Sunday Post #255

 

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated reviewer book blog, and is a post to recap my bookish and non-bookish things from the last week. I'm also linking up to The Sunday Salon hosted by Deb Nance @Readerbuzz.

Nothing exciting to report. My husband was in Florida for work, and so it was just me and Peanut holding down the fort. The weather was nice in the mid 70s to low 80s, but we're in the 90s for this weekend. Not ideal temps for yardwork. My husband is running all the pipes for our irrigation, but can't work when it feels like 100+ in the sun. It's supposed to cool a bit over the next few days. 

I managed to finish a couple of puzzles while listening to audiobooks. I binged the last two books of the White Trash Zombie series for Anne's read-along. I hope to join the last chat tomorrow (Sunday).

Puzzle: The Boccie Ladies of Martha's Vineyard

Sweet Pea

Roses from the garden

Read:

(Click on cover for Goodreads link)

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood: 4 Stars

Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs: 5 Stars

White Trash Zombie Gone Wild by Diana Rowland: 4 Stars

White Trash Zombie Unchained by Diana Rowland: 4 Stars

Received:

Thank you to Berkley and Subterranean Press! 

Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rachel (@wavesoffiction)

How was your week?

Review: Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs

 

Winter Lost (Mercy Thompson #14) by Patricia Briggs

Publication Date: June 18th 2024 by Ace

Pages: 416

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Mercy Thompson continues to be my all-time favorite UF series, so Winter Lost was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024! This is book 14 in a series that’s best read in order. If you haven’t read this series yet, go grab book one and start reading! The audios are a fantastic way to experience the series!

 

Winter Lost picks up with Mercy still dealing with the effects of the Soul Taker from the last book. Mercy’s worried, but so are Adam and the Pack, however this is put on the back burner when her brother, Gary shows up in trouble. To find a solution they must travel to Montana in an epic winter storm and find a lost/stolen artifact. They end up at a lodge with a varied group of guests as they search for the artifact before it’s too late for Gary and the world. I’m being vague so as not to spoil anything.

 

In this installment while Mercy and Adam tackle this immediate problem there seems to be a few brewing in the background: Bonarata being the most troubling one, IMO.

 

One of the things I love most about this series is the relationship between Mercy and Adam. They continue to be a united, powerful force against all that comes at them. I also love the bits of humor; the friendships and the intricate world of magic and creatures Briggs has created. The story was action-packed, full of danger and riveting! Of course, now I can’t wait for the next one!

5 Stars

Book Description:

Mercy Thompson, car mechanic and shapeshifter, must stop a disaster of world-shattering proportions in this exhilarating entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

In the supernatural realms, there are creatures who belong to winter. I am not one of them. But like the coyote I can become at will, I am adaptable.

My name is Mercy Thompson Hauptman, and my mate, Adam, is the werewolf who leads the Columbia Basin Pack, the pack charged with keeping the people who live and work in the Tri-Cities of Washington State safe. It’s a hard job, and it doesn’t leave much room for side quests. Which is why when I needed to travel to Montana to help my brother, I intended to go by myself.

But I’m not alone anymore.

Together, Adam and I find ourselves trapped with strangers in a lodge in the heart of the wilderness, in the teeth of a storm of legendary power, only to discover my brother’s issues are a tiny part of a problem much bigger than we could have imagined. Arcane and ancient magics are at work that could, unless we are very careful, bring about the end of the world. . . .

Review: Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

 

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

Publication Date: June 11th 2024 by Berkley & Penguin Audio

Pages: 384

Audio Book Length: 11hrs 56min

Narrators: Callie Dalton & Jason Clarke

Source: Publishers

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Rue and Eli are on opposite sides of a hostile takeover of Kline. Rue works as a biotech engineer for the company and Eli works for Harkness, the company who’s taken control of their finances. However, before this happened, they met through an online app for a hookup, and made a connection.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Not in Love. I got off to a rocky start, set it aside, read a few friends mixed reactions and then dived back in, a little more prepared for the story, and was hooked.

 

I’m not a big fan of the enemies-to-lovers trope if there’s a lot of mean back and forth. It’s hard to come back from that, but this wasn’t that. I’m also not a fan of more sex than plot, and there were quite a few sex scenes. I read a couple, (they were well done and very hot!) and then skimmed over the rest. The plot lines, the reason Eli and his friends were investigating Kline, what was behind the takeover, as well as Rue and Eli’s troubled backgrounds, were what grabbed my attention and kept me invested in the story. The story was more serious, less silly and laugh-out-loud than Hazelwood’s previous romances, and it fit the story. Even though they were on opposite sides of this conflict, they couldn’t stay away from each other.  I truly liked both Rue and Eli and rooted for their HEA. I appreciated there wasn’t a dramatic third act breakup, too.

 

I alternately read an e-copy and listened to the audio version of the story. Callie Dalton and Jason Clarke did a phenomenal job narrating and I loved that they each performed their character the whole way through, even when it wasn’t their POV! Such a treat!

4 Stars

Book Description:

A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science—from New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.

Audiobook Review: The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant

 

The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant

Publication Date: June 18th 2024 by Macmillan Audio

Pages: 304

Audio Book Length: 9hrs 41min

Narrator: Emily Pike Stewart

Source: Publisher

Rating: ★★★★½

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm |  Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Emlyn works as a nature guide in the wildness of Idaho. She fell into the work after being stranded in the small Idaho town three years ago, unconscious and near freezing, left out on her own by her then boyfriend, Tyler. Fortunately, a Forest Ranger, (a sweetheart of a man!) found her, took her in and she stayed, healing and moving on with her life. Unfortunately, her ex-Tyler has shown up asking for help finding Janessa, the best friend that introduced them. Janessa’s gone dark after documenting her vanlife adventure with her survivalist boyfriend on social media. Emlyn is torn over helping Tyler, getting involved by helping track Janessa down, she understandably doesn’t trust Tyler, but Janessa waded in when Emlyn needed help, and even though they are now estranged, Emlyn doesn’t want to abandon her friend if she is truly in danger.

 

The Nature of Disappearing is the second story I’ve enjoyed by Ms. Grant. Her writing is beautiful, almost poetic without being overly flowery and slowing the pace. The Idaho wilderness sounded gorgeous, and I almost felt like I was there.

 

This is a mystery, both in finding Janessa, and in what happened to Emlyn in the past with Tyler abandoning her, and what led to Emlyn and Janessa falling out. The story explores some of the insecurities that led Emlyn to almost dying three years earlier. The years away did her good, but the journey she took to find Janessa was cathartic even if dangerous. I wouldn’t say the story was an edge-of-your-seat listen, more quietly captivating with an underlying tension building. I was hooked from the first chapter and enjoyed every minute!

 

Emily Pike Stewart did a fantastic job bringing the story and characters to life! I listened at my usual 1.5xnormal speed. 

4.5 Stars

Book Description:

In this captivating novel of suspense, a wilderness guide must team up with the man who ruined her life years ago when the friend who introduced them goes missing.

Emlyn doesn’t let herself think about the past.

How she and her best friend, Janessa, barely speak anymore. How Tyler, the man she thought was the love of her life, left her freezing and half-dead on the side of the road three years ago.

Her new life is simple and safe. She works as a fishing and hunting guide, spending her days in Idaho’s endless woods and scenic rivers. She lives alone in her Airstream trailer, her closest friends a handsome and kind Forest Service ranger and the community’s makeshift reverend, who took her in at her lowest.

But when Tyler shows up with the news that Janessa is missing, Emlyn is propelled back into the world she worked so hard to forget. Janessa, it turns out, has become a social media star, documenting her #vanlife adventures with her rugged survivalist boyfriend. But she hasn’t posted lately, and when she does, it’s from a completely different location than where her caption claims to be. In spite of their fractured history, Emlyn knows she might be the only one with the knowledge and tracking skills to save her friend, so she reluctantly teams up with Tyler. As the two trace Janessa’s path through miles of wild country, Emlyn can’t deny there’s still chemistry crackling between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods―and that Janessa isn’t the only one in danger.

Poignant, suspenseful, and unforgettable, THE NATURE OF DISAPPEARING explores what it takes to start over―and the cost of letting the past pull you back in.

 

Sunday Post #254

 

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated reviewer book blog, and is a post to recap my bookish and non-bookish things from the last week. I'm also linking up to The Sunday Salon hosted by Deb Nance @Readerbuzz.

This last Wednesday marked 12 years of blogging here on Waves of Fiction. I forgot, of course until after the fact. Blogging continues to me my favorite way to talk about books and I really enjoy the little community of bloggers I keep up with!  I'm not a socially outgoing person, I mostly do things with my family and on infrequent occasions do dinner with a couple of friends. I don't feel lonely at all and I think a lot of it has to do with my bloggy friends, so thanks to everyone who stops by and chats! No one gets a booklover like another booklover!

It's been a busy week around the house. My husband trenched 1,500 feet so we can lay out irrigation pipes so we'll be able to stop watering everything by hand! That will literally save me hours every week! We have 600 feet of hose so I can reach everything now.  

My rose garden is doing really well!

Chicago Peace. 

Savannah Sunbelt

Peanut the puzzle kitty

Read:

(Click on cover for Goodreads link)

The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant: 4.5 Stars

The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle: 4 Stars

Into the Fire by Allison Brennan: 4 Stars

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center: 5 Stars

As you can see I had a great reading week. I just finished The Nature of Disappearing yesterday and I was thinking of a way to describe it, and came up with quietly captivating. Into the Fire was a prequel to Brennan's upcoming: You'll Never Find Me. I'm even more excited to start it! 

Received/Library Lend:

Thank you to St. Martin's Press.

Unforgiven is a library lend. An Amish romantic suspense. Mud Season is a short story prequel to Agony Hill coming August 6th. It's currently free on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The Mirror was a "read now for 2 days" on Netgalley, the second in The Lost Bride Trilogy series. I loved the first one!

Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rachel (@wavesoffiction)

How was your week?

Blog Tour Review: The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle

 

The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle

Publication Date: June 11th 2024 by Harlequin Trade Publishing/Park Row Books

Pages: 304

Source: Publisher

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | HarperCollins | BookShop.org | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Adam and Stella have been traveling all over Europe, blissfully still in love after four years, but then a bomb goes off and Adam goes missing. Stella is panicked and desperate in her search for him and it becomes apparent, Adam wasn’t just the nice, normal guy she thought she married. However, Stella has secrets of her own, too.

 

As Stella digs deeper into Adam’s past, it’s not clear who she can trust. There are those who think she was involved with Adam’s business, and that she knows more than she’s letting on putting her in danger, as well.

 

The Paris Widow was an engrossing, action-packed mystery unfolding all over Paris, and parts of Europe, a glamorous backdrop to exciting story! I felt like a lot of the revelations were easy to spot, but the story was still a fun page-turner! A perfect thriller to sink into this summer! 

4 Stars

Book Summary: 

From USA Today bestselling author Kimberly Belle comes a deliciously twisty new thriller following a married couple vacationing in Paris whose trip takes a dark turn when the husband goes missing, dredging up secrets from both of their pasts, perfect for fans of THE PARIS APARTMENT.

When Stella met Adam, she felt like she finally landed a nice, normal guy – a welcome change from her previous boyfriend and her precarious jetsetter lifestyle with him. She loves knowing she can always depend on Adam, which is why when he goes missing during a random explosion in Paris, she panics. Right after what is assumed to be a terrorist attack, she’s interviewed live on TV by reporters, begging anyone who knows anything about her husband’s whereabouts to come forward and is quickly dubbed “The Paris Widow.”

As the French police investigate, it’s revealed that Adam was on their radar as a dealer in the black market for priceless antiquities, making deals with very high-profile and dangerous clients. Reeling from this news and growing suspicions about her husband, Stella can’t shake the feeling that she’s being followed. And with Adam assumed dead, she realizes that whoever was responsible for the bombing will come after her next. Everything – and everyone -- that Stella has tried to keep in her duplicitous past might be her only means of survival and finding out what really happened to Adam.

An irresistible and fast-paced read set in some of Europe’s most inviting locales, THE PARIS WIDOW explores how sinister secrets of the past stay with us – no matter how far we travel.

Photo Credit: Sara Hannah Photography

Author Bio:

Kimberly Belle worked in marketing and nonprofit fundraising before turning to writing fiction. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, Kimberly lived for over a decade in the Netherlands and currently divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam. She is the bestselling author of The Marriage Lie, Three Days Missing, Dear Wife, as well as The Last Breath, The Ones We Trust, Stranger in the Lake, My Darling Husband, and The Personal Assistant.

Connect with Kimberly Belle:

Website | X | Instagram | Goodreads

Audiobook Review: Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

 

Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

Publication Date: April 30th 2024 by Blackstone Publishing

Pages: 256

Audio Book Length: 8 hrs 26 mins

Narrators: January LaVoy, Cassandra Campbell, Brittany Pressley, Andrew Eiden

Source: Publisher

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Three estranged siblings, Beth, Nicole, and Michael, reunite after their mother, Laura, passes away. Their meetup is fraught with secrets and resentments, but they band together when they view an old VHS tape with a shocking scene. Their father, who disappeared seven years earlier, is covered in blood with a dead body as their mother films!  They’re blown over, as this is not the loving and attentive parents they knew!

 

Home is Where the Bodies Are was a riveting mystery! I was addicted from the first chapter! What happened years ago is told through their mother’s journals and more video tapes, but also from the three siblings’ recollection of past events. I had an idea of where some of it was going, but was surprised by the revelations, too! I listened intently as it wound up to a thrilling conclusion!

 

The story is told through Beth, Nicole, and Michael’s perspectives, and through Laura’s journals. Each POV had a separate narrator, Beth: January LaVoy, Nicole: Brittany Pressley, Michael: Andrew Eiden, and Laura: Cassandra Campbell, who is a new-to-me narrator. I was thrilled to have a full cast of performers, ones I’ve enjoyed listening to many times in the past. It enhanced my “reading” experience, bringing the characters and story to life! I listened to my usual 1.5x normal speed and faster as the situation became more intense!

4 Stars

Book Description:

From New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and You Shouldn’t Have Come Here comes a chilling family thriller about the (sometimes literal) skeletons in the closet.

After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm’s length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn’t been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before.

While going through their parent’s belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends.

Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.

Review: The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

 

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

Publication Date: June 11th 2024 by St. Martin's Press & Macmillan Audio

Pages: 336

Audio Book Length: 11hrs 21min

Narrator: Patti Murin & Katherine Center

Source: Publishers

Rating: ★★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Emma put her life and career on hold to care for her sweetheart-of-a-dad when tragedy struck. Now she gets the opportunity of a lifetime to help re-write a rom-com screenplay with screenwriter Charlie Yates, Emma’s idol, but the job isn’t exactly as described.  

 

I absolutely loved The Rom-Commers! I laughed, I cried, and my heart soared with joy! Hard to go wrong with Katherine Center. There’s always layers, with the characters and with the story. I don’t want to break everything down, because I feel it’s better to go in and experience all the lovely for yourself, but it’s a definite 5-Star recommend!

 

I alternately read and listened to an audio version of the story, and I can recommend either version. Patti Murrin narrates, and she acted her heart out, bringing out all the emotions, making each character come to life! So wonderful! I listened at my usual 1.5x normal speed.

5 Stars

Book Description:

She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?

Sunday Post #253

 

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated reviewer book blog, and is a post to recap my bookish and non-bookish things from the last week. I'm also linking up to The Sunday Salon hosted by Deb Nance @Readerbuzz.

It was a hot week (in the upper 90s) at home so I spent a bunch of time watering. It does cool off into the 50s at night, so we are able to open the windows before we go to bed to cool things down. I've had to run the A/C a few hours in the afternoon. 

Had a couple of doctors appointments to take care of. One was a skin check because my cousin, who is a couple of years older than me, was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma after discovering a lump. He's doing well with immunotherapy, just after two treatments the lump is gone. Cancer treatment has come a long way so that a diagnosis like that is no longer an automatic death sentence. At any rate, it gave my sister and I quite a scare so thus the skin check. We all (cousin included) grew up spending our summers swimming in our pool without sunscreen. My mom used to put baby oil on a lay out for a suntan!

We drove out to East Bay San Francisco to help our daughter finish up packing her house. It closes on Tuesday. Will be driving home today. The weather was beautiful. Hot but not as hot as home. I didn't get a lot of reading done.

Read:

(Click on cover for Goodreads link)

Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson: 4 Stars

Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens: 4 Stars

Everyone on This Train was a fun mystery, like the previous Benjamin Stevenson book. I also enjoyed Last Girl Breathing even though I wished one thing was different in the end. 

Library Lends:

I downloaded an audio of Closed Casket after seeing Sophia's latest review on the series. Into the Fire is a prequel novella to Brennan's newest coming: You'll Never Find Me. 

How was your week?