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#Book Review #Blog Tour for Return to Cornwall by Laura Briggs @rararesources

Thank you to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for this lovely book!

Synopsis:

The sequel novel to the best-selling UK series A WEDDING IN CORNWALL brings new surprises, romance, humor, and wedding bells, to readers who fell in love with the first stories.

Busy mother of two Julianne Rose has extended her talents beyond the manor house, opening her own event planning agency with the help of no-nonsense best friend Kitty. Balancing the chaos of daily life with their respective careers in their beloved Cornish village means Julianne can rarely snatch a romantic moment with handsome husband Matt. And just when it seems things couldn’t get any more chaotic, a sudden arrival at Cliffs House lands Julianne in the most unusual event of her career.

The reappearance of Percy or ‘the old earl’ after years of adventures abroad has temporarily shocked Lord William and Lady Amanda and set the entire village abuzz with gossip. Grizzled, spry, and delightfully eccentric, he’s returned with a most unusual set of traveling companions: an archaeological team digging in a spot whispered to have ties with the legendary Camelot. But it’s Percy’s ties with a certain charming woman among its team that has everyone taken by surprise, along with the news of their soon-to-be nuptials.

Tasked with planning the big day, Julianne and Kitty spring at this opportunity despite its rushed timeline and their own woes regarding the renovation of their future event space. But as the big day rolls closer for the earl and his bride-to-be – with cakes and wedding flowers competing with pottery shards and an ancient warrior chieftain’s grave for attention — are there still surprising revelations to come?

Adding to the excitement is the return of former Cliffs House maid Gemma, whose posh new life as a novelist may not be all it seems … and Dinah visits in a flurry of festive baking for a holiday competition on everyone’s favorite baking show. Kitty’s life is in a tizz regarding both family and secrets … and Julianne’s happy marriage is challenged by an unwelcome sexy-and-persistent suitor among the summer visitors.

Filled with old friends, new adventures, and heartwarming Cornish charm, RETURN TO CORNWALL is an all-new, full-length novel—the first one ever to feature the characters from the original series!

Purchase link

My thoughts:

Laura Briggs has numerous faithful fans who just can’t get enough of her trademark feel-good warmhearted stories in gorgeous settings. In ‘Return to Cornwall’ we get a chance to re-visit our old friends from ‘A Wedding in Cornwall’ series.

Julianne Morgen is now Julianne Rose, happily married to her own Ros Poldark a.k.a. Matt Rose. They have two adorable, energetic children. Julianne has her own event planning business in partnership with Kitty, and Matt is also involved in a number of academic projects including giving lectures at university and designing teaching gardens. It is no wonder that the two parents need to share family duties and help each other out when work calls. They have been married for eight years now and understandably their love has changed, become more mature. This is what makes this book so relatable- Laura Briggs explores little ways in which people change, but stay true to themselves.

We also get to see plenty of other familiar characters. Julianne’s business partner Kitty has a neverending drama with her mom, her shifty uncle and loud cousins. Luckily, she is married to kind and understanding Nathan. How far will she go to protect him from her own family antics? Should she let go of her unconscious worry he might not want her once he really discovers how little they think of her and her abilities?

Lord and Lady of the Manor, Will and Mandy are expecting their second child while chasing their first born all over the grand house and overseeing different events and ceremonies that take place in their ancestral home. Speaking of the ancestors, Will and Mandy get a huge surprise when Will’s grandfather turns up on their doorstep having spent last twenty years travelling around the world and helping out at various archeological events. It quickly transpires good old, larger than life, Percy plans to get married soon to an archeology professor, who in turn is busy on a dig nearby. Lovers of archeology will be delighted by the description of the dig-related activities, including using LIDAR, geography scans and historical evidence. Plenty of exciting finds are waiting for them and the reader.
Percy love story turns out to be quite an interesting one and while it proves that ‘Love has no boundaries of time or distance’, it also shows that romance isn’t always easy and often involves changing and adjusting your life plans drastically.

If you like reading about wedding planning, you are, of course, going to enjoy Laura Briggs’ fascinating descriptions of the work that goes into organising one. All of this coupled with great food, beautiful gardens, spectacular Cornish scenery, and a whole range of charismatic characters.

Thank you to Rachel and the author for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.

About the author:

Laura Briggs is the author of several feel-good romance reads, including the Top 100 Amazon UK seller ‘A Wedding in Cornwall’. She has a fondness for vintage style dresses (especially ones with polka dots), and reads everything from Jane Austen to modern day mysteries. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, caring for her pets, gardening, and seeing the occasional movie or play.

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Giveaway to Win an e-copy of Return to Cornwall by Laura Briggs (Open INT)

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*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

If you would like to see what other bloggers thought of the book, here is the full tour schedule:

Thank you for stopping by and reading the post! Have a great Monday!

Book Blitz: Keep Me In Sight by Rachel Blackledge (September 1-5) @Xpresso Book Tours

Book & Author Details:

Keep Me In Sight
by Rachel Blackledge
Publication date: late September 2020
Genres: Adult, Thriller

Synopsis:

One night. One lie.
Now someone is going to die.

It’s about Dan.

These three words jolt Brynn Masters back to the big boozy night she spent with her boyfriend, Dan. The very same night his ex, Erin, showed up. Erin says something terrible happened that night. Dan says he never touched her. Trouble is, Erin has evidence to prove it.
Brynn can vouch for him though. She was there that night she can hardly remember, but will never forget. Except, when Brynn pieces together her fractured memories, lost that night at the bottom of a bottle, she faces the horrifying possibility that maybe Dan isn’t completely innocent. Maybe he’s guilty as charged. As Brynn inches closer to the truth, she begins to wonder: Who is the predator? And who is the prey?
Gloria knows. She’s a psychic who turned her back on her ability long ago, after she failed to prevent a terrible tragedy. As her gift floods back to her, can she learn to trust herself again before it’s too late? Or will her painful past hold her back from saving someone’s future . . . and quite possibly their life.
This addictive and suspenseful thriller explores the fault lines between broken memories and shattered trust, and promises to keep you up well past your bedtime.

Goodreads

AUTHOR BIO:
An American ex-pat since 2008, together with her husband, Rachel has sailed over 11,000 nautical miles, crossing the Indian Ocean three times and sinking only once. She hung up her foul weather gear since the birth of her son. And writes thrillers now instead.

Website / Twitter

GIVEAWAY
Blitz-wide giveaway (US only)

Signed copy of Keep Me In Sight with a unique bookmark

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Cover Reveal: Everything is Beautiful by Eleanor Ray @rararesources

Thank you to Rachel from Rachel’s Random resources for inviting me to participate in the cover reveal for Everything is Beautiful by Eleanor Ray.

Title: Everything is Beautiful
Author: Eleanor Ray
Expected Publication Date: 4th February 2021

Synopsis:

Sometimes it’s impossible to part with the things we love the most…

When Amy Ashton’s world came crashing down eleven years ago, she started a collection. Just a little collection, just a few keepsakes of happier times: some honeysuckle to remind herself of the boy she loved, a chipped china bird, an old terracotta pot . . . Things that others might throw away, but to Amy, represent a life that could have been.

Now her house is overflowing with the objects she loves – soon there’ll be no room for Amy at all. But when a family move in next door, a chance discovery unearths a mystery long buried, and Amy’s carefully curated life begins to unravel. If she can find the courage to face her past, might the future she thought she’d lost still be hers for the taking?

Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant and The Keeper of Lost Things, this exquisitely told, uplifting novel shows us that however hopeless things might feel, beauty can be found in the most unexpected of places.

Pre-order Links:
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everything-Beautiful-Eleanor-Ray/dp/0349427437
US – https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Beautiful-Eleanor-Ray-ebook/dp/B087ZDNZM8/

About the author:

Eleanor Ray has an MA in English Literature from Edinburgh University and works in marketing. She lives in London with her husband and two young children.
Eleanor was inspired to write Everything is Beautiful by the objects her toddler collects and treasures – twigs, empty water bottles and wilting daisies. She is currently working on her next novel.
Social Media Links –
Twitter: @EleanorRayBooks
Facebook: @EleanorRayBooks
Instagram: @EleanorRayBooks

….And here is the cover…. Sweet, isn’t it?

Thank you for stopping by and reading the post! Have a great Friday!

Book blitz: Escape by Deana Birch @Xpresso Book Tours

Book & Author Details:

Title: Escape (The Covington Heights Crew #1)
Author: Deana Birch
Publication date: September 1st 2020
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense

Synopsis:

FROM POPULAR ROMANCE AUTHOR DEANA BIRCH
Book one in The Covington Heights Crew series
The only thing she has to give is exactly what they want.
The Covington Heights Crew has a funny way of protecting their own. With rapes from rival gangs and human trafficking riddling their poverty-stricken streets, they’ll keep the girls from their neighborhood safe—for a price. No money? No worries. They have quite creative payment plans.
Messed up? Yeah, they know. They’re criminals.
Twenty-one-year-old Fiona Thompson was happy to stay off the radar of the twisted drug dealers who encourage her mother’s habit. She’s sure that she can work her way out of Covington and find a better life for herself and her baby sister. But then she beeped. Loud.
Second-in-command Leo Ricci is a poser. The web of lies he’s spun for a life unravels every time he’s around Fiona—every day he’s trying to keep her safe and every second he’s avoiding his destiny.
When his missteps challenge the authority to which he’s pledged his allegiance and Fiona’s life is at stake, there’s only one solution—become the man he never wanted to be and leave the place that was saving him from a worse, but unavoidable fate.

Goodreads

Purchase:
Amazon / B&N / iBooks / Kobo

AUTHOR BIO:
Contemporary romance and erotica writer Deana Birch was named after her father’s first love, who just so happened not to be her mother. Born and raised in the Midwest, she made stops in Los Angeles and New York before settling in Europe where she lives with her own blue-eyed Happily Ever After. Her days are spent teaching yoga, playing tennis, ruining her children’s French homework, cleaning up dog vomit, writing her next book, or reading someone else’s.

website / facebook / instagram / twitter / goodreads

GIVEAWAY
Blitz-wide giveaway (INT)

Signed copy of Escape + $25 Amazon gift card

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#Book Review #The Mother Code by Carole Stivers

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. If inhaled within several hours after the targeted release, the weapon leads to a terminal lung desease that causes death in a matter of weeks. 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. The residue denatures to the form which cannot enter human cells. 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 a passage on the Soviet Union and say to yourself: What?!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 think the book could have gone even deeper into exploring these fascinating 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 concept development 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.

Overall, I enjoyed reading The Mother Code and would love to see a 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.

Have you read The Mother Code or is it on your tbr?
Do you enjoy reading science-fiction and, in particular, dystopian, post-apocalyptic fiction?
Should science-fiction avoid using complex, technical terminology or is it a part and parcel of the genre?

Book Blitz: #Surviving 40 by Karen Anne (August 25-29) @Xpresso Book Tours

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)

$20 Amazon gift card

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Book Blitz: Her Summer Prince by Freda Ann (August 24-28) @Xpresso Book Tours

Book & Author Details:

Title: Her Summer Prince
Author: Freda Ann
Publication date: August 31st 2020
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

This sweet/clean Hallmark style love story will make you laugh, cry, and give you goosebumps all the way to a happy ending! *

Prince of Shorewick and next in line to the throne, Harry has more than enough on his plate, between his royal duties and overbearing Queen mother. During one fateful summer in Bliss Cay, his life changes forever when he meets the girl of his dreams.

Celebrating her graduation on the island, Charlotte Warren is swept off her feet by her knight in shining armor, falling hard and fast for this dashing stranger.

When a horrible tragedy comes calling, Harry is forced to pack up and leave Bliss without a moment’s notice for the Kingdom of Shorewick. In the mad dash to get home, Harry realizes too late that he left without saying goodbye.

Ten years pass of lost contact, and only now has Charlotte’s heart begun to mend after the heartache Harry inflicted. Now a successful businesswoman and mother to her beautiful son Noah and furry companion Chloe, Charlotte finally takes the jump and decides to return to Bliss Cay for the first time since that fateful summer.

Returning to the island is a step towards conquering her past, but instead she finds herself face to face with the man who shattered her heart into a million pieces.

The last decade has changed them both. Harry has the responsibility of the monarchy looming over him, yet all he wants is to live his life with the woman he loves…a commoner in the eyes of the monarchy.

Goodreads / Amazon

About the Author :
Freda was born in southern New Jersey but grew up in Florida. She has loved writing her entire life. After retiring from a career in law enforcement, she knew it was time to fulfill her lifelong dream of being a published author.

She’s the author of The Hawaii Series, proudly named from her love of the beautiful Hawaiian Islands. It’s a three-book series with all of them written as standalone books.

Freda loves her large family, horses, dogs, cat, and close friends. She hosts monthly family dinners at her home in the country, which she shares with her husband.

She loves baking (she owned and operated a cupcake business for years), cooking, yoga, crocheting, nature and traveling with the love of her life.

What helps her write? Music makes her happy! If music doesn’t give her the right motivation, she puts on a romantic movie, usually from the Hallmark Channel, which she can’t get enough of!

Freda speaks her mind and pushes perfection to its limit. She strives to be her best, most positive self she can be in life. With time, determination, and practice, she believes anything is possible

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GIVEAWAY

Blitz-wide giveaway (INT)

2x $20 Amazon gift cards
2x ebook copies of Her Summer Prince

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#Book Review #A Sweet Mess by Jayci Lee

If you love food (especially all sorts of cakes and desserts) and romance books, you should definitely read Jayci Lee’s A Sweet Mess – the characters’ passion for food is undeniable.
Our protagonist Aubrey Choi is the owner of a small, but very successful bakery Comfort Zone. She is living through a minor cake emergency at the beginning of the book. Her part time assistant served somebody Aubrey’s creation that was designed to go to a six year old birthday girl. Aubree bakes another identical cake and saves the day. She is busy chatting away with her best friend Tara when she meets Landon Kim, a gorgeous Asian American and is immediately attracted to him. She has no idea that Landon is a famous food critic whose car happened to break down on his way to a restaurant he was supposed to review. The couple spend an amazing night together thinking they are never going to see each other again. Landon never made it to his assignment, but his boss needs an article to fill the gap, so why not write about the cake abomination he was served earlier on the day – it was amazingly tasty, but also contained strangest fillings possible. Surely this must have been due to the arrogance of the pastry chef…

Landon’s article has a more significant effect than he expected. A lot of Aubrey’s business came from tourists and online orders which disappear almost overnight, just when she already committed herself to her new premises and needs money to rennovate them. Aubrey and just about everyone in her small town begs the editor to give her a second chance, especially since Landon’s unfortunate experience was due to an honest mistake. Landon refuses to review Aubrey’s bakery again, but would like to correct the consequences of his actions by offering her a place on a cooking show which would involve a week of filming and two weeks of tasting local wines. Aubrey knows this is her chance to save her bakery, however hard it might be to work with and stay in the same villa as Landon…

I’m not a big fan of insta-love, but Aubrey and Landon’s first encounter was more of insta-attraction with no strings. Later the protagonists do find out more about each other and have time and space to let their feelings grow. There is a lot of tension building and even a few fairly melodramatic moments in the last third of the book. Part of the conflict comes from their childhood/adolescence experiences that shaped their ideas on love, relationships and family. As usual, clear communication would have saved the protagonists from a lot of misunderstandings and heartache.

Cute, emotional, full of traditional romance tropes, A Sweet mess is an entertaining read, recommended to anyone who loves food (esp.Korean food) and cooking.

Thank you to Edelweiss and St.Martin’s Griffin for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

#Book review #The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls by Ursula Hegi

From the blurb:

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 breastfeed 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 running 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 as if her personal loss was a sacrifice she made to save future lives. 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 Blitz: The Promise Kept by Maggie Mae Gallagher ( August 19-23) @Xpresso Book Tours

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.

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