I have read all 3 of the author's books, and they just keep getting better. All 3 are 5 star reads for me. Buy them all, they are worth it. This story has everything you could ever want in a book. I went into this one not knowing what to expect, but it was so much better than I thought it could be.

My first Stiling novel but I'll definitely be hunting down her two others. A great mystery mixed with a forbidden romance.

4 Stars for Heart of the Storm by Nicole Stiling.
This is the second book I've read by Stiling (previous book was Secrets in a Small Town). We visit another small town (actually a small city) with a mystery and a romance. The head librarian of Shell Creek Library is found dead at the foot of the steps of the library. Did he die of natural causes or was it an unnatural cause? Police Lieutenant Juliet Mitchell, is assigned to find out.

Juliet is a lesbian who shares custody of her fifteen year old son, Declan with the boy's father, Will. When she found out she was pregnant, she had already determined she was a lesbian and decided to keep the baby. Will asked if they could raise the baby together. Declan alternates weeks staying with Juliet or with Will and his wife of 9 years, Sienna. The arrangement was working for all of them, Declan accepting Sienna as his second mother. But now Will and Sienna's marriage is rocky. Sienna wants a divorce but Will is dragging his feet. So he moves into their pool house while Declan is away at camp. Juliet and Sienna really don't know each other until Will insists that Sienna goes in his place to drive Declan to camp with Juliet. Juliet and Sienna hit it off and become friends. Sienna works as a victim's advocate for the county and she is assigned to help in Shell Creek to be the advocate for the widow of the dead librarian. When her husband was dead on the steps, his wife was run off the road and is now unconscious in the hospital. Victim's advocates, support and aid victims of crimes be it emotional or informational support, grief counseling, and any other help victims might need.

After a bit, the mystery didn't hold my interest even though I'm a big mystery fan. There were so many suspects and red herrings that after a while I really didn't care, other than rooting for Juliet to solve it. I did however, guess correctly on some aspects of the mystery. What I cared about was Juliet, Sienna, Declan and Will. Juliet and Sienna become closer and have a believable friendship which eventually leads to romance. Will is in denial that his marriage is in trouble which in Sienna's opinion had been over for quite a while and Declan is angry at both his mothers. Declan was enjoying the arrangement and relationship he had with all his parents. Now it was changing. Overall a good book and I'm looking forward to Stiling's next one.

The author of this book is clearly technically skilled in forming sentences and eliciting emotion and excitement. Unfortunately I found the storyline itself to be far less enticing. It was cluttered with cliches and coincidences. The concept was interesting with a romance and a criminal case, and I enjoyed aspects of both on a surface level. But digging deeper I found the pairing to be one I felt uncomfortable about (their relationship pre-romantic relationship could have been any set up and the one the author chose felt like the very worst option that created drama for the sake of drama) and the case had twists I felt were unnecessary and unrealistic. In a general sense I enjoyed reading the story, exploring the world of Shell Creek and the technically well written prose, but I felt the cliches and coincidences let the story down.

Love complications galore with a crime mystery. What an entertaining read. While reading, I thought about relationships, marriage, and family. I also thought about the song "Should I say or should I go"by The Clash. What made the read entertaining was that the premise was refreshing with several likable characters. Sienna Bennett, victim advocate, step mother with a big heart. She is also struggling with her marriage and her happiness. Juliet Mitchell, police lieutenant, mother content with her life. Declan is the son who is important as the read unfolds. I appreciated the back and forth as the characters struggled to deal with their attraction. There was no way that if they acted on their attraction that it would not impact Declan and his family.

This was a solid book. I believe this was the first book I've read from this author, and I liked her style.

There was a nice mix of the case that the two leads were working on, as well as romance. Plus, they were interweaved really well, with how Juliet and Sienna's jobs kept them in contact outside of the family dynamics. Speaking of the family dynamics, I also thought Declan was written exactly like a teenager. I could totally feel his teenage angst and not understanding adult relationships at times. Of course, kind of a bizarre concept with your ex-step mom and mother getting together, so I don't blame him being weird about it!

I did have a hard time telling the timeline at points. Like how long were they on the case? I couldn't tell really when days/weeks passed.

The relationship also moved a little too lesbian fast for me, but again it could have been because I couldn't pick up the timeline. Maybe they flirted around each other for more weeks than I thought, but it seemed like merely days.

Overall, I think it was a good book that others will like.

Heart Of The Storm

Such a cute story exploring heartbreak, love, murder, family dynamic, and putting yourself first. Thank you again to bold strokes books and NetGalley for this copy!

I really love a good lesbian romance book so it’s impossible for me to ever give a bad review lol this book was just like all my other cute lesbian romance books! This story follows Juliet, mother of Declan, friend to the father Will, and working for the police department. Sienna, wills wife, is contemplating a divorce and Will wants her to hang with Juliet because he feels she needs a friend, someone to get things off her chest with. Juliet and Sienna drive a few hours to drop off their son and stepson to camp and they bond and form a very deep connection very quickly. I’m sure you can guess where this is headed. The love triangle that no one wants. The awkwardness of trying to begin a relationship that you know will hurt so many people, but never feeling this way before and deciding to go for it!

Now they are navigating this new love, and a murder happens in their quaint town. Juliet and sienna team up to figure out what happened and some crazy things happen. There are many twists and turns and you never quite know what happened!

#boldstrokesbooks #lesbianromance #treeandbooks #decemberreads #netgalley #advancedreadercopy #digitalbooks #bookjourney #bookaddict #lgbtqreads #justkeepreading

The first book I read by Nicole Stiling I really enjoyed... 'Secrets in a small town', so I was looking forward to 'Heart of the storm'. I wasn't disappointed.

Juliet Mitchell as her career with the Shell Creek Police department, she as a son, Declan, who means the world to her, and her life seems to be simple. That is until a body is found outside the local library.
Sienna Bennett isn't happy with her life, she doesn't know how things ended up how they did. Her job is overwhelming as a big city victim advocate, and the person she built up alife with, lives in their pool house. She dotes on her stepson Declan and still wants to be part of his life, but he blames her for the family falling apart.

Both main characters share some kind of history with Declan's dad, but they are thrown together whilst there is an investigation of a murder in Shell Creek, both become attracted to one another, but try to keep the boundaries for the sake of Declan.

This story is a mystery-romance... more romance than mystery tho. It's a good read, one of them pages turners... You found yourself cheering them on but scared of the consequences of their actions.

I gave this story 4.5.

I was given a copy for an honest review.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Families are complicated. A lesbian mom, a straight baby daddy, a stepmother and a fifteen year old son. Yeah, recipie for chaos.

Juliet is a thirty something mom, police officer and single lesbian.

Will is a straight dad, working on resurrecting doomed marriage.

Sienna is a forty something stepmom who has hung on to an unhappy marriage for too long.

Declan is a fifteen year old who likes his family just the way they are.

Throw in a murder, a tornado to cause massive upheaval to their sleepy little coastal town and it's difficult at the best of time to navigate unexpected attraction.

The plot navigates solving the murder, the heartache and joy of the different stages of friendship and love smoothly and realistically.

If you are grabbing this for the suspense, don't. The suspense bit of this one falls a little flat and isn't a gripping suspense plot line. The rest of the story though is very enjoyable. a budding forbidden type romance between two very likable characters that causes a bit of angst and drame to ripple through everythign and keep you turning the pages.

Heart of the storm is a F/F forbidden romance and mystery novel.

I devoured this book in two sittings. I liked the plot, and found it an easy book to fall into.

One of the things I loved most about this book is the representation. It’s so difficult to find sapphic books that aren’t YA, or fantasy. Juliet and Sienna are just two normal people, who fall for each other.

As well as it being a romance (which I tend to avoid in books) there is the added plot of the murder investigation, the support that Sienna gives to grieving relatives, and also the reality that her relationship with Juliet is not all sunshine and roses, as they tread carefully around how Juliet’s son, and Sienna’s recently estranged husband, will feel about the relationship. It even gets a bit steamy at one point!!

I think Stilling has done a great job at creating a lovely novel which pulls you in, whilst still having a believable and realistic plot. This is easily a 4 star read for me, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the opportunity to read an e-ARC of Heart Of The Storm, in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good one. This is Stiling’s third book and my new favorite by her. She actually has officially made it to my automatic read list. Her first two books had some bumps but also a ton of potential. With this book I saw some real improvement and it makes me excited to see what she will write in the future.

A marriage ending while someone falls for another, storyline has been done plenty of times before. But what I really liked was the slight twist of how all the characters were connected. It gave the story a real forbidden love trope feel that spiced up the romance. One of my complaints, in Stiling’s first two books, was that I felt the romance needed a bit more show instead of tell. I’m happy to say that I think Stiling finally hit the perfect balance in this book. The characters had good chemistry and the kind of feelings you could really invest in as a reader.

Another part of the romance I have to mention is the communication. What a nice breath of fresh air. It was great seeing these two women in a tough situation but that they kept talking to each other. There was still plenty of angsty push-pull going on but the communication was really nice to read about. It also helped the romance that both mains were very likeable and I was even happy that the soon to be ex wasn’t made to be a bad guy.

While the romance really was the star of this book, this also has a lighter murder mystery. When I saw lighter I mean that it felt more ‘cozy mystery’ than a hardcore dark mystery. I wasn’t blown away by how it unfolded, but I really enjoyed how it enhanced other parts of the book. I think the mystery allowed the romance to shine. It made it so that the romance never dragged and it also added some little bits of excitement to the story that kept the pages turning. So while it wasn’t the best mystery on its own, I really do think it made the rest of the book better.

This was a good read and one I would recommend to romance fans that like a little something else mixed in their romance. I don’t think you have to be a mystery fan to enjoy this one since it is not so hardcore. But I do think Stiling is an author that readers should keep an eye on. She's had major potential from the start, but now she’s improving her craft. I would be shocked if she didn’t have some really great books coming up in the future.

These two women have known each other for a number of years but it isn’t until they have to spend time together that they discover they have more in common than they’d ever thought.
The reason they really don’t know each other that well is simple. Juliet Mitchell had a one time sexual experience with a man. The reason she only had the one time fling was because having it made everything clear, she was a lesbian. but when she told the man, Will she was going to have a baby they decided they’d try raising him together. So their son Declan spent his time with each parent.
Juliet is a member of the local police force where the most they had to deal with were a few minor problems. But when the town librarian was found dead outside the library she and the other small force had the task of finding out just what happened.
Sienna Bennett was Declan’s step mother. She met Declan when he was only five yrs old and as far as she was concerned she was in effect another parent to the boy. All is going well with only a few little problems. She worked as a victim’s advocate and was called in to help with events happening in Shell Creek. It just happened that at this time she was going through a divorce, something Will didn’t want but she knew she had to do what was right for her. Her only concern was keeping Declan as a part of her life.
Now the two women are working on the same case, getting to know each other and finding that they shared a mutual attraction for each other.
Ms Stiling has made a story I’d probably pass by but when I started reading I just didn’t want to put down. Well developed characters and an appealing story line makes this an interesting read. Very enjoyable read.
ARC via NetGalley/ Bold Stroke Books

This book, one-word problematic! Imagine falling into love with your child’s stepmother. Yikes, that going to have some awkwardness at family gatherings. You have crimes, you have murder, a whole big mystery to solve and a lot of romance. Nicole Stiling has written one heck of a dynamite read. This book is a must read!

Juliet Mitchell is living a god life as a single mom, small town police officer. She loves her life, her career and the only thing missing is true love. She’s okay though, she has the company of lady or two when the need arises but for the most part, she is content with her day-to-day existence in Shell Creek. As a small-town policewoman, she spends most of her time dealing with small crimes and domestic disturbances until the day beloved librarian, Richard Kowalski is found dead in the outside the local library.

Sienna Bennett has finally acknowledged to herself and her husband that their marriage is over. It has been for years but its finally time to break it off so she and Will can move on with their lives without each other. A spur of the moment trip with her stepson Declan and his mom, Juliet brings friendship into her life again. Add on to the fact that Sienna, a victim’s advocate, will be working with Mrs. Kowalski and Juliet on the case of the murdered librarian.

Both of our two leading ladies are great characters. You love them for their strengths and flaws. The relationship begins as friends and then evolves into more even though both ladies know that this could be a disaster for their family relationships. You cannot help but root for their love.

This is a great book that has a damn fine romance and mystery. The author does a perfect job of balancing them both and weaving the story together. Loved it!

I didn't like this one as much as I thought I did. This is a romance with a light mystery involved that has some plot points that I thought were added in just to try to raise the stakes on it. You have Juliet Mitchell, a local detective who is thrown together on a case with victim's advocate, Sienna Bennett, Juliet's son's step mother. The problem is, as they continue to work on the murder of the local librarian, they soon learn that they might fit together better than they should.

So you have a kind of messy romance as Juliet has a son who's father is married to Sienna, but Sienna has fallen out of love with the father. He's a bit self-centered and makes the process worse for everyone as he lies to the son, Declan. So when Juliet and Sienna actually start to be more in each other's company and become more entangled with each other, it becomes a bit of a mess when Sienna finally tries to push for a divorce. I honestly had a hard time believing the women were actually in the wrong, especially since they really tried not to act on their feelings, and I do not know how un messy it could be when the dad/ ex-husband just refused to see that Sienna was unhappy, even as she tried to explain herself.

So, I was thoroughly invested in the romantic happenings and all the drama surrounding that, but I had so many problems with the mystery. I kind of had an idea who the culprit was near the beginning, but that wasn't the problem - it felt like there were no stakes in it. With some of the focus on Sienna's interactions with the victim's wife - felt like there should be higher stakes involved, but it felt flat. Even as the mystery progressed, I couldn't get into it.

Other than the mystery falling flat, I was fully invested in the romance and drama surrounding it. If this wasn't billed as more of a romantic suspense, I think I would have had more fun with it, but because it is, my expectations were different and it came up a little short for me. I do think you'll be happy with the romance if you're more into that, but I was just disappointed that the mystery was just so weak.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was another book that surprised me on this months slate of releases. A mystery romance that gets a high three stars from me.

Juliet is a cop who had a son with her best friend. She’s called to a murder in her town. Sienna is a victim’s advocate and the step mother to Juliet’s son. The murder pushes them together. I enjoyed that the main characters had known each other and been in each others lives for quite some time. It was refreshing to have two people notice each other as their true selves, rather than a storyline with two people just meeting.

I liked how Stiling dealt with the breakdown of Sienna’s marriage and the impact it would have on her husband and step son for her to fall for their best friend/mother respectively. I appreciated that Stiling didn’t make either Sienna or Juliet oblivious to the implications of their love on others and that there was no automatic presumption it would all just be ok.

With it being a mystery this book came with a slew of additional characters. I thought this added to the depth of the book, as due to the nature of the MCs knowing each other already, there aren’t a lot of scenes added to allow us to get know the characters as part of the natural process of dating. I liked Juliet’s friends and thought Declan the son/step son was written wonderfully.

The mystery was interesting. I didn’t find it riveting, but it moved along at a pace that kept me somewhat interested in who had committed the crime and why. There were some parts that I felt were missing to explain some of the situation but I think it was mainly because by the time the crime is resolved we’re full into romance mode.

There’s lot about this to enjoy and I think anyone who enjoys wlw romance would enjoy this.

I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t read the blurb before I started reading this book. I knew I’d liked Nicole Stiling’s first two novels a lot and that was enough for me. Though I didn’t exactly decide not to read the blurb, I’m really happy it happened. The story that unfolded before my eyes took me entirely by surprise and I loved it. I was unsettled for most of the time I was reading, which echoes what the characters were going through.

In my reviews, I usually summarize the plot in a few sentences, doing my best not to spoil. I’m not even going to do that this time. This will probably be a shorter review than this book deserves but I really recommend going in knowing it’s good but without too much information.

All I’ll say is that it’s not an easy task to make sudden chemistry between two women who have known each other for almost ten years believable. And yet Stiling succeeds, there’s no doubt about that. Belated instalust is a thing, trust me.

I was rooting for Siena and Juliet from the start but also liked the secondary characters very much. I wasn’t always sure what the timeline was, however. It felt like things were happening pretty quickly between the two MCs but at one point, one of them says it’s been going on for “a while”. It didn’t bother too much, though, I had plenty to focus on that mattered more.

Another thing Stiling writes really well is atmosphere. I get completely sucked into her stories and have a hard time restraining myself from reading them in one sitting.

Heart of the Storm is heavy on romance and lighter on the mystery aspect, which is more in the background, but in both areas, the author manages intricate storylines, making this book very enjoyable on both sides.

ARC provided to Les Rêveur for an honest review.

Juliet is raising her kid, living life, when all of a sudden she's struck with feelings for none other than her son's stepmother, and her friend's soon to be ex-wife. They've known each other over the years, but never really had any meaningful interaction. That changed when they went on a road trip to bring Declan to a sports camp.

I really, really enjoyed Heart of the Storm. I could not put it down. I had to know what happened before I could call it a night. I do love a good mystery, but I think the romance was the star of this story. The characters were believable and their push and pull was very realistic. I loved their chemistry and their mutual hesitation. They both wanted to do the right thing, they just weren't sure what the right thing was. Eventually, they realized that maybe it could work out for everyone.

Five stars for sure.

Thanks to netgalley and bold strokes books for the read.

I thought I had a good chance at enjoying this book but by about halfway through, I was struggling to keep with it. It's a tough premise: falling for someone who will likely destroy your relationships with those closest to you. Throw in a murder mystery and, bam!, interesting read, right? Not exactly.

Here are some of the main problems I had with the book. Repeatedly - REPEATEDLY - agreeing that the two MCs will NOT, absolutely not, do anything romantic with each other and then literally minutes later, kiss or have sex. Or move in together. It was sort of maddening. The kid who was 15 acted more like a petulant 12 year old. Might not seem like a big difference but as the mother of a 16 year old, I can tell you, there is.

I also didn't feel even the slightest bit of chemistry between the women. It might have been just me but the author has there being a few months pass from the first time they spent an afternoon together in a car (Sienna had been step-mother to the kid for nine years but after one car trip of talking horror movies, the love sparks) but it only felt like a week or two by the flow of the story. Maybe I missed something important but the noting of time passing didn't work for me.

I won't go into the murder mystery because I don't want to spoil it but, for me, it was just beyond anything believable.

I just checked to see if I'd read anything else by the author and I have. I should have checked before reading Heart of the Storm because it seems I had pretty much the same reaction to Secrets in a Small Town. Which made my thinking that Juliet reminded me of the Emma character in Once Upon a Time seem more valid…

My favorite Canadian really liked Secrets in a Small Town so I'm betting she'll like this one, too. If she reads it, maybe we'll do a "point/counter point" type of review. She already said she'd lead with "Cheri, you ignorant slut." (Hat tip to all of you old enough to catch the reference)

I do tend to be tough on any f/f romance that includes crime/mystery subplots because I apparently want it all so take that into account when deciding whether or not to read Heart of the Storm.

Thanks to BSB and NetGalley for the book!

Talk about a forbidden romance and throw in some mystery and you can't go wrong. The main characters Juliet and Sienna had great chemistry and communicated well. The story itself is beautifully written and quite engaging. I will recommend 5 Stars.