Review: Sugar Pine Trail (Haven Point #7) by RaeAnne Thayne

Yes I know it’s a little early to be thinking about holiday reading. Every year, I swear that I will hold all holiday related reviews until at least November so I can reserve October exclusively for crime fiction, thrillers, and mystery reads.

However, some how a book always manages to grab my eye and I end up sneaking at least one holiday book in well before my November holiday kick off.

This book sounded like a charming holiday romance and sometimes you just need a little holiday cheer and romance.

Librarian Julia Winston is ready to ditch the quiet existence she’s been living. She’s made a list of new things to experience, but falling for Jamie Caine, her sexy military pilot neighbor, isn’t one of them. Julia’s looking to conquer life, not become the heartbreaker’s latest conquest. But when two young brothers wind up in Julia’s care for the holidays, she’ll take any help she can get—even Jamie’s.

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Review: Ross Poldark (The Poldark Saga #1) by Winston Graham

Sometimes you just have years where the books that you read surprise you–in good ways and in bad. This has been the year that I decided to make a huge effort to read books on my TBR list that continue to haunt me and wreak havoc on my reading schedule.

Meaning, I always get the urge to read one of these books when I have a billion other books to read on my review schedule. So I built in time to try and get to those reads. One such book was Ross Poldark. I’ve not watched the show but I hear such fantastic things about the show and the books that I had to pick up a copy of this book to read.

It was one of those that had been on my radar forever and suddenly the mood struck and I knew I simply had to read it.

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Review: Pleasing Mr Pepys by Deborah Swift

I’ve been fortunate enough to read a few of Deborah Swift’s books, though not as often as I would like because when they are released I am almost always in the middle of another book and then by the time I am done I’ve forgotten about her latest release.

Luckily, I had some time for reviews in early Oct which coordinated with the book tour for Pleasing Mr Pepys hosted by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. So naturally I had to hop on this one!

From acclaimed historical novelist Deborah Swift, Pleasing Mr Pepys is the story of Deb Willet, Samuel Pepys’s servant, told from a fresh perspective.  Well-educated but, due to circumstances beyond her control, not quite respectable, Deb Willet is desperate to escape her domineering aunt and takes a position as companion to Elisabeth Pepys, Samuel’s wife.

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Review: Woman Enters Left by Jessica Brockmole

Letters From Skye by Jessica Brockmole is one of my favorite reads in recent years and of course At The Edge of Summer was also a stunning read, so I was exceptionally eager to read her latest book Woman Enters Left. Needless to say I had high expectations.

I personally think that Brockmole is at her best when she is writing a romance, but this book sounded intriguing and was told in journal form (which I love) so I was eager to see how it unfolded.

In the 1950s, movie star Louise Wilde is caught between an unfulfilling acting career and a shaky marriage when she receives an out-of-the-blue phone call: She has inherited the estate of Florence “Florrie” Daniels, a Hollywood screenwriter she barely recalls meeting.

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Review: Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

When this one came up for review, I almost passed on it. I am not entirely sure why…..maybe because it was up for review in September and I wasn’t ready to start thinking about anything Christmas related until at least November.

Or maybe it was because it was a collaboratively written novel, or that the title wasn’t grabbing me. I don’t know, for some reason I almost passed but I am terribly glad that I didn’t pass on this one!

August 1914. England is at war. As Evie Elliott watches her brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas Harding, depart for the front, she believes—as everyone does—that it will be over by Christmas, when the trio plan to celebrate the holiday among the romantic cafes of Paris.

But as history tells us, it all happened so differently…

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