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Book Review:  The Seven Day Switch by Kelly Harms @TLCBookTours

 The Seven Day Switch
by Kelly Harms

 

Amazon / B&N  / BB

 

Two moms as opposite as a Happy Meal and a quinoa bowl. What a difference a week makes in a heartfelt, laugh-out-loud novel by the Washington Post bestselling author of The Overdue Life of Amy Byler.

Celeste Mason is the Pinterest stay-at-home supermom of other mothers’ nightmares. Despite her all-organic, SunButter-loving, free-range kids, her immaculate home, and her volunteering awards, she still has time to relax with a nice glass of pinot at the end of the day. The only thing that ruins it all is her workaholic, career-obsessed neighbor, who makes no secret of what she thinks of Celeste’s life choices every chance she gets.

Wendy Charles is a celebrated productivity consultant, columnist, and speaker. On a minute-by-minute schedule, she makes the working-mom hustle look easy. She even spends at least one waking hour a day with her kids. She’s not apologizing for a thing. Especially to Celeste, who plays her superior parenting against Wendy whenever she can.

Who do Celeste and Wendy think they are? They’re about to find out thanks to one freaky week. After a neighborhood potluck and too much sangria, they wake up– um, what?? –in each other’s bodies. Everything Celeste and Wendy thought they knew about the “other kind of mom” is flipped upside down–along with their messy, complicated, maybe not so different lives.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Where is Anna Joy?” I ask, the second name poison in my mouth. Anna Joy, for heaven’s sake. She’s not even southern. Where does she get off taking two nice names when there are so few good ones left to choose from in the neighborhood? Because of her greed, some poor newborn is probably going around with the name Bertha-Sue.

 

She hops to it with a team enthusiasm that fills me with pride. Sure, at home she can leave a half-drunk glass of milk on her desk until it’s science-lab material, but out here, she’s all in.

 

Are you sick with Old Timers’ like Great-Grandma? Are you going to die?

 

No one knows what to say to you. Your life path is the conversational equivalent of asking about a bad rash. Is that how you really want to roll?

 

I have them both going on a chore chart. I have mad skills, Wendy, and soon you will learn to worship at the altar that is my parenting.

 

 My Review:

 

This was my first experience with Kelly Harms and she provided a deliciously fun and well-crafted read. I adored her clever humor and snark merrily prancing through this slyly insightful and highly amusing book. Her writing style was easy to fall into and her humorous women’s fiction tale covered multiple tropes with family drama, whimsical body-switching, mom guilt, infidelity, and suburban parenting wars gone awry.

All of the characters were well textured and multi-layered but I had a tough time caring for the main character of Wendy throughout most of the book as she was rather acidic, testy, judgmental, full of sharp edges, and needed to save up for that all-important surgery to remove the stick that was firmly embedded up her rectal region. She was a complicated piece of work but thankfully Waspish Wendy salvaged herself and I had mellowed to her cause by the end of the book.

Even if the premise was more than a bit fanciful and outside of my typical reading habits, I enjoyed this one immensely as the women’s dilemmas kept me well entertained. I also find a bit of excellent writing such as this can make any genre worth a go. Kelly Harms has an avid new fangirl and has been added to my list of favorites.

About the Author

Kelly Harms is an author, a mother, and a big dreamer. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her sparkling son, Griffin; her fluffy dog, Scout; and her beloved Irishman, Chris. Before this midwestern life, she lived in New York, New York, and worked with many of her author-heroes as an editor at HarperCollins and then as a literary agent. When she’s not lost in a book that she’s either writing or reading, you can find her on the water, in the water, or near the water. Say hello anytime at www.kellyharms.com.

Connect with Kelly

Website | Facebook | Instagram

 

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Book Review: A Hand to Hold in Deep Water by Shawn Nocher  @shawn_nocher

A Hand to Hold in Deep Water
by Shawn Nocher 

Blackstone Publishing
ISBN: 978-1094095219
483 pages

Amazon / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

Willy Cherrymill and his stepdaughter, Lacey, are deeply bruised by a past brimming with unanswered questions. It’s been thirty years since May DuBerry, Willy’s young wife and Lacey’s mother, abandoned them both leaving Willy to raise Lacey alone.

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Lacey Cherrymill is smart, stubborn, and focused. She’s also a single mother to a young daughter recently diagnosed with a devastating illness. The last thing she needs to think about right now is the betrayal that rocked her childhood.
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Reluctantly, she has returned to her rural beginnings, a former dairy farm in the Maryland countryside, and to Willy, a man steeped in his own disappointments and all the guilt that goes with them.
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Together they will pool their wobbly emotional resources to take care of Lacey’s daughter, Tasha, all the while trying to skirt the issue of May’s mysterious disappearance. But try as she might, Lacey can’t leave it alone. Just where is May DuBerry Cherrymill and why did she leave them, and how is it that they have never talked about the wreckage she left behind?
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A Hand to Hold in Deep Water is a deeply felt narrative about mothers and daughters, the legacy of secrets, the way we make a family, and the love of those who walk us through our deepest pain. It is about the way we are tethered to one another and how we choose to wear those bindings. These are characters you won’t soon forget and, more so, won’t want to leave behind when you turn the last page.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Something was expected of her, something that might change the course of what was transpiring, but whatever it was felt just out of reach, like a word one might search for and though it shimmies around the tongue, it can’t be called up.

 

His voice is a painful thing in my ear that has settled in the corners of my mind like broke glass. I cannot bear the feel of his words.

 

She reaches across the table and takes his hand in hers. It’s so big, has always been so big around hers. She squeezes and he lifts his other hand from his lap, places it over hers. She knows now that she had been miraculously caught in the depths of a fall, cushioned by this man with the deepest of hearts.

 

My Review:

 

This was an intensively emotive read that was so perceptively written it was startling. I tumbled right into this itchy, prickly, and heart-squeezing tale and I grew to love these oddly compelling and uniquely crafted personalities. The characters weren’t people I would ordinarily seek out to spend time with yet they become so very knowable to me and I found their story addictive and gripping.

The storylines were cunningly crafted and maddeningly paced with intriguing, painful, and cringe-worthy elements that will stay with me for quite some time. Yet even those uncomfortable events were painted in an uncommonly personable and deeply observant manner and were so very thoughtfully presented that I found an odd wetness seeping from my eyes and hot rocks in my throat as I gasped to catch my breath. I am astounded by the quality and depth achieved by a first-time novelist. Shawn Nocher is definitely one to watch and was quickly added to my list of new favorites.

About the Author

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Website
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Shawn Nocher is a debut author and a co-founder of Love In The Trenches (LITT), a non-profit foundation support group for parents of addicts who are suffering the collateral damage of their child’s addiction.
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Book Review: Passerby by Britney King  @britneyking_

 Release Date: July 22

“Roils with passion, rancor, and greed wrapped in Southern politesse… King’s intricately woven mystery is sure to please fans of the thriller and suspense genre far and wide.”

 

Jester Falls has always been an idyllic town. Perfect for a getaway. And what better place to stay than Magnolia House, the tourist trap’s most popular bed and breakfast, run by the eccentric Channing family.

 

 Ruth Channing loves her family—at least what’s left of it. She’d do anything to protect them.

 

But it isn’t until her brother picks up a mysterious woman on the side of Route 78 that Ruth realizes how many definitions the word anything can have.

 

Everything about Ashley Parker rings false: her past, her profession, even her name. Most worryingly of all, her reluctance to leave. 

 

When guests start disappearing, it’s clear there’s more at stake than just the family business… a lot more.

 

Grab Your Copy 

 

Amazon / B&N / Apple / BB

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

There are three things you should always keep a secret: your love life, your income, and your next move. Once you lose your mystery, you can’t get it back. As the saying goes, sincerity is glass, discretion is diamond.

  

My Review:

 

I continue with my fascination with the intriguing and maddeningly paced storylines culled from the dark recesses of Britney King’s irregularly curved and bendy imagination. I never know where her cunning arrangements of words is going to take me, or who the actual culprit will be in her devious and snark-laden tales, but I have so much fun flinching and cringing while I postulate and toss aside a multitude of wild theories along the way. She excels at the fast-paced itchy tales that keep me on edge and unable to put my beloved Kindle down without a struggle. With her newest release of Passerby, she continues to reign supreme on my thriller hit list where I have given her the designation of High Priestess of Word Voodoo.

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Meet Britney King

Hello. I’m Britney. 

 

 I live in Austin, Texas with my husband, children, a dog named Gatsby, one ridiculous cat, and a partridge in a pear tree.

 

 When I’m not wrangling the things mentioned above, I write psychological, domestic, and romantic thrillers set in suburbia.

 

Currently, I’m writing three series and several standalone novels.

 

The Bedrock Series features an unlikely heroine who should have known better. Turns out, she didn’t. Thus she finds herself tangled in a messy, dangerous, forbidden love story and face-to-face with a madman hell-bent on revenge. The series has been compared to Fatal Attraction, Single White Female, and Basic Instinct.

 

The Water Series follows the shady love story of an unconventional married couple—he’s an assassin—she kills for fun. It has been compared to a crazier book version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Also, Dexter.

 

Around The Bend is a heart-pounding standalone, which traces the journey of a well-to-do suburban housewife, and her life as it unravels, thanks to the secrets she keeps. If she were the only one with things she wanted to keep hidden, then maybe it wouldn’t have turned out so bad. But she wasn’t.

 

The With You Series at its core is a deep love story about unlikely friends who travel the world; trying to find themselves, together and apart. Packed with drama and adventure along with a heavy dose of suspense, it has been compared to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Love, Rosie.

 

The Social Affair is an intense standalone about a timeless couple who find themselves with a secret admirer they hadn’t bargained for. For fans of the anti-heroine and stories told in unorthodox ways, the novel explores what can happen when privacy is traded for convenience. It is reminiscent of films such as One Hour Photo and Play Misty For Me. Classics. 🙂

 

Without a doubt, connecting with readers is the best part of this gig. If you’d like to connect, shoot me an email. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and occasionally on Twitter.

 

Connect with Britney King

Website | Newsletter | BookBub | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page 

 

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Book Review: One Hundred Whispers (An Aspen Cove Romance #18) by Kelly Collins  @kcollinsauthor

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One Hundred Whispers
(An Aspen Cove Romance #18) 
by Kelly Collins

 

Amazon  / BB

Welcome back to Aspen Cove, where everything is safe, including your secrets…

 

After being booted from her hit renovation show, Reno or Wreck It, for a mistake that wasn’t hers, Jewel Monroe moves to Aspen Cove to lick her wounds. No one seems to know who she is, and that’s a secret she wants to keep. When that old familiar need to renovate burns inside her, she buys a rundown house, but is the deal too sweet to be true? She can have it at cost if she helps sexy real estate agent Mason Van der Veen turn the property from pitiful to profitable in two months.

Mason Van der Veen is in trouble. He scooped up several properties in Aspen Cove, hoping to turn the town into the next Colorado vacation mecca. But when that plan fails, he’s told by his father that if he can’t renovate two properties in Aspen Cove for a profit in sixty days, he’ll lose his job and his thirty-five-million-dollar trust fund. Jewel is his secret weapon and has the notoriety to bring him the attention he needs, but she can’t help him if she stays a secret. Mason must choose between her wishes and his needs.

Can they work together and build a relationship out of the remnants of a rundown house, or will greed get in the way of a custom-built love made to last?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Marrying Matt was like saying I do to a friend. I’d always heard you should marry your best friend. I just didn’t think he’d start sleeping with mine.

 

“Oh, to be a fly on the locker room wall of the high school gym.” “Smells like sweat and bad attitudes. I swear testosterone smells like a skunk.”

 

Matt did as he was told. He seemed like a guy who’d had his manhood cut off, and by the looks of it, Sylvia was wearing it.

 

“Get the sutures and bandages ready. Blood is about to spill.” “Not right now. I’m busy. It’s time for Days of our Lives, and Lovey will murder me if I miss it. You’ll have to schedule your murderous rage another time.”

 

She’s the one who looks like a librarian with a secret room for naughty boys.

  

My Review:

 

Reading this series is like dropping in on a fun and familiar friend, I adore this crafty author and always revel in my time at Aspen Cove. Each engaging installment can stand alone yet provides updates on the odd little community’s beloved and endearing characters featured in previous volumes.   The main characters of this chronicle were newcomers to the tiny frozen hamlet and while thinking they were flying under the radar, both were well known and being held under the ever-watchful and speculative eye of the small-town’s residents. The emotional tone was perfectly balanced between angsty inner musings, family drama, snarky humor, amusing observations, and a blossoming attraction. I always start looking forward to a return trip the minute I finish one of these tasty treats.

 

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

 

  Goodreads  / Website  / Amazon / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Bookbub

International bestselling author of over 30 novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.

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Book Review: Totally Folked (Good Folk: Modern Folktales #1) by Penny Reid @ReidRomance

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One unforgettable night leads to an unlikely shared connection, and unlikely connections never go unnoticed by the good folks in Green Valley, Tennessee. . .

Totally Folked an all-new small-town romantic comedy filled with humor and heart from New York Times bestselling author Penny Reid is available now!

 

Fall in love today!

Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/TotallyFolked

Nook: https://bit.ly/3sOrkTX

Apple Books: https://apple.co/3sShLDy

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2OkmO0L

Google Play: https://bit.ly/39G9JpY

Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/36KBgo6

Barnes and Noble Paperback: Coming Soon

 

Jackson James follows the rules. He has to. He’s a sheriff’s deputy in a super small town with a super big personality. However, strict adherence to the law during the day has been enjoyably balanced by rakish rules at night. Jackson, typically happy to protect and serve (and serve, and serve), starts questioning the value of wayward evenings when they begin to feel more like being waylaid rather than getting laid. Could it be that Green Valley’s most eligible—and notorious—bachelor longs for something (and someone) real?

Mega movie star Raquel Ezra follows only one rule: always leave them wanting more. Strict adherence to this single rule has served her well. Studio execs, reporters, audiences, fans, lovers—no one can get enough of the smart, savvy, and sexy bombshell. But when “generous offers” begin to feel more like excessive demands, years of always leaving has the elusive starlet longing for something (and perhaps someone) lasting.

When Raquel abruptly returns to the quirky Tennessee hamlet, her path crosses with the delectable deputy with whom she spent one unforgettable night. Unfortunately, scandal and intrigue soon follow. Raquel and Jackson must decide which is more important: following their rules? Or, at long last, finding something real.

TOTALLY FOLKED is a standalone, contemporary romantic comedy novel and book #1 in the Good Folk: Modern Folktales series.

 

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

Sexual orientation is a spectrum of course, but I think he prefers peen and pecs, and I get it. I prefer peen and pecs. What do I want with boobs and beavers? So many parts, so many holes. Why do we have so many hills and holes? Women are basically golf courses.

 

“Are you serious?” “As serious as a Botox shortage in Beverly Hills.”

 

Your mistakes and missteps will reinforce people’s unflattering ideas about you, and your good deeds will be explained away by nice weather.

 

She was basically MacGyver, Martha Stewart, and Captain Marvel all rolled up into one woman. Janet James could turn dirt and a paper clip into a winning science fair project, bake ten dozen gluten-free, dairy-free cupcakes while grading assignments, making dinner, and checking in to ensure my sister and I had finished our homework, washed our hands, and eaten our vegetables —all without breaking a sweat or displaying a single crack in her outward calm.

 

My stomach threw a dinner party and only invited anxiety.

 

My Review:

 

 Oh. Happy, Day. A new series from Penny Reid is always a cause for major celebration; as is a new book, new novella, a new newsletter, new Facebook post, new Tweet… you get the picture.   The woman has mad skills and I adore her endearingly peculiar and enticing characters as much as her crisp and cleverly amusing writing style. I have repeatedly fallen into her tales and often felt regretful in having to come back out. After eagerly anticipating the enigmatic Jackson’s story for what has felt like decades, I am delighted to opine that his chronicle could not have been better. The humor, romance, inner conflicts, startling epiphanies, snarky observations, wryly humorous insights, sensual steam, and bitingly witty dialogues were perfectly honed, simply sublime, and everything I have come to expect from this master scribbler.  

 

Meet Penny Reid

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: Other People’s Marriages by Kerry Fisher  @KerryFSwayne @Bookouture

Other People’s Marriages
by Kerry Fisher 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

As I stood at my own birthday party, listening to my husband’s speech about me, I could no longer silence the thought that had started as a low-level hum five years ago and built until I could no longer ignore it… did I want to leave him?

Steph has spent decades building a family with her husband Mal, and putting that family first. She is the glue that holds them all together and she has convinced herself that she’s been happy… most of the time. But as she stands at her birthday party watching her husband talking about a wonderful marriage she doesn’t fully recognize, the doubts that she has been pushing down for so long begin to grow…

After the party, as Steph tries to gather her courage to leave Mal, she receives a letter from her old friend Evie. Steph hasn’t spoken to Evie since a sunny weekend on a holiday beach twenty years earlier when the two friends said things to each other that could never be unsaid. And now, Evie is seeking a reunion and a way to repair the friendship. But this reunion threatens to reveal a secret that could destroy two families.

Other People’s Marriages is an absolutely unputdownable and heartbreaking read about the lies we tell to keep our loved ones close. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty, and Diane Chamberlain.

My Rating:

 

 Favorite Quotes:

 

I didn’t want him to spend his life feeling that everyone else had cracked the code to their place in the world but he’d scribbled his on the back of an envelope he’d lost before he’d memorised it.

 

Gemma was so charming that even when she was sending someone to hell, she did it in such a way that they enjoyed the journey.

 

I both admired Teresa for being able to keep a secret and could have shaken her out of frustration. But that was Teresa all over. She was like one of those money boxes that you had to smash open to retrieve the cash.

 

Paul looked so disgusted with Wendy that, for a second, I had a brief flicker of fear that he’d divorce me just for being related to her.

 

I’d frequently found myself wondering how so much water could make its way to the eyes, puzzling as I cried into Gladys’s neck about where the liquid came from, imagining a little reservoir tucked behind my jaw like the one in my Mini for windscreen wiper fluid.

 

I was a woman to whom detail was everything – mainly, if I was honest, so I could store it and use it against people at a later date.

 

 My Review:

 

Kerry Fisher’s latest offering was brilliantly insightful and so perceptive that the characters’ realizations and inner musings often stung as she was poking at some of my own failings and secret resentments that seemed to be fighting their way to the surface and had me nodding in emphatically agreement during perusal. This wily scribbler bravely dug deep and rooted around among the secret longings, self-doubts, and resentful sacrifices of marriage and motherhood with surgical precision and cunning, while maintaining a perfect balance of painful awareness and craftily amusing and snarky observations. She also held a bright light on those thoughts and impressions we women tend to keep privately stashed away and don’t dare speak of for fear of being banned from the sisterhood and flogged in the public square. What guile!

The storylines and family issues were varied yet highly relatable with narratives that flowed smoothly and sucked me in with cleverly astute and wry wit along with a keenly discerning eye and brutal honesty for warts and all disclosures of the nitty-gritty as well as the damage of long-held secrets. She had my rapt attention and I loved her deeply flawed characters as they were so real to me I could hear them breathing. I bonded and identified the most with the bombastic and colorful Steph, as gasp, I saw far too much of myself under her skin. So much so, I had to wonder if Ms. Fisher was actually someone who knows me all too well and using a pen name. Perish the thought!

About the Author

Amazon
Goodreads
Website

Facebook
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Kerry Fisher is a million-copy bestselling author. She writes women’s contemporary fiction, is a USA Today bestseller and her books have been translated into twelve languages. She was born in Peterborough, studied French and Italian at the University of Bath, and spent several years living in Spain, Italy, and Corsica. After returning to England to work as a journalist, she eventually abandoned real-life stories for the secrets of fictional families. She lives in Surrey with her husband, and a naughty Lab/Schnauzer called Poppy, who joins in the huge dances of joy when her young adult children come home.

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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
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Instagram

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: The Runner by P.R. Black @PatBlack9 @Aria_Fiction @HoZ_Books

The Runner
by P.R. Black

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

Publication date: 08/07/2021

You can’t escape him.

He abducts lone joggers and forces them to run for their lives. When he catches them, he pulls out his blade…

Now he’s locked away and will be in prison for years. They call him a psychopath, a murderer, the ‘Woodcutter Killer’.

But what if you just found out you’re supposed to call him father?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Glenn ate crisps the way a squirrel might; his hands moved so fast you had to slow the film down a little to see them, and his jaws clashed in rapid-fire.

 

Another man was with them, with a high, receding hairline, glasses and a tweed jacket. He had a pinkish hue to his face, as if he’d recently shed his skin. Freya could only categorise his appearance as that of a teacher who frightened you.

 

She let herself in, turned on every light, screamed aloud before she hurled open each and every cupboard, poked underneath the bed with a broom handle and was particularly vicious with every pair of curtains before she was satisfied that she was absolutely, positively alone.

 

My Review:

 

This one was quite a bit outside of my comfort zone for creepiness and the crimes depicted were cringe-worthy, gruesome, and disquieting, I worry about having those images in my head. P.R. Black is one twisted mamma jamma and his neighbors should be cautious and quietly tiptoe past as with the snap of the fingers he could easily plot clever vengeance on anyone who disturbs his contemplations, knocks over his bins, or allows their dog to piddle on his plants.

The writing was strikingly descriptive and pulled strong and haunting visuals that often left me shuddering, but I am a bit of a wimp. I will seek out lighter fare for my next read in order to catch my breath and flush out residual tension and adrenaline. The storylines were busy and itchy, and relentlessly poked and prodded my curiosity while also causing my stomach to churn. I often found my teeth clenched and shoulders in my ears yet I was intrigued and much liked the Woodcutter’s victims, I was hopelessly ensnared. Mr. Black has mad skills.

 

About the Author

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Pat Black is kind to spiders.

He is the author of The Long Dark Road and the Amazon bestsellers, The Beach House and The Family.

His short stories have been shortlisted for awards including the Bridport Prize and the Bloody Scotland short story competition. He was also longlisted for the William Hazlitt essay prize.

He was named one of the winners of The Daily Telegraph’s Ghost Stories competition, and his work has been performed on stage in London by Liars’ League.

He lives in Yorkshire, but will always belong to Glasgow. He knows full well what your opinions are about people who talk about themselves in the third person.

 

Follow Head of Zeus:

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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 Magic of Found Objects by Maddie Dawson @maddiedawson1 @TLCBookTours

 

The Magic of Found Objects
by Maddie Dawson

Amazon  / B&N /  BB 

Paperback: 365 Pages

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (August 1, 2021)

From the bestselling author of Matchmaking for Beginners comes a feel-good story about becoming who you were meant to be all along.

Phronsie Linnelle was conceived at Woodstock in a serendipitous liaison between a free-spirited hippie and a farmer’s son and was born with magical wonder flickering in her DNA and rationality knit into her bones. All her life she’s been torn between the two. But now that she’s been betrayed by both love and the mother she once idolized, her rational side is winning.

So when her best friend from childhood proposes that they give up on romance and marry each other, Phronsie agrees. Who better to spend your life with than your best friend? Maybe the connection they already have is love. Maybe there’s no falling to be done. But immediately after they announce their engagement, she encounters someone who makes a very charming and compelling argument for revisiting romance.

While her even-keeled stepmother argues for the safety that comes with her new engagement and her mother relays messages from the universe to hold out for true love, Phronsie must look to her own heart to find the answers that have been there all along.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

 “I made a little temporary engagement ring for you out of a twist tie I had.” He reaches into his sweatpants pocket and pulls out a piece of wire covered with peppermint-striped paper, all knotted up into a circle, and hands it to me. “The good thing about this kind of ring is that it’s adjustable. And replaceable.” He gives me a big smile. “You could get a new one from me every week.”

 

So to tell you the real truth, I’m actually hiding out here. My apartment is about the size of a hamster cage, and I have this roommate who rehearses operatic duets in the bathroom with his girlfriend. Something about tile providing the best acoustics.

 

You can leave us if you want to, but think about whether you might do it kindly… don’t think you have to set fire to what’s behind you in order to go… Just take your place in the world with as much grace and gratitude as you can muster and try to see the best in us.

 

I’m sorry— but those boobs, Judd! The way she pokes them out at every opportunity. I think they have their own zip code. At the very least, they should be registered with the state.

 

You’re looking well, by the way. Unchanged in a Dorian Gray kind of way.

 

 My Review:

 

These are the types of unusual characters and original storylines that keep me interested, curious, and entertained yet twist me up inside and make me itchy and unable to determine if I liked it or loved it until I peruse through my highlighted passages. The writing was superb, engaging, and pulled sharp visuals to my mind’s eye.  Ms. Dawson’s style is also easy to follow, engaging, and cleverly amusing as well as emotive, insightful, and often disconcerting as I wanted more for the characters than what is happening for them on the page.

Phronsie’s was a train wreck of a family and it didn’t need to be, but then again, no family does. They were making each other miserable while saying and believing that what they were doing was for the best, and it kind of was and really wasn’t. Thankfully, there were generous servings of amusing wit and humorous observations and inner musings to lighten the tone and even out the balance of a lifetime of familial tension and hostility. Phronsie was not always likable but I was rooting for her, even when I wanted to give her a whack or two with my Kindle.  I had faith this crafty scribbler would get her there but she certainly kept me hanging until the last few pages with an eruption of pleasant and shrewdly paced twists.

About the Author

Maddie Dawson grew up in the South, born into a family of outrageous storytellers. Her various careers as a substitute English teacher, department-store clerk, medical-records typist, waitress, cat sitter, wedding-invitation-company receptionist, nanny, daycare worker, electrocardiogram technician, and Taco Bell taco maker were made bearable by thinking up stories as she worked. Today Maddie lives in Guilford, Connecticut, with her husband. She’s the bestselling author of six previous novels: Matchmaking for Beginners, The Survivor’s Guide to Family Happiness, The Opposite of Maybe, The Stuff That Never Happened, Kissing Games of the World, and A Piece of Normal.

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