A Shot at Love

Two women meet on a bridge in the lives trying to decide in which direction they want to travel when their eyes meet and another choice appears.

Josie has come back home to the Cotswolds after her American presidential candidate goes off the rails instead of following her written speech and then blames her for the fallout. Now she has come home to her mother's bar to decide whether to continue her speech-writing career or move on, but she does not really have any ideas. Reading the local paper does not help as the stories are beautifully written by Harry, but the ad about the “missing ginger” seems vague and to aggravate her mother immensely. Her mother volunteers Josie to help out at the bar where she meets Harriet aka “Harry” and sparks fly for both of them much to her mother's consternation. Harry is also trying to decide whether she wants to stay in the newspaper business or move on to something different. This small town has secrets though and everyone thinks that in small town everyone knows everyone's business, but as Josie and Harry learn some are very good at keeping theirs' until it breaks people's hearts.

T.B. Markinson kicks of “The Village Romance” trilogy with A Shot At Love (2019) and sets the scene of Cotswolds for us. It is a quaint small town very much like the one I live in here in America. Everyone is in everyone's business, but no one knows anything except just enough to run their mouths (laugh). Markinson has Josie and Harry have that “instant connection” that cannot be explained which allows for a lot of chuckles and smiles as we have the inside line to Harry's personality and others do not. There is a lot of humor and lightness in this book and more than one romantic storyline. The sex is about average for lesbian romance (RatedR). I have to say the best part of the book is the humor and comic misunderstandings, it is as if you are watching a British comedy. The humor is not outlandish, but understated and the romance is the side dish.