The Book Date

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

May 23, 2022May 23, 2022 Kathryn

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

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Well a quieter reading week. I was busy sewing and getting quilts ready for my brother to take back with him to two of his grandchildren so reading went on the back burner! We had a nice evening with him and his wife. It’s quite a few months since we all gathered so that was great.

What I read last week:

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What I am reading now:

Thought I’d see how I go with it.

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And still listening to South of the Buttonwood Tree.

Up next:

This is a small memoir that has been on my shelf too long, written by someone I used to work with.

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Last Week’s Posts

A Beach House Summer Sarah Morgan

My Reading Rules

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My Reading Rules

May 20, 2022May 20, 2022 Kathryn

I was listening to the Currently Reading Podcast and their deep dive was about their reading rules. It of course is different for everyone. I decided to name five of my own reading rules!

Reading Rules

Read and Chill Out

Read What I Want. I read mostly for entertainment and relaxation. I don’t want to read classics and literary fiction most of the time so I won’t.

Challenge Myself Occasionally. Just because I like light books, it doesn’t mean I can’t be drawn to challenge myself when I feel like it, to read a different genre, new author, debut book, a book someone else has shown how much they loved it, or even a so called classic.

Skip parts of the book and sometimes not finish it. If it is slowing the plot down, is violent or open door sex that goes on for pages or just seems like fill I skip it. If it is boring the socks off me I abandon it.

Choose what I read by what I feel like at the time. Even if I have said it’s what I am going to read next, I might not. From now on I will not prioritise review books unless I need to read it for a book tour. It can languish for awhile, I will still read and review it. But… I might want to read a library book or from my own shelf first. This is a new rule for me!

Audiobooks are counted as reading a book. Of course! I might not be reading with my eyes but I am reading with my mind, it takes slightly different skills but it is still reading, It is delicious being read to!

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Review

Sarah Morgan. Beach House Summer

May 18, 2022 Kathryn

Beach House Summer

Published: Harlequin Books
Date: 17th May 2022
Source: Publicist via NetGalley

When Joanna Whitman’s famous ex-husband dies in a car accident, she doesn’t know what to feel. Their dysfunctional marriage held more painful secrets than she cares to remember. But when she discovers that the young woman with him in the crash is pregnant, Joanna feels compelled to act, knowing exactly how brutal the media spotlight will be on celebrity chef Cliff Whitman’s ex-wife and his mysterious female friend.

Ashley Blake can’t believe it when Joanna shows up in her hospital room and suggests they hide away at her beach house on a sleepy stretch of California coast. Joanna should be hating her, not helping her. But alone and pregnant, Ashley can’t turn down Joanna’s offer. Yet she knows that if Joanna ever found out the real reason Ashley was in that car, their tentative bond would shatter instantly.

Joanna’s only goal for the summer is privacy, but her return causes major waves in the local community, especially for the man she left behind years ago. All Ashley wants is space to plan for her and her baby’s future, and to avoid causing any trouble for Joanna. But as secrets spill out under the hot summer sun, this unlikely friendship is about to be put to the test.

Beach House Summer by Sarah Morgan is a delightful summer read. It draws the reader in with a bit of a small mystery at the beginning about Ashley and Cliff.

Joanna begins out as a person in hiding – mostly from the press. She has had a few bad experiences in her earlier life and that plus the present pressure of the press hounding her has made her want to curl up into herself. But… her personal assistant and later Ashley have things to say about that.

Ashley is pregnant and alone, or so she thinks. She has fled from an unsure situation into the fire. When Joanna takes an interest in her, things look up for her. Together both of them support each other and help build each other up into stronger women.

This is a story about small community, second chances, growing up, friendship, sibling relationship, parenting and of course some romance. The characters had me on their side and I loved the setting of the house, and the way things all get sorted out, mainly by talking things out and finding what is important in each person’s heart.

Author Bio:

Sarah Morgan is a USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She has sold more than 21 million copies of her books and her trademark humour and warmth have gained her fans across the globe. Sarah lives with her family near London, England, where the rain frequently keeps her trapped in her office. Visit her at http://www.sarahmorgan.com

Social Links:
Author Website
Twitter: @SarahMorgan_
Facebook: Sarah Morgan
Instagram: @sarahmorganwrites
Goodreads

Buy Links:
BookShop.org
Harlequin
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Books-A-Million
Powell’s

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

May 16, 2022May 16, 2022 Kathryn

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Welcome in and hope all is going reasonably well for you all. I had a good week. I ventured into Wellington city via a new road that opened a little while back. Quite an experience as it cuts through some high hills. It takes off a whole lot of the small towns and so you can go along at full speed.

After connecting with a friend we then travelled around the harbour to Eastbourne for a walk and the yummy oysters, scallops and chips. Great way to spend a day.

Now wet weather has set in and while not too cold I have lit the fire a few times. Makes things cosy!

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

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And listening to..

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Up next:

I am not too sure, I am only beginning A Mother’s Heart and I am not sure what I will feel like reading once I finish that one.

Last Week’s Posts

Book. Directions

Lost Coast Literary. Ellie Alexander

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Book Connections

Book Directions

May 13, 2022May 13, 2022 Kathryn

In June the informal reading challenge I am joining in with on Emilie Richards Reader Page is …. A book with a direction in the title. So I have been considering. In actual fact there are quite a few book titles with a direction word in it!

South of the Buttonwood Tree is perfect directions. You’d know exactly where to aim, well if you knew which Buttonwood tree! That said I am starting to listen to that now, so it won’t be of any use to me for the challenge next month. Blue Bishop has a knack for finding lost things. While growing up in charming small-town Buttonwood, Alabama, she’s happened across lost wallets, jewelry, pets, her wandering neighbor, and sometimes, trouble. No one is more surprised than Blue, however, when she comes across an abandoned newborn baby in the woods, just south of a very special buttonwood tree. I have only recently started to read Heather Webber books and I have really liked what I have read.

book cover Another great directions book, In the Middle of Hickory Lane. But this one I think publishes in July so too late for June. Great cover and I will probably listen to this on audio as well. Family, community, secrets and some magical realism. All elements I enjoy.

book cover Well you’d know where to head too with this title. I’ve never been to the East End except via books like this one. All about a below stairs cook and the mysteries she solves. It’s a series! I love the setting and the characters. Murder in the East End.

book cover Well I think this title gives some direction as well. Under the Southern Sky. Another one that I have read though. Kristy Woodson Harvey has written a story that just kept on giving. A story of family, loss, love, new hope. Wonderful to listen to, because the narrators brought the characters alive.

book cover Summer on the Island. Well the directions don’t tell me which island but its on the island. This is the book I will most likely read for the challenge as I have it from Netgalley, by a accident actually but that’s okay. As it happens the island is small and off the coast of Florida and its detailed as a summer of healing, friendship and love and a secret that could change everything!

Review

Lost Coast Literary. Ellie Alexander

May 11, 2022 Kathryn

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Published: Sweet Lemon Press

Date: March 29th 2022

Source:Publisher via NetGalley

Book editor Emily Bryant finds herself unexpectedly in the charming town of Cascata on California’s Lost Coast, holding the keys to her grandmother’s rambling Victorian mansion. While sorting through her grandmother’s things, Emily learns that to inherit the estate she must edit old manuscripts. It’s a strange request from a family member who was basically a stranger.

Emily quickly realizes that there’s something different about these manuscripts. Any changes she makes, come true. At first, she embraces the gift. She has a chance to help characters find true love or chart a new course for their future. Only things go terribly wrong. Her edits have the opposite effect. The sweet and funky seaside community of Cascata is reeling from the chaos Emily has created. Everything she thought she believed about her family and her past is in jeopardy, and no amount of re-writing can fix the damage she’s done.

Then she finds one last manuscript. If Emily can get this edit right, then maybe she’ll have a chance to create a new narrative for herself and everyone around her.

A reader may be acquainted with Ellie Alexander’s mystery books, but this is not one of them. It is a delightful step out into an entirely different story. It is set up on the Lost Coast of the Northern West Coast of the USA.

Narrowing in further, it is set in the most wonderful Victorian mansion. Note the front copy of the book. I want to visit it, it is full of books and hidden nooks. It is to this house that Emily arrives at after being summoned by her Uncle after her grandmother dies.

Emily is an aspiring editor in New York and it takes some pulling to get her to come to Lost Coast Literary, the name of her grandmother’s house.

Emily has been estranged from the Lost Coast side of her family, and as she carries out some of her grandmother’s wishes she becomes acquainted with them and the local community, and did I say – the house!

I’ll leave the rest for you if you by chance read this book. I suspect any lover of books and a bit of magical realism would enjoy it. As Ellie Alexander I note on her website runs writing courses for aspiring writers, I believe within these pages too may be some hints.

A fun book to read and have your heart touched by.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

May 9, 2022May 9, 2022 Kathryn

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Welcome in all. Hope the week is starting well for you all.

Saturday for me was spent helping to dig out the veggie garden as roots from other things had grown up in it. All the soil was dug out ( no not me) and then we sifted it through some netting and put weed mat down and put the soil back. Hopefully it won’t compact like it did before. It’s a raised veggie bed. Now to grow veggies again. We had done half about a month ago and already I have some greens growing well. Helps with the growing price of vegetables at the supermarket.

Sunday I was a bit out to it, couldn’t even read I was so tired, so a few doses of Bridgerton and a Dancing with the Stars helped.

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

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And still listening to The Fairy Godmother.

Up next:

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Last Week’s Posts

Emilie Richards and Twilight Shadows

2022 Books I want to Read

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Book Connections

2022 Books I want to Read

May 6, 2022May 6, 2022 Kathryn

I like to keep my eye out on what is publishing that I might want to read and of course at this time of the year the publishing world seems to be planning lots of goodies! These are books that are publishing May or have published already.

I am not sure which one I’ll go after first, but I hope to work my way through them via audio, library or a …. buy! I have already been pricing some of them and seeing where it is the cheapest for me to buy! The Book Depository is now quite expensive so if I can get it here it is much the same.

Flirting With Fifty. Jane Porter

A later in life romance that sounds good. I like Jane Porter’s books and haven’t read one for ages. May read this via audio or print. Not sure yet. However it is already published.

Nightwork

Nightwork Nora Roberts. Her latest which comes out on the 24th of this month in audio format and this is most likely the way I will go. Read by male narrator and will be suspense but haven’t even read the blurb.

The Wedding dress Sewing Circle. Jennifer Ryan. I have enjoyed her other books and publishes at the end of May. It is set in WW2. I may go for audio or print.

Book Lovers Emily Henry. This too is on audio or may read it in print. I’ve requested this one from the library.

Bloomsbury Girls

Bloomsbury Girls. Natalie Jenner. story of post-war London, a century-old bookstore, and three women determined to find their way in a fast-changing world. I know this is on audio but so far isn’t available for my part of world so may have to go for print which I can do. Heard the audio is great though.

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Review

Emilie Richards and Desert Shadows.

May 4, 2022May 4, 2022 Kathryn

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Republished by: Emilie Richards
Date:
Source: From the author.

Was rebellious Sister Felicia, the nun who sneaked cigarettes and went swimming in the nude, for real? Or was she a cool assassin, an impostor who had come to the Palm Springs convent in order to murder world-famous humanitarian? — Undercover agent Josiah Gallagher thought he’d figured out the mysterious nun whose beauty kept him awake at night. Then he and the ”sister” found themselves stranded in the desert, with only a slim chance for survival.

Sister Felicia’s bravery during their desperate desert trek inspired Gallagher to tenderness–and solved the mystery of her presence at the convent. But though he knew he’d met his match, this was no time to give in to passion. He was no saint and she was no sister, but they might never get away alive unless they relied on a wing and a prayer.

Emilie Richards has now regained control of some of her earlier books and has been updating them and reissuing them. Desert Shadows was first published in 1992. As I didn’t know anything of Emilie Richards books in those days, the fact she can refresh and present these books to todays readers is perfect. In my opinion the updating has been successful and reads really well in 2022, good writing is good writing – whenever it was written.

We first meet Felice in a convent, where she is undercover of all things. At first as a reader you don’t realise this, but it doesn’t take long to see she has quite different motives to what you’d expect. She is there to watch over someone and protect them. But soon she is involved in a number of dangerous situations that had me reading on to see what was going to happen next.

I loved the setting of Palm Springs and the characters – Felice and Josiah – who as they work through one dangerous situation after another, finally work out what they mean to each other. Good romantic suspense.

I look forward to the next book Twilight Shadows that takes up the story of Kelley, Felice’s partner.

Desert Shadows Emilie Richards. Find on Goodreads Amazon

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