Nothing Ventured

by Jane Oldaker

Molly Malone is obsessed with putting herself on the map by building a prestigious housing development. All she needs to get started is a very large wad of cash. Romance is about the last thing she would ever pencil into her overflowing diary until she encounters the breathtakingly handsome Paul Farnsworth, front man for a group of investors who might back Molly’s project.

Genres: Romance

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 26, 2013

About the author

Born and raised in Toronto, Jane escaped to the family farm near Port Perry, Ontario at the earliest opportunity where she lives with her husband, daughter and an assortment of cats, dogs, chickens and horses.

Reviews

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane Oldaker, author of Nothing Ventured, brings us a story of a strong, successful female who has reached success in a field dominated by men. Molly was brought up with her life planned out for her. Her wealthy, chauvinistic father refuses to listen to her desire to go into construction management. He had not planned on an exceptionally stubborn daughter. She left home, cut off ties and worked hard to build a business from the ground up. Years have passed. They have had no contact. She continues to place milestones in her path thinking if she reaches these she will prove her worth. She is already sought after for upscale, historical renovations.
The project is currently working on needs financial backing which leads her to meet Paul, the gorgeous gentleman from a consortium interested in investing in this venture. Molly did not get where she is by using her dad's name. Quite the opposite, almost no one is aware of her socialite strings. This is a girl who climbs on roofs when needed. A get it done kind of woman. Can a female obtain this kind of financial backing now when she has a successful company showing continual growth and impeccable financial stability? Or is it still a.good ole boys world? And will she be pressured to use dad's name?
The plot weaves around her.personal achievements and her guarding with a passion anything tying her to her father. Nothing can keep.her from reaching those milestones. Oldaker's writing style is easy to follow. The pace of the story was a bit slow with a tendency to drag out or let the worst case scenerios play out before moving on.
Oldaker's character development was good. We got a good look at Molly and Paul. We saw some other interesting characters and relationships such as the farher/son team on the consortium. Oldaker gave us a depth there I did not expect and took it in a moving direction. I enjoyed the way she allowed her characters to reveal parts of themselves we would not see on surface. Family and friendship were both explored as well as the possibility one can begin anew or one can realize they were wrong.
The romance was charming. At times these two, as well as their friends acted a bit like junior high kids, but perhaps for these characters that was needed.
Fix yourself a cup of coffee, grab a blanket and settle in for a good read. I sure enjoyed it and hope you will also.

[Deana Dick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is about a woman determined to build a high-end housing development. Such a big dream for a woman who is essentially on her own, some people may think. That doesn't stop Molly for going full speed ahead. Molly needs to find someone that will help her go forward with the building with much needed funds. She meets Paul, who will hopefully be her answer to building this big project . The author touches on the strained relationship between Molly and her dad, which explains her determination to do the impossible task some people think she won't finish.

There is romance blooming between Molly and Paul that makes the story fun as they explore their feelings. At times it seemed like maybe they were holding back a bit. Is it possible they have secrets they are hiding from each other? Molly's character was very well developed . The author shows how working in a "man's world " can sometimes be difficult but Molly had such heart and enthusiasm for the project which helped get respect from others who had doubted her.

The book at times did slow a little but overall the story was written with characters who were inspiring and fun to read about. It was a light hearted book that is perfect for an enjoyable day to relax , get comfortable and enjoy a well written story .

I received a copy of this book from Librarything for an honest review.

[Arlena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Nothing Ventured
Author: Jane Oldaker
Publisher: Smashwords Edition
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: 5
Review:

"Nothing Ventured" by Jane Oldaker was a wonderful contemporary romance read that once you start you will find it hard to put down. I am not sure what all I expected from this read but I did get much more that I ever thought I would get having completed this novel. It was very well written, not leaving out any details to this intriguing storyline. I found all of the characters so well defined, colorful, believable and even endearing only to give the reader a awesome read. You will be kept right up to almost the end seeing if Miss Molly would let got her all her pride to finally see what a great man she could have. If you are looking for a good love story with a happy ever after then you have come to the right place for "Nothing Ventured" will give it all to you and more.

[2sonreader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing Ventured is the story of Molly Malone, a contractor, and Paul Farnsworth, a lawyer and member of a venture capital consortium. Molly wants to develop an upmarket subdivision with Victorian style homes north of Toronto, Ontario. As a resident of Ontario, I enjoyed reading a novel with the familiar setting of my home province. Although her family is very wealthy, Molly wants to prove that she can do this on her own so she approaches Paul's group to help with financing the project. Sparks fly and Molly and Paul fall in love. As always, the path to love is never easy but in this book it felt like it was particularly difficult. The book could have done with some more editing - the plot was good but could have progressed more quickly; it felt like the characters were repeating themselves.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely book! Molly is too swept up with work to worry about romance until Paul comes along and they turn each other's worlds upside down.

Molly is someone that I can identify with, and one of my favorite main characters as of late. The detail offered by Oldaker makes the story pop off of the pages. I feel a different cover could really add to the value of the book, though. I'm a sucker for beautifully done covers, and this one doesn't do it justice. All in all, everyone should give this book a chance. It's a perfect, quick read.

**I was gifted this book for free in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the author and/or publisher.

[Cathy Geha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane Oldaker’s story of a work obsessed female contractor trying to make her mark in the world is interesting. This is a very detailed story that deals with a woman that is on the outs with her father while trying to prove herself to him by being a success. The consortium she has gone to for financing has one member that she falls for in spite of not wanting to become involved till she is a success. The ins and outs are interesting and believable. I sometimes skimmed over the details to get on with the story.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was well written and the storyline was amazing. I thought the characters were so endearing that they felt like old friends. This was such a joy to read and I look forward to reading the next installment as well as other books from this author.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, firstly, can we just take a minute to look at the cover for this book? Excellent. Let's move on then.

I'm 97% sure that my extensive history with romance fan fiction is literally the only reason I was able to make it through this book. Having been exposed to large amounts of poorly-written-yet-somehow-still-kind-of-engaging love stories, this book bothered me less than it probably would have otherwise.

Right at the start of it, there's a note that states: "Nothing Ventured is an Arlo the Barncat publication which is exactly the same as self-publishing." which honestly explains a lot because the whole thing reads like something you'd find on FictionPress. (And not even like some of the really good stories you can find on there either.)

I had several small problems with the book overall, most of which probably could have been fixed by a good proofreader/editor or someone who understood that when a new person starts speaking, you start a new line. On top of that, there were several times when there would be a quote mark at the beginning of something and then just... no other quote marks later? It made it tricky to figure out when people were actually done talking.

Aside from some random grammar and punctuation errors throughout the book, there were a few things that bothered me. Here's a short list:

-- This book has a major case of telling-instead-of-showing, which is only slightly annoying because usually readers are clever enough to figure out things without them being explicitly stated multiple times.

-- Sometimes there would be random time skips where the book would be like "and then nothing happened for two weeks" or it would skip over nearly a dozen dates in order to get to the sexy times (which is apparently the only reason why you're reading this book).

-- Despite the fact that this book progressed to the characters having sex quite quickly, these have to be some of the least romantic sex scenes I've ever read in my entire life.

Boy: Ooh, boobies.
Girl: Ooh, stubble.
They made love.

Which is not only super weird but also ridiculous because stubble might be attractive but having it rub on your skin is not attractive, that shit hurts.

-- There is an absurd amount of adverbs. They are actually everywhere. Why.

-- Occasionally there would be sudden location changes that weren't really mentioned at all.

Example One: The main character says she's going to take her friend out to lunch, they continue the conversation and then suddenly they're already at lunch? When did that happen? Where was the transition?

Example Two: The main character is at her house and her love interest drives up, she goes out the front door to meet him. He walks over and kisses her and then suddenly they're taking off each others' clothes? Outside? No, apparently they're inside now. When did that take place? Haven't got a clue, but apparently it did.

-- Sometimes words are used multiple times in the same sentence (they're usually adverbs) which makes things just needlessly repetitive.

Overall, the characters are pointlessly dramatic, stubborn, and all seem to suffer from the same chronic inability to actually just talk to each other about things. Everyone's rash and impulsive, jumping to conclusions, getting angry at each other, and then not listening to any possible reasoning or explanations. It's like the perfect example of how not to behave in relationships.

I'd like to leave you with this wonderful quote which I feel summarises how all the characters in this book react to things:

"She hadn't given any consideration to other possibilities."

DISCLAIMER: If you haven't spent a lot of time reading copious amounts of fan fiction, you may have less tolerance for this book than I did.

This review is also posted on LibraryThing.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has there ever been a time when you only focused solely on your work, and not your social life? Overly working yourself for fear of commitment? Or just forget what it was like to be carefree? That would be Molly and Paul, dependent upon work and nothing else. Until they meet one another....

Work is always priority number one for Molly, since she is a female with a contracting business. This profession held by women, is usually frowned upon by men, who are rather degrading and demeaning. One man, that shouldn't, is Molly's father. He should be one of her biggest cheerleaders, unfortunately this isn't the case. But one man who she happens to cross paths with, may very well be rooting for her.

Paul walks into her life, when she least expects a man to interest her. He is actually there to help her fund her biggest project to date. But as fate would have it, it pulls these two together for something more. Paul is just as busy as Molly is, but wants to test the waters of this new relationship.

Paul loves the fact that Molly is so headstrong, self-dependent, and the fact that she is a hard worker. Molly is very much as smitten with Paul for being a hard worker. Their lives have both been effected in the past from previous significant others. So this has deterred either of them from dating. Now they can see what they've each been missing out on. Love. Unfortunately, as life would have it, Paul may have put his nose where it didn't belong. Will there be hell to pay? Is Molly able to move along like nothing happened? Or will their relationship falter?

Overall I felt that this story could have been cut short possibly by 50 to 75 pages. For me, it was just too long and drawn out. I can usually find a rhythm when I read a book, with this book I wasn't able to. I found myself skimming and skipping parts of this story, due to being bored. But I thought the writing style was great, I loved the authors attention for details, and I loved Molly and Paul. She made some good side characters too. Be on the lookout for Book Two Nothing Gained, coming late 2013 or early 2014. I give this book 3.5-4 Stars.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this from Library Thing to read and review. Molly Malone wants to succeed in her contracting business for her own self and to prove to her father that she can. The two have been estranged since Molly chose this profession over following in her father’s footsteps. Thus, she is excited to have a well-known, solid consortium looking carefully at a proposal she has made for investing. With the money they will provide, she can achieve her dream of creating and building a high-end housing development. When Paul Farnsworth, the investor’s front man, comes to discuss the project, both are immediately struck with each other. This is their story, as they go on about selling the consortium on the project and begin to integrate their lives together. This is a great romance story. However, there was a lot of time devoted to day-to-day ups and downs in their relationship and in the prospect of the group’s funding. This made the book drag a lot for me, as I read it. I kept wanting to grab them by the shoulders and tell them to just get on with things rather than poke around the way they did. In addition, both Molly and Paul were secretive, her more so, which really did not lend much to the story. I do not understand why Molly just didn’t tell Paul about her father, explaining their estrangement as the reason she had not approached him to fund her project and the reason she wanted to succeed on her own, without his help. A lot of time was spent in the book, and, with some good editing, could have been shortened or eliminated, letting this great story come through. Rather than add to the storyline, these detracted from it. The characters of Molly and Paul were well developed, and their chemistry was evident. Even the secondary characters were well done. The writing, when focused on the storyline and not the other “distractions” was also fairly well done. As I said, the story could just have been edited to make the storyline tighter and read better.

[Jo-Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing Ventured is about Molly Malone who is a female contractor trying to build a successful business without the help of her family. We also have Paul Farnsworth, a lawyer and member of the venture capital consortium that Molly has approached to finance her business. Molly is currently not associating with her father and trying to hide their relationship. Molly falls for Paul even though she does not want to become involved till she is a success in her business.

I found the characters to be very interesting. I really liked Molly and her determination to succeed in business. The fact that her business is construction is even more amazing and makes the story all the more interesting. But I felt sorry for Paul. No matter how hard he tried to do the right thing when it concerned Molly, he seemed to make things worse. I liked finding out a bit about the men in the consortium as well as Molly's parents. These relationships added drama to the story which made me want to find out more. One thing that made this story hard for me to find overly believable is that both main characters came from extremely wealthy families but, other than Paul's house, you would never know this from their current lives.

I liked this story about a strong woman in a man's world, however, at times there were large sections of construction and investment related details that I was not interested in and skimmed. Editing would have made it more enjoyable to read.

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this work in exchange for an honest review.

[SnoopyDoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a nice story and I liked the idea of the story. I always like a good story about empowering women. Like Molly running, a mostly run by men business on her own and being really successful doing it. Also, finding love when you least expect it. Like I already said it is a nice story, but I found myself a bit bored half way through. The story seemed to be draw out a bit at times and also felt a bit repetitive. I didn’t care for the main character Molly as much; she seemed very bland I guess would be a word. She had two modes when she was not her bland self, extremely angry or extremely sad, almost in a depressed state. The other character made up for her though.

Over all I give this book a 3 star rating, it was a nice story but seemed to be dragging at times.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book from page 1. The attention to detail is fantastic and I felt like I was a mouse on the wall watching what happened in the book. Molly is obsessed with her career and making a name for herself. Then she meets Paul whom she wants his financial backing to invest into her real estate developments. The last thing she expects to find is romance. You have to read how this love story develops and the hurdles they overcome along the way. Do they live happily ever after or don’t they?

I read this book in 2 sittings and could not put it down. Quick, easy read that will not disappoint.


4.5 stars

[Cindy Holdmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was such a great read. I'm not usually a romance reader but this was so well done I couldn't put it down. The plot was extremely interesting and the characters had so much depth that you felt you knew them. I enjoyed how the author put some conflict in and really loved the two main characters as well as the others. It flowed smoothly, although things were repeated at times but only when necessary. Loved the epilogue as well. A very good read.

[Sarah Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little wary when I started ‘Nothing Ventured’ because I felt as though I didn’t identify with the main character, Molly. As the story moved along, however, I realized that the supporting characters made up for my misgivings about the leading lady, and I really enjoyed their quirky comments and unpredictable goings-on. In the end, I am a sucker for a love story and am happy with how everything was nicely brought together. Well done!

[Mark Kyhl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good story about family, woman in construction, and romance. The story shows how much effort all three of these things takes to make work. It will keep your interest from start to finish and leave you with a good feeling when it is over. Looking forward to the next in the series.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This was a cute love story with depth and detail. I liked Nothing Ventured!

[Jai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the plot to be very thin considering the length of the book but if you want a primarily romantic book this one would work for you. I particularly likes the savvy pet shop and Makita.