I’m trying to get some control of my life via books, as weird as that sounds, the only thing I can control right now is books. So I got bookshelves, have one with my unread books, and the ones I have read. In all, I have about 50, 25 to read still, so I’m switching from my physical book to a Kindle book, which can leave me with two books started and not finished, a recipe I’m not too fond of. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl, who has a new weekly topic.
April 14: Book Titles That Describe Me/My Life (Example titles: Well Traveled could describe you if you like to travel, Hotshot Doc could describe you if you’re an awesome doctor, Falling into Place could describe a life where things are starting to work out, An Infinite Love Story could describe your relationship, It Could Have Been Her could describe a thing you’re happy you avoided or a path you could have taken but didn’t. You can explain your choices or not, and they can be as specific or as abstract as you’d like.) (Submitted by Susan @ blogginboutbooks.com). As I’m known as the bookworm around, I’m picking novels/books with books in the title.
Goodreads Blurb:
Tis the season for finding love… and the perfect book
With just two weeks until Christmas, everything in Clove Lore should be perfect. But the latest holidaymaker to the Borrow a Bookshop is feeling far from festive…
Icelandic ex-bookseller Magnús Sturluson might be surrounded by love stories in the Bookshop, but he’s nursing a sadness that not even fiction can fix.
When Alexandra Robinson finds herself stranded in Clove Lore, she finds a safe place to hide from heartbreak. After all, all that’s waiting for her at home is a cheater boyfriend and the memories of her parents. As Alex finds herself embraced by the quirky village community, she finds her tough exterior thawing – and as she grows closer to Magnús, she finds an equally soft heart under his gruff shell.
It seems that Clove Lore is working its magic once again – until a great flood on Christmas Eve brings devastation in its wake. It’s up to Magnús and Alex to batten down the hatches and help bring the village back together again, while also introducing the locals to the Icelandic tradition of the jólabókaflóð – Yule book flood – where families and friends gather on Christmas Eve to exchange books and read together.
But can Magnús and Alex truly rescue the ruins of the village, and salvage their Christmas spirit? Or is there another complication lurking even closer than they thought?
Goodreads Blurb:
Welcome to your happy place…
Each morning as bookseller Florrie Appleton cycles along the promenade of her seaside hometown, watching the surfers far out in the bay, breathing in the fresh salty air, she counts herself lucky. She has a small but picture-perfect cottage overlooking the sea, a group of friends she can always rely on, and the job of her dreams at her favourite bookshop. But when tragedy strikes, her little slice of heaven is in danger of being lost forever.
To save the bookshop from closure, Florrie finds herself thrown together with the elderly owner’s handsome grandson, Ed Hartes, who has a habit of making butterflies dance in her stomach. But the only romance Florrie has time for lies within the pages of her favourite novels, and her instincts are telling her to be wary. There’s something Ed’s keeping from her, and she can’t face another heartbreak.
When Florrie stumbles upon a mysterious stash of yellowed letters in the storeroom, it seems Ed isn’t the only one with secrets. The old bookshop is full of stories waiting to be told, and they aren’t only in the pages of the books….
Goodreads Blurb:
Isla Rhys has lost her flat, her fiancé, and her faith in the possessive apostrophe—all in the span of twelve minutes.
When her Oxford academic fiancé dumps her via a text message that reads “Your to intense,” Isla doesn’t just mourn the relationship; she mourns the grammar. Needing an escape where syntax doesn’t matter, she flees to her cousin’s chaotic home in Bracken Cove, Maine.
Her plan? Write her thesis, avoid human interaction, and maybe start a high-brow book club to bring some culture to the locals.
But Bracken Cove isn’t the quiet refuge she expected. It’s a town run by a PTA president who weaponizes spreadsheets, a four-year-old who believes rocks have feelings, and Frank Hollis—a rugged, flannel-wearing mechanic who fixes boats and seemingly hates conversation.
Isla is ready to write Frank off as a grunt, until she discovers anonymous notes scribbled in the margins of the town’s library books. Brilliant, poetic, heartbreaking notes. As she falls for the mind of the mystery writer, she finds herself clashing with the mechanic who keeps challenging her worldview.
When the truth about the notes comes out, Isla has to decide: Does she want the perfect life she thought she wrote for herself, or the messy, “ungrammatical” love she found in the margins?
Goodreads Blurb:
Note to Don’t Drink and Antique!
That’s how you wake up hungover, having spent your entire life savings on a first edition of Pride and Prejudice… that your cat just peed all over.
To make matters worse, you also drunkenly emailed every Ivy League university last night and sold the nearly priceless cat-pee book to Dartmouth.
In my defense, I was celebrating finally getting my masters degree in library science with a focus in book restoration from Oxford University.
And let’s be honest, I’m sort of awesome when drunk. I not only leveraged a book sale for a profit, but I also talked my way into an eight-week freelance gig restoring books in my hometown of New Hampshire at the Dartmouth library.
What’s less awesome? Realizing the Dartmouth English Literary professor who hired me is actually Adam, the ex-boyfriend that I ran away from seven years ago. My first love. My first kiss. My first… everything.
And as it turns out, Adam has very much turned into every dreamy hero I’ve read about in every romance novel through the years. It might be time for me to put the book down and write my own Happily Ever After…
Goodreads Blurb:
I moved to Sweet Side intending to mind my own business. Literally.
Luckily I do it well.
My bookstore is one of the most popular places on the strip. Unfortunately that has little to do with the books lining the shelves, and more with what I stock in the back room.
But whatever pays the bills, right?
Business is buzzing along when the stupidly handsome jerk next door decides his personal training location should take over my tiny corner of Florida, sealing his spot as my mortal enemy.
Noah Hicks is tall, ripped, and successful. He’s got muscles on his muscles.
Not that I’ve been looking.
He’s also a complete twat. Gym bro and fork boy extraordinaire.
If you know what I mean.
I should be able to outsmart him no problem.
Unfortunately, my scheme lands me headfirst in his hot tub, mostly clothed and slightly drunk.
But it turns out Noah is more than a pretty face, and when he steps in to save me from a mess I thought was behind me, I’m forced to either eat my words—
Or lose this bench-pressing, Shakespeare-spewing hunk for good.
Goodreads Blurb:
A romance only book shop owner meets a hockey player that reads only romance.
Louisa McDavid figures after escaping from the cult she grew up in, the universe owes her a happy ending. Her sisters are all safe, she owns her own business, and she doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks of her. But as a woman in love with love, why has it been so hard for her to find one of the good ones?
Everything changes when Ciaran Carter basically steps out of the pages of one of Louisa’s beloved smutty books and into her romance-only bookstore. Tall, muscular, handsome, and he likes to read? He’s the perfect book boyfriend come to life. And he plays hockey? Bless. It doesn’t get any better.
Louisa and Ciaran strike sparks off each other from the moment they meet. He’s got big dreams, and she’s got big secrets. And together, they’ll set their little corner of Tennessee on fire.
Goodreads Blurb:
When meticulous children’s librarian Lucy Foster’s perfectly organized Book Week is derailed by a sudden storm, the last person she expects to help is Daniel Kim, the spontaneous illustrator whose motorcycle crashed into her carefully planned story hour. As they work together to save the library’s biggest fundraiser, Lucy’s structured approach clashes with Daniel’s improvisational style. But when budget cuts threaten the children’s programs Lucy has built, their unlikely partnership becomes the library’s best hope.
As rain continues to fall, Lucy and Daniel discover that between her need for order and his creative chaos lies an undeniable chemistry—and a story neither of them expected. When a dream job offer threatens to separate them just as they’re beginning to connect, they’ll need to decide if they can write a future that combines both their worlds. Because sometimes, the most enchanting tales emerge when life doesn’t go by the book.
Goodreads Blurb:
Ginger Blackstone had been looking for a change in her life. Getting a call from her home town’s Sheriff with the message, “We’ve arrested your grandmother for murder,” wasn’t it.
Three bodies later and Ginger finds herself, and the hot new small-town doctor, up to their broomsticks in trouble. Ginger sets out to find the real killer before her missing sister’s name shows up on a list of the dead in The Book of Ill Deeds.
Goodreads Blurb:
When life rewrites the story, only friendship will see them through.
After years of hard work, four best friends—Celeste, Yasmeen, Toni and Leslie—are finally on the verge of opening the bookstore of their dreams. A place where their community can find solace with an intriguing new read, a comforting beverage and book-loving friends.
But before they can cut the ribbon, their worlds are upended.
Toni receives devastating news just months before her wedding, while Celeste’s struggling marriage threatens to collapse completely. Leslie learns a shocking secret about her family, and a lotto ticket changes Yasmeen’s life—but not for the better.
As the bookstore’s grand opening fast approaches, the four women must lean on each other now more than ever to navigate their grief and uncertainty. And together, they’ll learn that sometimes, even life’s most unexpected plot twists can lead to beautiful new beginnings.
Goodreads Blurb:
I’ve been sent into the lair of the beast….
It should be a dream assignment—leave my boring day-to-day routine and travel to a seaside mansion to interview superstar author Jack R. R. Bestia. Who wouldn’t want that?
Me, that’s who.
He has a reputation for being reclusive and temperamental, but that’s not why I’m leery of the assignment. It’s because the first (and last) time I met Jack… well, let’s just say I didn’t make a good impression.
When I get to the mansion—which is more like a secluded castle—things don’t go much better. I’m sure he’s going to throw me out entirely. The only way I manage to squeak in is by signing a massive non-disclosure agreement. And I soon figure out why.
Jack has a secret—and it’s a big one.
Now that iron-clad contract I signed means I have to stay here until his long-overdue book is finished—and he’s not going to make it easy.
Jack acts every bit as beastly as the tabloids claimed, and I feel like a fairytale princess trapped in his tower. But every once in a while I get a glimpse of the charming (not to mention super sexy) man beneath the growly exterior and I wonder… could this beast be tamed?
Alex
Mybookworld24 