At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh how I loved this book! I wanted to read it because I’d read Water For Elephants and loved it.

This story is about Maddie, Ellis and Hank. Maddie and Ellis are married to each other and Hank is their best friend. They are wealthy and living the high life during World War II. Ellis gets himself declared color blind and Hugh gets himself declared flat footed so neither is able to serve in the military. Ellis’s father, a former Colonel, is disgusted with this fact and eventually cuts Ellis’s allowance off.

The men decide to go to Scotland to find the Loch Ness Monster, something Ellis’s dad did back in the day. They plan to get the monster on film thereby becoming famous in their own right and also redeeming the Colonel whom everyone thought manufactured photos of the monster.

They cross the sea on a supply transport. Right before they arrive, another ship is bombed and they go back to pull the sailors out of the burning sea. This spectacle changed the way Maddie looked at life in general.

While they are in Scotland, they stay at a guest house run by Angus, Meg and Anna and this is where the story actually begins.

I loved seeing Maddie’s character grow throughout the story. I loved that Ellis eventually got his and that Maddie got hers.

What a great book! I highly recommend it. 🙂

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Swan Dive by Kendel Lynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another wonderful book by Kendel Lynn. I read the book that came before Swan Dive and fell in love with the character of Elliott Lisbon. She’s smart and, while she works running the Ballantine Foundation, she’s also working towards her private investigator’s license.

When one of the dancers in the foundation’s production of the Nutcracker turns up dead, Elliot is right in the middle of the scene of the crime. She works to find out what happens because she feels the police are going in the wrong direction.

The relationships between Maddy and Ransom are sorted out in this book and I’m happy with how that turned out. Maddy seems like a really great guy but Ransom seems the one she should be with.

This book was fun to read and kept me guessing until the very end. I’m looking forward to the next book! 🙂

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My Best Everything by Sarah Tomp
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent book! Lulu is headed to college in San Diego and all she wants is to get out of her small Virginia town where she feels she’s never fit.

Then her dad told her that, because of a bad business decision, there wasn’t any money for her to go to college so far away. Lulu figures she will find a way. She works at a junk yard with her best friend. They catalog items that come into the yard as part of their job. One day she realizes they haven’t logged in a still and she gets the idea that they can make moonshine to raise the money for her to go to college.

She makes plans to make the moonshine with her best friend, her boyfriend and his friend, Mason. Mason comes from a family of moonshiners and, if not for him, they might have gone wrong in so many different ways. Lulu falls in love with Mason, learns that he is a recovering alcoholic and in the end that she is bad for him.

The story of a summer of love, moonshine and dreams. This was a great book. 🙂

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Bedside Manners by Phoebe Fox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book just like I loved the first book in the Breakup Doctor series.

This book is a continuation of Brook Ogden’s life and growing her new Breakup Doctor practice. Brook really grew in this book along with her practice and it was fun to watch. I loved her new group idea and the characters that were in the group, seeing them solve their problems. Watching the relationship between her best friend, Sasha and her brother, Stu was good, too.

Brook has some of her own breakup issues in this book and I hope the third book will bring her back to Ben who seemed to be the perfect guy for her.

Great book. Great series. Two thumbs up! 🙂

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With Vics You Get Eggroll by Diane Vallere
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the second book in this series that I’ve read and I loved it.

I love design and the fact that Madison Night is an interior designer that specializes in mid century modern design just makes this series one I really enjoy. I think it’s so cute that she dresses like Doris Day and I love the descriptions of her outfits.

This time, there is a killer on the loose in Lakewood and Madison wants to help Tex, someone she has somewhat of a relationship with as he is the police lieutenant who is implicated in the case. There is also another love interest for Madison, Hudson, who is her handy man and helps her with construction jobs that take more that she can handle alone. She seems very undecided between the two in this book and I hope she will choose the right one.

This story twists and turns and I was kept guessing until the end. I highly recommend this book, this series. 🙂

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Walking on Trampolines by Frances Whiting
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh how I loved this book! Easily the best book I’ve read this year. I was sucked in by the story immediately and I didn’t want it to end.

The book begins with Tallulah (Lulu) waking up after sleeping with her high school boy friend on his wedding night to her high school best friend.

The couple gets over it but Lulu cannot. The story weaves its way through high school where she finds them together to her working for her dad at his plumbing service. She is unable to get past the fact that Josh and Annabelle did that to her. Eventually, her dad sees that she should do more with her life and basically kicks her out.

Through one of her good friends she lands a job with a radio personality as his personal assistant. He has four ex-wives, a bunch of kids, a dog named Barney and a larger than life personality. They become very close over the years and when he dies, he leaves Barney in her care. He buys them a house on Willow Island where she goes to try and get herself together, eventually turning it into a B&B, her boss friend’s post humus suggestion.

The story is wonderful, the characters are colorful. I sincerely loved this book so much and highly recommend it!

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Face to Face with Jesus: A Former Muslim’s Extraordinary Journey to Heaven and Encounter with the God of Love by Samaa Habib
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a wonderful testimony of the love of Jesus. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down.

As a small child and through her whole life,, Samaa wanted a relationship with God. But even though she practiced Islam with her family, she never found a connection. War tore through her country and in an effort to be able to protect herself from gangsters on the street, she started taking Taekwondo classes. The classes were taught by a Christian and along with martial arts training,Samaa learned about Jesus and Christianity.

Samaa began attending church and eventually was baptized as a Christian. One day, unknown to the church, four bombs were set to go off inside the building and Samaa was standing right in front of the second bomb that exploded. She died and went to heaven where she came face to face with Jesus. As someone who had evengelized several of her family members and friends already, Samaa was conflicted when Jesus asked her if she wanted to stay with Him or go back. She though of all the good she could do for Him if she went back and that was her choice.

The book isloaded with testimonies of all kinds from God’s love and faithfulness to His healing and provision. This would be an amazing book written by anyone but the fact that it is written by a former Muslim gives it even more impact.

I hightly recommend this book if you are looking for a true story of the love of God. I believe it will strenthen your own faith to read it.

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Since You’ve Been Gone by Mary Jennifer Payne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a good book that I couldn’t put down.

Edie and her mom are on the run again, this time to London. They’ve be running much of her life to get away from her abusive dad. Shortly after arriving in London, Edie’s mom goes missing. She had only just started in a new school and tries to carry on with her life until it seems the authorities are after her.

She and her friend Jermaine decide to try and find her mom. They find friendship and eventually come to learn what happened to her mom.

The story sucked me in right away and was fast paced but could’ve been a little long. Still, I liked it! 🙂

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Devil in the Deadline by LynDee Walker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. Once I picked it up, I read it straight through. Although it’s the fourth in a series, it’s the first one I’ve read. I loved the fact that I wasn’t bogged down in back story from the previous books and only realized towards the end that the characters knew each other too well for there to have been just the one book. Excellent!

I love Nichelle, a journalist with a flair for detecting. I loved how the story was woven to where I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be until it was revealed.

Nichelle is called to the scene of a murder by a cop who trusts her to get the story out and maybe talk to people who won’t talk to the cops. As she starts investigating the story, she comes to connect the murdered girl to a large televangelist church.

After several visits out to the church and nosing around Nichelle becomes more convinced that the two are connected but lacks everything she needs to prove it.

There are two love interests for Nichelle. Joey, a guy with mob connections and Kyle, an ATF agent. These two add for a nice twist inside the story.

I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a fast paced, intriguing read. I can’t wait to read the books that came before! 🙂

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Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had a hard time with this book but ultimately ended up liking it. It’s written in a diary form which, at first, seemed disjointed to me. But it also made it easy to read.

The story is about Vanessa Stephens and her sister, Virginia. Virginia love Vanessa beyond all reason and is a little emotionally unstable. Because of this, she wants whatever Vanessa has including her husband, friends, etc.

The book is a fictional work based upon real people and events, The Bloomsbury Group. I didn’t realize this until I was reading the Author’s Note at the end. I wonder if I would have “gotten it” more quickly if I were familiar with these people.

I enjoyed the characters, though. Artists and writers they were very avante garde for their time and always remained friends no matter water.

I’m glad I finished this book. 🙂

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