All the Days

All The Days by Elle Jayce
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I chose this book based on the first page. Lara is choosing her song that represents the day, not a diary entry, but a song. I'm not a huge music person but I liked that concept so much I decided this was a book for me. Indeed, music does permeate the entire novel and at the end I found that there is a play list on Spotify. Bonus!

Lara is a construction designer who has been through a trauma resulting in PTSD. She meets Theo, an actor who is ready to drop his bad-boy image. They tentatively start dating in her tiny little village where Theo is filming. Lara knows this will go no further after the film wraps and resolves to keep her emotions out of it.

No spoilers but anyone can pretty much guess where this all leads to. I enjoyed the journey very much, occasionally humming the song of the minute. I haven’t ever had to deal with PTSD, but I felt the subject was written into the story in a very sensitive and appropriate way. I was viewing two characters who cared for each other and were about taking the time to really know the other. I definitely look forward to more from Elle Jayce.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A Family Affair (Truth in Lies #1)

A Family Affair (Truth in Lies #1)
by Mary Campisi

I picked up this book from the Apple Store as a free book I could read on my phone.  Probably 'free' because it's part of a four part series.  I doubt I'll read parts two through four. 

The story revolves around the heroine, Christine Blackstone, an ambitious young woman who works tirelessly to earn her place in her father's world of finance.  Her father is killed in an auto accident while away on a monthly retreat at his cabin. Thus the scene is set for Christine to discover the woman and child her father spends four days a month with; his "other" family.

She sets out to find who this other family is and what they meant to her father.  She discovers that her father was not entirely the successful business oriented man she knew and adored, but rather a man who loved a simpler life with another woman and their daughter. She tries to make sense of this "new" side to the man she worshiped and reconcile it with the side of the father she knew. 

It was an entertaining read, easy and uncomplicated.  I give it three of five stars.  A book that I liked but will probably not remember in the future or rave over.

A Nantucket Christmas

A Nantucket Christmas
By Nancy Thayer

I received A Nantucket Christmas as a Goodreads win.  It was an enjoyable story and I usually like to read at least one Christmas story during the holidays.  This was my choice.

The story centers around an older couple retired and living in Nantucket.  It's Christmas time, the off season in island terms, when tourists are nowhere to be seen and the town belongs once again to the locals.

It's their first Christmas together and Nicole finds herself "competing" with her new husband's past brought about by his daughter's vision of her parent's once "perfect" marriage, "perfect" life, and her efforts to bring them back together.  I'm not entirely sure I wanted to buy into this premise as the daughter was an adult herself with a husband, child and another baby on the way.  Was it really plausible that she would want to break up her father and his new wife?

As in most romance novels, the story plays out with some drama and  touch & go moments but comes to an expected happy ending.  It was a satisfying holiday tale meeting my need for wintry romance.  I only hope all the trickery by the daughter was due to pregnancy hormones and she is more reasonable in "real life."

I give A Nantucket Christmas four of five shots.  A sweet story.

Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber

Twenty Wishes
by Debbie Macomber

I've always liked Debbie Macomber's books.  Perhaps because so many of them are set in Seattle or across Elliot Bay on the peninsula.  She writes romance with hardship and she's not an all steamy-have-to-take-a-cold-shower type of author.  Her romances usually bloom realistically the way most do in real life.  She doesn't do the he-slapped-her-and-she-fell-into-his-bulging-with-muscles-arms-in-hot-desire romance, if that can be called romance.

However, I think my desire to read romances has dwindled.

Twenty Wishes is a story about a small group of widows who decide to make a list of twenty wishes that will encourage them to move on with their lives and help them fulfill some dreams. They are careful not to call them goals, which must be obtainable and for which you could write an action plan.  They are simply wishes that one may or may not have control over making come true. As they share the idea of their wish list, more friends and family take to the idea of creating wish lists of their own.  Powerful things can happen when you put positive energy into this kind of a list.

Of course in the manner of any good romance, everyone realizes their most important wishes.  What kind of a feel good book would this be if that weren't true?  But sometimes we don't see our wishes fulfilled in the way we expect them to be, but a wish fulfilled is a wish fulfilled.  And sometimes when one wish is granted, it simultaneously grants another's wish.  Of course there is plenty of heartache and trouble on the way to reclaiming happiness. 

Twenty Wishes takes place back on Blossom Street.  This might be important for those that have read a Good Yarn and some of the associated books. Blossom Street is a fictional Seattle city neighborhood that I know I would love to visit. 

I give Twenty Wishes 3 of 5 shots.  Not because it's not a good book, it is.  It's just not my genre any longer. 

Married in Seattle

Married in Seattle
by Debbie Macomber

This book was two novellas in one book. Generally I enjoy Ms. Macomber's stories, which I why I picked this book up.  I was in Seattle for a family emergency and really wanted something light and fluffy to read, but this book ended up annoying me more than entertaining and distracting me. 

To be fair, I should say the first story in the book as I didn't even attempt to read the second story.  I found the story just a little too "Harlequin Romance."  The lead female character was overly sensitive to every comment or action by the lead male character. It wasn't long before I was screaming at her inside my head to open her eyes and see what was obvious.

I hope the reason the story was so shallow is because it was written to be a quick read in a book of novellas, and doesn't reflect on Ms. Macomber's future works.  This was simply far too contrived.