Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind, the American classic of war, loss, rebuilding and at its heart, a story of epic love, the story of Scarlett O'Hara  and Rhett Butler two of the most unforgettable and beloved characters in literature.  

 I see Rhett as representing the future and Scarlett, the stubborn ideals of the South, clinging to the old ways of life and doggedly determined to uphold the old ways, never realizing it is already dead and she has never conformed to it in the first place.  But just like the south, Scarlett picks herself up from nothing and builds a new, better life for herself and her family.

At times I wanted to shake Scarlett until her head snapped for her utter stupidity and manipulations. She is conniving and manipulative, willing to do atrocious things to feel security. But, but she has known harshness and brutality and while her means aren't what everyone would choose, she saves not only herself, but her family as well. But damn it, can’t she see she loves Rhett and has always loved him, that Ashley isn't the man she thinks he is and that Melly is an incredible woman?

I was surprised at how stupid she comes across at times. There are times when Rhett or Ashley make reference to a book or quote and Scarlett doesn't understand nor does she care too. She is clueless to understand people and see what is right in front of her face. But for all of her faults, I love Scarlett. She’s headstrong, determined and unwilling to be defeated. Despite her thoughts of jealously and hate, she takes care of the people that she loves, sometimes unwillingly.

Rhett Butler, one of the most dynamic and dashing leading men in literature. I just love him, his wit, his intelligence, his flaunting of convention. But most of all, he is one of the only people, if not the only who understands Scarlett, her fierce determination, what drives her – and he loves her for it. Encourages her where others discourage. He loves her in the sidelines and lets her be herself but all the time he is there supporting her.

Grandma Fontaine was one of my favorite secondary characters. Wise in her old age, she understands Scarlett as maybe only Rhett does and she gives advice and understanding to Scarlett who doesn't take the time to realize she’s not just a crazy old lady.

I think Grandma Fontaine sums up Ashley’s character best at Gerald’s funeral. Talking to Scarlett she tells her Ashley was raised to read books and that’s about it, he is a gentleman born and bred but he’s helpless. In the era of Reconstruction, well-bred families have limited choices, to rise above the ashes of their homes and re-make their fortunes or to let the misery overtake them. Ashley is of the Old South and he doesn't fit in the new south, nor does he try to. He clings to the old way, longing for a past that will never be again.

It’s obvious from the start Ashley is an ideal Scarlett has created and he can never live up to the picture she has painted. Ashley represents the old way of life and is too weak to thrive in the new. I've never had a liking for Ashley and the book sheds more light on his character. Yes, he’s weak but he’s so damn weak. Everyone claims he is a gentleman and in ways he is but he keeps Scarlett dangling for years knowing how she feels, knowing he will never leave Melly. I never thought Ashley loved Scarlett in the movie, admire and respect yes, but never love. And he doesn't love her now, but he does lust after her and he knows keeps her at arm’s length but never gives Scarlett the words to unleash her. He’s a weak coward.

Melly, he never realized until it’s too late how much he loved and depended on her. It breaks my heart to see poor Melly die and the two most important people to her never realize her value until it’s too late. What an incredible woman Melly is. A true lady but with a fierceness of mind and grit even in her weakened body. She is the backbone of these characters, giving them confidence and standing in the shadows as their champion.

There is obvious racism in the text but as a reader, I put in perspective first the time period the novel was about, the Civil war and also the time it was written, the 1930’s. Both are times of turmoil when those feelings streaked the American conscious. They are not my feelings, nor society’s, but once upon a time it happened. Gone with the Wind is about a time long past and that needs to be put in perspective when reading. I absolutely love Mammy; she is a force to be reckoned with. Iron strong, she is the soul of her family.

I loved the descriptions of the old south before the war, of beautiful plantations and parties, belles and beaux and a laid back way of life. It represents a time before modernity and machines colored the landscape, the determined and headstrong gallants rushing to war for their convictions, fighting a cause that was dead long before they stopped fighting.

The ending, oh the ending. I think my heart wrenched more at the end than at any other point of the novel. Damn Scarlett for taking so long to see what was in front of her face for years! I have mixed thoughts on what happens to Scarlett and Rhett. Mitchell left it open to the reader’s opinion what happens and I've two minds about it. On the one hand, Scarlett always gets what she wants in the end and the other are Rhett’s words (paraphrased) can something broken ever be truly put back together? If they do get back together, will Rhett be able to forget the past and have something wonderful with Scarlett?

I’m so glad I finally read this book. I loved every page and it’s now up there with the best books I’ve read this year, first or second and definitely in my all-time favorites. Now if I can just get four hours to myself to watch the movie again…

Quote of the Day

“I love reading another reader’s list of favorites. Even when I find I do not share their tastes or predilections, I am provoked to compare, contrast, and contradict. It is a most healthy exercise, and one altogether fruitful.” 
― T.S. Eliot

Coffee and Conversation

I have about fifty pages of Gone with the Wind left and I love it. Can't get enough of it love. I keep wondering if I should bother reading Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley, the "sequel" to GWTW. Has anyone ever read it, is it even worth it?

I know how Gone ends from seeing the movie countless times and part of me believes Mitchell left us with that ending for a reason and it's up to us to determine if we believe Rhett and Scarlett get back together. Insert big but here, I am still curious to see what Ripley does with their story. So if anyone has read Scarlett, is it worth it? Any good?

Fifty Shades Freed

Fifty Shades Freed is the third and final installment in the E L James trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey.

The book begins with Ana and Christian on their honeymoon and focuses on the continued evolvement of their relationship. Thrown in is a mysterious (or not so much) saboteur intent on destroying everything Christian loves.

This book is a whopping 579 pages. And nothing happens, repeat nothing! I cannot for the life of me figure out why this book is so long. Oh wait, James’s spends about five hundred pages giving the reader a rundown of Ana and Christian day to day life – they argue, Ana tries to talk to Christian, he sidesteps her with sex. The eighty pages left after that is spent with an outlandish plot involving Ana’s ex-boss.

I’m still stuck on the fact they are married after a long-term courtship of five weeks in which it was all roses and champagne. Oh no, must have dreamed that. It was high drama their entire dating (read sexting) span. Yet they are prepared to build a future together on that. Not as jaded as I thought after reading Fifty Shades Darker, apparently.

Ana is so worried and wrapped up in the thought that she is not enough for Christian, that he won’t be able to deny his sadist tendencies forever yet she constantly hints at “playing” and seemingly loves it.

I felt like the relationship between Christian and Ana was starting to improve in Fifty Shades Darker and now in this book, it resembles what they had in the first book. Christian’s controlling, domineering ways rear their ugly head big time in this book.  Ana seems to purposely piss him off and her antics make me want to slap her at times.

The same played out lines that were in abundance in the first two books are back and a new one gets a lot of air-time in Ana’s subconscious, or is it her Inner Goddess? She refers to Christian as her Fifty repeatedly, obnoxious. Although sadly, Laters, Baby seems to have been beaten to death and infrequently seen. Insert sad face.

There are over sixteen hundred pages in this trilogy. Each book averages over five hundred pages and not much happens in any of them. This was the worst for me in terms of redundancy; there are conversations where nothing happens, recycled conversations and meaningless chit chat. Isn’t that one of the primary writing 101 rules? These books should have been one book, there’s not enough meat in these to sustain them for sixteen hundred pages.

I would have liked to see more of Christian’s relationship with Elena (Mrs. Robinson). Instead it’s wrapped up in about two pages. So much importance was focused on their relationship and how it was the final straw in terms of Christian becoming the person he is and for it to be brushed off in two pages when I’ve had to suffer through countless pages of Ana’s Inner Goddess doing floor shows is a letdown to say the least.

If you have gotten this far in the trilogy, obviously you either love it or just want to finish what you started. I’m sorry I was curious enough to see what the hype was about, I could have been reading quality romance instead of wasting time on these books. 

Tea and Conversation

Happy Fall! I love this time of year for so many reasons but the one downside is the change of season inevitably brings the cold/flu season. My house has been a germ fest for a week now with Charlie and my nephew both down with colds. I've been fighting it for a few days and it finally got me. Of course I want to snuggle up with my book, a big cup of tea and chicken soup - which is not happening.

 I've been seriously neglecting Gone With The Wind and I feel like it is taking an incredibly long time to get through, (I haven't had a lot of time in the last few weeks to devote to reading) but I am really loving it. I've always loved the movie, and I think the book is amazingly good. There are things that are left out and Scarlett's POV lends even more depth to a wonderfully complex character.

 I'll be posting October's Book Club pick this week. I was thinking about making It  by Stephen King the selection to force me to read it. It's been sitting on my shelf since January but I've been too scared to read it, and if there's a month to be scared, October is the month. I have a couple others I'm throwing around too so I may chicken out.

What's everyone reading these days? Any good recommendations out there? Feel free to share!

Happy Reading everyone!

Quote of the Day

“It’s dark now and I am very tired. I love you, always. Time is nothing.” 
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife

Quote of the Day

“You know it makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch.” 
― Ernest Hemingway

Fall Preview Volume II

Here's the second list of books I can't wait to read this fall:



Synopsis from Goodreads:

Winter of the World picks up right where the first book left off, as its five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, Welsh—enter a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil, beginning with the rise of the Third Reich, through the Spanish Civil War and the great dramas of World War II, up to the explosions of the American and Soviet atomic bombs.

Carla von Ulrich, born of German and English parents, finds her life engulfed by the Nazi tide until she commits a deed of great courage and heartbreak. . . . American brothers Woody and Chuck Dewar, each with a secret, take separate paths to momentous events, one in Washington, the other in the bloody jungles of the Pacific. . . . English student Lloyd Williams discovers in the crucible of the Spanish Civil War that he must fight Communism just as hard as Fascism. . . . Daisy Peshkov, a driven American social climber, cares only for popularity and the fast set, until the war transforms her life, not just once but twice, while her cousin Volodya carves out a position in Soviet intelligence that will affect not only this war—but the war to come.

These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as their experiences illuminate the cataclysms that marked the century. From the drawing rooms of the rich to the blood and smoke of battle, their lives intertwine, propelling the reader into dramas of ever-increasing complexity.

As always with Ken Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. With passion and the hand of a master, he brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again.



Synopsis from Goodreads:
After a tragic stint in the National Guards, Adam Connelly returns to Idaho and to Belle Haven, the animal shelter he owns with his brothers. All Adam wants is to be alone. Then he opens the door to the past—the woman whose heart he once broke. Still gorgeous, still tough-as-nails, but this time, unusually vulnerable.

Holly learned the hard way to never depend on a man for anything. Now, of all men, it’s the last one she wants to see, and the only one she needs. Her father has gone missing in the Bitterroot Mountains and she could use someone with tracking skills to help find him.

For Holly and Adam, each with their ghosts, a trek this desperate, this unpredictable, and this intimate, will have its share of risks—including opening their hearts one more time



Synopsis from Goodreads:
Verity Grey abandons her comfortable job at the British Museum to seek adventure on an archaeological dig in the wilds of Scotland. But when she arrives on site, she discovers that the excavation is being led by a discredited and eccentric old man who has forsaken scientific evidence. Instead, the entire team is following the word of a local boy who claims that he saw a ghostly Roman soldier in the fields.

As she becomes entangled in a subtle web of treachery and danger, Verity begins to believe that there is a Roman sentinel haunting the site. And he's there to do more than guard the bodies of his fallen comrades...



No synopsis yet but you can be sure whatever Stephanie gets herself into this time, it's bound to cause hilarious antics. Maybe she will Finally settle down and pick Morelli!

Quote of the Day

“That, my dear, is what makes a character interesting, their secrets.” 
― Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted here, which spotlights new books we are anticipating. 

Only about a month left to go until I have Kate Morton's latest in my hands. Her historical fiction novels delve into the past to unearth long dead secrets and mysteries.Her books are engrossing, mysterious and hard to put down.  Her latest The Secret Keeper will be released October 16. 


Synopsis from Goodreads:
1959 England. Laurel Nicolson is sixteen years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.

Fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress, living in London. She returns to Green Acres for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday and finds herself overwhelmed by memories and questions she has not thought about for decades. She decides to find out the truth about the events of that summer day and lay to rest her own feelings of guilt. One photograph, of her mother and a woman Laurel has never met, called Vivian, is her first clue.

The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams, the lengths some people go to fulfill them, and the strange consequences they sometimes have. It is a story of lovers, friends, dreamers and schemers, play-acting and deception told against a backdrop of events that changed the world.

Quote of the Day

“People always think that happiness is a faraway thing," thought Francie, "something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up; a place of shelter when it rains - a cup of strong hot coffee when you're blue; for a man, a cigarette for contentment; a book to read when you're alone - just to be with someone you love. Those things make happiness.” 
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

New Release Tuesday

Finally! The only downside about long, epic novels is the wait in-between. Winter of the World  is the second in the Century trilogy, after Fall of Giants. I've been waiting for two years for this book and can't wait to get my hands on it.



Synopsis from Goodreads:
Ken Follett follows up his #1 New York Times bestseller Fall of Giants with a brilliant, page-turning epic about the heroism and honor of World War II, and the dawn of the atomic age.
Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants, the first novel in his extraordinary new historical epic, The Century Trilogy, was an international sensation, acclaimed as “sweeping and fascinating, a book that will consume you for days or weeks” (USA Today) and “grippingly told and readable to the end” (The New York Times Book Review). “If the next two volumes are as lively and entertaining as Fall of Giants,” said The Washington Post, “they should be well worth waiting for.”

Winter of the World picks up right where the first book left off, as its five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, Welsh—enter a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil, beginning with the rise of the Third Reich, through the Spanish Civil War and the great dramas of World War II, up to the explosions of the American and Soviet atomic bombs.

Carla von Ulrich, born of German and English parents, finds her life engulfed by the Nazi tide until she commits a deed of great courage and heartbreak. . . . American brothers Woody and Chuck Dewar, each with a secret, take separate paths to momentous events, one in Washington, the other in the bloody jungles of the Pacific. . . . English student Lloyd Williams discovers in the crucible of the Spanish Civil War that he must fight Communism just as hard as Fascism. . . . Daisy Peshkov, a driven American social climber, cares only for popularity and the fast set, until the war transforms her life, not just once but twice, while her cousin Volodya carves out a position in Soviet intelligence that will affect not only this war—but the war to come.

These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as their experiences illuminate the cataclysms that marked the century. From the drawing rooms of the rich to the blood and smoke of battle, their lives intertwine, propelling the reader into dramas of ever-increasing complexity.

As always with Ken Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. With passion and the hand of a master, he brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again

Gone Girl

Amy Dunne goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary to Nick. Nick is evasive and it becomes clear he has secrets, he’s telling lies to the cops and he keeps envisioning his wife’s bashed in head. But is Nick a killer? Flynn keeps the suspense building and the reader guessing as the pages fly by.

The novel is told in the shifting voices of Amy and Nick, as Nick faces the aftereffects of Amy’s disappearance and the reader is treated to conflicts in Nick’s actions and behavior. Amy’s story is told in diary entries leading up to the day of her disappearance.

As the story continues to unravel it’s clear things are not all cut and dry and Flynn takes the reader on a wonderfully twisted and heart-pounding exploration of Amy’s disappearance and the events in her marriage that may or may not have led to her disappearance.

I loved the shifting perspectives of Nick and Amy. It gave more depth to the characters as well as the story and raises the bar in the guessing game of did he, didn’t he. Nick’s chapters focus on the disappearance and investigation while Amy’s focuses on the backstory of their marriage.

There are twists and turns, a few of which I expected but most of which I did not and Flynn does it so perfectly she just slides it in when you least expect it.  The writing is brilliant and edgy. Flynn is a powerful storyteller and takes an oft told story and shapes it into something great with layer after layer of intrigue and deception.

At the heart of this book is a novel about marriage and love and how that can change over time and become something dark and far from the love and devotion it started as.

Another aspect of the novel Flynn delves into is the media as judge and jury. In today’s world, you can turn on the news and there is bound to be a story about a missing woman and the husband as the prime suspect. We’ve all seen Dateline but can the media skew our perspective, of course. Does it mean all husbands are guilty, no.  Nick appears guilty at times, in front of the camera and off, but just because he comes across negatively in the press, should we assume he killed Amy?

I am finding it really difficult to talk about this book because I don’t want to give anything away. All I can say is pick up this book and read it, you won’t be disappointed, and it’s well worth it. I hesitated for a long time before giving in, writing it off as something that wouldn’t live up to the hype but in this case I was wrong, it deserves the hype, Flynn as proven she is a master storyteller and I’m looking forward to reading her other books. 

Quote of the Day

 Happy 3rd Birthday Charlie!

"On the night you were born,
the moon smiled with such wonder
 that the stars peeked in to see you
 and the night wind whispered,
"Life will never be the same."
...

for never before in story or rhyme
 (not even once upon a time)
has the world ever known a you, my friend,
 and it never will, not ever again...

- Nancy Tillman, On the Night You Were Born

Quote of the Day

“I've always had a weakness for lost causes once they're really lost.” 
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind

Quote of the Day

What the heart has once known, it shall never forget.
- Unknown

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted here, which spotlights new books we are anticipating. 


Christmas will be here before we know it, but while I enjoy the beautiful fall weather, I'll be snuggling up with Susan Mallery's newest addition to the Fool's Gold series. A Fool's Gold Christmas is the story of Evie, the black sheep of the Stryker family and Dante, her brother Rafe's business partner. I reviewed two of Mallery's books during Summer Sundays and fell immediately in love with the Fool's Gold family and while the rest of the series is on my radar, I can't wait to snatch this up when it comes out September 25.

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The unrelenting cheer in Fool's Gold, California, is bringing out the humbug in dancer Evie Stryker. She learned early on that Christmas miracles don't happen, at least not for her. And this year seems like no exception. An injury has forced her to return to the family fold, no matter that they're estranged. She won't add to the awkward scenario by being seduced by the bad-boy charms of her brother's best friend, the last man she should ever want to date. Even when she's recruited to stage the Fool's Gold winter festival, she vows to do as promised, then move forward with her life anywhere but here.Jaded lawyer Dante Jefferson is getting used to the backwater town he now reluctantly calls home, but the pounding of little dancers' feet above his temporary office is more than any man should have to take! When he confronts their gorgeous teacher, he's unprepared for the attraction that sears him down to the soul. Evie is his best friend's sister—off-limits unless he's willing to risk his heart. Dante has always believed that love is the most dangerous force in the universe, but that was before he had to reckon with the magic of a certain small town, where miracles do seem to happen….

Quote of the Day

Remembering all of the victims and heroes of September 11 today.

To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die. -Thomas Campbell

Quote of the Day

“Never judge a book by its movie.” — J. W. Eagen

The Orchid House

When Julia Forrester was a young girl, she loved to visit the Wharton Park estate her grandfather worked as the gardener. There he tended the beautiful orchids rarely found in England and was renowned for his hybrids.

Now years later, Julia is back in England after the deaths of her young son and husband. Consumed with grief, Julia barely has the will to live, until one day her sister suggests they go to the estate sale at Wharton Park. There Julia is reacquainted with Kit, the current Lord Crawford, whom she remembers from her youth. Later Kit will bring Julia a diary believed to be her grandfather’s which holds many long dead secrets and will have shocking effects on the current generations.

The secondary storyline is of Harry Crawford, his role in World War II, his constricting duty to Wharton Park and an affair with the love of his life that will leave devastating consequences in its wake.

I thought The Orchid House was just ok, I didn’t connect with the some of the main characters and I wasn’t invested in Harry’s story. I couldn’t muster the sympathy I was supposed to feel for him. Instead I found Olivia to be the most victimized and sympathetic character.

The dialogue drove me crazy. I love good English slang and part of the novel focuses on the time period of World War II so some of the slang used was relevant to the time, but if I had to read one more “jolly good” or “old boy” I was going to throw the book. As it is, I was gritting my teeth through it.

Some of the plot devices were unnecessary and made the story less enjoyable for me. The climax and also the storyline involving Alicia could have been cut and the novel would have been more enjoyable for me. I would have liked the focus in France to be more on Julia coming to terms with losing Gabriel and less on what it was.

Then there’s the climax. Yes, I was shocked, but not in a good way. It left me sick to my stomach and disgusted. There was no good reason for it to be in there other than shock value. I don’t think it did anything for the story at all and the additional pages wasted impeded the story for me. It was just horrible and completely unbelievable.

Overall, The Orchid House didn’t cut it for me. I’ll happily wait for the next Kate Morton book if I’m looking for a wonderful English novel with depth and wonderful characters with an engrossing plot.

Quote of the Day

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.” 
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

Fall Preview Volume I

I love the Fall. As I get older, I appreciate it more and more. I love the smells and the colors, the crispness in the air and the chance to bring the hoodies out of the closet. And Pumpkin Spice coffee is my addiction. Fall is also the time when a lot of really great books get released. This year I have a lot of pre-orders I can't wait to get my hands on.

Here's the first volume of books I can't wait to snuggle up with this Fall season:

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

 I have been in love with Kate Morton's works since first being introduced to The Forgotten Garden as a Book club pick a few years ago. Her writing is beautiful and whimsical, haunting and unforgettable. Her stories are rich in the past and evoke fairy tales. Her books are always favorites and I can't wait to get my hands on her newest. Due out in October.

Synopsis from Goodreads:
1959 England. Laurel Nicolson is sixteen years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.

Fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress, living in London. She returns to Green Acres for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday and finds herself overwhelmed by memories and questions she has not thought about for decades. She decides to find out the truth about the events of that summer day and lay to rest her own feelings of guilt. One photograph, of her mother and a woman Laurel has never met, called Vivian, is her first clue.

The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams, the lengths some people go to fulfill them, and the strange consequences they sometimes have. It is a story of lovers, friends, dreamers and schemers, play-acting and deception told against a backdrop of events that changed the world

Reflected in You by Sylvia Day 
  Second book in the Crossfire trilogy, Reflected in You continues Eva and Gideon's story of damaged lovers. At first hesitant to pick up Bared to You since I hated Fifty Shades of Grey and not usually an erotic reader, I fell in love with Eva and Gideon and have been waiting for this book since devouring the first book. Beginning of October can't come fast enough.

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The hotly anticipated second book of the Crossfire Trilogy continues the sensual saga of Eva and Gideon that began inBared to You…the New York Times bestselling novel of “EROTIC ROMANCE THAT SHOULD NOT BE MISSED” (Romance Novel News). Gideon Cross. As beautiful and flawless on the outside as he was damaged and tormented on the inside. He was a bright, scorching flame that singed me with the darkest of pleasures. I couldn't stay away. I didn't want to. He was my addiction... my every desire... mine.

My past was as violent as his, and I was just as broken. We’d never work. It was too hard, too painful... except when it was perfect. Those moments when the driving hunger and desperate love were the most exquisite insanity. We were bound by our need. And our passion would take us beyond our limits to the sweetest, sharpest edge of obsession..

Mad River by John Sandford
 I've been a huge fan of John Sandford's since I was a teenager and first discovered his Prey series featuring bad-ass detective Lucas Davenport. A few years ago, Sandford broke out the Virgil Flower's series, featuring, you guessed it, Virgil Flowers. Virgil was a character I loved from the Prey books and his series has been just as good and has the added benefit of me getting my hands on two Sandford books a year with Lucas's book coming out in the spring and Virgil's in the fall. Also due out in October.

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Bonnie and Clyde, they thought. And what’s-his-name, the sidekick. Three teenagers with dead-end lives, and chips on their shoulders, and guns.

The first person they killed was a highway patrolman. The second was a woman during a robbery. Then, hell, why not keep on going? As their crime spree cuts a swath through rural Minnesota, some of it captured on the killers’ cell phones and sent to a local television station, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers joins the growing army of cops trying to run them down. But even he doesn’t realize what’s about to happen next.

The Perfect Hope by Nora Roberts
 Third book in the Inn Boonsboro trilogy, The Perfect Hope is my most anticipated in this series. Roberts has been building the story of Hope and Ryder since the first book, The Next Always and I can't wait to read their love story. This series has been really great and as much as I loved the Bridal Quartet, there is just something about the Montgomery boys that makes me love this series a little more. Due out in November.

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother are breathing new life into the town of Boonsboro, Maryland, by restoring its historic hotel. And they’re finding their own lives revamped by love. This is Ryder’s story... Ryder is the hardest Montgomery brother to figure out — with a tough-as-nails outside and possibly nothing too soft underneath. He’s surly and unsociable, but when he straps on a tool belt, no woman can resist his sexy swagger. Except apparently Hope Beaumont, the innkeeper of his own Inn BoonsBoro. And though the Inn is running smoothly, thanks to Hope’s experience and unerring instincts, her big-city past is about to make an unwelcome — and embarrassing — appearance. Seeing Hope vulnerable stirs up Ryder’s emotions and makes him realize that while Hope may not be perfect, she just might be perfect for him...

Quote of the Day

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” 
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Quote of the Day

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” 
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted here, which spotlights new books we are anticipating.   

I think it's obvious I love Jill Shalvis. Her Lucky Harbor novels are some of my favorite romances. In her Animal series, Shalvis focuses on a small town in Idaho, a veterinary office and the three brothers that run it.
Rescue My Heart is Adam's story and one I am very much looking forward to. Release date is November 6 but luckily Jill Shalvis' books always seem to come out a few weeks early. Keeping my fingers crossed it's the same for Adam's story!


Synopsis from Goodreads:

After a tragic stint in the National Guards, Adam Connelly returns to Idaho and to Belle Haven, the animal shelter he owns with his brothers. All Adam wants is to be alone. Then he opens the door to the past—the woman whose heart he once broke. Still gorgeous, still tough-as-nails, but this time, unusually vulnerable.

Holly learned the hard way to never depend on a man for anything. Now, of all men, it’s the last one she wants to see, and the only one she needs. Her father has gone missing in the Bitterroot Mountains and she could use someone with tracking skills to help find him.

For Holly and Adam, each with their ghosts, a trek this desperate, this unpredictable, and this intimate, will have its share of risks—including opening their hearts one more time.

Summer Sundays - The Reckoning

The Reckoning picks up where The Taker left off. Lanny and Luke are in London for the opening of an exhibit featuring some of Lanore’s possessions she has given away when she feels a sharpness in her head she hasn’t felt for over two hundred years. Instantly she knows Adair is free and does what any one would in her position, she flees London.

Adair is out of his imprisonment after being in the dark for so long and he has spent decades planning what he would do to Lanore when he was free. Now he has to find her and exact his revenge. He finds one of his former companions still living in Boston and begins to learn how to live in the twenty-first century.  Eventually Lanny and Adair are bound to have their reckoning.

I find myself simultaneously repulsed by and enamored of Adair. He is not a simple man to understand, no one has ever come close except Lanore. He has done vile, deplorable things in his long life and yet there is still something about him that pulls at me and I am captivated by him, clinging to the crumbs of his story and constantly wanting more.

Rich and multi-layered are the characters in Katsu’s novel and we are treated to even more depth from Lanore and Adair as well as a few additional characters. Their stories unravel as the reckoning draws nearer and Katsu sets a fast and furious pace.

As with The Taker, I have little feeling for the good guy, Luke. I don’t think he is worth Lanny’s time, I thought he was flat and I was much more interested in the immortals, both their past and present. Luke felt out of place to me and I kept hoping he would go away. Also, he was willing to throw away his whole life for Lanore, I never thought they had the kind of connection that would make that believable. I have always thought Luke was a means to an end, nothing more. Yes, I think Lanny deserves to be happy, I'm just not convinced Luke is the guy for the job.

Katsu builds the tension throughout the novel as the reckoning between Lanny and Adair draws nearer until you start to feel the same tension in your belly you are sure Lanore was suffering as she tries to outrun Adair’s wrath.  I wasn’t surprised at one of the twists leading to Lanore and Adair’s seeing each other again. I do wish there was more story after their showdown but my impatience will just have to wait until next year when the final book in the trilogy comes out.

The end left me distraught, I want to know more. I want to know what happens next. I don’t know how I will make it until next year when the final volume of this mesmerizing trilogy is in my hands.  I loved The Reckoning but if you are thinking of starting this trilogy, pick up The Taker first. 

Quote of the Day

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. 
                                     ~Henry James

Quote of the Day

“If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.”

— François Mauriac