As so often happens, I started reading The Endless Beach on a grey, rainy, Saturday morning, snuggled up in bed between a husband and a cat. I had only gotten a little into the book when I had to wrench myself away in order to find some breakfast. Seriously, the only thing that could have made me stop reading this book at that moment was hunger. I was only about 15 pages in, and I was already lost in another world from which I didn’t want to...
Glory Road is the first book I was able to read after my concussion, and it was the perfect novel to reacquaint me with the pleasure of losing yourself in a story well-told. Go ahead and judge this book by its gorgeous cover. Glory Road is just as lovely and enchanting as first glance would lead you to believe. I first fell in love with Lauren K. Denton’s writing when I read The Hideaway, and her newest novel is full of the same easy, familiar...
Well, the holidays are over. Enter the looooooong winter months of January, February, and March, when it's freakishly cold outside and successive snowstorms foil your plans way too often. I used to dread this time of year. Once Christmas was over, my seasonal depression would kick in big time, and I would spend these next few, miserable months counting the days until the robins returned and brought springtime with them. Yeah, notice that I'm...
I think I seriously missed out on a life experience by not rushing a Southern sorority. That's something I never thought I would say, since I pretty much mocked sororities every chance I got back in college. And, for a good halfway through Rush, I was feeling pretty darn smug about my decision to eschew all Greek life when I had the chance. By the end of this amazing book, though, author Lisa Patton had completely sold me on Southern sorority...
This novel was like a breath of fresh air. I love discovering wonderful books by debut authors. I may be slightly biased toward them, as I hope to be a debut author sooner rather than later, but I really feel like you’re unearthing a hidden treasure when you find such a gem from a previously unknown writer. I mean, you didn’t find that gem. The publisher did. Well, really, the agent did. BUT STILL. You took a chance on reading a new book by...
I love the original title of this book: Nutmeg. Nutmeg was originally published in the UK in 2013, and it was re-christened From the Kitchen of Half Truth when it made its way to the U.S. I personally feel that the U.S. title better captures the essence of the novel, but I’ll be honest – I might not have picked up this book if that had been the title I saw first. Nutmeg really drew me in. It’s one of my favorite spices, as you know from my...
I know it's a little soon after the last QLB to be posting another one, but I'm bringing you December's Quick Look Books a little early so you can get your jolly on. Even though I'm mostly reading Christmas books this month, I don't want to only post reviews of Christmas books because, despite what American commercialism would have you believe, not everyone celebrates Christmas. However, I do love me some Yuletide cheer, so I couldn't let the...
I'm sure it comes as no surprise to you, dear reader, that I'm a woman who loves food. I mean, half of my blog is devoted to sweet and savory recipes, whether I've concocted them myself or borrowed them from my culinary idols. So, it should also come as no surprise that I love books that revolve around food. I have lots of fun coming up with book-inspired recipes, and some books definitely make dreaming up recipes easier than others. With my...
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo wins the award for the best last sentence of a book, ever. No, don’t go look at it! Do not flip to the back of the book to read it, or search for it on Google books, or anything like that. You have to read the entire book in order to fully appreciate – and understand – that last line. Just know that it made me cackle happily, close the book with a great big grin on my face, and say, “Oh, Evelyn.”...
I read All We Ever Wanted the weekend I wasn’t supposed to read a book. I had decided to take about a week off from my TBR list in order to concentrate on revising my query letter. However, in true CJ fashion, I woke up super early on Saturday morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t think that editing my query letter at 5:30am was a stupendous idea, so I grabbed my copy of All We Ever Wanted, climbed back into bed, and began...
