Title: Seeing is Believing
Author: Erin McCarthy
Series: Cuttersville #3
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance, Romance
Dates read: 24th – 26th January 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Year: 2013
5th sentence, 74th page: “I like Brady,” he mom said.

Cuttersville, Ohio is full of ghosts, and they all want Piper Tucker’s help. One guy in town just wants Piper.

Ever since Piper Tucker was yougn she wanted to be like everyone else, but her uncanny ability to see ghosts always put her on the other side of normal. And the apparitions are showing up now more than ever, desperately seeking help. But what can she possibly do for them? They’ve already been dead for years. Besides, she has a personal concern of her own right now. A real flesh and blood concern – named Brady.

He’s Piper’s childhood crush, and no sooner is he back in town than their sparks start giving off heat. For Brady, it’s hard not to notice the sexy young woman Piper’s become, or forget the special gift she had as a girl. And right now it could come in handy, because a long-forgotten murder has been keeping a restless spirit from finding peace. All Piper and Brady have to do is solve the crime to put the specter to rest. But the passion brewing between them is just as restless, and could prove twice as dangerous.

I’m kind of sad that this is the ending to the series. I’ve been enjoying Cuttersville so much over the past few weeks. And now it is over… I’ll just have to find another series to sink my teeth into next I suppose. And this was such a great and fitting end to this sweet romance series as well. Piper is so much sweeter and more huggable than the other women featured. And I love that you have watched her and Brady grow up a little over the preceding books.

Although there are ghostly interventions and influences over the other Cuttersville stories, this is the first one in which there is a really intense spiritual storyline. I love the fact that an intense ghost story was mixed in with a beautiful and sweet romance. It’s not a mix that I’ve seen often, and it is one that I both loved and never wanted to put down.

I loved the simplicity and beauty of this sweet romance. And it worked even better, because I read it while I was plagued with a migraine. The easy read meant that it was hard to put down and easy to lose track of time throughout the pages. So easy that I spent an entire morning feeling my heart melt while I was avoiding study. And now I have to get back to it and catch up on the mountain of work that has been sitting there…

Image source: Goodreads

Title: Heiress for Hire
Author: Erin McCarthy
Series: Cuttersville #2
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance, Romance
Dates read: 21st – 22nd January 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Year: 2006
5th sentence, 74th page: Even if she made it through another day, and another, answering the phone and booking appointments, Harriet said she wouldn’t get paid for another two weeks.

Chicago socialite Amanda Delmar thought spending the summer in Cuttersville, Ohio’s most haunted town, would be a hoot – until dear old Dad cut her off. Now Amanda has to do the unthinkable: get a job…

For farmer Danny Tucker, hiring Amanda to babysit the eight-year-old daughter he just found out about may not be the smartest thing he’s ever done. But seeing how Amanda – and her couture-clad poodle – bring a smile to his shy daughter’s face makes it all worthwhile. Now all Danny has to figure out is how to keep Amanda at arm’s length when she’s already wriggled her way into his heart…

The more I read of the Cuttersville series, the more I fall in love with this beautiful, small town. Actually, I’m really disappointed that I only have one story left now. Especially since I have read both A Date with The Other Side and Heiress for Hire in one sitting. Not even putting my book down to eat or have a loo break. I just walked around with my nose in the book, and really, really hoped that I didn’t walk into a wall.

There is just something that is so incredibly sweet about McCarthy’s contemporary romance series. A little drama helps to make these stories incredibly hard to put down. But the simplicity and lack of any serious problems makes them a beautiful way to spend a few hours. There is the slight bump in the road, but unlike some of the paranormal romance stories that I’ve been reading, these are mild moments of insecurity or being unsure. They’re not the reach through the pages grab the antagonist by the throat and smack them around the head insecurities which I’m so used to. Which is honestly probably why I’m enjoying ripping through these stories so quickly.

Most stories that feature an heiress paint them as someone who is kind of an airhead. And although Amanda acts that way throughout the story, she has this great intelligence that is completely untapped. The fact that she’s not a complete airhead, has integrity and a heart of gold was a really nice way to characterise her. Although I have often come across this trope, the character normally irritates me and needs a lot of development before she gets to this point. Amanda’s amazingness comes out immediately. There is not wading through the crap to get to the shiny centre of an amazing character. And this is yet another simplistic aspect for which I am incredibly grateful.

Image source: Erin McCarthy

Title: A Date With the Other Side
Author: Erin McCarthy
Series: Cuttersville #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance, Romance
Dates read: 12th January 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Year: 2005
5th sentence, 74th page: The lock clicked into place.

In the three years Shelby Tucker has been leading tour groups through the haunted houses of Cuttersville, Ohio, she’s never caught a glimpse of a ghost. But she does get pretty startled when she waltzes into the bedroom of a supposedly vacant house and stumbles upon a sexy, hot-blooded, naked man…

This is no ghost, though. This guy is solid as a rock. Bad boy Boston Macnamara is renting the so-called huanted house… and he’s about to shake things up in good ol’ Cuttersville. At least for Shelby, who’s never been so hot and bothered before. And especially if some feisty matchmaking spirits have their way…

I can’t believe that I’ve put off reading this book for like a whole month!!! I got it, I wanted to read it… I decided that I should read something else. And I kept putting it off. Until the other day, when I had a really severe migraine. Which meant that any urban fantasy or really any story that involved keeping intense track of the characters and the plot was completely out of bounds. Instead I read this. Cover to cover with no breaks. And made my migraine worse… but it was totally worth it!!!

The whole opposites attract thing really comes out in this story. Shelby is completely easy going, although kind of insecure and smart enough to know what she doesn’t want in life (even if she can’t quite figure out what she does want). Boston on the other hand is uptight and controlled… although peel back the outside layers of both the characters as you go through the story (as McCarthy does perfectly in this) and you’ll realise that under that crispy outer shell, both of the characters are almost exactly the same. Insecure, longing to be loved and not sure whether they can trust someone else.

Although this is an incredibly typical boy meets girl kind of story, I did love the ghostly influences throughout. It’s not quite a paranormal romance, in that it is very everyday lives that just happen to occur near a haunted house. The slight paranormal influence partnered with the small country town that I find completely relatable made this seem almost the more real. After all, there are places that people think are haunted… and why not have a story that means this haunting becomes something more positive?

Image source: Goodreads