The Marriage Bargain

The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst

My rating (out of 5 stars):

3 stars—I liked it.

My thoughts:

I liked this one. I didn’t love the plot but I liked the characters. One weird thing was that Alexa compared Nicholas’s hair to “chex mix” several times. Is that supposed to be a good thing? I just found it super odd.

I will try more by Probst.

Description Goodreads.com:

“A marriage in name only...

To save her family home, impulsive bookstore owner, Alexa Maria McKenzie, casts a love spell. But she never planned on conjuring up her best friend's older brother—the powerful man who once shattered her heart.

Billionaire Nicholas Ryan doesn’t believe in marriage, but in order to inherit his father’s corporation, he needs a wife and needs one fast. When he discovers his sister’s childhood friend is in dire financial straits, he offers Alexa a bold proposition.

A marriage in name only with certain rules: avoid entanglement. Keep things all business. Do not fall in love. The arrangement is only for a year so the rules shouldn’t be that hard to follow, right?

Except fate has a way of upsetting the best-laid plans…”

Where You Left Me

Where You Left Me by Jennifer Gardner Trulson

My rating:

3 stars—I liked it.

My thoughts:

I cannot imagine losing my husband in an unforeseen tragedy. This haunts me. You say good-bye and it’s the last time?? Hard to know how someone gets over that. I feel for Trulson and her children in their horrible loss.

Her story was sad and moving, but it somehow felt a bit superficial—like she was holding back. It’s hard to be critical of a tragic story, but the author lacks the ability to really sell her story. It wasn’t inspirational, it wasn’t helpful for grieving, it didn’t give hope that life goes on after tragedy, it fell flat. There was a lot thrown in about high society life that was boring and hard to connect with. It was also difficult to jump from her mourning her husband and then she moving right into a new relationship. It was probably more gradual in actuality but felt very rushed in the story. I understand she was trying to say that there was a second chance at love…but it made a bit less of her relationship with Doug. If I were her editor, I would have stopped the story before the new relationship.

But overall, this was a moving memoir.

Description Goodreads.com:

“Lucky—that’s how Jennifer would describe herself. She had a successful law career, met the love of her life in Doug, married him, had an apartment in New York City, a house in the Hamptons, two beautiful children, and was still madly in love after nearly seven years of marriage. Jennifer was living the kind of idyllic life that clichés are made of.

Until Doug was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, and she became a widow at age thirty-five—a “9/11 widow,” no less, a member of a select group bound by sorrow, of which she wanted no part. Though completely devastated, Jennifer still considered herself blessed. Doug had loved her enough to last her a lifetime, and after his sudden death, she was done with the idea of romantic love—fully resigned to being a widowed single mother . . . until a chance encounter with a gregarious stranger changed everything. Without a clue how to handle this unexpected turn of events, Jennifer faced the question asked by anyone who has ever lost a loved one: Is it really possible to feel joy again, let alone love?

With unvarnished emotion and clear-eyed sardonic humor, Jennifer tells an ordinary woman’s extraordinary tale of unimaginable loss, resilience, friendship, love, and healing—which is also New York City’s narrative in the wake of September 11. Where You Left Me is an unlikely love story, a quintessentially New York story—at once Jennifer’s tribute to the city that gave her everything and proof that second chances are possible.”

One Night With a Hero

One Night With a Hero by Laura Kaye

My rating:

3 stars—I liked it.

My thoughts:

Turned out this was #2 in a series…so I need to go back and read #1! Even though I jumped in to the series, I really liked this author’s voice. I loved the characters. I’m usually not a fan of pregnancy drama and that is quick way to make me stop reading. But I didn’t hate it here. I wish she would have gone a different route, but I kept reading.

I will definitely go back and read #1 and also try more by Kaye.

Description Goodreads.com:

“After growing up with an abusive, alcoholic father, Army Special Forces Sgt. Brady Scott vowed never to marry or have kids. Sent stateside to get his head on straight—and his anger in check—Brady’s looking for a distraction. He finds it in his beautiful new neighbor’s one-night-only offer for hot sex, but her ability to make him forget is addictive. Suddenly, Brady’s not so sure he can stay away.

…what they need is each other.

Orphaned as a child, community center director Joss Daniels swore she’d never put herself in a position to be left behind again, but she can’t deny herself one sizzling night with the sexy soldier who makes her laugh and kisses her senseless. When Joss discovers she’s pregnant, Brady’s rejection leaves her feeling abandoned. Now, they must overcome their fears before they lose the love and security they’ve found in each other, but can they let go of the past to create a future together?”

Chosen

Chosen by Chandra Hoffman

My rating:

4 stars—I really liked it.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book. I liked the perspectives of the different characters. I will try more by Hoffman!

Description Goodreads.com:

“It all begins with a fantasy: the caseworker in her "signing paperwork" charcoal suit standing alongside beaming parents cradling their adopted newborn, set against a fluorescent-lit delivery-room backdrop. It's this blissful picture that keeps Chloe Pinter, director of the Chosen Child's domestic-adoption program, happy while juggling the high demands of her boss and the incessant needs of both adoptive and biological parents.

But the very job that offers her refuge from her turbulent personal life and Portland's winter rains soon becomes a battleground involving three very different couples: the Novas, well-off college sweethearts who suffered fertility problems but are now expecting their own baby; the McAdoos, a wealthy husband and desperate wife for whom adoption is a last chance; and Jason and Penny, an impoverished couple who have nothing—except the baby everyone wants. When a child goes missing, dreams dissolve into nightmares, and everyone is forced to examine what he or she really wants and where it all went wrong.

Told from alternating points of view, Chosen reveals the desperate nature of desire across social backgrounds and how far people will go to get the one thing they think will be the answer.”

Monday Recommendations

Monday Recommendation List

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This week-- 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. The Black Ops Series (first is Show No Mercy) by Cindy Gerard
2. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
3. The Jonathan Stride series (first is Immoral) by Brian Freeman
4. Beautiful Disaster  by Jamie McGuire
5. Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero  by Chris Matthews
6. Baking with the Cake Boss by Buddy Valastro
7. Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer Holland
8. Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard
9. I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish
10. What’s New, Cupcake  by Karen Tack