This week has gone by fast and I was sure if I would find this review by the end of the week but luckily I made it. This week I was actually happy to be approached by an author who had a new series coming out and I was thrilled to jump at the chance to read it and review it. The series is called The Touchstone Series by Beth Barany a collection of paranormal romance novellas which also comes to a short story at the end. To be honest this is my first venture into the romance world and my first novellas. In the review, I decided to give you the synopsis for each of the novellas and then give you my thoughts about the book as a whole.

Synopsis

Novella Book 1:A Touchstone of Love: A Paranormal Time Travel Romance

The story is about a woman named Rose who is trying to get to Scotland to her boyfriend and a meeting for work but accidentally misses her flight. Due to this accident Rose is forced to reschedule for the next day and must stay in France. In France, Rose gets into a cab and drives to the hotel on the way she decides to take a jog around the streets and wants to see the sights.

Rose decides to jog around the cathedrals and see the beautiful architecture. Suddenly while jogging she gets struck by lightning which ends up knocking her out. Later, she wakes up in a strange cabin and meets a man named Julien who is a stonemason who carves gargoyles. Rose after talking to Julien finds out that the lightning bolt caused her to time travel back to the 13th Century France in the same city she was in.

In the story, Rose must learn to live life and manage getting a job as a maid and live like the Middle Ages. Rose isn’t really good at it. Rose in the story also is infatuated with Julien and helps inspire him on his creation of a gargoyle he was working on for a contest from the stonemason guild. Rose and Julien fall for each but sadly Julien is betrothed to a woman. Will Rose and Julien win each other’s hearts and will Julien win the contest? Read the story and find out more.

Novella Book 2:A Christmas Fling: A Christmas Fling Paranormal Romance

The story is a Christmas elf novella about an elf name Dahlia who goes to the human world for a year and is tasked with creating a toy for Christmas. Her goal was to make the best toy ever and win the grand prize. Within fifteen days left Dahlia is stressed out due to not sure how to fix her toy and getting it to work. During this story, she takes a walk in the park and meets a guy named Leon from where she works.

Leon just got out of a horrible relationship and seeks the opportunity to get promoted at work. In order to get a promotion, he is forced to go to a party and find a girlfriend. This is where Dahlia comes in. Leon enlists Dahlia’s help in pretending to be his girlfriend for the party. Luckily for Leon, Dahlia agrees and they hit it off.

Throughout the story, Dahlia and Leon spend lots of time together and things turn for the better where they get close. Within these days Dahlia gets stressed and worried about her toy not get finished and must ignore her feelings towards Leon to focus. Can Dahlia fix her toy and get Leon before the fifteen days are up?

Novella Book 3:Parisian Amour: A Fairy-tale Paranormal Romance

The story is about a woman named Sarah who is in Paris to go to an interview for a job as a project manager position. At the same time she keeps running into a man named Josh who is from the same city San Francisco who happens to be in Paris for work. After Sarah goes into an interview she goes to the metro train and then getting up ends up in a strange tunnel and gets lost.

Later, Josh goes with a tour group to go see the underground metro train tunnels to explore but he ends up losing his group. Josh gets lost in the tunnels and runs into Sarah again. They both are forced to work together to get themselves out of the tunnels. During this time strange things happen to them where they are filled with strange emotions and strong attraction towards one another. Later in the story they find out that meeting each other wasn’t a coincidence and there are magical forces in Paris from there past.

Novella Book 4:A Labyrinth of Love and Roses:A Fairy-tale Paranormal Romance

The story is about a woman named Lili who learns from grandmother that she is part of legacy called the Bringer of the Rose and she must go on a quest in order to save the world from destruction. Lili is skeptic and rather focus on a presentation she has to give than following her legacy. After this, she gets frustrated and goes to a club and meets a man named Brett and have a great time.

The next day she goes to give a presentation to investors about her company and ends up running into Brett who happens to be an investor. In the story after her presentation she gets a visit at her place by Brett. Brett makes a deal to help her with her presentation in return if she will hold him with his search for his great-grandfather’s site which was missing. Lili agrees to help. Throughout the story Lili and Brett both learn more about their past and why they are meant to be together. Can they stop the world from destruction and can Lili find true love?

Short Story:Falling in Love:A Time-Travel Paranormal Romance

This is a bonus short story at the end of the book where we find Rose and Julien the Touchstone of Love story again. This is a year after Rose returned to the future with Julien. After a year everyone is settling into the modern world. Rose starts getting back to work and Julien is learning to live in the present since he was from the thirteenth century. In future, things are going to so well in the love department. Due to Rose’s work she is always busy and doesn’t have time to be with Julien. In order to solve this issue, Julien and Rose decide to go on a weekend getaway and spend time alone.

During a trip, Julien and Rose stumble upon familiar statues that look a lot like Julien’s work. Julien and Rose is surprised and finds this suspicious and decides that they need to learn more about statues and how they were traveling back and forth through time. In the story, we find a little bit more.

Review:

In this review I decided to give my thoughts as a whole since most of them were positive. Each of the stories are unique and keep you guessing. After I read through stories I found details in each where each story is connect from characters that pop up in each of the stories and mystery pieces that tend to unfold. My favorite two stories from the book were both A Touchstone of Love and A Christmas Fling. A Touchstone of Love was a romantic story about love and it had me routing for the characters to be together. I also like time travel so that is a bonus. As for A Christmas Fling, I like Christmas and I like elves. I also like the connection between the two main characters and how they interact. The only I wished was maybe to have more scenes with Santa since he is so cool. But overall I love the stories from the book. For those looking to pick up the book and read the series I would stay tuned this week and check it out. As always keep on reading.

Link:

Buy on Amazon