 Synopsis:
What it means to be human-and a mother-is put to the test in Carole Stivers' debut novel set in a world that is more chilling and precarious than ever. The year is 2049. When a deadly non-viral agent intended for biowarfare spreads out of control, scientists must scramble to ensure the survival of the human race. They turn to their last resort, a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots--to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. But there is yet one hope of preserving the human order--an intelligence programmed into these machines that renders each unique in its own right--the Mother Code. Kai is born in America's desert southwest, his only companion his robot Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and motivations of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. But as children like Kai come of age, their Mothers transform too--in ways that were never predicted. When government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed, Kai must make a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known? In a future that could be our own, The Mother Code explores what truly makes us human--and the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create. My thoughts: Some people would say that the timing for The Mother Code is just uncanny. I can't help but wonder if this is going to help the readers relate more to the events described by Carol Stivens. The Mother Code has two timelines that slowly converge. One is following the development of a deadly pandemic that is bringing the civilisation as we know it to its end. The other starts with the birth of a human baby and the way his robot mother is taking care of his needs, including two of the most powerful ones: the need to learn and adapt to the environment in order to survive and the socialization need. The pandemic described in The Mother Code starts with a biowarfare agent released by the US government with the noble aim of fighting terrorism. The weapon is designed to be of a self-containing, degrade-in-several-hours kind. It cannot be replicated by the cells of a contaminated human, so it isn't supposed to be contageous. If inhaled within several hours after the targeted release, it causes a terminal lung desease that causes death in a matter of weeks. Sounds like the scientists thought of everything that could go wrong. Well, you guessed it, they didn't. If you enjoy reading about biology, genetics and biochemistry, you are going to appreciate the author's explanation of how this ill-advised bioexperiment causes a manmade disaster on the whole planet scale and leads to inexorable collapse of the human society. As scientists race towards finding a cure, they realise they are running of time and might have to fall on Plan B: genetically modified human embryos that would be carried to term and later looked after by special robots. The scientist who oversees the development of these marvellous machines and their programming makes sure every Mother is unique and carries a personality based on a real woman, the egg donor for that particular child. Depending on your preferences you might find one of the two timelines more interesting. Perhaps, the pandemic line was more focused, more believable. Having said that, there were some aspects that reflect our geopolitics and tie it to our time. You know when you read The Ender's Game and come across the passage on the Soviets and say to yourself: Oh, right, it was written in the early eighties... Good science-fiction needs to ask thought-provoking questions. The role of early socialization and mother/caretaker-child unique bond, machine learning, AI, the new and fresh look on the brave new world which is created by humans who are raised by machines...I'm not sure the book goes deep enough into exploring these issues. There were quite a few characters - the scientists, the military personnel, the children. Perhaps, if there were fewer, I could have felt a stronger emotional connection to their stories. Or perhaps, it is the case of the development of the concept taking precedence over the characterisation. As it was, my favourite character was probably Rho-Z, because I really wanted to see how much of her was the original Mother Code and how much was being Kai's Mother, the mother of a real boy who is discovering the world. I would love to see the film adaptation for this book- there is so much potential to make the story spectacular. Thank you to Edelweiss and Berkley for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest opinion.  Book & Author Details: #Surviving40 by Karen Anne Publication date: August 25th 2020 Genres: Adult, Comedy, Romance Synopsis: Piper Quinn was more than ready to turn forty. So ready she began planning her Parisian celebration at thirty-five. That is until her life fell apart at thirty-nine. Left staring at divorce papers, Piper instantly regrets signing that pre-nup. How was she to know her husband would turn her in for a younger model? After “accidentally” setting her Manhattan apartment on fire, Piper finds herself not only newly divorced, but newly homeless. Forced to move back home with her parents and take a job she doesn’t want, she soon discovers the gossip train in town moves faster than the subway system in New York—and she’s the hottest topic to leave the station. If matters weren’t bad enough, life in rural Connecticut seems downright claustrophobic when her sixteen year old daughter stops talking to her. A blast from her past is the spark Piper needs to reignite her life. Owen Clarke, an old high school flame has the ability to turn back time making Piper feel sixteen again. The instant chemistry between them gives Piper hope of redeeming her second act. There’s only one teeny, tiny three foot problem: Owen’s daughter is in Piper’s Kindergarten class. With temptation lurking in every corner, Piper needs to put her emotions—and hormones— in check. No one said getting older was easy, but turning forty just became a game of survival. Goodreads / Amazon  AUTHOR BIO:
Karen Anne was writing before she could read. As a toddler, she sat with a book in her hands and made up the stories, eager for the day when she'd find out if it all truly ended in happily ever after. Karen still determines the destiny of other people's lives, but this time, the characters are her own. She is a Contemporary Romance author who lives in New York. Coffee drinker by day, wine enthusiast by night, she loves cats and deeply misses 90's grunge. Facebook / Goodreads GIVEAWAY Blitz-wide giveaway (INT)
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 As full of joy and beauty as it is of pain, and told with the luminous power that has made Ursula Hegi a beloved bestselling author for decades, The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls is a shattering portrait of marriage and motherhood, and of the ways in which women hold each other up in the face of heartbreak. My thoughts: This is one of the most unusual books I have read this year. Set on one of the Frisian islands in 1878 against the backdrop of the severe beauty of the North Sea, this beautifully-written book is full of quirky characters and heartbreaking stories of love and loss. The tragedy On the day that the Ludwig Circus arrives on the island of Nordstrand all the village comes out to watch its splendid parade. There are Old Women, competing for the title of the oldest living one, there is Lotte and her four children, including baby Wilhelm, there are also pregnant girls from St.Margaret's Home that takes care of them. All of them witness the horrifying power of the Nordsee as a huge wave, not seen in these places for a hundred years, rises from the depths of the Nordsee and wreaks havoc on their lives. Lotte Jansen loses three of her children and tries to offer the fourth one in exchange for the return of them. Blinded by her grief and despair, she tries to throw baby Wilhelm in the sea. Luckily, the baby is saved by his father Kalle Jansen at the very last moment. The villagers and the circus performers keep looking for the Jansen children for days, but their desperate search is in vain, Hannelore, Barbel and Martin perished in the sea. Eleven year old, heavily pregnant Tilly and Sabine, the circus seamstress and mother of Heike, a grown up woman with a child's mind, are among those who search for Lotte's children. Three mothers: Lotte, Tilli, Sabine Kalle is Lotte's childhood sweetheart, her one and only love, devoted husband and soulmate, but even he cannot cope with her grief and severe depression. Kalle decides to leave with the Ludwig travelling circus and take care of sick animals. The Sisters from St.Margaret's home take care of Lotte and baby Wilhelm who is on the brink on starvation as Lotte lost her milk. The sisters ask Tilly, who has just given birth to a baby girl only to see her adopted and taken away, to wet nurse Wilhelm. Lotte's return to life and her child is slow and the nuns are beginning to worry about Tilly's getting too attached to Wilhelm. Tilly is still a child herself after all. Once her parents found out she got pregnant by her twin brother, they sent her away, having chosen the boy over the girl. Sabine's story is equally compelling. Her partner, a circus acrobat and free spirit, left her when she was still pregnant. The circus became her family and everybody pulled in helping Sabine raise Heike. Sabine knows she will always have to take care of her special girl, but what is going to happen to Heike after her death? Secondary characters Apart from the central story which is Lotte's struggle to come to terms with her grief and flashbacks that tell us more about Sabine's life, we also get to know the Old Women with their gossipy conversations, full of humour and friendly compassion. We meet the nuns and learn how they decided to open the Home for pregnant girls and turn it into an art school of a sort. Many of the girls won't be able to return to their families and will need to earn their living, so learning practical skills of taking care of a household and looking after children may help them secure their employment. Some girls insist on keeping their babies and the nuns respect their choice. Sister Hildegunde and her surreal paintings provided a welcome comic relief that is necessary in a story like this. Considering that there are also stories of the circus members, we see that Ursula Hegi explores different kinds of families and family ties with great tenderness. Writing The writing is poetic and dream-like. The descriptions of the severe beauty and power of the North Sea set the tone to the novel and bring to mind myths and legends of the Frisian Islands. Lotte's mind struggling to cope with the reality of her loss finds solace in the legend of Rungholt, a sunk island which can be seen once a year. Ursula Hegi's writing is full of quirky and memorable details. Kalle comes back to Lotte and brings her an old zebra to take care of during the winter months. Lotte becomes a midwife who never loses a mother or a baby. Sabine's circus caravan is full of bees that made the roof of the caravan their home. Sister Hildegunde's paintings resemble Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of the Early delights... Overall I found this beautiful, character-driven, complex book impossible to put down. The Patron Saint Of Pregnant Girls with it's intertwining stories of grief and courage to face life, families and friendships, strength and weakness, daily life and circus, children and old people with their particular brand of wisdom is an unusual, but strangely compelling book. It might not be everybody's kind of story, but if you like literary fiction with rich imagery that explores human relationships, pick it up. You might find it as fascinating as I did. Thank you to Edelweiss and Flatiron Books for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.   Book & Author Details: The Promise Kept by Maggie Mae Gallagher (Echo Springs, #2) Publication date: August 19th 2020 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance Synopsis: Cybil Roe gave her heart away thirteen years ago only to have it wind up shattered. With painstaking determination, she has rebuilt her life into something to be proud of today. Yet all her future plans are upended when the only man she has ever loved returns to Echo Springs. Nor does it help that he seems bound and determined to draw her back into his life. Cybil vows to stay away from him, no matter what seeing him all the time does to her resolve. Miles Keaton wiped the dust of his hometown off his shoes years ago, never expecting that life would lead him back to the place where he had begun. Coming home to Echo Springs, to Cybil, to start a new law practice and a new life is a risk he never thought he'd take. She hates him – with good reason. Years ago, he walked away when she needed him the most. But now is he back, and intends to argue the case of his life, one more important than any he has debated in a courtroom, because she is the one woman he cannot live without. Can Miles convince Cybil to take a second chance on him, or will a secret she has kept all these years destroy any future they might have? Goodreads Purchase Amazon / Nook / Kobo / ibooks  About the Author: Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Maggie grew up listening to Cardinals baseball and reading anything she could get her hands on. She remembers her mother saying if only she would read the right type of books instead binging her way through the romance aisles at the bookstore, she’d have been a doctor. While Maggie never did get that doctorate, she graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with an M.A. in History. Maggie is a bestselling and award-winning author published in multiple fiction genres. She also writes erotic romance under the name Anya Summers. A total geek at her core, when she is not writing, she adores attending the latest comic con or spending time with her family. She currently lives in the United States Midwest with her two furry felines. website / instagram / goodreads /facebook / twitter / newsletter  
 Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Heart of a Peach by Jess.B.Moore. Thank you to Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources for my place and for the opportunity to read this sweet romance.   Synopsis: The Heart of a Peach Olivia Hamilton can do no wrong. Or at least that’s what the community of Fox River, North Carolina thinks of the odd but sweet young lady. She’s hiding a past she’d rather forget, engaged to the town’s most eligible bachelor, and longing for someone to see past the mask she wears. Olivia wants to find herself, forgive herself, and fall in love with someone who sees and embraces her flaws. Denver MacKenna grew up the fiddle-playing prodigy of not only his hometown of Fox River but of North Carolina and the surrounding states. He plays obsessively and tours as often as possible, escaping a life of loneliness at home. Until he meets a beautiful siren who calls to him and has him making plans to settle down. Denver knows it’s wrong to covet the elusive Olivia, but finds himself inexplicably drawn to the brief glimpses she gives him of her true self. Purchase Link Review: The Heart of a Peach is a sweet and wholesome romance set in a small town of Fox River. It follows the story of Olivia Hamilton who moved to the town six years ago and Denver MacKenna, the eldest of the five MacKenna brothers. Olivia is soft-spoken and lady-like, she is a perfect daughter and future wife of Matthew Covington, the senator's son. If there ever was a definition of low self-esteem, this is it. Olivia has been striving to live up to her parents' ideas of perfection for so long that she doesn't know who she is or what she really wants or likes. She tries to please her parents to make up for her past mistakes, she tries to charm her future-in-law who keeps piling on insults on Olivia's head, she is afraid to disappoint her fiance who only cares for being able to show off her pretty face...Olivia's been called prissy, dull, dim-witted, slow and somehow she still thinks it's her fault for failing to be liked. When Denver MacKenna hears Olivia sing, he is smitten by her beautiful voice. Denver is a music prodigy and one of the most famous citizens of Fox River. Music is his career, joy, happiness, family. It is his life. As a child he practised playing his fiddle for hours trying to get every note right. His mother taught him that striving for perfection stifles music and Denver saw this when he played with famous musicians who improvised and had fun on the stage. For Olivia, music is her freedom, a place where she doesn't have to think hard how to please the others and can let herself be what she really is. If you've been following the series, you already met the other MacKenna brothers and know how different their personalities are. Denver is quiet. When he was younger, he had no filter and sometimes his honesty might have offended people, so he learnt to become more measured with words. He knows Olivia is spoken for and he has no right to pursue her, although there's nothing he would like more thanto hear her sing again and perhaps persuade her to appear on his next album. After years of touring, he feels he is ready to settle down. The Heart of a Peach is a character-driven romance and I was very happy to see how much development Olivia goes through in the book. We finally get to see that the soft peach has an inner core of strength. She always insisted on being able to meet with her friends (although at the age of 24, a woman shouldn't even have to ask her parents or her fiance if she wants to go to a knitting group or have a coffee with her friends). I really liked the way her relationship with her mother grew into something different, with more understanding and respect. This is a simple and gentle story. There are very few negative characters in this book. They definitely do add to the drama and do not really have any redeeming qualities. As this is book 6, there are secondary stories whose stories were told in the previous books. Although it is possible to enjoy all of them as standalones, I would still recommend starting from the beginning if you want to get a good feel of what Fox River Town is really like. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys family drama, bluegrass music, coffee, and clean romance. Thank you to Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources and JesseB.Moore for the review copy. and letting me participate in this blog tour. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way. Author Bio Jess B. Moore is a writer of love stories. When she's not writing, she's busy mothering her accomplished and headstrong children, reading obscene numbers of books, and knitting scarves she'll likely never finish. Jess lives in small town North Carolina with her bluegrass obsessed family. She takes too many pictures of her cats, thinking the Internet loves them as much as she does. She is a firm believer of swapping stories over coffee or wine, and that there should always be dark chocolate involved. The Fox River Romance novels combine her interests in family, music, and small towns into thoughtful tales of growing up and falling in love. These books can be read as stand-alone, or as a series starting with The Guilt of a Sparrow. Follow Jess on social media @authorjessb Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Website   Synopsis: When Emma leaves the security of her Amish community for a job in North Carolina, she finds herself navigating choices, circumstances, and a relationship that she never could have imagined. Follow as she struggles to reconcile her faith and her complicated feelings in this romance by bestselling Amish writer Linda Byler. Plenty of young men had noticed Emma's smooth auburn hair and her quick intellect, but at twenty-six years of age, she was still single, much to the bewilderment of her Amish community. "She's just too picky," they said, and she supposed they were right. Most did not know that she had been in love once, and had wound up brokenhearted. When she becomes a nanny for an English (non-Amish) family along the coast of North Carolina, her world opens up in exciting—and confusing—ways. Not only is she getting used to life outside the safety of her Amish culture in Pennsylvania, but she finds herself spending time with Ben, the handsome Amish man who is working as a contractor on the house next door to where she's staying. He is charming, outgoing, strong, and so bold in his affection for her! When Emma is forced to leave North Carolina suddenly, she doesn't get a chance to say goodbye to Ben or to exchange phone numbers or addresses. She trusts that he will find her eventually, but as months go by with no word from him, she doesn't know what to make of the romance they had shared. Emma's best friend Eva invites her to go on a camping trip and she agrees, only to discover Eva has schemed to set Emma up with Matt, a cousin who had long since left the Amish community and was living a faithless, wordly life. Annoyed and longing for Ben, she is relieved when Matt assures her he has no interest in dating her. He's nice enough, but he's not Ben, and besides, Emma would never date a man who had chosen to leave his parents, their faith, and their deeply held traditions. When eventually Emma returns to North Carolina to reunite with Ben, her world is shattered in a way she couldn't have imagined, and she is left to grapple with her faith, her future, and her complicated feelings. Why did God keep stringing her along, only to leave her broken again and again? My thoughts: Love in Unlely Places is an unusual kind of an Amish book, a book that isn't just entertaining, but also touches upon more difficult questions. When we first meet our protagonist Emma Beiler, she is reflecting on the artistic talent of one of her pupils and whether it is worth developping it at all. At 26, Emma is already considered a leftover blessing or in other words an old maid. Is she too picky? She wants to have that special feeling she experienced once when she fell in love with a smart, open-minded man, who later chose a quiet obedient girl, not as curious and opinionated as Emma. He chose to marry her younger sister. Emma was heart-broken and threw herself in work. Now, ten years later, she feels her life has become too repetitive and even her teaching is missing the joy and spark it once had. Should she settle and try to date of the available single men of her community? You can force yourself to like somebody and become a good supportive wife to them. Or should she trust that God is going to make her meet that special one who is going to make her hear beat faster? or is God's plan for her is to stay single and devote herself to her family, her nephews and her nieces? Emma's character and her dilemma is so relatable to any single woman whose relatives are beginning to question whether she will ever get married and whether her standards are too high. Emma decides to change her life and starts by looking for a job outside her community. She gets an interview and is hired to be a nanny to two children aged two and six. As the family are going to have their summer holidays in their beach house in North Carolina, Emma's world is about to get dramatically expanded. The descriptions of the oceanfront, the sights, the smells are amazing. For Linda Byler nature is manifestation of God's love for humankind. I really enjoyed reading about Emma's interactions with the children in the Englisher household. She is kind, respectful and patient. She knows her job is to observe, not impose her own ideas, but it becomes apparent very soon that the children would benefit from stricter boundaries, clearer guidelines and perhaps more genuine attention on the part of their parents. To Emma's great surprise, the family hired an Amish construction team to work on their house and this is how she meets charming, easy-going, well-spoken Ben, who wouldn't mind getting to know Emma better. She might be reserved and afraid of getting her hear broken again, but gradually Emma opens up to the possibility of having finally met somebody unlike the other single men in her community, somebody who is more informed, more worldly, and openly attracted to her. When Emma's contract is terminated suddenly, she doesn't get a chance to say good-bye or exchange contact information with Ben. Still, he knows enough about her to be able to find her address and write to her and this though is something Emma is cherishing deep in her heart, as she is settling back to her farm life at home. As more and more days and weeks and months pass, Emma is facing now a different kind of dilemma: should she continue trusting that Ben is still in love with her and will turn up on her step and whisk her away or should she listen to her family and friends who are much more cautious? Emma's friend Eva suggests a camping trip with her husband and their baby. They are also joined by Eva's cousin Matt who, although adopted and raised by an Amish family, later chose to live as an Englisher. Emma and Matt discover that they have a lot in common, but being Amish, her faith and traditions are very important to Emma, so she cannot permit herself get attracted to Matt. There is still hope for Ben, after all. And he does write and invite her back to North Carolina. Can anybody's love life get more complicated than that? Read the book and find out what future has in store for Emma. Love in Unlikely Places is indeed an unusual kind of romance, with a heroine who is intelligent and well-informed in some ways, and desperately romantic and perhaps even naive in other ways. The book touches upon a variety of topics ranging from raising children, the use of technology, post-natal depression, adoption, politics, historical justice, and even global warming. There is romance, there are diffrent kinds of families, there are some wonderful friends who will tell you the truth and will stand by you, and there are fabulous descriptions of nature. Perhaps, the book is less light-hearted and straightforward than most books in this genre, but it has its core elements which for me are community, faith and trust in God's will and kindness. Thank you to Edelweiss and Good Books for this fascinating ARC. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.   Book & Author Details: Title: The Fall Changes (Honey Cove , #1) Author: Marie McGrath Publication date: August 11th 2020 Genres: Romance, Young Adult Synopsis: Change where you live. Change your parents being married. And maybe, change who you are. At 16 years old, Riley Mills has had more change than she ever wanted. A new high school would be daunting for most teens, but between getting attention from the most popular girl and being paired with a boy for her class project, she is navigating many situations she never could have imagined. With homecoming fast approaching and rumors about her swirling, Riley must confront her true nature. Is she a popular girl at heart? Could someone actually like her? With no clear answers, Riley may just find some answers from the most unexpected sources. Goodreads / Amazon AUTHOR BIO: Marie McGrath lives in a small rural town in Maryland. She hopes to inspire others with her stories. Her favorite genres to read are YA Romance and Contemporary Fiction. She loves the color turquoise, tigers, and listening to music. facebook / website / instagram / twitter GIVEAWAY Blitz-wide giveaway (INT)
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Synopsis: 2 floors. 55 steps to go up. 40 more to the crib. Since Rebecca Gray was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease, everything in her life consists of numbers. Each day her world grows a little darker and each step becomes a little more dangerous. Following days of feeling like someone’s watching her, Bec awakes at home to the cries of her son in his nursery. When it’s clear he’s not going to settle, Bec goes to check on him. She reaches in. Picks him up. But he’s not her son. And no one believes her. One woman’s desperate search for her son . . . In a world where seeing is believing, Bec must rely on her own conviction and a mother’s instinct to uncover the truth about what happened to her baby and bring him home for good. My thoughts: Let me start by saying I am a big fan of Rea Freys's writing. She knows how to create dramatic memorable characters and complex plots. Until I find you is a case in point. Newly widowed Rebecca Gray is slowly losing her sight due to a degenerative eye disease which also means that she has to rely heavily on her memory, Bec has recently her mother and has to take care of her three month old baby. She is convinced somebody is stalking her and her home feels strangely off as if somebody has been to her house and moved things. The scariest thing of all is that the baby lying in the crib isn't her son Jackson. Of course, the authorities don't believe her, but Bec knows the truth and she won't stop until she finds him. The plot was totally gripping. The concept of a mother feeling her child has been replaced by another baby isn't a new one, but the execution is great. Bec is sleep-deprived and is in genuine need of help and support especially after her mother passes away. Unfortunately, sometimes it iesn't easy to accept help if you desperately trying to prove that you can take care of yourself and your child without the social services being involved. Because this is Rea Frey, get ready for twists and turns, and a surprising ending. It was very interesting to explore the topics of motherhood, grief and anxiety through the point of view of a visually impaired person. Until I find you is a well-written, emotionally-charged mystery/thriller that will keep you reading until the small hours. Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.  Synopsis:
Welcome to Little Bridge, one of the smallest, most beautiful islands in the Florida Keys, home to sandy white beaches, salt-rimmed margaritas, and stunning sunsets—a place where nothing goes under the radar and love has a way of sneaking up when least expected... A broken engagement only gave Molly Montgomery additional incentive to follow her dream job from the Colorado Rockies to the Florida Keys. Now, as Little Bridge Island Public Library’s head of children’s services, Molly hopes the messiest thing in her life will be her sticky-note covered desk. But fate—in the form of a newborn left in the restroom—has other ideas. So does the sheriff who comes to investigate the “abandonment”. When John Hartwell folds all six-feet-three of himself into a tiny chair and insists that whoever left the baby is a criminal, Molly begs to differ and asks what he’s doing about the Island’s real crime wave (if thefts of items from homes that have been left unlocked could be called that). Not the best of starts, but the man’s arrogance is almost as distracting as his blue eyes. Almost… John would be pretty irritated if one of his deputies had a desk as disorderly as Molly’s. Good thing she doesn’t work for him, considering how attracted he is to her. Molly’s lilting librarian voice makes even the saltiest remarks go down sweeter, which is bad as long as she’s a witness but might be good once the case is solved—provided he hasn’t gotten on her last nerve by then. Recently divorced, John has been having trouble adjusting to single life as well as single parenthood. But something in Molly’s beautiful smile gives John hope that his old life on Little Bridge might suddenly hold new promise—if only they can get over their differences. My thoughts: The second book in the Little Bridge Island series by Meg Cabot is as light and enjoyable as the first one, No Judgments. This time we follow the story of a new children's section librarian Molly Montgomery who finds a new born baby girl in the library bathroom. Sheriff John Hartwell promises to do everything possible to find the baby's parents...and (no spoilers) he does. In the meantime sparks of attraction fly between the attractive librarian and the sherif, who also happens to be a newly divorced father of a teenage daughter. Molly and John do not always see eye to eye on how to proceed with the case. Understandably, the sheriff thinks Molly should let him do his job investigating the crimes, while Molly, a keen lover of amateur sleuths and true-crime podcasts, sometimes thinks John lacks empathy towards the victims. Both John and Molly are extremely serious about what they do, especially Molly, who is passionate about libraries and reading. I really liked the way she was so non-judgemental about whatever people read, no snobbery at all. John is slightly older. Readers who grew up on Meg Cabot's YA novels may find it a bit more difficult to relate to the protagonists of this book. I must say a few times I felt annoyed by John's remarks and behaviour. He keeps refering to his four hour workshop on sexual harrassment that discussed objectifying women (and men), and then makes his moves on Molly a bit too quickly. Luckily, molly is as much interested in him physically as he is in her, so things work out in spite of their disagreements. It helps that the sides choose to apologise and admit the other side might have been right and do it with the help of various pies. Overall, the story was sweet and it was great to revisit the setting of a little island where people do not lock their doors and try to help out those in need. Meg Cabot has a great writing style- it is light, enjoyable and very easy to follow. You can always rely on her for an entertaining story with a bit of humour and lovely characters. Thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow Paperbacks for the ARC provided in exchange for ah nonest opinion. |
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