Book Blurb:
Oksana Zabuzhko, author of “the most influential Ukrainian book in the fifteen years since independence,” Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex, returns with a gripping short story collection.

Oksana Zabuzhko, Ukraine’s leading public intellectual, is called upon to make sense of the unthinkable reality of our times. In this breathtaking short story collection, she turns the concept of truth over in her hands like a beautifully crafted pair of gloves. From the triumph of the Orange Revolution, which marked the start of the twenty-first century, to domestic victories in matchmaking, sibling rivalry, and even tennis, Zabuzhko manages to shock the reader by juxtaposing things as they are—inarguable, visible to the naked eye—with how things could be, weaving myth and fairy tale into pivotal moments just as we weave a satisfying narrative arc into our own personal mythologies.

At once intimate and worldly, these stories resonate with Zabuzhko’s irreverent and prescient voice, echoing long after reading.

My thoughts:
Oksana Zabuzhko is one of the most famous contemporary Ukrainian writers, and although I don't ususally read short stories, I couldn't pass this collection.
I started with the story which gave the book its title ' Your Ad Could Go Here' and was immediately carried away by the author's unique writing style, breathless in its hurry to see, experience, absorb, process, and immortalize the moment. Oksana asks her reader: isn't it the writer's job? To perceive and feel, to understand everything and everybody. A pair of gloves, a  beautifully-crafted object  bought in a tiny Viennese shop run by a glovemaker, as old as the hills, becomes something more. It defines her other choices by imposing standards of quality, elegance, and joyous, unapologetic style. When one glove gets lost, the author is desperate to replace it, but the little shop is gone, replaced by a department- store full of mass-produced merchandise that doesn't make anyone happier.
Oksana Zabuzhko's stories are deep and sometimes genuinely shocking. They are not for the faint-hearted, because they are intense and full of raw emotion and haunting imagery.
Your history, your reality might be different, but you are bound to relate and recognize the universal  human condition in these painfully honest and memorable tales.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

Title: Dear Future Ex-wife 
Author: Jillian Quinn
Publication date: April 23rd 2020
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Romance

Synopsis:

I, Harley McQueen, do not take Nathan King to be my husband…

I wish I could say no to this wedding. But to save our fathers’ company, my ex-best friend needs a fake bride to bail him out of his latest scandal.

Nate has a reputation with women.
I want the promotion my father has denied me for years.

Together, maybe we can make this fake marriage work.

As long as I don’t fall in love with him…

Again.

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About the author:
Jillian Quinn is an international bestselling author of contemporary romance. Her books are light and funny but also on the steamy side. So, don't be surprised if you have to fan yourself with your Kindle.

As a lover of coffee and a collector of book boyfriends, you can find Jillian most days, thinking about her next romance novel as she pours another cup.

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Perfect for fans of The Mothers and Olive Kitteridge, in this stunning and perceptive debut novel three women learn what it means to come home--and to make peace with the family, love affairs, and memories they'd once left behind.  (From the book blurb)


My thoughts:
 Multi-layered, deep, thought-provoking.

The House of Deep Water is so good that it leaves you with a bookish hangover. Jeni McFarland's writing is heart-breakingly beautiful. It is full of rich memorable imagery and human emotion that makes you relate and care about these deeply flawed characters.

At the beginning I took notes to help me make sense of the family trees and interconnections. Each character grows and develops, but as I kept reading I realised all of them are important. is essential. It is a bit like going to a family reunion or a wedding at the beginning of your relationship. So many people want to talk to you, you struggle to read social clues, desperately trying to remember what you heard about them. With time it becomes easier and you long for that blissful ignorance that allowed you make your opinion without the burden of other people's set ideas. Every character in this book grows and develops and is essential.

Two families, Williamses and DeWitts, and three women who left their hometown of River's Bend, Michigan, and came back because they need a closure and a new start in life -that's all. Newly divorced Linda Williams, who wants to be loved and taken care of, but doesn't really have clear ideas how, her estranged, foul-mouthed, strong-willed mother Paula Williams, who needs a divorce from Linda's stepfather, and Beth (Eliza) DeWitt who is trying to provide a stable life for her kids after she lost her job. Linda gets pregnant and moves in with the father of her future baby, sixty-year-old Ernest DeWitt, Beth's father.  Beth is struggling with depression and has unresolved issues with her father, so understandably she isn't happy about the situation. Throughout the book we read extracts from her 'diary'  or rather 'memory flashbacks of Eliza DeWitt' starting from the age of 4. The more you read, the better you understand the significance of these two names for the character's identity. Everything in this book is important, there is no superfluous detail, be it Beth's engagement ring or Paula's truck that allows her escape when life closes on her and becomes unbearably real.

Family ties and the way they break and make us, what it means to fit in and belong somewhere, fear of life and love, motherhood, racism, overcoming childhood trauma are just a few themes that this brilliant book explores. One of the best books I have read this year, The House of Deep Water is incredibly well-written and although there is a lot of sadness in this book, there is also hope. Hope that we can turn our lives round, we can draw ourselves into history, we can be better parents to protect and give our children confidence to make their own  free choices in life.

Thank you to Edelweiss and G.P.Putnam's Sons for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

Thank you to Giselle from Xpresso Blog Tours for my post on the blog tour for this fascinating book. With two aunts and a sister-in-law working in engineering, I was immediately drawn to the description. There is a need for this kind of realistic romance and it is my pleasure to present this novel in today's post.

Synopsis:

Andrea is an ordinary girl in an extraordinary situation.

She left her comfortable home and family to take a job building a pipeline with her estranged grandpa, Buck. She’s curious about his job, and why her mother dislikes the man. She didn’t expect to uncover buried family secrets, or for the job to be so difficult. 

Rooster isn’t a bad guy. He respects women; he was raised by one of the best. But that new girl on the job is too small and feminine. She’s a distraction, plain and simple, and she doesn’t belong on a pipeline. This job is his chance to impress Buck Brennan, a pipeline legend, and no girly greenhorn is going to ruin it for him. 

Will Andrea prove herself to her grandfather and forge a relationship with the old man, or will continuous disagreements and unexpected sexual tension between Andrea and Rooster derail their hard work?

Title:  Love on the Line
Author:  Kirsten Fullmer
Series: Women at Work #1
Publication date: June 14th 2017
Genres: Coming of Age, New Adult, Romance, Young Adult

Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35440465-love-on-the-line

Purchase:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2x8yECu

Andrea, a recent graduate in Communications, is offered a job as an engineering assistant on a pipeline. Here is her chance to work with and get to know her estranged grandfather Buck Brennan. At first, Andy feels very much out of place on the site. Everything is new and strange: the protective clothing which doesn't come in any size smaller than extra large, engineering equipment, cold, mud, miles and miles to walk, and above all, the attitude of her male co-workers, who seem to mostly ignore her. The work is gruelling, but quiet and introverted Andy perseveres and gradually discovers its liberating beauty, the beauty of doing something hard and worthwhile successfully. She also learns more about her kind, supportive and patient grandfather, and makes up her own mind about what really happened to create the long-standing conflict between him and her mother.

Kirsten Fullmer doesn't tell, she shows. Starting from Andy's too new boots and hunched shoulders through the hardened blisters and 'the reverse racoon' tan of her workmates who have to wear protective googles, we experience Andy's feelings, her curiosity, tiredness, irritation, joy and satisfaction of a well-done job.

When we meet a pipe tie-in foreman Rooster, we know by the way he cares about punctuality and his attention to safety that he is a strong and dependable man. He is confident enough not to shun the 'cute engineering girl ', but to speak to her as he would to any 'greenhorn'. Unfortunately, he also thinks Andy is too small for most jobs, won't last long and is a distraction for his men workers, which may cause accidents. Sexist? Undoubtfully. Gradually, Andy's hard work, determination and ability to stand up for herself make him see things in a different light. Yes, giving her a pipe tailing job was a mistake as she is too short (it's not about her gender), but the way she is there to help when necessary shows that she is a team worker and good engineer and Rooster gives credit where it is due.

Both Andy and Rooster change and develop and their growing attraction isn't that surprising. They have a shared experience and deeper understanding of what it's really like to work on the pipeline. Their romance is slow-slow-slow-unbearably slow burn, so be prepared to wait. There are pros and cons of having a relationship with somebody you work. On one hand, yes, it can be difficult and tiring to guard yourself mentally against possible distractions. On the other hand, there is a deep connection when work is that consuming. They also come from very different backgrounds: Andy's always led a sheltered, priveleged life, while Rooster grew up with the constant fear of being homeless, which explains his need to prove himself to Buck and secure better jobs in this uncertain career.

I was amazed by the level of realistic detail in describing the pipelining world. I learnt a lot: from profiling, throwing skids, building cribs and tie-ins to the final stages of closing the site. The book made me think hard about what it is like to work in a field that is so dominated by one gender. Pressures to prove yourself, do your best and avoid doing anything that can be misconstrued or seen as a weakness.

Love on the Line is a mix of romance and coming of age genres. Andy does a lot of growing up and coming into herself in this book. I would have loved to see an epilogue for a number of reasons. Firstly, the resolution of grandfather-mother conflict seemed a bit too quick, and, secondly, a die-hard romantic in me wants to see how Andy and Rooster's relationship works out.

Thank you to the author and Xpresso Book Tours for my copy and an opportunity to participate in this tour. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.

About the author:

Kirsten is a dreamer with an eye for art and design. She worked in the engineering field, taught college, and consulted free lance. Due to health problems, she retired in 2012 to travel with her husband. They live and work full time in a 40' travel trailer with their little dog Bingo. Besides writing romance novels, she enjoys selling art on Etsy and spoiling their three grandchildren.

As a writer, Kirsten's goal is to create strong female characters who face challenging, painful, and sometimes comical situations. She believes that the best way to deal with struggle, is through friendship and women helping women. She knows good stories are based on interesting and relatable characters.

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You can find the blog schedule here.

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What will it take for Mary to let go of her pride and see Marcus for who he really is? A swift and heartwarming Amish romance, full of misunderstandings, tragedy, and the sweet satisfaction of young love.

Mary Wagler arrives in Adams County, Ohio for the new school term, ready to begin her duties teaching eighteen students at the little one room schoolhouse. Marcus Yoder, who lives next door with his widowed mother and his six younger siblings, is assigned the task of meeting the new arrival at the bus station. He is to transport Mary in his buggy to where she will board at Leon and Lavina Hochstetler’s home. Mary is sure Marcus has volunteered for the task to make an early play on her affections and dreads the nuisance he will be in the coming weeks.
          
Mary opens her first day of school with a firm determination. She will make a solid contribution to this small Amish community nestled on the banks of the Ohio River. When Marcus stops by occasionally to greet his younger siblings after school, Mary is convinced he felt snubbed by her lack of interest in his early affection, and that he's hanging around to critique her every move and make the school term miserable for her.

When sickness sweeps through the school, Marcus comes to Mary's aid. Mary blames herself for handling the challenge poorly, and is surprised by Marcus's gentle response. Perhaps he's not quite the nuisance she thought he was. But she's been so rude to him that surely he's no longer interested in her friendship. Or could she be wrong . . . again?


My thoughts:
An extremely enjoyable story with lovely characters that just shows that there is nothing wrong with slow-burn romance.

I loved the characters: Mary with her energy, and good heart, and strong, thoughtful Marcus, who needed his time to mourn his father and accept that it was time to move on in life.

You might not like Mary straightaway. She seems a bit frivolous and stubborn at the beginning,  and gives an awfully hard time to Marcus whose only fault was coming to pick her from the station to bring her to their little community where Mary is to take up a post of a schoolteacher. Mary expects a whole delegation of school board ladies welcoming her, so a bumpy ride with a sulky young man who dares to criticise her luggage is a letdown. As Marcus is single, and Mary is a very pretty young teacher, everybody seems to expect them to have tender feelings for each other, while the reality is a bit more complicated. Marcus knows it is time he started looking for a bride, and he definitely appreciates Mary's beauty, but he is also convinced she would never be interested in him. Mary... to be honest, Mary prays to have her heart open for meeting somebody special she will honour and love, and Marcus is definitely handsome. She is also sure Marcus must have already made his negative opinion of her, and will always find fault with everything she does. It is clear that these two have started off on a wrong foot.

Gradually, Mary wins everybody over. She is an enthusiastic and caring teacher. She cares about her students and about the elderly couple in whose house she lives. Mary is independent and hard-working, and fits really well in this small community. She does want Marcus to see that she is sensible and capable, although she does appreciate his help as a school janitor. Perhaps, the way she treated him at the beginning was a mistake, but she will do everything she can to correct it.

We also see that Marcus has been taking care of his mother and younger siblings since the death of his father, which left him very little time for anything but the farm work and a lot of responsibilities. Now his mother is about to marry again and Marcus will be able to have a life of his own, but is he ready to for this change? Is his heart open for somebody new and different?

There is a strong emphasis on the community life and taking care of each other in times of need, as well as prayer for spiritual nourishment, shared hard work, love and understanding  as the basis for a successful marriage. This book will be much appreciated by all the readers who prefer a clean romance with a sweet couple and a happy ever after at the end.

Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher (Good Books) for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

Naomi Westfield has the perfect fiancé: Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to be a part of. They never fight. They're preparing for their lavish wedding that's three months away. And she is miserably and utterly sick of him.

Naomi wants out, but there's a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. When Naomi discovers that Nicholas, too, has been feigning contentment, the two of them go head-to-head in a battle of pranks, sabotage, and all-out emotional warfare.

But with the countdown looming to the wedding that may or may not come to pass, Naomi finds her resolve slipping. Because now that they have nothing to lose, they're finally being themselves--and having fun with the last person they expect: each other.

When your nemesis also happens to be your fiancé, happily ever after becomes a lot more complicated in this wickedly funny, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy debut


My thoughts:
I really needed a good rom-com to take my mind off all the difficult things we are dealing with in these uncertain times and this book perfectly fit the bill. At first it seemed a bit predictable with the characters behaving in all sorts of immature ways. But then I got carried away and began to enjoy Naomi and Nicholas's love story which turned out to be a lot of fun.
I won't re-tell the plot- the blurb summarises it really well as ' Lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers'. Rest assured, there is a happily-ever-after in the end!
Thank you to Edelweiss and G.P.Putnam's sons for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves—lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack—but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words.

Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including—maybe especially—members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?

My thoughts:
A beautifully-written, deep, touching story of Antonia Vega, a college professor and writer, mourning and grieving her husband. Antonia is trying to make sense of the world without her kind and selfless Sam and re-discover who she is and how to continue living in this after-life.
This short, but very powerful novel will make you consider a variety of topics: identity, sense of belonging, family ties and human connection. Things that we often take for granted, until our life changes dramatically and we need to redefine them in order to survive the new reality.
Whether you are a long time admirer or new to Julia Alvarez's work, you are bound to be fascinated by her wonderful writing style and the strengths of emotions she is describing.
Thank you to Edelweiss and Algonquin Books for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

My thoughts:

A Bad Day for Sunshine is the first book in Darynda Jones's Sunshine Vicram series, set in a small town of Del Sol, New Mexico. Fast-paced, entertaining, full of laugh-out-loud witty comebacks and Darynda's trademark quirky characters, thebook is fun,fun,fun to read from the beginning to the end. If anything, it grew on me as I kept reading and getting to know better Sunshine, her family, friends and enemies.

Sunshine Vicaram unexpectedly (for her) wins the post of sheriff in her home town of Del Sol without any recollection of having entered the election. Clearly, her parents had something to do with it, but Sun is a bit reluctant to look into this particular mystery. She is more than qualifed to do a great job in this position, having a degree in Criminal Justice and a stellar career in Santa Fe Police Department. Most of the book covers Sunshine's first day at work,parallel to her 14-year-old daughter Auri's firstday at Del Sol High. Fifteen years ago Sunshine fled Del Sol following a traumatic abduction which landedher in hospital in a coma. She doesn't remember much of her ordealorthe month prior to theevents, but Sun has never stopped investigating her own case without much success so far.

It seems that the worst crime she will have to deal with is the disappearance of a locally famous roosterPuff Daddy, when the news of a teenage girl missing turns everything upside down and the clock countdown to save her life begins.

Sunshine is such a likeable character! Darynda Jones has a very peculiar, quite snarky sense of humour, but you can't deny that Sunshine's witty retorts and chapter sub-headings/ fictional notices on Del Sol's various businesses are absolutely hilarious. There's much more to Sun than that- she is strong, independent, a caring mother and a loyal friend. Loved her bestie-Chief Deputy Quincy Cooper and, of course, Aurora Dawn Vicram a.k.a. Auri a.k.a. bean sprout. If you were (or still are!) a fan of Gilmore Girls, you know the formula- a single mother doing her best to raise a super smart, cool teenager. Auri's efforts in investigating Sybil's case will prove indispensable in solving the case.

Did I mention the romantic tension between Levi Ravinder, Sunshine's old (and current) crush? Levi's a classic boy from the wrong side of the tracks who's been trying to make his semi-criminal family walk on straight and narrow. There's  also a very handsome US Marshal in the town, trying to capture a fugitive (another entertaining plotline with a great twist in the end).

This was one of the most enjoyable reads for quite a long time. There is a thin line between being sassy and trying too hard, and I have to say Darynda Jones manages to stay on the right side. There is a great balance of funny and touching and funny again. Sunshine' is vulnerable, strong and capable at the same time, doted with great empathy and an infallible gut instinct, and yet she  works hard to do her homework and follow through on every single lead. All of this being a (very) single mother of a teenager which is an art in itself.

Can't wait to read the next book in the series!