Release Day! A Storm of Infinite Beauty by ~ My Thoughts #AStormOfInfiniteBeauty @JulianneMacLean @GoSparkPoint

Congratulations Julianne

on the release today of

A Storm of Infinite Beauty!

A Storm of Infinite Beauty by Julianne MacLean

Fiction, 300 pages
Published September 12, 2023 by Lake Union Publishing

From the bestselling author of Beyond the Moonlit Sea comes an atmospheric tale of how one woman’s search for the truth uncovers long-hidden secrets and rocks the very foundation of her world. 

Scarlett Fontaine is a true Hollywood legend―a singer, actress, and beloved fashion icon. But Scarlett dies tragically at just thirty-six years old, leaving behind no children. Or so the story goes… 

Gwen Hollingsworth is the curator at a museum dedicated to Scarlett’s life. She’s also sole heir to Scarlett’s fortune as a descendant of the star. But all is not well in Gwen’s world. She’s dealing with a messy marital separation and is struggling to move forward. So when Peter Miller, a biographer and photojournalist, comes to the museum with shocking claims about Scarlett―a life of exile in Alaska, a baby born in secret―Gwen’s whole world is turned upside down. Again . 

Determined to uncover the truth, Gwen and Peter set out for Alaska together but soon find themselves on a path toward something far deeper and more meaningful than either of them ever expected. A Storm of Infinite Beauty takes readers on a breathtaking journey from a lush vineyard in Nova Scotia to a rustic lodge in Alaska where old family secrets are revealed and the quest for true happiness begins.

My thoughts about A Storm of Infinite Beauty ~~

(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—"Twenty-three minutes before the earthquake struck. Valerie McCarthy was on her way to deliver a letter."

I've read a couple of other books by this author and thoroughly enjoyed them. I was excited when I received a copy of A Storm of Infinite Beauty for review. I was not disappointed, this story was as good as her other ones were. 

Scarlett led a very private and secret life. When a shocking discovery is revealed about her past, Gwen and Peter are determined to get answers and search for those who knew her back then. Finding themselves in the beautiful lands of Alaska, they uncover the past and discover new truths about Scarlett. They learn more about themselves along the way as well. 

A Storm of Infinite Beauty is a well written, enjoyable read with very likable characters that I found myself totally immersed in. I truly did not want the story to end but loved the way that it did. Julianne MacLean will be an author that I will always want to read and I look forward to more of her stories. 

I received an ARC of A Storm of Infinite Beauty and this is my honest opinion.

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About the author

Julianne MacLean is a USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including the contemporary women’s fiction Color of Heaven Series. Readers have described her books as “breathtaking,” “soulful” and “uplifting.” MacLean is a four-time RITA finalist and has won numerous awards, including the Booksellers’ Best Award and a Reviewers’ Choice Award from Romantic Times. Her novels have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been published in over a dozen languages.

MacLean has a degree in English literature from the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a degree in business administration from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. She loves to travel and has lived in New Zealand, Canada, and England. MacLean currently resides on the east coast of Canada in a lakeside home with her husband and daughter.

Connect with Julianne

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram

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Release Day #Giveaway! This Time Could Be Different by Khristin Wierman #ThisTimeCouldBeDifferent @GoSparkPress @GoSparkPoint

  

Congrats Khristin

on the release today of

This Time Could Be Different!

This Time Could Be Different by Khristin Wierman

Fiction, 381 pages

Published September 12, 2023 by SparkPress

A compulsive overachiever, Madeline lives by the credo that easy is synonymous with mediocre—which is why, at forty-nine, she’s a senior vice president at a prominent bank, frantically adheres to a five-step nightly face cream regimen, and panics anytime she’s a foot away from her phone. Madeline works alongside her best friend, Emma—a master juggler of her own career, marriage, and motherhood to a fourteen-year-old daughter who speaks only in baffling acronyms. The path ahead for both women is brimming with opportunity. There’s only one Madeline is miserable.

Seeking purpose in her life while trying to unravel the source of habits she wants to change, Madeline reluctantly agrees to try yoga, meditation, and other wacky suggestions her new-agey therapist tosses her way. She feels as if she’s risking everything―but in doing so, she just might unlock a world more fulfilling than she ever could have imagined.

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Praise for This Time Could Be Different

“There are plenty of laugh-wince moments to enjoy in this novel…Both an insightful depiction of therapy supporting growth and a dead-on skewering of corporate culture.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Khristin Wierman has put on the boxing gloves and taken out the meditation candle to delve into the underbelly of the workplace and the choices it forces women to make. This thought-provoking page-turner captures the very real drama of working in corporate America as a woman.”―Arielle Eckstut, co-creator of America’s Next Great Author

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About the author

Khristin Wierman spent twenty years rising through the marketing ranks of Fortune 500 companies, building a career that was lucrative, ego-boosting, and a little bit soul-crushing. So she quit—and then had no idea what to do with her life. Writing novels ensued. 

Born and raised in a small East Texas town—which means she came into this world a Dallas Cowboys fan and ardently believes “y’all” is a legitimate pronoun—Khristin enjoys playing golf with her husband and stepson, poker, yoga, chocolate, the Golden State Warriors, and the daily adventure of life with an adorably imperfect cat named Rocco. She lives in San Francisco, California. 

Find out more at www.khristinwierman.com.

Connect with Khristin

Website | Goodreads | Instagram

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Goodbye, Orchid by Carol Van Den Hende ~ My Thoughts #GoodbyeOrchid @c_vandenhende @GoSparkPoint

Goodbye, Orchid by Carol Van Den Hende

(Goodbye, Orchid #2)

Contemporary Women's Fiction, 320 pages

Published October 1, 2021 by Koehler Books

Can love blossom after life changes in an instant?

One July morning in Manhattan, handsome athlete and entrepreneur Phoenix Walker accompanies his love, half-Asian beauty Orchid, to the airport. Neither believes today is goodbye.

But after she leaves, disaster strikes. Phoenix wakes in the hospital, broken, forever changed. He longs for Orchid but remembers the tragedy in her past that makes her panic over images of trauma.

Now, he's faced with the hardest decision of his life. Does he burden the woman whose traumatic childhood makes him feel protective of her? Or does true love mean leaving her without explaining why?

Rising from ashes is hard. Giving up the one you love is harder.

My thoughts about Goodbye, Orchid ~~

(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—"Phoenix never believed today was goodbye. Even though hellos come with goodbyes. Like black holes and Stephen Hawking. Like doughnuts and doughnut holes."

Okay, this book took a spin that I was not expecting. I imagined a continuation of a potentially great love story that started bubbling up in Orchid Blooming. That is not the road the author took. 

As Orchid takes off on her trip of a lifetime—one that could change her whole life—Phoenix suffers a tragedy that does indeed change his whole life. In addition to the physical challenges he faces, Phoenix is torn over whether to contact Orchid or not. I just want to say, his decision stirred up some emotions in me and I sometimes just wanted to shake him! 

Orchid Blooming seemed to be more focused on Orchid herself so I loved that we get a better look at Phoenix and his life in this book. He feels more real to me now. I can't wait to see where book three takes me!  

The tagline for Goodbye, Orchid is "To love her, he had to leave her." I absolutely love this line and it truly represents the tone of this book. The story is heartbreaking while also beautiful. I am in love with both Orchid and Phoenix and am rooting for their relationship. I'm so excited to read book three, Always, Orchid, coming soon!

I received a copy of Goodbye, Orchid from SparkPoint Studio and this is my honest opinion.

Book #1

Read my thoughts here

Book #3

Pub date ~ October 24!

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About the author

Carol Van Den Hende is the award-winning author of Orchid Blooming and Goodbye, Orchid which are inspired by wounded veterans and have won 20+ literary awards, including the American Fiction Award, IAN Outstanding Fiction First Novel Award, and 2020 Royal Dragonfly for Disability Awareness.

Buzzfeed, Parade, and Travel+Leisure named “heartwarming, heartbreaking” Goodbye, Orchid a most anticipated read. Glamour Magazine recommended this “modern, important take on the power of love.” The International Pulpwood Queens, selected Goodbye, Orchid as a 2022 Bonus Book-of-the-Month.

Carol’s mission is unlocking optimism as a writer, speaker, strategist, Board member and Climate Reality Leader. One secret to her good fortune? Her humorous husband and twins, who prove that love really does conquer all. ~ Goodreads

Please sign up for Carol’s newsletter at carolvandenhende.com/contact or linktr.ee/cvdh

Connect with Carol

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading? September 11, 2023 #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

Mrs. Winchester's Biographer

by Deanna Lynn Sletten

eARC from author

Pub date ~ October 3

Love Deanna's stories!

Seekers

Apocalypse in Eden, Book 2

by Ann Swann

Narrated by Matthew Hyland Cook

audiobook gifted from author

Published July 7, 2023

What I recently finished

A Storm of Infinite Beauty: A Novel

by Julianne MacLean

print ARC from publisher

Pub date ~ September 12

Under the Java Moon

by Heather B. Moore

print ARC from publisher

Published September 5

Read my thoughts here

Goodbye, Orchid

(Goodbye, Orchid #2)

by Carol Van Den Hende

Published October 1, 2021

Read my thoughts here

Read my thoughts about book #1 here

What I am going to read next

The River We Remember

by William Kent Krueger

eARC

Published September 5

I love his stories!

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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New Release! Under the Java Moon by Heather B. Moore ~ My Thoughts #UnderTheJavaMoon @heatherbmoore @ShadowMountn

Congratulations Heather

on the recent release of

Under the Java Moon!

Under the Java Moon by Heather B. Moore 

Historical Fiction, World War II, 384 pages
Published September 5, 2023 by Shadow Mountain

Based on a true story, this gripping WWII novel captures the resilience, hope, and courage of a Dutch family who is separated during the war when the Japanese occupy the Dutch East Indies.

Java Island, 1941

Six-year-old Rita Vischer cowers in her family’s dug-out bomb shelter, listening to the sirens and waiting for a bomb to fall. Her charmed life on Java—living with other Dutch families—had always been peaceful, but when Holland declares war on Japan and the Japanese army invades Indonesia, Rita’s family is forced to relocate to a POW camp, and Rita must help care for her little brother, Georgie.

Mary Vischer is three months pregnant when she enters the Tjident women’s camp with thousands of other women and children. Her husband, George, is somewhere on the Java Sea with the Dutch Navy, so she must care alone for her young children, Rita and Georgie, and her frail mother. The brutal conditions of the overcrowded camp make starvation, malaria, and dysentery a grim reality. Mary must do everything she can to keep her family alive.

George Vischer survives the bombing of his minesweeper but feels little hope floating on a small dinghy in the Java Sea. Reaching the northern tip of the Thousand Island would be a miracle. Focusing on the love of his life, Mary, and his two children, he battles against the sea and merciless sun. He’ll do whatever it takes to close the divide between him and his family, even if it means risking being captured by the Japanese.

Under the Java Moon highlights a little-known part of WWII history and the impact of war on Indonesia, its people, and the more than 100,000 Dutch men, women, and children who were funneled into prison camps and faced with the ultimate fight for survival.

My thoughts about Under the Java Moon ~~

(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—"September 1945 Rita Vischer never thought she'd see her father again."

I always learn so much about a topic that I know very little about when I read one of Heather B. Moore's books. I come away feeling more enlightened about the world. 

I had no idea of the suffering that the Dutch people went through during the war. Sure, we all know about the Jewish people and the Holocaust but other groups were made to suffer during that time as well. Based on the true story of the Vischer family, Under the Java Moon follows the family as they are torn apart and made to endure the brutality of horrible people. 

I always love Ms. Moore's stories and I can add this one to the list. They are well researched and well written and truly show her readers bits of forgotten, or unknown, history. The tragedies that the Dutch endured were hard to read about but need to be shared. 

Historical fiction lovers are going to love Under the Java Moon. It's a wonderful story and a piece of history that needs to be remembered. 

I received a copy of Under the Java Moon from the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

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About the author

Heather B. Moore is a USA Today bestselling author of more than ninety publications. Heather writes primarily historical and #herstory fiction about the humanity and heroism of the everyday person. Publishing in a breadth of genres, Heather dives into the hearts and souls of her characters, meshing her love of research with her love of storytelling.

Her ancient era historicals and thrillers are written under pen name H.B. Moore. She writes historical women's fiction, romance and inspirational non-fiction under Heather B. Moore, and . . . speculative fiction under Jane Redd. This can all be confusing, so her kids just call her Mom. Heather attended Cairo American College in Egypt and the Anglican School of Jerusalem in Israel. Despite failing her high school AP English exam, Heather persevered and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University in something other than English.

Connect with Heather

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram

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