Let's face it, light-hearted love stories are not my go-to genre. Were it not for the well-crafted recipe of humorous dialogue, characters with quirky faults, and attention to vulnerable emotions, this love-at-first-sight story, would simply be fluff. But it's not. Instead it's the decadent ganach filling the inside of our storytelling pastry that literary so-so fluff only wishes it could be.
This historical mystery, set in Imperial China in the late 1700s, is an absolute delight. It must be incredibly tough as an author to write a book like this – not only do you have to get the culture and history right, but you also have to create realistic characters and a compelling mystery. Debut novelist Elsa Hart takes all these threads – and a few more – and deftly weaves them into an excellent novel. This is a mesmerizing, riveting mystery - one of those novels where you read the last page, close the book, and sigh contentedly as if you just ate an incredibly satisfying meal.
If you’re a fan of Frances Mayes and her Tuscan adventures, and even if you read this one when the book came out in 2010, I recommend listening to it on audio. In her southern Georgia drawl, Mayes narrates the third installment of her life in Italy after buying and renovating a dilapidated Italian farm house.
Matthew Dane was a police officer until his daughter was kidnapped and missing for years. He then left the force and started a private detective service so he could continue the search for his daughter. Once his daughter was found, he was able to help her adjust to life outside of captivity and then help other families in the same situation.
I listened to this audio book and knew I could relate to it when I found myself laughing out loud less than a minute into it. If you have a child who challenges your authority and thinks the world should revolve around them, this book will help save your sanity. It will show you how to reteach your child and yourself. I have skimmed through several books on this subject but never bothered to finish them. I would get annoyed when the book described situations (ones that were not as frustrating as the ones I was dealing with) and then give one simple answer on how to handle it.
Writer Taisy Cleary moves into the pool house at her father's house, invited there after two decades of silence. Wilson, her absent and hateful father, is recovering from heart surgery and wants her to write his memoir. Taisy's presence is at first greatly resented by Willow, her little known half-sister. Willow is sixteen and after being homeschooled her whole life, is forced to attend high school and is struggling to fit in. Up until now, Willow's world has been tightly controlled by her father.
Tessa Dare is one of my favorite newer romance authors, even though I had some problems with her first book, Goddess of the Hunt. The way it starts is enough to turn me off continuing: the heroine barges into the hero’s room at night demanding he help her practice kissing. Lucy Waltham wants to learn how to entice Toby, her brother’s friend whom she’s loved for years although he’s never shown any signs of reciprocating.
Eight Hundred Grapes, the number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine, is a story about relationships – with spouses, fiancés, family, self, and home.
I'll cut to the chase: Listen to this book. Narrator Dion Graham turns an already great memoir by Dave Eggers into an absolutely entertaining bundle of ah-mazing. The words burst with personality and energy thanks to his narration, perfectly capturing the author's tone.
Not knowing how her family has landed in witness protection is driving seventeen year old "Meg" crazy. But she knows the two rules of being in witness protection... be invisible and don't make friends. Easier said than done, and after six placements in the last year she is bound and determined to make this placement stick as the constant moving and stress of learning new identities and back stories is tearing her family apart.
