Second Chances

Bargain books Part Two December 06, 2021

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I thought we had several more interesting suggestions. I must have been dreaming.

There is one great suggestion though, it’s another rare Davis Bunn bargain.

Unscripted

Young line producer Danny Byrd is well-known in Hollywood for being someone who gets things done on time and under budget. But when his reputation takes a beating after his partner–and former best friend–makes off with their investors’ money, Danny has but one chance to redeem himself and restore his ruined career.

LA lawyer Megan Pierce has sacrificed years of her life proving herself to her impossible bosses only to find herself disgusted at their snobbery and their specious business practices. When an opportunity to actually make a difference comes her way, she knows she has to grab it–even though she’s not entirely clear what “it” is.

Danny and Megan are each other’s best hope for redemption. What they never could have imagined was that they might also be each other’s best hope for love.

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With only one new suggestion we will be moving on.

I am currently reading and having trouble putting down, a book that isn’t anything like what I expected. It is so much better.

For the Love of Joy: A Coastal Hearts

Years ago, a Dear John letter and then an IED explosion overseas rocked Davis Donnelly’s world and left him unclear about his marital status. He’d signed divorce papers, but broken mentally and physically, he’d never bothered to find out if his marriage actually ended. Now that he’s about to start a new position as an outreach minister, it’s time to settle things once and for all. At the moment he tracks down his wife—or former wife?—she takes a tumble while chasing a little boy. Her son. And that’s when life flips upside down.
 
Joy Jennings Donnelly made her share of mistakes. But one thing she never considered a mistake was her child, and she’ll do anything to protect him. Even keep his paternity a secret. When she’s suddenly injured with not a soul to help her or her son, Joy is forced to rely on the man who has the most reasons to hate her.

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I love stories with depth to them. Three recently read and enjoyed books fall into that category. And they all qualify as favorite reads.

There has been a streak of favorite books this week and I love it when that happens.

And now back to the book I can’t wait to finish. Not that I want it to be over or anything.

Happy Reading

Bargain book November 27, 2021

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Bargain books today, Suggested by BookBub. An enjoyable author.

Not Until Christmas Morning: A Christian Romance (Hope Springs Book 5)

She’s a fixer… He’s about as broken as they come… Can they learn to turn to God for healing and hope this Christmas?

Leah has always been a fixer. That’s why she decided to foster a troubled teen. And it’s why she’s determined to give him the perfect Christmas. It might also be why she feels compelled to reach out to her grinchy, reclusive neighbor Austin. But she’ll have to be careful that reaching out doesn’t turn into something more—she’s been hurt by crossing the line from friendship to romance once, and she’s not willing to let it happen again.

After losing his leg, his friend, and his faith in Afghanistan, Austin figures he’s about as broken as they come. Hope Springs is simply a stopping point—a place to rehabilitate his leg, get over the burden of his PTSD, and get back into shape to redeploy. He has no desire to get to know anyone while he’s here, least of all the meddlesome—if sweet—woman next door. But when she calls on him to help her make Christmas special for her foster son, something compels him to relent. Soon, his heart belongs to both of them.

But what if Austin is too broken for even Leah to fix? Can the two of them learn to turn to God for hope and healing—and maybe even a chance at love—this Christmas?

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The second book is one I have but have not read. I must change this.

Not Until Forever: A Christian Romance (Hope Springs Book 1)

Sophie thinks she knows what she wants. Until she returns to the one place she said she’d never go again. And finds the one man she thought she’d left behind forever.

As she focuses on her career, Sophie doesn’t let herself think about what she gave up when she declined Spencer’s proposal five years ago. So when she’s called home to say goodbye to her dying grandmother, she goes out of her way to avoid seeing him. Of course, that means he’s the first person she runs into. Much as she fights against it, being near him stirs up old feelings and makes her question old decisions.

Leaving college to help on the family orchard cost Spencer the woman he loved. But he couldn’t turn his back on his family. Now that Sophie’s back in town, Spencer’s determined to protect his heart. Only he senses something new in Sophie—something that makes him think maybe they could have a second chance. But when his family needs him again, he feels like he’s repeating the past. Only this time, he’s not sure what choice he should make.

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I’m looking forward to reading these two, more than most others. I love that.

I’m currently reading a collection but may change gears and read one of these instead. It’s very tempting.

Family is visiting right now so reading is taking a back seat to visiting but I’m good with it. More than good with it. I love having them here.

It’s a beautiful day and life is good.

Happy Reading.

I’m wishing a good day for you as well

Bargain book November 23, 2021

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This book looks interesting. It’s a suggestion from BookBub this morning.

Hangin’ by a Moment (Deep Haven Collection Book 5) 

He just wants to erase his past.

The day Jack—formerly Winston Stewart—walked out of jail, he vowed to keep his conviction a secret. After all, it wasn’t like he’d committed a murder. Just a terrible mistake, and he did his time. Now he wants a new life in a sleepy town where no one knows his name. Deep Haven is the perfect place to start over as a chef. The last thing the former pararescue jumper wants is to get involved. But when Boone Buckam—his friend and the one guy he owes for getting him out of the slammer—asks for help, how can Jack refuse?

She can’t seem to escape hers.

Colleen Decker has already escaped evil once—as a teenager, she was kidnapped by a murderer. But she’s put all that behind her as a trauma nurse in Minneapolis. Or maybe not, because a freak mistake in the ER sends her past crashing down on her. She needs a timeout in her hometown of Deep Haven. She doesn’t plan to stay—even when she’s roped into the job of flight nurse for the town’s Crisis Response Team chopper. Colleen’s not sure why she’s drawn to danger, but she’ll be safe enough. After all, she’ll need training, and her teacher is a handsome former pararescue jumper. What could go wrong?

But facing the past might put their future together in jeopardy.

When Jack said he didn’t want to get involved, he especially meant his heart—but being with Colleen feels like a fresh start. He’ll even climb aboard a chopper again, despite his vows. They’re headed for a happy ending… But secrets never stay buried in a small town. And when disaster strikes one snowy night, they’ll both have to decide if the past will destroy them…or if it just might lead them home.

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If anything else shows up I’ll share it later.

I have enjoyed this author, I hope you do too.

Happy Reading!

Free and bargain mysteries October 18, 2021

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I stumbled across a mystery from a popular author.

Double Exposure: An Inspirational Private Investigator Romantic Suspense Novel (The Justice Agency Book 1)

The Justice Agency: Family and law enforcement go hand in hand

Photographer Jennie Buchanan unknowingly captures a drug cartel meeting on film. And now she has become a killer’s next target.

Even worse, her only protection from the danger that threatens her life is the man who threatens her heart. Dodging bullets almost seems safer than facing the feelings stirred up by seeing ex-FBI agent and ex-boyfriend Ethan Justice again.

Ethan vows to safeguard Jennie from the deadly men on her trail. And for a second chance at Jennie’s love, he’s willing to risk anything to expose the truth—about the drug smugglers, the past and the future together he still wants.

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1531 Entertainment has a FREE suggestion for us, another author we’ve seen often this year.

Pursued: Christian Contemporary Romantic Suspense

The man Cristina Torres has fallen in love with kisses her and then disappears for ten years. Now he’s back but with two detectives as shadows, and someone’s trying to kill her. Should she trust him or run for her life?

Dr. Chase Richards has fled his Christian roots long enough. He’s returning to his hometown in Tennessee to make amends—at what he thinks is God’s direction. But the way is not just hard, it’s almost impossible.

The girl he once loved is now a woman—and she wants nothing to do with him. In addition, the opioid study he started and left in Virginia has followed him across state lines. The police have warned him that he’s in imminent danger. His well organized life is no longer safe or ordered—and neither is Cristina’s.

Can he discover who’s trying to kill them before she becomes collateral damage?

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It’s a beautiful Monday here in southern Manitoba. What a great start to a new week.

Two new books on top of it. What could be better than that.

Have a good day, everyone.

Happy Reading

Bargain books August 23, 2021

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1531 Entertainment has a bargain suggestion from one of my favorite mystery writers. The sequel is also at a bargain price and I can’t help but go for both of them.

Silent Night Standoff: Faith in the Face of Crime (First Responders Book 1)

Amazon quote:

HOSTAGE SITUATION 

When armed robbers strike her bank, hostage negotiator Skyler Brennan’s life is on the line. Rescue comes from the last person she thought she could count on—the ex-boyfriend who chose his job over their relationship.

FBI agent Logan Hunter knows how much is resting on this case. The promotion of his dreams…and the safety of the woman he’s never been able to forget. But when an unexpected twist in the case pulls Logan in two separate directions, he’ll have to make an impossible choice.

Will he manage to have it all by Christmas—a career and love—or will he lose them both? 

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Explosive Alliance: Faith in the Face of Crime (First Responders Book 2)

Amazon quote:

RACE AGAINST TIME 

The last thing Krista Curry expected to find in a soccer stadium was a time bomb. When she alerts explosives expert Cash Dixon, she becomes a local hero. But the attention could expose her real name—and the infamous past she fought to escape.

Cash promises Krista protection from the bomber’s retaliation. Yet she hesitates to trust him as she sees his suspicion about her grow with every question she dodges. She can’t expect Cash to continue to safeguard her unless she tells him the truth.

Now Cash must decide if she’s an innocent woman or guilty accomplice. But the clock is ticking down—and the real bomber is still on the loose…

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This has been a good day for new books.

Currently I’m reading a piece that’s fluffy compared to hostage situations and bomb threats, but hey, fluff is good once in a while, right? It’s not total fluff though. It’s definitely got some angst and misunderstandings going on. They do say that tension makes a good story.

Love at Wild Harbor (Wild Harbor Beach Book 1)

One chocolate shop. Two fixer uppers. Three feisty sisters. One sweet love story to bring it all together.

Lily Woods never expected to start life over again at thirty. But when she opens a chocolate shop and buys a dilapidated beach cottage in Wild Harbor, she’s ready to begin a new chapter, spending her days and nights creating fabulous chocolate treats.

TV star Alex Briggs isn’t about to put his heart on the line. He’s finally landed his dream job as the host of a wildly popular home renovation show. Now he’s returning to Wild Harbor to flip a beach cottage, but he never imagined the project would land him next to the captivating girl who rejected him in high school.

Alex never recovered the piece of his heart he gave to Lily all those years ago. How will he keep his distance now that he can’t escape the girl next door?

Lily’s determined to fix up her beach bungalow on her terms, but Alex isn’t about to let her do it alone. Before Lily can stop him, Alex is on a mission to renovate her home and prove he’s the kind of man she can trust. But secrets from their past threaten to destroy their relationship before it begins.

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Happy Reading!

Free and bargain books for August 13, 2021

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BookBub has a bargain suggestion for us.

Show Me Best Friends: Small-Town Single-Father Cowboy Romance (Cowboy Crossing Romances Book 4)

Amazon quote:

A “steel cowboy” with a wounded spirit, an ex-cop who’s never forgotten him, and a baby in need of love… Can these childhood best friends become more? A sweet, clean, wholesome romance with a happily-ever-after!

Damaged and scarred after an accident that ended his racing career, Maverick Clark returns to his family ranch to find a new purpose. When he starts caring for his buddy’s baby, Maverick turns for help to his childhood friend whom he’d had a crush on, Vera. Soon he wants more than friendship. But what does he have to offer her now?

At thirty-seven, jobless, husbandless, and childless, Vera Tsareva feels like she took a wrong turn somewhere. But once the road takes her back to her hometown to help her grandmother, she begins working with Maverick, the guy she’s tried to forget for many years. They even go on a trip to the other side of the world together, but he’s closed off his heart to her.

When their investigation into the baby’s parents leads her to a shocking discovery, is she close to her longed-for destination of love and happiness, or is she at a dead end?

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BookRunes has a FREE suggestion we’ve seen before but I think it’s worth seeing again.

On His Bended Knee: a Sweet Marriage of Convenience series (The Brides of Purple Heart Ranch Book 1)

Amazon qute:

She needed a place to stay. He needed to save his ranch. Together they just might make a home.

Sgt. Dylan Banks lost more than just his leg in the war. His fiancée and family turned their backs on him as well. Now, he’s determined to create a safe place where wounded warriors like himself can heal. But a hidden zoning law requires all residents of the Purple Heart Ranch to be married. To save his dream, Dylan and his men will have to tie the knot—but can a man with such deep scars inside and out believe in love again?

Maggie Shaw lost both her job as a veterinary technician and her apartment on the same day. Who knew her unreasonable landlord would kick her out for being four dogs over the one pet limit? Now, she and her gang of special-needs dogs are in trouble. Fate puts her in Dylan’s path with a proposal that seems too good to be true—but can her heart bear a loveless marriage of convenience?

Dylan yearns to reach out for Maggie’s healing touch, but he keeps his distance, convinced his wounds are too deep for her embrace. Maggie sees past Dylan’s injuries, but if she fails to capture his heart they both could lose it all: her beloved animals, his ranch, and each other.

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I’m enjoying the cooler weather we are having these days, even more than I usually do. It’s going to heat up again over the weekend, that’s why, 30-35 C.

I’d better get to the grocery store before it hits.

Happy Friday folks

Free books August 12, 2021

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LPC Books has two FREE suggestions. I’ve read them both and they are worth seeing again.

Desert Willow by Patricia Beal

Amazon quote:

After a failed engagement, Captain Andrew Lee James has focused on building a career in the Army he loves. That commitment includes helping a feisty, out-of-work ballerina whose devotion to her grandmother’s dying wish immediately grabs his heart. She’s the one, but will he be able to win the heart of a woman who has vowed to never be involved with a soldier?

College graduate Clara Malone swore to never love anyone in the military again but when her dying grandmother asks her to deliver a love letter to the general who broke her heart decades ago, she agrees and finds herself escorted by a handsome Army captain whose kindness challenges her beliefs. Surrounded by desert willows that shower her path with pretty pink flowers and sing with the buzzing of hummingbirds, Clara enjoys the wild beauty of El Paso—and her time with Andrew—more than expected.

Can she deliver her grandmother’s last love letter without losing her heart to a man who represents everything she fears?

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Above the Fold

Amazon quote:

After losing the love of her life to a big city journalism job, Elissa Tillman pours herself into the suffragette movement and her secretarial work helping keep her father’s Pittsburgh newspaper afloat.

Cole Parker returns to the steel city with the phantom failures of his past nipping his heels. All he asks of the future is a second chance with the woman he once spurned.

The murder of a millionaire offers the perfect chance for Elissa to prove to her father and the world that she’s a serious journalist. But there’s a catch—she has to compete for the story. Against none other than Cole Parker, the very man who shattered her heart.

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This was a late arriving suggestion email and morning is still a ways off. We will just go ahead and post.

Besides, I have a busy day tomorrow, this will make sure I don’t miss my posting deadline. Today, the 11th, was day 60 in my posting streak. Can’t mess that up.

Happy Reading

Read and enjoyed July 30, 2021

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This collection was my favorite recent read and there was even a favorite in the midst of these six. Book 5 Sharp as Steele was, without question, my favorite. I managed to finish the whole thing sooner than expected as books 3 and 6 appeared somewhere else along my reading path and I didn’t feel the need to read them more than once.

Tightrope by Mary Alford and more

Amazon quote for book 5:

SHARP AS STEELE
A too handsome for his own good private investigator.
A stalker who claims she is his.
A new job turns deadly.
A final confrontation could end it all.
Can Lana and Lance out run a man filled with an insane desire to claim Lana as his own?

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What’s next? It’s a tough decision.

Maybe I’ll try the Western cowboy style read this time. I’m looking for a single book rather than a collection for a read or two. It should help things move along a little faster, hopefully. I don’t believe I’ve read this author before either. I’ll try and let you know what it as like.

Cassandra and the Cowboy (Texas Treasures Book 1) 

Cassandra Pickett is one prayer away from giving up on God.

The tragic death of her father and the devastating results of the Great Drought of 1886 have centered the family ranch in the crosshairs of the Goose Neck Ridge Bank of Texas. Desperate to save the Triple P, Cassandra sees only one option: marriage to Phillip Brigham, the local cattle baron, who has promised to repay her father’s loan.

Matt Atkins is a man driven by his mission.
When the enigmatic cowboy shows up looking for a job, he convinces Cassandra that he’ll be an asset to the ranch. As they work side by side, Cassandra’s feelings for Matt deepen, and she envisions the possibility of marrying for love, not for necessity. But her dreams are shattered when she discovers that Matt harbors a hidden agenda for the Triple P. Will Cassandra have to turn to Phillip after all, or will God take the shards of her broken dreams and create something beyond what she dared hope for?

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Happy reading y’all.

Free and bargain books July 27, 2021

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LPCBooks has several FREE suggestions for us. Both with authors new to me.

Retribution Road 

Amazon quote:

Gabe Jones—an underwater investigative diver with an unusual gift—has a way of finding trouble. This time though trouble finds him.

Carol Evans helped Gabe Jones survive his last adventure. Now they are a couple and Carol needs his help. Carol’s son, Paul, has made some decisions recently that have led him straight into a deep dark world of trouble. His disappearance has the whole family questioning what this kid has been up to and who exactly is the dead girl in his truck, which was submerged in a watery tomb. As they try and unravel Paul’s disappearance, the answers they uncover lead them on the chase of a lifetime that crosses state lines and national borders.

Carol and Gabe also find themselves needing help and support from Carol’s dad Tom, a retired Texas Ranger, who has a few problems of his own. A plane flown by family friends and the son of a well-known senator has crashed into Texas waters. When Gabe dives on the wreckage, he discovers a Pandora’s box of evidence that links Tom’s friends to Paul’s disappearance into a world filled with crime and violence. Homes and families are destroyed. Every action brings retribution until it appears no one will be left standing. Only total annihilation—or a miracle—will stop the killing. Someone must make the hard choices. Who will it be?

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This next one is from a new YA writer.

Fade to White

Amazon quote:

Thea Fenton’s life looks picture-perfect, but inside, she is falling apart. Wracked by anxiety no one seems to understand or care about, she resorts to self-harm to deflect the pain inside.

When a local teen commits suicide, Thea’s anxiety skyrockets. Unexplainable things happen, leaving her feeling trapped within her own chaotic mind. The lines between reality and another world start to blur, and her previously mundane issues seem more daunting and insurmountable than ever.

Then she meets Khi, a mysterious new boy from the coffee shop who seems to know her better than she knows herself—and doesn’t think she’s crazy. His quiet confidence and unfounded familiarity draw her into an unconventional friendship.

Khi journeys with her through grief, fear, and confusion to arrive at compassion for the one person Thea never thought she could love.

A deeply transformational novel from an authentic new voice in Christian young adult fiction.

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1531 Entertainment has a bargain suggestion for us.

Melody of Love: Story of Hope, Redemption, and Second Chances (The Potter’s House Books (Three) Book 4) 

Amazon quote:

She’s fleeing an abusive relationship, he’s grieving his wife’s death…

When Melody Grayson escapes a verbally and emotionally abusive relationship, she flees with her four-year-old son to her brother’s home in the seaside town of Windmaroo.

Broken and scarred, she starts rebuilding her life amongst the tightly knit Christian community.

And with the help of her brother’s best friend, Tim Rogers.

Tim lost his wife and unborn child in a car accident four years earlier. He finds solace in surfing, and in his band, Heaven Bound. He’s still grieving his loss, but he knows that God has a plan for his life. When he meets Melody, he wonders if she might be part of it.

When an awful accident occurs, Melody and Tim are thrust together, but can she learn to trust God and open her heart to love?

Melody of Love is Book 4 in The Potter’s House Books Series Three. Stories of ‘hope, redemption and second chances.’ Read this Contemporary Christian Romance today and be blessed.

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Not a bad day for books.

Happy Reading!