Title: Admiring Ash
Series: Love Letters: Book One
Author: Anyta Sunday
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 41k Words
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: This is a charming start to this collection that fans of the author should enjoy.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: A is for Ash Heartford.
Adorable, strong, and independent.
Abandoned by his parents and attached to only person—his little sister.
Attracted to River, the sultry man who saunters onto his doorstep with startling news.
Always yearning for more River, yet afraid to let him in.
Should he play it safe, or claim his legacy and risk losing his heart?
A is for Admiring Ash.
Review: Author Anyta Sunday has come up with such a clever idea for a new series of short novels entitled Love Letters, the premise of which seems to be that the twenty-six letters of the alphabet will determine the name of each new MC.
Beginning with the letter A—as one does with the alphabet—Sunday introduces readers to this collection with Admiring Ash, the story of a man struggling to raise his teenage sister and working his fingers to the bone in the process, only to come up financially short time and time again. Ash’s relationship with Danielle is warm and loving but is also comprised of a lot of sacrifice on Ash’s part, which becomes a plot point as the story continues—he’s tired down to his core. Their mother also plays a role in who Ash is now, not in her physical presence in the story but certainly in the lasting effect she’s had on the way Ash views relationships.
The emotional peak of the story revolves around Ash discovering he’s been willed a bookstore by a now-deceased grandfather, Lester Mallory, whom Ash was unaware existed until Roy Riverton delivered the deed to the store to Ash’s doorstep. There are too many emotional underpinnings to call this a meet-cute, but River is the sort of man Ash could be attracted to. Caveats and conflicts stand in the way of their acting on their attraction, though, one of which I can’t reveal but involves Lester and which I admit to still being a bit puzzled by.
This may be a short novel but that doesn’t prevent me from calling this a slow burn sort of romance. While the reasoning behind this is clear, the story does rely quite a bit on a lack of communication between River and Ash, which I’ll admit is one of my least favorite romantic foils, but it also serves as the premise for a sweet exchange of words at the end.
Readers are also introduced to the B as in Ben and C as in Chance of the following two novellas, as secondary characters in Admiring Ash.
This is a charming start to this collection that fans of the author should enjoy. – 3.5 stars
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Title: Begging Ben
Series: Love Letters: Book Two
Author: Anyta Sunday
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 41k Words
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: Begging Ben is my fave of the two novellas so far.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: B is for Ben Spengler.
Brilliant. Bashful. Burned.
Brimming with desire for his BFF Landon, who is beyond compare.
But they aren’t the same Ben and Landon anymore. Not after what Landon did. And didn’t do.
Bitter about his unrequited love.
Bound by a night of drunken promises.
Will the chemistry between them change, or will Ben break first?
B is for Begging Ben.
Review: The letter B brings us to Begging Ben and delivers the story of River’s twin brother, Landon, and his best friend, Ben. Sunday pulls out some more tropey goodness in the fake marriage scenario in this novella, along with forced proximity and, in addition, this is a best friends-to ex best friends-to lovers story, so readers who dig those romantic elements should be eager for this one.
Begging Ben was higher on the angst scale than Ash and River’s story but was also completely charming, and I was a smitten kitten for Ben and Landon equally. The week they spend together trying to resuscitate their broken friendship from the throes of a long, slow death was designed to right a wrong—their drunken wedding. Ben needs to hide from his mother the fact that he drunk-married Landon—she is not at all unhappy they finally admitted their feelings for each other—while convincing her their ‘loving marriage’ is about to hit the skids and end in the big D. It quickly becomes a case of the two men working at cross purposes when Landon upends Ben’s plans at every single turn.
Once again, I felt there was an “if these guys would just sit down and talk to each other, a lot of the angst could be avoided” aspect to the story, but their long history of Ben not sharing his feelings with Landon, and Landon being so utterly oblivious to his own for Ben, tracks with their narrative. There was a lot of hurt to ease and self-awareness to come to before the truth could make its way to the light.
Chance Roosevelt-Sutton is up next in the alphabet romance lineup. If that name isn’t enough to clue you in to the fact he’s a bit of a wanker, meeting him in the first two novellas will do it. It’ll be interesting to see how Sunday redeems his character and makes him even remotely likable. He’s working at a deep disadvantage before his novella even begins.
Begging Ben is my fave of the two novellas so far. – 4 stars
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Title: Challenging Chance
Series: Love Letters: Book Three
Author: Anyta Sunday
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 32k Words
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: Kudos to Anyta Sunday for making me like a character I wasn’t sure I could.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: C is for Chance Roosevelt-Sutton.
Chiseled jaw. Smug attitude. Wild ways.
Chained to his ego—or so everyone thinks. Except his personal assistant, Brook. He knows better.
Chance is challenged to make his father happy for once, but he needs Brook’s help.
Choosing honesty is too risky, so instead they choose secrecy.
Choked by their pasts, they dream of a better life . . . and
Charm each other into submission.
Will their pasts ruin what they have, or will they grow together?
C is for Challenging Chance.
Review: Aw, Anyta Sunday accomplished what I thought was going to be an impossible challenge. She did make me like Chance Roosevelt-Sutton.
Chance has been living a big fat lie—not that it wasn’t somewhat suspect given how adamant he was to make sure Landon Riverton knew that Chance was NOT gay and also saw Landon as utterly pathetic for continuing that one-sided infatuation, not only in word but in action. Chance is a playboy of the screw ’em and leave ’em variety—women only because see: not gay. He’s also the type who welcomes people to use him for his money, because he’s certain he isn’t worthy of anything as basic as friendship.
Following in the tropey footsteps of the first two novellas, Challenging Chance introduces some of its own familiar themes. This is not an office romance but is an employer/employee romance, just without the taboo of the boss getting busy with an employee in an office setting. When Brook shows up on Chance’s doorstep with the intent of securing the recently vacated position of Chance’s personal assistant, it sets the wheels in motion and Brook quickly, and literally, charms the pants off his new employer.
Chance and Brook had some weighty obstacles to overcome, though a failure to communicate thankfully wasn’t one of them. Brook was keeping a secret he didn’t want Chance to know, and Chance’s inability to allow himself to entertain even the idea of a future with Brook is rooted solely in his feelings of inadequacy. Chance can never compete with the brother he sees as perfect nor live up to his demanding father’s expectations. So, in the way of self-fulfilling defeat, he lived down to his father’s expectations instead. Until one failure too far made Chance decide he needed to be a better man. Something Brook was determined to do as well, which meant Chance wasn’t going to fail if Brook had anything to say about it.
Because this is the shortest of the three novellas, with issues both internal and external that had some major heft to them, I do feel they were resolved a tad too simplistically, but it fit the sweet and romantic goal of the collection. Kudos to Anyta Sunday for making me like a character I wasn’t sure I could. – 3.5 stars
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