ARC Review: Vivian by Bernadette Marie

Vivian the conclusion of the trilogy wraps up all the loose ends and explains why Adam did everything he did. In Penelope they met the new High School teacher with two daughters of his own, Clayton North. Vivian and Clayton start off rocky. Vivian thinks Clayton is still married because he hasn’t taken off his wedding ring. Clayton loved his wife and lost her in a school shooting and is now raising his two girls by himself. He moved his two girls here away from family because he couldn’t get past the memories and the sympathetic looks of everyone. Starting over in a new town and meeting Vivian helps him move past the pain he still feels. Vivian finally accepting it wasn’t her fault or Adam’s she moves on in her life and into Clayton's life.

All the while the old house Adam’s father gave the girls to use as their daycare center keeps getting broken into and Adam’s psycho mother has gone missing, only to turn up murdered and later his father is also murdered. It has a very exciting and happy conclusion for the book and the series.

Overall I loved this series with its continuing story arc throughout the books it keeps you wanting more to find out what why. Amelia is the strong one with the heart of gold Penelope is the sweet one that everyone wants to protect and Vivian is the bitter one who probably lost the most. Adam Monroe at first seems like a douche bag with three wives but with each book a little more is revealed to change your perspective of him. Our three heroes prove their value to each of their counter parts and prove that they are perfect for them. Bernadette Marie has a smooth style that is easy to follow and easy to love.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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ARC Review: Penelope by Bernadette Marie

Penelope is the third and the youngest of The Three Mrs. Monroe widows. When she turned up in Oklahoma for Adam’s funeral a couple of months pregnant she went from being alone and pregnant to having two of the best friends and a job in the making. She is quite content with how things are going with her life. Then Brock Romero shows up on the doorstep of the soon to be Daycare looking for Penelope. Adam Monroe died in the arms of Brock and spoke of Penelope, and how he wanted Brock to look after his young pregnant wife for him. Brock shows up with a box of Adam’s things that raises a bunch of questions for Vivian. Brock has been half in love with Penelope since before Adam died but Penelope is understandably a little hesitant after her disastrous hasty farce of a marriage to Adam. Brock is not like anyone she has ever known and she has no idea why he would love a woman who is pregnant with another man’s baby. But Brock doesn’t care and his big family is ready to welcome her with open arms too.

Along with Brock and Penelope falling in love, the mystery of why Adam had three wives just keeps building, a little is revealed only to reveal more questions. In the attic they found stashed letters bunches of letters from Adam to Vivian. It turns out Adam’s mother hated Vivian so much she kept things from her and lied to Adam about her. Penelope is a sweet story and it was a great read.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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ARC Review: Amelia by Bernadette Marie

The series The Three Mrs. Monroes is a three part story about the women who were unbeknownst to them all married to the same man. These books are a wonderful example of Bernadette Marie's writings; full of emotion, humor and romance. Amelia is a quick and lovely read.

The first book of The Three Mrs. Monroes starts with a funeral. Amelia shows up in a Podunk Oklahoma town for the funeral of her husband, Adam Monroe, who died in combat. She is not all that torn up about it because she had asked him for a divorce after she found out she was already married. She originally hadn’t planned to come to the funeral because his first wife and two kids would undoubtedly be there, but Adam’s lawyer had called her and asked her to come to the reading of the will. To her surprise a third wife shows up too. Amelia is immediately taken with Samuel Jackson, Adam’s lawyer. Amelia is a strong woman and isn’t shy to show what she wants and for some reason the bookish lawyer draws her attention. Penelope wife three is a young thing that Amelia feels the need to protect and it turns out that she’s pregnant with Adam’s child. At the reading of the will they learn the truth of why they all were called there, apparently the only legal marriage out of the three was Amelia’s and Adam left everything to her. Amelia doesn’t want it but with Sam’s help she devises a plan to benefit everyone.

The three Mrs. Monroe’s bind together and form an unlikely friendship after getting past their anger at each other and the insecurities that Amelia is going to take off with the money and a natural disaster, they become more like sister. The generosity of Adam’s father helps them even more with their goal to opening a daycare center by giving them his mother's old Victorian house he was renting out. Sam and Amelia fall in love, big surprise. I really liked this it was a great introduction to each of the characters and the situation they found themselves in.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

Purchase: | Amazon | B&N |

Guest Post with Author Bernadette Marie

Today I would like to welcome to the blog author Bernadette Marie. Bernadette is currently on tour celebrating the release of her book The Executive's Decision. So without further ado, here's Bernadette.


Have you ever heard of someone who died from embarrassment? Me either.


As a martial artist I have the opportunity to enrich lives of others. One way is by teaching them how to physically take care of themselves if they are ever in a threatening situation.


When you’re trying to explain this concept to kids, however, they will tell you how they can take the bad guy out with one punch. To hear my six-year-old talk, he could take a three hundred pound man and pummel him to bits. 


Though that’s thinking big. Perhaps it’s not that realistic. We teach the kids to run, scream, and make a scene. And why would you do that? To get away. To live to see another day, because the bad guy might get you if you don’t, and no one ever died of embarrassment if you happen to have misunderstood the situation.


Perhaps a drastic way of looking at your writing career, but don’t we do that too? Sure we do. Our three hundred pound bad guy, isn’t really bad at all, but just as scary and could crush us all the same. We know we have what it takes to write one book and make it to the top of that list. We think big. 


But how many of us attack the big bad guy? We lurk in private places egging on the bad guy by writing our stories.We walk in dark alleys (aka, our offices while others sleep.) Only those we trust hear our secret whispers, “I’m working on writing a book.” We protect what’s ours, but then someone asks, “What’s it about?”


You’ve been approached by the enemy. Danger is now looking you in the face. One option to deal with the enemy is to not tell them anything. Keep it hidden. Walk the alley at night. And what happens? Your manuscript has been crushed by the bad guy, and never sees the light of day. You’re not dead, but your dreams might be.


OR…you could run, scream, and cause a scene!


That’s right you could tell everyone what’s been happening in that alley. Bring it to the light and let them see. Run through the streets and let the world know you’re there.Someone might even ask to see this book you’ve been writing. And you might get embarrassed! It just might happen.


But remember, no matter whether you’re running from an attacker or putting yourself on display for the world to critique, no one has ever died from embarrassment.

****

Regan Keller fell in love with a wealthy and powerful man once. He was her boss. When that turbulent relationship ended, she swore she’d never again date someone she worked with. That was before she literally fell into her new boss’s lap.

Zachary Benson is the head of a successful empire and used to getting what he wants in the boardroom and outside of it – and what he wants is Regan Keller. He’s determined to convince Regan that even though he’s her boss, they can share a life together.

However, when Regan’s past threatens to destroy the architectural firm Zach has invested his entire career in, he has to make an executive decision whether to choose his business or fight for the woman he loves.

Buy Links:
| Amazon | Barnes & Noble | All Romance | 5 Prince Books |




**About the Author**

Bernadette Marie has been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends. Her journey into novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her an old typewriter. At all times of the day and night you would find her on the back porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for the next 22 years. 

In 2007 – after marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children – Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being published. That year she wrote 12 books. In 2009 she was contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born. In 2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, and has released contemporary titles and will begin the process, eventually, of taking on other authors in other genres. Also in 2011 she became co-owner of Seven Songs Press and will release a novella as part of an anthology with other very talented authors in November 2011.

Bernadette spends most of her free time driving her kids to their many events. She is also an accomplished martial artist, working her way to her second-degree black belt in Tang Soo Do. An avid reader, she enjoys most, the works of Nora Roberts and Karen White. She loves to meet readers who enjoy reading contemporary romances and she always promises Happily Ever After.

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