Month in Review: December 2015

Here are my reading stats for December!  Books read:  13  Books I read:  Flash & Bones — Kathy Reichs (audio book) What She Knew — Gilly Macmillan Rose Harbor in Bloom — Debbie Macomber (audio book) The Distance — Helen Giltrow (audio book) A Wedding on Primrose Street — Sheila Roberts (e-book) Night Blindness — Susan Strecker Smoke — Catherine McKenzie (audio book) Love Letters — Debbie Macomber (audio book)…

View Post

Review: Smoke by Catherine McKenzie (audio)

Title: Smoke Author: Catherine McKenzie Narrator: Amy McFadden, Cassandra Campbell, & Danny Campbell Published: October 2015, Brilliance Audio / Lake Union Publishing Length: 9 hours 51 minutes / ARC e-copy 370 pages Source: Publisher / Netgalley From the internationally bestselling author Catherine McKenzie comes an evocative tale of two women navigating the secrets and lies at the heart of a wildfire threatening their town. After a decade-long career combating wildfires,…

View Post

Review: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (audio)

Title: The Nightingale Author: Kristin Hannah Narrator: Polly Stone Published: February 2015, Macmillan Audio Length: 17 hours 26 minutes Source: Library In love we find out who we want to be. In war we find out who we are. FRANCE, 1939 In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but…

View Post

Book Spotlight & Giveaway: The View from Prince Street by Mary Ellen Taylor (Giveaway Closed!)

Title: The View from Prince Street Author: Mary Ellen Taylor Series: Alexandria, #2 Published: January 2016, Berkley Format: Paperback, 352 pages The author of The Union Street Bakery and At the Corner of King Street returns to Alexandria, Virginia, with a heartfelt tale of reconnection. Rae McDonald was fifteen when a car accident took her sister’s life and threw her own into reckless turmoil. When she got pregnant a year…

View Post

The Sunday Post #95 (12.27.15)

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. I’m also going to link this up with Kathryn’s It’s Monday post over at Book Date.         I can’t believe this is the last…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in December 25

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About      Still doing pretty well with my goal this month of hitting 10k every day – I’m 22 for 25 days…not too bad. I didn’t quite make it on the 24th – that was a travel day for me, plus I was visiting my sister and nieces and then Christmas Eve is our big family…

View Post

Review: What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan

Title: What She Knew Author: Gilly Macmillan Published: December 2015, William Morrow Paperbacks Format: Paperback, 496 pages Source: Publisher In her enthralling debut, Gilly Macmillan explores a mother’s search for her missing son, weaving a taut psychological thriller as gripping and skillful as The Girl on the Train and The Guilty One. In a heartbeat, everything changes… Rachel Jenner is walking in a Bristol park with her eight-year-old son, Ben,…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in December 18

  #FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About      So far I’ve managed to hit my target of 10k steps 17 out of 18 days this month…not too bad!!! The one day I didn’t do it, I was pretty close, but was so tired and had a really bad headache. Oh well!   Here’s how my week went:      Dec 12: …

View Post

Book Spotlight, Guest Post & Excerpt: Seized by Elizabeth Heiter

Please join me in welcoming Elizabeth Heiter back to Always With a Book. Elizabeth’s new book, Seized, the 3rd book in her Profiler series,  will be published at the end of the month. This is one of my favorite series and I’ll be reviewing it in the coming weeks, but for now, enjoy this great guest post and brief excerpt!!! Title: Seized Author: Elizabeth Heiter Series: The Profiler, #3 Published:…

View Post

Review: The Distance by Helen Giltrow (audio)

Title: The Distance Author: Helen Giltrow Series: Charlotte Alton, #1 Narrator: Rachel Atkins Published: September 2014, Random House Audio / Doubleday Length: 13 hours 27 minutes / ARC e-copy 368 pages Source: Personal copy via Audible/ Netgalley A dark, ultra-contemporary, and relentlessly paced debut thriller about a London society woman trying to put her secret criminal past behind her, and the hit man who comes to her with an impossible…

View Post

Short & Sweet Review: Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs (audio)

Title: Spider Bones Author: Kathy Reichs  Series: Temperance Brennan, #13  Narrator: Linda Emond  Published: August 2010, Simon & Schuster Audio  Length: 9 hours 30 minutes  Source: Library Kathy Reichs—#1 New York Times bestselling author and producer of the FOX television hit Bones—returns with the thirteenth riveting novel featuring forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan. John Lowery was declared dead in 1968—the victim of a Huey crash in Vietnam, his body buried…

View Post

Review: Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich (audio)

Title: Tricky Twenty-Two Author: Janet Evanovich Series: Stephanie Plum, #22 Narrator: Lorelei King Published: November 2015, Random House Audio Length: 6 hours 27 minutes Source: Library Something big is brewing in Trenton, N.J., and it could blow at any minute. Stephanie Plum might not be the world’s greatest bounty hunter, but she knows when she’s being played. Ken Globovic (aka Gobbles), hailed as the Supreme Exalted Zookeeper of the animal…

View Post

Review: Rose Harbor in Bloom by Debbie Macomber (audio)

Title: Rose Harbor in Bloom Author: Debbie Macomber Series: Rose Harbor, #2 Narrator: Lorelei King Published: August 2013, Random House Audio / Ballantine Books Length: 9 hours 6 minutes / ARC E-copy, 336 pages Source: Library / Netgalley Hailed as “the reigning queen of women’s fiction” (The Sacramento Bee), Debbie Macomber is renowned for her novels of love, friendship, and the promise of fresh starts. Now Macomber returns to the…

View Post

The Sunday Post #94 (12.13.15)

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. I’m also going to link this up with Kathryn’s It’s Monday post over at Book Date.      It’s so hard to believe that this is December…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in December 11

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About      It was a good week – and I’m still hitting my goal of 10k steps every day in December!!! I’ve had a lot of running around to do this week, so that’s where I got a lot of my steps, but I also took advantage of the warm weather we’ve been having (weird for…

View Post

Review: The Hundred Gifts by Jennifer Scott

Title: The Hundred Gifts Author: Jennifer Scott Published: October 2015, NAL Format: Paperback, 384 pages Source: Publisher The national bestselling author of The Sister Season shares a new novel about a woman who discovers the spirit of the season is truly in the giving…. With the holidays around the corner, empty-nester Bren Epperson realizes that for the first time in decades, she has no large family to cook for, no celebration…

View Post

Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Killing Trail by Margaret Mizushima (Giveaway closed)

Title: Killing Trail Author: Margaret Mizushima Series: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery, #1 Published: December 2015, Crooked Lane Books Format: Hardcover, 320 pages When a young girl is found dead in the mountains outside Timber Creek, life-long resident Officer Mattie Cobb and her partner, K-9 police dog Robo, are assigned to the case that has rocked the small Colorado town. With the help of Cole Walker, local veterinarian and a…

View Post

Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Once Shadows Fall by Robert Daniels (Giveaway closed)

Title: Once Shadows Fall Author: Robert Daniels Published: December 2015, Crooked Lane Books Format: Hardcover, 352 pages After years of paying her dues on the force, Beth Sturgis has earned her place as a detective for the Robbery-Homicide division of the Atlanta PD. Now, she’s heading up a major manhunt for a potential serial killer who’s working his way inward from the outskirts of the city. The copycat elements in…

View Post

Review: The Word Game by Steena Holmes

Title: The Word Game Author: Steena Holmes  Published: November 2015, Lake Union Publishing Format: ARC E-book, 222 pages Source: Netgalley For overprotective parent Alyson Ward, any time her daughter, Lyla, is out of sight is reason to panic. So it’s a big step for her when she lets Lyla attend a sleepover at her cousin’s house. Comforted by the knowledge that her sister, Tricia, is the chaperone, Alyson does the…

View Post

The Sunday Post #93 (12.6.15)

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. I’m also going to link this up with Kathryn’s It’s Monday post over at Book Date.       Thank goodness for audio books!!! I feel like…

View Post

#FitReaders: Weekly Check-in December 4

#FitReaders is hosted by Geeky Bloggers Book Blog  and That’s What I’m Talking About      I’ve decided to challenge myself this month to do 10,000 steps each day…I want to end 2015 strong!!! So far, so good. I’ve also increased my water intake – partly because I’ve had my headache meds upped, so it’s really important for me to make sure I drink lots of water, but it’s also…

View Post

Review: Center of Gravity by Laura McNeill (audio)

Title: Center of Gravity Author: Laura McNeill Narrator: Lisa Larsen  Published: July 2015, Thomas Nelson on Brilliance Audio Length: 10 hours 11 minutes Source: Publisher The truth could cost her everything. Her whole life, Ava Carson has been sure of one thing: she doesn’t measure up to her mother’s expectations. So when Mitchell Carson sweeps into her life with his adorable son, the ready-made family seems like a dream come…

View Post

Guest Post: Jenny Milchman: Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day – December 5th, 2015

I am once again proud to welcome back author Jenny Milchman to Always With A Book and to offer my support to Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, held the first Saturday of December. Now in its 6th year, Jenny has taken the idea a step further. Read on to see how.   Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day begin in 2010 when I had two young children…

View Post

Review: The Girl Without A Name by Sandra Block (audio)

Title: The Girl Without a Name Author: Sandra Block Series: Zoe Goldman, #2 Narrator: Jennifer Nittoso Published: September 2015, Hachette Audio Length: 9 hours 43 minutes Source: Personal copy via Audible Another gripping pageturner featuring psychiatrist Zoe Goldman, the protagonist from Little Black Lies. In what passes for an ordinary day in a psych ward, Dr. Zoe Goldman is stumped when a highly unusual case arrives. A young African American…

View Post

Month in Review: November 2015

Here are my reading stats for November!  Books read:  13  Books I read: Shopaholic to the Rescue — Sophie Kinsella (audio book) Where the Memories Lie — Sibel Hodge (audio book) Along the Infinite Sea — Beatriz Williams Center of Gravity — Laura McNeill (audio book) Pretending to Dance — Diane Chamberlain The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs — Matthew Dicks The Last Girl — Jane Casey (audio book) Dear…

View Post