The Book Date

June 18, 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!

I am on the road again for a few days as I am travelling to Rotorua as I am one of the executors of my sister's will. I'll meet up with Bernadette my sister in Wanganui about two hours drive from here and then we will go on in her car. The weather is quite moderate so there should be no snow around and we will be up and back before we know it. No doubt I'll still get some time to visit your blogs and do a little reading.

I am thinking of changing over to Google+ for commenting as it does work a little like Wordpress in that commenters get notified of comments returned, although I am not so sure how it works if you don't have a Google+ profile. Any thoughts on that? I might turn it on for a week after this post and see how it goes.

What I read last week:

What I am reading at present:

And still listening to the Joe Biden memoir. Should finish that on the road trip for the section I am driving by myself.

Up next:

A book right off my own self. Alleluia!

Last Weeks Posts
Herons Landing JoAnn Ross Review and Giveaway - still open last day 20th
Lighthouse Beach Shelley Noble
Lady of the Night Emilie Richards

An InLinkz Link-up

June 15, 2018

Lady of the Night Emilie Richards

Published: Emilie Richards
Date: June 15th 2018
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 276
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Source: Author
Rating:

The fragile young woman, lying comatose in the ward of City Hospital in New Orleans, has no name and no memories. When she finally awakens, the one thing she can remember is a man's voice calling her back to consciousness.

In all his years of training, no one has touched psychologist Joshua Martane in the same way, and he is determined to help her. Suspected prostitute. Near victim of a serial killer. Mystery surrounds who she is–and who she isn't.

One thing is certain. Joshua realizes he has become entranced with the woman he names Maggie. Therapists should never be involved with their patients, but Maggie quickly becomes more to him. Whatever her secrets, Joshua knows he has to help her find answers. For both their sakes.

Lady of the Night is the first of three in the series New Orleans Nights. I loved reading this one and I certainly look forward to the next two.

This book tells the story of a young woman who awakes in the city hospital, with no memory of who she is, after experiencing terrible trauma. She has been in a coma for so long that they have put her in a psych ward and pretty much given up hope. Except for one psychologist who spends time talking to her, and when she awakes goes into bat for her against the establishment.

The opening chapter immediately sucked me in and I was wondering about this mystery, questions of who, where, what, why, how arose and I wanted them all answered. And eventually they were!

Joshua is the psychologist who helps Maggie as they name her. He is a compassionate man, a passionate and good therapist. In the face of challenge he can be strong, and calls a spade a spade and tells it like he sees it. But... he has an achilles heel as a result of a past experience, so... he is imperfect and human! Which makes him a bit frustrating as well.

Josh has two friends from his youth, and both are interesting so I anticipate we will also have Sam's and Skeeter's stories to relish along the way. Sam was a bit of a nuisance to begin with but after awhile I liked him. However it is Skeeter I felt really drawn to... yeah he's an insightful artist and seems to dabble still in a little 'crime' like all three did in their youth.

Maggie's story is heartbreaking, but once she starts to heal there is no stopping her, and often I thought she was as gifted with insight as Josh or even had more. Sometimes I had to stop and think who was the psychologist!

There is a nasty character as well, of course there is! And he is out to get Maggie. So the plot moves along really well with good pace until all is sorted! All very satisfying! I just might have bought a paperback copy to put on that keeper shelf!

June 14, 2018

Lighthouse Beach. Shelley Noble

Published: William Morrow
Date: May 29th 2018
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 400
Genre: Mainstream Fiction
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Rating:

When Lillo Gray pulls up to Kennebunkport’s most exclusive hotel wearing a borrowed dress and driving a borrowed VW van, she knows she’s made a big mistake. She’s not even sure why Jessica Parker invited her to her posh wedding. They haven’t seen each other since they were unhappy fourteen-year-old girls at fat camp. And now they’re from two completely different worlds. There’s no way Lillo fits in the rarefied circles Jessica travels in.

Jess isn’t sure she’s ready to go through with this wedding, but she’s been too busy making everyone else happy to think about what she wants. But when she and her two closest friends, Allie and Diana, along with Lillo, discover her fiancé with his pants down in the hotel parking lot, she’s humiliated…and slightly relieved. In a rush to escape her crumbling life, Jess, Allie, and Diana pile into Lillo’s beat-up old van and head up the coast to Lighthouse Island. Once there, she hopes to figure out the next chapter in her life.

Visit Lighthouse Beach and you'll never be the same according to a notice at the entrance to the town. For a group of friends that certainly seems to ring true. Lighthouse Beach is set in Maine in a small town that is sort of dying. No longer can the fishermen find the kind of work they once had.

Lilla has come back to live here, once her parents had a camp but they sold it to fund her education at medical school. So why is she wasting away on Lighthouse Beach? Mystery number one! After being invited to Jessica's disastrous wedding, she ends up with three visitors. I thought these three women would be rich snobs but that was really quite the opposite. They all fit into Lilla's small cottage and adjust well to a week at the beach.

Jessica had come to Lilla's parents' camp so has known Lilla for a long time. She doesn't seem to have much of a backbone when it comes to her terrible parents and her ghastly father. Jessica has had to weather rich, manipulative, judgemental parents. It's left her with issues! Well to be honest many of the characters have issues. Allie has lost her husband and has a five year old waiting for her at home. Diana has had two divorces. They are all intelligent, gifted and mostly successful women.

As well in this town there is Mac, growing old but still wanting to watch over the lighthouse. And Dr. Clancy who wants to watch over Mac. Doc (Ned) rides into town every so often to provide medical care with Dr. Clancy. As well there is Ian the vet... yes you guessed it, he has issues too!

Much happens in a week, the background to Lilla and Ian especially is revealed, and the anguish and guilt they experience. As I read on I see how Lilla and Jessica have both in a way experienced similar consequences to each other of other people's behavior.

I loved the final chapters of the book as the action heated up and stands were made. Life issued a challenge and those challenges were taken up.

The story left me a little dissatisfied. I wanted to know more about Allie. Where to for Lillie and Jessica and Diana. Yes I could finish off their stories in the way I'd like for them in my imagination. However... surely there has to be another book in there somewhere from Shelley Noble about them.

June 12, 2018

Herons Landing. Joann Ross. Review and Giveaway.

Published: HQN Books
Date: June 1st 2018
Format: e-ARc
Pages: 384
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: TLC Tours via NetGalley
Rating:

Working as a Las Vegas concierge, Brianna Mannion is an expert at making other people’s wishes come true. It’s satisfying work, but a visit home to scenic Honeymoon Harbor turns into a permanent stay when she’s reminded of everything she’s missing: the idyllic small-town charm; the old Victorian house she’d always coveted; and Seth Harper, her best friend’s widower and the neighborhood boy she once crushed on—hard. After years spent serving others, maybe Brianna’s finally ready to chase dreams of her own.

Since losing his wife, Seth has kept busy running the Harper family’s renovation business and flying way under the social radar. But when Brianna hires him to convert her aging dream home into a romantic B and B, working together presents a heart-stopping temptation Seth never saw coming. With guilt and grief his only companions for so long, he’ll have to step out of the past long enough to recognize the beautiful life Brianna and he could build together.

Herons Landing is #1 in JoAnn Ross' new series Honeymoon Harbor. It is a contemporary small town romance with all the right elements for a reader like myself.

It is set in the Pacific North West of the USA and the beautiful scenery and wildlife is brought to life in such a way that it had me wanting to visit.

The two main characters were very likeable - Brianna has decided to escape her high flying job and return home to the place she really loves, even though at one stage in her life she left to test her wings. Seth is an excellent builder and has completed a number of renovations in the small town and the place that Brianna sets her heart on - well it just so happens he loves as well. Seth lost his wife to war and he is not ready to risk loving again, and then losing that love.

There are a number of other characters, all of whom added much to the story. I especially loved Seth's Dad and the lengths he was prepared to go to win his 'lost love' and I was also taken by the two twins who run the dress shop.

This is my first taste of a JoAnn Ross book and I will certainly be looking out for #2 in the Honeymoon Harbor series.

Author's website: JoAnn Ross

Facebook: JoAnn Ross Books

Instagram: JoAnn Ross Books

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Giveaway - Open to USA and Ca readers.

Open from 12th June to 20th June. Winner will be chosen randomly and name and address sent to TLC Book Tours.

Review Tour Stops:

Monday, May 21st: Books a la Mode – excerpt

Tuesday, May 22nd: A Holland Reads

Wednesday, May 23rd: Becky on Books – excerpt

Thursday, May 24th: Into the Hall of Books

Monday, May 28th: I Wish I Lived in a Library

Tuesday, May 29th: Bookmark Lit

Wednesday, May 30th: Stranded in Chaos

Thursday, May 31st: @read.write.coffee

Monday, June 4th: Moonlight Rendezvous

Tuesday, June 5th: Running Through the Storms

Wednesday, June 6th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Thursday, June 7th: Why Girls are Weird

Monday, June 11th: From the TBR Pile

Tuesday, June 12th: Book Date

Wednesday, June 13th: What is That Book About – excerpt

Friday, June 15th: Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Monday, June 18th: Palmer’s Page Turners

Tuesday, June 19th: The Romance Dish

Wednesday, June 20th: Jathan & Heather

Monday, June 25th: Books & Bindings

Wednesday, June 27th: Romancing the Book

Thursday, June 28th: Written Love Reviews

Monday, July 2nd: Deborah Blanchard

June 11, 2018

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This week was a great reading week... until I noticed I had two books with bookshop in the title and I had noted only one in my reading calendar! Somehow they had morphed into one book in my mind! Generally that calendar keeps me straight, but of course human error creeps in obviously!

This past week I signed up for the July commenting challenge, which actually goes from June to August, and I've chosen July to participate. Full details are with Alicia at A Kernel of Nonsense or Lonna at Flylef for the sign up. Each person is paired up with another blogger for that month and let the commenting begin.

What I read last week:

Two review books, both good.

Library book which I enjoyed. I hadn't heard of Katherine Center until all the hype about How to Walk Away so while I am waiting for that at the library I decided to read this one. Worth it.

As its audiobooks month I decided I'd make more of an effort to listen most days instead of floating in my beloved silence! Therefore I powered through this 14hour listen over about 8 days which is good for me. Short review to follow. It's a light, fun romance and part of a series.

What I am reading at present:

I am listening to this memoir. After the romance listen I needed a change up. I think this one qualifies!

I am reading this debut novel, has started a little slow for me so hoping it grabs me soon.

Up next:

Last Weeks Posts
The Summer I Met Jack Michelle Gable
Someone to Care Mary Balogh

An InLinkz Link-up

June 7, 2018

The Summer I Met Jack. Michelle Gable

Published: St Martin's Press
Date: May 29th 2018
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 448
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Based on a real story - in 1950, a young, beautiful Polish refugee arrives in Hyannisport, Massachusetts to work as a maid for one of the wealthiest families in America. Alicia is at once dazzled by the large and charismatic family, in particular the oldest son, a rising politician named Jack.

Alicia and Jack are soon engaged, but his domineering father forbids the marriage. And so, Alicia trades Hyannisport for Hollywood, and eventually Rome. She dates famous actors and athletes and royalty, including Gary Cooper, Kirk Douglas, and Katharine Hepburn, all the while staying close with Jack. A decade after they meet, on the eve of Jack’s inauguration as the thirty-fifth President of the United States, the two must confront what they mean to each other.

The Summer I Met Jack by Michelle Gable is historical fiction but based on actual real life people. So that is a little challenging and difficult to do, perhaps. I think of the TV series The Crown - which I love. I know its not what these characters actually said or even did, but it resembles them all enough and the events of those times to keep me watching fascinated. Was I as fascinated by The Summer I Met Jack? To be honest - not really.

This is the story of a polish refugee after the war who comes to America, and meets Jack Kennedy before he is married or becomes the President. Alicia carries secrets and guilt and is determined though to make a good life for herself in the new country. When she meets Jack at the picture theatre where she works, an immediate liaison begins. It is eventually of course frowned on by his father and things proceed downhill for both the romance and Alicia from there.

Downhill? Well she strikes me as someone wanting to go somewhere, be someone and always searching, for happiness perhaps. Did I like her? Not really as she is presented here, although there were times I felt sympathy for her.

Michelle Gable has researched the Kennedy clan painstakingly from the list of books given at the end of the book. She presents them in quite a harsh light. I felt that harsh light was somewhat one sided and it turned me off a little.

For me the little excerpts that included a mystery lawyer and a young woman Serena, who was refreshing and beautiful, were the best. A fictional character who for me was the the saving grace, in the whole story.

Now it could just be this book wasn't for me! However Kristin over at Always With a Book, gives another viewpoint quite different to mine so go on over and read her review of The Summer I Met Jack.

June 5, 2018

Someone To Care. Mary Balogh

Published: Hachette Australia/Piatkus
Date: 1st May 2018
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 400
Genre: Historical Romance
Source: Hachette Aus via NetGalley
Rating:

No one has felt the death of the Earl of Riverdale more keenly than his wife, the now dispossessed countess Viola Kingsley.

On her way home alone from Bath, Viola meets an adventurous aristocrat at a country inn. Since she is being forced to stay for a day and night, she goes to the village fair with him and impulsively gives in to his suggestion that they run away together for a while-a brief respite from their lives of duty and responsibility.

What they discover together is the last thing Viola would have ever expected...

Someone to Care is another delightful book in the Someone series by Mary Balogh. We met Viola in the first book where she had just found out she was no longer who she thought she was. Apart from being a mother and grandmother.

When the stress of the past few years catches up with Viola she escapes the family for a brief respite. She walks right into Marcel, a person she felt rather attracted to many years ago but had not acted upon it because she believed she was married. Together now they experience a wild and passionate and joyful time until...

What follows is a chapter of mistakes and unrevealed feelings and thoughts. Marcel makes one rather quick decision that lands him in trouble and from which there seems no return - but there is and as it turns out he reaches a turning point that will change his life and that of many others as well.

This is a story about truly caring and holding a person as someone to respect and treat well. Viola says " It seems to me there has never been anyone who cares about me, the person who dwells within the daughter and mother and all the rest. No one even knows me. Everyone thinks they do, but no one really does. Sometimes it feels as though I even do not know myself." The novel is about discovering who you really are, not just a list of labels like wife, mother, Countess and so on.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book, a little disappointed with the second half as it reverted into the trappings of society and Marcel and Viola suddenly change from the carefree wonderful people we have come to know. However in saying that the mistakes and acting out of hurt then resulted in both characters, and especially Marcel growing and becoming the person he really was meant to be.

So a story about older characters, in their early forties and and a whole cast of beloved family characters made this book another great addition to the series.