Reading
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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Review: A Most Extraordinary Pursuit (Emmeline Truelove #1) by Juliana Gray
About three chapters into A STRANGE SCOTTISH SHORE, I knew that I needed to read the first book in this series. For one, I thought it would help me figure out some of the little nuances in the book that I was missing, as well as the backstory for many of the characters and their relationships. So confession….I put down A STRANGE SCOTTISH SHORE about five chapters in and started reading this one instead. I just felt like there were so many little things that I was missing and I felt like I was cheating myself by skipping the first book. As the personal secretary of the recently departed Duke…
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Review: The Essence of Malice (Amory Ames #4) by Ashley Weaver
Here I am, yet another late comer to a new mystery series and I find myself wondering how in fact I missed this series in the first place! Picking up a book mid series is always a risk, but I have found that more often than not, the author tries to fill in the missing links for new readers so they don’t feel like they need to start at the beginning. However sometimes it’s just not possible to go back and try to recap everything that a new reader might have missed. While this book was well written and fun to read, I did feel like I needed the other…
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Cover Reveal: THE SECRET TO SOUTHERN CHARM (Peachtree Bluff #2) by Kristy Woodson Harvey
I have been a huge fan of Kristy Woodson Harvey for the last few years. I love her Southern charm and effortless ability to spin a tale. I love her novels and am anxiously awaiting the release of her next book, THE SECRET TO SOUTHERN CHARM. Today the cover for THE SECRET TO SOUTHERN CHARM is being revealed and nothing could make me more excited for this one! As in Woodson Harvey’s signature style, the cover says ‘beach’. I can’t wait to take this one with me on vacation in the spring! It makes me sad that it’s almost winter and I have to wait until April for this one!…
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Special Feature: A COLUMN OF FIRE (Kingsbridge #3) by Ken Follett
There is a reason that Ken Follett is a #1 best selling author–his novels are fantastic. I read his book THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH while I was visiting London in 2009 and never looked back. His writing was unparalleled and I loved that book with all my heart. I couldn’t put it down the entire vacation and I happened to be cathedral hopping in England so it was a fitting read to be sure. I didn’t continue on with the Kingsbridge series though, only because I felt like the way Pillars ended, it was enough. I was happy with where it ended and where all the characters were in…
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Review: A Strange Scottish Shore (Emmeline Truelove #2) by Juliana Gray
Sometimes you pick up a book in a series and immediately know you are going to love it. That’s what happened with this one. Just the cover and title alone was enough to entice me to read this one and next thing I know, within a couple of pages, I already know I desperately need the first book in the series. For a number of reasons though, not just because I liked Emmeline Truelove and wanted more, but mostly because I felt like I needed to know more about what was going on with the characters and the over all story. Scotland, 1906. A mysterious object discovered inside an ancient…