The Bookstore on the Beach by Brenda Novak @harlequinbooks @Brenda_Novak #review #fiction #beachread

Posted on April 13, 2021 by fredreeca

The Bookstore on the Beach : A Novel 

Brenda Novak

On Sale Date: April 6, 2021

9780778361053

Trade Paperback

$16.99 USD

448 pages

Overview

For fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Mary Kay Andrews, comes New York Times bestselling author Brenda Novak’s newest standalone work of women’s fiction, a big, sweeping novel about family and the ties that bind and challenge us. In this novel, three generations of women from the same family share a house and work together at a bookstore in Colonial Beach over the course of a summer.

How do you start a new chapter when you haven’t closed the book on the last one?

Eighteen months ago, Autumn Divac’s husband went missing. Her desperate search has yielded no answers—she still has no idea where he went or why. After being happily married for twenty years, she can’t imagine moving forward without him, but for the sake of their two teenage children, she has to try.

Autumn takes her kids home for the summer to the charming beachside town where she was raised. She seeks comfort by working alongside her mother and aunt at their quaint bookshop, only to learn that her daughter is facing a life change neither of them saw coming and her mother has been hiding a terrible secret for years. And when she runs into Quinn Vanderbilt—the boy who stole her heart in high school—old feelings start to bubble up again. Is she free to love him, or should she hold out hope for her husband’s return? She can only trust her heart…and hope it won’t lead her astray.

Review

Autumn and her family are struggling to come to terms with their missing husband and father. He has been missing for over 18 months. They decide to spend the summer at Sable Beach with her mom, Mary. However, this ends up being the escape they need but it opens up many different issues…like the past!

Autumn runs into her old boyfriend from high school, Quinn. Now, I did not like Quinn at first. I felt like he pressured Autumn. But, as the story moved along, he grew on me, especially with his interactions with her kids. Autumn and Quinn slowly create a great relationship until…and you guessed it… something happens to threaten their new relationship.

But her mother’s story is the one that really captivated me. Mary had been kidnapped as a child and held in captivity for years. Autumn is the result of this horrendous crime. And Autumn has no idea.

This novel has a lot going on and boy is it good. It has been a while since I have read Brenda Novak. I have missed out. I did feel the story was a little long but I loved the characters, the setting and the multilayered tale!

Need just an all around good book, THIS IS IT!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

About the Author:

Brenda Novak, a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, has penned over sixty novels. She is a five-time nominee for the RITA Award and has won the National Reader’s Choice, the Bookseller’s Best, the Bookbuyer’s Best, and many other awards. She also runs Brenda Novak for the Cure, a charity to raise money for diabetes research (her youngest son has this disease). To date, she’s raised $2.5 million. For more about Brenda, please visit http://www.brendanovak.com.

SOCIAL:

TWITTER: @Brenda_Novak

FB: @BrendaNovakAuthor

Insta: @authorbrendanovak 

Goodreads

BUY LINKS:

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/the-bookstore-on-the-beach/9780778361053

IndieBound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780778361053

Barnes & Noble: http://barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780778361053

Books-A-Million: http://www.booksamillion.com/product/9780778361053

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0778361055/?tag=brennova09-20

Indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-bookstore-on-the-beach/9780778361053-item.html

Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/book/9780778361053

Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Bookstore-on-the-Beach-Original-ed-Paperback-9780778361053/930754084

Target: https://www.target.com/p/the-bookstore-on-the-beach-by-brenda-novak-paperback/-/A-80028510

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Deep River Promise by Jackie Ashenden #bookspotlight #giveaway @sourcebookscasa

Posted on April 12, 2021 by fredreeca

Deep River Promis

by Jackie Ashenden

Publication Date: 3/30/2021

Coming home was the easy part. Facing her will take everything he’s got…

Silas Quinn hasn’t been back to Deep River, Alaska, in years, not since he joined the army. He left behind the best friend he’d ever had. But he knew Hope Dawson was meant for bigger things than Deep River—and he—had to offer. What he didn’t know was that when he left, he took Hope’s dreams right along with him…

Then tragedy strikes and sends Silas home, and the entire town is thrown into chaos when they learn what brought him back—he’s inherited ownership of the town and the newly discovered oil reserves under it!

Hope gave up on ever getting out of Deep River. Her mom needed her, then her grandfather died and left her the local hangout to run. Now Si is back in town, stirring up old feelings—including her anger at being left behind. His return brings Hope an offer that can change her life. Love, or adventure, are almost within reach—but she can’t have both…

Jackie Ashenden has been writing fiction since she was eleven years old. She used to balance her writing with the more serious job of librarianship until a chance meeting with another romance writer prompted her to devote herself to the true love of her heart – writing romance. She particularly likes to write dark, emotional stories with alpha heroes and kick-ass heroines. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

Purchase Links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3hsfJEJ

B&N: https://bit.ly/2YtdERp

Apple: https://apple.co/32jN528

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3qL0U4y

Bookshop: https://bit.ly/2EyV4QC

BAM: https://bit.ly/3lhdh6b

Books2Read: https://bit.ly/2MbQjAC

Link to giveaway: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/54ca7af71048/?

Excerpt:

Damon Fitzgerald woke with an excruciating headache and the sense that he was being stabbed slowly but relentlessly through one eye. The headache was familiar—usually a sign he’d imbibed a little too heavily the night before—but the stabbing sensation not so much.

Cautiously, he raised one hand to touch the eye currently being stabbed only to encounter his own eyelid. So. Not being stabbed then. That was a relief.

He was still a little disoriented though, and his mouth felt like the bottom of a birdcage, so it took him some time to realize that the stabbing sensation was coming from the sunlight shining through a gap in the curtains and straight into one eye.

Sun. He hadn’t seen the sun for at least three days, due to the weather being crap, which was strange for LA…

Which was when he remembered that he wasn’t in LA. He wasn’t even in Juneau, where he’d been for the last couple for weeks.

No, it was worse than that. Way worse.

He was in a room over the Happy Moose bar in a tiny, privately owned town called Deep River, smack bang in the middle of nowhere, Alaska. And he’d been stuck here for three days because the weather had been so bad he hadn’t been able to fly out.

Damon lay there for a moment as the realization settled through him, trying to reorient himself, because he’d definitely over imbibed the night before and this hangover had teeth. Then with a sudden start, he remembered that sun was a good thing.

Sun meant the weather was better, which in turn meant he could get the hell out of here and back to LA.

Rolling off the bed, he dragged himself over to the french doors that led onto the room’s tiny balcony, shoved them open, and stumbled out onto the balcony itself, just to check that the sun was real.

Sure enough, though it must have been early in the morning, the sun was actually shining, the sky a bright, almost painful blue, making the white caps of the mountains looming on all sides look extra white and extra sharp.

Ahead of him was the deep, rushing green of the river the town was named for. Deep River. It had been settled during the gold rush at the end of the nineteenth century by the West family, who’d bought the land Deep River sat on and leased out bits of it to anyone who wanted a place to call home.

A quirky little town, as Damon had spent the last three days finding out.

Deep River consisted of a ramshackle series of buildings clustered on the side of the river, connected by a boardwalk that projected out over the water and a narrow street that ran behind the buildings on the land side. They were old, those buildings, the paint on them faded, the wood cracked and worn through long exposure to rain and sun and snow. Not as picture-postcard as the ones in Ketchikan to the south, but there was definitely a certain vintage charm to them. Like a group of elderly ladies whose beauty was a little faded and careworn, they still possessed the ghost of their stunning youth, a certain timeless magic that tugged at the heartstrings.

Houses very similar to those at the water’s edge were scattered up the hill behind the town, and there were a few more buildings along from the boardwalk, huddling against the hill’s side.

A set of wooden steps led down from the boardwalk to a dock where several fishing boats and trawlers were tied up, but since it was comparatively empty, most of the boats must have gone up the river to the sea for a day working the nets.

Damon took a deep breath and then another, the fresh bite of the air settling his headache and cooling his skin, waking him up. He wasn’t a small-town kind of guy, but there was something quite majestic about the mountains and the forested hills that loomed above him. Especially now the sun was shining.

He’d complained about the rain the night before to one of the locals, who’d then informed him of Deep River’s average rainfall, which was some horrendous amount that sounded just wrong to someone from LA.

Still, it did explain the solid three-day downpour and made him feel lucky that it was a beautiful day now.

Movement below him caught his eye, and he glanced down at the boardwalk.

The kid was there again, skulking by the big wooden pole stuck in the boardwalk that had “Middle of Nowhere” painted down the side. A tall, gangly teenager dressed in jeans and a black hoodie.

He always seemed to be in Damon’s vicinity, and if Damon didn’t know any better, he’d say he was being followed.

Though surely it was a little too early in the morning for teenagers? Weren’t they supposed to sleep past twelve or something?

The kid was looking straight at him, though he was too far away for Damon to see what expression was on his face. The fixed way the kid was staring was slightly unnerving.

A woman came suddenly into view. She had shoulder-length blond hair, and it was blowing around in the wind, a bright counterpoint to the plain jeans-and-T-shirt-combo she wore, a parka pulled on over the top, and she moved with great purpose to where the kid stood. She spoke to him a second and then turned her head, and Damon found himself under the intense scrutiny of two people.

His skin prickled, cool air moving across it. Moving everywhere across it.

Aw hell. He’d neglected to dress before stumbling out onto the balcony, and since he always slept naked… Yeah, no wonder both the woman and the kid were staring.

***

Excerpted from Deep River Promise by Jackie Ashenden. © 2021 by Jackie Ashenden. Used with permission of the publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay by Barbette De Jongh – EXCERPT, GIVEAWAY

Posted on April 10, 2021 by fredreeca

Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay

by Babette de Jongh

Publication Date: 3/30/2021

An extraordinary new series from an extraordinary author…

Abby Curtis lands on her Aunt Reva’s doorstep at Bayside Barn with nowhere to go but up. Learning animal communication from her aunt while taking care of the motley assortment of rescue animals on the farm is an important part of Abby’s healing process. She is eager to begin a new life on her own, but she isn’t prepared for the magnetism between her and her handsome, stubborn and distracting new neighbor.

Quinn Lockhart snapped up the foreclosed estate next door determined to renovate and flip the beautiful bayou property. It’s all part of a plan to make a financial comeback and reconnect with his estranged son. Definitely not part of the plan is the noisy petting zoo next door dragging down his property value. But getting rid of it becomes more difficult when he falls for the lovely and passionate Abby and bonds with an abandoned wolf dog who’s mournfully waiting for his family to return. For humans and animals alike, it will take all the courage they can muster to learn to love again. But that’s a journey worth taking—with a little help from their furry friends.

You’ll fall in love right along with Abby as animals and humans alike find unexpected ways to connect, nurture each other, and thrive.

Babette de Jongh is an award-winning romance author, professional animal communicator, energy healer, and teacher…saving the world, one happy ending at a time. Visit her anytime at babettedejongh.com.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3huw2Rc

B&N: https://bit.ly/2YztdHd

Apple: https://apple.co/3jil7L7

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3sfwCri

Bookshop: https://bit.ly/2EyVzds

BAM: https://bit.ly/34BeBeb

Books2Read: https://bit.ly/2ZRYIN7

Link to giveaway: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/54ca7af71046/?

Excerpt:

Sweaty and tired, Abby decided shoveling poop could wait until after coffee. She set up the coffeepot and hit the button to perk. She had just removed her boots when a deep bellow of human rage galvanized Georgia, who sprinted across the yard and squeezed under the fence. A second later, her sharp barking joined the new neighbor’s angry expletives. Abby ran barefoot along the hedgerow fence toward Georgia’s hysterical barking. 

A donkey’s cry made her heart race. How had Elijah gotten into the neighbor’s yard? Then she saw how. “Oh shit.” She climbed over a section of crumpled wire fencing and burst through a thick tangle of vegetation into a scene of mayhem and hysteria. 

The new neighbor charged toward Elijah and flung his hands in the donkey’s face. “Shoo. Get out.” 

Elijah reared, eyes rolling, ears pinned back. Abby grabbed a stout stick and rushed to defend her aunt’s traumatized donkey. “Stop! You’re scaring him.” 

Bawling in terror, Elijah veered around the man’s waving arms and leaped over the crumpled wire fence. Georgia—all thirty pounds of short, snarling protection—stood between Abby and the crazy neighbor. 

This mean man would not be getting any of the secret-family-recipe pound cake. 

Holding the stick out like a sword, Abby snatched Georgia up one-handed and held her close. While she and the dog both trembled with reaction, Abby glared at her aunt’s new neighbor. “What is wrong with you? You scared that poor donkey half to death.” 

The stupid neanderthal crossed his muscled arms in front of his wide chest. “Me? You’re asking what’s wrong with me? That big moose knocked me down!” 

“Moose? Elijah is just a baby! He would never—” 

“He stole my granola bar!” 

“He stole…what?” 

The man glanced at her stick. Like a warrior calculating his advantage in an armed conflict, he advanced, his expression fierce and his blue eyes so wild she could see the whites all around. “Your baby—who is the size of a moose, by the way—came onto my property, knocked me down, bit me on the ass, and stole a granola bar from my back pocket.” 

Georgia trembled in Abby’s arms and growled in promised retribution should the man come close enough for her to reach. 

Abby clutched the dog tighter. “I’m sorry if he hurt you. But you didn’t have to scare him.” 

“Your ass is fine. Mine’s the one that’s been wounded.” He lunged forward and wrenched the stick from her hand, then tossed it aside, ignoring Georgia’s escalating growl. “And yet you’re planning to attack me with a stick?” 

A hysterical giggle tickled the back of Abby’s throat. She bit her lips and patted Georgia. Laughing in the face of an animal-hating psychopath—maybe not the best move. “Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. I hope your…” She smothered an irreverent snort. “I hope your ass will recover.” 

His lips twitched, a quickly stifled smile. “I guess it will, eventually.” He let the smile have its way, and it transformed his face from surly to sexy. Straight white teeth and deep blue eyes contrasted with deeply tanned skin. His sun-bleached brown hair hadn’t been combed this morning; he looked like a man who’d just tumbled out of bed and wouldn’t mind getting right back in, given sufficient motivation. 

Not that she was interested in providing any such motivation. Hadn’t she learned her lesson? Hadn’tlosing everything—her job, her self-respect, and the child she’d come to love—hadn’t that experience taught her anything? 

It most certainly had. She was done with men. Done. 

He crossed unfairly muscular arms over unfairly toned abs. “Enjoying the view?” 

Her face heated. “Well enough.” She couldn’t deny that she’d been staring. But her appreciation of his well-developed form was purely academic. 

“Only fair, I guess.” He swept an appreciative glance from her bare feet to her heated cheeks. His blue eyes shining with humor, he trapped her gaze in his. “I bought this place for the view, but I didn’t know until recently what a bargain I was getting.” 

“Oh?” She glanced down at her dirt-smeared attire, a getup not likely to inspire such a flattering comment. Had he seen her yesterday with her robe gaping open? Or worse… Had he seen her skinny-dipping last night? 

***

Excerpted from Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay by Babette de Jongh. © 2021 by Babette de Jongh. Used with permission of the publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. All rights reserved.

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For The Love Of Books by Graham Tarrant #audiobook #audible #audiblebook

Posted on April 9, 2021 by fredreeca

Overview

Which famous author died of caffeine poisoning? Why was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland banned in China? Who was the first British writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature? What was Truman Capote superstitious about? 

Here is a light-hearted book about books and the people who write them for all lovers of literature. A treasure trove of compelling facts, riveting anecdotes, and extraordinary characters, For the Love of Books is a book about books – and the inside stories about the people who write them. 

Learn how books evolved, what lies behind some of the greatest tales ever told, and who’s really who in the world of fiction. 

From banned books to famous feuding authors, from literary felons to rejected masterpieces, from tips for aspiring writers to stand-out book lists for listeners to catch up on, For the Love of Books is a celebration of the written word.

Hear all about it!

Review

This has everything you need to know about books. Banned books, feuds, and all around need to know about books and authors all in one place!

I loved so much about this read that I purchased a hard copy. I want to make notes! This book is full of information I had no idea about. And the number of books it covers is amazing. Some I have read and some I need to read. Perfect for a bibliophile like me!

The narrator, Matthew Lloyd Davies could not have been more perfect. He was “matter of fact” and sounded so professional. Fantastic for this narration!

If you are a bibliophile…this is a must read! Grab your copy today!

I received this audiobook from the publisher for a honest review.

Purchase Here

Audible

Amazon

Chirp

Barnes and Noble

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We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker @henryholt @whittyauthor #fiction #review #5stars

Posted on April 8, 2021 by fredreeca

Overview

An Instant New York Times Best Seller

“A vibrant, engrossing, unputdownable thriller that packs a serious emotional punch. One of those rare books that surprise you along the way and then linger in your mind long after you have finished it.” (Kristin Hannah, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds)

Right. Wrong. Life is lived somewhere in between.

Duchess Day Radley is a 13-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Rules are for other people. She is the fierce protector of her five-year-old brother, Robin, and the parent to her mother, Star, a single mom incapable of taking care of herself, let alone her two kids.

Walk has never left the coastal California town where he and Star grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. And he’s in overdrive protecting Duchess and her brother.

Now, 30 years later, Vincent is being released. And Duchess and Walk must face the trouble that comes with his return. We Begin at the End is an extraordinary novel about two kinds of families – the ones we are born into and the ones we create.  

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

Review

Duchess Day Radley is only 13 years old. But she is in charge of so much. Her mother is unable to cope with Duchess and her little brother, Robin. So, Duchess has had to step up and be responsible for just about everything.

Duchess and Robin tear your heart out through this whole book. Their life is just not the best. And when it turns worse and they end up at their grandfather’s farm you think it is finally going to get better. But as usual, life twists and they once again are in the wind.

Walk, the local sheriff, is struggling with his own medical condition. But he is determined to help these children and hopefully mend a wrong.

Oh wow! That is one heck of a good book! Especially the ending. Geez! This will have you all over the place. This is a multilayered story which is amazing from start to finish. Your heart will be broken, fixed and broken again.

I listened to this one and the narrator, George Newbern, could not have been better. I am going to have to search this narrator out.

Grab your copy today! You do not want to miss this one.

I received this audiobook from The publishers for a honest review.

Purchase Here

Amazon

Audible

Barnes and Noble

Chirp

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The Marriage He Demands by Brenda Jackson – Excerpt @harlequinbooks #bookspotlight #excerpt

Posted on April 8, 2021 by fredreeca

Book Description: 

In the wilds of Wyoming ranch country, he needs something only she can give him. What price is too high to pay? Find out in this sizzling contemporary romance from New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson!

This ranching heir wants it all, including the woman who stands in his way!

Businessman Cash Outlaw has inherited almost all of his late mother’s Wyoming ranch…but still needs the fifty acres left to her former caretaker. As negotiations with beautiful, determined Brianna Banks become much more intimate, she reveals she’ll only sell him the property…if he gives her a baby! Cash’s counteroffer? That the mother of his child must become his wife!

From Harlequin Desire: Luxury, scandal, desire—welcome to the lives of the American elite.

Love triumphs in these uplifting romances, part of the Westmoreland Legacy: The Outlaws series.
Book 1: The Wife He Needs
Book 2: The Marriage He Demands
Book 3: What He Wants for Christmas

Heartfelt or thrilling, passionate or uplifting—our romances have it all. Visit TryHarlequin.com to sample FREE books from among 12 different series. It’s just a taste of the new books published each month—every story a journey guaranteed to leave you with That Harlequin Feeling.

Price: Ebook $3.99 USD / MMP $5.25

On sale date: April 13, 2021

ISBN: 9781488070518

Buy Links:

Harlequin: https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/9781488070518_the-marriage-he-demands.html

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781335232823

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-He-Demands-Passionate-Westmoreland-ebook/dp/B08K4QHK3W/

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-marriage-he-demands-brenda-jackson/1137756343

Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Westmoreland-Legacy-The-Outlaws-The-Marriage-He-Demands-A-Passionate-Western-Romance-2-Paperback-9781335232823/126474715

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/ca/book/the-marriage-he-demands/id1533522891

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Brenda_Jackson_The_Marriage_He_Demands?id=A33_DwAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-marriage-he-demands

Author Bio

Brenda Jackson is a New York Times bestselling author of more than one hundred romance titles. Brenda lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and divides her time between family, writing and traveling. Email Brenda at authorbrendajackson@gmail.com or visit her on her website at brendajackson.net.

Author Links

Website: https://www.brendajackson.net

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23809.Brenda_Jackson

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrendaJacksonAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorBJackson

Excerpt

THE MARRIAGE HE DEMANDS by Brenda Jackson

Blog tour excerpt

Two days later, Cash flew his Cessna to the Laramie Regional Airport. He’d ordered a rental car to be there when he arrived, and it was. Shifting his cell phone to the other ear, he tossed his overnight bag in the back seat as he continued his conversation with his sister, Charm. She was calling from Australia with her condolences. 

Charm had tagged along with Garth’s best friend, Walker Rafferty, and his wife, Bailey, on a trip to visit Bailey’s sister, Gemma, who lived in Australia. 

“Thanks, Charm, but you know the real deal with this. It’s not like me and Ellen had a close relationship. Like I told Garth, I’m surprised she remembered I existed long enough to put me in a will.” 

Cash glanced at his watch before starting the car and switching the phone call to the vehicle’s speaker system. He would get a good night’s sleep, and be at the meeting with the attorney in the morning at eleven. Then he would leave, head back to the airport and fly home to Fairbanks. 

“I need to end the call, Charm, so I can concentrate on following the directions to Black Crow. I’ll talk to you later, kid.” 

As Cash headed for the interstate, he thought about the conversation he’d had with his father be- fore leaving. Bart was typical Bart. Even with six adult offspring, their old man still assumed it was his God- given right to stick his nose into their business when it didn’t concern him. 

Cash had put Bart in his place just that morning when he’d tried telling Cash to make sure he got everything his mother owned because it was rightly due him. Cash had made it clear to Bart that he didn’t want a single thing. He’d even seriously thought about not showing up for the reading of the will. As far as he was concerned, it was too late for Ellen to make up for the years she had been absent from his life. The only reason he had decided to come was for closure. 

The drive from Laramie to Black Crow took less than an hour. He couldn’t help wondering when his mother had moved to Wyoming. According to Bart, when she left Fairbanks thirty-four years ago, she had moved to New York. 

Cash saw the marker denoting the entrance into Black Crow’s city limits, and recalled all he’d learned from doing an internet search last night before going to bed. It had first been inhabited by the Black Crow Indian tribe, from which the town derived its name. The present population was less than two thousand people, and most fought to retain an old-town feel, which was evident by the architecture of the buildings. He’d read that if any of the inhabitants thought Black Crow wasn’t progressive enough for them, they were quickly invited to leave. But few people left and most had lived in the area for years. It was a close-knit place. 

He came to a traffic light and watched numerous people walking around, going into the various shops. As he sat there, tapping his hand on the steering wheel, his gaze homed in on a woman who was walking out of an ice-cream shop. She was strikingly beautiful. He couldn’t help noticing how she worked her mouth on her ice-cream cone, and he could just imagine her working her mouth on him the same way.


Cash drew in a deep breath as he shifted in the seat. She looked pretty damn good in her pullover sweater and a pair of jeans. If she was a sampling of what Black Crow had to offer, then maybe he needed to hang around for another day or two and not be so quick to leave town tomorrow.

He chuckled, thinking it would take more than a beautiful face and a gorgeous body to keep him in this town. Besides, he doubted that even if he stayed he’d be able to find her. He had more to do with his time than chase down a woman. Chances were, she was wearing some guy’s ring. There was no way a woman who looked like her was not spoken for. 

The driver behind him beeped his horn to let Cash know the traffic light had changed and it was time to move on. Not able to resist temptation, he glanced back for one final look at the woman and saw she was gone. 

Just as well. 

***

Heartfelt or thrilling, passionate or uplifting—our romances have it all. Visit TryHarlequin.com to sample FREE books from among 12 different series. It’s just a taste of the new books published each month—every story a journey guaranteed to leave you with That Harlequin Feeling.

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Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy by Kris Clink @gosparkpress @KrisClinkbooks #fiction #review

Posted on April 7, 2021 by fredreeca

Overview

Lark’s lost her husband, and the expiration date has come and gone on her fake-it-till-you-make-it “Happy Mommy Show.” Healing her broken family requires drastic measures—like returning to her hometown in the Texas Hill Country. But she’s going to need more than clean air and a pastoral landscape to rebuild a life for her and her young sons.

After years of putting off her dream of becoming a winemaker, Lark puts every cent into a failing vineyard, determined to work through her grief and make a brighter future for her children. The last thing she expects is to fall in love again. Especially not with Wyatt Gifford, an injured Army vet with a past of his own to conquer.

Coming home may not be the reset Lark imagined, but it does take her on a journey filled with humor and reconciliation—one that prepares her for a courageous comeback.

Review

Lark’s husband has recently passed away. She is now widowed with two young boys. She is sort of in a holding pattern but life has a way of shoving you onto the right path. She ends up moving home to Fredericksburg, TX. Here is where he life starts to get interesting.

Lark ends up meeting a wonderful man (of course). However, Wyatt has his own brand of drama. And it is drama you do not want to miss. These two are so great together but, as you can guess, life intervenes and sends their relationship into a skid.

I loved Lark through most of the book She has been through so much and she is so strong. But, toward the end of the book, she changed a little. I was a little disappointed in how she handled a certain situation. But, everyone has flaws right!?! Just made it more real!

This is a wonderful, heartwarming story which will have you crying and laughing all in the same paragraph.

Need a good emotional love story..THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

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After Happily Ever After by Leslie A. Rasmussen #bookspotlight #giveaway @gosparkpoint

Posted on April 6, 2021 by fredreeca

Overview

Maggie Dolin is forty-five and isn’t dealing with getting older very well. Seventeen years ago, she gave up her job in publishing to raise her daughter, Gia―but now her only child is about to leave for college, and Maggie isn’t sure what her new purpose will be. She’s been the caretaker and nurturer for so long that she can’t even remember the last time someone took care of her. She wishes Jim, her husband of nineteen years, would take that role on―but he’s been distracted and disconnected, and she’s convinced he’s hiding something from her. Her self-involved, judgmental mother and resentful brother, meanwhile, are certainly no help, and her father―the only person in her life who’s always been there for her and asked nothing in return―is dealing with increasingly serious health issues, leaving Maggie without her rock.

As all these stressors pile on, a chance meeting with a younger man causes Maggie to act in a way that is completely out of character for her. As she gets deeper in, she’s forced to make some big decisions about what she wants and deserves―decisions that could change her life forever.

After Happily Ever After deals with love, marriage, family, the empty nest, aging parents and what happens when they all come crashing down at the same time.

About Leslie A. Rasmussen

Leslie Rasmussen was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She graduated with a bachelors from UCLA in Communications and went on to become a member of The Writers Guild of the West and write television comedies and is a member of Writers’ Guild of America, West. She wrote for Gerald McRaney, Burt Reynolds, Roseanne Barr, Norm McDonald, Drew Carey, and Ralph Macchio as well as The Wild Thornberrys and Sweet Valley High. After having children, she earned a master’s degree in nutrition and ran her own business for ten years. Most recently, Leslie has written personal essays for Huffington Post, MariaShriver.com, and Sheknows.com. Leslie loves dogs and besides having two adorable Labradors, she is a member of The Alliance of Therapy Dogs and has volunteered at The Burbank Animal Shelter, in Burbank, California. Leslie lives in Los Angeles and has two sons, and a husband she has been with since college. This is her debut novel.

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The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian @sourcebooks #5star #historicalfiction #review

Posted on April 6, 2021 by fredreeca

Overview

Set in 1920s Mississippi, this debut Southern novel weaves a beautiful and harrowing story of two teenage girls cast in an unlikely partnership through murder—perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing and If the Creek Don’t Rise.

Ada promised herself she would never go back to the Trace, to her hard life on the swamp and her harsh father. But now, after running away to Baton Rouge and briefly knowing a different kind of life, she finds herself with nowhere to go but back home. And she knows there will be a price to pay with her father.

Matilda, daughter of a sharecropper, is from the other side of the Trace. Doing what she can to protect her family from the whims and demands of some particularly callous locals is an ongoing struggle. She forms a plan to go north, to pack up the secrets she’s holding about her life in the South and hang them on the line for all to see in Ohio.

As the two girls are drawn deeper into a dangerous world of bootleggers and moral corruption, they must come to terms with the complexities of their tenuous bond and a hidden past that links them in ways that could cost them their lives.

Review

Ada has returned home to her horrible father. She has no where else to turn. This is where she has to go. When their reunion turns out worse than she expected and her life ends up in danger, she is saved by someone she has never met, Matilda. These two young girls end up depending on each other more than they ever expected.

When I first saw this book…I knew I had to read it. I mean…it is set is Mississippi! And oh boy…it did not disappoint.

Ada and Matilda are both poor and struggling in their own way. These two could not be more different and yet they are more alike than they think. They need each other due to various circumstances. (And you will have to read about these circumstances!) Just when you think they are about to come out of their lot in life…life kicks them back down.

This book is everything and then some. I could not stop reading. This story is intense, heart wrenching, poignant and captivating all rolled into one.

If you need a FANTASTIC book…THIS IS IT!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

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Finding Napoleon by Margaret Rodenberg @shewritespress #review #historicalfiction

Posted on April 5, 2021 by fredreeca

Overview

Beautiful and poignant.” —Allison Pataki, NY Times best-selling author of The Queen’s Fortune
“Moving compassion, humor, and wit.” — Sandra Gulland, author of The Josephine B. Trilogy

With its delightful adaptation of Napoleon Bonaparte’s real attempt to write a novel, Finding Napoleon offers a fresh take on Europe’s most powerful man after he’s lost everything. A forgotten woman of history—the audacious Albine de Montholon—narrates their tale of intrigue, love, and betrayal.

After the defeated Emperor Napoleon goes into exile on tiny St. Helena Island in the remote South Atlantic, he and his lover, Albine de Montholon, plot to escape and rescue his young son. Banding together African slaves, British sympathizers, a Jewish merchant, a Corsican rogue, and French followers, they confront British opposition—as well as treachery within their own ranks—with sometimes subtle, sometimes bold, but always desperate action.

When Napoleon and Albine break faith with one another, ambition and Albine’s husband threaten their reconciliation. To survive, Albine must decide whom to betray. To succeed, Napoleon must learn whom to trust.

Two hundred years after Napoleon’s death, this elegant, richly researched novel reveals the man history conceals.

Review

Napoleon has been defeated and he is on the run. He and his lover, Albine, plus a few more of his trusted entourage, are exiled on a tiny island. This does not stop Napoleon from plotting and planning to escape, save his son, and become emperor again. But treachery is all around and Napoleon must decide where to turn and whom to trust!

I have not read very many books about Napoleon or books set in this time period. So this was a unique read for me. This is very well researched but the writing fell a little short for me. It almost was a little too basic. But, don’t let this stop you! It is a different story and I enjoyed it! This story has a wonderful setting and fabulous twists and turns.

Need a unique historical fiction book with a fabulous cover….THIS IS IT!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

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