Book Review: And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry

And Then I Found You: A Novel by Patti Callahan Henry
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publish Date: April 9, 2013
Hardcover, 261 pages
ISBN: 9780312610760


My Review
I really enjoyed And The I Found You. I loved that it had a back story that was real, yet the story was fiction. That's the first thing that stood out for me and intrigued me and made me say I wanted to review this book and I am so glad I did.

I have to say normally a character like Kate would irritate me. Waffling back and forth, so emotional, yet not emotional. She is definitely not a character I normally can connect with. Yet in And Then I Found You I did connect with her completely. I think Patti Callahan Henry did a magnificent job fleshing out the character of Kate slowly so the reader understands her and empathizes with her and her situation of being stuck and unable to move forward until she closes the chapter of her life that she has left open. And at that point I was so engrossed in the novel I could not put it down. I also enjoyed Kate's family and their love and total support yet they acted like a normal family. And Rowan and Jack are very interesting men to add to Kate's life. At times I wasn't sure who to pull for, but then the pull became obvious at least for me (and I'm not telling).

The plot moves quickly, first moving back and forth from present and past to tell Kate's story so we understand what happened and why she did what she did and how she has gotten to where she is. Flashbacks continue to share more insight and I really like that. But the real story is in the present and the decisions that Kate, Rowan and Jack have to make now. It's a fascinating character study rolled into a fast-paced novel.

I honestly never thought I could read this emotional of a novel that quickly (pretty much in one afternoon) but I did. The pacing of the author was such that I could not put the book down and while it was extremely emotional, I never felt overwrought by the emotions which was good for me, I don't really like to get bogged down with emotions with every book, though I had prepared myself with this one. And Then I Found You is a wonderful book and will make a wonderful beach read or a great spring/summer read. It's fast-paced, character-centered and wonderfully emotional. I am now anxious to read more of Patti's books.

My rating: 5.0/5.0

About the Book
Kate Vaughan is no stranger to tough choices.

She’s made them before. Now it’s time to do it again.

Kate has a secret, something tucked away in her past. And she’s getting on with her life.  Her business is thriving. She has a strong relationship with her family, and a devoted boyfriend whom she wants to love with all her heart. If Kate had ever made a list, Rowan would fill the imagined boxes of a perfect mate. But she wants more than the perfect on paper relationship; she wants a real and imperfect love. That's why, when Kate discovers the small velvet box hidden in Rowan's drawer, she panics.

It always happens this way. Just when Kate thinks she can love, just when she believes she can conquer the fear, she’s filled with dread. And she wants more than anything to make this feeling go away. But how?

When the mistakes have been made and the running is over, it’s time to face the truth. Kate knows this. She understands that a woman can never undo what can never be undone. Yet, for the first time in her life she also knows that she won’t fully love until she confronts those from her past. It’s time to act.

Can she do it? Can she travel to the place where it all began, to the one who shares her secret? Can the lost ever become found?

And Then I Found You gives new life to the phrase “inspired by a true story.” By travelling back to a painful time in her own family’s history, the author explores the limits of courage, and the price of a selfless act.

About the Author (from Goodreads)
Patti Callahan Henry is the National Bestselling author of six novels with Penguin/NAL (Losing the Moon, Where the River Runs, When Light Breaks, Betweeen the Tides, The Art of Keeping Secrets, and Driftwood Summer).

Patti is hailed as a fresh new voice in southern fiction. She has been short-listed for the Townsend Prize for Fiction and has been nominated for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Fiction Novel of the Year. She is a frequent speaker at luncheons, book clubs and women’s groups where she discusses the importance of storytelling and anything else they want to talk about.

Patti grew up as a Minister’s daughter, learning early how storytelling effects our lives. She grew up spending her summers on Cape Cod where she began her love affair with the beach, ocean, tides and nature of the coast. Moving south at the tender age of twelve, she found solace in books and stories. While attending Auburn University, she met a southern boy who later proposed on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, next to a historic lighthouse overlooking the Sound. After earning her Master’s degree in Child Health, Patti worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist until her first child was born.

Patti is a full time writer, wife and mother living with her husband and three children outside Atlanta on the Chattahoochee River where she is working on her next novel.

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

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Book Review: Until the End of Time by Danielle Steel

Until the End of Time: A Novel by Danielle Steel
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2013
Hardcover, 336 pages
ISBN: 9780345530882




My Review:
It's been at least a few years since I've picked up a Danielle Steel though I use to read her voraciously when I was a teenager. Somehow Until the End of Time's blurb appealed to me and I reserved it from the library.

Again I will remind my readers I read for pure pleasure, not to deconstruct sentence structure or how the writer writes. All I really want is a good story, however if a writer can't hold my interest I can't read the story. So with that in mind I will move forward with my review. I know a lot of people don't like Danielle Steel, but she holds a special place in my heart as one of the first novelists I read. No her newer stories aren't quite like the sweeping stories of old, but I still see some of the old Danielle Steel in her books.

Until the End of Time took a little to get into. The reading was just a little stilted at the beginning of each story in the book (it is divided into two separate yet connected love stories). But I felt like once she got into her rhythm, Ms. Steel really began to shine and I fell into the stories then. This is not a complex book, but after reading a few more complex young adult novels I think this is just what I needed. An easy breezy adult pleasure novel. Love stories pure and simple. And while they are very emotional and deal with sensitive subjects, I never felt too bogged down. I kept flipping the pages to find out what would happen next. I connected with the characters, I felt their joy and their pain. And I enjoyed the plot. I read most of the book in one sitting as well. Yes, that is the Danielle Steel I remember. Getting swept away into the story, losing track of time and just enjoying the read. I did that last night and enjoyed it. I won't apologize for my guilty pleasure. Was it the best book ever? No. Was it enjoyable for the moment? Yes. Simple enough. Go forth and read it if you want, feel free to ignore me to on this one if you want as well. We all have our guilty pleasures and we all should enjoy them :)

Have a great day! And Mitchell Fulcher, I will love you until the end of time . . .

My rating: 4.0/5.0

About the Book:
Two couples, four decades apart. One believes that if lovers die, they find each other again in another life. Or perhaps they wind up as stars side by side in the sky, together forever. Who knows how it really ends? Danielle Steel breaks new ground in her career as a perennial New York Times bestseller with the poignant story of two parallel destinies, and the kind of love we all hope will be everlasting.

UNTIL THE END OF TIME

Bill, a dedicated young lawyer working at his family’s prestigious New York firm, leaves everything he trained for to follow his dream and become a minister in rural Wyoming. Jenny, his wife, is a stylist whose heart and soul are invested in fashion. She leaves the milieu and life she loves to join him. The certainty they share is that their destinies are linked forever.

Fast forward thirty-eight years. Robert is a hardworking independent book publisher in Manhattan who has given up all personal life to build his struggling business. He is looking for one big hit novel to publish. Lillibet is a young Amish woman, living as though in the seventeenth century, caring for her widowed father and three young brothers on their family farm. In secret at night, by candlelight, she has written the novel that burns within her, and gets it into Robert’s hands, wrapped in her hand-stitched apron. He falls in love first with the book, and then with the woman he has never met, living in the sequestered world of the Amish—a world without telephones, computers, electricity, modern conveniences, or cars. Although Lillibet faces banishment from her family and community, she embraces the opportunity to publish her novel, and is irresistibly drawn to the man who has heard her voice. Destiny is at work here. Fate draws her from her horse-and-buggy life toward his, and the publication of her novel.

In the hands of master storyteller Danielle Steel, these two remarkable relationships come together in unexpected and surprising ways, as lovers are lost, and find each other again. If it is true that real love lasts forever and lovers cannot lose each other, then Until the End of Time will not only comfort and fascinate us, as destiny does her dance, but it will give us hope as well. Love and fate are powerful, irresistible forces, as Steel proves to us here, in a book about courage, change, risk, and hope . . . and love that never dies.

About the Author (from Goodreads):
Since 1981, Ms. Steel has been a permanent fixture on the New York Times hardcover and paperback bestseller lists. In 1989, she was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having at least one of her books on the Times bestseller list for 381 consecutive weeks. But Guinness was premature. The fact is that one or more of Ms. Steel's novels have been on the New York Times bestseller list for over 390 consecutive weeks.

From an education in New York and Europe to a professional background in public relations and advertising, and teaching, Ms. Steel moved on quickly to her literary career and has been hard at work writing ever since. She wrote her first book at nineteen. Often, she works on five books at a time — researching one storyline, writing another, and editing the third. Still, she often spends two to three years researching and developing a single project. In the heat of a first draft, it is not uncommon for her to spend eighteen to twenty hours a day glued to her 1946 Olympia manual typewriter.

Family, children, and young people are the central focus of her life, and her passion, which frequently shows in her writing. She deals with the themes that touch on the most pressing issues of real life, which makes her books universal, and touch so many people. She is fascinated by the pressing life situations that affect us all, how people handle them and are often transformed as a result. And her novels have explored subjects such as kidnapping, incest, mental illness, suicide, death, divorce, adoption, marriage, loss, cancer, war, among others. She also frequently writes about historical themes, shedding new light on familiar historical events with meticulously accurate research.

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***I received this book from my wonderful library for my own personal reading. ***

Book Review: With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent

With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publish Date: March 26, 2013
Trade Paperback, 377 pages
ISBN: 9780373210664
Soul Screamers #7


My Review:
***No spoilers will be included in this review that wouldn't be on the back of the book***

As everyone knows this is the final book in the series and I am sad to see it come to an end because I have truly loved the Soul Screamers series since I started reading it. The characters, especially Kaylee have really struck a chord with me and I was so eager to read this book, yet so sad to say goodbye to the characters, yet a series usually has to come to an end and I guess it was time.

So without giving spoilers, I'll just say that With All My Soul does not disappoint as the final book. Lots to tie up and it all gets tied up without it happening too conveniently. Ms. Vincent does everything masterfully in this book. The characters continue to develop and change in ways you expect and ways you don't. The plot continued to throw curve balls my way. It was excitement and an emotional roller coaster throughout. I even cried (not telling why, but if you read it you will know when I did). This book was amazing! Looking back through the series I'm not sure which book was my favorite, but this one may be it. It's really hard to do that in the last book too but Ms. Vincent did a wonderful job with this final chapter of the Soul Screamers.

Thank you Ms. Vincent for introducing me to this world, it's been a wonderful ride, Kaylee, Tod, Nash, Emma, Sabine, Sophie and the others will stay with me for awhile. I will think about With All My Soul for awhile as well and to me that is the mark of an excellent book. So thank you Ms. Vincent!

My rating: 5.0/5.0

About the Book:
What does it mean when your school is voted the most dangerous in America? It's time to kick some hellion butt...

After not really surviving her junior year (does "undead" count as survival?), Kaylee Cavanaugh has vowed to take back her school from the hellions causing all the trouble. She's going to find a way to turn the incarnations of Avarice, Envy and Vanity against one another in order to protect her friends and finish this war, once and forever.

But then she meets Wrath and understands that she's closer to the edge than she's ever been. And when one more person close to her is taken, Kaylee realizes she can't save everyone she loves without risking everything she has...

Soul Screamers Series
My Soul to Lose (prequel novella)
My Soul to Take
My Soul to Save
My Soul to Keep
Reaper (Book IV prequel)
My Soul to Steal

If I Die

Never to Sleep (novella)
Before I Wake
With All My Soul

About the Author:
A resident of San Antonio, Rachel Vincent has a BA in English and an overactive imagination, and consistently finds the latter to be more practical. She shares her workspace with two black cats (Kaci and Nyx) and her # 1 fan. Rachel is older than she looks-seriously-and younger than she feels, but remains convinced that for every day she spends writing, one more day will be added to her lifespan.

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

Author Interview & Giveaway: Candace Havens (A Riveting Affair tour)

  
Today I welcome Candace Havens, one of the authors in the A Riveting Affair anthology from Entangled Publishing.  I don't know what the weather is like where you are today but it's warm and sunny for the moment here.  If you are in Boston, know you are in our prayers, please stay safe!  So for now, please grab your favorite cuppa and sit and learn a little more about Candace Haven and then enter the tour-wide giveaway for 3 giftcards.  


What 3 things do you need in order to write? 
Time. Caffeine. Music.

What's your favorite season? 
Winter. I love cold weather. I like fall for the clothes. J

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? 
Anywhere that has a beach. I want to sit under an umbrella and listen to the waves while some nice person brings me drinks.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer? 
I’ve been a journalist for more years than I would admit, but I decided to write fiction about nine years ago.

Tell us what is Demon Express about. 
Professor Maisy Clark is a scientist and detective, who works to solve crimes involving paranormal beings. She had a trust sidekick, Barnes, and there is a handsome U.S. Marshal causing
trouble. This case is in Texas, and she’s worried her past may be coming back to haunt her. It’s kind of Sherlock Holmes meets Buffy meets Wild Wild West.

Dish, who’s your favorite character? 
No. I can’t say (Barnes. Shhh. Don’t say anything.)

How did you feel when you finished Demon Express? 
Excited. I realized I wanted to write many more stories for Maisy.

Do you find writing novellas harder than writing a full novel? 
I love writing novellas. I write very tight, and I love telling the shorter stories.

What is your take on the current steampunk craze? 
I love it. I think there are many contributing factors, not the least of which were the Sherlock Holmes films that Robert Downey Jr. did. The fashion and gadgets are just so much fun.

For all of us impatient readers, what is up next for you? 
I have more Maisy stories ahead, but I’m also in the Date By Mistake anthology, and coming up I have Seducing the Ice Princess, Mission: Seduction and Her Last Best Fling.

Thanks Candace! 
Thank you!

To follow the tour, click on the banner at the top of the post or go here.

About the book:

Beauty and the Clockwork Beast

Rose Verney wants to fulfill her father’s dying request: to complete construction of the teleportation device he designed. Knowing just who can help her succeed, she seeks out Sebastian Cavendish, her father’s brilliant former student.Sebastian hasn’t left his home since he returned from the Civil War. He’s a broken man, his prosthetics a reminder of the terrible destruction his inventions brought to the battlefield. He wants nothing to do with Rose and her father’s masterpiece, but when she barges into his abandoned lab and begins construction, it’s everything he can do to resist getting involved. Especially when she charms her way into his monstrous heart.

Demon Express

Professor Maisy Clark, professional demon hunter, is on the trail of an evil scientist responsible for the deaths of hundreds. Julian is worse than the monsters he creates, but he’s also obsessed with Maisy and willing to kill anyone who gets too close to her. Just when she thinks she has Julian cornered, the sexy marshall Jake Calloway insists the investigation is his, and everything goes to hell. Maisy came to Texas to corner the scientist whose macabre experiments have taken so many lives, and Calloway is just another distraction she doesn’t need. Julian is her responsibility, one she’s not about to share. Even if Calloway can help, Julian will know Maisy is falling for the marshall, and she’s not willing to risk his life.

The Clockwork Bride

When engineer Aida Mulvaney attends a masquerade ball at the home of a staunch Luddite earl with a personal vendetta against her father’s company, she doesn’t expect to end the night married to the earl’s son Julian Capshaw, a brilliant engineer in his own right. The marriage will allow both of them to pursue their love of science, without interfering parents and ridiculous social stigmas. Though they escape to the Continent to start new lives, Julian’s father will have none of his heir’s disobedience. Before long, a marriage begun for the sake of convenience becomes a union of passion, but will it survive the machinations of an earl determined to destroy everything they love?

Genre: Steampunk Romance
Length: 339 pages
ISBN: 978-1-62266-064-3
Release Date: March 2013
Imprint: Ever After

About the Author:
CandaceHavens’s website
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Book Review: Abby Road by Ophelia London

Abby Road by Ophelia London
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
eBook, 400 pages
Published: March 26, 2013
ISBN: 9781620612446



My Review:
Abby Road was a fun read for me. Well mostly fun, Abby's "road" to her HEA was rather rocky, but it was interesting to watch. I like books like this where the main character has to learn something. I don't mind that most of the romance is off-screen and the focus is on the one character. I think Abby Road is a very good book if you don't put labels on it like romance or chicklit and just read it to enjoy a great book.

First there is Abby. She's a pop star who's having trouble since her brother's death. She's not dealing with things and her shrink has decided it would be best if she took the summer off, so she heads off to Florida to spend the summer with her sister. Of course while there, she meets the handsome and wonderful Todd. They fall for each other and not much is written about this, but I don't have a problem with it. Todd is a great character himself, he seems to have secrets and character flaws as well, but together they seem to work at least as much as we see them and I believed they were falling for each other.

Then the story moves back to Abby in her life in pop and things go down hill for Abby and Todd and you get to the real meat of the story. This is where I really got into the story. Secondary characters came to life, Abby really started to shine and move forward. I'm not spoiling anything, but let's just say that things start to move fast and the book really comes together as Abby herself does.

I loved the look into her life as a pop star. I loved the secondary characters of the band. I really liked how Abby cared about other people sometimes to the detriment of herself. And I like how she grows and changes. I feel that Abby Road is an empowering book, as Abby learns to stand on her own two feet again. Yes things seem to jump forward at times, but I understood why and the fact that they did and the story didn't get bogged down in details made me enjoy it all the more.

There is a romance, there is a happy ending, there is character growth, there is a bad guy and there is a great plot. Abby Road had everything to keep me enthralled while reading for a few days and even while reading while waiting for ball practice to end. It's a fun heartfelt and interesting novel. A great springtime or beach read. So grab it and fall in love with Abby and her love of the Beatles just like I did.

My rating: 5.0/5.0

Be sure and check out my author interview and giveaway here.

About the Book:
Touted by the tabloids as the biggest rock star of our generation, Abigail Kelly is used to being in the spotlight. But beyond the glam of Hollywood, her world is falling apart. Still reeling from the death of her brother and wilting under the iron fist of Max, her manager, Abby banishes herself to the secluded beaches of Florida for the summer, thinking some anonymity and sunshine are just what she needs. What she finds, instead, is Todd, an ex-marine eager to embrace life after war. Together, Abby and Todd find the balance Abby’s life has been missing.

That is, until Max resurfaces, demanding Abby return to Los Angeles to record her band’s newest album. As the pressures of public appearances, paparazzi, and late-night recordings start to mount, Abby will have to risk everything or lose the life she always dreamed of.

Ophelia London’s Abby Road is a love letter to music—both the kind you cherish and the kind you create—as well as a beautiful love story that proves even when everyone in the world can recognize your face, the only people who matter are those who can see inside your heart.

About the Author (from Goodreads):
Ophelia London was born and raised among the redwood trees in beautiful northern California. Once she was fully educated, she decided to settle in Florida, but her car broke down in Texas and she's lived in Dallas ever since. A cupcake and treadmill aficionado (obviously those things are connected), she spends her time watching arthouse movies and impossibly trashy TV, while living vicariously through the characters in the books she writes. Ophelia is the author of PLAYING AT LOVE, SPEAKING OF LOVE... and ABBY ROAD. Visit her at http://ophelia-london.blogspot.com. But don't call when The Vampire Diaries is on.

 

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

Bestselling Reads iPad Mini Giveaway (+ 2 $25 Amazon Gift Cards)

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Win An iPad Mini valued at $320 or
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