January - the first month

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January was an interesting month.  The start of the new year had some quiet days still on vacation that was full of reading and then the end of the month was my corporate retreat which was beyond stressful and a busy week.  So I am impressed with the reading I accomplished, but ready for 2016 to really start in February!

1. The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
2. At the Corner of King Street by Mary Ellen Taylor
3. The View From Prince Street by Mary Ellen Taylor 
4. The Past by Tessa Hadley
5. Stars Over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner
6. The Restaurant Critic's Wife by Elizabeth LaBan
7. The Inn at Ocean's Edge by Colleen Coble
8. Mermaid Moon by Colleen Coble
9. Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson
10. The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig
11. The Feathered Bone by Julie Cantrell
12. Casualties by Elizabeth Marro

Total pages read, clicked, and flipped: 4,252

Where Have I Been Reading?:
Alexandria, VA (2)
England
Los Angeles, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Maine (2)
Paris, France
New York City, NY
New Orleans, LA
New Hampshire

Let's take a break!

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In 5 and a half years of blogging, I haven't taken a break.  Through a wedding, honeymoon, major job projects, and buying and renovating a home, I have kept up reading and reviewing.  

This week I am out of town for my 6th corporate retreat that sits mostly on my shoulders and this one has been the biggest with 450 employees attending and the feeling that it could really be the last.  

SO I am going to take a week break here from reviewing and I will be back in February with reviews and hopefully so more bookish things as my job may quiet down a little!

It's Monday, What are you Reading?

Another crazy work week, BUT a very quiet weekend at home with three dogs and a blizzard!  Next week I head to Atlanta (snow pending) for the big corporate retreat, so no clue how the reading will go, but February should be more on the quiet front all around!

A meme hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. 

Finished this past week:

The Feathered Bone by Julie Cantrell
Casualties by Elizabeth Marro
The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig

Currently Reading:

The Evening Spider by Emily Arsenault

Next on the TBR pile:

Beside Myself by Ann Morgan

Review: The Forgotten Room

The Forgotten Room

by Karen White, Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig

Publisher: Berkley NAL

Pages: 384

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  A rich, multigenerational novel of love and loss that spans half a century....

1945: When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion.

Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate?  And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?  In their pursuit of answers, they find themselves drawn into the turbulent stories of Gilded Age Olive Van Alen, driven from riches to rags, who hired out as a servant in the very house her father designed, and Jazz Age Lucy Young, who came from Brooklyn to Manhattan in pursuit of the father she had never known.  But are Kate and Cooper ready for the secrets that will be revealed in the Forgotten Room? 


Kritters Thoughts:  Three women, three generations, three authors - genius!  To dive right in, I want to say that I loved having three of my favorite authors come together and put a book together, but I was nervous as to how they were going to do it and it feel like a one seamless book.  But this one worked!  To have each author write one of the generations of this twisted family story, was just perfect!

I loved all three women characters, but for some reason Kate the doctor's story really stood out for me.  I don't know if it is because it was the most contemporary or because I felt like she was finding out the truths of both women that came before her, but her story seemed to encompass the other two and it was the one I kept really enjoying through the book.  But to clarify, Olive and Lucy were just as entertaining and I never didn't enjoy theirs - Olive was the foundation of the story while Lucy was the middle trying to not live by her mother's story but create her own.

For this book I had a scratch note pad, where I was family treeing!  This is one that is worth taking it slow and enjoying the story as it unfolds.  I may even dare say that I could read this again, which I never do!


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Berkley NAL.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson

Moonlight Over Paris

by Jennifer Robson

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 352

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  It’s the spring of 1924, and Lady Helena Montagu-Douglas-Parr has just arrived in France. On the mend after a near-fatal illness, she is ready to embrace the restless, heady allure of the City of Lights. Her parents have given her one year to live with her eccentric aunt in Paris and Helena means to make the most of her time. She’s quickly drawn into the world of the Lost Generation and its circle of American expatriates, and with their encouragement, she finds the courage to pursue her dream of becoming an artist.

One of those expats is Sam Howard, a journalist working for the Chicago Tribune. Irascible, plain-spoken, and scarred by his experiences during the war, Sam is simply the most fascinating man she has ever met. He’s also entirely unsuitable. 

As Paris is born anew, rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the Great War, Helena realizes that she, too, is changing. The good girl she once was, so dutiful and obedient, so aware of her place in the world, is gone forever. Yet now that she has shed her old self, who will she become, and where, and with whom, does she belong…?


Kritters Thoughts:  A fantastic historical romance fiction that takes the reader behind the scenes of the art world in Paris through the eyes of a British girl who has overcome illness and is ready to live!  

I am not that knowledged on art, but I appreciate it, so I loved reading about a person who is going to school for art and learning the ins and outs and I felt like I was learning with her.  

The other piece I loved was Paris.  I have never been and it is absolutely on my bucket list and I have read quite a bit of fiction that has been set in Paris, but for some reason this one really made me feel Paris and reminded me why it is on my must visit list.  The amount of times that the main character Helena walked around the city and described where she was could have bothered some, but I loved hearing it through her voice - the exploration of a new city and becoming an independent adult - I loved it!

I have now read all of Jennifer Robson's fiction and she is on my automatic buy for fantastic historical fiction.


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Mermaid Moon by Colleen Coble

Mermaid Moon

by Colleen Coble

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Pages: 352

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Audra’s father uttered his last words in a phone call: “Come home to Mermaid Beach.” Now she’s back—determined to find the truth.

Audra Davis believes her father was murdered. Her childhood sweetheart Kevin O’Connor, game warden of Mermaid Beach, is also suspicious of the accident—but he’s equally determined to keep Audra at arm’s length. She broke his heart years ago when she left without a word. He’s not about to lower his guard and let her get close again. He has his daughter Faith to think about. With his track record, he doesn’t think any woman will stay in down-east Maine’s remote windswept coast. 

Hoping to discover what happened to her father, Audra takes over his mail boat duties, guiding his trusted boat on deliveries to see what she can uncover. Soon she finds letters from her birth mother—letters postmarked but never delivered. How could her father have kept them from her all this time? Do they have anything to do with his murder?

In spite of his doubts, Kevin thinks Audra might be right about her father’s death. As the only law enforcement officer in the area, he has a duty to help her track down the killer. Spending so much time together begins to rekindle the torch he’s carried for her all these years, but he still sees the guilt in her eyes that drove her away in the first place—guilt over choosing to spend time with him the fateful night her mother died instead of fueling her mother’s boat. Can Kevin and Audra navigate their way to each other before a murderer rips them apart forever?


Kritters Thoughts:  The second in the series and this will not spoil book number one as it takes place in the same small town, but centers around a different person in town.  The original characters from the first book make appearances, but aren't the focus.

Audra's gets a strange call from her father to say find her mother but her mother passed away years ago, so she returns home to take on the task and gets swept up into a bigger mystery then she ever could have imagined.  

Again the characters in this book were intriguing and I kept wanting more and more.  I loved how there was some full on romance in this one.  It didn't seem forced and worked within the bigger mystery.  

Another great mystery that I couldn't put down - don't pick this one up unless you have a good day or two to devour it!


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Litfuse Publicity.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: The Inn at Ocean's Edge by Colleen Coble

The Inn at Ocean's Edge

by Colleen Coble

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Pages: 336

Format: ebook

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Claire’s visit to a luxury hotel in Maine awakens repressed memories, threatening all she holds dear.

In 1989, Claire Dellamare disappeared from her own fourth birthday party at the Hotel Tourmaline on the island of Folly Shoals, Maine. She showed up a year later at the same hotel, with a note pinned to her dress but no explanation. Nobody knows where Claire spent that year—and until now, Claire didn’t even know she had ever been missing.

But when Claire returns to the Hotel Tourmaline for a business meeting with her CEO father, disturbing memories begin to surface . . . despite her parents’ best efforts to keep them forgotten.

Luke Rocco lost his mother under equally mysterious circumstances—at the same time Claire disappeared. After a chance encounter reveals the unlikely link between them, Claire and Luke set out together to uncover the truth about what happened that fateful year.

With flashbacks swimming just beneath her consciousness and a murderer threatening her safety, Claire’s very life depends on unscrambling her past . . . even if her family refuses to acknowledge it. Someone—maybe everyone—is hiding something from Claire Dellamare, and it will cost her everything to drag the truth out into the light. 

Kritters Thoughts:  The first in a series that takes place in Maine.  Claire thinks she is visiting a hotel for the first time and in the first chapter she finds out that she was a news story in this small town in Maine and the story goes from there!  At the same time Luke lost his mom years ago and she was never found and maybe with Claire coming to town and new clues coming to life he may find her.

I loved how the different storylines weaved in and out effortlessly.  I thought that the author made it so that we flowed from one story to another and they impacted each other so well.

The characters made the book.  Claire was great and at first I couldn't believe that she didn't remember all these things from her past, but as the story went on I could understand how she may not remember the things that happened.  

I loved that this author is housed in the Christian fiction realm, but this book had a good mystery and didn't feel goody too shoes!  It had mystery and truth and drama and I loved it!  


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2016 Challenge: 2 out of 50

It's Monday, What are you Reading?

Another crazy week at work, but the quietest weekend where I got to read 3 books!  The rest of January will be crazy, so my reading part of my life is excited for February!

A meme hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. 

Finished this past week:

The Restaurant Critic's Wife by Elizabeth LaBan
The Inn at Ocean's Edge by Colleen Coble
Mermaid Moon by Colleen Coble
Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson

Currently Reading:

The Forgotten Room by Assorted Authors

Next on the TBR pile:

The Feathered Bone by Julie Cantrell

Review: The Restaurant Critic's Wife by Elizabeth LaBan

The Restaurant Critic's Wife

by Elizabeth LaBan

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Pages: 306

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Lila Soto has a master’s degree that’s gathering dust, a work-obsessed husband, two kids, and lots of questions about how exactly she ended up here.

In their new city of Philadelphia, Lila’s husband, Sam, takes his job as a restaurant critic a little too seriously. To protect his professional credibility, he’s determined to remain anonymous. Soon his preoccupation with anonymity takes over their lives as he tries to limit the family’s contact with anyone who might have ties to the foodie world. Meanwhile, Lila craves adult conversation and some relief from the constraints of her homemaker role. With her patience wearing thin, she begins to question everything: her decision to get pregnant again, her break from her career, her marriage—even if leaving her ex-boyfriend was the right thing to do. As Sam becomes more and more fixated on keeping his identity secret, Lila begins to wonder if her own identity has completely disappeared—and what it will take to get it back.

Kritters Thoughts:  A year in a marriage with small children, work drama and moving to a new city made this book an interesting read and felt so real - almost memoir like.  The husband of the couple has moved the family to Philadelphia, PA to become the new restaurant critic and has brought his wife and young kids and has asked his wife to keep a low profile for his job.  The wife has become a stay at home mom with two young kids and isn't happy with this major life change.  And the story begins . . . 

Although I couldn't relate with the kid drama, I have three dogs so its close, but not exact, I still felt like I could relate and this book sort of hit home.  My husband and I have very different jobs and they impede on our spending time and its definitely a lifestyle, so it was interesting to read about how other career paths can absolutely impact your partner's life.  To be honest there were a few moments, I wanted to slug Sam and have him respect his wife more in the "job" in the home that she was doing, but I enjoyed the honesty of the book.

I don't like to categorize books, but this one almost felt like a grown up's chick lit.  This wasn't new girl in big city with first job, it was married woman in new city trying to make marriage, new city and new lifestyle work.  I may be a few years beyond the new girl in big city so I hope that there are more books like this that I can read and enjoy!

I definitely want to be on the watch for what Elizabeth LaBan has next and noticed she has a previous book - The Tragedy Paper and I am intrigued to read it as the plot sounds vastly different from this one.


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Stars Over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner

Stars Over Sunset Boulevard

by Susan Meissner

Publisher: Berkley NAL

Pages: 400

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Los Angeles, Present Day. When an iconic hat worn by Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind  ends up in Christine McAllister’s vintage clothing boutique by mistake, her efforts to return it to its owner take her on a journey more enchanting than any classic movie… 

Los Angeles, 1938.  Violet Mayfield sets out to reinvent herself in Hollywood after her  dream of becoming a wife and mother falls apart, and lands a job on the film-set of Gone With the Wind. There, she meets enigmatic Audrey Duvall, a once-rising film star who is now a fellow secretary. Audrey’s zest for life and their adventures together among Hollywood’s glitterati enthrall Violet…until each woman’s deepest desires collide.  What Audrey and Violet are willing to risk, for themselves and for each other, to ensure their own happy endings will shape their friendship, and their lives, far into the future. 


Kritters Thoughts:  Two women meet on the job and this quick meeting and then living as room mates will impact each other from day one to each of their old ages.  Having a very cool job - working for the film industry behind the scenes of Gone With the Wind was the first part of the book and I was sucked into the story on page one.  Throughout the novel both women have great and lousy loves and change jobs and this author writes characters that you want to care about from page one!

The characters take the front line of this book and the author does them so well.  This book spans time and Susan Meissner easily flows these characters from young women to women of knowledge and they have fantastic journeys that seem authentic to each of them as individuals but together as life long friends.

Of course, if you have followed me for awhile you know I love a behind the scenes AND even more so of somewhere where I have never been or may never be able to be.  Hollywood is the best place to go behind the scenes and OLD Hollywood is even better.  I loved the time and place - it was almost its own character!

If you love historical fiction or behind the scenes of Hollywood or both, then this is a great book for you and you should read it as fast as I did!


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2016 Challenge: 1 out of 50

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Berkley NAL.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Novelista Girl by Meredith Schorr

Novelista Girl

by Meredith Schorr

Publisher: Booktrope Editions

Pages: 244

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon 

Goodreads:  Kim runs the most popular chick lit book blog on the web, loves playing house with her sexy lawyer boyfriend, Nicholas, and is finally pursuing her lifelong dream to become a published author. At first glance, her life is five-pink-champagne-flutes worthy. 

But is there more to the story than meets the eye?

After hearing the phrase “chick lit is dead” more times than she’s read Bridget Jones's Diary, Kim is driven to desperate measures, seeking advice from up-and-coming chick lit author, Hannah Marshak, her high school nemesis and resident “mean girl.” As if Kim doesn't have enough on her plate balancing her secretarial duties with her blog Pastel Is the New Black, shrugging off the growing pile of agent rejections, and keeping her best friend from turning green over Kim’s budding friendship with Hannah, Nicholas is so blinded by his career ambitions, he doesn't see that their home sweet home could use more than a dash of sugar. 

This is the year when all of Kim's dreams—professional and romantic—are supposed to come true, but will the story have a happily ever after, or will Kim end up unpublished and all alone?


Kritters Thoughts:  The second in a series (I think) that centers around a young woman, Kim who is a blogger and secretary who really wants to write and blog full time, but she isn't there yet.  She must juggle a lot of things as well as a relationship with a lawyer who doesn't have much time himself and something is bound to suffer.

As a blogger who doesn't want to be a writer, I still enjoyed this one.  It was absolutely fun to hear what goes on in my own head with mounting TBRs, scheduling posts and working with people in publishing, it was fun to read something that hit so close to home!  At times I wanted to pass this book out to friends and my dear husband, so they could hear what all goes into this blog of mine!

I would absolutely recommend to start at book one in this series, but this is one not to miss!

Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2015 Challenge:  53 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from the author.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: The Past by Tessa Hadley

The Past

by Tessa Hadley

Publisher: Harper

Pages: 320

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  A novel in which three sisters, a brother, and their children assemble at their country house.

These three weeks may be their last time there; the upkeep is prohibitive, and they may be forced to sell this beloved house filled with memories of their shared past (their mother took them there to live when she left their father). Yet beneath the idyllic pastoral surface, hidden passions, devastating secrets, and dangerous hostilities threaten to consume them.

Sophisticated and sleek, Roland’s new wife (his third) arouses his sisters’ jealousies and insecurities. Kasim, the twenty-year-old son of Alice’s ex-boyfriend, becomes enchanted with Molly, Roland’s sixteen-year-old daughter. Fran’s young children make an unsettling discovery in a dilapidated cottage in the woods that shatters their innocence. Passion erupts where it’s least expected, leveling the quiet self-possession of Harriet, the eldest sister.

Over the course of this summer holiday, the family’s stories and silences intertwine, small disturbances build into familial crises, and a way of life—bourgeois, literate, ritualized, Anglican—winds down to its inevitable end.


Kritters Thoughts:  Three sisters and one brother descend on the house that helped raise them and must make the decision of putting money into fixing it up or saying goodbye to the house that built them.  With two bringing their kids, a spouse and an ex-boyfriend's child - it is a full house of crazy!

This book is divided into three categories, the first and third beinging the present and the middle part taking place in the past.  The first part moved slow it felt like a long set up and get to know you period.  The middle dived into the childhood of three of the four siblings and really explained to the reader the quirks of these children and how they got their personalities.  The third read so much better after meeting their mother and reading about the childhood that created the adulthood for each of them.

I enjoy family dramas, especially ones that touch on birth order and how the events of your childhood can really shape you.  Divorce, death or just crazy can make a child into maybe not the most adjusted adult!  I am also a big believer in birth order and where you are born in the order absolutely matters.  I loved seeing that come out in these siblings.

Overall I liked the plot and story, but this book definitely moved slow and had a British feel to it, so if you don't love a slow moving British story this one may not be for you.  But if that is your thing - this one should be your next read!


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.