Author, Book Reviewer and Artist
Good afternoon, Friends
I hope you are having a nice autumn. Today is a dreary rainy day here and I am so excited about it being National Read a Book Day. How awesome is that holiday?? And it such a cozy day for curling up with a story.
I am reading a mystery involving a missing woman, bombs, drugs, and the Coast Guard. It’s pretty good so far. What have you been reading lately? Anything good? I would love to hear about it!
Good morning, Friends
I hope your week has been going well. I am currently chilling out on the couch trying to catch up on book reviews while my niece naps. I should nap with her but of course I am not tired now. Has that ever happened to you? So annoying.
Anywho, we have certainly passed the halfway mark of the year (seriously, how did that happen already?!) and I thought I would catch you up on my year’s reading goal. I technically have two goals for the year, one I have already reached. The first was to read twenty books in the year. Years past I have read seventy, eighty, or more. In recent years it has decreased to anywhere between twelve books and thirty, tops. So I thought a goal of twenty was a fair “challenge”. I easily surpassed it in no time. I have read 63 books so far! My new goal has been upped to 70. Doable, I think.
The second goal is to read all of the books I have had on my TBR shelves for ten or more years. I am on a decluttering kick and thought this is one way of doing it with the books, start with the oldest unread ones and work my way to the recently purchased. Tastes change with book preferences just as they do with clothes and decorating styles. I have read a few I was thinking I would not like now and actually really enjoyed, and there were some I was so sure I would like and I could not get into them. I should now better. Never Judge a Book By Its Cover. This goal, all my ten+ year old books I’ve kept around, is still a goal I am working on finishing. I think I have about ten or so books left. I think I will get to all of them, but if not, I will add them to next year’s goals.
How is your reading going this year? Did you make any goals or challenges for yourself? I would love to hear about your reading adventures so far.
Peace,
Kym
Kaylene Adams murdered her daughter and herself. Or did she?
Attorney Emilie Wesley cannot and will not believe her client would hurt her daughter, much less kill her. She knows a different story. One with a marriage filled with abuse and fear. In fact, Emilie was helping Kaylene leave her husband and gain custody of her two daughters. Doubts plague Emilie now as she tries to understand what has happened.
Reid Billings thought he knew his sister, Kaylene. The news of her and his niece’s deaths shake him. And then he finds a letter his sister had tucked away in his house. In it she begs Reid to fight for custody of her daughters if anything should happen to her. She assured him Emilie Wesley would help. Together they work to protect Kaylene’s surviving daughter and find out what exactly happened that tragic day.
This story was very engaging and well written. I found it an intriguing and compelling legal mystery. I’m looking forward to the next Cara Putman’s book.
*I received this book free from Thomas Nelson and The Fiction Guild in exchange for my honest review. What I have shared are entirely my own thoughts and I was not compensated in any financial way*
Parental Guidance- PG13 for adult situations
Technically the book title is “Why I hate green beans and other confessions about relationships, reality tv, and how we see ourselves”. Don’t let that long title scare you away, though. This is a doozy of a story and I recommend not passing it up!
Lincee Ray is a cracker jack of a storyteller. Seriously, no one could make up these things she wrote about. Personal stories of working at Disney World, escaping from a helicopter simulator that is under water, shopping experiences, and so much more. This story is a hit in my book! I was laughing out loud reading her personal stories. And at the end of it, I felt that each woman is connected through our experiences. We can sympathize and understand each other, we can lean on each other and heal each other. It reminded me that picture-perfect Facebook statuses are not always picture-perfect. And it’s okay, that is life. Crazy, beautiful life.
*I received this book free from Revell in exchange for my honest review. What I have shared are exactly that and I was not compensated in any financial way*
Zoe never planned to return to Copper Creek, but life has different plans. When her grandmother dies, Zoe returns home for the funeral and plans to leave right after. And then she is told she has inherited her grandmother’s orchard. Zoe’s world is turned upside down. She has a daughter to raise, an abusive boyfriend to face, and a man from her past whose heart she broke. Will this move to the orchard be the best choice or one more part of her daily nightmare?
This story was very engaging. It kept me hooked. Denise Hunter, as some of you may know, is one of my favorite authors and there is a reason for it. Her stories are real. They are sweet, tender, soul-searching. They are forgiving. This one is no different.
*I received this book free from Thomas Nelson and The Fiction Guild in exchange for my honest review. What I have expressed are entirely my own thoughts and I have not been compensated in any financial way*
Parental Guidance- PG13 for adult situations (abusive relationship)
Aletta Prescott is recently widowed and losing her house. How is she supposed to care for her son and herself? Captain Jake Winston is a revered sharpshooter, until a head injury during a battle sends him away to recover. He fears losing his greatest skill and his identity as he knows it. Can either of them learn to work with what has been thrown at them? Or will things become too hard to bear?
Set in Franklin, Tennessee, Tamera Alexander vividly describes the backdrop of the story. The characters were easy to relate to and follow. This was a sweet story. My only “negative” thought on it is the story did not feel long enough for me. When the story ended I wanted more. Is that really a negative point, though? This was a sweet taste of things to come from Ms. Alexander and I am looking forward to her new series.
*I received this book free from Thomas Nelson and The Fiction Guild in exchange for my honest review. What I have expressed are entirely my own thoughts and I was not compensated in any financial way*
Hi, Friends!
I am very sorry to have disappeared on you for so long. Life can be…. difficult. As some of you may already know, I deal with depression and anxiety, as well as PTSD. Unfortunately, they have been raging badly for a while and it has messed with my daily life. I am fighting to get myself back on track. Day by day. Second by second even.
On the upside, I have been devouring books, lol. I have already passed my year’s reading challenge of 20 finished books. I finished the sixty first one last night. I have a slew of review books to post about on here for you and am working on getting those up for you. I have read some pretty good ones this year! How is your reading adventures going this year? Anything you want to shout from the rooftops about? Or maybe not that loud but at least tell me about? 🙂
I hope you have had a pleasant day. I got to spend mine with my niece, and on a rainy day with a sleepless night last night, the snuggly nap was the perfect prescription for me today. Never take moments like that for granted.
Sleep sweetly, my dear friends. I will be back with a book review soon.
Peace,
Kym
Here is is. My February book haul. Finally, lol. Please don’t mind the things in the background. Those toys are my niece’s, who I babysit. Anywho, this was an exciting book haul for two reasons. The first, I reached my goal of 30 days no hair pulling. For anyone curious as to what I am talking about, I will be writing a post about that in greater detail. The second reason, I received four books last month as gifts. They were also gifts for reaching my first 30 days of no hair pulling. Now, onto the books!
Based On True Events-
The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe
Mystery-
The Newsmakers by Lis Wiehl
A Cry From the Dust by Carrie Stuart Parks
The Bones will Speak by Carrie Stuart Parks
Deception on Sable Hill by Shelley Gray
Threads of Suspicion by Dee Henderson
Dressed for Death by Julianna Deering
Murder on the Moor by Julianna Deering
Death at Thornburn Hall by Julianna Deering
Shattered by Dani Pettrey
Stranded by Dani Pettrey
The Anatomist’s Wife by Anna Lee Huber
Novels (Drama)-
The Masterpiece by Francine Rivers
The Magdalen Girls by V.S. Alexander
Fantasy-
Mistress of All Evil by Serena Valentino
Are there any on this list you have read? What were your thoughts about the book(s)? Are there any on my list you want to read? I would love to hear from you!
Have a sweet Sunday 🙂
1944 London, England. A place filled with soldiers, native and foreign, air raids, and preparations for an invasion into France. Naval Officer Lt. Wyatt Paxton, from Texas, works closely with Dorothy Fairfax, a WREN, in the Women’s Royal Naval Services. They work together to piece snapshots together to make the maps used as accurate as possible. Their friendship begins to turn into more, but the demands of the war, and of their own personal lives, threaten to ruin any possibilities of a love. Can they be stronger than the demands of the world?
The prologue was definitely a puncher. It started off grabbing hold of me and by the end of that chapter I was hooked! Unfortunately…. the story lost its grip on me after the prologue. I continued reading for a while but finally stopped. I did not finish the book. As quickly as it grabbed my attention, it quickly lost my attention. I found the story difficult for me to get into, it became dull for me. I was bummed. The book unfortunately goes on my list of Did Not Finish.
*I received this book free from Revell in exchange for my honest review. What I have expressed are entirely my own thoughts. I was not compensated in any monetary way.*
Good morning, Friends
I hope you are all doing well and having a nice day. I want to let you know I am working on my website again, this time focusing on the Sweet Pea page. I am working on taking pictures of my items (books, notecards, jewelry, paintings….) to post them onto the page. Make sure to keep checking back for updates!
Happy Friday 🙂
