A Cottage Wedding By Leigh Duncun

It’s more than a charming small town― it’s a premier wedding destination. But will one journalist ruin Heart’s Landing forever?

Tara Stewart’s boss at Weddings Today magazine sends her to Heart’s Landing to debunk its romantic legends. This could devastate the many local businesses who cater to weddings, from Forget Me Knot Florist to Dress for a Day.

The locals convince Jason Heart, the handsome descendant of the town’s founder, to show Tara around the town. But can he persuade her to believe in the romance?

This heartwarming romance includes a free Hallmark original recipe for Orange Balsamic Roasted Carrots.

Pick up your copy here...

https://www.amazon.com/Cottage-Wedding-Leigh-Duncan/dp/1947892606/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1590678694&sr=1-1

Leigh Duncan is the award-winning author of more than two dozen novels, novellas and short stories. Her first full-length book, The Officer’s Girl, was released by Harlequin American Romance in 2010. Leigh went on to write seven more books for Harlequin, including the highly acclaimed Glades County Cowboys series, before she began writing the more complex, heart-warming and emotional stories that have resonated with her readers. One of the lead authors for Hallmark Publishing, an Amazon best-selling author and a National Readers’ Choice Award winner, Leigh lives on Central Florida's East Coast where she writes women’s fiction and sweet, contemporary romance with a dash of Southern sass.

Leigh loves to stay in touch with readers through social media. Find her at https://facebook.com/LeighDuncanBooks, or visit her website at https://leighduncan.com.

My Thoughts...

I am so glad to have gotten to go back to Heart's Landing.  Jason and Tara's story was just the icing on the cake. You are going to have to read  A Cottage Wedding to find out if Tara discovers her own love for the ages.

I never put this book down, I did not cook or clean the evening I started this book, I will tell you this, I can not wait for book three in this series.

Duncan is the Hallmark queen of romance and small town weddings with all the prefect touches. Such great details of this small wedding town.

I gave this book 5 stars and I HIGHLY recommend it.

The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

When I meet you By Olvia Newport

A Father-Daughter Genealogy Team Link Present to Past on Family Trees

A trunk abandoned at Denver’s Union Station more than a century ago leads Jillian and Nolan to untangle the mystery of its contents—including correspondence with the head of Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency Denver office. While Nolan digs into the legalities of the findings, Jillian searches for the descendants of a stolen identity who might not be who they think they are on Colorado ranch land. When Drew seems anxious to hear what Jillian has to say but his Great Aunt Min slams the subject closed—twice—Jillian is all the more determined to find out what happened to the woman who never claimed her luggage, why Min doesn’t want to talk about it, and what will happen for Drew if he gets the answers he seeks.

When I Meet You is the third book in the Tree of Life series by Olivia Newport. You’ll want to return to the lovely Colorado mountain town of Canyon Mines again and again to explore and celebrate unforgettable family stories that will inspire you to connect with your own family histories and unique faith journeys.


Pick up your copy here...
https://www.amazon.com/When-Meet-You-Tree-Life/dp/1683229967/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1590683194&sr=1-1

Olivia Newport’s novels blend the truths of where we find ourselves now with insights into what carried us in the past. Enjoying life with her husband and nearby grown children, she chases joy in stunning Colorado at the foot of Pikes Peak.

My Thoughts...
Are you guys a fan of the dual timeline books? If they are well written I love them. Newport has done a great job of writing a dual timeline story. I enjoyed this third book in the Tree of Life series.
If you love studying genealogy  then you are going to love going back in time in this masterpiece.
I gave this book 4 stars and I cant wait until November when book 4 is released.
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

Living Lightly By Kim Curd and Dale Curd

EMBRACE THE PRESENT AND FIND CALM AND JOY—EVERY DAY

Living Lightly offers a year’s worth of opportunities to commune, in the deepest and most beautiful sense of that word, with your self and your life. Featuring timeless wisdom, inspiring quotes and simple, practical strategies to help you boost your happiness, Living Lightly invites you to explore how your mind works, understand and express your feelings and be reminded that you are much, much stronger than you realize. Living Lightly is a great way to start or end the day.

Pick up your copy here...

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Lightly-Bring-Happiness-Everyday/dp/1443457949/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LGRZUIVGB292&dchild=1&keywords=living+lightly&qid=1590681574&s=books&sprefix=Living+Light%2Cstripbooks%2C160&sr=1-1

Kim spent twenty years in the tech startup world, has travelled extensively and considers travel one of her greatest pleasures. In 2014 she completed her training as a therapist, merging her worlds of technology and therapy, by offering clients online video counselling. Kim is a lifelong learner, always engaged in activities and ventures that expand her self-awareness, from writing, raising animals, to listening to horses and trees.

My Thoughts...

This is such an on time self help book. There is a little devotional for every day of the year to help you start your day off just right in a positive way.
This would make a just because great gift. Right now in our days of uncertainty this is a tool to help calm you in get you in the right mindset to have a calm, productive day each day.
I gave this book 4 stars and I hope that you will pick up a copy .
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

While the Music Played By Nathaniel Lande

“We were the dreamers of dreams, the singers of songs. We were the music makers. We would not hear nor play nor love without each other. This is a prelude to our experience, an overture to who we were and how we arrived on the shores of friendship.”

Beginning in 1939 prewar Prague, While the Music Played focuses on the story of young Max Mueller, a curious bright romantic—a budding musician, piano tuner, and nascent journalist. Max is on the cusp of adolescence when the Nazi influence invades Prague’s tolerant spirit with alarming speed as he struggles to understand the changing world around him. When his father, noted German conductor Viktor Mueller, is conscripted into the German army and finds himself increasingly promoting the Nazi message, Viktor’s best friend, noted Czech composer Hans Krása, protests the occupation in every way he can.

As everyone Max loves is compromised by intolerable conditions, he becomes increasingly isolated, and is forced to find his own way. With each step, Max’s journey grows more conflicted. Music is the one constant connecting him to both the lost childhood he cherishes and the man he still hopes to become. But will it be enough to sustain him against the relentless Nazi threat?

With a seamless blend of historical and fictional characters, told from multiple points of view, and sweeping across the capitals of Prague, London, and Berlin as World War II ravages Europe, this meticulously researched book is unique with its diverse and interweaving narratives, threaded with news accounts, and encompassing some of the most triumphant and devastating moments of the war—from the opera houses of Berlin to the music halls of London and the making of the famous children’s opera Brundibár.

While the Music Played is a lyrical, absorbing, and heartbreaking story of love and courage from the widely revered and bestselling author Nathaniel Lande.

Pick up your copy here...

https://www.amazon.com/While-Music-Played-Remarkable-Friendship/dp/198263233X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1590287173&sr=8-1

Nathaniel Lande is a journalist, filmmaker, and the author of twelve books, including Cricket and Dispatches from the Front: A History of the American War Correspondent. He was creative director for the Magazine Group at Time, Inc.; director of Time World News Service; director of Time-Life Films, where his documentaries won over ten international awards; and executive producer at CBS and NBC Television. Lande was educated at Oxford University; earned his doctorate at Trinity College Dublin, where he was a Distinguished Scholar; and held appointments as professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

My Thoughts..

The historical facts where out of this world, researched so well. I was skeptical  going in but soon after starting this book I was all in. I did find myself sad at times. But I had to keep reading.
I was sweep away to another place and time. I just cant say enough about the writing style and I learned so much.
This is a book to be cherished and reread. I hope that you will give this 4 star book a read.
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

Grown Ups By Emma Jane Unsworth

Fleabag meets Conversations with Friends in this brutally honest, observant, original novel about a woman going through a breakup…but really having more of a breakdown.

Jenny McLaine’s life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. She’s just lost her column at The Foof because she isn’t the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny’s mother is about to move in. Having left home at eighteen to remake herself as a self-sufficient millennial, Jenny is now in her thirties and nothing is as she thought it would be. Least of all adulthood.

Told in live-wire prose, texts, emails, script dialogue, and social media messages, Grown Ups is a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age. It reckons with what it means to exist in a woman’s body: to sing and dance and work and mother and sparkle and equalize and not complain and be beautiful and love your imperfections and stay strong and show your vulnerability and bake and box…

But, despite our impossible expectations of women, Emma Jane Unsworth never lets Jenny off the hook. Jenny’s life is falling apart at her own hands and whether or not she has help from her mother or her friends, Jenny is the only one who will be able to pick up the pieces and learn how to, more or less, grow up. Or will she?

Pick up your copy here...
https://www.amazon.com/Grown-Ups-Emma-Jane-Unsworth/dp/198214193X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1590106719&sr=8-2

My Thoughts...
For some reason and I can't put my finger on it this was just not a book for me. I hate when that happens it's very rare that it happens but in this case, I want to say  you should give it a try and see what you think about it yourself. I'm so sorry. 
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

A Good Marriage By Kimberly McCreight

Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart. 

No. That’s a lie. It wasn’t sudden, was it? Long ago the cracks in Lizzie’s marriage had started to show. She was just good at averting her eyes. 

The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help—even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. But Zach is desperate: his wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach’s the primary suspect. 

As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed—and that their friends, a close-knit group of fellow parents at the exclusive Brooklyn Country Day school, might be protecting troubling secrets of their own. In the end, she’s left wondering not only whether her own marriage can be saved, but what it means to have a good marriage in the first place.

Pick up your copy here...
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Marriage-Novel-Kimberly-McCreight/dp/0062367684/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1589396333&sr=8-1

Kimberly McCreight is the New York Times bestselling author of RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA, WHERE THEY FOUND HER, A GOOD MARRIAGE and THE OUTLIERS, a young adult trilogy. She's been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Alex awards and her books have been translated into more than twenty languages. She attended Vassar College and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters. 

My Thoughts...
I read this ARC months ago, I had no idea it was going to be Book of the month this month. Good choice. If you love a thriller where you keep on guessing and guessing wrong every time. This is the book for you. I love when they keep you guessing and throw curve balls at you. I will read more from this author.
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

Little Tea By Claire Fullerton

Southern Culture … Old Friendships … Family Tragedy

One phone call from Renny to come home and “see about” the capricious Ava and Celia Wakefield decides to overlook her distressful past in the name of friendship.

For three reflective days at Renny’s lake house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, the three childhood friends reunite and examine life, love, marriage, and the ties that bind, even though Celia’s personal story has yet to be healed. When the past arrives at the lake house door in the form of her old boyfriend, Celia must revisit the life she’d tried to outrun.

As her idyllic coming of age alongside her best friend, Little Tea, on her family’s ancestral grounds in bucolic Como, Mississippi unfolds, Celia realizes there is no better place to accept her own story than in this circle of friends who have remained beside her throughout the years. Theirs is a friendship that can talk any life sorrow into a comic tragedy, and now that the racial divide in the Deep South has evolved, Celia wonders if friendship can triumph over history.

Pick up your copy here...
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Tea-Claire-Fullerton/dp/1645262596/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1590102760&sr=8-1

Claire Fullerton hails from Memphis, TN. and now lives in Malibu, CA. with her husband and 3 German shepherds. She is the author of Mourning Dove, a coming of age, Southern family saga set in 1970's Memphis. Mourning Dove is a five-time award winner, including the Literary Classics Words on Wings for Book of the Year, and the Ippy Award silver medal in regional fiction ( Southeast.) Claire is also the author of Dancing to an Irish Reel, a Kindle Book Review and Readers' Favorite award winner that is set on the west coast of Ireland, where she once lived. Claire's first novel is a paranormal mystery set in two time periods titled, A Portal in Time, set in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She is a contributor to the book, A Southern Season with her novella, Through an Autumn Window, set at a Memphis funeral ( because something always goes wrong at a Southern funeral.) Little Tea is Claire's 4th novel and is set in the Deep South. It is the story of the bonds of female friendship, healing the past, and outdated racial relations. Little Tea is the August selection of the Pulpwood Queens, a Faulkner Society finalist in the William Wisdom international competition, and a finalist in the Chanticleer Review's Somerset award. She is represented by Julie Gwinn of the Seymour Literary 


My Thoughts...
Family and friends. The Deep south what is not to like about this book. Fullerton is a new author to me and she has a way with words, that I just love.
This is a short read, but full of emotions.
I gave this book 4 stars and I would love to read more of her work.
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.