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    Our Five Favourite Reads – A Writer’s Dozen blog hop

    7/31/2018

    Our Five Favourite Reads
    Time for our quarterly reading wrap-up
    Welcome to the quarterly recap of what the members of the Writers Dozen have been reading. We’re an eclectic bunch which will be reflected in our reading choices. I hope between us we point you to some good new reads.

    Dr Strange Beard – Penny Reid
    Dr Strange Beard - Cover
    I’m a big fan of Penny Reid. Her books are automatic reads for me. If you’ve not read her books they’re smart romances with quirky and complex characters. I’m half-way through this novel which just came out this week. If you’ve not read any of her books I suggest you start with her Knitting in the City series. I don’t knit, and I don’t find men with beards attractive but I enjoy hanging with her knitting and bearded characters so that probably tells you how well they’re written.

    The men in these books are kind of brooding and complicated so if that’s your thing jump on in.

    Also, don’t you love these covers? They’re just terrifically quirky and different.

    Girl Wash Your Face – Rachel Hollis
    Girl Wash Your Face - Cover
    I’m a big fan of a self-help book. (In fact more than one person has suggested I write one – as I’ve mentioned here on my blog I’m a lot of people’s go to girl and they feel my advice warrants writing down, clearly I haven’t agreed up to this point). I follow Rachel Hollis on social media and this book had a lt of hype so as I was off on a long plane flight I downloaded it and read it on the plane. I’m older than the author and in a different place in my life so I liked this book but bits of it were definitely more apt for younger moms. Having said that if I’d read this book even five years ago I would have loved it and I definitely felt inspired after reading it. There were some good pearls of advice and it was also a reminder to me that I was doing a few things right which is never a bad thing. So if you need a bit of a kick in the pants or a razz up this is a good read. (Note:There’s also a strong Christian element which isn’t really my thing – I know the author thinks she’s toning that down but if you’re not religious it is still quite a dominant theme).

    The Blue Moon Series – Lucy Score
    Blue Moon Series - No More Secrets - Cover
    I struggled to find five books this time because I read a lot of series. I’m what’s known in the business as a whale reader – once you hook me I’m the ultimate big fish because I then read all your books. I’ve done this with two or three authors this year already which means I have read ALL their books. If they have twenty books then yes I have read all of them. I stumbled upon Lucy Score’s Blue Moon Series and did just that. If you like small town romance then you’ll love this series set in a hippie town a few hours from New York, focused initially around a family of brothers. I’ve also read her other books (some of them are considerably more steamy) but this is the series I would recommend.

    (I nearly didn’t read this series because of the cover – the main character is a farmer and the cover seems to have little relevance to the story in my opinion).

    TinFoil Heart – Daisy Prescott
    Tinfoil Heart - Cover
    Daisy Prescott is another author who I’ve devoured the back Iist of in the last few months. I read her first novel back when it released and then I lost her. I was happy to rediscover her a month or so ago.
    I liked all her books but I’m recommend TinFoil Heart because it’s her latest and a stand-alone.

    This is a quirky stand alone about a character who is trying to find her long lost father, her late mother believed he was abducted by aliens, but really she’s trying to find herself and where she belongs.

     

     

    Called Up – Jen Doyle
    Called Up - Cover
    As you know I’ve recently started writing a sports romance series. There’s not much tennis romance out there but baseball romance is big in the US. I like my sports romance light on the sports and heavy on the romance. You don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy Jen Doyle’s Called Up. It is the first in a series but they’re stand alone stories so you don’t have to read them in order. This is sweeter romance, more like what I write so if you like my books this will likely be a good fit for you.

     

     

     

    To see what the other members of the Writers Dozen have been reading follow these links:
    Laura Boon-Russell
    Rae Cairns
    Pamela Cook
    Terri Green