Delicacy

Delicacy by David Foenkinos

My rating (out of 5 stars):

3 stars—I liked it.

My Thoughts:

This was an original story, beautifully told. It moved a bit slowly for me, but I enjoyed it overall.

Description from Goodreads.com:

“Losing her beloved husband after only seven years of marriage, heartbroken widow Nathalie steels herself against emotional attachments until she unexpectedly falls in for her offbeat, guileless co-worker, Markus, who represents the opposite of everything.”

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. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
2. Running the Books by Avi Steinberg
3. Dead Man Walking by Helen Prejean
4. Eve Duncan series (first is Face of Deception)  by Iris Johansen
5. Don’t Cry  by Beverly Barton
6. Blood Vines by Erica Spindler
7. Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
8. It Had to Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
9. The Outsiders by SE Hinton
10. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Untamed

Untamed by Victoria Green and  Jen Meyers

My rating (out of 5 stars):

3 stars—I liked it.

My Thoughts:

I read this one on a recommendation from a friend. I liked the story (hence the 3 star rating)…but… it turns out to be another cliffhanger. UGH!!! I obviously hate this type of book. I definitely didn’t like it enough to read through four more “installments” to get to the end of the story.

So…read this if you like emotional drama and want to buy 5+ books to get to a resolution. But if you hate the cliffhanger trend as much as me…stay away!

Description from Goodreads.com:

“Rich, beautiful, and wild, Reagan McKinley has everything she needs...but nothing that she wants. That is, until she spends one hot night in the arms of sexy, unbridled Dare Wilde.

She's a girl trapped in a rigid world she desperately wants to escape, and he's an untamed artist with an attitude, hell-bent on freeing her—body, mind, and soul. But Reagan's life is not her own, and Dare is not welcome in it. She can't include him in her carefully-controlled, extremely public lifestyle...and yet she cannot give him up.

Will a shared passion for art—and, increasingly, each other—be enough to keep them together? Or will it be the thing that ultimately tears them apart?”

A Lady By Midnight

A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare

My rating (out of 5 stars):

3 stars—I liked it.

My Thoughts:

Tessa Dare writes sweet romance stories. This is a historical, pretty fluffy and vanilla! I enjoy her writing.

Description from Goodreads.com:

“After years of fending for herself, Kate Taylor found friendship and acceptance in Spindle Cove—but she never stopped yearning for love. The very last place she'd look for it is in the arms of Corporal Thorne. The militia commander is as stone cold as he is brutally handsome. But when mysterious strangers come searching for Kate, Thorne steps forward as her fiancé. He claims to have only Kate's safety in mind. So why is there smoldering passion in his kiss?

Long ago, Samuel Thorne devoted his life to guarding Kate's happiness. He wants what's best for her, and he knows it's not marriage to a man like him. To outlast their temporary engagement, he must keep his hands off her tempting body and lock her warm smiles out of his withered heart. It's the toughest battle of this hardened warrior's life . . . and the first he seems destined to lose.”

The Winters In Bloom

The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker

My rating (out of 5 stars):

4 stars—I really liked it.

My Thoughts:

I found this to be a very emotional and moving story. I liked how Tucker slowly revealed the character’s as the events unfolded.

Description from Goodreads.com:

“Together for over a decade, Kyra and David Winter are happier than they ever thought they could be.  They have a comfortable home, stable careers, and a young son, Michael, who they love more than anything.  Yet because of their complicated histories, Kyra and David have always feared that this domestic bliss couldn’t last - that the life they created was destined to be disrupted.  And on one perfectly average summer day, it is: Michael disappears from his own backyard.

The only question is whose past has finally caught up with them: David feels sure that Michael was taken by his troubled ex-wife, while Kyra believes the kidnapper must be someone from her estranged family, someone she betrayed years ago.

As the Winters embark on a journey of time and memory to find Michael, they will be forced to admit these suspicions, revealing secrets about themselves they’ve always kept hidden.  But they will also have a chance to discover that it’s not too late to have the family they’ve dreamed of; that even if the world is full of risks, as long as they have hope, the future can bloom.

Lyrical, wise, and witty, The Winters in Bloom is Lisa Tucker’s most optimistic work to date.  This enchanting, life-affirming story will charm readers and leave them full of wonder at the stubborn strength of the human heart.”