Summer 1952, in the Arkansas Delta a 7 year old boy, Luke Chandler, faces a summer of secrets no young boy should be exposed to. Two groups of migrant workers arrive to pick the cotton fields for the Chandlers, two very dangerous men among them. A brutal murder, a fatherless baby is born, and other secrets Luke slowly unfolds that will change his and his family’s lives forever.
Bound Through the Ashes by Danelle Nelson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Time travel, Western, Romance
Lorena Durrell is a 28 year old single woman living in Alaska, working at a job she hates. She has enough one day, quits her job and heads to Arizona for a vacation to visit her grandparents and the home she left 15 years ago. Lorena goes to visit the Montezuma Well alone, looking forward to having a nice hike and taking some great pictures that she can bring back and show her grandparents. She makes her way over to the historic cliff dwellings and as she wanders in to have a closer look, she meets an old Indian woman.
“This is not your time, you are needed elsewhere. Young child, I have seen you in my dreams. I have seen you in a time far away. The Mountain Spirits have come to me, they have showed me your life. The life you have yet to live.”
Lorena is tired of the Merry-go-round her life has become. She quits her hated job and decides to take a much needed vacation in Arizona. She makes a trip to the Montezuma Well, where she meets an old Indian woman. Lorena ends up catapulted into the year 1826. Arizona during the wild wild west, cowboys and outlaws. There she meets a cattle herder who changes everything. Lorena must make the unbearable decision of returning back to her own time or remaining in 1826 with Alexandre Castro.
“Disclosure: Bound Through the Ashes contains steamy romance and dark subject matter and may not be suitable for all audiences. Reader discretion is advised.” 😊 Ooh. Ready for a little change of pace.
American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
True Crime, Nonfiction
Who is Israel Keys?
“The rarest form of murder is serial. Despite what we see on CSI or Mindhunter or the films and procedures that dominate popular culture, people who kill randomly and for no reason are extremely uncommon. It’s also why many of us think we know of every such American killer. But the subject of this book was unlike anything the FBI had ever encountered. He was a new kind of monster, likely responsible for the greatest string of unsolved disappearances and murders in modern American History. And you have probably never heard of him.”
It all came to light when a young girl was kidnapped from a coffee stand in Anchorage Alaska.
“The rarest form of murder is serial. Despite what we see on CSI or Mindhunter or the films and procedures that dominate popular culture, people who kill randomly and for no reason are extremely uncommon. It’s also why many of us think we know of every such American killer. But the subject of this book was unlike anything the FBI had ever encountered. He was a new kind of monster, likely responsible for the greatest string of unsolved disappearances and murders in modern American History. And you have probably never heard of him.”
Murder at Harbor Village by G.P. Gardner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cozy Murder Mystery
Cleo Mack has just been asked to retire early from her position as a social work professor at a university in Atlanta. She finds herself in Fairhope Alabama, a picture perfect community known for retirees and it is love at first sight. While exploring the town she meets a wonderful older lady Nita, and they become fast friends. Nita lives in Harbor Village, a retirement community and assisted living facility. The very next day Cleo has a chance encounter with Jamie, RN and acting administrator at Harbor Village who is on the hunt for a part time social worker for a Resident Services position at the facility. When Cleo stops by to check the place out she is instantly drawn to it. It seems everything is falling into place, a new part time job that still gave her time to enjoy her retirement, and an apartment to go go with it but is it too good to be true?
College professor/Social worker Cleo Mack is forced to retire early at just 50. She moves to the coastal town of Fairhope Alabama, and finds a part time job with an apartment at Harbor Village, a retirememt community and assisted living facility. When the unpopular director is found murdered, it turns out she was married to Cleo’s ex-husband. Travis asks Cleo to become active director and snoop around as things at the facility have been fishy lately, ending with murder.
This year I have chosen to read 50 books set in each of the 50 states. Actually, I have also included the District of Columbia too so technically 51.
I am not saying that these books are the best in the state but they are ones that I have. 😊 As always the point is to choose from my To Be Read pile and not buy any new ones.
It took a bit of time to go through my 856 TBR list on Goodreads and see if the setting is listed on each one. Let me tell you California and New York… super popular, loads to choose from! Maine is pretty easy as basically every Stephen King book takes place there. 😄 North Carolina is covered by Nicholas Sparks and John Grisham for Mississippi. North Dakota is a hard one, as is Delaware, not a popular state for novels I guess.
Gonna be another fun year, so excited to get started! If anyone would like to join in, I would love to hear your picks!
My goal for 2019 had been 52 books in 52 weeks but I fell short by 11. I am bummed by the books left unread as I was looking forward to reading each and every one of them. On the other hand, I am not gonna beat myself up about it. I know that I also lived and loved and crafted a little too. There is only so many hours in the day and it is still so important to spend time with your loved ones and occasionally get out of the house. 😉
I am proud of starting this blog and writing my Reviews, or as my husband likes to call them my book reports 😂. I wrote 26 reviews in 2019. 2 of those reviews on Amazon were voted as helpful! 🎉
I still plan to keep a high reading goal (like 50 is still high for me) but I really want to focus on writing more. I only wrote 5 posts last year.😶 I want to do better and I know I can. The ideas are there, I just need to stop and put it out there. No more fear! This is me and if they don’t like it, fuck em!
In early November we took a week trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. I was not disappointed!
It started off terrible with flight delays due to fog in Seattle. We were an hour and a half behind schedule which was the amount of our next layover. We landed in Seattle just 8 minutes before our next flight to Honolulu was due to take off. The airport was overcrowded so we taxied to the overflow parking and had to take a bus back to airport. So… a bus ride, a tram, and lots of running we made it to our gate in 5 minutes, just 3 minutes to spare! We finally made it to Hilo with some bumps and bruises but can you guess what did not make it? That’s right…our luggage.
Continue reading Hawaii anyone? I vote YES! 