It's Monday! What Are You Reading? January 9, 2017

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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Well, what a week this has been. Last Monday, we welcomed our new little granddaughter into this world. I am so pleased to introduce our new adorable little baby girl, Lilliana Jean. Her middle name, Jean, is in honor of her 85 year old great-grandmother. She will be meeting her namesake in a couple of weeks when we're able to get down to see her. 💓

Nama and Lilliana Jean

We took care of her 7½ year old brother for a few days (and overnights) so the parents could concentrate on the birth and the baby. And then ..... on the one hour drive back home in the middle of the week, our car broke down on the interstate and had to be towed in for repair. One hour in the car, with no heat, waiting for our ride - brrrr! It's pretty major and we probably won't be getting it back until the middle of the week, or later. And then ...... our other car ended up being out of commission as well. It is so blasted cold here and it wouldn't start. Hubby is trying his darnedest to figure out what the problem is. He can be so stubborn sometimes and thinks he should be able to fix it himself but I think he's about ready to give up. So we've had some good with some bad. That's life, I guess. 

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

What I'm currently reading/listening to

Orphan Train

by Christina Baker Kline 

For an upcoming TLC Book Tour.

Pie Girls

by Lauren Clark

(audio-book)

I am really enjoying this one. 

Spinning the Moon
by Karen White
(audio-book)

What I recently finished

Tangle of Strings (Sweeney Sisters #4)

by Ashley Farley

I love this series! My thoughts will be posted soon.

Under Rose-Tainted Skies
by Louise Gornall
Loved it! You can read my thoughts here.

It's Destiny: Three Romantic Women's Fiction Love Stories
by Bette Lee Crosby, Tanya Anne Crosby, and Julianne MacLean
These were great stories. My thoughts will be posted soon.

What I am going to read next


Everything I Never Told You
by Celeste Ng
This is my next book club pick. I might pick this one up and get started on it.

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall ~ My Thoughts

Under Rose-Tainted Skies

Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall
Kindle Edition, 336 pages
Published January 3rd 2017 by Clarion Books

Norah has agoraphobia and OCD. When groceries are left on the porch, she can’t step out to get them. Struggling to snag the bags with a stick, she meets Luke. He’s sweet and funny, and he just caught her fishing for groceries. Because of course he did.

Norah can’t leave the house, but can she let someone in? As their friendship grows deeper, Norah realizes Luke deserves a normal girl. One who can lie on the front lawn and look up at the stars. One who isn’t so screwed up.

Readers themselves will fall in love with Norah in this poignant, humorous, and deeply engaging portrait of a teen struggling to find the strength to face her demons.

(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'm going to kill the damn blackbird sitting on my windowsill, chirping and squeaking at the top if its lungs. It hops back and forth, wings spread and flapping, but has zero intention of taking off."

Wow! I was totally hooked on this book from the very first chapter. The main character, Norah, is a teenger living her life with agoraphobia and OCD. Under Rose-Tainted Skies gives us a small taste of what it would be like to live this way. Norah first started showing symptoms about four years ago and now at seventeen, she has lived most of her teenage years being homebound. 

This was both an easy and a hard book to read. That's sounds contradictory, doesn't it? What I mean by that is, while it was hard to read about someone with agoraphobia and OCD and to have to see the trials and tribulations Norah goes through on a day-to-day basis, it was also an easy-to-read story because the author writes so beautifully. The words just flowed off of the pages. This whole story captivated me and it was one of those hard-to-put-down books that we all love to discover and get caught up in. I loved this book and will be looking forward to more from this author.  

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book and am voluntarily reviewing it.

About the author 

My name is Louise, and I write YA books. Sometimes contemp, sometimes horror, sometimes thriller. My debut YA contemp, Under Rose-Tainted Skies, will be published by HMH/Clarion (US), and Chicken House/Scholastic (UK) in the fall 2016/17.

Under Rose-Tainted Skies is about this chick, Norah, who suffers from agoraphobia, OCD and depression. Her life is one long blur of cheese sandwiches and trash tv, until she meets the new boy next door, Luke, and he starts to challenge her way of thinking.

I’m represented by the amazing Mandy Hubbard of Emerald City Literary.

Connect with Louise

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? January 2, 2017

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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As this post goes live, we should be welcoming our new granddaughter into our lives. She is scheduled to be born this morning. It is always so exciting to have a baby join our world. This little one will put us at 8 grandchildren, some biological and some I call our 'bonus' grandchildren. I love them all and we are so blessed!

Other than that, we had a great Christmas and it was wonderful to spend some time with our extended families. I took the week off of work after Christmas, enjoyed some lazy days, and got a little bit of reading done. I also tried to catch up on some of my review posts. I'm looking forward to some great reads in 2017.

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

What I'm currently reading/listening to

Under Rose-Tainted Skies
by Louise Gornall
I am just starting this one but it has captured me already.

Pie Girls

by Lauren Clark

(audio-book)

I am really enjoying this one. 

Spinning the Moon
by Karen White
(audio-book)
I listen to this in the car and I haven't haven't had much car-time lately.

What I recently finished

So Damn Lucky (Lucky O'Toole #3)

by Deborah Coonts

Love this series! And my thoughts will be posted soon.

Lucky in Love (Lucky O'Toole #2.5)

by Deborah Coonts

The Fifth Petal (The Lace Reader #2)
by Brunonia Barry
My thoughts will be posted later this week.

What I am going to read next


It's Destiny: Three Romantic Women's Fiction Love Stories
by Bette Lee Crosby, Tanya Anne Crosby, and Julianne MacLean
I've already read Bette's story (love her!) and I'm excited to read the other ones.

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!