It’s been a few weeks since I have done my weekly recommendations. Life has been crazy. But, over the past few weeks I have read some amazing books. Here are five books I highly recommend.
Cole by Karla Sorensen
Synopsis:
Cole Mallinson has never been able to move on.
It’s been two thousand, three hundred and sixty-two days since he’s seen his ex-wife, Julia. He’s never stopped loving her, never stopped wishing she’d come back. Everyone thinks he’s lost his mind for never moving on, but they couldn’t understand. It was never a choice.
Seven years ago, Julia Mallinson left Denver, and even though it’s the last place she wants to be, she’s back. The years of infertility that she and Cole endured during their marriage wore her down past the point of breaking. And when she left, she didn’t look back, couldn’t look back, for the sake of her sanity, her heart.
Between an accidental run-in at the grocery store and a meddling pregnant sister, Julia is forced to face the man she walked away from. The man who still, after all these years, has never moved on. Though neither has she.
And in the end, she’s left wondering if the past is ever left in the past.
My Review:
5 Stars
First, you had Dylan, then Garrett, and now Cole. What a group of men!! I knew that I would fall in love with Cole from what I had read about him in the first two books.
You have Cole. He is still heartbroken from where Julia left him seven years earlier without an explanation. She was the love of his life and still is. He never moved on from her and now that she’s back in town he doesn’t know how to handle it.
You have Julia. She came back to town to help her pregnant sister and realizes that at some point she’s going to face her past. She left Cole without an explanation and doesn’t know how to handle her feelings when she sees him for the first time.
Cole and Julia’s story touched my heart. In the beginning, I was so mad at Julia for leaving Cole. I was wondering how she could leave such a great man behind with no explanation. But then the story deepened and I started to understand better why she did what she did. I was still mad at her but after hearing her explanation it made more sense to me.
Cole and Julia get a second chance at love, but can they get over the heartbreak and mistrust from their past? Can he forgive her for leaving him all those years ago, and can she forgive herself?
I absolutely loved the story. I had a feeling Cole would be one of my favorite stories from this group of men, and I was right. Without giving too much away this book talks about an issue in relationships that many people face, but that’s never talked about publicly. Karla outdid my expectations with this book. I cannot wait for Michael’s and for Tristan’s book!!!!!
Revelry by Kandi Steiner
Synopsis:
From the bestselling author of Weightless and A Love Letter to Whiskey
Wren Ballard is trying to find herself.
She never expected to be divorced at twenty-seven, but now that the court date has passed, it’s official. The paperwork is final. Her feelings on it aren’t.
Spending the summer in a small mountain town outside Seattle is exactly what she needs. The peaceful scenery is a given, the cat with the croaky meow is a surprise, but the real kicker? A broody neighbor with nice arms, a strange reputation, and absolutely no interest in her.
Anderson Black is perfectly fine being lost.
He doesn’t care about the town’s new resident — he’s too busy fighting his own demons. But when he’s brought face to face with Wren, he can see her still-fresh wounds from a mile away. What he doesn’t see coming is his need to know who put them there — or his desperation to mend them.
Sometimes getting lost is the way to find yourself. Sometimes healing only adds a new scar. And sometimes the last place you expected to be is exactly where you find home.
My Review:
5 Stars
This story is about finding yourself. It’s about love. It’s about heartbreak. It’s about learning that sometimes the road to happiness isn’t always smooth.
Wren Ballard has just gone through a divorce and after spending 10 years with a man who did not treat her as equal; Wren now needs to find out what she really wants in life and how she really is. Wren is told she is “crazy” for leaving her marriage because no one know about the problems they were having and thought they had a perfect relationship. But things are not always what they seem.
Wren decides to rent a cabin an hour outside of the city and spend the summer there. She feels that this will help her clear her mind and hopefully bring back inspiration so she can create more clothes for her fashion line. One day she sees a man that makes her stop dead in her tracks. A man with hard features but beautiful. This man was Anderson.
Anderson had felt dead for the past six years, ever since his cousin died. He blamed himself for the accident. He was doing the same thing over and over every day, trying to keep his mind off of the tragedy that happened. But then one day he saw her, and everything changed.
After running into each other a few times, Wren and Anderson started to form a bond. It was a strange bond but it worked for them. They both had deep issues to work through, but could they help each other while also helping themselves?
Can one summer change someone’s life? Can one summer show someone how to live again? How do you grow when everyone tells you that you will never be enough? How do you forgive yourself for past words and actions?
I loved Wren and Anderson. They were not your typical love story. They each had their own issues and they were deep seeded issues. They found a way to help each other heal but in the end, is it enough? Can you really heal when you have been broken for so long?
Anderson stole my heart. I fell in love with him and wanted so much for him to grow and find love.
Wren was such a strong woman to leave a marriage she was not happy in even when other told her she was wrong.
I loved Momma Von. I loved her stories and her whit. I think she added a lot to the story as a secondary character.
This was truly a great story. I laughed, cried, and then cried some more.
Kandi has a gift when it comes to writing. She knows just to words to say that will connect with your heart.
Animal by Marni Mann
Mature Adult Content : Readers should be 18+ (contains violence, sexual situations, dark themes) This book is not every anyone who cannot handle cussing and intense situations.
Synopsis
I captured the guilty.
Locked them inside our prison.
Tortured their bodies and abused their minds.
I had murdered hundreds.
Never recognized one.
Until her face.
Until that scream.
I was hired to take her life.
But first, I had to figure out how she ruined mine.
My Review:
5 stars
Marni Mann… what did I just read??
This book was captivating, dark (very dark), and so full of twists and turns that I couldn’t put it down. So many people and so many stories that all connect and will make you say “WTF?”
We meet Tyler first. She has just killed herself but we flashback and she tells us her story and how she got where she got.
Tyler is in college and gets drug into the underground world of drugging men and then practically robbing them of thousands of dollars, called the Achurdy. She meets Jae one night while off work and has an instant connection to him. Because of her job, she knows she can never have any kind of relationship with Jae but for some reason, she can’t break away from him.
Then we go to present day and meet Beard. Beard is a killer. He is hired by private people or companies to kill others. He works with two other men, Shank and Diego. Beard loves to torture people, he loves hearing them scream. We don’t learn a lot about his background at first, he is kinda a mystery. He meets a lady name Layla in Miami and is immediately drawn to her. Something about her keeps her in his mind at all times. But you can tell that Layla is hiding secrets.
The story goes back and forth between Tyler flashbacks and present day Beard.
Along the way you also meet Mina who runs Achurdy and Bond who is a person in Beards life. We get a little insight on their stories.
At the end of the book, we get an insight on Shank and what he says blows my mind.
This story was crazy! There were so many twists and turns, connections and ties. And then you read the ending and you are like “OMG”. This book is a total mind f***!!
I can’t wait for Shank’s story to come out!
Say It Again by S. Moore
Synopsis:
People always leave.
After graduating from college, Cameron Pratt’s spending the summer with her best friend, Grace Shea. There’s only one problem. Her brother, Jacob, will be there too. Jacob Shea. Only one word describes him. Douchebag. His touch doesn’t make her body tremble. His eyes don’t see her heart. He’s nothing to her and she wants nothing to do with him. When Jacob finds out Cameron’s in town, he’s doing everything he can to win back her trust and make her see how good they’ll be together.
Will Jacob be able to open Cameron’s eyes, or will the walls around her heart be too high and unbreakable?
My Review:
4 stars
Cameron: is an independent woman who has suffered terrible losses in her life. With her friends by her side, she has prevailed and is looking forward to her future. After graduation, she decides to spend the summer with her friend Grace. Only one problem…Grace’s brother Jacob is going to be there and the last time they saw each other, let’s just say that things didn’t end well.
Jacob: Last time Jacob saw Cameron, he was leaving her room in the middle of the night. Years later, he is face to face with the woman who still invades his thoughts. Even though he had a good reason for leaving her that night, can he get her to forgive him for never contacting her and explaining what happened?
When things start heading in the right direction, one mistake might take it all away. Now you have to read to find out the rest. I really enjoyed Cameron and Jacob’s story. It’s about second chances and pushing thought the hard times in life. I can’t wait for Grace and Aiden story
Releasing Soon:
Edges of Gone by Jessica Gouin
Synopsis:
In good times, and in bad. In sickness, and in health. Until death do them part…
Owen and Sloane never foresaw their vows being put to the ultimate test mere hours after declaring those sacred words.
Their lives were shred to pieces on the night of their wedding and the aftermath that followed the tragedy set those pieces ablaze. Promises of better or worse began to blur as they attempted to return to daily routines.
With a burnt and bloodstained wedding dress hidden in the basement, will Sloane be strong enough to mend the broken pieces inside of her husband? With guilt and despair pulling Owen further into the dark corners of his mind, will he battle his demons, or surrender to them?
Sometimes when love is pulled apart, it might not fit back together as easily as it once did. Every marriage takes faith and sacrifice, but how far will these two go to save what they once had?
It seems the further these newlyweds drift from one another the harder it becomes to focus on the happy life they once envisioned.
My Review:
5 stars
If you want a tearjerker. This is your book.
This book is wonderful, beautiful, and amazing.
Edges of Gone picks up where Six Years Gone left off (If you have not read Six Years Gone, you need to because it is wonderful and you will understand this book a lot more.) The beginning of this book does do a mini re-cap of Six Years Gone if you have not read it.
Owen and Sloane were supposed to be celebrating the best day of their lives, but it ended up being the worst day of their lives. After a terrible tragedy and horrible injuries, they now have to pick up the pieces and continue living.
Owen is trying to overcome injures he received on his wedding day. He is heartbroken, sad, pissed at the world, and doesn’t know how to move on with his life.
Sloane is trying to do all she can to help Owen with his struggles but he keeps pushing her away. When is enough, enough? When do you give up on trying to help the person you love?
First, let me just say Damn You Jessica. The number of tears I shed during this book was crazy. I will say that when you read this, you will probably be pissed at Owen for a good portion of the book, because I was. However, you have to remember he is grieving and in pain. There are other characters in the book, Imogen and Nash, who add their own stories into the plot. (I loved Imogen.)
There are flashbacks throughout the book that give you a good incite on why Owen is feeling the way he is and why he is going what he is doing.
I absolutely loved this story. It is a very emotional story. I cried sad tears and happy tears (my husband laughed at me because of it.) I think this book is beautifully written and tells a story of heartbreak and suffering but also tells a story about how you can overcome the worse times of your life.
Books with Kathy 
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