We have a backwards kind of post today. It’s been a slow day for suggestions and nothing good has turned up with normal browsing. Not so far anyway.
We’ll try a backwards approach to see if it works any better.
My favorite read in the last couple of days was a book that is still FREE. Maybe it will be a good jumping off place. I liked the flow of this story. I liked the characters and the way they interacted with each other. Mostly I liked the freshness of the story treatment and the way it drew me into the life of the characters.
Amazon quote:
Miss Amelia Stalwood may live in London at her absent guardian’s townhouse, but she’s never actually met any nobility; instead of aristocrats, her closest friends are servants. Quite by happenstance, she’s introduced to the Hawthorne family and their close family friend, Anthony, the reformed Marquis of Raebourne. They welcome her into their world, but just as she’s beginning to gain some confidence and even suspect that she may have caught Anthony’s eye, she’s blindsided by an unexpected twist in her situation accompanied by nasty rumors. Will she lose her reputation when the world that has only just accepted her turns its back on her, or will she rest in the support of the friends who’ve become like family and the man who’s shared his faith and captured her heart?
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This next one was a favorite too. Unfortunately it is no longer a bargain.
It’s Fantasy. I like the genre, but in a fairly narrow way. My usual response will vary between hot or cold. Not much in between.
I thought there were a few rough patches in the flow of this story but overall I did like it.
Amazon quote:
Having moved around from home to home her whole life, Faith Elvenwood doesn’t like to get attached. In fact, in her current school, she has managed to seep beautifully into obscurity, only ever needing to worry about her bully, Reese Grant. With only a little over a month left of her senior year, she thinks she’s in the clear.
That is, until the school counselor decides Faith would be the best person to show around new student, and fellow senior, Colman Nightingale. So many things don’t make sense about this. Why would the counselor want a self-proclaimed loner to be the new kid’s introduction to not only the layout of the school, but the social aspect of it? What is this guy doing transferring so close to graduation? How does that even work?
Despite trying her darndest to put him off, Cole insists on becoming her friend. Just when Faith decides that it might not be so bad to have a friend, he goes and makes up some grand story about her being the daughter of a fae lord. Yeah right.
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The next book this session was ok but didn’t hold up for me all the way through. It took skimming to make it through to the end, 385 pages cut back significantly would have been an improvement. Also, it didn’t deliver what the cover and the synopsis seemed to promise. The story went places that didn’t fit with my expectations.
Overall, it was still a good read though.
Amazon quote:
Britt Bradford and Zander Ford have been the best of friends since they met thirteen years ago. Unbeknown to Britt, Zander has been in love with her for just as long.
Independent and adventurous Britt channels her talent into creating chocolates at her hometown shop. Zander is a bestselling author who’s spent the past 18 months traveling the world. He’s achieved a great deal but still lacks the only thing that ever truly mattered to him–Britt’s heart.
When Zander’s uncle dies of mysterious causes, he returns to Merryweather, Washington, to investigate, and Britt is immediately there to help. Although this throws them into close proximity, both understand that an attempt at romance could jeopardize their once-in-a-lifetime friendship. But while Britt is determined to resist any change in their relationship, Zander finds it increasingly difficult to keep his feelings hidden.
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So this backward browse worked. Here are three bargains popping up. All of them have been in my downloads through the years but it is still good to see them.
Amazon quote:
Garner Bradford, heir to the troubled Bradford Shipping empire, doesn’t know much about babies. But he’s going to have to learn fast because he’s just become a single father to his newborn daughter. As he confesses through his journal entries, he’s not entirely sure how to keep a newborn alive, whether or not he’ll ever patch together his shattered heart, or how to forgive himself for his mistakes.
Career girl Kathleen Burke is wholly uninterested in settling down. She has big dreams, and none of them include Garner and his small hometown in Washington State. Yet she can’t seem to get her handsome boss out of her head or her heart. There’s something extraordinarily tempting about his beautifully sad green eyes.
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Amazon quote:
Damian Karlsson, the oldest of Those Karlsson Boys, has decided it’s time to settle down and start a family. Rachel Perkins has captured his attention, but she won’t even give him a chance to romance her. It seems to Damian she feels something for him, but still she resists. Damian is determined to find out why.
Though she is attracted to Damian and even finds his pursuit of her flattering, Rachel is equally determined to keep her secrets close to her heart. Betrayed in the past by men she’s loved, she isn’t prepared to take that risk again. But when her secrets are forced out in the open, will Rachel discover that forgiveness and trust are worth the risk when it leads to love?
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Amazon quote:
Juliette Gustafson is just fine with her quiet nights at home alone, especially when they involve Chinese takeout and romcoms.
But her sisters think she’s teetering on the brink of spinsterhood, so they’ve come up with a plan: weekly blind dates until she finds her knight in shining armor… or until they run out of single guy friends.
They’re calling it The Monday ManDates.
Survival skills kicking in, Juliette secretly names each new Monday Man. There’s TheraPaul, Frisky Frank, and TAZ the Rock Star, for starters…
Then there’s the police officer with a penchant for pulling Juliette over when she’s at her very worst.
With a lineup like that, positively identifying her happily-ever-after seems like a long shot.
Then again, maybe… just maybe… she’s looking for love in all the wrong places.
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I’m currently reading a story about King David’s final years (a Biblical story) and his successor King Solomon. This book was suggested a year ago and I’m just now getting to it. Recently, though, I did read another book suggestion based on the same Biblical account (an account scarce on details.) Each book has been fleshed out the same, only different. The skeleton is the same but the finished body looks different, having come from authors with unique imaginations. That’s what makes it interesting. The flesh-out is neither right nor wrong….. because no one knows the truth for sure.
Amazon quote:
Abishag has lost her faith in the God of her people. As the youngest and only daughter of her family, Abishag was loved and cherished, living within the safety of her father’s gentle heart. But when he dies unexpectedly, her cruel brother seizes the opportunity arriving at their doorstop, selling her into the service of the ailing King David. Devastated, alone and struggling with her waning faith in a distant God, Abishag soon finds herself falling in love with the King’s heir, the young Prince Solomon, whose poetry and passion draw them to each other in a tangled web of love, lies and deceit. Will the young prince who’s captured her heart still love Abishag when he discovers her true identity? Or will Solomon forsake his love and his heart in order to secure his throne?
I Am My Beloved’s takes us back to ancient Israel, drawing us into the lives of Prince Solomon and Abishag, the Shunammite. Together they are consumed by a love so fierce and overwhelming it threatens to fracture the monarchy, the kingdom and their very hearts.
Amazon quote:
The wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.
How could the wisest man ever to live turn away from following God? The key is in Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs that King Solomon wrote after his return to the Lord. Who was the Shulamite? And why did he call her his sister spouse? Only God knows the answer, but the wisest man who ever lived left clues. You will never forget reading this anointed story and may find yourself setting it down to wipe tears away or simply worship the great I AM.
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I really liked I AM My Beloved.
I wonder if I am my Beloved’s will sit as well with me.
Reading the synopsis, I’m leaning toward I AM My Beloved. We’ll see.
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It’s been a HOT day. The muggy sky looks like rain and thunder. Rain would be good right about now. In the meantime…
Happy Reading!
For the Love of Books 