Bea Reviews The Guest Cottage by Nancy Thayer

Publisher: Ballantine Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 12, 2015
Challenges: COYER Summer Scavenger Hunt
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Sensible thirty-six-year-old Sophie Anderson has always known what to do. She knows her role in life: supportive wife of a successful architect and calm, capable mother of two. But on a warm summer night, as the house grows quiet around her and her children fall asleep, she wonders what’s missing from her life. When her husband echoes that lonely question, announcing that he’s leaving her for another woman, Sophie realizes she has no idea what’s next. Impulsively renting a guest cottage on Nantucket from her friend Susie Swenson, Sophie rounds up her kids, Jonah and Lacey, and leaves Boston for a quiet family vacation, minus one.

Also minus one is Trevor Black, a software entrepreneur who has recently lost his wife. Trevor is the last person to imagine himself, age thirty and on his own, raising a little boy like Leo—smart and sweet, but grappling constantly with his mother’s death, growing more and more closed off. Hoping a quiet summer on the Nantucket coast will help him reconnect with Leo, Trevor rents a guest house on the beautiful island from his friend Ivan Swenson.

Best-laid plans run awry when Sophie and Trevor realize they’ve mistakenly rented the same house. Still, determined to make this a summer their kids will always remember, the two agree to share the Swensons’ Nantucket house. But as the summer unfolds and the families grow close, Sophie and Trevor must ask themselves if the guest cottage is all they want to share.

Inspiring and true to life, The Guest Cottage is Nancy Thayer at her finest, inscribing in graceful, knowing prose matters of the heart and the meaning of family.

Review & Excerpt: Ben's School Daze: A Story of Being Overwhelmed in a Sensory World By Robyn Sims & Joanne Larcom

Publisher: Peence & Rogue Designs Pty Ltd
Format Read: E-book
Source: pr firm in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 4, 2015
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from blog tour:

This is a story about Ben, a lively and active boy, who finds the sensory experiences within his day to be overwhelming.

Loud noises vibrate through his body and “shoes and sock bother him.. they never feel just right”.

This can make it hard for Ben to be a good student. But don’t worry, his teacher and mum know what to do to help him through his day.

Bea Reviews Shallow Graves by Christina Wolfer

Publisher: Turquoise Morning Press 
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: March 17, 2015
Challenges: Goodreads
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe* | Smashwords*  | Publisher
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Be Careful What Secrets You Dig Up

When a young girl’s body is discovered in a shallow grave on a farm outside of Ripley, Ohio, FBI Agent Kendal McNally returns to her estranged hometown to investigate. The similarities to another murder on the same farm seventeen years earlier is unnerving, not to mention the fact that she helped put her best friend’s father behind bars for the crime. Her search for the truth puts her in the middle of a serial killer’s graveyard.

Reed Harvey’s life was turned upside down when his father was convicted of murder. It didn’t help that Kendal had been the key witness in the trial or that she turned her back on him and their friendship. Now she has returned to investigate another murder, living in an apartment above his restaurant and making him remember what almost was.

Despite their pasts, Kendal and Reed turn to each other as Kendal’s investigation unravels a web of lies in a town where everyone thought they knew everyone’s business. And when another girl goes missing, Kendal will unearth a devastating secret that may put an end to the murders—except one. Hers.

Sunday Book Share #150

 

 I'm participating in The Sunday Post, hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer; Showcase Sunday hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea; Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Tynga's Reviews; and Bought Borrowed and Bagged, hosted by TalkSupe. All of these memes are about sharing the print and digital books received and/or posts and events on the blog.

Not much to say about last week, it was quiet. I worked a lot, have begun looking for a new car, and read. That was it. :D Oh, and I finally got my new TV working (except for the DVD player, grr). I bought a streaming stick and now I can watch NetFlix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Videos, and even YouTube on my TV. The device I bought also has lots of other channels I can watch, most for free, and I'm just starting to play with those.

Bea Reviews All For You by Christi Barth

Publisher: Carina Press
Series: Shore Secrets #2
Source: the author in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: February 9, 2015
Challenges: Finishing the Series | May 2015 Clean Sweep ARC Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Kobo | ARe* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Small-town park ranger Casey Hobbes has spent her life under the radar, carefully guarding a secret. "The forest flirt," as her best friend calls her, keeps things casual with men. That way she'll never care enough to be tempted to share the truth about her past. But when she spots a half-naked stranger on the lake's edge, Casey can't resist his muscles or his charm and she's all-in for enjoying both, while keeping emotion out of it. What could be the danger of one summer fling?

Professor Zane Buchanan has built his entire career on exposing the dark realities of cults, but one—the Sunshine Seekers—remains infuriatingly impossible to crack. Zane's shocked to discover its sole anonymous survivor is hiding in his new hometown. It's nearly impossible to concentrate on work, however, when he's derailed by his attraction to the beautiful blonde in khaki uniform shorts.

As things between Casey and Zane heat up, she struggles with keeping her past from him. And Zane's on a quest to expose the truth, no matter the consequences. Will their growing emotions finally unseal Casey's big secret? Or will she turn her back on love to keep the past safely buried?

The Friday 56: The Threshing Circle by Neil Grimmett, Redux

This is a fun meme to do hosted by Freda's Voice. If you'd like to join in the fun go to The Friday 56.

Rules:
*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader.
*Find any sentence that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Link it here.

I'm still reading  "The Threshing Circle", by Neil Grimmett. I've been fitting it in around review reads and working a lot of hours so it's been slow going. The quote this time is from 56%  in the Kindle book.

At the end of the show, Kirsty put on the lights. As she did, something from the movie - a clue that everyone had missed except for Miss Marple - flashed into her mind.

Cat Thursday - Please, No More Kneading

 Welcome to the weekly meme hosted by The True Book Addict that celebrates cats; their foibles and humorousness and the joy they bring. You can join in by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you made or came across, cat art or share with us pics of your own felines, then post your link up at The True Book Addict.

This, this is Claude. He also likes to stretch his paws so that they are resting on the base of my neck, with the tips of his claws lightly resting on my skin.