Happy Thursday all!

Excited to share with you today my review for this lovely book! A huge thank you to Trish for my invitation to the tour!🌊

My Thoughts

gorgeous. Lyrical. Magical.

Meg Donohue’s beautifully descriptive writing swept me away to the Northern Californian coast and Horseshoe Cliff. The characters and setting of this book jumped off the pages and into my heart. I was completely captivated by the magic of this mesmerizing tale, that is until about the final 30 pages. The ending just did not sit well with me… at all! This book was inspired by ”wuthering Heights”?, now admittedly I’ve never read this book so I’m just going to chalk the ending up to this and live with it. Despite the ending I truly loved this exquisite tale.

Merrow thinks she is living a magical life. Living on the picturesque Horseshoe Cliff with a loving father who spins enchanting stories. When she starts school she realizes her life isn’t quite as magical as she thought, and then her older brother becomes more and more aggressive and abusive. When Amir shows up Merrow thinks she has found a kindred spirit. Merrow was such a fantastic character, I really adored her heart and her strength. There was such a vulnerability to her character and I completely understood why she had so many fairy godmothers in her life. Her brother Bear on the other hand was a terrible human being. If you believe in karma he never lived one day of happiness his entire life! Also I was a little frustrated that the father didn’t pick up on how terrible the brother was.

When a sequence of events happen Merrow is given the opportunity to live a better life and attend college. But this means leaving behind her beloved home and perhaps even Amir. I love that she was given this opportunity and I really loved how much this other family took her into their hearts. Ugh that ending really put a big black cloud over some of this for me. I hate to fixate on that, and I really did love this book, but… just know going into this book that Merrow’s happy ending might not be the same as yours. Simply put this was a beautifully told story, with some pretty amazing characters, and a storyline that will sweep you away.

🎧🎧🎧 I was fortunate enough to get an audio copy of this book to review and I absolutely loved this one on audio! Sarah Naughton is fast becoming one of my favorite narrators. She really brings that perfect something special to her narration.

*** thank you to William Morrow and Harper Audio for my gifted copy ***

About the Book

From the USA Today bestselling author of All the Summer Girlsand Dog Crazy comes a spellbinding and suspenseful tale inspired by Wuthering Heights that illuminates the ways in which hope—and even magic—can blossom in the darkest of places.

To find her way, she must abandon everything she loves…

As a child, Merrow Shawe believes she is born of the sea: strong, joyous, and wild. Her beloved home is Horseshoe Cliff, a small farm on the coast of Northern California where she spends her days exploring fog-cloaked bluffs, swimming in the cove, and basking in the light of golden sunsets as her father entertains her with fantastical stories. It is an enchanting childhood, but it is not without hardship—the mystery of Merrow’s mother’s death haunts her, as does the increasingly senseless cruelty of her older brother, Bear.

Then, like sea glass carried from a distant land, Amir arrives in Merrow’s life. He’s been tossed about from India to New York City and now to Horseshoe Cliff, to stay with her family. Merrow is immediately drawn to his spirit, his passion, and his resilience in the face of Bear’s viciousness. Together they embrace their love of the sea, and their growing love for each other.

But the ocean holds secrets in its darkest depths. When tragedy strikes, Merrow is forced to question whether Amir is really the person she believed him to be. In order to escape the danger she finds herself in and find her own path forward, she must let go of the only home she’s ever known, and the only boy she’s ever loved….

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Photo by Sarah Deragen

About Meg Donohue

Meg Donohue is the USA Today bestselling author of How to Eat a Cupcake, All the Summer Girls, and Dog Crazy. She has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and a BA in comparative literature from Dartmouth College. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she now lives in San Francisco with her husband, three children, and dog.

Find out more at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagr

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Have a lovely day!🏖

Berit☀️✨

How are we all today book buddies?

Happy to bring you a review of this Historical Fiction book that had me gripped.

Why did you pick it up Vicci? – I’ve already read one of this authors books and reviewed it on here, and I really like her writing style, I also want to start reading more Historical books as I had previously given them a wide berth.

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My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this story and it is the second I have read from this author.

Tess DeMello is happy, she is engaged to a wonderful man, and is excited to become his wife, her husband-to-be is a doctor and is very passionate about his work, so much so, he hot foots it to Chicago to help out with the Polio epidemic that seems to be rife there.

She naturally misses him, and his time there seems to be getting longer and longer, each call she gets from him seems to be him changing the date that he will be coming home, this turns into months.

He friend tries to snap her out of her slump by inviting her to go away with her for a couple of days to her aunts house who lives out of town, but when they get there, it seems that her aunt has had to leave for a few days and has left instructions for them to have a good time, unfortunately there are also 2 men staying in the house with them.

Tess is very cautious about this, but they soon start chatting and the gentlemen invite them out for a friendly meal, which turns into an evening of bad choices for Tess, too much alcohol and another bad decision leads her into being single, pregnant and alone.

After finding out where the father of her unborn child lives, Tess breaks off her engagement, packs a bag and leaves to find him, Henry does the right thing and moves her in with him, and promptly marries her.

But things are not right in the house, Henry doesn’t seem to be the man she thought he was, and why doesn’t he want to spend any time with her?

A fab little mystery that had me guessing all the way through.

A great read, I personally thought that Tess was not totally to blame in this situation, Yes she had drunk too much alcohol and was a little worse for wear, but I didn’t really see any consent going on, I don’t remember Tess saying No, but she also didn’t say Yes, and I think really that Henry took advantage of the situation.

🎧🎧 – Narration was perfectly done by Susan Bennett and I will certainly be looking out for more of her narration.

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About the Book

The Stolen Marriage By: Diane Chamberlain Narrated by: Susan Bennett Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio

One mistake, one fateful night, and Tess DeMello’s life is changed forever.

It is 1944. Pregnant, alone, and riddled with guilt, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly gives up her budding career as a nurse and ends her engagement to the love of her life, unable to live a lie. Instead, she turns to the baby’s father for help and agrees to marry him, moving to the small, rural town of Hickory, North Carolina. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows her no affection. Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.

The people of Hickory love and respect Henry but see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain. When one of the town’s golden girls dies in a terrible accident, everyone holds Tess responsible. But Henry keeps his secrets even closer now, though it seems that everyone knows something about him that Tess does not.

When a sudden polio epidemic strikes Hickory, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess knows she is needed and defies Henry’s wishes to begin working at there. Through this work, she begins to find purpose and meaning. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle the truth behind her husband’s mysterious behavior and find the love—and the life—she was meant to have?