#SRC2016 Book Review: All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker

Title:All Is Not Forgotten Author:Wendy Walker Published:July 2016, St. Martin’s Press Format:ARC Paperback, 320 pages Source:BookSparks  In the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut everything seems picture perfect. Until one night when young Jenny Kramer is attacked at a local party. In the hours immediately after, she is given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault. But, in the weeks and months that follow, as…

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Review: Little Girl Gone by Gerry Schmitt

Title:Little Girl Gone Author:Gerry Schmitt Series:Afton Tangler, #1 Published:July 2016, Berkley Format:Hardcover, 336 pages Source:Publisher In the first Afton Tangler thriller, the unforgiving cold of a Minnesota winter hides the truth behind an even more chilling crime… On a frozen night in an affluent neighborhood of Minneapolis, a baby is abducted from her home after her teenage babysitter is violently assaulted. The parents are frantic, the police are baffled, and,…

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Review: The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Title:The Hatching Author:Ezekiel Boone Published:July 2016, Atria/Emily Bestler Books Format:ARC Paperback, 352 pages Source:Publisher An astonishingly inventive and terrifying debut novel about the emergence of an ancient species, dormant for over a thousand years, and now on the march. Deep in the jungle of Peru, where so much remains unknown, a black, skittering mass devours an American tourist whole. Thousands of miles away, an FBI agent investigates a fatal plane…

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#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in July 1

  #FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About     This week I took a step back and just wanted to get in my 30 minutes of walking each day and make my 10K step goal M-F. I went hard-core the week prior, which while fun, I cannot keep up every week. I also added some body-weight strength training – every other day,…

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#SRC2016 Book Spotlight: So Close by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

Title: So Close Author:Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus Published:June 2016, Sparkpress Format:Paperback, 288 pages   From international #1 best-selling authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus comes a story about a girl from the trailer parks of central Florida and the two powerful men who shape her life one of whom will raise her up to places she never imagined, the other of whom will threaten to destroy her. Amanda Beth…

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Month in Review: June 2016

Here are my reading stats for June! Books read: 13 Books I read:  Private L.A. — James Patterson The Island House — Nancy Thayer (audio book) Ink & Bone — Lisa Unger (e-book) Cavendon Hall — Barbara Taylor Bradford (audio book) As Time Goes By — Mary Higgins Clark (audio book) The Girl from the Savoy — Hazel Gaynor (audio book) First Comes Love — Emily Giffin The Ice Princess…

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Review: Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner (audio)

Title:Who Do You Love Author:Jennifer Weiner Narrator:Sarah Steele & JD Jackson Published:August 2015, Simon & Schuster Audio Length:13 hours Source:Library Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are eight years old when they meet late one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she’s intrigued by the boy who shows up all alone with a broken arm. He tells her…

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Review: All of Us and Everything by Bridget Asher (audio)

Title:All of Us and Everything Author:Bridget Asher Narrator:Cassandra Campbell Published:November 2015, Blackstone Audio Length:10 hours 9 minutes Source:Personal copy via Audible For fans of the quirky, heartfelt fiction of Nick Hornby and Eleanor Brown comes a smart, wry, and poignant novel about reconciliation between fathers and daughters, between spouses; the deep ties between sisters; and the kind of forgiveness that can change a person’s life in unexpected and extraordinary ways.…

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Review: A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams

Title:A Certain Age Author:Beatriz Williams Published:June 2016, William Morrow Format:ARC Paperback, 336 pages Source:Publisher The bestselling author of A Hundred Summers, brings the Roaring Twenties brilliantly to life in this enchanting and compulsively readable tale of intrigue, romance, and scandal in New York Society, brimming with lush atmosphere, striking characters, and irresistible charm. As the freedom of the Jazz Age transforms New York City, the iridescent Mrs. Theresa Marshall of…

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Review: Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War by Heather Webb and others

Title:Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War Author:Heather Webb, Jessica Brockmole, Hazel Gaynor, Evangeline Holland, Marci Jefferson, Kate Kerrigan, Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig Published:March 2016, William Morrow Paperbacks Format:ARC Paperback, 368 pages Source:Publisher On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month . . . November 11, 1918. After four long, dark years of fighting, the Great War ends at last, and…

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#SRC2016: Book Review: First Comes Love by Emily Giffin

Title: First Comes Love Author: Emily Giffin Published: June 2016, Ballantine Books Format: ARC Paperback, 400 pages Source: BookSparks In this dazzling new novel, Emily Giffin, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed, Where We Belong, and The One & Only introduces a pair of sisters who find themselves at a crossroads. Growing up, Josie and Meredith Garland shared a loving, if sometimes contentious relationship. Josie was…

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Review: Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger

Title:Ink and Bone Author:Lisa Unger Published:June 2016, Touchstone Format:ARC E-copy, 352 pages Source:Netgalley   Twenty-year-old Finley Montgomery is rarely alone. Visited by people whom others can’t see and haunted by prophetic dreams, she has never been able to control or understand the things that happen to her. When Finley’s abilities start to become too strong for her to handle – and even the roar of her motorcycle or another dazzling…

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#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in June 24

  #FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   So I really pushed myself to get in the steps this week and I took 1 really long walk and got in another 10K…all in preparation for a big walk I’ll be doing in early 2017. While I haven’t officially started training for the walk – that will start in the fall – I…

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#SRC2016 Book Spotlight: The Sweetheart Deal by Polly Dugan

Title:The Sweetheart Deal Author:Polly Dugan Published:May 2015, Little, Brown & Company Format:Hardcover, 320 pages The poignant story of what happens when a woman who thinks she’s lost everything has the chance to love again. Leo has long joked that, in the event of his death, he wants his best friend Garrett, a lifelong bachelor, to marry his wife, Audrey. One drunken night, he goes so far as to make Garrett…

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Review: The Island House by Nancy Thayer (audio)

Title:The Island House Author:Nancy Thayer Narrator:Emily Sutton-Smith Published:May 2016, Brilliance Audio Length:10 hours 11 minutes Source:Publisher   The charms of Nantucket tempt a woman to leave her established life in Kansas City—but with a piece of her heart, and a love interest, in each world, she discovers she must look within to choose the right path. Every summer since college, twenty-nine-year-old Jenny has traded the familiarity of the Midwest for…

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#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in June 17

  #FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   I’m slowly getting back to yoga…and wow – I can definitely feel the difference of not doing it for a while. My body was tight and sore afterwards. But, since I’m awful at stretching, I feel that yoga provides a little of that through some of the poses, along with some really good strength-training. …

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#SRC2016 Book Spotlight: 25 Sense by Lisa Henthorn

Title:25 Sense Author:Lisa Henthorn Published: May 2016, Sparkpress Format:Paperback, 192 pages Claire Malone didn’t mean for this to happen when she moved to New York. She just wanted to live the city life and gain experience in television writing, her dream career. It’s not like she meant to reciprocate when her married boss, Sean Vared, sent her flirty e-mails. And you can’t blame her for coming into the office on…

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#SRC2016 Book Review: Saving Abby by Steena Holmes (audio)

Title:Saving Abby Author:Steena Holmes Narrator:Angela Dwe Published:May 2016, Brilliance Audio / Lake Union Publishing Length:7 hours 3 minutes / Paperback, 274 pages Source:Publisher / Booksparks All children’s book illustrator Claire Turner ever wanted was to be a mother. After six years of trying to conceive, she and her husband, Josh, have finally accepted that she will never be pregnant with a child of their own. Yet once they give up…

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Book Spotlight & Guest Post: The Memory of Lemon by Judith Fertig

Please join me in welcoming Judith Fertig to Always With a Book. Judith’s new book, The Memory of Lemon, is out today. I’ll be reviewing this book in the coming weeks, but for now, please enjoy this spotlight on the book along with the yummy Lemon Verbena Pound Cake recipe she has graciously shared with us!   Title:The Memory of Lemon Author:Judith Fertig Published:June 2016, Berkley Format:Paperback, 304 pages The…

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Book Spotlight: Field of Graves by J.T. Ellison

Today, Field of Graves, J.T. Ellison’s latest book comes out and I am so excited!!! While I’m new to the world of J.T. Ellison, after reading her last book, No One Knows, I’m a big fan, and this new book is sort of a prequel to her Taylor Jackson series, which I’ve been wanting to start reading. You may also know J.T. Ellison from her collaboration with Catherine Coulter in…

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Review: The Girl from the Savoy by Hazel Gaynor (audio)

Title:The Girl from the Savoy Author:Hazel Gaynor Narrator:Jennifer Jones, Lucy Rayner, Paul Fox Published:June 2016, Harper Audio / William Morrow Paperbacks Length:14 hours 20 minutes / 448 pages Source:Personal copy via Audible / Paperback via Publisher   Presenting a dazzling new historical novel … The Girl From The Savoy is as sparkling as champagne and as thrilling as the era itself. Sometimes life gives you cotton stockings. Sometimes it gives…

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Review: Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel (audio)

Title:Crooked Little Lies Author:Barbara Taylor Sissel Narrator:Natalie Ross Published:December 2015, Brilliance Audio Length:12 hours 24 minutes Source:Publisher On a cool October morning, Lauren Wilder is shaken when she comes close to striking Bo Laughlin with her car as he’s walking along the road’s edge. A young man well known in their small town of Hardys Walk, Texas, Bo seems fine, even if Lauren’s intuition says otherwise. Since the accident two…

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#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in June 10

  #FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   As busy as I am right now with work, making the time for my walks has really helped keep me sane and I made sure to get in those walks last week…and I was at the gym at 4:30am!!! I think those Fitbit Challenges also help to push me a little bit, too –…

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#SRC2016 Book Spotlight: Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford

Title:Everybody Rise Author:Stephanie Clifford Published:June 2016, St. Martin’s Griffin Format: Paperback, 400 pages It’s 2006 in the Manhattan of the young and glamorous. Money and class are colliding in a city that is about to go over a financial precipice and take much of the country with it. At 26, bright, funny and socially anxious Evelyn Beegan is determined to carve her own path in life and free herself from…

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Book Spotlight & Author Q&A: Sunshine Beach by Wendy Wax Plus Giveaway!!! (Giveaway Closed)

Title:Sunshine Beach Author:Wendy Wax Series:Ten Beach Road, #4 Published:June 2016, Berkley Format:Paperback, 432 pages In this brand-new summer read by the USA Today bestselling author of The House on Mermaid Point, three women join forces to bring a historic seaside hotel back to life…   There’s nothing that a fresh coat of paint and a few glasses of wine can’t fix…   After losing their life savings in a Ponzi…

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Book Spotlight: The Lake House by Kate Morton

Kate Morton’s latest book, The Lake House, is now out in paperback!!! I became a fan of Kate’s books when I read The Forgotten Garden, which I absolutely loved, and while I haven’t read this one, you can be sure that I will as soon as I get the chance. Title: The Lake House Author: Kate Morton Published: June 2016, Atria Books Format: Paperback, 512 pages From the New York…

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Review: After Perfect: A Daughter’s Memoir by Christina McDowell

Title:After Perfect: A Daughter’s Memoir Author:Christina McDowell Narrator:Christina McDowell Published:June 2015, Audible Studios / Gallery Books Length:9 hours 55 minutes / 224 pages Source:Personal copy via Audible / Netgalley via Publicist In the tradition of New York Times bestsellers What Remains by Carole Radziwill and Oh the Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey, Christina McDowell’s unflinching memoir is a brutally honest, cautionary tale about one family’s destruction in the…

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Review: Liar, Liar by M.J. Arlidge

Title:Liar, Liar Author:M.J. Arlidge Series:Helen Grace, #4 Published:June 2016, NAL Format:ARC E-copy, 432 pages Source:Netgalley Detective Helen Grace gets caught in an inferno of death and destruction in the red-hot new thriller from the author of Eeny Meeny, Pop Goes the Weasel, and The Doll’s House… Detective Helen Grace has never seen such destruction. Six fires in twenty-four hours. Two people dead. Several more injured. It’s as if someone wants…

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Review: Find Her by Lisa Gardner (audio)

Title:Find Her Author:Lisa Garnder Series:Detective D.D. Warren, #8 Narrator:Kirsten Potter Published:February 2016, Brilliance Audio Length:12 hours, 16 minutes Source:Publisher Flora Dane is a victim. Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora learned just how much one person can endure. Flora Dane is a survivor. Miraculously alive after her ordeal, Flora has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the…

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#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in June 3

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About The month of June tends to be a busy month work-wise, so I really need to make a concerted effort to fit in my walks and yoga and/or whatever strength training I’ve decided to do for the day. It’s times like this that I’m really glad my gym opens at 4:30 am because that’s when I’ll…

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#SRC2016 Book Spotlight: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Title:One True Loves Author:Taylor Jenkins Reid Published:June 2016, Washington Square Press Format:Paperback, 352 pages From the author of Maybe in Another Life—named a People Magazine pick and a “Best Book of the Summer” by Glamour and USA TODAY—comes a breathtaking new love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life. In…

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Review: The Obsession by Nora Roberts (audio)

Title:The Obsession Author:Nora Roberts Narrator:Shannon McManus Published:April 2016, Brilliance Audio Length:14 hours 19 minutes Source:Publisher The riveting new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Liar. Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the woods. In freeing the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed the horrible extent of her father’s crimes and made him infamous. Now a successful photographer…

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Month in Review: May 2016

Here are my reading stats for May! Books read: 12 Books I read:  Lost Among the Living — Simone St. James (audio book) No One Knows — J.T. Ellison The Winter Girl — Matt Marinovich (audio book) The Other Girl — Lauren Willig (audio book) Don’t You Cry — Mary Kubica Fool Me Once — Harlan Coben (audio book) The Girl in the Ice — Robert Bryndza (audio book) Saving…

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Review: The Winter Girl by Matt Marinovich (audio)

Title: The Winter Girl Author:Matt Marinovich Narrator:Quincy Dunn-Baker Published:January 2016, Recorded Books Length:6 hours 26 minutes Source:Publisher A scathing and exhilarating thriller that begins with a husband’s obsession with the seemingly vacant house next door. It’s wintertime in the Hamptons, where Scott and his wife, Elise, have come to be with her terminally ill father, Victor, to await the inevitable. As weeks turn to months, their daily routine—Elise at the…

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#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in May 27

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About I seem to have gotten off track with my yoga and need to fix that…while I haven’t actually made it to classes in a while, I had been doing some yoga at home and was feeling good about it – and could actually start to feel the difference. I found some really great yoga flows on…

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Book Spotlight: Appetite by Sheila Grinell

Title:Appetite Author:Sheila Grinell Published:May 2017, She Writes Press Format:Paperback, 328 pages When Jenn Adler returns from a year in India, she has a surprise for her parents: a young guru from Bangalore whom she intends to marry. Her father, Paul, is wary of this beggar Jenn has brought home who, he suspects, is conning his much-loved daughter while her mother, Maggie, is frightened that this alien stranger will steal away…

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Review: No One Knows by J.T. Ellison

Title: No One Knows Author:J.T. Ellison Published:March 2016, Gallery Books Format:ARC E-copy, 384 pages Source:Netgalley via Publisher In an obsessive mystery as thrilling as The Girl on the Train and The Husband’s Secret, New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison will make you question every twist in her page-turning novel—and wonder which of her vividly drawn characters you should trust. The day Aubrey Hamilton’s husband is declared dead by the…

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Review: Sweet Forgiveness by Lori Nelson Spielman (audio)

Title:Sweet Forgiveness Author:Lori Nelson Spielman Narrator:Tavia Gilbert Published:June 2015, Blackstone Audio / Plume Length:9 hours 50 minutes / 336 pages Source:Personal copy via Audible / Netgalley #1 international bestselling author Lori Nelson Spielman follows The Life List with Sweet Forgiveness, in which a woman’s receipt of two “forgiveness stones” sends her searching for atonement The Forgiveness Stones craze is sweeping the nation—instantly recognizable pouches of stones that come with a…

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#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in May 20

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   This week was a little calmer than last week…that’s for sure! I ended up spending the day on Friday at the elementary school I used to teach at many years ago – they were having their “Mini-Marathon Day” where all the kids do a “fun” run, the distance dependent on the age of the kids.…

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Book Spotlight: The Assistants by Camille Perri

Title: The Assistants Author:Camille Perri Published:May 2016, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Format:Hardcover, 288 pages A wry and astute debut about a young Manhattanite whose embezzlement scam turns her into an unlikely advocate for the leagues of overeducated and underpaid assistants across the city. Tina Fontana is the hapless but brazen thirty-year-old executive assistant to Robert Barlow, the all-powerful and commanding CEO of Titan Corp., a multinational media conglomerate. She’s excellent at…

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Book Spotlight & Guest Post: A Perfumer’s Secret by Adria J. Cimino

Title: A Perfumer’s Secret  Author:Adria J. Cimino Published:May 2016, Velvet Morning Press Format:Paperback, 258 pages The quest for a stolen perfume formula awakens passion, rivalry and family secrets in the fragrant flower fields of the South of France…  Perfumer Zoe Flore travels to Grasse, perfume capital of the world, to collect a formula: her inheritance from the family she never knew existed. The scent matches the one worn by her…

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Review: Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica

Title:Don’t You Cry Author:Mary Kubica Published:May 2016, MIRA Format:Hardcover, 320 pages Source:Publisher New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl, Mary Kubica returns with an electrifying and addictive tale of deceit and obsession  In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her friend and roommate Quinn Collins to…

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#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in May 13

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   So, this was a pretty crazy week, work-wise. We had our first-ever fundraiser, and while it was a success – YAY!!! – it was crazy right up til the start of the event with all the running around and last minute to-do’s that needed doing. But, as I said, the event was a success and…

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Book Spotlight: The House of Bradbury by Nicole Meier

Title:The House of Bradbury Author:Nicole Meier Published:May 2016, Sparkpress Format:Paperback, 280 pages Mia Gladwell s life is going nowhere. The media has skewered her debut novel, her fiance Carson, a successful Hollywood producer, has jumped ship, and now she s living in her sister s carriage house unattached, unemployed, and uninspired. Then she learns that the Los Angeles estate of iconic author Ray Bradbury is up for sale, and she…

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Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica (Giveaway closed)

Next week, Don’t You Cry, Mary Kubica’s latest book comes out and I am so excited…I’m reading it now and it’s so good…twisty,crazy good! My review will be posted the date the book releases, May 17th. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Mary twice and I just adore her…she’s delightful and I have absolutely loved her previous books – The Good Girl and Pretty Baby. In anticipation of release day,…

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Review: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Title:I Let You Go Author:Clare Mackintosh Published:May 2016, Berkley Format:ARC E-copy, 384 pages Source:Netgalley via Publisher In a split second, Jenna Gray’s world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of…

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#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in May 6

  #FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About   It was a pretty good week. I ended up working from home because I had to keep an eye on my dog after her surgery – she’s ok, but has to wear a cone for 2 weeks. Boy is that getting old! But, we’ve been taking lots of walks – long walks just around…

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Book Spotlight: First Comes Love by Emily Giffin

Title:First Comes Love Author:Emily Giffin Published:June 2016, Ballantine Books Format:Hardcover, 400 pages In this dazzling new novel, Emily Giffin, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed, Where We Belong, and The One & Only introduces a pair of sisters who find themselves at a crossroads. Growing up, Josie and Meredith Garland shared a loving, if sometimes contentious relationship. Josie was impulsive, spirited, and outgoing; Meredith hardworking, thoughtful,…

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Review: Lost Among the Living by Simone St. James (audio)

Title:Lost Among the Living Author:Simone St. James Narrator:Justine Eyre Published:April 2016, Blackstone Audio / NAL Length:10 hours 23 minutes / 336 pages Source:Personal copy via Audible / Netgalley   England, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to Alex’s wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to the family’s estate in the Sussex countryside.…

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Review: Best of My Love by Susan Mallery (audio)

Title:Best of My Love Author:Susan Mallery Series:Fool‘s Gold, #20 Narrator:Tanya Eby Published:April 2016, Brilliance Audio Length:8 hours 28 minutes Source:Publisher   An irresistible new love story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fool’s Gold series, set in a town Library Journal calls “so appealing, readers will want to start scoping out real estate.”  To overcome her painful past, baker Shelby Gilmore goes on the hunt for…

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