Category: Book Reviews

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Book Review: Captivate (Brooklet Dream #2) by C.A. Harms

Captivate (Brooklet Dream #2) 
by C.A. Harms

 

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / B&N

I was back in Brooklet Georgia and things were far from how they were when I left years ago.

Maddison used to be one of the guys, but that was definitely not the case anymore…

She had changed and damn if it didn’t make my heart race. With each passing second she began to consume me. Her smile made my knees weak and the way she looked at me took my breath away.

She captivated me, but she was forbidden. She was the one girl I had no right to crave.

Things became messy, and fast, but to hell with the consequences…she was worth it.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Trouble never looked so good.

 

This entire thing has been so that you can prove that you hold the upper hand in this relationship… Truth is you’ve always had the power over me… Damn, Mad, you’ve always been the one girl I could never say no to… I’m at your mercy. You could crush me, though I hope you never will.

 

I’m eighteen and still a virgin. I’ve never even kissed a guy unless you count little Jimmy Jones slobbering on my cheek in the fifth grade. But even then, Rhett threatened to beat him up when he found out, and he and my daddy have made sure no other boy has come within a foot of me since. At this rate, they’ll be doing a remake of the 40 Year Old Virgin, starring yours truly.

 

I felt for the girl, I truly did, because Reed and Rhett were for sure gonna drive her insane for years and years to come. But the guy had my most sympathy; I just hoped whoever she ended up with, he was strong enough to survive.

 

My Review:

 

Angst and conflict are not my friends – I find them extremely tiresome. As such, the first half of this book was a tedious slog for me, but it was worth it to get to all the good stuff found in the second half. I was just about to give up when the stubborn girl finally stopped playing games and regained her facility for sassy and mischievous taunting. Thank the goddess of ink, I was growing increasingly concerned that Ms. Harms had lost her mojo, but she redeemed herself with delicious slices of sizzle and playful levity. Written in my favorite dual POV, the storylines evolved slowly with many of the same lively cast of irreverent and endearing characters found in Allure.   Mike was simply delectable.

 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 Desert Sky Before Us by Anne Valente

The Desert Sky Before Us

by Anne Valente

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU 

B&N/ HarperCollins

Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (May 14, 2019)

“The Desert Sky Before Us is a marvel. A vital, profound story of the aftermath of loss, and of the terrors and illuminations of love.” —R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries

From award-winning author Anne Valente comes this poignant and unforgettable literary novel of two estranged sisters—one, a former racecar driver and the other a recently-released prisoner—who embark on a road trip together to complete the scavenger hunt their mother designed for them before her death.

When Billie is released from a correctional facility in Decatur, her sister Rhiannon is there to meet her, even though the two haven’t seen each other in months. Painful secrets and numerous unspoken betrayals linger between them—but most agonizing is the sudden passing of their mother, a renowned paleontologist.

Rhiannon and Billie must overcome their differences as they set off on a road trip west, following the breadcrumb-trail of their late mother’s scavenger hunt, a sort of second funeral she planned in her final days. The sisters know the trail will end in Utah at the famous Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, where their mother spent her career researching dinosaur fossils. But the seemingly endless days on the road soon take their toll, forcing Rhiannon and Billie to confront their hostilities and revisit old memories—both good and bad.

As they travel across the heart of America, and as a series of plane crashes in the news make their journey all the more urgent, the two sisters begin to rediscover each other and to uncover their late mother’s veiled second life, taking them on an unexpected emotional journey inward—and forcing them to come to terms with their own choices in life.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Rhiannon knows the word sorry will never find its way from Billie’s throat.

 

She watches him and knows that her anger with him is nothing compared to the heavy weight of what she’s dragged around a prison cell for six years and across so many highways to this place, this moment: that in the end she is most disappointed in herself, no one else.

 

My Review:

 

There was family drama aplenty as well as a long and arduous road-trip full of broody tension and uncertainty as two sisters followed the bread-crumb path across the country that their recently deceased mother had set for them in her sparse journal – a journal that gave no explanations, just GPS coordinates and poorly drawn images. I was riddled with curiosity yet increasingly impatient with the incrementally slow pace and confounding nature of their discoveries.

 

Gradually old resentments, lies, secrets, and jealousies unspooled as the tedium and miles were racked up.   The main characters were hard for me to care for, as they were both stalled and discontent with their lives and extremely closed off, annoyingly so. Billie was an immature screw up with an innate sense of inadequacy and unpredictable volatile and impulsive behavioral reactions. These were not individuals I would willingly choose to spend my time with, yet I was curious about the mysterious clues and geocaching.

 

I confess – I struggled valiantly with this ponderously slow and angsty, yet informative and pensive book.   The book contained a thought-provoking story yet used far too many pages in the telling and left me with a sense of emotional exhaustion and a bitter sense of dissatisfaction with the ending, but maybe I just didn’t catch all the ethereal connections. I did glean an awareness of issues and phenomenon I had never before encountered and felt the need to hit Mr. Google for additional research on clear-air turbulence and The Spiral Jetty. I may never fly again!

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

About the Author

Anne Valente’s first short-story collection, By Light We Knew Our Names, won the Dzanc Books Short Story Prize. Her fiction appears in One Story, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, and the Chicago Tribune, and her essays appear in The Believer and the Washington Post. Originally from St. Louis, she teaches creative writing and literature at Hamilton College.

Find out more about Anne at her website.

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Book Review: The Wonder of Lost Causes by Nick Trout

The Wonder of Lost Causes

by Nick Trout

 

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU

B&N/ HarperCollins

Hardcover: 464 pages

 Publisher: William Morrow (April 30, 2019)

In this unforgettable novel, perfect for fans of An Unexpected Grace and A Dog’s Way Home, a single mom and her chronically ill child receive a valuable lesson from an unlikely source—a very special dog who unexpectedly enters their lives and shows them that one person’s lost cause can be another’s greatest gift . . .

Dr. Kate Blunt will do anything for her son, Jasper. Well, almost anything. Since Jasper has the incurable lung disease cystic fibrosis, Kate’s always told him he couldn’t get a dog. It’s a tough call, but she’s a single mom taking care of a kid who fights for every breath he takes. The daily medical routine that keeps Jasper alive is complicated enough. Worse still, Kate’s personal resolve runs contrary to her work as the veterinarian in charge of a Cape Cod animal shelter, where she is on a mission to find forever homes for dogs in desperate need.

The scarred, mistreated wreck of a dog that turns up doesn’t stand a chance. Named Whistler, he’s too old, too ugly. But the dog forms an instantaneous bond with Jasper. Whistler never makes a sound, yet he speaks to Jasper in a myriad of mysterious ways. The clock’s ticking, the dog’s future hangs in the balance, and Jasper would do anything to find him a home; but Whistler has chosen them—for a reason.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Mrs. Fisher is a big, bosomy woman, with wild bushy eyebrows worthy of a cold war Russian president.

 

Grandma kind of scares me. She wears bright red lipstick like a hungry vampire, never smiles, and bathes in so much old lady perfume that even I can smell it. Her feet, if she has any, are always hidden under long skirts and dresses, but I think she levitates, never making a sound, able to appear from nowhere.

 

Loving a dog is not like picking up a remote and turning a TV on or off. You’re either into dogs or you’re not. The most useful thing Martha ever told me was, “Dogs are like herpes. Once you get them, you’re infected for life.”

 

I’m critical of those who live a so-called Facebook life, skewing the truth, letting the online world see only what they want you to see… That’s why I never post. I click “like” to be polite. I’d rather click “jealous,” “you’re killing me,” “I never thought I could hate you more,” or “No one gets to live like this.”

 

I follow her gaze to the little man lost inside an oversized blazer and the mutt who can’t take his eyes off him. “They’re an odd couple,” I say. “Not at all,” says Alice, taking them in. “Just different shades of beautiful.”

 

My Review:

 

This book took me completely by surprise and was only a thousand times better than I was expecting. I was immediately taken with the high quality and deft craft of Dr. Trout’s writing and instantly fell into the vortex of Jasper and Kate’s challenging world of CF. I adored Jasper and while I had great empathy for her struggles, I often wanted to give Kate a good pinch.

Written in my favorite dual POV, the story was well paced, multi-layered, and expertly textured. While often moving and highly emotive, the emotional tone was well balanced with unexpected pockets of levity as well as providing Jasper with a comedic wit in addition to breathtakingly profound perceptions and awareness beyond his years.   The storylines were engaging and engrossing and plucked relentlessly at the heartstrings while sparklingly entertaining with thoughtful insights, colorful descriptions, and humorous observations and inner musings. Dr. Trout cleverly cast his tale with vibrant and uniquely clever and quirky characters who were more than worthy of attention.

This was one of those exceptionally rare books that held captivated and held my interest, was first class entertainment, and chaste enough to recommend to my elderly mother’s church ladies’ book club yet still garners a Bedazzled Five-Star rating from me. Which are about as common as hens’ teeth.  😉

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

About the Author

Dr. Nick Trout works full-time as a staff surgeon at the prestigious Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston. He is the author of five previous books, including the New York Times bestseller Tell Me Where It Hurts, and his writing has been translated into sixteen different languages. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Kathy; their daughter, Emily; their adopted labradoodle, Thai; and Emily’s service dog, a black Labrador named Bella.

Find out more about him at his website.

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Book Review: A Bakery at the Little Duck Pond Cafe by Rosie Green

 

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA 

 

Ellie’s dreams of opening a bakery in Sunnybrook are finally coming true and best friends Fen and Jaz are happily rallying round, helping her to plan a fabulous grand opening day. Everything in their garden seems to be rosy – until the arrival of a newcomer brings chaos to the village and tests relationships to the limit. Can the bakery succeed in the face of such upheaval? And more importantly, can firm friendships survive?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Gran might be seventy-six but she’s as sharp as a spine on a sea urchin.

 

I haven’t felt this self-conscious since I was climbing a tree for a dare when I was nine and a sharp branch ripped a hole in the seat of my trousers, revealing Mickey Mouse knickers.

 

 My Review:

 

I have read every installment in this sweet and wryly amusing series and each one has given my heart a squeeze and put a least 3 smiles on my face. The tone of this story was rather tense as Katja/Kate was struggling with several issues and had an uncomfortably big secret. She was also in contention for a new bakery job with the same spiteful and competitive person she was forced to room with, although her roomie had a rather unexpected and embarrassing secret of her own. The engaging storylines were easy to follow and quite relatable with an interesting cast of characters dealing with real-life issues. I only needed to Google one unfamiliar Brit reference for my word list; Yodel vans – which is a delivery service like Fed Ex or UPS to those of us living in the USA.

About the Author

Rosie Green has been scribbling stories ever since she was little. Back then they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’. Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all, unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

​​Rosie’s brand new series of novellas is centered on life in a village café. Confetti at the Little Duck Pond Cafe will be the sixth in the series

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green1988

Breaking News – Coming Soon 

Confetti at the Little Duck Pond Café

With Ellie and Zak’s Big Day on the horizon, the sun is shining brightly on the Little Duck Pond Café community. But as dark clouds begin to roll in, threatening more than one close relationship, will the wedding of the year take place at all?

Follow Rosie Green on Amazon to hear when its published and available for purchase – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rosie-Green/e/B07CZYV7DW

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Book Review: THE SCENT KEEPER by Erica Bauermeister

Amazon / B & N  / Books-a-Million / Indie Bound / Powell’s

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Erica Bauermeister, the national bestselling author of The School of Essential Ingredients, presents a moving and evocative coming-of-age novel about childhood stories, families lost and found, and how a fragrance conjures memories capable of shaping the course of our lives. 
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Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them.  As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the unforeseen happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world–a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that challenges the limits of her heart and imagination.
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Lyrical and immersive, The Scent Keeper explores the provocative beauty of scent, the way it can reveal hidden truths, lead us to the person we seek, and even help us find our way back home.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

We are the unwitting carriers of our parents’ secrets, the ripples made by stones we never saw thrown… We humans are almost entirely made of water, except for the stones of our secrets.

 

I remember the way the rain seemed to talk to the roof as I fell asleep, and how the fire would snap and tell it to be quiet… I could feel the tendrils of a fragrance tickling the inside of my nose, slipping into the curls of my black hair… I inhaled, and fell into the fragrance like Alice down the rabbit hole.

 

My father had told me that many things in fairy tales weren’t real, but my problem was I didn’t always know which ones.

 

Cleopatra the goat rapidly became Cleo, but both names fit. She was still young enough for a nickname, but she had aspirations of grandeur, my father said. She ruled us from the very beginning.

 

The woman’s pants hugged her so tightly I thought at first she had blue legs…

 

Looking at her was like gazing into one of those enchanted mirrors and seeing a beautiful, older, far more assured version of myself.

  

My Review:

 

Erica Bauermeister is a master storyteller, an expert wordsmith, and an agile weaver of creative and fanciful tales that transport the mind as well as painfully massage the coronary muscle.   I ran the gamut while reading, I was transfixed, intrigued, appalled, frustrated, enraged, despondent, deeply moved, entertained, impatient, brokenhearted, and nearly insane with curiosity; yet through it all, I was also 100% engaged and fully immersed in the tale.

 

The writing was lushly descriptive, evocatively detailed, insightfully observant, and simply beguiling.   I have a keen sense of smell and was all too easily slotted within Emmeline’s head. I was instantly taken with and understood her assignment of colors, sounds, shapes, and emotions to corresponding scents. Yet I could never have imagined the sense of carefree abandon and adult encouragement to believe in magic and fairy tales during her rustic early childhood on an isolated island, although I would certainly have reveled in that as a child.

 

The captivating storylines were ingeniously creative, undeniably consuming, and cast with tantalizingly elusive, and uniquely compelling and stunningly clever characters who were a bit unsettling as they appeared peculiarly off center and while most were not dangerous, several were more than a tad beyond slippery. I was reluctant to put this book down for any length of time and continued to ruminate over this consuming story whenever those displeasing tasks otherwise known as daily living rudely interrupted my reading. In sum, Erica Bauermeister has a new fangirl.

About the Author

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Erica Bauermeister is the author of the bestselling novel The School of Essential Ingredients, Joy for Beginners, and The Lost Art of Mixing. She is also the co-author of the non-fiction works, 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide and Let’s Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. She has a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Washington and has taught there and at Antioch University. She is a founding member of the Seattle7Writers and currently lives in Port Townsend, Washington.
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Book Review: Starfish by Lisa Becker

Starfish: A Rockstar Romance

by Lisa Becker

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA 

Ambitious graduate Marin Collins accepts a four-month internship at a prestigious public relations firm to work on a tech account, but her plans are derailed when she’s assigned to go on the road with touring rock band Kings Quarters, hailed by Rolling Stone as the next big thing. 

Enter Brad Osterhauser, the reluctant rock star who would rather be coding computer games than penning Grammy-nominated songs.

Traveling by bus, city to city with a group of practical joking bandmates and a greedy manager, Marin and Brad forge a friendship and forbidden romance over a shared love of Seinfeld episodes, stolen moments and Red Vines.

But when Marin’s accused of betraying her company and the band, will Brad come to her defense or believe she was disloyal to him for the sake of her career?

Told in alternating perspectives of Marin and Brad, Starfish is a contemporary romance of unexpected love, the redemptive power of music and hogging the bed.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“This body is a temple,” replies Jase, holding his arms out and shrugging his shoulder. “Temple of doom, maybe,” fumes Oliver.

 

“If you learned anything from living with me for all these years, you still should have knocked. Remember the incident with Chad?” Cheeky Chad, as he was forever known, in homage to the muscular naked butt cheeks I accidentally saw.

 

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to cramp your style,” she jokes. “I’ve got no style,” I respond. “I’m all substance,” I add with a smug grin.

 

“With your voice, even lip-synching is painful to those of us around you.” Her mouth gapes open in shock. “But you won’t even hear me,” she whines. “Doesn’t matter.” I shake my head. “We all know what you sound like and can hear it in our heads.”

 

 My Review:

 

This was a fun, entertaining, and sexy dual POV contemporary romance full of sizzle and sass between an up and coming rock star and the new intern handling their public relations on the tour bus. I adore Lisa Becker’s special brand of levity, she cleverly slides it in with pranks, colorful descriptions, witty quips, bantering, and games and hijinks between the vibrant and enticing characters.   The storylines were active and eventful as the band toured across the country, stirring up hearts, gossip, libidos, turbulence, obsessed fans, while also indulging in a variety of pastimes and antics.

 

About the Author

Lisa Becker is an award-winning romance writer who spends her time like she spends her money – on books and margaritas. As Lisa’s grandmother used to say, “For every chair, there’s a tush.” Lisa is now happily married to a wonderful man she met online and lives in Manhattan Beach, California with him and their two daughters. So, if it happened for her, there’s hope for anyone! You can share your love stories with her at www.lisawbecker.com.

Author: Starfish , Links and Clutch

Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Web

Winner: American Fiction Award 2018 Romantic Comedy – Clutch

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Book Review: Probably the Best Kiss in the World by Pernille Hughes

 Probably the Best Kiss in the World

by Pernille Hughes

 

Amazon / B&N / Google / iBooks

 

Jen Attison likes her life Just So. But being fished out of a canal in Copenhagen by her knickers is definitely NOT on her to do list. From cinnamon swirls to a spontaneous night of laughter and fireworks, Jen’s city break with the girls takes a turn for the unexpected because of her gorgeous, mystery rescuer.

Back home, Jen faces a choice. A surprise proposal from her boyfriend, ‘boring’ Robert has offered Jen the safety net she always thought she wanted. But with the memories of her Danish adventure proving hard to forget, maybe it’s time for Jen to stop listening to her head and start following her heart…

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“This ring was my great-grandmother’s, on Mumsie’s side,” he explained, plucking it off her palm as she stared shell-shocked at him, “apparently, it hasn’t seen daylight since the undertakers took it off her finger and handed it to my granny… Oh. It’s too big.” Great-granny must have had salamis for fingers, the ring would have fallen freely off Jen’s thumb.

 

I should wash your mouth out with soap. This is a haven of romance and dreams. Shame on you. I’m going to fill this space with old romance novels to ward off your bad vibes.

 

Ava’s mother, though short, filled the entire width of the doorway. Her penchant for floral two-pieces did nothing to lessen this spatial illusion, whilst also making her look like a walking sofa. Her enormous blonde curls were immaculately dyed and set, and doubled the size of her head, which might have appeared comical, had it not perfectly matched the size of each of her huge boobs. Height aside, everything about her shouted Big Personality and she hadn’t even opened her mouth yet. Jen braced herself.

 

Right now she was a cocktail of emotions. The Molotov kind.

 

 My Review:

 

I giggle-snorted with glee at Ms. Hughes generous servings of clever levity and highly amusing storylines, although I struggled more than a bit with her profoundly flawed, ridiculously inflexible, and greatly annoying main character or Jen, who really needed a kick in the arse. Jen was a pragmatic list maker and control freak whose issues and acquired traits created a considerable conflict for me, yet it was ultimately an enjoyable one with a satisfactory evolution.

 

Ms. Hughes’s characters were uniquely intriguing and enticingly quirky. I was highly entertained and engaged throughout by her witty and creative use of humorous insights and observations. Thankfully, Jen didn’t actually require a surgical procedure to fully dislodge her deeply wedged cranium from her posterior region, although she did require a considerable helping of misery and comeuppance to work it clear on her own.

About the Author

Pernille Hughes is a RomCom author and mum, whose debut novel was SWEATPANTS AT TIFFANIE’S, soon to be followed by PROBABLY THE BEST KISS IN THE WORLD (April 2019). Previously her writing has been printed in The Sunday Times and the fabulous SUNLOUNGER summer anthologies. Find out about her new books at www.pernillehughes.com

Pernille (pronounced Pernilla) studied Film & Literature at uni and took her first job in advertising, having been lured by the temptation of freebies, but left when Status Quo tickets were as good as it got. After a brief spell marketing Natural History films, she switched to working in Children’s television which for a time meant living in actual Teletubbyland, sharing a photocopier with Laa-Laa.

Now, she lives in actual Buckinghamshire, sharing a photocopier with her husband and their four spawn. While the kids are at school she scoffs cake and writes RomCom stories in order to maintain a shred of sanity.

Social Media Links – www.pernillehughes.com

Twitter https://twitter.com/pernillehughes

Facebook www.facebook.com/pernillehughesauthor

Instagram www.instagram.com/pernillehughes

Bookbub www.bookbub.com/profile/pernille-hughes

Pinterest www.pinterest.com/pernillehughes

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Book Review: The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning 

The Song of the Jade Lily

by Kirsty Manning 

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU / B&N

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (May 14, 2019)

“Kirsty Manning weaves together little-known threads of World War II history, family secrets, the past and the present into a page-turning, beautiful novel.”— Heather Morris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz

A gripping historical novel that tells the little-known story of Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai during WWII.

1939: Two young girls meet in Shanghai, also known as the “Paris of the East”. Beautiful local Li and Jewish refugee Romy form a fierce friendship, but the deepening shadows of World War II fall over the women as they slip between the city’s glamorous French Concession district and the teeming streets of the Shanghai Ghetto. Yet soon the realities of war prove to be too much for these close friends as they are torn apart.

2016: Fleeing London with a broken heart, Alexandra returns to Australia to be with her grandparents, Romy and Wilhelm. Her grandfather is dying, and over the coming weeks, Romy and Wilhelm begin to reveal the family mysteries they have kept secret for more than half a century. As fragments of her mother’s history finally become clear, Alexandra struggles with what she learns while more is also revealed about her grandmother’s own past in Shanghai.

After Wilhelm dies, Alexandra flies to Shanghai, determined to trace her grandparents’ past. Peeling back the layers of their hidden lives, she is forced to question what she knows about her family—and herself.

The Song of the Jade Lily is a lush, provocative, and beautiful story of friendship, motherhood, the price of love, and the power of hardship and courage that can shape us all.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Alexandra spent most of her time with men on the trading desks, who walked around the office with their jaws clenched, veins pulsing at their temples. They smelled of adrenaline, expensive aftershave, and fear.

 

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.

 

My Review:

 

This beautifully written and masterfully crafted book turned me inside out and took my breath away. The writing was elegant, lavishly detailed, evocative, and a feast for the senses with frequent tantalizing descriptions of exotic locales and delicious and foods and spices that kept my hunger on edge and eventually devastated my dieting efforts.

 

The premise and storylines were a fascinating combination of fact and fiction. Ms. Manning’s prose was eloquent and well-textured, complex and multi-layered, thoughtfully observant, and haunting. Her tender touches and emotive insights often stung my eyes and burned my throat. I have never been to Shanghai and had no idea of the unusual population and history or that it had become somewhat of a haven for stateless refugees, an unusual issue and term I was also unfamiliar with.

 

The characters were compelling and endearing, and their precarious and tenuous positions often left them a heartbeat away from exposure; I felt their tension and reveled in their successes and joys. Their profound experiences were intensely moving and will definitely resonate within me for quite some time.  I was provided with a review copy of this enthralling book by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours. 

About the Author

Kirsty Manning grew up in northern New South Wales, Australia. She has degrees in literature and communications and worked as an editor and publishing manager in book publishing for over a decade. A country girl with wanderlust, her travels and studies have taken her through most of Europe, the east, and west coasts of the United States as well as pockets of Asia. Kirsty’s journalism and photography specializing in lifestyle and travel regularly appear in magazines, newspapers, and online. She lives in Australia.

Find out more about Kirsty at her website, and connect with her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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Book Review: She’s Like The Wind by Carrie Elks

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Title: She’s Like The Wind
Author: Carrie Elks
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: May 16, 2019
Cover Designed: Najla Qamber

He’d be a fool to fall for his long-legged, barefoot employee. But bad decisions have never stopped him before…

Successful businessman and single father, Nate Crawford, doesn’t need any more complications. That’s why he’s moved his business – and his life – to a small beach town. He’s expecting sun, sea, and tranquility, but what he gets is a whirlwind in the form of town sweetheart, Ally Sutton.

Ally’s used to dealing with heartache. But losing the café she’s owned for years is the final straw. Being offered a new job feels like a lifeline – that is until she meets her much-older and impossibly handsome new boss.

In the space of a few weeks, everything changes. And when an accident forces them closer, Nate and Ally can’t ignore the fascination between them any longer. But neither of them are ready for the storm they’re about to unleash.

**She’s Like the Wind is the second book in the Angel Sands series, set in a small beach town on the California coast. If you like a heartwarming read that’s low on angst and big on feels, this stand-alone romance is for you.**

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“If I kiss you will you shut up?” Ally’s mouth dropped open and she stared at him with those big blues. “Probably not. But you should do it anyway.”

 

Gossip moved faster than the speed of light in Angel Sands… Having social media was pointless around here. By the time you opened your phone up to look, all the news was old.

 

 My Review:

 

This engaging book had all the feels and a bit of everything including a fresh start for several, a new relationship for the main characters, sensual sizzle, loads family drama, small-town quirks, relatable characters, easy humor, and a mercurial and obnoxious teenager. And all of that was well packaged within several eventful yet easy to follow and entertaining storylines. I adored this couple and am eagerly looking forward to the next in the series, which was promised to arrive in a few months time.

 

 


Excerpt

 

Ally bit down a smile and looked at Nate, who was still hovering in the doorway.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to paint my nails. I can probably manage if I bend over enough.”

He looked at the bottle Riley had shoved in his hands. “It’s a nice color.”

“Riley chose it.”

He took a step inside then hesitated, looking over at Ally. “Is it okay if I come in?” he asked.

“Of course it is. It’s your house.”

“But it’s your room.”

His words made her feel warm. As though she finally belonged somewhere.

“Come in. It’s nice to have the company.”

He walked up to the bed, and looked down at her feet. “Let’s do this thing,” he said, sitting down in the space his daughter had vacated. “I don’t want to incur the wrath of Riley.”

“Do you even know how to paint nails?” Ally asked, trying to keep her voice even. It felt so intimate, having him here in the room when she was wearing only a tank and sleep shorts. God only knew how much more intimate it would feel once he touched her.

And if he painted her toes, he’d definitely have to touch her.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carrie Elks Headshot

Carrie Elks writes contemporary romance with a sizzling edge. Her first book, Fix You, has been translated into eight languages and made a surprise appearance on Big Brother in Brazil. Luckily for her, it wasn’t voted out. Carrie lives with her husband, two lovely children and a larger-than-life black pug called Plato. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can be found baking, drinking an occasional (!) glass of wine, or chatting on social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/CarrieElksAuthor/

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Book Review: You, Me, And The Sea by Meg Donohue

You, Me, And The Sea

by Meg Donohue

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU

 B&N / HarperCollins

Hardcover: 368 pages

Publisher: William Morrow (May 7, 2019)

From the USA Today bestselling author of All the Summer Girls and Dog Crazy comes a spellbinding and suspenseful tale inspired by Wuthering Heights that illuminates the ways in which hope—and even magic—can blossom in the darkest of places.

To find her way, she must abandon everything she loves…

As a child, Merrow Shawe believes she is born of the sea: strong, joyous, and wild. Her beloved home is Horseshoe Cliff, a small farm on the coast of Northern California where she spends her days exploring fog-cloaked bluffs, swimming in the cove, and basking in the light of golden sunsets as her father entertains her with fantastical stories. It is an enchanting childhood, but it is not without hardship—the mystery of Merrow’s mother’s death haunts her, as does the increasingly senseless cruelty of her older brother, Bear.

Then, like sea glass carried from a distant land, Amir arrives in Merrow’s life. He’s been tossed about from India to New York City and now to Horseshoe Cliff, to stay with her family. Merrow is immediately drawn to his spirit, his passion, and his resilience in the face of Bear’s viciousness. Together they embrace their love of the sea, and their growing love for each other.

But the ocean holds secrets in its darkest depths. When tragedy strikes, Merrow is forced to question whether Amir is really the person she believed him to be. In order to escape the danger she finds herself in and find her own path forward, she must let go of the only home she’s ever known, and the only boy she’s ever loved….

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

His stories made it seem as though the past was something I could step into, like a room in the house that was always there, its door unlocked by a combination of words.

 

This fear did not feel like the sort of thing that came and went; it felt like something that was meant to last, like a rope with a double knot.

 

His accent made his words sound even and pure. It reminded me of rain falling into a half-full barrel.

 

He tried very hard not to reveal the details of your file to me, but I’ve cracked tougher nuts on Christmas Eve.

 

No one had ever spoken to me as Rosalie had— and yet, what exactly had she been trying to tell me? Her words were a gift that I could hold but not yet unwrap.

 

I wish I were as proud of my finest moments as I am ashamed of my mistakes.

 

My Review:

 

Meg Donohue has turned out a beautifully written, lushly and evocatively detailed and heart-rending book that was swirling with atmosphere and sea mist. I was captivated, devastated, and engrossed from beginning to end. Written in the first person POV of Merrow, an adult woman at a significant crossroads and recalling her childhood, which was peppered with a love of the land and ocean yet heartbreaking and cringe-worthy with unpredictable violence, humiliation, intentional neglect, and vicious cruelty perpetrated by her older brother upon her and her best friend, an orphaned boy of the same age who had come to live with her family as her father’s ward. The family was rather isolated and lived like hillbillies in a small rustic cabin in a small rural yet coastal area of California.

 

Ms. Donohue’s emotive writing was insightfully observant, deviously paced, and conjured vivid visuals that rolled smoothly through my gray matter while squeezing my coronary muscle, stealing my breath, and stinging my eyes. A Five-Star rating feels paltry and nowhere near enough to rate the superlative quality of this compelling tale.  I was provided with a review copy of this divinely written book by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours. 

About the Author

Meg Donohue is the USA Today bestselling author of How to Eat a Cupcake, All the Summer Girls, and Dog Crazy. She has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and a BA in comparative literature from Dartmouth College. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she now lives in San Francisco with her husband, three children, and dog.

Find out more at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.