August Book Review – Between the Lines
Looking for a new book to motivate you or simply for entertainment? Today I’m sharing a little of both with my August book review.
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Amazon: Inheriting her grandparents’ island estate on Florida’s Gulf coast is a special kind of homecoming for thirty-one-year-old Charity Baxter. Raised by a narcissistic single mother, Charity’s only sense of a loving home comes from childhood summers spent with Gramps and Grandma. But piercing her fondest memories is her sharpest grief—the death of her beloved grandmother, when Charity stopped believing in the magical healing power of the weeping willow that still casts a shadow on their property.
Now that Charity has returned, she’s full of longing and regret, until she befriends her neighbor Dalton Reynolds, who has come to Gaslamp Island carrying his own heartache. As other exiles arrive—a great uncle harboring secrets, a teenage runaway—Charity begins to reconsider what makes a family. When her own estranged mother shows up in crisis, Charity is challenged to search her heart for forgiveness. But forgiving herself may require a little magic from the last place she’d expect to find it.
My thoughts: I fell in love with Charity and wanted her to find real love and happiness. It was honestly easy to visualize all the characters as each brought their own drama. At times it did seem like maybe one story too many was pulled in but in the end the author ties it all up nicely. If you can’t get into the magical properties of the weeping willow this would be a stretch but I loved the symbolism of the tree. This was an easy read which kept me guessing on a few little twists through the end and is a kindle unlimited pick. 
Amazon: It’s Nantucket wedding season, also known as summer-the sight of a bride racing down Main Street is as common as the sun setting at Madaket Beach. The Otis-Winbury wedding promises to be an event to remember: the groom’s wealthy parents have spared no expense to host a lavish ceremony at their oceanfront estate.
But it’s going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes: a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony-and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, the groom’s famous mystery-novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield-and no couple is perfect. Featuring beloved characters from The Castaways, Beautiful Day, and A Summer Affair, The Perfect Couple proves once again that Elin Hilderbrand is the queen of the summer beach read.
My thoughts: After reading The Identicals in July I immediately grabbed this read. It was an easy summer read with plenty of twists and turns to keep me interested. I always love how Elin intertwines a few characters or venues from other books in. She also did a nice job of tying up everything in the end including the real mystery of Merritt’s drowning. While it was not my favorite Elin book, if you like her style and characters you will enjoy this read.
Amazon: Elementary school teacher Jacqueline “Jacks” Morales’s marriage was far from perfect, but even in its ups and downs it was predictable, familiar. Or at least she thought it was…until two police officers showed up at her door with devastating news. Her husband of eight years, the one who should have been on a business trip to Kansas, had suffered a fatal car accident in Hawaii. And he wasn’t alone.
For Jacks, laying her husband to rest was hard. But it was even harder to think that his final moments belonged to another woman—one who had left behind her own grieving and bewildered fiancé. Nick, just as blindsided by the affair, wants answers. So he suggests that he and Jacks search for the truth together, retracing the doomed lovers’ last days in paradise.
Now, following the twisting path of that fateful road, Jacks is learning that nothing is ever as it seems. Not her marriage. Not her husband. And most certainly not his death…
My thoughts: Holy moly this one kept me reading and just when I thought Jacks had finally found happiness and peace BAM there was a curve I was not expecting at all. I loved this read and especially since it was free on prime reading! Definitely a page turner.
Amazon: Is my ordinary, everyday life actually significant? Is it okay to be fulfilled by the simple acts of raising kids, working in an office, and cooking chicken for dinner?
The million little pieces that make a life aren’t necessarily glamorous or far-reaching. But God uses some of the smallest, most ordinary acts of faithfulness—and sometimes they look a whole lot like packing lunch.
Through humorous stories told in her signature style, full of Frito pie, best friends, the love of her Me-Ma and Pa-Pa, the unexpected grace that comes when we quit trying to measure up, and a little of the best TV has to offer, Melanie helps women embrace what it means to live a simple, yet incredibly meaningful life and how to find all the beauty and laughter that lies right beneath the surface of every moment.
My thoughts: While this was probably not my favorite of Mel’s 4 books, it is a sweet, sweet read that reinforces the little things in our lives which really are more special than they appear. I had a sweet moment when I opened this book and read the first words from the swing on my mom’s porch when I realized the house I always saw as too small was filled with great love! The moments I saw as mundane served as building blocks for my future. I loved this quote from Mel. “Ultimately, God’s will isn’t about the things we achieve; it’s about the people we become.”
This book would make a super bible study with your girlfriends!
So what’s on your reading list lately? I’ve picked up If You Only Knew as my next motivational read and just started Crazy Rich Asians last night.
2018 Book Reviews
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