Jencey's Writer's Corner

  Today I am sharing book 4 in the Peachtree Bluff series, Christmas in Peachtree Bluff.  Normally, I would wait, but the fifth book in the series just came out this month: Falling for Peachtree Bluff. Who doesn’t love a good Christmas story? Also, if you are new to this series, there will be spoilers coming.  If you love small towns and wonderful communities, keep reading! Synopsis:  “When the Murphy women are in trouble, they always know they can turn to their mother, Ansley. So when eldest daughter Caroline and her husband announce they are divorcing—and fifteen-year-old daughter Vivi acts out in response—Caroline, at her wits end, can’t think of anything to do besides leave her with Ansley in Peachtree Bluff for the holidays. After all, how much trouble can one teenager get into on a tiny island? Quite a lot, as it turns out. As the “storm of the century” heads toward Peachtree Bluff, Ansley and her husband, Jack, with Vivi in tow, are grateful they’re planning t...

  Kristin Harmel’s book The Sweetness of Forgetting was her first World War II novel.  Recently, her publisher rereleased the book in 2022 with special features and updates.  I am a fan of Kristin Harmel’s books.  I found the recipes interesting and learned about some of the updates that Kristin made in this latest edition. Synopsis: “At thirty-six , Hope McKenna-Smith is no stranger to bad news. She lost her mother to cancer, her husband left her, and her bank account is nearly depleted. Her own dreams of becoming a lawyer long gone, she’s running a failing family bakery on Cape Cod and raising a troubled preteen. Now, Hope’s beloved French-born grandmother Mamie is drifting away in a haze of Alzheimer’s. But in a rare moment of clarity, Mamie realizes that unless she tells Hope about the past, the secrets she has held on to for so many years will soon be lost forever. Tantalizingly, she reveals mysterious snippets of a tragic history in WWII Paris. Armed with a sc...

  This next book definitely has beachy vibes.  Kristy Woodson Harvey’s Beach House Rules is definitely a summer read.  This is a story with multiple points of view.  It has a mystery, romance, and Family.  Let’s dig into  Beach House Rules! Synopsis:  “When Charlotte Sitterly’s husband is arrested for a white-collar crime, she and her daughter Iris are locked out of their house by the FBI and—what’s potentially even worse—thrust into the spotlight of @JuniperShoresSocialite, the town’s snarky anonymous Instagram account. Desperate and cut off from her bank accounts, Charlotte moves to a former beachfront bed-and-breakfast that’s home to a community of single mothers and draws plenty of gossip in the small coastal North Carolina town. Charlotte and Iris find solace and are surprised by how much fun they’re having with the other families despite their circumstances. But when the women discover a secret link between them, it changes everything they though...

  Have you ever had questions about your past?  A mystery that you couldn’t solve?  Choices that were made that affected you greatly in how you lived your life.  Colette Marceau has many questions about the past and also about preserving her family’s legacy.  You can read her story in Kristin Harmel’s The Stolen Life of Collette Marceau.  Synopsis:  “Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, Annabel: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance. But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond b...

  Have you ever noticed how choices impact relationships?  In Kristin Harmel’s novel When We Meet Again, the choices of the characters directly affect the story.  It is a story of strong women.   This story is told through the events of World War II.  Did you know that there were prisoner camps that housed enemy prisoners beyond the Japanese?  About the Book:  “Emily Emerson is used to being alone; her dad walked out on the family when she was just a kid, her mom died when she was eighteen, and her beloved grandmother has just passed away as well. But when she’s laid off from her reporting job, she finds herself completely adrift…until the day she receives a beautiful painting of a young woman standing at the edge of a sugarcane field under a violet sky. She recognizes the woman as her grandmother, but the painting arrived with no identification other than a handwritten note saying, “He never stopped loving her...” Curious, Emily begins to do some digg...

What if you were born with an allergy that would not allow you to touch another human being?   And they could not touch you? How would you survive?   How could you participate within society?   In Colleen Oakley’s novel Close Enough to Touch her main character Jubilee Jenkins lives with these issues.   Can one truly understand this journey? Facebook             Twitter                   Instagram “Jubilee Jenkins has a rare condition: She's allergic to human touch. After a nearly fatal accident, she became reclusive, living in the confines of her home for nine years. But after her mother dies, Jubilee is forced to face the world - and the people in it - that she's been hiding from. Jubilee finds safe haven at her local library, where she gets a job. It's there she meets Eric Keegan, a divorced man who recently moved to town with his brilliant, troubled adopted son. Eric is struggl...

It is that time of year again when Mary Alice Monroe sends out a new story into the world.  This year her story is The Summer Guest .  You will see some familiar characters and some new ones.  The story focuses this year on animals escaping a hurricane, or more specifically horses.   Pull up a chair and sit back with a glass of tea and escape to  North Carolina.  Late August is a beautiful time on the Southern coast—the peach trees are ripe, the ocean is warm, and the sweet tea is icy. A perfect time to enjoy the rocking chairs on the porch. But beneath the calm surface bubbles a threat: it’s also peak hurricane season. When a hurricane threatens the coasts of Florida and South Carolina, an eclectic group of evacuees flees for the farm of their friends Grace and Charles Phillips in North Carolina: the Phillips’s daughter Moira and her rescue dogs, famed equestrian Javier Angel de la Cruz, makeup artist Hannah McLain, horse breeder Gerda Klug an...

Thank you to Goodreads and Gallery books for a copy of The Room on Rue Amelie by Kristin Harmel.   I was given this book in exchange for an honest review. This book is the first time that I have had the opportunity to read   a book by Kristin Harmel.   I had heard many good recommendations about her books, in the past.   I love a good historical fiction book that includes mystery and intrigue or more specifically the resistance during World War II in Paris.   Can she make this as exciting as the Nightingale by Kristin Hannah? Kristin Harmel Facebook     Twitter     Instagram Synopsis: When newlywed Ruby Henderson Benoit arrives in Paris in 1939 with her French husband Marcel, she imagines strolling arm in arm along the grand boulevards, awash in the golden afternoon light. But war is looming on the horizon, and as France falls to the Nazis, her marriage begins to splinter, too. Charlotte Dacher is ele...

Thank you to Gallery Books and Mary Alice Monroe for sending me a copy of Beach House Reunion .   I was given this copy in exchange for an honest review. The perfect way to begin the summer is to make another trip to the beach house.   It is three years after the events of the previous book Beach House for Rent which has been reviewed here .   Also I hope that everyone has seen the Beach House movie that so perfectly introduced readers to Lovie’s family and many of the characters we will see in this book. Synopsis: Cara Rutledge returns to her Southern home on the idyllic Isle of Palms. Everything is comfortingly the same, yet each detail is rife with painful memories. Only through reconnecting with family, friends, and the rhythms of the lowcountry can Cara release the hold of the past and open herself to the possibility of a new love, career, and hope for the future. Meanwhile, her niece Linnea, a recent college graduate who doesn’t know where her lif...

Thank you to Gallery Books and Kristy Woodson Harvey for a copy of The Secrets to Southern Charm .   I also have another copy sent by Kristy up for grabs, in a giveaway. Slightly South of Simple is the first book in the Peachtree Bluff series.   I reviewed it here .   The second book in the series is The Secrets to Southern Charm.   This book focuses on the middle sister Sloane.   Then there is also the drama between Ansley and Jack.    Are you ready for some more fun with this clan? Synopsis: Sloane is destined to be with Adam her soul mate.   Their souls are connected and each one can tell when something has happened.    She was given news at that Adam and his unit are missing in action with his unit.   Now it is months later and all she does is mourn Adam and the possibility he may never return.     The rest of the family has picked up the slack for her but will she ever accept her new future with Ad...

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...

Today I am going to present another new to me author, for the first time on Writer’s Corner. Amy E. Reichert will be visiting with her book The Simplicity of Cider . She is known for writing foodie fiction. I have not read much in this genre. Who does not love a story centered around food? Synopsis: Isaac is taking his son on a road trip where he has to figure out how to tell his son his mother has died. They have driven across country and wind up at the Lund’s apple orchard. Einars Lund is getting on with age and cannot handle the day to day running of the orchard. He also has a secret that has been kept from his daughter Sanna. This secret has changed her life in more ways than one. Sanna refers to her mother as the donor because she has no relationship with her. It is awfully lonely at the Orchard, until Isaac and his son show up to help. Her work with apple cider is very fulfilling! If they only had a buyer for all that merchandise? When an offer is made to sell the orchar...