A Vicarage Homecoming by Kate Hewitt

The Vicarage series tells of the sisters of the vicarage of Thornthwaite and of their various trials. In this book, the fourth and baby sister, Miriam, has returned from many years away traveling. She is pregnant and jobless and feels like she will never lose the name of loser of the family.

This is a dilemma story well written to covey the angst of Miriam as she tries to navigate pregnancy, work and wondering what she will ultimately do. Her scatterness plays well against her well meaning sisters and the whole pregnancy dilemma.

Sweet on the Cowboy by Sasha Summers

Leaving a tough relationship, Gwen moves in with her mother at Lam Draeger’s family ranch. She has a lot to prove in order to be able to stay there and luckily she is a world class chef. Lam finds himself intrigued with and dran to Gwen as she is to him. Throw in a dog named Jax who becomes protective of Gwen’s shy, reserved daughter, Amy, and it’s a delicious recipe for love.

Teach Me by Olivia Dade

I loved the dialog, the banter and the coming together of two people torn by hard pasts presented in Teach Me. In a high school milieu, two teachers find each other but one has a heart that seems to be made of steel and the other surprised by his desire to reach her. Both Martin and Rose have a deep love for their students and while fighting their feelings, fight for the best for their students.

Last Summer by Kerry Lonsdale

This is a great psychological thriller-low key but enough to give your shivers or pause for thought. It has a killer tie up and an ending that will make you catch your breath.

Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank

What do you do when situations appear all wrong to you and you can, maybe, do something about it? You meddle, intervene and step on toes but all with good intentions! So is the case with Holly and the neighbor, Archie, and his sons next door. Plus, Holly’s created a fantasy about herself starring herself as his wife. Her own lack of a life contributes to her meddling tendencies. She is a busybody with good intentions.

Running concurrent with the Holly/Archie story is the craziness of her sister, Leslie’s, life and Holly’s mother’s lack of any joy for life. This part of the story is a hoot!

Queen Bea is moving at times, aggravating at others and it all folds into a fantastic story of life in the Low County and Sullivan’s Island.

No Place like Here by Christina Jude

This is a fabulous book for late teens and anyone else! It is a well executed and interesting read on the coming of age of a young girl who has lived a life being submissive to an over bearing father and a submissive mother. When her father is sent to prison for tax evasion and she is sent to her cousin’s for the summer to work at a wilderness/team building camp, she finds her voice and embraces it. I loved all the different affirming quotes that she saves.

Homecoming for the Cowboy by Nicole Helm

This is an absolutely terrific book. It has all the elements to create an absorbing read: tension, past promises, chemistry, internal and external struggles. The characters are excellently written to thoroughly convey their emotions and experiences. I loved it!

Light My Fire by Jane Graves

Light My Fire is a riveting novel full of tense moments along with romance. I fed to the pages as the story unfolded, feeling for Ethan (lawyer), Sandy (friend/lover) and Josh (accused teen.) The ending is a terrific surprise!

The Husband Material by Emily Belden

Husband Material is an extremely captivating novel that puts an algorithm reliant woman in a conundrum of finding true love. Using a dating/mating program she wrote, Charlotte is out to find true, one and forever love, love based on numbers, patterns and likelihood of matching rather than on chemistry. It all looks good until her deceased husband’s best friend re-enters her life and begins to disrupt the flow of information she programs. Charlotte has to weigh numbers vs. chemistry.

A Happy Catastrophe by Maggie Dawson

 

Great read with so much depth and emotion coupled with moments of sheer joy. I loved all the characters with all their faults. I could not put it down!

Things You Save in a Fire by Catherine Center

Things You Save in a Fire is yet another great offering by Katherine Center. Her previous novel, How to Walk Away was a sampling of the novels to come. There is humor amid all the tension in the life of Cassie, fire fighter from Austin banished to the small town where her estranged mother lives when an explosive incident at Cassie’s award ceremony takes place. In the fire department of her new town, Cassie faces a foe determined to destroy her career simply because she is a woman in a formerly all men’s work place. Plus, everything for her changes when she falls in love for the first time ever with her rookie coworker. The story is not all about love and flowers. It is about Cassie’s transformation from a closed off heart to one that learns to embrace life with all its good and awful parts.

The McAvoy Sister's Book of Secrets by Molly Fader

This novel has all the elements that, for me, create a great women’s lit book. There is tension among characters, a lurking past covered by family secrets, and many erroneous assumptions. There is consistency in the relationships and in their unfolding troubles.

It is a very well executed novel and I hope to see more of its kind from Ms. Fader.

The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes by Ruth Hogan

This is the story of two women living difficult lives resulting from past events. Masha’s son disappeared when he was a toddler and believed to have drowned. She spends her life visiting the local Victorian cemetery, hoping for the existence of heaven for her son. She daily encounters a gruff woman who feeds the crows and dubs her “Sally Red Shoes.” Grief is Masha’s constant companion.

Alice lives to protect her teen son, to his extreme dismay and irritation. She longs to go back to the days when she was the only person in his life.

There is so much between the pages of Masha’s transformation and Alice’s search for atonement.

It’s a slow read but worthwhile and touching.

Twisted Family Values by VC Chickering

I could not put this novel down! I found myself so wrapped up in the crazy, complex story of Choo and Bizzy that I kept reading until very late into the night. Theirs is a complicated love story of best friends and cousins, trying to reach beyond the taboo yet knowing it will affect their every move.

The Summer We Lost Her by Tish Cohen

The Summer We Lost Her is a touching story of a couple at the crossroads, confused with their relationship as they deal with the disappearance of their daughter. When you add a former, long ago love, a wrench is thrown into the mix of emotions, insecurities, and uncertain future.

I really loved it!

A Random Act of Kindness by Sophie Jenkins

This is a wonderful read with interesting and lively characters, all sorts of tension from relationships, and a story of how several diverse people can untie to help a young woman buffeted by the winds of life.

The Great Unexpected by Dan Mooney

This is a delightful book drawing sentimentality about two gentlemen at odds with each other thrown together in the same room in their adult living facility. Their lives join to create the spark they both are missing enlivening both their personalities and the people around them. It is a thoroughly enjoyable book.

Only a Breath Apart by Katie McGarry

This is an emotional and beautifully crafted story young adult of the ravages of physical abuse of the ones you love and of the salvation of true friendship, of the building of trust and of learning to navigate new territory.

More Than Maybe by Erin Hahn

More than Maybe is an engaging and charming novel containing all the joys, insecurities, angst, and charm of high school senior years. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable novel.

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

The Flatshare is an engaging, fun and very often serious novel telling of the oddball relationship that forms between flatmates Tiffy and Leon. Oddball because they only communicate through Post-it notes and do not meet until late into the relationship. Serious because Tiffy’s exboyfriend has emotionally abused her and will not let her go even though he is the one who dumped her. Serious because Leon’s brother is in prison innocent of charges and dealing with a lax lawyer. What Tiffy does for Leon is wonderful. What Tiffy’s ex does to her is awful. How Tiffy rebounds and stands up for herself is what makes it all worthwhile.

Summer by the Tides by Denise Hunter

Three sisters are thrown back together by their missing aunt in this relationship reconstruction story. Two of the sisters have not spoken in twenty years over a love gone bad. They have refused to reconcile. Their aunt is AWOL and it all seems like a plot to get the sisters together in one place to mend fences and finally move forward as the close sisters they once were.

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister

I thoroughly enjoyed The Scent Keeper. I was glued to the novel through the hard and sensitive introductory chapters, to the middle growing pains of love and reality, and into the realization filled last chapters. It is a novel filled with a young girl’s growing, learning, collapsing and coming to terms with the realities of her entire life.

The Key to Happily Ever After by Tif Marcelo

Birth order rivalries and placement play a role in this engaging and cute book about three sisters taking over the family wedding business. When the women work together as a unit, it all runs smoothly. Hurt and stubborn attitudes create warring ambitions that threaten to ruin not only the business but also the relationships. While Mari the oldest  and the baby, Pearl, butt heads and bicker it throws the whole business into turmoil. Peacemaker, Jane, tries her best to get Mari and Pearl to calm down.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

The Unhoneymooners is the absolute best summer/vacation/staycation book I have read yet. It is funny, ironic, engaging, and just plan terrific. The push and pull of the main characters, Olive and Ethan, is so well written and so well played by the authors. Everything you think can go wrong does go wrong and just when you think it is all solved, more disaster happens to Olive and Ethan. At many points, I could not stop laughing (or crying a little.)

Heartthrob by Robin Bielman

Heartthrob  has some of the funniest, laugh out loud lines I have experienced in a long, dry spell. I honestly loved every page-the story, the characters and the absolute best humor! I kept reading until way past my bedtime just waiting for yet another gem to appear. I was not disappointed.

This is a definite to keep book and a terrific summer (or anytime!) read.

The Summer House by Jenny Hale

I love sweet books and The Summer House ranks right up with the best of them. It has a simply lovely story coupled with just enough tension and great characters.

Great for summer reading.

The Time of Our Lives by Portia MacIntosh

The chance for a second romance if fate will allow is the theme running through The Time of Our Lives.

Luca lost Tom to Cleo. Was it her chronic lateness that caused it or was Tom just not that into her? At a wedding of their uni friends, Luca may finally have a chance to reconnect with Tom but her lingering hurt and doubt plus meeting Pete may throw fate for a loop.

Cute read.

The Perfect Catch by Joanne Rock

Two people with doubtful futures explosively combine, each knowing it can only be for two weeks at most. I was so engrossed in the story and in how Josie and Cal would be able to resolve their individual dilemmas while maintaining a relationship that quickly goes from beyond the two week limit. It is a very entertaining and fun novel with the right amount of tension.

An Irresistible Temptation by Elsa Winkler

The second book in the Cavallo Brothers Series, An Irresistible Temptation is a hot and sizzling romance cast against a puzzling mystery. The Cavallo Brothers’ sexiness shines through the pages as yet another brother of four succumbs to the lure of real, true love.

Somebody to Love by Aurelia Fray

OMG! This is the cutest, funniest, and most engaging novel ever! You do have to get past some nasty language at times but do not let that stop you from reading the book. I laughed out loud at the antics of Henry and Rachel as he tries to find her somebody to love while posing (badly at times) as her psychologist (how he fell into this is a riot on its own.) I have so many highlighted sections to read to my husband. The scene in the pastry class is a classic!

A Son for the Texas Cowboy by Sinclair Jayne

Second chances for romances are so much fun to read because who does not hope for a second chance?

A Son for the Texas Cowboy introduces a new family of ranchers form Last Stand in Axel Wolf. Seven years prior, the love of his life walked away from him. Cruz was young and a lack of communication about their future drove her to leave Axel. Taking a temporary job in Last Stand finds her eye-to-eye with him on her first day there. His misguided decisions could really mess up what could be not only a second chance but the best chance for lasting love.

Just One of the Groomsmen by Cindi Madsen

I loved this book-from the setting in a small Alabama town to the struggles of two best friends not to fall in love with each other and completely ruin the five some friendship dynamic.

The Wedding Planner by Eve Devon

This is a cute book with a sweet premise: two people are given the chore of planning a wedding for their friend & one’s brother and neither has a real desire to do this as they both are divorced. They keep running toward and away from the definite chemistry between them.

It ran rather slow for me and felt like the book stalls out for a bit before it gets restarted. Consequently, it held my interest then lost it then picked it up again.

This is Home by Lisa Duffy

Where is home really? Is it with a husband with PTSD, who is withdrawing daily until he just ups and leaves? Is it with your dad and aunts? Is it with just yourself?

This is a touching novel about two people-a young girl and a lonely, confused woman-who find each other at just the right time in their lives. Quinn moves into the apartment/house where Libby lives with her dad and shuffled up to her aunt’s house above them when her dad works. She is looking for freedom of sorts from the mundane life she lives. Quinn is looking for her husband and Libby’s father, Brent, knows where he is. Brent was Quinn’s husband’s supervising officer in Afghanistan.

Libby and Quinn form a friendship when both of them need it most.

Sisters of Summer's End by Lori Foster

Royce and Joy. Daron and Maris. Falling in love can be a tricky thing especially if you are not quite sure you are ready for it. But, then again, whoever is ready? Love happens for Royce and Joy-both burnt by things that have happened in their lives. The same is true for Maris who finds she cannot continue to resist Daron. This is such a cute story melding differing personalities into friendship and love at an RV park.

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

Mrs. Everything creates a fantastic story built around the tumultuous ‘60s and continuing up to the present. If you lived through those years, the story rings so true to the time and to the struggles of women in a time when changes were erupting daily. If you did not live it, Mrs. Everything is such a great tribute to that time and will transport you to a day of constraint vs. freedom for women.