Happy New Year! I wonder how long it will take to shift over and get the date right. Muscle memory retrain time.

BookBub has a bargain suggestion for us, a three book collection. It appears I’ve downloaded books (including book one of this collection) from this author, Melissa Storm, and I’ve read the others but not this book one. It’s called The Loneliest Cottage, maybe I was shying away from lonely. I’m going for the collection and maybe it will be the push needed to get through and past book one.

Cottage, Light & Home: 3 Feel-Good Novels from the Sled Dog Series

Amazon quote:

These women are ready to take on the last great race… But they may be surprised where it leads them!

This USA Today bestselling series is now available in a special boxed collection for the first time ever. In Alaskan Hearts: Sled Dogs, three friends explore the world of dog-sledding and find themselves falling in love with the last men they ever expected to win their hearts.

Don’t miss the chance to lose your heart to a courageous team of sled dogs and the humans that love them in these three novels—The Loneliest Cottage, The Brightest Light, and The Truest Home—set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness.

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Several other Melissa Storm books showed up as bargains that I can’t resist.

The Sweetest Memory: (Alaskan Hearts Book 4) 

Amazon quote:

Ellie was lucky to survive what should have been a fatal accident. Unfortunately, she woke up with no memories of her past or what her life was before.

Recovery is slow, but each night she dreams of the same nameless, faceless man. It’s clear she loved him once, but she has no idea who he was or why he abandoned her in her hour of need. And as Ellie’s memories slowly continue resurface, she is horrified by the type of person she was before and questions how anyone could have ever loved her as she was.

Will she treat the accident as a second chance to right the mistakes of her past while forging a new future? Or will she risk everything that’s left in an attempt to reunite with the man that only her heart remembers?

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Saving Sarah: (The Gold Coast Retrievers Book 1)

Amazon quote:

A shy girl, a social guy, a second chance to get their stories right…

Sarah Campbell loves living vicariously through the residents at the Redwood Cove Rest Home. But when a surly patient insists she can’t die before “setting things right,” Sarah finds she may end up taking on far more than she ever bargained for… especially since all signs point to murder. Have she and her therapy dog Lucky stumbled upon the key to solving the most famous cold case in Gold Coast history?

Despite creating the world’s most popular social network, Finch Jameson lives a life of ashamed solitude. The last thing he wants is to draw attention to himself, but that’s exactly what happens when a distant relative delivers an earth-shattering confession in her dying days. Soon he finds himself more intrigued by the shy and beautiful nurse who’s committed to helping him solve his great-aunt Eleanor’s mystery than in the mystery itself. But will she ever let her guard down long enough to let him in?

Can Finch and Sarah work together to solve Eleanor’s big mystery before time runs out? And might redeeming Eleanor’s legacy somehow save them both in the process?

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I’ve read book 2 in this series.

The Long Walk Home: (The Church Dogs of Charleston Book 1)

Amazon quote:

Some say that whenever it snows in Charleston, God is giving a miracle to his most favorite of places. So, I reckon, the blizzard that bleached the entire sky that December must have been a blessing of epic proportions. It was certainly a miracle that I’d forgotten my cell phone after giving my Christmas Eve sermon and had to race back to the sanctuary in order to retrieve it.

Otherwise, how would anyone have ever known that right there in our famous nativity scene, a trembling, little Chihuahua had given birth to a litter of puppies? Yes, right there in the manger. O Holy Night for sure!

This is a story about how those special pups came to change our church—and all the people in it—for the better. Most especially my poor daughter, Abigail. Being the preacher’s kid is never easy. I know, because I grew up as one, too. But losing your spouse right while expecting to become a parent for the first time?

Well, that’s enough to make even the strongest of believers question God’s plans. I know I did. But then our Mama Mary Chihuahua and her Mini Miracles found us… And, well, I’ll let you read the story to find out what happened next!

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One more Melissa Storm and this one is FREE

The Second-Chance Waitress: (First Street Church Romances Book 2)

Amazon quote:

Small-town waitress Kristina Rose Maher wants to know why fairytales never happen for fat girls. When the doctor tells her she needs weight loss surgery to treat her diabetes, she sees this as a second chance to embrace life to the fullest and maybe even find a happily ever after all her own… Could the best friend who’s always been there for her be the prince she’s been hoping to find all along?

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One last one (a suggestion from BookRunes) and it’s also FREE. A total change of pace, it sounds intriguing enough to take a chance. I’ve not read this author so have no idea if it will be good or bad. As always, I’m anticipating and hoping for good.

Love Covers (Leaving Lennhurst Book 1) 

Amazon quote:

Two strangers hiding their own life-long secrets. Can pretending to be married…be that hard?

The town of Greenlock shuns the daughter of the mortician. Day after day, Lauren begrudgingly has to take over her father’s duties creating despondence in her tender heart.

Then a voice speaks from the morgue basement. A rough and tumble outlaw who’s supposed to be dead is still alive! For some unfathomable reason, Lauren agrees to help him stay dead.

Elias was raised at Lennhurst Asylum. Since he had no family or future, he jumped a half-served prison sentence and enlisted in the recent Civil War to wield explosives. From running and surviving all his life, all Elias promised anyone was loyalty. Love was out of the question. When Lauren mentions her longing to see her mother and sister in Colorado, for loyalty’s sake, he offers to take her on the arduous wagon train journey. Of course, it wouldn’t be proper not to be married while traveling together. Lauren and Elias, so vastly opposite; their charade should be easy and yet they never expected it to threaten their very lives.

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Eight new books. It seems like it’s always either feast of famine. Today is feast.

I’m excited about the appearance of diversity. I couldn’t make it through eight books with out it.

Happy New Year and happy reading