DNF at 20%. It's me, not the book. I'm not the right audience for this. I don't love military heroes and the epistolary aspect isn't interesting me right now. YMMV.

You know that saying about how If everyone around you seems like an asshole you’re probably the asshole? Sara should take that to heart.

Our story starts with our heroine at a family reunion - where an aunt introduces her as a spinster. Not sure why she’s being introduced at a family reunion. Not sure why there’s shame in being unmarried in your thirties. For sara, this announcement is akin to everyone knowing she buys her Izods at an outlet. She begins to question everything about her life.

From there we learn that Sara is a nanny for her brother and his wife. And that Sara’s sister in law is just an amalgamation of nasty female stereotypes. A career-focused “bad mother” who relies upon and resents Sara. And Sara is absolutely revolting here - mocking, shaming and judging her sister in law every chance we get. We are to imagine Sara as the poor put upon Cinderella rather than expecting her to be an adult who gives a rational voice to her concerns and unhappiness. Why should Sara have a conversation to explain how she feels when it’s so much easier to chip away at a successful woman?

Sara’s brother is a condescending enabler. Her mom is co-dependent and abusive. And sweet, dare i say it, angelic Sara is the martyr who keeps her chin up and holds this entire family of evil trolls together. How brave Of her to play the victim rather than hold others accountable and treat them with the respect Sara claims she never receives.

All of this and we haven’t even gotten to the stilted, awkward, and bizarre relationship. The emails were unrealistic and uncomfortable. Gabe is a jingoistic “ultra-manly” sketch of a soldier. We are told - repeatedly - that he keeps his feelings to himself. And then when things go awry for them he becomes cold and manipulative in order to shame Sara for a pretty normal reaction to their nutso relationship.

This book felt like someone said “Siri, write me a romance,” And the poor AI struggled to robotically combine a plucky heroine and a he-man and a cute kid and a dog according to some kind of binary code.

I wanted a comfy read. My last book was grisly and depressing. It involved murdered children - and I now gaze upon it will full appreciation of all its finer points.

I shall now return to my regularly scheduled ARC embargo.

As always, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to offer my honest opinion.

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This is a fabulous read! I fell for hard for the dynamic of the characters, the story is alive with family, drama, angst, and romance. It touches on the problems of being in the military and deployment, all coming together at the end for the HEA. Make sure to put this at the very top of your TBR list.

I wanted to review this one to see about adding a new author to our romance collection. I was not disappointed and will buy copies. Smooth pace and narrative flow, characters to root for, insight into military life, as well as the unusual story of a thirty-five year old never-married/attached woman, i.e. a modern day "spinster."

Will recommend.

I don’t really read military romances, but the cover and the synopsis for this book made me pick it up. It had a really sweet romance, however, I would call this Women’s Fiction more than Romance. Mainly because it focuses on Sara’s character development more than the romance.

I am a big lover of books where the couple fall in love via written messages or email. It’s always great to see them build a relationship and get to know each other before they find out if they have that same physical chemistry. Both of the characters here are both deserving of a romance to sweep them off their feet.

I said earlier that it was mainly surrounding around Sara’s character development. When the book starts out we see what a pushover Sara was. I’m being completely honest when I say that she let her family walk over her and became so adjusted to it that she couldn’t even see how stuck she was in her life. It really did take the majority of the book before she decided to change things and I think that’s where my issues were.

I have no problem with someone fixing their life, but if you fix it for the sole purpose of another person then it doesn’t really seem as honest and genuine. Yes, Sara had wants to change her life but she never felt serious about it until I’m not trying to sound negative, just honest. That’s the vibe I got.

Overall, it was a decent debut. I don’t know if there is going to be more books set in this world, but I would be open to reading about more characters. Especially Chole and Jason. Together if possible!

This was exactly what I was looking for in a weekend romance read! I loved the chemistry between Sara and Gabe, the unique stakes set up by the author with Gabe's deployment, etc, and the armchair travel to chilly Alaska. I was drawn in by the super cute pup on the cover and the book that followed did not disappoint! Looking forward to more from Ally James!

From Alaska With Love by Ally James is a sweet and different kind of romance. We meet our heroine, Sara Ryan, as she attends a family function and is embarrassed by her aunt, who tells everyone she is a spinster. Sara lives with her brother and his wife, as she takes care of her niece; and though she is beautiful, Sara has no confidence and does not believe she will ever marry. Her family, other than her niece, takes advantage of her, and expects her to do their bidding. During a local event, everyone is collecting Christmas cards to pass on to troops overseas; and Sara sends a sweet funny card to whomever receives it.

Major Gabe Randall, our hero, is now in his 7th deployment and when he is given one of the cards coming in, he gets a kick out of Sara’s card, and decides to respond, and a pen pal relationship begins. What follows is a warm-hearted sweet story, where both Gabe and Sara welcome the friendship their correspondence has given them; especially with Sara’s funny posts, which were a bright light for Gabe during his hard tour in Iraq. With each new letter, which they now uses Facetime, they both begin to have feelings for each other; they decide they need to meet.

While in the planning stages for Sara to visit Gabe in Alaska, where he has 6 weeks before being deployed again; Gabe decides to make a surprise visit to North Carolina, which due to her brother’s comments turned into a fiasco, and Gabe leaves. Sara is determined to fix things with Gabe, and tell him he misunderstood her brother. She decides to fly to Alaska and spend time there as intended with Gabe, but at first, he was surprised she showed up and was somewhat cold. In a short time, Sara learns to love Alaska, and Gabe’s army friends. Slowly their romance heats up, and they succumb to their feelings for each other, as everything falls in place; Gabe knows he has to find a way to somehow bring Sara’s family and their lives to an acceptable arrangement.

I loved many of the characters that James created, especially Chloe, Jason, and especially Trouble the dog, who I absolutely adored. From Alaska With Love was an enjoyable sweet romance, which was well written by Ally James.

Everything about this book appealed to me. The cover is eye catching and adorable and that blurb seemed like everything I love about romance.

Unfortunately, the writing didn't work for me. Third person is a tricky thing - though not a dealbreaker. However in this case, it felt like it was...a lot. It fell into the "Too long: did not read" category - which seems like an absurd thing to say about a book. But I found myself skimming ahead to get to the "meat" of the story almost immediately. There was too much filler, descriptions too lengthy, and it dragged down the pace of the book for me. In the end, I wasn't invested enough to push through so it was a DNF for me at 20%.

This book has everything I like in a romance novel. It is practically perfect and will take readers to Alaska and allow them to help themselves to a front row seat to Gabe and Sara's love story. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and plan to share it with other romance readers or people looking for novel that will help them escape!

A sweet romance for fans of You've Got Mail, From Alaska with Love is the perfect romance for a Sunday afternoon by the fire.

Full review will post @ Caffeinated Reviewer on March 3, 2020. Link provided. It will be uplifted on social media and a review will cross-post to Goodreads and Amazon.

Sweet story about a woman trying to figure out her life in Alaska but find more confusion when she meets a man she is attracted too.

The description of the scenery in this book makes me want to visit Alaska. Just a great little read that I'm happy to recommend.
Thanks for letting me read and review.

Sara spends her life taking care of her brother's daughter. She has no life of her own. She sees a request for mail to be sent to people in the armed forces and on a whim she sends a note. Gabe, an officer in the army receives the note and thus begins a correspondence. Sara is basically an introvert, but her letters are outgoing and entertaining. Gabe falls for the letter writer and wants her to spend time with him in Alaska when he is on leave. Does she dare? Fast paced and fun.

This book was really sweet. I loved the relationship between Sara and Gabe as it grew between emails. They were both fully developed flawed characters with a lot to offer one another. The conflict between them felt real and the resolution was satisfying. This is a book about people who have to take chances on each other. My only nitpick is that James relies on a trope I really dislike, where the only other developed female character is "the enemy" of the heroine. Thankfully James doesn't lean on it too heavily. Definitely a book for fans of the slow-burn, sweet romance. I will definitely handsell.

I loved this book. It was just enough different from what I have been reading that I really enjoyed it. It's about a letter written to a deployed soldier that leads to a meeting and ultimate love story. Although this book was predictable, it was refreshing in this complicated, depressing world we find ourselves in. I would recommend it to my reading group. It has a lot of interesting points of discussion.

I was really looking forward to reading this story. I am a huge supporter of our military and James created a sweet, delightful story that brings to light some of the difficulties our soldiers experience when deployed and on active duty.

I love the way Sara and Gabe connected. The awkward conversations along with the letters and emails that cement their understanding, and dare they say, love for each other.

But all things are not what they seem – or are they?

When Emma shows up in Alaska, you can feel the tension and uncomfortable situation. I kept wondering in Emma will ever come into her own when her family has taken her for granted for years. I love watching her slowly grow and become stronger. You find yourself cheering her on when she takes on the “mean girls”.

The frustrating part is we have to wait until close to the end for them to finally figure it all out. A slow ride, but one filled with a strong connection and one you can believe in.

James brings a true blue Americana love story reminiscent of the old days into today’s world. Sweet and romantic. You cannot miss on this one!

Sarah has had it with her life. She is officially the spinster loser of the family that will always be the care taker of EVERYONE. She decides to write to a deployed solder to support a radio station Easter event. Instead of sending greetings, she uses the letter as therapy and spills her guts about being a spinster and her destiny of owning twenty cats. Her letter ends up in the hands of hardened officer, Gabriel Randell. Gabe wasn’t going to pay much attention to it, but decided to give it some thought. Surprisingly, Sarah’s letter made his position in Iraq seem less depressing. Little did he know that by answering that one letter would be the start of something new and daring for both of them. Cute, uplifting read....and the dog, Trouble was sooooooo cute!

ARC received via Negalley for an honest review

This book was all kinds of adorable.

"Spinster" Sara (pssshhh what would they call me then) and Gabe are not a couple that you would really expect to come together, but they do and it works.

I liked that they communicated via emails for a chunk of the time - much more cute and romantic than just text message to me.

My heart hurt for Sara - she is having a bit of a pity party, and I wanted her to stand up to those making her feel that way - and the fact that is was her family that treated her like Cinderella made me mad, mad, mad!

I was laughing out loud at times, as the first half especially was full of humour. I found the second half more emotional and deeper

It takes a look at modern relationships, familial relationships and the growth of both Sara and Gabe as the story progressed.

I would like to see more of the secondary characters in this story, particularly Jason and Chloe.

I wonderful read that I enjoyed in an afternoon.

This book was really cute. I really liked Sarah''s growth throughout the novel and how she broke away from her ungrateful family and learned to stand on her own.

I adore Alaska and the cover for this book is I just had to read it. I’m not familiar with the author so I went in with hope but not a lot of expectations.

Our heroine, Sara, is still single in her mid 30’s and is horribly taken advantage of by her entire family. Her self esteem isn’t great but she definitely has a spark and she’s a wonderful person. Just too bad her family doesn’t see her clearly. On a whim she sends a ‘Dear Soldier’ card which happens to fall on Gabe’s desk while he’s stationed in Iraq.

Gabe is a man of few words but with a big heart. He finds himself falling for the silly girl behind the letters quickly. Letters turn into emails and FaceTime and before you know it, these two become the brightest part of each other’s days.

I won’t rehash the plot but obviously there’s trouble in paradise and Gabe, being the frustrating man he is did make me a bit mad. The book is written in dual POV though so at least we understand how much he is hurt which does justify much of his actions. The end is quite fulfilling though so thankfully all’s well that ends well.

A couple things... Gabe’s dog steals most of the scenes he’s in. The book is a little slow and I got bored at times. The letters written are often up twice for the reader (when Sara or Gabe write them and again as the other reads them) which is very tedious. It doesn’t happen a ton but it was annoying. I’d definitely read this author again as the bones of the story were good even if it wasn’t executed the best. I’d love to see Sara’s cousin hook up with Gabe’s friend/boss.

Sara has given up everything for her family, including her job and her social life. Her family repays her kindness by treating her poorly and calling her a spinster. On a whim, Sara decides to send a letter to soldiers to spread some holiday cheer. It also gives her the chance to vent a little bit about her family - it's not like she'll ever talk to this person again.

Gabe is not what you would call a talkative guy, but, when he receives letters from Sara, something about them makes him want to be a different person. Her letters are funny and entertaining, and just what he needs in his stressful environment. Sara and Gabe start a correspondence that lasts months, but things turn sour when Gabe unexpectedly shows up at Sara's door. Can Sara get over her fears and give up her comfortable life for love? Will Gabe learn to trust Sara again after she broke his trust?


The description of the story the the publisher has on the book is misleading: Sara is given an ultimatum - Gabe isn't really trying to convince her of anything. And, if you ask me, it's his own damn fault for just showing up at her house with no warning. Sara's low self-esteem is a huge plot point, which is disappointing, and women being mean to each other for no reason isn't my cup of tea.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite military romance, but it had some cute moments.