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Showing posts from August, 2020

Final Cut

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  A gripping new psychological thriller from S.J. Watson, the  New York Times  bestselling author of  Before I Go to Sleep , in which a documentary filmmaker travels to a sleepy fishing village to shoot her new film and encounters a dark mystery surrounding the disappearance of a local girl. They tried to hide the truth. But the camera never lies… Blackwood Bay. An ordinary place, home to ordinary people . It used to be a buzzing seaside destination. But now, ravaged by the effects of dwindling tourism and economic downturn, it’s a ghost town—and the perfect place for film-maker Alex to shoot her new documentary. But the community is deeply suspicious of her intentions. After all, nothing exciting ever happens in Blackwood Bay—or does it? My Review I am sad to report that I struggled with this book. Which kind of surprised me as again I will point out that I loved this author's first book. The second one was kind of a miss for me as well. Yet, this was an improvement from the secon

Dancing in the Narrows

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  Dancing in the Narrows  chronicles a mother and daughter’s multiyear journey through illness and trauma. At sixteen, Anna’s youngest daughter, Dana, is stricken with a mysterious and debilitating condition, eventually diagnosed as Lyme disease. Desperate to find a cure, the two women are thrust into the established medical world, then far beyond. Full of adventure, humor, and blind faith,  Dancing in the Narrows  is an inspiring story of self-discovery as a single mother fights to save the life of her child. My Review For anyone who is suffering with any type of chronic illness, I believe they will appreciate reading this book. It is one of the most "real" books that you can read. A thank you does go out to Dana for allowing her mother, Anna to share their story together. I say "their" story because while, Dana may have been the one with the physical illness, it was both of these ladies who endured the journey from the diagnosis to the point that Dana could start

The Wright Sister

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  An epistolary novel of historical fiction that imagines the life of Katharine Wright and her relationship with her famous brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright. On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the world’s first airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, establishing the Wright Brothers as world-renowned pioneers of flight. Known to far fewer people was their whip-smart and well-educated sister Katharine, a suffragette and early feminist. After Wilbur passed away, Katharine lived with and took care of her increasingly reclusive brother Orville, who often turned to his more confident and supportive sister to help him through fame and fortune. But when Katharine became engaged to their mutual friend, Harry Haskell, Orville felt abandoned and betrayed. He smashed a pitcher of flowers against a wall and refused to attend the wedding or speak to Katharine or Harry. As the years went on, the siblings grew further and further apart. In  The Wright Sister , Patty Dann wonderfu

Have You Seen These Children?

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Four young children caught between love and hate―hostages to the cruelty of revenge. A deceitful American father and a naïve decision by a Filipino mother transformed their lives forever. Valorie, Veronica, Vance, and Vincent’s perfect world turned into a nightmare one hot afternoon in 1959 in Cebu, Philippines. What was to be a quick lunch with their father turned into a flight to America, where four dreadfully long years of running from state to state, hiding, and vanishing into the night followed. Kidnapped from the only world they knew, confusion quickly set in. At nine, Valorie, the eldest, liked seeing their father after his absence for over a year. Vance, a timid six-year-old, went along with whatever Valorie did. Vincent, the baby at three, cried for his mother while clinging to Veronica for comfort. Veronica, eight, was the only one who was truly panicked by what was happening around them―and she recognized instantly that she and her siblings would have to stick together i

The Second Mother

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  Opportunity: Teacher needed in one-room schoolhouse on remote island in Maine. Certification in grades K-8 a must. Julie Weathers isn't sure if she's running away or starting over, but moving to a remote island off the coast of Maine feels right for someone with reasons to flee her old life. The sun-washed, sea-stormed speck of land seems welcoming, the lobster plentiful, and the community close and tightly knit. She finds friends in her nearest neighbor and Callum, a man who appears to be using the island for the same thing as she: escape.  But as Julie takes on the challenge of teaching the island's children, she comes to suspect that she may have traded one place shrouded in trouble for another, and she begins to wonder if the greatest danger on Mercy Island is its lost location far out to sea, or the people who live there. JENNY MILCHMAN is an award-winning, critically acclaimed novelist from the Hudson River Valley of New York State. Her debut novel, Cover of Snow ,

The Journalist: Life and Loss in America's Secret War + Giveaway

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In the early 1960s, Jerry Rose, a writer and artist, travels to Vietnam to teach English and gather material for his writing. Almost accidentally, he becomes one of America’s most important war correspondents.  He interviews Vietnamese villagers in a countryside riddled by a war of terror and embeds himself with soldiers on the ground—the start of a dramatic and dangerous career.  Through his stories and photographs, he exposes the secret beginnings of America’s Vietnam War at a time when most Americans have not yet heard of Vietnam. His writing is described as “war reporting that ranks with the best of Ernest Hemingway and Ernie Pyle.” In spring 1965, Jerry agrees to serve as an advisor to the Vietnamese government at the invitation of his friend and former doctor, who is the new Prime Minister. He hopes to use his deep knowledge of the country to help Vietnam. In September 1965, while on a trip to investigate corruption in the provinces of Vietnam, Jerry dies in a plane cr

How Ike Led

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  How Dwight D. Eisenhower led America through a transformational time—by a DC policy strategist, security expert and his granddaughter. Few people have made decisions as momentous as Eisenhower, nor has one person had to make such a varied range of them. From D-Day to Little Rock, from the Korean War to Cold War crises, from the Red Scare to the Missile Gap controversies, Ike was able to give our country eight years of peace and prosperity by relying on a core set of principles. These were informed by his heritage and upbringing, as well as his strong character and his personal discipline, but he also avoided making himself the center of things. He was a man of judgment, and steadying force. He sought national unity, by pursuing a course he called the "Middle Way" that tried to make winners on both sides of any issue. Ike was a strategic, not an operational leader, who relied on a rigorous pursuit of the facts for decision-making. His talent for envisioning a whole, especial

A Tortured Soul

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  Everyone has a breaking point. At twenty, an unplanned pregnancy seals Crystal Holt into a marriage to the abusive Richard Connor. After a stillborn birth, Crystal insists they have the baby baptized postmortem. A cynic, a drunk, and a poor man, Richard has other plans. When her monstrous husband tosses the baby into the woods to be forgotten, Crystal instantly spirals. After beating her within an inch of her life, Richard does something else he's done before—he disappears. This time, however, things feel very different… With her husband gone, Crystal battles with the demons of abuse, dark childhood memories, and a declining mental state worsened by horrific nightmare sequences. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that something's not quite right about the way Richard disappeared this time, and Crystal is in more danger than ever. After all, not all of the dark secrets belong to Richard. Will Crystal be able to escape from a lifetime of torture unscathed, or will she succu

The Friendship List

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[ ] Dance till dawn [ ] Go skydiving [ ] Wear a bikini in public [ ] Start living Two best friends jump-start their lives in a summer that will change them forever… Single mom Ellen Fox couldn’t be more content—until she overhears her son saying he can’t go to his dream college because she needs him too much. If she wants him to live his best life, she has to convince him she’s living hers. So Unity Leandre, her best friend since forever, creates a list of challenges to push Ellen out of her comfort zone. Unity will complete the list, too, but not because she needs to change. What’s wrong with a thirtysomething widow still sleeping in her late husband’s childhood bed? The Friendship List begins as a way to make others believe they’re just fine. But somewhere between “wear three-inch heels” and “have sex with a gorgeous guy,” Ellen and Unity discover that life is meant to be lived with joy and abandon, in a story filled with humor, heartache and regrettable tattoos. My R

Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop

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From the critically acclaimed author of  Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune  comes a new delightful novel about exploring all the magical possibilities of life in the most extraordinary city of all: Paris.   Vanessa Yu never wanted to see people's fortunes—or misfortunes—in tealeaves.   Ever since she can remember, Vanessa has been able to see people's fortunes at the bottom of their teacups. To avoid blurting out their fortunes, she converts to coffee, but somehow fortunes escape and find a way to complicate her life and the ones of those around her. To add to this plight, her romance life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai.   After her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa sees death for the first time. She decides that she can't truly live until she can find a way to get rid of her uncanny abilities. When her eccentric Aunt Evelyn shows up with a tempting offer to whisk her away, Vanessa says  au revoir  to Califor

Faking It

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Description “I haven't full on belly-laughed like this for a long time” Reader review⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Meet Hannah Thompson: wife, mother, teacher and… secret erotica author? My Guilt List: 1. If we have a date night then I’m always asleep before it’s halfway through and honestly, if I had to choose, I’d rather have a hot bath and read my book than engage in any other nocturnal activity. 2. If we do actually have you-know-what then it’s not unheard of for my mind to wander… and I’m not talking about sexy things – I’m talking about what food there is in the fridge and when the car is due for its next service. 3. I am struggling to write about anything that could be classed as even a little bit sexually adventurous which is a problem when I’m supposed to be an erotica writer and I am speaking at Sex Con in exactly one month. With a book to publicise, Hannah has no choice but trade her M&S cardis for S&M parties, and become her writing alter-ego. What could possibly go wrong… My Review I

Inside the Sun + Giveaway

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  Join Us for this Book Series Tour from Jul 7 to Aug 10, 2020! “ A Wrinkle in Time meets The Princess Brid e.” - Review by Lee Lee Thompson, The Perpetual You Magazine “Chute’s novel weaves STAR WARS -like characters with a WONDER -like message to form an enrapturing read for booklovers of all ages.” - US Review of Books “ Fast and bizarre… Never a dull moment. “ - Foreward Reviews SERIES DETAILS: Series Title :  The 8th Island Trilogy by Alexis Marie Chute Category :  Young Adult Fiction (13 to 17 yrs) (368 to 448 pages) Genre :  fantasy, adventure, coming of age, ya, adult Publisher :  SparkPress. Release dates:    Jun 2018; Oct 2019; Apr 2020 Content Rating : PG: Battle scenes and death depicted. Series Description: The 8th Island Trilogy includes Above the Star , Below the Moon , and Inside the Sun . Over the three books, we follow the adventures of a quirky family, the Wellsleys. The main characters are frumpy senior citizen Archie, his