COMFORT ZONE by Kimberly Fish–Book Blog Tour: Reviewapalooza and Giveaway

COMFORT ZONE

A Comfort Stories Book

KIMBERLY FISH

Genre: Contemporary / Second Chance Romance / Women’s Fiction

Publisher: Fish Tales Publishing

Date of Publication: November 1, 2021

Number of Pages: 289 pages 

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The award-winning author of Comfort Songs, Comfort Plans, and Comfort Foods digs into the life of single-mom Anna Weber, an appraiser who gives value to other people’s found treasures. On assignment to research a handwritten sheet of music, Anna helps a stranded motorist, only to discover she’s rescued retired NFL quarterback Jack Moses. His confidence and fascination for solving problems makes him impossible for Anna to ignore even as they both dart along separate deadlines to save the finances at an inner-city school. Little does Anna know that as she wrestles with secrets from her past and a suspicious approach to people, Jack is running too—dodging women, pro athletes, and a future with no definable end zone.

As a nemesis threatens Anna’s young daughters, these two unlikely partners discover that it’s in stepping back from years of self-sufficiency that Anna and Jack can find the best treasure of all: a series of sweet, second chances.

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PRAISE & AWARDS

“Kimberly Fish’s Comfort books are wonderful, charming stories set in the Texas Hill Country. Fans of small towns family relationships will enjoy these feel-good books. Two thumbs up!” – Jan Moran, USA Today bestselling author of Seabreeze Inn.

Comfort Zone is a Literary Titan Gold Award winner and a Reader Views Bronze Award winner in romance. It was also a runner-up in the regional fiction category of the New England Book Festival awards.

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Perfectly titled, Comfort Zone left me feeling a warm glow inside after reading it. With her latest book, Kimberly Fish welcomes her eager readers back to Comfort, Texas– a place of solace and support, a place where you’ll feel safe and at ease. For those reasons, Anna Weber calls it her forever home.

Not at first, though. Not until her past caught up with her and brought danger to herself and her twin daughters. What was a place to hide became special because of friends gathering around to get her back on her feet and a new man proving his worth to her with his actions, making her consider opening her heart once again.

We’re living in days not promised … We can’t treat these gifts lightly.”

While in pursuit of information to turn a handwritten sheet of music into a funding vehicle for a charter school, Anna and former NFL Quarterback Jack Moses get thrown together by chance and by well-intentioned manipulation care of Jack’s best friends Jo Jo and LaDonna. From San Antonio to Dallas to Tyler and to Comfort, the scenes showing the burgeoning attraction between Anna and Jack elicited some of the widest smiles and the most satisfied sighs from me. I loved the romance in this story. It developed naturally and was paced properly.

… you need to spend time in the workshop of your soul. It’s in getting out and doing things, serving others, that you get your real livelihood.”

One of the things I appreciate about Ms. Fish’s writing is her ability to manage a multitude of secondary characters. She gives them distinct personalities without having them overshadow the leads. Jo Jo and LaDonna are notables. As are Lacy, AJ, and Kali. For future books, I’d like to see the author explore beyond the binary. She has done so well in seamlessly incorporating a multicultural cast, I’m sure she’ll excel in further inclusion.

Live in the present because it is …”

Outstanding sense of place, compelling storyline, impeccable characterization, a wonderful balance of humor and angst. I’m grateful to Kimberly Fish and Lone Star Lit for the opportunity to review this delightful story.

4 Four-half-stars

Kimberly Fish has been a professional writer in marketing and media for over thirty years, with regular contributions to area newspapers and magazines. As an accidental historian, she wrote two novels, The Big Inch and Harmon General, both based on factual events in Longview, Texas that changed world history. Kimberly also offers a set of contemporary women’s fiction, based in the Texas Hill Country, that reveal her fascination with characters discovering their grit and sweet, second chances; all four of these novels have won distinguished awards.

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 ONE WINNER! 

Autographed copy of Comfort Zone,
hand-painted note card from artist Elaine McMillan,
and NFL official Silver Series football signed by Jack Moses
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COMFORT FOODS by Kimberly Fish – Book Blog Tour: Review and Giveaway

COMFORT FOODS

A Comfort Stories

Stand-Alone Novel

Kimberly Fish

Categories: Contemporary / Second-Chance Romance

Publisher: Fish Tales Publishing

Date of Publication: October 7, 2020

Number of Pages: 385 pages

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From the award-winning author of Comfort Plans and Comfort Songs comes a story of two rising stars blitzed by social media. Lacy Cavanaugh and single-dad Rudy Delgardo live a hundred miles apart but meet in the worst possible way. Working at a weekly paper and creating social media for area businesses helps Lacy connect with locals who open her mind to a perspective beyond Instagram. In launching a food-and-wine festival to support Comfort’s new event center, she discovers surprising skills bubbling over, much like the food she’s attempting to cook.

Rudy, on the brink of his restaurant’s takeover, struggles to improve time management so he can create a better relationship with his daughter. Distracted by Lacy and her invitation to the festival, he’s tempted by her beauty, wit, and courage, but as a chef, he rarely gets to enjoy life outside the kitchen. Enemies, illness, and exes add unwelcome spice to the dish they’re concocting—one that will teeter with misunderstanding until the very end.

Will Lacy and Rudy embrace their second chances and discover the perfect seasonings of family, resilience, and grace to create a handwritten recipe of love that will stand the test of time?

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Relevant and current, Comfort Foods is a feast of a read. Gobble it up in one sitting or savor for several days, you’ll end up satisfied either way.

When I saw the opportunity to review this book, I jumped at the chance. Food and romance are two of my favorite things. As I said when I requested it, foodie romance is my jam, pun fully intended.

Comfort Foods lives up to my expectations. Lacy and Rudy’s story, taking place in two locations (Comfort and Austin), is rich and filling. Lacy’s journey of self-discovery after her fall from grace is especially fascinating and touching. Her scenes with Frank Bachman, the publisher of the newspaper she works for, provide moments of both laughter and tears. In doing service for her sister and for others in the community, Lacy finds her worth beyond the superficial beauty and fashion she was previously famous for. Rudy’s grappling with too many pots on the stove–his restaurant Stella, his daughter Luna, and his attraction to Lacy–is realistic in today’s world and highly relatable. His bewilderment in his search for balance amid man-made obstacles is endearing and admirable.

But life is more than a shiny ball. It has edges, holes, and deep caves. Make a choice on where you feel most grounded.

Ms. Fish created fully-fleshed-out characters that are sympathetic and likable and oh-so-real with their all-too-human failings. I love that she included multicultural characters that’s reflective of the society at present. She spun a tale filled with humor, angst, insider knowledge of the restaurant and publishing businesses, and the weighty concern of human trafficking. The themes of found family and close-knit community are ones I often seek out and are entrenched in this book and in this series. And then, there’s the food. There’s enough to make a reader’s mouth water and head to the kitchen to recreate the dishes mentioned in the book.

Food is a necessary element of living, and there is real beauty in the process of preparing it and serving people who appreciate the effort.

I enjoyed the slow burn of Lacy and Rudy’s romance from their awkward first couple of meetings to cooking together, to the impromptu bridal photo shoot, and to their eventual happy ever after. I wish though that they have more scenes together and that they communicated more frequently, and collaborated on resolving their issues. Rudy’s declaration at the end seems too quick for a relationship that’s not fully developed because of so much distance.

Love is a recipe worth every effort.

As always, huge thanks to Kimberly Fish and to Lone Star Literary Life for the copy of the book to review.

Author Kimberly Fish resides in Longview, Texas, and enjoys writing contemporary fiction set in the Hill Country. During the seven years she lived in San Antonio, wandering in and around Comfort, Texas, provided endless space for her imagination to develop stories of women discovering their grit. She studied the small Texas town that had seemingly dug its heels into the limestone and refused modern development and thought that was fertile ground for stories about women remodeling their lives. It made a juxtaposition of place and purpose that was hard to ignore. Plus, anything that takes intentional effort has a much higher value than the things that come easily—Comfort personifies this, and the novels remind readers that anything worth having is worth the work.

Comfort Foods is the third full-length novel in the set, Fiction from the Texas Hill Country, and follows behind the award-winning novels Comfort Plans and Comfort Songs. A novella, Emeralds Mark the Spot, is available as a free eBook download to subscribers of the incredibly sporadic newsletter at kimberlyfish.com and is the original story from which all other Comfort novels grew.

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GRANDPRIZE (US only):

Signed copy of COMFORT FOODS +

Ina Garten’s MODERN COMFORT FOOD

Ends Midnight, CST, January 22, 2021

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CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY,

or visit the blogs directly:

1/12/21	Guest Post	Hall Ways Blog
1/12/21	Review	Sydney Young, Stories
1/13/21	Excerpt	Forgotten Winds
1/14/21	Review	Jennie Reads
1/14/21	Author Interview	Texas Book Lover
1/15/21	Review	The Clueless Gent
1/16/21	Review	Jennifer Silverwood
1/17/21	Guest Post	All the Ups and Downs
1/18/21	Review	Momma on the Rocks
1/18/21	Character Interview	StoreyBook Reviews
1/19/21	Review	Book Bustle
1/19/21	Guest Post	That’s What She’s Reading
1/20/21	Review	Carpe Diem Chronicles
1/21/21	Review	It’s Not All Gravy
1/21/21	Review	Bibliotica

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COMFORT SONGS by Kimberly Fish – Book Blog Tour Reviewapalooza: Review and Giveaway

COMFORT SONGS

a companion novel to Comfort Plans

by

KIMBERLY FISH

Genre: Contemporary Romance / Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Fish Tales, LLC
Date of Publication: September 19, 2019
Number of Pages: 348

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Award-winning author of Comfort Plans, Kimberly Fish, delivers a novel about family, forgiveness, and the seeds of second chances.

Eight years ago, Autumn Joy Worthington, still reeling from the bitter divorce of her Grammy-Award-winning parents, endured the betrayal of a man who’d promised her a wedding. Running from pain seemed the logical response. Reinventing herself in Comfort, Texas, as a lavender grower, she creates a wildly successful gardening haven that draws in tourists and establishes an identity far removed from her parents’ fame. Her mother’s retirement from stardom inspires AJ to offer her refuge and nurse the dream that they could move past old hurts and the tarnish of the music industry … to find friendship. A grandmother in the early stages of dementia and the return of AJ’s father complicate the recovery, but nothing sets the fragile reality spinning like the arrival of Nashville music executive, Luke English.

As Alzheimer’s slowly knocks away the filters of their family, AJ comes to appreciate the true meanings of love and forgiveness — and that the power of redemption can generate from the most unlikely sources. When AJ uncovers the grit to make hard choices, she also discovers that the flowers that bloom the brightest can have the most tangled roots.

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With its familiar setting of Texas Hill Country and its compelling storyline that deals with the burgeoning of romance amidst the complications of family drama, Comfort Songs grabbed my attention and didn’t let go until I reached the incredibly satisfying end. Four hours later, I find myself sighing happily, having been thoroughly entertained by Ms. Fish’s fantastic prose. Not a bad way to spend four hours of a cold, wet autumn evening.

One of the things I love about Comfort Songs is its highly-developed sense of place. I’m certain that even those who are unfamiliar with the area described in the book would feel as if they’ve been transported to its location. The sights, sounds, smells, and feel of Comfort, Texas came alive through Ms. Fish’s vivid descriptions. It’s no hardship to imagine myself in the midst of AJ’s warm and fragrant lavender fields right now.

Speaking of AJ, I admire her character in the book. Responsible, nurturing, and mature, she bears the heavy burdens of managing her business, taking care of her slowly-deteriorating grandmother, and putting up with her warring parents remarkably well. All of these at the same time she is starting to trust again and allowing Luke into her heart.

There are so many scenes in this novel that moved me to laughter and tears, particularly when AJ finally received the love and attention she deserves from her parents. There are also many quotes that resonated with me, like this one:

“One had to remove the rocks and the weeds before they could till the soil …”

I appreciate those snippets from “Lessons from Lavender Hill” very much. I only wish they’re more consistent in that every chapter should have an epigraph of them. Other than that, I can’t find much to complain about in this book.

Kimberly Fish is a professional writer with almost thirty years of media experience. She’s been telling stories far longer. She published her first novel, a WWII historical fiction novel, because of a true story in her adopted hometown that was too good to ignore. She quickly followed that success with a sequel. Since then, she’s continued writing fiction and added a contemporary second-chance romance series set in Comfort, Texas, to her list of fun, fast-paced novels. Kimberly lives with her family in East Texas.

WEBSITE * INSTAGRAM * FACEBOOK
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SIGNED COPY OF COMFORT SONGS
+ HUMMINGBIRD FARMS HAND CREAM & HAND SOAP
OCTOBER 22-NOVEMBER 1, 2019

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VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

10/22/19 	Review 		Momma on the Rocks 
10/22/19 	BONUS Promo 	All the Ups and Downs 
10/23/19 	Review 		Reading by Moonlight 
10/23/19 	Review 		KayBee's Book Shelf 
10/24/19 	Review 		Sybrina's Book Blog 
10/25/19 	Review 		Sydney Young, Stories 
10/25/19 	Review 		Bibliotica 
10/26/19 	Review 		That's What She's Reading 
10/27/19 	Review 		Book Fidelity 
10/28/19 	Review 		The Book Review 
10/28/19 	Review 		Missus Gonzo 
10/29/19 	Review 		Forgotten Winds 
10/30/19 	Review 		The Clueless Gent 
10/30/19 	Review 		StoreyBook Reviews 
10/31/19 	Review 		Hall Ways Blog 
10/31/19 	Review 		Carpe Diem Chronicles