⛱📖☀️Do you have books that you saved for spring/summer reading? Or maybe some books that are releasing soon & are going on your TBR, summer reading list? Today’s featured book is one you’ll want to add to that list for sure!
🎉Happy Pub Week to @catherinedrakewrites & her gorgeous new novel, ‘The Treeshouse on Dog River Road’, with a cover that practically screams “perfect summer read”! Thank you @booksparks for my gift copy of the book!😘
💁🏼♀️You won’t have to wait long to get this one in your hands! Releasing on 5/10, ‘The Treehouse on Dog River Road’ by Catherine Drake is about a young, determined woman trying to figure out life & love while staying true to herself. It’s a whip-smart, atmospheric, entertaining, & genuinely witty debut w/ wonderful characters you’ll love getting to know.
📖Twenty-eight-year-old Hannah Spencer wants nothing more than to change everything about her life. After ten years of living in cities, Nathan Wild has just moved back home to Vermont & doesn’t want to change anything about his.
📖Recently laid off from her depressing job in Boston & ready for a challenge, Hannah heads to Vermont for the summer to take care of her sister’s kids & do some serious soul searching. There, against the stunning landscape of the Green Mountains, she embarks on an ambitious project: building a treehouse for her niece & nephew.
📖As she hammers away, she formulates a plan to jump-start her life w/ a new job out West. But will Nathan-next-door complicate her desire to change course? A humorous, romantic, & inspiring story of a young woman taking control & making tough choices about love & work to build the life she wants, ‘The Treehouse on Dog River Road’ will have you rooting for Hannah every step of the way.
🌳🏠The treehouse sketch above, ‘Hannah’s Treehouse’, is from the book, ‘The Treehouse on Dog River Road’, & is original artwork by Bridget Phillips that I used as a Photoshop backdrop with the book as the top layer.
You can click on any of the highlighted book titles above to add them to your Goodreads lists. You can also click HERE to visit my Instagram post & show the author (& me!) your support by hitting that ♥️ , maybe even SHARE the post to your stories.
✒️📖Catherine Drake enjoys life with her husband, dog, and extended family in Vermont. ‘The Treehouse on Dog River Road’ is her first novel. To learn more follow her on Instagram @catherinedrakewrites or www.catherinedrake.com
☀️Happy Sunday readers! I’m excited to tell you about one of my most anticipated books of 2022, coming to bookstore shelves this Tues, 5/3!
🥰I read & completely fell in love with ‘The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek’ last year. Not only did it become one of my top 20 reads of all time, but it’s a book I recommend often to other readers looking to branch out of their usual bookish comfort zone or who love a well-written historical-fiction novel.
🎧If you’re like me & have a hard time getting into historical fiction in physical book format, I implore you to try it on audiobook. It can make all the difference when it comes to bringing the pages alive with atmosphere, especially when it’s read by a great narrator. I listen to audiobooks nearly every single day while going about my usual mundane chores, while driving, exercising, grocery shopping, cooking, & even showering.
✒️Bestselling author Kim Michele Richardson is back w/ the perfect book club read, ‘The Book Woman’s Daughter’ (5/3). The story is about Honey Mary Angeline Lovett, the daughter of the beloved Troublesome Creek book woman, who must fight for her own independence w/ the help of the women who guide her & the books that set her free.
📖In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned, Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey & her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother & father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good.
📖Picking up her mother’s old packhorse library route, Honey begins to deliver books to the remote hollers of Appalachia. She’s looking to prove that she doesn’t need anyone telling her how to survive, but the route can be treacherous, & some folks aren’t as keen to let a woman pave her own way. If Honey wants to bring the freedom that books provide to the families who need it most, she’s going to have to fight for her place, & along the way, learn that the extraordinary women who run the hills & hollers can make all the difference in the world.
💕Stunning & profound, ‘The Book Woman’s Daughter’ is a story about women with raw courage, fierce strength, & who are true heroines of the Appalachian Trail. Highly recommend both books! Thank you SourceBooks Landmark for my gift copy!
➡️Click any of the highlighted titles above to add them to your Goodreads lists. Also, visit my Instagram page post HERE & show the author (& me!) your support by giving it some LIKE love!🥰
✒️About the Author: The NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES & USA TODAY bestselling author, Kim Michele Richardson is an multiple-award winning author & has written four works of historical fiction, & a bestselling memoir. Her latest critically acclaimed novel, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek has earned a 2020 PBS Readers Choice, 2019 LibraryReads Best Book, Indie Next, SIBA, Forbes Best Historical Novel, Book-A-Million Best Fiction, & is an Oprah’s Buzziest Books pick & a Women’s National Book Association Great Group Reads selection. It was inspired by the real life, remarkable “blue people” of Kentucky, & the fierce, brave Packhorse Librarians who used the power of literacy to overcome bigotry & fear during the Great Depression. The novel is taught widely in high schools & college classrooms. Her forthcoming fifth novel, ‘The Book Woman’s Daughter’ is both a stand-alone & sequel to ‘The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek’ & will be published May 3, 2022. Born in Kentucky, Kim Michele lives with her family there & is the founder of Shy Rabbit.
🎉📚Happy Independent Bookstore Day! Did you visit any indie bookstores today or this week? If so, did you buy any new books & which ones? My day & weekend started with an iced coffee, a fruit & yogurt bowl, & finishing up ‘A Wedding on Sunshine Corner’ (3/29/22), the 2nd book in the series by Phoebe Mills.
☀️The first book in this series is ‘The House on Sunshine Corner’ (8/21), which I read, enjoyed, & posted about sometime last year. This second book in the Sunshine Corner Series is a delightful small-town romance between a daycare teacher & single dad who must overcome their differences to help plan the ultimate wedding.
📖They’ve driven each other crazy for years, but were they fighting each other—or the chemistry between them?
📖As the youngest in her loving, overprotective family, Savannah Lowe has always gone w/ the flow instead of going out on a limb…until now. Her new job running a preschool requires her to be all in. If only the father of one of her students wasn’t her brother’s incredibly infuriating, impossibly attractive best friend. Savannah has no clue what she ever did to make him dislike her, & now they’re stuck spending even more time together planning her brother’s wedding.
📖Single father Noah Adams has his hands full between his job as a paramedic & caring for his young daughter. The last thing he needs is a complication like Savannah in his life—a girl he remembers being constantly pampered by her family. But the more he gets to know her, the more he sees how kind & compassionate she really is. Now their long-ignored, off-the-charts chemistry has them on a collision course…with each other.
💁🏼♀️‘The Wedding on Sunshine Corner’ is an uplifting, engaging, charming & sexy small-town, contemporary romance novel & being a small-town gal myself, these are the type of books that are perfect for relaxing on the weekend, poolside or while listening to waves off of Lake Erie. Look for the next book in the series winter ‘23.
➡️Click the highlighted book titles above to add them to your Goodreads lists. Visit my Instagram to see my post about this book & give it some “LIKE” love while you’re there. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, readers!♥️
✒️About the Author: Phoebe Mills lives near the Great Lakes & loves her family, coffee, & binge watching in that order. During the day she wrangles kids & by night she dreams up strong women, dreamy men, & ways to wreak havoc on their lives—before giving them a happy ending, of course! It’s a tough job but there’s nothing else she’d rather do.
💁🏼♀️Welcome to Mom Life Monday! If you’re a mom, especially to a daughter, you’re going to love this upcoming 4/5/22 release & want to get it pre-ordered & on your TBR lists ASAP. And the cover is super cute, too!
📚I’m a huge fan of women’s fiction, more specifically “mom-com” or “mom-lit”, which is like “chic-lit’s” cool mom. Like Amy Poehler once said in one of my fave movies, ‘Mean Girls’, “I’m not like a regular mom. I’m a cool mom!” Me, too, Amy. Me, too! (At least I think so…🤔)
🐓’Welcome to the Neighborhood’ by Lisa Roe is a heartwarming & life-affirming story of family dynamics, mother/daughter relationships, & second chances—perfect for fans of Maria Semple, Laurie Gelman & Abbi Waxman. I’ve read & loved all of Waxman’s books, so I was excited to read Lisa Roe’s debut novel after seeing Abbi’s blurb, which I think sums up the book perfectly:
📖As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for…
After years of struggling to make ends meet, Ginny, a single mom from Queens, falls for a hard-working & loving man, & relishes the idea of moving w/ her quirky 11-yr-old daughter, Harri, to his home in an upscale New Jersey suburb. Though she’s never been impressed by material things, she is thrilled that getting a second chance at love comes w/ the added bonus of finally giving Harri everything she never could before.
And then she meets the neighbors.
Ginny is quickly thrust into the complicated realities of a neighborhood defined by the ever-shifting alliances of PTA moms, Real Housewife contenders, & their mean-girl daughters. When the neighbors’ secrets, back-stabbing, & bad behavior take a devastating toll on her daughter & new marriage, Ginny must decide what really matters—& protect it at all costs.
🗣What other authors have said about ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood’ by Lisa Roe:
“We need Lisa Roe’s side-eye on navigating a new marriage, a quirky child and a fresh start for everyone, with neighbors who put it all at risk. Warm, funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking.”―Ann Garvin, USA Today bestselling author of I Thought You Said This Would Work
“A heartfelt and endearing story about keeping one’s feet firmly planted while simultaneously dreaming big.” ―Kathleen West, author of Are We There Yet?
“A love letter to mothers of tweens everywhere.”—Kelly Harms, bestselling author of The Seven Day Switch
“A must-read. Readers will cheer for Ginny as she stands her ground.”—Jamie Beck, Wall Street Journal bestselling author
Click HERE to visit Lisa Roe’s webpage (which is beautiful!)
Click HERE to add ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood’ to your Goodreads list. (Add me as a friend while you’re there!)
Click HERE to goto BookStoreLink & pre-order/find the book at a local indie bookstore.
Click HERE to visit Lisa Roe on Instagram (PS: Don’t forget to visit me on Instagram, too, & be sure to check out my latest giveaway in a previous post.
After graduating from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University & spending many years as an advertising creative director & copywriter in New York City, Lisa Roe accepted the tougher job of stay-at-home mom & turned to writing fiction — mostly to entertain her kids, but then to tell her own stories. A classic first born, a reluctant empty nester, & a Dr. Doolittle wannabe, Lisa lives in New Jersey with her husband & three incorrigible dogs. Welcome to the Neighborhood is her debut novel.
My Monday definitely started out as a ‘Manic Monday’, & I’m pretty impressed with myself for even having the minuscule amount of focus to complete a blog & Instagram post today since lately I don’t have them done ahead of time.
As many of you may know, I have autistic twin sons that are in their teens, but possess a lack of fear & knowledge of right from wrong that is mostly seen in toddlers. They are brilliant, to say the very least, but they also keep me on my toes (while they both walk on their toes, literally), & every once in awhile, one of my twins sneaks out of the house in the early morning hours when he wakes up before his brother or I do.
(My twin sons this past summer while taking books to a LFL!)
It is the most God-awful, gut-wrenching, sense of panic & frantic fear when the neighbor calls to let you know your son is just chilling in their family room at 5am while you were sleeping, pretty much cinching the cold hard fact that you will never sleep soundly again & your PTSD symptoms just went next level. That was a few years ago…then came this morning, when it happened again. Nearly 3 yrs of thinking maybe he’s done doing the sneaking out while I’m sleeping thing, & he did it again this morning. We’ve tried many different security measures to ensure his safety & stop him from sneaking out, but the kid is a freaking genius like his brother & for safety precautions it’s not like we can strap him in his bed or lock him in their room. And we don’t inject tagging chips into human beings (…yet…) because of privacy & all that ethical stuff, but I would 100% have it done to my twins because they will always live with us & it would be super beneficial to them, their safety, our security (& sanity!)… I would like to sleep before I’m dead.
In the meantime, like a computer, I pretty much just go into “sleep mode” not that elusive REM state sleep of a typical teenager that I long for, & will once again research until my fingers go numb ways to ensure my autistic children’s safety, not only when they are out in the world (supervised & accompanied by adults, of course), but also at home as they grow bigger & wiser, catching on easily to all other precautions that their parental units have made. Ok, let’s talk book stuff now, shall we?
I’d like to introduce you to Sissie Klein. Sissie Klein was a minor character in Kris Clink’s first novel, released earlier this year in April, ‘Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy‘. I thoroughly enjoyed that delightfully funny, heartwarming novel & was excited to get an advance copy of the 2nd book in The Enchanted Rock Series that releases next Tues, Nov. 9th. Thank you @getredprbooks & #sparkspress for my gift copy of ‘Sissie Klein is Completely Normal‘ by Kris Clink!
‘Sissie Klein is Completely Normal‘ can be read as a stand-alone novel, although I highly recommend reading ‘Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy’ as well, if not first. ‘Sissie Klein is Completely Normal’ is as captivating & relatable as it is heartfelt & poignant.
In Clink’s previous novel, “Sissy offered an opportunity to conduct a deep-dive character study, all while challenging readers to question their assumptions about the people they think they understand,” stated Kris Clink. “Sissie demonstrates how we can be the heroes in our own stories. When Sissie was young, she didn’t know what her power was. Now, it was her turn to claim it. In this book, you get to witness her evolution,” added the author.
About the novel, ‘Sissie Klein is Completely Normal‘: One mistake can steal your innocence. One promise can plague a friendship. One secret can tear apart a family.
Sissie Klein barely remembers the night that tore her from the carefree life she knew. Not long after the shocked teen is pushed into marriage, she’s rushed to the hospital where a catastrophic delivery seals her destiny.
Sissie is determined to give her daughter the opportunities she forfeited, but some fates can’t be avoided. Tragedy strikes, leaving behind a legacy of deceit—and an orphaned toddler.
Told with heartbreaking honesty and shrewd humor, Sissie Klein Is Completely Normal examines the ties that bind us—some inherited, others chosen—none without their share of agonizing tangles.
Captivating, compulsively readable, & weaving together tenderness, humor, & heartbreak, ‘Sissie Klein is Completely Normal’, by Kris Clink, is on sale next Tuesday, Nov 9, 2021.
Click the highlightedtitles in this post to add Kris Clink’s books to your Goodreads lists. Click HERE to visit Kris Clink’s website http://www.krisclink.com. Click HERE to visit/follow Kris Clink on Instagram. Click HERE to visit/FOLLOW (please!) Mom_Loves_Reading on Instagram & while you’re there, LIKE & maybe SHARE the post about this book! Click HERE to pre-order ‘Sissie Klein…’ on Amazon. but… It’s be much nicer if you pre-order this book & any others from an indie bookstore near you! You can click HERE to use BookstoreLink.com to find it & others at an Independent Bookstore!
Kris Clink is the author of ‘Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy’ & ‘Sissie Klein is Completely Normal’. Her novels have received praise from Bustle, Midwest Book Review, Kirkus Reviews, San Francisco Book Review, Women.com, Lone Star Literary, Brit + Co, Travel & Leisure Magazine, & Entertainment Weekly, among others. Set in middle America, her novels are laced w/ love, heartbreak, & just enough snark to rock the boat as relatable characters confront transformative challenges.
She’s a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association & The Author’s Guild. Before becoming a novelist, she oversaw business development in medical environments & managed an office of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Since then, her work has been published in Moms Don’t Have Time to Write on Medium, diyMFA, Authority Magazine, Thrive Global, Women Writers Women’s Books, & Accent West Magazine. She is the host of Kris Clink’s Writing Table, a podcast about books & writing where she interviews a variety of publishing professionals & authors including Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), Zibby Owens, Camille Pagán, & Laurie Frankel.
Calling Texas home for most of her life, Kris now lives in KS, where she & “Hubs” have filled their empty nest w/ two spoiled-rotten pups–a mini-doxie & a rescue who thinks he’s a mini-doxie. When not writing, Kris is playing pickleball w/ friends, riding her bike, counting cardinals in her backyard, reading in the hammock, or searching for an open karaoke mic & an understanding audience.
*Mom Loves Reading* 