Sunday Post #298

 

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's been an uneventful week, just the usual: work, gardening (lots of weeding!), cats, puzzles, reading and exercise. I go on walks and run, but also do weight routines from someone I follow on Instagram: @carolinescircuits. I love her routines! I'm trying to lose a few pounds before our next Montana trip. I'm just a few pounds over what I'd like to be, but boy is it tough to lose weight in my 50s! 

My husband and I went to dinner with my sister and her husband downtown. I work tomorrow (Sunday), which is a bummer because I'll miss out on the Innkeeper Chronicles for the read along hosted by Anne @Books of My Heart. 

My blue hydrangeas are starting to bloom

St. John's Wart that grows wild in the yard

Starla helping with my latest puzzle.

It was pretty cool yesterday and today. Didn't break 70 degrees for our high and we sat by the fire outside last night and tonight. 

Outdoor Fire Solo Stove

Read:

(Click on cover for Goodreads description)

Sweep in Peace (Innkeeper Chronicles #2) by Ilona Andrews: 4.5 Stars

Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady: 5 Stars

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds by Allison Brennan: 4 Stars

No More Yesterdays by Catherine Bybee: 4.5 Stars

Received:

Thank you to Berkley!

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How was your week?

Audiobook Review: Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews

 

Sweep in Peace (Innkeeper Chronicles #2) by Ilona Andrews

Publication Date: November 13th 2015 by NYLA

Pages: 315

Audio Book Length: 10hrs 50min

Narrator: Renée Raudman

Source: Purchased

Rating: ★★★★½

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

 

Re-read 6/13/25 for Books of My Heart read-long. So good!

I didn't write much of a review the first time I listened back in 2016. I appreciated the story more the second time around, especially since I recently finished reading The Edge series and so remembered George, Jack and Sophie a lot more, and I'd now recommend reading that series before this one.

Dina is a little bored and lonely since Sean left, but that quickly changes when Arbitrator George Camarine requests her in host peace talks, at Gertrude Hunt, between the Vampires, Merchants and The Otrokars, aka "The Hope-Crushing Horde", all engaged in a bloody war for Nexus.

A very risky proposition with lethal delegates, but Dina needs the money and it'll Gertrude Hunt's reputation if it goes off well. But that's a big "IF".

The Innkeeper Chronicles is a wonderfully imagined fantasy world with well-developed characters. Mystery, danger, betrayal and just a bit of romance all blended into this exciting installment!

5/9/2016:

I want the next one!

4.5 Stars

Book Description:

Dina DeMille doesn’t run your typical Bed and Breakfast. Her inn defies laws of physics, her fluffy dog is secretly a monster, and the only paying guest is a former Galactic tyrant with a price on her head. But the inn needs guests to thrive, and guests have been scarce, so when an Arbitrator shows up at Dina's door and asks her to host a peace summit between three warring species, she jumps on the chance.

Unfortunately, for Dina, keeping the peace between Space Vampires, the Hope-Crushing Horde, and the devious Merchants of Baha-char is much easier said than done. On top of keeping her guests from murdering each other, she must find a chef, remodel the inn... and risk everything, even her life, to save the man she might fall in love with. But then it's all in the day's work for an Innkeeper...

Review: Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady

 

Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady

Publication Date: June 3rd 2025 by Berkley

Pages: 432

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Librofm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Bookstore managers Ryan and Josie each run their own niche bookstore: Josie’s, Tabula Inscripta, catering to literary fiction and Ryan’s, Happy Endings, focused on romance. They’re pitted against each other when the owner decides to consolidate the bookstores into one and keeping only one manager. They get off on the wrong foot and the battle between them begins.

 

I am not a big fan of literary fiction or tragic, heartbreaking stories, but could totally understand why Josie gravitated to them as her backstory was revealed. And the same with Ryan going for romances.

 

Ryan and Josie don’t realize that they actually are friends online, confiding on a book community forum, Bookfriends, where they commiserate, trade book recommendations and slowly fall in love. Their romance was a slow burn that turned into a scorcher!

 

Battle of the Bookstores was an enemies-to-lovers kind of romance, very much in the style of the movie You’ve Got Mail, one of my all-time favorite rom-coms, but with more spice. I appreciated there was no third act breakup.  I fell for Ryan and Josie, both likeable and full of heart and was captivated by their journey! A definite recommend!

5 Stars

Book Description:

Rivalry and romance spark when two bookstore managers who are opposites in every way find themselves competing for the same promotion.

Despite managing bookstores on the same Boston street, Josie Klein and Ryan Lawson have never interacted much—Josie’s store focuses on serious literature, and Ryan’s sells romance only. But when the new owner of both stores decides to combine them, the two are thrust into direct competition. Only one manager will be left standing, decided by who turns the most profit over the summer. 

Efficient and detail-oriented Josie instantly clashes with easygoing and disorganized Ryan. Their competing events and contrasting styles lead to more than just frustration—the sparks between them might just set the whole store on fire. Their only solace during this chaos is the friendship they’ve each struck up with an anonymous friend in an online book forum. Little do they know they’re actually chatting with each other.  

As their rivalry heats up in real life, their online relationship grows, and when the walls between their stores come tumbling down, Josie and Ryan realize not all’s fair in love and war. And maybe, if they’re lucky, happily ever afters aren’t just for the books.

 

Review: Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds by Allison Brennan

 

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds by Allison Brennan

Publication Date: June 17th 2025 by MIRA & Harlequin Audio

Pages: 400

Audiobook Length: 12hrs 4mins

Narrator: Vanessa Johansson

Source: Publishers

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads | Libro.fm | Audible | Books A Million  Bookshop.org

My Thoughts:

Mia Crawford is on what most would consider a dream vacation in the Caribbean. Mia as a careful planner, wouldn’t have splurged on such an extravagance if her work didn’t insist.  Even so, she slowly unwinds and can’t help but soak in all the beauty, even with the news of a missing guest. Mia also can’t help but be drawn to the sweet and sexy bartender, Jason.

 

Things get interesting when she borrows a book for a beach read and finds notations about all the guests written in some kind of code. She starts to suspect that the notes are tied to the missing woman. Curiosity sparked, Mia starts asking questions about the missing woman, ruffling feathers in the process.

 

I enjoyed Mia’s friendship with eighteen-year-old Brie, a sort of sidekick in her mystery solving. In addition to finding out what happened to Diana, they teamed up to expose the gold-digging girlfriend of Brie’s father and I was really invested in their success. The girlfriend was awful! Mia had a methodical way of approaching the investigation I appreciated.

 

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds was a fun and engrossing cozy mystery and romance! Mia’s romance with Jason gave her a fresh perspective on life, inspiring her to live with more gusto rather than always playing it safe. While the romance wasn’t front and center, it was spicy and just the right amount, IMO.

 

I alternately read and listened to Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds and can recommend either version. I’ve listened to and enjoyed Vanessa Johansson’s narration in the past and I thought she performed all voices, male and female wonderfully!

4 Stars

Book Description:

In this sun-dappled mystery from New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan, a risk-averse bibliophile gets in over her head when strange notes in a book draw her into a real-life investigation.

Mia Crawford is responsible to a fault. She has to be. Between her high-demand job and taking care of her grandmother and her cats, she has little time for anything else. What time she does have, she pours into reading. Mysteries, romances, thrillers…books filled with women who are far more impulsive than she would ever dream of being. Now, forced into taking a long-overdue vacation, she finds herself on a luxurious private island where she just might have a chance to reinvent herself—for a little while, anyway. She can explore the island. Flirt shamelessly with a cute bartender. Have a vacation fling. Live like a heroine in one of her favorite novels.

Or she can curl up with a good book on the beach. Turns out reinventing yourself is easier planned than done. But when gossipy notes written in the margins of an old book turn out to be clues to the disappearance of another guest, Mia finds herself diving headfirst into a dangerous adventure. With everyone at the resort hiding secrets of their own, she’ll have to solve this real-life mystery before she becomes the next target. 

Photo Credit: Brittan Dodd

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

ALLISON BRENNAN is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning author of over forty novels. She lives in Arizona with her husband, five kids and assorted pets.

Connect with Allison Brennan:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday & TMST: Books on My Summer 2025 Reading List

 

This week I'm combining two weekly Tuesday memes:

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Artsy Reader where each week they post a new top ten list and ask fellow bookish folk to share their lists on that topic.

This week the theme is: Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List:

I read all the books from my Spring 2025 TBR, so yay! 

Most on my list here will be releasing over the summer, but two are ones that have already released: The Widowmaker (Black Harbor #2) by Hannay Morrissey released in 2022 and One Fell Sweep by Ilona Andrews released in 2016, a re-read for a read-along hosted by Anne @Books of My Heart. I'm excited for each and every one of them!

Hunter's Heart Ridge (Franklin Warren and Alice Bellows Mystery #2) by Sarah Stewart Taylor (8/5/25)

The Blue Horse (Porter Beck #2) by Bruce Borgos (7/8/25)

Atonement Sky (Psy-Changeling Trinity #9) by Nalini Singh (7/15/25)

A Silence in Belgrave Square (A Below Stairs Mystery #8) by Jennifer Ashley (8/12/25)

The Dead Come to Stay (Ardemore House #2) by Brandy Schillace (8/5/25)

A Moment's Shadow (Verity Kent #8) by Anna Lee Huber (8/26/25)

A Tarnished Canvas (Lady Darby #13) by Anna Lee Huber (6/24/25)

One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #3) by Ilona Andrews (12/20/16)

The Widowmaker (Black Harbor #2) by Hannah Morrissey (12/6/22)

Rage (Kate Burkholder #17) by Linda Castillo (7/8/25)

And now for Tell Me Something Tuesday:

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. For info on TMST click HERE.

This week's topic:

How do you choose what to read next?

I make a list for each month where I note all the ARCs due and I try and keep up with that. I also try to squeeze in whatever library lends become available in between. I try not to accept/request too many ARCs so that I can read what I want, when I want. I do pretty well with not requesting books, however invites are harder to resist, but still, I'm pretty restrained for the most part.

What's on your Summer 2025 TBR and How do you choose what to read next?

Sunday Post #297

 

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.

Well, things this last week didn't go exactly as planned. We drove down to Southern California on Thursday intending to stay with our son and attend a funeral. However, ten minutes before we got to my son's house he called because the whole family, his wife and two little ones had a nasty case of the flu so we may not want to stay there. They originally thought his wife had food poisoning and delayed their flight back from Montana (they were at my daughter's) to Thursday morning, but my son became violently ill soon after getting home.

I felt so bad for them, but at the same time didn't want to get whatever they had so we continued on to the area where the funeral was going to happen (Orange County area) and got a hotel. We ended up only going to the funeral service and skipped the celebration of life after because it was three hours after the service and we would've either had to spend the night again or drive through the night to get home. The service turned out well.

We got home late last night and slept in today. I did some gardening, laundry, cleaning and went on a walk. 

Here's some pictures from my garden and walk:

My Astilbe has come back nicely. Love this hardy perennial!

Panicle Hydrangea. I'll be chopping off the top part as soon as the flowering is over.

Wild sweet pea on my walk

Latest puzzle: Bees and Honey by 123 Farms

Starla and Smokey tuckered out. Stalking and hunting is so tiring.

Read:

(Click on cover for Goodreads description)

Sweep in Peace (Innkeeper Chronicles #2) by Ilona Andrews-4.5 Stars

Hello, Transcriber (Black Harbor #1) by Hannah Morrissey-4.5 Stars

The Summer That Changed Everything by Brenda Novak-4 Stars

I had a pretty good reading week even though I didn't read as much as I hoped to. We listened to Hello, Transcriber at home and on our drive and started and finished Sweep in Peace. Loved both! I hope to start The Widowmaker, next in the Black Harbor series soon, but we'll see with review books.

Received/Invites:

I've grabbed up the audio of Everything's Coming Up Rosie because I've enjoyed Walsh in the past. Them Bones and Asylum Hotel are invites. Has anyone read these two authors? I'm deciding whether to read them or not.

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How was your week?

Review: The Summer That Changed Everything by Brenda Novak

 

The Summer That Changed Everything by Brenda Novak

Publication Date: June 3rd 2025 by MIRA & Harlequin Audio

Pages: 368

Audio Length: 10hrs 39min

Narrator: Courtney Patterson

Source: Publisher 
Rating: ★★★★
Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Fifteen years ago, Lucy Sinclair’s father was convicted of murdering three people in the small town of North Hampton Beach, Virginia. At just seventeen, with no other family, she was left to fend for herself. Lucy weathered some tough times but got through it and made something of herself. Now all these years later Lucy’s ready to go back to answer some nagging doubts she had about one of the murders.  She doesn’t count on running into Ford, the man who abandoned her and broke her heart, but he’s also back in town taking a summer break from his own problems.

 

Lucy gets flak from the townsfolk right away when they find out why she’s there, but there are also ones who’ve questioned the past, as well. While we find out what’s behind one of the mysteries pretty early on, some of it doesn’t come all the way out until the end. I had my suspicions.

The Summer That Changed Everything was part romance, part mystery and a messy situation on several levels. Messy is usually something I avoid because I’m not a big fan of angst, but somehow Ms. Novak writes it in such a way that it doesn't come off as angsty.  Once I started, I knew I’d have to read/listen to it all the way through! It wasn’t a story I’d have an easy time setting aside to continue later. I was riveted and had to know how it’d all turn out! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m still thinking about it!

I alternately read and listened to The Summer That Changed Everything. I thought Courtney Patterson performed all voices, males and female wonderfully with appropriate emotion, bringing the characters and story to life. 

4 Stars

Book Description:

She returned to prove her father's innocence, but there's no telling what she'll find…

It's been fifteen years since Lucy Sinclair saw her father. Fifteen long years since she sat in a courtroom and watched him sentenced to life in prison. He murdered three victims—all people she knew—which ruined her life at just seventeen. But now she’s back in Virginia to talk to him, wondering if there’s more to the story of what happened that fateful night.

An old flame, Ford Wagner, makes his own return to North Hampton Beach, fleeing a marriage that seems destined for divorce. He’s wary of Lucy and her digging into the past, but the more time they spend together, the closer they get and the more he finds himself reconsidering the truth behind the death of their mutual friend that summer. Problem is, there are plenty of those in this small coastal town who would prefer things stay quiet…