On a Summer Tide, book #11

Sadly, our local Lifeway store is going out of business.  There are layers to the sadness of this, but it is a fact of life and there is no turning back.  While visiting the store one of the last times for book club last week, BFF Deanie picked up several fiction books to think about purchasing.  She changed her mind about this one and another one, but then I decided I wanted them so I bought them. I was not disappointed!!

Sometimes love hurts--and sometimes it can heal in the most unexpected way. Camden Grayson loves her challenging career, but the rest of her life could use some improvement. "Moving on" is Cam's mantra. But there's a difference, her two sisters insist, between one who moves on . . . and one who keeps moving.  Cam's full-throttle life skids to a stop when her father buys a remote island off the coast of Maine. Paul Grayson has a dream to breathe new life into the island--a dream that includes reuniting his estranged daughters. Certain Dad has lost his mind, the three sisters rush to the island. To Cam's surprise, the slow pace of island life appeals to her, along with the locals--and one in particular. Seth Walker, the scruffy island schoolteacher harbors more than a few surprises.  (picture and description from Amazon)

We have picked another book similar to this for book club this month which is on my paperwhite.  However, we are going to the beach next week (HALLELUJAH!!!) so I think I'm going to take a paperback to read instead.  On our vacation I plan to spend as many waking hours as possible ON THE BEACH!!!

Happy Reading!

O:)
Melissa

Calico Spy, book #10

So sweet Katie got this book from my mom for Christmas and she said she was really enjoying reading it, but the lure of Youtube videos is pretty strong in that one.  :)  I had been itching to read this, so finally she just gave it to me and told me to tell her what happens.  I gladly took it off her hands and consumed in less than a week.  You know me, it's hard to go wrong with 1880s westerns, especially with a handsome sheriff like Branch Whitman!

Pinkerton operative Katie Madison’s newest case takes her to Calico, Kansas, where two Harvey House restaurant waitresses were murdered in mysterious circumstances. Calico’s sheriff, Branch Whitman, has never met a Pink he liked and is stunned to learn the pretty redhead’s true identity as she works undercover as a Harvey girl. A tornado hits town, and a past deception puts Branch’s eight-year-old-son in danger. Now the Sheriff has no choice but to work with Katie—or chance losing everything he holds dear.  (Picture and description at Amazon)

For more information on Harvey girls, check out this website!

This week is Book Club, so we will have to wait and see what is next ... or I could still start on my new books I got for my birthday!!
Keep Reading!!

O:)
Melissa

GI Brides : Love Letters Unite Three Couples Divided by World War II, Book #9

Although I do love me some Grace Livingston Hill, I wasn't quite feeling it this time around.  This collection actually has three books in it, so we decided this month we would just pick however many of the three wanted to read and report back at Book Club.  I chose to read just one, More Than Conqueror.

When Charlie Montgomery, a handsome soldier, declares his love for Blythe Bonniwell, she realizes she should be offended. But she isn't -- in fact, she's honored! Blythe returns Charlie's love, and promises to remain faithful to him while he is away at war. Though thrilled at Blythe's response, Charlie knows all too well that the special mission he has been assigned to means that he is facing almost certain death. He can offer Blythe little hope for his return, or for their future happiness. Yet, in the midst of fear and peril, Charlie and Blythe find a source of strength and peace that will keep them united forever. (picture at Amazon, description at Google Books.)

I got some amazing new books for my birthday that I have been anxious to get into, so I'll just have to chose which one is next!

Happy Reading!

O:)
Melissa

From a Distance, book #8

Enjoyed my foray into nonfiction, but absolutely LOVED getting back to the pioneers and ANOTHER AMAZING BOOK BY TAMARA ALEXANDER!!!  Just like all her other ones, enough detail to make you feel like you were there, but not enough so that you lose the story line!

What happens when the realization of a dream isn't what you imagined. . . and the secret you've spent a lifetime guarding is finally laid bare?

Determined to become one of the country's premier newspaper photographers, Elizabeth Westbrook travels to the Colorado Territory to capture the grandeur of the mountains surrounding the remote town of Timber Ridge. She hopes, too, that the cool, dry air of Colorado, and its renowned hot springs, will cure the mysterious illness that threatens her career, and her life. Daniel Ranslett, a former Confederate sharpshooter, is a man shackled by his past, and he'll do anything to protect his land, and his solitude. When an outspoken Yankee photographer captures an image that appears key to solving a murder, putting herself in danger, Daniel is called upon to repay a debt. He's a man of his word, but repaying that debt could bring secrets from his past to light. Forced on a perilous journey together, Daniel and Elizabeth's lives intertwine in ways neither could have imagined when first they met . . . from a distance.  (picture and description from Amazon)

Only problem is, this is book 1 in a series of 3.  And I got other books to read!  

Happy Reading!

O:)
Melissa

The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI, book #7

Needless to say, it's been a while since I have read some non-fiction.  I can't help it, I'm a fiction junkie!  But Rebecca brought this book home from school and I knew I had to snag it and read it first.  I do love my pioneers and indians in my books, but I love me some good detective/FBI shows on TV.  

This book was amazing!!!  Marc is an excellent storyteller, mixing in super scary stories with hilarious anecdotes.  It took me a while to plug through it, with everything else going on, but I loved every word in it!!  It's 5 star for me!!

Of all the tools available to law enforcement, the living, breathing undercover operative remains the gold standard. This is true in TV shows and in the real world. In the era of electronic surveillance, UC work enforces accountability; it prevents mistakes, and of all the boots on the ground, undercover agents are often the most valuable.  The FBI generally has about 100 UC agents working full-time in the field. In the 1990s and 2000s, Marc Ruskin had the most diverse, and notorious, case list of all, and the broadest experience within the bureaucracy, including overseas. He worked ops targeting public corruption, corporate fraud, Wall Street scams, narcotics trafficking, La Cosa Nostra, counterfeiting―and gritty street-level scams and schemes.  Sometimes working three or four cases simultaneously, Ruskin switched identities by the day: Each morning he had to walk out the door with the correct ID, clothes, accessories and frame of mind for that day’s mission. Meet Alex Perez, Alejandro Marconi, and Sal Morelli, just a few of Ruskin’s undercover personas. And how is the right UC agent chosen, how is a bogus identity manufactured and “backstopped,” how is the Bureau's long-term con painstakingly assembled? No one has ever given us the inside story like Ruskin. The Pretender is the definitive narrative of undercover ops―the procedures, the successes, the failures--and the changes in the culture of the new-era FBI. (picture and description from Amazon)

So now it is less than one week to Book Club and I haven't even cracked my book!  I gotta get on the ball!


Happy Reading!

O:)
Melissa

The Dance, book #6

After reading last month's Book Club Book, I had to read some more of Dan Walsh.  This one was really good and almost hit a little too close to home.

Jim Anderson is a successful businessman, and his wife, Marilyn, is the perfect wife. And why wouldn't she be? He gives her everything she needs. That's why Jim never expected to come home one day and find Marilyn gone.After 27 years of marriage, Marilyn has had enough of feeling unloved and neglected. She wants to experience some measure of happiness before she's too old to enjoy it, even signing up for dance lessons, something Jim would never do. What will it take for Jim to finally become the man Marilyn needs him to be? (picture and description at Amazon)

Keep reading!  

O:)
Melissa

When Night Comes, book #5

I've only read 5 books in 2019 and it is April?!?  Clearly I need to get on the ball here!

That said, its been a while since I've had a stay-up-all-night-to-finish-a-book-because-I-can't-wait-to-see-what-happens night, but this one did it.  Good writing, good story, slowly released details of plot and did not dump them all at once ... I'd highly recommend it!

Jack Turner comes back to Culpepper to give a series of lectures for his old history professor. Within days, he starts having bizarre experiences at night. Like he’s traveling back in time, experiencing the epic events in his lectures firsthand. He has no control over these experiences and can’t make them stop. Joe Boyd thought he’d left big city crime back in Pittsburgh when he took a detective job in Culpepper, Georgia, a sleepy southern college town. His peaceful life ends when two students turn up dead in two weeks. The coroner is saying natural causes, but something doesn’t add up.  Rachel Cook, a teaching assistant at Culpepper, can’t believe Jack is back in her life again. She’s had a crush on him since she was fourteen, but Jack never knew. He instantly seems attracted to her, but she can tell…something is deeply troubling him.  Watching all this from a distance is Nigel Avery. He’s certain this experiment’s about to unravel. It’ll be his job to tie up all the loose ends when it does. (description and picture at Amazon)

I think I need to now go and find the rest of this series!

O:)
Melissa