Sunday Skim

 

Week of 11/21/2021:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving spending it however you chose. We spent it with family and then put up our Christmas decorations. I have to wait until after Thanksgiving because I love that holiday.  Plus I always get to read.  My daughter experienced working her first Black Friday and survived. 

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Sunday Skim

 

Week of 11/14/2021:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

I have been on a reading roll. I was late to the party with The Four Winds but I found I really enjoyed the audio of it. It'll definitely be on my favorites list for 2021. The French Gift was a wonderful WWII novel and I highly recommend it. Everything We Didn't Say was a great family drama novel with mystery woven in as well. 

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Sunday Skim

 

Week of 11/7/2021:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

I'm getting used to these no baseball weekends because it definitely allows me more reading time but I miss it. Basketball will get started here shortly but it still doesn't eat up the time like baseball does. 

What are you looking forward to during the next week? 

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Julie's Review: Just Haven't Met You Yet

Author: Sophie Cousens
Series: None
Publication Date:  November 9, 2021
Publisher: Putnam & Sons
Pages: 398
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Rating: 3.75/5
Bottom Line: A bit cliché but enjoyable
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Hopeless romantic and lifestyle reporter Laura’s business trip to the Channel Islands isn’t off to a great start. After an embarrassing encounter with the most attractive man she’s ever seen in real life, she arrives at her hotel and realizes she’s grabbed the wrong suitcase from the airport. Her only consolation is its irresistible contents, each of which intrigues her more and more. The owner of this suitcase is clearly Laura’s dream man. Now, all she has to do is find him. Besides, what are the odds that she’d find The One on the same island where her parents first met and fell in love, especially as she sets out to write an article about their romance? Commissioning surly cab driver Ted to ferry her around seems like her best bet in both tracking down the mystery suitcase owner and retracing her parents’ footsteps. But as Laura’s mystery man proves difficult to find—and as she uncovers family secrets—she may have to reimagine the life, and love, she always thought she wanted. ~amazon.com 

Review: What if the love story you’ve always put so much stock into turns out not to be fact? Laura has always adored her parents love story; so much so that perhaps it clouds her own ability to fall in love. So when she gets the opportunity to go to the place of the start of her parent’s love story she jumps at it. She figures a trip to Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, will help her write the story of her parents and recreate some of the pictures she's treasured. 

Of course things don't start off great when she sees that she has the wrong suitcase. Although of course, Laura has to look and maybe based on the belongings this is the key to her dream man. Except she doesn't know how to find him; enter Ted the bearded cab driver who she enlists to help her find all the locations that her parents were at and of course find the owner of the mysterious suitcase. 

Just Haven't Met You Yet doesn't burn any new trails in the romance genre but it was great fun and the characters are delightful. My favorite might be Ted's dad, Gerry. I loved his outlook on life and his "Gerry-isms". I liked how Laura did find and connect with her dad's side of the family and she got to know him through them. 

If you are looking for a story to lose yourself in, then this one will fit that bill. It is a great book to cuddle up under a blanket with over the weekend. 

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Julie's Review: The Keepers of Metsan Valo

Author: Wendy Webb
Series: None
Publication Date:  October 5, 2021
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Pages: 313
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Gothic
Rating: 4.5/5
Bottom Line: Stories aren't always stories
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: In Metsan Valo, her family home on Lake Superior, Anni Halla’s beloved grandmother has died. Among her fond memories, what Anni remembers most vividly is her grandmother’s eerie yet enchanting storytelling. By firelight she spun tall tales of spirits in the nearby forest and waters who could heal—or harm—on a whim. But of course, those were only stories…The reading of the will now occasions a family reunion. Anni and her twin brother, their almost otherworldly mother, and relatives Anni hasn’t seen in forever—some with good reason—are all brought back together under one roof that strains to hold all their tension. But it’s not just Anni’s family who is unsettled. Whispers wind through the woods. Laughter bursts from bubbling streams. Raps from unseen hands rupture on the walls. Fireflies swarm and nightmares stir. With each odd occurrence, Anni fears that her return has invited less a welcoming and more a warning. When another tragedy strikes near home, Anni must dive headfirst into the mysterious happenings to discover the truth about her home, her family, and the wooded island’s ancient lore. Plunging into the past may be the only way to save her family from whatever bedevils Metsan Valo. ~amazon.com

Review: No one does atmospheric gothic stories like Wendy Webb and she continues that with The Keeper of Metsan Valo. When Anni goes back to her childhood refuge after her grandmother dies, she starts to feel like the house has shifted without her grandmother there to oversee it. When her twin, Theo arrives they both start to experience things that can’t be explained. Waking up in the forest, fireflies buzzing about and other strange occurrences. Not to mention the long-term caretakers are acting really strange and being all mysterious. 

Theo and Anni get to spend some time together and with their mother before the rest of the family come for the will reading and funeral. They each learn something new about each other's lives and the changes they have gone through recently. Things get really strange after the reading of the will in regards to the elder females of the family. 

This book isn't a horror novel; it is more in the vain of Fairy Tales and gothic stories which is why I loved it. It's about how all stories are based on some truth or folklore. 

This book is very much about honoring your culture, stories, family and tradition. It’s also about coming into your own and owning your destiny. I can't give too much away because you all need to read it yourselves. 

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Sunday Skim

 

Week of 10/31/2021:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

Wendy Webb didn't disappoint at all with her latest The Keepers of Metsan Valo and I really enjoyed The Glass Ocean by Team W. I don't know what my next audiobook will be; I'm kind of waiting to see what becomes available next. 

Julie's Review: Heard it in a Love Song

Author: Tracy Garvis-Graves
Series: None
Publication Date:  November 9, 2021
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 304
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Realistic love story
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Love doesn’t always wait until you’re ready. Layla Hilding is thirty-five and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past―her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a ten-year marriage to a man who never put her first―Layla’s newly found independence feels a lot like loneliness. Then there's Josh, the single dad whose daughter attends the elementary school where Layla teaches music. Recently separated, he's still processing the end of his twenty-year marriage to his high school sweetheart. He chats with Layla every morning at school and finds himself thinking about her more and more. Equally cautious and confused about dating in a world that favors apps over meeting organically, Layla and Josh decide to be friends with the potential for something more. Sounds sensible and way too simple―but when two people are on the rebound, is it heartbreak or happiness that’s a love song away? ~amazon.com

Review: My musical abilities lie dormant unless of course I'm singing at the top of my lungs to Pour Some Sugar on Me or rapping to Ice, Ice, Baby; so, I have an appreciation for characters who have a gift to really play an instrument. Layla has the gift of being able to shred a guitar and use her voice to sing as well. The band she is a part of seems destined to at least go a bit further than playing local pubs but then of course life happens and things change. 

Years removed from her days of playing in a band and live, Layla is an elementary school music teacher that really does love her job but given everything she's gone through she yearns to express herself. Her marriage to Liam ended and now she's free to do what she wants and be herself. She has no interest in dating or anything but she does feel herself drawn to Josh. 

Josh is co-parenting his daughter, Sasha with his high school sweetheart, Kimmy but they are separated. Josh is focusing on his business, Sasha and trying to figure out what he wants out of life. Like Layla he's drawn to her but unsure of where to go and how to go there.     

What I loved about Heard it in a Love Song is that it is definitely rooted in reality. Josh and Layla have real issues to work through, life has dealt them each a hand they were expecting. They each have things from their previous relationships they are working through and none of it is necessarily easy. Also, Layla has some goals for herself and her music that she doesn't want to get distracted from achieving. 

Josh and Layla could be people you know which makes their journeys all that more relatable. It is also a story that will stay with you long after you close the book on the final words. I definitely recommend this one by Ms. Garvis-Graves. 

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Monthly Rewind: October 2021

I wanted to try a little something new here and see how it goes. I thought it might be fun to see how the books I read the previous month fell out. I'll include both books I've read and listened to for the month. 

* Denotes Audiobooks

Home Run (You should run and get this): 

Pick any one of these fantastic books up right away! 

Triple(You really don't want to miss it):

*

Double(You could get on the waiting list at the library and be ok):

*

Single(Wait it out): N/A

StrikeOuts(Don't bother):  N/A

 

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