Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Holiday Gift Guide 2015: At Love's Bidding


At Love's Bidding
by Regina Jennings
Publisher: Bethany House
Pub. Date: December 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0764211416
Pages: 352


Book Description:

After helping her grandfather at their Boston auction house, Miranda Wimplegate discovers she's accidentally sold a powerful family's prized portrait to an anonymous bidder. Desperate to appease the furious family, her grandfather tracks it to the Missouri Ozarks and makes an outlandish offer to buy the local auction house if they promise not to sell anything until he arrives.

Upon their arrival, however, they discover their new business doesn't deal in fine antiques, but in livestock. And its manager, ruggedly handsome Wyatt Ballentine, is frustrated to discover his fussy new bosses don't know a thing about the business he's single-handedly kept afloat. Faced with more cattle than they can count--but no mysterious painting--Miranda and Wyatt form an unlikely but charged partnership to try and salvage a bad situation getting worse. 

About the Author:

Regina Jennings is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University with a degree in English and a history minor. She is the author of A Most Inconvenient Marriage, Sixty Acres and a Bride, and Caught in the Middle, and contributed a novella to A Match Made in Texas. Regina has worked at the Mustang News and First Baptist Church of Mustang, along with time at the Oklahoma National Stockyards and various livestock shows. She now lives outside Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with her husband and four children and can be found online at www.reginajennings.com



Billy's Thoughts:

I almost turned down a chance to review At Love's Bidding due to the fact that the cover artwork just didn't appeal to me, but I recall reading another title by the author, Sixty Acres and a Bride, so I thought I would give it a chance and feature it in this year's Holiday Gift Guide.

The novel centers on Miranda Wimplegate, a young women that accidentally sold her family's prized portrait at her grandfather's auction house in Boston. Yes, it should be easy to track down the buyer, but of course the bidder was anonymous. The only bit of information she tracked down about the bidder was that he or she was from the Missouri Ozarks (which is a great setting since I live in Missouri).

There only chance of retrieving the painting is to buy the local auction house there. This is where Wyatt Ballentine, the auction house manager, comes into the picture, and he's pretty upset at the new owners as they don't know a clue as to what items or stock that Missourians wants to buy.

I'm a sucker for any novel or book that is set in my home state, so I already liked At Love's Bidding before I even turned the pages to chapter one. Yes, the plot is sort of comical at times, which would’ve made it a little cheesy, but the author does a great job by keeping the story fresh as it went along and avoided any cliches. I found all the characters likable, especially Miranda. Overall, At Love's Bidding is a fun read that should appeal to romance readers.



*Disclaimer - I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

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