Tag: relationships

  • Excerpt from A Laughing Matter of Pain (Chapter 25)

      “Can you believe it? We’re married.” Her eyes dance in the low light from the bedside lamp. I lean in and kiss her. “I’m the luckiest guy alive.” The smile falters on her lips. Her eyes go glassy. A tear slips past, trailing down her left cheek. “What’s wrong, doll?” I cup that cheek…

  • Review of The Other Half of Me by Jennifer Sivec

    Summary: Maggie and Sam’s love was forever, until it wasn’t. Is it ever too late to go back home? Maggie Whitaker had always dreamed about the same boy even though she’d never met him. A loner, with an overly critical mother and a head full of self-doubt, she has spent most of her life isolated.…

  • Review of Second Week in November by Kathleen Joyce

    Summary: Tucked in a cozy corner of the Pacific Northwest, the charming town of Amelia Bay becomes the focus of the media who have descended on the community seeking a sensational tabloid story. A beautiful young waitress, from Harrigan’s Irish Pub, disappears. Did she simply walk away, was she kidnapped, or worse? Clare Harrigan’s brother,…

  • Excerpt from Hannah’s Rainbow (Opening Scenes)

    To some looking back, the world seemed a simpler place a hundred years ago.  People left their doors unlocked. Neighbors waved and said hellos and how-do-you-dos.  Children could play outside all day, no matter the season, and return home safe for dinner at night.         Several modest, nearly identical houses lined Madison Avenue, all constructed…

  • Review of Dante’s Garden: Mystery and Magic in Bomarzo by Teresa Culter-Broyles

    Summary: Dante’s Garden is the story of what happens when Frank Farnese, a book collector from 2017, falls through Hell’s Mouth, a strange sculpture in Bomarzo, Italy. In 1570, Lucrezia Romano and famed antiquarian Pyrrho Ligorio welcome him when he awakens in a garden, from what he thinks is a dream but isn’t. Together they…

  • Excerpt from Hannah’s Rainbow

    “Do you think dogs go to heaven?” the girl asked, her voice nearly a whisper in the wind. Hannah smiled sadly. “I’m sure they do.” She put an arm around Irma and drew her close. “Heaven is all things good. Dogs are among the best things in life, so how could it be heaven without…

  • Review of Off Script: A Monkey & Me Novel by Liv Bartlet

    Summary: “I kissed Edward Wolverton once. It was everything it was supposed to be—and then some… maybe I’ll kiss him again.” TV Producer Bea Douglas’s last confession to her former business partner and ex-best friend wasn’t meant to tempt the fates. She’s eager to escape the hypocrisy of the television industry and years of hiding…

  • No Regrets in Life

    No Regrets in Life

    You’ve heard it said before: have no regrets. You’ve probably also found yourself alone with your maddening thoughts, maddening both as in crazy and provoking anger. Your lovely mind has this magical ability to conjure out of nowhere every past fault, failure, and fracture. But such thoughts do have a hiding place. They lurk in…

  • Do you love Christmas enough to celebrate it year round?

    Do you love Christmas enough to celebrate it year round?

    A good and dear friend of mine has a blog entitled Yuletide Blessings, which aims to do so. Discussions and blog posts are about traditions, recipes, crafts, books, and more. Please visit the link below to read her review of a Christmas-themed novel and view the website further. My thoughts on Christmas books are also…

  • Pay It Forward…A Reminder

    Pay It Forward…A Reminder

    ‘Tis the season… To be jolly? To go into debt? To give. Because God first gave to us His son, Jesus. In the midst of the craziness of shopping, stressing, overspending, and stressing some more, it’s easy to lose sight of what matters.  Whether you’re Christian or not, whatever reason you celebrate Christmas–whether religious, secular,…