The Wish by Heather Morris

 Jesse is fifteen. She loves her friends, her little brother and her parents, even when they’re arguing, which feels constant these days. But most of all, she loves playing video games. Even from her hospital bed.

Alex is twenty-nine. He doesn't love a lot of things and isn’t really sure he knows how to. A virtual reality games designer, his work desk is empty except for his computer, much like his life sometimes feels.

Then Jesse makes a wish. A simple one: a video experience made of her life, something to be there, just in case she isn’t.

One loving teenager.

One lonely adult.

Which one will get the happy ending? 

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The Wish: A Novel: Morris, Heather: 9780063497221: Amazon.com: Books

Heather Morris is a native of New Zealand, now resident in Australia. For several years, while working in a large public hospital in Melbourne, she studied and wrote screenplays, one of which was optioned by an Academy Award-winning screenwriter in the US. In 2003, Heather was introduced to an elderly gentleman who ‘might just have a story worth telling’. The day she met Lale Sokolov changed both their lives. Their friendship grew and Lale embarked on a journey of self-scrutiny, entrusting the innermost details of his life during the Holocaust to her. Heather originally wrote Lale’s story as a screenplay – which ranked high in international competitions – before reshaping it into her debut novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Almost by Design by Jenny Erlingsson

 Kenya Stewart is so close to getting her dream position at an event agency. When a scheduling blunder risks her promotion, she hopes an upcoming pitch will allow her a second chance. Then an accident at her cousin's wedding sends her to the emergency room in the care of another wedding guest, Solomon Anruchi, the handsome doctor who ghosted her after their first date.

Solomon's parents are eager for him to find a business-savvy wife and make the move to New York to take over a recent acquisition by their family's company. But he needs to buy more time to finish his residency and convince them that staying in Hope Springs is the best path for him. He realizes that Kenya is the perfect person to help, and she needs his connections to land a high-profile client and save her career. Their solution? A fake-dating relationship.

As attractions increase amid their ruse, secrets they've kept from each other and the weight of others' expectations begin to unravel their scheme. Will their carefully constructed plans crumble when the truth comes out? 

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Almost by Design: A Christian Contemporary Rom-Com with Fake Dating and Second Chances in a Small Town: Jenny Erlingsson: 9780800747756: Amazon.com: Books

Jenny Erlingsson writes romantic fiction and creative non-fiction to encourage deep faith in every age, stage, and season. She makes her home in both Alabama and Iceland and loves encouraging and working with writers from around the world. When she’s not ministering with her Viking husband or mothering her adorably feisty kids, she can be found writing and reading in the margins, with a side of Icelandic chocolate.

A brewed Awakening by Pepper Basham

 In the charming mountain town of Wisteria, North Carolina, Daphne Austen clings to tradition like cream to a scone. She's built her life--and her late grandmother's tearoom, Tea Thyme--around all things English: delicate china, Jane Austen novels, and the comforting predictability of routine. The only thing threatening her perfectly ordered world? The loud, aggravatingly handsome Brit opening a pub next door.

After his ex-wife broke his heart and his business partner nearly destroyed his career, Finn Dashwood packed up his six-year-old daughter and left England behind. He's looking for a fresh start, and the last thing he needs is a fussy, tea-obsessed neighbor criticizing his every pint and playlist. It doesn't matter that she's ridiculously kind (to everyone else) and that his daughter is utterly fascinated by her. Finn's heart is not open to being broken again.

But disagreements turn into prank wars and then a competition when a high-profile wedding needs a last-minute caterer. The townsfolk are thrilled--Wisteria hasn't seen this much excitement since the county fair lost a goat.

When the wedding demands both sweet and savory fare, Daphne and Finn are forced to put down their swords and pick up their serving trays. Between burnt pastries, brewing tempers, trending hashtags (#SipsAndSpats, anyone?), and one very adorable little girl, rivalry soon gives way to reluctant friendship--and maybe something that feels suspiciously like chemistry.

Can a tea shop princess and a pub owner with a past mix their lives as seamlessly as clotted cream and jam . . . or will their differences keep them steeped in rivalry forever? 

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A Brewed Awakening: A hilarious, clean, enemies-to-lovers rom-com: Basham, Pepper: 9781400351381: Amazon.com: Books

Pepper Basham is a best-selling author who writes romance “peppered” with grace and humor. Writing both historical and contemporary novels, she loves to incorporate her native Appalachian culture and/or her unabashed adoration of the UK into her stories. She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC where she is the wife of a fantastic pastor, mom of five great kids, a speech-language pathologist, and a lover of chocolate, jazz, hats, and Jesus. Her twentieth book, The Cairo Curse, came out in February. Next up is Positively, Penelope, the sequel to her bestselling novel, Authentically, Izzy. She loves connecting with readers and other authors through social media outlets like Facebook & Instagram.

Little Apocalypses by Kaitlyn Teer

 How do you raise children in a world rapidly being reshaped by climate change? Do our narratives about climate change and care help us or hinder us in our efforts to get it right? Little Apocalypses seeks to explore these urgent questions as we navigate the existential predicament of parenting on a planet in crisis.

In this collection of beautifully crafted essays, Kaitlyn Teer—herself the mother of two young children—blends personal narrative, cultural analysis, and wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary research to offer new ways for readers to think more deeply and more hopefully about the radical possibilities of caregiving to bring a more just and sustainable future into being. In “World Without End” Teer examines the apocalyptic rhetoric that shapes our understanding of the climate crisis and shows us where to find new stories that can shape our imaginations of what’s still possible. In “Mother of All Messes” Teer considers the pressures to perform green motherhood and calls for refocusing efforts to collective action on for mutual flourishing. Teer’s writing overflows with love for her children, her community, and the natural world, and offers an invitation to face the uncertain future with curiosity and imagination.

A thoughtful and eye-opening look at the power of caregiving in crisis, Little Apocalypses is a call to action—an invitation to parents to become active participants in carving a different path forward for all of us, our children, and our planet.

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Little Apocalypses: Essays on Motherhood, Climate Change, and Hope at the End of the World: Teer, Kaitlyn: 9780063440227: Amazon.com: Books

Kaitlyn Teer is a senior editor at Cup of Jo. Her essays have appeared in Orion, Catapult, Electric Lit, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere, and she has taught writing at Western Washington University. She lives in Washington State with her husband and two children.

Fast and Fastidious by RM Caldwell

 

Thank you @bibliolifestyle for my review copy of Fast and Fastidious by RM Caldwell.

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England, 1810. Lucy Elliot has often been described as fastidious, given her belief that there is an objectively correct and logical way to do things. And while she strives to be proper in every way, she does have one rather scandalous secret: Lucy, the prim and gentle lady, is  a frequent attendee of the entirely disreputable and illicit Night Races, where unchaperoned men and women from all social classes gather on dark country lanes to gamble on the outcomes of furiously fast carriage races.

But her secret might become more than just a danger to her reputation when her mysterious new neighbor, Captain Dashwood, begins partaking in the races. Lucy can’t help but feel there’s something more to the handsome Captain Dashwood than meets the eye, and she suspects that his arrival in the neighborhood in the midst of a spate of curious and alarming carriage robberies is no mere coincidence—something is most certainly afoot in the county, and it’s a mystery Lucy intends to solve.

 Though Lucy prides herself on her preparedness, she never could have anticipated the web of lies, deceit, and espionage that she finds herself and Captain Dashwood entangled in; nor could she have known that the very fate of Britain would hang in the balance. But will her meticulous nature be the very thing that saves her, or will it be her—and England's—undoing?

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Amazon.com: Fast and Fastidious: A Novel: 9780063477070: Caldwell, R. M.: Books

R.M. Caldwell is based in Hamilton, New Zealand, and writes and directs theatre, as well as being on the board of an independent theatre.

250 great Things about America by Marcie Gourley

 No matter which way the wind blows, we sometimes need a reminder of what makes the United States of America so special―or perhaps 250 of them. 

Here, in one volume, is an inspiring journey through two and one half centuries of the people, places, and events that have made this nation remarkable as we celebrate its 250th anniversary. 

Visit the incredible moments―often quiet and common―that have lifted the United States from a struggling cluster of colonial communities to the world’s greatest superpower. 

Meet the individuals, from peasants to presidents, who have created a heritage like none other in history. Themes of faith, courage, and servanthood shine through the decades and centuries of the American experience. It is the stories, large and small, that have created our identity. Some of them will be familiar, many have been seldom told, and all are laid out in joyful detail.

If the past is prologue, 250 Great Things About America: Places, People, and Principles Worth Celebrating lays a brilliant foundation for our country’s future. This is a book for families to study and enjoy together, not just once, but as a perennial reminder of the meaning of citizenship in a nation of destiny.

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250 Great Things About America: Places, People, and Principles Worth Celebrating: Gourley, Marcie: 9798887696478: Amazon.com: Books

Marcie Gourley is a licensed professional counselor with a master’s degree in Professional Counseling, whose lifelong passion for history, America, and faith began in childhood. Her father often took her and her sisters to historical sites, graveyards, and political events, instilling in them a deep pride in their American heritage. That early love of history has grown into a calling to share the stories that shaped our nation and inspire future generations. Marcie and her husband, Ed, have five amazing adult children and continue to call Pennsylvania home. Marcie placed in the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Genesis Contest as well as Susan May Warren’s My Book Therapy Frasier contest. Marcie has served as ACFW Pennsylvania chapter coordinator and cofounded a women’s ministry called Wonderfully Woven, for which she wrote articles, did radio spots and radio interviews, and spoke at various women’s ministry events. Her writing, stories, and devotionals have been featured on radio programs and on college campuses in various parts of the country. Her clinical research on counseling is used in everyday life, as she focuses on clinical help, curriculum, and court reports. 

Ruby Ridge by Jess Walter

 On the last hot day of summer in 1992, gunfire cracked over a rocky knob in northern Idaho, just south of the Canadian border. By the next day three people were dead, and a small war was joined, pitting the full might of federal law enforcement against one well-armed family. Drawing on extensive interviews with Randy Weaver's family, government insiders, and others, Walter traces the paths that led the Weavers to their confrontation with federal agents and led the government to treat a family like a gang of criminals.

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Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family: Walter, Jess: 9780060007942: Amazon.com: Books

Jess Walter is the author of ten books, most recently the story collect The Angel of Rome (2022) and the national bestselling novel The Cold Millions (2020). His novel Beautiful Ruins (2012) was a #1 New York Times bestseller. He was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award for The Zero and winner of the 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel for Citizen Vince. His short fiction has appeared three times in Best American Short Stories. He lives in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.