Blog Archives
Matters of the Heart
Wrecking Ball centers around an environmental safety inspector recovering from a dead-end relationship whose life is jolted by a charming construction worker and a series of misunderstandings. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Many people have found themselves in a relationship where difficult decisions must be made. Is my partner good for my future? Are they dragging me down? What about my own dreams? Matters of the heart are never simple or easy. Although this story is a rom-com with exaggerated situations, there is an underlying theme about relationship choices that I believe many people can relate to, which became my inspiration for this work.
The novel blends romantic comedy with genuine emotional vulnerability. How did you find the balance between laughter and heartbreak?
The pain of heartbreak can be unbearable, but sometimes things happen for a reason. Whether you believe in fate, karma, destiny, or just plain luck, things have a way of working out. Later, we can laugh through our pain and occasionally discover that the new situation we find ourselves in turned out for the better.
The novel has a wonderfully playful sense of humor. Which scene made you laugh the most while writing it?
For those who work in an office setting, I believe everyone can relate to the “office gossip” and the people responsible for it. The Cluck Club from the story represents the group that likes to spread rumors and be the center of attention. I found it humorous writing about those ladies, especially when other people might find themselves wanting to be part of the gossip!
Can fans expect more stories set in this world or featuring some of the supporting characters?
Unfortunately, no. My novellas tend to be stand-alone tales across multiple genres. I very much loved getting to know Bethany, Leon, and even young Rosaline as I wrote Wrecking Ball and gave them their own world.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
*From the award-winning author of Naked Interview and The Uninvited Guest – Alice Re: Wonderland*
Love letters spark the heart, but when white lies smother the flame, Bethany and Leon encounter a mountain of trouble!
Bethany works in the office conducting safety inspections. Leon sweats it out in construction wielding heavy machinery. The two couldn’t be more different, and an initial encounter in a parking lot leaves both fuming.
However, pen and paper bring the awkward couple together in ways that surprise them both. From terms of endearment to shy feelings, Bethany and Leon explore an undefined relationship through the written word.
Unfortunately, secrets and misunderstandings shatter their connection before things really heat up. Add a smooth-talking, conniving ex into the picture and things really go south fast. Can Bethany and Leon sift through the madness and mistakes to salvage the delicate beginnings of love, or will a hypothetical wrecking ball leave their emotions in the dust for good?
This spicy romantic comedy follows Bethany and Leon’s story of miscues and mayhem. The romance is tense and the poor hearts sensitive as the lovers try to find common ground. This fun story contains the following tropes:
-Love letters
-Meet-cute…nah!
-Ex interference
-Troublesome white lies
-Enemies to friends to enemies to lovers (whew!)
-HEA
Wrecking Ball
Wrecking Ball, by Pamela Summers, follows Bethany, an environmental safety inspector trying to recover from a dead-end relationship with career-obsessed Joshua, only to have her orderly life jolted by Leon, a construction worker whose charm arrives with concrete dust, hard hats, and several spectacular misunderstandings. What begins as irritation over a filthy car and an awkward confrontation becomes a workplace-adjacent romance full of missed signals, handwritten notes, old emotional bruises, family complications, and the stubborn hope that two people can still build something solid after making a mess of the foundation.
I enjoyed how Bethany is written as both capable and gloriously fallible. She is not a glossy romance heroine gliding through conflict with perfect hair and perfect instincts; she overthinks, snaps back, spirals, embarrasses herself, and occasionally turns a small problem into a full civic emergency. That made her feel relatable. The humor works best when the book lets her private commentary run wild, especially around the “cluck club,” the construction crew, and her own unwilling attraction to Leon. The story has a bright, unruly energy, like a romantic comedy that wandered onto a job site and refused to wear proper protective gear.
Leon works because he brings warmth without becoming bland. His “Fuzzy Hero” hard hat, his devotion to Rosaline, and his careful attempts to reach Bethany give the romance a sweetness that balances the book’s steamier moments. I was most drawn to the sections where the comedy gives way to hurt pride, miscommunication, and second chances; those scenes give the novel its emotional ballast. The misunderstandings pile up in a way that feels almost theatrical, but that heightened quality is part of the book’s engine. It wants the chaos, the fluster, the door-slamming embarrassment, and then the catharsis of people finally saying the thing they should have said three chapters earlier.
This book is a good fit for readers who like contemporary romance, workplace romance, romantic comedy, and second-chance-adjacent love stories with open-door heat and a lively heroine. Fans of Tessa Bailey’s blend of blue-collar attraction, humor, and emotional sincerity may find a familiar kind of pleasure here, though Pamela Summers gives the story her own chatty, combustible rhythm. Wrecking Ball is a romance about demolition, repair, and the reckless little miracle of trusting someone near the scaffolding of your heart.
Pages: 114 | ASIN : B0FNKZ9H5K
The Escape
The Escape, by Eve M. Riley, is a contemporary romance that follows two people on opposite sides of the country each trying to outrun parts of their lives that no longer fit. Aiden, a brilliant but emotionally guarded tech founder, sells the company he built from nothing and suddenly faces a terrifying blank space where his purpose used to be. Emma, a razor-sharp New York lawyer, sees the ground shifting under her feet when a ruthless colleague threatens the career she’s spent fifteen years building. Both of them are pushed toward escape, but in ways they didn’t expect and aren’t fully prepared to admit to themselves.
Riley builds her characters from the inside out, and that pulled me in. Aiden’s interior world feels both ordered and cracked, like a glass that has been knocked but not shattered. His past in the Romanian orphanage, the tremor in his hands, and the way he tries to manage his life by managing objects on his desk. Those details land with quiet force. Emma, on the other hand, is all sharp lines and forward motion until you glimpse the exhaustion under her competence. Her scenes with her family, her sister, even the texts from her mother, felt so real I could practically hear the phone buzz. The author lets their defenses show without stripping them of dignity, which kept me rooting for both of them long before their paths crossed.
What surprised me most was how much the book explores the idea of identity inside a romance-driven plot. Aiden’s wealth doesn’t free him; it disorients him. Emma’s success doesn’t shield her; it isolates her. Both are accomplished adults who still feel like they’re standing in the wrong rooms of their own lives. The writing makes space for that confusion. Some moments are clipped and almost businesslike. Others slow down and stretch out, like the narrator is finally taking a breath. The shift in tone feels intentional. It mirrors the way big life changes often come in waves that don’t match each other. I liked that the book didn’t rush to soothe anything too quickly.
The Escape is a contemporary romance novel, but it leans into emotional excavation more than tropey spectacle. I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy character-driven stories with grown adults who are messy, thoughtful, competent, and a little lost. If you like romance that blends heart with personal reckoning, this one will land well.
Pages: 312 | ASIN : B0FG2Z4ZZC
Sense of Unease
Friday at Four follows a researcher who happens upon an unexpected method for communicating with his dog and discovers what it means to truly be understood. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I don’t know where the inspiration for this book came from. Somewhere on vacation in France, at some point, I was overcome by a great sense of unease. I had to go and buy a notebook and a pen, and I started writing. I just followed the flow of my thoughts.
Did you plan the tone and direction of the novel before writing, or did it come out organically as you were writing?
I never felt that I had any influence on this story. It was literally dictated to me. But I don’t know by whom or how. It was like a compulsion that had me in its grip for two years.
What experience in your life has had the biggest impact on your writing?
The slow death of a loved one.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
I’m going to publish a very funny book about a failed art forger – before Christmas, I hope.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Website | Amazon
Few novels capture with such honesty the way love can be eroded by silence and then, in the face of death, renewed in its most fragile and essential form. This is not just a story about a man caught between two women, but about how we confront loss, and how even in the darkest moments tenderness and clarity can emerge. It lingers in the mind as a stark yet luminous meditation on what it means to live, to love, and to let go.
Friday at four is a powerful novel about love, betrayal, and the courage to face loss — written with clarity, honesty, and unforgettable emotional force.
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Friday at Four
Gert Richter’s Friday at Four opens as a story about a man, his marriage, and his dog, but it quickly becomes something far more mysterious. The narrator, David, is a researcher whose logical world begins to blur when he finds an unexpected way to communicate with his dog, Lea. What starts as an odd experiment turns into a quiet, haunting meditation on connection, identity, and what it really means to be understood. The novel moves gently between the ordinary and the uncanny, asking big questions in the smallest moments.
What I found most striking about this book is Richter’s ability to blend warmth with unease. The early scenes feel almost playful. David’s tone is ironic, funny, even a little smug, but slowly, the edges soften. There’s something raw and human beneath his intellect. Richter writes with an understated confidence that makes even the strangest moments feel believable. You can feel the pull between love and loneliness, curiosity and fear, running through every page.
The prose itself is clear and unhurried, yet full of quiet emotion. Richter’s descriptions of everyday things, a glance, a walk by the river, the silence after a conversation, carry a strange electricity. I found myself rereading certain lines just to feel their rhythm again. The book doesn’t lecture; it invites reflection. You sense the author’s fascination with how people and animals connect, how relationships can both reveal and dissolve who we are.
What makes Friday at Four memorable isn’t its plot, but its mood, the sense of drifting between clarity and confusion, between science and feeling. It’s not a loud book, but it lingers. I finished it feeling both calmed and unsettled, the way you might after a long, searching conversation that doesn’t quite end.
I’d recommend Friday at Four to readers who enjoy introspective fiction, books that take their time, that ask more questions than they answer. It’s especially for those who like stories that explore thought and emotion without ever spelling things out. If you’ve ever found yourself looking into your pet’s eyes and wondering what they see when they look back at you, this novel will feel strangely familiar.
Pages: 320 | ISBN : 978-2940364602
Starting Over
Second Chances in Brittany follows a retired professional who expected a romantic adventure in France with her husband but finds herself in a quiet battle for her own autonomy and identity. Where did the idea for this book come from?
Shortly after moving from Brussels to Brittany, I joined a group of English ex-patriates who met regularly for lunch. Their different motives for moving to Brittany were fascinating, as were their original expectations of what it would be like to live here, and their different ways of adapting (or refusing to adapt) to what they found. When driving home, I found myself working through storylines about people moving to Brittany.
What character did you enjoy writing for? Was there one that was more challenging to write for?
The two characters I most enjoy are the backbone of the series – Charles Pullen and Gérard Lemestre – but in this book they are in the background.
The most difficult character to write was Sarah herself. I wanted someone capable of planning and organising the perfect move to Brittany, but that’s a dull story on its own. I needed to create a flaw in her character to ensure that things didn’t go as planned, and settled on her adoration for a disastrous husband. Sarah wasn’t initially a sympathetic character, too business-like, too efficient, and yet stupidly deferring to James. But the more I understood her, the more she rounded out into someone worth knowing.
Did you plan the tone and direction of the novel before writing, or did it come out organically as you were writing?
The setting was planned and has never changed. But I initially wrote just to get all the stories I’d thought up interwoven into one coherent whole. That proved to need more than one book. Splitting my initial ideas into separate books entailed moving incidents to different dates and times of year. Something like arranging a large bunch of flowers between six vases!
What is the next book we can look forward to seeing from you?
The second book in the series is Pasts Present in Brittany, following a Canadian woman who moves to France and suffers too much bad luck before coming to Brittany and finding friends and Charles Pullen.
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebook | Website
A second honeymoon in France was supposed to save Sarah’s marriage. Instead, it changes her life forever.
Sarah Pullen arrives in the enchanting coastal town of Saint-Malo, ready to rebuild her relationship with her husband, James. With a dream penthouse, charming neighbors, and the romance of Brittany all around her, she dares to believe their love can be rekindled.
But then the cracks begin to show. Painful headaches. Lingering doubts. And finally, one devastating truth that shatters everything she thought she knew about her marriage.
Left alone in a foreign land, Sarah must summon the courage to start over. As she discovers friendship, resilience, and a hidden secret that reaches far beyond her own life, she realizes that endings can also be beginnings… and that hope has a way of finding you when you least expect it.
Second Chances in Brittany is the unforgettable first novel in Anne Morenn’s Romance in Brittany series, a poignant, uplifting story of love, betrayal, and the healing power of starting again.
Recipient of the Literary Titan’s Book Award
Second Chances in Brittany
Second Chances in Brittany follows Sarah Pullen, a retired professional whose life in France with her husband James is anything but the romantic adventure she once imagined. What begins as a medical mystery about Sarah’s relentless headaches slowly unfolds into a deeply personal struggle for autonomy, identity, and renewal. Through Sarah’s quiet courage and resourcefulness, the story shifts from despair and control toward resilience and rediscovery, set against the evocative backdrop of Brittany’s landscapes, communities, and rhythms of life.
The writing itself struck me as unpretentious, direct, and steady. At times, the prose felt plain, but that plainness carried its own weight. It mirrored Sarah’s methodical thinking and gave her voice a grounded, believable tone. What I enjoyed most were the moments where the local community came alive, like the social clubs, the Qi Gong classes, and the warmth of neighbors. Those glimpses of ordinary joy felt like bursts of fresh air in Sarah’s otherwise suffocating marriage. I did wish that the book lingered a little more in those brighter spaces, but perhaps the contrast is what makes them stand out so strongly. It reminded me that healing often starts in small, overlooked places.
I found James exasperating. His constant belittling of Sarah and his obsessive control were difficult to witness. Yet this very reaction shows how vividly the author sketched him. Sarah, on the other hand, grew on me page by page. Her quiet defiance, her small acts of rebellion, and her longing for connection outside of her marriage carried a raw honesty that made me root for her. I admired the way she strategized like a project manager even while navigating deeply personal pain. It felt relatable in a way that made me both ache for her and cheer her on.
By the end, I found the book both sobering and uplifting. It’s a quiet story of a woman reclaiming herself after decades of silence, which I found moving. Second Chances in Brittany reminded me of The Awakening by Kate Chopin, since both novels capture a woman’s quiet but determined journey toward reclaiming her independence and sense of self against the weight of a controlling relationship. I’d recommend Second Chances in Brittany to readers who enjoy character-driven stories about resilience, reinvention, and the complicated textures of later life. It’s especially powerful for anyone who has felt overshadowed in a relationship and is looking for a narrative that validates the strength in carving out a new path.
Pages: 394 | ASIN : B0DTBZTH65
The Christmas Miracle
The Christmas Miracle follows Peter Travis, a man marked by grief yet blessed with resilience, who navigates a life shaped by loss, love, and small miracles. He runs Briana’s Bistro, a place that holds both memories of a past love and the heartbeat of his present family. Through tender moments with his wife Laura and their children, strained encounters with troubling figures like Stephen Hobbs, and the unexpected bond with a boy named Terry, Peter’s world becomes a tapestry of sorrow, second chances, and quiet redemption. At its heart, the book reflects on love’s endurance in the face of tragedy, and how the spirit of Christmas can illuminate even the darkest corners of life.
I found myself moved by the writing. Barbara Avon’s style has a rhythm that feels both intimate and unpolished in the best way. She doesn’t shy away from heavy emotion, and the words carry raw honesty. Sometimes the prose wanders, slipping into almost dreamlike passages, and while that can slow the pace, it also makes the story feel authentic. I felt like I was sitting at Peter’s kitchen table listening to him unspool his life, full of regrets and blessings tangled together. There were moments I had to pause, the weight of grief so vividly drawn that it pressed on my chest. Yet the warmth of family and the small, ordinary joys gave the story its balance.
What lingered most for me was the way the book treats memory. Ghosts of the past aren’t just haunting, they’re guiding, shaping how Peter learns to love again. I liked how the bistro itself became a character, almost a shrine, where the past and present collided. At times, the melodrama was heavy, but I couldn’t deny how much I cared about these characters. Their flaws, their resilience, their hunger for meaning, all of it struck a chord. The dialogue, especially between Peter and Laura, felt tender and believable. And the introduction of Terry added a fresh spark, a reminder of hope in unlikely places.
This isn’t a story of neat resolutions. It’s a reminder that miracles don’t erase pain, they stand alongside it. I’d recommend The Christmas Miracle to readers who want a heartfelt, emotional ride, especially those drawn to family dramas and holiday tales with depth. It’s not a light read, but it’s one that leaves you holding tighter to the people you love, and maybe seeing the season with softer eyes.
Pages: 199 | ASIN : B08BN6LY9X
