Book Review | Meredith Into the Fire by Amanda Gale

January 22, 2016January 8, 2016 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

BOOK REVIEW | MEREDITH INTO THE FIRE

TITLE: Meredith Into The Fire, Book #3

AUTHOR: Amanda Gale

PUBLISHER: Brenda & Cobena Books

RELEASE DATE: July 3, 2014

GENRE: Women’s Fiction, Romance

BUY LINKS: AMAZON | B&N

Ever optimistic, Meredith has never given up hope that she’d recapture perfection. However, experience has taught her how easily her world can fall apart. Having endured enough losses, in Book Three, Meredith Into the Fire, she resolves that it will never happen again.

They’ve been crossing paths for over a year. Now fate seems to throw Meredith together with Shane Thayer, an aspiring celebrity chef with an odd sense of humor and a volatile temper. Struggling to make a name for himself and to satisfy the ambitions of his overbearing parents, Shane seems a far cry from the security for which Meredith yearns. But she is tired of following the same path, and she is anxious for her search to be over. Against the advice of her friends and family, to whom it is obvious that Shane is all wrong for her, Meredith sprints toward what she convinces herself is stability. Unfortunately, her attempt to take control of her life only brings her more chaos.

With tension at her job mounting and her unstable relationship rushing toward an unknown conclusion, Meredith makes a desperate grasp for control as her life crumbles around her. As her journey culminates in a dramatic explosion, will she settle for Shane or will she find what she is truly looking for?” (Description from Amazon)

MY THOUGHTS

Meredith Into The Fire is a classic case of settling and feeling defeated. If you’ve read books one and two, then you know that Meredith has already gone through two breakups that tore her heart apart. That’s why she pretty much gave up the search for the perfect man because she’s convinced that he’s unattainable and doesn’t exist. Then she starts dating Shane Thayer.

This book really brings the character crashing down and you see her making terrible choices and convincing herself that it’s what she really wants. Her new love interest comes from a wealthy family and is quite the spoiled entitled “brat” if you ask me. She’s exactly what his parents don’t want for their son and that becomes clear during Meredith’s interactions with them. There may have been times when Shane seemed to love Meredith, but his actions contradict that and later you find out why he decided to be with Meredith.

The whole situation made me sad for Meredith. She just couldn’t see what Shane was doing and what his true motive was for wanting to be with her. Thankfully she finds out towards the end, but not until they are literally about to walk down the isle.

Overall, this was a great addition to the Meredith series. I would suggest you read the series from the beginning before reading Meredith Into The Fire, that way you understand why she’s making those terrible decisions.

You can check out my reviews of the first two books here: Meredith Out of Darkness & Meredith Against the Wind

FAVORITE QUOTES

“But the most important lesson Meredith had learned was that one never knew what the future would bring; one never could predict the motives in another person’s heart, not matter how close — and that thought gave Meredith hope.”

OVERALL RATING

ABOUT AMANDA

A graduate of Vassar College and Boston University, Amanda Gale taught high school English before she began writing women’s fiction. She loves history, classic literature, and quiet nights at home. She lives outside Philadelphia with her family. (Photo Credit: Lisa Schaffer Photography)

Book of the Week | News From Berlin by Otto de Kat

January 18, 2016January 8, 2016 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

TITLE: News From Berlin

AUTHOR: Otto De Kat

PUBLISHER: MacLehose Press

RELEASE DATE: January 2, 2014

GENRE: General Fiction (Adult)

BUY LINKS: AMAZON

In War time Europe Dutch diplomat Oscar Verschuur has been posted to neutral Switzerland. His family is spread across Europe. His wife Kate works as a nurse in London and their daughter Emma is living in Berlin with her husband Carl, a “good” German who works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Briefly reunited with her father in a restaurant in Geneva, Emma drops a bombshell. A date and a codename, and the fate of nations is placed in Verschuur’s hands: June 22, Barbarossa.
What should he do? Warn the world, or put his daughter’s safety first? The Gestapo are watching them both. And with Stalin lulled by his alliance with Hitler, will anyone even listen?

Otto de Kat is fast gaining a reputation as one of Europe’s sharpest and most lucid writers. News from Berlin, a book for all readers, a true page-turner driven by the pulse of a ticking clock, confirms him as a storyteller of subtly extravagant gifts. (Description found on NetGalley.com)

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Book Review | Between Worlds by Jacqueline Smith

January 13, 2016January 8, 2016 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

BOOK REVIEW | BETWEEN WORLDS

TITLE: Between Worlds (Cemetery Tours Book 2)

AUTHOR: Jacqueline Smith

PUBLISHER: Wind Trail Publishing

RELEASE DATE: June 29, 2014

GENRE: Paranormal Thriller

BUY LINKS: AMAZON | B&N

“Someone always dies… Someone is always left behind… Now that his secret is out, Michael Sinclair finally agrees to join paranormal superstar Luke Rainer and the Cemetery Tours crew on an investigation. Not just any investigation. The biggest investigation of their career. Once home to the wealthy Sterling Hall and his beloved wife, Joanna, Stanton Hall Manor in Maine is famous for the love story that inspired it… and the ghosts who now inhabit it. For Luke and the crew, Stanton Hall is a dream come true. Unfortunately, some dreams turn out to be nightmares.” (Description from Amazon)

MY THOUGHTS

Between Worlds is the sequel to Jacqueline Smith’s Cemetery Tours. This book starts off pretty close to when the first one ended. Michael see ghosts, but now has some sort of pseudo-celebrity status. As with anyone who says they can see or speak with ghosts, Michael found himself being ostracized for his abilities. He lost his job. Kate’s parents wanted her to have nothing to do with him.

The upside is that there were people who believed him, but they always wanted his help. So instead of keeping to himself like he did in Cemetery Tours he was going on talk shows (not that he was comfortable doing it) and people knew who he was. At times, it seemed like he missed the solitude, especially when ghosts would seek him out for help.

When Michael was let go from yet another job he decided to finally take up Luke Rainer’s offer and be a part of his hit television show Cemetery Tours. That’s when they wind up at Sterling Hall to investigate the story behind the ghost who might be roaming the house. It’s this ghost who puts everyone’s lives in danger, especially Kate’s, so it’s up to Michael to help the ghost move on.

Overall, I loved Between Worlds. It’s great being able to read another “adventure” about characters I enjoy. I feel this series can have multiple books associated with it and thats exactly what Jacqueline Smith is working on. I can’t wait to read more about Michael and his ability to see and speak with ghosts. It’s the only paranormal series I’ve actually been interested in and I can’t wait to read the next books in the series.

FAVORITE QUOTES

“Real love meant loving the whole person, in every form, in every state, in every way. It was what transformed the ordinary monotony of everyday life into extraordinary moments of warmth and compassion and joy.”

“Unfortunately, he’d also come to learn that life was rarely every that simple. It wasn’t like a movie where the credits rolled after all the conflicts had been resolved or a book wrapping up its story on the final page. The story of a human life never ended, not even in death. But really, that was a good thing.”

OVERALL RATING

ABOUT JACQUELINE

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | BLOG | TWITTER | GOODREADS

Jacqueline E. Smith was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. She attended the University of Texas at Dallas, where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Art and Performance in 2010. Two years later, she earned her Master’s Degree in Humanities.

Along with writing and publishing, Jacqueline loves photography, traveling, and nature. (Photo Credit: Kaylynn Krieg)

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Book of the Week | What She Left by T.R. Richmond

January 11, 2016December 21, 2015 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

TITLE: What She Left

AUTHOR: T.R. Richmond

PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster

RELEASE DATE: January 5, 2016

GENRE: General Fiction (Adult)

BUY LINKS: AMAZON | B&N | BAM! | INDIEBOUND

In this brilliantly modern novel of love, obsession, and revenge, a professor pieces together the life and mysterious death of a former student—and unearths a shocking revelation about her final days.

On a snowy February morning, the body of twenty-five-year-old journalist Alice Salmon washes up on a riverbank south of London. The sudden, shocking death of this beloved local girl becomes a media sensation, and those who knew her struggle to understand what happened to lively, smart, and savvy Alice Salmon. Was it suicide? A tragic accident? Or…murder?

Professor Jeremy Cooke, known around campus as Old Cookie, is an anthropologist nearing the end of his unremarkable academic career. Alice is his former student, and the object of his unhealthy obsession. After her death, he embarks on a final project—a book documenting Alice’s life through the digital and paper trails that survive her: her diaries, letters, Facebook posts, Tweets, and text messages. He collects news articles by and about her; he transcribes old voicemails; he interviews her friends, family, and boyfriends.

Bit by bit, the real Alice—a complicated and vulnerable young woman—springs fully formed from the pages of Cookie’s book…along with a labyrinth of misunderstandings, lies, and secrets that cast suspicion on everyone in her circle—including Jeremy himself. (Description found on NetGalley.com)

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Book Review | What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross

January 8, 2016 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

BOOK REVIEW | WHAT WAS MINE

TITLE: What Was Mine

AUTHOR: Helen Klein Ross

PUBLISHER: Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books

RELEASE DATE: January 5, 2016

GENRE: Women’s Fiction

BUY LINKS: AMAZON | B&N | GOOGLEPLAY | INDIEBOUND | BAM!

Simply told but deeply affecting, in the bestselling tradition of Alice McDermott and Tom Perrotta, this urgent novel unravels the heartrending yet unsentimental tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby in a superstore—and gets away with it for twenty-one years.

Lucy Wakefield is a seemingly ordinary woman who does something extraordinary in a desperate moment: she takes a baby girl from a shopping cart and raises her as her own. It’s a secret she manages to keep for over two decades—from her daughter, the babysitter who helped raise her, family, coworkers, and friends.

When Lucy’s now-grown daughter Mia discovers the devastating truth of her origins, she is overwhelmed by confusion and anger and determines not to speak again to the mother who raised her. She reaches out to her birth mother for a tearful reunion, and Lucy is forced to flee to China to avoid prosecution. What follows is a ripple effect that alters the lives of many and challenges our understanding of the very meaning of motherhood.

Author Helen Klein Ross, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, weaves a powerful story of upheaval and resilience told from the alternating perspectives of Lucy, Mia, Mia’s birth mother, and others intimately involved in the kidnapping. What Was Mine is a compelling tale of motherhood and loss, of grief and hope, and the life-shattering effects of a single, irrevocable moment. (Description from NetGalley.com)

MY THOUGHTS

As soon as I started reading What Was Mine, I became engrossed by it and could’t put it down. I don’t have children yet, but I feel that What Was Mine still had the same affect on me as it would to a mother. It would be truly devastating for my child to be kidnapped. This book also made me think about how I’d feel towards the person who kidnapped by child. I’d be thankful that he/she wasn’t harmed, but I’d definitely be angry about the amount of time that was stolen from me. I hope I’d follow Marilyn’s example and think about my son or daughter and how they feel about the situation. It’d be difficult, but sometimes you have to look at the big picture and what is best for your child.

What Was Mine is told in several different perspectives, mostly by the main characters Lucy Wakefield (the kidnapper), Mia Wakefield (the kidnapped child), and Merilyn Featherstone (the biological mother). There are a few supporting character perspectives sprinkled in that were an interesting addition, but if removed, they wouldn’t change much of the plot.

The most interesting aspect of reading What Was Mine is that I felt sorry for Lucy Wakefield, who was essentially a child abductor. In everyday life, if I see a kidnapping story on the news, I tell myself “that person needs to go to prison”, but I didn’t feel that way with Lucy. She was a woman who couldn’t have children in any way and her desire for a child got the best of her causing her to kidnap Mia. I felt sorry for her during several points in the book.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book. Even though it’s a women’s fiction book, sometimes it felt like a suspense novel because I was always wondering if she’d be caught.

OVERALL RATING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS | TWITTER

Helen is a former creative director at top ad agencies in New York who spent over 20 years in the ad business before turning to other kinds of fiction. Her stories, poems and essays have been published by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker. (Found on Helen’s website).

Thank you to the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Book of the Week | No Baggage by Clara Bensen

January 4, 2016November 10, 2015 ~ Danielle Olson ~ 4 Comments

TITLE: No Baggage

AUTHOR: Clara Bensen

PUBLISHER: Perseus Books Group, Running Press

RELEASE DATE: January 5, 2016

GENRE: Biographies & Memoirs

BUY LINKS: AMAZON | B&N | INDIEBOUND | BAM! | POWELL’S

No Baggage is a memoir that will resonate with adventurers and homebodies alike—it’s at once a romance, a travelogue, and a bright modern take on the age-old questions: how do you find the courage to explore beyond your comfort zone? And can you love someone without the need for commitment, or any expectations for the future?

When Clara Bensen arranged to meet Jeff Wilson on the steps of the Texas State Capitol, after just a few email exchanges on OKCupid, it felt like something big was going to happen. Clara, a sensitive and reclusive personality, is immediately drawn to Jeff’s freewheeling, push-the-envelope nature. Within a few days of knowing one another, they embark on a 21-day travel adventure—from Istanbul to London, with zero luggage, zero reservations, and zero plans. They want to test a simple question: what happens when you welcome the unknown instead of attempting to control it?

Donning a single green dress and a small purse with her toothbrush and credit card, Clara travels through eight countries in three weeks. Along the way, Clara ruminates on the challenges of traveling unencumbered, while realizing when it comes to falling in love, you can never really leave your baggage behind. (Description found on NetGalley.com)

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January New Releases

January 1, 2016December 21, 2015 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

JANUARY NEW RELEASES

First I want to say Happy New Year! I can’t wait to see what the year 2016 brings. Now I want to share a few upcoming January releases I’m excited about and have added to my TBR list. Congrats to the authors on the release of your new books.

TITLE: The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

AUTHOR: Katarina Bivald

PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks Landmark

RELEASE DATE: January 1, 2016

GENRE: Women’s Fiction, General Fiction

Once you let a book into your life, the most unexpected things can happen…
Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds that Amy’s funeral has just ended. Luckily, the townspeople are happy to look after their bewildered tourist—even if they don’t understand her peculiar need for books. Marooned in a farm town that’s almost beyond repair, Sara starts a bookstore in honor of her friend’s memory. All she wants is to share the books she loves with the citizens of Broken Wheel and to convince them that reading is one of the great joys of life. But she makes some unconventional choices that could force a lot of secrets into the open and change things for everyone in town. Reminiscent of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, this is a warm, witty book about friendship, stories, and love. (Description found on NetGalley.com)

TITLE: No Baggage, A Minimalist Tale of Love & Wandering

AUTHOR: Clara Bensen

PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks Landmark

RELEASE DATE: January 5, 2016

GENRE: Biographies & Memoirs

TITLE: Eleanor

AUTHOR: Jason Gurley

PUBLISHER: Crown Publishing

RELEASE DATE: January 12, 2016

GENRE: General Fiction

Eleanor and Esmerelda are identical twins with a secret language all their own, inseparable until a terrible accident claims Esme’s life. Eleanor’s family is left in tatters: her mother retreats inward, seeking comfort in bottles; her father reluctantly abandons ship. Eleanor is forced to grow up more quickly than a child should, and becomes the target of her mother’s growing rage.

Years pass, and Eleanor’s painful reality begins to unravel in strange ways. The first time it happens, she walks through a school doorway, and finds herself in a cornfield, beneath wide blue skies. When she stumbles back into her own world, time has flown by without her. Again and again, against her will, she falls out of her world and into other, stranger ones, leaving behind empty rooms and worried loved ones.

One fateful day, Eleanor leaps from a cliff and is torn from her world altogether. She meets a mysterious stranger, Mea, who reveals to Eleanor the weight of her family’s loss. To save her broken parents, and rescue herself, Eleanor must learn how deep the well of her mother’s grief and her father’s heartbreak truly goes. Esmerelda’s death was not the only tragic loss in her family’s fragmented history, and unless Eleanor can master her strange new abilities, it may not be the last. (Description found on NetGalley.com)

TITLE: The Things We Keep

AUTHOR: Sally Hepworth

PUBLISHER: St. Martin’s Press

RELEASE DATE: January 19, 2016

GENRE: Women’s Fiction

Anna Forster, in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease at only thirty-eight years old, knows that her family is doing what they believe to be best when they take her to Rosalind House, an assisted living facility. She also knows there’s just one another resident her age, Luke. What she does not expect is the love that blossoms between her and Luke even as she resists her new life at Rosalind House. As her disease steals more and more of her memory, Anna fights to hold on to what she knows, including her relationship with Luke.

When Eve Bennett is suddenly thrust into the role of single mother she finds herself putting her culinary training to use at Rosalind house. When she meets Anna and Luke she is moved by the bond the pair has forged. But when a tragic incident leads Anna’s and Luke’s families to separate them, Eve finds herself questioning what she is willing to risk to help them. (Description found on NetGalley.com)

TITLE: The Winter Girl

AUTHOR: Matt Marinovich

PUBLISHER: Doubleday Books

RELEASE DATE: January 19, 2016

GENRE: General Fiction (Adult)

A scathing and exhilarating thriller that begins with a husband’s obsession with the seemingly vacant house next door.

It’s wintertime in the Hamptons, where Scott and his wife, Elise, have come to be with her terminally ill father, Victor, to await the inevitable. As weeks turn to months, their daily routine—Elise at the hospital with her father, Scott pretending to work and drinking Victor’s booze—only highlights their growing resentment and dissatisfaction with the usual litany of unhappy marriages: work, love, passion, each other. But then Scott notices something simple, even innocuous.

Every night at precisely eleven, the lights in the neighbor’s bedroom turn off. It’s clearly a timer . . .but in the dead of winter with no one else around, there’s something about that light he can’t let go of. So one day while Elise is at the hospital, he breaks in. And he feels a jolt of excitement he hasn’t felt in a long time. Soon, it’s not hard to enlist his wife as a partner in crime and see if they can’t restart the passion.

Their one simple transgression quickly sends husband and wife down a deliriously wicked spiral of bad decisions, infidelities, escalating violence, and absolutely shocking revelations.

Matt Marinovich makes a strong statement with this novel. The Winter Girl is the psychological thriller done to absolute perfection. (Description found on NetGalley.com)

What new releases are you excited about this month?

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Book Review & Giveaway | With Every Breath by Lia Riley

December 31, 2015December 21, 2015 ~ Danielle Olson ~ 2 Comments

BOOK REVIEW | WITH EVERY BREATH

TITLE: With Every Breath

AUTHOR: Lia Riley

PUBLISHER: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)

RELEASE DATE: December 29, 2015

GENRE: New Adult

PRE-ORDER LINKS: AMAZON | B&N | iBOOKS | KOBO

BREATHE DEEP . . . AND JUMP IN

At the ends of the earth, Patagonia is a land where ambition trumps reason and the savage summit of La Aguja lures the most determined climbers. It’s also the last spot a “play-it-safe girl” like Auden Woods expects to find herself. But she’ll lace up her brand-new hiking boots and do whatever it takes to secure a dream job at an adventure magazine . . . even if it kills her. And it just might. When disaster strikes, her only chance at survival comes in the form of the surliest, sexiest mountaineer ever to come out of Scotland.

After a climbing accident cost him his brother, professional mountaineer Rhys MacAskill is at the end of his rope. Redemption is not in his future. That is, until a terrifying storm blows a budding journalist into his tent and it’s up to him to make sure they both survive until morning. Despite the demons weighing on him, Rhys can’t resist the temptation of the charming American and one wild night just isn’t enough.

Auden and Rhys soon learn there are no shortcuts as they navigate their way between life, death, and atonement, and discover something they never expected-love. (Description found from NetGalley.com)

MY THOUGHTS

Do you like rugged men? Do you like outdoorsy men? Do you feel like you might need more adventure in your life? Well, With Every Breath by Lia Riley is packed full of adventure, regret, redemption, love, and of course…a sexy mountaineer. Every new book I read of Lia’s makes me more of a fan and she’s getting another thumbs up from me on this one.

The story is told in the perspective of Auden Woods and Rhys MacAskill. Auden is a girl that isn’t known to take risks, but when there’s a chance for her to land a job with a popular magazine she steps out of her shell in a big way. She decides to write a story about climbers braving the La Aguja in Patagonia by going there herself. That’s how she ends up meeting Rhys in a way that forces her to take her clothes off…but it’s not what you’re thinking.

Rhys is quite a mysterious character and the exact opposite of Auden. He lives on the edge and gets his kicks climbing dangerous mountains. You can tell that he keeps a lot to himself and has a hard time opening up to other’s, but his past haunts him and is one of the reasons he pushes people away.

The book didn’t end the way I thought it would, but the ending gave it more emotion and added more to Rhys character.

Overall, I loved With Every Breath. It had the right amount of romance, adventure, and drama to keep my attention and left me wanting more. If you get a chance to read the book please let me know what you think.

OVERALL RATING

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS | TWITTER

After studying at the University of Montana-Missoula, Lia Riley scoured the world armed only with a backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. When not torturing heroes (because c’mon, who doesn’t love a good tortured hero?), Lia herds unruly chickens, camps, beach combs, daydreams about as-of-yet unwritten books, wades through a mile-high TBR pile and schemes yet another trip. She and her family live mostly in Northern California.

Thank you to Lia Riley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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Stories Unfolded 2015 In Review

December 30, 2015December 30, 2015 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 39,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 14 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Book of the Week | Amelia Earhart, Beyond the Grave by W.C. Jameson

December 28, 2015November 10, 2015 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

TITLE: Amelia Earhart, Beyond the Grave

AUTHOR: W.C. Jameson

PUBLISHER: Globe Pequot/Taylor Trade Publishing

RELEASE DATE: January 5, 2016

GENRE: Biographies & Memoirs, Nonfiction (Adult)

This well-researched book is a biography of the life—and disappearance—of Amelia Earhart, the pioneering aviator who was the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic in 1928. But did Amelia’s plane really crash and sink in 1937, or was her fate entirely different?

W.C. Jameson is the award-winning author of more than eighty books. He is the bestselling treasure author in America, and his prominence as a professional fortune hunter has led to stints as a consultant for the Unsolved Mysteries television show, the Travel Channel, and the History Channel. He lives near Austin, Texas.

Gregory A. Feith is a former Senior Air Safety Investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. He is a recurring guest and analyst on several network shows & news channels, including NBC News. (Description found on NetGalley.com)

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