I am an avid reader and reviewer. I am open for review requests please contact me at Cnnamongirl at aol dot com. I work with big name publishers and indie publishers alike. I am on launch and street teams and have MANY NetGalley and GoodReads reviews up. I love all animals and I am a vegetarian. Thank you for joining me here.
How do you celebrate holidays?
Not all holidays are of equal importance. Depending on what they are I do it with the deepest respect for my country or happy holidays with the greatest of joy in my heart.
Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.
Before I got married I lived at home and didn’t really do much cooking or baking. I didn’t need to. Well my first mess up meal wasn’t really a cooking fail but a dishwashing fail I guess you could say. It was a very short time after we were married and I made steamed broccoli for my husband, he loved broccoli 🥦. In the early days I wasn’t overly confident about my cooking and tasted the broccoli before I called him to the table, it tasted soapy. 🧼🫧 I figured out I had not properly rinsed the strainer when I washed it and there was a soapy residue still on it which transferred to the broccoli. I never gave him the broccoli or told him I had even made it , we just had the rest of the dinner which I can’t even remember what it was but I do remember being very embarrassed 😳.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Sticky Toffee Pudding Club
After bonding with the lovely Jensen as they save a dog in trouble, Annalise – new to Sunnybrook – is gutted when they part without swapping numbers. She’d had the weirdest feeling he could be The One but now she might never see Jensen again. When she loses her new job in a wedding boutique, her week goes from bad to worse – until Maddy and the café crew come to her rescue with an exciting solution. The Pudding Club. Can Annalise rise to the challenge and – with the help of the Little Duck Pond Café crew – start teaching others how to make her glorious puds? And could The Pudding Club be the key to finding Jensen again?
MY THOUGHTS
The Little Duck Pond Cafe series is right up there amongst my favorites of series, which of course means I have to read every one of them.
Look at it this way, can you really go wrong with a book filled with everything pudding?
I was smiling my whole way through the book, what’s not to love, a mischievously adorable rescue dog named Barley, a granny so kind that you’re rooting for, laughs, charming characters and glorious puddings. Though a novella length story this has all that’s needed for a fabulous storyline.
The romance was such a fun addition and really hope to see these characters included in another book by the author. Having a pudding shop sounds like so much fun and the pudding demonstrations were making me hungry with the mention of so many different types of pudding. I’m always happy to see authors mention the adoption of animals and hope this encourages someone to rescue their forever pet. Love the author’s books and it’s such an exciting time to read them.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own
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Purchase Link
Author Bio – Rosie Green’s Little Duck Pond Cafe series of novellas is centred around life in a village cafe and most can be read as stand-alone stories. (‘The Sunshine Sisters’ is a trilogy within the Little Duck Pond Café series and it would benefit from being read in order: Aurora, Skye and Blossom.) Look out for ‘Cosy Nights & Snowball Fights’, and ‘Maddy’s Christmas Wedding’, both out later this year in time for the festive season!
Follow Rosie on Twitter – https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green88
Thank you for stopping in. Have a lovely day.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Paris Daughter: An absolutely unforgettable page-turner full of family secrets (The Lost Daughters)
Paris, 1939: Gazing out at the glittering skyline, Evelina clutches the letter from her love in shaking hands. “I know I do not deserve you, my darling, but I pray that you will change your mind. You have my heart, and I hope that nothing will keep us apart…”
London, present day. Blake gazes down at a scrap of shimmering silver velvet attached to a faded dress design, tracing the details with wonder. They were left with her grandmother at Hope’s House, a home for unmarried mothers, before she was adopted. Now her beloved grandmother has passed, the beautiful fabric and the designer’s signature are the only clues Blake has about her biological family. Will she be able to unravel the decades-old family secret?
Blake can’t get the intricate drawing, and what it could reveal about her family, out of her head. Armed with a plane ticket, a Paris address and the details of a handsome fashion curator named Henri, Blake is determined to find out the truth about her talented great-grandmother Evelina’s life. Perhaps doing so will help Blake get her old spark for designing back, after her dreams have sat forgotten for so long.
Soon Blake is walking down the Champs-Élysées and enjoying intimate dinners with Henri,who is researching Evelina’s work as one of Paris’ most celebrated designers, whose bold designs rivalled Coco Chanel’s. As Henri and Blake grow closer, they uncover Evelina’s legacy, and her forbidden romance that set the fashion world ablaze.
As Blake discovers the impossible choice that caused Evelina to flee the most romantic city in the world, she wonders if she too could risk everything for love. Could hearing tales of her great-grandmother’s bravery encourage her to take a chance on a new life with Henri? Or will the fallout of Evelina’s heart-wrenching past drive Blake back home?
A completely addictive and emotional novel about family secrets, forbidden love and having the courage to follow your dreams. Perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore, Lucinda Riley and Victoria Hislop.
Buy link: https://geni.us/B0CX299KJWsocial
MY THOUGHTS
Written by one of my favorite authors of historical fiction. When she has a new book publishing, I greatly look forward to reading it.
The Paris Daughter is the fifth book in the Lost Daughters series, of which I have read all of the books. This is such a beautiful story, told in a time-slip manner.
1939 Paris: Evelina comes from a working background of farmers; it is to be her lot in life to become a farmer’s wife like her mother and grandmother have before her, but she wants something more in life. She has a secret notebook with sketches of stunning evening dresses of the highest fashion. Her dreams are hers and hers alone as she’s not supported in her dreams by her parents so she must leave home. Becoming a well-known fashion designer is an accomplishment she has worked years towards, and it is finally hers.
Modern times London: All women adopted from Hope House a helpful home for unwed mothers is given a box filled with precious mementos from their mother to help the now adult child find their parents if they want to. Blake has her grandmother’s box, and it has items connecting her to a famous fashion designer of some years back. She is desperate to find who this woman is as she travels to the city of love and finds love there herself, unexpectedly. Will being surrounded by high fashion houses and designers bring the spark back into Blake’s life and give her the courage to design again?
Upbeat, romantic, encouraging, a real page turner that I couldn’t put down.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.
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MEET THE AUTHOR
Soraya Lane graduated with a law degree before realising that law wasn’t the career for her and that her future was in writing. She is the author of historical and contemporary women’s fiction, including the #1 Kindle bestselling novels The Last Correspondent and The Secrets We Left Behind.
Soraya lives on a small farm in her native New Zealand with her husband, their two young sons and a collection of four legged friends. When she’s not writing, she loves to be outside playing make-believe with her children or snuggled up inside reading.
Author social media
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SorayaLaneAuthor
Twitter:
Instagram @SorayaLaneAuthor
Website: www.sorayalane.com
Newsletter sign up:
https://www.bookouture.com/soraya-lane-email-sign-up/
Thank you for stopping in today.
Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.
You can’t please everyone all the time and not to feel guilty when you don’t.
352 pages Tyndale Fiction October 3, 2023 publication date
ABOUT THE BOOK
Forever within the memories of my heart.
Always remember, you are perfectly loved.
Bertie Jenkins has spent forty years serving as a midwife for her community in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. Out of all the mothers she’s tended, none affects her more than the young teenager who shows up on her doorstep, injured, afraid, and expecting, one warm June day in 1943. As Bertie and her four sisters tenderly nurture Songbird back to health, the bond between the childless midwife and the motherless teen grows strong. But soon Songbird is forced to make a heartbreaking decision that will tear this little family apart.
Thirty years later, the day after his father’s funeral, Walker Wylie is stunned to learn he was adopted as an infant. The famous country singer enlists the help of adoption advocate Reese Chandler in the hopes of learning why he was abandoned by his birth parents. With the only clue he has in hand, Walker and Reese head deep into the Appalachian Mountains to track down Bertie Jenkins, the midwife who holds the secrets to Walker’s past.
MY THOUGHTS
A beautiful historical fiction time-slip novel, taking place in the 1940’s and 1970’s
1940’s: A young woman, little more than a child without the best upbringing wants to show her boyfriend how much she loves him before she moves away from North Carolina to Tennessee. At 14 she’s pregnant, her mother is dead, her father shoots her because of the pregnancy, and she runs away. The Appalachian Mountains are beautiful, wild and a good place to hide in the 1940’s but not for a 14-year-old pregnant teen shot by her father. Midwife Bertie hears her dog making a fuss in the woods and she finds the girl. Bringing the girl inside she and her five sisters live in the cabin her father built for his family of eleven but now all are gone but the five sisters living together that nurse this young girl back to health. As time goes on, she gives birth to a healthy beautiful baby boy, but she can’t stay as her father knows where she is and as she is unmarried and she’s underage he’d bring her and the baby home where she’s not wanted. This beautiful young, frightened girl develops a real affinity for her midwife as she becomes the mother she doesn’t have. The time comes for Songbird to leave, so named for her beautiful, melodious songs she treats the baby to.
1970’s: Thirty years later. A young man experiences the death of his father and learns he’s adopted after that, when his mother tells him. Feeling hurt, confused and bitter. Why didn’t they want him, wasn’t he good enough he wonders.
As he explores his adoption records with the help of an adoption advocate, they go back to where it all started tracking down Bertie Jenkins, his mother’s midwife, now long retired. So much has changed in the wild Appalachian Mountains but time has also stood still in many ways. The old cabin Bertie has lived in with her sisters still stands with no electricity as things meander along here at a slower pace. Bertie holds the keys to the questions this man who became a famous singer, Walker Wylie but will she trust this stranger enough to meander back in time to a slower pace and give him the missing pieces to his puzzling questions?
This story is so beautiful so heartbreaking yet so healing and time marches on. I just could not stop reading and shed a tear or three while reading. I really enjoy reading about the olden days of Appalachia.
Highly recommended!
MEET THE AUTHOR
Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels, including COUNT THE NIGHTS BY STARS, winner of the 2023 Christianity Today Book Award in Fiction, and UNDER THE TULIP TREE, a Christy Award and Selah Award finalist. As a woman of mixed heritage–her father’s family is Hispanic and her mother’s roots go back to Germany–she has always celebrated diversity and feels it’s important to see the world through the eyes of one another. Learning from the past and changing the future is why she writes historical fiction.
With both her sons grown, Michelle and her husband make their home in Tennessee, not far from the historical sites she writes about.
Michelle loves hearing from readers! Connect with her at http://www.MichelleShocklee.com
Thank you so much for stopping in today. May your day be blessed with goodness.
FIRST LINE FRIDAY
Happy Friday & welcome to First Line Friday hosted at Reading is my Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line. Today I’m delighted to feature the first line of the book I am currently reading, Appalachian Song by Michelle Shocklee.
339 pages Tyndale Fiction publisher October 3, 2023 publication date
Isn’t that a beautiful Fall cover?
ABOUT THE BOOK
Forever within the memories of my heart.
Always remember, you are perfectly loved.
Bertie Jenkins has spent forty years serving as a midwife for her community in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. Out of all the mothers she’s tended, none affects her more than the young teenager who shows up on her doorstep, injured, afraid, and expecting, one warm June day in 1943. As Bertie and her four sisters tenderly nurture Songbird back to health, the bond between the childless midwife and the motherless teen grows strong. But soon Songbird is forced to make a heartbreaking decision that will tear this little family apart.
Thirty years later, the day after his father’s funeral, Walker Wylie is stunned to learn he was adopted as an infant. The famous country singer enlists the help of adoption advocate Reese Chandler in the hopes of learning why he was abandoned by his birth parents. With the only clue he has in hand, Walker and Reese head deep into the Appalachian Mountains to track down Bertie Jenkins, the midwife who holds the secrets to Walker’s past.
For fans of historical and Southern fiction comes a poignant story of love and sacrifice set in the heart of Appalachia, from award-winning author Michelle Shocklee.
FIRST LINE(S)
Appalachian Mountains
North Carolina
Feb 1,1943
My heart thumped hard beneath Mama’s thin coat while I waited for Amos at our secret place. Holes from the chinking in the old trapper’s cabin let in frigid mountain air, with another storm brewing by the looks of heavy gray clouds in the sky, but I couldn’t leave for Tennessee tomorrow without seeing Amos one last time. Tears blurred my vision.
This book is really good so far and I expect that to continue. I’d love to see the first line(s) of a book you’re reading.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Tanglewood Bookshop
A fun, festive cosy romance
A rural book shop. A chance to start over. But can she make her dream a reality?
Kazz used to love the excitement of her London life, but lately her passion for expensive city living has begun to wane. So when she’s given the opportunity to open a bookshop in picturesque Tanglewood, she jumps at the chance.
But village life is much quieter than she anticipated – is she actually suited for rural living? Resigned to a boring and uneventful Christmas, when she meets gorgeous Saul she is more than ready to have some fun and enjoy the festivities. If only Saul didn’t have a reputation for being a player…
Will Kazz become the heroine in her own Christmas romance, or will he love her and leave her under the mistletoe?
This gorgeous festive romance is perfect for fans of Kiley Dunbar, Rachel Lucas and Sue Moorcroft.
MY THOUGHTS
When I see a Lilac Mills book, I just can’t resist. Having read many of them already I excitedly started this one and got exactly what I was expecting, a Hea, happy heartwarming vibes and the cutest love story ever.
As I’ve read Tanglewood books before I was most excited to revisit here, this time with a bookshop. No true reader can resist a bookshop whether on the pages of a book or an actual shop.
A cook, Kazz has had it with busy high powered city life in London. It used to invigorate her, now it’s just too much and a change would be welcome.
Tasked with cleaned out her grandfather’s house after his passing she thinks she’s done until she realizes it’s stuffed full to the rafters with books. Books of every type imaginable, a booklovers dream, that is if you like old musty smelling books. After giving her friends suggestion of opening a bookshop to get rid of them she thinks, why not. A popup rental space in Tanglewood for two months to sell the books is perfect and it’s not too much of a commitment.
Tanglewood is such a change from what she’s used to, are there any pubs open late around here? One welcome change is handsome Saul, but he has a playboy reputation that precedes him.
Try telling her heart not to fall is like trying to tell flowers not to bloom in the spring, not going to happen.
The bookshop is doing well and so is her relationship with Saul until it’s not. When several; misunderstandings threaten to topple the apple cart can the couple sort this in time? A warm, festive and fuzzy feeling book that leaves me wanting to read even more by the author.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.
Purchase Link – https://geni.us/TheTanglewoodBookshop
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MEET THE AUTHOR
Lilac Mills lives on a Welsh hillside with her very patient husband and incredibly sweet dog, where she grows veggies (if the slugs don’t get them), bakes (badly) and loves making things out of glitter and glue (a mess, usually).
She’s been an avid reader ever since she got her hands on a copy of Noddy Goes to Toytown when she was five, and she once tried to read everything in her local library starting with A and working her way through the alphabet.
She loves long hot summer days in the garden, and cold winter ones snuggled in front of the fire, but whatever the weather she’s usually writing, or thinking about writing, with heartwarming romance and happy-ever-afters always on her mind.
Social Media Links –
Website: https://www.lilacmills.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LilacMills
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilacmillsauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lilacmills
Thank you for stopping in today.
BOOKS FROM THE BACKLOG
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks. Hosted at Carole’s Random Life.
This week’s forgotten book is:
The Saints of Swallow Hill
386 pages Kensington Books January 25, 2022 publication date
ABOUT THE BOOK
It takes courage to save yourself…In the dense pine forests of North Carolina, turpentiners labor, hacking into tree trunks to draw out the sticky sap that gives the Tar Heel State its nickname, and hauling the resin to stills to be refined. Among them is Rae Lynn Cobb and her husband, Warren, who run a small turpentine farm together. Though the work is hard and often dangerous, Rae Lynn, who spent her childhood in an orphanage, is thankful for it–and for her kind if careless husband. When Warren falls victim to his own negligence, Rae Lynn undertakes a desperate act of mercy. To keep herself from jail, she disguises herself as a man named “Ray” and heads to the only place she can think of that might offer anonymity–a turpentine camp in Georgia named Swallow Hill. Swallow Hill is no easy haven. The camp is isolated and squalid, and commissary owner Otis Riddle takes out his frustrations on his browbeaten wife, Cornelia. Although Rae Lynn works tirelessly, she becomes a target for Crow, the ever-watchful woods rider who checks each laborer’s tally. Delwood Reese, who’s come to Swallow Hill hoping for his own redemption, offers “Ray” a small measure of protection, and is determined to improve their conditions. As Rae Lynn forges a deeper friendship with both Del and Cornelia, she begins to envision a path out of the camp. But she will have to come to terms with her past, with all its pain and beauty, before she can open herself to a new life and seize the chance to begin again.
I just love this beautiful Fall like cover and the book sounds so good. I really hope to have a chance to get to it soon.
Which book sits neglected on your shelf you’d like to get to soon?
Enjoy a marvelous day. Thank you for stopping in.
CAN’T WAIT WEDNESDAY
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.
The book I’m waiting for this week is one I received from NetGalley.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Description
Paris in the fall.
The Eiffel tower, the blanket of colorful leaves on the ground of the Jardin du Luxembourg, the picturesque cobbled streets of Montmartre.
Sounds amazing, right? That’s exactly what I thought when my boss offered me to come here to critique restaurants.
Well, the reality is a completely different beast.
There is no accordion music playing in the street, the city smells like smoke, and I have yet to see a single guy wearing a beret! This was all a lie.
To top it all, I’m now a prisoner of this city because of a national strike keeping all planes on the ground and flooding hotels capacities. At least one cliché wasn’t false.
Enter Olivier Brun, chef of a Michelin star restaurant and as hot as a pizza oven who offers me a room and even cooks me breakfast.
So, when he asks me to pretend to be his date for his matchmaking mom’s birthday, I return the favor.
As we get to know each other through pun-filled cooking lessons, farmer’s market outings and autumn festivals, I start to fall in loaf with Paris… and Olivier.
Suddenly, the idea of relocating here isn’t as crazy.
But does Olivier feel the same? And if he does, will he be able to get past the fact that I lied about my job?
Paris, Pumpkins & Puns is a closed-door romcom with cozy autumn vibes, plenty of cooking puns and an irresistible Frenchman.
Pub Date Sep 24 2024
This is a new to me author. I will admit I love holiday covers and couldn’t resist requesting this one from NetGalley. It’s sounds like a fun story too.
Have a wonderful day. Thanks for your visit today.
Vegan Book Blogger