The Book Date

August 4, 2018

My Book Date blog has moved.

As I signalled in July I am moving to WordPress. Starting on Monday the 6th I'll be hosting It's Monday! What Are You Reading on my WordPress.com blog. It is still the Book Date, just a different address.

For the moment I'll still mostly be hosting the reading challenge Full House on this blog at least for this quarter.

Everything else will be over at The Book Date on WordPress.

August 1, 2018

The House At Saltwater Point Colleen Coble

Published: Thomas Nelson
Date: 3rd July 2018
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 352
Genre: Mystery/Romantic Suspense
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Ellie Blackmore is making a name for herself as a house flipper. But when her sister Mackenzie disappears, Ellie can’t focus on anything but uncovering what happened. Her only clue is the bloodstain on the deck of Mackenzie’s boat. Ellie knows her sister isn’t on the best of terms with her ex-husband, Jason, but he wouldn’t kill her—would he?

Coast Guard intelligence officer Grayson Bradshaw believes Mackenzie faked her own death after stealing a seized cocaine shipment. The problem is convincing Ellie, who seems to view him as the true enemy.Both Ellie and Grayson want truth, but truth—and family—is often more complex than it first appears.

The House at Saltwater Point is the first book I have read by the author Colleen Coble. It is a fairly fast paced suspense with plenty of crime and dead bodies littering the pages. I did wonder though at how some characters were viciously killed off but the main protagonists seemed to not be treated in the same way.

Ellie is a renovator - Hammer Girl is her blog name and the name that Grayson Bradshaw - coast guard officer likes to call her. As they both search for her sister - Mac, and try to unravel what has happened to her they start to find they are really attracted to each other.

Who is Mac working with, what drives her, is she somehow mixed up with a crime ring or something even more sinister? Who is friend and who is foe? I began to feel very few could be trusted! Ellie has always cared for her sister but possibly her blind spot has hidden from her some of Mac's characteristics.

Grayson is dealing with some family issues, it turns out he is more linked to this town than he thought, and Ellie too has issues of her own from her childhood. ( Well who doesn't! However hers is a little more than most of us have to deal with).

While this is #2 in Colleen Coble's Lavender Point series, it is also a stand alone, I hadn't read #1 but enjoyed meeting the characters from that book.

This is a Christian fiction book, with a few God references that possibly are a little unnecessary, at times the story felt a little over the top, but no more than any fast paced adventure movie!!

Connect with Colleen

Website Facebook Twitter

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble | iBooks

July 31, 2018

July Reading Month in Review

Welcome in, do join me by sharing your link to your look back at this month. I'm looking forward to visiting and seeing what everyone has been up to. The link will be open for you to share your post whenever you post over the next few days. Do visit each others' posts.

Total books read this month: 12

Bayou Midnight Emilie Richards 4 stars
Summer Wives Beatriz Williams 4 stars
Dreams of Falling Karen White 5 stars
Beach Blues Joanne DeMaio 4 stars
As You Wish Jude Deveraux 4 stars
The Rogue Not Taken Sarah MacLean 3.5 stars
One Night Wife Ainslie Paton 4 stars
The Choice Edith Eva Eger 5 stars
The Patchwork Bride Sandra Dallas 4 stars
The House on Saltwater Point Colleen Coble 3 stars
Homicide in Hardcover Kate Carlisle 4 stars
Night Magic Emilie Richards 4.5 stars

Book Formats:

Paperback	Five
E-Book	Five
Audiobook	Two
From Library	Three
Review Books	Five
Borrowed	One

Genres Read

Contemporary Romance	One
Romantic Suspense	Three
Cozy mystery	One
Women's Fiction	Five
Historical Romance	One
Memoir	One

New to me authors.
Colleen Coble
Kate Carlisle
Sandra Dallas
Edith Eger

Top Books for July

Two stand out in July. One a memoir of an amazing life and an inspiring person.

And the most riveting fiction for this month... I borrowed this one from the library. I just might have to buy it when it comes out in paperback.

Looking Forward to Reading in August...

I am looking forward to reading some books I have stockpiled recently! All now my own books. No review books for August. I carefully managed that. See a few of the purchased ones below. Some of them will be read for sure!

Incoming Books.

Paperback Books Purchased:

E Books Purchased:
This book was borrowed - hardcover. However I wanted my own copy so bought a Kindle copy which was so very reasonably priced.

Library Books:

Books coming from NetGalley

Audio Books
Credits from Audible

As some of you may know I am moving to Wordpress.com so next month this link up will be at my new address! I will leave a link here on this blog so that you can find me. Do keep joining up. Next month I intend doing a giveaway for those who link to this post, not because I have a new address but it is my birthday month and I am celebrating with... books!

So how did your reading month pan out?

An InLinkz Link-up

July 30, 2018

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organise yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit – join them!

Firstly thank you to Beth from Beth Fish Reads who told me how to correct the Blogger fault of notices of comments on my blog not coming to my email. Thanks to her they now are!

I am still moving to WordPress and an update on that next week.

This week sees the end of July. I know! But... August is my birthday month and I have carefully orchestrated it to not have one review book to read! ( I still have reviews to post though). One of the birthday gifts to me is NO review reading in August. I am going to read only my books or books I get from the library. Big smile!

To celebrate as well I will be having a giveaway on each of the Mondays in August on It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Those who link to those posts will qualify to be part of it. Nothing else needed.

Now unfortunately I won't be around for a couple of days because I am travelling again to Rotorua because the lawyer wants myself and my sister to sign some documents! Re my sister's estate that we are executers for. So sigh! Hours of driving with some twisty roads. The weather looks okay at this point. I'd like to see some snow on the mountains as we pass by!

I drive to Whanganui by myself, its good road and quite flat. I meet up with my sister and then we go on to Rotorua which will take about three to four hours. The section from her place to the top of Lake Taupo is quite twisty and hilly and that's where we pass the mountains. (A ski area). It is all volcanic - Taupo is a large crater lake, that erupted about 26 500 years ago and is about the size of Singapore. We go around that and then once on the bypass we are good travelling to Rotorua, a big thermal area, has its own lakes and steam and thermal mud pool areas. But we aren't tourists and we sleep the night sign documents and travel in reverse all the way home on Monday!

What I read last week:

From the library - thoroughly enjoyed.

Review book - review to follow

What I am reading at present:

And at last I have started listening to my audiobook. See the sidebar.

Up next:

Not too sure, off my own shelves though!

Last Weeks Posts
Bayou Midnight by Emilie Richards

An InLinkz Link-up

July 25, 2018

Bayou Midnight Emilie Richards

Published: Emilie Richards 2nd Edition
Date: 15th July 2018
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 305
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Source: Author

Homicide detective Sam Long is determined to solve his latest case, but he can’t move forward without help. His best witness to arson and murder is a little girl, and whatever she saw on the night of the fire is safely locked away in her mind.

The last thing Sam wants is to consult with anyone, especially Dr. Antoinette Deveraux, a beautiful psychologist trained in hypnosis. He’s certain there’s no place for someone like compassionate Antoinette in a murder investigation. But when she unlocks the child’s memories, Antoinette unlocks something primal and compelling in Sam’s own heart.

Bayou Midnight is the second book in the New Orleans trilogy by Emilie Richards. It is a revised and updated version of a previously published book. These books are set in New Orleans before hurricane Katrina changed it up so much.

As a reader not familiar with this part of the world I have to say I was fascinated by the setting that Emilie Richards describes so well. I was on my computer researching who cajuns are and their history. I know the author dearly loves this place, myself I'd be a little nervous, but it certainly is unique.

This is a romantic story about Antoinette - a psychologist and Sam the policeman. We met both in the previous book, and Sam was someone I really didn't like. He was a very suspicious and prickly man, although very loyal and once a friend - always a friend.

In this book he has all these same qualities, plus we see a gentle compassionate side, and that same prickly veneer. He is totally against getting involved and yet very attracted to the lovely Antoinette. I liked her very much, although she has one foible that could lead her into ill health if she kept it up.

The suspense part is that someone is trying to blow up an oil rig and damage an oil company who have been poor employers. Sam is on the case, but he doesn't seem to get anywhere until suddenly it is very close to home.

I loved the writing and the descriptions in this book and of course really the characters are just so adorable. I am so waiting for Night Magic which is Skeeter's story - a friend of Sams. This will be a totally new story because back in the bad old days of publishing they thought he was too much of a bad boy to have a book. Oh my! Little did they know then. For my taste he has been cleaned up a bit too much in Book 2 so I hope he still has his attitude when his book now comes to life next month. We shall see!

July 23, 2018

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I've thought about it and I've decided I am going to move over to WordPress.com. I am going to have to cut my losses for some of the styling on this blog that I do love, but the whole Blogger commenting system is just so useless. I need those reminders in my email which of course Blogger has cut out. I read somewhere that every year Google cuts out something so looks like the email alert of comments on Blogger blogs. I missed some comments, which of course is my fault but I need the alert!

And there are other issues I won't go into, if you are with Blogger you probably know them yourself and choose to live with them but I have decided to shift. I like the WordPress experience a little better. I have my quilting blog there and have used it before when I was teaching. So it is with some regret though that I will move.

I did export this blog about a year ago to the WordPress site and have in the last week been moving over some of my posts from the last year. I won't move everything and will just leave some posts only here. They will all be here. I am not sure how that will mess with duplicating material as I am not doing any fancy things to stop that being picked up. My theory is I am such a small blogger it won't affect anything!

I intend to make the switch in August, best scenario at the beginning of August, but could be into August, but I will leave a link post once I move.

What I read last week:

From the library

From the review pile

What I am reading at present:

From the library, a genre I rarely read but hope to read through this series until I tire of it!

I wish I could say I was listening but I haven't even started my latest one. I will when I feel the motivation.

Up next:

For Review

Last Weeks Posts
The Art of Inheriting Secrets Barbara O'Neal
The Summer Wives Beatriz Williams

An InLinkz Link-up

July 20, 2018

The Art of Inheriting Secrets. Barbara O'Neal

Published: Lake Union Publishing
Date: 17th July 2018
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 364
Genre: General Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

When Olivia Shaw’s mother dies, the sophisticated food editor is astonished to learn she’s inherited a centuries-old English estate—and a title to go with it. Raw with grief and reeling from the knowledge that her reserved mother hid something so momentous, Olivia leaves San Francisco and crosses the pond to unravel the mystery of a lifetime.

One glance at the breathtaking Rosemere Priory and Olivia understands why the manor, magnificent even in disrepair, was the subject of her mother’s exquisite paintings. What she doesn’t understand is why her mother never mentioned it to her. As Olivia begins digging into her mother’s past, she discovers that the peeling wallpaper, debris-laden halls, and ceiling-high Elizabethan windows covered in lush green vines hide unimaginable secrets.

Although personal problems and her life back home beckon, Olivia finds herself falling for the charming English village and its residents. But before she can decide what Rosemere’s and her own future hold, Olivia must first untangle the secrets of her past.

The Art of Inheriting Secrets by Barbara O'Neal - a read I enjoyed. Why?

Set in the English countryside
A falling down estate - especially the old English house - more than a small house - a stately house.
A woman who has just lost her mother and has come to England because she has found papers amongst her mother's things. She is about to find out she is now a Countess and the owner of the large estate.
A cold case - a young missing girl and a missing man, her mother's brother.
Unscrupulous people who are out to get their hands on the estate and any money there.
Food - Olivia is a food editor and she appreciates the best tastes going. To her delight she comes across and English /Indian family who are well versed in delightful tastes
Samir - a young man who is working as a thatcher but is so much more.
An old Earl who turns out to be a darling
A treasure hunt of sorts that Olivia's mother has set up for her to find what she needs.
Warm friendships that start to form
The possibility of taking on Rosemere - the estate - and bringing it back to its former glory

All these things kept me reading, at times I found a little too much going on and some things then a little undeveloped for my taste, but that said, it was a great read.