Sunday, July 31, 2022

July Reading Wrap Up ~ July 31, 2022 #TBR

 


Welcome to a new feature that I'm going to post at the end of each month. 

I will be posting all of the books I've read that month. It's a way to give some wonderful books some more exposure and maybe you'll see something you'd like to add to your TBR list. 

Titles are linked to my review or Goodreads.


ARCs

Corinne by Rebecca Morrow

Any Other Family by Eleanor Brown

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

Blind Love by Ashley Farley

Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier 


Off of my TBR shelves

Moment in Time by Suzanne Redfearn 

November 9 by Colleen Hoover

These Tangled Vines by Julianne MacLean

Audiobooks 

Connections in Death (In Death #48) by J.D. Robb

Ape House by Sara Gruen

See anything here that grabs you?

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Saturday, July 30, 2022

This OR That #Giveaway Week 67 ~ Unforgivable by Laura Griffin OR Haven by Kay Hooper #Unforgivable #Haven

 

I have sooooo many books!

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to cull my collection and to share some of the many books I have. I get to clear off some of my shelves to make room for more books and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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Unforgivable
Laura Griffin
Mass Market Paperback ~ November 2010

TRACING KILLERS IS MIA VOSS’S BUSINESS. AND HER WORK JUST GOT PERSONAL.

At first, Mia Voss thinks it’s just bad luck when her already lousy day ends with a carjacking, but what seems like a random incident is followed by another sinister episode. A DNA expert, Mia has made it her mission to put away vicious criminals. Suddenly, she’s become the target of one. And the only way to protect the people she loves most is to deliberately destroy her reputation and risk letting a killer walk free.

Once, Mia trusted Detective Ric Santos, but that was before Ric let his turbulent past ruin his chances with Mia, the sexiest, most intriguing woman he’s ever met. But he can tell when she’s lying—and when she’s scared. The key to catching a sadistic madman lies within a long-buried cold case that has haunted Mia for years. Only she can uncover the truth, but first, Ric will have to get her to entrust him with her secrets . . . and her life.

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Mass Market Paperback ~ Published April 2013

After years away, Jessie Rayburn has finally returned home—unwelcomed—to a town of menacing whispers: Baron Hollow, North Carolina. It’s as though she never left. That’s why she’s so afraid.

She left behind her estranged sister, Emma, who has her own secrets to protect. But Emma is afraid to reveal what’s really troubling her and keeping her awake—strange dreams of women being murdered, brutally, viciously. Now, in this conspiracy of silence, Emma’s bad dreams are becoming more real than ever.

Even with the help of Noah Bishop, cofounder of Haven, the group of psychic investigators that Jessie works for, Jessie and Emma fear they won’t be able to outrun the secrets buried in Baron Hollow—or the evil targeting them one last time. 

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Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Release Day! Blind Love by Ashley Farley ~ My Thoughts #BlindLove

Happy Release Day!


Congrats Ashley
on the release today of
Blind Love!

Blind Love by Ashley Farley
Family Saga Fiction, 254 pages
Published July 26, 2022 by AHF Publishing

Ada’s world is torn apart when she discovers the man who raised her isn’t her biological father. To make matters worse, Daniel’s illegitimate daughter, Casey, has taken Ada’s place in his life. Faced with losing everything, Ada searches her dead mother’s belongings for answers. What she discovers will change her life forever.

Casey finally has a chance at romance with her long-time crush. But before she can make her move on Jamie, she has an unexpected encounter with sexy saxophone player, Luke Ellington. If she’s so certain Jamie is the one, why can’t she stop obsessing about Luke?

Burdened by her troubled past, Ollie must confront her demons in order to control her anger. When she undergoes extensive counseling, she discovers the men in her life aren’t the people she thought they were. Is it possible her arch enemy could be the man of her dreams? 


My thoughts about Blind Love ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)

First lines—"Ada is the last to arrive at The Nest, her family's ancestral sprawling estate built high above their vineyard in the Virginia Mountains."

I loved Love Child, book #1 in the amazing series, and became totally immersed in the storyline and the characters' lives. 

Blind Love takes the reader back to the drama of the Love family and the surrounding vineyards. So not only do we get to revisit the memorable people we met in book one, we also get to spend time enjoying the beautiful landscape of Virginia. 

Ada, Cassie, and Ollie each have their own problems and issues. It was interesting to be able to sit back and watch each of them work through their problems and maybe resolve some of their issues. Nothing like a lot of drama to keep the reader turning those pages, right? 

I love this whole series and am so excited for the next book, Forbidden Love, coming out in October. 

I received a copy of Blind Love from the author and this is my honest opinion.



Forbidden Love will be released on October 25, 2022!

About the author

Ashley Farley

Ashley Farley writes books about women for women. Her characters are mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives facing real-life issues. Her bestselling Sweeney Sisters series has touched the lives of many.

Ashley is a wife and mother of two young adult children. While she's lived in Richmond, Virginia for the past 21 years, a piece of her heart remains in the salty marshes of the South Carolina Lowcountry, where she still calls home. Through the eyes of her characters, she captures the moss-draped trees, delectable cuisine, and kindhearted folk with lazy drawls that make the area so unique. For more information, visit www.ashleyfarley.com ~ Goodreads

Connect with Ashley


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Monday, July 25, 2022

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? July 25, 2022 #IMWAYR

      

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's an opportunity to visit other blogs and to comment on their reads. And ... you can add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are! 

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Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a good week. 
Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading

Things We Do in the Dark
by Jennifer Hillier

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
by Jamie Ford
Pub date August 2

Ape House
by Sara Gruen
Narrated by Paul Boehmer

What I recently finished

These Tangled Vines
by Julianne MacLean

November 9
by Colleen Hoover

What I am going to read next

Stay Awake
by Megan Goldin
Pub date August 9

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Saturday, July 23, 2022

This OR That #Giveaway Week 66 ~ Two Winners! Dark Tides by Philippa Gregory OR Inheriting Edith by Zoe Fishman #DarkTides #InheritingEdith

 

I have sooooo many books!

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to cull my collection and to share some of the many books I have. I get to clear off some of my shelves to make room for more books and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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Dark Tides
The Fairmile #2
by Philippa Gregory
ARC ~ Published November 2020

Midsummer Eve 1670. Two unexpected visitors arrive at a shabby warehouse on the south side of the River Thames. The first is a wealthy man hoping to find the lover he deserted twenty-one years before. James Avery has everything to offer, including the favour of the newly restored King Charles II, and he believes that the warehouse's poor owner Alinor has the one thing his money cannot buy—his son and heir.

The second visitor is a beautiful widow from Venice in deepest mourning. She claims Alinor as her mother-in-law and has come to tell Alinor that her son Rob has drowned in the dark tides of the Venice lagoon.

Alinor writes to her brother Ned, newly arrived in faraway New England and trying to make a life between the worlds of the English newcomers and the American Indians as they move toward inevitable war. Alinor tells him that she knows—without doubt—that her son is alive and the widow is an imposter.

Set in the poverty and glamour of Restoration London, in the golden streets of Venice, and on the tensely contested frontier of early America, this is a novel of greed and desire: for love, for wealth, for a child, and for home.

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Inheriting Edith
by Zoe Fishman
Paperback ~ Pub date October 2016


A poignant breakout novel, for fans of J. Courtney Sullivan and Elin Hilderbrand, about a single mother who inherits a beautiful beach house with a caveat—she must take care of the ornery elderly woman who lives in it.

For years, Maggie Sheets has been an invisible hand in the glittering homes of wealthy New York City clients, scrubbing, dusting, mopping, and doing all she can to keep her head above water as a single mother. Everything changes when a former employer dies leaving Maggie a staggering inheritance. A house in Sag Harbor. The catch? It comes with an inhabitant: The deceased’s eighty-two-year old mother Edith.

Edith has Alzheimer’s—or so the doctors tell her—but she remembers exactly how her daughter Liza could light up a room, or bring dark clouds in her wake. And now Liza’s gone, by her own hand, and Edith has been left—like a chaise or strand of pearls—to a poorly dressed young woman with a toddler in tow.

Maggie and Edith are both certain this arrangement will be an utter disaster. But as summer days wane, a tenuous bond forms, and Edith, who feels the urgency of her diagnosis, shares a secret that she’s held close for five decades, launching Maggie on a mission that might just lead them each to what they are looking for.


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I'm giving away 2 ARCs this week. Two winners!


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Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Release Day! The Secrets We Carry by Deanna Lynn Sletten ~ My Thoughts and a #Giveaway #TheSecretsWeCarry

 Happy Release Day!!


Congratulations Deanna
on the release today of
The Secrets We Carry!

The Secrets We Carry by Deanna Lynn Sletten
Historical Literary Fiction, 408 pages
Published July 19, 2022 by Deanna Lynn Sletten

From the author of The Ones We Leave Behind comes a dual-timeline story of a young girl who flees her country with a secret that she must hold close in order to protect her life.

1917 - Sofiya and her friend Alina are forced to flee Russia as Tsar Nicholas II abdicates and the Bolsheviks take control of St. Petersburg. Their parents send them to America, where Alina's distant cousin lives, but soon the girls learn they have traded one danger for another. They are forced to earn a living in the most terrible way, and once again, both girls flee for their lives in separate directions. Years later, trapped in a bitter marriage, Sofiya once again finds herself running away to protect her son and the secret she's been hiding since leaving Russia. She wonders if she will ever feel safe again.

2022 - Addison Cameron loves antiques and old homes and has made a career, alongside her boyfriend Zach, of flipping old houses and making them new again. Having lived a life of terror as a young teen, bringing new life to old homes has been her therapy. When Zach finds a cigar box of old letters in an antique shop and buys them for Addie, she is intrigued. Who was the young girl Sofiya, and what was her life like? Soon Addie becomes immersed in Sofiya's past and is drawn to the very house in Portland that Sofiya had fled all those years ago. As she brings the house back to life, Addie relives her own nightmare past and that of Sofiya's. Can she heal her old wounds by restoring the house where Sofiya had once lived?

  

My thoughts about The Secrets We Carry ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"Prologue: Petrograd, Russia April 1917. 'Maman, I do not understand,' Sofyia said softly as she watched her mother's hands shake while carefully packing a suitcase."

Oh my gosh! What a beautiful and heart-warming but heart-wrenching story of a young girl, uprooted from her comfortable life in Russia, who finds herself thrown into an unimaginable life in America.

This story is told from two viewpoints, two different lifetimes. First there is Sofyia, struggling with her new life in America, doing what she needs to do to keep herself, and eventually, her child safe. What a strong, admirable woman she turns out to be, all while keeping a huge secret—a secret that could make her life easier, but at the same time could put her in extreme danger if revealed to the wrong people. But a promise she made to her mother is a promise she cannot break. 

Then there is Addison, a flipper of houses who is inexplicably drawn to an intriguing old house after finding a box filled with personal letters. As Addison reads through the letters, the life of Sofyia is unraveled and the connection to the house takes on a deeper meaning for Addison. 

The back and forth storylines make this story so enticing. As we learn more about the house and Sofyia's life back then, we also come to understand so much about Addison's life and how she struggled to get where she is now. So many similarities and so much strength shared between these amazing women. What they both did with their lives is extremely admirable. 

I have absolutely loved all of Deanna's books and she writes such interesting historical fiction stories. They are full of heart and soul and take me on wonderful journeys to other times and places. The Secrets We Carry is another fascinating story that I escaped into as I traveled back in time. I highly recommend it! It's one I know you're going to love as well. 

About the author


Deanna Lynn Sletten is the author of The Ones We Leave Behind, Miss Etta, The Women of Great Heron Lake, Maggie's Turn, The Lake Harriet Series, and several other titles. She writes heartwarming women's fiction and romance novels with unforgettable characters. She has also written one middle-grade novel that takes you on the adventure of a lifetime.

Deanna has recently begun a new murder mystery series, The Rachel Emery Series which includes The Truth About Rachel and Death Becomes You

Deanna is married and has two grown children. When not writing, she enjoys walking the wooded trails around her home with her beautiful Australian Shepherd or relaxing on the lake in the summer.

Deanna loves hearing from her readers. 
Connect with her here—



I have a Kindle copy of The Secrets We Carry that I want to gift to one lucky follower. Good Luck!


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Monday, July 18, 2022

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? July 18, 2022 #IMWAYR

     

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's an opportunity to visit other blogs and to comment on their reads. And ... you can add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are! 

**************************************

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a good week. 
Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading

November 9
by Colleen Hoover

These Tangled Vines
by Julianne MacLean

Ape House
by Sara Gruen
Narrated by Paul Boehmer

What I recently finished

Blind Love
by Ashley Farley
Pub date July 26

The Bodyguard
by Katherine Center
Pub date July 19

Connections in Death
(In Death #48)
by J.D. Robb
Narrated by Susan Ericksen 

What I am going to read next

Things We Do in the Dark
by Jennifer Hillier
Pub date July 19

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

Saturday, July 16, 2022

This OR That #Giveaway № 65 ~ The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown OR When We Fall by Emily Liebert #TheWeirdSisters #WhenWeFall

 

I have sooooo many books!

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to cull my collection and to share some of the many books I have. I get to clear off some of my shelves to make room for more books and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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The Weird Sisters
by Eleanor Brown
Paperback ~ Published February 2012

There is no problem that a library card can't solve. [Love this first line!]

The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much. 

But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected. 


Ms. Brown just released another book this week, Any Other Family, which I have read. I loved it!



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When We Fall
by Emily Liebert
Paperback ~ Published September 2014

LOVE LOST, LOVE FOUND
 
Ready for a fresh start, Allison Parker moves back to her hometown in the suburbs of New York. While she’d once savored the dynamic pace of city life, sadly, it lost its allure after her husband’s untimely death. Now, ready to focus on her art career accompanied by her ten-year-old son, Logan, Allison doesn’t anticipate that her past will resurface. When the wife of her husband’s best friend from summer camp takes her under her wing, things begin to spin out of control.

At one time, Charlotte Crane thought she had it all—a devoted husband, a beautiful little girl, and enough financial security to never have to worry. But behind her perfect facade lie a strained marriage and a fractured relationship with her sister. When new girl Allison arrives in Wincourt, Charlotte welcomes the chance to build a friendship. Before long, Charlotte begins to see her life through Allison’s eyes, and the cracks in her seemingly flawless existence become impossible to ignore.

As Allison heals from the loss of her husband—even wondering if she might be ready to date again—Charlotte feels more distant from her loved ones than ever before. The emerging friendship between the two women appears to be just the antidote both of them so desperately need...until everything falls apart.

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Friday, July 15, 2022

New Release! Any Other Family by Eleanor Brown ~ My Thoughts #AnyOtherFamily #NetGalley

 

Congratulations Eleanor
on the recent release of
Any Other Family!

Any Other Family by Eleanor Brown
Sisters Fiction, 368 pages
Published July 12, 2022 by G.P. Putnam's Sons

The New York Times bestselling author of The Weird Sisters returns with a striking and intimate new novel about three very different women facing an impossible question: What makes a family?

They look just like any other family. But they aren't a family like any other – not quite. Instead, they are three sets of parents who adopted four biological siblings, committing to keeping the children connected after the death of their grandmother.

Tabitha, who adopted the twins, is the planner of the group, responsible for coordinating playdates and birthdays and Sunday night dinners, insistent that everything happens just so. Quiet and steady Ginger, single mother to the eldest daughter, resists the forced togetherness, her own unsettled childhood leaving her wary of trusting too much. And Elizabeth is still reeling from going directly from failed fertility treatments into adopting a newborn, terrified that her unhappiness means she was not meant to be a mother at all.

But when the three women receive a surprising call from their children’s birth mother, announcing she is pregnant again and wants them to help her find an adoptive family for this child too, the delicate bonds they are still struggling to form threaten to collapse. As tensions rise, the women reckon with their own feelings about what it means to be a mother and what they owe each other as a family.

Set across the span of a family vacation, one full of boisterous laughter and emotional upheaval, Any Other Family is a thought-provoking and poignant look at how families shift and evolve and a striking portrait of motherhood in all its forms.

  

My thoughts about Any Other Family ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"They look like any other family. A real one: cousins, siblings, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters."

I've been waiting years for another book by this author. I was sad to hear that she was taking time away from writing to adjust to her life with a newly adopted son. I totally understand though, good for her! I was so excited when I learned that she had returned to her writing life as well. 

So adoption, and all the challenges that that entails, is very familiar to Ms. Brown and it shows in this very well written, very insightful story of three couples who adopt four siblings and immediately become one huge family. 

Being on the periphery of an open adoption myself, I know what a loving, fulfilling relationship it can be for all. But it is not always easy. Things come up that cause loved ones to distance themselves, at least for a little bit. 

I really loved all of the characters in this story and enjoyed spending their vacation with them as they try to work out fitting a new baby to their already solid family dynamic. Everyone has their strengths, and weaknesses, and the reader is along for the ride as they all try to figure it out.

The wait for another book from Ms. Brown was well worth it and I highly recommend Any Other Family. It is beautiful, full of love, and a must read for anyone interested at all in adoption stories. 

I received an ARC of Any Other Family from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

About the author


Eleanor Brown is the New York Times and international bestselling author of the novels The Weird Sisters, The Light of Paris, and Any Other Family.

She is also the editor of A Paris All Your Own. She lives in Colorado with her family. ~ Goodreads 

Connect with Eleanor


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