To paraphrase the words of Belle, I have just finished the most magnificent book. I LOVED this book!

Anthony hires Laura as his housekeeper. Laura is divorced and lonely. She needs something different to do. Anthony has been a finder of lost items which he brings home and meticulously records when and where he found them. Upon Anthony's passing, Laura is left his home with instructions to find the owners of the lost things he has found through the years. Can she do it?

These characters are wonderful. I laughed. I cried. I saw things come full circle. There are three stories in these pages. Anthony and Therese's story is the first and, for me, maybe the most tragic. Eunice and Bomber's was, perhaps, the funniest though it also brought me to tears. His sister, Portia, made it both funny and sad. Laura and Freddy, the gardener, was the most recent. Each story has its highs and lows. Each person must determine what is right and best for them. At times I was not sure if the choice was right. But I grew to love these characters.

Another character, Sunshine, Anthony's neighbor girl was a bright spot. She saw with the heart. She was honest, even when people did not want her to be so honest. Her openness was wonderful as she knew stories of the things Anthony found.

Stories came full circle at the end. My heart ached for the endings at times. Other times I was cheered by those endings.

This is not a book to be overlooked or forgotten. It is a wonderful story full of magic and love. It is a keeper!

FREE E-BOOK - June 22 -26

FOREST - Love, Loss, Legend

Go to https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

Lost gold, lost love and lost hope compels Matt to return home to a dying town on the edge of the wilderness.

Matthew and Raminder are young, idealistic and in love.

As soon as they can they plan to leave behind the small town and small minds of Pitt Landing. They will embrace life and experience the world, maybe even change it.

Man plans, God laughs. Raminder’s father has a stroke and her commitment to her family means she must postpone her plans and stay in Pitt Lake. It’s just the opposite for Matt. A family tragedy leaves irreconcilable differences between him and his father and forces him to leave.

They promise to reunite, but life happens.

Twelve years later, Matt is an acclaimed war correspondent. He’s seen it all and it’s left him with post-traumatic stress, a gastric ulcer, and an enlarged liver. He’s never been back to Pitt Landing though the memory of Raminder and their love has more than once kept him sane.

He’s at his desk in the newsroom, recuperating from his last assignment and current hangover and reading a letter from his father, the first contact they’ve had in over a decade. It talks about a legendary lost gold mine, a map leading to it, and proof in a safety deposit box back in Pitt Lake. He’s sent it to Matt in case something happens to him and cautions his son to keep it a secret.

Matt is about to dismiss the letter when the telephone rings. It’s Raminder telling him his father has disappeared somewhere in the wilderness that surrounds Pitt Lake.

Lost gold, lost love and lost hope compels Matt to return home to a dying town on the edge of the wilderness.

The forest is waiting.

"A compelling story...definitely worth the read"
"A compelling story layered over with a much stranger story of forest myths peering through from the shadows. FOREST...neatly encapsulates the battleground of humanity's greed for natural resources versus the cost to the environment...This is a compelling story, studded with evocative detail and underlaid by a very real question - definitely worth the read."
- 4 STARS, Reader's Favorites Book Reviews

"...pure reading delight."
"The plot is something Stephen King might think up if he wanted to write something only slightly scary for a change."
"...well balanced between the mysterious, the romantic, the scary and the reassuring."
"I hope you get a professional publisher to pick up this book and give it the attention it deserves."
- FIVE STARS, C. Widmann, Goodreads review

A strong character driven novel

“I would recommend it to anyone looking for a deep character driven novel.”

A fantastic nature adventure

“…a fantastic read. The author has a great writing style that is easy to read and very enjoyable.”

“If you are looking for something meaningful, you'll certainly get a lot of true love, trust, relationships, friendship, childhood memories, and a lot more in this excellent book.”

★★★★★ Wow, a very well written mystery, suspense book.

 “Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & a great set of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great foreign film adventure movie, or mini TV series. There is no doubt in my mind this is a very easy rating of 5 stars.”
- Tony Parsons, reader review

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE PROMOTIONAL VIDEO

https://animoto.com/play/LvULq5Q5pYF0mobUKwOTVg

[Because facebook has very unfairly blocked my blog, Punya Reviews..., from being promoted on their platform, I'm using booklikes as a "gateway" of sorts so I have a link to promote. It's been over 7 months but I tried for the first 4 months to reach them through any means I could find without any luck whatsoever. Doesn't look like I'll get the block removed anytime soon, if ever. More on what happened can be found here.]

LINK to my promo spotlight post for Daughters of the Sea on Punya Reviews...:

https://punyareviews.blogspot.com/2021/05/promo-spotlight-daughters-of-sea-by-hr.html

Violet's grandmother devises a way to bring Violet home. Needless to say, Violet is not happy about being back home. There are several things Grandmother Daisy neglected to tell her. One of the things is that she has a boyfriend who Violet finds dead the next morning in their driveway. Remembering the past, Violet is determined to solve the murder and to protect her grandmother from the police. So she stays and learns more about her family's past as well as the town's past and others' pasts.

I loved this! I had a lot of questions which were answered through the story (not always as quickly as I wanted them answered.) I had a hard time putting this down. I loved Violet and Grandmother Daisy as well as Emerson, the cat. The bookshop is fantastic! I want one like that. The secondary characters have good guys and bad guys. How many will stay throughout the series remains to be seen. I'm liking the triangle with Violet, Nathan, and David. This will be interesting to see how it plays out. I'm wondering how some of the confessions at the end will affect future stories. I'll have to read more to find out.