#INSPYJuly 2019 | July IS Jorie’s month for reading INSPY Lit! Celebrating the JOY of #CFSRS19 one INSPY author & story at a time!

Posted Monday, 1 July, 2019 by jorielov #CFSRS19, Jorie Loves A Story 0 Comments

This *July!* I’m doing things a bit differently from last year – basically I’m dividing my July between #CFSRS19 + #INSPYJuly – two concurrent readathons celebrated on Jorie Loves A Story – wherein, Jorie gets her #INSPYreads on for the next 30 days!

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts – ever wonder what Jorie might be getting up to reading this Summer? After a hard Spring (remember those 5x horrid migraines during #WyrdAndWonder?) & difficult start to Summer (ie. June) I’ve decided to focus on three reading challenges which will help me re-inspire my reading life after the recent adverse afflictions and/or adversities (ie. last week’s plumbing crisis)(ie. just a wicked horrid week, truly!)(ie. and then my cat went missing) I’ve soldiered through – the first one I blogged about is #MyYASummer during last week’s Top Ten Tuesday; the second is today’s announcement for my 2nd Year participating in the Christian & Clean Fiction readathon *and!* the third is the #IronTomeAthon I will announce on Tuesday whilst revealling this week’s Top Ten Tuesday!

Let me break it down for you with a short Q&A I asked of the hostess which I think you might find equally delightful to know about in case your considering joining the bookish FUN this JULY by devouring INSPY Lit.

The following convo is regarding

the Christian & Clean Fiction Summer Reading Safari,
or as you will find the posts on my blog & Twitter feeds: #amreadingcfsrs19 OR #CFSRS19

Not to be confused with the ‘other’ half of my InspyReads I’ll tag as #INSPYJuly!

I compiled this Q&A last year and am re-sharing it this year in case someone would like to participate but didn’t understand the specifics. I also added a bottom section pertinent to the Google Form which is replacing the way we added our entries last July.

We don’t have to review all the books we’re reading this month, but we can talk about them on Twitter or in a wrap-up post on our blogs or just read them w/o socially sharing them? That’s the option in the bookaway for “Read a book”

A: Yes. If you read a book that is Christian or Clean Fiction, you can enter it in the google form for points in the giveaways. ← In lieu of Rafflecopter, this year we have a Google form.

We can read and review ANY author of our choice –

as long as their Christian / INSPY or Clean – right?

A: Yes. You can read and review and author of your choice as long as it’s Christian or Clean, but you do get more entries in the Reading Challenge Google Form if you read a book by an author or publisher sponsor.

IF we are not in the Facebook group (as I use Twitter) but we read a book on the Facebook Challenge page (on the challenge blog) OR if we read book by an author listed on that page, we enter that title into that space on the bookaway?

A: Yes. You can enter this title to for extra points in the Reading Challenge Google Form. :)

Here’s what I was most worried about after finding 15+ audiobooks I want to listen to this month which actually count as INSPY/ChrisFic reads —

I am off-setting my readings with audiobooks, as I am trying to curb a repeat of Spring where I had a high frequency of migraines. When you say ‘read’ a book – you are accepting some of us are reading print books *and* audiobooks?

I wanted to confirm this wasn’t format specific to ONLY print or ebooks?

A: As for “reading” a book, this can be print,

e-book, or audiobook. What ever works best for you. :)

In regards to the Google Form:

Let’s say you’ve decided to follow a new author (ie. Twitter, their blog, their website, or author newsletter) but didn’t get to finish a book? Add that info to the form for the day it applies. Maybe you followed a new author + shared a s/o for the readathon via Twitter – add both to the form for that day’s entry. If you finished a book, shared a tweet *and!* followed a new author – mark all those fields on the form! Also, if you are blogging a review and/or sharing a review via GoodReads, LibraryThing or another site – those links also count on the form, too (for the days they apply). As a for instance – I shared a tweet and followed a new author on the 1st of July, 2019.

First off, for me – more than anything, a reading challenge which INSPIRES me to re-focus on reading INSPY Lit is the best bit whilst finding readers & bloggers who share my passion for these stories is the best part of participating, as I love sharing the stories which enrich my reading hours irregardless if I’m reading INSPY or mainstream stories – however, having said that – sometimes I find it harder to find readers of #INSPY who love the same authors & stories. Thus, I am hoping to find new blogs to follow & new readers to talk to about the stories giving us #booklove throughout JULY whilst extending into convos throughout the year.

I am going to be focusing on the authors on my *70 Authors* List as well as newcomers I’ve found whilst browsing through the OverDrive Audiobook selections via my local libraries (there are 3x of them!) wherein I can listen to INSPY audiobooks throughout July and hopefully finish most of the ones I’m borrowing to be inclusive to my ‘finished reads’ for the event itself.

Secondly, I have INSPY novels I’ve meant to read & review which have been shifted to my ‘backlogue’ which I want to highlight this July as well. The scheduled reviews I have for INSPY Lit as well as these backlogued review showcases are NOT going to count towards either the books I’ve read and/or the books I’ve reviewed for the reading challenge directly as I have an ethical conflict of interest in declaring them officially but they will be listed on this post as the stories I’m reading all the same. Some stories I am re-reading in order to continue a series as well such as the Coming Home series by Brenda S. Anderson; those won’t be counted either as technically they’ve been previously read & reviewed.

And, this is where I announce the supplemental readathon on Jorie Loves A Story – I’m going to blog & tweet about these lovelies as #INSPYJuly selections! I couldn’t sort out how to tag those stories last year but this year, it was like a lightbulb went off!!

Jorie’s INSPY Reads for JULY 2019:

Posted Monday, 1 July, 2019 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, JLAS Update Post, Reading Challenges

Blog Book Tour | “Project Duchess” (Book One: Duke Dynasty series) by Sabrina Jeffries Jorie travels back into Regency Romances and finds a compelling new series therein!

Posted Monday, 1 July, 2019 by jorielov Beverley Eikli, Carla Kelly, Carolyn Steele, Catherine Tinley, Christina Courtenay, Duke Dynasty series, Jennifer Robson, Kensington Books, Kensington Publishing Corp., Linda Mitchelmore, Liz Harris, Margaret James, Margaret Kaine, Project Duchess, Sabrina Jeffries, Zana Bell, Zebra Books 1 Comment

Acquired Book By:

I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours whereupon I am thankful to have been able to host such a diverse breadth of stories, authors and wonderful guest features since I became a hostess! HFVBTs is one of the very first touring companies I started working with as a 1st Year Book Blogger – uniting my love and passion with Historical Fiction and the lovely sub-genres inside which I love devouring.

It has been a wicked fantastical journey into the heart of the historic past, wherein I’ve been blessed truly by discovering new timescapes, new living realities of the persons who once lived (ie. Biographical Historical Fiction) inasmuch as itched my healthy appetite for Cosy Historical Mysteries! If there is a #HistRom out there it is generally a beloved favourite and I love soaking into a wicked wonderful work of Historical Fiction where you feel the beauty of the historic world, the depth of the characters and the joyfulness in which the historical novelists brought everything to light in such a lovingly diverse palette of portraiture of the eras we become time travellers through their stories.

I received a complimentary ARC copy of “Project Duchess” direct from the publisher Zebra Books (an imprint of Kensington Publishing), in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

On why this story appealled to me:

For readers & regular visitors of Jorie Loves A Story – you know that for most of the life of my blog I’ve been showcasing and reading Romances and/or Women’s Fiction on Saturdays –

I have been an avid and ardent reader of Historical Romances longer than I have been intrigued by Contemporary Romances – a choice which first started to enter my readerly life as a child as I was shy of the age of ten by a year or two when I read my first Regency Romance; set at Christmas and penned by Mary Jo Putney. This goes back to when they had those omnibus Regency Romances for Christmas!? I truly loved them – I was swept into the era and the fashions, alongside the characters of course who charmed me about the Regency overall. From there, I would continue to seek out Historical Romances – from the wilds of the West to more Regencies until I discovered the Victorian era of Romances; at which point my trajectory looked more like a ping pong table of rotation! Laughs with mirth.

As a book blogger, I’ve been highlighting my joys of finding relationship-based romances – most of which were Contemporaries but there are several Historicals as well – by authors such as Liz Harris, Zana Bell, Beverley Eikli, Margaret Kaine, Christina Courtenay, Margaret James, Linda Mitchelmore, Jennifer Robson, Catherine Tinley, Carla Kelly and Carolyn Steele.

What can I say? I love the historic past and although Margaret Kaine was one of the authors who solidified my admiration for the Edwardian era, I find myself musefully drawn back into Regencies!

This is why when I saw some Historical Romances going on tour this Summer, I thought why not? It has been quite a bit of time since I’ve soaked inside one and although I had heard of Sabrina Jeffries collective works, I must admit this was the first time I had the pleasure of reading one of them! I used to regularly read the Word Wenches blog and I’m sure in the back of my memories I am remembering seeing her name and stories pop up on their musings as well. She was definitely on my long list for books I need to be reading for #HistRom and it is a joy this Summer I finally had a chance to dive into one of her Regencies – especially one of the auspiciously brilliant launch of a new series! And, you *know!* how wicked addicted I become to serial fiction!!

Project Duchess
Subtitle: Because duchesses are made not born...
by Sabrina Jeffries
Source: Publisher via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

From New York Times bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries comes a sparkling new series about an oft-widowed mother’s grown children, who blaze through society in their quest for the truth about their fathers . . . and in the process find that love just might conquer all . . .

A series of stepfathers and a difficult childhood have left Fletcher “Grey” Pryde, 5th Duke of Greycourt, with a guarded heart, enviable wealth, and the undeserved reputation of a rogue. Grey’s focus on expanding his dukedom allows him little time to find a wife. But when his mother is widowed yet again and he meets the charmingly unconventional woman managing his stepfather’s funeral, he’s shocked to discover how much they have in common. Still, Grey isn’t interested in love, no matter how pretty, or delightfully outspoken, the lady. . .

Beatrice Wolfe gave up on romance long ago, and the arrogant Duke of Greycourt with his rakish reputation isn’t exactly changing her mind. Then Grey agrees to assist his grief-stricken mother with her latest “project”: schooling spirited, unfashionable Beatrice for her debut. Now that Beatrice is seeing through Grey’s charms to his wounded heart, she’s having trouble keeping him at arm’s length. But once Grey starts digging into her family’s secrets, she must decide whether her loyalties lie with her family . . . or with the man whose lessons capture her heart . . .

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical Romance

Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 9781420148558

Published by Zebra Books

on 25th June, 2019

Format: Paperback ARC

Pages: 294

Published by: Kensington Books (@KensingtonBooks)

Converse via: #HistoricalRomance OR #HistRom with #Regency

Read more about Sabrina Jeffries | Alyssa J. Montgomery’s blog

the Duke Dynasty series:

Project Duchess (book one) Beatrice’s story – 25th,June, 2019

A Perfect Match (novella) Cassandra’s story – 24th September, 2019

The Bachelor (book two) Gwyn’s story – 25th February, 2020

Available Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Ebook and Audiobook

About Sabrina Jeffries

Sabrina Jeffries is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 50 novels and works of short fiction (some written under the pseudonyms Deborah Martin and Deborah Nicholas).

Whatever time not spent writing in a coffee-fueled haze is spent traveling with her husband and adult autistic son or indulging in one of her passions—jigsaw puzzles, chocolate, and music. With over 9 million books in print in more than 20 languages, the North Carolina author never regrets tossing aside a budding career in academics for the sheer joy of writing fun fiction, and hopes that one day a book of hers will end up saving the world.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

Posted Monday, 1 July, 2019 by jorielov in 19th Century, Blog Tour Host, Brothers and Sisters, Content Note, Family Drama, Family Life, Fly in the Ointment, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, Historical Romance, Inheritance & Identity, Life Shift, Romance Fiction, Siblings, the Regency era, Twin Siblings, Vulgarity in Literature, Widows & Widowers

Author Interview | Remember when I read “The Chef’s Secret”? Happily had the chance to discuss it with the author, Crystal King!

Posted Thursday, 27 June, 2019 by jorielov Atria, Crystal King, Simon & Schuster, The Chef's Secret 2 Comments

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts,

Earlier in the year, I had the joy of being a part of the publisher’s blog tour for The Chef’s Secret wherein I had a few takeaways from reading the story I wanted to re-share with you today, in case you hadn’t had the chance to visit with me when this first went live on Jorie Loves A Story! Also, I am wicked thankful I could also participate on this tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours as one of the things I had planned to do was to interview the author closer to when I shared my review – thankfully, I apparently was meant to hold off until this tour to do that and I am thankful to have a second chance to discuss The Chef’s Secret.

We enter into Scappi’s life at the time of his death – where we find Giovanni, his nephew is introducing us to how beloved his Uncle had been to everyone who had tasted his foods. It is through food where Scappi had found his destiny – to influence the taste everyone sought from him and to inspire Giovanni to better understand how to cook; to fuse flavour with the ingredients he preferred to use in his creations. It is through this overview of a lived life, we gain perspective – of how one man’s death has a larger net of sorrow – everyone in this community is grieving as if with one heart, one mind. Everywhere people are affected by the absence of this legend of a man, Bartolomeo Scappi. It is here we recognise how one man can impact so many lives through how he chose to interact and engage whilst he was alive. Yet, for Giovanni it is much, much more personal than that – for him, it is an arrow to his heart as Scappi was a surrogate father to his younger self when he needed a guiding hand in his life.

Shortly after this is announced, Giovanni is reunited with one of his dear friends, Valentino but the weight of the hour is alleviated by his Uncle’s trusted friend Francesco who was taking over the particulars in the background. From here, we meet quite a few officials of importance including the sitting Pope; a man Giovanni is not very fond of as he has changed too much of the past for his liking. The days of the lushly eloquent banquet dinners where Scappi could be inventive with his baking skills and his main dishes were cast aside for a more humbled and limited diet. It is this shared fate, Giovanni is learning will become his own as the Pope wishes for him to carry-on in Scappi’s absence as his personal chef.

It was here where you start to feel for Giovanni – he was under his Uncle tutelage yet when he is ready to ascend from his lessons and embrace the responsibilities he is inheriting, he’s cut to the quick straight out of the gate! He must yield and conform to the needs of his employer rather than to see a future cast through the creations his own heart yearns to cook. As a foodie and as a girl who loves to experiment with spice, herb, flavouring, protein, fresh farm veg and fruit and the cultural cooking heritages from the world – I can fully understand his vexations! It would be troublesome to not allow it to afflict your mind with a deeper sorrow than the loss of your Uncle.

In the background of what is happening to Giovanni, King has a natural acquiescence towards inferring what is happening in the Renaissance at the time in which we are meeting her characters. Little nods of whom might have been a friend of Scappi and little tucked in announcements of what life is like during this period of time gave a fuller grounding of the timescape, I felt. I like seeing those gestures as the novel becomes centrally important to the given century it is placed rather than feeling as if it could be a capsule of time somewhere within living history but without an identifiable marker. I felt Historical Fiction benefits from this kind of dedication as you get to tuck closer to how people are living – seeing how their lives are different from our own and knowing exactly why those differences are visible based on what their doing as we read the story.

-quoted from my review of The Chef’s Secret

This is a very interestingly writ novel – it moves not only as a time shift through different stages of the lives of the inspirational chef for Giovanni but it delves deeper into Scappi’s own influences and the life he led himself. If your a reader who loves culinary arts & delights, this novel has a heap of lovely mentions for the foodie soul and spirit, too!

I hope after you’ve had the chance to digest the information Ms King shares within this conversation you’ll know if this is a novel you will be able to read yourself and/or mention it to someone else you know will appreciate knowing about the book being published.

Be sure to brew your favourite cuppa

& settle into a comfy chair whilst you enjoy this interview!

The Chef's Secret (Interview)
by Crystal King

A captivating novel of Renaissance Italy detailing the mysterious life of Bartolomeo Scappi, the legendary chef to several popes and author of one of the bestselling cookbooks of all time, and the nephew who sets out to discover his late uncle’s secrets—including the identity of the noblewoman Bartolomeo loved until he died.

When Bartolomeo Scappi dies in 1577, he leaves his vast estate—properties, money, and his position—to his nephew and apprentice Giovanni. He also gives Giovanni the keys to two strongboxes and strict instructions to burn their contents. Despite Scappi’s dire warning that the information concealed in those boxes could put Giovanni’s life and others at risk, Giovanni is compelled to learn his uncle’s secrets. He undertakes the arduous task of decoding Scappi’s journals and uncovers a history of deception, betrayal, and murder—all to protect an illicit love affair.

As Giovanni pieces together the details of Scappi’s past, he must contend with two rivals who have joined forces—his brother Cesare and Scappi’s former protégé, Domenico Romoli, who will do anything to get his hands on the late chef’s recipes.

With luscious prose that captures the full scale of the sumptuous feasts for which Scappi was known, The Chef’s Secret serves up power, intrigue, and passion, bringing Renaissance Italy to life in a delectable fashion.

Genres: Cookery, Historical Fiction, Time Slip and/or Time Shift

Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 978-1501196430

ASIN: B07HKM1C83

Also by this author: The Chef's Secret

Published by Atria Books

on 12th February, 2019

Length: 9 hours and 36 minutes (unabridged)

Published By: Published By: Atria Books (@AtriaBooks)
{imprint of} Simon & Schuster (@simonschuster)

Converse via: #TheChefsSecret, #HistNov and #HistFic
+ #Renaissance #Cookery with #BartolomeoScappi

Available Formats: Hardcover, Audiobook & Ebook

Posted Thursday, 27 June, 2019 by jorielov in Blog Tour Host, Book Spotlight, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, Reader Submitted Author Interview

#TopTenTuesday No.7 | #JorieReads the young adult novels winking at her off her shelf! (aka. My Summer TBR!)

Posted Tuesday, 25 June, 2019 by jorielov American Ballerina, Chasing Eveline, Cobbogoth series, Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency series, Nancy Lorenz, Portals Passages & Pathways, Rachael Ritchey, The Beauty Thief, The Red Sun, The Smell of Old Lady Perfume, Trinity Stones 13 Comments

[Official Blurb] Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature / weekly meme created by The Broke & the Bookish. The meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke & the Bookish. We’d love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your Top 10 Lists! In January, 2018 this meme is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

[Topic of 25th June, 2019: Books On my Summer TBR 2019]

Today’s entry was inspiring to me for the following reasons:

I’ve been attempting to re-enter the lovely meme world of #TopTenTuesday since [2018 when I posted my sixth entry!] – to say I was slightly distracted by health afflictions and the tides of life therein would be putting it mildly. This week whilst I was sorting out how to *announce!* my intentions of reading the YA stories winking at me from my bookshelves for the past several years, I decided that this would be a fitting post to tuck into a #TopTenTuesday!

Even though my list is actually *25!* books long – I’ve placed select titles in *bold* to highlight on this post – these are the stories which I felt would befit a Top Ten List feature and the ten most anticipated reads I have on this List as well. Don’t get me wrong – I have been chasing after these stories for the past few years ever since they arrived in for review consideration, however, of the *20!* these were the 10x stories I felt helped inspire me to re-attempt reading the fuller list.

This is also the first year where I felt I could re-focus and re-address a lot of my backlogue of reviews, which I’ll talk about in a moment. If you’re also planning to read a heap of YA this Summer, due leave me a comment – add your book recs and/or the links to your own #TopTenTuesday!

I actually started to return into the community the other week whilst everyone was chattering about the topic “Unpopular Bookish Opines”. I had a heap of lovely fun routing through the book blogosphere and engaging with those who were posting.

Many of the book bloggers I visited were bloggers I regularly either a) follow and b) read – this is also the first year I’ve felt I can become more actively conversational again and look forward to the new convos which have yet to arrive.

DUE NOTE: all the books featured on #MyYASummer Reading List were books sent to me for review consideration at some point or another over the past few years. With the exception of ‘New England Rocks’ which was a gift from the author Christina Courtenay.

Tags I found on Twitter:

#ChildrensLit Summer | #KidsBooks Summer | #KidsLit Summer

#SummerReads | #SummerReading | #iReadYA

+ my own: #MyYASummer | #JorieLovesYA

reading from 21st June-23rd September, 2019

Interestingly enough, for those of you curious how we order things without thinking specifically about how we want to sort the books we’re reading, here is the organic nature of how the books were stacked as I sorted out which books would make into this challenge list:

Summer by Summer by Heather Burch | ~~#SRC2015 via #YASRC 2015~~
Chasing Eveline by Leslie Hauser #ReviewPit
Beautiful Girl by Fleur Phillips | #SRC2015 via #YASRC 2015
American Ballerina by Nancy Lorenz
Solomon’s Bell by Michelle Lowry Combs | leftover from #WyrdAndWonder
Kitty Hawk and the Hunt for Hemingway’s Ghost by Iain Reading
I, James by Mike Hartner | Kate Tilton’s Book Bloggers
Unclaimed Legacy by Deborah Heal | leftover from #RRSciFiMonth
The Kingdom Within by Samantha Gillespie | Kate Tilton’s Book Bloggers
Pig Park by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez
Kitty Hawk and the Icelandic Intrigue by Iain Reading
The Red Sun by Alane Adams | #SRC2015 via #YASRC 2015
Flower from the Castile by Lilian Gafni | Kate Tilton’s Book Bloggers
The Smell of Old Lady Perfume by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez
New England Rocks by Christina Courtenay
Kitty Hawk and the Tragedy of the HMS Titanic by Iain Reading
The Beauty Thief by Rachael Ritchey
Every Hill and Mountain by Deborah Heal | leftover from #RRSciFiMonth
Trinity Stones by L.G. O’ Connor | leftover from #RRSciFiMonth
Sketcher by Roland Watson Grant
Portals, Passages and Pathways by B.R. Maul | leftover from #WyrdAndWonder
Captive Hope by Rachael Ritchey
Beyond the Moon by R.J. Wood
Impossible by C.A. Gray | leftover from #RRSciFiMonth
The Lemorian Crest by Hannah L. Clark | leftover from #RRSciFiMonth

I decided I wanted to finish reading the Kitty Hawk series and as YA can shift between traditional YA stories for audiences of readers who are seeking a less adult world within their YA selections to the Upper YA category which is fused with adult themes and situations – I decided to also include at the end of Summer a few stories befitting the reader ready to leave YA and opt instead for New Adult Fiction. As a segue before entering into Adult Lit.

+ Kitty Hawk and the Mystery of Masterpieces by Iain Reading
+ The Secret Life of Jenny Liu by Jean Ramsden
+ Asher’s Mark by Amy Durham
+ Dare to Kiss by S.B. Alexander

| by the numbers |

3x of BookSparks Reading Challenge Books

3x of Kate Tilton’s Book Bloggers List Reviews

2x of reviews leftover from Wyrd And Wonder (Years 1 & 2)

5x of reviews leftover from #RRSciFiMonth | Sci Fi November

+ / – 1x Middle Grade (others might be considered cross-overs / dual interest between MG & YA however the one MG I know for sure is “The Secret Life of Lucy Liu”

→ 28! books erased from my Book Blogger’s Backlogue

Posted Tuesday, 25 June, 2019 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Jorie Loves A Story Features, Top Ten Tuesday

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

Posted Saturday, 22 June, 2019 by jorielov Gallery Books, Mary Alice Monroe, Simon & Schuster, The Summer Guests 0 Comments

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!

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.

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!

The 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

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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 (@GalleryBooks)
(an imprint of Simon & Schuster @simonschuster)

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

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

#2019NewReleaseChallenge

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