11. Northern Lights by Nora Roberts

listened on Libby

2004
637 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Romance
Finished 1/31/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.02
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Lunacy, Alaska

My comments: Can't believe I read a Nora Roberts, swore I never would.  Read for a January Bookgirls Challenge.  Dragged on and on...much too long.  The setting, Lunacy, Alaska, was definitely cool.  Most was in the winter, then quickly moved through spring to summer.  Many characters, you either hated them or loved them.

Goodreads synopsis:  As a Baltimore cop, Nate Burke watched his partner die on the street—and the guilt still haunts him. With nowhere else to go, he accepted the job as Chief of Police in a tiny, remote Alaskan town with the hopes of starting over. Despite the name, Lunacy provides a balm for Nate's shattered soul—and an unexpected affair with pilot Meg Galloway warms his nights...

But other things in Lunacy are heating up. Nate suspects the killer in an unsolved murder still walks the snowy streets. His investigation will unearth the secrets and suspicions that lurk beneath the placid surface, as well as bring out the big-city survival instincts that made him a cop in the first place. And his discovery will threaten the new life—and the new love—that he has finally found for himself.

February 2023 Book Spin - Book Bingo - TBR

21.  Wait Listed at the library - Finlay Donovan Is Killing It	5.    Knitlandia – a Knitter Sees the World	22.  Wait Listed at the library - The Matchmaker's Gift	2.  Fountains of Silence	18.  An actual physical book
11.  The Lying Club	9.  Signal Moon	1.  The Fire and the Ore	23.  Wait Listed at the library	14.  023 Newbery Winner - Freewater
13.  The House at the End of the World	7.  The Birchbark House	19.  Memoir	16.  New Middle Grade Novel	20.  A freebie, new, undiscovered on 1/31 - Found Object
23.  Wait Listed at the library	6.  Caught	17.  A New YA Novel	3.  The Dark Room	12.  Lonely Hearts (#4 Jessica Shaw)
8.  Midnight Children	10.  Indigo Girl	15.  2023 Printz Prize Winner	4.  Keeper of Enchanted Rooms	Wait Listed at the library

1.  The Fire and the Ore (Utah/HF) Feb Bkgirls US Challenge

2.  Fountains of Silence - Ruth Sepetys (YA/Spain 1957) Feb Bkgirls W. Europe Challenge

3.  The Dark Room - Lisa Gray standalone KUnl audio

4.  Keeper of Enchanted Rooms – on KUnl

5.   Knitlandia – a Knitter Sees the World, Audible

6.  Caught – Harlan Coben, Chirp

7.  The Birchbark House – Louise Erdrich, Audible

8.  Midnight Children – Dan Gemeinhart , Audible

9.  Signal Moon – Kate Quinn, Audible

10.  Indigo Girl – Natasha Boyd, Chirp

11.  The Lying Club – Annie Ward, Audible

12.  Lonely Hearts #4 Jessica Shaw – Lisa Gray, KUnl audio

13.   The House at the End of the World – Koontz, 2023, KUnl audio

14.  2023 Newbery winner (announced 1/30)

15.   2023 Printz winner (announced 1/30)

16.  New middle grade novel

17.  New YA novel   

18.  An actual physical book

19.  A memoir

20.  A freebie, new, an add-on, undiscovered as of the end of January - Found Object

21.  Wait listed at the library - Finlay Donovan is Killing It

22.  Wait listed at the library - The Matchmaker's Gift

23.  Wait listed at the library - ended up buying it - Murder at Haven's Rock 

24.  Wait listed at the library

25.  Wait listed at the library

READY TO READ next

Fall from Grace - Time Weaver, #5 in a series...I read #4 and LOVED it.  Missing persons.

Geraldine Verne's Red Suitcase - 70 year old protagonist for BookGirls YearLong Challenge (KUnl Audio)

The Last Runaway - Tracy Chevalier

Parting the Veil (Bookbug) Kunl Audio - Louisiana to England Mystery/Thriller

Rachel's Story - dystopian!! Kindle only

Found Object (Anne Frasier, great author)- journalist/mother's murder/2022 KindUnl Audio

The Fire and the Ore (KUnlim) (Utah BkGirls)

The Dark Room - Lisa Gray Standalone

Midnight Children - Dan Gemeinhart

The House at the End of the World  - Dean Koontz, 2023 KUnl Audio

Close to Home - Dugoni - Tracy Crosswhite #5 KUnlAudio

Birchbark House

Signal Moon (Kate Quinn) short story

Knitlandia

The Unknown Beloved (Harmon) 1923

The Singing Trees (ME)

The Victory Garden (Rhys Bowen)

The Lying Club (Annie Ward) Thriller

Dark Objects (Simon Toyne)

Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper

in Chirp:

The Girl in the Painting - Tea Cooper

Caught - Harlan Coben

The Indigo Girl - Natasha Boyd

10. The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

listened on Libby 

2022
309 pgs. (11:24)
Genre/Level
Finished 1/25/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.07
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Houston, TX

My comments: SHE'S the bodyguard!  The perfect book to read when you need a break from the darker stuff.  The two protagonists were SO clever/incredibly good looking/funny that it should probably be labeled a farce!  HEA of course - gotta throw in a romcom every now and then.

Goodreads synopsis:  She’s got his back.

Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka "bodyguard"), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.

He’s got her heart.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.

They’ve got a secret.
When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah—against her will and her better judgment—finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it.

What could possibly go wrong???
Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.

9. The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths

#11 Ruth Galloway

listened on Libby

2019
373 pgs.
Adult Mystery - Forensic Anthropology - series
Finished 1/24/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.19
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary King's Lynn, Norfolk, England

My comments: This is the closest to a “so-so“ of any in this series so far-this is the 11th. It refers back quite a bit to the first in the series, which I only partially remember. Maybe some of the themes, motivations, similar characters are starting to be repetitious? I‘m getting a little bit tired of the Ruth/Nelson…situation Ms. Griffiths has Ruth applying for a job at Cambridge, a little change of scene might be just what the series needs.

Goodreads synopsis:  DCI Nelson has been receiving threatening letters telling him to 'go to the stone circle and rescue the innocent who is buried there'. He is shaken, not only because children are very much on his mind, with Michelle's baby due to be born, but because although the letters are anonymous, they are somehow familiar. They read like the letters that first drew him into the case of The Crossing Places, and to Ruth. But the author of those letters is dead. Or are they?

Meanwhile Ruth is working on a dig in the Saltmarsh - another henge, known by the archaeologists as the stone circle - trying not to think about the baby. Then bones are found on the site, and identified as those of Margaret Lacey, a twelve-year-old girl who disappeared thirty years ago.

As the Margaret Lacey case progresses, more and more aspects of it begin to hark back to that first case of The Crossing Places, and to Scarlett Henderson, the girl Nelson couldn't save. The past is reaching out for Ruth and Nelson, and its grip is deadly.

8. Attack of the Black Rectangles by A. S. King

listened on Audible

2022
272 pgs.
Middle Grade CRF
Finished 1/23/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.26
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary PA - I'm guessing a touristy place in Lancaster County, like Intercourse, though the Amish are not mentioned

My comments: Excellent. When three friends are confronted with blocked out words in their sixth grade literature circle book (The Devil's Arithmetic - a really great book in itself), they begin a campaign against censorship. A timely topic that includes a middle school boy dealing with his very odd, untrustworthy father and the usual pre-teenage angst about friendships with girls. My favorite character is the ex-Vietnam vet grandad who practices mindfulness.

Goodreads synopsis:  Award-winning author Amy Sarig King takes on censorship and intolerance in a novel she was born to write.

Everyone in town knows and fears Ms. Laura Samuel Sett. She is the town watchdog, always on the lookout for unsavory words and the unsavory people who use them.

She is also Mac's sixth-grade teacher.

Mac and his friends are outraged when they discovered that their class copies of Jane Yolen's THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC have certain works blacked out. Mac has been raised by his mom and grandad to call out things that are wrong, so he and his friends head to the principal's office to protest the censorship. Her response isn't reassuring -- so the protest grows.

Sesame Cookies

1 1/2 c. almond flour
1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. kosher salt

1/2 c. tahini

1/2 t. vanilla extract

4 T. maple syrup

2 T. toasted sesame seeds

2 T. toasted black sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk together dry ingredients.

In a separate, smaller bowl, combine the tahini, vanilla, and maple syrup.  Stir.

On a small plate or shallow bowl, combine the sesame seeds and set aside.

Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir together until a uniform dough forms.

Scoop and roll the dough into 1 inch balls, then place them in the sesame seeds.  Roll around to cover completely.

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and use the bottom of a glass to gently flattento 1/2 inch thickness.

Bake for 8 - 9 minutes until the surface of the cookie/bottom of the cookie is just beginning to turn light golden in color.  Be careful not to overbake.

The cookies will be very fragile when taken out of the oe so cool on the sheet tray for 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Yield:  about 18 cookies

2023 Charitable Contributions

1/20/2023   Planned Parenthood                                   22.00

1/20/2023   Donors Choose "Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts" Mrs. Feldser/Library, Steelton-Highspire Elementary School, PA  22.00  

1/28/2023  Heifer International, a flock of chicks         20.00  

2/10/2023  Sightsavers                                                   22.00  

2/10/23     Butler Family Raffle thru Salt/SWH                10.00

2/20/2023  Davis Dog Farm (where Matt volunteers)     22.00

2/24/23      Island Connections in memory of Kathy Suminsby     25.75

2/24/23  Donors Choose "Using Our Hands to Enrich Our Minds" Mrs. Kirby/Mooreland Elem Kindergarten, Carlisle, PA    22.00

2/27/23  Suicide Prevention "Out of the Drkness" DC Night Walk - Ella         22.00

2/27/23  Suicide Prevention  "Out of the Drkness"DC Night Walk - Laura     22.00

3/13/23  Pemetic Elementary (Jackson Dunbar)                25.00

3/20/23 Empty Bowls (bought ticket earlier) I'm in 3 of the photos!     25.00

3/22/23 Speranza Animal Rescue, Mechanicsburg- Amazon wishlist (5 items) 22.31

3/22/23  Cattail Farms Animal Sanctuary, Carlisle                   22.00

3/23/23  Team Seas  pennies ($53.00 SPS)       11.00

4/1/23  Second Suicide Prevention "Out of the Drkness" donation  - Laura   22.00

4/5/23  Parkinson's Fdtn. - 60 Mile Challenge (Melissa Rye)     22.00

4/15/23 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital     23.00

4/23/23  National Audubon Society     22.00

4/28/23  Chevra Hatzalah of Crowne Hts. (Yoni Lewkowicz)   18.00

4/30/23  Wildlife Conservation Network - Global Penguin Society  22.00

5/12/23  St. Jude Children's Res Hosp (Max Silverman) 2023 Rock 'n' Roll Run, San Diego  22.00

5/18/23  Jack Bradshaw Run2Read 5K (Thomas Bonias) Seacoast Lrng Ctr -  22.00 (+3.30)

6/3/2023  Fourth Suicide Prevention "Out of the Drkness" (Laura) 22.00 (The walk is tonight)

6/9/2023  Saving Acres Farm, Carlisle - Cat Rescue - Amazon wishlist       22.39

6/16/2023  Caitlin's Smiles, Harrisburg - Amazon wishlist     23.46

6/18/2023  Donors Choose "Crochet Club" - Mrs. Osborne, Saratoga Springs, UT    22.00 (Fully Funded!)

6/21/23    Caitlin Smiles (thru Amazon)   8000 rubber bands    $7.41

7/6/2023   Abram Lockwood's Lemonade Stand/Children's Reading Room    22.00

7/16/2023  Emily Whitehead Foundation  (Matt Sabath)   22.00 + 1.71 handling fee    22.71

7/23/22   Pan-Mass Challenge (Dana Farber Cancer Res. Inst.) 8/5/23  (Jessye Liebow)   22.00

7/27/23   Citizens for Carlisle Schools   22.00

8/17/23   The Postal History Fdtn., Tucson   22.00

8/18  Donors Choose "Crocheting Creative Characters Creates Calm Children)  Mrs. Cutting (gr. 3-5) Las Cruses, NM    22.00  

8/24/23  Maui Humane Society (August wildfires)  22.00

8/26/23  GS of Southern Arizona "Over the Edge" Alyson Israel   22.00  =  2.36     24.36

8/29-23  American Friends Service Committee - Joan Baez appeal     22.00

9/2/23   Speranza Animal Rescue, dog toys from Amazon wishlist    23.15

10/1/23  American Cancer Society (Bri Calaman Rdg. Challenge)     22.00

10/7/23  Donor's Choose "Knitting Time" - Mrs. Migliori, Lowell HS, MA     22.00

10/7/23 - Cattail Farms - Purina Friskies Gravy Wet Cat Food Variety Pack, Savory Shreds - 32 (5.5 ox.) cans through Amazon     24.76 

10/7/23 - Emily Whitehead Foundation  (Venmo/LEG)    22.00

10/7/23 - Ashley Bryan Center      22.00

11/4/23  NYC Marathon/Emily Whitehead Foundation /Matt Sabath     22.00

11/23/23  The Guthrie Center        22.00

11/25/23  Charles Bruce Fdtn (honor of Pat LaMarche's Bday)      22.00

11/25/23  canned chicken breast for donation at SPS (Weis)     3.47

11/28/23  St. Patrick School     $22.00

11/29/23  Soles4Souls Giving Shoes Day   $22.00

12/1/23  Carlisle Police Department Christmas Gifts for Kids - Amazon wishlist, Hasbro Mouse Trap board game      $21.24

12/1/23 Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital-1000 Push-ups Challenge - John Scrimer     $22.00

12/11/23 Hancock Cty. SPCA (Lisa McDaniel birthday)         $22.00

12/12/23  The Trevor Project   (Rose City Originals Quilt)       $23.77

50 donations totaling $ 1128.08

2023 yarn purchases for Homeless Blanket Project

6/29/23  Dollar Tree   9.28

7/7/23 Monarch Knitting   13.53

7/9/23  Michaels    27.10

7/17/23  Michaels   25.53

7/28/23  Michaels     1.98

8/2/23  Mardens  22.09

8/4/23   Michaels   16.53

8/17/23   Michaels    23.95

9/4/23   Michaels    25.43

10/3/23   JoAnn  24.00

10/4/23  Michaels   15.75

10/9/23   Dollar Tree   9.28

11/1/23   Michaels  21.20

11/12/23  Michaels   6.34

11/22/23   Michaels   8.48

11/24/23   Herrschner's (online)   61.29

11/28/23  Michaels   6.07

12/12/23   Michaels     14.52

$ 332.41

7. Dark Highway by Lisa Gray

#3 Jessica Gray

listened on Audible

2020
318 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 1/19/23
Goodreads rating: 4.40
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary 29 Palms Highway, California

My comments: Third in the Jessica Shaw, Private Detective, series. A great protagonist - smart, lots of emotional baggage but devoid of physical baggage… she practically lives out of her car. Set in 29 Palms, California, it‘s about the disappearance/abduction of several women and goes back and forth between time periods and voices. I liked it a lot and could clearly picture it because I‘ve visited this area several times. Good one!

Goodreads synopsis:  LA-based artist Laurie Simmonds disappeared two months ago, her campervan abandoned on the isolated Twentynine Palms Highway, miles from anything—or anyone. With the police investigation stalled, her parents put all their faith in private investigator Jessica Shaw to find out the truth of what happened.

Jessica and her partner Matt Connor discover that two other women are missing, their disappearances connected to the same highway. When a link emerges between these women and a group of former college friends, Jessica feels certain they’re closing in on their target.

But no sooner do they follow this up than Laurie’s parents get spooked and drop the case. Jessica is blindsided but determined not to give up: three women are missing, and many more may be at risk. She can’t turn her back on them. But the more she pulls at the threads of the truth, the closer she comes to danger. Can she find out who’s behind these crimes before they come for her?

6. The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths

#10 Ruth Galloway

listened on Audible

2018
368 pgs.
Adult Forensic/Murder Mystery
Finished 1/17/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.04
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Italian mountainside AND Norfolk, England

My comments: This one was a little different ... set mostly in a picturesque mountain village in Italy where Ruth has been invited to help with an investigative gig/dig by an old "friend."  Kate is now six years old and accompanies her along with Shona and Shona's son.  The climax of the story is a bit horrifying and very unexpected.  So much of the story is actually about Ruth (and Nelson's) personal lives, so the climax is a bit unsettling.  The story also has a completely unnecessary epilogue - I'm definitely not into epilogues 90% of the time.  Wondering in what direction Ms. Griffiths is going with these.....

Goodreads synopsis:  Dr Ruth Galloway is flattered when she receives a lett2er from Italian archaeologist Dr Angelo Morelli, asking for her help. He's discovered a group of bones in a tiny hilltop village but doesn't know what to make of them. It's years since Ruth has had a holiday, and even a working holiday to Italy is very welcome!

So Ruth travels to Fontana Liri, accompanied by her daughter Kate and friend Shona. In the town she finds a medieval shrine and a dark secret involving the war years and the Resistance. To her amazement she also finds Harry Nelson, who is enduring a terrible holiday at a resort nearby. But there is no time to overcome their mutual shock - the ancient bones spark a modern murder, and Ruth must discover what secrets there are in Fontana Liri that someone would kill to protect.

5. Hide by Tracy Clark

#1 Det. Harriet (Harry) Foster

listened on Audible (through Kindle Unlimited)

2023
377 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 1/12/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.20
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Chicago

My comments: Couldn't wait to read a 2023 published novel and this one looked good.  Didn't work for me, though.  The narrator did the protagonist voice okay, but all the other voices were just horrible.  The story was shown through different viewpoints, so you immediately knew what was going to happen, there weren't many secrets at all.  I did like the main protagonist, Harry.  This is the first in the series, wil I try the next?  Perhaps.

Goodreads synopsis:  From acclaimed author Tracy Clark comes a page-turning mystery featuring hard-boiled Chicago detective Harriet Foster, who’s on the hunt for a serial killer with a deadly affinity for redheads.

When a young red-haired woman is found brutally murdered in downtown Chicago, one detail stands out: the red lipstick encircling her wrists and ankles.

Detective Harriet Foster is on the case, even though she’s still grieving the sudden death of her partner. As a Black woman in a male-dominated department, Foster anticipates a rocky road ahead acclimating to a new team—and building trust with her new partner isn’t coming easily.

After another victim turns up with the same lipstick markings, Foster suspects she’s looking for a serial killer. Through a tip from a psychiatrist, Foster learns about Bodie Morgan: a troubled man with a twisted past and a penchant for pretty young redheads with the bluest eyes. As Foster wades into Morgan’s sinister history, the killer continues their gruesome assault on Chicago’s streets.

In her desperate race to catch the murderer before they strike again, Foster will have to confront the darkest of secrets—including her own.

Air Fryer Croutons

bread slices - fresh or stale - cut into cubes

1/4 c. virgin olive oil

parsley flakes

onion powder

garlic powder

seasoned salt

Place cubed bread in a bowl.  Add olive oil and seasonings.  Toss well with a spatula

Transfer into air fryer basket, spread out into single layer if possible.

Air fry at 390 degrees for about 5 minutes, toss//shake a bit half way through.

Store in air tight container.

4. Unpunished by Lisa Black

#2 Renner & Gardiner

listened on Audible

2017
320 pgs.
Adult Police Procedural
Finished 1/9/23
Goodreads rating: 3.60
My rating: 2.5
Setting: Contemporary 

My comments:  If you're interested in the newspaper publishing business and how it's dying and want to be lectured ad nauseam about it, this is the book for you.  It wasn't particularly the book for me.  The other half of the book, the actual mystery, was okay.... 

Goodreads synopsis:  Maggie Gardiner, a forensic expert who studies the dead, and Jack Renner, a homicide cop who stalks the living, form an uneasy partnership to solve a series of murders in this powerful new thriller by the bestselling author of That Darkness.

It begins with the kind of bizarre death that makes headlines--literally. A copy editor at the Cleveland Herald is found hanging above the grinding wheels of the newspaper assembly line, a wide strap wrapped around his throat. Forensic investigator Maggie Gardiner has her suspicions about this apparent suicide inside the tsunami of tensions that is the news industry today--and when the evidence suggests murder, Maggie has no choice but to place her trust in the one person she doesn't trust at all . . .

Jack Renner is a killer with a conscience, a vigilante with his own code of honor. In the past, Jack has used his skills and connections as a homicide detective to take the law into his own hands, all in the name of justice. He has only one problem: Maggie knows his secret. She insists he enforce the law, not subvert it. But when more newspaper employees are slain, Jack may be the only person who can help Maggie unmask the killer-- even if Jack is still checking names off his own private murder list.

3. We Lie Here by Rachel Howzell Hall

listened on Audible

2022

416 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Thriller
Finished 1/8/2023
Goodreads rating:  3.84
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Palmdale, CA

My comments:

Figured this out pretty early on, no surprises at all at the end.  

Pros:  I liked the setting of the dusty California high desert.  After the beginning, told quite well.

Cons:  Difficult to get into, and I figured most of it out pretty early.  Characters were similar and not really fleshed out too well.  Shifts in who the storyteller was (there were two, the protagonist and a then "bad guy" once in awhile.)

Goodreads synopsis:  A woman’s trip home reveals frightening truths in a twisty novel of murder and family secrets by the New York Times bestselling author of And Now She’s Gone and These Toxic Things.

TV writer Yara Gibson’s hometown of Palmdale, California, isn’t her first choice for a vacation. But she’s back to host her parents’ twentieth-anniversary party and find the perfect family mementos for the celebration. Everything is going to plan until Yara receives a disturbing text: I have information that will change your life.

The message is from Felicia Campbell, who claims to be a childhood friend of Yara’s mother. But they’ve been estranged for years—drama best ignored and forgotten. But Yara can’t forget Felicia, who keeps texting, insisting that Yara talk to her “before it’s too late.”

But the next day is already too late for Felicia, whose body is found floating in Lake Palmdale. Before she died, Felicia left Yara a key to a remote lakeside cabin. In the basement are files related to a mysterious tragedy, unsolved since 1998. What secrets was Felicia hiding? How much of what Yara knows about her family has been true?

The deeper Yara digs for answers, the more she fears that Felicia was right. Uncovering the truth about what happened at the cabin all those years ago will change Yara’s life—or end it.

Rejoining LITSY and some fun READING CHALLENGES

Read Around the USA 2023  (Book Girls')

Read Around the World 2023 (Book Girls')
Author a Month (Litsy)

     January - Louise Erdrich
January Book Spin & Bingo

Complete the Collection 2023 (Series) through StoryGraph

Ruth Galloway Series through StoryGraph

StoryGraph's Onboarding Reading Challenge

2. Book Lovers by Emily Henry

listened on Libby

2022
377 pgs.
Adult romance, 2 or 3 steamy bits, but NOT the entire book
Finished 1/7/2023 
Goodreads rating: 4.23
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary, small community outside Asheville, NC

My comments: Pros:  Great banter between the two protagonists, clever writing.  Interesting premise, a tiny bit different than most of the romance tropes out there.  Admitting you love living in the city and really don't want to attempt living anywhere else.

Cons:  Too long.  A sister relationship that's just too over-the-top - for me, at least.

Epilogue:  I always groan when I hear them add this when I don't think it's needed at all.  And usually they aren't.  But this one had a couple of treasures that made it a perfect touch.

Goodreads synopsis:  One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.