Prolific author, Ronda Wells treats readers to a tender, hopeful novel of historical fiction (set in the 1940s, in the aftermath of WWII) that authentically depicts the romantic grit of hard times.
Read my review of this beautifully drawn, spiritually infused short novel HERE
The Christmas Cherub by Ronda Wells
Ronda Wells Books, $13.99 paperback, 9798998514012, 272 pages
Publication Date: July 1, 2025
To order this book on Bookshop.org link HERE
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Summertime takes a
starring role in Friends
to Lovers by Sally Blakely, a fun,
spirited romcom sure to add sunshine to reader’s lives.
Joni and Ren are long-time friends who met as
children in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. The two share a long history.
Still single, they are both closing in on their 30s. And while Joni set off to take a
dream job New York City, the two made a pact kept throughout their
20s: they’d always serve as each other’s “plus ones” (dates) every wedding
season. That was, until the last wedding they attended together suddenly transformed
friendship into romantic love. Uh-oh!
When Joni comes back home to attend her sister’s
wedding, she and Ren awkwardly reunite, pretending to pick up as if their
rendezvous never happened. In reality, the pair struggle to reconcile their
actions and feelings; while also trying to gauge the prospect of what they really
want for the future.
Short chapters and a staggered time-line narrated
by the pull-and-tug of romantic dilemmas faced by these two, endearing characters
offer a perfect summer escape. This first novel by Blakely delivers a strong start, sure to
develop into a long-term relationship with romcom readers!
Friends
to Lovers by Sally Blakely
Canary Street
Press (HarperCollins/MIRA/Harlequin), $18.99 paperback, 9781335014245, 352
pages
Publication Date: July 22, 2025
To order this book on Bookshop.org link HERE
That
Last Carolina Summer by Karen White is
an atmospheric story set in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and centers on Phoebe
Manigualt who, as a child, was struck by lightning and was later gifted with--and
also cursed by--premonitions and mysterious dreams that have marked the course
of her life. When Phoebe, finally settled in Oregon and working as a teacher, is contacted
by her sister Adeline (aka “Addie”) who notifies that their mother is suffering
from dementia, Pheobe returns home. As the three women are reunited, tensions
from the past suddenly illicit supernatural occurrences that force these multi-generational,
well-drawn characters to relive memories and probe secrets that chillingly unite
them all.
White (An Author’s
Guide to Murder, The
House on Prytania) is an accomplished storyteller
who successfully blends elements of women’s fiction, romance, and magical
realism that combine to elevate this well-drawn family saga into an emotionally
evocative, suspenseful page-turner.
That Last Carolina Summer by Karen White
Park Row Books
(Harlequin/HQN, HarperCollins Books), $30,00 hardcover, 9780778310693, 352
pages
Publication Date: July 22, 2025
To order this book on Bookshop.org link HERE
To learn
more about Karen White and her long list of published titles, link HERE
With
great wit and insight, Tim Clare--writer,
poet, and podcaster--presents a playful, in-depth examination into the
foundational appeal of board games throughout the ages.
Games offer fun entertainment and also train people to better navigate
human relationships and the ups and downs of life. According to philosopher C.
Thi Nyugen, games also offer a “motivational inversion of ordinary life,” encouraging
alternate modes of behavior. People become freed of socialized constraints and
commonplace rules of life are suspended, along with expectations about how to
behave. This deviation becomes a welcome
subversion—as it has for centuries.
Clare’s thoroughly researched narrative demonstrates how, in every
civilization of human history, board games have built and changed the world. People
have been using tablets as boards, rolling dice, and moving little tokens,
including dog and pig pieces, dating back five millennia as was unearthed in an
archeological dig in Turkey. An excavated Egyptian grave from 3800-3500 BCE
uncovered a gaming board and cube pieces—apparently placed there for the
deceased’s amusement in the afterlife. And a thousand years later, the
long-known Game of Ur was said to be introduced around the time of Jesus
Christ. In China, circa 221-206 BCE, dice were even used to “gamble and plumb
the mysteries of fate” as evidenced via diviner’s boards used via I-Ching.
The history is long and fascinates. Clare, a self-proclaimed “nerdy
enthusiast” who has always held great affection for tabletop games,
passionately shows the many ways they bridge the gap between worlds and people. From
early childhood to senior years, game playing pervades places from pubs to
casinos, schools to care homes. Nowadays, games even proliferate via smartphone
apps. Through in-depth, well-organized chapters, Clare analyzes historical,
sociological, and psychological aspects and delves into the nuances of a
wide-array of examples from checkers to tic-tac-toe, chess to Uno, Monopoly to
Pokémon.
Clare (The Ice House, Coward) firmly believes that games grant people permission to “step out of the swirling, intimidating confusion of reality into something…more manageable.” Thanks to the richly entertaining history and ideas put forth by Clare, game aficionados and readers alike will be enchantingly transported by this narrative that offers another enriching avenue of pleasurable escape from life.
Across
the Board: How Games Make Us Human by Tim Clare
Abrams Press,
$28.00 hardcover, 9781419780561, 240 pages
Publication
Date: May 6, 2025
To
order this book on Bookshop.org link HERE
Link HERE to learn more about author Tim
Clare