Ellie Reads All the Books: Cathy Yardley

Cathy Yardley

Review: Gouda Friends by Cathy Yardley

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Title: Gouda Friends

(Ponto Beach Reunion #2)

Author: Cathy Yardley

Genre: Contemporary romance, friends to lover

Release date: 22 March 2022

Author Links: Website / Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Blurb

Tam Doan dumped her boyfriend after he threw away her gourmet cheese. Sure, it’s a little more complicated than that, but the point is, he had it coming. Newly single and unemployed, Tam calls up her best friend from high school and utters the emergency code word—goldfish. Next thing she knows, she’s on a plane back home.

Josh O’Malley was a troubled, unconfident teenager. Now he’s the successful owner of a multimillion-dollar ghost kitchen. Tam, his high school BFF and fellow member of the Nerd Herd friend group, was instrumental in building his self-esteem. When she calls him out of the blue, he jumps at the chance to return the favor.

Josh and Tam immediately get to work fixing her life—but again, it’s complicated. Their close friendship was always a lifeline between them; a blooming romance might confuse things. Still, at least one thing is for certain: their chemistry is un-brie-lievable.

Review

I loved the first book in this series, Love, Comment, Subscribe, and I was excited to continue with the series set around a group of high school friends, 10 years after graduation.

This is such a lovely, comfy read. An enemies to lovers, starting from 'We shouldn't do this. It will mess up our friendship." going through "Ok, we do it only once to get it out our systems and then never talk about it again." to finally "You are the love of my life and want to be with you forever."

It was no smooth sailing for Josh and Tam but it was fun, with a touch of angst, and very satisfying in the end. We get to see more of their friends and I love all their interactions - the support, the casual joking, the serious talks about life goals and dreams, it was all amazing.

As usual, we meet a diverse cast and it feels natural and organic to the world of the MCs. Both Tam and Josh come from messed up families and the found family they build around themselves as adults is a thing of beauty.

My complaint has to do with the portrayal of the villains in the story. They were too stereotypical, cardboard figures of what the bad girl/guy should look like and act like. It was unnecessary, it didn't bring much to the story, it just felt like lazy, careless writing to me. Same goes for the constant negative talk about both Tam's and Josh' exes. There is no need to make them all sound like terrible people just to show how perfect Tam and Josh are for each other.

It is a minor thing in the overall story but it kept cropping up here and there and found it annoying and distracting.

On the plus side, like the previous book, here the MCs and the side characters felt really modern, involved in new professions - influencer, youtubers, social media managers, setting up ghost kitchen/delivery service. It was interesting to read, entertaining and I am definitely adding this series to my list of romances with uncommon/unusual professions. .

I would summarize this series as modern small town romance - a bit stereotypical, yet diverse, cosy and funny with awesome found family and friends.

CW: alcoholism (off page), messed up families, cheating, online smear campaign

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Cathy Yardley

Review: Love, Comment, Subscribe by Cathy Yardley

02:30

Title: Love, Comment, Subscribe

(Ponto Beach Reunion #1)

Author: Cathy Yardley

Genre: Contemporary romance, Youtubers

Release date: 01 Oct 2021

Author Links: Website / Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Blurb

Back in high school, Lily Wang wanted to be popular, but she considered herself lucky to be part of a tight group of oddballs and honors students called the Nerd Herd. Now, at twenty-eight, she feels like she’s finally on the cusp of succeeding as a beauty influencer—if she can hit five million subscribers, brands will take notice and she could get her own makeup line.

Fellow Nerd Herd alum Tobin Bui has had a lot of success as a YouTube gamer. But the road to online stardom has been rocky. First, he disappointed his parents by dropping out of college, and now, after years of pranks, skits, and playthroughs, he’s struggling to come up with new content to satisfy his ever-growing fan base. His agents say he needs cross-audience appeal, a new twist.

When Nerd Herd frenemy Lily approaches Tobin about teaming up to do a video to bolster her brand and reinvigorate his, he agrees. But when their first collab video goes viral, their relationship heats up too. With the whole internet watching, will these two former misfits finally realize they’re perfect together?

Review

This is a super fun, enjoyable read. The story flows easily and while it is a bit stereotypical at times, overall this is a cute, feel good romance.

I liked the set up - high school friends/enemies meet 10 years after graduation when their agents suggest they do a collaboration for their youtube channels. I don't really follow any youtubers and I found the behind-the-scenes very interesting.

I liked both Lily and Tobin and I found I could relate to their struggles regardless how different they were. They were opposites in many ways but had more similarities than appeared on the surface. I really liked how they brought the best in each other.

For a light-hearted romance this story had unexpected depths - undiagnosed ADHD and how it affects every aspect of one's life, family expectations and pressure, demands on content creators to produce new, imaginative, fun/clever content all the time. As a long-time blogger I felt some of their struggles very close to me. It's just a hobby for me, they make their living via Youtube but the pressure they were under felt very real to me.

I liked their diverse group of friends (enemies), both MCs are half-Asian and there are a bunch of queer characters as well. It read very natural too me, nothing felt force or out of place.

The greatest strength of the story for me was the idea of finding a balance in your life and making a relationship work despite the odds. Both Lily and Tobin need to put in the work to overcome their personal issues. Being together was no miracle cure though it did put things in perspective for both of them.

I admit to liking him a tiny bit more than her, she came off more closed off. His whole storyline was richer, more developed than hers imo. I appreciate the way his creative block was presented and his struggles to admit it and finally deal with it. He prioritized his mental health over work/fame/success and that is a such a powerful message to me.

my only complaint is that the ending was too neat, all issues were resolved in more or less fairytale manner. There are also some stereotypical representations in the story that could have been avoided. Still, overall I enjoyed this book a lot and can highly recommend it.

CW: undiagnosed ADHD, burnout

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Author Spotlight

Friday Favourites with Cathy Yardley

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Friday Favourites

1. Favourite place: Snoqualmie, WA – the location of the series. It’s a real place, and a lot of the locations in the books or are based on real sites. It’s also my hometown, and it’s my favourite place on earth.

2. Favourite food and drink: My favorite food is probably ice cream. I have a weakness for it! Just about any flavor. As to drink – hmmm. Hot cocoa. (Can you tell I have a sweet tooth?)

3. Favourite music/genre/artist/song: I like different music for different moods and occasions, so it’s hard to choose just one. I’ve been listening to a lot of 90’s electronic dance music lately, stuff I used to listen to in clubs and stuff I’m finding on Pandora. Front 242’s Headhunter, or Nightmares on Wax’s Carboot Soul album. Good stuff.

4. Favourite movie/TV series: Again, depends on the mood! I’d say my favorite series is Game of Thrones, because I am super engrossed in it. I have to see what happens!

5. Favourite hobby besides writing, if you consider writing a hobby: That would be reading. I devour books like I could live on reading alone. 😊

6. Favourite books (feel free to list as many as you want; all-time favourites or newly released ones; grouped by sub/genre or other criteria) I love, love, LOVE romantic comedies! Or really so many romances that have strong comedic elements (especially witty banter.) Jennifer Crusie, Tessa Dare, Kresley Cole. For funny, emotional, and downright hawt, I read Melissa Blue. Right now, Penny Reid is my leading favorite rom com author by a long shot – I re-read her book Beard Science regularly. Oh, and I just read Teagan Hunter’s Let’s Get Textual and adored the banter in the texts between the hero and heroine. When I’m not reading funny, I love reading Alisha Rai, Courtney Milan, Lisa Kleypas. I’m also a fan of Jim Butcher, Patrick Rothfuss, Ernest Cline.

7. Please introduce your latest/upcoming release (what inspired you to write, what can the readers expect from it, etc.) My upcoming release is called Game of Hearts, and it’s the third in my Fandom Hearts series. I’m an unrepentant geek, and this series is a set of love letters to various fandoms. The first book, Level Up, had nods to Sherlock; the second, One True Pairing, was for Supernatural and their fans. This one is not surprisingly dedicated to Game of Thrones. I’ll be honest: a lot of it was inspired by Jason Momoa! The hero, Jericho Salomon, hasn’t been home to Snoqualmie in nine years, since his mother kicked him out and he left home to join a biker gang at seventeen. Now, he comes back to help his best friend’s kid sister, Kyla Summers. Kyla has an opportunity to get her sideline costume business into an exceptional spotlight, but she needs help keeping the family auto shop running. There’s cosplay, there’s geekery, and there’s a healthy dose of tension (and sexy fun times!)

Title: Game of Hearts (Fandom Hearts #3)

Author: Cathy Yardley

Genre: Contemporary romance

Release date: 30 Jan 2018

Purchase links: Amazon

Blurb

Kyla Summers has been offered the opportunity of a lifetime to get her cosplay business off the ground, and only one thing stands in her way. She needs someone to take over the auto shop, and there’s only one person she can think of to call…

Jericho Salomon hasn’t been back in his home town since he joined a biker gang and rode off nine years ago. When his best friend’s kid sister calls begging for help, he knows that he owes the family a debt and he intends to pay. This is easier said than done once he finds that the kid is all grown up…

She needs a pair of skillful hands. He needs to keep his hands off. When sparks begin to fly, can they keep things strictly business, or will their hearts get hopelessly tangled? No more games, it’s time to play for keeps.

Author Bio and Links

Cathy Yardley needs to get out more. When not writing, she's usually lurking on social media, playing Elder Scrolls Online, or watching D-list movies and adding to her unnatural mental store of character-actor trivia. She's a fangirl of Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sherlock, LOTR, and too many others to name. She lives with her family in Seattle. They are considering performing an intervention for her addiction to pop culture.

Website / Facebook / Twitter

Excerpt

She shrugged. “He was kind of a sexist asshat when he dropped it off. Was looking for the mechanic — a man, obviously, not a woman like me.”

She couldn’t help but notice that Jericho looked her over quickly, lingering on her chest just a second after she said woman. His eyebrow went up. “And you didn’t kill him?”

“Nope. I did my patented calming technique, went hyper-cheerful, and sent him on his way.”

Jericho moved closer, all but whispering in her ear. “Someday, you gotta teach me this technique of yours.”

She shivered. I’d love to teach you muscle-tensing and relaxing techniques. Which only brought back memories of last night’s dream.

“Do you really want to know?” she quickly asked, heading off that avenue of thought.

“Yeah, I do.” He smiled at her.

“Promise not to tell anyone?”

“Who am I gonna tell?” She could tell he was trying not to laugh. “Okay, I promise.”

Now she was dying with embarrassment. What was she thinking? Leaning forward, she buried her head against his chest, then muttered, “I do kegels.”

She felt him stiffen. “You… eat bagels?” he asked.

She started snickering, then giggling, then laughing even harder, until he laughed along with her, lightly looping his arms around her.

“Not bagels,” she corrected, breathlessly, her cheeks hurting from smiling. “I do kegels.”

He blinked, leaning back to stare at her. “You do… kegels?” he repeated.

“When I get stressed out, or a customer pisses me off, or I get mansplained by some douchebag cosplay guy or something,” she whispered. “I just smile like Pollyanna on meth and do kegels until the desire to strangle them passes.”

He stared at her for a long moment, and she wondered if he was shocked or uncomfortable, until he started laughing, much like she had. In fact, he’d released her and was doubled over, leaning against a wall. “Oh, my God,” he said, wiping at his eye. “You are too much. Really. You are nuts.”

“Sure, laugh now,” she said, poking him in the midsection and looking up at him, her eyes bright with mischief. “But someday I’ll be a Zen monk who can bend a metal bar with her hoohah, and who’ll be laughing then, huh?”

Bikers

Review: Game of Hearts by Cathy Yardley

00:49

Title: Game of Hearts (Fandom Hearts #3)

Author: Cathy Yardley

Genre: Contemporary romance, Fandom, Cosplay, Bikers

Release date: 30 Jan 2018

Author links: Website / Facebook / Twitter

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My rating: 5 stars

Blurb

Review

I really enjoyed this story. It's sweet and funny with unexpected depth and exploration of serious issues. It's a variation of the friends to lovers trope mixed with big brother best friend trope.

It had an easy flow and all the characters were very much likable. I loved the heroine who is wonderfully real and complex. She works as a mechanic (a bit reluctantly) running the family business with her bother after their parents retired.

Kyla is caring, strong, determined. I found it easy to relate to her reluctance to call for help, to rely on others (her brother has not being exactly reliable so far in their lives), she was used to being the one who always helped the other, who as always there to help when needed.

Jericho was a great hero, complex on his own. I loved how he was a biker and rode with other bikers but theirs was more of a group of gearheads than a biker club of any kind. It's the discussion of the future of his group of riding budies that was part of the conflict of him. I appreciate that the story presented a different type of bikers - not criminals, brutal and violent, but rather people who love bikes and tinkering with them and riding them.

He had a difficult journey to go through - reconnecting with his estranged family, going back to his tribal roots. Jericho also had to deal with the sudden realization that he had more than friendly feelings for his best friends sister which led to him navigating a relationship for the first time in his life.

It all happens rather quickly at quite an inconvenient time for both. They are stressed and under a lot of pressure and getting together both added to that but it also prompted them to make some much needed changes in their lives.

I really, really like the positive fat representation of the heroine in this story. She is never described as anything but gorgeous in the eyes of the hero despite her own insecurities which showed up at times. It was lovely to see Kyla and her friends being passionate about their fandoms and cosplay. Introducing Jericho to the Game of Thrones was so much fun.

Another aspect of Kyla's world and in a way it was reciprocated in Jericho's world, was the close circle of friends that had and the support they got from them.

Overall it's light-hearted, funny story which touches on all sorts of issues without seeming overburdened and scattered. The romance was at the heart of it, with the initial hesitance and shyness through getting to know the other person intimately, turning a brief affair into the possibility for something long term. Recommended read.

Purchase links: Amazon

Cathy Yardley

Review: Level Up by Cathy Yardley

01:19

Titlle: Level Up (Fandom Hearts #1)
Author: Cathy Yardley
Genre/Themes: Contemporary romance / gamers / fandom
Release Date: 3 Jan 2016

Author's links:
Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads
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My rating: 3.5 Stars

Synopsis

Geeky introvert Tessa Rodriguez will do whatever it takes to get promoted to video game engineer– including create a fandom-based video game in just three weeks. The only problem is, she can't do it alone. Now, she needs to strong-arm, cajole, and otherwise socialize with her video game coworkers, especially her roommate, Adam, who’s always been strictly business with her. The more they work together, though, the closer they get…

Adam London has always thought of his roomie Tessa as “one of the guys” until he agreed to help her with this crazy project. Now, he’s thinking of her all the time… and certainly as something more than just a roommate! But his last girlfriend broke up with him to follow her ambitions, and he knows that Tessa is obsessed with getting ahead in the video game world.

Going from friends to something more is one hell of a challenge. Can Tessa and Adam level up their relationship to love?

Review

I picked this book for free a couple of weeks ago (and still is!) because I was intrigued by the premise - a geek gamers' romance with a Latina heroine who is a real game coder and is trying to fit in professionally with the rest of the boys in the game making/designing business.

Overall, I enjoyed this light and fun romance a lot. It has a an easy flow to it and I found the characters believable in their struggles into adulthood.

It's a friends (roommates)-to-lovers trope which I generally enjoy and found it pretty convincing here. Tessa was an introvert and a geek, focused on getting ahead professionally and not really good with social interactions. Adam on the other hand, was more outgoing and laidback at the same time, though he was struggling through the betrayal of his ex-girlfriend who left him for a better job in NY.

I quite liked both Tessa and Adam and they were adorable together, both resisting the attraction to one another because of fear it would destroy their easy friendship (and being colleagues, just further complicated things for them).

Adam's friends (who are also coders in the same company) and the group of girls Tessa befriends also fitted very well into the story. Together they made a very sweet romcom - geeky, full of pop culture trivia and fandom references but also easy to follow and relate to even if you are not a gamer or into fandoms.

What I liked the most is how refreshingly normal the characters and their issues were - just ordinary young people navigating the tricky road between professional success and personal relationships. While reading, I kept thinking yes, thisis real, this could happen to anyone.

I have some minor issues with the writing which felt repetitive at the times (certain phrases were used far too often). I also felt the the strong the anti-homophobic and feminist messages, which I greatly appreciate, came off preachy and overimposed on the story/characters rather than an intrinsic part of the narrative.

Still, I very much appreciate the diversity aspect of the story, it's stance on equality and freedom of choice. Overall, this is a fun, easy romance, refreshingly everyday while successful avoiding most of the genre cliches.

Purchase links (FREE): Amazon / Smashwords