I’m so excited to be a guest blogger over at Chick Lit Central today! I’m over there reviewing Alison Cochrun’s The Charm Offensive alongside Melissa Amster (spoiler alert: I’m completely and utterly OBSESSED with this amazing book).
I truly loved, loved, LOVED this beautiful book and I’m so excited to be able to share it with you today!
Head over there (click HERE) to read my full review, Melissa’s full review, AND you can enter for a chance to win a copy for yourself! If you aren’t a Chick Lit Central reader, you are truly missing out. It’s such a wonderful book blog and I have been reading for YEARS….loooooong before I started writing my own blog. Thanks for having me as a guest blogger today, Melissa! As always, it was fun working with you and I so LOVED the book that we chose to review together!
Xo,
Jenny
This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support! Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:
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Book I’m Currently Reading (Amazing), Book I Recently Read (Perfection), Book I’m Reading Next (SO EXCITED)
This was on the cover of a recent issue of Jewish Chicago (JUF Magazine). How gorgeous is this?!
I love when Book Coffee Happy can participate in WWW! The Three Ws: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next?
Goodreads Synopsis of The Last Chance Library {Freya Sampson}:
June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way.
Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the thirty-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother.
Joining a band of eccentric yet dedicated locals in a campaign to keep the library, June opens herself up to other people for the first time since her mother died. It just so happens that her old school friend Alex Chen is back in town and willing to lend a helping hand. The kindhearted lawyer’s feelings for her are obvious to everyone but June, who won’t believe that anyone could ever care for her in that way.
To save the place and the books that mean so much to her, June must finally make some changes to her life. For once, she’s determined not to go down without a fight. And maybe, in fighting for her cherished library, June can save herself, too.
What Did You Recently Finish Reading?
Do you remember when I bought this book from the most adorable little independent bookstore in Door County, WI? I recently finished reading this GEM and I can’t wait to share all of my thoughts with you! I’ll be guest blogging on Chick Lit Central at the end of the month where Melissa Amster and I will be sharing our thoughts on this one AND we will also be hosting a giveaway for it as well! Stay tuned for details…
Goodreads Synopsis of The Charm Offensive {Alison Cochrun}:
Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.
Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.
As Dev fights to get Charlie to connect with the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.
What Will You Read Next?
Ahhhh I’ve had my advanced reader’s copy of Lisa Barr’s newest book for MONTHS! I’ve been saving it to read and review closer to it’s publication date and seeing as that date is 3/1…the time for me to read this one is NOW! I’m so excited, I absolutely loved The Unbreakables (you can read my review of that amazing book HERE). I can’t wait to dig into her newest ASAP!
Goodreads Synopsis of Woman on Fire {Lisa Barr}:
From the author of the award-winning Fugitive Colors and The Unbreakables, a gripping tale of a young, ambitious journalist embroiled in an international art art scandal centered around a Nazi-looted masterpiece–forcing the ultimate showdown between passion and possession, lovers and liars, history and truth.
After talking her way into a job with Dan Mansfield, the leading investigative reporter in Chicago, rising young journalist Jules Roth is given an unusual–and very secret–assignment. Dan needs her to locate a painting stolen by the Nazis more than 75 years earlier: legendary Expressionist artist Ernst Engel’s most famous work, Woman on Fire. World-renowned shoe designer Ellis Baum wants this portrait of a beautiful, mysterious woman for deeply personal reasons, and has enlisted Dan’s help to find it. But Jules doesn’t have much time; the famous designer is dying.
Meanwhile, in Europe, provocative and powerful Margaux de Laurent also searches for the painting. Heir to her art collector family’s millions, Margaux is a cunning gallerist who gets everything she wants. The only thing standing in her way is Jules. Yet the passionate and determined Jules has unexpected resources of her own, including Adam Baum, Ellis’s grandson. A recovering addict and brilliant artist in his own right, Adam was once in Margaux’s clutches. He knows how ruthless she is, and he’ll do anything to help Jules locate the painting before Margaux gets to it first.
A thrilling tale of secrets, love, and sacrifice that illuminates the destructive cruelty of war and greed and the triumphant power of beauty and love, Woman on Fire tells the story of a remarkable woman and an exquisite work of art that burns bright, moving through hands, hearts, and history.
Have you read any of these 3 books? What did you think (no spoilers)? What are you currently reading? I’d love to hear in the comments below!
Xo,
Jenny
Click on the images below to order through my Amazon link (including the preorder link for Woman on Fire). When you order through these links, I receive a tiny commission. Thank you for your support, Xo
This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support! Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:
*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*
*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*
*Subscribe with your email address to my blog (scroll all the way to the bottom of this page on mobile devices OR check the top right of this screen to enter your email address)*
*If you already have a blog, please “follow” mine*
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I mean…I’m not sure how much of me you can actually see but it’s still a lovely sign, lol 🤪
Happy New Year! I hope your year is filled with love and BOOKS!
1 Book I AM Reading:
My first official book read of 2022:
I bought this book from the most beautiful little bookstore in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin this past fall (you can read about my lovely visit to that bookstore HERE).
Goodreads Synopsis of The Charm Offensive {Alison Cochrun}:
Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.
Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.
As Dev fights to get Charlie to connect with the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.
I’m almost finished reading and can’t wait to share my thoughts with you! I’ll actually be doing a joint review of this one with Melissa Amster from Chick Lit Central at the end of the month…stay tuned!
2 Books I’m NOT Reading:
I think both of these books sound GREAT but alas, the library needed them back before I even was able to crack either cover. This is what happens when the only books I will read in November and December are holiday books 😉
Oh perfect, this was such a random last minute photo thought that I didn’t even have time to take away my bottle of water from the nice shot taken in my front seat, lol.Another wonderful photo. I especially enjoy the reflection of my yellow iphone and my face. And oh look! My bottle of water is still there!
Goodreads Synopsis of Five Strangers {E.V. Adamson}:
With its grassy hills and breathtaking city views, London’s Hampstead Heath is the perfect place to spend an afternoon with friends and loved ones—and on an unseasonably warm Valentine’s Day, the lawns are especially full. So when an aggressive lovers’ quarrel breaks out, there’s an audience of park goers nearby to hear the shouts traded back and forth, and to watch as the violence escalates suddenly to murder, then suicide.
For the five strangers who observed the gruesome act, the memory of the gore is unshakable. But one of them—disgraced journalist Jen Hunter—is compelled to question the truth of what she thought she saw. Are the facts of the case plain as day, or were they obscured, in the moment, by the glaring sunlight?
As she mounts an obsessive investigation for a seemingly-impossible alternative, the lives of the other witnesses begin to unravel, each in its own particular way. Soon one thing becomes clear: the crime they witnessed was more terrible, more twisted, and more far-reaching than they ever could have imagined.
iphone, face, water bottle. My photography skills are ON POINT in this post today.
Goodreads Synopsis of Cul De Sac {Joy Fielding}:
A shooting lays bare the secrets harbored by five families in a sleepy suburban cul-de-sac in this riveting psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of All the Wrong Places.
Someone on this quiet, unassuming cul-de-sac will be shot dead in the middle of a sultry July night.
Will it be Maggie, the perfectionist wife, or Craig, the husband who can’t quite live up to her expectations? They’ve packed up their two children and fled their life in California, hoping for a fresh start in Florida, only to find the demons of the past hovering on their doorstep.
Maybe it will be Nick, a highly respected oncologist, or his wife, Dani, a successful dentist, both with well-kept secrets of their own.
Or Julia, an elderly widow, whose troubled grandson has recently moved in with her, introducing unsavory habits and even more unsavory acquaintances into her formerly quiet existence.
Then there’s Olivia and her husband, Sean. Having lost his job at a prestigious advertising agency, Sean is depressed, resentful of his working wife, and drinking heavily. He is also prone to increasingly violent fantasies.
And what of the newlyweds, Aiden and Heidi, whose marriage is already on the rocks, due to Aiden’s reluctance to stand up to his intrusive mother? Matters aren’t helped when Heidi befriends Julia’s grandson, setting the stage for a major blowup.
A diverse group of neighbors, to be sure. Yet all harbor secrets. All bear scars. And all have access to guns.
Not all will survive the night.
Have you read any of these 3 books? What book are you currently reading? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Xo,
Jenny
Click the images below to order the books through my Amazon affiliate links. When you order through these links, I receive a tiny commission. Thank you for your support, Xo
This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support! Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:
*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*
*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*
*Subscribe with your email address to my blog (scroll all the way to the bottom of this page on mobile devices OR check the top right of this screen to enter your email address)*
*If you already have a blog, please “follow” mine*
*”Like” my Facebook page (and please comment on, “like”, and share my posts)*
*Clicking and buying products through my Amazon Affiliate links. The cost to you is exactly the same and I receive a tiny commission off of your purchases.*
As you know, I’m a HUGE advocate of utilizing my local library. I absolutely LOVE the library and that is exactly where 90 percent of the books that I read come from. I love borrowing books so, so much.
I use my library for a number of reasons, mostly that I am a minimalist. I don’t WANT a stuffed, crammed bookshelf full of books that I most likely won’t reread in the future.
However, I DO love to support small businesses and I absolutely adore discovering wonderful independent bookstores. There is quite literally nothing better than a tiny, adorable bookstore and a friendly person behind the counter ready to discuss books. THE BEST.
Every time I go on a vacation, I seem to find the CUTEST bookshops and I absolutely love supporting them.
A Lovely Independent Bookstore
Last week, my family and I spent 4 days in Door County, WI. While walking through the town of Sturgeon Bay, I stumbled upon the most adorable independent bookstore!
Novel Bay Booksellers, I adore you.
This was the first thing to greet me on the sidewalk before I even walked into the store. Perfect.Stunning.Children’s Section
I walked around for a few minutes breathing in the scent of new books and I was so happy. As soon as I saw this book on a shelf, I knew it was the one I was going to purchase! My friend and fellow book blogger Jenna had just posted the day prior about how much she LOVED this book so I took it as a sign.
I also saw the most beautiful coffee mug just sitting on a shelf and instantly knew I had to have it.
While speaking with the LOVELY lady behind the counter, I asked if I could take a copy of the Midwest Indie Bookstore Roadmap. Not only did she say yes but she told me to also take one for a friend 🙂 Megan, I’ve got yours here for you! XO!
I happily paid for my book and mug. Then the lovely lady (I so wish I could remember her name, ugh) gave me a book mark and a beautiful sticker which I came home and immediately affixed to my beloved planner.
Thank you for a wonderful visit, Novel Bay Booksellers!
If you are ever in the Door County area of Wisconsin, I highly suggest paying a visit to this charming little slice of Heaven. I can’t wait to return!
Other independent bookshops I’ve discovered while on vacations and links to my blog posts about them:
Tell me about an independent bookstore that you love to support!
Xo,
Jenny
Click the image below to order the book through my Amazon affiliate link. When you order through this link, I receive a tiny commission. Thank you for your support, Xo
This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support! Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:
*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*
*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*
*Subscribe with your email address to my blog (scroll all the way to the bottom of this page on mobile devices OR check the top right of this screen to enter your email address)*
*If you already have a blog, please “follow” mine*
*”Like” my Facebook page (and please comment on, “like”, and share my posts)*
*Clicking and buying products through my Amazon Affiliate links. The cost to you is exactly the same and I receive a tiny commission off of your purchases.*
Book Coffee Happy 