Tuesday, June 30, 2015

All the Single Ladies by Dorothea Benton Frank



What They Say.....The perennial New York Times bestselling author returns with an emotionally resonant novel that illuminates the power of friendship in women’s lives, and is filled with her trademark wit, poignant and timely themes, sassy, flesh-and-blood characters, and the steamy Southern atmosphere and beauty of her beloved Carolina Lowcountry.

Few writers capture the complexities, pain, and joy of relationships—between friends, family members, husbands and wives, or lovers—as beloved New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank. In this charming, evocative, soul-touching novel, she once again takes us deep into the heart of the magical Lowcountry where three amazing middle-aged women are bonded by another amazing woman’s death.

Through their shared loss they forge a deep friendship, asking critical questions. Who was their friend and what did her life mean? Are they living the lives they imagined for themselves? Will they ever be able to afford to retire? How will they maximize their happiness? Security? Health? And ultimately, their own legacies?

A plan is conceived and unfurls with each turn of the tide during one sweltering summer on the Isle of Palms. Without ever fully realizing how close they were to the edge, they finally triumph amid laughter and maybe even newfound love.

What I Say....Hmmmm......what to say.  I love chick lit and I love books set in the South. I have enjoyed Dorothea Benton Frank's books before.  But I didn't enjoy this one much.  I didn't hate it, and it had a lot of potential with the story of the stolen property of a dead woman, but ultimately it felt like that storyline got dropped, and just picked up for a quickie resolution at the end.

I'm all about chick lit and true love endings, however, this book titled, "All the Single Ladies", seemed to be intent on pairing the single ladies off very quickly.  The main character, Lisa begins dating Paul - who was originally introduced as having been a love interest of her patient, Kathy, in the nursing home, who died.  Not really sure she met the age requirements, but okay.

There seems to be a build up on why Paul and Kathy (dead patient) broke up, but then it never leads to a remarkable explanation.

So much of the dialogue was cringe worthy for me. "I felt a powerful twitch south of the Mason-Dixie Line in my personal Lowcountry.".  "And apparently, he got my motor going.  This was a curious developing story in the long-dormant Department of Moufky Poufky.  I think you know what I'm talking about.".  Umm, actually, I don't.  What the hell is Moufky Poufky?

The resolution to Kathy's stolen belongings is the arrival of her long lost ex-husband, who owns a huge chain of grocery stores.  This upright, wealthy businessman storms over to the evil landlady's house with 6 complete strangers to demand her belongings back (we suddenly find there is a letter opener worth 7 million dollars that he gave her just in case she ever needed money), and instead of calling the police to meet them there, they start banging on the door, yelling at her, and force their way in, even after she yells that she has a gun.  Hot mess.

The storyline of her daughter who is in the travel marijuana business (legal in Colorado), the ex-husband who is starring on some type of Duck Dynasty show, and the friend who has married 4 men named John, who have all died suddenly.  They were all interesting asides, but I would have liked to see the book explore the changing attitudes towards marijuana and it's business, instead of acting like her daughter was employed manning a gas chamber.  

Honestly, though, this book has a Goodreads score of 3.73, so I could just be overthinking it.  I just don't like when grown women can't discuss sex like a grown up.  I really don't want to hear about your sex life period, but I especially don't want to hear about your Moufky Poufky.  

Blech.



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Sunday, June 28, 2015

Weekly Book Haul.....June 28, 2015, plus a giveaway!





The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's ReviewsThe Sunday Salon is a new facebook group I've joined and Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia to be Continued.

Well, it's official, the move is behind me.  You know you've got a best friend when she can make her husband and four of his friends move you in the 110 degree Phoenix heat.  What a horrible day it was.

Now I'm in the new house, surrounded by boxes that need unpacked.  So I unpacked last night until I was exhausted, and then I sat on the couch and thanked God for Apple TV, since Direct TV won't be here until the morning.  I was too tired to even try to open my Kindle.

This move has been hanging over me for the last month, so I'm looking forward to getting my second wind after I get settled in.  After this, I have two more weeks to finally relax, get in the pool and read, read, read until I go back to work.

Don't forget that I have a giveaway going this week.  Two days left for a chance to win a copy of Jane Green's newest book, Summer Secrets.


In the meantime, I got some great adds this week.

From NetGalley

The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert.....You’ve Got Mail 
meets How to Eat a Cupcake in this delightful novel about a talented chef and the food critic who brings down her restaurant—whose chance meeting turns into a delectable romance of mistaken identities.

In downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lou works tirelessly to build her beloved yet struggling French restaurant, Luella’s, into a success. She cheerfully balances her demanding business and even more demanding fiancé…until the morning she discovers him in the buff—with an intern.

Witty yet gruff British transplant Al is keeping himself employed and entertained by writing scathing reviews of local restaurants in the Milwaukee newspaper under a pseudonym. When an anonymous tip sends him to Luella’s, little does he know he’s arrived on the worst day of the chef’s life. The review practically writes itself: underdone fish, scorched sauce, distracted service—he unleashes his worst.

The day that Al’s mean-spirited review of Luella’s runs, the two cross paths in a pub: Lou drowning her sorrows, and Al celebrating his latest publication. As they chat, Al playfully challenges Lou to show him the best of Milwaukee and she’s game—but only if they never discuss work, which Al readily agrees to. As they explore the city’s local delicacies and their mutual attraction, Lou’s restaurant faces closure, while Al’s column gains popularity. It’s only a matter of time before the two fall in love…but when the truth comes out, can Lou overlook the past to chase her future?

Set in the lovely, quirky heart of Wisconsin, The Coincidence of Coconut Cake is a charming love story of misunderstandings, mistaken identity, and the power of food to bring two people together.


Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper.....A juicy novel of celebrity love gone wrong,
pulled from the pages of today’s gossip magazines

Actress Lizzie Pepper was America’s Girl Next Door and her marriage to Hollywood mega-star Rob Mars was tabloid gold—a whirlwind romance and an elaborate celebrity-studded wedding landed them on the cover of every celebrity weekly. But fame, beauty, and wealth weren’t enough to keep their marriage together. Hollywood’s “It” couple are over—and now Lizzie is going to tell her side of the story.

Celebrity ghostwriter Hilary Liftin chronicles the tabloids’ favorite marriage as Lizzie Pepper realizes that, when the curtain falls, her romance isn’t what she and everyone else thought. From her lonely holidays in sumptuous villas to her husband’s deep commitment to a disconcertingly repressive mind-body group, Lizzie reveals a side of fame that her fans never get to see in a story that will have every reader guessing the real-life inspirations for its players. Full of twists and turns, Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper is a breathless journey to the heights of Hollywood power and royalty and a life in the spotlight that is nearly impossible to escape.

From Edelweiss

Say Yes to Death by Susan McBride....Someone old, someone cruel

Debutante dropout Andrea Kendricks is beyond done with big hair, big gowns, and big egos—so being dragged to a high-society Texas wedding by her socialite mama, Cissy, gives her a bad case of déjà vu. As does running into her old prep-school bully, Olivia La Belle, the wedding planner, who's graduated to berating people for a living on her reality TV show. But for all the times Andy wished her dead, nobody deserves Olivia's fate: lying in a pool of blood, a cake knife in her throat—but did the angry baker do it?
Millicent Draper, the grandmotherly owner of Millie's Cakes, swears she's innocent, and Andy believes her. Unfortunately, the cops don't. Though Andy's fiancé, lawyer Brian Malone, is handling Millie's case, she's determined to spring Millie herself. But where to start? "La Belle from Hell" had enemies galore. Good thing Andy has a BFF who's a reporter— and a blue-blood mother who likes to pull strings.

This is your life, Harriet Chance by Jonathan Evison.....With her husband
Bernard two years in the grave, seventy-nine-year-old Harriet Chance sets sail on an ill-conceived Alaskan cruise only to discover through a series of revelations that she’s been living the past sixty years of her life under entirely false pretenses. There, amid the buffets and lounge singers, between the imagined appearance of her late husband and the very real arrival of her estranged daughter midway through the cruise, Harriet is forced to take a long look back, confronting the truth about pivotal events that changed the course of her life.  

Jonathan Evison—bestselling author of West of Here, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, and All About Lulu—has crafted a bighearted novel with a supremely endearing heroine at its center. Through Harriet, he paints a bittersweet portrait of a postmodern everywoman with great warmth, humanity, and humor. Part dysfunctional love story, part poignant exploration of the mother/daughter relationship, nothing is what it seems in this tale of acceptance, reexamination, forgiveness, and, ultimately, healing. It is sure to appeal to admirers of Evison’s previous work, as well as fans of such writers as Meg Wolitzer, Junot Diaz, and Karen Joy Fowler.
 

Hope you all have a great week - is anyone having a great summer read?

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Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Enter to win a copy of Jane Green's Summer Secrets!!




I'm giving away a copy of Jane Green's newest book, Summer Secrets!!  Jane Green is one of my favorite authors and I want everyone to get to experience her writing.

Click here to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway!!!!

Jane Green delivers her second blockbuster novel of 2015, a story of one woman struggling to right the wrongs of her past, with even more complications in the present.

June, 1998: At twenty seven, Catherine Coombs, also known as Cat, is struggling. She lives in London, works as a journalist, and parties hard. Her lunchtimes consist of several glasses of wine at the bar downstairs in the office, her evenings much the same, swigging the free booze and eating the free food at a different launch or party every night. When she discovers the identity of the father she never knew she had, it sends her into a spiral. She makes mistakes that cost her the budding friendship of the only women who have ever welcomed her. And nothing is ever the same after that.

June, 2014: Cat has finally come to the end of herself. She no longer drinks. She wants to make amends to those she has hurt. Her quest takes her to Nantucket, to the gorgeous summer community where the women she once called family still live. Despite her sins, will they welcome her again? What Cat doesn’t realize is that these women, her real father’s daughters, have secrets of their own. As the past collides with the present, Cat must confront the darkest things in her own life and uncover the depths of someone’s need for revenge.


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The Status of All Things by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke





What They Say....What would you do if you could literally rewrite your fate—on Facebook? This heartwarming and hilarious new novel from the authors of Your Perfect Life follows a woman who discovers she can change her life through online status updates.
Kate is a thirty-five-year-old woman who is obsessed with social media. So when her fiancé, Max, breaks things off at their rehearsal dinner—to be with Kate’s close friend and coworker, no less—she goes straight to Facebook to share it with the world. But something’s changed. Suddenly, Kate’s real life starts to mirror whatever she writes in her Facebook status. With all the power at her fingertips, and heartbroken and confused over why Max left her, Kate goes back in time to rewrite their history.

Kate's two best friends, Jules and Liam, are the only ones who know the truth. In order to convince them she’s really time traveled, Kate offers to use her Facebook status to help improve their lives. But her attempts to help them don’t go exactly as planned, and every effort to get Max back seems to only backfire, causing Kate to wonder if it’s really possible to change her fate.

In The Status of All Things, Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke combine the humor and heart of Sarah Pekkanen and Jennifer Weiner while exploring the pitfalls of posting your entire life on the Internet. They raise the questions: What if you could create your picture-perfect life? Would you be happy? Would you still be you? For anyone who’s ever attempted—or failed—to be their perfect self online, this is a story of wisdom and wit that will leave you with new appreciation for the true status of your life.

What I Say....This was a cute, quick read.  It starts with Max telling Kate he doesn't want to marry her after all, on the eve of their wedding in Hawaii, with all of the family and friends present.  The icing on the cake is that he is in love with a Kate's coworker and friend, who is also in Hawaii for the celebration.

Kate is devastated, not just because she is losing her fiancé, but equally worried about how this will look on social media.  People are congratulating her on Facebook and she can't imagine telling them that the wedding has been cancelled.

This is when Ruby makes her first appearance, bringing with her the ability for Kate to change her life via Facebook statuses.  Kate chooses to go back a month to try to convince Max that she really is the girl for him.

It seems like the perfect solution, but Kate finds out that it isn't so easy to change the course of fate.

As she tries to push her life towards the perfect Facebook status update, she almost misses the true love that is already in front of her.

This was a lighthearted read, and a good reminder that life puts you right where you are supposed to be.



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Sunday, June 21, 2015

Weekly Book Haul.....June 21, 2015







The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's ReviewsThe Sunday Salon is a new facebook group I've joined and Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia to be Continued.

Well, I'm finally getting up and around.  When I was planning my surgery, I had visions of being propped up on the couch with my laptop, catching up on all of my blogging and reading a book a day.  What I've found out is that after surgery, you don't feel like doing anything.  I mean, I have literally not wanted to do anything.  I have watched untold amounts of Love It or List It and The Big Bang Theory, two shows I have never watched before.  I've had my Kindle within reach, my laptop right beside me, but I have had very little interest in turning either on.

But this week I am finally starting to feel like myself again.  I've finished a couple of books, and I've been getting the house packed up.  Moving day is Friday.  

I'm kind of dreading the move, I don't usually enjoy this much change.   New job, surgery, had to put my dog to sleep, youngest daughter graduated (hello, empty nest!), and a move.  It's been a lot to process, and I've had too much time on my hands for the last two weeks to think about all of the changes, when my M.O. is usually to keep busy all of the time.

I added a few new good books this week, and as I was writing this I noticed two of them have very similar titles.  The Secrets We Keep and Those Secrets We Keep - couldn't have picked two closer titles if I tried!  


From NetGalley

The Secrets We Keep by Stephanie Butland....A tragic accident, a broken
heart, and a marriage drowning in secrets...

Mike always walks the dog in the evening while Elizabeth relaxes in the bathtub--but one night he doesn’t come back. Mike has drowned while saving a teenage girl named Kate, his dog standing on the bank barking frantically as the police pull his body from the water.

But despite her husband being lauded as a hero, Elizabeth can’t wrap her mind around the fact that Mike is gone--and Kate won’t reveal the details of what really happened that night.

Elizabeth finds herself facing the unfathomable possibility that she may not have known her husband at all. Does she really want to know the truth? Or will the weight of Mike’s secrets pull her under?


My Very Best Friend by Cathy Lamb.....From a childhood friendship
sustained over years and distance, to a journey of discovery, Cathy Lamb's poignant novel tells of two women whose paths converge with unforeseen results—and reveals the gift of connection, and the challenges that can change everything for the better…


Charlotte Mackintosh is an internationally known bestselling romance writer who has no romance, and remains a mystery to her fans. In fact, she has little in her life besides her work, her pampered cats, and her secluded home off the coast of Washington. And then there is her very best friend, Bridget, who lives in Scotland, where Charlotte lived until she was fifteen. Bridget, whom Charlotte hasn't seen in twenty years, but continues to write to—though the replies have stopped. Hurt by the silence, an opportunity arises to find answers—and maybe much more.

Charlotte must finally return to Scotland to sell her late father's cottage. It was his tragic death when Charlotte was fifteen that began her growing isolation, and the task is fraught with memories. But her plans are slowed when she's confronted with the beautiful but neglected house, the irresistible garden—and Toran, Bridget's brother. Capable and kind, Toran has the answers Charlotte seeks. And as she is drawn deeper into the community she thought she'd left behind, Charlotte learns not only more about her dear friend, but about herself—and discovers a new and unexpected path.


Those Secrets We Keep by Emily Liebert....Three women. Three lives. Three
secrets.


On the surface, Sloane has the perfect life—an adoring husband, a precocious daughter, and enough financial security to be a stay-at-home mom. Still, she can’t help but feel as though something—or someone—is missing....

Hillary has a successful career and a solid marriage. The only problem is her inability to conceive. And there’s a very specific reason why....

As the wild-child daughter of old family money, Georgina has never had to accept responsibility for anything. So when she realizes an unexpected life change could tie her down forever, she does exactly what she’s always done: escape.

When these three women unite for a three-week-long summer vacation in beautiful Lake George, New York, even with the idyllic location as their backdrop, the tensions begin to mount. And they quickly discover that no secret can be kept forever....


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Saturday, June 20, 2015

Blueprints by Barbara Delinsky



What They Say....Caroline MacAfee is a skilled carpenter, her daughter Jamie, a talented architect. Together they are the faces of Gut It!, a home renovation series on local public television. Caroline takes pride in her work, and in the way she connects with the show's audience. But when she is told the network wants her daughter to replace her as host-the day after Caroline's fifty-sixth birthday-she is devastated. The fallout couldn't come at a worse time.

For Jamie, life changes overnight when, soon after learning of the host shift, her father and his new wife die in a car accident that orphans their two-year-old son. Accustomed to organization and planning, she is now grappling with a toddler who misses his parents, a fiancé who doesn't want the child, a staggering new attraction, and a work challenge that, if botched, could undermine the future of both MacAfee Homes and Gut It!

For Caroline, hosting Gut It! is part of her identity. Facing its loss, she feels betrayed by her daughter and old in the eyes of the world. Her ex-husband's death thrusts her into the role of caregiver to his aging father. And then there's Dean, a long-time friend, whose efforts to seduce her awaken desires that have been dormant for so long that she feels foreign to herself.

Who am I? Both women ask, as the blueprints they've built their lives around suddenly need revising. While loyalties shift, decisions hover, and new relationships tempt, their challenge comes not only in remaking themselves, but in rebuilding their relationship with each other.


What I Say....Barbara Delinsky is one of my favorite authors for mother/daughter relationships.  She writes them so well.  

Caroline and Jamie have a great mother/daughter relationship, but it is tested when their mutual workplace's reality show decides to replace Caroline as the host, with her daughter.

Caroline is torn by different emotions, love for her daughter and pride in her work, while dealing with a blow to her ego, and dealing with the thought that as she ages she becomes even less valuable in her workplace.  Her feelings rang true, and I liked that she didn't just quickly get over it.  She was a mother, but also a human with her own feelings.

Jamie's life is already in upheaval, when her father is killed in a car crash, leaving her with a 2 year old stepson to raise.  

I don't want to give any other spoilers, but this was a typical great Barbara Delinsky read.  The budding romances for both women are a little too easy - says this divorced 40-something who wants to meet a man in exactly that way! LOL - but they were satisfying to read.



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Sunday, June 14, 2015

Weekly Book Haul.......June 14, 2015




The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's ReviewsThe Sunday Salon is a new facebook group I've joined and Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia to be Continued.

Well, I've been down for the count after my surgery on June 3, so I missed posting my Weekly Book Haul last Sunday, and I'm very late posting this one today, but I feel like I need to get back into the swing of things.  

I didn't add a whole lot, but a few goodies have made their way to me.....


NetGalley

Secret Daughter by Kelly Rimmer......As I saw my new-born baby’s face for
the first time I tried desperately to capture her face in my mind—to stamp it onto my eyelids. As she was taken from me I knew I might never see my daughter again.

37 years later…

‘You were adopted’Three short words and Sabina’s life fractures. There would forever be a Before those words, and an After.

Pregnant with her own child, Sabina can’t understand how a mother could abandon her daughter, or why her parents have kept the past a secret.

Determined to find the woman who gave her away, what she discovers will change everything, not just for Sabina, but for the women who have loved her all these years.


The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Kararina Bivald.....Once
you let a book into your life, the most unexpected things can happen...

Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds that Amy's funeral has just ended. Luckily, the townspeople are happy to look after their bewildered tourist—even if they don't understand her peculiar need for books. 

Marooned in a farm town that's almost beyond repair, Sara starts a bookstore in honor of her friend's memory. All she wants is to share the books she loves with the citizens of Broken Wheel and to convince them that reading is one of the great joys of life. 

But she makes some unconventional choices that could force a lot of secrets into the open and change things for everyone in town. 

Reminiscent of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, this is a warm, witty book about friendship, stories, and love.


Summer by the Sea by Jenny Hale....Summer by the Sea is a beautiful,
heart-warming summer read
 about sistersfirst love and not always getting what we want – but sometimes ending up with exactly what we need.

They say there’s always one summer that changes you.

For Faith the one summer she can’t forget is when she fell in love as a teenager – only for her sister, Casey, to steal her man.Now, at the request of her beloved ninety-year-old Grandmother, Faith has agreed to a family holiday – at their childhood beach house, where it all began. 

Faith hasn’t seen her sister in years but is finally ready to forgive and forget, enjoy the sunshine and relive happy memories. What she’s not ready for is meeting Jake Buchanan – the owner of the beach house – or the long-forgotten feelings he ignites in her. 

Can Faith overcome the hurt of the past, rekindle the close bond she had with Casey and make this summer THE ONE to remember?


In the Mail

After a While, You Just Get Used to It by Gwendolyn Knapp...A vibrant new
voice ups the self-deprecating memoir ante with tragicomic tales of her dysfunctional life in swampland Florida and America’s Big Easy
 A dive bar palm reader who calls herself the Disco Queen Taiwan; a slumlord with a penis-of-the-day LISTSERV; and Betty, the middle-aged Tales of the Cocktail volunteer who soils her pants on a party bus and is dealt with in the worst possible way. These are just a few of the unforgettable characters who populate Gwendolyn Knapp’s hilarious and heartbreaking—yet ultimately uplifting—memoir debut, After a While You Just Get Used to It. Growing up in a dying breed of eccentric Florida crackers, Knapp thought she had it rough—what with her pack rat mother, Margie; her aunt Susie, who has fewer teeth than prison stays; and Margie’s bipolar boyfriend, John. But not long after Knapp moves to New Orleans, Margie packs up her House of Hoarders and follows along. As if Knapp weren’t struggling enough to keep herself afloat, working odd jobs and trying to find love while suffering from irritable bowel syndrome, the thirty-year-old realizes that she’s never going to escape her family’s unendingly dysfunctional drama.


The Shore by Sara Taylor....Welcome to The Shore: a collection of small islands sticking
out from the coast of Virginia into the Atlantic Ocean. Where clumps of evergreens meet wild ponies, oyster-shell roads, tumble-down houses, unwanted pregnancies, murder, storm-making and dark magic in the marshes. . .

Situated off the coast of Virginia's Chesapeake Bay, the group of islands known as the Shore has been home to generations of fierce and resilient women. Sanctuary to some but nightmare to others, it's a place they've inhabited, fled, and returned to for hundreds of years. From a half-Shawnee Indian's bold choice to flee an abusive home only to find herself with a man who will one day try to kill her to a brave young girl's determination to protect her younger sister as methamphetamine ravages their family, to a lesson in summoning storm clouds to help end a drought, these women struggle against domestic violence, savage wilderness, and the corrosive effects of poverty and addiction to secure a sense of well-being for themselves and for those they love.

Together their stories form a deeply affecting legacy of two barrier island families, illuminating 150 years of their many freedoms and constraints, heartbreaks, and pleasures. Conjuring a wisdom and beauty all its own, The Shore is a richly unique, stunning novel that will resonate with readers long after turning its final pages, establishing Sara Taylor as a promising new voice in fiction. 


Situated off the coast of Virginia's Chesapeake Bay, the group of islands known as the Shore has been home to generations of fierce and resilient women. Sanctuary to some but nightmare to others, it's a place they've inhabited, fled, and returned to for hundreds of years. From a half-Shawnee Indian's bold choice to flee an abusive home only to find herself with a man who will one day try to kill her to a brave young girl's determination to protect her younger sister as methamphetamine ravages their family, to a lesson in summoning storm clouds to help end a drought, these women struggle against domestic violence, savage wilderness, and the corrosive effects of poverty and addiction to secure a sense of well-being for themselves and for those they love.


Together their stories form a deeply affecting legacy of two barrier island families, illuminating 150 years of their many freedoms and constraints, heartbreaks, and pleasures. Conjuring a wisdom and beauty all its own, The Shore is a richly unique, stunning novel that will resonate with readers long after turning its final pages, establishing Sara Taylor as a promising new voice in fiction. 
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Summer Secrets by Jane Green


What They Say.....June, 1998: At twenty seven, Catherine Coombs, also known as Cat, is struggling. She lives in London, works as a journalist, and parties hard. Her lunchtimes consist of several glasses of wine at the bar downstairs in the office, her evenings much the same, swigging the free booze and eating the free food at a different launch or party every night. When she discovers the identity of the father she never knew she had, it sends her into a spiral. She makes mistakes that cost her the budding friendship of the only women who have ever welcomed her. And nothing is ever the same after that.


June, 2014: Cat has finally come to the end of herself. She no longer drinks. She wants to make amends to those she has hurt. Her quest takes her to Nantucket, to the gorgeous summer community where the women she once called family still live. Despite her sins, will they welcome her again? What Cat doesn’t realize is that these women, her real father’s daughters, have secrets of their own. As the past collides with the present, Cat must confront the darkest things in her own life and uncover the depths of someone’s need for revenge.

What I Say....Well, I think I need to preface this review by saying that Jane Green is one of my all time favorite authors.  It's always chick lit done right, and she writes real women characters.

Summer Secrets felt a little different to me, but honestly, I think it will probably resonate differently with every reader, depending on their experiences and family relationships with alcohol.

Usually, I find myself having much stronger feelings about her characters, and Cat's story was certainly compelling.  She started drinking to bolster her self-confidence as a young teen, and moved into full fledged black out binging in her early adult years. 

After a disastrous meeting with her newly found father and half-sisters (including a black out betrayal of her new half-sister) gets Cat on the wagon, and she marries her dream man and has a great daughter, but Cat makes a misstep with alcohol, and off the wagon she falls.  And can't seem to get back on.

Eventually her husband leaves her (he's a recovering alcoholic too), and takes her daughter.  This is Cat's rock bottom, and she gets sober for herself for the first time.  It seems to be sticking, and she needs to complete the step that requires that she make amends to those she has wronged.

Cat returns to Nantucket to complete her step and make her amends.   I won't go into much detail here, no spoilers allowed.

However, there were a few things that seemed out of order in this book.  Towards the end of the book,  Cat thinks back to the first time she and her husband made love (for her, the first time making love sober).  I felt like I would have liked to have read this earlier in the book, because there was never enough detail for me to actively root for Cat and Jason to find their way back to each other.  He seemed like a very nice guy, but the relationship seemed very bland.  I wasn't seeing the passion or longing.

The character of Sam didn't seem to have any purpose, other than to accompany Cat to Nantucket, and to give terrible parenting advice.  I did identify with Cat on the difficulty that we have in listening to our gut, especially in parenting issues.  That's one of the things alcohol does, it makes you not trust your instincts because the alcoholics in your life have made things so unpredictable.

Anyway, another winner by Jane Green.  The woman who introduced me to chick lit.  If you haven't read Jemima J. or Bookends, you are missing out.




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Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Blog Hop - $500 Amazon card giveaway!!!


This Giveaway is made possible by all those who have donated. Please DO NOT follow or like a page unless you truly want to be a follower. All entries are verified. Don't like and follow and then unfollow these pages. These type of entries will be voided and removed.  
Blog Hop Buddies
Take a few minutes to stop by the following blogs. Show them some love and appreciation for helping make this AMAZING giveaway possible!

We present in no special order...because they’re all special…

















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