Review: "Until Leaves Fall in Paris" by Sarah Sundin

Every year, I eagerly anticipate Sarah Sundin's new release, and, so far, I've always been completely charmed by the book when I read it. This year was no different!

Let's Fall in Love: Anticipated February Releases

It's the month of LOVE! Yes, I'm single, but I've always loved Valentine's Day. I never need an excuse to read a romance novel, but for those of you who do ... February is the perfect time!

Here are some February romance releases that I'm excited about. I haven't read any of these books yet, so I can't speak to the "spice" level ... so be sure to do your own do diligence before reading! I do plan to read several this month, and I'll be sure to let you know my thoughts after I've read them.

Review: "When Twilight Breaks" by Sarah Sundin

I've long said that Sarah Sundin writes some of the best World War II fiction out there. Her latest release, When Twilight Breaks, is a bit different, as it's set in Germany in the years just prior to the War's outbreak, but it's just as excellent as - if not even better than - her previous novels.

Review: "The Land Beneath Us" by Sarah Sundin

Wow, did I have a great reading weekend or what?!? On Friday, I finished up Jessica Kate's romantic comedy A Girl's Guide to the Outback (see my review here), and then I spent hours on Saturday and Sunday reading The Land Beneath Us. Both books were wonderful!

Best Books of 2019

How is it time to be picking a Top Ten yearly reads list again? It feels like we were just welcoming 2019, and now here it is, just hours away from 2020.

For this year's list, I decided to do something different. While I'm still picking my ten favorites, this year I'm not limiting myself to 5-star books as I have in the past. Instead, I'm going with the ten books that have most stuck with me. Ones that I loved (but maybe weren't perfect), ones that I could see myself reading again.

Review: "The Sky Above Us" by Sarah Sundin

Oh, this book! I preordered it, so it arrived in my mailbox on release day, but it kept getting pushed out of the way in favor of review books. But I knew I had several hours in the car ahead of me at the beginning of the week, so I threw it in my purse. And then once I started reading, I couldn't stop!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer TBR

Happy Tuesday! Can you believe it's almost July? Where has this year gone? (Of course, it now sounds like July in my neighborhood—today is the first day that it's legal to shoot off fireworks in my town, and some of my neighbors are taking full advantage.)

Today's Top Ten Tuesday post is one I couldn't resist: Books on my Summer TBR. I didn't do a Spring TBR post, but one of these was actually on my Winter TBR ... and a couple others made my monthly TBRs for March and April. Maybe NOW is the time to read it! (I wouldn't hold my breath 🤣)

Top Ten Tuesday: Things that Make Me Pick up a Book

Happy Tuesday, friends! I think, maybe, fingers crossed, spring has finally arrived in Nebraska! At least these past two days have been nice, so we're starting a trend! Of course, my dad had to mention that the grass is growing ... mowing my lawn is one of the things I dislike most about home ownership. Ugh. Mowing time is, however, the one and only time I listen to audiobooks, so I guess I have that to look forward to. Silver linings, you know?

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is things that make me pick up a book. I didn't quite make it to ten, but here's my list ...

Best Books of 2018: Top Ten

2018 was a bit of an odd reading year for me. According to Goodreads, I read 104 books, and I can think of a handful of others that I read but didn't review, so the total is probably closer to 115. But out of all of those books, I didn't have that one read that made me think, "This is it—I bet this will be my favorite book of the year!" Don't get me wrong: I read a lot of great books, and some I identified immediately as ones that would probably make this list, but not one stood far out from the rest as the book of the year. I'm still ranking these books from ten to one (as I always do), but I might feel differently about the order tomorrow 🤣.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Written by Favorite Authors that I Still Haven't Read

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is all about books by favorite authors that I haven't read yet. For this list, I'm not counting any yet-to-be-released books (even though I do have some advanced reading copies in my possession); these are all previously published books that I haven't gotten to yet.

I've decided to organize these by author, as several favorite authors have multiple books in their backlists that I haven't read yet. I'm sure I'm forgetting something/someone, too ... these are just the first 10 books that came to mind.

Top Ten Tuesday: Hidden Gems on My Bookshelf

Happy Tuesday! If you read my It's Monday! post yesterday, you know that I wasn't sure if Monday would truly be happy ... from a baseball point of view. And it wasn't. The Cubs and Brewers are at it again tonight, and I'm hoping for a much better outcome!

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is "Hidden Gems," and I'm taking this topic and making it my own. So today I'm highlighting ten books I pulled from my bookshelf that should be really good, but I haven't read them yet! But I'll tell you why I think I'd like them 😃. All the books are several years old, and I only remember one of them being heavily promoted when it released (which is why I bought it), but I haven't heard anything about it in a long time.

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books I've Read in 2018 (So Far)

I had no intention of trying to participate in this week's Top Ten Tuesday ... until I saw the topic! I keep a running list of my favorite reads throughout the year so that it's easier to put my top ten list together at the end of the year ... so this was super quick to pull together, especially since I decided to keep it short and sweet and not actually talk about any of the books 🙂.

Top Ten Tuesday: Series I Might Finish

Today's TTT topic (over at That Artsy Reader Girl) is Series I’ve Given Up On/Don’t Plan to Finish. I'm tweaking that to be Series I Might Finish. I'm dividing my list into three sections: Series I'd Like to Finish ASAP, Series I Might Finish ... Someday, and Series I Still Need to Begin (and Finish). All of these are books I already own (or can easily access for free), so reading them would be easy if I decide I want to.

"The Sea Before Us" by Sarah Sundin

It's a great day when I can open up a new Sarah Sundin book! For some reason, though, I'm always a bit nervous when her new book is the first in a series—maybe because I've loved her previous series so much that I'm afraid the new one won't measure up. Well, that's not a problem with her new Sunrise at Normandy series—I absolutely loved The Sea Before Us!

Best Books of 2017: Top Ten

Thank you, snow day, for giving me the time to work on this today! Otherwise, it might've been March before I finished (like it was last year)!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2018

Happy Wednesday! This Top Ten Tuesday didn't get posted on Tuesday because of spending time with my family ... and it's been mostly a good time!

Our family Christmas won't be until this coming Saturday, but we did have a mini celebration on Christmas.

Blendy and I decided to wear ugly Christmas sweaters, but I neglected to get a full-on picture 🙁. We ate lots of food, watched Christmas movies, played games, put together a puzzle, and just enjoyed being together. It was a practically perfect day.

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books I've Read So Far This Year

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic, The Best Books I've Read So Far in 2017, was too good to pass up. Why? Because it always takes me f.o.r.e.v.e.r to compile and publish my yearly "best of" list ... so if I pick the best ones I've read in the first six months of the year now, I'll have less work to do in December (or January. or February. or March.)! I'm listing them in the order I read them, from most to least recent. Just picking them out is enough work for now—don't ask me to rank them, too!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (3-27-17)

Hosted by The Book Date

Happy Monday! I'm working on this much earlier in the day that usual—I normally throw this together at the last minute on Monday evening. But I'm taking a half vacation day today because I'm going to meet with a guy from the city about my trees. (Turns out, all of my trees but one or two actually belong to the city, so they decide whether a tree can be removed.) So while I'm waiting, I'm blogging :-)

"When Tides Turn" by Sarah Sundin

Lately, I've been in a bit of a reading slump. It's not that I haven't read enjoyable books, but I've only had three 5-star reads so far this year, and I finished the last one (For Love & Honor) at the end of February. I was absolutely ready for another "I love this book so much and I can't put it down and I wish it wouldn't end" kind of read ... and, happily, that's exactly what I found with When Tides Turn.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (3-20-17)

Hosted by The Book Date

Happy Monday!!! Or maybe I should say, HAPPY MARCH MADNESS!

It's true—I go a little crazy during March Madness. I pay zero attention to college basketball until the tournament begins, and then it's all basketball, all the time. Every single year, I pick Kansas to win it all. Most years, I'm horribly disappointed. But things are looking good so far! (My bracket is still in remarkably good shape. I did have Duke in the Final Four, but my other three teams are still in it!)