Jencey's Corner

Another year has passed and it is time for the 2017 best picks.  There were many great selections of this year.  I am excited to share them all with you today.  These books were read in 2017 and may not necessarily have been published this past year. So let’s start with suspense.  This year includes authors Terri Blackstock, Emily Carpenter, and Kimberly Belle. These books are compelling page turner from start to finish.  That is what a good suspense book should be.  Readers will want to read their next books.   If I Run by Terri Blackstock The Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle          Burying the Honeysuckle Girls by Emily Carpenter   Next let’s turn to historical fiction.  These books are true page turners with compelling stories.  New to the group this year is Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.  This story covers the scandal in the Memphis children’s home. Then we have Tracie Peterson’s Summer of the Midnight Sun book one of the Alaskan Quest serie

This year we get to celebrate Christmas with Mary Alice Monroe . She shares the first Christmas of Taylor and Harper’s with their baby girl Marietta. Mary Alice takes us back to the low country in A Low Country Christmas . She shares the story of Taylor and his first Christmas after coming back from war in Afghanistan. This is book number five in the Summer Girls series. Synopsis: All Miller wants for Christmas is a dog. He knows exactly which one he wants. At home his mom is getting everything together to help prep for Christmas. The only source of stress for the family is the fact that both Miller and Taylor’s father had to park his shrimp boat. What kind of Christmas will it be? The family with great excitement welcomes Taylor home. She expresses this to her son Miller that this is the best Christmas present. When Taylor comes home everything is different. It also causes conflict between the two brothers. He spends most of his time in his room. Until one day a call comes t

It is time for another Nora Robert’s adventure in Come Sundown .  This time readers visit the Bodine Ranch and Resort in Montana.  We meet the Longbow family  who work  both ranch and resort.  Bodine runs the resort while her father runs the ranch.  There is a dark secret that could impact her family, and bring back a missing relative. Synopsis: Alice Bodine wants to go home until she meets her worst nightmare.  He goes by the name Sir.  Alice thought she was getting a ride to come home and instead ended up in a prison where her capture Sir abuses and forces her to have his children.  Meanwhile on the ranch in the present Bodine is busy running the ranch resort and meeting new hires.  Business is good especially when Callen comes back to town to work for the family. He is an old family friend who fits in easily and is very helpful at the ranch and the resort.  Callen also has a very special horse.   When women start disappearing will Bodine be next on their list?  What ha

How many of you are enjoying Outlander on Starz?  I am currently waiting on pins and needles to get the third season when it is released to Amazon.  I wonder if the series on television might all the way to the seventh book in the series An Echo In The Bone by Diana Gabaldon?  Are you ready to join me on this journey on another Claire and Jamie adventure? Synopsis:  There are three parts to this story which include Jamie and Claire, Roger and Brianna, and then Lord John and his ward William Ransom.   The first part is the safe passage of Brianna and Roger’s family back to the present.  Their struggle to get medical help for Amanda (their daughter), and establish themselves in the present.   A gift was left for Brianna and Roger by Jamie and Claire.  They gave them a box that includes letter and books. How could this possibly go awry in the present? The second part of the story is that of William Ransom and Lord John Grey.  William is now a British soldier fighting in the

Today we welcome Maggie McConnon to Writer's Corner. She is sharing her latest book Bel, BOOK AND SCANDAL, an excerpt. Fans of the Belfast McGrath series will love this latest novel. Just in time for the holidays! Excerpt: I was wet, cold, and tired, but despite the fact that she was ready to kill me with her bare hands for staying out all night, my mother addressed all three of my immediate needs before saying anything else. A towel to dry my hair. Clean clothes in the form of a pair of jeans, a T- shirt, and a pair of socks. An Irish sweater, the most uncomfortable item of clothing ever made—a hair shirt, really— but welcomed, and probably deserved, at that moment. A bologna sandwich. It would be the last time I would eat bologna, for many reasons, the most significant being that the smell would forever after remind me of Amy. And how she had disappeared the night before and would always be gone. Mom was worrying a rosary in one hand, the other securely place

I write about mature love – sometimes called seasoned romance, or boomer lit - women in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. I set my books in places I’m familiar with and like my readers to feel they’re meeting old friends in them. Growing up in Scotland in house full of adults, I often listened to my aunt tell her story of the man she’d loved and lost. When I began to write fiction, I knew her story was one I had to tell, but for a long time I couldn’t work out the best way to do it. Finally, when writing Broken Threads , a book set in Australia, where I now live, I set upon the idea of introducing a minor character, Bel, who had an aging aunt in Scotland, who had a story to tell. The Good Sister is the tale of what happens when Bel return to visit her terminally ill aunt and reads the memoir the old woman has written. Isobel has always been the ‘good sister’ of the family, and the reader follows her story from the 1940s through to the present day, as she recalls a time when

Please welcome Deanna Martinez-Bey back to Writer's Corner.  She is here today to share her new novel  Hot  Cocoa, Green Tea And The Man Who Sweetened My  Heart.   This novel will be released tomorrow, and so we also wish her a happy pub day! This novel will be   perfect for curling up during the winter months.  Synopsis:  Stephanie had been held hostage in an abusive marriage for nearly twelve years. She was manipulated, controlled and abused by her mentally unstable husband. The last physical altercation drove Stephanie to begin a new life, alone, just her and her ten-year-old son, Ray. Stephanie made an exit plan. She would find a new school for Ray, a full-time job and a place to live and just when she thought that life would be calm and peaceful, her monster of a husband, soon to be ex-husband would rear his ugly head. Stephanie winds up meeting a new friend through work. As time passes, they find that they are developing feelings for one another. After th

Thank you to Little Brown for giving me a copy of Winter Solstice by Elin Hilderbrand.  I was given this copy from a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.  For fans of Elin Hilderbrand she has written the conclusion to the Quinn family journey.  Winter Solstice is not only the finale to the Winter Street series , but a sequel The Rumor .  I have not read either series or the Rumor.  I will be reviewing this book as a stand-alone.  Synopsis:  Once again the Quinn family will gather together for Christmas on Nantucket.  This Christmas will be different than the ones from the past.  It will be the last Christmas at the Inn.  Kelley the patriarch of the family is dying from brain cancer.  His wife Mitzi has all she can handle with caring for Kelley, and when their son Brett comes home from Afghanistan.  Will he find a way to reconnect with the world?  Ava has started a new chapter in New York, and closer to her mother Margaret the first wife of Kelley.  Ava ma

A friend of mine who also goes to a lot of events here in Atlanta said that I should really come and meet Jamie Ford.  I decided to go and see Jamie Ford at the Margaret Mitchell House.  The author is very kind and personable, and I highly recommend meeting him.  He was on tour for his book Love and Other Consolation Prizes. Synopsis: The story begins with Ernest standing by his car watching the events of the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle.  His memories take him back to the 1909 World’s Fair in the very same location.  His life changed that day, because he was the boy who was auctioned during the fair.  The results were a permanent home for the first time since coming to this country.   His daughter Juju has plans for a story for her paper, where she is employed.  Juju wants to know her father’s story.  It is what she does not know about the story and her origins that might change the story.   Will she want to share it with the world, once Ernest shares his story?  My Thoug

On Your marks! Get set! Go!  This is the only way to describe If I Run by Terri Blackstock.  She is a new author for me.  Terri Blackstock is the author of many Christian suspense novels.  This is the first that I have been able to share here.  Are you ready? Synopsis: Casey leaves the house where her best friend Chris has been murdered.  She is covered in his blood and has the murder weapon.  Would anyone believe that she didn’t do it?  Since they were looking into her father’s murder and Casey thinks she knows who murdered her father who was a police detective.  Dylan is a former army investigator who is hired by Chris’s family to find Casey who is wanted for questioning in their son’s murder.  As Dylan proceeds in the investigation he starts to doubt Casey’s guilt.  Then he comes across another death with Casey miles away. Will he be able to save her?  Who killed her father? My Thoughts:  I really enjoyed this novel!  The pacing is excellent!  This author knows ho

How many of you are World War II buffs?  How many of you have read a great about the many events that took place during the war?  I myself am familiar with the concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, and Ravensbruck.  I was not familiar with the story of The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly; I am delighted to share it now. Synopsis:  Caroline Ferriday works for the French Consulate in New York who helps French, but more specifically she works with orphans.  She has never married but shares living quarters with her mother.  There is also an interesting gentleman on the side.  Caroline sends packages to orphans and continues to help as Europe is rapidly invaded by the Nazis.   Over in Poland, Kasia is excited about the changes and an opportunity to help with the underground.  Her boyfriend Pietrik tries to keep her from being involved.  One day the Gestapo catches Kasia her friends and family, and they are sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp.  Kasha arrives w

Are you ready for the holidays?  Jill Shalvis is stopping by Writer’s Corner to share her latest book  Holiday Wishes.   We are glad to have her and hope she will come again in the future. Jill Shalvis is sharing an excerpt from Holiday Wishes.    “At the empathetic tone in Sean’s voice, Lotti’s heart and stomach and head all clenched in unison. “What do you mean you can’t give me what I want?” she asked. “All you have to do is walk away.” “Tried that already,” he said. “And it was the biggest mistake of my life.” He brought her hand up to his mouth and met her gaze over their entwined hands. He was looking at her like . . . well, she wasn’t sure what was going on in his head, but her thoughts were racing along with her pulse. “You’re incredible, Lotti. I hope you know that.” Very slowly, clearly giving her time to object, he pulled her into him. Her breath caught at the connection and his eyes heated in response as he slid a hand up her spine and then back down again, pres

I am excited today to share Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. It is my first novel by Lisa, and I feel there will be many more.  The novel Before We Were Yours is set in the Memphis area during the late 1930s and current events.  There are two storylines that run through this novel. Synopsis: Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty. Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and pr

Thank you to Kensington Books and Sally Kilpatrick for a copy of Bless Her Heart.   I was given this novel in exchange for an honest review.  I received no financial compensation.  Posey has been married to Chad for ten years.  All she really wants is a child.   She has put up with some weird requests from Chad.  One day she wakes up to find that he is gone with another woman.  The house is gone and the car repossessed.  What is Posey to do?  Posey moves back in with her family.  What to do about her life? Now what to do about a job?  She had worked for Chad in Love Ministries as a receptionist.  Her little sister Lark has the answers.  She thinks that Posey should explore the seven deadly sins.   Does Posey feel these experiences are fun or have consequences?   How will it impact the future? My Thoughts:  I enjoyed Ms. Kilpatrick’s novel.  I found Posey to be an entertaining character.  She has lots of sass.   Lark added a lot of entertainment value to Posey’s advent