Book Review, Giveaway: Special Delivery by Abby Tyler

Special Delivery

by Abby Tyler

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / B&N

She brought him pizza. He delivered a family.

Police Officer Jack Stone hasn’t been able to leave the house in seven days. His wreck of a sister gave birth in prison, and baby Ella has been discharged into his care.

He has no idea what to do with her.

When Louisa arrives at his door with her final pizza delivery before she quits, Ella is crying, the house is a disaster, and Applebottom’s senior police officer is completely lost.

He could solve her problem, and she could solve his.

Too bad they’ve hated each other since high school.

It will take the entire town to end the twenty-year feud between Jack and Louisa and remind them that people do grow up, and in a crisis, you often grow together.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes: 

This was Louisa Temple after all, and she was famous for her “gossip pizza.” Louisa knew from the toppings a person chose who it was for, where it was going, and probably if it was grounds for divorce.



Jack’s face could have scared an evil clown.



There was emotion in Jack Stone somewhere. She and Ella would have to find it, even if it would be like digging into rock with a spoon.



Jack was not the sort of man who just hoped for the best. He would set goals and accomplish them. But he was learning that babies didn’t quite work that way.

My Review: 

I have enjoyed all the fun and amusing books in this sweet series of small-town romances featuring quirky characters with real-life problems, gossiping townspeople, matchmaking elders, and cranky shop owners. Each standalone book has been a pleasantly light, entertaining, quick, and easy to follow read. This installment showcased Louisa the pizza baker and Officer Jack Stone who weren’t actually enemies but were far from friends.



Louisa had been a rather mean prankster in her youth, she had pulled monkeyshines on many in her small home town but the stalwart Officer Stone still considered her his least favorite person and maybe even his main nemesis as she had humiliated him in front of the entire school during his big moment to shine, even though they were both now over forty.



Louisa was not an exceptionally endearing character as she was still rather immature and prone to shenanigans, gossip, and being meddlesome, although she had a good heart and was beginning to realize the trouble she caused others with her attention-seeking behaviors and I cared for and about her, nonetheless. The need to care for a sickly infant relative of Jack’s softened them both and forced them to spend time together, which brought many perks as well as a few hiccups before yielding to a satisfying HEA.

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About The Author

Abby Tyler loves puppy dogs, pie, and small towns (she grew up in one!) Her Applebottom Matchmaker Society books combine the sweet and wholesome style of romance she loves with the funny, sometimes a-little-too-truthful characters she remembers from growing up in a place where everyone knew everybody’s business.

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Book Review: Mistletoe Summer (Applebottom Dog Lovers Book 3) by Abby Tyler

Mistletoe Summer 

(Applebottom Dog Lovers Book 3) 

by Abby Tyler

Apple Books / B&N / Kobo / GooglePlay

Amazon US /  CA /  AU /  UK

It was love at first sight. For their dogs.

Cody Jones didn’t expect to ever return to Applebottom, planning a long life of military service and world travel.

But a devastating injury in Iraq narrows his options, so he begrudgingly helps his mother expand her doggy bakery until he figures out what’s next.

And in walks Melody Hopkins.

Melody is dead broke and takes a summer job painting the new pet store to pay the bills. She’s new to Applebottom and has never encountered the moody, brutally handsome Cody Jones. She isn’t sure she can work around him, but then her tiny Pomeranian Mistletoe refuses to leave Cody’s service dog, a gorgeous Golden Retriever named Tyrus.

The town notices their reluctant friendship and puts them in charge of a grand opening celebration sure to draw visitors to the new store -- a Christmas in July pet parade.

Cody doesn’t want to show off his injury to the whole town, but Melody’s infectious optimism convinces him to try. Besides, his service dog Tyrus can’t seem to live without Melody’s little fluff ball. What’s a veteran and a dog dad to do?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:




Delilah gripped her coffee like it was the last Tickle Me Elmo at Walmart.



“They have a Christmas in July here. So we start decorations early.” “Why?” Grandma’s eyes met hers with sadness. “Because many of us won’t see another holiday season.”

My Review:

While sweet and wholesome is not my typical fare, I am gleefully enjoying Abby Tyler’s delightful small-town romances, this entire series has been sweet enough to cause dental issues. This quick installment covered a lot of ground with a wide range of characters including a seriously wounded and recovering and vet suffering from PTSD, senior citizens, a cancer survivor, teachers, small-town matchmaking busybodies, service dogs, parades, Christmas out of season, and a Manic Pixie Dream Girl – a moniker which required the unlimited resources of Mr. Google to fully appreciate. The storylines are thoughtfully written, easy to follow, and pleasantly entertaining while observantly insightful and wryly amusing and host a lively and enticing cast of uniquely quirky characters. I’m already eagerly awaiting the next volume.

About The Author

Abby Tyler loves puppy dogs, pie, and small towns (she grew up in one!) Her Applebottom Matchmaker Society books combine the sweet and wholesome style of romance she loves with the funny, sometimes a-little-too-truthful characters she remembers from growing up in a place where everyone knew everybody’s business.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Book Review: The Unexpected Shelter (Applebottom Matchmaker Society Series) by Abby Tyler

The Unexpected Shelter 

(Applebottom Matchmaker 

Society Series) 

by Abby Tyler

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / B&N

Savannah Perkins has always loved the animal shelter her father started in memory of her mother. It’s been her life’s work and a peaceful place for her to care for him.

But it’s a hard living, and volunteers have gotten hard to come by.

Until Luke.

No one was more surprised by Luke Southard’s arrival in Applebottom than his father. Mayor T-bone had no idea he had a son.

While Luke waits on the local veterinary school to accept his transfer, the town suggests he help out at the shelter.

But some of the local boys take issue with his closeness to Savannah, blaming him for vandalism around town. When the new vet school refuses him, Luke figures he’s overstayed his welcome.

It will take some quick thinking by the town to help Luke and Savannah realize that in each other, they’ve found their perfect shelter.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

The room went wild with chairs scraping back and people gasping like T-bone done announced he was from Nebraska.



Violet had come over that morning and done her nails and helped with makeup. They had a long day ahead, so they needed armor, Violet had said. Armor by Maybelline.




My Review:



Continuing on with my fangirling of Abby Tyler with another sweet Applebottom tale, this one was a bit more melancholy than the rest due to the rather tragic circumstances the main character of Savannah was mired with. Savannah’s tale is a very relevant and realistic one for anyone struggling with elderly family members. Despite the heavier concerns, the storylines were lively, entertaining, and highly relatable, although my two favorite tenacious pie bakers were not as prevalent in this tale and I sorely missed them. I enjoy Ms. Tyler’s amusing voice and highly endearing characters. She squeezed my heart with this one as I am a huge animal lover and involved in cat rescue and fostering myself.

Empress DJ

About The Author

Abby Tyler loves puppy dogs, pie, and small towns (she grew up in one!) Her Applebottom Matchmaker Society books combine the sweet and wholesome style of romance she loves with the funny, sometimes a-little-too-truthful characters she remembers from growing up in a place where everyone knew everybody’s business.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Book Review, Giveaway: The Irresistible Spark by Abby Tyler

The Irresistible Spark 

by Abby Tyler

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA /

B&N / iBooks/ Kobo / GPlay

She started the blaze. The firefighter fanned the flame.

Abby Tyler welcomes you to the witty, well-meaning busybodies of Applebottom, Missouri, where the community takes its pies -- and its matchmaking -- very seriously.

Lorelei Spencer is over that loser who wasted the last few years of her life, and she’s going to prove it.

After she's had enough mourning and midnight rage-crying, Lorelei dumps all the clothes, stuffed animals, notes, and mementos from the relationship on her front lawn. Then, she sets the pile ablaze.

It feels great.

Until it catches the grass on fire, too.

Volunteer firefighter Micah Livingston arrives on the scene and handily douses the blaze. But the fire he puts out sparks a new one in his heart when he realizes this feisty woman with a zeal for life might be exactly what he's been looking for.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

This was the sort of terrible, stupid thing that she’d been known for doing in high school. She would have thought that she’d have gained some common sense in the past six years. But no, when she got upset, it was as though all her brain cells flew out her ears.

“Gertrude here found out her blood pressure was a little high, and now she’s sure she’s going to have a stroke any minute.” “Don’t make fun of the dying,” Gertrude snapped.

Come on in out of the cold. And I don’t mean the weather. The frost coming off Gertrude could freeze a bull.

My Review:

Abby Tyler’s special brand of clever levity has provided another fun and entertaining read from the Applebottom series.  I don’t think I could ever tire of this uniquely peculiar community of meddlesome and feisty seniors who can throw shade like it’s an Olympic event.  Having spent my formative years in a tiny inbred rural community, I know that it is vastly more enjoyable to read Abby Tyler’s highly amusing small-town tales, which she has expertly cast with variable tones of quirky and eccentric small-town characters, than it is to actually live amongst the close scrutiny of the crabby and petty old battle-axes who wag their tongues far more than their well-upholstered tails.  I strongly suspect this only makes her humorous and sweetly written stories even more fun to indulge in.  

Empress DJ

About The Author

Abby Tyler loves puppy dogs, pie, and small towns (she grew up in one!) Her Applebottom Matchmaker Society books combine the sweet and wholesome style of romance she loves with the funny, sometimes a-little-too-truthful characters she remembers from growing up in a place where everyone knew everybody’s business.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Book Review: The Perfect Disaster by Abby Tyler

The Perfect Disaster 

by Abby Tyler

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / B&N

Her giant pup drags her across town, right into the arms of the football coach. 

Abby Tyler welcomes you to the witty, well-meaning busybodies of Applebottom, Missouri, where the community takes its pies -- and its matchmaking -- very seriously. 

Ginny Page arrives in Applebottom with a problem -- a Great Dane she rescued three days before her big move. 

An untrained Great Dane that outweighs her by twenty pounds. 

When Roscoe trashes the doggie bakery on Town Square, the locals send their strong, single football coach to help Ginny tame her new addition. 

Carter McBride is a favored son despite his team’s losing tradition. He got his heart broken on national television, and he’s content to hide in Applebottom and underachieve himself into oblivion. 

Until Ginny. Her devotion to her students and this wild, crazy dog inspire him to be a better man. With the town’s encouragement, Ginny and Carter learn that sometimes life’s biggest setbacks can turn a disaster into the perfect match. 

All Applebottom books are clean and wholesome standalone HEA romances that can be read in any order.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Maude came back and took another peek at my notes and told me I was too old to be sparking over Alfred Felmont. I nearly smacked her with my good leather notebook, except I have a high regard for our distinguished group and don’t want to get blood on our minutes.

What are our childhoods for, except to traumatize us?

No one could sneeze in this town without someone holding out a box of tissue.

“Gertrude looks like she’s just bit a lemon.” Ginny bit back a smile. Gertrude, with her helmet of white hair and sour expression, did indeed seem to be permanently displeased.

Just listen to yourself, Maude. You’re going off like a preacher during Lent.

My Review:

I was an instant fan just a few sentences into Abby Tyler’s amusing debut novel of The Sweetest Match, and she has topped that with her clever sequel of The Perfect Disaster.  I adore this wittily written small-town series and giggle-snorted my way through this fun and frothy tale featuring the new arrivals of Roscoe, an excitable gentle giant and rescued Great Dane; and Ginny, his petite new dog mom, whom Roscoe clearly outweighed.  The meddlesome biddies of Applebottom discussed the large and vexing loose cannon and as they just weren’t having it, decided to tag in Carter, the handsome and single high school football coach for muscle.  The snark and petty sniping those old crones tossed at each other and under their breath was comedic gold. 

Empress DJ

About The Author

Abby Tyler loves puppy dogs, pie, and small towns (she grew up in one!) Her Applebottom Matchmaker Society books combine the sweet and wholesome style of romance she loves with the funny, sometimes a-little-too-truthful characters she remembers from growing up in a place where everyone knew everybody’s business.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Book Review, Giveaway: The Sweetest Match by Abby Tyler

The Sweetest Match 

by Abby Tyler 

Publication date: March 7, 2019

Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

She hid secret messages in frosting, thinking no one would notice.

Abby Tyler welcomes you to the witty, well-meaning busybodies of Applebottom, Missouri, where the community takes its pies — and its matchmaking — very seriously.

Sandy Miller became an outcast at fifteen years old. Pregnant, confused, and blackmailed into silence, she spent eighteen years raising her son away from the disapproving stares of her hometown.

But Caden has left for college, and Sandy needs a job. When Applebottom’s tea shop owner sees Sandy’s decorating sketches, she hires her instantly in hopes of putting her little bakery on the map.

And then the town starts spotting secret words of love and longing on her cakes.

Andrew McCallister is the first to admit that he never got over Sandy Miller. In high school, another boy swooped in and snatched her right up. Everything that happened afterward filled him with regret. The town’s censure. His failure to check on her. Her struggle.

But now she’s back.

When the town summons the pair to a meeting to plan the school’s centennial bash, Andrew and Sandy discover they are the only two members of the committee. As they attempt to rekindle the long-lost flame, they realize the community must come together for more than an anniversary party. For their new relationship to flourish, the old guard must learn to support their most vulnerable members even when times get hard.

Abby Tyler is the new small-town romance pen name of USA Today bestselling author Deanna Roy / JJ Knight.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo / Google Play

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

She liked to wave her arms to express herself, and her dress had flouncy sleeves that made her look a bit like a flying squirrel.

Gertrude had always been a sourpuss, but in her heart of hearts, she loved this town and everybody in it. That included Betty Johnson and her evil petit fours.

Some of the things these people had said to her eighteen years ago would ring in her ears all her life. It was one thing to forgive, but quite another to completely forget.

“This is MiMi, Lolo, JuJu, NayNay, Tutu, and Killer.” Killer looked up at the mention of his name. He was a tiny brown Chihuahua with a pink nose. “Killer?” Andrew asked. “He’s a rescue pup. He won’t answer to anything else.”

She wondered if she had died somehow, and this were her afterlife. Nothing felt real.

I’ve loved you since I was too young to know what the word meant.

My Review:

I connected to this delightful book on page one and was an instant fan of the lively and fun yet insightful writing style of Abby Tyler.  The storylines were relevant, engaging, and amusingly observant while still tapping on all the feels.  Ms. Tyler has deftly captured those small-town foibles and advantages with her irresistibly intriguing, meddlesome, and quirky characters.  I am greedy for more.

Empress DJ

Author Bio:

Abby Tyler loves puppy dogs, pie, and small towns (she grew up in one!) Her Applebottom Matchmaker Society books combine the sweet and wholesome style of romance she loves with the funny, sometimes a-little-too-truthful characters she remembers from growing up in a place where everyone knew everybody’s business.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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