did she want? 

“Hello,” he said cautiously. Every time Jen called it meant trouble for him. Heck, just looking at her was trouble. Because he liked what he saw. And he couldn’t afford to, not if he wanted to stay sane. 

“Um, Garrett?”

Something in her tone of voice told him he was going to be sorry he’d taken her call. He answered warily. “Hi Jen. What’s up?”

“Well, I have a small problem.”


Great. Just great. 


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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Sheila Roberts is married and has three children. She lives on a lake in the Pacific Northwest. Her novels have appeared in Readers Digest Condensed books and have been published in several languages. Her holiday perennial, On Strike for Christmas, was made into a movie for the Lifetime Movie Network and her her novel The Nine Lives of Christmas has been optioned for film. When she’s not writing songs, hanging out with her girlfriends or trying to beat her husband at tennis, she can be found writing about those things dear to women’s hearts: family, friends, and chocolate.

Readers can find me on:

http://www.sheilasplace.com

Facebook: Author Sheila Roberts

Twitter:_Sheila_Roberts

Buy link for Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FBZKZIG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B00FBZKZIG&link_code=as3&tag=revibycrys-20

Buy link for B & N:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-cottage-on-juniper-ridge-sheila-roberts/1116240410?ean=9780778314547

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Review: 


I was so excited when I received the opportunity to read and review this book as part of this blog tour. I have read other books in the 

Life in Icicle Falls series and really enjoyed them. The Cottage on Juniper Ridge was just as an enjoyable read as the rest of the series.

I loved the concept that everyone is trying to simplify their life after reading a book by Muriel Sterling. Jen Heath  is so darn busy trying to make a living that she is not living her life. She's tried of always working and not enjoying life. She makes a big change and moves from the city to the small town of Icicle Falls. She meets up with the ladies from the book club that have also read Muriel Sterling's book. They end up inviting Jen to their group and including her in the ring of friendship, which I found to be really sweet and one of the things I always enjoy about the small town series. 

Jen's landlord is the very handsome but some what cranky, Garrett Armstrong. There is certainly a connection between these two but Garrett fights his attraction to Jen. I really enjoyed watching these two get to know each other and their little humorous exchanges along the way. At times they rubbed each other the wrong way which caused some tension but I found humorous at times. 

As some of you know one of the things I love about series books is catching up with friends I have read about in previous books. Shelia Roberts has once again done a good job of catching up us up with some old friends from her previous books in this series. 

Over all I really enjoyed this story. I must say that it gave me a few points to think about and I think other readers will find the same thing. Not only is there a strong point to make about life in general, there is some nice romance, strong friendship relationships, and just a really nice story. If you have read the books in this series I think you will enjoy this one. If you have not read the previous books in the series I don't think you would have a hard time reading this as a stand alone book. 

I know I always enjoy Sheila Robert's books and I will be looking forward to what ever she has in store for us next.

I was given the opportunity to read and review this book as part of this blog too. As always it has been my pleasure to share my thoughts with you on The Cottage on Juniper Ridge.