Very well researched and realistic book. Beautifully emotional,faith filled start to what promises to be an exciting,best selling series. Our main character, Meg is dealing with an unresolved issue from childhood when this person is suddenly not only thrust into her life again unexpectedly but her father is considering selling the family business to him. Meg and Oliver both try to prove their worthiness to take over the business. Meg’s father is dealing with his own sadness as his wive’s illness becomes worse and is draining her. She is trying to preserve the family legacy by taking over the family lobster business but with her father giving all his time and attention to her mother will she learn to trust and lean on Oliver or will past bad memories hold her back? Absolutely excellent book just wish I didn’t have to wait so long for the next book in the series.
Published August 3rd 2021 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you. All opinions expressed are my own.
GoodReads Summary
When Meg Whitaker’s father decides to sell the family’s lobster-fishing business to her high school nemesis, she sets out to prove she should inherit it instead. Though she’s never had any interest in running the small fleet–or even getting on a boat due to her persistent seasickness–she can’t stand to see Oliver Ross take over. Not when he ruined her dreams for a science scholarship and an Ivy League education ten years ago.
Oliver isn’t proud of what he did back then. Angry and broken by his father walking out on his family, he lashed out at Meg–an innocent bystander. But owning a respected fishing fleet on Prince Edward Island is the opportunity of a lifetime, and he’s not about to walk away just because Meg wants him to.
Meg’s father has the perfect solution: Oliver and Meg must work the business together, and at the end of the season, he’ll decide who gets it. Along the way, they may discover that their stories are more similar than they thought . . . and their dreams aren’t what they expected.
Bestselling author Liz Johnson invites you back to Prince Edward Island for a brand-new series about family, forgiveness, and the kind of love that heals all wounds.
About The Author
By day Liz Johnson works in marketing. She finds time to write late at night and is a Christy Award finalist and a two-time ACFW Carol Award finalist. Liz makes her home in Phoenix, Arizona where she enjoys theater, exploring local history, and doting on her nieces and nephews. She loves stories of true love with happy endings. Find out more about Liz at http://www.LizJohnsonBooks.com.
The second book in the US Marshals series is fast paced and hits the floor running. We engage with many of the same characters as we met in the first book so we are familiar with them making for a very easy to follow but exciting story line. This is only my second read by this author after reading the first in the series the 2020 release, The Escape. It was action packed and I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to this one and I was not disappointed. Well done, one for the read again shelf. I am looking forward to the next one by this author in this captivating series.
Published July 6th 2021 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you. All opinions expressed are my own.
GoodReads Summary
US Marshal Madison James may not be sure who shot her three months ago, but she does know one thing–it’s time to get back out into the field. When her partner, Jonas Quinn, receives a message that a federal warrant just came in on a man connected to a string of bank robberies, Madison jumps at the chance to get back to work. What she and Jonas find is a bank robbery in progress that’s gone wrong–and things are about to get worse.
For these bank robbers, it’s never been just about the money. It’s about taking risks and adrenaline rushes, and getting caught is not part of the game. When the suspects escape, Madison and Jonas must hunt them down and bring them to justice before someone else–someone close to them–gets hurt . . . or worse.
From Seattle to the San Juan Islands, bestselling author Lisa Harris takes you on a nonstop chase where feelings are complicated and failure isn’t an option.
LISA HARRIS is a Christy Award finalist for Blood Ransom and Vendetta, Christy Award winner for Dangerous Passage, and the winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel for 2011 (Blood Covenant) and 2015 (Vendetta) from Romantic Times.
She has almost forty novels and novellas in print. She and her family work as missionaries in southern Africa. Lisa loves hanging out with her family, cooking different ethnic dishes, photography, and heading into the African bush on safari. Visit Lisa’s website to learn more.
Good Morning! It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself and share what you’ve read in the past week, what you are currently reading and hope to get to soon. What are you reading is hosted by The Book Date.
It’s a rainy day here so after back to school shopping and haircuts I am going to try to get a lot of reading done this week.
What I Read last week:
It was a great week for reading. I am hoping to get just as much done this week.
What I am reading now:
What I am Reading next:
These are a few of the books I have for review to read this week. Hopefully I can get a few more in as well. What are your reading plans for the week?
Thank you for stopping by today. Have a wonderful day.
One thing I love about Jessica Redland’s books is they are an instant pick me upper, an instant put me in a happy mood kind of book, the perfect escapism. The setting is delightful, the farm with the sweet little hoglets,the meadow and the cast of characters which I am just meeting now as I haven’t had a chance to read the first book in the series. The characters , human and hedgehog alike will settle into a special place in your heart. Our main character runs a hedgehog rescue center and it takes up a lot of her time. Well it’s impossible to save them all and it really makes her so sad if she’s unable to . Like most people I never really thought one way or another about hedgehogs but after reading this I see what a sweet personality they have. She tries so hard at her hedgehog rescue center almost single handidly and some just don’t want her to succeed going as far as being destructive to her property and destroying food for the hedgehogs. That made me feel bad. With all she has to deal with and family issues creeping in will it be more than she is able to handle?
Published January 7th 2021 by Boldwood Books I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you. All opinions expressed are my own.
The sun is shining, wild flowers are blooming and Hedgehog Hollow is officially open for business.
For Samantha, the proud owner of this beautiful rescue centre, life has never been busier. But with an influx of new hogs and hoglets to take care of, not to mention a full-time job and ongoing family issues, can she accept the possibility that she has taken on more than she can handle?
Fortunately, she has the love of her life, Josh, by her side for support and encouragement. But Josh has his own family troubles to deal with. And soon he must decide if he’s ready to do the one thing he swore he’d never do – forgive his father.
For both Samantha and Josh it’s a season of change and for figuring out whether the past can ever truly be forgotten.
Escape back to wonderful Hedgehog Hollow with top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland for the perfect uplifting read full of love, hope and forgiveness.
I was born in Teesside but now live in Scarborough on the stunning North Yorkshire Coast. My home inspired the creation of the fictional seaside town of Whitsborough Bay where I set many of my books although the Hedgehog Hollow series takes readers to a gorgeous new countryside setting in the Yorkshire Wolds.
I live with my husband, our teenage daughter and sprocker spaniel, Ella. I’m a self-confessed stationery addict with a ridiculously large collection of notepads who loves chocolate (although it doesn’t love me), hedgehogs, 80s music, collectible teddy bears and lighthouses.
Other than a career detour into retail to set up and run my own teddy bear shop (the inspiration for novel Bear With Me), I’ve always worked in HR, specialising in resourcing, coaching and L&D. Writing always had to take a back seat to the day job until June 2020 when I left the world of HR to become a full-time author. I’m so very grateful to anyone who has bought or borrowed my books in whatever format, helping me fulfil a long-held dream of writing full-time. I still can’t believe I get to spend every day chatting to my fictional friends and making stuff up.
More than once I’d have the thought a life can be measured in doorways.
Happy Friday to you and welcome to First Line Fridays which is hosted by Hoarding Books
All you need to do is grab a book and leave a comment with it’s first line.
Today I am featuring a book that released August 3,2021. I have anticipated reading it for several months now.
About The Book
She was Emily Dickinson’s maid, her confidante, her betrayer… and the savior of her legacy.
An evocative new novel about Emily Dickinson’s longtime maid, Irish immigrant Margaret Maher, whose bond with the poet ensured Dickinson’s work would live on, from the USA Today bestselling author of Flight of the Sparrow, Amy Belding Brown.
Massachusetts, 1869. Margaret Maher has never been one to settle down. At twenty-seven, she’s never met a man who has tempted her enough to relinquish her independence to a matrimonial fate, and she hasn’t stayed in one place for long since her family fled the potato famine a decade ago.
When Maggie accepts a temporary position at the illustrious Dickinson family home in Amherst, it’s only to save money for her upcoming trip West to join her brothers in California. Maggie never imagines she will form a life-altering friendship with the eccentric, brilliant Miss Emily or that she’ll stay at the Homestead for the next thirty years.
In this richly drawn novel, Amy Belding Brown explores what it is to be an outsider looking in, and she sheds light on one of Dickinson’s closest confidantes–perhaps the person who knew the mysterious poet best–whose quiet act changed history and continues to influence literature to this very day.
Thank you for stopping by today. Grab your book and let me know the first line of it then jump on over to Hoarding Books to check out some more first lines. You may just find some new books to add to your to read pile.
I was drawn to this cover because of the Absolutely Adorable Pug on the cover. To find out the book is actually told from Doug, the Pug’s point of view made this book all the more appealing. Dogs are so much smarter than we give them credit for. Our main character is having an affair with a married man, never a good situation there but she feels like at her age, 35 she can’t get anyone else interested in her for a long term relationship. I mean come on 35 is not old at all. You haven’t even hit the prime of your life at this age. Smart boy Doug gives so many hints and clues in his own doggie way to Julie, our main character about dumping her main squeeze Luke that if she had only listened she would have saved herself a lot of heartache and tears. One thing I didn’t like in the book is how often she cries, like every little thing sets her off and I found this annoying. The book is fun and Julie does find someone else who may be interested, it’s Doug’s V-E-T . With Julie’s head in the clouds after Luke promises her the moon will she be able to actually to see what’s right in front of her or will she miss out this golden opportunity? Doug is definitely the star of the show here. I want another Doug book!
Pub Date 29 Jun 2021 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you. All opinions expressed are my own.
GoodReads Summary
AN AMAZON BOOK OF THE MONTH IN ROMANCE
POPSUGAR’S BEST BOOKS OF JUNE
PARADE’S BEST CANINE BOOKS SUMMER 2021
Not all heroes wear capes. Some of them wear collars.
A Dog’s Purpose meets The Happy Ever After Playlist in this charming, pitch-perfect take on relationships as seen through the eyes of a wise pug named Doug, who is determined to play cupid to fix his owner’s love life with his own four paws.
Doug wants his rescuer, Julie, to be happy. He is loyal and loves her unconditionally–two things that can’t be said about Julie’s married boss and lover, Luke. Yet Julie is reluctant to break up, afraid to end up like her eccentric cat-owning neighbor. It’s a prospect that horrifies Doug, too.
Newly divorced Tom, on the other hand, is perfect for Julie. Everyone can see it–except for Julie and Tom. Doug is confident that with his help they will get over their initial animosity toward each other.
As Doug humorously navigates the quirks of human relationships, he knows he can’t give up on Julie–after all, being a “rescue” works both ways.
Matt was born in Margate, but eventually escaped to Spain to write his first novel (in between working as a newspaper columnist, and playing a lot of tennis). Previously he has been a professional lifeguard, fitness equipment salesman, and an IT head hunter, but he prefers writing for a living, so hopes people will keep buying his books.
Matt is the author of four contemporary romantic comedy novels; Best Man, The Ex-Boyfriend’s Handbook (which was shortlisted for both the Romantic Novel Of The Year award, as well as the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance), From Here To Paternity, and Ex-Girlfriends United. He’s also written about life, love, and relationships for various publications including The Times, Guardian, Cosmopolitan, Company, Elle, Glamour, and The Sun.
Several of Matt’s novels have been translated for various European markets (he’s big in the Balkans, apparently), as well as as far afield as Malaysia and Indonesia. He’s a regular on the literary festival scene, and rates the recent lecturing stint he did on the Creative Writing degree course at London Metropolitan University as one of the most rewarding things he’s ever done – and not only because of the number of ideas he was able to appropriate from his students for his books.
This is my first read by this author and I thought it was a fun book.
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. Take another look on your neglected bookshelf and I just know you’ll find some treasures you’ve forgotten about. Books From The Backlog is hosted by Carole’s Random Life In Books.
This week’s neglected book
Lady of Milkweed Manor By Julie Klassen
Paperback, 411 pages
Published January 1st 2008 by Bethany House (first published 2007)
As Charlotte drew closer to the looming grey edifice that was to become her temporary home, she could not help but notice the secretive shuttered windows. Then she noticed the milkweeds…
Even a proper vicar’s daughter can make a mistake…and now Charlotte Lamb must pay a high price for her fall. To avoid the prying eyes of all who know her, she hides herself away in London’s forbidding “Milkweed Manor,” a place of mystery and lore, of old secrets and new birth.
But once there, she comes face-to-face with a suitor from her past—a man who now hides secrets of his own. Both are determined, with God’s help, to protect those they love. But neither can imagine the depth of sacrifice that will be required. Sprinkled with fascinating details about the lives of women in Regency England, Lady of Milkweed Manor is a moving romantic drama about the redemption of past failings and the beauty of sacrificial love.
Why did I add Lady Of Milkweed Manor to my shelf?
I bought this at a used bookstore in 2016. I had read so many great reviews on this and was so excited to find it to purchase. I have read a lot of books by this author and enjoyed them all. Unfortunately I kept adding new books to my to be read shelf and this one seemed to fall by the way side. I still do want to read it though and need to make time to do so. If only I hadn’t found Netgalley my at home shelf would be dwindling instead of just sitting there. 🙂
Have you read this or any books by this author? What are your thoughts?
Thank you for visiting today. Have a wonderful day.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
What I got from the library this week:
A BALMY WAY TO GO
An Oregon Honeycomb Mystery
With her Let It Bee honey boutique buzzing along nicely, life is as sweet as nectar for Wren Johnson—until she takes a morning walk along the Pacific beach with her Havana Brown cat, Everett, and stumbles upon the body of Agnes Snow, the cranky queen of the local craft fairs, stiff as driftwood. More unfortunate? Clutched in the victim’s fist is a label from Wren’s homemade beeswax-and-honey lip balm. Which makes Officer Jim Hampton focus his dreamy-blue Paul Newman eyes on Wren as suspect number one.
With fabulous feline support from Everett, Wren must comb the town for clues and clear her name before someone else gets stung.
Praise For Nancy Coco and Her Candy-Coated Mysteries
“A puzzling series of crimes . . . plenty of suspects and mouthwatering recipes.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Memorable characters, a charming locale, and a satisfying mystery.”—Barbara Allan
“It’s probably best not to read this while you’re too hungry, as the fudge recipes may send you right to the kitchen.”
When a deed to an apartment in Paris turns up in an old attic trunk, an estranged mother and daughter must reunite to uncover the secret and mysterious life of a family matriarch—perfect for fans of The Little Paris Bookshop and The Beekeeper’s Daughter.
Hannah Bond has always been a bookworm, which is why she fled Florida—and her unstable, alcoholic mother—for a quiet life leading Jane Austen-themed tours through the British countryside. But on New Year’s Eve, everything comes crashing down when she arrives back at her London flat to find her mother, Marla, waiting for her.
Marla’s brought two things with her: a black eye from her ex-boyfriend and an envelope she discovered while cleaning out the attic of Hannah’s childhood home. Its contents? The deed to an apartment in Paris, an old key, and newspaper clippings about the death of a famous writer named Andres Armand. Hannah, wary of her mother’s motives, reluctantly agrees to accompany her to Paris, where against all odds, they discover great-grandma Ivy’s one-bedroom apartment frozen in 1940 and covered in layers of dust and cobwebs.
As Hannah and Marla uncover clues about great-grandma Ivy in the nooks and crannies of the apartment—including a diary detailing evenings spent drinking and dancing with Hemingway and the Fitzgeralds—they trace her steps through the city in an attempt to understand why she never mentioned her life in Paris before settling in Florida during the war.
A heartwarming and charming saga set in the City of Lights, Lost in Paris is an unforgettable celebration of family and the love between a mother and a daughter.
Pour yourself a strong shot of rivalry, romance, and murder.
Travel writer Jill Curtis is in Louisville, Kentucky, on the next stop of her bourbon tour assignment, and is keen to explore the local distilleries with her videographer, Michael Erickson – especially since her new beau, Lieutenant Nick Harris, lives in the city.
But the night before Jill’s first tour at Parker’s Distillery, she is shocked to learn that the master distiller, William Scott, has died suddenly of a heart attack – and even more shocked when she discovers William’s daughter, Alexis, suspects foul play. Is there more to William’s death than meets the eye? Jill is soon drawn into a deadly blend of rivalry, jealously, and cold-blooded murder as she attempts to uncover the truth behind William’s unexpected demise.
In this warm and moving anthology, a group of bestselling authors and writers pay tribute to legendary, larger-than-life New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank and her literary legacy.
Inspired by the title Dorothea Benton Frank planned for her next book—Reunion Beach—these close friends and colleagues channeled their creativity, admiration, and grief into stories and poems that celebrate this remarkable woman and her abiding love for the Lowcountry of her native South Carolina—a land of beauty, history, charm, and Gullah magic she so brilliantly brought to life in her acclaimed novels.
From Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author, a sequel to Summer of ’69.
From Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author, comes a heartwarming, humorous interview from the hereafter with Pat Conroy and Dorothea Benton Frank, two beloved icons of Southern literature.
From Patti Callahan, bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis and Surviving Savannah, comes The Bridemaids, a story about a trip to the South Carolina beach.
From Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author, Mother and Child Reunion, a heartwarming story set under the warm South Carolina sun.
Reunion Beach also features letters, short stories, poems, and essays from:
Mary Norris, New York Times bestselling author and staff writer for The New Yorker
Cassandra King Conroy, bestselling and award-winning author of Tell Me A Story
Nathalie Dupree, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Marjory Wentworth, former Poet Laureate of South Carolina Gervais Hagerty, author of In Polite Company
Jacqueline Bouvier Lee, Peter Frank, Victoria Peluso, and William Frank Infused with Dorothea Benton Frank’s remarkable spirit, Reunion Beach is a literary homage and beautiful keepsake that keeps this dearly missed writer’s flame burning bright.
Lilac Girls introduced readers to Caroline Ferriday, an American philanthropist who helped young girls released from Ravensbruck concentration camp. Now, in Sunflower Sisters, Kelly tells the story of her ancestor Georgeanna Woolsey, a Union nurse who joins the war effort during the Civil War, and how her calling leads her to cross paths with Jemma, a young enslaved girl who is sold off and conscripted into the army, and Ann-May Wilson, a southern plantation mistress whose husband enlists.
Georgeanne “Georgey” Woolsey isn’t meant for the world of lavish parties and demure attitudes of women of her stature. So when the war ignites the nation, Georgey follows her passion for nursing during a time when doctors considered women a bother on the battlefront. In proving them wrong, she and her sister Eliza venture from New York to Washington, D.C., to Gettysburg and witness the unparalleled horrors of slavery as they become involved in the war effort.
In the South, Jemma is enslaved on the Peeler Plantation in Maryland, where she lives with her mother and father. Her sister, Patience, is enslaved on the plantation next door and both live in fear of LeBaron, an abusive overseer who tracks their every move. When Jemma is sold by the cruel plantation mistress Anne-May at the same time the Union army comes through, she sees a chance to finally escape–but only by abandoning the family she loves.
Anne-May is left behind to run Peeler Planation when her husband joins the Union Army and her cherished brother enlists with the Confederates. In charge of the household, she uses the opportunity to follow her own ambitions and is drawn into a secret Southern network of spies, finally exposing herself to the fate she deserves.
Inspired by true accounts, Sunflower Sisters provides a vivid, detailed look at the Civil War experience, from the barbaric and inhumane plantations, to a war-torn New York City to the horrors of the battlefield. It’s a sweeping story of women caught in a country on the brink of collapse, in a society grappling with nationalism and unthinkable racial cruelty, a story still so relevant today.
Have you read any of these titles? What did you think of them?
Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.
Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.
Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!
Virginia Brides: Homespun Love Warms Hearts in Three Complete Novels
Authors Cathy Marie Hake,Vickie McDonough and Susan Page Davis
Paperback, Romancing America, 352 pages
Published April 1st 2008 by Barbour Books
GoodReads Synopsis
Love is woven through the generations
Three yarns are spun around a family’s spinning wheel in the Shenandoah Valley. When threads of love begin to form, will life’s complications break them?
– Widower Samuel Walsh‘s compassion leads him to buy indentured servant Garnet Wheelock in 1750. But have their lives been too broken for love to bind them?
– In 1803 Micah Walsh returns home to find his wife dead and a strange woman, Amy Rogers, caring for his children. Can these strangers learn to trust each other?
– Sadie McEwan falls for horse trader Harry Cooper in 1848, but she hides a harmful secret. Can Harry forgive Sadie?
As lives spin out of control, God intervenes to weave a beautiful legacy in this family saga.
How and when I got it:
I bought a paperback of this used over 5 years ago
Why I want to read it:
I have always enjoyed Barbour’s book collections and have quite a few I’ve bought left to read. With Barbour Books I know I can always count on clean Christian fiction with great story lines and believable plots. I have been a long time reader of Barbour books and will continue to do so.
Does this one sound interesting to you? Would you read it?
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. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine. If you’re continuing with WOW, feel free to link those up as well! Find out more here.
I am waiting for this week,
Expected publication: August 17th 2021 by Simon Schuster
Hardcover, 256 pages
From GoodReads
New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke brings readers a captivating tale of justice, love, brutality, and mysticism set in the turbulent 1960s.
The American West in the early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise: golden wheat fields, mist-filled canyons, frolicking animals. Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed it from the open door of a boxcar, riding the rails for both inspiration and odd jobs.
Jumping off in Denver, he finds work on a farm and meets Joanne McDuffy, an articulate and fierce college student and gifted painter. Their soul connection is immediate, but their romance is complicated by Joanne’s involvement with a shady professor who is mixed up with a drug-addled cult. When a sinister businessman and his son who wield their influence through vicious cruelty set their sights on Aaron, drawing him into an investigation of grotesque murders, it is clear that this idyllic landscape harbors tremendous power—and evil. Followed by a mysterious shrouded figure who might not be human, Aaron will have to face down all these foes to save the life of the woman he loves and his own.
The latest installment in James Lee Burke’s masterful Holland family saga, Another Kind of Eden is both riveting and one of Burke’s most ambitious works to date. It dismantles the myths of both the twentieth-century American West and the peace-and-love decade, excavating the beauty and idealism of the era to show the menace and chaos that lay simmering just beneath the surface.
My husband has read all of the books this author has written.
What are your thoughts on his books?
Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day.
Vegan Book Blogger 