Dear Carolina

 One baby girl.
Two strong Southern women.
And the most difficult decision they’ll ever make.Frances “Khaki” Mason has it all: a thriving interior design career, a loving husband and son, homes in North Carolina and Manhattan—everything except the second child she has always wanted. Jodi, her husband’s nineteen-year-old cousin, is fresh out of rehab, pregnant, and alone. Although the two women couldn’t seem more different, they forge a lifelong connection as Khaki reaches out to Jodi, encouraging her to have her baby. But as Jodi struggles to be the mother she knows her daughter deserves, she will ask Khaki the ultimate favor…Written to baby Carolina, by both her birth mother and her adoptive one, this is a story that proves that life circumstances shape us but don’t define us—and that families aren’t born, they’re made.

Love Anthony

Two women, each cast adrift by unforseen events in their lives, meet by accident on a Nantucket beach and are drawn into a friendship.
Olivia is a young mother whose eight-year-old severely autistic son has recently died. Her marriage badly frayed by years of stress, she comes to the island in a trial separation to try and make sense of the tragedy of her Anthony’s short life.
Beth, a stay-at-home mother of three, is also recently separated after discovering her husband’s long-term infidelity. In an attempt to recapture a sense of her pre-married life, she rekindles her passion for writing, determined to find her own voice again. But surprisingly, as she does so, Beth also find herself channeling the voice of an unknown boy, exuberant in his perceptions of the world around him if autistic in his expression—a voice she can share with Olivia—(is it Anthony?)—that brings comfort and meaning to them both.

Maybe Someday

At twenty-two years old, Sydney is enjoying a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her best friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers that Hunter is cheating on her—and she’s forced to decide what her next move should be.

Soon, Sydney finds herself captivated by her mysterious and attractive neighbor, Ridge. She can't take her eyes off him or stop listening to the passionate way he plays his guitar every evening out on his balcony. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either. They soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one.

A passionate tale of friendship, betrayal, and romance, Maybe Someday will immerse readers in Sydney’s tumultuous world from the very first page.

Another listing of the young adult novels I've read over the past few months. Lots of good ones and no duds in this grouping 🙂 On to the books..........

Wonderful story about a girl who is an outcast at school, but who learns how to love herself through making musical connections. Great characters and writing, and while I wasn't familiar with all of the music, there is a playlist accompanying the book which is a great add on feature. My review...........4 stars

I'm not known to have a good connection with most award winning books, but in this case I completely agree! This book was told in verse (another thing that I'm not a fan of), and it completely captivated me! I loved this book, it was just so well written and the pages flew by. Definitely a must read! My review.........5 stars

Great coming of age story about teen boys. Not a lot of books written with teen boys as the main characters, so I enjoyed this aspect. I thought the beginning was a bit confusing, but it was cleared up mid point and was probably more my fault for not catching on. Best part of the story was one of the secondary characters who has his own book out now (Hold Me Closer). My review..........3 stars

My first time reading Harry Potter (I know I know, no scoffing allowed). I was making a trip to Universal and decided that I needed to bite the bullet and read at least one book before visiting Harry Potter world. I've always avoided these because I'm not a wizards and magic kind of reader. Surprisingly enough I really liked this! Great story with fantastic writing that just sucks you in. I promise I'll be continuing on with the series. My review.....3.5 stars

My first book by this author (other than her short story in My True Love Gave to Me), I loved the writing style. The story just kept me turning pages to find out what was going to happen next. I only wish that we could have found out what happens with all the boys, it focuses mainly on a couple of them. I do know that this has a sequel coming out (PS I Still Love You), so maybe the author plans to delve a bit more into it then. My review......4 stars

I loved the story about Cath and her sister, family, and friends. The Simon Snow fangirl story parts were not my favorite and I found myself skimming through them. I'm not sure how I'm going to react when Simon's story is told in the next Rowell book (Carry On). My review.........4 stars

The Unraveling of Mercy Louis

Bettyville

When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he finds himself—an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook—in a head-on collision with his aging mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. Will George lure her into assisted living? When hell freezes over. He can’t bring himself to force her from the home both treasure—the place where his father’s voice lingers, the scene of shared jokes, skirmishes, and, behind the dusty antiques, a rarely acknowledged conflict: Betty, who speaks her mind but cannot quite reveal her heart, has never really accepted the fact that her son is gay.

As these two unforgettable characters try to bring their different worlds together, Hodgman reveals the challenges of Betty’s life and his own struggle for self-respect, moving readers from their small town—crumbling but still colorful—to the star-studded corridors of Vanity Fair. Evocative of The End of Your Life Book Club and The Tender Bar, Hodgman’s New York Times bestselling debut is both an indelible portrait of a family and an exquisitely told tale of a prodigal son’s return.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Meet the Cooke family. Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke. As a child, she never stopped talking; as a young woman, she has wrapped herself in silence: the silence of intentional forgetting, of protective cover. Something happened, something so awful she has buried it in the recesses of her mind.

Now her adored older brother is a fugitive, wanted by the FBI for domestic terrorism. And her once lively mother is a shell of her former self, her clever and imperious father now a distant, brooding man.

And Fern, Rosemary’s beloved sister, her accomplice in all their childhood mischief? Fern’s is a fate the family, in all their innocence, could never have imagined.

Your Perfect Life

The Grand Reopening of Dandelion Café (Cherry Pie Island #1)

When Annie White steps back onto Cherry Pie Island, it’s safe to say her newly inherited Dandelion Café has seen better days! And while her childhood home on the Thames-side island idyll is exactly the same retreat from the urban bustle of London she remembers, Annie’s not convinced that Owner of The Dandelion Cafe is a title she’ll be keeping for long. Not that she can bear the idea of letting her dedicated, if endearingly disorganized staff lose their jobs. Plus café life does also have the added bonus of working a stone’s throw away from millionaire Matt and his disarmingly charming smile!

One (shoestring budget) café makeover, a few delightful additions to the somewhat retro menu and a lot of cherry pie tastings later, The Dandelion Café is ready for its grand reopening! But once she’s brought the dilapidated old café back to life, Annie finds herself wishing her stay on the island was just a bit longer. She always intended to go back to the big city…but could island living finally have lured her back home for good?

The Grand Reopening of Dandelion Café is Book 1 in The Cherry Pie Island series. Each part of Cherry Pie Island can be read and enjoyed as a standalone story – or as part of the utterly delightful series

~ Goodreads

My review............4 stars

Sometimes you just want a good chick-lit type book, and this fit the bill very nicely! I have read this author before (The Little Christmas Kitchen), and enjoyed her writing immensely. I remember after reading the first book, that I was craving Greek food, and with this one I was dying for cherry pie.....and I don't even LIKE cherry pie 🙂 Although her books are not really about the food, Oliver has such a way of describing it, and fitting it in to the story, that it just adds to the already captivating plot. Most of what occurs in the book are things you can see coming a mile away, but it's ok because you are rooting for all of them to happen. There is nothing really earth shattering that happens, no world problems are solved, and yet you just can't help but get sucked in by the characters and their daily happenings. It just makes you want to hang out with them, and if Dandelion Cafe were a real place, I'd be going there for certain. I might even try the cherry pie!! I'm definitely looking forward to the next books in the series. Thanks to NetGalley for giving me a copy to read and review.

Pick this one up for a quick read (could read it in a few hours), great cast of characters, lovely setting, and did I mention the food descriptions?

The Secrets of Midwives

Three generations of women Secrets in the present and from the pastA captivating tale of life, loss, and love…Neva Bradley, a third-generation midwife, is determined to keep the details surrounding her own pregnancy—including the identity of the baby’s father— hidden from her family and co-workers for as long as possible. Her mother, Grace, finds it impossible to let this secret rest. The more Grace prods, the tighter Neva holds to her story, and the more the lifelong differences between private, quiet Neva and open, gregarious Grace strain their relationship. For Floss, Neva’s grandmother and a retired midwife, Neva’s situation thrusts her back sixty years in time to a secret that eerily mirrors her granddaughter’s—one which, if revealed, will have life-changing consequences for them all. As Neva’s pregnancy progresses and speculation makes it harder and harder to conceal the truth, Floss wonders if hiding her own truth is ultimately more harmful than telling it. Will these women reveal their secrets and deal with the inevitable consequences? Or are some secrets best kept hidden?