Tag: Barbara Delinsky

What I Read Last Week

Posted August 5, 2014 by Tracy in Features | 2 Comments

Ok.  I’ll be the first to admit it.  I’m a slacker. That’s the reason that this post, which is normally up on Mondays, is going up just now.  And in the middle of the afternoon, no less!  Sorry about that. I’ll try to mend my slacker ways but I fear it’s all set in stone. 🙂

So…getting the girls ready for school.  Holy shit it’s expensive.  As my oldest gets older the prices just go up and up!  Oy.  I had to register them both today and for the oldest it was $215.00 and the youngest $70.00.  That last number seemed like a dream compared to the high school charges. Geez.  Oh well, whatcha gonna do, right?  I certainly hope so.  

Giveaway: Violet…I sent an email last week but haven’t heard from you.  I just sent another so please check your spam folder to make sure it didn’t end up there. 🙂

On to what I read last week:

I started off the week with Lick by Kylie Scott.  I really liked this story of a woman who wakes up after a 21st birthday binge in Vegas and finds herself married to a rock star.  The book tells us their ups and downs and everything in between.  You can read my full review here. 4 out of 5

Next up was The Right Wrong Number by Barbara Delinsky.  This was a free story I picked up about a woman who is excited about a business deal and calls a friend to tell them about it.  She doesn’t get her friend, however, she gets a guy named Charlie.  The two actually hit it off and have a long conversation but then the woman drops her phone and the call ends.  She tries to get him back on the phone but has no idea which wrong number she dialed.  The story was cute and sweet but really short.  3 out of 5

Blurred by Kim Karr was next on the list to read.  The story, if you’ve been following this series, shows us Ben’s side of the story.  Ben was Dahlia’s boyfriend at one time.  The novella takes us through Ben’s emotional turmoil after his mother dies and him trying to get his life back together.  I think it was a good story as it takes care of all the details and back story for Ben that won’t crowd up his love story, Frayed, when it releases. You can read my full review here 3.5 out of 5

Her Secret, His Surprise by Paula Altenburg is the story of a couple who have a one night stand.  She finds herself preggo but when she calls the bar that she met him at (he was the bartender) they say they’d never heard of him.  Two years later and the man who is the father of her child shows up to be her administrative assistant.  She’s not sure she wants someone who is a drifter, from job to job, to be in her daughter’s life.  Unfortunately for her the minute he sees his daughter he knows.  He’s not what he seems but he’s not sure he can make her believe he’s solid.  Good story – very enjoyable. 3.75 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

For Her Spy Only by Robyn DeHart is a novella about a woman who has a one night stand with a noble who has no desire to marry and no desire to have children.  Six years later the noble is looking for a certain cartographer and he finds her instead – who is the cartographer’s widow.  This was a short but sweet story.  I liked both the characters and the story.  3.5 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh.  I know this isn’t coming out til Sept. 2nd but when I got the ARC I couldn’t stand to not read it.  Unfortunately I didn’t care for it as much as I wanted to.  Still a good story but I did have some issues with it. I’ll post my review closer to the release date. 3.5 out of 5

Wilder’s Mate by Moira Rogers is a kind of a paranormal western but set in an alternate universe.  The first book in the Bloodhound series, the story is about a woman who is searching for her mentor who was kidnapped by vampires and the man who helps her – that she happens to fall in love with.  It was an interesting story and I was intrigued.  I wish it had some more back story about the Bloodhounds, one of which our hero was.  Definitely needed more on that.  3.5 out of 5

Claimed by the Alpha by Renee George is a short story about a woman who has been fighting cancer for 4 years.  The man who loves her dearly is a wolf shifter and wants to change her but she refuses.  The story is about him taking some definite risks and trying to make her see his side of things.  It was cute but very short. 3 out of 5

 Last for the week was Fangs of Anarchy by Dakota Cassidy
– a 5 part story.  It’s really a (approx.) 200 page book that’s broken
up into 5 parts.  The story follows Claire who is a werewolf and has
just killed her alpha.  She is aided in disposing of the body by Irish
who is a vampire and president of his MC.  The men in this story might
be in MC’s but really it’s not an MC read.  It’s a love story between
Claire and Irish with a mystery that is the catalyst to throw them
together.  I liked the stories, the world building, the romance and the
humor in these.  I’ll definitely be reading more of this series in the
future.
Fangs of Anarchy – 
Killing the Alpha
(Part 1) 4 out of 5
Forbidden Alpha (Part 2) Girl Most Lycan 3.5 out of 5

Forbidden Alpha (Part 3) Were in the World is Gannon Dodd? 4 out of 5

Forbidden Alpha (Part 4) In the Zone 3.5 out of 5

Forbidden Alpha (Part 5) Revelation 4 out of 5
 
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
 
Happy Reading!


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Excerpt (+ a Giveaway): Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky

Posted June 18, 2013 by Holly in Giveaways, Promotions | 3 Comments

Today we have an excerpt of Barbara Delinsky‘s latest release, Sweet Salt Air, to share with you.

On Quinnipeague, hearts open under the summer stars and secrets float in the Sweet Salt Air

Charlotte and Nicole were once the best of friends, spending summers together in Nicole’s coastal island house off of Maine. But many years, and many secrets, have kept the women apart. A successful travel writer, single Charlotte lives on the road, while Nicole, a food blogger, keeps house in Philadelphia with her surgeon-husband, Julian. When Nicole is commissioned to write a book about island food, she invites her old friend Charlotte back to Quinnipeague, for a final summer, to help. Outgoing and passionate, Charlotte has a gift for talking to people and making friends, and Nicole could use her expertise for interviews with locals. Missing a genuine connection, Charlotte agrees.

But what both women don’t know is that they are each holding something back that may change their lives forever. For Nicole, what comes to light could destroy her marriage, but it could also save her husband. For Charlotte, the truth could cost her Nicole’s friendship, but could also free her to love again. And her chance may lie with a reclusive local man, with a heart to soothe and troubles of his own.

Bestselling author and master storyteller Barbara Delinsky invites you come away to Quinnipeague…

Read an excerpt!

Chapter One

QUINNIPEAGUE LAY ELEVEN MILES FROM the mainland. With a year-round population of nearly three hundred, it was serviced by a daily mail boat that carried groceries and a handful of passengers, but no cars. Since Charlotte had one of those for the first time in her life, she proudly booked the ferry, boarding in Rockland on a Tuesday, which was one of only three days each week when its captain cruised past Vinalhaven to islands like Quinnipeague. Nicole had offered airfare to speed up the trip, but Charlotte flew everywhere else in life. This summer was to be different.

The car was an old Jeep Wrangler, bought from a friend of a friend for a fraction of its original cost. Giddy with excitement, she stashed the soft top in back, and, as the warm June air flowed freely through windows and roof, drove up from New York herself. She welcomed the time it would take. After a frantic two months of work to free herself up, she wanted to slow down, decompress, and maybe, just maybe figure out why she had agreed to a last summer on Quinnipeague. She had sworn she wouldn’t return, had sworn off painful memories.
But there were good memories as well, all of which had flooded back as she read Nicole’s e-mail in Ireland that day. She replied instantly, promising to phone as soon as she returned to New York. And she had. Literally. Right there in baggage claim while waiting for her duffel to come through.

Of course, she would come, she had told Nicole, only afterward doing the reasoning. For starters, there was Bob. She hadn’t gone to his funeral because she hadn’t had the courage to face even a dead Bob after letting him down—letting them all down—so badly. So she owed Nicole for the funeral, and owed her for the betrayal.
But obligation wasn’t the only reason she had accepted the invitation. Relief was another; Nicole herself had suggested the collaboration. And nostalgia; Charlotte missed those carefree summers. And loneliness; she spent her life with people, but none were family as Nicole had once been.

And then there was the book. She had never worked on a book, had never actually collaborated on anything, though it sounded like a piece of cake, having someone else run the show. When she thought about the people she would interview, Cecily Cole came to mind first. Talk about compelling characters. Cecily was island cooking in many regards, since her herbs were what made the food special. She had to be the centerpiece of the book. Talking with her would be fun.

Charlotte could use a little fun, a little rest, a little make-believe—and Quinnipeague was the place for that. Even now, as the ferry passed in and out of fog, reality came and went. You can’t go home again, Thomas Wolfe had written, and she prayed he was wrong. She expected some awkwardness; ten years and very different lives later, she and Nicole couldn’t just pick up where they’d left off. Moreover, if Nicole knew of her betrayal, all bets were off. But if Nicole knew, she wouldn’t have asked Charlotte to come. Nicole Carlysle didn’t have a devious bone in her body.

Leaning out from the side railing, she caught a breath. There it was—

But no, just an ocean mirage quickly swallowed by the fog.

After moving past empty benches, she held tightly to the front rail. Anticipation had built since leaving New York, accelerating in leaps after New Haven, then Boston. By the time she passed Portland, impatience had her regretting the decision to drive, but that changed once she left the highway at Brunswick and started up the coast. Bath, Wiscasset, Damariscotta—she loved the names as much as the occasional view of boats, seaside homes, roadside stands. FULL BELLY CLAMS one sign read, but she resisted. Clams served on Quinnipeague were dug from the flats hours before cooking, and the batter, which was exquisitely light, held bits of parsley and thyme. Other fried clams couldn’t compare.

The ferry rose on a swell, but plowed steadily on. Though the air was cool and the wind sharpened by bits of spray, she couldn’t get herself to go inside. She had put on a sweater over her jeans when the ferry left Rockland, and while she had also tied back her hair, loose tendrils blew free. They whipped behind her now as she kept her eyes on the sea. Some called North Atlantic waters cold and forbidding, but she had seen others. Turquoise, emerald, teal—none moved her as gray-blue did. Seventeen summers here had made it a visceral thing.

Her camera. She needed to capture this.

But no. She didn’t want anything coming between her eyes and that first sighting.

Having relived it dozens of times in the preceding weeks, she thought she was prepared, but the thrill when the island finally emerged from the mist was something else. One by one, as the fog thinned, the features she remembered sharpened: jagged outcroppings of rock, a corona of trees, the Chowder House perched on granite and flanked by twin roads that swung wide for a gentle descent from town to pier, like symmetrical stairways in an elegant home.

That said, there was nothing elegant about Quinnipeague, with its rutted paths and weathered docks. But Quinnipeague wasn’t meant to be elegant. It was meant to be authentic. Shutters were practical things to be closed in the fiercest of winds, and, when open, hung crooked more often than not. Wood was gray, clusters of buoys tacked to the side of the fishing shed were bright despite their chipping paint, and the gulls that swooped in to perch on tall pilings always left their chalky mark.

Sailboats grew distinct from power ones as the ferry neared. There were fewer lobster boats than Charlotte remembered, fewer lobstermen she had read, though those who remained would be out pulling traps this Tuesday, hence moorings with only dinghies attached. Her pulse sped when she saw a figure running down the pier, and in that instant, the bad of the past blew right back out to sea. She waved frantically. “Nicki! I’m here—here, Nicki!”

Like there were other people on the ferry. Like Nicole could possibly miss her. Like Nicole could even hear her over the thrum of the boat and the slap of waves on pilings. But Charlotte couldn’t help herself. She was a child again, having traveled alone from Virginia with her heart in her mouth and here, finally, so relieved to have reached the right place. She was a teenager, a seasoned flier now from Texas, electrified by the sight of her best friend. She was a college student who had taken the bus up from New Haven to summer with a family that wanted to hear about her courses, her friends, her dreams.

For all the places she’d been in the ten years since that wedding summer, no one had ever been waiting for her.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sweet Salt Air is available now from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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