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review 2016-11-20 22:53
All the Breaking Waves
All the Breaking Waves: A Novel - Kerry Lonsdale
ISBN:1503941833
Publisher: Lake Union
Publication Date: 12/6/2016 
Format: Other
My Rating: 4 Stars

 

Kerry Lonsdale continues with another heartfelt tale, following her debut, Everything We Keep, with her latest upcoming, ALL THE BREAKING WAVES —an emotional family domestic suspense saga of dark secrets, mystery, and magical realism.

Lonsdale paints a vivid portrait of a contemporary family filled with secrets, strife and ultimately—love.

ALL THE BREAKING WAVES is a mystery suspense with strong twists of romantic, historical, and paranormal elements. A talented sea glass artist, Molly Brennan whose daughter, gifted with visions, predicts Molly’s death. Molly has five days to outwit fate or make the ultimate sacrifice any parent can make. The daughter’s premonitions come with dangerous side-effects.

Molly Brennan grew up in the Pacific Grove, a coastal town on the Monterey Peninsula in California. She loved the ocean and combing for treasures. She had once believed the surf-tumbled glass had come from mermaids.

When the mythical creatures wept for sailors lost at sea, their tears hardened and washed ashore by the latest storm front. Mermaid tears were treasures, meant to be guarded close to one’s heart. They brought wishes of true love and kept you safe from those who meant harm.

However, time had taught her two valuable lessons: Fairy tales and fables paled in comparison with real nightmares, and psychic abilities were a power, the human body should not possess.

Years ago, Molly had left her home following a tragic accident. In the process, she also left the man she loved, Owen. Telling him she did not love him, but she did and always will. She was only trying to protect others around her. Her mom was murdered, and her dad died in a fatal car accident. She had no one left but her Nana, and she was getting old. And her daughter, she has to protect.

Four generations of women with "the gift." A gift which could be a torture and misunderstood by many. Ordinary to extraordinary.

Since this time, twelve years later Molly has made a home for herself and her eight-year-old daughter Cassie. Molly teaches art history at a local community college and makes jewelry from the glass she collects with a side business, selling to boutiques. They live a quiet life in San Luis Obispo in a small bungalow.

However, now her worst nightmare is facing her head on.

Cassie is experiencing horrific visions and debilitating nightmares. She is making predictions at school to keep her friends out of harm’s way. She is being bullied and frightening the parents, students, teachers, and her friends. Everyone thinks she is a freak.

Mollie’s daughter Cassie has dreams, with premonitions. They were getting worse and more gruesome. The accidents she foresaw were followed by nightmares that recurred until the premonition came to pass.

Her latest, she told her friend Grace she would be hit by a car on her bike, so she keeps telling her to be safe and wear a helmet. Maybe she could keep her from dying. To keep her from having brain damage. Both mother and daughter are desperate to have the visions go away.

They were vicious little monsters. They only echoed Molly’s own grammar school experiences. The taunting and jeers, the cautious glances. It was easier to play the role of the social outcast than to explain the odd things she saw or seemed to make other people do.

Cassie’s abilities had only recently manifested and Molly was worried she was already a social outcast. If only she could learn not to talk about them at school.

After all, Molly knew how bad her father hated her abilities, so it was hard to force her daughter to keep quiet when those close to her were in danger. Things get out of control at school. Molly is called in by the principal and teachers. Instead of seeing a child psychologist, Molly knows there is only one person who could possibly help Cassie. Her grandmother, Nana Mary. In hopes of understanding and harnessing her gifts.

She had to do something to help her daughter. The psychological damage, the nightmares, and the lack of sleep. The visions had become horrific. Tormenting. Now that Grace’s accident had come true, she was having the worst visions yet. Cassie sees her mother drowning. She couldn’t breathe and sees her dying.

Molly is frantic and decides they need to pack up for a short visit with Nana Mary. She will be able to help control Cassie’s visions. However, how was she going to avoid the water when her Nana’s house was so close to the ocean?

From guilt and regret, the unexpected. Her Nana is in poor health, and Owen has purchased the family home next door to her Nana. The one place she swore she would never come back to. The haunting memories. Returning to Pacific Grove always roused Molly’s own fears and doubts about her own abilities.

From the past to present the author takes us back to four generations of women. All with psychic gifts. However, somewhere along the way, they were handled differently. From loss, love, and tragedy and second chances, Lonsdale takes delivers a compelling story of the strong bonds of family, and fears which haunt and destroy.

Molly is forced into the unraveling of the events of the past: Her shame, her internal journey; guilt, her mother Shelia, domestic violence, her controlling father, her Nana, and her love for Owen and her daughter Cassie. As she faces her own fears she finds the healing she needs in the salt air of the Pacific. Discovering unexpected treasures.

Combined with suspense, mystery, romance, and magical realism the multi-generational saga has many parallels from the sea glass as trash turned into treasures similar to the lives of the characters. Their psychic gifts, on one hand, are viewed as evil, versus helpful or extraordinary. The twists and comparisons with Owen’s guilt, and Mollys.

At the heart of the novel: Molly represents every parent faced with difficult, and sometimes life-threatening choices about a child’s well-being. Sacrifices for our children. An ongoing theme of facing decisions to either embrace or dismiss life choices. From acceptance, death, forgiveness, family, love, motherhood and sacrifice.

For fans of Jayne Ann Krentz, Christina Dodd, Karen Robards, and Lisa Unger (romance, suspense, mystery, psychic, paranormal); Karen White, Sarah Addison Allen, Lisa Van Allen and Alice Hoffman (historical, magical realism).

A multilayered mystery where interlinked stories, and generations, as well as unearthed secrets of a damaged family lead to courage and healing.

Look forward to the sequel to Everything We Left Behind, Coming July 1, 2017.

A special thank you to the author, Lake Union, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

JDCMustReadBooks

 

  

Source: www.judithdcollinsconsulting.com/single-post/2016/09/04/All-the-Breaking-Waves
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review 2016-07-04 06:09
What We Leave Behind

By: Rochelle B. Weinstein 

ASIN: B01F2EOCX4

Publisher: Audible Studios

Publication Date: 6/14/2016 

Format: Audible

My Rating: 5 Stars

 

Having had the pleasure of reading talented Rochelle B. Weinstein’s latest (2016) Where We Fall landing on my Top Books of 2016 List, an instant fan of this South Florida author.

I found myself quickly searching for her previous books, discovering her debut, WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND, now available in audio (6/14/16) narrated by Casey Turner and also available in e-book, and paperback. The paperback and audio make a nice combo; you will want to bookmark many quotes.

Powerful, and emotional, a poignant portrayal of love in its many forms, this heart wrenching novel will resonate with any woman who has questioned her past and wondered what could have been. Broken out in three parts we follow Jessica's life journey.

Part One 1972-1988 “The heart that truly loves never forgets.” - Proverb

Weinstein takes readers on an incredible journey of Jessica Parker, a young fifteen year old girl (almost sixteen) to adulthood. From first love, powerful emotions, grief, tragedy, love, and loss. The what ifs. The moments which change our lives, and the things we leave behind, but not forgotten.

Jessica resides with her single mom, after the death of her father. Her mom works at the hospital and she sets out to try and find her mom a doctor. She is still grieving for her father; however, pretends to be strong.

While visiting the hospital Jessica meets 22-yr-old Harvard medical student, Jonas Levy. She is infatuated. Jonas’ father, Adam is dying of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He is a big name in the music and film business. An impressive man and she becomes close with the family.

She learns so much from Jonas; however, nothing prepares her for the splattering of emotions he left her, to sort out. Good things would soon end, when Emily was returning from Italy and he would return to Boston. First loves. Painful and heart-breaking.

“And the good-bye makes the journey harder still.”—Cat Stevens “O Very Young”

She falls for him, even though Jonas has a girlfriend. However, once Adam dies, Jonas abruptly tells her not to come to the funeral, and they cannot see one another again. She is devastated.

Can she free herself from the past in order to move forward?

Part Two 1994-2011 “In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." —Albert Schweitzer

Life moves on and she makes her way to film school and a job as a music supervisor with the famous Hollywood producer Marty Tauber at SixthSense, in Los Angeles. She is shocked by the connection to Adam. A protégé?

She struggles to allow anyone get close. She wanted to love again and be happy. It had been six years since her first love. Now her boss, Marty.

Finally, they start dating and marry. SixthSense was plastered across most every entertainment trade magazine. She was an expert in the field of music—the authority to hit songs and doors opened. She was finding fulfillment with her career, husband and child.

She finds it difficult to rely on others. If she needed them, she fears they will leave. Then a tragedy. A loss.

Her mother once told her that decisions were difficult because by making a choice, we’re forced to give up something. But it is also about re-embracing the things you gave up. And it’s learning that there are some things, and some people, you can’t live without. Or can you?

Part Three 2001-2002 “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life, before we can enter into another.” — Anatole France

Jessica fears of getting close, and having them leave. Even though lost, there is a spirit that moves and encircles and leads to a clearer path. Who had stolen her strength and dignity? The man who would make it impossible for love to be uncomplicated.

Soon she begins questioning her life, as a wife, companion, mother. Not trusting enough. Her husband seemed to want more, and she wanted less. It was easier to pretend that everything would be OK. No one wants to see something that they do not want to believe is there.

Then another shocker phone call. An explosive secret forces her to reconnect with Jonas. She had given herself to Marty, and trust does not come easy to her, from losing her father at a young age and then Jonas. The what ifs?

Haunted by the past and the guilt she still feels of her dad’s death. Then more guilt from her other hidden secret. Why couldn’t she be more like her mother who had overcome great adversity in her life. Her strength overshadowed any sign of weakness.

A simple memory could take her back. Thrust into a modern day moral and ethical dilemma, Jessica must face the pain of her past, or lose everything she holds dear.

She and her husband are separated by lies and miles that buried them from view. Now she has to choose between her husband and the man she always considered the love of her life. Will she make the right decision? 

“Sometimes you can’t always see love. You have to trust it is there. Learning the difference between real love and fairy tales.”

What a debut! Ongoing themes, thought-provoking, and beautiful metaphors! With Weinstein’s vast music background from LA to Miami, as well as her gift of prose, well-developed characters, and human insights, makes for a gripping and absorbing tale.

In addition to being a talented author, a genuine person, she definitely shares my love of nature-and familiar places-Inspiring! Love her book covers. I think she has a hidden degree in psychology.

“What makes a great song and great film? That passion, that marriage between the melody and the story? Words tell a story. As in filmmaking, a tremendous undertaking from conception to premier. All parts are critical and as long as every person is as ardent and industrious with their craft to equal stellar.”

As our personal relationships: Trust, life, marriage. Everyone has to do their part to make a success. A mix of domestic suspense, contemporary, psychological, and romance.

For fans of Liane Moriarty, T. Greenwood, Lisa Genova, Amy Hatvany, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Paula Treick DeBoard, Karen White and Diane Chamberlain.

Since I have read the third book, currently reading her second book, The Mourning After . Looking forward to her fourth book, Somebody's Daughter, plus hear rumors she is working on her fifth novel, a love story based in the Florida Keys (always my familiar favorite settings-can't wait). An author to follow!

 

  

Source: www.judithdcollinsconsulting.com/#!What-We-Leave-Behind/cmoa/5779de430cf23a71a1610f1d
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text 2015-10-02 19:58
Weekend Reading Spotlight

 

 

JDCMustReadBooks  Weekend Fall Spotlight   Oct 2-4

 

Two dynamic authors bring a mix of romance, suspense, mystery, secrets, and complex relationships, coming October,  2015.  Available for Pre-Order Now! 

 

Some great weekend fall reading - Curl up with a good book while enjoying the much awaited fall season, cool cozy nights, and the colorful autumn backdrop.   

 

 

Before the Storm 

 

 

By:  Leslie Tentler

ISBN: 9780990639046

Series:  Rarity Cove #1

Publisher:  Left Field

Publication Date:  10/20/2015

Format: e-book

My Rating: Currently Reading

 

From the author of the sensational Fallen

(My Top 2014 30 Books) 

Six years earlier, Trina Grissom disappeared, on the run for her life. Now living under an assumed identity—as Samantha Marsh—she still struggles with the dark secret she harbors and the fear she might one day be found. When she moves to the coastal town of Rarity Cove, South Carolina, to open a café, a handsome widower begins to chip away at the walls she’s built to protect herself.

 

Mark St. Clair lost his wife two years ago in a tragic accident. Head of the grand St. Clair resort, he distracts himself from his lingering grief by running the family business and caring for his troubled young daughter…until a beautiful restaurateur sets up shop in town. Before meeting Samantha, Mark was convinced he could never be drawn to another woman. But as his attraction to Samantha grows, the mystery surrounding her deepens.

 

As the two begin a hesitant courtship, double perils emerge. Someone from Samantha’s lurid past comes calling, threatening to expose her. And a powerful hurricane is forming in the Atlantic with the small beach town in its path. Trapped in the storm by the brutal man who wants vengeance on Samantha, she and Mark must fight for their lives.

 

A special thank you to Left Field and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

 

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The Good Neighbor 

 

   

By: Amy Sue Nathan

ISBN: 1250048583

Publisher:  St Martin’s Press

Publication Date:  10/13/2015

Format: Other

My Rating: Currently Reading

 

From the author of 2013 The Glass Wives the smashing debut of heart and humor 

Things are a little rough for Izzy Lane. Still reeling from the break-up of her marriage, the newly single mom moves back to the Philadelphia home she grew up in, five-year-old Noah in tow. The transition is difficult, but with the help of her best friends—and her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Feldman—Izzy feels like she’s stepping closer to her new normal. Until her ex-husband shows up with his girlfriend. That’s when Izzy invents a boyfriend of her own. And that’s when life gets complicated.

Blogging about her “new guy” provides Izzy with something to do when Noah’s asleep. What’s the harm in a few made-up stories? Then, her blog soars in popularity and she’s given the opportunity to moonlight as an online dating expert. How can she turn it down? But when her friends want to meet the mysterious “Mac,” someone online suspects Izzy’s a fraud, and a guy in-real-life catches her eye, Izzy realizes just how high the stakes are. That’s when Mrs. Feldman steps in, determined to show her neighbor the havoc that liescan wreak. If Izzy’s honest, she could lose everything, and everyone. Is the truth worth any cost?

 

A special thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

 

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Source: www.judithdcollinsconsulting.com/#!book-stuff-/c9rf
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