It's Monday! What Are You Reading? December 12, 2016

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!

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

Well, we got dumped on during the snowstorm that hit us this weekend. It started Friday night with just a dusting but then it kept on snowing all day Saturday and into Sunday morning. We ended up with 6 and 1/2 inches, with lots of wind so some places seemed deeper than that. Luckily it was a very light, fluffy snow and luckily we live in a townhouse so all of the snow shoveling was the responsibility of someone else. Yay! It actually was a very pretty snow as it was coming down. 

Hopefully we'll find out today when our new baby granddaughter is going to make her appearance. Other than that, we are just getting ready for the holidays. We travel to Nebraska to spend time with my husband's family on Christmas eve day/night and then with my family on Christmas day. It's a busy time but it's the only time we get to see some of our family members. 

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

What I'm currently reading/listening to

My Name is Mary Sutter
by Robin Oliveira
This is a book club pick. It's an okay read, probably more for someone who likes historical fiction, which is not one of my favorite genres.

The You I've Never Known
by Ellen Hopkins


Spinning the Moon
by Karen White
(audio-book)

What I recently finished

Love, Alice
by Barbara Davis
Loved it! You can read my thoughts here.

What I am going to read next


The Fifth Petal (The Lace Reader #2)
by Brunonia Barry
I loved The Lace Reader and am excited to read book 2.

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Release Day: Love, Alice by Barbara Davis ~ My Thoughts

Happy Release Day! 



Love, Alice

Love, Alice by Barbara Davis
Print and e-book, 416 pages
Published December 6th 2016 by Berkley

From the author of Summer at Hideaway Key comes a sweeping new Southern women’s fiction novel about forgiving the past one letter at a time...

The truth lies between the lines... 

A year ago, Dovie Larkin’s life was shattered when her fiancé committed suicide just weeks before their wedding. Now, plagued by guilt, she has become a fixture at the cemetery where William is buried, visiting his grave daily, waiting for answers she knows will never come.

Then one day, she sees an old woman whose grief mirrors her own. Fascinated, she watches the woman leave a letter on a nearby grave. Dovie ignores her conscience and reads the letter—a mother’s plea for forgiveness to her dead daughter—and immediately needs to know the rest of the story.

As she delves deeper, a collection of letters from the cemetery’s lost and found  begins to unravel a decades-old mystery involving one of Charleston’s wealthiest families. But even as Dovie seeks to answer questions about another woman’s past—questions filled with deception, betrayal, and heartbreaking loss—she starts to discover the keys to love, forgiveness, and finally embracing the future…

My thoughts about Love, Alice ~~

(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—"The place smelled of sickness and damp—of tears and misery and shame."

This author is new to me but I had been seeing this book everywhere and everyone was talking about it. I knew I had to read it! This is an amazing story with a gripping storyline that kept drawing me back to it. I couldn't stop reading because I just had to find out if Alice was ever going to find her child. And would Dovie ever find peace and be able to move on with her life?

The story goes back and forth between 1962 when Alice is sent away as an unwed mother in England and the year 2005. Oh my goodness, what Alice had to endure at the Blackhurst Asylum for Unwed Mothers. And then to have her baby snatched away from her without even so much as a peek at the child. The year 2005 seems just as bleak as Dovie mourns her fiance who took his own life two weeks before their wedding. It's been a year and she still doesn't have any answers.

The characters become so intertwined in the story but they all have their own pain and secrets. The collection of letters, even though they are wrought with sadness, help to heal those that they touch. The letters are what kept me going, I hoped the letters would give me the answers I was looking for as well.

I just loved this whole story and the way that the author wove it all together. I wasn't sure how it was all going to end and it kept me guessing. What a sad but beautiful tale.    

About the author

Author of The Secrets She Carried (Penguin/NAL) The Wishing Tide, (Penguin NAL) Summer at Hideaway Key (Penguin.NAL) Love, Alice. (Penguin/Berkley) December, 2016. And coming in October 2017, When Never Comes (Lake Union)

Connect with Barbara

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? December 5, 2106

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!

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

Another busy week has come and gone with this month and year just flying by. We spent the weekend full of kids and grandkiddos. After everyone left, I spent most of Sunday afternoon doing nothing but resting and reading. Heaven!

We've got another couple of busy weeks coming up. The most exciting time will be the middle of the month. We should be saying hello to our newest granddaughter. She is scheduled to make her appearance on December 16th and I can't wait to meet her. We are going to take care of her older brother who is 7 while mom and dad concentrate on the delivery, etc. It will be a busy and exciting time for all of us. This darling little one will put us a 8 grandkiddos. See why my life is so crazy busy? But I love every minute of it!  

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

What I'm currently reading/listening to

Love, Alice
by Barbara Davis
Love this one. My thoughts will be posted later this week.

The You I've Never Known
by Ellen Hopkins


Spinning the Moon
by Karen White
(audio-book)

What I recently finished

Good Sam
by Dete Meserve
(audiobook)
Great listen. My thoughts will be posted later this week.

A Thousand Acres

by Jane Smiley

What I am going to read next


My Name is Mary Sutter
by Robin Oliveira
This is a book club pick for next week. Love the cover, hope I like what's between the covers.

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? November 28, 2016

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!

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

Thanksgiving is over. It was sort of a mad scramble for us to get there. The day before, my daughter who was going to host her first Thanksgiving (for 15 of us) decided to not host since they had been sick with this respiratory crap that is going around. They didn't want any of the little people to get it and I have a daughter-in-law who is due in 3 weeks. It would not be good for her to get sick right now either. So a lot of messages back and forth between all the other kids and we got plan B underway. As usual, we ate too much but we had a great time. And I threatened everyone with a smack upside the head if the conversation turned to politics. It worked! LOL

I have been seeing a lot of people with their Christmas trees and decorations up already. I tend to put all of mine up later. How about you, are you a now or later type of person? 

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

What I'm currently reading/listening to


A Thousand Acres
by Jane Smiley
This is our book club selection for later next week.

Good Sam
by Dete Meserve

(audiobook)

The You I've Never Known
by Ellen Hopkins

What I recently finished

From Fire into Fire: The Beginning of the Story (Isaac's House Book 1)
by Normandie Fischer
I enjoyed this series and can't wait for more. Read my thoughts here and here.

The Echoes of Love
by Hannah Fielding
You can read my thoughts here.

What I am going to read next


Love, Alice
by Barbara Davis
I have heard so much about this book and I can't wait to start it.

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!