Snow Deer and Cocoa Cheer by Joanne DeMaio

Snow Deer and Cocoa Cheer

Snow Deer and Cocoa Cheer by Joanne DeMaio

Print and e-book, 244 pages

Published: October 6th 2015

New York Times bestselling author Joanne DeMaio delivers a delightful novel about following your heart on the snow-dusted journey home.

Jane March's greeting cards have lost their jingle. While worried about her job at New England's Cobblestone Cards, she stumbles upon a forgotten box of her mother's nostalgic paintings. They depict small-town Addison's covered bridge and red barns and picket-fenced colonials. If only Jane's designs could capture the same heart. When her mother shows her how with a Christmas to-do list of memories in the making, Jane gets checking.

Wes Davis has come home again, jilted and a little bitter. His autumn wedding's off, and so is his holiday spirit. Even seeing the rustic wooden deer his father whittles by lantern light doesn't help as he settles back into the shabby Victorian home of his childhood. It is only when Wes encounters the sparkling Jane March on his winding mail route that his cold winter heart begins to thaw.

As the fall months turn wintry, and the season merry, a funny thing happens in this charming Connecticut town: Jane and Wes check off items on that Christmas itinerary, together. But falling in love wasn't included on the list. Or was it?

Snow Deer and Cocoa Cheer is a treasured keepsake, reminding us that like winter's first snow, life brings a beautiful flurry of its own unexpected moments.

My thoughts about Snow Deer and Cocoa Cheer ~~

Snow Deer and Cocoa Cheer is the perfect story to get you in the mood for the holidays this year. The story start off in the fall, in October, right about this time of year. And we go through Halloween and Thanksgiving and then right up to Christmas, right along with all the wonderful people who live in Addison. I was able to take a trip back to the lovely town of Addison where I got to reconnect with the community and the people I had come to love.

Jane goes back home to recuperate after she breaks her arm and where she is going to try to save her career. She is a greeting card maker who seems to have 'lost her jingle'. Her mother is there to support her and to try to help Jane find her way back.

'You asked me how I did it, how I captured that old-fashioned Christmas magic in my art. It's simple, really: You must live it. You must immerse yourself in the season, and our little town of Addison will surely put it on display.'

Wes is just biding his time until he can leave his old life behind. His fiancé called of their wedding and instead of facing the questions from everyone at Christmas, he decides to head to the west coast. Who knows? Maybe he can start a new life there and be happy.

Snow Deer and Cocoa Cheer is a heartwarming story that shows us how beautiful the holidays can be when you are surrounded by those who love you. Joanne does such a fabulous job with her words that the reader can't help feeling all of the holiday joy and emotions that Jane, Wes, and all of the other people of Addison feel as they experience the love of the community. Her descriptions are so perfect that I had no trouble 'seeing' the wonderfulness of Addison.

'Curls of snow rise from colonial chimneys, icy frost laces the landscaping, and tree branches lose the last of red and yellow leaves in early morning sunlight.'

I am always so excited when there is another Joanne DeMaio story to read and I am never disappointed. I love her stories and I love my trips back to the worlds she creates.

About the author

Joanne DeMaio is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans, Whole Latte Life, Snowflakes and Coffee Cakes, and most recently, True Blend. She lives with her family in Connecticut and is currently at work on her next novel.

Joanne enjoys hearing from readers at Facebook.com/JoanneDeMaioAuthor

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Release Day! Smoke by Catherine McKenzie

Happy Release Day!!

Smoke

Smoke by Catherine McKenzie

Hardcover, 370 pages

Publication date: October 20th 2015 by Lake Union

From the internationally bestselling author Catherine McKenzie comes an evocative tale of two women navigating the secrets and lies at the heart of a wildfire threatening their town.

After a decade-long career combating wildfires, Elizabeth has traded in for a quieter life with her husband. Now she works as the local arson investigator in a beautiful, quaint town in the Rockies. But that tranquil life vanishes when she and her husband agree to divorce, and when a fire started in nearby Cooper Basin begins to spread rapidly. For Elizabeth, containing a raging wildfire is easier than accepting that her marriage has failed.

For Elizabeth’s ex-friend Mindy, who feels disconnected from her husband and teenage children, the fire represents a chance to find a new purpose: helping a man who lost his home to the blaze. But her faith is shattered by a shocking accusation.

As the encroaching inferno threatens the town’s residents, Elizabeth and Mindy must discover what will be lost in the fire, and what will be saved.

I love everything this author has written and she has another hit on her hands with Smoke! 

You can read my thoughts here.

About the author

Catherine McKenzie was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. A graduate of McGill University and McGill Law School, Catherine practices law in Montreal. An avid runner and skier, she's the author of the international bestsellers Spin, Arranged, Forgotten, Hidden and the novella, Spun. Hidden was a #1 Amazon bestseller and a Digital Bookworld bestseller for five weeks.

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Library of Souls (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #3) by Ransom Riggs

Library of Souls

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs

Series: Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #3

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published: September 22nd 2015 by Quirk Books

The adventures that began with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and continued with Hollow City comes to a thrilling conclusion with Library of Souls.

As the story opens, sixteen-year-old Jacob discovers a powerful new ability, and soon he’s diving through history to rescue his peculiar companions from a heavily guarded fortress. Accompanying Jacob on his journey are Emma Bloom, a girl with fire at her fingertips, and Addison MacHenry, a dog with a nose for sniffing out lost children.

They’ll travel from modern-day London to the labyrinthine alleys of Devil’s Acre, the most wretched slum in all of Victorian England. It’s a place where the fate of peculiar children everywhere will be decided once and for all. 

Like its predecessors, Library of Souls blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography.

Read an excerpt here

My thoughts about Library of Souls ~~ 

Like the other two books in this series, when I started reading Library of Souls, I could not stop. This story is so action packed and the peculiar children are in such peril that I didn't want to put the book down. It was a race to the end to find out if everyone was going to be okay.

I love the way the author incorporates some very odd photographs that he has collected into a very intriguing story about peculiar children and those who care for them. There are also those around who want to hurt them. The peculiars use the powers that they have to get themselves out of dangerous situations and to protect their secrets. 

This series is just so good and appeals to my love of the unusual and unexpected. It takes a great imagination to weave these stories of things and people who are not real, while still making the story believable. I was whisked away to this other world and came to love these wonderful characters. It does make me sad that this series has come to an end but I love this author's stories and his imagination and I will be anxiously awaiting whatever he writes next.

About the author

Hi, I'm Ransom, and I like to tell stories. Sometimes I tell them with words, sometimes with pictures, often with both. I grew up on a farm on the Eastern shore of Maryland and also in a little house by the beach in Englewood, Florida where I got very tan and swam every day until I became half fish. I started writing stories when I was young, on an old typewriter that jammed and longhand on legal pads. 

When I was a little older I got a camera for Christmas and became obsessed with photography, and when I was a little older still my friends and I came into possession of a half-broken video camera and began to make our own movies, starring ourselves, using our bedrooms and backyards for sets. I have loved writing stories and taking photographs and making movies ever since, and have endeavored to do all three.

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? October 19, 2015sn

Hello! Welcome to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? This weekly meme, hosted by Book Date, is where we share what we have read this past week and what our plans are for the upcoming week. It’s a great way to see what others are reading and to discover books to add to your own To Be Read list. You never know where that next great read may come from!

Click on the book image to read more on Goodreads. 

What I'm currently reading/listening to

Snow Deer and Cocoa Cheer
by Joanne DeMaio

What the Heart Remembers (Memory House #3)
by Bette Lee Crosby 

The Language of Hoofbeats 

by Catherine Ryan Hyde (audio-book)

What I recently finished reading

Library of Souls (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #3)
by Ransom Riggs
Love this series! My thoughts will be posted later today.

The Blue Jay

by Michelle Schlicher
Wonderful story! My thoughts will be posted later this week.

What I am going to read next

Illusion of an Ending
by Danielle Soucy Mills

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Beach Wedding by Bella Cruise

Beach Wedding

Beach Wedding by Bella Cruise
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: September 23, 2015

Three weeks. One quirky small-town. The wedding of the year. What could go wrong?

Big-city wedding planner Ginny Austen has landed the job of a lifetime. Her new celebrity clients want a smash hit TV wedding, and they’ve got their hearts set on a quirky home-town wedding. Her home-town: Pelican Key Cove, Florida.

Ginny hasn’t been home since she high-tailed out of town the night before her high-school graduation with nothing but a vintage pink Camaro and a broken heart. She’s spent years building a life of her own, but now she’s got just three weeks to face her past and put together a dream wedding — in a town that makes ‘eccentric’ its middle name.

Ginny may be determined to stay professional, but the inhabitants of Pelican Cove have other ideas. And between her crazy aunts, a TV producer who puts Macciaveli to shame, and a downright sexy former flame, nothing about this wedding is going to plan. Can she pull off the big day with her sanity - and heart - intact? Or will her reputation go down in flames -- on national TV?

Amazon UK

My thoughts about Beach Wedding ~~

Beach Wedding is a fun, emotional, and lovely story about two people who have to finally come to grips with what happened 10 years ago, when Ginny skipped town right before graduation. What is she running away from? And now that she is back in her hometown to pull off a wedding, can she face the reason she left?

'I don't blame him. I high-tailed out of this place the night before graduation, and never even said goodbye. I never told him the reasons I was leaving. I can't be surprised if he's not rolling out the welcome wagon, ten years after I broke both our hearts.'

Ginny's job as a wedding planner takes her back to her home town where she has to orchestrate a reality show wedding. She has some soul searching and explaining to do before it's all over and done with. She has to face Luke and come to terms with the feelings she had for him ten years ago.

'I'm not sixteen anymore, blushing every time a cute boy looks in my direction. I'm a grown woman, with poise, confidence, and an excellent credit score. I've engineered life changing proposals and impossible wedding ceremonies. I can manage a simple dinner date!'

I loved this wonderful, very enjoyable story that was filled with some really great characters. I especially loved the quirky aunt, two people who would be so much fun to hang out with. And I loved my journey to Pelican Key Cove, Florida, I hope I get to go back sometime. I will definitely be watching this author and reading more of her work.

About the author

Bella Cruise is a Florida girl turned California beach babe. She loves to travel and explore new places, and currently works as a nanny to two adorable little girls. For a close-up view of her crazy life (and favorite cupcakes!), you can find her on instagram @bellacruisewrites.

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