4 Star Review at Tome Tender by Dianne Biilou

4 Star review remarks from Dianne Biilyo at Tome Tender: Chyenna is a treasure, the kind of person you wish you had as a friend and neighbor. Blair, on the other hand, was difficult to understand; with his built-in chip on his shoulder that clearly were unresolved issues he carried. Ms. Voeller has set a beautiful stage with starlit nights, endless open spaces and the raw beauty of lands relatively untouched by humanity and progress. With two adorable young girls, wonderful supporting characters and a love that definitely was not at first sight, this light and fun read is a great escape for a few hours!

Star Light, Star Bright
Published by BWL Publishing, Inc. http://bwlpublishing.ca/bookswelove.net
http://amzn.com/B01BO83YPE

by Sydell Voeller

My rating: 

 It was a huge leap of faith when Chyenna and her daughter moved from bustling Portland to a sleepy little town to open an upscale eatery in an historic inn. Too bad not everyone was saw a need for change in the stagnant, but peaceful area. One of those dissenters was cattle rancher, Blair Westerman, a widowed father who blames “big cities” for the death of his wife. His small-minded and stubborn opinion rankles Chyenna, a city girl through and through trying to embrace the beauty of living far from the city lights. No matter how hard she seemed to try to learn the ways of the woods, so to speak, she had the handsome cowboy as her biggest doomsayer who seemed to love to watch her failures.

So why is it that they can’t seem to steer clear of each other? What is the pull? Is it possible that their two daughters are more mature and see more than they do? A plan is hatched and lives are changed…but will it be for the better?

Sydell Voeller’s Star Light, Star Bright is a clean romance with no over-the-top steam-inducing scenes, but the subtle romantic moments are the types that make a heart flutter just a little! Chyenna is a treasure, the kind of person you wish you had as a friend and neighbor. Blair, on the other hand, was difficult to understand; with his built-in chip on his shoulder that clearly were unresolved issues he carried. Ms. Voeller has set a beautiful stage with starlit nights, endless open spaces and the raw beauty of lands relatively untouched by humanity and progress. With two adorable young girls, wonderful supporting characters and a love that definitely was not at first sight, this light and fun read is a great escape for a few hours!

Happy Weekend, everyone!

Just a note to let you know that my romantic suspense book The Fisherman's Daughter is being featured on Monday March 7th 2016 at www.ebooksoda.com. Check it out for great bargain ebook deals!

Clean Romance Books

http://cleanromancebooks.com/

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I'm celebrating the re-release of one of my personal favorite romance novels, STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT. Today it's hot off the Kindle and Books We Love, Ltd. presses! This romance story wasn't planned to coincide with Valentine's Day, necessarily, but I'm overjoyed that it did. You may have seen the book previously in hard cover and a bit later in trade paperback, but this Kindle edition is as current as they come.

So sit back in your favorite chair by the fireplace (it's still winter after all in some parts of the country), sip your favorite beverage, and enjoy this starry night novel. I was inspired to write this story after attending several Rose City Star Parties in Central Oregon enjoying the wonders of the universe. Take it from this amateur astronomer, the night sky with its myriad treasures can put even the most cynical skeptic in a  romantic mood.

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Light-Bright-Sydell-Voeller-ebook/dp/B01BO83YPE/ref=la_B001JRZ0DU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455412220&sr=1-1

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Everyone!  (I celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, so today is only day # 6 in my book.  The tree will probably stay up until Epiphany, January 6, if it remains safe to keep it this long.)  I hope your holidays were the best ever and you're getting off on the right start for this new year.  If you're like me, you don't make New Year's resolutions--although I do set a few "goals" for myself.  (Goals don't sound as intimidating as resolutions, right?)  My goal this year is to get refocused on my writing , despite the various health challenges I've experienced this past year.  I hope to have one of my former Avalon/Montlake Romance books republished this summer by my current publisher Books We Love Ltd, as well as to write more short stories for the True Rendition magazines that have published my work for several years.

Our snow came late this winter--December 27.  It was a very wet snow with the typical large, slow-falling flakes--a throwback to the weeks of gray skies and rain we'd been having prior to the 25th. It was lovely, but also a relief when it didn't stick to the highways, as we needed to take our East Coast family back to the airport for an all-night flight to North Carolina. The trip to and back from the airport  (about an hour's drive one-way) went smoothly as did our family's flight. Their only "adventure" occurred on the plane when my son's kitty, Mogwai, got out of her carry case--and my son didn't realize it although he was fully awake.  Apparently the cat had been runniing around on the dark plane until a passenger that was waiting to use the rest room spotted the Mogwai, captured her, and returned her to my son. Hats off to fellow passengers that care about our pets and are willing to lend a helping hand!

Our weather has finally turned for the better. Now we're enjoying blue skies, low temps in the 20s, and plenty of sunshine!  My patience for better weather has finally paid off, and I know I'll thoroughly enjoy the stretch of sunny days ahead.

For those of you experiencing storms and all kinds of inclement weather, I send my heartfelt best.  I hope you and your loved ones stay safe and sound. God bless...

Again, Merry Christmas and Happy 2016!

Salmon Fishing in the Pacific NW

Okay, I admit--I'm not much into blogging, but I realize I need to change that soon if I expect you to know me, other through strictly via my books. But today I have a blog written by my son, who is a college Literature prof on the East coast. He's coming home for two days of fall fishing with his dad and brother--the first time they've fished together for  two-and-a-half decades. The layers of insight and sentiment that shape this blog delve deeply, and I'm proud to share it with you. This is just one of the small joys we reap as parents, especially when our kids are no longer kids anymore:


Growing up in western Oregon, an hour from the coast, I grew up salmon fishing with my dad in the fall. As Norman Maclean argued in "A River Runs Through It" about fly-fishing in Montana, for some Northwesterners, salmon fishing is akin to religion, or, at least, a deep spirituality. As each autumn came, and the leaves turned, and the light slanted, and the air grew cool and crisp and smelled of woodsmoke, I looked forward to our trips. As a young child, I hardly slept the night before. Going salmon fishing was like Christmas. Except, Christmas was about toys for me as a kid, and I never really cared whether we got any salmon or not. For me, it was more about waking when it was still dark, eating a hurried breakfast, loading the car, driving across the coastal mountains to the beach in the dark, the fog and mist hanging against the Douglas firs dotting the narrow road all along the way, the seeing of an elk cross the road, stopping at the lone country store--brightly lit in the darkness--to buy sand shrimp as bait, the putting in of the boat in the river while still dark, hearing the other fishermen chat about yesterday's catch, smelling the cattle in the nearby pastures, getting to eat a Snickers bar as a treat for an early morning snack. It was about the smell of my dad's black coffee in his thermos. It was really about family--first, my dad and me; later, my younger brother--and Oregon and adventure. If we caught a salmon or two, or more, that was certainly exciting--really, a thrill. And once, when I was around 9th grade, I caught my biggest salmon ever--about 48 pounds--and it almost pulled me into the river. (The hard part always for me was to accept that the salmon had to die if we were to keep it. ) But, it was always about these other things first. We did this from the time I was a kid until well into my undergraduate years. I haven't been salmon fishing with my dad and brother since 1999, probably. I miss that. So, for fall break, I decided to buy an airline ticket to fly 3,000 miles to Oregon to go salmon fishing with my dad and brother. We'll go two days in a row, and I'm looking forward to it. It will be a very fast trip, as I'll return Sunday morning in time to teach again Monday morning. I think it might be crazy, on one hand, to spend the money and fly this far for fishing. But, this has always meant something to me. Maybe it is religion or spirituality. So, it's worth it. See you soon, Mom, Dad, and Nate.

Today I'm happy to be a guest on Cheryl Cooke Harrington's blog/website. We have fun talking about writing and cats! Please join us.
http://kannonsgarden.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-write-spot-sydell-voeller.html