The Summer He Came Home- first in a new series by Juliana Stone

Falling asleep in a different bed every night has made it easy for Cain Black to forget his past. It’s been ten years since he packed his guitar and left Crystal Lake to chase his dreams. Now tragedy has forced him home again. And though Cain relishes the freedom of the road, one stolen moment with Maggie O’Rourke makes him wonder if he’s missing out on something bigger than fame.

For Maggie—single mother and newly settled in Crystal Lake—love is a luxury she just can’t afford. Sure, she appreciates the tall, dark and handsome looks of prodigal son Cain Black. But how long can she expect the notorious hellion to stay?

The last thing either of them wants is something complicated. But sometimes love has its own plans. ( synopsis from  www.julianastone.com)



Juliana Stones’ series, the Bad Boys of Crystal Lake, starts off with a winner. The Summer He Came Home tells the story of Cain Black, a rock star who has come home to attend the funeral of his childhood friend.  His marriage has broken up and he has just found out his band mate was screwing his ex-wife.  After an on-stage fight, Cain finds out about his friend’s death and heads home.  Suffice it to say, he is not at his charming best when he arrives.  Then he sees Maggie O’Rourke and his life takes a turn for the better.

Maggie O’Rourke is a newcomer in town who works as a cleaning lady.  She supports herself and her young son and pretty much keeps to herself. When she meets Cain, she is attracted but wary. She is keeping a secret about her child’s father and has no interest in complicating her life.

Although the story is a romantic classic, bad boy meets downtrodden woman with a secret, it feels fresh in this book.  There are several plots going on at once, some with Cain, some with Maggie, and others with the secondary characters.  The romantic tension between the two main characters is pretty hot and Maggie fights it pretty hard.  I liked that she put her son first before finally letting herself get involved.  I also liked the fact that Cain kept his grouchy, “I’m an island” persona for most of the book.  It just made the ending so much more satisfying!

There were plenty of hints of the stories that will work into the later books and that just made the anticipation that much more.

Next in the series:

Publication date October 1, 2013

The Biscuit Witch by Deborah Smith

Biscuit witches, Mama called them. She’d heard the term as a girl. She’d inherited that talent. My mother could cast spells on total strangers simply by setting a plate of her biscuits in front of them.–Tal MacBride

Welcome back to the Crossroads Cove where new loves, old feuds, and poignant mysteries will challenge siblings Tal, Gabby, and Gus MacBride to fight for the home they lost and to discover just how important their family once was, and still is, to the proud people of the Appalachian highlands.
Tallulah MacBride hasn’t been back to North Carolina since their parents’ tragic deaths, twenty years ago. But now, Tal heads to cousin Delta Whittlespoon’s famous Crossroads Café in the mountains above Asheville, hoping to find a safe hiding place for her young daughter, Eve.
What she finds is Cousin Delta gone, the café in a biscuit crisis, and a Scotsman, who refuses to believe she’s passing through instead of "running from.” He believes she needs a knight in shining flannel.
When a pair of sinister private eyes show up, Tal’s troubles are just beginning.
For Tal’s brother and sister—Gabby, the Pickle Queen, and Gus, the Kitchen Charmer—the next part of the journey will lead down forgotten roads and into beautiful but haunted legacies.( synopsis from BelleBridge Books.com)

I have been a huge fan of Deborah Smith’s books for years. Her newest book, The Biscuit Witch, takes place in the same small town as one of her previous books.   It’s been about six years since her last book and I was so excited to find out that she is writing a  new series of three novellas about the MacBride siblings. 

In this first book, Tal MacBride and her daughter Eve make their way to the small town where her fellow biscuit witch and cousin Delia owns the Crossroads Café. On the run from her ex-lover and trumped up legal issues, she doesn’t plan to stay in town but merely to make a short visit before moving on.  When the first encounter she has in town is with a bear trying to eat cupcakes out of her back seat and lick frosting off her knees, she has her first inkling that things aren’t going to go as planned.  Tal is saved by local veterinarian Doug Firth, a few hundred sheep, a goat named Teasel and two gay women who run a shelter/farm for abused women.

While in Asheville, Tal finds herself drawn to the easy going Doug and becomes part of the fabric of the town. She discovers that the town holds the key to her future and the answers to some big questions about her family’s past.

I loved this book.  The romance between Tal and Doug is sweet and unfolds perfectly. There are quirky town folk who are part of the healing that happens for both Tal and Doug. There are parts of the book that will just make you laugh out loud (I will never look at fondant in the same way again) and parts where you just feel like you would love to live in Asheville and be part of the community.

Since this is the first book in a trilogy, it sets up the next book by ending with a mini cliffhanger. I can’t wait for the book to come out!

Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman- LOVED this book!

“My little brother was so wonderstruck by the world around him that never once did I hear him cry. He’d sit in that old buggy with his eyes wide and his ears pricked sharp as a deer’s. It seemed to me that nature spoke to him more plainly than any human voice … as if the wind moving through the trees and the subtle change in a blackbird’s song told him the truth of things.”

Each time Teddi Overman leaves her antiques shop in Charleston, South Carolina and visits the Kentucky farm of her youth, she’s drawn to the mysterious beauty of Red River Gorge where her brother Josh went missing. Though his absence remains unimaginable, Teddi builds a life as unexpected and quirky as the customers who frequent her shop. As she comes to terms with the events that shattered her family and finds love in the most surprising way, Teddi must decide what to let go of and what to keep.

In Looking for Me, bestselling author Beth Hoffman brings forth an evocative, multilayered story that moves between the charms of Charleston and Kentucky’s woodlands while exposing the fragile wounds and strengths of a woman who comes to understand the words once written in a simple note and the remarkable boy who penned them. ( synopsis from bethhoffman.net)

This is such a good book.   When I started reading it, I couldn’t stop, and I read it cover to cover until late in the AM. Teddi Overman is a woman who owns and operates an antiques business. Ever since she was a child in Kentucky, she has been drawn to old things and the inherent beauty within them. She has a complicated relationship with her mother, an embittered widow. She also had or maybe still has a younger brother who disappeared many years ago. In her heart, Teddi feels that Josh is still alive even though common sense would say otherwise.   Josh was a sensitive young man who was intensely connected to the wildlife near their home, especially birds. An episode with an abused dog is the catalyst for Josh’s disappearance.

The love that Teddi has for older things is integral to the story and how she can see the most beat up piece of furniture and find the beauty in it.  Her mother always wanted her to do something more practical and has never even visited her home or shop in Charleston. Fortunately, she has a good relationship with her grandmother who lives in a facility and who gives her the emotional support she needs.   

The other characters in the book are well developed and add color to the story. Reading about how Teddi developed her business and met her employees was interesting and gave the reader more of Teddi’s history. Her friend Olivia is a book restorer and is obsessed with old books much like Teddi is with her antiques.  Teddi has a persistent shoplifting customer who indirectly leads to Teddi finding romance in her life. 

What was interesting to me was the fact that Teddi was able to see the value in older things, but was so blind when it came to her mother. It isn’t until it’s too late that Teddi discovers that there was so much more to her mother’s life the Teddi never knew about and that shaped who her mother was.  Like Teddi’s beloved antiques, her mother had many layers that covered the person within, presenting an old worn out appearance that Teddi couldn’t see behind. Teddi does resolve her issues with her mother in a way that is satisfying but sad at the same time. The mystery of her brother’s disappearance is also resolved on some level.  When the book ended, I wanted more. I wasn’t ready to stop reading. I look forward to reading a future book by this talented author.

I've been a bad blogger!

In the course of raising money to expand our library, reading as much as I can and getting ready for my daughter's wedding, I have neglected this blog for quite a while.  Well, things are settling down, I am still doing all of the above, but I have been trying to carve out the time to write reviews or comments about the books that I really enjoy reading.

I think it is so important to spread the word about authors we enjoy.  I follow quite a few of my favorites on Facebook and I am  getting a picture of how much effort goes into writing, editing and getting their books out to the public.  I see on FB that they have re-writes and publisher meetings, cover decisions and so much work that has to be done before we readers get the book. 

So many times I have read a book and really enjoyed it.  I usually go into the library and tell other people about it and add it to the order list if it isn't already there. The nice thing about blogging is that  I can share my opinion with more people.  I usually use the same review I have given to Amazon, B&N, Goodreads  and Librarything.  I am always thrilled when I get feedback that my review was helpful to someone or an author liked my review. I enjoy that as much as when a patron tells me that they really enjoyed a book I recommended.

If you are reading this blog and you are reading a book you enjoy, please go to one of online sites and give it 4-5 stars and maybe even a line or three about why you liked the book. By doing so, you help make sure that the author you enjoyed can get future books published.  I am going to devote time every week to do the same so I can continue to escape into my favorite fictional places .

Undone by Sara Humphreys (Amoveo # 4)

Party girl Marianna Coltari is an unmated pureblood Amoveo who wants nothing to do with the ongoing war that took her father’s life and continues to consume her brother Dante’s. But when she is targeted by one of the clans, she has little choice but to run and hide in a cabin with Pete Castro, a retired cop from her brother’s security firm. There, Pete and Marianna explore an intensifying attraction between them until danger is at the door and there’s no escape. (synopsis from novelromance.net)



The further Ms. Humphreys gets into this series, the more interesting it becomes. In this book, purebred Amoveo Marianna discovers that human Pete is her mate and worries about how that will complicate both their lives. The chemistry between them is hot! The war between the Purists and the more inclusive Amoveo, like Marianna and her brother, really ratchets up in this book. The Purists take their nastiness to a whole new level and in a way that ensnares Marianna. Both Pete and Marianna have some surprises in their road to mating and there is an game changing twist in the end. There are also enough loose ends to make the reader anxious for the next book to see what happens.

Three Sisters (Blackberry Island # 2) by Susan Mallery

After Andi Gordon is jilted at the altar, she makes the most impetuous decision of her life – buying one of the famed Three Sisters Queen Anne houses on Blackberry Island. Now the proud-ish owner of the ugly duckling of the trio, she plans to open her own pediatric office on the first floor, just as soon as her hunky contractor completes the work. Andi's new future may be coming together, but the truth is she's just as badly in need of a major renovation as her house.
When Deanna Phillips confronts her husband about a suspected affair, she opens up a Pandora's Box of unhappiness. And he claims that she is the problem. The terrible thing is, he's right. In her quest to be the perfect woman, she's lost herself, and she's in danger of losing her entire family if things don't change.
Next door, artist Boston King thought she and her college sweetheart would be married forever. Their passion for one other has always seemed indestructible. But after tragedy tears them apart, she's not so sure. Now it's time for them to move forward, with or without one another.
Thrown together by fate and geography, and bound by the strongest of friendships, these three women will discover what they're really made of: laughter, tears, love and all. ( Synopsis from susanmallery.com)

Three Sisters is the follow up book to Barefoot Season, the first book in the Blackberry Island series. The story centers on Andi, a pediatrician who buys one of the three Queen Anne houses known as the Three Sisters. The other two are owned by Boston, a free spirited artist and her husband and the last by Deanna, a perfectionist housewife with five daughters and an unhappy husband.

Andi comes to the island after being left at the altar and buys a rundown house that she plans to rehab to use as offices and living quarters. What is interesting is that the house is a mess and so is her life. Aside from the fact of her disappointing love life, Andi would seem to have it pretty good.  She is a doctor after all and can afford to redo the house and start a new life. In reality, she comes from a family of super doctors who look down on her for “bandaging kid’s knees”. She has no trust in a man being able to commit to her or even in her finding another man after wasting ten years on her previous guy. She meets Wade, who is the brother of her contractor Zeke.  Sparks fly but he has trust issues as well from his previous marriage and a 12 year old daughter to protect from being hurt. He and Andi keep letting their past rule their present.

Boston is another who seems to have it all with a career she loves and a handsome loving husband in Zeke.  Zeke is Wade’s brother.  But behind her eclectically artistic house, she is trapped in a cycle of sadness and loss that she can’t break.  Her marriage is at a breaking point and both parties are unable to reach out to the other.

Deanna has the perfect house and sees herself as the perfect mother by cooking organically, not allowing sweets or regular TV.  She rigidly controls her whole life but it is like balancing plates on a pole and they are starting to drop. Her husband has reached his point of no return and wants to see her make some changes. Deanna can’t see why she needs to change except to pacify her husband, not because she needs to for herself.

I think that Ms. Mallery has shown a great deal of insight into the issues of low self-esteem, loss of a child, and the devastating long term effects of being a child of an alcoholic. She doesn’t gloss over the negative aspects of the three women’s emotional makeup but even at their worst, they are sympathetic. Their friendship has a natural progression. The two spouses behave badly on some level but it is understandable.  Even Wade has reasons for his negative behavior. All six people need to grow emotionally and Ms. Mallery doesn’t make it look easy, going as far as including the fact that professional help is sometimes the only answer. The ending is totally believable and satisfying.

Just a note, I totally loved the “shoutout” to the series The Kings of California by Maureen Child.

The Good Woman by Jane Porter

Meg Brennan Roberts is a successful publicist, faithful wife, and doting mother who prides herself on always making the right decisions. But years of being "the good woman" have taken a toll and Meg feels burned out and empty, more disconnected than ever from her increasingly distant husband. Lonely and disheartened, she attends the London Wine Fair with her boss, ruggedly handsome vintner, Chad Hallahan. It's here, alone together in an exotic city, far from "real" life, that Chad confesses his long-standing desire for Meg. Overwhelmed, flattered, and desperately confused, Meg returns home, only to suddenly question every choice she's ever made. Fleeing her responsibilities—with consequences as reckless and irreversible as they are liberating—Meg must decide whether being the person everyone needs is worth losing the woman she was meant to be. (synopsis from www.janeporter.com)

Trade paperback, Berkley Trade, 368 pages

On the surface, Meg Roberts has it all.  She has a loving husband, three children and a job she loves doing PR for an area winery.  But Meg is feeling as though she is missing something, that her life lacks some essential thing that she can’t put her finger on.  She and her husband Jack have been married for seventeen years but she feels as though they are losing the connection between them. Meg discovers that her charismatic boss Chad has been harboring feelings for her and drifts into an affair which causes the disintegration of her life as she knows it.

Meg is an interesting character.  She has always been the good girl, the good wife, the good mother and she has a strong sense of loyalty and a need for structure. This story looks at how someone who has been so tightly controlled all of her life finds herself doing something that she knows is wrong and also knows could ruin her life. The book does not make excuses for her behavior or paint her husband in a terrible light. Yes, he is sometimes distracted and may be a little selfish in the marital bed, but does that excuse adultery? Meg’s family is an old school Irish Catholic one that is having issues of its own. Her sister Kit is getting over the breakup of her long term relationship. Her sister Sarah is married to a professional athlete who cheated on her in the past.  Needless to say, Sarah is not sympathetic to Meg’s situation.  Meg’s parents are supportive but unhappy with what she has done and they are dealing with their own problems as well. The story weaves all of their lives into Megs and gives the reader a variety of viewpoints of Meg’s situation.

When I started the book, I was concerned about the theme because I wasn’t sure I could relate to a character that cheats. However, the way the topic was handled in this book made it relatable and not uncomfortable.  The resolution of the situation is handled realistically and appropriately. Ms. Porter did not take the easy way out for the character.

This is the first book in the series about the Brennan family.  Based on the characters from this book it looks like they will all be pretty interesting. The next book is due out in February, 2013.