Last Summer by Kerry Lonsdale

Lifestyle journalist Ella Skye remembers every celebrity she interviewed, every politician she charmed between the sheets and every socialite who eyed her with envy. The chance meeting with her husband, Damien; their rapid free fall into love; and their low-key, intimate wedding are all locked in her memory. But what she can’t remember is the tragic car accident that ripped her unborn child from her. Ella can’t even recall being pregnant. Hoping to find the memories of a lost pregnancy that’s left her husband devastated and their home empty, Ella begins delving into her past when she’s assigned an exclusive story about Nathan Donovan, a retired celebrity adventurer who seems to know more about her than she does him. To unravel the mystery of her selective memory loss, Ella follows Nathan from the snowcapped Sierra Nevada to the frozen slopes of southeast Alaska. There she discovers the people she trusts most aren’t the only ones keeping secrets from her—she’s hiding them from herself. Ella quickly learns that some truths are best left forgotten.

Ella Skye is a journalist who wakes up in a hospital with no recollection of her recent past, including the unborn baby she was carrying and lost during a tragic car accident. Resolved to understand the reasons behind her selective amnesia, Ella embarks on a journey through her past and events leading up to the fatal accident.

Last Summer is my first novel by Kerry Lonsdale, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I wasn’t sure about it going in. I felt the premise of the book was a bit over the top, and honestly, I was getting tired of this book genre. Much to my surprise, this book turned out to be a great page-turner that I just couldn’t put it down. I liked the characters, and I felt the dialogue was dynamic and well-paced. The plot was intriguing and full of twists and turns. I don’t want to give too much away as this book has an ending you won’t see coming.

I would like to thank Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Format: e-ARC, Kindle 297 pages

Published: Expected publication July 9th, 2019 by Lake Union Publishing

ASIN: B07HNSYCGG

Source: Free copy provided by the publisher, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Chick-lit, Suspense

Love, Lies, and Wedding Cake by Sue Watson

Since Faye met her gorgeous Aussie boyfriend Dan, they’ve traveled all over the world to meet in amazing, crazy and romantic locations. They’ve eaten gateaux in a chateau, chocolate torte in a moonlit port, and even had stöllen kisses in a sparkling Christmas market. Neither of them wanted to settle down… until now. When Dan asks Faye to marry him and to move to Australia it throws a real spanner in the works. Faye’s daughter Emma needs her here, so moving to the other side of the world – even for a hunk like Dan – simply isn’t an option. Is it?

Review

Love, Lies, and Wedding Cake is a sequel to Love, Lies, and Lemon Cake, which I haven’t read, but also didn’t feel it was necessary in order to understand this story. The book starts with Faye and her hunk Australian boyfriend Dan enjoying themselves on a beautiful beach. Faye is a 46-year-old divorced grandma and Dan is a carefree, single guy in his 30’s. Life seems absolutely perfect to this middle-age grandma and her wonderful boyfriend until tragedy hits home and Dan has to move back to Australia leaving Faye all alone and wondering if their relationship can endure the long-distance.

I really enjoyed Sue Watson’s writing. I’m not sure I would call it hilariously funny, but I found myself laughing out loud several times. I loved Faye and her attitude towards life. The characters were well developed and this was an overall easy read. The only thing I didn’t care for was how Dan and Faye ended up. I’m not sure I would have been as forgiving, but Watson did a good job exploring that drama.

This is a delightful romantic comedy, and I’m looking forward to reading more books from this author.

I would like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A Summer Scandal by Kat French

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When Violet moves to Swallow Beach, she inherits a small Victorian pier in with an empty arcade perched on the end of it and falls in love immediately. She wants nothing more than to rejuvenate it and make it grand again – When she meets hunky Calvin, inspiration strikes. What if she turned the arcade into an adult-themed arcade full of artisan shops?

Review

A Summer Scandal is a delightful romance. I loved Violet. She’s this super sassy character who inherits her grandfather’s pier and apartment in a seaside town in England. Violet soon moves to the apartment and gets a chance to know more about her grandmother and her secrets. She soon meets Calvin and a romance between the two begins to grow. This was a very light read, and I really enjoyed reading it by the pool on a nice warm day in May. This book is much more than just a simple romance. This is a cute and funny chic-lit that will certainly please fans of the genre.

I’d like to thank Avon Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Over Easy by Pamela Ford

Allie Parker’s had enough. Just because she’s a dog groomer, her overachieving family of doctors and lawyers treats her like a child. She’s convinced that a successful husband is all she needs to change their attitudes. So when she and her friends come up with a brilliant new way to meet eligible men, Allie squeezes into her sister’s stylish clothes and sneaks into continental breakfast at an upscale hotel to find herself the perfect guy. Before Allie has taken her last bite of syrup-laden waffle, she’s met the man of her dreams. But what she doesn’t know is that he’s a jewel thief who mistakenly thinks she’s his contact—and so does everyone else who’s after his stash of diamonds. Suddenly Allie’s world is crazily upended. And as she scrambles to prove her innocence and get back to her old life, she discovers happily ever after sneaks up when you least expect it.

Review

Over Easy is book one in The Continental Breakfast Club series. This is the story of three best friends who one day come up with this great idea to find men at a hotel during continental breakfast. I laughed so hard during this book. I absolutely loved Ford’s style of writing, and I just loved Allie. This was such a cute and delightful read. Fast-paced and funny, this is a great summer read that you can enjoy in one sitting. I definitely recommend this light-hearted chick-lit.

I’d like to thank iRead Book Tours for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

About The Author

Pamela Ford is the award-winning author of contemporary and historical romance. She grew up watching old movies, blissfully sighing over the romance; and reading sci-fi and adventure novels, vicariously living the action. The combination probably explains why the books she writes are romantic, happily-ever-afters with plenty of plot. After graduating from college with a degree in Advertising, Pam merrily set off to earn a living, searching for that perfect career as she became a graphic designer, print buyer, waitress, pantyhose salesperson, public relations specialist, copywriter, freelance writer – and finally author. Pam has won numerous awards including the Booksellers Best and the Laurel Wreath, and is a two-time Golden Heart Finalist. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and children.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Review: Love for Lydia by H.E. Bates

Lydia – shy, sheltered, beautiful and just 19 – glides into Evensford one wintry day, stirring up feeling amongst the town’s young men. But it is the young Mr Richardson that she befriends. As winter turns to drowsy summer, his world becomes a wondrous place, full only of Lydia; but a change comes over the once retiring girl as she discovers the effect she has on other men. As his closest friends fall under her spell, the love Richardson feels for Lydia becomes tangled with jealousy and resentment, a rift that may never be repaired.

Love for Lydia was first published in 1952 and it is still an extremely poignant novel. This is by far one of the greatest love stories of the twentieth century. It is a beautifully written, classic love story. The prose is exquisite and the descriptions of the outdoors and countryside scenery are a delight. I’m very glad a gave this novel a chance. A timeless, steamy love story that I highly recommend.

I’d like to thank NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes

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Anna Walsh is the youngest of four sisters in the Walsh Irish family. The book starts with Anna having survived a freakish car accident and recovering back home in Ireland in her parents’ house. When Anna finally heals, she is ready to move back to her real life in New York City, to her “best job in the world” job, and to her loving husband, Aidan. Most of the story is told through flashbacks of Anna’s memories, and when Aidan disappears Anna sets out to find him by consulting fortune-tellers, horoscopes, and psychics in an attempt to contact Aidan.

I friend of mine gave me this book to read at work one day. Well, unbeknownst to me this is book number four in a series. In all fairness, this is not really a continuation of the previous stories, so it can easily stand alone. I liked the way Keyes wrote this story, the book is quite sad a times and I would’ve appreciated her characters more had I read the previous novels, but overall I really liked this book. This novel has an interesting view on grieveing and how some people cope with it. I didn’t love it, but I really enjoyed reading it.

Review: Earthbound Bones: A psychic Seasons Novel by ReGina Welling

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After being tossed out of heaven, former guardian angel, Galmadriel isn’t like any other angel. Not quite human, yet not fully an angel, the best thing the PTBs can think to do with her is bounce her around so she can solve supernatural problems.

Ghosts that need to find their way home or that purposefully take the wrong path are her bread and butter. To add insult to injury, she is assigned a fledgling pair of guardian angels to train. Julius and Estelle are ready and willing to learn, but they also have a secondary agenda. One that Galmadriel is never supposed to find out about.

Helping the ghost of young Ben Allen find his way home reconnects Galmadriel with Kat, Amethyst, Gustavia, and Julie in the first of many adventures to come.

This is my first book by ReGina Welling and it is a spin-off of her other series. Although I didn’t read any of her previous books, this book sucked me right in. I loved the main character Galmadriel and I really enjoyed the fact that this book combined paranormal, romance, and cozy mystery. This is a fun and light read. A great start of a series. I’m looking forward to her next installments.

I’d like to thank NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Break in Case of Emergency by Jessica Winter

Jen has reached her early thirties and has all but abandoned a once-promising painting career when spurred by the 2008 economic crisis, she takes a poorly defined job at a feminist nonprofit. The foundation’s ostensible aim is to empower women, but staffers spend all their time devising acronyms for imaginary programs, ruthlessly undermining one another, and stroking the ego of their boss, the larger-than-life celebrity philanthropist Leora Infinitas. Jen’s complicity in this passive-aggressive hellscape only intensifies her feelings of inferiority compared to her two best friends—one a wealthy attorney with a picture-perfect family, the other a passionately committed artist—as does Jen’s apparent inability to have a baby, a source of existential panic that begins to affect her marriage and her already precarious status at the office.

I loved Jessica Winter’s Break in Case of Emergency. Although the book started out a little slow for my taste and the story alone was not that interesting, Winter’s prose, her writing, and dialogues just really got a hold of me. Her story is funny, witty and it had me laughing out loud a few times. It was really refreshing to read something this different, fresh and invigorating. Definitely not your typical chick-lit. I highly recommend it as a great summer read.

I received an early copy of this book for free from Penguin Random House in exchange for my honest review. The new edition of this book is scheduled to be published on July 12, 2016.

Review: The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George is one of those books you feel are going to be a hit. For anyone who is a book lover, books about bookshops spark at a minimum your curiosity if not a deep interest. If you add to that a love for Paris and all Parisian things, then I’m telling you there is no reason for me not to have absolutely loved this book. Unfortunately, I didn’t.

The book tells us the story of lovely Monsieur Perdu who owns a floating bookshop on the Seine, Literary Apothecary, and “prescribes” books to people according to their problems.

“You see, I sell books like medicine. There are books that are suitable for a million people, others only for a hundred. There are even medicines — sorry, books — that were written for one person only.”

Monsieur Perdu, himself, is a wounded soul. He had his heart broken some twenty years earlier by the love of his life, Manon, when she left him without a word. It turns out that Manon did leave him a word, actually, a letter that Monsieur Perdu eventually opens and reads it. From then on the book takes a different turn. Together with a writer and another friend they pick up along the way, Perdu decides to take a trip.

This is about the time the book lost me. It was no longer about the bookshop or about Paris. It turned into long descriptions of places (many absolutely marvelous) and Perdu’s journey through grief. I found myself flipping through the pages to get to the end of the book. It’s not that this is a bad book, or poorly written. It just wasn’t what I expected to be.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Review: I Take You by Eliza Kennedy

Meet Lily Wilder: New Yorker, lawyer extraordinaire, blushing bride. And totally incapable of being faithful to one man. Lily’s fiancé Will is a brilliant, handsome archaeologist. Lily is sassy, impulsive, fond of a good drink (or five) and has no business getting married. Lily likes Will, but does she love him? Will loves Lily, but does he know her? As the wedding approaches, Lily’s nights—and mornings, and afternoons—of booze, laughter and questionable decisions become a growing reminder that the happiest day of her life might turn out to be her worst mistake yet. Unapologetically sexy with the ribald humor of Bridesmaids, this joyously provocative debut introduces a self-assured protagonist you won’t soon forget.

Entertaining is the word that comes to my mind when I think of a word to describe Eliza Kennedy’s debut novel I Take You. This was a relatively fast and fun read. I can’t say that I particularly loved the main character, Lily, or that I agree with her lifestyle and choices, but I can’t deny the fact that this is a pretty funny book that had me laughing out loud at some parts. The ending left something to be desired, but overall I really enjoyed the book, and I would recommend it to fans of this genre.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

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