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Rating: 
Summary: Great Fun!
Review: A decade ago Zoey Phillips, Charlotte Moore, and Lydia Lane met as members of the Jasper Park Lodge female summer staff. They stayed in contact with one another over the years and now attend the tenth anniversary event at the lodge. Another attendee suggests everyone look up their first love, but Zoey has no plans to seek out her teenage crush Ryan Donelly. However, six months later fate intercedes when a close friend asks Zoey to come home to help her with her stepmother's wedding. The Toronto-based independent book editor agrees to return to Stoney Creek, British Columbia.
At home, Zoey sees Ryan, but though attracted to him, she dreams of his older brother, rancher Cameron, father of a little girl. While Ryan flirts with Zoey, Cam melts her with his deadly bedroom eyes, leaving her bewildered by her deepening feelings for a precious girl and her father. However, Cam was burned once in a relationship before so commitment seems unlikely on his part.
The first of three "Girlfriend" tales, ZOEY PHILLIPS is an enjoyable contemporary romance that showcases relationships in a small Canadian town. The story line is simplistic but engages the audience, as Zoey is quite a lead character, one who is so confident in the big cosmopolitan city, but has doubts fitting in her own hometown. Cam is a typical category male, but his daughter keeps him off of a pedestal for hunks so that Zoey and readers sees the complete person. Judith Bowen's opening gamut is a fun read. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable contemporary romance
Review: A decade ago Zoey Phillips, Charlotte Moore, and Lydia Lane met as members of the Jasper Park Lodge female summer staff. They stayed in contact with one another over the years and now attend the tenth anniversary event at the lodge. Another attendee suggests everyone look up their first love, but Zoey has no plans to seek out her teenage crush Ryan Donelly. However, six months later fate intercedes when a close friend asks Zoey to come home to help her with her stepmother's wedding. The Toronto-based independent book editor agrees to return to Stoney Creek, British Columbia.
At home, Zoey sees Ryan, but though attracted to him, she dreams of his older brother, rancher Cameron, father of a little girl. While Ryan flirts with Zoey, Cam melts her with his deadly bedroom eyes, leaving her bewildered by her deepening feelings for a precious girl and her father. However, Cam was burned once in a relationship before so commitment seems unlikely on his part.
The first of three "Girlfriend" tales, ZOEY PHILLIPS is an enjoyable contemporary romance that showcases relationships in a small Canadian town. The story line is simplistic but engages the audience, as Zoey is quite a lead character, one who is so confident in the big cosmopolitan city, but has doubts fitting in her own hometown. Cam is a typical category male, but his daughter keeps him off of a pedestal for hunks so that Zoey and readers sees the complete person. Judith Bowen's opening gamut is a fun read. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Great Fun!
Review: Judith Bowen scores again with the fun-filled, emotional Zoey Phillips, her latest book from Harlequin Superromance! Zoey Phillips is the first book in Judith's new Girlfriends series, in which three friends decide to accept a challenge and look up their first love. Zoey's in for more than she reckons when she meets up with Ryan, her still-single first love. But the fun doesn't stop there. Ryan has a brother, Cam, a single dad. The brothers couldn't be more different, and Zoey likes them both. If you were a fan of the movie Sabrina, this book is definitely for you! You'll enjoy this wonderful book, and, if you're like me, you'll be anxiously waiting for the next two books in the series, Charlotte Moore and Lydia Lane.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely charming -- Highly recommended
Review: Zoey Phillips, Charlotte Moore, and Lydia Lane met just after high school while working at a wilderness resort in the Rocky Mountains. Ten years later at the reunion of the Jasper Park Lodger summer staff, someone speculates what fun it might be to look up the boy that led to their first heartbreak. Perhaps he's balding, paunchy, and boring. Then at the next year's reunion, they'd all report their results. Zoey doesn't think about it again until six months later when she accepts a friend's invitation to help plan her stepmother's wedding. Sitting in a restaurant in Stony Creek, British Columbia, Zoey immediately recognizes her high school crush from across the room. Ryan Donnelly, the handsome track star of Fullerton Valley High, had convinced her to "pretend" to be his girlfriend so he make the object of his desires jealous. Zoey's dream that Ryan might realize she was the girl of his dreams went unrealized. But she'd never forgotten the boy who taught her to French kiss. Now Ryan enthusiastically greets Zoey, once he recognizes her, making her feel every bit the gauche teenager she once was. Zoey intends to stay in town for five weeks, but the hotel is closing for the season, leaving her without adequate accommodations. When Ryan's brother Cameron hears she needs a place, he offers the ranch's garage apartment. He also intends to play matchmaker and see his brother settled. Cameron is nothing like his younger, flirtatious brother. Cameron, a single father, is steady, reliable, boring. So why does Zoey find herself drawn to the wrong brother? While the plot might be a bit predictable, that in no ways detracts from the fun of ZOEY PHILLIPS. The premise is wonderful, as are the characterizations. Any return to the past is fraught with risk, and Zoey meets those risks head on, with her own zany style. As she undercuts Cameron's desire to control everyone and everything around him, Zoey demonstrates admirable self confidence and pride with the woman she's made herself into, from her choice of names and career, to her darkened auburn hair; too bad she knows nothing about men. Consequently, she becomes perfect foil for the brooding, silent hero in a balance of light and shadow. Highly recommended.
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