Stealing Home

Stealing Home: The Sweet Magnolias

By Sherryl Woods

Published 2007

For the Sweet Magnolias, friendship lasts a lifetime...

Maddie Townsend might live in a town called Serenity and have the best friends a woman could ask for, but her life is overturned when her husband leaves her for a younger woman. With her three children heartbroken from the change, Maddie has a lot to contend with. On top of it all, after years outside the workforce, she must dust off her business skills to take charge of her best friends' newest project--planning the town's only fitness spa for women.

When her son's developing anger issues begin to affect his passion for baseball, Maddie knows she must step in to help. She didn't expect to develop feelings for her son's coach, the handsome Cal Maddox, and to learn he has feelings for her, too. But gossip travels quickly in a small town, and Maddie and Cal's relationship may threaten both their reputations and careers.

Then again, he could be the one man in all of South Carolina who can help her find serenity after all.

My overall review is four stars. 

I thought this was a lovely romance story. Set in a small town it is a little bit of what you expect and a little bit what you don't. As Maddie had her heart broken by a cheating ex, it made it really easy for me to relate to her and even easier for me to simply love the book. The truth that is poured out in the emotion of this woman on the page is so very real. And then to have to contend with feelings of somthing new so soon after? It is a struggle! This character went through what I literally lived. 

I mentioned to the friend who recommended this book to me, Woods does an amazing job at voicing what a teenager would actually be saying and doing in this situation. Makes me wonder if she interviewed parents and kids of divorce to find stories of what they went through. 

You better believe I have the Netflix series, based on these books, on my "to watch" list. Planning to watch it just as soon as I finish reading these books (only 11 of them!) 

I also really love that this book has a solid ending, even though there are more books in this series. More authors could take lessons from Woods on this one. Just because your book is part of a series, doesn't mean your plot has to have a cliffhanger to keep people coming back for more. If your characters are interesting enough, readers will keep picking your books up. 

The Measure

The Measure 

Nikki Erlick 
Published June 28, 2022

My rating: 5 stars out of 5 stars

I read this book to complete the prompt in my Boise Public library Ultimate Book Nerd challenge: Read a book on a book list (NYT Best sellers ect). 

"A story of love and hope as interweaving characters display: how all moments, big and small, can measure a life. If you want joy, love, romance, and hope—read with us." —Jenna Bush Hager

A luminous, spirit-lifting blockbuster for readers of The Midnight Library.

Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.

It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out.

But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live.

From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?

As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?

The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.

Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is a sweeping, ambitious, and invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.

I thought this book was simply amazing. Listened to this as an audiobook and the way the characters are laid out is just perfect, seeing them come together, each separate person in this huge city, somehow weaving together into one beautiful story. Plus the concept is just something that makes you think about all the social issues that go on any day. What would you do if the length of your life could be known to you. Do you open your box? Just a crazy concept and I loved it!

Love & Other Words

Love and Other Words

By: Christina Lauren 

Listened to the audiobook

Finished 1/5 

My rating 4.5 out of 5

The story of the heart can never be unwritten.

Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.

But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.

Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

Love, loss, friendship, and the betrayals of the past all collide in this first fiction novel from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Autoboyography, Dating You / Hating You).

This story was simply beautiful. Heartbreaking but also beautiful. 

Told in alternating timelines of then and now, the story of Macy and Elliot weaves together. 

It starts out unclear... What exactly happened in their past to end their friendship? As the story of now continues, you keep hearing the story of then and learning more. 

I loved listening to this story. Heartbreaking and warming all at the same time. I loved how it made me feel all the feels <3

Cats Find You.

Hope, Happiness and a Cat Called Sticky

by Chuck Hawley and Nadya Siapin

Published December 8, 2022

My review 4 out of 5 stars

I read this book to complete a prompt in the Boise Public Library Ultimate Book Nerd challenge: Read a book by a Pacific Northwest Author

Sticky the Kitty won the hearts of people around the world… But what is the deeper story behind this beloved cat?

When Chuck Hawley left his house on October 19, 2019, he could have never imagined a kitten was about to change his entire life. But change his life, it did.

Chuck believes that kindness keeps the world turning. Through the unconditional love of his grandmother and family, he learned the lessons that he now lives. In this powerfully personal memoir, he shares:
- The highs and lows of teenage stardom
- The struggles of single parenting
- Finding peace with himself
- How our actions create a ripple effect on the world around us

This story is about hope, kindness, believing you have a purpose, magic and even angels… but most importantly, it’s about you. If this random guy and this thrown away kitten can do all of this, what might you be able to do?

You might have heard the story, back on October 18, 2019, Chuck was on his way to work on a regular day when he found a kitten GLUED TO THE ROAD. After he took that kitten home and saved it, he became the hero the world needed. 

Chuck's story isn't just the tale of finding Sticky that foggy October morning, but the before and the after. His coming into fame and how he dealt with it. How the Sticky Foundation came to be and how he is using his influence to spread joy. 

This is really just an inspiring story of how one man used a good deed to spread good around the globe in a time when it was so desperately needed. Filled with many short stories of people who also touched his life (while he also was touching theirs). Plus, a cute kitty named sticky. What's not to love?

I found this story especially fun because I lived about 45 minutes from where Sticky was rescued. It was literally in my backyard and exploded into a global story. 

Numb to This

Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting 

by Kindra Neely

Finished 1/2/23

my rating 3.5 out of 5 stars

This searing graphic memoir portrays gun violence through a fresh lens, giving it urgency, humanity, and a very personal hope

Kindra Neely never expected it to happen to her. No one does. Sure, she’d sometimes been close to gun violence, like when the house down the street from her childhood home in Texas was targeted in a drive-by shooting. But now she lived in Oregon, where she spent her time swimming in rivers with friends or attending classes at the bucolic Umpqua Community College.

And then, one day, it happend: a mass shooting shattered her college campus. Over the span of a few minutes, on October 1, 2015, eight students and a professor lost their lives. And suddenly, Kindra became a survivor. This empathetic and ultimately hopeful graphic memoir recounts Kindra’s journey forward from those few minutes that changed everything.

It wasn’t easy. Every time Kindra took a step toward peace and wholeness, a new mass shooting devastated her again. Las Vegas. Parkland. She was hopeless at times, feeling as if no one was listening. Not even at the worldwide demonstration March for Our Lives. But finally, Kindra learned that—for her—the path toward hope wound through art, helping others, and sharing her story.

This is a difficult but important read. From someone who was at the Umpqua community college shooting, you get to see how she works her way through her feelings. All the feelings. Things like school shootings are too common and we need to have the voices of the people who have experienced them to help others who end up having to go through the same things. I loved the way this book followed Kindra through not only her before, but her experience and her after. The after is sometimes what we need to hear about most. I think so many people struggle with these symptoms but don't know where to go with them. I hope this book opens some doors to conversations that need to be had.

The Quarry Girls

The Quarry Girls 

Jess Lourey 

Amazon First reads pick October 2022 

Finished January 1, 2023

My review 4 stars out of 5

Minnesota, 1977. For the teens of one close-knit community, summer means late-night swimming parties at the quarry, the county fair, and venturing into the tunnels beneath the city. But for two best friends, it’s not all fun and games.
Heather and Brenda have a secret. Something they saw in the dark. Something they can’t forget. They’ve decided to never tell a soul. But their vow is tested when their friend disappears—the second girl to vanish in a week. And yet the authorities are reluctant to investigate.

Heather is terrified that the missing girls are connected to what she and Brenda stumbled upon that night. Desperately searching for answers on her own, she learns that no one in her community is who they seem to be. Not the police, not the boys she met at the quarry, not even her parents. But she can’t stop digging because she knows those girls are in danger.

She also knows she’s next.

Four stars out of five 

Set in the seventies, this one brings back the small town feel with a sinister twist. 

Just when I thought I knew what was going on, who dunnnit so to speak, there would be another twist. 

I fell in love with Heather and wanted to know what happened to her, what happened to her mother, what happened to their family. 

When things start happening in town, starting with the disappearance of a local girl, the questions start to outweigh my answers. In addition to just the feelings that come with growing up, Heather is dealing with the missing girl and a mentally ill mother and a mostly absent father (he works a lot!), she is basically raising her sister. It was just a really good book. A page turner to the end.

Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Series (Part 1)

Book 1: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. 

As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

I read this book with a group of girls at my work as the first story for our book club. Out of the whole three who came, two of us liked it enough to start the next books. I was one of those two.I thought this book was really good. Riggs takes the concept of time travel to a new level. The loops had me a bit confused for a while but I finally figured it out.

I loved the main character, Jacob. He has such a strong voice in the story. When he is seeking mental health treatments after a family tragedy, he still believes what he saw. He convinces his parents to allow him to visit the place where his grandfather's stories were born.

I also really enjoyed the pictures. Some of them were so strange and to know they were real pictures that were the base for this story was really neat.

One thing I didn't like was the relationship between Jacob and his parents. The entire book they felt like distant characters. There was no personal connection between them and Jacob. It felt like they were just letting him be. Even on the island, the father let him wander all over, all by himself.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. I probably won't read again, but I will read the next in the series because this one ended very abruptly.

September 3, 1940. Ten peculiar children flee an army of deadly monsters. And only one person can help them - but she's trapped in the body of a bird. The extraordinary journey that began in "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine.

But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. And before Jacob can deliver the peculiar children to safety, he must make an important decision about his love for Emma Bloom.

This book picks up right where book one left off (which is a good thing because book one ended very abruptly!) We follow Jacob and the peculiar children along a difficult journey to try and find and rescue Miss Peregrine. Just when you think they have done it, a twist happens that lands them again trying to rescue her. It is really neat how real-life historical events are woven into this story (like the bombings in England during WWII). I also really loved some of the characters they came across during their journey. Thankfully a few of them stick around but I wish a few more had. They would have been a fun addition to the crew. Overall, this second instillation gets a solid four stars from me. 

A boy with extraordinary powers.
An army of deadly monsters.
An epic battle for the future of peculiardom.

The adventure that began with "Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children" and continued in "Hollow City" comes to a thrilling conclusion with "Library of Souls."

As the story opens, sixteen-year-old Jacob discovers a powerful new ability, and soon he’s diving through history to rescue his peculiar companions from a heavily guarded fortress. Accompanying Jacob on his journey are Emma Bloom, a girl with fire at her fingertips, and Addison MacHenry, a dog with a nose for sniffing out lost children.

They’ll travel from modern-day London to the labyrinthine alleys of Devil’s Acre, the most wretched slum in all of Victorian England. It’s a place where the fate of peculiar children everywhere will be decided once and for all.

In this final chapter, we get to see what becomes of Miss Peregrine and her peculiar children. Much of the book takes place in the slum of the slums in Victorian England. I enjoyed watching Jacob really come into himself in this book. The battle gets harder, but the children seem to buckle down and really work to win. Is there even a chance against the fortress and force they are against. I couldn't stop listening to this story. I loved every last word. It wrapped this story line quite nicely. There are still three books left in this "series" so I'm interested to see what the children will be up to next.