Tag Archives: Harper Paperbacks

Promises of the Heart

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Author: Nan Rossiter
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Genre: Contemporary Fiction 
Source:  Purchased

Goodreads:  Can the course that they’ve set for the future handle a slight detour…?

Macey and Ben Samuelson have much to be thankful for: great friends, a beautiful—if high-maintenance—Victorian house on idyllic Tybee Island, and a rock-solid marriage. The only thing missing is what they want the most. After her fifth miscarriage in six years, Macey worries that the family they’ve always dreamed of might be out of reach. Her sister suggests adoption, but Macey and Ben aren’t interested in pursuing that path…until a three-legged Golden Retriever named Keeper wags his way into their home and their hearts.

Harper Wheaton just got kicked out of another foster home and it won’t be the last if she keeps losing her temper. She’s not sure why she gets mad; maybe because no family seems to want a nine-year-old girl with a heart condition. She loves her social worker, Cora, but knows that staying with her forever isn’t an option. Will she ever find a family to call her own?

As a physician’s assistant, Macey meets lots of kids. Harper Wheaton’s a tough one, but Macey knows the little girl has already struggled more than most. It gets Macey and Ben to thinking about all the children who need homes. Then Harper goes missing, and one thing is suddenly crystal clear: life is complicated—but love doesn’t have to be.

Ope’s Opinion:  This is a very heartwarming story of love and family.  The characters will wiggle their way into your heart and you will root for them to very end.  It was nice to read about a good marriage, friendly neighbors,and people who care about each other.  

This was a very quick paced story – I think the short chapters helped move it along too.  You knew where the story was going to go, but it was the journey that mattered.  The ending was exactly what you expected!

Perfect Happiness

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Author: Kristyn Kusek Lewis
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source: Kristyn 

 

Goodreads:  From the beloved author of Half of What You Hear, a perceptive and poignant novel about a woman discovering that her expertise can only get her so far in matters of the heart.

Charlotte McGanley knows happiness. Just ask anyone who’s read Perfect Happiness, her bestselling book about how she, a busy mother and professor, used her no-nonsense positive psychology research to brighten her own life. She always pictured her career beginning and ending in the halls of academia, but now she’s become a bit of a self-help guru. No one is more surprised by this than Charlotte herself, who has secretly never been more miserable.

Though her husband of many years, Jason, is her partner in all things, she finds more gratification most evenings in a glass (or three) of Chardonnay or another scroll through her Instagram feed. Meanwhile, their daughter, Birdie, is feeling the pressure of being her high school’s star tennis player, keeping up her GPA, and having her first boyfriend—and Charlotte, despite all her expertise, has no idea how to help her.

As Charlotte preaches the gospel of happiness to her undergraduate students, audiences across the country, and her own online followers, she’s faced with some tough questions: What is happiness when the family you’ve nurtured starts to fall apart in front of your eyes? When your daughter seems determined to self-destruct? When the man you thought you’d spend the rest of your life with—and took for granted because of it—gets fed up? When all of the tools that you push to your loyal followers just don’t seem to work?

In this bittersweet family love story, Kristyn Kusek Lewis explores how easy it is to lose connection with the people closest to us, and what happens when we try to find our way back.

Ope’s Opinion: I think this was actually 3.5 – just don’t have half of a chair!

This book was not an easy read because it felt so very real.  The struggles of a marriage and raising children are always hard to read about.  The characters are very real and so are the circumstances.

The ending is what I wanted and believable.  I look forward to Kristyn’s next book.

Coming Soon…

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…. On a Bookshelf near you!

In June I hope to read….

Publication Date: June 9, 2020
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks

 

Goodreads: From the beloved author of Half of What You Hear, a perceptive and poignant novel about a woman discovering that her expertise can only get her so far in matters of the heart.

Charlotte McGanley knows happiness. Just ask anyone who’s read Perfect Happiness, her bestselling book about how she, a busy mother and professor, used her no-nonsense positive psychology research to brighten her own life. She always pictured her career beginning and ending in the halls of academia, but now she’s become a bit of a self-help guru. No one is more surprised by this than Charlotte herself, who has secretly never been more miserable.

Though her husband of many years, Jason, is her partner in all things, she finds more gratification most evenings in a glass (or three) of Chardonnay or another scroll through her Instagram feed. Meanwhile, their daughter, Birdie, is feeling the pressure of being her high school’s star tennis player, keeping up her GPA, and having her first boyfriend—and Charlotte, despite all her expertise, has no idea how to help her.

As Charlotte preaches the gospel of happiness to her undergraduate students, audiences across the country, and her own online followers, she’s faced with some tough questions: What is happiness when the family you’ve nurtured starts to fall apart in front of your eyes? When your daughter seems determined to self-destruct? When the man you thought you’d spend the rest of your life with—and took for granted because of it—gets fed up? When all of the tools that you push to your loyal followers just don’t seem to work?

In this bittersweet family love story, Kristyn Kusek Lewis explores how easy it is to lose connection with the people closest to us, and what happens when we try to find our way back.

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

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

Even If It Kills Her

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Author: Kate White
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Genre: Mystery
Source: Abigail at HarperCollins

 

Goodreads: Kate White returns to her New York Times bestselling Bailey Weggins series with a riveting new psychological thriller featuring this beloved true-crime journalist turned amateur sleuth in her most spellbinding case to date

Like many thirty-somethings, Bailey Weggins has a few regrets, some involving her career and others her love life. But running into Jillian Lowe at her book signing, Bailey comes face to face with perhaps her biggest regret to date. For more than ten years, Bailey has felt guilty for not staying in closer communication with Jillian, her college roommate, after Jillian’s family was brutally murdered. Jillian had left their school in the middle of their sophomore year right after the tragedy, leaving Bailey to wonder how her friend’s life turned out.

Bailey is shocked to see Jillian and is even more stunned when her still-gorgeous former roommate approaches her with a case. The man accused of murdering her family has been cleared of the crime through new DNA evidence. With the real killer walking free, Jillian is desperate for Bailey’s help to identify him and finally secure justice for her family. As the two women return to Jillian’s childhood town to investigate, secrets from Jillian’s past begin to surface. And it doesn’t take long before they learn not everyone is happy with their sleuthing—not the local police, not family friends, and certainly not the true killer.

With someone watching their every move, Bailey and Jillian find themselves in grave danger and must decide how much they are willing to risk to finally uncover what happened that terrifying night.

Ope’s Opinion:  Even though this was the seventh book in the Bailey Weggins Mystery series, I could not tell.  This was the first one I read and I did not feel like I was missing any back story.

I really liked how the book jumped right into the story.  There wasn’t a lot of background or unnecessary information before we started right into who died and started trying to figure out who did it.

The book is about trying to figure out who killed Jillian’s family.  The middle drug out for me just a little, but I never wanted to give up reading to find out who killed them.  A long the way, there were a few surprises.  I did guess who the killer was before the end.  It made sense, but it wasn’t who I wanted it to be.  There was someone that I didn’t care for and wanted it to be that person.  It all made sense at the end.