Tag Archives: Berkley

The Antidote for Everything

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Author: Kimmery Martin
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Fiction
Source: Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

 

Goodreads:  In this whip-smart and timely novel from acclaimed author Kimmery Martin, two doctors travel a surprising path when they must choose between treating their patients and keeping their jobs.

Georgia Brown’s profession as a urologist requires her to interact with plenty of naked men, but her romantic prospects have fizzled. The most important person in her life is her friend Jonah Tsukada, a funny, empathetic family medicine doctor who works at the same hospital in Charleston, South Carolina and who has become as close as family to her.

Just after Georgia leaves the country for a medical conference, Jonah shares startling news. The hospital is instructing doctors to stop providing medical care for transgender patients. Jonah, a gay man, is the first to be fired when he refuses to abandon his patients. Stunned by the predicament of her closest friend, Georgia’s natural instinct is to fight alongside him. But when her attempts to address the situation result in incalculable harm, both Georgia and Jonah find themselves facing the loss of much more than their careers.

Ope’s Opinion: This was an interesting read.  This is my second Kimmery Martin book.  She definitely has a different perspective when she writes stories.  There were parts of this story that I felt went off on a tangent I never did figure out why they were included.  

I really did enjoy Georgia and Jonah’s relationship and support of each other.  This relationship was what saved this book for me.

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.

 

One Good Thing

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Author: Wendy Wax
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Fiction
Source:  Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

 

Goodreads:  From the USA Today bestselling author of Sunshine Beach, a story of four women trying to rebuild more than their lives…

Before you can fix it up, you might have to tear it down…

Embroiled in a battle to regain control of their renovation-turned-reality TV show, Do Over, Maddie, Avery, Nikki, and Kyra find themselves holding tight to the frayed ends of their friendship and relationships.

Maddie must face the realities of dating a rock star once again topping the charts and dealing with her hapless ex-husband, while Avery is caught up in family drama even as she attempts to transform a tiny cottage into a home for the newly impoverished heiress who helped bankroll their last renovation. Put on bedrest, a hugely pregnant Nikki can’t quite believe love can last, or trust in her own maternal instinct. And Kyra, who has secretly put Bella Flora at risk in an attempt to salvage Do Over, must decide whether to accept a desperately needed bail out from her son’s famous father that comes with far too many strings attached…

But friendship is made for times like these, to keep each other—and their dreams—from crumbling.

Ope’s Opinion: This is number five in the Ten Beach Series by Wendy Wax.  Although I enjoyed this one, it did feel a little redundant. This series does need to be read from the first book.  There is too much background you just won’t get if you don’t start from the beginning.   I will read another Wendy Wax, but probably not the  Ten Beach series.

It was interesting to see all the women again and see their relationships move forward.  They really count on each other to help through the struggles.  It is nice to see women who support each other.

As in the past books, the ending was left open, for the next in the series.

Sunshine Beach

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Author: Wendy Wax
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Fiction
Source:  Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

 

Goodreads:  There’s nothing that a fresh coat of paint and a few glasses of wine can’t fix…
 
After losing their life savings in a Ponzi scheme, Maddie, Avery, and Nikki have banded together to make the most of what they have left, using their determination, ingenuity, guts, and a large dose of elbow grease. It’s Maddie’s daughter Kyra who stumbles across a once glorious beachfront hotel that has fallen into disrepair. The opportunity to renovate this seaside jewel is too good to pass up—especially when they come up with the idea of shooting their own independent television show about the restoration. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything. With the cameras rolling, Maddie’s second-chance romance with her all-too-famous new boyfriend gets complicated, Avery struggles with grief over the loss of her mother, and Nikki’s reluctance to commit to the man who loves her could leave her to face the biggest challenge of her life. Even the hotel seems to be against them, when their renovation uncovers a decades-old unsolved murder which just might bring their lives tumbling down all over again…

Ope’s Opinion: This is the fourth in the Ten Beach Road Series.  You can read this one alone, but the previous books give a lot of background that makes the book so much better.

If you like HGTV and women’s friendships – you will really like this series of books.  Seeing all of them work together again was fun!  It was also good to see their other relationships progress.

There are at least two more books in the series, so we hope to get some closure in those books to all the open endings in this book.

The House on Mermaid Point

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Author: Wendy Wax
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source:  Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

 

Goodreads:  Maddie, Avery, and Nikki first got to know one another—perhaps all too well—while desperately restoring a beachfront mansion to its former grandeur. Now they’re putting that experience to professional use. But their latest project has presented some challenges they couldn’t have dreamed up in their wildest fantasies—although the house does belong to a man who actually was Maddie’s wildest fantasy once. . . .

Rock-and-roll legend “William the Wild” Hightower may be past his prime, estranged from his family, and creatively blocked, but he’s still worshiped by fans—which is why he guards his privacy on his own island in the Florida Keys. He’s not thrilled about letting this crew turn his piece of paradise into a bed-and-breakfast for a reality show . . . though he is intrigued by Maddie. Hard as that is for her to believe as a newly single woman who can barely manage a dog paddle in the dating pool.

But whether it’s an unexpected flirtation with a bona fide rock star, a strained mother-daughter relationship, or a sudden tragedy, these women are in it together. The only thing that might drive them apart is being trapped on a houseboat with one bathroom. . . .

Ope’s Opinion: This is the third in the series of Ten Beach Road.  If you liked the first two you definitely will like this one too.  Another house, another time of the women working together and their relationships are moving on. 

The show goes on.  The women have to remodel another home in Florida.

At this point there are three more in the series, so more fun to come!  Where will the ladies go next?

Ocean Beach

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Author: Wendy Wax
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Fiction
Source:  Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

 

Goodreads:  Wendy Wax, author of the “warm [and] wry” (St. Petersburg Times) Ten Beach Road, returns with a novel of three women in need of a second chance…or is it a third?

Unlikely friends Madeline, Avery and Nicole have hit some speed bumps in their lives, but when they arrive in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood, they are all hoping for a do-over. Literally. They’ve been hired to bring a once-grand historic house back to its former glory on a new television show called Do-Over. If they can just get this show off the ground, Nikki would get back on her feet financially, Avery could restart her ruined career, and Maddie would have a shot at keeping her family together.

At least, that’s the plan – until the women realize that having their work broadcast is one thing, having their personal lives play out on TV is another thing entirely. Soon they are struggling to hold themselves, and the project, together. With a decades-old mystery—and the hurricane season—looming, the women are forced to figure out just how they’ll weather life’s storms…

Ope’s Opinion: The story continues from the first book.  The three women start another renovation, this time as a show. Their personal lives have progressed.  If you enjoyed Ten Beach road, you will enjoy this one.

Max was a nice addition to round out this group of women.  His story was a sweet read among all the crazy drama that was happening.

The ending left enough open ended questions to make me want to read the next one to know how things play out.

Cold Feet

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Author: Amy Fitzhenry
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction
Source:  Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

 

Goodreads:  Pre-wedding jitters turn into serious doubts in this fresh and funny debut about tying the knot and untethering from the past…

Everyone’s expecting her to walk down the aisle.
But something is telling her to run.

Emma Moon’s mother thinks it’s acceptable to miss her only daughter’s wedding rehearsal dinner for a work obligation. Her father left when she was six months old. Emma hasn’t exactly been raised to be a happily-ever-after kind of girl.

So when her anxieties get out of hand, Emma and her best friend, Liv, decide to take a road trip to San Francisco, find her long-lost father, and put her family issues to rest.

But her quest for the truth stirs up events and emotions she didn’t expect. The urge to run away may just be a part of Emma’s genetic makeup, because she’s growing more and more tempted to do just that…

Ope’s Opinion:  This was a light, easy, fast read.  It was a very surface book with a common story – girl is about to get married and wants to find her dad and she has an adventure along the way. The adventure part was a bit long and drawn out.   The out come was unique and the ending was satisfying.