Reading, Writing & Pondering

I was looking forward to Not what We Pictured by Becca Kinzer all year--and was so excited to get my copy. I have read all of her previous books and enjoyed them--and I enjoyed this one too. As the book begins, McKenna Boston is trying to look out for her much younger sister, Bobbi, when she helps her boyfriend stage a proposal that goes awry. She promised her deceased mother that she would give her mother's engagement ring to Bobbi. She also wants to know Bobbi is safe and happy. She loves her sister and she thinks she will be free to move on in her own career besides seeing Bobbi happy. Nate Lambert is in Omaha for a funeral. He ends up resting on a park bench to relax and stave off a headache. . .but things get a little wild when he doesn't want to move off of the special bench McKenna needs to stage for Bobbi and Oliver's proposal plan. I enjoyed getting to know McKenna and Nate through Not What We Pictured . There were some humorous moments throughout the book. There ...

  Do you like books with dogs as part of the story? I do. As you can see in the photo above, I have a doodle similar to the service dog on the cover of An Unexpected Texas Reunion by Heidi Main. I have to admit the dog aspect made me want to read the book. Brenna Park and Owen McCaw were once boyfriend and girlfriend. Then Brenna broke up with Owen because she didn't like his chosen career based on her own family life growing up. Instead of explaining, she didn't give him reasons. She just ghosted him and walked away. Then he eventually married someone else, who passed away as the result of an accident and left him with a baby daughter.  Now Owen has come back home. Brenna and Owen are running a summer camp at his parents' ranch because Owen's mother broke her leg and can't physically do it. Can Brenna and Owen put the past behind them and work together?  An Unexpected Texas Reunion is a happy ending Love Inspired book. I like to read these occasionally when I am ...

  Have you ever been in a friend relationship that turned into more? Her Pretend Holiday Beau by Susanne Dietz features this fun trope. Mick Larson and Sadie Dalton have been friends for years. Mick is the town veterinarian. Sadie is a florist. This year, Mick asks for Sadie's help in planning a town Christmas nativity event. She agrees--but she also needs a date for a wedding in return.  Mick agrees to be Sadie's Plus-One at a wedding where she will be seeing her ex-boyfriend who is engaged to someone else. That day, they are caught under some mistletoe and well-meaning matchmakers think they are a couple. Mick and Sadie agree to pretend to be a couple through the holidays to appease the matchmakers.  Her Pretend Holiday Beau is a quick read full of fun holiday events and family gatherings that Mick and Sadie attend. I enjoyed seeing the couple grow in who they were as individuals and as a couple. As the book went along, their communication got better too and I liked t...

  I listened to the audio-book of Perfect: A Sweet Guilded Age Romance by Kimberly Keagan. This is the first book in the Hearts on Display series. The narrator was Robin McAlpine and she did a good job of making the story interesting with her voice. William Walraven and his brother Bert Walraven left Philadelphia to head up the construction and development of the family's first New York department store. William has worked hard to make this store top-notch in spite of constant struggles with his father--who doesn't want to let go of the helm in spite of others urging him to retire to restore his health. Ivy King and her grandmother run a bookstore that Ivy's parents owned before they passed away. They work hard to make it go and have faced some challenges. Ivy also works as a librarian part time at a private nearby library. One day Ivy twists her ankle while walking on a street near William and they meet. As time goes on, he and Bert check on Ivy at the bookstore and the c...

  Sometimes You Stay by Liz Johnson is set on Prince Edward Island with a few previous characters from her Red Door Inn books. Johnson also references Anne of Green Gables, a  famous fictional character from Prince Edward Island, and it is fun to see those references as an Anne fan. Cretia Martin is a travel influencer visiting Prince Edward Island when things go awry. She, along with her suitcase and travel gear, end up in the harbor after an accidental run-in with a large dog name Joe Junior. Finn Chaffey is that large goofy dog's owner.  Sometimes You Stay offered a glimpse into the life of a travel writer and a young man who raises dogs and other animals on his small farm. I liked how this couple learned to communicate with one another. I also liked how Cretia fit in at the Inn and made some female friends among the locals.  My favorite part of this book was near the end when Cretia and Marie were talking about growing up in their dysfunctional families. I could ...

  Welcome to the Honey B & B is the latest book by Melody Carlson. Unlike most of her other books, this book is personal for her. One of the main characters suffers from FTD ( Frontotemporal Dementia), which is a disease that Melody's husband also suffered from. I think she does a good job of showing what it is like to live with someone who has this disease without making the book too heavy. Jewel McKerry and her 13-year old daughter, Cooper, move back to the farm where Jewel grew up to help her mom, Honey, take care of her dad who has FTD.  Throughout this book, there are challenges that all of the characters must deal with and ways that they learn to support each other as family members. This disease also affects neighbor relations. I enjoyed the characters in Welcome to the Honey B & B . I thought that the author did a good job of showing the challenges of being a care giver (or a set of care givers) for someone with FTD. I also enjoyed the romance that developed. ...

  Do you know anyone with alopecia? When I was growing up, one of my classmate's moms had alopecia. She was a nice lady and I remember her handling it with grace at the time. However, I am sure I don't know all she went through to reach that point. In An Overdue Match , Sarah Monzon gives readers a glimpse into what it is like to live with alopecia through her main character. An Overdue Match is the first book in the Checking Out Love series. I liked the main female character a lot and could really feel for her with her struggles as she learned to live with alopecia. Evangeline Kelly is different than many of the main characters from books that I have read in the past. I liked how the author developed this character and shared her struggles with the reader.  I also liked how the male main character, Tai Davis, understood some of what it felt like to have a different health issue that had the potential to hold him back as he has asthma. He also is a tattoo artist and has dealt...

  The Nature of Love by Toni Shiloh is the latest in her Love in the Spotlight series. I really enjoyed this series and was excited to read this one. Dr. Erykah Kennedy is a renowned orthopedic surgeon who feels like life is missing something since she mostly just goes to work and comes home. She doesn't really have any friends at work or outside of work. Her closest relative is her sister who lives several states away with her husband and two daughters.  Chris is a nature-loving guy who runs a non-profit and has a huge following as he makes on-line content. He is also alone and feeling like a third wheel after his two best friends recently got engaged.  Chris and Erykah run into each other at a local restaurant when they were each getting supper. After they meet again at a local benefit gala, they forge a friendship which quickly blossoms after tragedy strikes Erykah. Erykah and Chris's lives soon turn upside down in some good ways in spite of the tragedy.  The Nat...

    I have really enjoyed The Cape Cod Creamery series and could not wait for this third book in the series to release. It did not disappoint. I enjoyed Love On a Whim by Suzanne Woods Fisher so much that I read it in one day! Brynn Haywood is normally predictable and quite stable. Then one day she made an impulsive decision to marry a man she hardly knows. The next day she is mortified and flees to Cape Cod to see her best friend, Dawn. Once there, Brynn puts her decision on the back burner and fits right in with the rest of the town and Dawn's family as they work together to help Lincoln's daughter to get married. Dawn's Mom, Marnie, and Lincoln are good friends--and maybe a little more. Lincoln has also helped out many people in town so they want to help him out. Readers also get an update of Dawn and Kevin from the first book and Callie and Bruno from the second book. However, the author writes this book so that it could also stand alone--Still, I would encourage you t...

  Charlotte Carter is ready for summer. She has been happily living in her hometown and teaching music for the past year. After her failed engagement, her mother's cancer journey and some other family challenges, Charlotte is ready for summer break. Zach Bryant is back in his hometown for his brother's wedding. His last job didn't work out and he is looking for a new one. The wedding rehearsal dinner for Zach's brother's is held at a nearby cake shop. Charlotte's sister, Sophia, sends Charlotte to the cake shop on an important errand unbeknownst to her that this is where the rehearsal dinner is being held. Charlotte and Zach run in to each other and that is when the fun begins. I especially love d this part and all of the zany events with the wedding and reception. The biggest thing to come out of that day is that Zach and Charlotte agreed to tandem bike a lot of miles to help save Charlotte's music department job and help her parents financia...

  Can you imagine living an ordinary life as a teacher and then one day out of the blue finding out that you are the Princes of a small island?  In Search of a Prince by Toni Shiloh tells the story of Brielle Adebayo who is a middle school teacher in New York City through the year and spends her summer vacations with her Mom at Martha's Vineyard. One day her mom meets her at a restaurant and lets her know that she is the princess of an island off the coast of Africa and that her grandfather, the kind, is ailing so she must assume her duties as soon as possible. What a bombshell that would be?!  Naturally Brielle is upset with her mom. She travels to the island and is happy to get to know her grandfather. She also gets to know the people of the island and then finds out she must marry to take the throne. Will she find a prince in time? Will it be someone she really wants to marry? I enjoyed In Search of a Prince. It is a slower paced novel and there is a bit of a slow burn...

In Finding His Family by Christina Miller, Abe Armstrong returned home from his time in the armed services and opened a gym in his home town. Before he left to join the army, he secretly married Rosemary. . .but Rosemary's struggles with her father kept them from living as man and wife. As a result, Abe got tired of waiting for her to do the right thing and left to join the army. Then Rosemary moved to another town, pregnant with their child. Abe didn't know he had a daughter until the day they walked through the doors of his gym with Rosemary's father a few years later. Can they form a family after the years have passed?  I always know when I pick up a Love Inspired book that I will get the "happily ever after" story that I am hoping for. I usually read them when I am in the mood for a "happy ending" story. However, I got a little frustrated with Rosemary throughout Finding His Family . Both Rosemary and Abe struggle throughout the book with a lack of ...

    Are you a reader who is a fan of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette? If so, then My Dear Miss Dupre is a book that you will likely enjoy. Willow Dupre found herself in a position where she had to marry to take over her father's sugar business to satisfy the shareholders who don't believe a woman can run the business in 1882/1883. Her parents select thirty suitors from New York's elite society and she agrees to choose a husband from that group.  I have to be honest up front, I don't watch much television so I don't watch The Bachelor/Bachelorette. However, I was looking for a lighter read, so I gave it a try. I enjoyed My Dear Miss Dupre as a whole. For me it went on a little long. I liked Willow and her family. I liked Cullen and Teddy and a few of the other guys. I was pulling for Cullen as he went through some challenges. I liked the fact that he kept praying and trying to do the right thing. I also liked that Willow did too. Fritz's love of flowers and th...

We joke about it, but the reality is life in 2020 has been difficult for many of us. The Kissing Tree by Regina Jennings, Karen Witemeyer, Amanda Dykes and Nicole Deese is a book of four novellas written in such a way to take you away from the stress of today's world for awhile and to leave you with a happy ending sigh. The Kissing Tree begins with Broken Limbs, Mended Hearts by Regina Jennings and is set in 1868. The past few years have been difficult for Bella Eden after suffering a broken wrist and heartbreak at an old oak tree in town. Then a man from her past returns to town and disrupts her life with his new job and new invention. Inn For a Surprise by Karen Witemeyer is an uplifting story about Phoebe Woodward building a new inn in the late1800s. Her father sends, Barnabas, a property manager to help her with promotion to make the inn a success. Will the two be able to work together to do just that? From Roots to Sky by Amanda Dykes is set in the 1940s and follows WWII airma...

It wasn't snowing this week, but we did have a dark, cool, rainy day that felt a little winterish. It felt close enough to the Christmas season that it was the perfect day to get my tea and curl up and read A Christmas by the Sea by Melody Carlson. A Christmas by the Sea is the story of Wendy and her son Jackson Harper. After Wendy's husband died a few years before from cancer, Wendy was left with mounting debts. Then she inherits her grandparents' cottage in Seaside, Maine. Wendy sees this as a way to finally pay off her debts. However, Jackson sees it as a place to get a fresh start with fresh, new memories. Wendy wants her son to be happy but she doesn't know what else to do. But maybe God has something else in mind? A Christmas by the Sea was a sweet feel-good novella. I enjoyed this story and genuinely liked the characters. However,  I did get a little frustrated by the communication struggles, but I have seen enough poor communication in families around ...