Review: The Summer List by Amy Mason Doan

The Summer List

by Amy Mason Doan

Publisher: Graydon House

Pages: 384

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Laura and Casey were once inseparable: as they floated on their backs in the sunlit lake, as they dreamed about the future under starry skies, and as they teamed up for the wild scavenger hunts in their small California lakeside town. Until one summer night, when a shocking betrayal sent Laura running through the pines, down the dock, and into a new life, leaving Casey and a first love in her wake.

But the past is impossible to escape, and now, after seventeen years away, Laura is pulled home and into a reunion with Casey she can’t resist—one last scavenger hunt. With a twist: this time, the list of clues leads to the settings of their most cherished summer memories. From glistening Jade Cove to the vintage skating rink, each step they take becomes a bittersweet reminder of the friendship they once shared. But just as the game brings Laura and Casey back together, the clues unravel a stunning secret that threatens to tear them apart… 

Kritters Thoughts:  Two friends had an epic friendship in their younger high school days and on the cusp of college something happened that broke them apart and years later one of their mothers will scheme to get them back together to heal and learn some truths.

Overall the book for me was fine but not amazing.  I think most of what I didn't enjoy about the book was the pacing at a few of the parts.  There were just a few moments that felt repetitive and felt like they dragged the book down a bit.  Not to spoil too much, but there are these little vignettes throughout the book and they are confusing and odd until the very end when you have the AHH moment.  I thought these interrupted the flow and I get at the end why they were there and what they meant, but I could have enjoyed the book without them.

I loved the concept.  I loved the idea of the scavenger hunt and how it changed the girls in their high school days and it was what brought them back together.  I am a scavenger hunt fan, so I loved the inclusion of the poem clues and although the reader can't completely solve them before the girls do, its fun to reread the clue after it has been solved.  

The characters were also so good in the book.  These two girls who had polar opposite childhoods but could come together and create such a sweet and beautiful relationship was so fun to read.  I love a book that focuses on friendship and not as much as the love stuff!   

I liked her writing, so I would read another book by her, but would have to make sure that I was in love with the synopsis and concept of the story.  


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

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: The Cottages on Silver Beach by RaeAnne Thayne

The Cottages on Silver Beach

by RaeAnne Thayne

Publisher: HQN Books

Pages: 384

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Years after betraying her, he’s back in Haven Point…and determined to uncover the truth

For the sake of her brother’s children, innkeeper Megan Hamilton has put her entire life on hold to become their guardian. The last person she wants to ever see again is Elliott Bailey, who she feels is responsible for her brother’s current predicament. But the heat between them is undeniable, and she agrees to help Elliott investigate the cold case that tore their family apart…as long as they keep their attraction under control.

Back home was the last place “temporarily” retired FBI agent and crime writer Elliott Bailey thought he’d end up. But until the Bureau calls him back, he’s got no place else to go, and nothing but time on his hands to write the true-crime book calling his name. Time to really find out what happened to Megan’s sister-in-law, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving Megan’s brother—Elliott’s former best friend—under a cloud of suspicion. Time to prove to Megan once and for all that they belong together, but first they’ll have to survive the secrets that someone wants to keep buried…

Kritters Thoughts:  RaeAnne Thayne and the Haven Point series is a series to start at the beginning, but as with all romance series you can hope in and out of this one.  There have been books in this series that I completely joined and ones that were just so so.  I loved this one!  

Megan Hamilton owns a small inn in town that has recently overcome a fire and is back up and running.  Elliott Bailey who is from a prominent family in town has returned and Megan is not quite excited for him to return, but of course if you are a romance reader you know that this will only fuel the flame!

I can't completely pinpoint what exactly it is about this book that I completely adored, but I just did.  I think it could have been the characters.  Megan was just a joy to read about and it was easy to root for her and hope for her journey to end on a positive note.  I also liked reading about Elliott Bailey.  I am married a detective, former police officer and I always like reading a book with a LEO at the center and watching their brains work on the job and off the job!

Again, this is a series that you can dip in and out of, but the control freak in me likes to start at the beginning and read it in order!


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

Ebook 2018 Challenge: 55 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Little Bird 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: In a Jam by Cindy Dorminy

In a Jam

by Cindy Dorminy

Publisher: Red Adept Publishing

Pages: 296

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Andie Carson has to do three things to inherit her grandmother’s lottery winnings—sober up, spend a month running her grandmother’s Georgia coffee shop, and enter homemade jam in the county fair. If she can’t meet those terms, the money goes to the church, and Andie gets nothing. She figures her tasks will be easy enough, and once she completes them, Andie plans to sell the shop, take the money, and run back to Boston.

After a rough breakup from his crazy ex-fiancée, Officer Gunnar Wills decides to take a hiatus from women. All he wants is to help make his small town thrive the way it did when he was a kid. But when wild and beautiful Andie shows up, Gunnar’s hesitant heart begins to flutter.

Gunnar knows that Andie plans to leave, but he’s hoping to change her mind, fearful that if her coffee shop closes, Main Street will fold to the big-box corporations and forever change the landscape of his quaint community. But convincing her to stay means getting close enough to risk his heart in the process. Even though Gunnar makes small-town life seem a little sweeter, Andie has to decide if she’s ready to turn her world upside down and give up big-city life. One thing’s for sure—it’s a very sticky situation.

Kritters Thoughts:  This book was a great cross between romance and women's fiction.  It definitely had a great plot like I like from my women's fiction reads, but it definitely had excessive flirty and sexy innuendos!  

Andie Carson finds herself on the wrong side of the law and they know her by name, this isn't her first interaction with them, but this time may be the last as she is presented with an offer.  Her grandmother has passed away and left her a business and a trust, but she has to clean up her act in order to receive it.  So Andie must go home and get her S*&* together and inherit it all!  Of course with the romance genre involved, there will be a hunky guy who could be a distraction!

This was just one of those good ones to curl up with during a summer weekend.  I can't seem to remember if the romance made me blush at all, so forgive me, I can't say if you tend to avoid books with a lot of sexy times, I can't remember anything being over the top.  

I may have to go check out Cindy Dorminy's two previous books and try another from her.


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

Ebook 2018 Challenge: 54 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: Dreams of Falling by Karen White

Dreams of Falling

by Karen White

Publisher: Berkley

Pages: 416

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  It's been nine years since Larkin fled Georgetown, South Carolina, vowing never to go back. But when she finds out that her mother has disappeared, she knows she has no choice but to return to the place that she both loves and dreads--and to the family and friends who never stopped wishing for her to come home. Ivy, Larkin's mother, is discovered in the burned out wreckage of her family's ancestral rice plantation, badly injured and unconscious. No one knows why Ivy was there, but as Larkin digs for answers, she uncovers secrets kept for nearly 50 years. Secrets that lead back to the past, to the friendship between three girls on the brink of womanhood who swore that they would be friends forever, but who found that vow tested in heartbreaking ways.


Kritters Thoughts:  Karen White is one of those authors for me where I either love or just ehh her books.  This was the first time that I didn't enjoy a certain storyline, but adored others, it was a different kind of read for me.  

Let me start with the storyline that I would have cut.  Ivy is the middle generation in this story and she is in a coma after a fall.  While in her coma she is still able to narrate in the present and that was interesting.  The part that didn't add to the main storyline and instead just added pages was her storyline with Ellis.  It was just another character to add to the large cast and just didn't mean much to me throughout the book.

Now for what I loved.  I loved the Ceecee, Margaret, Bitty storyline in the 1950s.  It was so fun to go back to that time period and relive it.  The structure that women had to adhere to and the limitations on things, I loved taking it back to that moment in time.  I also loved the story that centered around Larkin in 2010.  I love when a character has to go back home after awhile and face things from the past and also learns something about themselves or their relatives.  I would love to come up with a catchy term, but these books are my jam!  The #prodigalson/daughter books!

So in all, I liked the book.  I would say it was quite a chunky read, so be prepared and there were some moments where the pacing was a bit slow, but in all it was a good 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 Berkley.  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.

It's Monday, What are you Reading?

I got some reading time in this week, but the books were just ok.  

A meme hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. 

Finished this past week:

Missing Pieces by Laura Pearson
In a Jam by Cindy Dorminy
The Cottages on Silver Beach by RaeAnne Thayne
Dreams of Falling by Karen White

Currently Reading:

The Summer List by Amy Mason Doan

Next on the TBR pile:

The Ever After by Sarah Pekkanen

Review: Missing Pieces by Laura Pearson

Missing Pieces

by Laura Pearson

Publisher: Ipso Books

Pages: 277

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  What if the one thing that kept you together was breaking you apart?

All Linda wants to do is sleep. She won’t look at her husband. She can’t stand her daughter. And she doesn’t want to have this baby. Having this baby means moving on, and she just wants to go back to before. Before their family was torn apart, before the blame was placed.

Alienated by their own guilt and struggling to cope, the Sadler family unravels. They grow up, grow apart, never talking about their terrible secret.

That is until Linda’s daughter finds out she’s pregnant. Before she brings another Sadler into the world, Bea needs to know what happened twenty-five years ago. What did they keep from her? What happened that couldn’t be fixed?

A devastating mistake, a lifetime of consequences. How can you repair something broken if pieces are missing?

Kritters Thoughts:  A story told in two parts and I didn't realize how much I was glad to make the jump to the second half to see how this story really evolved.  In the first half, we have a family that has endured a tragedy and are living not just day to day but moment to moment and at any second things could really fall apart.  The reader doesn't find out what truly happened until the second half, but you don't need to know the details to know that this family is falling apart.  The second half makes a huge time jump and you see the family and how each member has evolved and even how they are still stuck in things.

What a fantastic story and what a great way to tell it.  I was surprised by the time jump, but it was so worth it to make the story to feel full and complete.  I loved these characters and was hoping for their best from the very beginning, so it was satisfying to see them years later and see how their worlds were after many years had passed from the tragedy.  The way the reader finds out the details was genius and worked so well. 

I was excited to learn after reading it that this book was a debut.  I love finding a new author with their first work and it adds to the excitement to see what may come next.  I will be on the lookout for the next Laura Pearson, I hope it is another family drama with a lot of heart in the middle just like 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 Ipso Books.  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 Widow's Watcher by Eliza Maxwell

The Widow's Watcher

by Eliza Maxwell

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Pages: 283

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Living in the shadow of a decades-old crime that stole his children from him, reclusive Lars Jorgensen is an unlikely savior. But when a stranger walks onto the ice of a frozen Minnesota lake, her intentions are brutally clear, and the old man isn’t about to let her follow through.

Jenna Shaw didn’t ask for Lars’s help, nor does she want it. After he pulls her from the brink, however, Jenna finds her desire to give up challenged by their unlikely friendship. In Jenna, Lars recognizes his last chance for redemption. And in her quest to solve the mysteries of Lars’s past and bring him closure, Jenna may find the way out of her own darkness.

But the truth that waits threatens to shatter it all. When secrets are surrendered and lies are laid bare, Jenna and Lars may find that accepting the past isn’t their greatest challenge. Can they afford the heartbreaking price of forgiveness?

Kritters Thoughts:  Jenna Shaw feels like she has lost everything and because of that feels as though there is no reason for her to go on.  She picks a place to end it all, but is interrupted by the person who lives on the land and from there her life takes a wild turn.  Lars, the man who finds her, has a past of his own and when his past becomes a part of the present and Jenna gets involved wheels start spinning and this book is such a great ride.

It takes a bit for this book to really pick up and for the reader to find out what all we are dealing with, but once the reader is up to speed this book doesn't let up.  There are just a few glimpses into the past into Lars' back story and I almost wish there was more of that and maybe even a glimpse back into time into Jenna's story.  She tells about her past, but I would have loved to have been taken there.  

I will warn that it was weird to read this one during the summer at the pool.  With a Minnesota setting and snow and ice, it felt a little weird to be reading at this time of year!  I would suggest getting this one and holding it for a cold wintry weekend!

After finishing this book, like I do with most authors that I have read for the first time, I go on Goodreads and check out their backlist and I was so excited to read that Eliza Maxwell has three other books for me to check out.  I will have to add those books to my ever growing TBR pile!


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: Heaven Adjacent by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Heaven Adjacent

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Pages: 316

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Roseanna Chaldecott spent her life as a high-powered lawyer in Manhattan. But when her best friend and law partner dies suddenly, something snaps. Unsure of her future, Roseanna heads upstate on one tank of gas and with no plans to return.

In the foothills of the Adirondacks, Roseanna discovers the perfect hideout in a ramshackle farm. Its seventy-six acres are rich with possibilities and full of surprises, including a mother and daughter squatting on the property. Although company is the last thing Roseanna wants, she reluctantly lets them stay.

Roseanna and the young girl begin sculpting junk found around the farm into zoo animals, drawing more newcomers—including her estranged son, Lance. He pleads with Roseanna to return to the city, but she’s finally discovered where she belongs. It may not provide the solitude she originally sought, but her heart has found room for much more.

Kritters Thoughts:  Do you ever want to just run away?  As an adult the idea of running away seems more difficult than exhilarating!  With all of the responsibilities and such it doesn't seem as freeing of an idea.  Roseanna has recently endured a life tragedy and decides that the only solution is to pick up life and start over with a little less daily commitments, she leaves her partner at a law firm job and ends up in the country on a farm and that is mostly where this book begins.

This was one of those stories where I often asked myself, "Could I do this?"  I wondered if I could push the reset button and leave it all behind.  I love books that make me think about life and wonder what if.  Catherine Ryan Hyde showed the full picture with positives and negatives to a life reset and what you gain and what you miss.  The way she writes the book is easy to read but it in no ways would be considered fluff in my mind.  Her books have full characters who are struggling with something and have full stories in their books.  Like most of her books, I feel as though the secondary characters almost feel as full and realized as the main character out front.  

I love her writing, plain and simple.  I don't have to read the synopsis when pitched a book by Catherine Ryan Hyde, I am 90% sure I will love it no matter what her characters are up to!


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

Ebook 2018 Challenge: 53 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Little Bird 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: California Summer by Anita Hughes

California Summer

by Anita Hughes

Publisher: St Martin's

Pages: 304

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Ben and Rosie are Hollywood’s newest director/producer dream team. After hitting it big at Sundance, it seems that their ten years of love and hard work are finally paying off. Rosie is happy making independent films, but Ben wants the A-List celebrity package: a house in Beverly Hills, fancy cars in the driveway, and his name on the biggest blockbusters. He’s willing to do anything, even sleep with the most famous producer in town, to get them.

Rosie is devastated by Ben’s affair, and she decides to take a break from show business. She accepts her best friend's invitation to spend the summer at her parents' estate in Montecito. It's far away from L.A., the perfect place to start over.

In Montecito, Rosie meets a colorful cast of characters including Rachel, who owns a chocolate store, and Josh, a handsome local who splits his time between surfing and classic cars. Suddenly Rosie has new friends and a new purpose. She starts a business in the village, and her luck seems to be turning around. But Rosie knows all too well that success comes with a price, and the price might be losing love...again.

Kritters Thoughts:  To start let me say that I have a history with Anita Hughes books.  I either absolutely love them or really dislike them, there is no middle with me and her books.  I read the synopsis really close before I accept a Anita Hughes book for review and this synopsis sounded so so good.  I was so excited to read this, but my experience went downhill with each page.  

I loved the premise of Rosie escaping Hollywood and the fallout of a relationship for a small California town and trying to rebuild herself.  And the bits of the book that centered around Rosie working on herself and rebuilding her life were so fantastic.

It is the bits that were around Rosie and Josh that were beyond frustrating.  Maybe it is my own personal preference in men, but reading a man that runs after ever disagreement bothered the heck out of me.  I just couldn't see him as this manly man that Rosie could fall in love with AND with that they went from chatting and getting to know each other to in love and Rosie talking marriage WAY too fast for me.  The term instalove is used in YA fiction and I would have used it with this book, it was like relationship whiplash!  

But even after not loving this Anita Hughes, I still have hope for the next book with this author.    


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Ebook 2018 Challenge: 51 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from St Martin's Press.  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.

It's Monday, What are you Reading?

It was a busy week all around, so not as much reading happened.

A meme hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. 

Finished this past week:

The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash
Heaven Adjacent by Catherine Ryan Hyde
The Widow's Watcher by Eliza Maxwell

Currently Reading:

Missing Pieces by Laura Pearson

Next on the TBR pile:

In a Jam by Cindy Dorminy

Review: The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash

The Last Ballad

by Wiley Cash

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 384

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: HarperCollins

Goodreads:  Twelve times a week, twenty-eight-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill’s owners—the newly arrived Goldberg brothers—white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May’s best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for seventy-two hours of work each week, it’s the only opportunity she has. Her no-good husband, John, has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with whatever work she can find.

When the union leaflets begin circulating, Ella May has a taste of hope, a yearning for the better life the organizers promise. But the mill owners, backed by other nefarious forces, claim the union is nothing but a front for the Bolshevik menace sweeping across Europe. To maintain their control, the owners will use every means in their power, including bloodshed, to prevent workers from banding together. On the night of the county’s biggest rally, Ella May, weighing the costs of her choice, makes up her mind to join the movement—a decision that will have lasting consequences for her children, her friends, her town—indeed all that she loves.

Seventy-five years later, Ella May’s daughter Lilly, now an elderly woman, tells her nephew about his grandmother and the events that transformed their family. Illuminating the most painful corners of their history, she reveals, for the first time, the tragedy that befell Ella May after that fateful union meeting in 1929.

Kritters Thoughts:  Wiley Cash is known for writing books set in the heart of North Carolina and not showing all of the beautiful pieces but the nitty and the gritty.  He doesn't shy away from real life both in the present tense and the past.  This book jumps from different points of view, but stays solely in the small towns of North Carolina that at times were barely surviving with the mills in town.  

All centered around the mill strikes in 1929, the reader sees how this affected many different types of people from those working in the mill to those who owned the mills.  It was also interesting to read from both the perspective of a Caucasian person getting involved with the strike and the exclusion of the African Americans from the strike.  I learned so much about this time in North Carolina and how it really tore up the state.  

I have said this many times, but my favorite thing about historical fiction is learning something without feeling like I am taking a class.  This was an indepth view of just a few days, weeks and months of time in these small North Carolina towns and how their worlds were revolving around this industry.  

There were some slow parts and some characters and their chapters that I didn't love as much, but overall it was just so interesting.  

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: The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer

The Escape Artist

by Brad Meltzer

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Pages: 416

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Two hours outside of Washington, DC is the mortuary for the U.S. government's most top-secret and high profile cases. America's most important funeral home. To work there, mortician Jim "Zig" Zwicharowski has one rule: never let a case get personal. But when a new body arrives--of young female sergeant Nola Brown, who was a childhood friend of Zig's daughter--Zig can't help himself. Looking closely at Nola's body, he realizes immediately: this isn't Nola. Indeed, his daughter's friend is still alive. And on the run. Zig's discovery reveals a sleight of hand being played at the highest levels of power--and traces back through history to a man named Harry Houdini. "Nola, you were right. Keep running."


Kritters Thoughts:  This book takes place very near my house.  In Dover, DE there is a place where the fallen go for them to get special treatment before their families bury them.  "Zig" is known to be one of the best and can put someone back together so their family can give them the burial they wish.  When a body comes in with a name he recognizes this one hits close to home and he must make sure she is taken care of completely.  But things aren't as they seem and he is swept up into government lies, secrets and some drama from the past.  

As told above, the body that comes into his building isn't the one from his past and through an interesting note he puts himself into the investigation.  I love political mysteries.  Especially ones that involve the government and special projects.  Reading these books make me think I am reading something I shouldn't and maybe I am learning something that isn't public knowledge!  

This book was just ok in my opinion.  I liked the idea of what was going on, but the execution didn't always work for me.  There were quite a few times where the story was just dragging and the pacing just didn't work for me.  So I liked the content just not how it was presented.

Out of Brad Meltzer's big collection of books, I have only read two, so I am not going to count him out, but I may think twice before reading the next one.  


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Ebook 2018 Challenge: 52 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from St Martin's Press.  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.