It was especially difficult to rate this months list of recommendations, because I truly enjoyed each and everyone of the them. So let’s get started in the first book of the month, Tourist Season, we meet Ismay Chambers who is traveled to her fiancee’s family summer home in search of RNR and finds something she never expected. Next, we have a endearing (and incredibly down on her luck) heroine in Jenny James is Not a Disaster. The clues are in the title with this one, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Next we have A Certain Kind of Starlight. If you find reading novels set in small towns with characters you love to love or love to hate, Heather Webber’s latest will not disappoint. Finally, we have Rachel Hawkins latest novel that was released earlier this year, The Heiress. This novel takes family secrets to a whole new level, and you’re not going to want to miss any of the big reveals in this one!
Tourist Season | Brenda Novak
This was my first Brenda Novak book, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I was immediately drawn to the setting, a small island off of Cape Cod, where Ismay Chalmers plans to spend the summer with her fiance far away from the big city. Having just passed the bar, intending to find her small law firm, she doesn’t plan to weather a hurricane that hits Mariners Island. The West Coast girl finds herself completely unprepared for the storm, but when the property’s caretaker Bo checks on her, she soon discovers a kindred spirit.
Not long after her arrival, she makes a discovery that makes her question the man she’s going to marry, and the fact that his twin brother shows up unannounced with baggage of his own doesn’t help matters.
This is one of those books that you hope will end a particular way and in fact, it does end exactly as you’d hoped, with all the theories that you’ve developed during the book proven true. Perfect poolside summer read!
Rating: A
Ismay Chalmers is ready for a relaxing summer reconnecting with her fiancé at his family’s luxurious beachfront cottage. But before Remy can join her, a hurricane bears down on Mariners Island. Alone in the large house, Ismay makes a disturbing discovery in Remy’s childhood closet. She’s not sure what to make of it, but is relieved when the property’s caretaker, Bo, checks in on her.
Bo’s home is damaged, so they temporarily shelter together, and Ismay is comforted by his quiet strength. But the unannounced arrival of a family member puts Bo back at his place and changes Ismay’s summer into something other than what she wants—or ever expected. With so many reasons to feel unsettled, Ismay finds herself turning to Bo, who gives her more than a sense of security; there’s something about him that makes her feel alive, stirring her to wonder what life might be like if she chose a different path…
As Ismay grows closer to Bo, she begins to hope the reclusive caretaker might eventually let down his guard. But when she finds out that he has secrets, too, she begins to question how well she knows any of the men in her life—and how well she can trust her own heart.
Jenny James is Not a Disaster | Debbie Johnson
I absolutely loved this book. While it’s not out until July 9th, this is one of those books with an endearing lead character. Jenny James may not be a disaster, but her life turned upside down overnight. Her house falls down a cliff (literally) and it takes everything from her life so far along with it. When her neighbor (who saves her from going over the cliff after cherished photos of her son) invites her to travel with him for a few weeks to see if the “camper life” is for her, she starts a blog about her travels along with her new friend Luke and her son Charlie.
I read this book over a weekend, and I loved the character that Debbie Johnson has created. She has her flaws as we all do, but you can’t help but root for her to find her way in her new life.
Rating: A+
There’s having a bad day . . . and then there’s having a Very Bad Day.
Thirty-something single mum Jenny James is used to the typical run-in-your-tights, milk-turned-sour, break-a-nail bad kind of day. Attitude from her teenage son? Count on it. Car problems? To be expected. Never quite enough money for monthly expenses? Guaranteed.
And then arrives the Very Bad Day–when Jenny finds out her dull but reliable office job is in jeopardy, her car totally and completely breaks down, and she arrives home (on foot) just in time to see her modest-but-cozy cottage sliding off a cliff into the sea. Jenny’s life–not to mention her home–has reached its ultimate low point.
Estranged from her parents since she became pregnant at age eighteen and set out on her own, Jenny has nowhere to turn when she and her son, Charlie, find themselves without a place to live. Her neighbor, the reclusive but attractive Luke who lives alone with his dog in a surprisingly homey RV, opens up his camper–and his vagabond lifestyle–to Jenny and her son.
As the unlikely threesome–four including the dog–hit the road, Jenny finds herself experiencing a new sense of freedom as she reflects on who she was, who she is, and who she could become. Maybe when you fall, you actually find the best way to move forward.
Release 7/9
A Certain Kind of Starlight | Heather Webber
Heather Webber’s latest novel, A Certain Kind of Starlight is everything you’d hope for in one of her novels. She really is the ‘queen of small-town charm’ and this book is full of characters you’ll love to love, and love to ‘hate’. It goes between the perspectives of Addie and Tessa Jane, two half-sisters who after never having a true ‘sisterly’ relationship growing up, find themselves thrown together when their Aunt Bean (aka Verbena) calls them to come home. If you love books set in small towns, with lovable characters you can root for, and lots of family secrets just waiting to come to light, A Certain Kind of Starlight is just the book for you!
Rating: A+
In the face of hardship, two women learn how to rise up again under the bright side of the stars in A Certain Kind of Starlight, the next book from USA Today bestselling author Heather Webber, “the queen of magical small-town charm” (Amy E. Reichert)
Everyone knows that Addie Fullbright can’t keep a secret. Yet, twelve years ago, as her best friend lay dying, she entrusted Addie with the biggest secret of all. One so shattering that Addie felt she had to leave her hometown of Starlight, Alabama, to keep from revealing a devastating truth to someone she cares for deeply. Now she’s living a lonely life, keeping everyone at a distance, not only to protect the secret but also her heart from the pain of losing someone else. But when her beloved aunt, the woman who helped raise her, gets a shocking diagnosis and asks her to come back to Starlight to help run the family bakery, Addie knows it’s finally time to go home again.
Tessa Jane Wingrove-Fullbright feels like she’s failing. She’s always been able to see the lighter side of life but lately darkness has descended. Her world is suddenly in shambles after a painful breakup, her favorite aunt’s unexpected health troubles, and because crushing expectations from the Wingrove side of her family are forcing her to keep secrets and make painful choices. When she’s called back to Starlight to help her aunt, she’s barely holding herself together and fears she’ll never find her way back to who she used to be.
Under the bright side of the stars, Addie and Tessa Jane come to see that magic can be found in trusting yourself, that falling apart is simply a chance to rise up again, stronger than ever, and that the heart usually knows the best path through the darkness.
The Heiress | Rachel Hawkins
Wow. That is the first thing you’re going to say after you read the final sentence of The Heiress, the latest Rachel Hawkins novel that released earlier this year. Set mostly in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, this story is built upon secret after secret, which may include a side dish of murder.
The heroine/villain of the novel, Ruby McTavish is not only rich, she’s had four husbands, all who have died under mysterious circumstances, and an adopted son who she’s left everything to (including Ashby House and the ‘relatives’ who come as part of the deal.)
Told from the points of view of the surviving heir (Camden and his wife Jules) the past is revealed through letters from Ruby to someone whose identity is never revealed until the end of the novel, and newspaper stories written about Ruby and the McTavish family.
If you enjoy novels that lead towards the dark side and weave a never ending web of secrets, you’ll want to pick up a copy for yourself.
Rating: A
THERE’S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BAD.
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money―and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.
Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.
And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.
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