Christmas at the Lakeside Resort

I’ll Be Your Blue Sky

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (December 4, 2018)

The New York Times bestselling author revisits the characters from her beloved novels Love Walked In and Belong to Me in this captivating, beautifully written drama involving family, friendship, secrets, sacrifice, courage, and true love for fans of Jojo Moyes, Elin Hilderbrand, and Nancy Thayer.

On the weekend of her wedding, Clare Hobbes meets an elderly woman named Edith Herron. During the course of a single conversation, Edith gives Clare the courage to do what she should have done months earlier: break off her engagement to her charming—yet overly possessive—fiancé.

Three weeks later, Clare learns that Edith has died—and has given her another gift. Nestled in crepe myrtle and hydrangea and perched at the marshy edge of a bay in a small seaside town in Delaware, Blue Sky House now belongs to Clare. Though the former guest house has been empty for years, Clare feels a deep connection to Edith inside its walls, which are decorated with old photographs taken by Edith and her beloved husband, Joseph.

Exploring the house, Clare finds two mysterious ledgers hidden beneath the kitchen sink. Edith, it seems, was no ordinary woman—and Blue Sky House no ordinary place. With the help of her mother, Viviana, her surrogate mother, Cornelia Brown, and her former boyfriend and best friend, Dev Tremain, Clare begins to piece together the story of Blue Sky House—a decades-old mystery more complex and tangled than she could have imagined. As she peels back the layers of Edith’s life, Clare discovers a story of dark secrets, passionate love, heartbreaking sacrifice, and incredible courage. She also makes startling discoveries about herself: where she’s come from, where she’s going, and what—and who—she loves.

Shifting between the 1950s and the present and told in the alternating voices of Edith and Clare, I’ll Be Your Blue Sky is vintage Marisa de los Santos—an emotionally evocative novel that probes the deepest recesses of the human heart and illuminates the tender connections that bind our lives.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Maybe it comes from having spent most of my childhood alone with my mother, who even before her breakdown and subsequent bipolar diagnosis, was all quicksilver, mutable brilliance, and so necessary to me that I kept track of her with what could only be called vigilance, half worried she’d disappear in a puff of colored smoke and sparkles.

She never fit… All her life, she had never managed polish or tidiness, never, even as a child, been perky or pretty or cute… A gangly girl, now she stood tall, narrow hipped, broad shouldered, leggy as a heron. In an era of things staying in place, of starch and hairspray, she was loosely gathered, pieces of her forever apt to ravel, crease, fly away.

“The world is big and life is long. You never know,” said my mother, giving a shrug that managed to be chic and wise and jaded and careless all at once. It was the kind of shrug for which words like insouciant and urbane were created.

My Review:

A five-star rating is nowhere near enough, nor would ten.   Fifteen appears to be a more accurate assessment, which is rare air indeed. Marisa de los Santos is a stunning and mesmerizing wordsmith.   This beautiful and intricately crafted book had a soul, and it was lovely, heartbreaking, devastating, gorgeous, and profoundly moving. The writing was exquisite and I didn’t want it to end. At times I couldn’t seem to catch my breath or read fast enough while I also didn’t want to rush, as I wanted to savor every artfully chosen and well-honed word. I was intrigued and enthralled with Edith’s story, which could suddenly and unexpectedly spin with a poignancy that stung my eyes and put hot rocks in my throat.   In a word, this book was divine.

I was provided with a review copy of this elegantly written tale by TLC Book Tours and  HarperCollins. 

This was chosen as a  Review of the Month for the review collection on LovelyAudiobooks.info

About Marisa de los Santos

Marisa de los Santos is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning poet with a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing. She lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with her family.

Connect with Marisa on Facebook and Twitter.

The Accidental Beauty Queen
by Teri Wilson

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA /  B&N 

Gallery Books | Trade Paperback Original

In this charming romantic comedy perfect for fans of Meg Cabot and Sophie Kinsella, critically acclaimed author Teri Wilson shows us that sometimes being pushed out of your comfort zone leads you to the ultimate prize. 

 Charlotte Gorman loves her job as an elementary school librarian and is content to experience life through the pages of her books. Which couldn’t be more opposite from her identical twin sister. Ginny, an Instagram-famous beauty pageant contestant, has been chasing a crown since she was old enough to enunciate the words world peace, and she’s not giving up until she gets the title of Miss American Treasure. And Ginny’s refusing to do it alone this time.

She drags Charlotte to the pageant as a good luck charm, but the winning plan quickly goes awry when Ginny has a terrible, face-altering allergic reaction the night before the pageant, and Charlotte suddenly finds herself in a switcheroo the twins haven’t successfully pulled off in decades.

Woefully unprepared for the glittery world of hair extensions, false eyelashes, and push-up bras, Charlotte is mortified at every unstable step in her sky-high stilettos. But as she discovers there’s more to her fellow contestants than just wanting a sparkly crown, Charlotte realizes she has a whole new motivation for winning.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Ginny chose this life, just as surely as I chose mine. She also gets paid more for one sponsored Instagram post than I make in a week, and when I remember this, I keep my sympathy in check.

 The Hogwarts T-shirt I’m wearing might as well be an invisibility cloak… I’m here for the chance to stay in Ginny’s luxury hotel room for a week, for free, and completely nerd out at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I’m also here for moral support, of course. I plan on being at every single pageant event, cheering like a maniac while inwardly cringing in horror at the very thought of prancing around in only a tiny swimsuit and a crown.

 I prefer the scent of ink on paper and old library books to perfume. And while I want to see world peace happen, I’m not convinced that a real-life Barbie can hasten it by uttering those words into a microphone.

 Her complexion is covered in red splotches and she looks weirdly out of proportion, almost like a Picasso painting.

 I’m so totally in over my head. Last week I was shelving picture books and now I’ve got more secret lives than I can keep up with. I’ve somehow become the beauty pageant version of Jason Bourne.

My Review:

I loved this adorable and cleverly amusing tale. The writing was refreshingly crisp and laden with smart wit, skillful levity, and heart squeezing and insightful observations.   I was quickly enamored with Ms. Wilson’s agile word skills and was soon fully invested in her smartly written, delightfully humorous, and well-crafted tale. This was my first exposure to Ms. Wilson’s genius and was an immediate smitten kitten and instant fangirl.

About the Author:

Teri Wilson is the author/creator of the Hallmark Channel Original Movies Unleashing Mr. Darcy, Marrying Mr. Darcy, and The Art of Us, as well as a fourth Hallmark movie currently in development. Teri is a double finalist in the prestigious 2018 RWA RITA awards for her novels The Princess Problem and Royally Wed. Teri also writes an offbeat fashion column for the royal blog What Would Kate Do and is a frequent guest contributor for its sister site, Meghan’s Mirror. She’s been a contributor for both HelloGiggles and Teen Vogue, covering books, pop culture, beauty, and everything royal. In 2017, she served as a national judge for the Miss United States pageant in Orlando, Florida, and has since judged in the Miss America system. She has a major weakness for cute animals, pretty dresses, Audrey Hepburn films, and good books. Visit her at TeriWilson.net,  Goodreads, or on Twitter @TeriWilsonAuthr.

Christmas at The Chocolate Pot Café

by Jessica Redland

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU

A few minutes of courage might change your life…

Emotionally, Tara Porter finds the festive period a challenge. Christmas Day is a reminder of the family she lost, and New Year’s Eve holds bitter memories of the biggest mistake of her life: marrying Garth Tewkesbury. Shunning invitations to celebrate, she seeks refuge in her flat with only her giant house bunny, Hercules, for company.

Professionally, though, it’s the best time of year. Tara’s thriving café, The Chocolate Pot, is always packed. With the café hosting a wedding and engagement party, it’s shaping up to be the café’s best Christmas ever.

When former nemesis, Jed Ferguson, threatens the future of The Chocolate Pot, Tara prepares for a fight. The café is everything to her and she’s not going to let anyone or anything jeopardize that.

Tara badly misjudged ex-husband Garth and, since then, has refused to let anyone in. After all, if you don’t let them in, they can’t hurt you. But has she misjudged Jed too? Is it possible that he’s not the arrogant, deceitful man from whom she bought the café 14 years earlier? Can she find the courage to find out for sure?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Nobody had ever kissed my hand before. I felt like a heroine in an Austen novel, being wooed by an English gent. I had to fight hard not to giggle childishly or say anything stupid.

 I’ll admit that there’s a teeny weeny fragment of sympathy for him, but Joyce seems to think the sun shines out of his arse, whereas I just think he is an arse.

I think I may have had an attack of the verbals…

My Review:

Tara was an enigmatic cross between Pollyanna, a “spiky” cynic, and a secretly prolific crafter and hygge enthusiast. She had limited her life space to her business, her giant house bunny, and her clandestine crafting. Her story tugged and squeezed my heart and I adored her, as I have every quirkily flawed character this talented author has introduced me to with this addictive and entertaining series. Each story in this lively and insightfully written series has been delightfully and lusciously detailed with poignant and original storylines and unique challenges for the lovable yet besieged characters to conquer. This story held several added layers of maddeningly paced intrigue that continually poked and prickled my curiosity. I seem destined to read Ms. Redland’s work out of order, yet it makes no nevermind as while her tales are interconnected, they all have strong legs and are quite capable of standing alone, but what is the fun in that?   Collect and read them all, and be a better person for it. I have unearthed a fun new addition to my Brit Word list with muggins, which Mr. Google defined as “a foolish and gullible person (often used humorously to refer to oneself).”

Author Bio 

Jessica had never considered writing as a career until a former manager kept telling her that her business reports read more like stories and she should write a book. She loved writing but had no plot ideas. Then something happened to her that prompted the premise for her debut novel, Searching for Steven. She put fingers to keyboard and soon realized she had a trilogy and a novella.

She lives on the stunning North Yorkshire Coast — the inspiration for the settings in her books — with her husband, daughter, cat, Sprocker Spaniel, and an ever-growing collection of collectible teddy bears. Although if the dog has her way, the collection will be reduced to a pile of stuffing and chewed limbs!

Her passion for North Yorkshire is shared by fellow-writer and great friend, Sharon Booth and, together, they are the Yorkshire Rose Writers.

Jessica tries to balance her time — often unsuccessfully — between being an HR tutor, trying to re-learn how to play the piano, studying towards a Masters in Creative Writing, and writing itself. Who needs sleep?

Social Media Links –

Twitter: @JessicaRedland

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

Website and blog: www.jessicaredland.com

Until the Next Time

(Give Me Shelter #2)

by Josie Kerr

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU  / B&N

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Jason and Meghan had the most complicated uncomplicated non-relationship he’d ever been involved in, because when it came right down to it, he didn’t do relationships.

He hadn’t seen Chelsea in months, not since she’d gone to California to try her hand at getting a real modeling job, as opposed to just posing and making duck faces in the mirror for people on the internet… Her showing up with a bottle of champagne in each hand foretold of either a huge break or a giant breakdown…

I have to go see a woman about converting a detached garage into a ‘she shed’ … It’s like a man cave but girly. I predict a Pinterest nightmare, but the lady’s paying me.

“Pierce used to be a bouncer at Foley’s. He’s a sweetheart.” “A sweetheart that is capable of pulling my arms off and bludgeoning me with them. Jesus.” “Oh, he doesn’t do that stuff anymore… Usually.”

My Review:

This bickering couple generated enough sensual heat to set off fire sprinklers. Holy singed ceiling tiles! I enjoyed this couple. Meghan and Jason started off as friends with benefits, but despite her general crankiness and someone trying to ruin her business and end her life above ground, they developed into a much more profound, supportive, and satisfying level of squabbling and began relating to each other beyond the slap and tickle. The engaging storylines were well-crafted and populated with a large cast of interesting and oddly enticing characters. The narrative was well balanced between humor, steam, and a variety of stressors and tense situations and was also active and highly eventful with lashings of intrigue. I am eager to see what Ms. Kerr does with the rest of this group of quirky friends.

Josie Kerr   

 For Better and Worse

by Margot Hunt

Amazon | B-A-M | B&N

Paperback: 336 Pages

Publisher: MIRA; Original edition (December 11, 2018)

On their first date back in law school, Natalie and Will Clarke bonded over drinks, dinner and whether they could get away with murder. Now married, they’ll put the latter to the test when an unchecked danger in their community places their son in jeopardy. Working as a criminal defense attorney, Nat refuses to rely on the broken legal system to keep her family safe. She knows that if you want justice…you have to get it yourself.

Shocked to discover Nat’s taken matters into her own hands, Will has no choice but to dirty his, also. His family is in way too deep to back down now. He’s just not sure he recognizes the woman he married. Nat’s always been fiercely protective, but never this ruthless or calculating. With the police poking holes in their airtight plan, what will be the first to fall apart: their scandalous secret—or their marriage?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

She was a delicious, fizzing secret that had transformed my boring, colorless life into something exciting.

He was an affable guy in his late forties, with the sort of annoyingly boyish good looks that women always went for. My main impression of him, after being law partners for a number of years, was that while he led a charmed life, he was about as deep as a puddle. He had a pretty, vapid wife and a couple of good-looking, vapid children who all excelled at sports.

He lifted the corners of his mouth up in a sly smile. He suddenly, vividly reminded me of the crocodile exhibit at the Palm Beach Zoo.

When I was a kid, my dad used to tell me, ‘Some people just need killing.’ I always thought that he was being overly harsh. After all, my dad also made me go to Sunday school, where they talked about turning the other cheek and forgiving your neighbor. But if you live the life I’ve lived, seen the things I’ve seen…” He shrugged, as if trying to push away a whole history of bad memories. “I can’t say that my father was wrong.”

She thought that sometimes she loved Will, and sometimes she hated him. Sometimes she couldn’t tell the difference between the two.

My Review:

Margot Hunt has mastered the art of building and maintaining tension and suspense in her artful and brilliant arrangements of words. This wasn’t a thriller or a “who done it” murder mystery as we witness the murder being committed and I will confess, I even wanted to help and felt a bit complicit. I was taut with tension, nibbling on my cuticles, and largely unsettled while reading Ms. Hunt’s compelling and well-crafted storylines. If ever there were a case for justifiable homicide, this would fit most anyone’s criteria. The premise was ingenious; the writing was superb and maddeningly paced; the characters were intriguingly nuanced, and the ending left me smirking.   Sequel, Ms. Hunt?

About Margot Hunt

Margot Hunt is the pseudonym of a bestselling writer of twelve previous novels. Her work has been praised by Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. BEST FRIENDS FOREVER is her first psychological thriller.

Connect with Margot

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Fa-La-Llama-La: Christmas at the Little French Llama Farm 

by Stephanie Dagg

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA

Author Bio –

I’m an English expat living in France, having moved here with my family in 2006 after fourteen years as an expat in Ireland. I now consider myself a European rather than ‘belonging’ to any particular country. The last ten years have been interesting, to put it mildly. Taking on seventy-five acres with three lakes, two hovels and one cathedral-sized barn, not to mention an ever-increasing menagerie, makes for exciting times. The current array of animals includes alpacas, llamas, huarizos (alpaca-llama crossbreds, unintended in our case and all of them thanks to one very determined alpaca male), sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys, not forgetting our pets of dogs, cats, zebra finches, budgies , canaries, lovebirds and Chinese quail. Before we came to France all we had was a dog and two chickens, so it’s been a steep learning curve. I recount these experiences in my book Heads Above Water: Staying Afloat in France and the sequel to that, Total Immersion: Ten Years in France. I also blog regularly at www.bloginfrance.com.

I’m married to Chris and we have three bilingual TCKs (third culture kids) who are resilient and resourceful and generally wonderful.     

I’m a traditionally-published author of many children’s books and am now self-publishing too. I have worked part-time as a freelance editor for thirty years after starting out as a desk editor for Hodder & Stoughton. Find me at www.editing.zone. The rest of the time I’m running carp fishing lakes with Chris and inevitably cleaning up some or other animal’s poop.   

Social Media Links –

@llamamum

www.facebook.com/StephanieDaggBooks/

www.bloginfrance.com