Tag Archives: Women’s Fiction

Coming Soon….

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…. On a Bookshelf near you!

In February I hope to read….

Publication Date: February 9, 2021
Publisher: HQN

Goodreads:  Step into the vineyard with Susan Mallery’s most irresistible novel yet, as one woman searches for the perfect blend of love, family and wine.

Mackenzie Dienes seems to have it all—a beautiful home, close friends and a successful career as an elite winemaker with the family winery. There’s just one problem—it’s not her family, it’s her husband’s. In fact, everything in her life is tied to him—his mother is the closest thing to a mom that she’s ever had, their home is on the family compound, his sister is her best friend. So when she and her husband admit their marriage is over, her pain goes beyond heartbreak. She’s on the brink of losing everything. Her job, her home, her friends and, worst of all, her family.

Staying is an option. She can continue to work at the winery, be friends with her mother-in-law, hug her nieces and nephews—but as an employee, nothing more. Or she can surrender every piece of her heart in order to build a legacy of her own. If she can dare to let go of the life she thought she wanted, she might discover something even more beautiful waiting for her beneath a painted moon.

 

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

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

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.

Feels Like Falling

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Author: Kristy Woodson Harvey
Publisher: Gallery Books
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source:  Kristy Woodson Harvey

Goodreads:  From “the next major voice in Southern fiction” (Elin Hilderbrand) and the bestselling author of the Peachtree Bluff series comes an odd couple tale of friendship that asks just how much our past choices define our happiness.

It’s summertime on the North Carolina coast and the livin’ is easy.

Unless, that is, you’ve just lost your mother to cancer, your sister to her evangelical husband, and your husband to his executive assistant. Meet Gray Howard. Right when Gray could use a serious infusion of good karma in her life, she inadvertently gets a stranger fired from her job at the local pharmacy.

Diana Harrington’s summer isn’t off to the greatest start either: Hours before losing her job, she broke up with her boyfriend and moved out of their shared house with only a busted Impala for a bed. Lucky for her, Gray has an empty guest house and a very guilty conscience.

With Gray’s kindness, Diana’s tide begins to turn, but when the one that got away comes back, every secret from her past seems to resurface all at once. And, as Gray begins to blaze a new trail, she discovers, with Diana’s help, that what she envisioned as her perfect life may not be what she wants at all.

In her warmest, wittiest, and wisest novel yet, Kristy Woodson Harvey delivers a discerning portrait of modern womanhood through two vastly different lenses. Feels Like Falling is a beach bag essential for Harvey fans—and for a new generation of readers.

Ope’s Opinion:  This was my first read of 2020 and it was a wonderful way to start my reading this year.  Kristy does not disappoint.  She wrote wonderful characters – two women, who were the main characters.  They did not seem to be likely friends, but she wove their lives together wonderfully and believably.  

Watching these women gain their own confidence, along with their friendship and making a family from the people around them was a great story.  They are strong women, who I wanted to be like, and be friends with.

As usual, Kristy gave us the ending we wanted, they are happy, but it is not perfect.  She had a quote in the book  – ” It doesn’t have to look perfect to be perfect for you. ”  And that is how she ended it!

 

Breathe In, Cash Out

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Author: Madeleine Henry
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source: Megan at Simon & Schuster

 

Goodreads:  In this sizzling debut for fans of The Devil Wears Prada, Wall Street banking analyst Allegra Cobb plans to quit the minute her year-end bonus hits her account, finally pursuing her yoga career full-time. But when she forms an intense relationship with the #InstaFamous guru who may hold the ticket to the life Allegra’s always wanted—she’s not sure if she’ll be able to keep her sanity intact (and her chakras aligned) until bonus day.

Allegra Cobb’s resume: Straight-A Princeton grad, second-year analyst at a top-tier bank, one-time USA Yoga National Champion. Allegra Cobb’s reality: Spends twenty-four hours a day changing the colors on bar charts, overusing the word “team,” and daydreaming about quitting the minute her year-end bonus hits her account. She has no interest in the cutthroat banking world—she’s going to launch her very own yoga practice.

But her plan isn’t quite as perfect as the beachfront yoga pictures she double-taps on Instagram. On top of the 100 emails an hour and coworkers already suspicious of her escape plan, Allegra’s hard-driving single father has always expected fiercely high achievement above all else. That his daughter works on Wall Street means everything to him. Still, she marches on, taking it day by extremely caffeinated day.

But after (1) unknowingly sleeping with the man now leading her banking cohort on one of their biggest deals to date and (2) meeting the #blessed yoga guru who might just be her ticket to the life she’s always wanted, it really hits her: her happy-ever-after will be harder to manifest than she thought.

Fast-paced, laugh-out-loud funny, and totally irresistible, this is the story of a fearless young woman determined to center herself in the life she truly wants.

Ope’s Opinion: The synopsis really caught my attention, making me want to read this book.  I enjoy women who are focused on their careers and know where they want to go.  Allegra is one of those women.  I also enjoy a little humor to lighten the story line – I didn’t see much of that.

It took a long time and a lot of obstacles along the way for Allegra to get her bonus.  I thought it was going to happen at the beginning of the book and you were going to see her struggle to make it in the yoga world – I was wrong.

If you read this blog much, you know I get frustrated with the constant use of the “f” word, which was used repetitively throughout this book.

The Southern Side of Paradise

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Author: Kristy Woodson Harvey
Publisher: Gallery Books
Genre: Womens Fiction
Source: Michelle at Gallery Books

Goodreads:  From internationally bestselling author and “rising star of Southern fiction” (Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author) Kristy Woodson Harvey comes the third novel in her Peachtree Bluff series, in which a secret threatens the tight-knit bond between a trio of sisters and their mother.

With the man of her dreams back in her life and all three of her daughters happy, Ansley Murphy should be content. But she can’t help but feel like it’s all a little too good to be true.

Meanwhile, youngest daughter and actress Emerson, who is recently engaged and has just landed the role of a lifetime, seemingly has the world by the tail. Only, something she can’t quite put her finger on is worrying her—and it has nothing to do with her recent health scare.

When two new women arrive in Peachtree Bluff—one who has the potential to wreck Ansley’s happiness and one who could tear Emerson’s world apart—everything is put in perspective. And after secrets that were never meant to be told come to light, the powerful bond between the Murphy sisters and their mother comes crumbling down, testing their devotion to each other and forcing them to evaluate the meaning of family.

Ope’s Opinion:  I need more chairs for this book – I have more then five friends I intend to share this book with!!  KWH did an expert job of weaving the past into this book, so it can be read alone, but why would you, when this whole series is amazing!

This story was everything I wanted – a beautiful setting, characters that I cared and rooted for, a few surprises along the way and wonderful writing that made the whole story flow.   I enjoyed each moment I was reading this.  I tried to slow down to savor it, but I was so into it, I just kept reading… right to the end!

Oh, the ending… everyone ended where I wanted them to be.  It was so satisfying.  I do not reread books, but this one is going on the shelf with the rest of series that I intend to reread at some point – that is how much I loved this one.

Out Now

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Do you like RaeAnn Thayne?
Do you like Women’s Fiction?
This one is out today!

Goodreads:  New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne invites readers to Cape Sanctuary, where she weaves together the stories of three women–two sisters and the young aunt who raised them–each facing her own crossroads. Can they let go of past mistakes and welcome joy and love into their lives?

Thank you Sarah and Claire at Little Bird Publicity.

Coming Soon…..

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…. On a Bookshelf near you!

In March I hope to read….

Publication Date: March 26, 2019
Publisher: Hqn

Goodreads: New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne invites readers to Cape Sanctuary, where she weaves together the stories of three women–two sisters and the young aunt who raised them–each facing her own crossroads. Can they let go of past mistakes and welcome joy and love into their lives?

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

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

On the Same Page

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Author: N.D. Galland
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source: Amelia at William Morrow

 

Goodreads:  A romantic comedy that tells the story of one journalist secretly juggling two bylines for competing newspapers on a small island.

Distorting the facts just a little can’t hurt—except when falling in love…

Martha’s Vineyard has two distinct “personalities”—one characterized by its tanned and polished summer people; the other represented by the small-town, salt-of-the-earth year-round residents. The island even has two newspapers, each appealing to its distinct readership. Over the years, an intense rivalry has grown between the two papers; in fact, neither paper will work with writers who have any relationship to the other paper.

Johanna Howes is a Vineyard girl who left the island at the age of eighteen and never looked back. She went to college on the mainland and moved to the Big City to start a career as a journalist. Now she’s returned to take care of her aging Uncle Hank. As neither paper can pay her enough to live on, she creates a false identity so that she can write for both papers at once. Often this means writing the same story twice, coming at it from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Before long, Johanna finds herself caught up in a messy Island political situation. A wealthy, seasonal resident is suing the town government for the right to land his private helicopter on his property. When Johanna agrees to go for a cup of coffee with the handsome man she meets at a zoning board meeting, she has no idea that she has just made a date with Orion Smith, the wealthy off-Islander who is causing all the ruckus. And what he doesn’t know is that Johanna has been assigned by both Island papers to cover the story.

Scrambling to keep her various identities straight and separate from each other, Johanna desperately tries to find a graceful way out of the mess she’s created. But doing so will likely get her into trouble or cause her to lose her writing gigs…not to mention jeopardize her chance at a budding romance with a man she’s doing her best not to fall for.

Ope’s Opinion:  I really like the setting ( Martha’s Vineyard ), I really like the cover, and I like that the main characters was focused on her job.  I did not like how the author did not put Martha’s Vineyard in a good light, Hank was not likeable, and it was really hard to read.

N.D. Galland writing style was difficult to read.  I felt like she was trying to make each description very detailed.  I think she opened the thesaurus and found the most obscure word to replace an ordinary word.  It made some of the joy go out of the story for me when I had to reread a sentence to figure out what she was trying to say.

I did like Johanna.  I really liked that her job was the focus of most of the book.  Her relationship came later and wasn’t the center of her whole world.

Coming Soon…..

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…. On a Bookshelf near you!

In December I hope to read….

Publication Date: December 31, 2018
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Goodreads: A romantic comedy that tells the story of one journalist secretly juggling two bylines for competing newspapers on a small island.

Distorting the facts just a little can’t hurt—except when falling in love…

Martha’s Vineyard has two distinct “personalities”—one characterized by its tanned and polished summer people; the other represented by the small-town, salt-of-the-earth year-round residents. The island even has two newspapers, each appealing to its distinct readership. Over the years, an intense rivalry has grown between the two papers; in fact, neither paper will work with writers who have any relationship to the other paper.

Johanna Howes is a Vineyard girl who left the island at the age of eighteen and never looked back. She went to college on the mainland and moved to the Big City to start a career as a journalist. Now she’s returned to take care of her aging Uncle Hank. As neither paper can pay her enough to live on, she creates a false identity so that she can write for both papers at once. Often this means writing the same story twice, coming at it from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Before long, Johanna finds herself caught up in a messy Island political situation. A wealthy, seasonal resident is suing the town government for the right to land his private helicopter on his property. When Johanna agrees to go for a cup of coffee with the handsome man she meets at a zoning board meeting, she has no idea that she has just made a date with Orion Smith, the wealthy off-Islander who is causing all the ruckus. And what he doesn’t know is that Johanna has been assigned by both Island papers to cover the story.

Scrambling to keep her various identities straight and separate from each other, Johanna desperately tries to find a graceful way out of the mess she’s created. But doing so will likely get her into trouble or cause her to lose her writing gigs…not to mention jeopardize her chance at a budding romance with a man she’s doing her best not to fall for.

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

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