Tag: Stephanie Kate Strohm

Review: Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm.

Posted May 22, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments


Rowena’s review of Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm.

Main Character: Libby Kelting
Love Interest: Garrett McCafferty
Series: None
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

Libby Kelting had always felt herself born out of time. No wonder the historical romance-reading, Jane Austen-adaptation-watching, all-around history nerd jumped at the chance to intern at Camden Harbor, Maine’s Oldest Living History Museum. But at Camden Harbor Libby’s just plain out of place, no matter how cute she looks in a corset. Her cat-loving coworker wants her dead, the too-smart-for-his-own-good local reporter keeps pushing her buttons, her gorgeous sailor may be more shipwreck than dreamboat — plus Camden Harbor’s haunted. Over the course of one unforgettable summer, Libby learns that boys, like ghosts, aren’t always what they seem.

After reading Past Perfect by Leila Sales and loving it, I thought I’d really enjoy reading this book as well. While I did enjoy it, I enjoyed the Sales more. That’s not to say that this book wasn’t good because it was, I just spent a good portion of this book, annoyed to high heaven with Libby.

You see, Libby scored an internship working at Camden Harbor, a museum in Maine. She’s a big history buff and thought she’d enjoy some time in Maine, working at the museum there and she totally did. She met some new people, made some new friends and learned a lot about herself over the summer and it was an enjoyable reading adventure for me even though there were times when I wanted to smack some sense into Libby and times when I cringed because of what was happening in the story.

Libby was a good character. She’s young and she has great taste in friends (how awesome was Dev?) but she was also rude to the one person who has been up front with her from the jump. The romance that blossomed between her and Garrett was cute and even though I cringed when Libby let Garrett have a piece of her mind, I still enjoyed their romance. I’m a sucker for a good romance and theirs was cute.

Libby is one of those girls before boys kind of girls and I loved that. When she cut her date with Cam short because her best friend needed her, I loved her. I think that even though I was highly annoyed with the way that she talked to Garrett over and over again, because it was evident that she was such a good friend to Dev that I let a lot of things about her actions slide.

Right from the time that Garrett comes into the picture, I knew that I was going to love him. I mean, how can you not love him after he starts busting up laughing after Libby falls over and shows her Hello Kitty panties to the world? How can you not fall a little more in love with him when he starts calling her Hello Kitty? and then later when he calls her Proud Mary? I thought he was just too adorable. I loved that he wasn’t a jock but a sci-fi nerd who was proud to be a sci-fi nerd. The way that he would defend his passion for nerdy things endeared him to me more than anything. He owned his nerdiness and he won me over with that. Such a cutie patootie.

Overall, this book was a great contemporary read that would be perfect for a day at the beach. It’s cute, it’s fun and even though I didn’t absolutely love it- I still thought it was a cute read.

..and that’s your scoop!

This book is available from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com


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What I Read Last Week

Posted April 30, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 8 Comments

Hola!
How are you this fine Monday? It’s beautiful out today in my part of the land – I wish my desk was outside and not in a stuffy office. I just keep looking out the window with longing. lol
Not much happened this week. I did realize that I completely forgot my blog anniversary! Yep, on April 16th it was the 4th anniversary of Tracy’s Place. Damned hard to believe that it’s been that long. It really only seems like a year or so – weird. 🙂
This past weekend we went to the Santa Barbara Fair. The weather was great and we had a wonderful time. The kids rode a ton of rides, we watched pig races, got to see adorable baby goats and my oldest daughter got hypnotized. It was hilarious. I did get a dvd of my oldest so that she could see what she did while she was under. Too funny. I asked the hypnotist if he could make it so that every time I snapped my fingers she would listen to me but he just laughed. lol
So on to what I read this week:
I started off the week with The Witness by Nora Roberts. This is a wonderful romance and a bit of a mystery/suspense story all wrapped into one. I really, really liked it. You can read my review here. 4.5 out of 5
Next up was a YA book called Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm. This is the story of a girl who goes to spend the summer at a living history museum. It was another really good book. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
My next read was Country Mouse by Amy Lane and Aleksandr Voinov. This was the story of an American guy who is visiting London. He meets a guy in a bar on his first day there and they end up spending the weekend together. You can read more about this great story and my review here. 4.5 out of 5
Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal by Grace Burrowes was a book I read for The Book Binge. This story was about a woman who is a by-blow but was “adopted” by her father (a duke) and raised with many siblings. She is 30 years old and living in her own household. She loses her purse and hires a man to find it. She’s got secrets though and the man knows that there’s more to things than just a lost reticule. This was a bit of a frustrating story as we didn’t get to know Maggie’s secret until right before the hero did. The romance was great though and I really liked the book. 4 out of 5
Next was The Walls Have Ears by Erica Pike. This is the 3rd in the College Fun and Gays series. Harley is a guy who has been having a relationship with the guy next door – but through the wall. They masturbate to each others voices until the guy on the other side of the wall, Devon, asks Harley’s roommate out instead of him. Harley ends up crying on Devon’s roommate’s shoulder but Tasha wants more from Harley than just being friends. It was a short story but so cute. My heart ached for Harley’s situation and that was written so well but Harley made me a bit crazy with his child-like emotional outbursts. I loved Tasha and admired him for his infinite patience with Harley. I look forward to reading the rest of the series! 4 out of 5
Devil’s Punch by Ann Aguirre was my next read. This is book 4 in the Corinne Solomon series. I’ll be posting my review of this later this week so stay tuned.
Sunrise by Kody Boye is a zombie apocalypse novel that I read. I’ll post my review of this on Wednesday so keep your eyes peeled.
Last on the list was What We Deserve by Kerry Freeman. This is the story of 2 best friends. One falls in love with the other but then the older boy, Jamie, heads off to the army without telling his best friend…the night after they sleep together for the first time. Sean is devastated but moves on with his life. Twelve years later Jamie is back but Sean is in a committed relationship and none to thrilled about Jamie coming back and wanting to talk and pick up where they left off – after 12 years of non communication. Eventually Sean does talk and after that Sean, Jamie and Tyler, Sean’s boyfriend, all fall in love to make a household of three. The story is about the falling in love but also dealing with the men’s families and their reactions. It was a good story even if I did have a couple of issues. There were things left unresolved with one of the men’s parents which bothered me and I never did feel that Sean and Jamie talked enough about Jamie’s jackassedness and ultimate silence when he had left all those years ago. 3.5 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!


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Review: Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm

Posted April 25, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Libby Kelting had always felt herself born out of time. No wonder the historical romance-reading, Jane Austen-adaptation-watching, all-around history nerd jumped at the chance to intern at Camden Harbor, Maine’s Oldest Living History Museum. But at Camden Harbor Libby’s just plain out of place, no matter how cute she looks in a corset. Her cat-loving coworker wants her dead, the too-smart-for-his-own-good local reporter keeps pushing her buttons, her gorgeous sailor may be more shipwreck than dreamboat — plus Camden Harbor’s haunted. Over the course of one unforgettable summer, Libby learns that boys, like ghosts, aren’t always what they seem.
Libby loves history so she’s very excited to be spending the summer as an intern at a live history museum. She’s assigned to run 8-10 year old girls in a Girls of Long Ago class where they learn to cook in a hearth, do needlepoint, quilt, press flowers, etc. Sounds like fun – wish I could have done that when I was young. lol
When Libby gets to the museum she’s put into the intern house with a quiet girl named Suze and the bitch from hell, Ashling. We have no idea why Ashling is all up in Libby’s grill but she really makes life miserable for Libby from day one. When Libby has the chance to move on to a schooner she immediately takes it – even though she doesn’t like the guy that she’ll be sharing a room with.
The guy is Garrett and he is a reporter for the local paper. Because of ghost sightings on the one of the museum’s schooners he asks permission to camp out to see if he can sight the ghost. Because he’s not really a museum employee they get Libby to room with him. Garrett is a sci-fi geek and kind of judgmental of Libby at first but he soon figures out that Libby has a brain under all of that blonde hair and she knows how to use the brain!
So while Libby is putting her huge brain to work and giving us a great dose of her humor at the same time she meets with Cam. He works on one of the other schooners and he’s adorable, kind, gallant, chivalrous, and a great kisser! Libby is falling for the guy but he’s got some not so great friends and sometimes he acts weird. Libby is all about the romantic. She’s always dreamed of the fairy tale romances and at age 16 she’s still got her head a bit in the clouds about that. She wants all the things that she believes that Cam is and believes that he will sweep her off her feet – but is it realistic?
Then there’s Libby’s best friend who is Dev. Dev is gay and destined to be a fabulous clothing designer. He’s spending his summer as an intern in New York. Libby thinks that Dev is having a great time but she keeps getting these weird phone calls from him that make her think that all is not well in fashion land.
This is a really fun story. I have to admit that I was a bit concerned about whether I would like Libby at first but her humor, inner thoughts and attitude toward everything just sucked me in. I was soon a Libby fan. I loved how she was with her 8-10 year old girls and with most everyone at the museum.
Libby’s relationships:
With Cam I knew that things would not go well and knew this almost from the word go. He was a weasel dressed in a very nice package and I wanted him out of the picture!
Garrett I didn’t feel like I got to know very well but I felt he was a very sweet guy who had a great heart. I was happy that things worked out for him as well as they did. (avoiding spoilers!)
Dev was just so great. He was just out and proud and not afraid to show everyone that he was as great as he thought he was! lol He had personality plus and was a great addition to the story.
Overall I liked the book a lot. The interpersonal relationships along with the history and humor just hit the spot for me. This is Strohm’s first novel and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
Rating: 4 out of 5


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