Tag: beach reads

Book Review:  Love Is for the Birds, by Diane Owens Prettyman

Image belongs to She Writes Press.

 Title:   Love Is for the Birds
Author:  Diane Owens Prettyman
Genre: Romance        
Rating:  2.5 out of 3

The Texas Gulf: beautiful yet unpredictable..

A beach town destroyed. Her mother’s candy store swept away. This is what Teddy Wainsworth faces when she returns to Bird Isle. Meanwhile, Jack Shaughness, owner of a popular barbecue restaurant chain and widower still grieving the death of his wife, receives permission to cross over to the island with a smoker full of brisket to feed hurricane survivors. Soon after arriving, he meets Teddy and immediately finds himself drawn to her—which makes him feel he is betraying his wife. When the two find a lost dog, Jack convinces Teddy to take the dog home while they attempt to find the owner, creating a bond that brings them closer.

In the wake of the hurricane, Bird Isle residents fear the Aransas Wildlife Refuge will not be ready for the whooping cranes’ annual migration south. Seeing that Jack has important connections and a love for the island, they enlist him to help restore the habitat of the endangered cranes before they fly to Padre Island for the winter. With their rescued dog always nearby, Teddy and Jack work side by side to rebuild Bird Isle for the return of the whooping cranes. But Jack is harboring a secret that may ruin everything he and Teddy are creating—and he won’t be able to keep that secret forever.

I had high hopes for this, because I love Port Aransas, and that’s what this setting reminded me of. But…this was a disappointing read. This felt very predictable and unrealistic. Teddy’s candy store was wiped out by a hurricane, and mere weeks later, it’s totally rebuilt and open for business? Not believable. Teddy herself was juvenile and indecisive, hung up on Jack’s restaurants’ names and the fact that his wife died five years before.

Jack seemed way too good to be true, and the insta-love aspect really drove me up the wall. Everything seemed really rushed in the amount of time elapsed, and Jack expected Teddy to be over her long-term boyfriend in like a week. The thing that really bothered me the most, though, was Jack and Teddy’s reaction to the teenage girl character’s nose piercing. They acted like it was so horrifying and gross. Was this written decades ago, or was it written recently, when nose piercings are everywhere? Frankly, this made the characters and the author seem judgy and hidebound.

Diane Owens Prettyman’s new novel is Love is for the Birds.

(Galley courtesy of She Writes Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  Same Time Next Summer, by Annabel Monaghan  

Image belongs to Penguin Group Putnam.

Title: Same Time Next Summer
Author: Annabel Monaghan
Genre: Romance    
Rating:  5 out of 5

Beach Rules:

Do take long walks on the sand.

Do put an umbrella in every cocktail.

Do NOT run into your first love.

Sam’s life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiancé, Jack (his strict routines are a good thing, really), a great job in Manhattan (unless they fire her), and is about to tour a wedding venue near her family’s Long Island beach house. Everything should go to plan, yet the minute she arrives, Sam senses something is off. Wyatt is here. Her Wyatt. But there’s no reason for a thirty-year-old engaged woman to feel panicked around the guy who broke her heart when she was seventeen. Right?

Yet being back at this beach, hearing notes from Wyatt’s guitar float across the night air from next door as if no time has passed–Sam’s memories come flooding back: the feel of Wyatt’s skin on hers, their nights in the treehouse, and the truth behind their split. Sam remembers who she used to be, and as Wyatt reenters her life their connection is as undeniable as it always was. She will have to make a choice.

This book. Y’all…I was up until midnight reading this straight through because I could NOT put it down! Sam’s family is delightfully quirky and entertaining, and I loved them. I also loved seeing Sam and Wyatt’s relationship in the past—and watching as Sam rediscovered who she really is, not the person she’s been pretending to be. This would have been so much easier if Jack was a jerk, but he’s not (usually). Sam spends a lot of the book in denial, but her journey was absolutely wonderful to read. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Annabel Monaghan lives in New York. Same Time Next Summer is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Penguin Group Putnam in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: A Novel Proposal, by Denise Hunter   

Image belongs to Thomas Nelson.

Title: A Novel Proposal     
Author:  Denise Hunter   
Genre: Romance    
Rating:  4 out of 5

When novelist Sadie Goodwin is forced to stop writing westerns and charged with penning a contemporary romance novel to rescue her lackluster sales, there’s only one tiny problem: She’s never been in love.

Desperate to salvage her career, Sadie begins devouring romance novels. Knowing she must devote herself to this confounding genre, she accepts an invitation to hole up at her friend’s beach duplex for the summer. Where better to witness love in bloom than on the beautiful North Carolina shore?

However, once ensconced in the charming ocean-front home with her sweet maltipoo Rio, she finds many ways to procrastinate. First there’s the beach, right outside her backdoor, with all its interesting visitors (research). Then there’s the free library she decides to build and set up by the back deck (She has to do something with all those romance novels). To say nothing of Sam Ford, the grumpy neighbor on the other side of the duplex . . . who she can’t seem to stop annoying.

A social butterfly by nature, Sadie soon gets to know all the beach regulars—sunbathers, walkers, and surfers alike. The free books draw a crowd right up to the house for nice little book chats, which further irritates her reclusive neighbor, to break up her “writing.” But things take an unexpected turn when Sadie opens a recently-placed novel to find a secret compartment—and tucked inside is a beautiful engagement ring. To whom does the ring belong? Sadie is convinced she needs to find the owner and save the man’s proposal from certain doom.

She draws a reluctant Sam into the project, and slowly their connection begins to develop. Are these weird fluttery feelings the first stirrings of love? Has Sadie managed to stumble upon the very subject about which she must write—and wouldn’t Sam make the perfect alpha hero?

Will Sadie find the ring’s rightful owner? And will she manage to pen a career-saving romance novel by summer’s end?

This was a sweet, fun read. Definitely made me yearn for beach life! And a little free library—which I’ve never wanted before, despite my love of books. I really liked Sadie, despite her hangups and tiny, useless dog, although her penchant for listening to loud music made me wince as an apartment dweller with an upstairs neighbor with a love of music. Sam and his family were great. I can’t imagine trying to get over what he was getting over, but I loved the journey they both went on and the growth they experienced. The ending was absolutely perfect!

Denise Hunter is an award-winning author. A Novel Proposal is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  Paradise Girls, by Sandy Gingras

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:   Paradise Girls   
Author: Sandy Gingras  
Genre:   Fiction
Rating:  4.0 out of 5

Mary Valley is in a funk. She’s a writer for home magazines, but she’s lost touch with what home means. Her life seems meaningless. The last house she wrote about was a gazillion-dollar mansion with a moat! Plus, she’s estranged from her daughter, CC and granddaughter, Larkin and mired in a dead-end relationship with her boss.

Daniel is a man adrift since his son Timmy was killed in Afghanistan. He’s living on a houseboat in Florida with Timmy’s three-legged dog, Tripod and taking tourists out on fishing charters. But his life is on the edge. He’s painting his houseboat black, and he can’t stop thinking about “getting lost at sea.”

When Mary’s boss tells her he’s spending Christmas with his ex, she books a trip with her family to The Low Key Inn, a hotel on the edge of the Everglades. But things go wrong from the get-go. CC bails out of the vacation, and Mary is stuck with an unhappy Larkin. The hotel is dated and down-on-its-luck, and perhaps its owner is a witch. Then Mary meets Daniel, casts a hook into his head and wrecks his boat.

I think Ollie was probably my favorite character in this story! I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. Mary is so klutzy and accident-prone that it made me laugh, and Larkin was adorable. I wasn’t a big fan of CC, but I did like Daniel. And, frankly, the Low Key Inn sounds completely wonderful and charming and I want to go right now.

Sandy Gingras is an award-winning author. Paradise Girls is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: The Summer of Lost and Found, by Mary Alice Monroe

Image belongs to Gallery Books.

Title:  The Summer of Lost and Found
Author:  Mary Alice Monroe
Genre:  Women’s fiction
Rating:  3.5 out of 5

The coming of Spring usually means renewal, but for Linnea Rutledge, Spring 2020 threatens stagnation. Linnea faces another layoff, this time from the aquarium she adores. For her—and her family—finances, emotions, and health teeter at the brink. To complicate matters, her new love interest, Gordon, struggles to return to the Isle of Palms from England. Meanwhile, her old flame, John, turns up from California and is quarantining next door. She tries to ignore him, but when he sends her plaintive notes in the form of paper airplanes, old sparks ignite. When Gordon at last reaches the island, Linnea wonders—is it possible to love two men at the same time?

Love in the time of coronavirus proves challenging, at times humorous, and ever changing. Relationships are redefined, friendships made and broken, and marriages tested. As the weeks turn to months, and another sea turtle season comes to a close, Linnea and the Rutledge family continue to face their challenges with the strength, faith, and commitment that has inspired readers for decades.

I’m thinking this wasn’t a good fit for me. I enjoyed the previous book in this series and the discussion of the environmental issues, but this one, the characters just came across as self-absorbed and superficial. Linnea has a lot of angst, but not much action. The blurb emphasizes finances “teetering on the brink” but that wasn’t a thing:  despite Linnea (and her roommate) not having a job or savings, they never seemed to be concerned about money. This book just wasn’t believable to me.

Mary Alice Monroe is a bestselling author. The Summer of Lost and Found is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Gallery Books in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: A Tale of Two Cookies, by Eve Calder

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:  A Tale of Two Cookies
Author:  Eve Calder
Genre:  Cozy mystery
Rating:  4.0 out of 5

Pastry chef Kate McGuire is loving life on the laid-back island of Coral Cay, Florida. As junior partner in a bakery renowned for luscious desserts–especially her cookies–life is pretty sweet. So when an old friend arrives and announces a spur-of-the-moment beach wedding, that’s just the icing on the wedding cake.

But the groom vanishes right as a television crew descends on the town to film a hot, new realty show. Is there a connection? Is her friend Desiree somehow involved? Or did groom Judson simply get cold feet? The bride and groom were paired better than warm cookies and cold milk, so Kate doesn’t buy it.

As the show’s cast runs amok on the island and the investigation into Judson’s disappearance heats up, Kate and her pal Maxi, along with town dog Oliver, will brave the rambunctious world of reality TV and a wedding weekend gone awry, in an all-out effort to find the missing groom.

Warning:  do not read this if you’re trying to give up sugar or carbs! Because dang, the cookies and cakes described in this book sound fantastic.

This was a quick, fun read. I’ve really enjoyed this series so far and can’t wait to read more. The quaint tropical setting is great, and the characters are quirky and memorable—even the dog. I honestly had no idea who the culprit was until the big reveal, and that made this even more fun. I also like that, three books into this series, we’re not already emmeshed in a romance, which is pretty common for cozy mysteries. I’m not opposed to that, but it’s nice to read a series that isn’t focused around that.

Eve Calder is from Florida. A Tale of Two Cookies is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Little Bookshop of Murder, by Maggie Blackburn

Image belongs to Crooked Lane Books.

Title: Little Bookshop of Murder
Author: Maggie Blackburn    
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Summer Merriweather’s career as a Shakespeare professor hangs by a bookbinder’s thread. Academic life at her Virginia university is a viper’s pit, so Summer spends her summer in England, researching a scholarly paper that, with any luck, will finally get her published, impress the Dean, and save her job. But her English idyll ends when her mother, Hildy, shuffles off her mortal coil from an apparent heart attack.

Returning to Brigid’s Island, NC, for the funeral, Summer is impatient to settle the estate, sell her mom’s embarrassingly romance-themed bookstore, Beach Reads, and go home. But as she drops by Beach Reads, Summer finds threatening notes addressed to Hildy: “Sell the bookstore or die.”

Clearly, something is rotten on Brigid’s Island. What method is behind the madness? Was Hildy murdered? The police insist there’s not enough evidence to launch a murder investigation. Instead, Summer and her Aunt Agatha screw their courage to the sticking place and start sleuthing, with the help of Hildy’s beloved book club. But there are more suspects on Brigid’s Island than are dreamt of in the Bard’s darkest philosophizing. And if Summer can’t find the villain, the town will be littered with a Shakespearean tragedy’s worth of corpses–including her own.

This sounded like the perfect book for me:  I love the beach, books, and bookstores, and I enjoy reading Shakespeare. But it didn’t quite hit the mark. I figured out who the killer was early on, so none of the red herrings really worked.

There were entirely too many similar female characters—some even had similar names—so I didn’t have much luck keeping them sorted out. Summer was a bit of a wash for me, too:  the whole premise of why her career was on the line was ridiculous and she kept doing things that just didn’t make sense:  I’m pretty sure if my mother had just been murdered and someone had lit my house on fire while I was asleep inside it, I would not have been running all over town by myself—and I certainly wouldn’t have been walking anywhere alone.

Maggie Blackburn also writes under the name Mollie Cox Bryan. Little Bookshop of Murder is the first book in her new series.

(Galley courtesy of Crooked Lane Books in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: What You Wish For, by Katherine Center

what you wish for
Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:   What You Wish For
Author:   Katherine Center
Genre:   Fiction
Rating:   5 out of 5

Samantha Casey is a school librarian who loves her job, the kids, and her school family with passion and joy for living.

But she wasn’t always that way.

Duncan Carpenter is the new school principal who lives by rules and regulations, guided by the knowledge that bad things can happen.

But he wasn’t always that way.

And Sam knows it. Because she knew him before—at another school, in a different life. Back then, she loved him—but she was invisible. To him. To everyone. Even to herself. She escaped to a new school, a new job, a new chance at living. But when Duncan, of all people, gets hired as the new principal there, it feels like the best thing that could possibly happen to the school—and the worst thing that could possibly happen to Sam. Until the opposite turns out to be true. The lovable Duncan she’d known is now a suit-and-tie wearing, rule-enforcing tough guy so hell-bent on protecting the school that he’s willing to destroy it.

As the school community spirals into chaos, and danger from all corners looms large, Sam and Duncan must find their way to who they really are, what it means to be brave, and how to take a chance on love—which is the riskiest move of all. 

This book made me think being a teacher might be fun…which is really saying something, considering that’s possibly the least likely of things for me to want to do. And I have an English degree. I just know that’s not the job for me. It takes a special kind of person to be a good teacher. I am not that person.

I loved this book. It made me laugh, it made me smile, it just made me feel good. Sam was great. I loved how much she had changed as a person and come totally out of her shell. She seemed like such a fun person to be around. And Duncan used to be fun…he’s just forgotten that in the wake of everything he’s been through. I can’t speak highly enough of this book—absolutely recommend it!

Katherine Center is from Texas. What You Wish For is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review and Blog Tour: She’s Faking It, by Kristin Rockaway

She's Faking It Blog Tour

she's faking it
Image belongs to Harlequin/Graydon House.

Title:   She’s Faking It
Author:   Kristin Rockaway
Genre:   Fiction
Rating:   4 out of 5

Bree Bozeman isn’t exactly pursuing the life of her dreams. Then again, she isn’t too sure what those dreams are. After dropping out of college, she’s living a pretty chill life in the surf community of Pacific Beach, San Diego…if “chill” means delivering food as a GrubGetter, and if it means “uneventful”.

But when Bree starts a new Instagram account — @breebythesea — one of her posts gets a signal boost from none other than wildly popular self-help guru Demi DiPalma, owner of a lifestyle brand empire. Suddenly, Bree just might be a rising star in the world of Instagram influencing. Is this the direction her life has been lacking? It’s not a career choice she’d ever seriously considered, but maybe it’s a sign from the universe. After all, Demi’s the real deal… right?

Everything is lining up for Bree: life goals, career, and even a blossoming romance with the chiseled guy next door, surf star Trey Cantu. But things are about to go sideways fast, and even the perfect filter’s not gonna fix it. Instagram might be free, but when your life looks flawless on camera, what’s the cost?

This book made me laugh! Bree is the very definition of failing at adulting…except, what if “adulting” isn’t what you want to be or do? Bree just needs to figure out what she wants to do. She is such a relatable character. Her very relatableness made this an immersive read.

It reminded me of Flirting with Forty, in a very tenuous way (At heart, both books are about figuring out what you want and pursing that dream.). I laughed at Bree, I cringed, I hoped she would not make the bad decisions I saw looming…but I was fully invested in her story from the first page.

Kristin Rockaway is a former software engineer. She’s Faking It is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/Graydon House in exchange for an honest review.)