Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Skating at Somerset House by Nikki Moore





What They Say....The first short story in the fun & flirty #LoveLondon series from exciting new chick lit author Nikki Moore!
There’s nothing Holly Winterlake loves more than Christmas and skating, so working as an Ice Marshall at London's Somerset House is a dream come true.
Noel Summerford hates the festive season and is a disaster on the ice, so taking his godson to Somerset House is his idea of the nightmare before Christmas!
Things are bound to get interesting when these two collide…
With a forty foot Christmas tree, an assortment of well meaning friends and relatives, and a mad chocolate Labrador, will this festive season be one to remember … or forget?

What I Say....So cute!  Everyone knows English chick lit is my most favorite form of chick lit.  I had just finished The Hyacinth Girls, which was pretty gut wrenching, so I wanted something light.
This short story was the perfect palate cleanser! It was like smelling coffee beans after sniffing too many Gold Canyon candles.

It was a simple story of a girl who loves Christmas meeting a guy who hates Christmas, and how they come together.

You could read it in one night easily, and go to bed with a happy heart.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for allowing me to read and review this ARC!


 
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Sunday, December 28, 2014

Book Haul, December 28, 2014




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 Reviews, and Monday Mailbox by Marcia to be Continued.

All four are blog roundups giving you a chance to share what your weekly book haul!

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and it definitely affected my book haul, but that's okay because I was starting to fall behind.

Santa brought me a Kindle Paperwhite and some Amazon giftcards, so that was pretty exciting.  I'm excited about being able to read outside in the sunshine, since I live in sunny Arizona.

In the Mail:

All the Rage by Courtney SummersThe sheriff’s son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone
thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything—friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time—and they certainly won’t now—but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear. 

With a shocking conclusion and writing that will absolutely knock you out, Courtney Summers' new novel All the Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women in a culture that refuses to protect them.


I'm excited to read this, and even more excited that it came from St. Martin's Press.  I usually can't get any blogger love from them. :(

To my fellow bloggers, are there any publishers that you feel snubbed by?  I feel like I'm trying to get to the cool kid's table when I apply for  a St. Martin's book! LOL

What I Blogged this Week:

The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose

Hyacinth Girls by Laren Frankel

Save Me by Kristyn Kuzek Lewis

Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing This Year




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Hyacinth Girls by Lauren Frankel




What They Say...A stunning debut about a young teenager on the brink and a parent desperate to find the truth before it's too late.
Thirteen year old Callie is accused of bullying at school, but Rebecca knows the gentle girl she's raised must be innocent. After Callie is exonerated, she begins to receive threatening notes from the girl who accused her, and as these notes become desperate, Rebecca feels compelled to intervene. As she tries to save this unbalanced girl, Rebecca remembers her own intense betrayals and best-friendships as a teenager, when her failure to understand those closest to her led to tragedy. She'll do anything to make this story end differently. But Rebecca doesn't€™t understand what'€™s happening or who is truly a victim, and now Callie is in terrible danger.

This raw and beautiful story about the intensity of adolescent emotions and the complex identity of a teenage girl looks unflinchingly at how cruelty exists in all of us, and how our worst impulses can estrange us from ourselves - or even save us.

What I Say....As the parent of three daughters, I saw lots of truths in this book.  As mothers, we see the innocent babies we gave birth to, even when they have become devious teenaged girls.

From the beginning, you know Callie isn't being entirely honest, but you also can't believe that she could be completely guilty of the bullying behavior that she is being accused of either.

Callie has started out life in a challenging position.  She is being raised by her mother's best friend because her mother and father are both dead, both deaths due to ongoing years of domestic drama.  But Callie seems to be a well-adjusted girl, in with the popular crowd, pretty and socially active.

Rebecca sees what she wants to see, and tries to cope by babying Callie out of her bad moods.  She isn't putting all of the pieces together; Callie's frequent illnesses, wearing old clothes every day, not showering, and avoiding her friends, all signs that Callie has become the bullied.

Lots of mom tears reading this book, but I will say that the story might have moved faster if some of the back story of Callie's mom and dad had come sooner in the book.

Powerful story by a new voice, I would definitely recommend.

Thank you to Net Galley and Crown Publishing for providing me with and ARC to review.

Current Goodreads rating 3.50
 
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Saturday, December 27, 2014

The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose


What They Say......Possession. Power. Passion. New York Times bestselling novelist M. J. Rose
creates her most provocative and magical spellbinder yet in this gothic novel set against the lavish spectacle of 1890s Belle Époque Paris.

Sandrine Salome flees New York for her grandmother’s Paris mansion to escape her dangerous husband, but what she finds there is even more menacing. The house, famous for its lavish art collection and elegant salons, is mysteriously closed up. Although her grandmother insists it’s dangerous for Sandrine to visit, she defies her and meets Julien Duplessi, a mesmerizing young architect. Together they explore the hidden night world of Paris, the forbidden occult underground and Sandrine’s deepest desires.

Among the bohemians and the demi-monde, Sandrine discovers her erotic nature as a lover and painter. Then darker influences threaten—her cold and cruel husband is tracking her down and something sinister is taking hold, changing Sandrine, altering her. She’s become possessed by La Lune: A witch, a legend, and a sixteenth-century courtesan, who opens up her life to a darkness that may become a gift or a curse.

This is Sandrine’s “wild night of the soul,” her odyssey in the magnificent city of Paris, of art, love, and witchery. 


What I Say....This book was a wild ride.  Set in the late 1800's in beautiful, but dark Paris, Sandrine has fled America to escape her brutal husband.

She arrives at her courtesan grandmother's house to find it closed up and her grandmother living in a lavish apartment, and not too happy to receive a runaway granddaughter.  Not because she doesn't love her granddaughter, but because she is fearful for Sandrine if she is in Paris.

Sandrine disobeys her grandmother's wishes and goes to their family home, handed down through generations of her courtesans ancestors.  While visiting there, she meets a handsome architect who is cataloguing the estate. Sandrine finds herself inexplicably drawn to a previously hidden bell tower and then to the discovery of a ruby necklace,

And then her adventure begins.  She discovers that she is suddenly a talented painter, when previously she had failed, she finds passion with Julien, when she had always thought of herself as frigid, and she finds the confidence to pursue what she wants, whether it's admission to a male only art school or another woman's fiance.


This was a great mix of a gothic love story, mixed with a ghost story.  The only word for the writing was lush.  The ghost story was scary, the love story was passionate, and reading it made you felt like you were in the dark, slightly sinister Paris of the 1800's.

I will say the ending was a bit of a kicker for me.  I wasn't expecting that, and at first I was taken aback,  but then I decided it's nice when you don't have the typical ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for giving me this ARC for review.

Current Goodreads rating is 3.97


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Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Save Me by Kristyn Kusek Lewis



 

What They Say....Daphne Mitchell has always believed in cause and effect, right and wrong, good and bad. The good: her dream job as a doctor; Owen, her childhood sweetheart and now husband; the beautiful farmhouse they're restoring together. In fact, most of her life has been good--until the day Owen comes home early from work to tell her he's fallen head over heels for someone else.

Unable to hate him, but also equally incapable of moving forward, Daphne's life hangs in limbo until the day Owen's new girlfriend sustains near-fatal injuries in a car accident. As Daphne becomes a pillar of support for the devastated Owen, and realizes that reconciliation may lie within her grasp, she has to find out whether forgiveness is possible and decide which path is the right one for her.

What I Say....This was an unusual book.  For someone who has been through a divorce, it certainly stirred up a lot of uncomfortable feelings.  

Daphne thinks she is in a great marriage when her husband announces that he's moving out to take some time to decide whether he wants to be with her or the 20 something year old social worker he's having an affair with.  On his birthday.  Okay, I mention this because all through the book, Daphne seems to be struggling with the idea of losing Owen, but there was never any part of the story that convinced me that he had brought anything to the relationship.  He seemed like a selfish asshat.

Although he wrote her a heartfelt email saying he had made a mistake, and didn't think he had made the right decision, when she came to her house the night of his girlfriend's accident, she finds that he is packing BOXES to move out, not just a few things while he "finds himself".

And yes, I said his girlfriend's accident.  So while she is struggling stay alive in the ICU, he calls DAPHNE, who, of course, rushes right over.  Then wonders what in the hell she's doing there.  Ummm, yeah....what are you doing there?  Doesn't that kind of indicate what a self-involved creep your "husband" actually is?


He seemed to be back and forth throughout the book and (spoiler alert) had his girlfriend lived, he seems like the type of guy who would have kept both women hanging without fully committing to either one for as long as they would allow him too.

Although I could have screamed when she let Owen start staying at the house again, I was glad that Daphne grew a pair at the end and told him she was done.  Because I really think he was the guy who would come home for a while, found another girlfriend and hit repeat on the pattern. 

The side story of Daphne's alcoholic patient, Mary Elizabeth, was kind of random.  I kept thinking that it would turn out that she had been the one driving the car that hit Owen's girlfriend.  That would have brought a little extra twist to the story.

 I was excited at the end when she was off to Corsica with the Andrew.  I was so happy she was taking a chance and breaking out of her comfort zone.  It made me think maybe I should too!

Thank you Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for letting me review this book.  It will be published on December 30, 2014.


Goodreads Reviews of Save Me

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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing This Year

 
Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing This Year

 I've been getting so many great books to preview and blog on this year, I've actually fallen behind in some of my favorite author's new releases.

I've asked for a few of these for Christmas, so here's hoping that I see them under my tree!

1.   Shopaholic to the Stars by Sophie Kinsella

2.   Revival by Stephen King

3.   The One & Only by Emily Giffin

4.   Saving Grace by Jane Green

5.   The Innocents by Francesca Segal

6.   I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

7.   The Girls from Corona Del Mar by Rufi Thorpe

8.   All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner

9.   Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf

10. The Fever by Megan Abbott


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Monday, December 22, 2014

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? December 22, 2014



Well, it's the Monday before Christmas.  It feels like it was " a few weeks until Christmas" for months, and now suddenly it's two days away.  This is the time when I always start to feel panicked, that I don't have enough food, presents, stocking stuffers, etc., which steals away from the job of the moment for me.

I'm going to try not to let it get the best of me this year.  I've bought more than enough of everything, so I need to just relax and make dinner on Christmas Eve and enjoy time with my family.

I'm just starting a new book, The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose.  It looks great and I'm ready to get into a good read for the long weekend.



Is Santa bringing you some great books?

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Sunday, December 21, 2014

My Book Haul...December 20, 2014



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 Reviews, and Monday Mailbox by Marcia to be Continued.

All four are blog roundups giving you a chance to share what your weekly book haul!

Christmas is so close!!  I love the season, but the shopping and wrapping takes so much time, it starts to feel like a second job.  I think I've done the majority of my shopping on Amazon this year.  I just love Amazon Prime.  Between the free 2 day shipping, the movie streaming, and the free books available, I don't know how I lived without it before.

I got some great additions this week.  Now I just need to make some time to read - I'm hoping that Santa is bringing me a new Kindle to load them on!

From NetGalley:

Lost & Found by Brooke Davis....Millie Bird, seven years old and ever hopeful, always wears red

Agatha Pantha, eighty-two, has not left her house—or spoken to another human being—since she was widowed seven years ago. She fills the silence by yelling at passersby, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule.

Karl the Touch Typist, eighty-seven, once used his fingers to type out love notes on his wife’s skin. Now that she’s gone, he types his words out into the air as he speaks. Karl’s been committed to a nursing home, but in a moment of clarity and joy, he escapes. Now he’s on the lam.

Brought together at a fateful moment, the three embark upon a road trip across Western Australia to find Millie’s mother. Along the way, Karl wants to find out how to be a man again; Agatha just wants everything to go back to how it was.

Together they will discover that old age is not the same as death, that the young can be wise, and that letting yourself feel sad once in a while just might be the key to a happy life.

gumboots to match her curly hair. Her struggling mother, grieving the death of Millie’s father, leaves her in the big ladies’ underwear department of a local store and never returns. (Published by Penguin Group (USA))

Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny.... A tender and ruefully funny look at varieties of 
love, secrets, and betrayal in ten exquisite stories that form a guided tour of the human heart.

In the title story, we meet Maya, who is torn between her wryly funny boyfriend and the allure of her veterinarian. In "Andorra," a woman's lover calls her every Thursday as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counseling. "How to Give the Wrong Impression" shows us a woman pining for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tell her that her palm is sweaty. In "The Dive Bar" a girl agrees to have a drink with her married lover's wife. Revisiting Maya in several stories, chronicling her various states of love, this is a collection about how we are unfaithful to each other, both willfully and unwittingly. Populated with unwelcome houseguests, disastrous birthday parties, needy but loyal friends, and flirtatious older men, the stories are emotionally astute, sexy, and disarming-and they introduce us to a tart, and marvelous, new voice. (Published by Random House)


From Edelweiss:

Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves....Elizabeth "Lizzie" Snow was first introduced in the final book in Graves's previous series, in which she helped Jake Tiptree investigate the murder of a girl whose body was found in a church steeple. Now, Lizzie has taken over as Eastport's police chief, and is quickly finding the job-and her life-more complicated than she expected. And then she learns that a perilous piece of her past has followed her from Boston back to Maine, a mysterious stalker whose chilling intentions drive her to the edge…(Published by Random House)




The Knockoff by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza....When Imogen returns to work at Glossy after six months away, she can barely recognize her own magazine. 

Eve, fresh out of Harvard Business School, has fired "the gray hairs," put the managing editor in a supply closet, stopped using the landlines, and hired a bevy of manicured and questionably attired underlings who text and tweet their way through meetings. 

Imogen, darling of the fashion world, may have Alexander Wang and Diane von Furstenberg on speed dial, but she can't tell Facebook from Foursquare and once got her iPhone stuck in Japanese for two days. 

Under Eve's reign, Glossy is rapidly becoming a digital sweatshop-hackathons rage all night, girls who sleep get fired, and "fun" means mandatory, company-wide coordinated dances to Beyoncé. 

Wildly out of her depth, Imogen faces a choice-pack up her Smythson notebooks and quit, or channel her inner geek and take on Eve to save both the magazine and her career. 

A glittering, uproarious, sharply drawn story filled with thinly veiled fashion personalities, The Knockoff is an insider's look at the ever-changing world of fashion and a fabulous romp for our Internet-addicted age. (Published by Random House)


Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan....Amid the ruins of her latest relationship, Polly Waterford moves far away to the sleepy seaside resort of Polbearne, where she lives in a small, lonely flat above an abandoned shop.

To distract her from her troubles, Polly throws herself into her favorite hobby: making bread. But her relaxing weekend diversion quickly develops into a passion. As she pours her emotions into kneading and pounding the dough, each loaf becomes better than the last. (Published by HarperCollins)


Soon, Polly is working her magic with nuts and seeds, olives and chorizo, and the local honey-courtesy of a handsome local beekeeper. Drawing on reserves of determination and creativity Polly never knew she had, she bakes and bakes . . . and discovers a bright new life where she least expected it. 

Things You Won't Say by Sarah Pekkanen..... How far would you go to save your family?

Every morning, as her husband Mike straps on his SIG Sauer and pulls on his heavy Magnum boots, Jamie Anderson tenses up. Then comes the call she has always dreaded: There’s been a shooting at police headquarters. Mike isn’t hurt, but his long-time partner is grievously injured. As weeks pass and her husband’s insomnia and disconnectedness mount, Jamie realizes he is an invisible casualty of the attack. Then the phone rings again. Another shooting—but this time Mike has pulled the trigger.

But the shooting does more than just alter Jamie’s world. It’s about to change everything for two other women. Christie Simmons, Mike’s flamboyant ex, sees the tragedy as an opportunity for a second chance with Mike. And Jamie’s younger sister, Lou, must face her own losses to help the big sister who raised her. As the press descends and public cries of police brutality swell, Jamie tries desperately to hold together her family, no matter what it takes. (Simon and Schuster)



The Daughter by Jane Shemilt.....Jenny is a successful family doctor, the mother of three great teenagers, married to a celebrated neurosurgeon.

But when her youngest child, fifteen-year-old Naomi, doesn’t come home after her school play, Jenny’s seemingly ideal life begins to crumble. The authorities launch a nationwide search with no success. Naomi has vanished, and her family is broken.

As the months pass, the worst-case scenarios—kidnapping, murder—seem less plausible. The trail has gone cold. Yet for a desperate Jenny, the search has barely begun. More than a year after her daughter’s disappearance, she’s still digging for answers—and what she finds disturbs her. Everyone she’s trusted, everyone she thought she knew, has been keeping secrets, especially Naomi. Piecing together the traces her daughter left behind, Jenny discovers a very different Naomi from the girl she thought she’d raised. (Harper Collins)


What I Blogged This Week:

Waiting on Wednesday....

Top Ten Books I Read (that were published) in 2014

Bennington Girls are Easy

I'm looking forward to a short work week so I can snuggle on the couch and read!
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Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday......I Was Here by Gayle Forman


 
"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine.  It's a blog roundup that spotlights the upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My "can't-wait-to-read" selection is "I Was Here by Gayle Forman".  I loved Forman's "If I Stay", both the book and the movie.  


I was like......


The release date for "I Was Here" is January 27, 2105.  I think I'll be starting it on a Friday night so I can ugly cry all weekend.

What's your favorite hide in the house and cry book?
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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Top Ten Books I Read In 2014 (must be published in 2014)


Top Ten Books I Read in 2014.

 Another week, another top ten list where I can't get to ten.  I read a lot of great books, but most of them won't be published until 2015, but The Broke and the Bookish clearly stated the list should include books published in 2014. 



1.  The Rosie Effect.  I loved The Rosie Project, and I loved The Rosie Effect just as much.  Don is one of my favorite characters.

2.  The Opposite of Maybe.  I'm a sucker for an unexpected pregnancy, especially a 44 year old one.  This was a great chick lit book.

3.  The Good Sister.  This was one of my favorite fractured family books of 2014.  Such a powerful read.

4.  Big Little Lies.  A compulsive reading book.  I had to force myself to not flip to the end to see who died and who did it.

5.  What She Left Behind.  This was published on December 31, 2013, but I'm still counting it.

6.  A Good Year for Roses.  English chick lit, my favorite.


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Monday, December 15, 2014

Bennington Girls Are (not) Easy (to read)


What They Say.....Bennington College, founded in 1932 as a suitable refuge for the
wayward daughters of good families, maintains its saucy reputation for attracting free spirits. There, acres outnumber students, the faculty is composed of fading hippie and clothing is largely optional. Or, as J. D. Salinger put it in Franny and Zooey: a Bennington-type “looked like she’d spent the whole train ride in the john, sculpting or painting or something, or as though she had a leotard on under her dress.”

Cassandra Puffin and Sylvie Furst met in high school but cement what they ardently believe will be everlasting friendship on Bennington’s idyllic Vermont campus. Graduation sees Sylvie moving to New York City, where, later on their twenties, Cassandra joins her. These early, delirious years are spent decorating their Fort Greene apartment with flea market gems, dating “artists”, and trying to figure out what they’re doing with their lives.

The girls are acutely and caustically observant of the unique rhythms of the city but tone deaf to their own imperfections, which eventually drives a wedge between them. Equal parts heartfelt and hilarious, Bennington Girls Are Easy is a novel about female friendships—how with one word from a confidante can lift you up or tear you down—and how difficult it is to balance someone else’s devastatingly funny lapses in judgment with your own professional and personal missteps.


What I Say....I am super proud of myself that I finished this book.  It took work.  

It wasn't the writing that was bad, the author definitely has talent, but the story just meandered.  There was no beginning, middle or end.  It just felt like one long description of two characters that I couldn't tell apart until about the middle of the book.

As for the main characters, Cassandra and Sylvie, I didn't care too much about either one.  For two girls who were at a very expensive liberal arts college, there was never any mention of family money or support, which seemed a little odd.

In the beginning, I thought the book was set in the 50's, so I was confused later when there were some recent pop culture references made.  It was so weird, I couldn't even tell what time period this story was supposed to be taking place in.
 
I wonder if the story would have been more meaningful to me if I had attended, or knew anyone who attended Bennington College.  Since I don't, I didn't get a lot of the references to Bennington girls being sluts (the author's word, not mine), or lesbian-ish, or having multiple broken engagements.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.  I can honestly say bad books make me sad.


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Sunday, December 14, 2014

Sunday Post, Showcase Sunday and Stacked, December 14, 2014




The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, and Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

All three are blog roundups giving you a chance to share what your weekly book haul!

This was the lightest week ever for me.  I was in Hawaii for the first time (paradise!), so I didn't get a whole lot of new books, and I didn't blog a lot but I did read a lot.

Am I the only one who is struggling with time management with Christmas approaching?  I feel resentful of the reading time I'm losing to running errands, shopping and baking.  Not a real problem, right?

Anyway, here's my one lone acquisition for the week.......

For Review


Skating at Somerset House by Nikki Moore....There’s nothing Holly Winterlake loves more than Christmas and skating, so working as an Ice Marshall at London's Somerset House is a dream come true.

Noel Summerford hates the festive season and is a disaster on the ice, so taking his godson to Somerset House is his idea of the nightmare before Christmas!

Things are bound to get interesting when these two collide…

With a forty foot Christmas tree, an assortment of well meaning friends and relatives, and a mad chocolate Labrador, will this festive season be one to remember … or forget?

What I Blogged

Winter Street by Elin Hildebrand

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

The Precious One by Marisa de los Santos

 

 

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Friday, December 12, 2014

Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand



Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand 

What They Say.....Kelley Quinn is the owner of Nantucket's Winter Street Inn and the proud father of four, all of them grown and living in varying states of disarray. Patrick, the eldest, is a hedge fund manager with a guilty conscience. Kevin, a bartender, is secretly sleeping with a French housekeeper named Isabelle. Ava, a school teacher, is finally dating the perfect guy but can't get him to commit. And Bart, the youngest and only child of Kelley's second marriage to Mitzi, has recently shocked everyone by joining the Marines.

As Christmas approaches, Kelley is looking forward to getting the family together for some quality time at the inn. But when he walks in on Mitzi kissing Santa Claus (or the guy who's playing Santa at the inn's annual party), utter chaos descends. With the three older children each reeling in their own dramas and Bart unreachable in Afghanistan, it might be up to Kelley's ex-wife, nightly news anchor Margaret Quinn, to save Christmas at the Winter Street Inn.

Before the mulled cider is gone, the delightfully dysfunctional Quinn family will survive a love triangle, an unplanned pregnancy, a federal crime, a small house fire, many shots of whiskey, and endless rounds of Christmas caroling, in this heart-warming novel about coming home for the holidays. 


What I Say.....This was a fun, easy read to get you in the holiday spirit.  I've always loved Elin Hilderbrand, and I 've enjoyed all of her books. 

This book was full of interesting characters, although some of them got on my nerves. 

For example, Kevin taking $5,000 from his MOTHER to buy an engagement ring, when he had just been thinking about the 25k he has saved.  I doubt Isabelle would need a five thousand dollar ring in order to marry Kevin, considering she is pregnant and needs a green card.  Man up, buddy, buy your fiance a ring with your own money.

Kelley inviting his cheating wife to dinner with her new boyfriend, one day after finding them in a liplock in his house?  Not likely.

Ava just making the sudden decision to fall in love with Scott was a little weird, since the first part of the book kept pointing out how she knew he had feelings for her but she didn't reciprocate.  And after getting the proposal from Nathaniel that she's been waiting for, one makeout session with Scott made her no longer want to marry the man she had been chasing for years.

But I was still enjoying the book, until it just ended abruptlyI am hoping that there will be a follow up book so I can see what happens to Bart and Kevin.  I would definitely read it.


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Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Big Little Lies by Liane  - still no pics on account of iPad limitations - not of the iPad, but of the user.

What They Say.... murder… . . . a tragic accident… . . . or just parents behaving badly?  

What’s indisputable is that someone is dead.  

But who did what?
Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads:
Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?).

Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.
New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.

What I Say.....Wow!  This was not a short book (480 pages) and it's not a light book, but I willingly dragged it on the plane to Hawaii with me in order to have a beach read (I live in fear of dropping my ipad in water).

I'm traveling with friends, and going to different beaches every day, but you know it's a good book when you are thinking about how much longer it will be before you can start reading again.

The Mommy Wars are always interesting to me, because I don't have to participate anymore.  But this book took the battle to a whole other level.

The characters were well-written and engaging.  Even at her most annoying, Madeline was understandable and lovable.  But you couldn't hate Bonnie either, even though you wanted to for Madeline's sake.

Celeste was cool, aloof, and also understandable as a woman in a violent marriage, wondering how much was normal, how much was her fault.  I have heard that this is going to be some kind of television mini-series starring Nicole Kidman, and I think she would make a perfect Celeste.

I figured out what the twist was going to be wih Jane's one night stand, but I didn't see who the murderer or who the murdered was until it happened (I had to force myself not to look ahead!).

A compelling read, as most of Moriarty's books are.  She's a favorite of mine.


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Sunday, December 7, 2014

New Books.....December 7, 2014





The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, and Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

All three are blog roundups giving you a chance to share what your weekly book haul!

This week's post is going to be very sad and pictureless because I'm on VACATION!! And.... I haven't figured out how to put pictures on via my iPad to Blogger. Sorry, I know a book's cover DOES matter!


From NetGalley.....

Save Me by Kristyn Kusek Lewis....Daphne Mitchell has always believed in cause and effect, right and wrong, good and bad. The good: her dream job as a doctor; Owen, her childhood sweetheart and now husband; the beautiful farmhouse they're restoring together. In fact, most of her life has been good--until the day Owen comes home early from work to tell her he's fallen head over heels for someone else.

Unable to hate him, but also equally incapable of moving forward, Daphne's life hangs in limbo until the day Owen's new girlfriend sustains near-fatal injuries in a car accident. As Daphne becomes a pillar of support for the devastated Owen, and realizes that reconciliation may lie within her grasp, she has to find out whether forgiveness is possible and decide which path is the right one for her. 

A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison.....At nineteen, Annie Black trades a bleak future in her washed-out hometown for a London winter of drinking to oblivion and yearning for deliverance. Some two decades later, she is married to a good man and settled in San Francisco, with a son and two daughters and a successful career designing artistic interior lights. One June morning, a photograph arrives in her mailbox, igniting an old longing and setting off a chain of events that rock the foundations of her marriage and threaten to overturn her family’s hard-won happiness.

The novel moves back and forth across time between San Francisco in the present and that distant winter in Europe. The two worlds converge and explode when the adult Annie returns to London seeking answers, her indiscretions come to light, and the phone rings with shocking news about her son. Now Annie must fight to save her family by piecing together the mystery of her past—the fateful collision of liberation and abandon and sexual desire that drew an invisible map of her future.

A Small Indiscretion is a riveting debut novel about a woman’s search for understanding and forgiveness, a taut exploration of a modern marriage, and of love—the kind that destroys, and the kind that redeems.


The Witch of Painted Sorrows....Possession. Power. Passion. New York Times bestselling novelist M. J. Rose creates her most provocative and magical spellbinder yet in this gothic novel set against the lavish spectacle of 1890s Belle Époque Paris.

Sandrine Salome flees New York for her grandmother’s Paris mansion to escape her dangerous husband, but what she finds there is even more menacing. The house, famous for its lavish art collection and elegant salons, is mysteriously closed up. Although her grandmother insists it’s dangerous for Sandrine to visit, she defies her and meets Julien Duplessi, a mesmerizing young architect. Together they explore the hidden night world of Paris, the forbidden occult underground and Sandrine’s deepest desires.

Among the bohemians and the demi-monde, Sandrine discovers her erotic nature as a lover and painter. Then darker influences threaten—her cold and cruel husband is tracking her down and something sinister is taking hold, changing Sandrine, altering her. She’s become possessed by La Lune: A witch, a legend, and a sixteenth-century courtesan, who opens up her life to a darkness that may become a gift or a curse.

This is Sandrine’s “wild night of the soul,” her odyssey in the magnificent city of Paris, of art, love, and witchery.


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Friday, December 5, 2014

Melancholy and the Infinite Marisa de Los Santos

What They Say....In all her life, Eustacia “Taisy” Cleary has given her heart to only three men: her first love, Ben Ransom; her twin brother, Marcus; and Wilson Cleary—professor, inventor, philanderer, self-made millionaire, brilliant man, breathtaking jerk: her father.

Seventeen years ago, Wilson ditched his first family for Caroline, a beautiful young sculptor. In all that time, Taisy’s family has seen Wilson, Caroline, and their daughter Willow only once. 

Why then, is Wilson calling Taisy now, inviting her for an extended visit, encouraging her to meet her pretty sister—a teenager who views her with jealousy, mistrust, and grudging admiration? Why, now, does Wilson want Taisy to help him write his memoir?

Told in alternating voices—Taisy’s strong, unsparing observations and Willow’s naive, heartbreakingly earnest yearnings—The Precious One 
is an unforgettable novel of family secrets, lost love, and dangerous obsession, a captivating tale with the deep characterization, piercing emotional resonance, and heartfelt insight that are the hallmarks of Marisa de los Santos’s beloved works.


What I Say....This post comes to you from sunny Kauai.  I am happy to say that read this book from front to back on the flight.  It was incredible.  Marisa de los Santos has always written melancholy so very well that you find yourself pulled into the sadness of the characters, identifying with your own life.

"The Precious One" was one of those books for me.  The family relationships were written so well.  Some people aren't born into the families that they deserve.  Some people shouldn't get to have a second family that they treat better than the first.  But they do.  And even though it's not fair, those you leave behind have to live with your choices, and the impact that it has on their sense of self-worth.  "I wasn’t stunned. I knew how easily some people could let go of their children.", says Taisy as her boyfriend stared at her "full of the bewilderment of one who’s been adored by at least two, sometimes three, sometimes four parents his entire life.".   This for me has always been the hallmark of de los Santos's writing, those truths laid bare.

The parallel story to Taisy was told by 16 year old Willow, her sister that she has never had any type of relationship with.  Willow is trying to navigate high school for the first time along with feelings of guilt for her father's recent heart attack.  She has a lecherous teacher, who is quietly grooming her sexually, although she is much too innocent to realize what is happening.

The character tying them together is their shared father, Wilson.  And his story is just as compelling.  When you finally learn his backstory, it helps to make sense of his behavior, but it doesn't excuse it, it doesn't take it away or make the damage that he has done over the years any less tragic.

No spoilers here.  This is a book everyone needs to read for themselves.

Thank you, Edelweiss and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.  I honestly give this book 5 stars.


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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Top Ten (really Eight) Books That I'm Looking Forward to in 2015


I am part of a blog round up every Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, with a new top ten theme every week.

This week was Top 10 Books I Am Looking Forward to in 2015. I always have a hard time getting to ten, but this week I got to eight!  Mad props to myself.

1.  Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll.  See my review here.  I've already read it, but I can't wait for this to be released on May 12, 2015, so I can discuss it with everyone.  This book is going to be big.  Gone, Girl big.  I can see it being turned into a movie.

2.  First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen.  I'm sick of adding this to every top ten list I write! LOL!  I just want to read it!!!

3.  Nightbird by Alice Hoffman.  Because, duh, Alice Hoffman.

4.  The F Word: My Life in Stories by Jennifer Weiner.  I love her books, and anything using the F word in the title wins my vote.

5.  Things You Won't Say by Sarah Pekkanen.  I've always liked her books and this looks like a really timely read about a police shooting and the calls for justice afterwards.

6.  Anything By Jane Green.  My most favoritest English chick lit writer.  She can do no wrong.

7.  Well, hello, Maria Semple.  It's been two years and I'm waiting, waiting for your next book.  I LOVED "This One is Mine".

8.  The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.  I cried my face off when I read, "Night Road".  Kristin Hannah is my go to cryfest author.

That's it, only eight.  But the best part of book blogging is that I don't know what I'm missing in 2015 yet!

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Monday, December 1, 2014

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? December 1, 2014






 Well, this was a most awesome of Thanksgiving weekends.  It was so nice to have a four day weekend to spend lounging around, seeing family, and reading.

That being said, I also watched a lot of TV.  My daughter has recently discovered The Gilmore Girls, so we watched the first two seasons of that in true binge format.  

Then I started thinking about what Lorelei Gilmore (aka Lauren Graham) was doing now, which led me to start watching Season 1 of Parenthood, and btw, she looks incredible.  I don't think she ages.  

I read her book, Someday, Someday, Maybe, a few years back and it was pretty good.  She's beautiful and multi-talented.  

This week I read and posted:




I'm currently reading:  

I'm trying, but this is slow going.  The story is interesting, but it's the main character that's killing it for me.  He's so boring!!!  I'm hoping that this will pick up soon.









What is everyone else reading?  I'm getting ready to go on vacation, any beach read suggestions?


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Sunday, November 30, 2014

Sunday Post, Showcase Sunday and Stacking the Shelves.....November 30, 2014



The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, and Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

All three are blog roundups giving you a chance to share what your weekly book haul!

I'm sitting here finishing this post with a touch of sadness.  It's the last day of our four day Thanksgiving break and I have thoroughly relaxed and enjoyed myself.  I've got a vacation coming up, and the Christmas Break is right around the corner, so I shouldn't complain, but boo to Monday!


Thank you to Edelweiss....

The Mermaid's Child by Jo Baker....Malin has always felt different. The fact that, according to her
father, her absent mother was actually a mermaid only makes matters worse. When Malin’s father dies, leaving her alone in the world, her choice is clear: stay, and never feel at home, or leave and go in search of the fantastical inheritance she is certain awaits her. Apprenticed to a series of strange and wonderful characters, Malin embarks on a picaresque journey that crosses oceans and continents—from the high seas to desert plains, from slavery to the circus—and leads to a discovery that is the last thing Malin ever could have expected. Beautifully written and hauntingly strange, The Mermaid’s Child is a remarkable piece of storytelling, and an utterly unique work of fantasy.

I am intrigued by this premise.  I can't wait to get started.

The Cake House by Latifah Salom....Rosaura Douglas’s father committed suicide—or at least that’s what they are telling her. Now she is forced to live in a house she calls “the Cake House”—a garish pink edifice in the wealthy part of town. It’s the house where her father died, and owned by her mysterious new stepfather, Claude. But when her father’s ghost appears and warns Rosie not to trust Claude, Rosie begins to notice cracks in her new family’s carefully constructed facade. Her mother, Dahlia, is obviously uncomfortable in her new marriage; her stepbrother, Alex, is friendly one second, distant the next; and Claude’s business is drawing scrutiny from the police. As her father’s ghost becomes increasingly violent—and the secrets haunting the halls of The Cake House thicken—Rosie wonders who, if anyone, is worth trusting.

I think this looks so good, but it looks like it's going to be an intense read.


Hush, Hush by Laura Lippman....Now the mother of a toddler, Tess Monagahan is short on time,
patience, and energy. But with orthodontia and college tuition looming, she takes on a case outside of her comfort zone with her new partner, retired Baltimore P.D. homicide detective Sandy Sanchez. They’ve been hired to assess the security needs of a very rich, very beautiful, and very imperious woman named Melisandre, who has returned to Baltimore to reunite with her estranged daughters—and wants to capture the reunion on film for posterity.

It’s a gutsy and controversial move by a woman who relinquished her custody rights a decade ago. Especially when her youngest daughter died in her care—in what was determined to be an episode of post-partum psychosis. Or was it? Tess tries to ignore the discomfort she feels around Melisandre. But it’s difficult, especially after Melisandre becomes a prime suspect in a murder—and Tess realizes she has her own, very judgmental stalker. 


I love Laura Lippman, and I can't wait to start this new Tess Monagahan!


I Bought.....
Murder at Honeysuckle Hotel....It's summertime in Honeysuckle, and everyone is lazing in the shade


with a tall glass of lemonade. Everyone except Raelynn Pendleton. She's stuck working at the local store to make the rent while her no-good ex-husband lives it up with a floozy.


When she inherits a Victorian house, Raelynn jumps at the chance to turn her life around. How can she afford the upkeep on such a huge place? Simple. She'll run it as a hotel. Problem is, she has no experience and the décor dates back to the Dark Ages. She'll have to use her secret talent for turning junk into treasure or she'll never snag an overnight guest.

But before the new Honeysuckle Hotel even opens for business, Raelynn discovers the body of a young woman in the garden. As a newcomer in town, Raelynn is blamed for the murder. She's fired from her job, which could mean she'll lose the house. The only way to save Honeysuckle Hotel is to find the real killer - with or without the sexy Sheriff Kent Klein. 
I've read a Rose Pressey book before, and I enjoyed it, so I thought this was a great chance when it was on sale for 99 cents!





The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty.....Sophie Honeywell always wondered if Thomas Gordon
was the one she let get away. He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie's house on Scribbly Gum Island -- home of the famously unsolved MunroBabymystery.
Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it's about time she started making her own decisions.


I love Liane Moriarty.  I have Little Lies packed in my suitcase for my trip to Hawaii this week!


Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.... In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a
teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. 

But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. 

Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

I think I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't read this yet.  But I never read or saw Seabiscuit either.

 Perfect Girl by Michelle Gorman.....Cinderella meets Falling Down in this wickedly funny tale about having it all

Carol is perfect… at least that’s what everyone thinks. In reality she’s sinking fast – her family treats her like their personal assistant and her boyfriend is so busy with work that he’s got her single-handedly running their relationship. Not that her job is any easier. As the only woman on the bank’s trading floor she spends twelve-hour days trying not to get sworn at or felt up by colleagues who put the "W" in banker*.

How long can she go on pleasing everyone else before she snaps and loses it all?  


This looks so good.  Who amongst us hasn't wondered if we are going to snap some days???






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