Are we still doing this blog thing?

I haven’t stopped reading even if I became a terrible reviewer and a dropped off the face of the earth book blogger. Still every time I finish a book that I loved – or despised – every book that has made me really think – I keep writing tiny reviews in my head. So maybe it is time to come back to this space? I miss talking about books!

Because of all going on in the world since March of 2020 my book selections have been heavily romance, fantasy and memoir. Last year I took a suggestion from my husband and read Don Winslow’s excellent The Power of the Dog – after which I resolved to definitely read only romance and celebrity memoirs for a year! I’m finally recovering from all those deaths and feeling ready to pick up a bit more depth and there are too many books to choose from! My recent favorites have been Nora Goes Off Script and I’m Glad My Mom Died. Then there was Legends and Lattes which was basically a hug in book form. Or You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty which was WOW. Just a bit more sexy than a hug while also so touching in talking about grief and loneliness and moving on.

I finally finally read my book club choice from the summer of 2020 – Such a Fun Age and loved every minute. And I just finished reading Lessons in Chemistry and am still trying to resolve my thoughts on this. I’ve fallen in love with audiobooks like Olga Dies Dreaming and at the same time found some like Friends Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing so self congratulatory I basically gave up at the introduction.

I’ve even been reading books I should have been reviewing! When you need happy reading I definitely think you should pick up Lana Harper’s Thistle Grove Books: Payback’s a Witch, From Bad to Cursed and Back in a Spell – you have time to read all three before In Charm’s Way comes out this fall! The romances are sweet, the magic is exciting and each book gave me a little bit more than I was expecting. Definitely books I’d read again for fun.

So what should I pick up now -before I run to the library to FINALLY get my copy of Spare? What great books have you been waiting to talk about?

Review: When Katie Met Cassidy

When Katie Met Cassidy, Camille Perry

Published June 19th 2018 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Hardcover, 272 pages

Source: ARC at 2018 PLA meeting

Katie Daniels is a perfection-seeking 28-year-old lawyer living the New York dream. She’s engaged to charming art curator Paul Michael, has successfully made her way up the ladder at a multinational law firm and has a hold on apartments in Soho and the West Village. Suffice it to say, she has come a long way from her Kentucky upbringing.

But the rug is swept from under Katie when she is suddenly dumped by her fiance, Paul Michael, leaving her devastated and completely lost. On a whim, she agrees to have a drink with Cassidy Price-a self-assured, sexually promiscuous woman she meets at work. The two form a newfound friendship, which soon brings into question everything Katie thought she knew about sex—and love.

When Katie Met Cassidy is a classic story of girl meets boy, boy breaks her heart and girl meets… girl.  This was not my typical romance at all and I loved it.  I loved the sparks between Katie and Cassidy and the flirting.  I also loved the questioning and challenging of relationship boundaries and terms.  Katie hadn’t thought about another woman until she meets Cassidy and then she had to rethink everything.  I enjoyed going back and forth between Katie’s doubts and Cassidy’s surety – they were a fantastic pair.  I honestly wasn’t sure how this book was going to end which was extremely refreshing.  

I thought this was a fun and fast read – I was done in a day – but it could have been longer.  More depth into Cassidy’s family and her friendships wouldn’t have hurt at all  It comes through loud and clear that she’s a player but there clearly could have been much more to her.   For light summer though read this was just right and I will definitely make an effort to pick up Perri’s The Assistants now.  

Thank you GP Putnam for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion! 

Maybe the title should have clued me in…

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, Balli Kaur Jaswal

Published June 13th 2017 by William Morrow

Hardcover, 304 pages

Source: Library!

Every woman has a secret life . . .Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a “creative writing” course at the community center in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community.

Because of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected—and exciting—kind.

As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community’s “moral police.” But when the widows’ gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife—a modern woman like Nikki—and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.

I’m pretty positive the delightful Reading with Hippos pointed me to this book.  The title is amazing – but really it should have tipped me off that that there were actual – you know EROTIC STORIES.  I was expecting the family dynamics, marital stress, the complicated lives of immigrants living in London.  I wasn’t shocked by the racism experienced, the religious bias, or even the question of possible murder.  But some of those stories – whoa were those a surprise!

Yes things got a bit cheesy or moved too quickly maybe – but overall this was just a fun read with more depth than you’d expect to go with the erotic stories.  When you need a book that will make you laugh and reconsider all the produce in your fridge check this out.

Review: A Change of Heart

A Change of Heart, Sonali Dev

Published September 27th 2016 by Kensington

Paperback, 352 pages

Source: e-ARC from NetGalley

Dr. Nikhil ‘Nic’ Joshi had it all—marriage, career, purpose. Until, while working for Doctors Without Borders in a Mumbai slum, his wife, Jen, discovered a black market organ transplant ring. Before she could expose the truth, Jen was killed.

Two years after the tragedy, Nic is a cruise ship doctor who spends his days treating seasickness and sunburn and his nights in a boozy haze. On one of those blurry evenings on deck, Nic meets a woman who makes a startling claim: she received Jen’s heart in a transplant and has a message for him. Nic wants to discount Jess Koirala’s story as absurd, but there’s something about her reckless desperation that resonates despite his doubts.

Jess has spent years working her way out of a nightmarish life in Calcutta and into a respectable Bollywood dance troupe. Now she faces losing the one thing that matters—her young son, Joy.  She needs to uncover the secrets Jen risked everything for; but the unforeseen bond that results between her and Nic is both a lifeline and a perilous complication.

I give Sonali Dev a ton of credit just for the premise of this book.  It is extremely brave to start out by murdering a character that was so great in your last book – The Bollywood Bride.  I think it was pretty brave to make Jen a less than perfect character.  Jen’s perspective is told in very brief snippets of her journal entries and she’s not all warm and fuzzy as one might expect a newlywed to be.  This this contrasted sharply with Nic’s crushing grief and memories of his beloved – again a really bold route for a romance.  So we find Nic trying to drink himself to death on a cruise ship  2 years after her murder when Jess comes and tries to snap him into action to find Jen’s killers in India.  

Honestly the truth of Jess’s story was pretty easy to figure out and once I knew what was coming I just couldn’t get past it.  Also as much as I liked Jess, to be truthful I didn’t want Nic to get past it either!   The poor guy was suffering enough and I was anticipating some painful moments when he found out why she was really there.  That kept me from feeling all the love between Nic and Jess the way I was meant to.   Based on the other reviews I’ve seen though I’m in the minority here – maybe maybe I just need lighter overall when I’m feeling like a romance?  Romance reading is an total escape for me so I need happy.  This was busy with sexy romance, mystery, and past heartbreaks and other readers are loving it.   

I do hope Dev continues with the Bollywood books in the way that I’m guessing because I like her characters and I like seeing the interaction between books.  I will absolutely read whatever she writes next!  I’m going to have to reread The Bollywood Affair though to get back to my own original Sonali Dev love affair.

Thank you Kensington and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review! 

Review: June

June, Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Published May 31st 2016 by Crown

Hardcover, 400 pages

Source: Blogging for Books

 

Twenty-five-year-old Cassie Danvers is holed up in her family’s crumbling mansion in rural St. Jude, Ohio, mourning the loss of the woman who raised her—her grandmother, June. But a knock on the door forces her out of isolation. Cassie has been named the sole heir to legendary matinee idol Jack Montgomery’s vast fortune. How did Jack Montgomery know her name? Could he have crossed paths with her grandmother all those years ago? What other shocking secrets could June’s once-stately mansion hold?

Soon Jack’s famous daughters come knocking, determined to wrestle Cassie away from the inheritance they feel is their due. Together, they all come to discover the true reasons for June’s silence about that long-ago summer, when Hollywood came to town, and June and Jack’s lives were forever altered by murder, blackmail, and betrayal.

I absolutely loved Miranda Beverly-Whittemore’s last book, Bittersweet, a dark and kind of gothic summer romance and mystery.  I couldn’t wait to dive into more family secrets in June.  I’m always fascinated by a plot with a mysterious will.  When it’s the will of a movie star with a fortune – even better!  

When we meet Cassie she’s living alone in her grandparents mansion in rural Ohio.  She’s inherited the home after her beloved grandmother’s death and she’s holed up and letting the world pass her by.   I admit I  was a bit frustrated with Cassie at first.  I wanted her to do something – anything! So it was much easier to be drawn back into the past to the story of the young and beautiful June, Jack the movie star, and Lindie the girl across the street. As I became more caught up in the past it helped me to become more interested in Cassie’s modern mystery and I was glad when Cassie started getting caught up in the past as well.  I liked getting June’s story through Lindie rather than June herself.  Lindie was quite the observer and I think gave a much richer perspective than June would have. 

This was a slow burn, but Beverly-Whittemore ended in directions that I didn’t expect at all with both the past and modern stories.  What I really loved was the personality that the old house had.  Not in a creepy haunted house way at all – more a romantic and mystical presence.  This is definitely a good book to sit and finish the summer with!

Thank you Blogging for Books for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Therapeutic Reading: The Obsession

The Obsession, Nora Roberts

Hardcover, 464 pages

Published: April 12th 2016 by Berkley

Source: ARC won from publisher giveaway

Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the woods. In freeing the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed the horrible extent of her father’s crimes and made him infamous.

Now a successful photographer living under the name Naomi Carson, she has found a place that calls to her, thousands of miles away from everything she’s ever known. Naomi wants to embrace the solitude, but the residents of Sunrise Cove keep forcing her to open up—especially the determined Xander Keaton.

Naomi can feel her defenses failing, and knows that the connection her new life offers is something she’s always secretly craved. But as she’s learned time and again, her past is never more than a nightmare away.

It’s all very well and great to read deep and intense books like Hausfrau or Fates & Furies but sometimes all I really want is a Happy Ever After.  A glass of wine, alone time and a good story with romance and happiness in the end.  When I want reading for mood therapy I almost always turn to Nora Roberts.  Opening the mail to find this ARC a few days into January was like Christmas Day all over!

The Obsession continues my Nora streak of total happiness in a book.  Romance, murderous tension, just enough smut, plus talk of books and a true and loyal pooch.  I liked the slow buildup of the romance and the friendship between Naomi and Xander.  I think there could have been more to the mystery – it was actually a pretty short part of the book itself – but it was still satisfying in the end.  So when you need a happy read, I highly recommend the Obsession and a glass of wine – that’s my book therapy prescription!

4 stars!

Thank you Berkley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Review: Between Everything and Us

Between Everything and Us, Rebecca Paula  (Sutton College #1)

Amanda

Published January 20th 2015

Source-e-ARC from author

From Goodreads

Matisse Evans is determined to make her sophomore year of college successful after failing out of a prestigious art school and spending a horribly boring gap year at home. Despite her focus, time isn’t on her side as she struggles to hold down three jobs so she can afford her first apartment while juggling course work. In the chaos of it all, Beau Grady moves in and shakes up her world. A college dropout and tattooed bad boy, the rumors about Beau mean one thing for Matisse—trouble. Paralyzed by the fear that she’s missing out on life, Matisse discovers plans may unravel, but what rises in their wake can be worth the uncertainty.

After spending the summer couch surfing, Beau Grady moves into an empty room at his ex-girlfriend’s Portland bungalow, skipping his senior year of college to spend his days working at a Vietnamese food cart instead. Once a star hockey player and gifted student, he’s put his life on hold after receiving a life-altering diagnosis, complacent to live in the moment. Hiding behind false rumors and bad habits, Beau falls for Matisse, letting her believe the worst until their relationship blooms into something they both can’t ignore. Falling for her means having to face a future he’d rather forget, but loving her just might be worth it.

I reviewed Rebecca Paula’s debut Everly After last year and I could not have loved it more.  I felt like I found a bit of my beloved Beckett in Beau Grady.  Beau has all the right appeal for a college girl looking for romance a) he’s hot, b) he’s a hockey player, and c) he’s got a motorcycle. Enough said. However, there’s more to Beau that meets the eye, and the rumors on campus don’t begin to get to the truth.

Matisse- Mati, is trying to prove she can make it as an art student after failing out of her first school. She tries – really tries! – her hardest to avoid the distraction in her hot new roommate.  She has an eye on a prestigious internship and is trying to keep her parents happy with her performance at school.

There’s a slow burn between Beau and Mati which I loved.  They annoy each other into flirtation and some serious sexual tension.  I loved the back and forth- will they or won’t they?  Beau hides behind the rumors about his reasons for dropping out of school. He doesn’t feel like he’s good enough for Mati:

Mati is a someday-girl, the one you’re supposed to meet later when you’re less of a prick and have your shit together.  Someday girls are lost to idiots like me now, and if I’m being honest, they don’t’ exist in the future either.  Because there’s a guy who is ready, who does know how to be an adult and can love a girl like Mati as much as she deserves.  And those guys turn someday girls into forever girls and leave us losers to keep chasing after a string of hookups while we’re stuck remembering the one perfect girl who got away.

Sigh – after all the build up I wanted more.  It felt like Beau and Mati went from interested in each other, to cooling things off, then straight into a relationship -and then on their way out again .  Give me the pay-off for the slow burn!  I wanted less fighting and more flirting!  Paula definitely does write hot romances though-that you can count on.  Rebecca Paula is an author I will for sure keep reading and I am curious to see what else goes on at Sutton College!

3 stars

Thank you Rebecca for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

Top Ten Tuesday: One Thing I Dislike in Book Romances

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday (from the Broke and the Bookish) is Things I Like/Dislike When It Comes to Romance in Books.

Well, I really only have one thing that drives me batshit crazy related to romance in books, and that’s when books, particularly novels geared towards young adults, present unhealthy, domineering, emotionally abusive relationship patterns as completely normal. The most well-known recent examples are, of course, a certain teenage vampire series and then the bestselling trilogy which it inspired that is about to open as a movie this weekend (and yes, I know that second one wasn’t geared toward YA readers – at least I hope not. Right? I haven’t read it…but I did read this review)

Anyway, rather than further espouse on this topic right now, I will simply direct you to this post comparing Edward Cullen and Bella Swan’s relationship to the National Domestic Violence Hotline criteria.

Creepy much?

If you have any suggestions for books with healthy relationships, please by all means share them in the comments!

Review: Everly After

Everly After, Rebecca Paula

Amanda

Published October 21st 2014

Source: e-ARC from Love Between the Sheets Blog Tour

Synopsis:

All truths burn bright and clear. I’m still waiting in the dark.

Everly Monteith has traded her life of glitter, parties, and self-destruction for waitressing at a Parisian café. She’s put the tragedy that sent her across the Atlantic in the past—until her toxic ex shows up and sends her reeling once more. Her fresh start begins slipping away until a smug British war correspondent crashes her party. But falling for Beckett means letting down her guard, something that might pull them both into the dark.

There are beautiful lies in this world, and it takes me being chased through a hallway at a rave to decide this girl is one of them. But even the most beautiful lies aren’t worth chasing.

Twenty-five-year-old Beckett Reid is forced into sabbatical after being kidnapped on assignment in Afghanistan. Back in Paris, he locks himself away to work on a novel, focused on saving his budding journalism career. But when he meets an enigmatic American heiress, his plans are quickly neglected. Everly is the perfect replacement for dangerous war zones, even if she does leave glitter on everything he owns. Reckless and wild, she runs through life making more mistakes than anyone he’s met, but Beckett is determined to fight for her, even if he must face the messy truth that he must fight for himself first.

*This New Adult romance is recommended for readers 18+ due to mature content.*

I’m going to start you off with the messages I sent to my friend Christina while reading this book:

Holy shit this book is intense.

This is so much more than I expected!

I don’t even know what to say. I’m totally on edge and am going to have to finish tonight.

And if I read this book for Beckett to die ** ***** I am going to be supremely pissed!

I even tweeted at Rebecca Paula that she had better not break my heart!

So now almost a week later-my heart is recovered from the stress and I can tell you that I loved this book. Everly After is about two very different kinds of romantic love–love that makes two people bring out the best in each other and those that only bring out the worst in each other.  This story was a battle of who would win out in the end.  Paula did an amazing job of wrapping me up into Beckett and Everly. They felt completely real to me and their emotions were often so raw.   I wanted to reach through and shake them both on occasion (ok mostly Everly), but in the end I think things worked out perfectly.  I felt like I was right there with them-and my goodness-I felt the heat between them coming out of the book!

I don’t read a lot of New Adult (NA).  I expect NA to be fluffier books -romance, some sex and some light drama perhaps.  Just not what I gravitate towards first.  Everly After-not what I expected of NA and I am so glad I was proved wrong.  This was not light and fluffy but it was a book with depth and heart.  If this is her debut, I cannot wait to read what else Rebecca Paula is writing.

Thank you Rebecca Paula for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion!

Here’s a link to a super fun giveaway including a copy of Everly After

Buy The Book

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1vwJNUy

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1pd6jdQ

KOBO: http://bit.ly/1w3SZ0y

About The Author

It began with a boy who survived a plane crash in the wilderness.

I discovered my love of writing during a fifth grade writing assignment for Hatchet. After that, I knew I wanted to be a writer.

Always the hopeless romantic, I write late Victorian and Edwardian historical romances as well as contemporary New Adult romances.

I am a member of Romance Writers of America (RWA), as well as the New Hampshire chapter (NHRWA) and the New England chapter (NECRWA). I contribute regularly to the Modern Belles of History blog, a site dedicated to writing, reading, and researching 20th century women’s historical fiction.

When I’m not writing, I’m most likely reading or daydreaming about my next travel adventure. I live in New Hampshire with my husband and our cat, Bella.

Website: https://rebecca-paula-esmo.squarespace.com/

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/beckapaula

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8442728.Rebecca_Paula

Review: Make it Right

Make it Right (Bowler University #2), Megan Erickson

Amanda

Published September 9th 2014 by William Morrow Impulse

Ebook 384 pages

Source: Edelweiss

Thank you for joining us on the Make it Right blog tour today! I hope you enjoy Max and Lea’s story as much as I did!

From Goodreads….

Max Payton lives by two rules:

Size and strength win any fight, and never show weakness.

When a rash of assaults sends Bowler University for a tail spin, Max volunteers to help teach a self-defense class. One of the other instructors is the beautiful pixie-faced girl he keeps butting heads with…and who challenges everything he thought he knew.

Lea Travers avoids guys like Max – cocky jocks who assume she’s fragile because of a disability caused by a childhood accident. She likes to be in control, and something about being with Max makes her feel anything but. But during the moments he lets his guard down, Lea sees a soul as broken inside as she is outside. Trusting him is a whole other problem…

When the assaults ramp up and hit close to home, Lea and Max must learn, before it’s too late, that true strength can come from vulnerability…and giving in to trust is sometimes the only way to make things right.

Oh Max and Lea.  I reviewed Megan Erickson’s Make it Count here and I have to tell you that Make it Right was even more fun.   When we met Max in MiC he was the not-so-great boyfriend of our heroine Kat.  He was meathead and honestly a jerk.  You had to root against him and for Kat and Alec.   I was not really sure how Erickson was going to turn Max into a character who I wanted to see fall in love and win the girl in the end, but she definitely did!

I knew that I was starting to fall for Max when he began searching for recipes to make gourmet cat treats for the stray he took in-who wouldn’t love a guy like that?  We learn how Max learned to build up the walls around his heart and you have to let your heart soften towards him.  And wow- the date he plans when Lea gives him a chance -swoon!  Max may have made some mistakes along the way, but I knew he was going to make it when he went through so much to plan the perfect night for Lea.

Then we have Lea.  Lea is not a fan of Max at the start because she is friends with Kat, but she starts to realize the sparks flying between them are more than just Max being a jerk.  Lea has had a hard path to get to Bowler University and she has walls of her own built up.  Lea may look frail, but she teaches Max that his strength is not the only kind that counts.  The banter between Max and Lea cracked me up and I think this is one of Erickson’s strengths; her characters are just funny together!  I knew this was a book for me when I caught a Dirty Dancing reference early on.

Lea and Max give each other chances when others might not have done so.   They teach each other about vulnerability and forgiveness, as well as when to stand your ground and fight and when to accept help.  I am so glad Erickson gave Max a book to come back from Make it Count and I loved him with Lea.

Also, let me just say-damn-Megan Erickson can write some sexy, sexy scenes.  I cannot wait to see what she comes up with for Bowler University #3 next year!  Give Max and Lea a chance and let me know what you think of this pair!

4 stars !

You can enter a Rafflecopter giveaway to win your own copy of Make it Right!

Purchase:

Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iTunes | Google Play

About Megan:

Megan Erickson grew up in a family that averages 5’5” on a good day and started writing to create characters who could reach the top kitchen shelf.

She’s got a couple of tattoos, has a thing for gladiators and has been called a crazy cat lady. After working as a journalist for years, she decided she liked creating her own endings better and switched back to fiction.

She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, two kids and two cats. And no, she still can’t reach the stupid top shelf.

Thank you edelweiss and William Morrow for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hosted by Good Choice Reading Blog Tours