NetGalley:
Indie Authors:
Reading Challenges:
Buzzword Reading Challenge 2023 (magic-related words: magic in the title or related words. Example: Witch, Charm, Conjure, Spell…etc.)
2023 Sami Parker Reads Title Challenge (a book with a double or triple number in the title: Any number between 10 and 999 count)
Cover Scavenger Hunt 2023 (a star)
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Every Tuesday, a new topic is assigned from the schedule below. Then, you take that topic and fly free with it. You can do as little or as much as you want to (I have done as low as two before). If you want, you can link back To That Artsy Reader Girl and show her what you posted.
The Schedule
September 19: Books on My Fall 2023 To-Read List
September 26: Secondary/Minor Characters Who Deserve Their Own Book
October 3: Reading Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year (We’ve just begun the last quarter of the year! What bookish goals would you still like to accomplish? If you participated in TTT’s Bookish Goals for 2023 topic this past January, update us on which goals you’ve achieved, which you’ve given up on, and which ones you’re still working on!)
October 10: Bookish Jobs I Would Do For Free (Real or Imaginary) (Submitted by Susan @ Bloggin’ bout Books)
October 17: Books with Weather Events in the Title/on the Cover (I’m picturing a list of titles with weather-related words in them like storm, rain, blizzard, flood, lightning, hail, snow, wind, etc. OR covers with lightning/storms in the picture.)
October 24: Atmospheric Books (The Novelry explains this concept as: “A novel feels atmospheric when the setting and the narrative are deeply involved with one another; when characters and plot are physically embedded in their surroundings, and a near-tangible mood lifts from the pages and wraps itself around the reader.” Study.com explains that, “The atmosphere is how a writer constructs their piece to convey feelings, emotions, and mood to the reader. The atmosphere in literature might be tense, fast-paced, mysterious, spooky, whimsical, or joyful and can be found in poetry, stories, novels, and series.”)
October 31: Halloween Freebie
November 7: Book Titles That Would Make Great Newspaper Headlines (Submitted by Cathy @ What Cathy Read Next)
November 14: Mainstream Popular Authors that I Still Have Not Read (Submitted by Rissa)
November 21: Reasons Why I’m Thankful for Books (In honor of Thanksgiving in the USA.)
November 28: Books Set In X (Pick a setting and share books that are all set there. This could be a specific continent or country, a state, in outer space, underwater, on a ship or boat, at the beach, etc.)
December 5: Freebie
December 12: Books On My Winter 2022-2023 To-Read List
December 19: Books.I Hop Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes
December 26: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf (Maybe share your holiday book haul?)
January 2: Favorite Books of 2023
January 9: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024
January 16: Bookish Goals for 2024
January 23: Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To
January 30: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023
So here are mine.
All my books are taken from my NetGalley Goodreads shelf.
Books on my fall TBR:
Here is what I read/posted in December.
As always, let me know if you have read any of these books and (if you did) what you thought of them.
Books I Read:
Books I got from NetGalley:
Books I got from Authors/Indie Publishers:
Goodreads Giveaway Winners
Books Reviewed:
All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon—review here
The Prisoner by B.A. Paris—review here
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz—review here
Little Eve by Catriona Ward—review here
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins—review coming January 3rd
All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham–review coming January 10th
The Sylvan Horn by Robert Redinger—review here
The Split by Sharon Bolton—review here
The Catch by Jenna Miles—review here
The Bodyguard by Katherine Coulter—review here
Cathedral of Time by Stephen Austin Thorpe—review here
Don’t Look For Me by Wendy Walker—review here
Souk Daddy by Antony Curtis—review here
Affinity for Pain by R.E. Johnson—review here
A Wicked Game by Kate Bateman—review here
Son of the Poison Rose by Jonathan Maberry—review coming January 13th
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff—review coming January 6th
I saw this meme on It’s All About Books and thought, I like this!! So, I decided to do it once a month also. Many thanks to Yvonne for initially posting this!!
This post is what it says: Places I travel to in books each month. Books are lovely and take you to places you would never get a chance to go. That includes places of fantasy too!!
So….enjoy!! Please let me know if you have read these books or traveled to these areas (other than the fantasy….lol).
Scotland
India
United States
Agartha
Italy
Silver Empire
Samud
Theria
Nelfydia
Vespia
Canada
England
Australia
France
Marsyas
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
How it works:
She assigns each Tuesday a topic and then posts her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.
I decided to change today’s TTT. It was supposed to be Bookish Wishes. But since I really don’t have any bookish wishes, I decided to change it to the last ten books I added to my TBR.
So here they are. Let me know if you have read any of them!!
1. The Last Legacy by Adrienne Young
2. Bloody Vows by Lisa Renee Jones
3. Bloody Love by Lisa Renee Jones
4. Three Sisters by Heather Morris
5. The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
6. The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews
7. A Terrible Fall of Angels by Laurell K. Hamilton
8. A Different Way to Die by Robert Lane
9. A Queen’s Pride by N.D. Jones
10. Say Yes by Kandi Steiner
![Sunset Beach: A Novel by [Andrews, Mary Kay]](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51f9IiHhjXL.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
4 Stars
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Date of publication: May 7th, 2019
Genre: Mystery, Women’s Fiction
Where to find Sunset Beach: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | BookBub
Book Synopsis:
Pull up a lounge chair and have a cocktail at Sunset Beach – it comes with a twist.
Drue Campbell’s life is adrift. Out of a job and down on her luck, life doesn’t seem to be getting any better when her estranged father, Brice Campbell, a flamboyant personal injury attorney, shows up at her mother’s funeral after a twenty-year absence. Worse, he’s remarried – to Drue’s eighth grade frenemy, Wendy, now his office manager. And they’re offering her a job.
It seems like the job from hell, but the offer is sweetened by the news of her inheritance – her grandparents’ beach bungalow in the sleepy town of Sunset Beach, a charming but storm-damaged eyesore now surrounded by waterfront McMansions.
With no other prospects, Drue begrudgingly joins the firm, spending her days screening out the grifters whose phone calls flood the law office. Working with Wendy is no picnic either. But when a suspicious death at an exclusive beach resort nearby exposes possible corruption at her father’s firm, she goes from unwilling cubicle rat to unwitting investigator, and is drawn into a case that may – or may not – involve her father. With an office romance building, a decades-old missing persons case re-opened, and a cottage in rehab, one thing is for sure at Sunset Beach: there’s a storm on the horizon.
Sunset Beach is a compelling ride, full of Mary Kay Andrews’ signature wit, heart, and charm.
My review:
Drue Campbell has no clue what she is going to do with her life. She had lost her mother to a battle with cancer. She was injured in a kiteboarding accident that ended her career in that sport. On top of that, Drue was fired from her waitressing job after refusing to serve an underage patron. Then she reconnects with her father with who she barely has had any contact with since she was fifteen. Her father offers Drue a job at his law firm. He also gives her the keys to her grandparents’ house, a beachfront bungalow. A home that has significant damage done to it from the last hurricane.
Drue finds that working for her father not what she thinks it would be. Her father married her middle school frenemy. That frenemy is now the office manager, and she seems to have it out for Drue. Then a case rolls across Drue’s desk. A case that piques Drue’s interest. An unsolved murder. At the same time, Drue finds the case file for a woman who has been missing for over 40 years in the attic of her house. Drue is determined to solve both cases. Will she be able to solve them? Will her relationship with her father and her frenemy change?
There were three main plotlines in Sunset Beach. All three were well written. I enjoyed that I could go from plotline to plotline without any confusion. The author also did a great job of pointing out when the story went into the past. Those chapters were marked. I liked that I didn’t have to guess when they went into the past.
I liked all the storylines. I did find the storyline about Drue and her relationship with Wendy and Brice a little much. Drue pushed back on everything that Brice and Wendy did. While I understood, there was a point where I got sick of it.
I thought the storylines about the murder at the hotel and the cold case was interesting. The author did a great job of explaining what went into investigating both cases.
There was a huge plot twist in the cold case storyline. I was not expecting it. I also didn’t expect who was involved. I was shocked. The twist with the murder case didn’t surprise me.
I wasn’t a fan of Drue when she was introduced. She has so much resentment built up against her father. There was a point where I started rolling my eyes when she began “acting out.“ It made her look like a child. It also made me think less of her as a character. I did like that she was tenacious when it came to the murder case. She saw things that the police didn’t.
The secondary characters were terrific. They added the extra depth that the book needed.
I liked how the author didn’t have the bad guys didn’t do anything. Well, other than what happened to Drue. She chose to show the investigation against them. She decided to build the case up against them. It worked for me. There is a time for bad guys being all in your face and a time for them to be in the background. This was the time for them to be in the background.
Sunset Beach fit right in with the mystery genre. The author did a great job at keeping both mysteries, well, a mystery until the end of the book.
There was romance in Sunset Beach. It wasn’t hyped on, and the sex scene wasn’t graphic. I wasn’t a fan of it, though. I thought that the book could have done without it.
I enjoyed reading Sunset Beach. The plotlines were fast-moving and engaging. The characters were 3d, and I liked them. Well, for the most part, liked them. There were parts of the book that took me by surprise.
The end of Sunset Beach was interesting. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I liked it.
I would give Sunset Beach an Adult rating. There is sex (not graphic). There is language. There is violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.
I would reread Sunset Beach. I would recommend this book to family and friends.
I would like to thank the publisher, the author and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review Sunset Beach.
**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**
Have you read Sunset Beach?
What are your thoughts on it?
Let me know!!
4 Stars
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Date of publication: May 8th, 2018
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Mystery
Trigger Warning: Rape, Attempted Rape, Domestic Violence
Where you can find The High Tide Club: Amazon | Goodreads
Book synopsis (from Goodreads):
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Weekender comes a delightful new novel about new love, old secrets, and the kind of friendship that transcends generations.
When ninety-nine-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons Brooke Trappnell to Talisa Island, her 20,000-acre remote barrier island home, Brooke is puzzled. Everybody in the South has heard about the eccentric millionaire mistress of Talisa, but Brooke has never met her. Josephine’s cryptic note says she wants to discuss an important legal matter with Brooke, who is an attorney, but Brooke knows that Mrs. Warrick has long been a client of a prestigious Atlanta law firm.
Over a few meetings, the ailing Josephine spins a tale of old friendships, secrets, betrayal and a long-unsolved murder. She tells Brooke she is hiring her for two reasons: to protect her island and legacy from those who would despoil her land, and secondly, to help her make amends with the heirs of the long-dead women who were her closest friends, the girls of The High Tide Club—so named because of their youthful skinny-dipping escapades—Millie, Ruth and Varina. When Josephine dies with her secrets intact, Brooke is charged with contacting Josephine’s friends’ descendants and bringing them together on Talisa for a reunion of women who’ve actually never met.
The High Tide Club is Mary Kay Andrews at her Queen of the Beach Reads best, a compelling and witty tale of romance thwarted, friendships renewed, justice delivered, and true love found.
My Review:
I went into this book thinking that it would be your typical chick-lit book. Well, it isn’t. What I discovered is that The High Tide Club is so much more than that. This was a wonderfully written book that didn’t let its secrets up until the end.
I loved the main storyline of the book. A 99-year-old heiress summons a lawyer to her island. The lawyer agrees to take on her requests: protect her island from the state and to find her friends heirs. But in doing that, the lawyer uncovers more secrets. When the heiress dies before her will was finalized. But there are questions about the heiresses death. There is also a question about who should inherit her fortune. The more digging the lawyer does, the more secrets and mysteries are uncovered. Can the lawyer fulfill her client’s requests and keep impartial? Or will she be swept away by the secrets that keep turning up?
This book had everything to keep me engaged as a reader. Romance? Yup, there. Mystery? Tons of it. Action? Surprisingly yes. Suspense? Yes. Thriller? Surprisingly, yes. When an author can combine different genres into a book and make them work, it is great. And this author did that.
I thought the main characters, Brooke and Josephine were well written. Their strong personalities came off the pages. I couldn’t help but care about what was going to happen with the island and its inhabitants after Josephine dies. I also came to care for Brooke. She had her problems but she strove to meet them head-on. I could see her character growth throughout the book. The change in her from the beginning of the book was amazing.
The secondary characters added that extra “ummph” to the book. They were able to fill in the gaps in the storyline with their own stories and personalities. That makes a book so much more enjoyable for me to read.
There was only one thing that I didn’t like about this book. It was how the book went from past to present and back without warning. I did get confused at times about what era I was reading about until names were given. It did affect my rating because I like my books to run smoothly. And for the most part, it did.
I loved, loved, loved the mystery angle of the book. Not only did the author keep the main mystery under wraps but she did a fantastic job of keeping all the other ones too. I only figured out two of them and that was by doing a process of elimination. The twist that she threw in for the main one got me because I was not expecting that to happen. But, it was the murder mystery that shocked me. Looking back, I could see it now. And I understood why that person did what they did.
The romance angle of the book was kind of messed up. Almost every one of the romances ended badly. Even the one that was hinted about at the end of the book, I was iffy about. But when the romance was on, it was good. Sweet, almost.
The end of the book was bittersweet. The author did a great job of wrapping up all the storylines. As a reader, I was very satisfied with that.
What I liked about The High Tide Club:
A) Excellent storylines
B) Kept me engaged as a reader
C) Romance and Mystery angle was fantastic
What I disliked about The High Tide Club:
A) Book didn’t transition smoothly between past and present
B) The C.D. storyline.
C) Brooke. I didn’t like her
I would give The High Tide Club an Adult rating. There is no sex. There is mild violence. There is language. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book. Mainly because of the triggers.
The High Tide Club does have trigger warnings. They would be rape, attempted rape, and domestic violence. There is a scene with a young teenager about to be raped (the author didn’t get into it). There is also a scene that features attempted rape along with domestic violence. If you are triggered by any of these, I suggest not reading the book.
I would recommend The High Tide Club to family and friends. I would include a warning about the triggers. This is a book that I would reread.
I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review The High Tide Club.
All opinions stated in this review of The High Tide Club are mine.
**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**
