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

The Memory Weaver, book #4

I always love to read Jane Kirkpatrick, but this book was not one of my favorites by a long stretch.  We moped with the main character through 90% of the book before anything good happened, and then BOOM! It was over.  

Eliza Spalding Warren was just a child when she was taken hostage by the Cayuse Indians during a massacre in 1847. Now the young mother of two children, Eliza faces a different kind of dislocation; her impulsive husband wants them to make a new start in another territory, which will mean leaving her beloved home and her departed mother's grave--and returning to the land of her captivity. Eliza longs to know how her mother, an early missionary to the Nez Perce Indians, dealt with the challenges of life with a sometimes difficult husband and with her daughter's captivity. When Eliza is finally given her mother's diary, she is stunned to find that her own memories are not necessarily the whole story of what happened. Can she lay the dark past to rest and move on? Or will her childhood memories always hold her hostage? (photo and description from Amazon)

Here's hoping the next book will be better!

O:)

Melissa

Whispers and Dreams, book #3

At first I thought this book would be hard to read, since it seems to be written in "real time" first person [remember, NOT an english major! :)] but there were only a few clunky parts.  Really cute story.  Light and fun!  Reminds you to chase your dreams.  

Melissa had her whole life planned – the perfect job, the perfect guy, the perfect family, in the perfect town, but as she is preparing to walk the aisle on her wedding day, she can’t ignore the Whisper any longer. As she listens to the Whisper she’s led to a place she never knew existed – a tiny mission church that ministers to a Native American community. There she meets a little girl with a secret and a handsome missionary with a heartbreaking past. Will she continue to follow the Whisper to a strange and exciting, but scary and unpredictable life, or will she wise up and settle for the perfectly plotted comfortable life she thought she always wanted? (picture and description from amazon)

Excited to start our next Book Club, it's back to cowboys, pioneers and indians!!

O:)
Melissa

Brunch at the Bittersweet Cafe, book #2

After finally recovering from the first book of the year, and knowing Book Club was coming up, I was ready to jump into this yummy goodie.

While it was not as quite the same level of intensity as the last one, it was exceptional and kept me on the edge of my seat, especially as it got closer to the end.  I mean, usually in books like this you can pretty much guess how it is going to turn out, but I literally was not sure which way it was going to go!  It was a good ride, all the way to the end!

Baker and pastry chef Melody Johansson has always believed in finding the positive in every situation, but seven years after she moved to Denver, she can’t deny that she’s stuck in a rut. One relationship after another has ended in disaster, and her classical French training is being wasted on her night job in a mediocre chain bakery. Then the charming and handsome private pilot Justin Keller lands on the doorstep of her workplace in a snowstorm, and Melody feels like it’s a sign that her luck is finally turning around. Justin is intrigued by the lively bohemian baker, but the last thing he’s looking for is a relationship. His own romantic failures have proven that the demands of his job are incompatible with meaningful connections, and he’s already pledged his life savings to a new business venture across the country—an island air charter in Florida with his sister and brother-in-law.  Against their better judgment, Melody and Justin find themselves drawn together by their unconventional career choices and shared love of adventure. But when an unexpected windfall provides Melody with the chance to open her dream bakery-café in Denver with her best friend, chef Rachel Bishop, she’s faced with an impossible choice: stay and put down roots with the people and place she’s come to call home . . . or give it all up for the man she loves. (picture and description from Amazon)

Happy Reading!

O:)
Melissa

With This Pledge, book #1

New Year and New Books to read!

This was our book for book club this month and what can I say except that I have a new favorite book.  Tamara Alexander is highly talented and does her research well.  I felt as if I was actually there walking through all the feels with the characters.  Of course, considering every day I drove to work I WAS right where a lot of the action happened.  

The author is a local chick and I just found out she is having a reading and book signing THIS SUNDAY (1/20/19) at Carnton and I just signed up to go!

This is a must read for Civil War history buffs!

What can a woman - a mere governess - do against the scourge of slavery?  Elizabeth "Lizzie" Clouston's quietly held principles oppose those of the Southern Cause--but when forty thousand soldiers converge on the fields of Franklin, Tennessee, the war demands an answer. The Carnton home, where she is governess, is converted into a Confederate hospital, and Lizzie is called upon to assist the military doctor with surgeries that determine life or death. Faced with the unimaginable, she must summon fortitude, even as she fears for the life of Towny, her fiancé and lifelong friend.  As a young soldier lies dying in Lizzie's arms, she vows to relay his final words to his mother, but knows little more than the boy's first name. That same night, decorated Mississippi sharpshooter Captain Roland Ward Jones extracts a different promise from Lizzie: that she intervene should the surgeon decide to amputate his leg.  Lizzie is nothing if not a woman of her word, earning the soldiers' respect as she tends to the wounded within Carnton's walls. None is more admiring than Captain Jones, who doesn't realize she is pledged to another. But as Lizzie's heart softens toward the Confederate captain, she discovers his moral ground is at odds with her own. Now torn between love, principles, and pledges made, she struggles to be true to her own heart while standing for what she knows is right--no matter the cost.  From the pages of history and the personal accounts of those who endured the Battle of Franklin, Tamera Alexander weaves the real-life love letters between Captain Roland Ward Jones and Miss Elizabeth Clouston into a story of unlikely romance first kindled amid the shadows of war. (picture and description from Amazon)


Not even sure how to pick up another book after that ...

O:)
Melissa

The Perfect Christmas, book # 44

Another sweet little quick read.  

What would make your Christmas perfect? For Cassie Beaumont, it's meeting her perfect match. Cassie, at thirty-three, wants a husband and kids, and so far, nothing's worked. Not blind dates, not the Internet and certainly not leaving love to chance.What's left? A professional matchmaker. He's Simon Dodson, and he's very choosy about the clients he takes on. Cassie finds Simon a difficult, acerbic know-it-all, and she's astonished when he accepts her as a client.  Claiming he has her perfect mate in mind, Simon assigns her three tasks to complete before she meets him. Three tasks that are all about Christmas: being a charity bell ringer, dressing up as Santa's elf at a children's party and preparing a traditional turkey dinner for her neighbors (whom she happens to dislike). Despite a number of comical mishaps, Cassie does it all—and she's finally ready to meet her match.  But just like the perfect Christmas gift, he turns out to be a wonderful surprise!  (picture and description from Amazon)

Wondering if I will squeeze in another Christmas book or not.  Tomorrow and Saturday I hope to finally rest from the craziness and finally watch as many Hallmark movies as possible!!

Happy Reading!
O:)
Melissa