A Wedding Date in Hot Springs, Arkansas

I received a copy of A Wedding Date in Hot Springs, Arkansas from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes there’s a thin line between love and hate. . .

Violet Matthews has always been unlucky in love, but it never bothered her until her little sister’s wedding. The idea of facing the event alone is more than she can stand, and she’s determined to have a date. Online dating, speed dating. . .she doesn’t care what it takes. And when that fails, she hires a matchmaker. Leave it to a professional, right?

Wrong. When Violet arrives for lunch with her match, she is horrified. She’s been paired with Jackson Stratford, an old college classmate. She didn’t like him then and she doesn’t like him now. But Jackson has a plan: he’ll be her “boyfriend” at the wedding if she’ll be his “girlfriend” at his high school reunion. And no one will be the wiser.

As they go on a series of dates designed to make them look like a real couple, they’re surprised by how much fun they have together. But when the past rears its ugly head, Violet and Jackson find themselves on shaky ground.

Can they turn their faux relationship into something real, or are there some wounds that cannot heal?

I picked this book because I live in Arkansas and have been to most of the places this book talks about.  I could relate to Violet completely.  I recently changed directions and opened my own small business.  This was a good easy read that I really enjoyed.

The Well-Lived Laugh

I received a copy of The Well-Lived Laugh by Rachel St. John-Gilbert from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A little perspective can change everything—and owning your own perspective (with a good dose of humor) is what The Well-Lived Laugh is all about. This brand-new women’s humor book from Rachel St. John-Gilbert (author of Wake Up Laughing and Laugh Yourself to Sleep) will help readers develop a perspective unique to who they are, encouraging them to find peace with their own niche in life. Through her hilarious observations on everyday life issues—body image, relationships, social networking, the food police—St. John-Gilbert will help women embrace the beauty in life that comes through each experience, whether planned or not.
I have to admit that I didn't find this book as funny as I was hoping it to be.  Most everything topic she covered I could relate to, but it just wasn't my kind of book.  I was really looking for something that would get me to laughing so hard I cried, but this just wasn't it.  

'Til Grits Do Us Part

I received a copy of 'Til Grits Do Us Part by Jennifer Rogers Spinola from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s all coming up roses.

Or it should be. Engaged to the last man she’d ever thought possible, Shiloh Jacobs is making a go of small-town life in rural Staunton, Virginia—writing again, planning a wedding, and about to sell the house that will make her dreams come true.

But instead of pre-wedded bliss, Shiloh finds herself virtually alone in Redneckville with no family to help her, no money, and no time to plan a wedding. Especially a wedding to a man as different as Adam Carter.

While covering an unsolved news case about a missing woman, things go from bad to worse for Shiloh—starting with mysterious rose bouquets and disturbing letters that link to her mother’s past. The more Shiloh tries to put her mother’s troubled history behind her, the more tangled in the case—and in the stalker’s sights—Shiloh becomes.

Forced to face her past secrets while on the run from a madman, can Shiloh identify the stalker before he strikes again? And as one dream after another falls flat, can she and Adam put aside their differences before it’s too late?

I had a little trouble getting into this book at first but before I knew it I wasn't wanting to put it down.  With everything that Shiloh was having thrown at her I was as confused as she was.  I was constantly thinking I knew who it was that was doing everything, but I was just as wrong as she was.

Killer Ratings

I received a copy of Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Los Angeles is no stranger to glamour, celebrity . . . and murder. When Susan Kaplan moves to L.A. to become a TV writer, she's thrilled to be hired as a writers' assistant on the well-regarded but low-rated TV series Babbitt & Brooks. The last thing she expects, however, is that she'd find herself working for the beautiful yet seriously neurotic Rebecca Saunders, the show's less-than-competent associate producer who may or may not have gotten the job by sleeping with Babbitt & Brooks' demanding creator and executive producer, Ray Goldfarb. 

And Susan definitely doesn't expect to find murdered Rebecca's body in her office at the studio early one morning. When the police learn that Rebecca torpedoed Susan's writing career shortly before her death, Susan becomes their number one suspect. Determined to prove her innocence and find the murderer, Susan discovers that all her colleagues have secrets they would kill to protect. From producers to writers to stars, it seems that the hopes and dreams of nearly everyone associated with the show were being threatened by Rebecca. 

Despite the danger to her own life, Susan remains determined to find Rebecca's killer and in the process unmasks the dirty little secrets behind the making of a primetime television series. She learns that real life behind the camera is far more dramatic than the fictional one in front of it. 

Lisa Seidman draws on her thirty years of experience as a successful television writer to take the reader behind the scenes and show how the struggle to achieve high ratings truly can lead to murder.

This was an easy book to get into even though I wasn't familiar with behind the scenes of a TV show.  Susan was someone I could really relate to.  She was trying her best to live her dream but seemingly always making a mess of things no matter how hard she tried.  I have to admit I didn't see the ending coming at all.

The Roswell Conspiracy

I received a copy of The Roswell Conspiracy by Boyd Morrison from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

After the 1908 Tunguska blast levels a Siberian forest the size of London, a Russian scientist makes an amazing discovery amongst the debris.

In 1947, ten-year-old Fay Allen of Roswell, New Mexico, witnesses the fiery crash of an extraordinary craft unlike anything she's ever seen.

More than sixty years later, former Army combat engineer Tyler Locke rescues Fay from gunmen who are after a piece of wreckage she claims is from the Roswell incident. Incredulous of her tale, Tyler believes the attack on Fay is nothing more than a burglary gone wrong. But when he finds himself locked in the back of a truck carrying a hundred tons of explosives and heading for a top secret American base, Tyler knows that he has stumbled onto the opening gambit of something more sinister than he ever imagined.

Because disgraced Russian spy Vladimir Colchev is after an Air Force prototype code-named Killswitch, an electromagnetic pulse weapon of unprecedented power. Although Tyler is able to avert catastrophe at the US facility, Colchev gets away with the bomb and plans to turn it on America itself. To complete his mission, he needs only one other key component, a mysterious object recovered from the Roswell crash.

In a desperate race against time, Tyler must unmask a conspiracy a century in the making to rescue the United States from electronic Armageddon.

This book has the most intricate plot of any I've read.  I lived how you didn't see what was coming until the very end.  Locke reminded me of Indian Jones in the way he was so lucky in each situation he got himself into and out of with nothing more than a scratch.

Silent Night

I received a copy of Silent Night by Colleen Coble from BookSneeze in exchange for an honest review.
As Christmas day nears, Bree and her faithful search-and-rescue dog Samson follow the trail of a troubling mystery into the snowy forests of Rock Harbor.

Bree Matthews is preparing for Christmas guests, but her heart is reeling from the recent and tender loss of her unborn child. Her sister-in-law, Lauri, suddenly turns up on the doorstep of the lighthouse home Bree shares with her husband, Kade, in Rock Harbor. Secretive and withdrawn, Lauri seems curiously intent on discovering what happened to a parachuter who disappeared in the North Woods along Lake Superior's icy shore.

As Bree and Samson, her search-and-rescue dog, plunge into the search, Bree wonders if Lauri may know more than she’s admitted about the parachuter. And then the clues lead them to the trail of a young woman whose family fears the worst about her disappearance.

Will the search on this snowy, silent night lead Bree and Samson to more than clues about the missing girl? And will Bree’s prayer for a baby ever be answered?

This was a shorter book than I expected.  That's a down side to e-books - not being able to tell how many pages a book is.  I enjoyed the book and the happy endings for everyone.  I was especially glad to see Lauri grow up and think about others.