Bringing the Past and Present together beautifully... The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy Review

The Mapmaker's Children

By Sarah McCoy

Via Netgalley ARC Thank you to the Publishers Crown and Sarah McCoy for a copy of the book for exchange of an honest review.

 

Synopsis:

When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.
   Eden, a modern woman desperate to conceive a child with her husband, moves to an old house in the suburbs and discovers a porcelain head hidden in the root cellar—the remains of an Underground Railroad doll with an extraordinary past of secret messages, danger and deliverance.
   Ingeniously plotted to a riveting end, Sarah and Eden’s woven lives connect the past to the present, forcing each of them to define courage, family, love, and legacy in a new way.

 

My Review:

Sarah McCoy writes a story that intersects the lives of two women past and present. I love when a book is placed in the perspective of the person; it transports you to their time and place. Sarah writes with emotions than run deep in her characters, when they felt you feel that same emotion.

 

The book takes place in 1859, Virginia, when Sarah Brown helps her father, John Brown, Abolitionist in the help with the Underground Railroad in her art by drawing maps to aid slaves to freedom. When her father is convicted and hung for treason. She carries on with the secret mission of the Underground Railroad. Sarah is an amazing woman; I could not imagine living in those times. McCoy writes her with a tough outside with a heart of gold in the center.

Eden was a harder character to reach, I felt very connected with her. There are so many emotions that arise when conception is a problem in a marriage and relationship. I really wanted Eden to feel powerful to the struggle she was going through. When a young girl comes into her life in an unexpected way, Eden learns she needs to make decisions of her own. 

This book brought a part of history that many people tend brush aside, up front and center. McCoy delivers the power of what is truly inside a strong woman past and present.

 

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Review: A Denim Blue Sea by Joanne DeMaio

A Denim Blue Sea

By: Joanne DeMaio

 Kindle Edition:  370 Pages

This book was gifted for exchange for an honest review.  Thank You Joanne & Mary DeMaio

My Review:

What a joy to be invited to the Wedding of the Year with the whole gang from Stoney Point in Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans. I just love that when I start a book Joanne writes I am at the beach hearing the waves break and the smells of salt air the beach smells. I just love how Joanne writes the characters in a way that you know them like you have lived next to them. Maris and Jason are finishing the last minute details for their wedding. As the cottages are rented for the wedding, the gatherings and the sea is there to “Cures what ails you.”  

This book will have you running to the beach for more, Joanne Thank you again for the book for exchange of an honest review. Grab a Mason jar and head to the beach listen to the waves break and smell the salt air. It will definitely cure what ails you. 

Rating 5 Stars *****    

Synopsis:

 During two August weeks, denim designer Maris Carrington and coastal architect Jason Barlow prepare for their much-anticipated wedding. Guests arrive early, turning keys in charming cottage doors to begin their New England summer escape. The wedding is a reason for old friends to gather again; to meet in their shabby beach hangout and get the jukebox cranking; to walk that weathered boardwalk beneath a starry sky; to breathe the sweet salt air. "Cures what ails you," one of the friends, Neil, always said long before his life was sadly claimed. But his legacy was not.

When Maris discovers Neil's long-lost journal, its passages reveal a heartbreaking secret. Can truths be found within its timeworn pages? Can this leather-bound journal unite the friends as their lives begin to fray? A bittersweet family reunion, a surprising encounter from a devastating accident, a shocking confession leaving one marriage shattered--all will test the once close-knit circle. Suddenly this safe haven on the tranquil Connecticut shoreline churns with emotional turmoil, threatening even the beach wedding just days before it is to happen.

Yet like a silver cap on a breaking wave, love and friendship wash ashore with hope, ever shimmering, in The Denim Blue Sea.

 

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Cover Reveal: MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE by Taylor Jenkins Reid!

We’re dreaming of summer—feet in the sand, soaking up the sun, taking a dip in the pool—but what we’re most excited about this summer is the release of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s third novel, MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE (on sale July 7, 2015). While we (impatiently!) wait for the book, today we’re giving you a first look at the gorgeous cover! Plenty more information below…
 
ABOUT MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE:

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college, but on the heels of a disastrous breakup, she has finally returned to her hometown of Los Angeles. To celebrate her first night back, her best friend, Gabby, takes Hannah out to a bar—where she meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

 

It’s just past midnight when Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. Ethan quickly offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay.

Hannah hesitates.

What happens if she leaves with Gabby?

What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

 

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into surprisingly different stories with far-reaching consequences for Hannah and the people around her, raising questions like: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Taylor Jenkins Reid is an author and essayist from Acton, Massachusetts. She is the author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alex, and her dog, Rabbit. You can follow her on Twitter @TJenkinsReid.
 

MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

Atria Books/Washington Square Press Paperback | 352 pages | ISBN:  9781476776880 | July 7, 2015 | $16.00

 

eBook: Atria Books/Washington Square Press | 352 pages | ISBN: 9781476776897 | July 7, 2015 | $11.99

 

 

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A Weekend Getaway by: Karen Lenfestey

A Weekend Getaway

Secret Series Book 1

By: Karen Lenfestey

Kindle – 295 pages

I received this book for an honest review of the book from the Author.

Life is full of surprises and secrets. Bethany Morris was easy to relate to, I enjoyed the characters. When your life deals you a hand that you are not ready for, you are forced to deal with them. Bethany is faced with the life choices she made sixteen years ago.

Karen wrote with ease and brought the characters to life, you want to root for Bethany to get her happy ending.  I am definitely ready to read Book 2 open the rest of the story. You definitely will want to pick up this book and a cup of hot cocoa.

Rating 4 Stars

 

Synopsis:

 Bethany Morris always puts everyone else’s needs first. That’s why when she got pregnant in college, she had the baby in secret and placed it for adoption. Sixteen years later, she patiently waits for her live-in boyfriend to propose and wonders if she missed her one chance at motherhood.

Life gets complicated when she runs into the baby’s father, Parker, and he reveals that he has the same disease that took his father’s life. Does Bethany owe it to Parker to tell him that he has a child? Should she track down the daughter she’s never known just to give her bad news?

Risking the comfortable life she’s built for herself, Bethany embarks on a journey to face her past. Along the way, she realizes she’s not the selfless person she thought she was.

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FanGirl Moment!!!!

 I have waited and waited for a day to come to meet one of my Favorites of Authors! It is a Bookie dream! When I started this whole blog thing, it was a new thing for myself! I have grown and had so much joy in my blog! I have met on facebook so many amazing Authors, Bloggers, and readers! 

So a couple weeks ago, Alyson Richman - Author of The Lost Wife, The Mask Carver's Son, The Rhythm of Memory, and a novella Almost Home in Grand Central Original Stories of Postwar of   Love and Reunion. 

We have had many interactions on Facebook regarding her books. My Mom, Grandma, and I read The Lost Wife for our book club. When I finished the book, I immediately posted on her page about how wonderful it was. The my Grandma commented and then my Mom did too. Alyson was so excited that 3 Generations loved her book! 

When her other book came out she was so wonderful to go to the book store and personally sign the books for my 3 generations. 

Today, my husband took me to a talk to meet the amazing Alyson Richman! It was so awesome! She is absolutely the sweetest! She signed all my books and one for a very special person!!! She talked about how her 3 generations readers were special. She is special for making my FanGirl dream as well as my husband for putting up my obsession of books and blogging! 

I just loved the fact that talking to an author about a book, the things that go on in their world. It is a world that takes the Author and the reader and makes them one! Word of mouth is the biggest part of the book world and social media has brought those to worlds together! 

I won an "Amazing" Prize Pack Here is my review: After I Do by: Taylor Jenkins Reid

After I Do By: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Won Copy for Book Launch from Book Sparks

First, I want to thank Books Sparks for their Book Launch Giveaway with Taylor Jenkins Reid. I was ecstatic that I won my amazing prize pack. I use my mini iPad every day.

From the author of Forever, Interrupted—hailed by Sarah Jio as "moving, gorgeous, and at times heart-wrenching"—comes a breathtaking new novel about modern marriage, the depth of family ties, and the year that one remarkable heroine spends exploring both.
So on to the book talk!!!

Synopsis:
When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.

Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?

This is a love story about what happens when the love fades. It’s about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you’ve got. And above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game—and searching for a new road to happily ever after.

My Review:

This book is about a marriage that is coming to a point where they want to end their marriage. Lauren and Ryan decide that they will “Take a Break” and separate for one year.  With this break, they can look into themselves to see what they really want in their life.

I felt so close to Lauren’s character, as I have been through a separation so I saw so much of the same feelings that Lauren felt and had.  Taylor has a way with her books that deal with life in a different twist. She brings life to the book by looking outside the box of dealing with pain and life.  

After I Do is a definite Must Read, She will make you laugh and cry, and maybe even want to throw a vase or two. “Metaphorically Speaking”

***** 5 Stars

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In Search of Lucy by: Lia Fairchild

In Search of Lucy

By: Lia Fairchild

Pages:  308 Paperback

Rating 5 Stars

This is my third Lia Fairchild book; I thought that it was fantastic! I loved Lucy; I rooted for her all the way. I think that being a debut novel it had something that grabs you and pulls you into the story.

Lucy Lang is from the dysfunctional family life Alcoholic Mom, little sister and with that having to grow up to fast. Unfortunately Lucy is still searching for herself. When her sister is in needs her, Lucy becomes the protective sister again.  Lucy sets out with her “new” friends and embarks on a journey that is filled with laughter and hope.

While Lucy is still looking for the meaning to her life, she is forced to see a side of herself and come to terms with what life hands you.

This story brings you family drama and emotions with love and heartache. I wanted to read this wrapped up in a big comfy blanket and chunky big sweaters.

 

Synopsis:

Lucy Lang's life is spiraling out of control. For years she sacrificed her own needs to care for her half-sister and alcoholic mother, only to be abandoned by both. Now, at age 30, Lucy finds herself held back by memories and regret as she struggles to find her own purpose in life. But when her sister needs a kidney transplant, Lucy is the only one who can save her life.

 

With the help of new friends and a man who won't give up on her, Lucy sets out on a journey to reunite with her sister and find the answers she so desperately needs. Can she get past her emotions and have a chance at happiness? With its colorful and endearing cast of characters, In Search of Lucy takes readers on a rollercoaster of emotions from sadness and heartache to happiness and hope.

 

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