Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler




What They Say.....I came across this book at auction as part of a larger lot I purchased on speculation. The damage renders it useless to me, but a name inside it led me to believe it might be of interest to you or your family....

Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone in a house that is slowly crumbling toward the Long Island Sound. His parents are long dead. His mother, a circus mermaid who made her living by holding her breath, drowned in the very water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, ran off to join the circus six years ago.

One June day, an old book arrives on Simon's doorstep. Fragile and water damaged, the book is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, who reports strange and magical things-including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Since then, generations of "mermaids" in Simon's family have drowned-always on July 24, which is only weeks away.

As his friend Alice looks on with alarm, Simon becomes increasingly worried about his sister. Could there be a curse on Simon's family? What does it have to do with the book, and can he stop it in time to save Enola? 

The Book of Speculation is Erika Swyler's gorgeous and moving debut, a wondrous novel about the power of books, family, and magic.


What I Say.....First off let me say, that I definitely enjoyed this book.  It was a great story, full of magic, mermaids, and curses.  In the beginning, it almost put me in mind of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.

But at times it was hard to read, the overall feel of the book was super depressive.  I understand that the tone was supposed to be dark, but a little pick up in the tempo towards the middle would have made the story that much more enjoyable.

The romance between Simon and Alice seemed more a product of physical proximity than a real romance.  It felt awkward and forced.  

What did work was the storyline, and the way everyone's families intersected.  The mystery was solved and the curse was broken.  But I had figured out where the curse was anchored long before Simon seemed to.

I will definitely watch for this author in the future.  This was her first novel and I can't wait to see her  pacing improve to match her storytelling skills.

Current Goodreads rating....3.67


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Saturday, August 22, 2015

Summer by Summer by Heather Burch




What They Say.....When Summer took a job as a nanny for a couple vacationing in Belize, she imagined it would be a fresh start before starting college in the fall. And while she adores her charge, Josh, she can’t say the same for her employers’ oldest son, Bray. He’s cocky, inconsiderate, and makes her feel she’s a chore he has to put up with. In short, he’s everything she dislikes in a guy.

Bray had a plan for the summer: party, hang out with friends, and forget all the responsibilities waiting for him back home. But every time he’s forced to be around Summer, her dour, serious mood sets him off. Not to mention she has a habit of picking up on what he already knows is wrong with him.

Then the two find themselves on a dive trip gone wrong, stranded on a remote island. As they focus on survival, their differences melt away, and they find being together may be what both needed all along.
 


What I Say.....I usually like YA, especially summer romances.  I had high hopes for this book.

But as I got into it, I found that this was more like Christian YA.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, and YA as a rule isn't too racy, but the self righteousness of Summer got old pretty quickly.

The book description of Summer as "dour, serious" was incredibly accurate.  She was like the judgey Christian neighbor that loves to tell you how to live your life.  

But of course, this is what bad boy Bray needs to change his life.  

The storyline was pretty good, but Summer bugged me so much that I couldn't even enjoy it.

It doesn't look like most people agreed with me because the Current Goodreads rating is 3.76.

Thanks to Booksparks for the review copy of this book.


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Monday, August 17, 2015

Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica





What They Say.....She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can't get the girl out of her head...

Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home.

Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger. What starts as an act of kindness quickly spirals into a story far more twisted than anyone could have anticipated.
 


What I Say....This was the best book that I've read in a while.  

Lately, I've been feeling like reading/blogging has been work, when I got into it as a hobby.  I've been forcing myself to finish books that I normally would have not even started - partially because I've usually requested them, so I feel guilty.  Then I force myself to read it, even though I'm doing it while grumbling to myself.

So Pretty Baby was a nice surprise!  It brought me back to why I blog in the first place.  I never would have chosen this otherwise, but now I want to read The Good Girl because this one was that good.

I love when a book has a bit of a complicated storyline, but it actually all pulls together and everyone's story is wrapped up, and IT MAKES SENSE!

The story starts out with Heidi looking like a saint among us, the woman who cares so much about a homeless teen that she brings her and her baby into her home.  But man, do things start to take a turn for the weird fast.

I don't want to give any spoilers, but you have to read this book.  It will hook you from the start!

Current Goodreads Rating 3.97



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Sunday, August 16, 2015

Weekly Book Haul....August 16, 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.

I had such great intentions of blogging all week.  But this week just got away from me.  I'm so focused on getting certain books read by a certain deadline so I can blog actually makes me not want to read or blog.  So I've decided to start this week off by reading something I want to, rather than what I feel like I have to.


NetGalley

Preschooler by Anna Lefler....Behind the toddler-proof gate of Santa Monica’s
exclusive Garden of Happiness, it’s the grown-ups who are getting schooled.

When new preschool parent Justine discovers that the man who broke her heart back in grad school is a dad in her daughter’s class, she tells herself she’s immune to the superficial charms of the ex she calls “the crapwizard.” But when his presence opens a time tunnel of potent memories from her life before motherhood, she must find a way to defuse her old attraction to him before it undermines her marriage.

Then there’s Ruben, rookie stay-at-home dad and standup comic who quits his day job to pursue his TV-writing dream on his wife’s condition that he take her place among the “power mommies” on the school committees.

And ruling the sand box with an iron fist is Margaret, whose ongoing divorce from her dentist-turned-New Age-surfer husband forces her to rely on her dubious people skills in order to keep the school that has become the cornerstone of her identity.
When the new school year kicks off with a flight-risk rabbit named Ozone, a school secretary in desperate need of a social filter, and some double-barreled committee recruiting tactics, it’s not all juice and cookies for Justine, Ruben, and Margaret as they struggle to play nice.


Awake by Natasha Preston.....Of course, the dress was white. This is what
I’m supposed to die in, I thought. Not many people knew what their last outfit would be. 
I pulled it over my head. It fit me perfectly. It had long, loose fitting sleeves, a modest neckline, and waves of material on the skirt. I hated it.
There were no shoes, and I was afraid I’d have to run through the forest barefoot but there weren’t a lot of options. Besides, I’d run barefoot over a bed of nails to get away.
“Scarlett, are you ready?” he called.
I looked in the mirror and took a deep breath. Time to fight for my life.

Scarlett Garner doesn’t remember anything before the age of four—until a car accident changes everything. She starts to remember pieces of a past that frighten her. A past her parents hid from her…and a secret that could get her killed.

Edelweiss


In Certain Circles by Elizabeth Harrower.......Zoe Howard is seventeen
when her brother, Russell, introduces her to Stephen Quayle. Aloof and harsh, Stephen is unlike anyone she has ever met, ‘a weird, irascible character out of some dense Russian novel’. His sister, Anna, is shy and thoughtful, ‘a little orphan’.

Zoe and Russell, Stephen and Anna: they may come from different social worlds but all four will spend their lives moving in and out of each other’s shadow.

Set amid the lush gardens and grand stone houses that line the north side of Sydney Harbour, In Certain Circles is an intense psychological drama about family and love, tyranny and freedom.

Completed in 1971, five years after Elizabeth Harrower's The Watch Tower appeared to great acclaim, and published for the first time in 2014, this long-lost novel is the work of a major writer.

BookSparks


Satisfaction by Andee Reilly....When 22-year-old Ginny Martin discovers her
husband has been cheating on her, she strikes back. Buying tickets to every concert on the Rolling Stones North American tour, this devastated suburban housewife packs up the car and takes to the road. Following the Rolling Stones from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City, Ginny experiences freedom for the first time, while coping with the insecurities and limiting beliefs that had kept this small town girl’s life far too small. Bree Cooper is a nomad, a free-spirited drifter, and a mother who abandoned responsibility – and her young daughter – years before. When Ginny meets Bree at a roadside diner, they impulsively make the decision to throw their lot in together. In each other they find a friendship that they both had longed for. Bree also gives Ginny a chance to have a mother-figure who inspires independence and encourages confidence, while Ginny gives Bree a chance to get parenting right on the second try.


Anchored by Brigette Quinn....How do you stay anchored when you’re
attracted to your co-anchor? 


Barbara King’s dream is to become the next Barbara Walters. But for now, she’s anchoring at the fledgling Phoenix news channel, covering car chases and interviewing drunken showbiz has-beens. If she can just out-fox the conniving anchors at her cable channel and move up to its prime-time line-up, she’ll be able to fly the coop and ascend to a real news network. 

Enter Jack Stone, Barbara’s dynamic, witty—and did she mention sexy?—new co-anchor. Another potential competitor, Jack’s attitude is chilly toward Barbara at first, but it’s not long before a genuine friendship forms. Soon they find themselves finishing each other’s sentences, discovering all they have in common and, ultimately, attempting to ignore how wildly attracted they are to each other. Meanwhile, on the set, under television’s bright lights, they sit just inches apart, their chemistry even apparent to the quirky cast of characters in the gossiping newsroom. 

Will Barbara give in to her attraction to Jack and betray her husband, Ben, her sweet-souled moral compass? When a life-altering news event propels the Phoenix to the #1 news channel in the nation, will Barbara sell her soul to become a prime time star? 

How do you stay true to yourself when you’re being seduced by stardom—and your co-star? 


In the Mail


Cleopatra's Shadows by Emily  Holleman.....Before Caesar and the carpet,
before Antony and Actium, before Octavian and the asp, there was Arsinoe.

Abandoned by her beloved Cleopatra and an indifferent father, young Arsinoe must fight for her survival in the bloodthirsty royal court when her half-sister Berenice seizes Egypt's throne. Even as the quick-witted girl wins Berenice's favor, a new specter haunts her days-dark dreams that have a habit of coming true.

To survive, she escapes the palace for the war-torn streets of Alexandria. Meanwhile, Berenice confronts her own demons as she fights to maintain power. When their deposed father Ptolemy marches on the city with a Roman army, both daughters must decide where their allegiances truly lie, and Arsinoe grapples with the truth, that the only way to survive her dynasty is to rule it.
 




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Sunday, August 9, 2015

Weekly Book Haul.....August 9, 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.

I seriously cannot believe it's already August.  This summer went by so fast.  I'm seeing lots of Facebook posts about back to school shopping, and soon will come the barrage of kids in their first day of school clothes.  Part of me misses those days, and part of me is happy that I'm not hemorrhaging money at Target and Hollister right now!

I went to grocery shopping at Safeway yesterday and saw this.  


So annoying.  Can't we just enjoy the last few weeks of summer and the first few weeks of back-to-school without having Halloween shoved down our throats?  Maybe it's part of living in Arizona, where it stays hot all the way through Halloween that makes me get so irritated with this.  But man, it makes me rage-y.

I just finished Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica (hope to have the review up tomorrow) and it was sooo good!!  I'm giving away a copy on my blog.  Go to the home page and the entry form is on the right sidebar.  A Nurse and A Book

Added a few good books this week.  And I'm joining a Readathon Challenge called Bout of Books.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

NetGalley


Too Close to Home by Susan Lewis......Jenna Moore finally feels that she and
her family are exactly where they should be. Leaving busy London behind, they’ve moved to the beautiful, serene Welsh coast. There Jenna, her husband, Jack, and the couple’s four children have found a little slice of heaven. In the house of their dreams, Jenna and Jack are ramping up for the launch of their new publishing business, and the kids are happier than they’ve ever been, wandering the wild, grassy moors that meet white sand beaches and wide ocean.

But a fissure cracks open. The once open and honest Jack suddenly seems to be keeping secrets, spinning intricate lies. And fifteen-year-old Paige has become withdrawn, isolating herself from her family and her new friends. Frightened of the darkness enveloping her family, Jenna struggles to hold her loved ones together. But a cruel disturbance has insinuated itself into her home, threatening to take away everything she holds dear.


Edelweiss


Second Helpings at the Serve You Right Cafe by Tilia Kiebenov Jacobs....What if the world didn’t want you to go straight? Out on parole after
almost ten years in prison, Emet First is repairing his shattered life. He has friends, a job, and his first date in a decade. The young woman, Mercedes Finch, is lovely but wounded. When her deranged brother learns about Emet’s past, he will stop at nothing to destroy him—and suddenly Emet has everything to lose. 




In the Mail


Summer by Summer by Heather Burch....When Summer took a job as a
nanny for a couple vacationing in Belize, she imagined it would be a fresh start before starting college in the fall. And while she adores her charge, Josh, she can’t say the same for her employers’ oldest son, Bray. He’s cocky, inconsiderate, and makes her feel she’s a chore he has to put up with. In short, he’s everything she dislikes in a guy.

Bray had a plan for the summer: party, hang out with friends, and forget all the responsibilities waiting for him back home. But every time he’s forced to be around Summer, her dour, serious mood sets him off. Not to mention she has a habit of picking up on what he already knows is wrong with him.
Then the two find themselves on a dive trip gone wrong, stranded on a remote island. As they focus on survival, their differences melt away, and they find being together may be what both needed all along.





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Saturday, August 8, 2015

A Giveaway - Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica



I'm giving away a copy of Mary Kubica's, Pretty Baby!  And it is a page turner!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway




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Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The S Word by Paolina Milana




What They Say.....In accordance with her Sicilian Catholic family’s unspoken code, Paolina Milana learned at an early age to keep her secrets locked away where no one could find them. Nobody outside the family needed to know about the voices her Mamma battled in her head; or about how Paolina forged her birth certificate at thirteen so she could get a job at The Donut Shop; or about the police officer twenty-six years her senior whose promise to her PapĂ  to “keep an eye on her” quickly translated into something sinister. And perhaps that’s why no one saw it coming when—on the eve of her sweet sixteen, pushed to edge—Paolina attempted to take her own mother’s life. 

Raw and compelling, The S Word is the true story of a girl who nearly suffocates in the silence she was taught to value above all else—until she finally finds the strength to break free of the secrets binding her and save herself.


What I Say.....I usually am not a huge fan of memoirs.  But this one read so easily that I actually had to turn back to the cover to make sure that it wasn't a novel.

Paolina has learned to keep her family's secrets.  Her mother's mental illness, her father's inability to read or write basic English, and the fact that she has gotten a job as a 13 year old girl.

Watching Paolina navigate an overly interested police office, while juggling school and trying to escape her mother's watchful, crazy gaze, I was struck by her story.  Not at how unique it was, but at how there are probably lot's of Paolina's out there, making this story absolutely un-unique, and yet no less sad.

Although her childhood was not any type of picnic, I do have to say that it probably contributed to her success.  I think many of us were driven to succeed just as a form of escape.  

I was struck by her friend's words (written in her acknowledgment), "When are you going to stop wishing for a better past?".  I think that is something I need to practice in my own life.  Don't look back.

I do wish there had been a little afterward written that caught us up on her brother and sisters, and her father and mother.  I would have liked to know more about how they all turned out.

It was a great read - finished in a day.  I would definitely read this author again.

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Sunday, August 2, 2015

Weekly Book Haul....August 2, 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.

I had a great week.  Lots accomplished at work, read a lot, and drum roll.......I actually went to the gym a few times!  Since I've moved, I'm now five minutes away from one of my best friends, so we can work out together.   This is great because I can talk myself into staying home every night of the week.


NetGalley

The Betrayal by Laura Elliot.....Nadine and Jake Saunders were married in
their teens. Tied to one another by a night of passion that resulted in a pregnancy neither could turn away from. 
Now, years later, their children have all flown the nest and the pact they made as teenagers – to give one another the freedom to pursue their own dreams – has resurfaced. 
But freedom comes at a price …
While Nadine and Jake begin to untangle their lives from one another, Jake embarks on a passionate affair with a beautiful woman, Karin Moyes. What he doesn’t know is the dark history Karin shares with Nadine.
As lust spirals into dangerous obsession, Jake must break free from Karin. But he must also ask himself how well he ever really knew Nadine. What secret is she hiding? The truth, when it is revealed, could destroy them all.

The Murderer's Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman.....A brilliant, deeply
dedicated psychologist, Grace Blades has a gift for treating troubled souls and tormented psyches—perhaps because she bears her own invisible scars: Only five years old when she witnessed her parents' death in a bloody murder-suicide, Grace took refuge in her fierce intellect and found comfort in the loving couple who adopted her. But even as an adult with an accomplished professional life, Grace still has a dark, secret side. When her two worlds shockingly converge, Grace's harrowing past returns with a vengeance.
 
Both Grace and her newest patient are stunned when they recognize each other from a recent encounter. Haunted by his bleak past, mild-mannered Andrew Toner is desperate for Grace's renowned therapeutic expertise and more than willing to ignore their connection. And while Grace is tempted to explore his case, which seems to eerily echo her grim early years, she refuses—a decision she regrets when a homicide detective appears on her doorstep.
 
An evil she thought she'd outrun has reared its head again, but Grace fears that a police inquiry will expose her double life. Launching her own personal investigation leads her to a murderously manipulative foe, one whose warped craving for power forces Grace back into the chaos and madness she'd long ago fled.

Rooville by Julie Long....Even after thirteen years in Southern California,
Owen Martin can feel the corners of his squareness still sharply evident. He’s a TV weatherman bored by the beautiful climate. He wants to coach basketball but all the kids play soccer. And he seems to be the only person who thinks a fruit smoothie is a poor substitute for a vanilla shake. When he’s fired from his job, Owen is relieved to head home to Iowa, to the town his ancestors founded and the simple life he knew before his father died. He can’t predict the atmospheric pressure he's about to encounter, which, as any meteorologist knows, is the key catalyst for change. . . .In his absence, Martinville has become the center of the Transcendental Meditation movement and host to all things alternative. There are golden domes for mass meditations, a vegan cafĂ© where the burger joint stood, and all the shop doors around Town Square now face east. But far worse than anything is the danger to the Martin family farm. In a town divided between “Regulars” and “Roos” (gurus), Owen is clear where he stands until he falls for a levitator instead of the down-to-earth girl he had in mind. With old customs and open-mindedness clashing like warm and cold fronts, Owen gets caught in a veritable tornado. Can he save the farm, get the girl, and reunite the town? Maybe . . . if he’s willing to embrace a change in the weather.


In the Mail

Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica....She sees the teenage girl on the train
platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can't get the girl out of her head...

Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home.

Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger. What starts as an act of kindness quickly spirals into a story far more twisted than anyone could have anticipated.
 

The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher....The 1920s are famous as the
golden age of jazz and glamour, but it was also an era of fevered yearning for communion with the spirit world, after the loss of tens of millions in the First World War and the Spanish-flu epidemic. A desperate search for reunion with dead loved ones precipitated a tidal wave of self-proclaimed psychics—and, as reputable media sought stories on occult phenomena, mediums became celebrities. 


Against this backdrop, in 1924, the pretty wife of a distinguished Boston surgeon came to embody the raging national debate over Spiritualism, a movement devoted to communication with the dead. Reporters dubbed her the blonde Witch of Lime Street, but she was known to her followers simply as Margery. Her most vocal advocate was none other than Sherlock Holmes' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who believed so thoroughly in Margery's powers that he urged her to enter a controversial contest, sponsored by Scientific American and offering a large cash prize to the first medium declared authentic by its impressive five-man investigative committee.  Admired for both her exceptional charm and her dazzling effects, Margery was the best hope for the psychic practice to be empirically verified.  Her supernatural gifts beguiled four of the judges. There was only one left to convince...the acclaimed escape artist, Harry Houdini.

David Jaher's extraordinary debut culminates in the showdown between Houdini, a relentless unmasker of charlatans, and Margery, the nation's most credible spirit medium. The Witch of Lime Street, the first book to capture their electric public rivalry and the competition that brought them into each other’s orbit, returns us to an oft-mythologized era to deepen our understanding of its history, all while igniting our imagination and engaging with the timeless question: Is there life after death?


What I Wrote






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Saturday, August 1, 2015

If I Could Turn Back Time by Beth Harbison




What They Say....Thirty-seven year old Ramie Phillips has led a very successful life. She made her fortune and now she hob nobs with the very rich and occasionally the semi-famous, and she enjoys luxuries she only dreamed of as a middle-class kid growing up in Potomac, Maryland. But despite it all, she can't ignore the fact that she isn't necessarily happy. In fact, lately Ramie has begun to feel more than a little empty. 

On a boat with friends off the Florida coast, she tries to fight her feelings of discontent with steel will and hard liquor. No one even notices as she gets up and goes to the diving board and dives off...

Suddenly Ramie is waking up, straining to understand a voice calling in the distance...It's her mother: "Wake up! You're going to be late for school again. I'm not writing a note this time..."  

Ramie finds herself back on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, with a second chance to see the people she's lost and change the choices she regrets. How did she get back here? Has she gone off the deep end? Is she really back in time? Above all, she'll have to answer the question that no one else can: What it is that she really wants from the past, and for her future?


What I Say....This was such a cute book.  Ramie is living the good life, out on a yacht, celebrating her upcoming birthday.   One of her best friends and partner in crime announces her pregnancy, leading to a moment of discontent for Ramie.  Although her career is going very well, she still hasn't found "The One", leading her to wonder if she's done her whole life all wrong,

A tipsy walk off the plank, and next thing she knows, she is waking up in her childhood bedroom, being woken up for her last few days of high school.

As Ramie tries to take in everything that is happening, she realizes she may have a chance to redo some of her teenaged decisions.  The biggest one is breaking up with her high school boyfriend, Brendan.

Seeing Brendan brings back a lot of the excitement of first teenaged love, complete with teenaged hormones.

Going back in time also gives Ramie a chance to have some heart to hearts with her father, who she knows will die in two years.

The setup was really great, and I even started to think that maybe the real reason that Ramie came back in time was to help change her father's fate.

Towards the end of the book, Ramie makes a jump skip to another point in time to see where her life would be if she HAD married Brendan.  Spoiler alert, it's not good.

As a woman about the same age as Ramie, I loved this book.  I think we all tend to look back and think, 'what if?".  But hopefully, real love is still out there for me, just like it was for Ramie.

Current Goodreads Rating 3.52  - I gave it 4 stars.

Thanks for the ARC copy for an honest review!



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