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Burnside #2
Laugh
Mary Ann Rivers continues her Burnside family series—perfect for readers of Kristan Higgins, Jill Shalvis, and Ruthie Knox—as two people try to share their hearts without losing their cool.
Dr. Sam Burnside is convinced that volunteering at an urban green-space farm in Lakefield, Ohio, is a waste of time—especially with his new health clinic about to open. He only goes to mollify his partner, suspecting she wants him to lighten up. Then Sam catches sight of Nina Paz, a woman who gives off more heat than a scorcher in July. Her easy smile and flirty, sizzling wit has him forgetting his infamous need for control.
Widowed when her husband was killed in Afghanistan, Nina has learned that life exists to take chances. As the daughter of migrant workers turned organic farmers, she’s built an exciting and successful business by valuing new opportunities and working hard to take care of her own. But when Sam pushes for a relationship that goes beyond their hotter-than-fire escapades, Nina ignores her own hard-won wisdom. She isn’t ready for a man who needs saving—even if her heart compels her to take the greatest risk of love.
Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title.
Dr. Sam Burnside is convinced that volunteering at an urban green-space farm in Lakefield, Ohio, is a waste of time—especially with his new health clinic about to open. He only goes to mollify his partner, suspecting she wants him to lighten up. Then Sam catches sight of Nina Paz, a woman who gives off more heat than a scorcher in July. Her easy smile and flirty, sizzling wit has him forgetting his infamous need for control.
Widowed when her husband was killed in Afghanistan, Nina has learned that life exists to take chances. As the daughter of migrant workers turned organic farmers, she’s built an exciting and successful business by valuing new opportunities and working hard to take care of her own. But when Sam pushes for a relationship that goes beyond their hotter-than-fire escapades, Nina ignores her own hard-won wisdom. She isn’t ready for a man who needs saving—even if her heart compels her to take the greatest risk of love.
Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title.
361 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
3 people are currently reading
378 people want to read
About the author
Mary Ann Rivers
10 books199 followersMary Ann Rivers has been wearing a groove in her library card since she was old enough for story time. She’s been writing almost as long—her first publication credit was in Highlights magazine. She started writing and reading romance in the fifth grade once she stumbled on the rainbow of romance novel book spines in the library’s fiction stacks.
She was an English and music major and went on to earn her MFA in creative writing, publishing poetry in journals, and leading creative writing workshops for at-risk youth. With Ruthie Knox, she is the co-founder of Brain Mill Press.
She loves to hear from readers and you can sign up for her newsletter, contact her by email, follow her blog, or check her out on social media.
She was an English and music major and went on to earn her MFA in creative writing, publishing poetry in journals, and leading creative writing workshops for at-risk youth. With Ruthie Knox, she is the co-founder of Brain Mill Press.
She loves to hear from readers and you can sign up for her newsletter, contact her by email, follow her blog, or check her out on social media.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
June 24, 2014
Laugh was a beautifully written realistic romance with heart.
Nina Paz has built a successful business around farming, but hasn’t had much of a place for love in the last ten years. She lost her husband in Afghanistan and besides the random and frequent hookups she partook of right after, she hasn’t had a relationship. Nina doesn’t want or need just the casual, meaningless connection anymore, if and when she’s ready to open her heart up, she want it to be for more.
Sam Burnside loves with a powerful intensity and passion, but his ADHD sometimes makes that love come across as overwhelming. Unfortunately, Sam’s ADHD scrambles some of his actual thoughts, and he blurts out the most offensive things when he actually means quite the opposite. So while he has one of the truest and giving hearts, he can come off as a jerk unless you know how his mind works.
Sam Burnside had the clearest, sweetest heart of anyone she had known. Even as he fought himself and struggled to understand the people he loved, fought them, he never withheld his love.
When Sam volunteers for Nina’s community co-op, they’re immediately drawn to each other, and they crash into a messy, HOT relationship. For once, Sam feels he’s found someone who actually gets him and could love him back with the same passion.
I was surprised that Nina was so hesitant, because it seemed like she just got Sam even when others didn’t. The things she relates about her past and some of her reactions were a little puzzling to me, and I had a hard time liking her for the first half. I get why she was cautious to some degree, but at the same time, it had been ten years since her husband died, and she didn’t want meaningless hookups anymore, so I didn’t really understand why she was pushing Sam away when he made her so happy. Fortunately that didn’t drag on for very long.
My heart split wide open for Sam. I have to say I really related to some his impulsiveness and intensity and could easily understand his thinking and motivations. I guess I’m a little like him in the way he’s so eager to jump into love. Not sure what it says about me that I relate so well to someone with ADHD, lol, but there it is. I cringed at his efforts at times, but with his intensions so pure and filled with love I couldn’t help but hope everything would work out for him! He was so insecure with the emotional part of his relationship with Nina, scared that he’d mess something up, but he was completely opposite in the physical department! That man was so direct, confident and just held nothing back! He lit some fires for sure!
Even with my issues with Nina, I really enjoyed this story. The writing is beautiful and sensual, and would probably appeal to fans of Laura Florand or Cara McKenna.
A copy was provided by Loveswept through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
You can find this review and more on The Readers Den.
January 4, 2015
This series and this writer need more attention. I cannot express how happy I was reading this book. Instead of rushing to the end, I was savoring it and trying to make it last. I am the type of reader that is all over the place in picking books. I am pretty sure I confuse friends who see me reading literary fiction, modern classics, ancient classics and then suddenly a contemporary romance -what? The thing is, I look for the same thing in all of the books I read. Picking romance can be hard for me. Reading about real people in realistic situations is what I prefer. I do not want a billionaire, I do not want perfect lives and I actually prefer not to have a happily ever after. So why I am reading romance? Ha, it can be fun? I just like it, but it takes a lot for me to get the right one. Cara Mckenna, Suzanne Brockmann, Megan Hart, Ellen O'Connell, and Mary Ann Rivers are some authors that do it for me in this genre.
The Burnside series centers on four Irish American working class siblings in Ohio: 2 sisters and 2 brothers. The siblings are adults with their own lives, but their paths still intersect with each other. Like most human beings life isn't perfect -- people get sick; people get older; paperwork has to be filed, and siblings fights. Mary Ann Rivers writes real people and she does it beautifully. Sam, the main male protagonist, is a family doctor with attention and concentration issues and he is struggling with his family relationships. Nina, the female protagonist, is an urban farmer, first generation Mexican American. Oddly enough the lives of an urban farmer and a local community doctor do cross and they do so with some hot sexiness but also, beautifully written scenes.
I had some issues with how certain legal issues were portrayed and the translation/use of Spanish throughout the story. I don't think this would affect many readers, but me being an immigration attorney and my family being Mexican and Mexican immigrants makes me more aware of certain issues. This is just a side point and didn't distract from the story.
I think people should read Mary Ann Rivers for her beautiful prose and her wonderful way of developing characters that do not normally star in romance novels (Mexican American urban farmer? ADD local community doctor?) But really, you should all read this book for the worst but funniest first date ever - bleeding body parts? Check. Wardrobe snafus? Check. Dietary issues? Check. And you should read this book because it is good, it is heart warming and just damned sweet.
Check out this review and others at Badass Book Reviews
The Burnside series centers on four Irish American working class siblings in Ohio: 2 sisters and 2 brothers. The siblings are adults with their own lives, but their paths still intersect with each other. Like most human beings life isn't perfect -- people get sick; people get older; paperwork has to be filed, and siblings fights. Mary Ann Rivers writes real people and she does it beautifully. Sam, the main male protagonist, is a family doctor with attention and concentration issues and he is struggling with his family relationships. Nina, the female protagonist, is an urban farmer, first generation Mexican American. Oddly enough the lives of an urban farmer and a local community doctor do cross and they do so with some hot sexiness but also, beautifully written scenes.
I had some issues with how certain legal issues were portrayed and the translation/use of Spanish throughout the story. I don't think this would affect many readers, but me being an immigration attorney and my family being Mexican and Mexican immigrants makes me more aware of certain issues. This is just a side point and didn't distract from the story.
I think people should read Mary Ann Rivers for her beautiful prose and her wonderful way of developing characters that do not normally star in romance novels (Mexican American urban farmer? ADD local community doctor?) But really, you should all read this book for the worst but funniest first date ever - bleeding body parts? Check. Wardrobe snafus? Check. Dietary issues? Check. And you should read this book because it is good, it is heart warming and just damned sweet.
Check out this review and others at Badass Book Reviews
March 23, 2014
I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO ARTICULATE MY LOVE FOR THESE BOOKS. *dies*
August 14, 2015
2.5
honestly don't know how to rate this so I've stuck it in the middle. there are parts that are beautiful, there are confusing and boring parts.. idea/premise is good, but it lacks something, something I can't vocalise. maybe better editor so it doesn't leave you (me) with this hazy, foggy, unfinished impression. her writing worked better in The story guy I think because it was compressed, more concise, more to the point. nevertheless, it shows promise for future works.
honestly don't know how to rate this so I've stuck it in the middle. there are parts that are beautiful, there are confusing and boring parts.. idea/premise is good, but it lacks something, something I can't vocalise. maybe better editor so it doesn't leave you (me) with this hazy, foggy, unfinished impression. her writing worked better in The story guy I think because it was compressed, more concise, more to the point. nevertheless, it shows promise for future works.
July 2, 2015
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
If she wasn't already, Mary Ann Rivers is certainly one of my favorite Contemporary Romance authors now. Laugh is the second book in the Burnside series, and features one of the most achingly real love stories that I've ever read. Like her previous two books, this is not a light or easy read, having a depth of emotion that is not always present in romances. There's joy and heartache in every sentence that she writes, allowing readers to acutely feel everything along with her characters. You know there's a happy ending to be found, but not without growth, trial and error, and some heavy soul searching. My favorite thing about Mary Ann Rivers' writing is that she knows her characters inside and out, making them three dimensional and full flesh and blood on the page. We get skin and bones, muscle and heart. She cuts them open for us to see - their beating hearts, their messy guts, and their soul-deep need for love.
We first meet Sam Burnside in Live, which is his sister Destiny's story. I wasn't sure how I felt about him after reading that book - he's the head of the family now that their dad has passed away, and he likes to be in control, which led to increasingly confrontational behavior. Put plainly, he could be a real jerk. Still, I didn't doubt that Mary Ann Rivers would strip this doctor bare, cut him open, and sew him back together again, all the while making me fall in love with him. I don't know how she does it, but every single one of her heroes has broken my heart with their sad histories and tangled emotions. Sam was diagnosed with ADHD when he was a child, unable to sit still, always restless, needing to take care of everything and everyone in his path in the best way he knew how. As a result, he uses control to cover up how out of control he feels on the inside. With his family he wants to keep them all together and strong, but sometimes he steps out of line and hurts them in the process. He beats himself up about every little thing, doesn't think he's at all loveable, yet all he wants to do is spill his heart out and empty it dry. It wasn't difficult to sympathize with Sam, no burden at all to soften towards him. He makes mistakes but being inside his head allowed me to see how costly those mistakes are for him.
Nina Paz couldn't be more perfect for Sam. Whereas he rushes from one moment to the next, she likes to stretch them out, to plant them and watch them grow. She's independent and strong, having lost her husband in Afghanistan. His death taught her that life should not be lived as if she were slowly dying; every breath and every day were another chance for being a part of as much as possible. Sam sees Nina's strength - her laughter - as a miracle, because she has been through so much yet still manages to stand on two feet. She can take the force of his love without fighting back and without falling over. Nina, of course, has her own fears: falling in love would mean opening herself up to greater loss, and she's had enough of that in her life already. But she yearns for a more meaningful future, and eventually her and Sam meet right in the middle.
The romance takes off almost immediately - as soon as they meet, a simple touch already feels like so much more - but then life and they themselves get in the way, and Sam and Nina have to start chipping away at each other if they are to be together. One of my favorite parts of the book was their first date because it's an absolute disaster. The food is too spicy for Sam and he has a near-allergic reaction; her feet start bleeding because of the heels she wears to impress him and, oblivious to her predicament, he takes her dancing. They were physically miserable and nervous, yet at the end of the night they are laughing about it. They make it work because of their undeniable chemistry and the strong bond already forming between them. Many times characters in adult romances don't always come across as so very adult, but Nina and Sam's relationship is nothing if not mature. They each have a healthy sense of self, they just now want to find someone to share the rest of their life with. In their relationship, they listen to one another, and they selflessly give even as they are simultaneously taking. This makes them such an easy couple to root for.
The writing is as beautiful as ever; I will never grow tired of Mary Ann Rivers' words. They are honest and raw, pinpointing feelings that I could never hope to express on the page. The next book, Love, is PJ's story, and is easily the one I've been looking forward to the most. He's the youngest Burnside, and has been in love with Lacey since he was a kid and she was babysitting him. I cannot wait to see how their romance plays out. In the meantime, I have Sam and Nina's story to return to again and again, aching, hoping, and laughing right along with them.
This review can also be found at Love at First Page.
He kissed her laugh. Kissed it until he couldn't, because he was laughing, too.
If she wasn't already, Mary Ann Rivers is certainly one of my favorite Contemporary Romance authors now. Laugh is the second book in the Burnside series, and features one of the most achingly real love stories that I've ever read. Like her previous two books, this is not a light or easy read, having a depth of emotion that is not always present in romances. There's joy and heartache in every sentence that she writes, allowing readers to acutely feel everything along with her characters. You know there's a happy ending to be found, but not without growth, trial and error, and some heavy soul searching. My favorite thing about Mary Ann Rivers' writing is that she knows her characters inside and out, making them three dimensional and full flesh and blood on the page. We get skin and bones, muscle and heart. She cuts them open for us to see - their beating hearts, their messy guts, and their soul-deep need for love.
We first meet Sam Burnside in Live, which is his sister Destiny's story. I wasn't sure how I felt about him after reading that book - he's the head of the family now that their dad has passed away, and he likes to be in control, which led to increasingly confrontational behavior. Put plainly, he could be a real jerk. Still, I didn't doubt that Mary Ann Rivers would strip this doctor bare, cut him open, and sew him back together again, all the while making me fall in love with him. I don't know how she does it, but every single one of her heroes has broken my heart with their sad histories and tangled emotions. Sam was diagnosed with ADHD when he was a child, unable to sit still, always restless, needing to take care of everything and everyone in his path in the best way he knew how. As a result, he uses control to cover up how out of control he feels on the inside. With his family he wants to keep them all together and strong, but sometimes he steps out of line and hurts them in the process. He beats himself up about every little thing, doesn't think he's at all loveable, yet all he wants to do is spill his heart out and empty it dry. It wasn't difficult to sympathize with Sam, no burden at all to soften towards him. He makes mistakes but being inside his head allowed me to see how costly those mistakes are for him.
Nina Paz couldn't be more perfect for Sam. Whereas he rushes from one moment to the next, she likes to stretch them out, to plant them and watch them grow. She's independent and strong, having lost her husband in Afghanistan. His death taught her that life should not be lived as if she were slowly dying; every breath and every day were another chance for being a part of as much as possible. Sam sees Nina's strength - her laughter - as a miracle, because she has been through so much yet still manages to stand on two feet. She can take the force of his love without fighting back and without falling over. Nina, of course, has her own fears: falling in love would mean opening herself up to greater loss, and she's had enough of that in her life already. But she yearns for a more meaningful future, and eventually her and Sam meet right in the middle.
The romance takes off almost immediately - as soon as they meet, a simple touch already feels like so much more - but then life and they themselves get in the way, and Sam and Nina have to start chipping away at each other if they are to be together. One of my favorite parts of the book was their first date because it's an absolute disaster. The food is too spicy for Sam and he has a near-allergic reaction; her feet start bleeding because of the heels she wears to impress him and, oblivious to her predicament, he takes her dancing. They were physically miserable and nervous, yet at the end of the night they are laughing about it. They make it work because of their undeniable chemistry and the strong bond already forming between them. Many times characters in adult romances don't always come across as so very adult, but Nina and Sam's relationship is nothing if not mature. They each have a healthy sense of self, they just now want to find someone to share the rest of their life with. In their relationship, they listen to one another, and they selflessly give even as they are simultaneously taking. This makes them such an easy couple to root for.
The writing is as beautiful as ever; I will never grow tired of Mary Ann Rivers' words. They are honest and raw, pinpointing feelings that I could never hope to express on the page. The next book, Love, is PJ's story, and is easily the one I've been looking forward to the most. He's the youngest Burnside, and has been in love with Lacey since he was a kid and she was babysitting him. I cannot wait to see how their romance plays out. In the meantime, I have Sam and Nina's story to return to again and again, aching, hoping, and laughing right along with them.
This review can also be found at Love at First Page.
April 11, 2014
Mary Ann Rivers isn't the easiest author to read because her characters FEEL so much and do so much thinking that sometimes they get lost in their own heads. But she credibly redeems Sam, who was pretty much a grumpy control freak in the previous book, Live, by showing how his ADD has had such a strong impact on his behavior and feelings about himself, and by emphasizing his skill as a doctor who genuinely cares about his patients. It's just as rewarding (and maybe more so) to see how he repairs his relationship with his siblings than to watch his romance with Nina develop.
Nina is a bit of a Mary Sue Earth Goddess. I wish we saw a few more flaws, other than her skittishness about commitment. But she does have one interesting characteristic that I don't think I have ever seen in a romance novel.
The book is worth the cover price alone (if there is such a thing with an e-book) for Sam and Nina's absolutely hilarious and disastrous first date. Everything goes wrong, but their chemistry and connection is so strong that their relationship is strengthened instead of damaged.
I think I'm hooked for books #3 (PJ) and #4 (Sarah).
I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Nina is a bit of a Mary Sue Earth Goddess. I wish we saw a few more flaws, other than her skittishness about commitment. But she does have one interesting characteristic that I don't think I have ever seen in a romance novel.
The book is worth the cover price alone (if there is such a thing with an e-book) for Sam and Nina's absolutely hilarious and disastrous first date. Everything goes wrong, but their chemistry and connection is so strong that their relationship is strengthened instead of damaged.
I think I'm hooked for books #3 (PJ) and #4 (Sarah).
I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
April 30, 2014
Laugh by Mary Ann Rivers ( Burnside #2) is a 2014 Loveswept publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This second book in the Burnside series focuses on Sam. If you will recall, Sam in a doctor and also suffers from ADHD. With a new health clinic about to open, Sam is badgered to volunteer at a Green Space farm, which he only does to get people off his back. Once he is introduced to Nina, the farm's owner, he begins to see the all the possibilites of organic farming.
Nina is a war widow with an easy, practical, loyal, and earthy personality that makes Sam want to laugh and enjoy life a little, something he has done precious little of in his life. Nina is also dealing with a the serious illness of one of her workers that she has become close friends with. Things are fine with Nina just as long as she and Sam stay on the lusty side of things and keep all the heavy commitment issues out of it, but Sam is sure about Nina and wants to take the relationship further emotionally. Nina isn't sure she can handle taking care of her friend and dealing with all of Sam's personal issues too.
Again, this contemporary romance is not the light and breezy type of romance novel. Each character in this book has really heavy issues to deal with and even if you do love someone, it's not a bed of roses. Sam is a man that has tried to cope with all of his family's tragedies and his many mistakes, plus dealing with a disorder that can lead to misunderstandings. But, Sam is a very deep and emotional person that has been pretty hard on people in the past and that includes himself. He has let people down and hasn't always handled everything the best way possible, but he wants to try and bridge the gap between himself and his siblings and really wants to help his sister, Sarah who is still recovering from a horrible accident.
Nina has dealt with her husband's death and is up front and open about her feelings but isn't sure she will be able to handle the type of relationship Sam wants. I don't know if Nina was just feeling a little rushed or if she didn't know if Sam was really serious or if she was just trying to catch up to Sam emotionally. When she does realize Sam is serious, she does her own soul searching.
Nina is a funny character with a lot of heart and I really liked her. I think she and Sam will be fine and maybe the family is on it's way to healing a great many hurts, but there will be some really hard roads to travel yet. I think getting Sam on the right track is a huge break through.
I will be honest and tell you liked this chapter in the series but not as much as the first book. I can't really explain why I didn't bond with these characters the same way I did with those in the first book, but there was just something different with this one. This is still a series I am really invested in and I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen next. I will give this one 4 stars.
This second book in the Burnside series focuses on Sam. If you will recall, Sam in a doctor and also suffers from ADHD. With a new health clinic about to open, Sam is badgered to volunteer at a Green Space farm, which he only does to get people off his back. Once he is introduced to Nina, the farm's owner, he begins to see the all the possibilites of organic farming.
Nina is a war widow with an easy, practical, loyal, and earthy personality that makes Sam want to laugh and enjoy life a little, something he has done precious little of in his life. Nina is also dealing with a the serious illness of one of her workers that she has become close friends with. Things are fine with Nina just as long as she and Sam stay on the lusty side of things and keep all the heavy commitment issues out of it, but Sam is sure about Nina and wants to take the relationship further emotionally. Nina isn't sure she can handle taking care of her friend and dealing with all of Sam's personal issues too.
Again, this contemporary romance is not the light and breezy type of romance novel. Each character in this book has really heavy issues to deal with and even if you do love someone, it's not a bed of roses. Sam is a man that has tried to cope with all of his family's tragedies and his many mistakes, plus dealing with a disorder that can lead to misunderstandings. But, Sam is a very deep and emotional person that has been pretty hard on people in the past and that includes himself. He has let people down and hasn't always handled everything the best way possible, but he wants to try and bridge the gap between himself and his siblings and really wants to help his sister, Sarah who is still recovering from a horrible accident.
Nina has dealt with her husband's death and is up front and open about her feelings but isn't sure she will be able to handle the type of relationship Sam wants. I don't know if Nina was just feeling a little rushed or if she didn't know if Sam was really serious or if she was just trying to catch up to Sam emotionally. When she does realize Sam is serious, she does her own soul searching.
Nina is a funny character with a lot of heart and I really liked her. I think she and Sam will be fine and maybe the family is on it's way to healing a great many hurts, but there will be some really hard roads to travel yet. I think getting Sam on the right track is a huge break through.
I will be honest and tell you liked this chapter in the series but not as much as the first book. I can't really explain why I didn't bond with these characters the same way I did with those in the first book, but there was just something different with this one. This is still a series I am really invested in and I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen next. I will give this one 4 stars.
March 27, 2016
I've found a new favorite author. This woman can write like a total boss. This series is the kind that when you out it down you cannot wait to pick it back up. We met Sam in Live and we know he's a total jerk. What we don't know is all that's hiding inside of him. He's so angry and sad and unsure, yet when he meets Nina he's brutally honest. Nina is the absolute perfect woman for him. The relationships between Nina and her workers and Sam and his crew are magical. The dialogue is fantastic and even though this is just a book about people in day to day life, I hung on to every word. It's about love and friendship and family. And Jesus Christ their first date and the chapter after that is some of the best stuff I've ever read. Absolutely gut splitting hilarious. Sam is one of my favorite people and I'm so so glad he got his happy ending. Now I'm off to stalk the author for more from the Burnside's.
April 23, 2014
This book had a rough start for me. I didn't immediately connect to anyone and almost gave up but Rivers has this way with dialogue that just sucker punches you. Her characters are so stripped down and raw. You want to take that journey with them, however bumpy it might get.
Laugh makes you want to go out and take life by the horns, hug your friends and family tight and yes….laugh.
And OMG I neeeeeeeed PJ's book. Desperately.
Laugh makes you want to go out and take life by the horns, hug your friends and family tight and yes….laugh.
And OMG I neeeeeeeed PJ's book. Desperately.
June 26, 2014
Mary Ann Rivers writes the honestest (I think this is a word) feelings ever.
March 1, 2014
**ARC courtesy of Netgalley and Loveswept. Thank you for the opportunity to read this one early**
Can I give this more than 5 stars? It deserves more than 5. I also need the words to fully express my feelings on this book, but I don't think it's possible to really, truly put into words what this book is to me, what Sam and Nina are to me.
It has become very clear to me that everything Mary Ann Rivers writes is pure gold. Her stories have a little bit of everything: warmth, laughter, heartache, sadness, humanity, passion, overwhelming need and enough emotion to punch a hole in your gut.
In "Live" we saw glimpses of this amazing man known as Sam Burnside. In this, we get to see how truly remarkable he is. Sam is bursting with feeling. He is full of love, desire, the need to make everything around him right,but he doesn't quite know how to achieve that for himself. He is stunning. He is heartbreaking. He overwhelms me with all that he is and all he has the potential to be. I've not seen many characters like Sam. Sam is not an asshole, no matter what everyone else says. Sam is love. Simple and complicated as that.
Nina is gorgeous. Inside and out. She is strength, grace and pure force of will personified. Life dealt her a shitty hand, stripped away her happiness and her world as she knew it but she went on. Life didn't win. Nina did. She did it on her terms until she had the inner strength to say 'enough' and move in a different path. She is fierce in her strength, her beauty, her world. She embraces each day because it makes her better. And she makes me want to be better. She's flawed, human. She makes mistakes. She doesn't know how to handle everything life has handed to her, but she manages it with a deft grace that leaves you breathless. Her world consists of love for others, for the family she made for herself.
The remarkable thing, what I love most about Sam and Nina, is the way they found each other, truly saw one another, even when they couldn't find themselves. These are two people who have so much love to offer to the world, to another person and they would never be complete without the other in their life. Sam and Nina existed before they found each other. They each lived, lost, loved and overcame their own challenges. Neither of them wants to change the other. The past exists but it doesn't define the future. The way they love each other and those around them is unapologetic, as it should be. It is fierce, burning and bright. It's scary and freeing. It is a thing of beauty.
This was a story about finding your place in the world when something comes along to shake up the way you've been living. It's about finding something in yourself you never knew existed. It's about family, friendship, life and love. But mostly it's about learning how to laugh, even when things are uncertain and nothing is guaranteed. Because laughter, like love, is what life is really all about.
Can I give this more than 5 stars? It deserves more than 5. I also need the words to fully express my feelings on this book, but I don't think it's possible to really, truly put into words what this book is to me, what Sam and Nina are to me.
It has become very clear to me that everything Mary Ann Rivers writes is pure gold. Her stories have a little bit of everything: warmth, laughter, heartache, sadness, humanity, passion, overwhelming need and enough emotion to punch a hole in your gut.
In "Live" we saw glimpses of this amazing man known as Sam Burnside. In this, we get to see how truly remarkable he is. Sam is bursting with feeling. He is full of love, desire, the need to make everything around him right,but he doesn't quite know how to achieve that for himself. He is stunning. He is heartbreaking. He overwhelms me with all that he is and all he has the potential to be. I've not seen many characters like Sam. Sam is not an asshole, no matter what everyone else says. Sam is love. Simple and complicated as that.
Nina is gorgeous. Inside and out. She is strength, grace and pure force of will personified. Life dealt her a shitty hand, stripped away her happiness and her world as she knew it but she went on. Life didn't win. Nina did. She did it on her terms until she had the inner strength to say 'enough' and move in a different path. She is fierce in her strength, her beauty, her world. She embraces each day because it makes her better. And she makes me want to be better. She's flawed, human. She makes mistakes. She doesn't know how to handle everything life has handed to her, but she manages it with a deft grace that leaves you breathless. Her world consists of love for others, for the family she made for herself.
The remarkable thing, what I love most about Sam and Nina, is the way they found each other, truly saw one another, even when they couldn't find themselves. These are two people who have so much love to offer to the world, to another person and they would never be complete without the other in their life. Sam and Nina existed before they found each other. They each lived, lost, loved and overcame their own challenges. Neither of them wants to change the other. The past exists but it doesn't define the future. The way they love each other and those around them is unapologetic, as it should be. It is fierce, burning and bright. It's scary and freeing. It is a thing of beauty.
This was a story about finding your place in the world when something comes along to shake up the way you've been living. It's about finding something in yourself you never knew existed. It's about family, friendship, life and love. But mostly it's about learning how to laugh, even when things are uncertain and nothing is guaranteed. Because laughter, like love, is what life is really all about.
July 10, 2016
I'm rating this one up a bit, because although I don't think Mary Ann Rivers has written her "five star" book(s) yet, her style and tone is so refreshingly real and intimate - certainly stars above most contemporary romance. Her characters are flawed in complex ways that are all woven in with their best qualities - which is how I think people generally...are. (At least those I know and/or want to empathize with, at any rate.)
Her characters are also "quirky" or rather, eccentric, in ways that feel familiar, not forced; I would be equally likely to believe that they are inspired by real life people Rivers knows, or that her imagination is just that fertile, yet grounded.
She also does a great job with secondary characters that I hope are ALL sequel bait (and given the series title, all four Burnside siblings assuredly are), though Rivers avoids that particular series romance pitfall structurally, i.e. the community that she's developing here feels organic.
Oh yeah, and Rivers writes great sex scenes: in-character, unique, with emotional and sensory detail that is all the hotter for its realism, IMO. Super-sexy in that way that the honeymoon period with someone you're wildly attracted to actually is, even if you haven't mastered the other person's every bell & whistle yet. Not just the homogenized hetero sex standard to Romancelandia where all orgasms happen during penetration every time, etc. The variety and charge here is also gained without turning to BDSM as a crutch - which is not to say that kinky sex doesn't have its own cliches and misrepresentations - I just think that in Romancelandia, it is becoming somehow ubiquitous and yet, heh, fetishized within the genre such that although everyone seems to be having it, it's still not a "normal" thing to do...or something. And so we're not getting as much of the hot, dirty sex that falls in the spectrum between magical, multi-orgasmic missionary loooooovemaking and full-on, structured hobby/lifestyle kink. You know, French Vanilla or Vanilla Bean instead of "plain vanilla."
Her characters are also "quirky" or rather, eccentric, in ways that feel familiar, not forced; I would be equally likely to believe that they are inspired by real life people Rivers knows, or that her imagination is just that fertile, yet grounded.
She also does a great job with secondary characters that I hope are ALL sequel bait (and given the series title, all four Burnside siblings assuredly are), though Rivers avoids that particular series romance pitfall structurally, i.e. the community that she's developing here feels organic.
Oh yeah, and Rivers writes great sex scenes: in-character, unique, with emotional and sensory detail that is all the hotter for its realism, IMO. Super-sexy in that way that the honeymoon period with someone you're wildly attracted to actually is, even if you haven't mastered the other person's every bell & whistle yet. Not just the homogenized hetero sex standard to Romancelandia where all orgasms happen during penetration every time, etc. The variety and charge here is also gained without turning to BDSM as a crutch - which is not to say that kinky sex doesn't have its own cliches and misrepresentations - I just think that in Romancelandia, it is becoming somehow ubiquitous and yet, heh, fetishized within the genre such that although everyone seems to be having it, it's still not a "normal" thing to do...or something. And so we're not getting as much of the hot, dirty sex that falls in the spectrum between magical, multi-orgasmic missionary loooooovemaking and full-on, structured hobby/lifestyle kink. You know, French Vanilla or Vanilla Bean instead of "plain vanilla."
April 21, 2014
You know how every once in a while you meet some one who, inexplicably, allows themselves to be so open, so raw and vulnerable, that you are simultaneously hypnotized by the beauty of it and terrified for the safety of their heart? For me, it was a boy who worked for me at a store I managed almost 20 years ago. He would tell me things that were so endearing and so honest, but that in the wrong hands would be fuel for so much teasing and ridicule. He had no defenses. It was beautiful and I'll never forget him.
Sam Burnside is also one of these unforgettable boys. He lives life with this cranky old assholish front, and then he meets Nina Paz and his shell cracks open so completely that it is both amazing and horrifying to witness. He knows immediately that this woman is the one he will trust with his inner self, his intense vulnerability. Never mind whether she is ready to witness it, never mind if she is ready to take care of it. He breaks himself open with this pure, honest self and places himself in her hands (there is an egg comparison here that manifests in Nina holding the yolk of an egg in her palm and showing it to Sam as a precious thing).
Nina has some damage to recover from and she isn't prepared to be handed all of this delicate and oozing love. She isn't prepared and yet she can't reject it. She wants Sam but she doesn't trust herself. She is recovering from the 10-years past death of her husband and still nursing the wounds that caused her subsequent withdrawal from her family and everything that reminds her of their life together. There are tremendous emotions to be mined for here. Mary Ann Rivers writes this love story with expertise and finesse. Boy, does she know what she's doing.
There are secondary characters in LAUGH that are as real and important as the main characters. There are numerous complex relationships to be navigated through. Friends, siblings, partnerships. All of this is balanced so well that you come to the end of the book feeling as though you know these people and love these people, without being overrun by them.
Another gorgeous book from Mary Ann Rivers. If she keeps this up, she's going to end up being one of the greats in romance writing. Really, really special.
ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
Sam Burnside is also one of these unforgettable boys. He lives life with this cranky old assholish front, and then he meets Nina Paz and his shell cracks open so completely that it is both amazing and horrifying to witness. He knows immediately that this woman is the one he will trust with his inner self, his intense vulnerability. Never mind whether she is ready to witness it, never mind if she is ready to take care of it. He breaks himself open with this pure, honest self and places himself in her hands (there is an egg comparison here that manifests in Nina holding the yolk of an egg in her palm and showing it to Sam as a precious thing).
Nina has some damage to recover from and she isn't prepared to be handed all of this delicate and oozing love. She isn't prepared and yet she can't reject it. She wants Sam but she doesn't trust herself. She is recovering from the 10-years past death of her husband and still nursing the wounds that caused her subsequent withdrawal from her family and everything that reminds her of their life together. There are tremendous emotions to be mined for here. Mary Ann Rivers writes this love story with expertise and finesse. Boy, does she know what she's doing.
There are secondary characters in LAUGH that are as real and important as the main characters. There are numerous complex relationships to be navigated through. Friends, siblings, partnerships. All of this is balanced so well that you come to the end of the book feeling as though you know these people and love these people, without being overrun by them.
Another gorgeous book from Mary Ann Rivers. If she keeps this up, she's going to end up being one of the greats in romance writing. Really, really special.
ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
May 6, 2014
Sorry if this review is not so good, the first one was better, but I lost it. =/
5 laughing stars
I love Mary Ann Rivers books. They always make me feel so much and all of it is good. In Laugh she remind me that we can laugh and be happy even if things in our lives is not that good. We can find happiness in our families, friends and in the silly little things we do everyday.
We met Sam Burnside in Live and in that book he was a control freak, always yelling and fighting with his siblings, and in Laugh we have the same Sam, but we got to know why he does what he does. Sam has ADHD and struggles very much trying to put in order everything that is always racing through his mind. He feels like he never does anything good enough and because of that he tries so hard, so hard that in the end he messes everything up, poor thing. I really felt for him, what people and sometimes even his siblings doesn't see, is that everything he does is out of love.
But there is someone who sees him as he is. Nina Paz, a farmer who lost so much in life, but found happiness again through her friends and work. When they're together is like they can put all their problems behind and just be. They're so funny, and together they find that love can be very simple but sometimes we are so afraid, so full of grief, we MAKE things difficult.
Their journey is beautiful and a joy to see them get past their fears. There are lots of goodness in this book: their first date is priceless, hilarious; PJ dressing Sam up for his date is very funny too; Sam and Mike friendship and interactions are great, man bonding at its best. Actually the support characters are awesome, we have Sam's brother and sisters, his friends; Nina's friends, especially Tay. I could go on and on about this book. Very good and highly recommended.
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
5 laughing stars
I love Mary Ann Rivers books. They always make me feel so much and all of it is good. In Laugh she remind me that we can laugh and be happy even if things in our lives is not that good. We can find happiness in our families, friends and in the silly little things we do everyday.
We met Sam Burnside in Live and in that book he was a control freak, always yelling and fighting with his siblings, and in Laugh we have the same Sam, but we got to know why he does what he does. Sam has ADHD and struggles very much trying to put in order everything that is always racing through his mind. He feels like he never does anything good enough and because of that he tries so hard, so hard that in the end he messes everything up, poor thing. I really felt for him, what people and sometimes even his siblings doesn't see, is that everything he does is out of love.
But there is someone who sees him as he is. Nina Paz, a farmer who lost so much in life, but found happiness again through her friends and work. When they're together is like they can put all their problems behind and just be. They're so funny, and together they find that love can be very simple but sometimes we are so afraid, so full of grief, we MAKE things difficult.
Their journey is beautiful and a joy to see them get past their fears. There are lots of goodness in this book: their first date is priceless, hilarious; PJ dressing Sam up for his date is very funny too; Sam and Mike friendship and interactions are great, man bonding at its best. Actually the support characters are awesome, we have Sam's brother and sisters, his friends; Nina's friends, especially Tay. I could go on and on about this book. Very good and highly recommended.
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
March 31, 2015
Captivating readers first with "Love", this second entry in the Burnside family saga will delight and touch fans of contemporary romance. This is the story of Sam, a doctor who struggles daily with the effects of ADHD and Nina, a widowed farmer building a community of local artisans and farmers within the neighbourhood where Sam and his friends live. Sam's co-worker and friend Lacey sends Sam out to help Nina early one morning and Sam is instantly smitten. The trick is convincing Nina that he is what she wants and needs.
Mary Ann has the uncanny knack of taking a character and revealing all of their imperfections to the reader in a thorough and heartwarming way. Her portrayal of Sam, his thoughts, his emotions and his quirks make a reader believe that she has personally experienced the trials of ADHD - she gets under the skin of the character and reveals it so thoroughly to the reader. Likewise she is able to put us into Nina's head, as we feel how she views Sam and all her fears and stresses over moving forward with her life. Sam's relationship with his three siblings is explored in a touching and real way, as he shares with us how his ADHD has impacted their lives. Similarly through Nina we feel her closeness to her best friend Tay and the day to day struggles of what it takes to build a successful farming business from the ground up.
Thoroughly enjoyable, heartwarming, humourous, sensual and real - these are the qualities offered to readers in this novel. With two more Burnside sibling to share with us, Mary Ann will continue to be one of my favourite authors and a definite keeper for the reread shelf.
Mary Ann has the uncanny knack of taking a character and revealing all of their imperfections to the reader in a thorough and heartwarming way. Her portrayal of Sam, his thoughts, his emotions and his quirks make a reader believe that she has personally experienced the trials of ADHD - she gets under the skin of the character and reveals it so thoroughly to the reader. Likewise she is able to put us into Nina's head, as we feel how she views Sam and all her fears and stresses over moving forward with her life. Sam's relationship with his three siblings is explored in a touching and real way, as he shares with us how his ADHD has impacted their lives. Similarly through Nina we feel her closeness to her best friend Tay and the day to day struggles of what it takes to build a successful farming business from the ground up.
Thoroughly enjoyable, heartwarming, humourous, sensual and real - these are the qualities offered to readers in this novel. With two more Burnside sibling to share with us, Mary Ann will continue to be one of my favourite authors and a definite keeper for the reread shelf.
May 4, 2014
What I liked most about Laugh was Sam. He’s a guy that pulls you in while pushing you away. He was such an ass in the previous book in this series, and Laugh made me see him in a completely different light.
When Sam meets Nina, all sorts of sparks fly between them. There is some serious heat between them from the start. Their connection is not just sexual, and Nina understand the heart of Sam in a way no one else does--it's the sort of connection that soul-mades are made of. Although she resists him for a while, it isn't long before these two are steaming up the sheets.
Sam is still Sam though, and before long he messes things up, and not just with Nina. He’s not on such good terms with his brother or sister either. I love the Burnside family dynamic in this series -- it's messy and real.
Laugh is very much Sam’s story, about his journey of understanding himself with the help of a good woman. If you’ve read Mary Ann Rivers, you know you get very close to the characters thoughts and feelings, and I loved the way that Sam worked through what he wanted in life. I could relate to his tendency to beat himself up, to be impulsive, to love his family so much that it just comes out wrong. Where he ends up at that end of this book is pure joy.
I like this series. I can’t wait for Paul’s book!
ARC courtesy of publisher and Netgalley
When Sam meets Nina, all sorts of sparks fly between them. There is some serious heat between them from the start. Their connection is not just sexual, and Nina understand the heart of Sam in a way no one else does--it's the sort of connection that soul-mades are made of. Although she resists him for a while, it isn't long before these two are steaming up the sheets.
Sam is still Sam though, and before long he messes things up, and not just with Nina. He’s not on such good terms with his brother or sister either. I love the Burnside family dynamic in this series -- it's messy and real.
Laugh is very much Sam’s story, about his journey of understanding himself with the help of a good woman. If you’ve read Mary Ann Rivers, you know you get very close to the characters thoughts and feelings, and I loved the way that Sam worked through what he wanted in life. I could relate to his tendency to beat himself up, to be impulsive, to love his family so much that it just comes out wrong. Where he ends up at that end of this book is pure joy.
I like this series. I can’t wait for Paul’s book!
ARC courtesy of publisher and Netgalley
September 29, 2014
I equally liked and disliked this book. I liked Sam, he was a really interesting character with a lot of depth. I loved the dialogue between Sam and Nina, there were times I laughed out loud, teared up etc... The first date was brilliant, everything about it. What I didn't like was all of the inner monologuing, it was a problem for me in Live and even more so with Laugh. It goes on forever and gets boring and tedious for me, I ended up skimming through a big part of this book. I will most likely continue with the series because I want to hear Sarah's and PJ's stories, but hope Mary Ann Rivers focuses more on the dialogue and less on the monologue. Maybe these stories are meant to be shorter? The Story Guy is still one of my favorite stories.
May 15, 2016
This didn’t effect me as much emotionally as the first book, but I did enjoy reading about Sam and Nina. I found Sam rather erratic in the first book. He always seemed to be yelling or not speaking to his siblings. However I thought that the author effectively explains the reasons behind his behavior and makes him into what I thought was a very likeable (if impulsive, moody, constantly-swearing) hero . It was lovely how Nina really seemed to ‘get’ Sam and was not put off by his bluster. Sam and Nina’s first date, where both try way too hard, was a hoot. Enough with harping on about Nina being middle-aged though- I think she is 38- that just made me feel old! I hope PJ and Lacey’s story is next
Read
February 23, 2014I am at a loss as to how to rate this book. No surprise, the writing is quite lovely and it gets at the core of a lot of emotionally resonant issues. And the female friendship are wonderfully complex. But I felt like Sam was far more thoroughly developed than Nina, and while there's resolution to her backstory, especially as it relates to her parents, I hope it would be more extensively explored.
I also have issues with chickens, due to our neighbors having a smelly, gross, noisy urban chicken shack abutting our property and chickens do play a role in this story. ;)
If you liked the first book in this series, you'll like this one, and it shares a similar quiet tone.
I also have issues with chickens, due to our neighbors having a smelly, gross, noisy urban chicken shack abutting our property and chickens do play a role in this story. ;)
If you liked the first book in this series, you'll like this one, and it shares a similar quiet tone.
big-fat-dnf
January 28, 2015In the end, I was unable to finish this one. The writing is simply gorgeous, as is always the case with Mary Ann Rivers at the helm. And I loved Sam just as much as I knew I would from his introduction in the first book in the Burnside series. The problem I had was connecting with Nina. She simply felt too slick to me (for lack of a better word). My attempts to get to know her kept slipping off her surface. And I had wanted so much more for the woman Sam needed. This imbalance got in the way of my overall enjoyment, and I was forced to put it down. This is the first misstep I've had from Ms. Rivers, so I will be picking up the next installment for sure.
December 22, 2015
Uugh, I found nothing likable about this book. I really disliked the main characters; there was nothing about them I found remotely enjoyable. I have no idea why this book is titled Laugh- there was nothing to laugh about! Fighting, angst, rage, and medical problems don't make for happy reading. The only bright spot was PJ- I could see him making people laugh, not the disgruntled doctor with anger issues. I disliked this one so much, I don't know if I can even stick around for PJ's story.
August 14, 2014
This book was DNF for me. I'm not sure why...I really enjoyed the first book of this series and really loved The Story Guy. I just couldn't get into it.
I might attempt another go at it at some point. But decided to just let it go for now.
I might attempt another go at it at some point. But decided to just let it go for now.
May 10, 2014
I love this author, I love this series, and I loved Sam. I devoured this in one sitting, next book please? :)
Read
June 5, 2014DNF - the characters bugged the tar out of me.
March 3, 2015
Review coming soon.
July 10, 2014
much love.
i have.
i have much love.
for this book, i have... much love
this book.
THIS.
i have.
i have much love.
for this book, i have... much love
this book.
THIS.
September 12, 2016
"Their hearts had let the laughter soften them into reckless intimacies." (Kindle Location 258)
Laugh is the second of Mary Ann Rivers’ The Burnside Series novels, that focus on a set of four orphaned adult siblings, Sam, Destiny, Sarah and PJ Burnside from Lakefield, Ohio. I reviewed Live in January. Many locations and supporting characters in Laugh also appeared in Live. While you will have a fuller experience if you have read Live it is not necessary to do so in order to read and love Laugh.
Laugh is Dr. Sam Burnside's story. In Live, Sam is Destiny’s older over-bearing asshole doctor brother and I absolutely hated him. I was actually hoping Ms. Rivers would write PJ or Sarah’s story first and leave Sam to the end because even though Des still loved the grump, I wasn't looking forward to spending time especially if was going to continue to unintentionally upset everyone in his life with his nagging and micro-managing.
Sam and his childhood friend Lacey are about to open a community clinic in their neighborhood. The opening is weeks away and Sam’s intense yet unfocused energy has become more and more of a distraction as they struggle to jump through the remaining bureaucratic hoops. Lacey sends Sam to Nina, an urban farmer and cafe owner in the neighborhood, under the guise of cultivating community connections and collaboration. Sam stomps into one of Nina’s urban plots, angry and out-of-sorts and he is quickly disarmed by Nina’s humor and distracted by her beauty.
“Her eyebrow arched up again, waiting for him to get his thumb out of his ass, he supposed.
So was he.
He briefly considered a conciliatory measure and polite reintroduction of himself and his mission there, and then quickly settled on fuck that.” (Kindle Loc 118-119)
The Sam Burnside in Laugh is very recognizably the Sam Burnside from Live. He has not received a personality transplant making him nicer, less over-bearing or easier to get along with. He might in fact be even more flawed in Laugh. Yet by the second chapter I found myself rooting for him in a way I never expected to. Simply having Sam’s POV was not what made me start caring for him, it was seeing him through Nina’s eyes. Nina saw something in him worth paying attention to.
“How he let her work, and let her lead, and let her show him things, even while he ogled and bragged and postured.
The contrast between what he performed for her and what he meant told her something that made her think about more than Sam’s shoulders.
Something made her wonder about why a man would try to distract her from noticing the best parts of himself. Maybe he hadn’t noticed the best parts of himself." (Kindle Loc 226)
Nina Paz is the daughter of Mexican migrant workers and a transplant from Washington State. She is a vibrant, hard-working entrepreneur who with the help of her friends Tay and Rachel, run a successful farm, cafe and catering business. Nina has made a place for herself in Lakefield, Ohio after the death of Russ, her husband and childhood sweetheart, in Afghanistan. In Sam, Nina recognizes same sense of loss, underneath his bluster, and posturing as she feels in her own heart.
"He lowered his eyes from hers, shy, suddenly, of her seeing either his crass and tender thoughts." (Kindle Location 183)
Nina and Sam have incredibly chemistry, they can't keep their eyes, hands or thoughts off each other. They sizzle:
"She lifted her hand from the knob of the gearshift and trailed it over his thigh, and it was a relief to touch him after talking to him all morning, after watching him, after watching him watch her.
She pushed under the hem of his shorts to dig her fingers in the hard muscle above his knee.
He inhaled, fast and deep, against her ear. "Harder."" (Kindle Loc 287)
But they both know that physical connection is not enough. Nina has taken many casual lovers since the death of her husband to escape her feelings in feeling but she doesn't want to use Sam this way. Sam is not a moderate man, he doesn't do casual, all passion, impulsivity and need. It takes real effort for them to work past each others emotional defenses and baggage to trust each other.
Ms. Rivers’ puts Nina and Sam through the wringer. Their relationship has multiple-false starts, faux-pas, and interruptions, some light-hearted (their disastrous first date) and other heart-wrenching (Tay's cancer diagnosis). Sam and Nina have both been formed in distinct ways by grief and loss and their is a story how two people can build intimacy and trust after years of taking short-cuts or avoiding it all together.
"It was rare to find friends anymore. Not because she wasn’t surrounded by people, but because if she wanted to be close to someone new, she would need to share her life, tell her stories, reveal her healing grief." (Kindle Loc 253)
In Live, Destiny and Hefin need to find the thread of their own lives again, to do things for themselves before they can reach for each other. In Laugh, Sam and Nina both need to tend to emotional bruises they have ignored and find their way back to the family and loved ones they have hurt, disappointed and pushed away as they reach for each other.
"She was here, far from her original home because everything that came after losing Russ salted the fields they had planted." (Kindle Loc 745)
I love how Ms. Rivers writes, and I often find myself stopping to admire her beautifully written sentences. Every single one of her stores has been a joy to read, but what really makes her novels work for me is the attention she gives to characterization, and that she doesn’t just develop the main characters and surround them with cardboard stand-ins. While I hope to eventually read PJ, Lacey and Sarah’s stories even secondary supporting characters like Mike, DeeDee, Tay and Adam feel as real as Nina and Sam. They all have substance and weight and are not simply plot devices.
"He’d wanted to tell Mike more about her, but he knew as much as he joked about matchmaking, about couples, about the happiness he found, that he also had been the voice of caution way too many times before when Sam had fallen headlong into what he thought was love, only to find out again that it was all just him, his heart overspilling until he thought that was he felt was what the woman felt, too, when what he was was just the hope he had for his own heart. "(Kindle Loc 524)
I am very appreciative of how Ms. Rivers described and developed Nina and Sam. Nina is undeniably a first-generation Mexican-American, but it is not the only or even most important part of her identity. She is not white-washed or fetishized and I am happy to add her to my personal list of non-stereotypical Latina heroines. I also really loved how Sam’s ADHD was portrayed. One of my daughter’s has an ADD diagnosis, and there were points in the book where Sam’s anxieties, reactions and actions felt incredibly familiar and I can only thank Ms.Rivers for taking such care in her writing.
Ms. Rivers did not have any information on her website beyond the titles for the next two books in the series so I asked her on twitter whose story was whose.
@anacoqui LOVE is next and PJ and Lacey's story. ALWAYS is last and Sarah's story.
— Mary Ann Rivers (@MaryAnn_Rivers) May 3, 2014
I will be eagerly awaiting them.
A copy of Laugh was provided by Random House: Loveswept via NetGalley for review purposes.
Publication Date May 6, 2014
March 13, 2020
This book was a real toss-up for me. On the one hand, the writing was beautiful, the book was a love letter to urban farming, and insights into how to keep going and live a full life after suffering tragedy were present throughout. On the other hand, the book didn't initially engage me at all, and I put it down after reading two chapters, then never did pick it back up again until recently when I was finally tackling some old Netgalley requests. I think the reason I initially couldn't get into the book was that Sam and Nina's initial meeting and engagement with each other made absolutely no sense to me. Why was the local doctor, currently trying to set up an urgent care clinic, spending his time volunteering with a woman who ran community gardens/farms and a local cafe? I had no idea and this was never explained.
In addition, initially, Sam was a bit of a jerk. In the previous book he seemed to always be angry with his siblings and everyone else so I was already inclined not to like him. As the book continues, we learn that Sam has ADHD which makes it hard for him to concentrate and interact with others. The words coming out of his mouth often give an impression that is completely erroneous to what he's actually feeling because he gets frustrated and this frustration is expressed as anger. While this made him much more sympathetic, I think his biggest challenge wasn't ADHD, but rather that he is on the autism spectrum. This is completely unacknowledged in the book (indeed, I have a feeling the author isn't even aware of the fact that she wrote him this way), but it explains certain of his behavioral characteristics including his lack of social skills, his immediate target fixation on Nina, and on organic farming, and his willingness to jump into a relationship without even beginning to truly know her. As for Nina, she's something of a cipher. The book does a great job delving into her close relationships with her female friends, but although there is plenty of introspection in the book, her reasons for being so attracted to Sam and why she's so willing to put up with his oddities are never examined. So, overall, a mixed bag. I liked the book, but I didn't love it.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book from Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
In addition, initially, Sam was a bit of a jerk. In the previous book he seemed to always be angry with his siblings and everyone else so I was already inclined not to like him. As the book continues, we learn that Sam has ADHD which makes it hard for him to concentrate and interact with others. The words coming out of his mouth often give an impression that is completely erroneous to what he's actually feeling because he gets frustrated and this frustration is expressed as anger. While this made him much more sympathetic, I think his biggest challenge wasn't ADHD, but rather that he is on the autism spectrum. This is completely unacknowledged in the book (indeed, I have a feeling the author isn't even aware of the fact that she wrote him this way), but it explains certain of his behavioral characteristics including his lack of social skills, his immediate target fixation on Nina, and on organic farming, and his willingness to jump into a relationship without even beginning to truly know her. As for Nina, she's something of a cipher. The book does a great job delving into her close relationships with her female friends, but although there is plenty of introspection in the book, her reasons for being so attracted to Sam and why she's so willing to put up with his oddities are never examined. So, overall, a mixed bag. I liked the book, but I didn't love it.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book from Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
August 12, 2016
Second in the Burnside romance series set in Lakefield, Ohio. The couple focus is on Nina Paz and Sam Burnside.
I received this ARC from the publisher.
My Take
It’s love, love, love all the way in Laugh, only it’s not your typical romance. It’s a fearless, well-meaning, and graceless hero — a man suffering from ADHD, no less. Rivers did a fabulous job of taking me behind-the-scenes as it were of what it’s like to be this person, and how he copes with it as well as the family and friends who have to cope with him. It makes it much easier to understand both sides of this issue…and be incredibly grateful I haven’t had to deal with this in real life. Still, with knowledge comes understanding and consideration, a communication which can only produce patience and in turn reduce stress — for all parties.
I enjoyed the emphasis on urban farming with its insight into what it takes to be a farmer let alone one in the city. Nina impresses the hell out of me with all the community involvement in which she engages besides the work she puts into her farm and café, anything to ignore and avoid the grief she still feels over her husband’s death. Instead she has a family she’s chosen.
That first encounter is sooo unpromising, so bad that one isn’t sure if the focus is Nina and Sam, which makes it great fun to watch this relationship develop. Nina hides from her past by diving in to all this commitment but she has been willing to nurture same-sex relationships while Sam is so focused on keeping his family together and safe and happy that he pushes them away.
Which makes it all the more fun to watch Nina’s struggle against her attraction to Sam, LOL. Sam isn’t struggling at all. He’s right out there with his appreciation and, ahem, thrusting.
Seems Sam has a fabulous bedside manner. Just don’t allow him away from human interaction, lol. He’s an interesting contradiction between too focused on caring for everyone else and his sense of humor. His “observations” on Nina’s breasts, from a purely clinical standpoint of course, cracked me up. He’s a good guy, but too intense. He needs to learn how to step back, let go.
There’s a bit in here about how Sam’s parents coped with his ADHD. His mother had it herself and passed on her coping mechanisms and supported his taking the Ritalin. Her death found his dad totally against the Ritalin with disastrous results. Makes that analysis at the end a bit hard for Sam to take, poor baby.
Mike is too right! Doctors don’t respect nurses by addressing them as Nurse Mike or whoever, so why should nurses have to append Doctor to their name?
I’m confused. Nina wants only right now or she wants a permanent now that has no future???
You know, I just love how Rivers explains things…she has a bit in here on cancer treatment, likening it to a military strategy that just makes sense to me. Then there’s that lovely tension between Nina and Sam and his family that Rivers exploits so well. That moment when Nina finally gets Sam. That disastrous yet fabulous date.
The only thing in here that bugs me is Daniel going on and on and on and on about God and love was annoying. What was the point with that?
Sam tries so hard and Nina appreciates him so much. He loves her so much he wishes he could give her Russ and Seattle. Just another one of the scenes which makes me cry with how sweet this is. I want to go back and read the first in the series. I’ll be keeping an eye open for the third in this series.
The Story
It’s Lacey’s idea, getting Sam out from underfoot by sending him to help Nina, for while Sam’s great with the patients, he’s not so great with behind-the-scenes paperwork. So getting his hands on Nina’s lush fields turns into great therapy for a man who needs to help.
The Characters
The widowed Nina Paz is working off her grief by farming far from home. Russ had been her friend from childhood and became the man she thought of as her soulmate until he died by being in the wrong place. Juana Marie is her mom, and she and Nina’s dad work a farming operation in Seattle in which they have a small ownership. Mom also runs a café and catering service which she runs with Russ’ mom. Rachel Delassixe is the chef friend who creates scrumptious meals with Nina’s produce for their café. Tay is both friend and farm manager. And it really makes me appreciate how food finally winds up on the store shelf! She has an on-again/off-again relationship with Adam. Tay and Adam play in a jam band for fun.
Dr. Sam Burnside is loyal to family and friends…and screwing it up. Bluntly, he’s a mother hen! PJ is another brother and estranged from Sam; he plays cello with the symphony. He’s also still in love with his childhood babysitter…sigh… Sarah is a middle sister who works at a local letterpress. While she understood Sam’s grief about their mother’s death, even she can’t survive Sam’s need to obsess. A disastrous accident finds her living at Betty’s. Des is Sam’s youngest sister who has “escaped” with her boyfriend, Hefin, to Europe. Paddy and Marie Burnside were their parents.
Mike Masserson, a nurse and Sam’s best friend, is married to DeeDee, and they have a son, Mikey.
Lacey Radcliffe is Sam’s partner in this planned neighborhood clinic. She’s his perfect complement with her administrative and advanced practice nurse experience plus they’ve been friends since childhood. Nathan is the son she had when she became pregnant by Mark Lockwood in college.
Betty Lynch was the Burnside mom’s best friend; she’s married to a former priest, Daniel. Mrs. Washington is an asthmatic patient who is part of the neighborhood for whom Sam and Lacey intend to care. Rae is Mrs. Washington’s grandniece. Dr. Marty Takaishi is the family doctor who enticed Sam into choosing family medicine. It’s a sweet little insert and not at all an info dump! I’ve learned to appreciate these when they’re well done! Colby, Madeline, Susan, Steven, and Rose are Nina’s farmhands.
The Cover
I do like the cover with its country lane background and Sam laughing, one elbow resting on top of the car.
The title is what Nina values about Sam, that he can make her Laugh “just where she was”.
I received this ARC from the publisher.
My Take
It’s love, love, love all the way in Laugh, only it’s not your typical romance. It’s a fearless, well-meaning, and graceless hero — a man suffering from ADHD, no less. Rivers did a fabulous job of taking me behind-the-scenes as it were of what it’s like to be this person, and how he copes with it as well as the family and friends who have to cope with him. It makes it much easier to understand both sides of this issue…and be incredibly grateful I haven’t had to deal with this in real life. Still, with knowledge comes understanding and consideration, a communication which can only produce patience and in turn reduce stress — for all parties.
I enjoyed the emphasis on urban farming with its insight into what it takes to be a farmer let alone one in the city. Nina impresses the hell out of me with all the community involvement in which she engages besides the work she puts into her farm and café, anything to ignore and avoid the grief she still feels over her husband’s death. Instead she has a family she’s chosen.
That first encounter is sooo unpromising, so bad that one isn’t sure if the focus is Nina and Sam, which makes it great fun to watch this relationship develop. Nina hides from her past by diving in to all this commitment but she has been willing to nurture same-sex relationships while Sam is so focused on keeping his family together and safe and happy that he pushes them away.
Which makes it all the more fun to watch Nina’s struggle against her attraction to Sam, LOL. Sam isn’t struggling at all. He’s right out there with his appreciation and, ahem, thrusting.
Seems Sam has a fabulous bedside manner. Just don’t allow him away from human interaction, lol. He’s an interesting contradiction between too focused on caring for everyone else and his sense of humor. His “observations” on Nina’s breasts, from a purely clinical standpoint of course, cracked me up. He’s a good guy, but too intense. He needs to learn how to step back, let go.
There’s a bit in here about how Sam’s parents coped with his ADHD. His mother had it herself and passed on her coping mechanisms and supported his taking the Ritalin. Her death found his dad totally against the Ritalin with disastrous results. Makes that analysis at the end a bit hard for Sam to take, poor baby.
Mike is too right! Doctors don’t respect nurses by addressing them as Nurse Mike or whoever, so why should nurses have to append Doctor to their name?
I’m confused. Nina wants only right now or she wants a permanent now that has no future???
You know, I just love how Rivers explains things…she has a bit in here on cancer treatment, likening it to a military strategy that just makes sense to me. Then there’s that lovely tension between Nina and Sam and his family that Rivers exploits so well. That moment when Nina finally gets Sam. That disastrous yet fabulous date.
I love this…
”…it doesn’t matter how it starts, just so long as it doesn’t end.”
The only thing in here that bugs me is Daniel going on and on and on and on about God and love was annoying. What was the point with that?
Sam tries so hard and Nina appreciates him so much. He loves her so much he wishes he could give her Russ and Seattle. Just another one of the scenes which makes me cry with how sweet this is. I want to go back and read the first in the series. I’ll be keeping an eye open for the third in this series.
The Story
It’s Lacey’s idea, getting Sam out from underfoot by sending him to help Nina, for while Sam’s great with the patients, he’s not so great with behind-the-scenes paperwork. So getting his hands on Nina’s lush fields turns into great therapy for a man who needs to help.
The Characters
The widowed Nina Paz is working off her grief by farming far from home. Russ had been her friend from childhood and became the man she thought of as her soulmate until he died by being in the wrong place. Juana Marie is her mom, and she and Nina’s dad work a farming operation in Seattle in which they have a small ownership. Mom also runs a café and catering service which she runs with Russ’ mom. Rachel Delassixe is the chef friend who creates scrumptious meals with Nina’s produce for their café. Tay is both friend and farm manager. And it really makes me appreciate how food finally winds up on the store shelf! She has an on-again/off-again relationship with Adam. Tay and Adam play in a jam band for fun.
Dr. Sam Burnside is loyal to family and friends…and screwing it up. Bluntly, he’s a mother hen! PJ is another brother and estranged from Sam; he plays cello with the symphony. He’s also still in love with his childhood babysitter…sigh… Sarah is a middle sister who works at a local letterpress. While she understood Sam’s grief about their mother’s death, even she can’t survive Sam’s need to obsess. A disastrous accident finds her living at Betty’s. Des is Sam’s youngest sister who has “escaped” with her boyfriend, Hefin, to Europe. Paddy and Marie Burnside were their parents.
Mike Masserson, a nurse and Sam’s best friend, is married to DeeDee, and they have a son, Mikey.
Lacey Radcliffe is Sam’s partner in this planned neighborhood clinic. She’s his perfect complement with her administrative and advanced practice nurse experience plus they’ve been friends since childhood. Nathan is the son she had when she became pregnant by Mark Lockwood in college.
Betty Lynch was the Burnside mom’s best friend; she’s married to a former priest, Daniel. Mrs. Washington is an asthmatic patient who is part of the neighborhood for whom Sam and Lacey intend to care. Rae is Mrs. Washington’s grandniece. Dr. Marty Takaishi is the family doctor who enticed Sam into choosing family medicine. It’s a sweet little insert and not at all an info dump! I’ve learned to appreciate these when they’re well done! Colby, Madeline, Susan, Steven, and Rose are Nina’s farmhands.
The Cover
I do like the cover with its country lane background and Sam laughing, one elbow resting on top of the car.
The title is what Nina values about Sam, that he can make her Laugh “just where she was”.
May 7, 2014
Know Someone With ADHD? Read This Book. No? Read it Anyway. The more I read by Mary Ann Rivers, the more I love her. I didn't like this second full-length novel in the Burnside series quite as well as I liked the first, Live (which I loved), but I liked it a whole helluva lot more than almost anything else I've read lately. Rivers has a voice that is heavily influenced by her close friend and writing mentor, Ruthie Knox, but is a little bit more angsty and bittersweet than Ruthie's work. Everything I've read by Rivers has a common theme: people falling in love, surprised by love, totally caught up and swept away by love, even as they wrestle with the messy tangle of other heartbreaks, disappointments, and setbacks in their lives.
Laugh's protagonists, Nina and Sam, fall neatly within this pattern. Both have "loss all over them" (as Nina puts it): Sam is reeling from the recent death of his father, his sister's rocky recovery from a near-fatal bike accident, his youngest sister's sudden defection to Europe with a new lover, a strained relationship with his baby brother, and tons of work-stress as he tries to open a new low-income health clinic in his neighborhood. Nina, the daughter of migrant farm workers from Mexico, lost her husband in Afghanistan. Because they had been childhood sweethearts whose parents farm together, she lost her connection with her parents and in-laws, too, when she left Seattle to start a new life as an urban farmer in Ohio. Now, her best friend and business partner has just been diagnosed with cervical cancer, and Nina is terrified that she will have to face another loss. As always, Rivers manages to capture the giddy, anxious, beautiful, terrible euphoria of falling in love against the backdrop of her characters' messy lives, and the juxtaposition of love and grief and everything in between will give the reader All. The. Feels.
There were a few things I loved about this book. First, Sam's ADHD. Rivers did an amazeballs job of portraying this way-too-common disability in a sensitive, realistic way. Readers get a sense of not just the obvious inconvenience of the diagnosis--the messy house, the missed deadlines, the impulse control issues--but also the professional and interpersonal costs. His medical license is suspended and the fate of the clinic is jeopardized because he loses some paperwork. He tries to control and micromanage his world and the people in it in a vain attempt to juggle everything on his plate. When that juggling act falters, his frustration quickly turns to anger, and he lashes out at siblings, friends, and lovers, souring almost all the relationships he's ever had. Yet for all of the costs of his disability, Rivers makes it so clear that Sam is unbelievably intelligent and loving and capable. Anyone who loves someone with an attention deficit should read this book, if for no other reason than that Rivers offers such a wonderful, nuanced portrayal of Sam as a whole person with so much more to offer than just his diagnosis.
Second, even more so than in Live, Rivers does a wonderful job exploring her protagonists' relationships with others, not just their lover. Sam has important relationships with his siblings, his business partner at the clinic, and his childhood best friend. Nina has wonderful friendships with her business partners: Rachel, the chef at the farm-to-table cafe where much of Nina's produce goes, and Tay, Nina's farm manager. So many romance novels focus in on the main couple and include secondary characters only as sequel bait or as poorly-developed stock characters brought in only to advance the plot, but Rivers' characters fall in love without sacrificing the social connections that shape and color their lives. Learning how to weave a new love into that pre-existing social fabric is an integral part of the story.
Third, Nina and Sam have a gloriously, hilariously bad first date that goes wrong in just about every possible way, and it is so funny, I'd recommend this book just for those chapters alone.
However, I do have a few quibbles. On the technical side, I read this ebook as an ARC from NetGalley, and it could use a few more editing passes both for basic typos and for more substantive stuff like run-on sentences and sentence fragments. I also found myself losing track of who was talking sometimes during dialogue, because Rivers tends not to use a lot of dialogue tags.
Two other things reduced this from a five-star read to four, for me. The characters' internal monologues, especially Nina's, sometimes got too introspective and abstract. A certain amount of navel-gazing is necessary in a story as emotionally rich as this one, but sometimes I got lost in the noise going on in Nina's and Sam's heads. (Maybe in Sam's case that was intentional; sometimes Sam gets lost in the noise in his head.)
Second--(and I can't believe I'm saying this, since most of my old high school and college era paperback romance novels open right to the smexy parts when you pull them off the shelf)--the sex was just this side of too much. Rivers writes very explicit, very detailed sex scenes, and there are a lot of them. While they're well done--(which is of course a matter of taste, but from my perspective, 'well done' = the characters stay in character and don't become random sex robots, no purple prose or weird euphemisms, the sex blends with the story, etc.)--the sex scenes were just too frequent and too long, and I found myself skimming to get back to the forward momentum of the plot. But, I'm sure a lot of people find the sexy bits to be the best part, so maybe this complaint is just a matter of taste.
Anyway, I liked this book a lot, and while it isn't Mary Ann Rivers' strongest work, it's still very, very good.
***I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***
Laugh's protagonists, Nina and Sam, fall neatly within this pattern. Both have "loss all over them" (as Nina puts it): Sam is reeling from the recent death of his father, his sister's rocky recovery from a near-fatal bike accident, his youngest sister's sudden defection to Europe with a new lover, a strained relationship with his baby brother, and tons of work-stress as he tries to open a new low-income health clinic in his neighborhood. Nina, the daughter of migrant farm workers from Mexico, lost her husband in Afghanistan. Because they had been childhood sweethearts whose parents farm together, she lost her connection with her parents and in-laws, too, when she left Seattle to start a new life as an urban farmer in Ohio. Now, her best friend and business partner has just been diagnosed with cervical cancer, and Nina is terrified that she will have to face another loss. As always, Rivers manages to capture the giddy, anxious, beautiful, terrible euphoria of falling in love against the backdrop of her characters' messy lives, and the juxtaposition of love and grief and everything in between will give the reader All. The. Feels.
There were a few things I loved about this book. First, Sam's ADHD. Rivers did an amazeballs job of portraying this way-too-common disability in a sensitive, realistic way. Readers get a sense of not just the obvious inconvenience of the diagnosis--the messy house, the missed deadlines, the impulse control issues--but also the professional and interpersonal costs. His medical license is suspended and the fate of the clinic is jeopardized because he loses some paperwork. He tries to control and micromanage his world and the people in it in a vain attempt to juggle everything on his plate. When that juggling act falters, his frustration quickly turns to anger, and he lashes out at siblings, friends, and lovers, souring almost all the relationships he's ever had. Yet for all of the costs of his disability, Rivers makes it so clear that Sam is unbelievably intelligent and loving and capable. Anyone who loves someone with an attention deficit should read this book, if for no other reason than that Rivers offers such a wonderful, nuanced portrayal of Sam as a whole person with so much more to offer than just his diagnosis.
Second, even more so than in Live, Rivers does a wonderful job exploring her protagonists' relationships with others, not just their lover. Sam has important relationships with his siblings, his business partner at the clinic, and his childhood best friend. Nina has wonderful friendships with her business partners: Rachel, the chef at the farm-to-table cafe where much of Nina's produce goes, and Tay, Nina's farm manager. So many romance novels focus in on the main couple and include secondary characters only as sequel bait or as poorly-developed stock characters brought in only to advance the plot, but Rivers' characters fall in love without sacrificing the social connections that shape and color their lives. Learning how to weave a new love into that pre-existing social fabric is an integral part of the story.
Third, Nina and Sam have a gloriously, hilariously bad first date that goes wrong in just about every possible way, and it is so funny, I'd recommend this book just for those chapters alone.
However, I do have a few quibbles. On the technical side, I read this ebook as an ARC from NetGalley, and it could use a few more editing passes both for basic typos and for more substantive stuff like run-on sentences and sentence fragments. I also found myself losing track of who was talking sometimes during dialogue, because Rivers tends not to use a lot of dialogue tags.
Two other things reduced this from a five-star read to four, for me. The characters' internal monologues, especially Nina's, sometimes got too introspective and abstract. A certain amount of navel-gazing is necessary in a story as emotionally rich as this one, but sometimes I got lost in the noise going on in Nina's and Sam's heads. (Maybe in Sam's case that was intentional; sometimes Sam gets lost in the noise in his head.)
Second--(and I can't believe I'm saying this, since most of my old high school and college era paperback romance novels open right to the smexy parts when you pull them off the shelf)--the sex was just this side of too much. Rivers writes very explicit, very detailed sex scenes, and there are a lot of them. While they're well done--(which is of course a matter of taste, but from my perspective, 'well done' = the characters stay in character and don't become random sex robots, no purple prose or weird euphemisms, the sex blends with the story, etc.)--the sex scenes were just too frequent and too long, and I found myself skimming to get back to the forward momentum of the plot. But, I'm sure a lot of people find the sexy bits to be the best part, so maybe this complaint is just a matter of taste.
Anyway, I liked this book a lot, and while it isn't Mary Ann Rivers' strongest work, it's still very, very good.
***I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***
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