The Witch of Bourbon Street by Suzanne Palmieri #SRC2015

I received a complimentary book to help me write an honest review. I am participating in this year's BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge for the fun of it, reviews contain my own affiliate links for the books being read and discussed. #SRC2015

This week we are getting jazzy in New Orleans!

Another week, another great destination for our #SRC2015 reading journey. Remember, you can follow along and join in on the fun on BookSparks Facebook page or follow along with their FB Event Page.

True magic is born from sorrow...

Situated deep in the Louisiana bayou is the formerly opulent Sorrow Estate. Once home to a magical family - the Sorrows - it now sits in ruins, ever since a series of murders in 1902 shocked the entire community. Now the ghosts of girls in white dresses shift in and out of view, stuck in time as they live out the past on repeat. 

When Frances Green Sorrow is born carrying the "signs" of the so-called chosen one, it is believed she will bring her family back from the brink of obscurity, finally resurrecting the glory of what it once was and setting the Sorrows ghosts free. 

But Frances is no savior. 

Fleeing from heartbreak, she seeks solace in the seductive chaos of New Orleans, only to end up married too young in an attempt to live an ordinary life. When her marriage falls apart shortly after having a son, she returns home again - alone - just out of reach from the prying eyes of her family. But when her son disappears, she is forced to rejoin the world she left behind, exposing her darkest secret in order to find him and discovering the truth of what really happened that fateful year in the process. 

Set amidst the colorful charm of The French Quarter and remote bayous of Tivoli Parish, Louisiana, Suzanne Palmieri's The Witch of Bourbon Street is a story of family, redemption, and forgiveness. Because sometimes, the most important person you have to forgive....is yourself.

My Review

Last year I had the pleasure of being introduced to author Suzanne Palmieri through the #SRC2014 selection, The Witch of Belladonna Bay. It was a lovely and haunting story. Really the sort of read I love to sink my teeth into over the summer. So, I was thrilled that another of Palmieri's "Witch" novels was on this year's BookSparks' line-up.

Palmieri's writing is in the same hauntingly beautiful and tragic style. She is a master with imagery and beautiful scene setting. Great characters, real and flawed, perfect for exploring the ideas of redemption and family. We all have flawed families, but family just the same.

I really love the characters that this author creates. They have "shine", but that isn't always helpful. They struggle to navigate fate, love, family and life like everyone else. They just feel more deeply and we are invited along to see their emotional scars and their personal journey through pain and awakening.

The Witch of Bourbon Street is a book that will transport you to both the French Quarter and the bayous of Louisiana, uncovering all the secrets of the Sorrow family, while appreciating all you have in your own life. This book won't let you go until that last page...

The Road Home by Kathleen Shoop #SRC2015

I received a complimentary book to help me write an honest review. I am participating in this year's BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge for the fun of it, reviews contain my own affiliate links for the books being read and discussed. #SRC2015

Another week, another great destination for our #SRC2015 reading journey. Remember, you can follow along and join in on the fun on BookSparks Facebook page or follow along with their FB Event Page.

 This stop lets us meander through Des Moines, Iowa:

The long-awaited sequel to award-winning, bestselling author Kathleen Shoop’s The Last Letter 

1891 - Living separately for three years, fourteen-year-old twins, Katherine and Tommy Arthur, have done their best to make each boarding house feel like home. But unrest grows as they are driven to questionable actions just to survive. Meanwhile their desperate mother is confronted with breaking yet another promise to her children. Then a miracle descends. Hope rises on a cold, rainy night and changes everything. If Jeanie could just get word to Katherine and Tommy, she knows she can set their lives right again. Agitators, angels, and dangerous saviors illuminate the Arthurs' unmatched determination and smarts. 

1905 - Though she tries to forget the awful years that hurt so much, the memories still haunt Katherine. Now, tearful mourners at her mother’s funeral force her to revisit a time in her life that both harmed and saved her in the most unexpected ways. Tommy grieves his mother’s passing as well. He too is thrust backward, compelled to rediscover the events in his life that shaped the man he has become. Will he commit to reconstructing his broken life? The Arthurs' come to understand that forgiveness is the only way back to hope, the only way to find all that was good in the misfortune that transformed their lives forever.

My Review

Sadly, I didn't have a chance to read the first book before diving right into The Road Home. But, luckily, the story and Kathleen Shoop's writing was still captivating. Despite the nearly 500 pages, the book will keep you hooked throughout. Don't worry, all those pages are well used and masterfully written.

I am a huge fan of historical fiction and strong, dynamic characters and this book delivered on both of those. Going back and forth between 1891 and 1905 there is so much going on, so many emotions, complex character interactions and just enough tragedy and triumpth that you can't help but fall in love with Kathleen Shoop's writing and the characters she has created.

Grab your copy:
The Road Home - Amazon Affiliate Link

Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave #SRC2015

I received a complimentary book to help me write an honest review. I am participating in this year's BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge for the fun of it, reviews contain my own affiliate links for the books being read and discussed. #SRC2015

Another week, another great destination for our #SRC2015 reading journey. Remember, you can follow along and join in on the fun on BookSparks Facebook page or follow along with their FB Event Page.

 This stop takes us to Sonoma wine country and a look into love and family with:

There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide....

Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.

But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change their lives forever.

Georgia does what she’s always done: she returns to the family vineyard, expecting the comfort of her long-married parents, and her brothers, and everything familiar. But it turns out her fiancé is not the only one who’s been keeping secrets….

Eight Hundred Grapes is a story about the messy realities of family, the strength (and weaknesses) of romantic love, and the importance of finding a place to call home.

My Review

A beautiful portrait of the struggles without the perfectly imperfect family. I loved how author, Laura Dave, introduced flashbacks of parents Dave and Jen and the choices... perfect or imperfect, that they made along the way as we follow Georgia and her siblings through the current decisions they must make. I love how even the idyllic setting of a vineyard in Sonoma wine country came with it's own struggles.

My favorite scene in the book, by far, was the first meeting of Georgia and Jacob. Talk about humorous, off the wall and beautifully written!

This is a book about have-to-haves and the journey it takes us to realize what that is for each of us.

I whole-heartily recommend this book for your Summer reading list. And reading it along with a good glass of wine is highly recommended!

Laura Dave is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The First Husband, The Divorce Party and London Is The Best City In America. Her novels have been published in fifteen countries, and three of her novels, including Eight Hundred Grapes, have been optioned as major motion pictures. She resides in Santa Monica, California.

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The Balance Project by Susie Orman Schnall - #SRC2015

I received a complimentary book to help me write an honest review. I am participating in this year's BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge for the fun of it, reviews contain my own affiliate links for the books being read and discussed. #SRC2015

It's my 3rd book along this Summer Reading Challenge journey with BookSparks. This leg of the trip was especially enjoyable. I think this is a book many woman will be especially interested in checking out.

Remember, you can follow along and join in on the fun on BookSparks Facebook page or follow along with their FB Event Page.

Having it all isn't everything

The Balance Project is a story of loyalty, choices, and balance that will resonate deeply with all women who struggle with this hot-button issue. 

Loyal assistant Lucy Cooper works for Katherine Whitney, who seems to have it all: a high-powered job at a multibillion-dollar health and wellness lifestyle company, a successful husband, and two adorable daughters. Now, with the release of her book on work-life balance, Katherine has become a media darling and a hero to working women everywhere. In reality, though, Katherine’s life is starting to fall apart, and Lucy is the one holding it all together, causing her own life―and relationship with her boyfriend Nick―to suffer. When Katherine does something unthinkable to Lucy, Lucy must decide whether to change Katherine’s life forever or continue being her main champion. Her choice will affect the trajectory of both of their lives and lead to opportunities neither one could have imagined.

My Review

Such a great topic to explore from the point of view of someone helping the "balanced" keep it all together. An assistant was the perfect viewpoint to take for this story.

I have to admit there were a few times I wanted to scream at the pages and tell Lucy to get it together and ditch it all, but the truth is if I was faced with job pressures and loyalty as the main character was, I might find it hard to walk away, too. There is an amazing clarity that comes from reading about the pitfalls of wanting to have "it all", that cannot be understood when one is in the thick of keeping commitments and appearances.

The author, Susie Orman Schnall did a great job of creating characters that were easy to fall in love with. Nick the boyfriend, a truly great guy, the perfect boss Katherine? Real, flawed but compassionate. And even the characters we weren't supposed to like, Maggie? Well, they were all real characters with multiple sides and motivations. I am not sure there were any "bad" characters in the book.

Balance is something very relevant to me as a working Mom. In the end, this book gave me a quick laugh, a fabulous literary get-away, but left me thinking about the balance in my own life long after the characters rode off into the sunset. 

Definitely a Summer read worth adding to the TBR pile!

Wishful Thinking by Kamy Wiscoff - #SRC2015

I received a complimentary book to help me write an honest review. I am participating in this year's BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge for the fun of it, reviews contain my own affiliate links for the books being read and discussed. #SRC2015

So excited for the 2nd week of the  BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge. This past week I read Wishful Thinking by Kamy Wiscoff. It was the perfect book to devour over the long holiday weekend.


This year's books have been arriving all wrapped and ready to be enjoyed. Isn't this cute? You can follow along with the fun on Instagram and Twitter by following #SRC2015. I just had to share because this makes it so fun. Don't forget you can follow along and join in on the fun on BookSparks Facebook page or follow along with their FB Event Page.

Jennifer Sharpe is a divorced mother of two with a problem just about any working parent can relate to: her boss expects her to work as though she doesn't have children, and her children want her to care for them as though she doesn't have a boss. But when, through a fateful coincidence, a brilliant physicist comes into possession of Jennifer’s phone and decides to play fairy godmother, installing a miraculous time-travel app called Wishful Thinking, Jennifer suddenly finds herself in possession of what seems like the answer to the impossible dream of having it all: an app that lets her be in more than one place at the same time. With the app, Jennifer goes quickly from zero to hero in every part of her life: she is super-worker, the last to leave her office every night; she is super-mom, the first to arrive at pickup every afternoon; and she even becomes super-girlfriend, dating a musician who thinks she has unlimited childcare and a flexible job. But Jennifer soon finds herself facing questions that adding more hours to her day can’t answer. Why does she feel busier and more harried than ever? Is she aging faster than everyone around her? How can she be a good worker, mother, and partner when she can’t be honest with anybody in her life? And most important, when choosing to be with your children, at work, or with your partner doesn't involve sacrifice, do those choices lose their meaning? Wishful Thinking is a modern-day fairy tale in which one woman learns to overcome the challenges—and appreciate the joys—of living life in real time.

My Review

I think every busy Mom, working Mom, stressed Mom has had moments when they fantasize about being able to do it all or having endless hours in the day. Kamy Wicoff''s novel, Wishful Thinking, is a humorous but thought provoking look at the great "what if". In our daily lives we joke about having an app for everything, but what if there really was?

I loved the chance to see how "having it all" in our current society might play out. The author did a great job of exploring the topic while also showing how we make choices that shape our lives. The stress of parenthood, the time required to be on committees as well as the pressure we place on ourselves to be superhuman....are all things Jennifer faces and things that I could identify with.

Great writing, great characters and a fascinating exploration of a dream I think we have all had at some point.


So what do you think? I hope you will add Wishful Thinking to your Summer reading list. Now, stay tuned, next week I will be giving your my review of The Balance Project by Susie Orman Schnall.

The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek - #SRC2015

I received a complimentary book to help me write an honest review. I am participating in this year's BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge for the fun of it, reviews contain my own affiliate links for the books being read and discussed. #SRC2015

I am so excited to join in the BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge again this year (#SRC2015 if you want to follow along). I have to say the line up of books (all 17) sound very exciting! Don't worry, there is still plenty of time to get involved and start reading along. Check out the Facebook Events page for more information on what books will be on the travel itinerary this season.

This year is being hosted by Jane Green and there are some great prizes you can win along the way... but, let's face it, good books and good company are their own rewards, right?

I am kicking off this reading challenge with a great book, The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek.

For a few secret months, 15-year-old Sam enjoys the unexpected attention of Suzie. However, at the end of the summer, Sam’s world unexpectedly shatters when Suzie moves away. Watching her parents’ marital troubles escalate, Suzie takes on the responsibility of raising her two younger brothers and plans an early escape to college. Suzie misses Sam and her closest friend, Bella. It is not until years later that a chance meeting with Sam’s older brother reunites the trio, causing Suzie to confront her past, as well as her friends.

My Review

The Grown Ups is a great Summer read that follows along with 3 childhood friends. The author, Robin Antalek, has such a great mastery of storytelling and it starts right off with a great ice breaker,

It was the summer all the children in the neighborhood caught a virus.

That first chapter was filled with so much vivid detail and humor that I was quickly hooked into the story and into the neighborhood that bound the 3 characters, long after they moved away.

This story drew me in with these dynamic characters, teenagers who struggled to grow up in the midst of parental problems, their own life choices along the way and the constant struggles that life throws at them. This was such a beautiful portrayal (though sometimes in the ugliest way) of the fears and struggles faced while growing up and finding one's place in the world.




Stay tuned for another book destination next week! I will be diving right into Wishful Thinking by Kamy Wicoff.

Have you read The Grown Ups? What did you think of the story?