The Midnight Library
Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. One book tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?
In The Midnight Library, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.
The concept for this book was very intriguing. To experience Nora jumping into the pages of different books of her life was a wild ride! Highly recommend!
One To Watch
Bea Schumacher is a stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers–and a broken heart. Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising amount of guys named Chad! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television? So she does what any other blogger would do, she writes about it.
Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition–under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She’s in this to supercharge her career, change beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a free hot air balloon ride. That’s it.
But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated. She’s in a whirlwind journey to find messy, real-life love in the midst of a made-for-TV fairy tale.
If you love The Bachelor franchise, you will love this book. It does have some uncomfortable moments but I love the stand that this book takes against societal norms and cyber bullies. At the end of the day, everyone deserves to be happy and loved.
Strong + Kind
What America needs today are parents who don’t just say they value these virtues but who live them and passionately and boldly teach them to their children. It’s up to me and you and every parent in America to make the necessary changes to give our children the opportunity to change the world. We do that by instilling good character traits in them so that they will be capable of being the adults our world needs.
—Korie Robertson
Many parents want to see positive character traits in their children but wonder how to instill them. As stars of the hit reality-TV show Duck Dynasty, Korie and Willie Robertson receive loads of letters and messages from fans asking how they’ve raised such good kids. As they will tell you, “it isn’t always easy, but raising kids with good character is possible.”
A straightforward, practical approach to parenting, Strong and Kind helps you identify the character traits you want to see in your children and gives you the tools for putting them in place. Besides strength and kindness other character traits include:
• Self-Control
• Honesty
• Compassion
• Patience
• Joyfulness
• Loyalty
• Humility
By modeling positive traits, with confidence, consistency, creativity, unity, and in truth and love, you can increase the chances of your kids catching on. At the end of the day, the Duck Dynasty stars say the most important thing you can do for your children is what they do at the end of every episode: hand them over to God in prayer.
This book put a lot of how I parent my girls into perspective. These traits may crossover one another, but that’s the moral of the story: teamwork — as you have to work together with your spouse as a united front as well as seek God for guidance. I love how Korie takes the daunting feelings of parenting “all the things” away and replaces those feelings with the empowerment to narrow it down to two traits you want to focus on instilling in your kids. From there, it’s a domino effect of gaining the other sub-traits that come from those lessons as well.
Bringing Down the Duke
England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first group of female students at the University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women’s suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain’s politics at the Queen’s command. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can’t deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.
Sebastian is appalled to find a suffragist squad has infiltrated his home, but the real threat is his impossible feelings for the green-eyed girl who bumped into him in the square. He is looking for a wife of equal standing to secure the legacy he has worked so hard to rebuild, not an outspoken commoner who could never be his duchess. What will win out? Passion or title?
It took me several chapters to get into this one. I’m not sure if it was the character progression or if my brain was subconsciously trying to make this Bridgerton, but either way, I’m glad I stuck with it. It does have Beauty & the Beast meets Bridgerton vibes with a side of women empowerment. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series, A Rogue of One’s Own.
Beach Read
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. They’re polar opposites who had met back in college and the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and dealing with writer’s block.
One evening, they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will work on the next Great American Novel. They take turns taking each other on outings to teach and experience their respective genres. And through this journey, more than book plots develop …
This was such a fun, light hearted read! Especially since I’m usually reading psychological thrillers. I absolutely loved this book and I loved this author’s writing style. More than once I literally laughed out loud while reading and there was even a moment when I shed some tears. Perfect book for your upcoming road trip and/or vacation! I loved it so much I can’t wait to read her next book, People We Meet on Vacation.
The Death of Mrs. Westaway
On what started as a seemingly normal day, Hal receives a mysterious letter stating that she is due an inheritance from a supposed family member she didn’t even know who existed. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money.
Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral … where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it.
Wow wow wow! At the beginning of this book, I wasn’t sure how I would like as Hal’s character was developed. She had recently lost her mom and was working the family tarot card business. Business was slow and she owed people money that she just didn’t have. So when the letter arrived, she took it as her chance to pay off her debts whether she was the right recipient or not. Once at the funeral and immersed into the family scene, the plot began to thicken! Every time I thought I had the wild web of family secrets unraveled there was a new twist. Thoroughly enjoyed this book!
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