It's Monday! What Are You Reading? December 14, 2020

    

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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Take care. Stay safe and healthy everyone. 

And remember to wash those hands!!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a good week. 

Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading

The Cedar Key

by Stephenia H. McGee

The Seacrest

(Paines Creek Beach #1)

by Aaron Paul Lazar

Narrated by George Kuch

What I recently finished

Snowed in With You

by Sophie-Leigh Robbins

Pub date today!!

Girls of Brackenhill

by Kate Moretti

Narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christensen

Catawampus Christmas Carol

(Deadwood Undertaker Series Book 3.5)

by Ann Charles & Sam Lucky

Can't Ride Around It

(Deadwood Undertaker Series Book 3)

by Ann Charles & Sam Lucky

What I am going to read next

I'm not sure, maybe I'll pick one of the Christmas books on my Kindle. This one perhaps.

Home For the Holidays

(Whiskey Creek #10.5)

by Brenda Novak 

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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

  

Book Spotlight #Giveaway! First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen #FirstFrost

I have sooooo many books! The Book Spotlight Giveaway feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to clear my shelves and to share some of the many books I have. This feature is a way for my to cull my collection and to give someone else the opportunity to enjoy these treasures.

I love this author's stories. They are always so magical and such a good way to escape real life. I know you'll love it!

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Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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First Frost

First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen

(Waverley Family #2)

Hardcover, 296 pages

Published January 20th 2015 by St. Martin's Press

From the New York Times bestselling author of Garden Spells comes a story of the Waverley family, in a novel as sparkling as the first dusting of frost on new-fallen leaves..

It's October in Bascom, North Carolina, and autumn will not go quietly. As temperatures drop and leaves begin to turn, the Waverley women are made restless by the whims of their mischievous apple tree... and all the magic that swirls around it. But this year, first frost has much more in store.

Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley’s Candies. Though her handcrafted confections — rose to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness and lemon verbena to soothe throats and minds — are singularly effective, the business of selling them is costing her the everyday joys of her family, and her belief in her own precious gifts.

Sydney Waverley, too, is losing her balance. With each passing day she longs more for a baby — a namesake for her wonderful Henry. Yet the longer she tries, the more her desire becomes an unquenchable thirst, stealing the pleasure out of the life she already has.

Sydney’s daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she knows it belongs to.. if only he could see it, too. But how can he, when he is so far outside her grasp that he appears to her as little more than a puff of smoke?

When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of their family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before. And through it all, the Waverley sisters must search for a way to hold their family together through their troublesome season of change, waiting for that extraordinary event that is First Frost.

Lose yourself in Sarah Addison Allen's enchanting world and fall for her charmed characters in this captivating story that proves that a happily-ever-after is never the real ending to a story. It’s where the real story begins. 

About the author

New York Times Bestselling novelist Sarah Addison Allen brings the full flavor of her southern upbringing to bear on her fiction -- a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town sensibility.

Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Allen grew up with a love of books and an appreciation of good food (she credits her journalist father for the former and her mother, a fabulous cook, for the latter). In college, she majored in literature -- because, as she puts it, "I thought it was amazing that I could get a diploma just for reading fiction. It was like being able to major in eating chocolate."

After graduation, Allen began writing seriously. Her big break occurred in 2007 with the publication of her first mainstream novel, Garden Spells, a modern-day fairy tale about an enchanted apple tree and the family of North Carolina women who tend it. Booklist called Allen's accomplished debut "spellbindingly charming." The novel became a Barnes & Noble Recommends selection, and then a New York Times Bestseller.

Allen continues to serve heaping helpings of the fantastic and the familiar in fiction she describes as "Southern-fried magic realism." Clearly, it's a recipe readers are happy to eat up as fast as she can dish it out.

Her published books to date are: Garden Spells (2007), The Sugar Queen (2008), The Girl Who Chased the Moon (2010), The Peach Keeper (2011) and Lost Lake (2014) and First Frost (2015). ~ Goodreads

Connect with Sarah

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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

Release Day! Take It Back by Kia Abdullah ~ My Thoughts #TakeItBack

Take It Back

Take It Back by Kia Abdullah

Series: Zara Kaleel #1

Print & ebook, 304 pages

Published December 8th 2020 by St. Martin's Press

From author Kia Abdullah, Take It Back is a harrowing and twisting courtroom thriller that keeps you guessing until the last page is turned.

One victim.

Four accused.

Who is telling the truth?

Zara Kaleel, one of London's brightest legal minds, shattered the expectations placed on her by her family and forged a brilliant legal career. But her decisions came at a high cost, and now, battling her own demons, she has exchanged her high profile career for a job at a sexual assault center, helping victims who need her the most. Victims like Jodie Wolfe.

When Jodie, a sixteen-year-old girl with facial deformities, accuses four boys in her class of an unthinkable crime, the community is torn apart. After all, these four teenage defendants are from hard-working immigrant families and they all have proven alibis. Even Jodie's best friend doesn't believe her.

But Zara does—and she is determined to fight for Jodie—to find the truth in the face of public outcry. And as issues of sex, race and social justice collide, the most explosive criminal trial of the year builds to a shocking conclusion. 

My thoughts about Take It Back ~~

(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—"She watched her reflection in the empty glass bottle as the truth crept in with the wine in her veins."

Zara Kaleel is a caring, strong, compassionate lawyer, now serving as a sexual assault victim counselor. She takes her job very seriously and stands up for those who have been wronged. Jodie needs her help and support. Little did Zara know the havoc this case would cause in her own life. But she perseveres to the end. 

Kia Abdullah is a new-to-me author but I knew when I read the synopsis of this book that I had to read it. And I'm glad I did! Take It Back was a riveting, roller-coaster ride with an unexpected ending that I thought about long after I closed the pages of the book. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Take It Back and the character of Zara. I look forward to reading more of this series!

I received a copy of Take It Back from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

About the author

Kia Abdullah is an author and travel writer from London. Her novel Take It Back was named one of the best thrillers of the year by The Guardian and Telegraph and was selected for an industry-first audio serialisation by HarperCollins and The Pigeonhole. The follow-up, Truth Be Told, came out on 3rd September 2020 (HQ/HarperCollins).

Kia has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times and The Telegraph, and is the founder of Asian Booklist, a non-profit organisation that advocates for diversity in publishing. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Kia

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

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

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? December 7, 2020

   

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! 

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

Take care. Stay safe and healthy everyone. 

And remember to wash those hands!!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a good week. 

Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading

Can't Ride Around It

(Deadwood Undertaker Series Book 3)

by Ann Charles & Sam Lucky

I love this author and this series!

Girls of Brackenhill

by Kate Moretti

Narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christensen

What I recently finished

Looking for Alaska

by John Green

Finally got around to reading this one.

Ask Him Why

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

by Robert Dugoni

What an amazing story!

What I am going to read next

Catawampus Christmas Carol

(Deadwood Undertaker Series Book 3.5)

by Ann Charles & Sam Lucky

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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

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

  

Book Spotlight Giveaway! Walk Into Silence by Susan McBride #WalkIntoSilence

I have sooooo many books! The Book Spotlight Giveaway feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to clear my shelves and to share some of the many books I have. This feature is a way for my to cull my collection and to give someone else the opportunity to enjoy these treasures.

I read and reviewed this book when it came out. It was a great first book to a new series. I really need to get a hold of book 2. You can read my thoughts here.

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Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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Walk Into Silence

Walk Into Silence by Susan McBride 

(Detective Jo Larsen #1)

ARC, 370 pages

Published December 1st 2016 by Thomas & Mercer

A woman vanishes from a Texas town. Did she simply run off, or is something darker at play?

When Patrick Dielman shows up at Detective Jo Larsen’s desk insisting that his wife, Jenny, is missing, Jo wonders if it’s a case of a bored housewife running away.

But as she digs deeper into Jenny’s life, Jo learns that Dielman keeps a stranglehold on the family finances, down to the last nickel, and that Jenny’s first marriage dissolved following the death of her young son. By all accounts—including her doctor’s—she never recovered from the loss. Between a controlling husband, a tragic past, and a callous ex-husband, Jo can’t be sure if she should suspect foul play or accept that the woman may have wanted to disappear.

For Jo, whose own demons are shadowing her every step, finding Jenny becomes more than the typical protect-and-serve.

About the author

Susan McBride is the USA Today Bestselling author of Blue Blood and five more award-winning Debutante Dropout Mysteries from HarperCollins, including The Good Girl's Guide To Murder, The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club, Night Of The Living Deb, Too Pretty To Die, and Say Yes to the Death. Susan has a second bestselling series with HC/Avon, the River Road Mysteries, that include To Helen Back, Mad as Helen, and Not a Chance in Helen. A fourth installment, Come Helen High Water, will be released in 2017.

Walk Into Silence, a thriller featuring Texas police detective Jo Larsen, was named a Kindle First pick for November 2016 and was the #1 paid Kindle bestseller in the US and UK (and #3 in Australia!). Walk a Crooked Line, the second Jo Larsen book, will be released in July 2018 by Thomas & Mercer.

Susan's young adult thriller, Very Bad Things, was released by Random House in 2014. In addition to her mysteries, she has penned three well-received women's fiction titles from HarperCollins: The Truth About Love & Lightning, Little Black Dress, and The Cougar Club. Foreign editions of Susan's books have been published in France, Turkey, Croatia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria.

Susan has one nonfiction title: In the Pink: How I Met the Perfect (Younger) Man, Survived Breast Cancer, and Found True Happiness After 40, which tells her tale of becoming an "accidental Cougar" and marrying a younger man, her cancer diagnosis at age 42, and finding herself pregnant at 47.

She has authored several YA non-mystery novels for Delacorte about debutantes in Houston: The Debs (2008) and Love, Lies, And Texas Dips (2009). Gloves Off, the third book, will be out sometime in the future.

In January of 2012, Susan was named one of St. Louis's "Most Dynamic People of the Year" by the Ladue News. In April of 2012, she was given the "Survivor of the Year" Award by the St. Louis affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. As Susan likes to say, "Life is never boring." ~ Goodreads

Connect with Susan

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

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