Adam & Evie by Marisa Concetta - Book Review

Book Description:

What could happen when the nerd of Roosevelt High becomes Hollywood’s next superstar? Answer: Anything. 

Before she became Evie Chase, Hollywood's Golden Girl, Evie was a nobody at the bottom of the high school food chain with only a handful of friends. Her best friend - Adam Fields - was a popular jock who always had her back. Until one day, he stopped, and they never spoke again. Fast forward three years, and everything has changed. Evie is out in LA living the dream as a seventeen year old popstar, Adam’s at home finishing off high school, and they are both trying their best to forget the past. They are living separate lives and everything is running smoothly. Until...Evie’s back. 

To avoid paparazzi, the young starlet returns to school in disguise. As the teenagers get to know each other again, Adam unaware that the new girl is his former best friend, they are both left wondering - did the past actually happen the way they remember it? And could their revived friendship turn out to be something more?

Where to Purchase:

Amazon:

USA: USA Link

France: France Link
Germany: Germany Link
UK: UK Link

Connect with the Author:
Twitter: Twitter Link
Facebook: Facebook Link
Instagram: Instagram Link

Author Bio:

Marisa Concetta is a Massachusetts native and graduated from Merrimack College with her Bachelors degree in Biology. 
She began writing her debut novel Adam and Evie when she was only sixteen, and since then, the novel has gained nearly five million readers on both Wattpad and Inkitt where she has nearly nine thousand followers. 

When Marisa isn’t writing - or studying - she enjoys binge watching shows on Netflix, watching baseball (particularly the Red Sox), running, traveling, and really, anything involving Disney or Disney World.

Book Review by Carmen:
There were times where I enjoyed reading Evelyn Chase's narrative; and would have been really interested if the story had carried on with Evelyn and Adam fields relationship in the limelight. I gave this book a four star rating and got a copy in exchange for an honest review. 

*Please be sure to support the author by buying their books and connecting with them on social media.

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Sojourn by Meghan McDonnell - Book Review

Book Description:

In Sojourn: Volume Eight of this existential and addictive real-life series, Meghan McDonnell travels to Western Europe for two months, loses a close family friend, and grapples with the meaning of creativity and life purpose. This is a deep dive in to the nature of existence, physicality, addiction, and redemption.

For 30 years, McDonnell has intimately chronicled her life beginning at age eight through present day. With searing candor and tenderness, her musings on daily experiences and observations of family, social and romantic relationships, and the interior life coalesce in a commentary on facing passion and fear, embracing the light and dark, and American life in the 21st century. Wide in scope and vivid and provocative in detail, her journals are her confessional love letter to the world. Join her on a fearless, vulnerable, profoundly surprising, sometimes painful and quixotic, but always honest journey, also known as the human experience. Readers who love Joan Didion or Cheryl Strayed will enjoy this author.

Where to Purchase:

Amazon:
USA: USA Link
Australia: Australia Link
Brazil: Brazil Link
Canada: Canada Link
France: France Link
Germany: Germany Link
India: India Link
Italy: Italy Link
Japan: Japan Link
Mexico: Mexico Link
Netherlands: Netherlands Link
Spain: Spain Link
UK: UK Link

Connect with the Author:
Twitter: Twitter Link

Author Bio:

Meghan McDonnell was born and raised in Seattle, majored in English at Western Washington University, and lived in Los Angeles for four years. She has held countless day jobs and recorded her experiences in her journals. When she’s not writing or reading, she spends time outdoors, solves crossword puzzles, cleans her house, does yoga, skis, watches vapid and extraordinary TV and movies, pretends to garden, obsesses over true crime podcasts, and imagines what it would be like to be an FBI agent. She lives in Walla Walla with her husband and two cats.

Book Review by Carmen:
I quite enjoyed reading about all the trips that Meghan went on in this book; and that she appeared to be more involved with her friends. I ended up giving this book a four star rating and got a copy in exchange for an honest review. 

*Please be sure to support the author by buying their books and connecting with them on social media.

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The Glass Forest by Cynthia Swanson ~ Book Review

Book Description:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Bookseller comes a gripping literary suspense novel set in the 1960s about a deeply troubled family and three women who will reveal its dark truths.

In the autumn of 1960, Angie Glass is living an idyllic life in her Wisconsin hometown. At twenty-one, she’s married to charming, handsome Paul, and has just given birth to a baby boy. But one phone call changes her life forever.

When Paul’s niece, Ruby, reports that her father, Henry, has committed suicide, and that her mother, Silja, is missing, Angie and Paul drop everything and fly to the small upstate town of Stonekill, New York to be by Ruby’s side.

Angie thinks they’re coming to the rescue of Paul’s grief-stricken young niece, but Ruby is a composed and enigmatic seventeen-year-old who resists Angie’s attempts to nurture her. As Angie learns more about the complicated Glass family, staying in Henry and Silja’s eerie and ultra-modern house on the edge of the woods, she begins to question the very fabric of her own marriage.

Through Silja’s flashbacks, Angie’s discovery of astonishing truths, and Ruby’s strategic dissection of her parents’ state of affairs, a story of love, secrets, and ultimate betrayal is revealed.

Purchase a copy on Amazon.

About the Author:

Cynthia Swanson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Bookseller, which is soon to be a motion picture starring Julia Roberts. An Indie Next selection and the winner of the 2016 WILLA Award for Historical Fiction, The Bookseller is being translated into over a dozen languages. Cynthia's second novel, The Glass Forest, released from Touchstone / Simon & Schuster in February 2018. She lives with her family in Denver, Colorado.

Connect: Website | Goodreads | Twitter |

Review:

This is a great novel. I don't usually read stories set back in time or history, I am trying to read more. This one put me through one heck of a roller coaster with my emotions. There really should be a trigger warning with this one. If you have been in a relationship with a narcissist, emotional abuser, controller you may have a tough time reading it. That being said I would sometimes find myself in tears and other times the hatred would be about to boil over. I just kept on reading as I needed to know what was going to happen to Silja and Ruby. The story did have a slow start but once you get into it you will feel like you are right there with the characters. It isn't an action packed novel but a literary fiction. 

I absolutely loved how the author would flip back and forth from characters (Silja, Ruby and Angie) also going back in time to have the reader learn about Silja and Henry's relationship. Suspense dripped from the pages as I read on. Would Henry give Silja what see wanted? What really happened to Henry and where did Silja go? Did Ruby have anything to do with this? You will need to read this novel if you love physiological thrillers. It was a great literary fiction that I would totally read again. I can't wait to read more from Cynthia Swanson. The novel was beautifully pieced together.

I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.     

~*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.*~

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Reading Quote March 7, 2018

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The Second Wife by Kishan Paul ~ Book Review

Book Description:

If you want to live, you must let go of the past...

Twenty-eight-year-old Psychologist, Alisha Dimarchi, is abducted by an obsessed client and imprisoned in his Pakistani compound for over two years. Forced to change her name and live as his second wife, her life is filled with trauma and heartbreak. Thrust into a world of violence and oppression, Ally must fight not only to keep herself alive but to protect the lives of the people she now considers family. At night, she retreats into her memories of the only man she has ever loved – a man she believes no longer loves her.

Thirty-four-year-old handsome surgeon, David Dimarchi, has spent the last two years mourning the disappearance of his wife. After a painful and isolated existence, he begins the process of healing. It is then that he is visited by a stranger, who informs him that Ally is very much alive and needs his help. In a desperate attempt to save her, David enlists the help of a mercenary. Together they find themselves in the center of more than just a rescue mission. Will he be able to reach her in time and if he does, will she still want him?

Purchase a copy on Amazon.

About the Author:

From daring escapes by tough women to chivalrous men swooping in to save the day, the creativity switch to Kishan Paul’s brain is always in the ‘on’ position. If daydreaming stories were a college course, Kish would graduate with honors.

Mother of two beautiful children, she has been married to her best friend for over 16 years. With the help of supportive family and friends, she balances her family, a thriving counseling practice, and writing without sinking into insanity.

Contemporary romance - Blind Love, Romantic suspense - The Second Wife, Contemporary romance novelette - Taking the Plunge

Connect: Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter |

Review:


This is a quick read as I feel the author jumps right into the story and hooks the reader. With it being such a hard story line it can be hard to read sometimes without giving into feels of anger, pain and waiting to help the main character get away and get back home to her real husband. This is a story of love, courage, inner strength to do what it takes to survive to get home. I found myself sitting at the end of my chair, praying that Ally can get through one more day, one more nasty encounter to get out and get home. 
The author switches back and forth between Ally & Derek's perspective and we also go back and forth in time. I found it flowed easy and I never wondered where the story was. 

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars and hope to read more from this author. 

~*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.*~

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The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum (book #1) by Kirsten Weiss ~ Book Review

Book Description:

When Maddie Kosloski’s career flatlines, she retreats to her wine-country hometown for solace and cheap rent. Railroaded into managing the local paranormal museum, she’s certain the rumors of its haunting are greatly exaggerated. But a new ghost may be on the loose. A fresh corpse in the museum embroils Maddie in murders past and present.

With her high school bully as one of the officers in charge, Maddie doubts justice will be served. When one of her best friends is arrested, she’s certain it won’t be.

Maddie grapples with ghost hunters, obsessed taxidermists, and the sexy motorcyclist next door as outside forces threaten. And as she juggles spectral shenanigans with the hunt for a killer, she discovers there truly is no place like home.

Purchase a copy on Amazon.

About the Author:

Weiss worked overseas for nearly twenty years in the fringes of the former USSR, Africa, and deep in the Afghan war zone. Her experiences abroad not only gave Kirsten glimpses into the darkness and light of human nature, but also sparked an interest in the effects of mysticism and mythology, and how both are woven into our daily lives.

Now based in San Mateo, CA, she write genre-blending novels: urban fantasy/mystery, steampunk/suspense, and cozy mysteries with a touch of paranormal. The mix just makes things more fun!

Weiss believes that life is as magical as you want to make it. Weiss never met a dessert she didn’t like, and her guilty pleasures are watching Ghost Whisperer reruns and drinking red wine.

Connect: Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook |

Review:

This is definitely a cozy mystery. Three friends that have grown up together are still there for each other even when a murder takes place in one of their business. Is Maddie's best friend a killer or is there something weird going on at the Paranormal Museum? Maddie isn't sure what she really wants to do with her life and has the opportunity to take over the Paranormal Museum and fix it up. 
I fell in love with all the characters, wondering who was involved with whom and if they could possibly a murderer. Right from the beginning I knew Maddie would love the Paranormal Museum but to try and solve the murder on her own without the police help? This is a fun cozy murder mystery with a back drop in wine country along with a fun paranormal feel. Do you believe in ghosts? This isn't a scary book or really much into spirit world. There is a few things that happen that could make one think there is a ghost in the museum. 

I give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed this book, it was a quick, easy, fun read that would be great for anyone that wants something they can read on vacation or when you need something you can put down whenever, just picking up where you left off without worrying about forgetting what is happening. 

~*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*~

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