Jersey Girl Book Reviews: Authentic Books

Showing posts with label Authentic Books. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore (Book Review)

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Publication Date: March 28, 2023

Format: Paperback - 353 pages

Kindle - 3065 KB

Audiobook - 11 Hours 7 Minutes

Nook - 2 MB

ISBN: 978-1728256214
ASIN (Kindle): B0B4BQXYNR

ASIN (Audiobook): B0BTB55X75
BNID: 978-1728256238

Genre: Women's Fiction

Buy The Book:

Amazon

Audible Audiobook

Barnes & Noble

Goodreads

Disclaimer: I purchased a copy of the book from Authentic Books.

Book Description:

A young librarian and an old curmudgeon forge the unlikeliest of friendships in this charming, feel-good novel about one misfit book club and the lives (and loves) it changed along the way.

Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely...but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane's day that when Arthur doesn't show up one morning, she's instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another.

Anxious, Sloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden...and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur's gloomy life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart—and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages.

Books have a way of bringing even the loneliest of souls together...

My Book Review:

In The Lonely Hearts Book Club, author Lucy Gilmore transports the reader to the lakeside town of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to follow a group of misfits who unexpectedly come together and start a book club that ultimately helps them form a bond of friendship.

Librarian Sloane Parker looks forward to her daily banter with crotchety Arthur McLachlan. But after several days of noticing that Arthur hasn't been to the library, Sloane goes against library policy and goes to Arthur's house and finds him in poor health. Sloane's thoughtfulness gets her fired from the library, but what she finds is a group of people who come together to assist Arthur while forming a book club. As they learn that each is dealing with their own individual personal issues, a bond of friendship and support grows among them, and they rediscover themselves, and learn the true meaning of love, friendship, family and moving forward with their lives.

In The Lonely Hearts Book Club, author Lucy Gilmore easily captivates her readers' attention with this beautifully written tale through a seamless and flowing storyline told in the alternating first person narrative from a cast of quirky characters who draw you into their lives with a strong emotional pull, along with their complexities, flaws, fears, heartaches, heartbreaks, longheld secrets, and the love of books. The story has a great mixture of humor and compassion that will engage the reader to follow along as the friends' story unfolds.

The Lonely Hearts Book Club is a heartwarming story that engages the reader to follow along as an unlikely group of misfits form a bond of friendship as they discover that life is full of humor, heartache, family, friendship, books, and second chances.

RATING: 5 STARS

About The Author

Lucy Gilmore is a celebrated novelist in a wide range of genres, including literary fiction, contemporary romance, and cozy mystery. She began her reading (and writing) career as an English literature major and ended as a book lover without all those pesky academic papers attached. She lives in Spokane, WA with her family.

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun (Book Review)

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun

Publisher: Atria Books

Publication Date: November 1, 2022

Format: Hardcover (BOTM) - 345 pages

Paperback - 345 pages

Audiobook - 10 Hours 38 Minutes

Kindle - 2113 KB

Nook - 3 MB

ISBN (HC/PB): 978-1982191139
ASIN (Audiobook): B09XRG94Q6

ASIN (Kindle): B09RX41673
BNID: 978-1982191146
Genre: LGBTQ Holiday Romantic Comedy

Buy The Book:

Amazon

Audiobook

Barnes & Noble

Goodreads

Disclaimer: I purchased a copy of the book from my monthly book club subscription from Book Of The Month (BOTM) and Authentic Books.

Book Description:

The author of The Charm Offensive returns with a festive romantic comedy about a woman who fakes an engagement with her landlord…only to fall for his sister.

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money.

Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.

Perfect for fans of Written in the Stars and One Day in December, Kiss Her Once for Me is the queer holiday rom-com that you’ll want to cozy up with next to the fire.

Book Excerpt: https://a.co/89d7jRF

My Book Review:

In Kiss Her Once For Me, author Alison Cochrun weaves an entertaining LGBTQ holiday romantic comedy tale that follows the trials and tribulations of Ellie Oliver, when she finds herself in a fake relationship with a man while being in love with his sister!

Author Alison Cochrun weaves a sassy tale full of humor and drama that easily draws the reader into Ellie's story as a down-and-out animator who finds herself in a crazy predicament when she agrees to be in a fake relationship with Andrew Kim-Prescott, a wealthy real estate investor, who needs to be married in order to receive his grandfather's inheritance. While at Andrew's family cabin for the Christmas holiday, Ellie discovers that a one-night stand she had last Christmas Eve with a woman is Andrew's sister Jack (Jacqueline)! Follow along as Ellie gets caught up in a hot mess of a situation when the week at the cabin turns into a love trapezoid between Ellie, Andrew, Jack and Jack's BFF Dylan. What should Ellie do: go through with the fake relationship in order to get ten precent of Andrew's inheritance, or tell the truth and profess her love for Jack?

In Kiss Her Once For Me, the focus is on how Ellie deals with the challenges in her life in addition to the complication of being in a flux over her feelings for Jack while in a fake relationship with Andrew. This is a slow building story that meanders along alternating between the present day with Ellie's webcomic series that she creates about what happened with Jack last Christmas Eve. There is a lot of drama, angst, and dysfunction that follows the characters while at the family cabin, sometimes it drags on a bit too much, but the redeeming quality is the hysterical antics of Andrew and Jack's grammies Meemaw (Barbara) and Lovey (Laverne), who make the story a bit lighter and gave me the giggles. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I loved the holiday theme that was created at the cabin, who doesn't love baking Christmas cookies, snowball fights, ugly Christmas sweaters, and decorating the Christmas tree.

Kiss Her Once For Me is the second LGBTQ holiday romantic comedy that I read during the holiday season, and while it is not a usual genre that I read, I did enjoy the story, but I wasn't used to the queer trope or the explicit sex scenes that are usually not included in a generic rom-com story. That being said, I couldn't help but follow along as Ellie, Andrew, Jack, and Dylan found a second chance at romance through an angsty and emotional roller coaster ride of a Christmas holiday.

RATING: 4 STARS

About The Author

Alison Cochrun is a high school English teacher living outside Portland, Oregon. When she's not reading and writing queer love stories, you can find her torturing teenagers with Shakespeare, crafting perfect travel itineraries, hate-watching reality dating shows, and searching for the best happy hour nachos. You can find her on Instagram or at her website www.alisoncochrun.com.

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner (Book Review)

Book Review

The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner

Publisher: Atria Books

Publication Date: May 10, 2022

Format: Hardcover - 414 pages

Paperback - 432 pages

Audiobook - 14 Hours 19 Minutes

Kindle - 2104 KB

Nook - 3 MB

ISBN (HC): 978-1501133572

ISBN (PB): 978-1501133589

ASIN (Audiobook): B099TCWF72

ASIN (Kindle): B09969JBFG

BNID: 978-1501133596

Genre: Women's Fiction

Buy The Book:

Amazon

Audiobook

Barnes & Noble

Books A Million (BAM)

Indie Bound

Goodreads

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I also purchaced a copy of the book from Authentic Books monthly book box subscription.

Book Description:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of That Summer comes another heartfelt and unputdownable novel of family, secrets, and the ties that bind.

When her twenty-two-year-old stepdaughter announces her engagement to her pandemic boyfriend, Sarah Danhauser is shocked. But the wheels are in motion. Headstrong Ruby has already set a date (just three months away!) and spoken to her beloved safta, Sarah’s mother Veronica, about having the wedding at the family’s beach house on Cape Cod. Sarah might be worried, but Veronica is thrilled to be bringing the family together one last time before putting the big house on the market.

But the road to a wedding day usually comes with a few bumps. Ruby has always known exactly what she wants, but as the wedding date approaches, she finds herself grappling with the wounds left by the mother who walked out when she was a baby. Veronica ends up facing unexpected news, thanks to her meddling sister, and must revisit the choices she made long ago, when she was a bestselling novelist with a different life. Sarah’s twin brother, Sam, is recovering from a terrible loss, and confronting big questions about who he is—questions he hopes to resolve during his stay on the Cape. Sarah’s husband, Eli, who’s been inexplicably distant during the pandemic, confronts the consequences of a long ago lapse from his typical good-guy behavior. And Sarah, frustrated by her husband, concerned about her stepdaughter, and worn out by challenges of life during quarantine, faces the alluring reappearance of someone from her past and a life that could have been.

When the wedding day arrives, lovers are revealed as their true selves, misunderstandings take on a life of their own, and secrets come to light. There are confrontations and revelations that will touch each member of the extended family, ensuring that nothing will ever be the same.

From “the undisputed boss of the beach read” (The New York Times), The Summer Place is a testament to family in all its messy glory; a story about what we sacrifice and how we forgive. Enthralling, witty, big-hearted, and sharply observed, this is Jennifer Weiner’s love letter to the Outer Cape and the power of home, the way our lives are enriched by the people we call family, and the endless ways love can surprise us.

Book Excerpt: https://a.co/gM8P4Mr

My Book Review:

In The Summer Place, author Jennifer Weiner transports the reader to the town of Truro on Cape Cod, that follows a post-Covid family saga and summer of change for a family when drama and a tangled web of secrets are uncovered at the family beach house.

When Sarah and Eli Danhauser's daughter Ruby plans a Post-Covid wedding to live-in boyfriend Gabe Andrews in three months at grandmom Veronica's beach house on Cape Cod, what ensues is a summer of change for the entire family when they deal with complicated individual life issues and long-held secrets, and discover the true meaning of love, friendship, and family.

In The Summer Place, author Jennifer Weiner easily captivates her readers' attention with this beautifully written tale through a seamless and flowing storyline, a wonderful description of a tranquil seaside setting, and characters who draw you into their lives with a strong emotional pull, along with their complexities, flaws and secrets.

The Summer Place is a wonderful story told in the third person alternating narrative that engages the reader to follow along as this summer of change at the family's beach house will bring plenty of drama, long-held secrets, trials and tribulations, life challenges, and family issues for Sarah, Eli and Ruby Danhauser, Ruby's biological mother Annette Morgan, Ruby's boyfriend Gabe Andrews and his mother Rosa, Sarah's mother Veronica and brother Sam Weinberg. The alternating storylines will keep the readers on their toes, but it all culminates in a heartwarming ending that will leave them with a smile on their face. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my favorite character was Veronica (Ronnie), I loved reading about her backstory and the wonderful description of her Cape Cod beach house that witnessed so many family changes throughout the years. Families are messy, but it is the family relationship bond that keeps everyone together!

The reader will be kept engaged as this wonderful story unfolds. With a cast of interesting characters, and a richly vivid description of Cape Cod, The Summer Place is a compelling story about love, friendship, family, and second chances in life.

RATING: 5 STARS

About The Author

Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen books, including That Summer, Big Summer, Mrs. Everything, In Her Shoes, Good in Bed, and a memoir in essays, Hungry Heart. She has appeared on many national television programs, including the Today show and Good Morning America, and her work has been published in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, among other newspapers and magazines. Jennifer lives with her family in Philadelphia.