Tag Archives: Jenny Holiday

Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday-review

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Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday-review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Google Play / Chapters Indigo /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 30, 2024

A charming and heartfelt romance about a woman who comes face to face with the fake Canadian boyfriend she made up as a teenager.

The fake Canadian boyfriend. It’s a thing. The get out of jail free card for all kinds of sticky social situations. “I can’t go to prom; I’m going to be out of town visiting my boyfriend in Canada.” It’s all over pop culture. But Aurora Evans did it first. Once upon a time she met a teenage hockey player at the Mall of America. He was from Canada. He was a boy. She may have fudged the “friend” part a little, but it wasn’t like she was ever going to see him again. It wasn’t like she hurt anyone. Until she did—years later—on both counts.

When pro hockey player and recent widower Mike Martin walks into the dance studio where Aurora Evans teaches, he’s feeling overwhelmed with the fact that his wife may not have been exactly who he thought she was and the logistics of going back to work. As one of the few people his angry, heartbroken daughter connects with, Aurora agrees to be a pseudo nanny to help him navigate the upcoming school year and hockey season. To his surprise, she turns out to be the perfect balm for him as well. Aurora gets him. The real him underneath his pro jersey. And yet, he still finds himself holding back, unable to fully trust again—especially when he finds out the secret Aurora’s been hiding from him.

••••••

REVIEW:CANADIAN BOYFRIEND by Jenny Holiday is a stand alone, contemporary, adult, romance story line focusing on twenty-nine year old, dance instructor turned nanny Aurora ‘Rory’ Evans, and thirty-five year old, professional hockey player/single dad Mike Martin.

SOME BACKGROUND: Years earlier, Aurora Evans briefly met Mike Martin and his friends at a coffee shop in Minnesota, and as she struggled with high school relationships and a possible future dance career, Aurora invented a Canadian boyfriend, using Mike Martin as her model for romance and love. Fast forward to present day wherein Aurora would once again come face to face with man who inspired her hopes and dreams, a man who remembers nothing about meeting our story line heroine.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Mike and Rory) covering approximately one year in the life, CANADIAN BOYFRIEND follows the building relationship between our story line couple. Mike Martin’s hockey career is slowing down but a two year extension meant finding a temporary nanny for his daughter Olivia while his regular nanny took some personal time. Mike never expected to find help with his daughter’s dance instructor Miss Rory, the woman with whom Mike would reluctantly fall in love. As Rory grew closer to both MIke and Olivia, Aurora would realize Mike’s inability to let go of the past was about to destroy the love growing between our story line couple.

The world building focuses on Aurora’s failed ballet career; the dance mom who refused to let her daughter live the life she wanted; and a daughter’s failure to just say no. Meanwhile, we are pulled into the grief and anger that is Mike Martin in the wake of his wife’s death, and the secrets she was hoping to take to the grave. Unable to trust anyone including our story line heroine, Mike’s inability to commit, and constant need to push Aurora away would lead to a decision that made no one happy.

The relationship between Mike and Aurora begins as a friendship predicated upon a professional relationship. Aurora is Olivia’s dance instructor, soon to be temporary nanny, and Mike is a man on a mission to take more than he is willing to give.The back and forth dance between Aurora and Mike is heart breaking; neither one willing to commit but Mike’s mixed messages would become too much for our story line heroine, and in the end she would have to walk away to protect her heart. The $ex scenes are limited but passionate.

The secondary and supporting characters are charismatic. We are introduced to Mike’s parents, as well as his former in-laws; Aurora’s resentful and embittered mother; fellow dancer Gretchen; hockey player Ivan Zadorov and his wife Lauren; and Mike’s daughter Olivia.

CANADIAN BOYFRIEND is a story of secrets and lies, heart break and grief, acceptance, forgiveness, family and love. The premise is captivating; the very slow building romance is emotional and barely ignites before the end of the story; the characters are broken yet struggling to heal but Mike Martin’s reaction to Aurora’s confession about the past was unbelievable, over the top, and completely unjustified. Mike’s behavior towards Aurora was unacceptable yet our heroine was all too quick to forgive without a heartfelt apology.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

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Famous by Jenny Holiday – a Review

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Famous by Jenny Holiday – a Review

 

FamousAmazon / B&N / Kobo

Description:
Everyone knows her face. He knows her heart.

Emerson Quinn is famous. Girls want to be her. Boys want to date her. Each record outsells the last. All that remains is to continue transitioning her brand from its teenage fan base to a more mature, diverse audience. So she’s under strict orders to play nice with her army of assigned co-songwriters and to knock off the serial dating that keeps landing her in the tabloids. If she follows instructions, she can look forward to an indefinite run at the top of the celebrity ecosystem. There’s only one problem with this plan: Emerson is miserable.

So she runs away, impulsively fleeing her L.A. life and heading for a small Iowa college town where a guy she once knew lives. He’s the only person in the world she can think of who might be enough of a nerd to not know about Emerson Quinn the brand. Who might be willing to provide a haven where she can lay low and write her new album by herself, on her own terms.
  
Art history professor Evan Winslow knows a thing or two about leaving your past behind. He’s worked hard to establish himself far from the spotlight of his infamous father. He’s up for tenure soon, which will mean job security for life. All he has to do to lock down his hard-won, blessedly quiet existence is keep his head down.

Too bad the most famous pop star in the world—who also happens to be his long-lost muse—has just shown up on his doorstep.


Review:

When Evan and Emmy first meet, he’s running away from attention and she’s running toward it. Seven years later, their paths reconvene in the “straight lines and right angles” of Iowa, “No twists and turns. Nothing and no one lurking unexpectedly behind a bend in the road. No blind spots.” Will such luxury of independence serve Emmy’s song-producing needs? And what of Evan’s newly-invaded heart, because Emmy whirls in and intensifies all his repressed emotions. Jenny Holiday is “Famous“, *wink, wink* for introducing wonderful characters whose lives she upends only to make them more life-affirming. Gotta love an author like this!

Emmy made her dreams come true, she’s a massive star, but when the music industry begins churning her into a machine, she tries to escape the “Famous” lifestyle she ambitiously created. Evan wishes he could resume his creativity that was deprived him by the sins of his father. Although struggling within an artistic spectrum, Evan and Emmy are more in tune than not. Surprisingly, and selflessly, Evan and Emmy don’t despair over their plights; seeking only to support each other’s goals. Their talents are reenergized in each other’s stasis.

When things turn romantic, as they’re clearly headed (I know I wanted it!), uncertainty overrides emotion. In an effort to achieve her most sought after independence, Emmy’s decreed a moratorium on dating. Evan, honorable dude that he is, abides by her wishes…and battles his burgeoning desires. This may, or may not, make them irritable. But it only enhances their communication. Jenny Holiday moonlights as a part-time therapist, I’m sure. 😉

“But, amazingly, the odd stiffness between them wasn’t enough to extinguish the attraction between them.”

Internal chaos turns innocuous Iowa into a catalyst for two uneasy souls. “The sense that even though everything was orderly and tidy, this was also, paradoxically, a place where anything could happen.” Famous is a beautiful love story that launches a watershed moment to epic proportions. Emmy and Evan weren’t unhappy, but complacent and ultimately compromising their potential. Shared sensibility and compassion inspired them to ask for more. Emmy and Evan surmounted a mountain of more.

On a fun note, I had likened Emmy and Evan to Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel from Safe Haven. But when Emmy was going on about how college girls must be dying to get into Evan’s class, I immediately thought of Indiana Jones and the student with her eyelids declaring devotion. Picture whomever you’d like, maybe even Taylor Swift? ;D. Just know that you’re in for some steamy scenes. Yeah, so not complaining.

Reviewed by Carmen

Copy supplied for review

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