Waiting on Wednesday - 4/2

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.  My pick for this week is:

Driving with the Top Down by Beth Harbison
Pub date: August 5, 2014

I found this one while searching through new books related to Nancy Thayer, Elin Hilderbrand, and some others. Funny enough I was looking at all of the books mentioned in Jill's Summer Beach Book Preview before I even saw it. So it sounds like we are all starting to think along the same line!  I am not familiar with the author, but it sounds like a great book.

Summary:

Dara, savvy in business but not so savvy in love, has unexpectedly found success running a monthly tag sale after losing her job and inheriting her uncle’s farmette in Maryland.  Colleen, feeling underappreciated and in a rut with her husband and kids, rents a stall at Dara’s tag sale, and now the two women are embarking on a two-week antiquing/thrift shopping roadtrip to Florida in the hopes of finding some diamonds in the rough to fix up and sell.  However, things take an unexpected turn when they meet Jonnie, a mousy woman down on her luck in a big way, at a North Carolina diner.  They offer her a ride with them to Florida, but they soon learn Jonnie has been hiding a few key facts:  Jonnie has poisoned her abusive husband, and now she’s on the run.  And Dara and Colleen are accessories after the fact…

Three women, two weeks, one truck: sometimes life doesn't take you in the direction you expect...in Driving with the Top Down by Beth Harbison.

 

What are you waiting on this week?

 

 

Pulled Beneath by Marni Mann: Blog Tour & Review

Pulled Beneath by Marni Mann
Publisher: Booktrope Editions
Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN:  9781620152195

Genre: New Adult
Bar Harbor Series #1
Paperback, 244 pages

My Rating: 5.0/5.0





 
My Review:

I was definitely pulled into Pulled Beneath from the very first page and I was held captivated until the last.  I like how this series pretty much ties up one couples' story with each book, or I assume that is the way it will be.  I know from reading the sneak peak at the end that Pulled Within will be Rae's story.  Yet it's still very much new adult with the struggles the characters face and the inherit darkness to the book.  I like having an ending yet knowing there is more to the story of the characters of Bar Harbor.

Pulled Beneath is the story of Drew and Saint (Justin).  It's a very interesting storyline that brings a Florida girl who loses her parents to her recently deceased grandparents' home in Bar Harbor, Maine.  The trick is she thought her grandparents were long dead and there are a lot of secrets that she hasn't learned yet.  With every turn in Bar Harbor she seems to be becoming more attached to her surrounding and finding more and more secrets.  It's fascinating and the premise really worked for me and kept me reading.

Drew, Saint, Brady, Rae, Gianni, and Shane were all great characters.  Since this was about Drew and Saint, I will focus on them.  Drew was broken before her parents' death and it leaves her even more in a downward spiral.  It doesn't seem like it as much through her eyes, except for the fact she trudges through each day.  But when we see her through what Saint sees as well, we see that things are much worse than we thought.  Not that Saint doesn't have his own demons, which are revealed in time.  Saint is the town man-whore or at least he appears to be.  But he and Drew are drawn together.  Both characters came to life for me.  I felt their pain, their numbness, their joy and their concern.  I loved them.  Their attraction is electric and it comes through on the pages loud and clear.  The struggles, the love, the attraction and the secrets all make both characters really interesting and this story very intriguing.

If you are looking for a slightly more intriguing New Adult novel and series, then Pulled Beneath is just for you.  There are secrets galore, wonderful friendships, tentative new love, lots of struggles and anything else you expect in a great New Adult novel.  I could not put it down.  I had to know what would happen next and I was sad at the end because I have to wait for the next one.  As I mentioned before, this one pretty much ties itself up at the end, but I am now invested in these characters and can't wait to know more of the secondary characters when they become primary characters!  Great job Ms. Mann on crafting a wonderful heartfelt book!

Summary

What happens when you uncover years of secrets and find out everything you thought to be true was a lie?

Drew Stevens finds her world turned upside down when her parents are brutally murdered. Soon after, she learns she inherited a property in Bar Harbor, Maine from recently deceased grandparents that she believed had died when she was a baby.

Drew travels north to settle her grandparents’ estate, but finds more questions than answers as the truth starts unraveling. What she didn’t expect to find was Saint, whose reputation was as tumultuous as his past. But the very thing that brought them together was the same thing that kept them emotionally caged.

With Saint’s scars so deep and Drew’s so fresh, can the pair heal from their painful wounds or will they be pulled beneath the darkness of their pasts?

Buy Links

Author Biography

A New Englander at heart, Marni Mann is now a Floridian inspired by the sandy beaches and hot pink sunsets of Sarasota. She taps mainstream appeal and shakes worldwide taboos, taking her readers on a dark and breathtaking journey.

When she’s not nose deep in her laptop, she’s scouring for chocolate, traveling, reading, or walking her four-legged children. 

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***I received this book from the publicist for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***