Month: May 2017
Secrets of Southern Girls by Haley Harrigan
Julie Portland has never really gotten over the death of her best friend, Reba, whose death is shrouded in secrecy.
Julie is living in Manhattan now with her daughter and trying hard to make a life for herself, but there is always the shadow of Reba and her death and how Julie feels such guilt, thinking it was her fault that Reba died.
When Reba’s old boyfriend, August, tracks Julie down to ask her to return to Mississippi with him to find out what really happened and to find a mysterious diary that Reba had told August she was going to give him when they met that night, Julie is skeptical and really isn’t interested in going back and reliving the past. But overriding that is her need to know. What was Reba keeping from her?
So together they go back to Mississippi and find they never really knew Reba at all!
Which raises the question, do we really know our best friends? Do they behave the way you expect or do suspect there is still a lot you don’t know about each other? Being a Mississippi girl myself I really wanted to read this book. It was interesting how each characters impressions of Reba were so different. And how long after an event the guilt a person can feel is like a shadow following them around, determining the people they let in as adults, how much trust you place in them and how far inside of your secret stash are you willing to let them be a part of.
When bad things happen and no one talks about it, the youngest among us blame themselves. This should be a good Summer vacation read!
White Fur by Jardine Libaire *Release Day*
Jamey Hyde and Elise Perez come from two different worlds. He attends Yale and lives a life of wealth and privilege. She doesn’t even know who her father is and ran away from home very young without graduating from high school.
When she sees him next door, she knows he will be hers. And a very unusual relationship develops between the two.A dark version of 1980’s Romeo and Juliet. This was a very dark, raw and sexual Romeo and Juliet. Elise was a hard character for me to get a handle on. She owns her awkwardness and her sexuality. She knows what she wants and that is Jamey.
His family is dead set on breaking them up and they are deadset on staying together.
This isn’t a ‘pretty’ love story all wrapped up in sparkly paper. It is at times ugly and hard to watch and some people may not care for the rawness of it.
But once you are into it, you can’t seem to let go. It took a while for me to come back to reality!
THE STRANGER IN THE WOODS BY MICHAEL FINKEL
THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE LAST TRUE HERMIT
When Christopher Knight was 20 years old, he quit his job, drove to rural Maine, got out of his car, leaving the keys on the console and walked into the woods.
That was in 1986. In 2013, after some 27 years of living as a hermit, he was arrested while stealing food from a summer camp.
Finkel covers nearly 3 decades of living entirely outdoors in the woods of Maine. To survive, Knight broke into nearby cabins, more than a 1,000 times. He only took what he needed. Food, batteries, old clothing, gas. He never broke a window or a door or took anything of value. Some residents started leaving things out for the hermit to take.
This book examines the history of solitude and hermits as well as the benefits and severe effects of living this life. The trial is short and really no one wanted him to go to jail, but he did. And when he got out he had no idea how to live in this world and wanted more than anything to be left alone.
There were some really good quotes in here on solitude. My favorite is from French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “because to me the most desolate solitude seems preferable to the society of wicked men which is nourished only in betrayals and hatred.”
A most interesting read, Mr. Finkle!
![Christopher Thomas Knight (born 7 December 1965), also known as the North Pond Hermit, is a former hermit who lived almost without human contact for 27 years in the woods in Maine.[1] He survived by committing approximately 1,000 burglaries against houses in the area,[2] or approximately 40 per year. Knight entered the woods in 1986 without saying goodbye to anyone, aged 20, and was captured during a burglary in 2013.:](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/8a/98/ac/8a98ac2a317f38342fd0b9a150a88f43.jpg)
xx Patricia
Good Intentions Gone To Hell…
We are having this strange weather thingy happening. Yesterday and Today have been hot, sunny and not windy!
Saturday I woke up with the best of intentions. Go through all of my email, clean up my desk and then get out in the sunshine.
As you can see from the picture I did make a great salad for lunch and then spent the next 6 hours ordering tea and shoes. I mean there was a sale, so yeah, Zulily, you knew I couldn’t pass up 80% off!
Today has just been more of the same except I found rocks! Really good small river rocks to paint. Someone wanted to skip them across the lake, but no, I’m going to be all crafty with these suckers.
I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend! I know I am.
EDISTO STRANGER ( An Edisto Island Mystery #4) by C. Hope Clark
A cold case heats up . . .
A dead man in Big Bay Creek, spring break, and a rogue FBI agent would be enough to drive Chief Callie Jean Morgan to drink . . . if she hadn’t already quietly crawled inside a bottle of gin to drown her sorrows over a life ripped apart by too many losses.
When her investigation into the stranger’s death heats up an unsolved abduction case, Callie finds herself pitted against the town council, her son, the agent, and even the raucous college kids enjoying idyllic Edisto Beach.
Amidst it all, Callie must find a way to reconcile her grief and her precious taste for gin before anyone else is killed.
Callie Morgan has more than her share of tragedy, not to mention the head of the town council looking for any reason to sack her so when her son finds a body in the water Callie knows she needs this case. And needs to solve it before she is out of a job.
This is the fourth book in The Edisto Island Mysteries and while you can read this as a stand alone, I would look out for the others also.
Callie is flawed in the most human of ways, and find ways to deal with their pain and anger in a bottle of Gin. It’s not like she’s falling down drunk, but her son and her co-workers know. But now she has to find a way to crack this case without a crutch.
I personally like the Edisto books because my family has had homes there for generations. My Mother was born in Walterboro and lived between there and Charleston. So I feel a deep sense of home and familiarity with this place and these people. I actually called her and asked about Edisto not having an ME and she said Oh no, we’re too small for that, you have to go to Walterboro.
This book actually has two crimes, an old cold case kidnapping of a two year old and the murder of the retired FBI agent who wouldn’t let that case go.
Give it a read and let me know what you think! Today is Release Day!!
Edisto
The Beach House Cookbook by Mary Kay Andrews
You probably recognize the name Mary Kay Andrews from her many NYT bestsellers such as The Weekenders, Beach Town, Summer Rental and more.
Now she has come out with a very Southern Cookbook. Easy, laid back, summery cookbook. First let me say this is such a pretty book and you all know how much I love a pretty book cover and inside.
All of the recipes are old, and well loved southern and beachy dishes. All a big part of my childhood and adulthood.
The recipes are listed under categories such as Summer Solstice Dinner, Beach Picnic, Book Bash Cocktail Party and so many more. Easy recipes for Pimento Cheese, Biscuits, Fried Chicken, Crab Cakes, Pound Cake and so much more.
I hope y’all love it as much as I do! It just came out in time for my birthday this month, so I had to have it!
You can check it out on Amazon
LEAVES OF FIRE (THE NEWIRTH MYTHOLOGY #2) BY MICHAEL B. KOEP
Imagine paintings that hold the secrets to the meaning of life and death—or scribbled words that can alter the past and reshape the present. We know art imitates life but in Michael B. Koep’s thriller fiction trilogy, the author brings the arts to life in an action-packed tale spanning seven centuries.
In the spring of 1338, young William of Leaves knows only of remedies, herbs and his mother’s kindness. When he is forced to watch as she is dragged to a witch’s pyre by a mob led by the Bishop of London, the mysterious immortal apothecary, Albion Ravistelle, promises the boy a chance at vengeance.
In present day, psychologist Loche Newith and Julia Iris must come to terms with Loche’s prophetic writings that have changed the course of history and shaped the lives of William, Helen, and countless others. As a war breaks out between the immortals on earth and Albion Ravistelle, Loche must accept the realities he has authored and cross over into death—he must enter again into Basil Fenn’s paintings to find a way to end the conflict.
In Part Two of The Newirth Mythology, Leaves of Fire, Koep entwines these lives and lifetimes as he explores myth, memory, revenge and the hope of forgiveness.
The Invasion of Heaven, the first in this series told the story of the Painter and the Poet. This second book is about the Healer.
An author whose writings are prophetic and change the course of history. The first one was a bit of a slide into madness, which isn’t always bad as we see in this book.
A battle between Gods and the ones who are tasked with keeping them where they are.
I’m really torn with writing a lot about this book because I loved the way I fell into it and got sucked down the rabbit hole along with the Poet and the Painter.
Almost like Stephen King meets Dan Brown! But fresh, original and just when I was getting a little tired of the same old reads Mr. Koep comes along and blows me away.
You don’t have to read book one first, but I would anyway.
Great job!
Coloring My World Orange Today
It’s Sunday and the Sun is shining! I am enjoying the sunshine and reading Kathy Reich’s upcoming book Two Nights and it’s really good. Up on the TBR List for this week is:
Mary Alice Monroe’s Beach House for Rent
Tess Gerritsen’s I Know A Secret ( A Rizzoli and Isles Book)
Lost Boy by Christina Henry
Lies She Told by Cate Holahan
To Kill A Hummingbird by J.R.Ripley
John Clarkson’s Bronx Requiem
So what do y’all have planned for the week? Did you do something fun this weekend? Do Tell!!
Have a good Sunday/Monday!
xx Patricia
The Well by Marie Sexton
Book Release Date is May 22, 2017
Book Blurb:
Twenty years after prom queen Cassie Kennedy is brutally murdered, six teenagers break into the house where she was killed to hold a séance. Haven knows his cousin Elise only wants to scare the crap out of him and his friends, but he’s willing to put up with one of her pranks if it means a chance to spend a few hours with the new kid in town, Pierce Hunter.
But when morning comes, Elise has disappeared without a trace.
Twelve years later, Pierce and his twin brother Jordan are professional paranormal investigators, starring in their own ghost-hunting TV show. When Pierce calls Haven, insisting they return to the supposedly haunted building one last time, Haven reluctantly agrees. He’s nervous about seeing Pierce again, but he’s determined to get some answers. Did they really speak to Cassie’s ghost that night? What happened to Elise? And the biggest mystery of all – how did she know the secret of the well?
The Blurb is pretty much accurate. I would probably classify this one as a Ghost Story.
It isn’t a long read at all and we don’t have a lot of information on the characters. I would have liked more depth there. There was some romance of the M/M variety. Which was also a little shallow.
A nice little ghost story, murder mystery, just not enough to feel like I knew any of these people better after finishing the book.
This book is self published and is available on Amazon!
