Summer in Sorrento by Melissa Hill

Escape into the serene farm house in Sorrento with Summer in Sorrento by Melissa Hill. I managed to grab a free copy of this short story from B&N two weeks ago and finally sat down and finished it. There are actually three different stories in this book based on the different guests of Villa Azalea.

Firstly, we have the handsome New Yorker, Jacob, who seemed to be troubled over his ailing father. Next up we get Amelia, a London girl who is attending the wedding of her ex-fiancé. Lastly we have Lori and Hal, who were revisiting their Honeymoon in Sorrento.

Each of the character had some troubling stuffs with them and Maia, the hostess of Villa Azalea, had managed to talk to them and gave them advices. Everyone managed to leave the farmhouse a happy person.

As this is a short story of about 60 pages, I find that we managed to get a good and clear image of Maia, the main character, in this book. I loved how she used her own experience to open up the heart of her guest and how they became her friend and their lives intertwined with each other during their stay at the farmhouse.

I am hoping that Melissa Hill would continue this short story in a full length novel where we can see more of Villa Azalea and Maia. I would definitely be interested to know if Maia will be able to find her second love in Sorrento.

Books Can Be Deceiving (Library Lover's Mystery #1) by Jenn McKinlay

Being a fan of Jenn McKinlay's Cupcake Bakery Mystery series, I was looking forward to reading another cozy mystery series of hers and furthermore, it has the element that I really loved, The Library.

Unfortunately, this book was a really slow read for me. Each of the Cupcake Bakery Mystery books took me only a few hours to devour them in just one sitting. For this book, I took 4 sittings over a period of 2 weeks to finish it.

The first half of the book was really slow. There wasn't really much interesting element to keep me going on the book. The humor was not so funny, the mystery was not fully developed and the romance was just hit and go. What we learned from the first half of the book is that Rick was dead after Lindsey and Beth discovered that he had plagiarized Beth's work and the fuming duo went to his island to confront him only to find him stabbed and dead. Then we met the crazy chief of police who was very insistent on making Beth the murderer without evidence. A little touch on Lindsey's feeling with Sully but nothing to really make me feel any chemistry between the two of them.

The second half of the book actually saved this read. Lindsey began to investigate the past of Rick and that's when we learned more about the truth and some light touches on the danger posed to Lindsey during her investigation. We don't really see much of Sully anymore in this part of the book until the end. I like the small twist towards the end of the book about the murderer. That was really surprising although I had kind of guessed the motive behind the murder just not the real identity.

Overall, the book was a little disappointing for me since I had really enjoyed Jenn McKinlay's other works. This book lack the fun element and I find that there were too many characters in this book and none of them were well developed. It's like getting bits and pieces of everyone's life here and there and not really understanding them before the book ended. What I like about this book is the warmth and friendship of the Crafternoon members and I am really craving for clam chowder by the end of this read.

Once Upon a Winter's Eve (Spindle Cove #1.5) by Tessa Dare

I am so glad to be coming back to the Spindle Cove series this weekend! I missed reading about the strong willed ladies living in Spindle Cove!

In this novella, we were being introduced to Violet Winterbottom. A wallflower in a ballroom but a talented lady who can speak many different languages. Some of you might not remember Violet from the first book in the series, A Night to Surrender, but Violet was actually introduced in the first Chapter of the book! Here's a quote of her presence in Book 1:

“If Mrs. Highwood examined the young ladies too closely, she might notice that mild Gaelic obscenities occupied the center of Kate Taylor’s sampler. Or that Violet Winterbottom’s needle didn’t even have thread.”

Now back to this book, it's the Spindle Cove Christmas Ball and it's also Violet's last night here. She was to head back to London the very next day as her parents' patience had ran out and they wanted to get her married off. However, a mysterious man came crashing through the ball and fell right before Violet's feet. Who is this mysterious who looked so familiar and had his eyes set only on Violet? I will have to stop here because I will be giving out spoilers if I goes on and on and on.

The book is only about 100 pages so it's a really quick and fun read for me. Despite the short length, the story was paced perfectly. We get to read about Violet's exciting and adventurous last night in Spindle Cove. An alpha male and an independent woman who can made up her own mind and say no when she really mean it. Unlike most historical romance, Spindle Cove always gave us strong women who can protect themselves against the bad guys. This is what set this series apart from other historical romance series.

The love between the two main characters was very touching and I like how we were told about their past and how their love survived through the long wait....TWICE!

This book is highly recommended to all historical romance lovers, but if you have not read the first book, go read that first!

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

What happened if you knocked your head and woke up only to realise that you have just lost 10 years of memory? Everyone around you had changed and people were talking about things and people whom you didn't even know. Will you feel panicky? Will you think that it's just a dream?

In this book, Alice lost her memory right from the start of the book. She thought that she was 29 years old and pregnant with her first baby and has a loving husband, a doting sister and a shy mother. When her 39 years old self woke up in the hospital with only memories of her life up to 29, she was in a shocked to realise that everything had changed. She couldn't even recognise herself anymore. Her mother had remarried and was a completely changed woman who spoke out her thoughts and is a social butterfly. Her attractive sister no longer spoke to her and she looked so depressed and dejected ever so frequently. Her husband was angry at her and they were getting a divorce. And she didn't even remember how she had given birth to 3 children.

The above all sounds like a huge disaster, however, the book is not. In the first half of the book, we mainly read about Alice trying to overcome her fear and glimpse of past memories. It sounded like nobody liked her future self and she didn't understand why. Everybody kept mentioning the name Gina but she had no idea who this woman is. Towards the middle of the book, we finally get to know more about Gina and how she played an important part in Alice's life. Although I have read reviews about people finding the first half of the book draggy and long winded, I actually enjoyed it. I felt that all the details were necessary to build up the story and prepare us for what was to come in the second half of the book.

As Alice slowly blended into her 'new' life, I really like how she made things right with Nick, Libby and Madison. They were people she treasured in the past and somehow events had ruined their relationship over the years. I think we can really see how things improved and the people coming back into her life. To be honest, I like the 29 years old Alice much more than the 39 years old one. Gina definitely didn't have a positive impact in her life.

The book is written in the POV of Alice but we get to read from the POV of Elisabeth and Frannie through their writing to their doctor and lover respectively. Elisabeth's story had somehow blended in perfectly to the book where Frannie's was a little more out of the main story but was both fun and sad to read.

I really like how the book ended. The Epilogue was awesome! I have known what Alice's decision will be once she got back her memories and the glimpse into her life few years down the road was a pleasant read. I simply love happy ending.

I highly recommend this book to everyone out there. This book really got me thinking what my 10 years ago self would think of my life at this moment. Have my dreams and goals been achieved? If not, what had happened in this 10 years. Can I do something now to salvage it? And from this book, I've learned that everything is possible if I am willing to take the first step to make the change.