Deluged With Books Cafe

Moments with Mason   by Theresa Paolo My rating: 5 of 5 c ups The third book in Theresa Paolo's lovable Red Maple Falls features Mason and he finally gets his match with vulnerable but feisty Cassie Alan. Moments with Mason brings us back to the beautiful small town of Red Maple Falls, where everyone knows everyone and they care for each one in their community. So when Cassie can't find a job in this town she feels a little more than broken especially where she is coming from. Out in the rain, walking back to the campgrounds she was staying, Mason spies her and can't resist stopping and giving her a lift. He never imagined how much his life would change because of that one act. And Cassie never even dreamt of a time she might meet her knight in shining armor and finds out she only needed to believe in herself to get a chance in life. Moments with Mason is one sweet, very sexy and utterly charming small town romance that makes you believe in love and strength in y...

Cakes and travel hadn't been this much fun. The Traveling Tea Shop  is filled with mouth-watering array of cakes and the charm of the picturesque New England landscape. If only it was like scrapbook and came with photographs, illustrations, maps and recipes then my reading experience would be complete. Laurie Davis enjoys her job booking tours and trips for their go-to website and she's just landed a huge deal with a famous television star, Pamela. It was the chance to scour the New England states and sample its local delights for Pamela's new cookbook. Yet even with Laurie's efficient skills, everything is not smooth sailing. There's the sassy Grandma, the punk rebel daughter and all the family drama in tow. Indeed, it was not all light and fluffy. Against the tea things and beautiful spots, trading baking recipes and marveling at local famous delights, there was a dash of angst and emotional upheavals which balance the flavor. I totally appreciate the dr...

It's been a long while since I read science fiction, not since those old Dean Koontz days when I devoured most of it. This one was a mysterious surprise. At the start, I couldn't wait for the adventure and the traipse to the New England forest for I know the place is lush and picturesque. But, of course, I had to wind my way first through the botany professor's rather mundane turned lively love life coupled with some angst. There was something that bothered me yet I couldn't put my finger on it until only near the end. On his way to the research trip, he meets this odd and rather repulsive (in a D.H. Lawrence kind of way) (disturbing) woman and yet something in her rough-around-the-edges ways drew him to her. They then disembark together into an adventure neither of them ever expected. Neither did I. That's the surprise part. The characters aren't very much endearing at first impression though further on in the book they were given such depths that you...

Today's new releases includes brand new series of cozy mysteries and wedding brides as well as family dramas set in atmospheric Louisiana and a Belle Époque apartment in Paris. Happy Reading! Death by Coffee by Alex Erickson Kensington Books When Krissy Hancock and her best friend Vicki decide to open a bookstore café in their new town of Pine Hills, they decide to call it "Death by Coffee," after Krissy's father's most famous mystery novel. Little do they know how well the name fits… On their very first day of business, Brendon Lawyer huffily takes his coffee…to the grave. It seems he had a severe allergy to peanuts…but how could there have been nuts in his coffee? And who stole his emergency allergy medication? Fortunately, Krissy's love of puzzles and mysteries leads her not only to Officer Paul Dalton, but also to many of her new neighbors, who aren't terribly upset that the book is closed on Brendon. But one of them is a ...

Another Alice Hoffman book off the list though it left me a little bit wanting. The American suburbs, where every house looks the same and standing out is much avoided. It was 1950s and one day in a Long Island suburbia, there arrives Nora Silk who appears to be the embodiment of the opposite. Nora is eager to be close to her neighbors but everyone is not so keen. Behind the neat gardens and nicely painted doors, there lies the secret troubles of its residents. It seems Nora's unwelcome presence stirs upheavals among the neighborhood and it was when things started to get interesting. Seventh Heaven was a much muted pleasure than Hoffman's other works. Perhaps it was merely a subjective matter, not having lived in the suburbs myself. The smaller dose of magic in it was almost drowned by the placed normality and the realities of its time. Nevertheless, this intimate portrayal allows me to venture into their world and those who could relate to it so much would surely enjoy...

A Thing of Beauty started promising; an old cluttered mansion, an array of junk for art, a distant past of showbiz, cruising down Baltimore, hanging out on your quirky friend’s café. Fiona’s internal struggle feels real and resonated with me. I find myself mulling over the passages relating to her doomed prospects. Then there was the arrival of Josiah, a local blacksmith who rents a room in Fiona’s mansion as a boarder. He seemed steady and brimming with wisdom, perhaps a balm to Fiona’s restlessness and drifting. Around halfway through, I got a little lost and am left unsure. In the end, all is well that ends well though I find myself a little bit disappointed. The story soared off in flapping wings, stuttered somewhere in the middle, got confused then veered off from its path, I felt, as if in indecision. While I felt a little kinship to Fiona, she gradually drifted away to me somewhat the further I read while Josiah, for every succeeding appearance, began to win me...

Oh, this one brings some angst and is not typically all romantic and sweet. A feel-good one, not entirely in story per se but, in the form of the village life, its beauty and people, as well as the drool-worthy delicious scones and Greek cuisine. In her rather cheeky voice, Samantha Tonge hits it right about the nostalgia of the carefree summer days of childhood which linger with us through our adult years (especially in the middle of dreary jobs or the tired urban jungle). Game of Scones  is humorous in narrative, flavored with angst (though hardly a Greek romantic tragedy) and filled with heartwarming characters, food and sunshine. The lulling charm of the Greek countryside and its residents may be the high point for me. I like that it was also complimented by practical views in that living away from the city isn't all idyllic and sort of escapist but also hard, almost brutal. Yet the rewards (hearing the birds, the smell of the sea, the natural vistas) appear exhilar...

Somewhere deep inside, a lot of us would like to be Paige Elliot. To just drop away from the urban landscape and start anew, drive into a quiet small town to rejuvenate, live on a cottage with mid-twentieth century furnishing, paint one's own cramp shop space and bicker along with a handsome and aloof antiques dealer who happens to be right next door. Witty and refreshing albeit with a combined spatter of sarcasm and self-deprecation, Nothing Serious recognizes the imperfections in all of us but remains lighthearted and sweet. Its humor really picked up near the end and I really liked all the technology jokes. Though I am quite not sold to the entangled conspiracy part, Barbara Morgenroth makes it out for us not to take it so seriously (which I think is the heart of this book). It could have been a typical small town novel, but what makes this book unique is its hilarious voice that I surmise tickles most of us, esp in dire situations. The town's charm isn't so put ...

Title: His First and Last Author: Terri Osburn Release Date: April 21, 2015 Publisher: Montlake Romance Genre: Contemporary Romance Rating : ☕☕☕☕ 4 cups (A funny and poignant second chance at love with a lovable cast of characters guaranteed to keep you smiling until the last page.) Review:   A small town romance about second chances, Loreta and Spencer will have you rooting and laughing all at once. A sweet, poignant and almost real life in its depiction of First Love lost and found again. Great story telling set in a backdrop in the small town of Ardent Spring, His First and Last will leave you with a smile in your heart. Summary At eighteen, Lorelei Pratchett couldn’t wait to get out of her hometown. Twelve years later, her Hollywood dreams have fizzled and she’s back—temporarily, she thinks. Though she throws herself into saving the old theater and starting a baking business, small towns have long memories, and Lorelei’s wild past still haunts...

It goes on sale today! The Happy Hour Choir by Sally Kilpatrick and Lavina by Mary Marcus will be released today. Two novels about the different faces of the American South. Don't forget to catch our blog reviews to these books soon! Summary From debut author Sally Kilpatrick comes a hopeful tale of love and redemption in a quiet Southern town where a lost soul finds her way with the help of an unlikely circle of friends. . . Life has dealt Beulah Land a tough hand to play, least of all being named after a hymn. A teenage pregnancy estranged her from her family, and a tragedy caused her to lose what little faith remained. The wayward daughter of a Baptist deacon, she spends her nights playing the piano at The Fountain, a honky-tonk located just across the road from County Line Methodist. But when she learns that a dear friend's dying wish is for her to take over as the church's piano player, she realizes it may be time to face the music. . . Beulah butt...

Antique and romance go hand in hand in this gentle story about blossoming love and not settling for the second best. The Antique Love  begins in an awkward note as first meetings go. Perhaps, in part, due to its jerky momentum best displayed by our heroine with her romantic imagination going on full throttle only to have her bubble burst. Apparently our so-called cowboy is not the swashbuckling, lasso in hand, riding into the sunset kind but a man of finance. Yes, with as much romance as there in numbers. It was only after the first meeting that things become quite engaging as we get to know each of them through a succession of meetings. As Penny refurbishes Kurt's new dwelling in London, they settled into a comfortable state and slowly Kurt gets drawn into her dreamer ways. We see Penny become more and more adorable most especially in how she sees beauty in old things and in peoples' hearts. She is the type of person one must look closer to find what a gem she is, ju...

"Some things could only be found in Sidwell it seemed: pink apples, black owls, and my brother, James." Books of Alice Hoffman never fail to put a dash of magic to an otherwise ordinary and banal day. To get lost in her world with its spellbinding story and fantasy intertwined, as denotes her books, is always something I look forward. So when Nightbird  recently came out, I was pleased to grab a hold of it (and ignored my reading list by putting it first). This is something new, for a start, from her other books I've read. It is like a children story told at bedtime. Yet, I didn't mind and find it very much enchanting. Magic and childhood always go hand in hand and I refuse to have my sinister adulthood rear its sarcastic head. In a lot of ways, I believe there is a Twig in all of us; in her interests, awkward bearings, and insecurities. That all we needed is someone who could help us bloom, coax us out of our shell and stick with us despite the odds. I love...

Secret of a Thousand Beauties begins with quite an engaging biting humor on its narrative. It was just too funny! However, this promising tone gradually fell into a kind of pervasive somberness at which point, one may understandably drop the book or continue on for curiosity. I pushed on and was rewarded with such a dramatic and piercing story. It is a coming of age and at the same time almost a saga as it details the span of many years. Set in 1930s China, our heroine, Spring Swallow, embarks on a hastened journey to independence to escape the unfair circumstance brought to her by tradition. Out of chance, her luck turns and yet perhaps only marginally better. We are then introduced to other secondary characters and one of them is the indomitable Aunty Peony whose past held secrets of her own. The heartbreaking journey of Spring Swallow etched in my mind and lingered throughout that I imagined myself reading the book with a bowed head that I could no longer lift from the bu...

A captivating Gothic love story set against a backdrop of intrigue and danger, Mist of Midnight will leave you breathless. Indeed, I was captivated and could not put it down. In the wake of book readings on romantic suspense titled with "midnight", it shed light, apparently, to my fondness for historical Gothic more than anything. The story was riveting, a dash inspirational and a mixture of fluttery and greyness. With the death of her missionary parents and brother in India, Rebecca Ravenshaw returns to England after many years only to discover Headbourne House, their old Hampshire home, is not to be hers. Not only that, someone else took up her identity and tried to claim the inheritance. It is often interesting how to take on an imposter and in this historical suspense, our true Rebecca lives on the shadow of the first 'Rebecca' who mysteriously died and was loved by many before she arrived. Oh, no, it is not exactly a chip off the du Maurier piece. Sandr...