What is not to love? A lesbian retreat in the wilderness? A hint of a threat in the background? Popovich has ticked many boxes that will appeal to readers of lesbian romance novels. The only reason I hesitated in offering the fifth star is the main characters themselves.

Had a difficult time getting into this book as the pace was a tad bit slowa and the storyline and characters felt flat and I didn't find them engaging. The plot includes a bit of a love triangle where Kelly is attracted to the commitment-phobic resort owner, Josie, but starts dating Barb, who works on the island Although this kind of twist would normally ratchet up the angst and tension, it became a bit tiresome as Josie and Kelly deliberated and dithered over whether they would take a risk with one another. This was a miss for me.

I like the idea of the book, but the second act is WAY too slow. It repeats over and over the same trend of action without adding anything to the plot. The substory of Abe could have potential but is dragged out and at the end, the mystery is just a disappointment.

I really enjoyed learning about the UP of Michigan and the Ogibwe culture. The book moved really slow for me with a lot of repetition in the middle section. Beautiful cover.

This book started off a bit slow going for me, but picked up about half way through. I enjoyed the relationship between Kelly and Josie, but wasn't the biggest fan of the mystery of who was trying to get Josie to sell her resort. The slow build of their relationship made the book worth a read despite my misgivings of the random notes and threats.

I also really enjoyed the fact that Josie was Native American, and how that helped mold her character and her relationship especially with her Grandma.

It's my first time reading a C.A. Popovich book, and too be honest I really couldn't get into Love Came Calling. I felt the book slow and really dragged, the mentioning a the 'powwow' was very repetitive and that was in first quarter of the story. Nothing seemed to connect, there was no depth to the story and I got easily bored.

Love Came Calling was very good, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved Josie and Kelly, I felt like a cheerleader for them to get together. Josie’s Grandmother was a great character, full of advice and love for both Josie and Kelly. Josie’s resistance to a relationship is hard for her but her fear is just so dominant to any other feeling that she almost loses out on the joys of life. I really like the how the story ends.
There is also a bit of a mystery going on where this stranger comes to Josie demanding that she sells her property to him. He starts to escalate things as Josie remains firm in her decision not to sell.

Kelly Newton is a nurse looking for a change in her employment while still looking for someone to love, so with her friends she goes to a resort owned and managed by Josie Harlow who isn’t looking for any kind of relationship. Josie hasn’t gotten over her mother's death. Josie’s mother died in a accident when Josie and her were riding a snowmobile and she was raised by her father with the help of her grandmother. Throw in someone doing their best to drive her away from her resort and you have a really good read. Very enjoyable.
eARC via NetGalley

I really enjoyed learning about the UP of Michigan and the Ogibwe culture. The book moved really slow for me with a lot of repetition in the middle section. Beautiful cover.

Kelly and Josie want very different things from a relationship. Kelly is a nurse and in need of a new challenge. Josie owns and runs a lesbian lodge resort and they meet when Kelly takes a vacation there with friends. Their attraction is powerful but neither can give into it for fear of being hurt. Nevertheless they spend more and more time with each other and when Josie feels threatened by a stranger Kelly wants to be there for her. The slow-building threat was well executed. The suspense and tension was palpable. I really liked both main characters and Josie’s grandmother, Nooko. They were well rounded and I could believe in them. Josie had fears that she needed to face and although I felt like shouting at her to give Kelly a chance I knew she had to get there in her own time. Kelly was loving and caring and had such patience. Her growing relationship was Nooko was sweet and pivotal to the story. Nooko’s background gave an interesting dimension to the story and really added to the it. But it was the relationship between the two younger women that made this book for me. The love scenes were very emotionally charged and showed just how intense their feelings were for each other. I enjoyed the book so much.

I was given this ARC in return for an honest review.

*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion*

2 stars. This book is about Josie, the owner of a lesbian resort that Kelly, a nurse goes to visit with her friends. Kelly starts to spend some time with Josie and her grandmother, and just wants to keep spending more. Josie, who is afraid of falling in love, finds herself unable to stop spending more time. Josie is also dealing with an obsessive man who is trying to buy the property from her. When Josie says no, he starts to stalk and vandalize her resort.

This book dragged a lot for me. I couldn't really get into it as much as I would have liked, as I never really felt fully involved in their relationship. I enjoy tension in books, but the tension in this mostly felt fake since it was all about Josie being resistant to even try at love. It just bothered me more than anything else. It might have been the writing for me, but I could never fully get involved with the characters. There was some character development between all the characters, but it felt like the entire story was really Josie being resistant to not. It wasn't my favorite story but it wasn't terrible.

It's the story of Kelly and Josie. Josie owns a resort on the Upper Penninsula of Michigan that she is trying to turn into a lesbian resort. At the same time she's also trying to take care of her grandmother too, who seems to be in declining health.

Kelly is an Elder nurse who, along with her friends, are some of Josie's first guests. She and Kelly are immediately attracted to each other. But, while Kelly wants to settle down, it doesn't seem like Josie wants to. And then Barb, a conservation officer enters the scene, wanting to woo Kelly.

There's also what was supposed to be a sort of thriller type sub-plot I think about a man wanting to buy the property, but, there were so many things that I assumed were going to happen. Twists that I wanted to see, that never even came close to happening, making it sort of a flat thriller/mystery.

I wish I'd liked the book more. The main story line at times seemed interesting, and I loved the character of Ruth, Josie's grandmother too. But, a lot of the novel seemed herky jerky, I think because so much of the story was told to the reader, not shown, and some of the things were told to us over and over. (I get it, there's spotty cell reception, except, that never really fed into the thriller. So, if it's set up that there's spotty cell reception, where's the big scene where cell reception is an unwavering need and it's not there, or, the opposite, it is there and it seems like a blessed miracle that it is and just in time...)

I was also never quite on board with the Kelly/Josie relationship (or for that matter, the Barb/Kelly one). Again, there seemed like so much talking about everything, but, not a ton of feeling stuff.

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to Bold Strokes Books.

When Love Came Calling by C.A. Popovich is a romance about learning to place old fears aside and having trust that love is worth taking a chance on. Kelly Newton is an over worked nurse who decides to accompany a group of friends on a two week vacation at a new lesbian resort. There she meets resort owner Josie Harlow who is only interested in the occasional fling because she is afraid that any relationship might end with a broken heart. They meet and there is an immediate attraction. Kelly is only interested in a relationship that might lead to a future so is there any way these two women can possibly have a future?

This book missed the mark for me. I didn’t see any reason why these two women would feel such a strong connection so quickly other than the fact that the author told us they did. It was hard for me to believe that Kelly would spend the majority of her vacation with Josie and her grandmother and all but ditch her group of friends. As for her group of friends, the author didn’t do anything to distinguish one from the other so they remained names on the pages.

There is a crime/suspense element to the story, but that plot develops at a snail’s pace. It really didn’t turn into anything until about three quarters of the way into the book. I thought the whole book was repetitive and it was hard for me to stick with it.

Learning about the indigenous people of the area was interesting. Josie’s grandmother contributes some insights into the beliefs and traditions of the people, but not enough to make this book worthwhile for me.

I was given an ARC of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

In my opinion, this reads like a Saturday matinee. The plot was so predictable and sooo repetitive. Simple non mystery and simple romance. The villain part of the story was not realistic. How did he continue to leave notes in the office? Seems like they could catch him merely by waiting for his arrival with the next note. And why would Jose continue to leave the office and cabins unattended. Too many, ice cream and hamburger trips and pasties. I did say repetitive.

"A box of money and jewels? Wow, that's crazy." This is a perfect description of this book. Crazy.

The description was interesting enough. Determinedly single Josie opens a lesbian retreat. Longing for love Kelly comes to stay. Will they or won't they? It rapidly fell apart, however. I never really cared about the characters; many of them were one-dimensional. Some of the word choices were problematic or just odd. The plot twist was incredibly absurd and unbelievable.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

An honest review thanks to NetGalley. I honestly could not finish this book; I could not get into it from the beginning. There was a lot of conversations, and story progressions inside characters heads making it boring and hard to follow. The weirdness of the man trying to buy the cabins, the whole plot was awkward and did not flow. One good thing was the chemistry between the two characters was good, and I found myself skipping pages to get to parts when they were interaction, but it was few and far in between. Overall, a disappointment.

Some aspects of this book were excellent and others a wee bit annoying to be honest. Overall an enjoyable read but I did find myself annoyed at times. Timings were hard to follow, in the second half of book I found it confusing to know how much time had passed between one paragraph to the next. One minute looked like a couple of weeks had gone by then looked like a day - I don’t like being distracted by detail like that. I also really really didn’t like the term of endearment of “lover” it just didn’t sit comfortably with what I knew about the characters. Having said that I did enjoy the book but these little things disrupted the flow of the book for me.

This has been a ok read, without any original aspect to highlight, just ok. In it, two women, and at some point three, want to find that special person with whom to share their life. Their age is not determined, but they will be about 40 years old, so they do not consider fleeting relationships at this point in their lives.

One of the protagonists is Kelly, a stressed nurse, who decides to accompany a group of friends, three couples, to a lesbian center on Drummond Island, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, about six hours drive from home. The complex is owned by Josie, a woman with a fear of commitment, and despite the attraction she feels towards Kelly, she does not seem capable of giving him what she needs. And finally there's Barb, the third in the triangle, also attracted to Kelly. And Kelly, seeing that she can not have with Josie that serious relationship that she is looking for, accepts the proposal of Barb, a conservation official on the island, to have some light dates during her vacations.

Most of the story is about Josie's doubts whether or not she should give in to her wishes for Kelly and Kelly's doubts as to whether or not she should continue to see Barb when she wants to go out with Josie. And there is also Josie's grandmother who is in the resort recovering from a health problem that has Josie very worried, debating if she should continue to let her grandmother live alone or convince her to live with her on the island. And finally there is also the sinister character who does not stop chasing Josie to sell her the resort for reasons he does not want to tell her.

Many things happen due to all this, but, above all, the book goes round and round the doubts of Josie and Kelly on whether to risk or not. I have really felt quite upset with so many vacillations.

In summary, as I said at the beginning, it is a ok book that does not have any notable aspect but that can be entertaining.

<i>An ARC was sent to me from Bold Strokes Books through NetGalley for an honest review </i>

2.5 stars

Josie has inherited a resort on a lake in Michigan from her father. Updating everything and paying off the debt has left Josie with little time for romance. It doesn’t help that Josie is terrified of ending up depressed like her dad after her mum died, which has left her unwilling to even enter the romantic field.

When a gorgeous nurse on holiday at her resort sparks an instant attraction, Josie is torn between lust and escape. For Kelly, the holiday seems to stretch forever when she is given the task of establishing a new aged care facility in the area by her boss.

This is the first time romance by Popovich, and there is a lot to like about the book. The setting is evocative and there is some heat generated between the two main characters. However, this is an odd romance because one of the characters seems so determined to put the brakes on for almost the entire book, which smothered whatever heat Popovich had generated between them.

I liked the two main characters, particularly Kelly. I really liked Josie’s gran, who was an integral part of the characters’ lives without actually adding much to the plot.

There is a lot of extraneous plot in what could have been a simpler romance. An extra love interest is given to Kelly, which is supposed to provide the jealousy angle for Josie, but doesn’t really work. Unfortunately it seems to suck some of the life out of the primary romance instead.

There is another major strand to the book, which is a weird stalking/threatening man who wants to buy Josie’s property. With no real links to the area, no idea of who this guy is, and stuck in the middle of nowhere with not much police protection, the characters seem to not react to direct threats for a very long time. The threats made would indicate a much more intense reaction is required, and it made me dislike the author intensely for needlessly putting her characters at risk. It didn’t seem to add much to the plot, other than a mild sense of dread for the characters, and for me, a frustration with the author. The tension that this could have wrought was bled off by the characters lackadaisical response to any threats that came their way. It was a bit bizarre.

It just seemed a bit of a mess with too much happening, and not enough focus on the primary romance. The external threats, either the competing romance, or the weird bloke, could have been better used to force the main characters in to action. This has some really good ideas in it, and I suspect the author will refine her skills and do a better job of managing both character and plot next time around.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a new author for me, and I was underwhelmed. I didn’t warm to either character, and the writing felt flat. The secondary characters don’t add much to the story (although Josie’s grandmother was probably the best character in the book).

The (supposed) chemistry between the main characters is instant, but I couldn’t feel it. And one of the main characters also spends a fair portion of the book dating someone else (who is a friend of the other main character, just to make that less appealing).

There’s also a really awful sub-plot that I assume was supposed to add ‘dramatic tension’ but the ‘bad guy’ was so lame and the plot so ridiculous that I just spent time rolling my eyes whenever the story switched to that plot.

All in all this is pretty ordinary. I give the author points for having main and secondary characters of colour, but that’s the only plus. 2 stars.