Hello!
Happy Summer (or winter)! Here, the temperatures have risen quickly. Heaters are quiet, air conditioners are humming and shorts replace sweatpants. I enjoy leisurely lake swims and nights under the stars. It’s also the perfect time to lounge in the shade and read a good book.
You have seen my reviews before for these books, but they were SO good I thought they deserved a bit more attention. When you read a good book that changes you in big or small ways, you aren’t the same after reading it.
So here are my top summer reading recommendations with their blurbs in no particular order.
Beautifully Written, Heartbreaking Portrayal of Innocence Lost and the Love of Family
Telling Sonny is a coming-of-age novel set in the 1920s, when much of vaudeville had devolved into the Small Time. Not so for Faby Gauthier, a naïve girl from the small village of Enosburg Falls, Vermont. For Faby, the annual vaudeville show that comes to the village is worthy of the Great White Way itself.
Pretty and vivacious, Faby catches the eye of Slim White, America’s self-proclaimed Favorite Hoofer. She spends time with him during the week of the show’s run in hopes of learning first-hand how it feels to perform on the vaudeville stage.
On Slim White’s last night in the village, seduction would appear inevitable, and Faby succumbs. Her desire to forget her lapse in judgment is not to be, however. In a misguided to attempt to do the right thing, Slim White marries Faby on a whim and takes her with him on the vaudeville circuit. Little does she know that in a few short months, she will learn the true meaning of Small Time, setting her life on a path she never imagined.
Amazon ReviewerIzzyMy life is not like I dreamed it would be. I had the foolish fantasy of finishing high school, going to college, making something of myself- maybe even becoming famous.
Instead, I’m the infamous kid of the father who killed himself in the family’s backyard.
How’s that for a legacy?Renée
I came home for my mother’s funeral, but I’m staying to mend bridges with my sister. We have another chance, and whatever it takes, we need to come together as a family or live the rest of our lives knowing we let our brother down.
They say pride goes before a fall, but it doesn’t tell us how to avoid the scrapes along the way.
Finding Me is a new adult romance dealing with tragedy, restitution, and love in all its aspects. The story relates to sensitive topics that may be triggering for some readers.
Sarah Jameson, a nurse at County Central Hospital, survives an accident that kills her two young children. While comatose, she travels into the heavenly realm where she visits with her precious little ones. She is given a choice – return to her husband, Jack, or remain with her children in their celestial home.
Jack was not in the fated automobile. Though he heard the crash and ran to help, there was nothing he could do. He suffers the loss of his children, fears the potential demise of his wife, and wonders about his own sanity. His struggle with PTSD from his military years has returned and at times, he cannot distinguish between the present and the past.
An accident tragically changed the lives of this young family, but out of sorrow emerges unexpected blessings.
