Jodi Thomas – The Book Date

It’s Monday! What are You Reading?

March 6, 2023March 6, 2023 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.

Line break

Well a reasonable week really. The first part of the week I carted the firewood from the front of the property to the back where I store it. It took me three days which was pretty good really. I just did some every day. Another day I helped a friend clear some rubbish into a skip bin as the family are selling the property. I did a little quilting, some pieces into a jigsaw and read from time to time!

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

About to start….

book cover

This one has been sitting in my listening library for awhile so time to get listening to it!

The Last Mrs summers

Up next:

Last Week’s Posts

General/Women’s Fiction on my TBR Print Shelf

February Reading Round Up

Line break

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

August 29, 2022August 29, 2022 Kathryn

Line break

Welcome in as we almost say goodbye to August!

Thank you to all who commented on last week’s post. I didn’t get around to hardly any blogs on this post last week, I got busier than usual with other things. And more tired than usual, I think the winter weather is doing it! One sunny day last week and I celebrated it with a walk on the beach! However I am back again this week!

What I read last week:

A review book and a library book.

What I am reading now:

A review book.

Call My Name

I am still listening to Thank You For Listening. Really enjoying it. Julia Whelan is a great narrator and her writing is pretty good too!

Up next:

A library book

The Best is Yet to Come

Last Week’s Posts

The Wishing Quilt. Jodi Thomas. Lori Wilde. Patience Griffin

Line break

Review

The Wishing Quilt. Jodi Thomas, Lori Wilde, Patience Griffin

August 25, 2022 Kathryn

The Wishing Quilt

Published: Kensington
Date: 30th August 2022
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

THE SECRET WISH * Jodi Thomas
The little town of While-a-Way, Texas, may as well be named Last Chance as far as Avery Cleveland is concerned. Running her late great-grandmother’s quilt shop is the only way to build back her life after losing her dancing career. But local sheriff Daniel Solis is stunned by Avery’s beauty and spirit—and hopes to show her how to stitch brand-new dreams together . . .

WISH UPON A WEDDING * Lori Wilde
Ellie Winter’s sister is holding a quilting bee as her bachelorette party, creating a memory quilt for their grandmother. If only the event weren’t happening at the ranch where Ellie spent childhood summers, now owned by the man she can’t forget. Four days surely isn’t enough time to fall in love again . . . but what about four long, hot, summer nights?

WHEN YOU WISH UPON A QUILT * Patience Griffin
Paige Holiday’s last visit to the International Quilt Festival in Houston ended in heartbreak. It seems like all the women in her family are unlucky in love. So at this year’s festival, Paige is focused solely on business, until a gorgeous cowboy crosses her path, ready to turn her life—and her luck—around . . .

MY THOUGHTS

The Secret Wish by Jodi Thomas has all her trademark story ways. Texas, sheriffs, small dusty towns and a young woman in search of a new start. And I loved that she’s taking up the call from her great grandma to reopen and old broken down quilt store, plus keep her love of ballet. It’s a heart warming, romantic fun read. It has plenty of action and humor in it, and a just beautiful ending.

Wish Upon a Wedding by Lori Wilde brings Ellie and Dalton back together after a number of years. They did love each other but for unknown reasons Dalton sent Ellie on her way. Now they have the opportunity to reconnect as Ellie and her sister and wedding party get together to make a quilt top for their Grandmother who has early alzheimers. Here at the ranch Ellie learns what is really important in life and her choices then match that. A romantic story.

When You Wish Upon a Quilt was a story I enjoyed because it involved Quilt Market and Quilt Festival and a young woman with hopes of becoming a fabric designer. Of course there is a handsome cowboy, a very cautious sister of the cowboy and an ex girlfriend. It all adds to the story and I found myself sitting down and reading this one right through in one sitting.

As they are all novellas there is insta love, there isn’t so long to develop the relationship so a reader just has to go with it! And I did and they were all very readable. I will add that the quilt factor in each of them was a much appreciated bonus.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

July 25, 2022July 25, 2022 Kathryn

Line break

Hope all the northern hemisphere readers are managing the heat. It seems very hot. I was just listening to a quilt podcast where I asked the podcasters what is the plus and minus of living in Nevada. It made me curious as to why people live in the desert. Well I learned no personal tax but also they seemed to prefer the heat to the snow conditions. I was also thinking this morning not many to no trees so I guess no forest fires? Well that would be a plus.

Anyway its winter here and we do have taxes! I prefer the cold to the heat, although it hasn’t been quite so cold this winter, but well enough for heating and a fire at night.

I had a rinse and repeat kind of week and enjoyed it very much, today is overcast and I have planned to drop books off for a book fair, drop clear out stuff to the Salvation Army shop and then to pick up groceries and then home to hibernate!

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

About to start both of these. The Agatha Christie one helps me along in an informal reading challenge and this is the one I found at the library.

book cover

Time to listen to another in this series.

book cover

Up next:

This one because it came in at the library.

Last Week’s Posts

Murder Spills the Tea. Vicki Delany

The Five Books Read from my Shelf in July

Line break

Review

Sunday at the Sunflower Inn. Jodi Thomas

April 20, 2022April 20, 2022 Kathryn

Summer at the Sunflower Inn

Published: Kensington
Date: 26th April 2022
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

“Jessica Ann McKenzie—“Jam” to everyone in Honey Creek—has fulfilled her dream of owning the best restaurant for miles around. Serving candlelit dinners to every couple in town on Valentine’s Day is a reminder of another dream, one she’s just about given up on. Until, that very night, Sergeant Tucson Smith clambers out of the muddy river and onto her land, bringing the promise of something they’ve both been searching for.

When McCoy Mason crashes on Interstate 45, he doesn’t just bust up his Mustang, his leg, and his relationship. He also loses his prospects of a job and apartment in Houston. Honey Creek, home to his estranged grandfather, offers a temporary respite, a place to recover before moving on again. After all, what permanent use could a town so picture-perfect have for a man like him?

At sixty-seven, Charles H. Winston III lives by order and routine. One of his most cherished rituals is a regular lunch date with three lovely ladies at the Honey Creek Café, including the very proper Miss Lilly Lambert. But it’s not too late to surprise the whole town—or himself—by seizing a chance for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. And there’s no better season than spring, when the warm breeze blowing in from the Brazos River brings fresh hope and second chances to those who need them most . . .”

I love having the opportunity to walk the streets of Honey Creek again and meet some of the wonderful characters that populate various places. It’s an ensemble cast again, and each character found a place in my heart.

What I really like about the characters who meet each other, or have known each other for awhile, wonderful respecting relationships grow. Romantic relationships of course, but family and neighbours as well.

There is a little bit of mystery, a little bit of suspense and quite a bit of humor. Mix that with the quirky characters and the dry Texas setting, and as a reader I am hooked.

I want to name them all as my favorite character, but each one appealed to me. McCoy might come close as he buses into town, everything gone and a grandfather to meet. To say nothing of the little fairy that lives near his grandfather. Charles Winston and Miss Lily proved to be sweeties, choosing life over vegetating. Tucson and Jessica or Jam as she is known, a pair who find themselves attracted to each other. And a young teen girl and her soldier friend who provide the town with a bit of mystery.

It was all in all a delightful read, reminding the reader that there are good ordinary people out there who can bond together and live life well.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What are You Reading?

April 11, 2022April 11, 2022 Kathryn

Line break

Well I had a great reading week, that’s not surprising because every author on this post is a favourite of mine!

Hope all is well for you in these times of challenge for us all. Easter coming up is rather nice and a time to pause and appreciate life.

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

The Becoming

And just starting to listen to…

The Wedding Veil

Up next:

book cover Last Week’s Posts

Spotlight on Summer Island by Brenda Novak.
Family Affair. Robyn Carr
Books to Challenge Me
March Reading Round Up

Line break

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

April 4, 2022April 4, 2022 Kathryn

Line break

This weekend we put our clocks back, I really dislike that time of the year. I’d like to stay in one time or the other!

During the week I spent some time in the garden tidying up and in a fit spent a bit of money at the local garden centre to put into pots, just to brighten it up a little. I’d let everything go in the heat of summer. I also put a few greens into the vegetable garden. Maybe I might sow some carrots and see. It does get a bit cold in winter but I could try.

I’ve done a little viewing, got hooked into the Australian TV series The Newsreader and also started Season 2 of Bridgerton but need to set some time aside to seriously watch it through!!

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

Summer at the Sunflower Inn

And still listening to listening to Rising Tides by Nora Roberts

Up next:

The Secret of Snow Last Week’s Posts

The Library Bella Osborne

Breezy Books

Line break

Review

Picnic at Primrose Hill.

October 27, 2021 Kathryn

Dinner on Primrose Hill

Published by: Kensington
Date: 26th October 2021
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Benjamin Monroe is pretty sure how his life will play out. He’ll continue teaching chemistry in his small college, and spend his free time biking through the valley. Eventually, he’ll retire to putter around in his garden and greenhouse.

His colleague, Virginia Clark, is not one for routines. She’s chatty, spontaneous, and bubbly, and before Benjamin realizes what happened, she’s talked him into collaborating on a research project—studying the mating habits of college students. Virginia knows her desire to work with Benjamin is motivated by more than the potential prize money . . . and hopes he might not be quite as indifferent as he seems to be.

Ketch Kincaid, one of Benjamin’s star students, returned to college after serving in the army. He needs something to get his mind off his recent breakup and collecting research data might do it. And there’s another distraction on the horizon—a woman who looks like she, too, knows about heartache.

So much to love and enjoy reading Dinner on Primrose Hill by Jodi Thomas.

No one writes a small Texas town better than Jodi. It’s obvious she has a great love for the place and she makes her reader love it too.
The characters are so loveable and such fun. Some of them carry “bruising” from their past. In this book we have three main pairs, promising some romance. 1. Benjamin and Virginia, two college professors in their early forties. He is a head person and she is a heart person and their topic of research over the Spring break? What makes people attracted to each other? 2. Ketch and Tuesday. Ketch is an ex soldier just finishing up his studies and Tuesday is a young woman who starts out as a barmaid but really wants to be a nurse. And… she owns the Primrose Hill house. 3. Amelia the University librarian and Hank – well not giving away what Hank does but he’s a character anyway.
The humor in this story is a load of fun. There is just a touch of exaggeration, not much but a gentle touch. The dialogue is witty when the reader least expects it and a chuckle emits on the spot.
There is a bit of a town mystery going on, and it is mainly through that that all the couples interconnect and the story takes on a cohesiveness.
That Primrose Hill house. The kind of house we’d all like to explore and maybe even live there. I know I would.

Another totally delightful read from Jodi Thomas.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

October 18, 2021October 18, 2021 Kathryn

Line break

I had a really good week. It looks like I did a lot of reading and I did. But there were also outings and some sewing. One day we had really cold weather – like back to winter – and by 10am I lit the fire and sat by it all day and read. Don’t think I even did that in winter!

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

book cover

Up next:

book cover

Last Week’s Posts

At the End of the Day. Liz Byrski

Books by Irish Authors

Line break

Review

Picnic in Someday Valley Jodi Thomas

April 21, 2021 Kathryn

book cover

Published: Kensington Books
Date::27th April 2021
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Marcie Latimer longs to run away from Someday Valley–especially since her ex-boyfriend spun a web of lies that almost led to tragedy in neighboring Honey Creek. Little wonder so many locals have turned their backs on her. But not Brand Rodgers. The quiet cowboy comes to listen every time she sings at Bandit’s Bar, offering a glimpse of safety and calm that Marcie’s rarely known.

After Texas Ranger Colby McBride saved Honey Creek’s mayor, Piper Mackenzie, from a fire, she claimed him with a kiss. That was five months ago, and Colby still isn’t sure where they’re headed. Piper loves her town–but does she love Colby? And is he even ready for what comes next?

Pecos Smith, Honey Creek’s emergency dispatcher, is grateful to have a new bride he adores and a baby on the way–even if one vital piece of the puzzle is missing. But as trouble comes stalking through the valley, lives will cross surprising paths. And Marcie, who’s always felt that a forever love was out of reach, might discover that Someday is the perfect place to find it..

As soon as I open and read the first page of Picnic in Someday Valley by Jodi Thomas I am totally in. It’s like coming home and being able to rest in the arms of a storyteller who will spin a good yarn. For a start the cover draws me in, and as it will turn out, it is very relevant to the story of one of the characters.

It’s really a good time read. The characters are both sweet and tough. There is one bad guy out to do a lot of damage and he provides the suspense in the story. But maybe he’s about to meet his match from an unlikely source.

Yes there are lots of characters but it’s easy to follow and stay up to date with them. Some get happy at least for now endings and I sense there is more to come for others that I need to know, so expecting more for them in another book. Honey Creek #3 I am looking for you.

Full of small town goodness, Texas flavour and characters to cheer for and chuckle at appropriate times.