At the River's Edge: Chesapeake Diaries #7 (Book Review)

Title: At the River’s Edge: Chesapeake Diaries #7
Author: Mariah Stewart

Publication Information: Ballantine paperback, February 2014

Genre: Contemporary Romance 

Plot: Bestselling author Stewart’s Chesapeake Diaries series is set in the small Maryland town of St. Dennis.  In this installment, Sophie Enright turns her back on a successful career as a prosecutor when she finds her lawyer boyfriend cheating on her.  She leaves town to visit her brother, Jesse, who moved to St. Dennis and fell in love with Brooke Burke (main characters of book 4), and she decides to stay while figuring out a way to open the restaurant she has always dreamed about. 

An Unexpected Gift

How nice to return from nearly a week in DC to find a present from my dear friend Karen Caswell!

The perfect thing for a book lover: a tote bag designed of famous first lines!   How many famous first lines do you know?  Try this quiz from Buzzfeed - it's hard: I only got 8 of 17!

The In-Between Hour (Book Review)

Title: The In-Between Hour
Author: Barbara Claypole White

Publication Information: Mira, Trade Paperback, January 2014

Genre: Fiction

Plot: Two lonely people who have suffered great loss come together when handsome, bestselling author Will Shepard comes to North Carolina to see his ailing father, Jacob who has been kicked out of a nursing home.  

Favorite Reads of 2013

In 2013, I read about 185 books of which two were rereads and 152 were from the library or otherwise borrowed.  I'd like to do better in 2014 reading books I already own, many of which are in piles on windowsills and on the floor, and thus need rescuing.

Top Picks

The Firebird                SusannaKearsley                     Fiction/Historical Fiction

(As many of you know, I have been an evangelist for Kearsley since I worked at Bantam in the early 90s.  I am delighted that Sourcebooks is publishing her in the US and doing so much to promote her work.  This book follows The Winter Sea, and also involves 18th century Jacobites, a weakness of mine)