Category: 5-Stars

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Book Review: Very Sincerely Yours by Kerry Winfrey  @KerryAnn

Very Sincerely Yours
by Kerry Winfrey 

 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

A charming and heartwarming new romantic comedy by the acclaimed author of Waiting for Tom Hanks, Kerry Winfrey.

Teddy Phillips never thought she would still be spending every day surrounded by toys at almost thirty years old. But working at a vintage toy store is pretty much all she has going on in her life after being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend. The one joy that she has kept is her not-so-guilty pleasure: Everett’s Place, a local children’s show hosted by Everett St. James, a man whom Teddy finds very soothing . . . and, okay, cute.

Teddy finds the courage to write to him, feeling slightly like one of the children who write to him on his show. He always gives sound advice and seems like he has everything figured out—and he pretty much does: Everett has a great support system, wonderful friends, and his dream job. But there is still that persistent feeling in the back of his mind that something is missing.

When a woman named Theodora starts writing to Everett, he is drawn to her honesty and vulnerability. They continue writing to each other, all the while living their lives without meeting. When their worlds collide, however, they must both let go of their fears and figure out what they truly want—and if the future they want includes each other.

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

I knocked three times, and when you didn’t answer, I got worried that you’d died on the toilet and I didn’t want your parents to have to find you like that. It would be undignified and traumatic.

 

“He treated you like garbage.” She pronounced the word gar-BAJ, like it was French or something.

 

He tried to think of a time he’d seen Gretel cry. When she was a baby, of course. She had cried constantly because she resented not being in charge of her own life. She was basically born wanting to drive a car and open a bank account.

 

He had the best smile she’d ever seen in her life, like a baby animal and a classic Hollywood leading man combined.

 

“It’s hard to turn work off, you know?” Natalie nodded. “I know, dude. But sometimes the people in your life need you to turn it off. Unless you want to be one of those eccentric geniuses who’s been divorced fifteen times and lives in a giant mansion full of regret.”

  

My Review:

 

I smirked and giggle-snorted my way through this delightfully sweet and relatable rom/com. It was exactly what I needed after a string of tense thrillers and hit just the right tones with clever humor and sly wit. The characters were thoughtfully crafted and tenderly endearing and knowable yet realistically flawed and struggling with real-world issues within amusing storylines laced with comedic yet insightfully observant scenarios.

Ms. Winfrey’s style was crisp and well-tuned with sparkling humor as she detailed their challenges without being angsty, which felt authentic and a refreshing change of pace from tedious formulaic romance tropes. This was my first experience reading her clever arrangements of words and was an instant fangirl. I have added her to my list of favorites and one to watch and added her entire listing to my TBR. How could I not?   She knows the undeniable magical pull of Taco Bell’s drive-through for the Drunchies as well as the ingenious and regrettable madness of The Breakup Bob.

 

About the Author

Amazon
Goodreads
Website
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Kerry Winfrey grew up in Bellville, Ohio, where she spent most of her time reading inappropriate books at the library. Not much has changed. Kerry writes for HelloGiggles. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, their son, and their dog, Merlin. Love and Other Alien Experiences was her first novel.

 

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Book Review: One Little Lie by Christopher Greyson @Chris_Greyson

One Little Lie
by Christopher Greyson 

Amazon  / B&N / BB

THE TRUTH COULD COST HER EVERYTHING.


Kate had high hopes when she moved to her husband‘s hometown, but her domestic bliss was short-lived. Blindsided by her spouse’s very public affair with his high school sweetheart and a painful divorce, Kate’s determined to hold onto custody of her kids and pull herself together. When Kate’s bashed in the head by a drone at her son’s soccer game and face-plants in the grass, it’s more than her self-esteem that’s shattered. The drone’s video reveals that someone is stalking her. And though the handsome detective she’s falling for vows to protect her, Kate knows to be wary of any man making vows.

With things spiraling out of control, she tells a lie. It was only one little lie, but a lie is a welcome mat for the devil, and with the one she told, Kate just rolled out the red carpet. Everything she worked for begins to unravel, along with her sanity. Confused, alone, and afraid, can Kate untangle her muddled mind and unmask her stalker, or will she lose everything—including her life?

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

“I told my friends about the stalker. Tommy said it’s probably an escaped prisoner they did experiments on and he went crazy, but Billy thinks he’s just a serial killer.” Ava giggled. “You can’t kill cereal. It’s not real.”

 

“You need the three Gs.” Donna had a colorful vocabulary, but Kate hadn’t heard this one before. “What’re the three Gs?” “A guy, a gun, or a German shepherd. Preferably all three.”

 

“Mark’s like an old hunting dog. He barks a lot, has a pretty gruff disposition, but he gets the job done, so you tend to overlook the fleas.” Ryan comically scratched at his neck like a dog.

 

The day Tammi feels bad about anything is the day Lucifer starts lacing up his ice skates.

 

 My Review:

 

My first Christopher Greyson read and I cannot understand what took me so long to give him a whirl as the man can spin quite a tale. The storylines were full of angst, family drama, betrayal, grown-up mean girls, small-town pettiness, accelerating harassment, and efforts of identifying a stalker; it was busy – busy – busy and full to the brim with itchy scenarios, uncomfortable prickliness, and clever twists I had not considered.

The characters were an odd and interesting assortment of vile, treacherous, and fiendish creatures as well as flawed, struggling, and original personalities. I cared for the maladroit main character of Kate but was growing increasingly impatient at her rag doll weakness. I enthusiastically fist-pumped when she finally found her voice, and boy oh boy, did she roar once she located her misplaced backbone.

I was annoyed, engaged, irritated, ensnared, and uncomfortably wriggling on the hook and unable to put my Kindle down until unraveling all the knots. Christopher Greyson relentlessly poked and prodded my curiosity with his shrewdly paced tale; I had no idea what I was stepping into with this sly and wily wordsmith. What guile! More, please.

 

Christopher Greyson is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of mystery, action, and thriller novels. His acclaimed Detective Jack Stratton Series has been read by over a million readers and counting. This action-packed series has a broad appeal, finding favor with mystery, thriller, and romance readers alike. The series includes And Then She Was Gone, Girl Jacked, Jack Knifed, Jacks Are Wild, Jack and the Giant Killer, Data Jack, Jack of Hearts, Jack Frost, with Jack of Diamonds to come. Christopher Greyson has also penned the bestselling psychological thriller, The Girl Who Lived, a young adult fantasy, Pure of Heart, and a special collection of mysteries, The Adventures of Finn and Annie.

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Book Review: The North Face of the Heart (Trilogía del Baztán #0) by Dolores Redondo, Michael Meigs (Translator)  @DoloresRedondoM @TLCBookTours

The North Face of the Heart
(Trilogía del Baztán #0)
by Dolores Redondo, Michael Meigs (Translator)

Amazon  / B&N /  BB

 

Hardcover: 496 Pages

Publisher: Amazon Crossing (June 1, 2021)

Amaia Salazar, a young detective from the north of Spain, has joined a group of trainees at the FBI Academy in Virginia. Haunted by her past and having already tracked down a predator on her own, Amaia is no typical rookie. And this is no ordinary student lecture at Quantico. FBI agent Aloisius Dupree is already well acquainted with Amaia’s skills, her intuition, and her ability to understand evil. He now needs her help in hunting an elusive serial killer dubbed “the Composer,” and in solving another case that’s been following him his whole life.

From New Jersey to Oklahoma to Texas, the Composer’s victims are entire families annihilated in the chaos of natural disasters, their bodies posed with chilling purpose amid the ruins. Dupree and Amaia follow his trail to New Orleans. The clock is ticking. It’s the eve of the worst hurricane in the city’s history. But a troubling call from Amaia’s aunt back home awakens in Amaia the ghosts from her childhood and sends her down a path as dark as that of the coming storm.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Bill and Bull. They’re with the Violent Crimes Unit. These fellas have arrested more criminals than all the rest of my officers combined. They know these streets better than anyone… If I had a son, I’d trust them with his life; if I had a daughter, I’d keep her out of their reach.

 

Juan had difficulty with words… he was overwhelmed by the very fact that every object had its own unique name. He was one of those who thought things existed only when they were spoken of, so he could exclude horrors from his life and home by refusing to put them into words.

 

Her first thought was to go to the nearest toilet. She didn’t care if it was filthy. She needed her privacy, even if she had to pee on the floor. This is teaching me a lesson, she thought. Comes a time, from one day to the next, when we find ourselves ready to accept things we swore we’d never put up with.

 

… it was far better to be nice to someone like her than to get on her bad side. As his late grandmother used to say— and she knew a lot about it— you don’t have to believe they exist, but don’t you dare go around claiming they don’t.

  

My Review:

 

This is a brilliant piece of writing and of superb quality. I was late getting to this one and thought I would give it a quick start before beginning my scheduled tasks but soon changed all my plans as I was bewitched and couldn’t put it down. Ms. Redondo sucked me into a baffling, disconcerting, complex, prickly, and distressingly compelling vortex that tossed me in several different directions without a playbook of the plethora of uncomfortably intriguing storylines that eventually connected and entwined.

It was heart-squeezing, ghastly, inconceivable, curiously addictive, gritty, twisted, riveting, and ingeniously paced and executed.   I’ll be processing and savoring this one for quite some time as the little pea in my brain is still unpacking and connecting all the dots. I consumed this book as quickly as my tired optical orbs and feverish brain could take in 500 action-packed pages, and oddly enough, I would have been thrilled with 500 more of the same.

 

About the Author

Dolores Redondo studied law and the culinary arts before writing The Baztán Trilogy, a successful crime series set in the Basque Pyrenees that has sold over 1.5 million copies in Spanish, has been translated into more than thirty-five languages and was adapted into a popular film series.

Twice nominated for the CWA International Dagger Award and a finalist for the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle, Redondo was the recipient of the 2016 Premio Planeta—one of Spain’s most distinguished literary awards—for her stand-alone thriller All This I Will Give to You, which has also been optioned for feature film and television development and will be translated into eighteen languages.

Connect with Dolores

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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Book Review: How Much Wine Will Fix My Broken Heart? (The Callaghan Sisters #4) by Kristen Bailey  @mrsbaileywrites @Bookouture 

 

How Much Wine Will Fix My Broken Heart?
(The Callaghan Sisters #4)
by Kristen Bailey 

Are you suffering from a broken heart? Searching for the right medicine? Staring down the barrel of being single and not knowing where to start? Learn from Grace Callaghan! She’s done it all:

    • Wine is the answer. Some serving-size suggestions include a glass the size of your head, a bathtub, an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Best served chilled, and with a straw.
    • Friends with benefits is always an option. Be prepared for side effects such as the guy saying ‘baby’, crying out his ex’s name, and preferring to keep his socks on.
    • Going ‘out out’ helps banish the blues. It may involve breaking into replica ships from the fifteenth century, screaming ‘Aye-aye, Captain!’ and accidentally falling off the plank.
  • Karaoke makes everything better. Best enjoyed singing Enrique Iglesias, followed by an extra-large serving of fries.

Three years ago, when Grace’s heart was blown to smithereens, she made a promise to protect herself. But has she gone too far? Has she played it too safe? Should she take a leap into the unknown, messy business of the heart? Because maybe, just maybe, she could learn to love again…

This hilarious and totally gripping tale is for anyone who’s questioned their qualifications at life, and learned that a little bit of wine goes a long way! Fans of Shari Low, Sophie Kinsella, and Why Mummy Drinks, be warned: prepare for odd looks when reading this in public due to the ugly laughing it induces.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I could weave you a friendship bracelet made of hair. I decided against it. It has a serial-killer quality to it, though it’s useful if you want to go down the voodoo route.

 

‘The playground mafia has been around for years,’ Joyce carries on. ‘In my day it was Jeanie McGovern. I had her son round to play and he came to my house and crapped in a drawer. When I told her, and I was discreet about it, she told me I’d made it up and then spent years spreading rumours around about Tom.’ ‘What sort of rumours?’ I ask, mortified at the thought of someone defecating in a drawer. ‘It was such a bizarre reaction. She made him the centre of every nits outbreak for years. It ended with me slapping her in the playground.’

 

‘You joined the PTA?’ she asks. ‘Emma told me it would be a good way to make friends.’ ‘Never listen to Emma. Her girls are in a private school where everyone wears padded gilets and eats pheasant. Their PTA raffles off cars. Mine raffles off dusty bottles of cherry brandy. I won a bottle once that was half-drunk.’

 

You forget about the cascading effect of social media in these playground battles. One moment you tell a group that your son has a rash and the next he’s a social pariah with possible leprosy.

 

‘Gracie,’ she says, softly. ‘We lost Cam, her dear Olivier and our wonderful Tom. We will never replace them. That light has gone out. We shouldn’t replace them. But never think people can’t come in, that we’ve lost some capacity to love. We’re still alive, it does our loved ones no justice to be sitting here in darkness.’ And there it is. This is why I welcomed Linh into my world. Beautiful turns of phrase like that soothed my tired and confused soul; they still do. And she’s right. We lost three amazing people but, through their loss, our lives all became entwined.

My Review:

 

 I savored every perfectly chosen word of this riotously humorous yet poignant tale. I adore Kristen Bailey and of the handful of books I’ve read, this may be her best yet. The crisp storylines were rife with every type of rib-tickling humor from wry and acerbic wit to ribald comedy. I smirked, chortled, and giggle-snorted my way through although there were also just as many thoughtfully written, insightful, and heart-squeezing scenes of great loss, vulnerability, grief, anger, and betrayal. Ms. Bailey hit all the feels and plundered every emotion with agility and finesse.

As always, her characters were fully inhabited and enticingly intriguing and curiously alluring. I am eagerly anticipating Lucy’s story and cannot wait to see what this clever scribe does with the inner musings of the last remaining Callaghan sister’s tale. I had a feeling she would be saving the best, and most outrageous character of Lucy, for last.

One can only hope she is currently locked in the attic scribbling away. Please write quickly, Ms. Bailey, you won’t even need to leave home for sustenance as your devoted fangirl can have offerings of gin and Marmite winging your way.

 

Mother-of-four, gin-drinker, binge-watcher, receipt hoarder, enthusiastic but terrible cook. Kristen also writes. She has had short fiction published in several publications including Mslexia & Riptide. Her first two novels, Souper Mum and Second Helpings were published in 2016. In 2019, she was long-listed in the Comedy Women in Print Prize and has since joined the Bookouture family. She hopes her novels have fresh and funny things to say about modern life, love, and family.

 

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Book Review: Insider (Glass Family #2) by Owen Mullen @OwenMullen6 @rararesources  @BoldwoodBooks

Insider
(Glass Family #2)
by Owen Mullen

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

Someone’s playing both sides and now they have a score to settle…

When the family business is crime, you can never be sure who to trust. And when three of their businesses are hit in one night, the notorious Glass family close ranks. Either someone is sending them a message or a war is coming…

With trouble coming from all sides, the heads of the Glass family have more than enough to deal with, but all bets are off when a stranger from the past enters the game, causing division and mistrust.

Crooked cops, rival gangs, and old enemies are bad enough, but when the trouble comes from the inside, loyalties are tested, with deadly consequences.

Page-turning, gripping, gritty, Insider is perfect for fans of Martina Cole, Kimberley Chambers, and Mandasue Heller.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

He probably imagined he could handle himself because of the endless hours he spent at the gym. It took a lot more than that. Weights didn’t fight back.

 

The male ego at work once again, imagining he could satisfy a younger woman without bringing on a heart attack. Still – ten out of ten for effort. At one point, he’d made a sound in his throat like dolphins talking to each other and she’d thought he wasn’t going to survive. But he had. On Monday, Algie would be boasting to his colleagues about the foxy lady he’d tamed on Friday night.

 

With his gangly stride, from this distance he looked like a well-dressed stick insect on his way to the Ugly Bug Ball.

 

I was born at night, Kenny, but it wasn’t last night, you get what I’m saying?

 

My Review:

 

I continue in my fascination with Mr. Owen Mullen’s gift of words skills as found in his creation of the Glass crime family of London. And while they were a horrid collection of shared DNA, their adversaries are so much worse I caught myself admiring Luke Glass – say what now?   I had fallen so far into their criminal vortex I had lost my real-world perspective, which is a testament to Owen Mullen’s cunning skills in weaving a tale.

The storylines were just as intense, violent, amusingly snarky, and even more intriguing than the first book in the series as I was itching to uncover the mole and so very wrong in my hypothesis.   The pacing and plotting were shrewd and nothing short of brilliant. But after losing myself in two of Mr. Mullen’s tautly written and absorbing tales, I am in dire need of a vat of wine, rom/com reading material, and a spa day to soak and hammer out the residual tension.

 

 

About the Author

 

Owen Mullen is a highly regarded crime author who splits his time between Scotland and the island of Crete.  In his earlier life, he lived in London and worked as a musician and session singer. He has now written seven books and his first gangland thriller for Boldwood, Family was published in January 2021.

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/owenmullen6/

Newsletter Sign Up Link: https://bit.ly/OwenMullenNewsletter

Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/owen-mullen

 

 

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Book Review: Just Folking Around (Good Folk: Modern Folktales #0.5) by Penny Reid @ReidRomance

Just Folking Around
(Good Folk: Modern Folktales #0.5)
by Penny Reid

Amazon  / B&N / GP

One night? No strings? A sexy game of chess? No problem.

If you’ve never read a Penny Reid book before, this is the place to start! An all new series starter snack from the author of the WINSTON BROTHERS and KNITTING IN THE CITY series. . .

Raquel Ezra loves to fish. With so many fish in the sea, she’s never had a problem baiting the hook or reeling them in. Raquel is a good actress, she can be anyone’s fantasy for a single night as long as they agree to be hers. Which is why she doesn’t think twice about spending an evening in nowhere Tennessee with a smokin’ hot, well-mannered, and intriguing sheriff’s deputy by the name of Jackson James.

Except, when the time comes, Raquel discovers that reality might just be better than any fantasy, and maybe she’s not ready to release this catch.

JUST FOLKING AROUND is a 16k words, contemporary romance, a complete standalone, and is the prequel to TOTALLY FOLKED, book #1 in the Good Folk: Modern Folktales series.

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

God, he smells good. I loved me a good-smelling man. There was nothing on earth like it. Three things in life had no substitutions: a perfectly roasted marshmallow; the first cool, crisp day of fall after a long, hot summer; and the closeness of a warm, good-smelling man.

 

He unleashed a wide, pleased grin, but he might as well have released a kraken. I was stunned. Stunned.

 

This guy, he’s not a snack. Deputy James—Jackson—he was a meal. And not a Thanksgiving meal or a dinner party get-together. He wasn’t someone to be saved for special occasions. He was an everyday favorite. No matter how many times or how often you partook, you always looked forward to the next time. Jackson James is taco night.

 

 My Review:

 

This was a tasty and tantalizing amuse-bouche, a tease to taunt us and whet our appetites before the promised feast. And I am so ready for the full meal deal! I adore the clever and agile pen of Penny Reid, I am her devoted fangirl, a self-professed acolyte, a totally committed, and possibly committable, Reid-er. I have fully enjoyed the bearded denizens of Green Valley and cannot get enough of the oddly riveting Winstons, but the James clan are also a favorite and I have been waiting, impatiently I might add, biding my time for Jackson’s story.   The wait is almost over and I can tell it will be a treat well worth breaking my diet for.

 

About the Author

Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Best Selling Author of the Winston Brothers, Knitting in the City, Rugby, and Hypothesis series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she just writes books. She’s also a full-time mom to three diminutive adults, wife, daughter, knitter, crocheter, sewer, general crafter, and thought ninja.

Connect with Penny

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PennyReidWriter/

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2lakzsD

Twitter: @ReidRomance

Mailing List: http://pennyreid.ninja/newsletter/

Website: www.pennyreid.ninja

 

 

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Book Review: Family (Glass Family #1) by Owen Mullen @OwenMullen6  @rararesources  @BoldwoodBooks

Family
(Glass Family #1)
by Owen Mullen

Family – might be the death of you…

The Glass family business is crime, and they’re good at what they do. Vengeance took Luke Glass behind bars – but now he’s free and he’s never going back. Luke wants out of the gangster life – all he has to do is convince his family to let him go.

His brother holds the reins of the South London underworld in his brutal hands – nobody tells Danny Glass no and expects to live – not even DCI Oliver Stanford, bent copper and one of the Met’s rising stars. The way Danny sees it, his younger brother and sister Nina owe him everything. The price he demands is loyalty, and a war with their arch enemy gives him the leverage he needs to tie Luke to the family once more.

Luke can’t see a way out, until Danny commits a crime so terrible it can’t be forgiven. Love turns to hate when secrets are unearthed which pit brother against brother. Left with no choice but to choose a side, Nina holds the fate of the family in her hands.

In the Glass family, Owen Mullen has created a crime dynasty to rival the Richardsons and the Krays. Heart-pounding, jaw-dropping with non-stop action, Family is perfect for fans of Martina Cole, Kimberley Chambers, and Mandasue Heller.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

If plunging to your death was an Olympic event, he’d have been in the medals for sure.

 

And the women… if ugly was contagious they’d be in quarantine. I’d move if I were you.

 

The phone dropped from his trembling fingers. Danny’s eyes bulged in his skull, his face so red I thought it might explode. Nobody did rage as he did: rising from his core, spewing like lava, scaring those around him to the bone.

 

Insanity explaining itself – the scariest thing I’d ever heard.

My Review:

 

I finished the book in a quandary as to how I felt about it, how to rate it, and even how to write a review. I was flummoxed until I perused my favorite passages, which removed all doubt. Mr. Mullen has mad skills! The book was superbly written with compelling characters and multi-textured and intriguing storylines that were intense and taut with tension. It was also cleverly snarky, distressingly violent, gruesome, gritty, heartbreaking, and oh, so, very, twisted.

I had trouble putting it down although I needed to walk away from it every so often when I found I was clutching my Kindle so tightly my hand was cramping. But even then, I continued to contemplate the characters’ dilemma in dealing with a vicious and unstable psychopathic criminal kingpin, and extra complications abound when all that mess is a sibling.

Twenty-four hours after being released from prison with the mindset to break from his family and start over clean, the main character of Luke had barely avoided death, had a massive hangover, been with a hooker, and was already drawn back into his vile brother’s brutal world of cruel and savage barbarism. The unsettling insights were brilliantly paced and shrewdly plotted. What a disturbingly cunning creature Mr. Mullen must be, I hope for their sake his neighbors take heed, keep the noise down, and frequently ply him with sweets.

About the Author

 

Owen Mullen is a highly regarded crime author who splits his time between Scotland and the island of Crete.  In his earlier life, he lived in London and worked as a musician and session singer. He has now written seven books and his first gangland thriller for Boldwood, Family was published in January 2021.

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/owenmullen6/

Newsletter Sign Up Link: https://bit.ly/OwenMullenNewsletter

Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/owen-mullen

 

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Book Review: All the Wrong Choices by C.A. Harms @Charms0814  @limitlessbooks

 

All the Wrong Choices
by C.A. Harms

Amazon  

 

A second chance romance packed with emotion!

Being left at the alter on your wedding day is devastating.

But when the man you are supposed to marry has run off with your younger sister, well, that’s an entirely new form of hell.

Everything I believed in, everything I envisioned for my future, was nothing more than a lie. I was a fool. The poor girl who couldn’t hold onto her man. Everyone pitied me, but I didn’t want nor need their pity.

Never again will I be the vulnerable one.

Never again will I allow myself to fall in love because let’s face it, love and commitment are nothing more than a waste of time.

Never again will I fall for a man’s lies.

I’ll remain distant and unattached and I will not falter. Not even when a tall, handsome, and incredibly hot man makes me question the plans I’ve made for myself.

I can’t give in, no matter how perfect he appears to be. I know better and all good things always come to a crashing, destructible finale. I know it will end and when it does, I’ll be the one left shattered.

I’m not sure I’ll survive another fall.

All the Wrong Choices, lead to heartbreak…

And my heart couldn’t take another hit.

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

When I say charming, I mean she looks as though she has itching power in her panties and is doing all she can to hide her discomfort.

 

I’m going home with Tony tonight… I’ve made the poor man wait long enough. And if I’m being honest, if I wait any longer, I’m going to attack him and most likely break him.

 

“He’ll come crawling back one day after he realizes what a mistake it was to walk away.” “And I’ll trip him as he moves on by…”

 

Reece is eyeing you like you’re a triple chocolate cake with cherries, and it’s been years since sweets have graced her tongue…

 

 My Review:

 

C.A. Harms is one of my go-to authors when I need a refreshing shot of sizzle and sass.   She populates her tales with primary and secondary characters who are endearing yet realistically flawed and packs her storylines with just the right balance of humor/angst/and sensuality to cure any funk I may have fallen into, whether it is a reading slump or external stressors. I enjoyed her latest missive featured a likable and accessible couple attempting to keep it casual when it was anything but.

 

 

About The Author

 

 

I am an Illinois girl, born and raised. Simple and true. I love the little things; they truly mean the most. I may have a slight addiction to my new Keurig—oh my, that thing is a godsend. And so fast too. I have two children who truly are the greatest part of my days, and their faces never fail to put a smile on my face. I have been married to my best friend for seventeen years and looking forward to many more.

I am one of those authors that adore my readers. I love to hear from you. After all, it is because of each one of you that I continue to write.
.

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCAHarms/
INSTAGRAM: Instagram.com/authorcaharms/
NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/1xsgHCS
AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/C.A.-Harms/e/B0…

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Book Review: The English Girl by Sarah Mitchell @SarahM_writer @Bookouture

The English Girl 
by Sarah Mitchell

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

He is German. She is English. Their countries are enemies. Can love bring them together? Inspired by an incredible true story, this is a sweeping tale about the power of hope in the face of war and the legacy of an impossible choice.

1946, Norfolk, England: Grief and fear spillover in Fran’s small village when German prisoners of war are sent to the nearby camp. After the death of her beloved brother on the front lines, Fran cannot see the new arrivals as anything but his killers.When one of the mines the Germans are clearing from the beach explodes, Fran is thrown into the path of prisoner Thomas as they rush to help the wounded. Thomas’s kind, artistic nature, and his bravery, putting himself in danger to save others, change everything for Fran. She realizes he is a boy just like her brother and was forced to fight in a war he never believed in.

From that day on, there is something powerful and unspoken connecting Fran and Thomas. But as battle lines are drawn across Europe and tensions within the village reach breaking point, they could be about to unleash something neither of them can control…

1989, Berlin: Tiffany arrives in Berlin from London, just as the wall that divided a nation finally falls. With only a few words of German, she celebrates with strangers in the streets and crosses the border between West and East. In her pocket is a crumpled letter addressed to her grandmother, yellowed with age, that has led her in search of a wartime secret with the power to change her future…

A book that you will carry with you long after having turned the final page. Fans of Fiona Valpy, The Forgotten Village, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will be absolutely gripped from the very beginning until the final, heart-stopping conclusion of this unforgettable wartime story.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

At the time everyone had said the agony of not knowing, the uncertainty, must be the worst thing of all, but it hadn’t been. Uncertainty had meant hope, seconds, sometimes even whole minutes of time when they had convinced themselves he was still alive. The worst thing had been when the letter finally came, hearing the wild sobs of her mother behind her bedroom door, a racking, animal-like keening that sounded unlike anything Fran had ever heard before.

 

Her husband has become a stranger. A silent stranger. Some days she hardly speaks to anyone apart from Alice. It’s like being less and less present in her own life, as if she’s been reduced to a chalk drawing on a blackboard to which someone has taken a duster, and finger by finger, toe by toe, is slowly obliterating.

 

It’s like… it’s like I’m staring at the sun. I can’t see anything but him.

 

 My Review:

 

 My first exposure to Sarah Mitchell’s agile storytelling and she took me right into their homes, offices, and lives. I was sucked right into their vortex and beside the various characters in an alley while breaking up a fight, in their kitchens during family meals, in their car when it slid off the road into a snowbank. I felt the bitter chill of their winter as well as their poignant heartbreaks, hopes, and soaring spirits.   The woman has mad skills and I look forward to another time slip by delving into her words again and again.   More, please!  

 

About the Author
Sarah grew up in Norfolk and studied law at Cambridge University which led to a career as a barrister, working mainly in the field of human rights. After nearly twenty years she was tempted off-track by a creative writing course at the Open University and fell in love with making up stories instead of constructing arguments. Three years later she completed, with distinction, an MA in Creative Writing – Prose Fiction at the UEA.

Now she lives in Norfolk again, this time with her husband and three almost-grown-up children, where she combines writing with some legal work – and thanking her enormous number of lucky stars.

 

Posted on

Book Review: A Second-Hand Husband by Claire Calman  @clairecalman @rararesources  @BoldwoodBooks

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A Second-Hand Husband
by Claire Calman

Amazon  / B&N /  GP / BB

Natalie and Carl are newlyweds, but the honeymoon period is over already.

Carl has just announced he has bought their first home at auction without telling Natalie where it is, never mind showing her a picture of it.

Natalie is horrified to discover that the dream home is in Little Wyford, mere minutes away from Carl’s ex-wife Antonia. And to make matters worse, Antonia’s palatial country mansion has a fully-functioning roof (and a heated swimming pool!), unlike the ramshackle cottage Carl has bought for them…

Antonia is Little Wyford’s Queen Bee, mistress of the book club, organizer of the Christmas Fair, and leader of the ladies-who-lunch. No matter how hard she tries, Natalie just doesn’t fit in, and when Antonia insists on referring to Carl as ‘Our Husband’, Natalie’s dreams of happily-ever-after take another nosedive.

Second-hand furniture has much to recommend it, especially when doing up a country cottage, second-hand clothes can be ever-so chic, but second-hand husbands are proving to be a very bad idea indeed… Can Natalie ever escape the label of Wife Number Two or is she destined to share her husband forever?

Hilariously funny, wickedly witty, but with a heart of gold and warmth and wisdom that are all its own, A Second-Hand Husband is Claire Calman’s tour de force.

My Rating:

 Favorite Quotes:

 

‘That’s so old!’ Her face looks completely horrified, as if I have borrowed a frock from Miss Havisham and it’s covered in cobwebs.

 

There aren’t any family heirlooms because our family never owned anything significant to hand down to the next generation, other than a predisposition to bowel cancer and bad colds.

 

And – by the way, it is not OK for you to talk to me like that. You’re not my boss, and if you were my boss and spoke to me like that, I’d be taking you to an industrial tribunal. Be angry if you want to be, but there’s no excuse to talk to me as if I’m a bit of dogshit on your shoe. Do it again and I will be out the door in two seconds and heading for the M20 in my van – and you know I mean it. Do you hear me?

 

 My Review:

 

My first Claire Calman experience and I am enamored with her delightfully clever wit, which was often the delivery system for keenly observant insights as well as a day of pleasant entertainment. Her character development and wordcraft were stellar and kept me invested and engaged as I alternated between smirking, giggle-snorting, and chewing my cuticles. The spiky secondary characters were as actively involved and germane to the various story threads and more amusingly drawn than the featured couple.

I was ever hopeful the main character of Natalie would eventually locate her spine while I gleefully enjoyed her inner dialog along her route to tracking it down. I wasn’t sure I could get on board with her hasty choice of second-hand husband as Carl showed sparks of promise but he was often a thoughtless asshat who deserved a few swift applications of my crocs to his posterior to dislodge his lost cranium.   I had faith the author would get them there and my trust was not ill-placed.

I have a new author to add to my Favorites list and Ms. Calman has a new fangirl as I added her entire Goodreads listing to my TBR shortly after finishing this one.

 

About the Author

 

Claire Calman is a writer and broadcaster known for her novels that combine wit and pathos, including the bestseller Love is a Four-Letter Word. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and Loose Ends. Her first book for Boldwood was published in June 2020.

Social Media Links

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