Category Archives: Book Opinion

The Queen of Hearts

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Author: Kimmery Martin
Publisher: Brekley
Genre: Fiction
Source: Purchased

 

Goodreads:  A debut novel set against a background of hospital rounds and life-or-death decisions that pulses with humor and empathy and explores the heart’s capacity for forgiveness…

Zadie Anson and Emma Colley have been best friends since their early twenties, when they first began navigating serious romantic relationships amid the intensity of medical school. Now they’re happily married wives and mothers with successful careers–Zadie as a pediatric cardiologist and Emma as a trauma surgeon. Their lives in Charlotte, North Carolina are chaotic but fulfilling, until the return of a former colleague unearths a secret one of them has been harboring for years.

As chief resident, Nick Xenokostas was the center of Zadie’s life–both professionally and personally–throughout a tragic chain of events in her third year of medical school that she has long since put behind her. Nick’s unexpected reappearance during a time of new professional crisis shocks both women into a deeper look at the difficult choices they made at the beginning of their careers. As it becomes evident that Emma must have known more than she revealed about circumstances that nearly derailed both their lives, Zadie starts to question everything she thought she knew about her closest friend.

Ope’s Opinion: There are two things I love about this book – friendship and Charlotte, NC.  It was interesting to watching Zadie and Emma really get to know each other after being friends for many years.  

A lot of the medical talk went over my head.  It took away from the story for me.  I found myself skimming those parts to get to the friendship and the secrets in the story.

I have her second book The Antidote For Everything, on my shelf.  I will try it.  I hope there is more story and less medical jargon.

 

Two Truths and a Lie

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Author: Meg Mitchell Moore
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Mystery
Source:  Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

Goodreads:  From the author of The Islanders comes a warm, witty and suspenseful novel filled with small-town secrets, summer romance, big time lies and spiked seltzer, in the vein of Liane Moriarty.

Truth: Sherri Griffin and her daughter, Katie, have recently moved to the idyllic beach town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Rebecca Coleman, widely acknowledged former leader of the Newburyport Mom Squad (having taken a step back since her husband’s shocking and tragic death eighteen months ago), has made a surprising effort to include these newcomers in typically closed-group activities. Rebecca’s teenage daughter Alexa has even been spotted babysitting Katie.

Truth: Alexa has time on her hands because of a recent falling-out with her longtime best friends for reasons no one knows—but everyone suspects have to do with Alexa’s highly popular and increasingly successful YouTube channel. Katie Griffin, who at age 11 probably doesn’t need a babysitter anymore, can’t be left alone because she has terrifying nightmares that don’t seem to jibe with the vague story Sherri has floated about the “bad divorce” she left behind in Ohio. Rebecca Coleman has been spending a lot of time with Sherri, it’s true, but she’s also been spending time with someone else she doesn’t want the Mom Squad to know about just yet.

Lie: Rebecca Coleman doesn’t have a new man in her life, and definitely not someone connected to the Mom Squad. Alexa is not seeing anyone new herself and is planning on shutting down her YouTube channel in advance of attending college in the fall. Sherri Griffin’s real name is Sherri Griffin, and a bad divorce is all she’s running from.

A blend of propulsive thriller and gorgeous summer read, Two Truths and a Lie reminds us that happiness isn’t always a day at the beach, some secrets aren’t meant to be shared, and the most precious things are the people we love.

Ope’s Opinion: There are a lot of people with a lot going on in this book.  It is not hard to keep it straight because each chapter is labeled.  One of the things I really liked about this story was that the secrets came out throughout the whole book, little by little.  There were some things that were held to the end, but it didn’t all come out at once.

The Mom Squad was a bit over the top for me, but I am sure they exist some where.  They were a bit too catty for my liking.  I was glad I was not the move-in of their group, actually I was glad I was not a part of their group at all!

Although this book is the mystery category, I think it more women’s fiction with a little mystery on the edges of it.

Book News!

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I went on vacation ( the beach ) last week.
It was a great week to be away, but….
Look what I missed –

The cover of Kristy’s book was revealed!
Isn’t it beautiful!  Can’t wait to read this one.
For me she is a go-to author – I read all of her stories.

When I got home, this is what was on my door step…

This is what I picked up at The Island Book Store.

I am excited about the reading I have ahead of me!

Coming Soon….

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…. On a Bookshelf near you!

In October I hope to read….

 

Publication Date:  October 20 , 2020
Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Goodreads:  From the bestselling author of The Convenient Groom and A December Bride (now beloved Hallmark Original movies) comes the third and final novel in the Bluebell Inn series!

When a mysterious man turns up at Grace’s family-run inn, it’s instant attraction. But she’s already got a lot on her plate: running the Bluebell Inn, getting Blue Ridge Outfitters off the ground, and coping with a childhood event she’d thought was long past.

A gunshot wound has resurrected the past for secret service agent Wyatt Jennings, and a mandatory leave of absence lands him in Bluebell, North Carolina. There he must try and come to grips with the crisis that altered his life forever.

Grace needs experience for her new outfitters business, so when Wyatt needs a mountain guide, she’s more than happy to step up to the plate. As their journey progresses, Grace soon has an elusive Wyatt opening up, and Wyatt is unwittingly drawn to Grace’s fresh outlook and sense of humor.

There’s no doubt the two have formed a special bond, but will Wyatt’s secrets bring Grace’s world crashing down? Or will those secrets end up healing them both?

 

What is coming soon …. to a bookshelf near you?

Let me know – I am always looking for a good read!

Bring Her Home

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Author:  David Bell
Publisher: Berkley Books
Genre: Mystery
Source: Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

Goodreads:  In the breathtaking new thriller from David Bell, bestselling author of Since She Went Away and Somebody I Used to Know, the fate of two missing teenage girls becomes a father’s worst nightmare….

Just a year and a half after the tragic death of his wife, Bill Price’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Summer, and her best friend, Haley, disappear. Days later, the girls are found in a city park. Haley is dead at the scene, while Summer is left beaten beyond recognition and clinging to life.

As Bill holds vigil over Summer’s bandaged body, the only sound the unconscious girl can make is one cryptic and chilling word: No. And the more time Bill spends with Summer, the more he wonders what happened to her. Or if the injured girl in the hospital bed is really his daughter at all.

When troubling new questions about Summer’s life surface, Bill is not prepared for the aftershocks. He’ll soon discover that both the living and the dead have secrets. And that searching for the truth will tear open old wounds that pierce straight to the heart of his family…

Ope’s Opinion: Wow!  This is my first David Bell book – I can’t wait to start reading his other books now! 

This book will grab you from the very beginning.  The chapters are short, so I kept thinking one more chapter…. One more.  It read really fast and the story was great.  I thought I knew who did it, then some thing happened ( no spoilers ), so I figured I was wrong.  Well, I was right, it just threw me off for a minute.  

There was a bit of the story about two thirds of the way through that I felt was a wild goose chase and didn’t add to the other part of the story.  The end revealed some things I was not expecting ( this is good ), but everything came to a conclusion.

You’re Gonna Love Me

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Author: Robin Lee Hatcher
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Genre: Christian Fiction
Source: Purchased

 

Goodreads:  Who knew fate could twist a tragedy into a second chance at love?

Samantha Winters lives her life the way a good accountant should—measured, deliberate, and safe. After watching her father die in a tragic skiing accident, she decided never to allow risk into her life again. But she didn’t count on falling for Nick Chastain, who embodies everything she doesn’t want in her safely constructed world.

Against Samantha’s warnings, Nick plans a dangerous kayaking trip over spring break. Furious that he’s so careless with his life, she ends their fledgling relationship with harsh words.

Two years later, Samantha is desperately in need of a change. When she learns her grandmother has had an accident and is in need of a caretaker, Samantha quickly packs her bags and heads to Thunder Creek, Idaho. But nothing could prepare her for the surprise awaiting her in her grandmother’s hospital room . . . Nick.

With the charming backdrop of small-town friends, beloved cousins, and a whole church congregation rooting for them, can they set aside the disastrous ending of their first try at love? Has Nick changed enough to meet Samantha in the middle—and can she realize that a risk in love might be worth taking?

Ope’s Opinion: This story started out really well, but after a while I was tired of the back and forth – Sam and Nick got close, Sam got scared and pulled away – they got close again, Sam got scared and pulled away – over and over again.  The first time – okay, but after a while it got old.  

I really liked Sam’s Gran and the relationship between the two of them.  Gran was a wise women, who did not interfere with Sam’s and Nick relationship, but was there for guidance.

The ending was what you expect – it was good, but rushed.

Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years

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Author: Julie Andrews
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Genre: Nonfiction
Source:  Library

Goodreads:   In this follow-up to her critically acclaimed memoir, Home, Julie Andrews shares reflections on her astonishing career, including such classics as Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Victor/Victoria.

In Home, the number one New York Times international bestseller, Julie Andrews recounted her difficult childhood and her emergence as an acclaimed singer and performer on the stage.
With this second memoir, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years, Andrews picks up the story with her arrival in Hollywood and her phenomenal rise to fame in her earliest films–Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Andrews describes her years in the film industry — from the incredible highs to the challenging lows. Not only does she discuss her work in now-classic films and her collaborations with giants of cinema and television, she also unveils her personal story of adjusting to a new and often daunting world, dealing with the demands of unimaginable success, being a new mother, the end of her first marriage, embracing two stepchildren, adopting two more children, and falling in love with the brilliant and mercurial Blake Edwards. The pair worked together in numerous films, including Victor/Victoria, the gender-bending comedy that garnered multiple Oscar nominations.

Cowritten with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, and told with Andrews’s trademark charm and candor, Home Work takes us on a rare and intimate journey into an extraordinary life that is funny, heartrending, and inspiring.

Ope’s Opinion: Julie Andrews voice was such a pleasure to listen to.  She spoke of personal things that were happening and behind scenes of Mary Poppins, Sound of Music and other things that she did.  

I always feel a memoir is hard to review.  It is her perspective of her life – it can’t be negative or positive.  It is what ever she remembers.

I just enjoyed listening to this.  I am not a big fan of reading memoirs, but I do enjoy listening to them.

Paris Never Leaves You

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Author: Ellen Feldman
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source:  St. Martin’s Press

 

Goodreads:  Living through WWII working in a Paris bookstore with her young daughter, Vivi, and fighting for her life, Charlotte is no victim, she is a survivor. But can she survive the next chapter of her life?

Alternating between wartime Paris and 1950s New York publishing, Paris Never Leaves You is an extraordinary story of resilience, love, and impossible choices, exploring how survival never comes without a cost.

The war is over, but the past is never past. 

Ope’s Opinion: Although I am not usually a historical fiction reader, I decided to try this one.  It was not for me, but I do think if you are a WWII reader you may enjoy it.  There were two story lines that felt disconnected.  The characters left me wanting something ( not even sure what.. just didn’t connect with them ).

I did enjoy all the parts of the story that had to do with the book store in Paris and the publishing house in NYC.  It was interesting to hear about how things were handled in the publishing world.

You may want to give this one a chance if you are more of a historical reader.

 

Who Do You Love

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Author: Jennifer Weiner
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: Fiction
Source: Purchased

 

 

Goodreads:  Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are eight years old when they meet late one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she’s intrigued by the boy who shows up all alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy’s taken back to the emergency room and Rachel’s sent back to her bed, they think they’ll never see each other again.

Rachel, the beloved, popular, and protected daughter of two doting parents, grows up wanting for nothing in a fancy Florida suburb. Andy grows up poor in Philadelphia with a single mom and a rare talent that will let him become one of the best runners of his generation.

Over the course of three decades, through high school and college, marriages and divorces, from the pinnacles of victory and the heartbreak of defeat, Andy and Rachel will find each other again and again, until they are finally given a chance to decide whether love can surmount difference and distance and if they’ve been running toward each other all along.

With honesty, wit, and clear-eyed observations about men and women, love and fate, and the truth about happy endings, Jennifer Weiner delivers two of her most memorable characters, and a love story you’ll never forget.

Ope’s Opinion: The idea of the story was amazing.   I could feel what the characters were feeling.  The decisions that were made were believable, especially when each person did not have the full story – only their own perspective.

The detailed steamy parts were too explicit for what I like to read.  The whole story could have been complete without those parts being described in detail. The back and forth, together, apart, together, apart, etc. was drug out a bit for me.  

The ending was what you would expect, until the next bump in the road!

 

The Next Always

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Author: Nora Roberts
Publisher: Berkley Books
Genre: Romance
Source: Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

 

Goodreads:  #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts introduces you to the Montgomery brothers – Beckett, Ryder, and Owen – as they bring an intimate bed-and-breakfast to life in their hometown.

The historic hotel in Boonsboro has endured war and peace, the changing of hands, and even rumored hauntings. Now it’s getting a major face-lift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. As the architect in the family, Beckett’s social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there’s another project he’s got his eye on: the girl he’s been waiting to kiss since he was sixteen.

After losing her husband and returning to her hometown, Clare Brewster soon settles into her life as the mother of three young sons while running the town’s bookstore. Though busy and with little time for romance, Clare is drawn across the street by Beckett’s transformation of the old inn, wanting to take a closer look…at both the building and the man behind it.

With the grand opening inching closer, Beckett is happy to give Clare a private tour – one room at a time, in between blueprint meetings and kindergarten pickups. It’s no first date, but these stolen moments are the beginning of something that could arouse the secret yearning that resides in Clare’s independent heart – and open the door to the extraordinary adventure of what comes next…

Ope’s Opinion:  Nora Roberts usually catches me on the first page and keeps my attention – not this time.  For the reader that is strictly a romance readers, you might enjoy this – it has some steamy parts ( too much for me ) and the romance moves quickly – I am more of a slow moving relationship reader.  

There was too much foul language ( seemed to just be stuck in there ).  I hope not to spoil too much, but there is a ghost – really not my cup of tea.  So I won’t be continuing with this series.

If you enjoy all of the above – give it a read and hopefully you will enjoy it.