Blogging Break

Hi everyone! Just wanted to put a post up that I will be taking a short blogging break (2-3 weeks) but that I will definitely be coming back!  With getting organized after the move and going on vacation to Hawaii next week I am out of time to work on the blog! However I will still be reading and already have reviews lined up so I will be back mid July for sure!

Happy Reading everyone!

Review: The Sunshine Sisters

Title: The Sunshine Sisters
Author: Jane Green
384 pages, published June 6, 2017

Note: I received this book from NeGalley to facilitate my review. I received no other compensation, and all opinions are my own.

From Goodreads:

Ronni Sunshine left London for Hollywood to become a beautiful, charismatic star of the silver screen. But at home, she was a narcissistic, disinterested mother who alienated her three daughters. 

As soon as possible, tomboy Nell fled her mother's overbearing presence to work on a farm and find her own way in the world as a single mother. The target of her mother s criticism, Meredith never felt good enough, thin enough, pretty enough. Her life took her to London and into the arms of a man whom she may not even love. And Lizzy, the youngest, more like Ronni than any of them, seemed to have it easy, using her drive and ambition to build a culinary career to rival her mother's fame, while her marriage crumbled around her.

But now the Sunshine Girls are together again, called home by Ronni, who has learned that she has a serious disease and needs her daughters to fulfill her final wishes. And though Nell, Meredith, and Lizzy are all going through crises of their own, their mother s illness draws them together to confront old jealousies and secret fears and they discover that blood might be thicker than water after all. 

After being extremely disappointed with Jane Green's last release, Falling, I admit I was somewhat nervous to pick up this book.  I am happy to report that I was NOT disappointed with this book--in fact, it's now on my list of favorite Jane Green novels!

Usually in novels with multiple character perspectives, it's common for me to prefer one (or two) of the characters over another one and dread that other one's chapter. Not so in this book! I loved all three sisters and related a bit to each of them. Ronni's character grew on me as well.  The book has a lot of depth and explores family dynamics, love, relationships, sisterhood, motherhood...everything you'd hope for in a women's fiction novel. The pace of the book was perfect, and by the time I got halfway through it, I couldn't put it down. I was so happy that I was enjoying her latest novel after Falling fell so flat.

My only gripe? The cover. I live the cover but it doesn't relate to the story AT ALL.  But...I'm a cover snob!

I definitely recommend this book for your summer reading list!

Happy Reading!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

This is a weekly meme hosted by Kathryn @ The Book Date.

Moving this weekend!! Probably won't have time ti read much this week...

What I Just Finished Reading

Loved this book!! Review on the blog this week!

What I'm Currently Reading

Thanks to the publisher for this ARC!

What I'm Reading Next

?   I just started Everything We Left Behind this morning so I haven't gotten that far yet!

What are you Reading this week? Happy Reading!!

Review: The Summer House

Title: The Summer House
Author: Hannah McKinnon
336 pages, published June 6, 2017

Note: I received this book from the publisher via NeGalley to facilitate my review. I received no other compensation, and all opinions are my own.

Purchase Links:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Books-a-Million

IndieBound

Blio

Google

iBooks

About the Book:

Flossy Merrill has managed to—somewhat begrudgingly—gather her three ungrateful grown children from their dysfunctional lives for a summer reunion at the family’s Rhode Island beach house. Clementine, her youngest child and a young mother of two small children, has caused Flossy the most worry after enduring a tragically life-altering year. But Samuel and his partner Evan are not far behind in their ability to alarm: their prospective adoption search has just taken a heart-wrenching turn. Only Paige, the eldest of the headstrong Merrill clan, is her usual self: arriving precisely on time with her well-adapted teens. Little does her family know that she, too, is facing personal struggles of her own.

No matter. With her family finally congregated under one seaside roof, Flossy is determined to steer her family back on course even as she prepares to reveal the fate of the summer house that everyone has thus far taken for granted: she’s selling it. The Merrill children are both shocked and outraged and each returns to memories of their childhoods at their once beloved summer house—the house where they have not only grown up, but from which they have grown away. With each lost in their respective heartaches, Clementine, Samuel, and Paige will be forced to reconsider what really matters before they all say goodbye to a house that not only defined their summers, but, ultimately, the ways in which they define themselves. Featuring McKinnon’s “sharp and evocative” (Kirkus Reviews) voice, this warm-hearted novel is perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Mary Alice Monroe.

This book was such a breath of fresh air and just what I needed to get excited for summer! It was everything I love about a summer read--beach house setting, great characters, and a feel good story that makes your heart happy. Normally in books with chapters with multiple characters, I almost always have that one (or two!) character that I'm not as excited to read about. Not so with The Summer House! I loved each character and did not find myself bored or wanting a certain character's chapter to be over. I loved each character's story and journey throughout the book. I found myself wishing I could go hang out at the house with this wonderful family.

I loved both of the author's previous books, and The Summer House did not disappoint! The writing and the story flowed well and was relaxing to read. The Summer house should definitely be on your summer reading list this year--it is a delightful read!

About the Author:

Hannah McKinnon is the author of The Lake Season and Mystic Summer. She lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut, with her family, a flock of chickens and two rescue dogs.

 

Connect with Hannah:

Website: http://hannahmckinnon.com

Twitter: @hannahmckinnon

Facebook: Hannah McKinnon – Author

Top Ten 2017 Releases Recently Added to My TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

This Week's Theme:

10 Books From X Genre That I've Recently Added To My TBR List

What's on your recent TBR?

Happy Reading!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

This is a weekly meme hosted by Kathryn @ The Book Date.

My life has still beeen crazy but things are moving along! We should be closing on the houses/moving in the next couple weeks! So I've been spending a lot of time packing lately and not as much time reading, but I hope to get back at it in the next few weeks after things calm down! :)

What I Just Finished Reading

Look for my review on the blog this Thursday!

What I'm Currently Reading

What I'm Reading Next

What are you reading this week? Happy Reading!

TLC Book Tours: White Fur

About White Fur

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hogarth (May 30, 2017)

A stunning star-crossed love story set against the glitz and grit of 1980s New York City

When Elise Perez meets Jamey Hyde on a desolate winter afternoon, fate implodes, and neither of their lives will ever be the same. Although they are next-door neighbors in New Haven, they come from different worlds. Elise grew up in public housing without a father and didn’t graduate from high school; Jamey is a junior at Yale, heir to a private investment bank fortune and beholden to high family expectations. Nevertheless, the attraction is instant, and what starts out as sexual obsession turns into something greater, stranger, and impossible to ignore.

The unlikely couple moves to Manhattan in hopes of forging an adult life together, but Jamey’s family intervenes in desperation, and the consequences of staying together are suddenly severe. And when a night out with old friends takes a shocking turn, Jamey and Elise find themselves fighting not just for their love, but also for their lives.

White Fur follows these indelible characters on their wild race through Newport mansions and downtown NYC nightspots, SoHo bars and WASP-establishment yacht clubs, through bedrooms and hospital rooms, as they explore, love, play, and suffer. Jardine Libaire combines the electricity of Less Than Zero with the timeless intensity of Romeo and Juliet in this searing, gorgeously written novel that perfectly captures the ferocity of young love.
“Each page crackles with the intensity, fury, lust, and pure insane pleasure of first love. Jardine Libaire has written a chronicle of one couple’s wild romance: its highs and lows, its delights and contractions, its beauty and its messiness. A delight to read.”—Nathan Hill, author of The Nix

“Brilliantly written and deeply felt, this is a love story by turns comic and tragic, but always moving. Whether her characters are on the social register or the welfare roll, Libaire is a keen observer of human nature.”—Philipp Meyer

“White Fur is glorious: dark, dirty, and sexy, lit up with yearning and raw, young love. Libaire’s sentences left me breathless. This is a Roman candle of a novel. I absolutely loved it.”—Amanda Eyre Ward, author of The Nearness of You and What Was Lost

“This sexy American fairytale about a star-crossed couple solidifies Jardine Libaire’s status as poet laureate of late nights and young love.”—Ada Calhoun, author of St. Marks Is Dead 

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes  & Noble

This book is beautifully, eloquently written! The writing drew me in from the very first sentence and from there I couldn't put the book down. This book is edgy, unique,  emotional, and quite brilliant. What first drew me to the book was the 1980's setting since I'm an 80's kid. I loved all the 80's references! An interesting read that keeps you turning the pages for sure! 

About Jardine Libaire

Jardine Libaire is a graduate of Skidmore College and the University of Michigan MFA program, where she was a winner of the Hopwood Award. White Fur is her second novel for adults. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Connect with Jardine

Website | Facebook | Twitter

View the rest of the tour here.

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