Quick Pick book review: I Owe You One, by Sophie Kinsella

Opening lines: The problem with me is, I can't let things go. They bug me. I see problems and I want to fix them, right here, right now. My nickname isn't Fixie for nothing.I mean, this can be a good thing.  Reason I picked up the book: I'm a huge fan of Sophie...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Royal Runaway, by Lindsay Emory {ends 12/10}

I left the Queen's presence with a renewed sense of purpose. Gran had called me in to remind me what I had been raised to do, what I had always done. Princess Theodora of Drieden was polite, respectful, and compliant. She put the Crown and its priorities first. Even if it meant...

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Book Review: Her Pretty Face, by Robyn Harding

Kate's laughter tinkled, and Frances felt warm and happy. She was having a girls' day out. Like other women did. Like women whose children didn't require special diets and structured routines and constant research into treatments and behavioral modification therapies. Like women...

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Quick Pick book review: Girls' Night Out, by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke

Opening lines: The Day After. Natalie.Waves lapped against the shore. It sounded as if the sea were breathing. In and out. In and out. Between the whitecaps breaking against the sand, there was a pause, almost as if the ocean were inhaling and preparing to release another...

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Book Review: What I Leave Behind, by Alison McGhee

Guest review by: Becki Bayley At some point she has to walk out of the house into invisible air, air that has no roof or walls. And how do you get through? You know? When things are too much? Because the world, it’s full of air. Full of sky and space. Ocean, too. All of...

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Book Review - To the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder, by Nancy Rommelmann

Guest review by: Becki Bayley An estimated five hundred children are killed by their parents each year in the United States, according to homicide data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This number has been static for decades. It is also unreliable and certainly...

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Quick pick book review: Vox, by Christina Dalcher

Opening lines: If anyone told me I could bring down the president, and the Pure Movement, and that incompetent little shit Morgan LeBron in a week's time, I wouldn't believe them. But I wouldn't argue. I wouldn't say a thing.I've become a woman of few words.Tonight at supper,...

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Quick Pick book review: My Favorite Half-Night Stand, by Christina Lauren

Reason I picked up the book: I'm a huge Christina Lauren fan, and it sounded super cute. And what's this book about? From the New York Times bestselling author that “hilariously depicts modern dating” (Us Weekly) comes a sexy romantic comedy about online dating, and...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: When We Were Worthy, by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen {ends 10/20}

Guest review by: Erin Krajenke "I don't know you anymore," he'd said, standing in the den of their trailer, their two bodies nearly filling the whole room..."I haven't really known you since we came here." "You haven't known me?" she spat. "How about you're gone all the time...

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Book Review - Life Inside My Mind: 31 Authors Share Their Personal Struggles

Guest review by: Becki Bayley Even now, with my teenage years so far behind me, sometimes I have to remind myself to shut my brain off, to tell it where to go. Sometimes I have to tear my eyes away from the mirror. Whenever I get depressed, it’s usually because something has...

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Book Review - The Year of Living Awkwardly: Sophomore Year, by Emma Chastain

Guest review by: Becki Bayley December 15 I almost literally bumped into Grady today because we were both looking at our phones while turning a corner. His eyes flickered, and I could tell he was considering walking away without saying anything, but then he said, “Hey.” “Hey....

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Quick Pick book review: A Spark of Light, by Jodi Picoult

Opening lines: 5pm. The center squatted on the corner of Juniper and Montfort behind a wrought-iron gate, like an old bulldog used to guarding its territory. At one point, there had been many like it in Mississippi—nondescript, unassuming buildings where services were...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Working Fire, by Emily Bleeker {ends 10/1}

Guest review by: Erin Krajenke "...a voice crackled over the radio. Sally from dispatch. Both Ellie and Chet stopped in their tracks. 'Ambulance Twenty-One delta response, [crackle] Lane, Broadlands. Possible shooting [crackle] AS-One. Police responding. Have not arrived.’  Chet...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: In Your Hands, by Ines Pedrosa {ends 9/20}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley Lisbon, November 14, 1990 Dear Jenny, “It’s weird, you never talk about Rui,” Leonor said to me a few days ago. I said that’s why people get married: so they can talk about other things. But I remembered that’s what you used to say too. So...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: All That I Can Fix, by Crystal Chan {ends 9/18}

Earlier on that same Thursday, Mr. Jenkins, the crazy guy on the edge of town, the guy who owned an exotic zoo filled with tigers, panthers, hyenas, and elephants and the like but who never fed them very well (they all had ribs poking out like the black keys on a piano)—he decided...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Josh + Hazel's Guide to Not Dating, by Christina Lauren {ends 9/16}

Hazel Camille Bradford Before we get started, there are a few things you should know about me: 1. I am both broke and lazy - a terrible combination. 2. I am perpetually awkward at parties and in an effort to relax will probably end up drinking until I am topless. 3. I tend...

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Book Review: To All the Boys I've Loved Before, by Jenny Han {now a Netflix Original movie!}

When I write, I hold nothing back. I write like he'll never read it. Because he never will. Every secret thought, every careful observation, everything I've saved up inside me, I put it all in the letter. When I'm done, I seal it, I address it, and then I put it in my teal hatbox. ...

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Quick Pick book review: Ain't She a Peach, by Molly Harper (Southern Eclectic #2)

Opening lines: Frankie McCready carefully dusted Maybelline blush in Light Rose on the curve of Euola Buckinerny's check."Now, Miss Eula, I know you've never been one for makeup. You've always been blessed with such a nice complexion, you've never needed it," Frankie murmured...

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Book Review: I Will Never Leave You, by S.M. Thayer

Guest review by: Becki Bayley TRISH This morning, I gulped two Valiums as I whipped up the breakfast tray of James’s hangover remedies. Yesterday, after returning from Laurel’s maternity suite, I met with my internist. I didn’t want to be like my mother and fall into depression...

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