'Netgalley ARC provided by The Publisher in exchange for a honest review'

Fantastic debut!
Most adults experience at least one great romantic love in their lifetime. Outcomes obviously vary but not the initial devotion and desire. Well in Ms.Blake's debut book,one of the main leading ladies found her soul mate unexpectedly after being married for umpteen years. Its fast-paced but is also a storyline about bonds between people: family,friends,lovers,ex-lovers etc.. The author's writing style is gritty and descriptive with no subject considered taboo with nice depth,good chemistry and a great ending. Highly recommended to everyone!

A very well written story and page-turner, I really enjoyed it. If I had to find a downside, that would the 'Italian restaurant' and 'Italian origins' cliche, but it works in the story just fine, as characters are not stereotyped.

This is Blake's debut novel and it is pretty good. It's very well written and her writing style if very free flowing. The two main characters Mel and Izzy are realistic and seem to have some sort of chemistry.


Izzy runs her families Italian restaurant and seems to be excellent at her job. Mel runs some sort of promotional agency. The two meet because Mel frequents Izzy's restaurant often. Mel is apparently straight and married to Jack for ten years. Izzy is the play girl. Mel did have a brief relationship with her best friend Nancy while in college.


The book I feel spends a lot of time with Mel. We learn a lot about Mel her likes and dislikes. But we are told very little about Izzy, she seems to spend her life at the restaurant and visiting her mother for breakfast. The down side I thought there was too much angst and apart from Izzy's ex it seemed to be all Mel.


Yes I would recommend this book and someone interested in angst will definitely love it. Me? I'm all for a quieter life. Excellent debut and my rating is 3.5. Enjoy!


*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1996691520


https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3VI95XNID18HA/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

I love debut books that are well written and Ms. Blake's was just that. A well written love story that had all the right ingredients for a great read. Romance, angst, misunderstandings, sexual tension, and humor. It is a realistic story with real problems - communication being the main one. Izzy and Mel are attracted to one another and heavily flirt, but just can't seem to get their timing right. How many times has this happened to any of us? Being a foodie, I appreciated the details of the restaurant and the meals and how the restaurant was the focal point of the story. Sweet, fun, easy to follow debut book!

This is Dena Blake's first novel. Her writing style fits right in with all of the other Bold Stroke authors. Izzy and Mel are very likeable main characters. All of the food descriptions made me hungry!! The supporting characters are well written as well. I enjoyed the story line a lot. But the continuous drama was a little much. I understand there needs to be obstacles for the main prior to them getting together but the multiple obstacles for these two was too much. Overall it was a good read and I'm looking forward to reading her next book.

Not quite my kind of writing. Wasn't the greatest. Just fell flat for me.

An honest review thanks to NetGalley. This book started out great; there is a lot of chemistry between Mel and Izzy that jumped off of every page. The restaurant business was a great concept especially as it was family owned. I had trouble with Mel deciding when she was married, she could kiss Izzy whenever she wanted, but anytime it got too far she remembered she had a husband. The divorce and marriage aspect went on too long as did Mel needing to decide if she had feelings for Izzy or not. The different decisions Mel made, and her motivations behind that made this read into an ok one instead of a great one.

2.5 stars

This book started quite well. I liked the character of Izzy. She has a fairly thankless role as the mostly perfect lesbian who is comfortable with herself. She’s strong, capable, friendly and comfortably self-employed. She’s a great find as a potential partner.

Mel, on the other hand, is a go-getter in her professional life, but is a complacent plodder in her personal life, who waits for everyone else to change around her, while not wanting to do the hard work herself. She runs her own business, but is married to a man who treats her without consideration and screws around on her.

When Mel starts to fall for Izzy, the reason for Mel’s lack of sexual interest in her husband Jack becomes apparent. What doesn’t become apparent, is that a large chunk of Mel’s situation comes from an inability to examine her own life, a complete inability to communicate any of her feelings to anyone else, and a willingness to blame others for their response to her lack of communication or consideration.

So while the book started well, it became a saga of Mel’s refusal to be honest with Izzy, and then blaming Izzy for responding to a lack of communication from Mel. It doesn’t bode well for a relationship of any description, let alone one that is supposed to be a loving partnership.

I was fairly irritated by Mel by the 70% mark, and the rest of the book was even worse. 3-3.5 stars for the first part, but the book would have been better finished earlier, and Mel’s communication issues dealt with to some degree in a rewrite. I know that this is part of the drama required, but it was really irritating by the end. I couldn’t see why Izzy, a grounded, smart and loving woman, would put up with the crap that Mel is pulling.

On a side note, there are some real problems with logic. For example, if Izzy isn’t actually in a relationship with Mel, why does Mel have a key to her home, and why are they literally sleeping in the same house, and later on, in the same bed? I know there was an explanation in the book, but it just doesn’t make sense. And why is Izzy able to just walk out of a commercial kitchen, at any time of the service, and deal with personal matters? She does this all the time throughout the book, and it is just not possible in a commercial kitchen to do this. Even a small amount of research would have resolved some of these issues with Izzy's job.

I was surprised to find out that this was a debut novel. This a well written story, and the editing was brilliant. I loved the plot, I loved the characters, the angst and romance were a spot-on. The only thing I didn't like is that their time apart should've been shorter, in favor of more chemistry and interaction between Mel and Izzy.

Excellent Debut Novel


Thanks to both Bold Strokes Books and Net Galley for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.


First off. I read the review of the first person, Melissa Clark, for this novel and had some apprehension about how I would like this title. Like Melissa I too have no patience for the ultra angst
that is so prevalent in lesbian romance novels. Apparently many readers enjoy it or I suppose authors would not write it in their novels. I get that there needs to be a beginning, middle and end and that in the middle there needs to be some kind of event that creates tension and drama to give the novel some “zip” or spark but I prefer the kind of tension or drama that comes from say a coming out of the closet or family problem or lives in danger. What bothers me is when two people who are supposed to love each assume something someone else tells them is the truth while not talking to the loved one or not believing the loved one and then the angst comes and comes and comes until finally they find out the truth and all is well.

Well I'm happy to say that I disagree with her about this novel. While reading I took some notes for the things that bothered me- details I thought were overlooked or things that didn't flow for me and each time after I read a little further the explanation for those details were revealed. There was some angst and miscommunication but it wasn't drawn out for long. Mel and Izzy were very likable, well Izzy the whole time and Mel after the first chapter or two. For me, having family members as secondary characters always helps to flesh out the characters and their history. I really liked both of their mom's.

Dena Blake is a talented writer and I agree with the first reviewer that some of the words that Izzy spoke describing the ocean and the sunset were both lyrical and beautiful. I would definitely recommend this novel and look forward to the authors next book.

The story starts off when a hard to please repeat customer gives Chef Izzy Calabrese’s wait staff a hard time. Literally, no one wants to serve her, but she is a good tipper, so a double edged sword. Mel Thomas is the tough customer. As the story unfolds, we find out the Mel is in a loveless marriage and is just going through the motions, wanting a divorce but not wanting to admit to the world it didn’t work. Somehow she ends up crying in the arms of her favorite restaurant’s chef.

So when the book started I was intrigued. Bad marriage, chef wanting to be one lending tissues, but it all kind of got muddled with A LOT of moving pieces. I liked when Mel was the bitch on wheels. That all dissolved almost instantly and she became this soft friendly woman. Where is the cold hard character that everyone feared? I was confused as the character literally became someone else.

Then throw in Izzy’s crazy-ex with some severe mental instability. We had enough going on without this added drama. To me, it was distracting and exhausting to keep up with it. Too many moving pieces is not at all helpful to a cohesive story. I felt towards the end of the story everything and the kitchen sink had been thrown at me.

Originally posted at The Lesbian Bookworm:

When I first saw Where the Light Glows by Dena Blake on NetGalley I thought it sounded interesting and that I could stand to read a light-hearted romance after the heavier books I have been reading recently.



Here’s a short blurb if you want to read it:



Izzy Calabrese wants to make her restaurant a success. She has a passion for cooking and life in general. Romance is the furthest thing from her mind when she finds Mel Thomas crying after being abandoned by her husband…again. She tries to distance herself from Mel, but she keeps showing up.



Clients know Mel Thomas as the CEO of her own consulting firm. She’s smart, engaging, and successful. Anyone who knows her would never think she’s insecure, but she’s more fragile than anyone knows. Her marriage on shaky ground, she doesn’t know how, or if, it can be salvaged. All she’s ever wanted in a relationship is someone’s attention. She thinks she may have found the person who can give that to her. Never in her wildest dreams did she expect it to be Izzy.



I had really wanted to like this book but unfortunately, that didn’t happen for me. But despite that, I really enjoyed the first half of the novel. Dena Blake is an incredibly beautiful writer. Her novel flows beautifully, especially since this is her first book. I also like she describes Izzy’s view of nature it is beautifully poetic. I also enjoyed the sexual tension she built up between Izzy and Mel it was realistic and incredibly sexy. There were defiantly some sploosh moments.



The bad happened when the drama hit. I thought the Izzy and Mel were a realistic couple until they failed to communicate about their problems. It seemed like they caused drama that didn’t really need to happen and that’s where it lost me as a reader.



If you’re willing to look past the drama this book could be for you. There is plenty of ultra-sexy smexy time and the characters are relatable. It was just not the right book for me.



Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this one.



If you would like to read this book if can be found at Amazon.

A decent debut that was marred by certain plot weaknesses that included the odd negative characterization of Mel by the restaurant staff that Izzy manages at the beginning of the novel (it seemed unlikely that they would unite under those circumstances) as well as the deeply disturbing behavior of Dana, the estranged, former partner. At points, the interplay between the two protagonists was charming and Ms. Blake is an author with a great deal of skill, but there was just too much drama to allow for the appreciation of the romance. Also, the reasons for Mel's marriage, while understandable, grew trying by the half way point in the text. Overall, I would welcome more from this author, as long as the primary purpose of the plot remained the focus of the work.

** spoiler alert ** This novel begins with all kinds of promise. I was impressed with the smooth writing style and how well the scenes came to life filled with interesting characters I wanted to get to know. I could almost understand Mel’s transformation from horrible restaurant patron to wounded wife falling into Izzy’s arms when we learn about her loveless marriage to Jack.

Somewhere along the way the story lost it’s appeal and began to feel repetitive and contrived. The drama llama reared its ugly head and both Mel and Izzy lost theirs. Mel’s attraction to Izzy wars with her need to remind herself that she is still married. (view spoiler)

Between Izzy’s ex and Mel’s soon to be ex there is drama enough for two books. Then poof, all is resolved, cue the HEA. Sometimes less is more. Less drama and this could have been a sweet romance. I do think Ms Blake shows real potential as an author and hope she continues writing.

2.5 stars

ARC received from publisher via NetGalley for review.

Where the Light Glows was a very complicated love story. It was complicated in a sense that one of the main characters, Mel, had a husband of 10 years, while Izzy’s 6 year relationship with her ex girlfriend, Dana, ended badly. Both women’s previous relationships were marred by infidelity, one sidedness, and lack of respect and commitment.
Their journey of love, which they began initially as friends, was very difficult with major bumps and detours along the way. However, the author managed to effectively convey their story with compassionate dialogue and emotions that engaged the reader from the start. It was a great read!

Where the Light Glows, is a debut novel for Blake. I thought the book started out with some promise, but the more I read, the more I had issues. Unfortunately, towards the end of the book, I found myself wishing it would just end. This was not a bad book, but I did not think it was any better than just okay. My finale rating is hovering somewhere between 2 1/2 to 3 Stars.

The story is about a woman in a very unhappy marriage named Mel. Mel spends many nights going to a family run Italian restaurant, owned by Izzy. The more time Mel and Izzy spend together, feelings start to develop. With Mel's marriage failing, will she take a chance on Izzy, or is there too many issues keeping them apart?

I liked the premise of the story. Izzy running her family restaurant and how they where dealing with a tough but loyal customer. However, I was surprised to find the customer they often referred to as "bitch" ended up being the other main character Mel. It seemed odd that Izzy would have this little crush on Mel, when she was rumored to treat her staff poorly. I don't mind a colder character, but when we get to know Mel, she is far from a bitch. To me, it just seemed an odd choice to make her appear awful in the beginning, when the so called "bitch" behavior never returned in the rest of the book.

As I mentioned above, this is a debut novel, and for me it showed. While I do think Blake has some talent and should keep honing her craft, I had some issues with the writing. The writing for me, felt choppy in places. I also felt there needed to be more character tags. Because the POV switches between both characters often, I had trouble knowing who was speaking when. I would have to stop and read back, to try to find out for sure which character spoke. I hate having to do that as it takes me out of the flow of the book. I hope this is something Blake will correct in her future books.

Another issue I had, was too much angst. I love some good angst and drama that pushes a good storyline, but this was too much. And it became a bit exhausting to where I just wanted the book to end. Also, what was up with the crazy ex-girlfriend? It is called a restraining order. The ex caused so much havoc, then she just disappears. This book had enough angst, it did not need such a disturbed person in it.

This was an okay read. It has some good, like the chemistry between the mains, but It had plenty of issues. I can not personally recommend this, but others might like it more than I did. I would be willing to give Blake another chance, in the future.

An ARC was given to me by BSB, for a honest review.

This book is a mix of humorous supportive characters (Nancy, Angie) and overall kind hearted main characters in Mel and Izzy that at times just beautifully blended together. The story has a nice setup, but after the first 20 pages the pace slows. Midway through the book the pace begins to pick up. *I know some of the reviewers felt differently, but I enjoyed the back half in terms of pacing.

I really enjoyed the kindness and warmth that Izzy offered to Mel. I felt Mel was responsive and giving, especially while still keeping her boundaries within her marriage. However there are times (a little to often) that Izzy would snap and become angry. It almost seemed unbalanced, rather than plot driven. Mel had explained to Izzy the relationship with Rick enough that Izzy shouldn't of just lost her mind.

The drama with the ex girlfriend didn't quite gel plot wise. However Dana was well written and given a lot of depth.

Nancy was a great character as well. She is funny, outrageous, but I never could understand why Izzy or Mel would think Nancy would be available for romance? It was pretty clear that Mel and Izzy had eyes for each other.

The writer spends a lot of time developing the emotional and physical chemistry between Izzy & Mel. She crafts a beautiful romance between two different characters with authenticity and genuineness. She is a talented writer. My slight suggestion is to tweak pacing a story a bit and think through where to insert supporting characters to advance the plot and pacing.

This is a great read. I enjoyed it. It's well written with heart and humor. The sex scenes are very well done.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked both main characters and most side characters except the once you were not supposed to like, like Dana. It was very well written and add it hard to put the book down.
There were just a few things that were a little confusing like what happened with Dana? It's kind of strange that sh e would stalk Izzy constantly and then just leave. The other thing was with Bella, I wished there would have been more of a "oh you are the one who visits her all the time" and more of a reaction from her mom after she would have realized that they knew each other. I think that was a part of the story that could have been a little more build up.
All in all I really enjoyed this book!