The Sandcastle Sister, book #35

 

Lisa Wingate, you are a tricky one!  After just reading this book I thought Lisa was also a "deep" writer.  But this book tricked me!  It was a novella, related to these books.  

New York editor Jen Gibbs knew when she bought Evan Hall's next blockbuster book, it would change her career. She didn't know it would change her life. But after being sent along on the European book tour, at Evan's request, she has made a promise she's not sure she can keep--she's crossed professional lines and accepted Evan's surprising engagement proposal. Now she's scared to death. In Jen's family, marriage represents the death of every dream a woman holds for herself.  Can the revelation of her mother's long-held secret open the doors to Jen's future and change her beliefs about life and love?  (Picture and description at Amazon)

Keep Reading!

O:)

Melissa

Hole in My Life, book #34

 

I read a biography!  And this one was quite eye opening.  As a former children's librarian of sorts, I was familiar with his books about Joey Pigza and others.  His stories were filled with laughter and humor, and to read about his troubled youth made me sad.  But he learned his lesson, and it was through his time in jail that he really started focusing on writing.  Today his books have won many awards, including the coveted Newbery Award.

In the summer of 1971, Jack Gantos was an aspiring writer looking for adventure, cash for college tuition, and a way out of a dead-end job. For ten thousand dollars, he recklessly agreed to help sail a sixty-foot yacht loaded with a ton of hashish from the Virgin Islands to New York City, where he and his partners sold the drug until federal agents caught up with them. For his part in the conspiracy, Gantos was sentenced to serve up to six years in prison.  In Hole in My Life, this prizewinning author of over thirty books for young people confronts the period of struggle and confinement that marked the end of his own youth. On the surface, the narrative tumbles from one crazed moment to the next as Gantos pieces together the story of his restless final year of high school, his short-lived career as a criminal, and his time in prison. But running just beneath the action is the story of how Gantos – once he was locked up in a small, yellow-walled cell – moved from wanting to be a writer to writing, and how dedicating himself more fully to the thing he most wanted to do helped him endure and ultimately overcome the worst experience of his life. (description and picture from Amazon)

Be wild and crazy and pick up a different book today!

O:)

Melissa

Faith, Hope & Love, book #33

 

Six years after rebels took her missionary husband hostage, Cassie MacIntyre gets word that Quinn has been released and is on his way home. While initially excited to have her husband back, it isn’t long before joy turns to heartache as Cassie realizes that his time in captivity have robbed Quinn of his faith in God and, apparently, his love for her. Quinn has lost more than weight while being held captive in the jungles of Colombia. As days turned to months, he struggled and failed to keep his faith alive. As months turned to years, hope for a rescue faded. Quinn's heart and emotions hardened as he faced a daily battle to stay alive and to understand why God had abandoned him.The man who has come back to Cassie is a stranger. She struggles to keep alive the hope that there is a future for their marriage, their family and the love and faith they once shared.  (Picture and description for Amazon)

I'm starting a biography next, I need to get those in before the end of the year!  

Book Count:  33/55

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O:)

Melissa

The Summer Kitchen, book #32

 

Lisa Wingate is always a toss up, she goes DEEP and often sad, and sometimes I regret starting one of her books.  As was the case of this one, but I had been home for over a week on a covid-cation and I already plowed through two books.  I had a hard copy of this one I got from my mom and decided to pick up.  Let's just say that last night I was up for WAAAAY too late on the edge of my seat wondering how it was going to end. :)

With her adopted son missing and the rest of her family increasingly estranged, SandraKaye Darden is drawn to the little pink house where her Uncle Poppy once provided security. But what begins for Sandra as a simple painting project to help sell the house becomes a secret venture that starts to change everything...Cass Blue is having trouble keeping food on the table since her mother died. When Sandra shows up with sandwiches for the neighborhood kids one day, Cass has no way of knowing that the meeting will lead to the creation of a place of refuge that could reunite a divided community.  In this moving story of second chances, two unlikely allies realize their ability to make a difference...and the power of what becomes known as the Summer Kitchen to nourish the soul. (picture and description at Amazon)

Of course, after I finished I realized it was book 2 in a series, but the nice thing about her series is that while they are related by a very thin thread, you can literally pick up any book in the series at any time and you don't feel out of the loop.

Keep reading!

O:)

Melissa

Within My Heart, book #31

Determined to fulfill her late husband's dream, Rachel Boyd struggles to keep her ranch afloat with the help of her two young sons. But some days it feels as though her every effort is sabotaged. When faced with a loss she cannot afford, she's forced to trust Rand Brookston, the one man in Timber Ridge she wishes to avoid. And with good reason. He's a physician, just like her father, which tells her everything she needs to know about him. Or so she thinks . . .  Dr. Rand Brookston ventured west with the dream of bringing modern medicine to the wilds of the Colorado Rockies, but the townspeople have been slow to trust him. Just as slow in coming is Rand's dream to build the town a proper clinic. When a patient's life is threatened, Rand makes a choice--one that sends ripples through the town of Timber Ridge. And through Rachel Boyd's stubborn heart.  (picture and description from Amazon)

Happy Reading!

Melissa

Chateau of Secrets, book #30

 

A courageous young noblewoman risks her life to hide French resistance fighters; seventy years later, her granddaughter visits the family’s abandoned chateau and uncovers shocking secrets from the past.  Gisèle Duchant guards a secret that could cost her life. Tunnels snake through the hill under her family’s medieval chateau in Normandy. Now, with Hitler’s army bearing down, her brother and several friends are hiding in the tunnels, resisting the German occupation of France.  But when German soldiers take over the family’s château, Gisèle is forced to host them as well—while harboring the resistance fighters right below their feet. Taking in a Jewish friend’s baby, she convinces the Nazis that it is her child, ultimately risking everything for the future of the child. When the German officers begin to suspect her deception, an unlikely hero rescues both her and the child.  A present day story weaves through the past one as Chloe Sauver, Gisèle’s granddaughter, arrives in Normandy. After calling off her engagement with a political candidate, Chloe pays a visit to the chateau to escape publicity and work with a documentary filmmaker, Riley, who has uncovered a fascinating story about Jews serving in Hitler’s army. Riley wants to research Chloe’s family history and the lives that were saved in the tunnels under their house in Normandy. Chloe is floored—her family isn’t Jewish, for one thing, and she doesn’t know anything about tunnels or the history of the house. But as she begins to explore the dark and winding passageways beneath the chateau, nothing can prepare her for the shock of what she and Riley discover…  With emotion and intrigue, Melanie Dobson brings World War II France to life in this beautiful novel about war, family, sacrifice, and the secrets of the past.  (picture and description from Amazon)

A Walk along the Beach, "book" #29

 

I put book in quotation marks above because while this IS a book, I listened to it on CD on my way over to east Tennessee last week.  Captivating, holding to the end, to say the least!

The Lakey sisters are perfect opposites. After their mother died and their father was lost in grief, Willa had no choice but to raise her sister, Harper, and their brother, Lucas. Then, as an adult, she put her own life on hold to nurse Harper through a terrifying illness. Now that Harper is better and the sisters are living as roommates, Willa has realized her dream of running her own bakery and coffee shop, bringing her special brand of caretaking to the whole Oceanside community. Harper, on the other hand, is always on the go. Overcoming a terrible illness has given her a new lease on life, and she does not intend to waste it. When Harper announces her plan to summit Mount Rainier, Willa fears she may be pushing herself too far. Harper, for her part, urges Willa to stop worrying and do something outside of her comfort zone - like taking a chance on love with a handsome new customer. Sean O'Malley is as charming as he is intriguing - a freelance photographer whose assignments take him to the ends of the earth. Soon Willa's falling for him in a way that is both exciting and terrifying. But life has taught Willa to hedge her bets, and she wonders whether the potential heartache is worth the risk. Life has more challenges in store for them all. But both sisters will discover that even in the darkest moments, family is everything. (picture and description from Amazon)

Next up I am actually trying to read two books at the same time, and my Bible, so I guess that counts as three?!?  Not sure I can do this, but we will try!

So excited about Book Club next month because I think we have new friends joining us! 

Keep Reading!

O:)

Melissa