#SaturdaysAreBookish | Book Review | “The Summer Guests” by Mary Alice Monroe

Posted Saturday, 22 June, 2019 by jorielov , , , 0 Comments

#SaturdaysAreBookish created by Jorie in Canva.

After launching this lovely new feature of mine during [Autumn, 2018] it is a pleasure of joy to continue to bring #SaturdaysAreBookish as a compliment focus of my Twitter chat @SatBookChat. If you see the chat icon at the top of my blog (header bar) you can click over to visit with us. The complimentary showcases on my blog will reflect the diversity of stories, authors and publishers I would be featuring on the chat itself. As at the root and heart of the chat are the stories I am reading which compliment the conversations.

#SaturdaysAreBookish throughout [2019] will be featuring the Romance & Women’s Fiction authors I am discovering to read across genre and point of interest. Every Saturday will feature a different author who writes either Romance or Women’s Fiction – the stories I am reading might simply inspire the topics in the forthcoming chats or they might be directly connected to the current guest author.

I am excited about where new guests and new stories will lay down the foundation of inspiring the topics, the conversations and the bookish recommendations towards promoting Romance & Women’s Fiction. Here’s a lovely New Year full of new authors and their stories to celebrate!

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Acquired Book By: I have been hosting blog tours and reviews for Simon & Schuster off and on for nearly a year now. I’ve had the joy of discovering their stories through Contemporary and Historical narratives whilst happily finding a lot of their authors are writing the kinds of stories which keep me engaged and rooted in their narratives. Such as the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley – which is why when I first saw the note about the tour for ‘The Summer Guests’, I was most curious – not just of this potentially becoming my first Monroe novel to read but because of where the story was set. I happen to love the mountainous regions of my country and this one in particular hugs close to Appalachia which happens to be the mountain range I am most familiar with due to how oft I read stories set there. It has only been in recent years I’ve exchanged the Eastern mountains for the Rockies; thus, when I learnt the setting was in Western North Carolina and centred round hurricanes, natural disasters and overcoming life’s adversities – I was quite smitten with the plot!

I received a complimentary copy of “The Summer Guests” direct from the publisher Gallery Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

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Why this particular story perked an interest to read:

First and foremost, I love stories about horses, horse culture and horsemanship. I’m the girl who grew up reading about the wilds of the West, farms, ranches and cowboys because the wide open landscapes of those stories called to my spirit, to my soul. They were enriching in how families hugged close together, how life was better lived together and how if you needed some space, the wide open plains provided the best place to seek it out on a horse. The concept of being able to wake with the roosters, put on your riding clothes and hide out to chase after dawn’s first break of dawn was something that truly appealled to a girl who loved horse-back riding but wasn’t able to continue it forward into her teens and adult years. I still long for the day where I could get back on a horse and reconnect with a sport I have loved since I was quite young.

You can see this love of mine coming through Jorie Loves A Story – from the stories of Karen Rock (her Rocky Mountain Cowboys series), the limited serial Return of the Blackwell Brothers, the enduring and brilliant dramatic Catherine Ryan Hyde novel The Language of Hoofbeats and a forthcoming review by a new series of Harlequin Heartwarming entitled Reunited with the Cowboy. It is also seen in my choices of television and motion pictures – I have been passionately attached to the production of Heartland – streaming it first on Netflix for the first nine seasons and finding the tenth happily available to stream via Hallmark Movies Now. I’m hoping to stream the eleventh season if Hallmark acquires the rights to it as the series is currently in production for their 13th season.

Whilst at the same time, I also have a healthy appreciation for the mountains – Appalachia on the East and the Rockies on the West. Growing up natural disasters were as much a part of my life as they are a part of a lot of people’s lives today. There were some honest whoppers of destruction back in the ’80s and ’90s; some even set the record books before they were re-broken in the 21st Century by fiercer storms and/or worse disasters than our imaginations could have conceived. I still have shivers of anxiety just contemplating Hurricane Sandy for the folks on the Mid-Atlantic Coast! Not to mention the fires and floods of the West Coast and the persistent tornadoes of the Mid-West this Spring have re-set how we view natural disasters and how we survive them.

Finding this was a story about an eclectic group of people who not just evacuated but found themselves in a place they weren’t expecting with people they weren’t planning to connect with felt like a wicked good read. It also felt like an alternative view of what we think about most when we connect a natural disaster in our minds with the chaos we see on television. There is always much more to the ‘story’ than what the stories are revealling to us in a televised recapture of events and that is why I felt reading The Summer Guests would be a brilliant way to kick-off my #SummerReads for Women’s Fiction!

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#SaturdaysAreBookish | Book Review | “The Summer Guests” by Mary Alice MonroeThe Summer Guests
by Mary Alice Monroe
Source: Direct from Publisher

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Beach House series comes a heartwarming and evocative novel about the bonds and new beginnings that are born from natural disasters and how, even during the worst of circumstances—or perhaps because of them—we discover what is most important in life.

Late August is a beautiful time on the Southern coast—the peach trees are ripe, the ocean is warm, and the sweet tea is icy. A perfect time to enjoy the rocking chairs on the porch. But beneath the calm surface bubbles a threat: it’s also peak hurricane season.

When a hurricane threatens the coasts of Florida and South Carolina, an eclectic group of evacuees flees for the farm of their friends Grace and Charles Phillips in North Carolina: the Phillips’s daughter Moira and her rescue dogs, famed equestrian Javier Angel de la Cruz, makeup artist Hannah McLain, horse breeder Gerda Klug and her daughter Elise, and island resident Cara Rutledge. They bring with them only the few treasured possessions they can fit in their vehicles. Strangers to all but the Phillips, they must ride out the storm together.

During the course of one of the most challenging weeks of their lives, relationships are put to the test as the evacuees are forced to confront the unresolved issues they have with themselves and with each other. But as the storm passes, they realize that what really matters isn’t what they brought with them to the mountains. Rather, it’s what they’ll take with them once they leave.

With Mary Alice Monroe’s “usual resplendent storytelling” (Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author), The Summer Guests is a poignant and compelling story of self-discovery, love, and redemption.

Genres: Contemporary (Modern) Fiction (post 1945), Women's Fiction



Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 9781501193620

Setting: Western (Mountains) of North Carolina


Published by Gallery Books

on 11th June, 2019

Format: Hardcover Edition

Pages: 368

Published By: Gallery Books ()
(an imprint of Simon & Schuster )

Formats Available: Paperback and Ebook

Converse via: #TheSummerGuests, #SummerReads and #SaturdaysAreBookish

About Mary Alice Monroe

Mary Alice Monroe Photo Credit Mic Smith Photography

Mary Alice Monroe is the New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including the Beach House series: The Beach House, Beach House Memories, Swimming Lessons, Beach House for Rent, and Beach House Reunion.

She is a 2018 Inductee into the South Carolina Academy of Authors’ Hall of Fame, and her books have received numerous awards, including the 2008 South Carolina Center for the Book Award for Writing, the 2014 South Carolina Award for Literary Excellence, the 2015 SW Florida Author of Distinction Award, the RT Lifetime Achievement Award, the International Book Award for Green Fiction, and the 2017 Southern Book Prize for Fiction.

Her bestselling novel The Beach House is also a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. An active conservationist, she lives in the lowcountry of South Carolina.

Photo Credit: Mic Smith Photography

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a notation about the foreword:

I have an equestrian background in my childhood which I do not oft bring forward into my online life – as a joyful tweeter nor as a book blogger. Although the sentiments are true it isn’t entirely realistically true – wherein, the horse world still remains rather exclusive and outside the reach of the working class. I attempted many times in my youth and early adult years to stay within the world of horses, however, I still remember how difficult it was to transition from the city to the country. How in the city it was a bit easier to find a barn to take lessons and grow as an equestrian however, in the country – the bias and prejudice runs quite rampant.

Also, I did not especially find all persons who had a healthy interest in horse-back riding – either English (Dressage) or Western were widely accepted if a) you didn’t come from wealth or b) you weren’t riding a horse since you were knee-high to a grasshopper. The stigma still stands today and why it does is a bit beyond me – so although, in theory I appreciate the sentiments spoken about the horse world from Ms Bellissimo I don’t find them true across the board.

There is a shunning of sorts between the hunt seat riders and those who want to learn Dressage and/or any rider who wants to seek out Western style of riding as well. I do hope there will be more openness towards all riders from all backgrounds, lifestyles and income brackets but as someone starting her fourth decade I haven’t seen this come true to form as of yet.

I have kept the hope alive to find a place to nurture my equestrian spirit and to carry forward the lessons I learnt as a young girl – I’d love to aspire to ride on a regular basis in the future, because one thing I do understand is the mindfulness of connection between a horse and their rider. There is a symbiotic connection which is felt by heart and soul; between horse and human which you cannot appreciate until you experience it.

my review of the Summer guests:

You feel caught between newsfeeds and meteorological updates as you begin reading The Summer Guests as the story unfolds right at the turning point where a supposed tropical depression in the Atlantic has developed into a stronger, fiercer more organised beast of a hurricane! This is all to realistically attached to our lives because over the past few years, there have been more than one major hurricane to impact the East Coast of the United States; from the Carolinas to the Jersey shore and all routes betwixt and between; including the panhandle of Florida and the coastal cities of Texas. Monroe paints the picture clear and gives you just enough encouragement to put yourself back in storm season mode – of catching updates, praying for those in the direct path of the storms and hoping it will not be as bad as the meteorologists are predicting the storms to be once they come ashore.

I love how Monroe begins our ominous impression of the sea murmuring her concerns for our safety through the character, Cara. A woman who was raised by the ocean, knew its habits and its moods which proves how intrinsically intuitive we can all become to the natural cycles of nature – if we’re mindful of their seasons and become self-aware of what nature is attempting to speak to us about how the dangers that lie in wait are never expected. There is a reason why there is a calm before the storms – of how there is a stillness of silence before the worst hits and how after the descriptive nature of storms there is a calmness again; almost as if we dreamt the whole event as its hard to connect what we observe with what has happened round us.

I’m unsure if anyone is fully prepared to have a hurricane barrel down towards them – even as you read how calm Cara remained knowing she’d be in the Western mountains of North Carolina by the time the hurricane in this story arrived at the coastline – you could almost feel she was convincing herself against her own instincts. She knew what the ocean was foreshadowing for her to accept as its own living truth and yet, she turnt away from that intuition and shrugged it off; thinking her anxieties were out of place. We should all be more mindful of our intuitions especially when it comes to the impossibilities of predicting mother nature.

Hannah is attempting to sort through her belongings and her boyfriend Javi’s when she really ought to be on the road heading out of towne, away from the oceanfront windows and the hurricane which was only days out from making landfall. Her conversation with him on the phone felt true of the situation – what to take, what to leave behind and would any of it matter in the end if you didn’t get out to a safer place than at the point of impact once the storm arrived? You could tell she was torn between honouring Javi’s requests and just taking the dog and hitting the road.

Hannah’s dedication to natural beauty and natural cosmetics was a leaf out of my own book of interest because finding honest-to-goodness natural cosmetics without the use of synthetics and other agents of chemical origins is growing more difficult. There used to be more on the market and although, some companies still claim to be a) natural, b) vegan or even c) cruelty-free; you have to read the labels carefully because none of it is as it would appear to be. We do need more companies who are forward-thinking in the beauty world – where cosmetics isn’t something that will cause harm to your health but be something you can wear without the concerns of erasing future years off your life.

As we shift through the different characters’ who populate The Summer Guests we hug close to what is going through their mind at the point of where the hurricane is ‘still off the coast’ but is starting to irrevocably change their lives. As we become introduced to Moira, we have a better picture of how all of these individual lives will co-merge in the mountains as it is Moira’s Mum’s horse farm where each of them chose to take shelter. Each of them had their different reasons for reaching out to Moira’s mother and Moira herself was a bit on edge about how she still hadn’t been able to leave herself. You could tell she was a bit less enthused about how much company she’d greet once she arrived as her mother continued to rattle off the spontaneous guest list. It also showed how varied a rider’s life can become once marriage and life takes over drive and ambition. For Moira, her life was being cross-compared to Elise – a girl she knew growing up as they had studied Dressage together but as adults, their friendship had fractured due to differing life choices once they married. Quite true to life – how paths can part, how friendships which were once strong can feel closer to a weakly brewed tea and the way the heart yearns to understand the changes over the years.

When Hannah revealled why she had cut her career short as a jumper – your heart went out to her as she made that choice a bit too much in haste. It had a lot to do with her marriage and the subsequent divorce but what you felt the most was how she made the choice out of an emotional tidalwave which perhaps was not the best time to make the choice at all. Riding was something she personally enjoyed and she felt the connection to the horse she was showing as I had myself – despite the fact I hadn’t been competitive, I felt it in training. It doesn’t take long to bond to a horse and that was something which shined through Hannah’s reverie for a sport she still longed to be a part of and was on the fringes of now with a boyfriend whose career was still active.

The kind of mother Elise had was the kind of mother you were thankful you didn’t have yourself – she was brisk and brass; she saw everything in black and white without any consideration for the in-between. The way Elise was attempting to trailer her horse proved that too much of her mother’s impatience had rubbed off into her blood but what was a bit more disturbing is that she was on the brink of a path that would lead her through the Grand Prix and to the Olympics; yet her heart wasn’t in it. She was missing the one component all riders needed for success: a heart connection to her horse. The irony of course is how Hannah had felt pings of jealousy for Elise’s successes but sometimes what envy fails to see is what is happening behind the gloss of the surface – of what happens behind what can be perceived.

In the middle of this story, is Grace the one woman master of ceremonies who was not just coordinating how to house her guests but how to house their horses, their dogs and the rescued dogs who were also enroute as they needed shelter as much as everyone else. She was quite the incredible woman as she sorted everything out within hours of the calls, never feeling overwhelmed and simply just got down to business. I think in her case though – it felt like she was being productive by helping to aide those who needed out of the hurricane’s path. So oft, we all see these storms from the safety of our televisions or streaming devices; or even, the manic updates in the twitterverse – you can drive yourself batty just worried about others who are in the path of a nightmare. By keeping busy, helping others who need the help you can give – you can understand what was fuelling Grace and why this undertaking was giving her back as much grace as she was giving to those who were arriving on her farm.

Once the guests had finally arrived at Grace’s farm, their personalities started to combust in on each other – as Javi’s horse apparently was in heat which bothered Elise’s Mum about their own horse (a stallion) would be placed in jeopardy. And, although Grace didn’t mind having dogs on the property, I thought it was a bit odd she questioned the large breed of Javi’s dog – as despite the size of the dog, wouldn’t any dog be welcomed? Especially considering Grace’s own daughter Moira had just driven eight dogs to the farm to be kept in a makeshift kennel in the garage for a rescue organisation? I found that a bit jarring to the context of the novel as what would be the difference? Even large breed dogs deserve to evacuate? That just felt out of step with the narrative and the foundation of the story.

I didn’t immediately connect with these characters once they arrived in the mountains because instead of finding them falling into sync with each other, it felt like their personalities were too different to be considered able to meld together. If anything, the sparks of their meeting felt like more drama than the goodness in Grace’s heart to have them come together. I know their minds were more concerned about the fate of their properties in the path of the storm but the best way to handle any evacuation is to let that bit go and be caught inside your walk of faith than to focus on it to where you can’t enjoy yourself whilst evacuated. Once you know your in a safe place like the one Grace was providing for them, I was hoping they might learn to unwind a bit and feel a bit of the relief she was providing for them. As anyone who takes you in during an evacuation does so with the kindness of joy and gives you a security of feeling like your home even when your not. Its a beautiful gift and one to be cherished.

The scene which reconnected me with the heart of the story was when Greta re-found her beloved horse she affectionately called Jazzy. It was one of those soul-lifting moments in a story where you immediately connect to the emotions and the artful way in which the heart feels the distances of time through a spontaneous meeting where the past collides into the present. It was a very well-written scene and one which won’t soon leave me.

Counter to this happening, I was most anxious over Cara – she foolishly drove back to her coastal house – to grab the few belongings she could save before the storm destroyed her house (as it didn’t seem they’d be much hope for it after the storm came ashore) whilst attempting to board up the windows. If recent storms taught us anything it is how modern architecture and houses needs to make a few radical adjustments in how we build our homes to withstand the strength of these monstrous cyclones from the sea. In this sense, I felt she was not just foolish but cutting it too close for comfort – these hurricanes wait for no one and if your caught in the height of their arrival, shame on you! Goodness! Cara both vexed me something fierce for her stupidity and pulled at my heart for why she felt she had to return.

As the storm hit, so did the emotional tidalwaves for everyone else in the novel. It was like a cascade effect – the hurricane was not just bringing itself to shore and land; it was the catalyst for everyone in the story to recognise what they needed to change and/or fix in their lives. It was a short window of time to spend on themselves – to give them the time which would warrant the intrapersonal exploration of ‘self’ vs being continuously caught in the currents of their daily lives. Noelle gave them the personal space to sort through the life affirming moments which could either directly affect their futures and/or repair something in the present to ease the burdens they’d face tomorrow.

As I was reading through the chapters, I stumbled with a connection to the novel. There were moments where I felt connected and other moments I felt disconnected. The story just didn’t hold a fusion of cohesive attention for me – mostly because I found a lot of the characters a bit too one dimensional for my tastes. They were either super conceited or they were so narrow in their views of how to live a life brokered against their own conscience, it felt muddling in a lot of the areas where I felt there should have been more definition. In essence, I found myself pulled out of the context of the novel rather than feeling I had a firm foothold within it instead.

By the time the end arrived, I was honestly thankful – except I had a disappointment – Cara’s place in the novel exited too early for me and I wish her presence could have been expanded a bit. I know we had resolution for her character but part of me wished we could have re-visited with her if only for a short bit of time and spent the final moments lingering with her and David on the coast.

A slight bobble in hurricane history:

I am not sure anyone else noticed this – but Ms Monroe talks about how Hurricane Noelle (the fictional hurricane in The Summer Guests) was hitting land as a Category Four hurricane wherein it was mentioned it was the largest in strength to hit land. I found that curious considering recent history – not just for the fact Hurricane Katrina was one of the most notorious storms of recent memory, but because of Hurricane Harvey. Hurricane Sandy was in a category of hurricane all of her own due to what she did and the aftermath she caused. I am not sure if Hurricane Michael hit Florida’s panhandle during the book’s production to print or after it which is why I knew it couldn’t be mentioned as it was too recent of a storm.

Monroe did correct herself almost immediately and mentioned Hurricane Andrew (a Category Five) and I knew this novel was based on Hurricane Florence which hit the Carolinas in 2018 – I just found it odd to make that kind of statement when there are so many Category Four storms and a few which took the Category Five classification. Parts of me wondered if it might have been better to base this off the effects of Hurricane Sandy rather than Florence especially due to how Noelle is described as being “the storm to end all storms” (paraphrasing, my words). Even though on that note, I know the author had direct experience with Florence not Sandy; evenso, Noelle just felt like she was Sandy.

I would have given it a pass if the wording had been differently on page 65 – where it wasn’t being insinuated as ‘the strongest’ of the Atlantic but kept more broad as ‘another strong storm’. There are more intensively strong storms hitting land than ever before in known history. She does talk about Katrina on page 67 and more about Andrew on page 66. I think it just rubbed me wrong about how Noelle was being classified in relation to known hurricanes.

Small fly in the ointment:

The strong language arrived at really odd intervals – most of the novel is rather tame and has its own flavour and flow in the narrative. Then, you hit a random word here or there which I found a bit jarring as there just wasn’t any reason for it; not really anyway. It was just this strong word in the midst of a train of thought or in the middle of a conversation and it just felt like it was being placed there but it served no general purpose. Not even on an emotional register for the character(s) using them. If anything I think the story stood well without any strong words and maybe that might have been a better choice.

on the contemporary & women’s fiction styling of mary alice monroe:

For those readers who are not as acquainted with Equestrian sports and the terminologies therein, Monroe added a handy definition guide at the head of her novel. She also included a character list and both sections were in sequence together past the Foreword. Being this is my first Mary Alice Monroe novel to be reading, I didn’t know what to expect once I settled into the rhythm and pacing of The Summer Guests. What I found inside was a compelling dramatic arc of people caught in the currents of a hurricane and chose to take themselves out of the path whilst they found themselves in the process at a junction in their lives where they could rewrite the journey they would take after the storm.

One of the more insightful notes in the story-line is about how horses are evacuated; as I still remember how during Hurricane Frances horse farms in Central Florida were called to evacuate their horses north towards Kentucky who were welcoming them in with open arms to get the horses out of the path of the storm. Frances became a rain soaker rather than destructive girl but it was the potential of what she could have brought in her wake which caused the evacuations. This is why it is best to know all routes out of your county, city and state when evacuations orders come – not just from hurricanes but for wildfires and other extreme weather conditions that play havoc on our modern lives. Most of the routes overlook the less travelled interior roads where you will find your emergency crews and first responders; if you take those inland routes which still move you out of harm’s way, you’ll find yourself on a road that is not just reliable but not congested as the major highways. This is something I heard about during Frances – how most of the horse farms took alternative highways to get into the Mid-West ahead of the storm and cut down their driving hours.

Monroe discusses the impressions and opinions of the Equestrian world as well – from the misconceptions about men in the sport and the dominance of society thinking this is a women’s sport overall. I enjoyed seeing how she broke-down those misconceptions but also offered a reason for how they circulated or at least, gave a reason why some might have that bias even if it is unfounded and untrue. I agreed with her statements about what it takes to earn the trust of a horse but also to become a champion in the field you’ve chosen to ride. It is as dedicated to train and to grow as an Equestrian as it is any other sport you would choose to undertake. The other little known trivia about horses is that it is a field of sport open to all ages – there is no upper age limits nor is there any ‘end’ to what you can learn and grow to do once you’ve sorted out which style of riding interests you most.

I loved the little touches of storm season Monroe added into the background of her novel The Summer Guests – how the weather news was constantly being heard, watched or listened to as her characters went through the motions of preparation, arrival of the storm and the aftermath therein. It is the unknown soundscape for everyone who is either a) in the path of a disaster or b) curiously hoping the people in the path are spared; we all are united when nature’s wrath is about to descend upon us because we each know how any one of us could be in the path of any storm or disaster at any given point in our lives. It might not be us now but it could be us in the future – thereby, wouldn’t we all want others to be just as mindfully aware of what was happening then as we are now?

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This Blog Tour Stop is courtesy of

Gallery Books & Simon and Schuster.

Whilst reading this novel, I enjoyed listening to the channel “Summer Acoustic” by Spotify – where gentle melodies and soothing sounds accompanied my readings of this novel quite well. I enjoy finding the songs & playlists on Spotify which work well with a novel I’m currently reading.

The song choices added to the journey in such a lovely way.

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This book has been reviewed by my fellow book bloggers:
they may or may not be on the publisher’s blog tour

The Summer Guests Book Review | Tar Heel Reader

Special Feature: The Summer Guests | The Lit Bitch

The Summer Guests Book Review | Book of Secrets

The Summer Guests | Reecas Pieces

Book Review: The Summer Guests | Peaches & Palmettos

Review The Summer Guests | Sascha Darlington

The Summer Guests | Carries Book Reviews

The Summer Guests | In Literary Love

The Summer Guests | Stacy Alesi’s BookBitch.com

The Summer Guests | Gen the Bookworm

The Summer Guests | Steph & Chris’s Book Review

The Summer Guests | Bibliomarket

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reading this novel counted

towards some of my 2019 reading goals:

2019 New Release Challenge created by mylimabeandesigns.com for unconventionalbookworms.com and is used with permission.

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{SOURCES: Book cover of “The Summer Guests”, synopsis, author photograph of Mary Alice Monroe and author biography were all provided by the publisher Simon and Schuster and are used with permission. 2019 New Release Challenge created by mylimabeandesigns.com for unconventionalbookworms.com and is used with permission. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Saturdays Are Bookish banner and the Comment Box Banner.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.

I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

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Posted Saturday, 22 June, 2019 by jorielov in #SaturdaysAreBookish, 21st Century, Animals in Fiction & Non-Fiction, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Fly in the Ointment, Horse Drama & Fiction, Latter-life Adventures, Life Shift, Low Country South Carolina, Meteorology, Modern Day, Natural Disasters & Catastrophic Events, Non-traditional characters, North Carolina, Post-911 (11th September 2001), Rescue & Adoption of Animals, Simon & Schuster, Small Towne Fiction, Small Towne USA, Vulgarity in Literature, Western North Carolina Mountains, Women of a Certain Age, Women's Fiction




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