Bittersweet

Book Title: Bittersweet

Author: Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Author Info:

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• Author Bio

Publisher: Crown Publishing

Publish date: May 13, 2014

Disclaimer: “I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.”

Genres: Adult Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Gothic, Woman Fiction,

Description: On scholarship at a prestigious East Coast college, ordinary Mabel Dagmar is surprised to befriend her roommate, the beautiful, wild, blue-blooded Genevra Winslow. Ev invites Mabel to spend the summer at Bittersweet, her cottage on the Vermont estate where her family has been holding court for more than a century; it’s the kind of place where children twirl sparklers across the lawn during cocktail hour. Mabel falls in love with midnight skinny-dipping, the wet dog smell that lingers near the yachts, and the moneyed laughter that carries across the still lake while fireworks burst overhead. Before she knows it, she has everything she’s ever wanted: friendship, a boyfriend, access to wealth, and, most of all, for the first time in her life, the sense that she belongs.

But as Mabel becomes an insider, a terrible discovery leads to shocking violence and reveals what the Winslows may have done to keep their power intact – and what they might do to anyone who threatens them. Mabel must choose: either expose the ugliness surrounding her and face expulsion from paradise, or keep the family’s dark secrets and make Ev’s world her own.

My Thoughts: If you are looking for a mystery and secrets, you have come to the right place for you get a lots of that and history about the place. Though this book It start out in college and it really get more and to where you want to find out more. The family clan Winslows. There a all kind to find out.

Things you will find out about Mabel Dagmar. Mabel want to be friends with her roommate and be a part of her. She find so family secrets that snows about and some Murders to go along with. You will not want to put this book down for you will find that their two boys that are part of the clan and when they do. you either be surprise or shocked or even just wanted to know more,

g There is just so many things and if you like to head summers  or history in cottages and for you may want to read it. I though the author had me guessing wanting to read more and I was stuck with this book in hand for a whole day reading it and I really did not want to put it down.

Caputured by Love

Book Title: Captured by Love

Author: Jody Hedlund

Genres: Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Romance, Adventure, Woman Fiction, War,

Series: Michigan Brides #3

Disclaimer: I received this book from Bethany House for an honesty Review.

Description: It is 1814 and the British have taken hold of Mackinac Island and its fort, forcing American residents to swear an oath of loyalty to the British crown in order to retain their land. Pierre Durant is a voyageur–a fur trader who left his family home to find freedom and adventure. He’s been gone five years and when he returns, his family’s farm is at the mercy of the British invaders.
Torn between the life he’s grown used to and guilt over leaving his brother and mother, he’s drawn back into the loyalist fight against the British–and into a relationship with Angelique Mackenzie, a beautiful local girl who’s been befriended by the daughter of the British commander. As tensions mount and the threat of violence increases, both Angelique and Pierre must decide where their loyalties rest, how far they will go to find freedom, and how much they will risk to find love.

Publisher: Bethany House

Publish date: July 1, 2014

My Thoughts: Wonderful story about how life was kind of dealt with at that time. This story tell about the battle of 1812. There a lovely story about two people and their love. They have a few thing to go though. Their tail and error and you do learn about the fur trading and much more. It is really cool and fun way to see how the battle of 1812.There adventures in the book as well. It a book with leaves you wanting more. I so really would love to have read the other two books in series. I tend to do so at some point. Love history well this a book for you. Love American history this is a book for you as well. It has Romance in it as well. It’s a great book all around.

Reviews: Goodreads/Shelfari/

Blossom Street Brides

Book Title: Blossom Street Brides

Author: Debbie Macomber

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Pub Date: March 25th 2014
Series: Blossom Street #10

Genres: Woman Fiction, Romance, Adult Fiction,

Synopsis: Debbie Macomber has won the hearts of millions of readers with her moving and inspiring stories. Now wedding bells are ringing in the tight-knit community that gathers around A Good Yarn, a store in a pretty Seattle neighborhood. Knitters come to the store to buy yarn and patterns but somehow they leave richer in friendship and love.
Lauren Elliott has waited years for her long-term boyfriend, Todd, to propose, yet he seems more focused on his career than their relationship. When Lauren learns that her younger sister is pregnant before she herself even has an engagement ring, she feels overjoyed yet disheartened. Knowing she can’t put her future on hold, Lauren prepares to make a bold choice—one that leads her to a man she never dreamed she’d meet.

Newly married to her second husband, Max, Bethanne Scranton is blissfully in love. But with Max’s job in California and Bethanne’s in Seattle, their long-distance marriage is becoming difficult to maintain. To complicate matters, Bethanne’s cunning ex will do anything to win her back.

Lydia Goetz, too, is wonderfully happy with her husband, Brad, though lately she worries about the future of A Good Yarn. As she considers how to bring in business, she discovers that someone has beaten her to the punch. Baskets of yarn are mysteriously popping up all over town, with instructions to knit a scarf for charity and bring it into Lydia’s store. Never before has her shop received so much attention, but who hatched this brilliant plan?

As three women’s lives intersect in unexpected ways, Lydia, Lauren, and Bethanne realize that love heals every heart, and the best surprises still lay ahead.

 

My Thought:

The book is based on three brides mostly. The lives of Lauren and Bethannie and her relationship. Lydia with her husband but also dealing with her adopted daughter Casey. Lydia worries about her daughter relationship with her grandmother. Lydia also worries about Casey dreams as well. Bethannie has to deal with her ex husband and his things that he does between Bethannie and Max. Lauren has to deal with he long time boyfriend and her new boyfriend. I wonder how it all works out. You would need to read it to find out. When I read this kinda book I feel like I am apart of the families. There are times I want to yell at them as well.

 

My Review: Goodreads/Shelfari/Librarything/

Blossom Street Brides

Book Title: Blossom Street Brides
Author: Debbie Macomber 
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pub Date: March 25th 2014
Series: Blossom Street #10
Genres: Woman Fiction, Romance, Adult Fiction,
Synopsis: Debbie Macomber has won the hearts of millions of readers with her moving and inspiring stories. Now wedding bells are ringing in the tight-knit community that gathers around A Good Yarn, a store in a pretty Seattle neighborhood. Knitters come to the store to buy yarn and patterns but somehow they leave richer in friendship and love.
Lauren Elliott has waited years for her long-term boyfriend, Todd, to propose, yet he seems more focused on his career than their relationship. When Lauren learns that her younger sister is pregnant before she herself even has an engagement ring, she feels overjoyed yet disheartened. Knowing she can’t put her future on hold, Lauren prepares to make a bold choice—one that leads her to a man she never dreamed she’d meet.

Newly married to her second husband, Max, Bethanne Scranton is blissfully in love. But with Max’s job in California and Bethanne’s in Seattle, their long-distance marriage is becoming difficult to maintain. To complicate matters, Bethanne’s cunning ex will do anything to win her back.

Lydia Goetz, too, is wonderfully happy with her husband, Brad, though lately she worries about the future of A Good Yarn. As she considers how to bring in business, she discovers that someone has beaten her to the punch. Baskets of yarn are mysteriously popping up all over town, with instructions to knit a scarf for charity and bring it into Lydia’s store. Never before has her shop received so much attention, but who hatched this brilliant plan?

As three women’s lives intersect in unexpected ways, Lydia, Lauren, and Bethanne realize that love heals every heart, and the best surprises still lay ahead.

My Thought:
The book is based on three brides mostly. The lives of Lauren and Bethannie and her relationship. Lydia with her husband but also dealing with her adopted daughter Casey. Lydia worries about her daughter relationship with her grandmother. Lydia also worries about Casey dreams as well. Bethannie has to deal with her ex husband and his things that he does between Bethannie and Max. Lauren has to deal with he long time boyfriend and her new boyfriend. I wonder how it all works out. You would need to read it to find out. When I read this kinda book I feel like I am apart of the families. There are times I want to yell at them as well.

My Review: Goodreads/Shelfari/Librarything/

Firstborn

Book Title: Firstborn
Author: Lorie Ann Grover
Publisher: Blink
Pub Date: January 28, 2014
Genre: Young Adult,
Declaimer: I received this book free from Book Look Bloggers (Booksqueeze) for an honesty review.
Synopsis: In Lorie Ann Grover’s new YA novel, Tiadone has been forced to live her entire life as a female accepted as male in her community in order to survive as a firstborn child. But when she needs to pass the rites of manhood, she finds the Creator may have use for her feminine traits after all. 
My Thoughts: This book is okay. Though I do not really get this plot of the book. You get a look of what a girl has to do though and live in this society that was dominated by men. You also get a look at what a boy has to go though. Tiadrone stuggles with herself and her female. Their are trials that Tiadrone goes though. She also finds the truth as well.

Reviews: Goodreads/ Librarything/ Shelfari / Barnes & Noble

My Rating:

The Quilter’s Apprentice

Book Title: The Quilter’s Apprentice
Author: Jennifer Chiaverini
Genre: Adult, Craft, Fiction, Woman Fiction, Historical Fiction,
Publisher: Plume
Series: Elm Creek Quilts (#1)
Pub Date: April 1, 2000 (272 Pages, Paperback)
Source: Picked it out to read for an A-Z Challenge
Contact Author: Goodreads / Website

Synopsis:
After moving with her husband, Matt, to the small college town of Waterford, Pennsylvania, Sarah McClure struggles to find a fulfilling job. In the meantime, she agrees to help seventy-five-year-old Sylvia Compson prepare her family estate, Elm Creek Manor, for sale. As part of her compensation, Sarah is taught how to quilt by this cantankerous elderly woman, who is a master of the craft.

During their lessons, Mrs. Compson reveals how her family was torn apart by tragedy, jealousy, and betrayal, and her stories force Sarah to face uncomfortable truths about her own alienation from her widowed mother. As their friendship deepens, Mrs. Compson confides in Sarah the truth about why she wants to sell Elm Creek Manor. In turn, Sarah seeks a way to bring life and joy back to the estate so Mrs. Compson can keep her home — and Sarah can keep her cherished friend. The Quilter’s Apprentice teaches deep lessons about family, friendship, and sisterhood, and about creating a life as you would a quilt: with time, love, and patience, piecing the miscellaneous and mismatched scraps into a beautiful whole.

My Thoughts:
This was a well thought book to read. It about a Old woman and her home a bit along with quilting. We find out some things about Mrs. Compson. We also learn about her family history a bit and Elm Creek Manor. It quite a sweet story.

If you decide to pick this book up and start reading you will finding out the family history of Elm Creek Manor. Sarah is hired to be a personal assistant to help clean up the Manor. Matt is in charge of the restoration of the Manor.

This book is about forming friendships, relationships and quilting. You will be amazed by what all in the this book and what is about.

My Reviews: Goodreads / Shelfari

My Rating:

Review: Wildflowers From Winter

Book Title: Wildflowers From Winter
Author: Katie Ganshert
Genres: Christian Fiction, Fiction, Romance, Woman Fiction
Publisher: Waterbrook Press
Pub Date: May 8, 2012 (320 Pages, Paperback
Book Source: Received for Review
About the Author: Website/Twitter/

Synopsis:
Like the winter, grief has a season. Life returns with the spring.

A young architect at a prestigious Chicago firm, Bethany Quinn has built the life she dreamed of during her teen years in a trailer park. An unexpected interruption from her estranged mother reveals that tragedy has struck in her hometown and a reluctant Bethany is called back to rural Iowa.

Determined to pay her respects to her past while avoiding any emotional entanglements, she vows not to stay long. But the unexpected inheritance of five hundred acres of farmland and a startling turn of events in Chicago forces Bethany to come up with a new plan.

Handsome farmhand Evan Price has taken care of the Quinn farm for years. When Bethany is left the land, Evan must fight her decisions to realize his dreams. But even as he disagrees with Bethany’s vision, Evan feels drawn to her and the pain she keeps so carefully locked away.

For Bethany, making peace with her past and the God of her childhood doesn’t seem like the path to freedom. Is letting go the only way to new life, love and a peace that she’s not even sure exists?
My Thoughts:
I had tear running down my cheeks a bit. The story was heartfelt throughout the whole book. It was very good and I can not wait for the second book that come out in 2013 called “Wishing on Willows.”

This book is about letting go, facing your past, trusting god. It really is good and it captures all them though out book and struggles of each one. The book is mainly about Bethany. It also about Robin and Evan a bit. Things happen and you need to learn to trust and let go and face the past as it comes.

You still need to find your faith though this and learn to trust God with your struggles.

My Reviews: Goodreads/Shelfari/ LibraryThing/Christianbooks/Barnes & Noble

My Rating:

Note: “I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.”

Review: The Quilter’s Apprentice

Book Title: The Quilter’s Apprentice
Author: Jennifer Chiaverini
Genre: Adult, Craft, Fiction, Woman Fiction, Historical Fiction,
Publisher: Plume
Series: Elm Creek Quilts (#1)
Pub Date: April 1, 2000 (272 Pages, Paperback)
Source: Picked it out to read for an A-Z Challenge
Contact Author: Goodreads / Website

Synopsis:
After moving with her husband, Matt, to the small college town of Waterford, Pennsylvania, Sarah McClure struggles to find a fulfilling job. In the meantime, she agrees to help seventy-five-year-old Sylvia Compson prepare her family estate, Elm Creek Manor, for sale. As part of her compensation, Sarah is taught how to quilt by this cantankerous elderly woman, who is a master of the craft.

During their lessons, Mrs. Compson reveals how her family was torn apart by tragedy, jealousy, and betrayal, and her stories force Sarah to face uncomfortable truths about her own alienation from her widowed mother. As their friendship deepens, Mrs. Compson confides in Sarah the truth about why she wants to sell Elm Creek Manor. In turn, Sarah seeks a way to bring life and joy back to the estate so Mrs. Compson can keep her home — and Sarah can keep her cherished friend. The Quilter’s Apprentice teaches deep lessons about family, friendship, and sisterhood, and about creating a life as you would a quilt: with time, love, and patience, piecing the miscellaneous and mismatched scraps into a beautiful whole.

My Thoughts:
This was a well thought book to read. It about a Old woman and her home a bit along with quilting. We find out some things about Mrs. Compson. We also learn about her family history a bit and Elm Creek Manor. It quite a sweet story.

If you decide to pick this book up and start reading you will finding out the family history of Elm Creek Manor. Sarah is hired to be a personal assistant to help clean up the Manor. Matt is in charge of the restoration of the Manor.

This book is about forming friendships, relationships and quilting. You will be amazed by what all in the this book and what is about.

My Reviews: Goodreads / Shelfari

My Rating: