Juliette and the Monday ManDates, book #13

 

Katie drew this one for me as well and it was another winner!  Cute, funny, serious, silly, all the things I love in a book.  Except, OOPS!  Its the first in a series and now I want to read all of them!!

Juliette is perfectly content with her quiet nights at home alone, especially when they include Mr. Yu's takeout and sappy RomComs.  But her sisters think she’s teetering on the brink of spinsterhood. So they've come up with an intervention plan: weekly blind dates until their Jules finds her knight in shining armor… or until they run out of single guy friends.  They’re calling it The Monday ManDates.  Survival skills kicking in, Juliette secretly names each new Monday man. There’s TheraPaul, Frisky Frank, and TAZ the Rock Star, for starters. Then there’s the Officer Manly Man, the policeman with a penchant for pulling Juliette over when she’s at her very worst.  With a lineup like that, positively identifying her happily-ever-after seems like a long shot.  Then again, maybe, just maybe, she’s looking for love in all the wrong places. (picture and description at Amazon)

Next up is a "K" book and it has been a bit of a challenge as I had ONE "K" book.  I even checked in my "The " books and "A " books -- none.  I even went through my lenghty Book List on Amazon and looked through all the books on my shelves.  So I guess I will read this one and then I'll won't be able to read "K" books after this, unless I can find another one!

Happy Reading!

Melissa

The Inn at Ocean's Edge, book #12

 

Oh my word!!  Katie was home this past week on Spring Break, so I let her pick my next two books.  She is definately just as good of a picker as Roger is because this one HIT THE BALL OUT OF THE PARK!!!  It has been a while since I read a Colleen Coble book and I had forgotten how good she was.  This one will have you sitting on the edge of your seat - or bed! - through out the entire thing.

In 1989, Claire Dellamare disappeared from her own fourth birthday party at the Hotel Tourmaline on the island of Folly Shoals, Maine. She showed up a year later at the same hotel, with a note pinned to her dress but no explanation. Nobody knows where Claire spent that year—and until now, Claire didn’t even know she had ever been missing.  But when Claire returns to the Hotel Tourmaline for a business meeting with her CEO father, disturbing memories begin to surface . . . despite her parents’ best efforts to keep them forgotten.  Luke Rocco lost his mother under equally mysterious circumstances—at the same time Claire disappeared. After a chance encounter reveals the unlikely link between them, Claire and Luke set out together to uncover the truth about what happened that fateful year.  With flashbacks swimming just beneath her consciousness and a murderer threatening her safety, Claire’s very life depends on unscrambling her past . . . even if her family refuses to acknowledge it. Someone—maybe everyone—is hiding something from Claire, and it could cost her everything to drag the truth out into the light.  (book and description from Amazon)

I hope the next one Katie picked out is just as amazing!

Keep Reading!

Melissa

Heart's Awakening, book #11

 

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this or not, it's got a pretty basic plot line: pioneer/out west etc widower man with kid/kids needs help, marries "in name only" a widow/spinster etc but then they probably end up falling in love.

Yes, that is how this one ended up also (of course, no surprises) but the way they get there is always a ride.  I'd recommend it, even if you might be bored with the story type.

With no means to support herself, Ellie Kilmer agrees to work as a housekeeper for the young widower who lives on Dillon Island, hopeful she can obtain a proper reference. But Jackson Smith quickly realizes that Ellie's presence may solve his own problems--both the rearing of his young boys and the scandal that surrounds his first marriage. When a marriage of convenience is offered, Ellie is initially humiliated. Though she is past the age most women marry, she has more pride than to agree to his outlandish suggestion. Yet what options does she have? To marry would mean a home and stability. So despite the rumors circling Jackson and his first wife, Ellie accepts this unlikely proposal... (picture and description at Amazon)

As I venture into an "I" book, it occurred to me I need to adjust a little how I am going about this.  In my large and somewhat clunky spreadsheets I simply have all the books whose title starts with "The" under T.  So no wonder sometimes there weren't very many books for a particular letter.  From now on, I'm going to adjust my "picking list" to include books that start with "The" where the second word starts with whatever letter I am working on at the time.  

Keep Reading!

Melissa

Georgia on Her Mind, book #10

 

After the intensity of the other one, this was a fun, quick read.  Rachel Hauck never fails to entertain.  Although it was like eating cotton candy, it was still yummy!

On a sunny Monday morning, Macy Moore was on the fast track to success. By noon, all of her dreams were derailed.  Macy Moore skedaddled from her hometown of Beauty, Georgia to Florida in order to make her own way in the world. Successful and happy, she couldn’t be more proud of her corporate executive job, her just-perfect boyfriend and her beach side condo. But it all falls apart when reads the first email of the day. She’s demoted to the lowest rung on the corporate ladder . . . and dumped! She goes from being “someone” to a being “nobody,” all on the eve of returning home to emcee her high school reunion.  Thank goodness for the “Single Saved Sisters.” With loyal friends Lucy, Adriane and Tamara by her side, Macy retreats to the House of Joe for coffee, consolation and heart-to-heart consultation. Can they help her put her life back together? Yet it's when her former heartthrob, Dylan, shows up on her doorstep, that Macy begins to realize that leaving Beauty, Georgia took her away from everything in life she really loved. (picture and description from Amazon)

Keep Reading!

Melissa

Five Days in May, book #9

 

This book.  This book.  I don't even know where to start.  I was so excited to read it, but I was not too far in before I realized this was probably a mistake.  I even picked it for Book Club and earlier this week sent an apology text telling everyone it was a super sad book and if they had not started reading it yet to not even bother.  I couldn't see too much Jesus in it, every single person was in a really hard situation, and I was not anticipating it ending well. (I mean, just look at the cover!) 

But, four good things came from this book.

1.  The writing was indeed amazing.  This is one where by reading the book the author is so descriptive that even though the setting in 1963, you can see -- hear -- smell -- FEEL -- everything as though you were right there in the middle of the action.  That could be one of the reasons this book was so challenging to read, it FELT real.

2.  In the last 20% of the book everything started coming together -- and fast!  Just like the tornado that was about to rip through the little town.  It almost as if the tornado was symbolic of the action in the book. 

3.  There is some Jesus in it.  Even though it is not as obviously stated, He is there, protecting the ones who need to be protected; softening hearts, emboldening souls and bringing reconciliation.  

4.  In the end, the bad guy dies, the good guys win and life turns around for them, but also a good guy died.  But in the big picture of things, that was ok too.  

Do I recommend it?  That is not a question for me to answer.  If you enjoy books intense like this, then yes, read it.  If you don't, then don't.  Your life will not be missing anything if you don't.  But I will say, for someone who likes to stick to cowboys, indians, pioneers, westerns, romance, I read it.  I lived to tell.  And it took me on a ride I won't soon forget.

Three members of the McIntosh family are setting appointments with death: Friday, May 10, 1963. That's the day an F5 tornado will rip across Oklahoma, obliterating everything in its path.  Pastor Mac McIntosh lost his faith when his wife died — it's time to end the charade. But when a mysterious inmate called Princess is set to be executed, he grudgingly agrees to meet with her in her final days.  Princess has watched Mac and his family for years, looking out through someone else's eyes. She speaks to Mac's heart with insight and grace, while in her own heart she harbors a secret she's determined to carry to her grave about the little sister she confessed to beheading 14 years ago.  Princess knows the monster tornado is coming. She calls it The Big Ugly and she pleads with Mac to run! But by then, it's too late. For all of them. (picture and description from Amazon)

We might need to take a break before we just into something else.  Or read something light and funny.  

Keep reading, even when it is hard!

Melissa