The Quiet Child by John Burley ~ My Thoughts #TLCBookTours #TheQuietChild

The Quiet Child

The Quiet Child by John Burley
Paperback, 304 pages
Published August 8th 2017 by William Morrow Paperbacks

From the award-winning author of The Absence of Mercy, comes a gripping and darkly psychological novel about family, suspicion, and the price we are willing to pay to protect those we love the most.

It’s the summer of 1954, and the residents of Cottonwood, California, are dying. At the center of it all is six-year-old Danny McCray, a strange and silent child the townspeople regard with fear and superstition, and who appears to bring illness and ruin to those around him. Even his own mother is plagued by a disease that is slowly consuming her.

Sheriff Jim Kent, increasingly aware of the whispers and rumors surrounding the boy, has watched the people of his town suffer—and he worries someone might take drastic action to protect their loved ones. Then a stranger arrives, and Danny and his ten-year-old brother, Sean, go missing. In the search that follows, everyone is a suspect, and the consequences of finding the two brothers may be worse than not finding them at all.

Purchase The Quiet Child

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

My thoughts about The Quiet Child ~~

(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—"Michael McCray squinted into the low-hanging sun as he swung the liberty blue Mercury four-door into the Century Grocery parking lot off Gas Point Road,. At 7:45 P.M., the last of the August daylight still lingered, not yet willing to surrender to the town of Cottonwood, California, to the custody of the night." 

Not only is The Quiet Child so well written that the words just flowed off the pages, the story was intriguing and suspenseful enough to make me not what to put it down. I loved the way the author wrote the descriptions so as to make me feel like I was totally immersed in the scenes he was describing. It was all so detailed and well written without being overdone.

And the twists and turns of the storyline. Wow! So much there that I was not expecting—so many thing that are not what they seem to be. This is an author that I will definitely be reading again.


I received a copy of The Quiet Child for the TLC Book Tours book tour in exchange for my honest opinion.

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

About the author

John Burley attended medical school in Chicago and completed his residency in emergency medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. He currently serves as an emergency medicine physician in Northern California, where he lives with his wife and daughter, and their Great Dane and English bulldog.

Connect with John

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Check out other stops on the tour

Tuesday, August 8th: The Ludic Reader

Wednesday, August 9th: The Book Bag

Thursday, August 10th: Buried Under Books

Thursday, August 10th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Friday, August 11th: Bewitched Bookworms

Monday, August 14th: From the TBR Pile

Tuesday, August 15th: Kahakai Kitchen

Tuesday, August 15th: SJ2B House Of Books

Wednesday, August 16th: Readaholic Zone

Thursday, August 17th: Tina Says…

Monday, August 21st: Jenn’s Bookshelves

Tuesday, August 22nd: StephTheBookworm

Wednesday, August 23rd: Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile

Wednesday, August 23rd: Art Books Coffee

Thursday, August 24th: A Bookworm’s World

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

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

The Beach at Painter's Cove by Shelley Noble ~ My Thoughts #TheBeachAtPaintersCove #TLCBookTours

The Beach at Painter's Cove

The Beach at Painter's Cove by Shelley Noble

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (June 13, 2017)

From the New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Beach comes another heartwarming story of four generations of women who reunite in their crumbling family mansion by the sea for a dramatic summer filled with love, family, secrets and sisterhood.

The Whitaker family’s Connecticut mansion, Muses by the Sea, has always been a haven for artists, a hotbed of creativity, extravagances, and the occasional scandal. Art patrons for generations, the Whitakers supported strangers but drained the life out of each other. Now, after being estranged for years, four generations of Whitaker women find themselves once again at The Muses.

Leo, the Whitaker matriarch, lives in the rambling mansion crammed with artwork and junk. She plans to stay there until she joins her husband Wes on the knoll overlooking the cove and meadow where they first met. Her sister-in-law Fae, the town eccentric, is desperate to keep a secret she has been hiding for years.

Jillian, is a jet setting actress, down on her luck, and has run out of men to support her. She thinks selling The Muses will make life easier for her mother, Leo, and Fae by moving them into assisted living. The sale will also bring her the funds to get herself back on top.

Issy, Jillian’s daughter, has a successful life as a museum exhibit designer that takes her around the world. But the Muses and her grandmother are the only family she’s known and when her sister leaves her own children with Leo, Issy knows she has to step in to help.

Steph, is only twelve-years-old and desperately needs someone to fire her imagination and bring her out of her shell. What she begins to discover at the Muses could change the course of her future.

As Issy martials the family together to restore the mansion and catalogue the massive art collection, a surprising thing happens. Despite storms and moonlight dancing, diva attacks and cat fights, trips to the beach and flights of fancy, these four generations of erratic, dramatic women may just find a way to save the Muses and reunite their family.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

My thoughts about The Beach at Painter's Cove ~~ 

(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 line—"Summer 1962 The Painter's Cove Gazette—Muses by the Sea, ancestral home of the Whitaker family and renowned artist colony, was the scene of a public garden party last week where local residents were invited to meet and greet those artists currently in residence." 

The Beach at Painter's Cove is a wonderful story, full of very interesting characters, one of them being the estate, Muses by the Sea. The estate in the book plays as big of a part in the story as the rest of the characters. And there are some really great characters. I fell in love with so many of them. I especially enjoyed Leo, or Grammy as so many of them call her, and Fae. What amazing old women they are, so caring and quirky.

Issy has to drop everything to rush home to the Muses to keep her nieces from being sent to foster care. Once she is there, there are other people and things that need her attention. The story is beautifully woven between the present and the past. And can the past help save those in the present?

 I loved everything about The Beach at Painter's Cove; the place, the characters, the history, and the family ties, even if some of them appear to be broken. 

I received a copy of The Beach at Painter's Cove for the TLC Book Tour in exchange for my honest opinion. 

About the author

Shelley Noble is a former professional dancer and choreographer and has worked on a number of films. She lives at the Jersey shore where she loves to visit lighthouses and vintage carousels. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America.

Connect with Shelley

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Visit other stops on the tour!

Tuesday, June 6th: Book by Book

Wednesday, June 7th: alyssarossblog

Wednesday, June 7th: StephTheBookworm

Thursday, June 8th: Into the Hall of Books

Friday, June 9th: Just Commonly

Friday, June 9th: Kritters Ramblings

Monday, June 12th: Back Porchervations

Monday, June 12th: The Book Bag

Tuesday, June 13th: BookNAround

Wednesday, June 14th: A Chick Who Reads

Thursday, June 15th: I Wish I Lived in a Library

Friday, June 16th: Tina Says…

Tuesday, June 20th: My Journey Back

Tuesday, June 20th: Bibliotica

Wednesday, June 21st: Stranded in Chaos

Thursday, June 22nd: Ms. Nose in a Book

Friday, June 23rd: Dreams, Etc.

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

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

On Tour: Same Beach, Next Year by Dorothea Benton Frank #TLCBookTours #SameBeachNextYear

Same Beach, Next Year: A Novel by Dorothea Benton Frank

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published May 16th 2017 by William Morrow

New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank returns to her magical Lowcountry of South Carolina in this bewitching story of marriage, love, family, and friendship that is infused with her warm and engaging earthy humor and generous heart.

One enchanted summer, two couples begin a friendship that will last more than twenty years and transform their lives.

A chance meeting on the Isle of Palms, one of Charleston’s most stunning barrier islands, brings former sweethearts, Adam Stanley and Eve Landers together again. Their respective spouses, Eliza and Carl, fight sparks of jealousy flaring from their imagined rekindling of old flames. As Adam and Eve get caught up on their lives, their partners strike up a deep friendship—and flirt with an unexpected attraction—of their own.

Year after year, Adam, Eliza, Eve, and Carl eagerly await their reunion at Wild Dunes, a condominium complex at the island’s tip end, where they grow closer with each passing day, building a friendship that will withstand financial catastrophe, family tragedy, and devastating heartbreak. The devotion and love they share will help them weather the vagaries of time and enrich their lives as circumstances change, their children grow up and leave home, and their twilight years approach.

Bursting with the intoxicating richness of Dorothea Benton Frank’s beloved Lowcountry—the sultry sunshine, cool ocean breezes, icy cocktails, and starry velvet skies—Same Beach, Next Year is a dazzling celebration of the infrangible power of friendship, the enduring promise of summer, and the indelible bonds of love.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

My thoughts about Same Beach, Next Year ~~ 

(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 line—"The conversation that launched my need to tell you this whole crazy story actually came from our son Luke, who, like his twin, is practically an adult." 

I love this time of year when all the "beach reads" come out. I simply devour them. Same Beach, Next Year is a wonderful beach read in every way. Of course, the main characters are at the beach or a vacation setting. There is plenty of fun, as well as a good share of drama. Gotta have the drama, right? Dorothea always writes such great stories with unforgettable characters. I love getting lost in the pages of her books and I love when I can spend uninterrupted hours savoring her words.

Eliza thinks she has the perfect marriage and loves her husband very much. They meet a nice couple one year while on vacation and end up making it a yearly thing. It turns out that Adam and Eve knew each other when they were much younger. What a coincidence. The two couples become very close and enjoy their times together as they watch their children grow up. And then, secrets are revealed, secrets that may break the couples apart.

I loved watching Eliza as she finds the strength to finally do something for herself, as she discovers what makes her happy. This is a story full of fun, interesting characters and situations that will make you laugh and sometimes make you sad. But it will entertain you and make you want more. Same Beach, Next Year is the perfect book to put on your summer reading list this year.  

I received a copy of Same Beach, Next Year for the TLC Book Tour in exchange for my honest opinion. 

About the author

Photo by Debbie Zammit

New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank was born and raised on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. She resides in the New York area with her husband.

Connect with Dorothea

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Visit other stops on the tour! 

Tuesday, May 16th: Girl Who Reads
Wednesday, May 17th: bookchickdi
Thursday, May 18th: Kritters Ramblings
Friday, May 19th: Mom’s Small Victories
Monday, May 22nd: Stranded in Chaos
Tuesday, May 23rd: A Chick Who Reads
Wednesday, May 24th: Into the Hall of Books
Thursday, May 25th: Tina Says…
Friday, May 26th: The Book Bag
Monday, May 29th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
Tuesday, May 30th: A Bookish Way of Life
Wednesday, May 31st: Girls Just Reading
Thursday, June 1st: Jathan & Heather
Friday, June 2nd: 5 Minutes For Books

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

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

On Tour: The Beach House: Coming Home by Georgia Bockoven #TLCBookTours #TheBeachHouseComingHome

The Beach House

The Beach House: Coming Home by Georgia Bockoven
Paperback, 352 pages
Published May 16th 2017 by William Morrow Paperbacks

Bestselling author Georgia Bockoven is at her powerful and emotional peak in this novel perfect for fans of Nancy Thayer and Elin Hilderbrand.

Unlock the door to the beach house…a place where life slows down, people come together, and love is the strongest force of all.

After you’ve given your baby to strangers, what do you say when someone asks if you have children?

Fourteen years ago, Melinda Campbell was fifteen and a half, pregnant and terrified. Desperate to protect her baby from a malicious grandfather and needed at home to take care of her own critically ill father, Melinda makes the most generous, heart-wrenching choice of all: adoption. Now she’s living the successful life her father struggled to give her, but missing her daughter with a longing that shadows every joy.

Jeremy Richmond knows the beach house the way a painter knows his canvas, intimately and focused on detail. His life revolves around his adopted daughter, Shiloh, the girl who’s owned his heart from the moment he first held her as an infant. They were a picture-perfect family until Shiloh was diagnosed with pediatric lupus and Jeremy’s wife walked away.

When Shiloh tells her father she’s tired of fighting her illness and wants to meet her biological mother before it’s too late, Jeremy agrees to find a woman he has no desire to meet.

From the moment Melinda and Jeremy come face-to-face, they realize their worlds will never be the same. Will the beach house that has harbored troubled hearts for decades prove to be the balm they need to heal…?

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

(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 line—"El Niño teased the California coast, promising weeks of rain, but delivering enough to keep hope alive."

I love this time of year when all the new beach reads start coming out. I just can't get enough of them. It's like I am taking a vacation myself and the stories are always fabulous!

The Beach House: Coming Home is the perfect beach read this year. It has the requisite beach house, as well as plenty of conflict and emotions. Melinda, Jeremy, and Shiloh have each gone through their own problems and heartache. Can these three wounded, broken people figure out how to make amends and find happiness?

I loved the strength of Melinda as she carries on after losing the love of her life and her baby. She is determined to not lose again. Jeremy has the innate love of a father, doing what he has to, to protect his beloved daughter. And Shiloh is a strong young girl who knows that she wants to meet her mother before it's too late. All three of these characters bring so much to the story and I was rooting for all of them to find happiness.

Gloria Bockoven writes wonderful stories and I know when I start one that I will be carried away on a touching, emotional journey. The Beach House: Coming Home is a book that should definitely be added to your summer TBR list.

I received an ARC copy of The Beach House: Coming Home for the TLC Book Tours in exchange for my honest opinion.

About the author

Georgia was a Army child, who after a successful career as a freelance photo journalist before she turned to fiction writing. Published since 1983, she is an award-winning author whose books have sold more than four million copies worldwide. Her romance novel, A Marriage of Convenience, became a CBS movie in October of 1998 starring Jane Seymour and James Brolin.

Married with John Bockoven, she is the mother of two, and resides in Northern California. When her husband retired from the fire department, she decided to take a break from writing and spend more time together. The result was a nature photography business that is both challenging and filled with creative energy.

Connect with Georgia

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

Visit other stops on the tour. 

Tour schedule

Tuesday, May 16th: A Chick Who Reads
Tuesday, May 16th: The Book Bag
Wednesday, May 17th: Time 2 Read
Thursday, May 18th: Into the Hall of Books
Friday, May 19th: Bibliotica
Monday, May 22nd: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
Tuesday, May 23rd: Back Porchervations
Wednesday, May 24th: Jathan & Heather
Thursday, May 25th: Library of Clean Reads
Monday, May 29th: Kritters Ramblings
Tuesday, May 30th: Dreams, Etc.
Wednesday, May 31st: alyssarossblog
Thursday, June 1st: Tina Says…

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

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

On Tour: #The Forbidden Garden by Ellen Herrick ~ My Thoughts #TLCBookTours

The Forbidden Garden

The Forbidden Garden by Ellen Herrick
Paperback, 400 pages
Published April 4th 2017 by William Morrow Paperbacks

“Captivating [...] Herrick weaves a rich tapestry of family lore, dark secrets, and love.” —Brunonia Barry, New York Times bestselling author of The Lace Reader and The Fifth Petal

Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Sarah Jio, comes a lush imaginative novel that takes readers into the heart of a mysterious English country garden, waiting to spring to life.

Every garden is a story, waiting to be told… 

At the nursery she runs with her sisters on the New England coast, Sorrel Sparrow has honed her rare gift for nurturing plants and flowers. Now that reputation, and a stroke of good timing, lands Sorrel an unexpected opportunity: reviving a long-dormant Shakespearean garden on an English country estate.

Arriving at Kirkwood Hall, ancestral home of Sir Graham Kirkwood and his wife Stella, Sorrel is shocked by the desolate state of the walled garden. Generations have tried—and failed—to bring it back to glory. Sorrel senses heartbreak and betrayal here, perhaps even enchantment. Intrigued by the house’s history—especially the haunting tapestries that grace its walls—and increasingly drawn to Stella’s enigmatic brother, Sorrel sets to work. And though she knows her true home is across the sea with her sisters, instinct tells her that the English garden’s destiny is entwined with her own, if she can only unravel its secrets…

 

Purchase The Forbidden Garden

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

(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 line—"The garden waited. Behind the yew hedges, beyond the crumbling brick wall, within sight of the ancient house, under skies both heavy and light, the garden waited for someone to save it."

This story is truly magical. The Sparrow sisters are able to work their special magic on their gardens; growing flowers and vegetables like no one else can. The Forbidden Garden takes place after our introduction to the sisters in the first book, The Sparrow Sisters. Sorrel is feeling restless after everything has finally settled down at home and she jumps at the chance to travel to save an old Shakespearean garden in England.

I loved the first book and this one was just as delightful. I never knew what twists and turns the story was going to take and figuring out how it was all going to end was intriguing. Ellen does a wonderful job keeping the reader interested by doling out bits and pieces that just draw you in. 

I don't know if the author plans to write more books about the Sparrow sisters but I look forward to reading them if she does.

I previously read Ellen's other book, The Sparrow Sisters. 

It was great visiting the sisters again.

You can read my thoughts here. 

About the author

Ellen Herrick was a publishing professional in New York City until she and her husband moved to London for a brief stint; they returned nearly twenty years later with three children (her own, it must be said). She now divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a small town on Cape Cod very much like Granite Point.

Connect with Ellen

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

Visit other stops on the tour here. 

Tuesday, April 4th: Tina Says…

Friday, April 7th: View from the Birdhouse

Monday, April 10th: The Book Bag

Tuesday, April 11th: Kahakai Kitchen

Wednesday, April 12th: Broken Teepee

Thursday, April 13th: Flavia the Bibliophile

Friday, April 14th: Art @ Home

Monday, April 17th: Kritters Ramblings

Monday, April 17th: Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile

Tuesday, April 18th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Wednesday, April 19th: A Bookish Way of Life

Thursday, April 20th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Friday, April 21st: Literary Quicksand

Friday, April 28th: Just Commonly

Thursday, April 27th: M. Denise Costello

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

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

On Tour: All Summer Long by Dorothea Benton Frank ~ My Thoughts #TLCBookTours #AllSummerLong

All Summer Long

All Summer Long by Dorothea Benton Frank
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, March 7, 2017

Filled with her trademark wit, poignant themes, and rich characters, the perennial New York Times bestselling author returns with a sensational novel that follows the travels of one couple through a tumultuous summer.

Dorothea Benton Frank’s magical stories take us deep into the heart of her beloved Carolina Lowcountry. In her novels, this lush landscape comes alive in all its vibrancy and color. She ignites all of our senses with her vivid descriptions of landscape and atmosphere. In her novels you hear the ocean washing the shore on different islands so profoundly that you can nearly hear the sea gulls squawking, too.

This is a story of people whose lives are changing—a southern gentleman returning home to lead a more peaceful life and his talented New York wife who is not quite sure she is ready to make the transition. They are moving north to south, fast pace versus slow pace, downsizing. And while they are doing this, they are getting glimpses into other people’s lives over the course of a summer, holidays that will amuse, shock and transform them.

This irresistible story is home to captivating characters as funny, complicated, and real as our best friends—husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, friends and family who wrestle with the complexities, pain, and joys familiar to us all.

Finally, we’ll come to recognize the face of love, the kind that deepens and endures but only because one woman makes a tremendous leap of faith. That leap changes them all.

 

Purchase All Summer Long

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

My thoughts about All Summer Long ~~

(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 line—"Whether the subject of change was partners, possessions, or places, some people had an easy time letting go. A fixture in the crown of Manhattan's classic interior designers, Olivia Ritchie was not such a person."

I have read several of Dorothea's books now and I have loved all of them. This one, All Summer Long, takes the reader into the world of the super rich. Olivia is the talented interior designer to those who have the money. And I, as the reader, lived vicariously in that rich world for a short time.

As in Dorothea's other stories, this one is filled with great characters; some you come to love and some you'd love to hate. There is such a wide range of characters, from the humble couple from Nebraska who are definitely in over their heads when they attend the wedding of their daughter, to the bitchy ex-wife who stirs up so much trouble. They all come to life for the reader.

And lessons are learned as the characters grow and change; money does not always equal happiness and you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Cliché lessons, maybe, but it was a wonderful journey watching the characters figure it all out.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the TLC Book Tour and am voluntarily reviewing it.

Visit other stops on the tour here.

About the author

New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank was born and raised on Sullivans Island, South Carolina. She resides in the New York area with her husband.

Connect with Dorothea

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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

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

On Tour: The Runaway Midwife by Patricia Harman #TLCBookTours #TheRunawayMidwife.

The Runaway Midwife

The Runaway Midwife: A Novel by Patricia Harman
Paperback, 416 pages
Published: January 31st 2017 by William Morrow Paperbacks

From the USA Today bestselling author of the Hope River series comes a new contemporary midwife novel.

Say “goodbye” to your old life, and “hello” to the life you’ve been waiting for…

Midwife Clara Perry is accustomed to comforting her pregnant patients…calming fathers-to-be as they anxiously await the birth of their children…ensuring the babies she delivers come safely into the world.

But when Clara’s life takes a nosedive, she realizes she hasn’t been tending to her own needs and does something drastic: she runs away and starts over again in a place where no one knows her or the mess she’s left behind in West Virginia. Heading to Sea Gull Island—a tiny, remote Canadian island—Clara is ready for anything. Well, almost. She left her passport back home, and the only way she can enter Canada is by hitching a ride on a snowmobile and illegally crossing the border.

Deciding to reinvent herself, Clara takes a new identity—Sara Livingston, a writer seeking solitude. But there’s no avoiding the outside world. The residents are friendly, and draw “Sara” into their lives and confidences. She volunteers at the local medical clinic, using her midwifery skills, and forms a tentative relationship with a local police officer.

But what will happen if she lets down her guard and reveals the real reason why she left her old life? One lesson soon becomes clear: no matter how far you run, you can never really hide from your past.

Purchase The Runaway Midwife

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

My thoughts about The Runaway Midwife ~~

(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 line—"Next to the dead man lying on the beach, mostly covered with snow, is a dead swan, its neck twisted at a strange angle."

The Runaway Midwife was a great read, one that I found myself totally wrapped up in. I instantly liked and admired Clara and was rooting for her to succeed. She leaves everything behind when her life falls apart; her best friend committed suicide, her husband cheated on her, and one of her patients dies unexpectedly. She wants to leave that life behind and she flees to Canada. There is no one she can trust and she constantly worries that someone will find out her true identity. She has to learn to be a strong woman or she is never going to survive.

This story was a wonderful page turner and it kept my attention to the end. The writing was superb with a cast of great characters. I'll be on the lookout for future books by this author.

I received an ARC of this book for the TLC Book Tour and am voluntarily reviewing it.

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

About the Author

Patricia Harman, CNM, got her start as a lay midwife on rural communes and went on to become a nurse-midwife on the faculties of Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, and West Virginia University. She is the author of two acclaimed memoirs and the bestselling novel The Midwife of Hope River. She has three sons and lives near Morgantown, West Virginia.

Connect with Patricia

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon

Visit other stops on the tour here. 

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

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

On Tour: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline ~ My Thoughts #TLCBookTours #OrphanTrain

Orphan Train

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Christina Baker Kline’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel—the captivating story of a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to long-buried questions…now with an extended scene that addresses the number one question readers ask, and an excerpt from Kline’s upcoming novel A Piece of the World

“A lovely novel about the search for family that also happens to illuminate a fascinating and forgotten chapter of America’s history. Beautiful.”—Ann Packer

Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?

As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.

Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past.

Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, and unexpected friendship.

HarperCollins

My thoughts about Orphan Train ~~ 

(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 line—"I believe in ghosts. They're the ones who haunt us, the ones who have left us behind. Many times in my life I have felt them around me, observing, witnessing, when no one in the living world knew or cared what happened."

The subject of the orphan trains of the late 1800s and early 1990s has always fascinated me. I can not imagine the sadness and loneliness those children and families had to endure. This touching look at what the lives of the people who were a part of this time period made for a fabulous, emotional read.  

Vivian and Molly are worlds apart when they meet but then they come to realize how much they have in common. I immediately fell in love with Vivian, a 91 year old woman who was one of the children put on an orphan train. She relives her life as she goes through boxes in her attic with Molly, the young girl who has to do community service for trying to steal a library book. Vivian has a bit of spunk in her and totally accepts Molly when others are not so forgiving of her attitude. I wish Vivian could be part of my life, I think I would really enjoy knowing her. What a fascinating woman.   

Orphan Train was a very interesting story with two amazing characters who, through all their trials and tribulations, come together and finally find peace and happiness. Christina is a wonderful storyteller who totally immersed me in her account of a piece our history. 

About the author 

Christina Baker Kline is the author of five novels. She lives outside of New York City and on the coast of Maine.

Find out more about Kline at her website, connect with her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.

Visit other stops on the tour HERE. 

 **************************

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

On Tour: Inheriting Edith by Zoe Fishman #TLCBookTours #InheritingEdith.

Inheriting Edith

Inheriting Edith by Zoe Fishman
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks October 18, 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.

Purchase Inheriting Edith

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

My thoughts about Inheriting Edith ~~ 

(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—'A beach house, thought Maggie, her head spinning like the revolving glass door that deposited her back onto Eighteenth Street.'

I was totally enchanted by this story from the very first page. I was immediately very comfortable with the author's writing and I felt an instant connection to the main character, Maggie. I truly cared about her and I needed to make sure she and her daughter were happy and in a good place. Their lives kept me turning the pages.

Life hasn't been easy for Maggie but she suddenly gets what she considers a fortune dropped in her lap. There is just one stipulation—she also gets the elderly woman with Alzheimer's who comes with the house. Maggie suddenly has to take on the responsibility of caring for this woman, as well as being a single parent to her little daughter.

Inheriting Edith is a story of secrets, friendship, forgiveness, letting go, and holding on. I highly recommend this book as this is one I could have devoured in one sitting.

About the author

Photo by Karen Shacham

Zoe Fishman is the author of Driving Lessons, Saving Ruth, and Balancing Acts. Her books have been translated into German, Italian, Dutch and Polish. She’s the recipient of many awards, including Target’s Breakout and Emerging Author Picks, a New York Post Pick, and has been featured on NBC’s “Atlanta & Co.” as well as in Publishers Weekly and The Huffington Post.

She is currently at work on her next novel, as well as teaching writing at The Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. Zoe lives in Atlanta with her husband and two sons.

Connect with Zoe

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Visit other stops on the tour here. 

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways

On Tour: The Opposite of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson #TheOppositeOfEveryone

The Opposite of Everyone

The Opposite of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson
Paperback, 320 pages
Published October 11th 2016 by William Morrow Paperbacks 

A fiercely independent divorce lawyer learns the power of family and connection when she receives a cryptic message from her estranged mother in this bittersweet, witty novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Someone Else’s Love Story and gods in Alabama—an emotionally resonant tale about the endurance of love and the power of stories to shape and transform our lives

Born in Alabama, Paula Vauss spent the first decade of her life on the road with her free-spirited young mother, Kai, an itinerant storyteller who blended Hindu mythology with southern oral tradition to reinvent their history as they roved. But everything, including Paula’s birth name, Kali Jai, changed when she told a story of her own—one that landed Kai in prison and Paula in foster care. With the two of them separated, each holding her own secrets, the intense bond they once shared was fractured.

These days, Paula has reincarnated herself as a tough-as-nails divorce attorney with a successful practice in Atlanta. While she hasn’t seen Kai in fifteen years, she’s still making payments on that karmic debt—until the day her last check is returned in the mail, along with a mystifying note: “I am going on a journey, Kali. I am going back to my beginning; death is not the end. You will be the end. We will meet again, and there will be new stories. You know how Karma works.”

Then Kai’s most treasured secret literally lands on Paula’s doorstep, throwing her life into chaos and transforming her from only child to older sister. Desperate to find her mother before it’s too late, Paula sets off on a journey of discovery that will take her back to the past and into the deepest recesses of her heart. With the help of her ex-lover Birdwine, an intrepid and emotionally volatile private eye who still carries a torch for her, this brilliant woman, an expert at wrecking families, now has to figure out how to put one back together—her own.

The Opposite of Everyone is a story about story itself, how the tales we tell connect us, break us, and define us, and how the endings and beginnings we choose can destroy us . . . and make us whole. Laced with sharp humor and poignant insight, it is beloved New York Times bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson at her very best.

My thoughts about The Opposite of Everyone ~~

(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—'I was born blue. If my mother hadn't pushed me out quick as a cat, I would have been born dead and even bluer; her cord was wrapped tight around my neck.'

I have been wanting to read one of Joshilyn's books for some time now. I actually saw her at a book signing several years ago and got a couple of her books, one for me and one for a friend. But that book is sitting on my shelf right now, waiting for me to pick it up and read it. Isn't that how it goes sometimes?

The Opposite of Everyone is a wonderful read with some very interesting characters. Paula has had an extremely rough life, with a mother who is just a little bit eccentric and not always there for her. And then one day, a stranger pops into her life and starts her on a journey to reexamine her life and to find some answers.

Like I said, there are some great characters and I especially I loved the relationship between Paula and Birdwine. There is some chemistry there but is that a good thing or is it like dynamite?

I am so glad that the first book of Joshilyn's that I read was The Opposite of Everyone. This was a excellent read that I thoroughly enjoyed and I can't wait to read more of her work. I am definitely going to get that other book down off of the shelf now.

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

I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours and am voluntarily reviewing it.

Purchase The Opposite of Everyone

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

About the author

Joshilyn Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of six previous novels, including gods in Alabama, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, and Someone Else’s Love Story. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages. A former actor, she is also an award-winning audiobook narrator. She lives in Decatur, Georgia, with her husband and their two children.

Connect with Joshilyn

 Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

On Tour: #TheKeptWoman by Karin Slaughter #TLCBookTours ~ My Thoughts

The Kept Woman

The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
Series: Will Trent #8
Hardcover, 480 pages
Published: September 20th 2016 by William Morrow 

Husbands and wives. Mothers and daughters. The past and the future.

Secrets bind them. And secrets can destroy them. 

The author of the acclaimed standalone Pretty Girls returns with this long-awaited new novel in her bestselling Will Trent series—an electrifying, emotionally complex thriller that plunges the Georgia detective into the darkest depths of a case that just might destroy him.

With the discovery of a murder at an abandoned construction site, Will Trent and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are brought in on a case that becomes much more dangerous when the dead man is identified as an ex-cop.

Studying the body, Sara Linton—the GBI’s newest medical examiner and Will’s lover—realizes that the extensive blood loss didn't belong to the corpse. Sure enough, bloody footprints leading away from the scene indicate there is another victim—a woman—who has vanished . . . and who will die soon if she isn’t found.

Will is already compromised, because the site belongs to the city’s most popular citizen: a wealthy, powerful, and politically connected athlete protected by the world’s most expensive lawyers—a man who’s already gotten away with rape, despite Will’s exhaustive efforts to put him away.

But the worst is yet to come. Evidence soon links Will’s troubled past to the case . . . and the consequences will tear through his life with the force of a tornado, wreaking havoc for Will and everyone around him, including his colleagues, family, friends—and even the suspects he pursues.

Relentlessly suspenseful and furiously paced, peopled with conflicted, fallible characters who leap from the page, The Kept Woman is a searing novel of love, loss, and redemption. A seamless blend of twisty police procedural and ingenious psychological thriller, it marks Karin Slaughter’s triumphant return to her most popular series, sure to please new and diehard fans alike.

Purchase The Kept Woman

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

My thoughts about The Kept Woman ~~

(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—'For the first time in her life, she cradled her daughter in her arms.'

Wow! Another super intense, didn't want it to stop, story from a fabulous author! I have loved everything I have read by Karin. This is book #8 in the Will Trent series and I have to be honest here, I have only read one other book in this series. But.... I didn't feel like I was missing anything by jumping in where I did. This book was intriguing and exciting, all on it's own.

I love Will and I really want to know more about him. He truly is trying to make a good, happy life for himself, even when the past creeps back into his world. The Kept Woman is full of twists and turns and has plenty of action that had me flying through the pages. Karin is a master storyteller and is one of my 'must-read' authors now. I just love her stories!

I received this book for review from HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours.

Visit other stops on the tour here

About the author

Karin Slaughter is the #1 internationally bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including the Will Trent and Grant County series and the instant New York Times bestselling standalones, Cop Town and Pretty Girls. There are more than 35 million copies of her books in print around the world.

Visit her at http://www.karinslaughter.com

Connect with Karin

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!