Beyond Coincidence by Jacquie Underdown

**I received this from NetGalley for my honest review**

 

 

4/5 Stars

 

 

Per Goodreads, this is the synopsis of this book:

In 2008, 250 Australian and British soldiers are uncovered in a mass grave in Fromelles, France, lost since the Great War. One soldier, bearing wounds of war so deep it scarred his soul, cannot be laid to rest just yet.

When Lucy bumps into the achingly sad soldier during a trip to France, she doesn’t, at first glance, realise what he is – a ghost who desperately needs her help. Lucy can’t turn away from someone who needs her, even someone non-corporeal, and they travel back together to Australia in search of answers and, hopefully, some peace.

This chance meeting and unexplainable relationship sets into motion a chain-reaction of delicate coincidences that affect the intertwined lives of family, friends, and lovers in unexpected, beautiful ways.

 

I absolutely loved this book.  I laughed, I cried, I got disgusted, mad, hopeful, all sorts of feelings and emotions while reading it, and it was really hard to put down.

 

The book was a mixture of romance, and paranormal, with a touch of history in it.  Beautifully written, I've never been overseas around the places that were written about, or heard of the battles that were discussed, but I can almost imagine being there, and seeing the things, and the idea of the restaurant that was talked about in this book is absolutely amazing.  You walk with the main character as she meets Freddy, a ghost from the past, as she tracks down relatives and tries to help him find an ending to his story. 

 

I loved the ending, how everything wraps up and together, and even the title matches the ending, how nothing in life is a coincidence, and all things happen for a reason, a philosophy that I do believe.  This one, was a great book.

Bridge of Hope by Lisa J. Hobman

**I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review**

 

4/5 Stars

 

 

 

I have a confession.  When I requested this book from NetGalley, I was completely new, no books approved, no feedback left yet.  So I was requesting everything in sight.  I didn't read the notice that stated this book is a companion to Bridge Over the Atlantic by the same author.  So I was leary to read this at first, but after putting it off and putting it off, I figured I'd have a go of it, and see what happens.

 

I am so glad I did.

 

This book, was so cool, it was awesome.  I'm not altogether sure of where it takes place.  Overseas somewhere?  or Canada? not sure, anyways, probably a small town, in a pub overseas.  The main character reminds me of a mountain man type guy.  Plus he was Scottish.  His dialect throughout the book, at first was hard to swallow, but then it became part of his charm. 

 

I fell hard for this man.  I hate the term book boyfriend, but he's my boyfriend.  He makes me want to get a plane ticket and fly somewhere and go to a pub and wait for him to show up and sing to me.  He was charming in a ditzy clueless man way, he had the voice of an angel, and he was tortured, and he cried! because he lost his ex girlfriend, he had a sensitive side.  I just loved him.  and her, and them together.  it was just a charming book, and the humor in it, this book had me laughing several times at him putting his foot in his mouth, he was so very good at it.

 

There wasn't much of a "conflict" so to speak, this book is basically about two people who have lost someone they love, and their shared grief, and finding each other and their friendship and love growing out of their grief.  I'm a jaded reader and I kept expecting something to happen, an ex to come back to life, or some blowout and some drama, but with this book, there was none of that, and I can't tell you how refreshing that was.  This book is a plain and simple no frills, no drama romance.

On the plus side, in case anyone cares, you can read this book as a standalone.  I'm thinking book one is in her point of view?? I don't even know.  I just know that I loved this book.  

Review Policy

***PLEASE READ***
11/13/14-  Currently I am putting my reviewing on hold (sort of), I am reading what I already have promised to read, but for right now, I am asking to please hold off on requesting me to read new books, IF you want me to read it ASAP.  If you are okay with waiting, you can go ahead and send me a request..I am only doing this just because the holidays and my schedule is very hectic, I'm not finding as much time as I would like lately, if my load lightens up, I am more than happy to resume on a faster schedule and pace, and definitely plan to do so after the first of the year.  Please keep me in mind for then.  Thank you for your patience and understanding, if you have any questions or want to talk to me about anything feel free to email me.

Kym


I am just getting started with this book review blog, I'm practically a baby.  I'm new at NetGalley also, I have reviewed books for years on GoodReads, I've been approached by authors requesting me to review books on GoodReads, while I have not yet on this blog, I am hoping that soon my blog will take off, and I will have requests.  Here is my review policy in the event this happens.

• Currently, I AM NOT (due to the holidays, please see note above) accepting request for book reviews.
• Please note that I work full time, and I am a single mom, time is valuable, while I would love to stop reading everything to read a book ASAP, I may not be able to get to it at the very second, please give me time to read and review, and I promise I will read and review as quick as possible.
• I am up for author promotions, giveaways, interviews, anything.  I have mad love for new authors, and have no problem hosting anything, please let me know if I can be of help to promote your book.  Just keep in mind I'm new, and im learning as I go.
• I read epub versions of ebooks, if at all possible to send, I do have a kindle app on my phone, but rarely use it except in emergencies, it takes up a lot of battery, so I prefer epub, but if mobi is my only option, or downloading from amazon, I can probably manage it.

I will read anything, I have my favorite genres, but I am open minded about anything I may read.  I do find myself gravitating towards dystopian/apolocyptical novels before anything else, so if you have one that is absolutely awesome, chances are I will read it first.  :) but I am open, I read everything


 

My rating system isn't very sophisticated yet, mostly I review via stars. 

1 star= No.  I wasn't a fan at all

2 stars= I didn't hate it to death, but I wouldn't recommend it

3 stars= I read it, I enjoyed it, but didn't love it, but someone else may

4= loved it, it was awesome

5=brilliant book, in every way, I loved it!

 Contact me via  Email or Goodreads

Also, I encourage feedback to my blog, ideas on improvement, and gladly take constructive criticism.

Escape by Sydney Holmes

**I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review**

 

3/5 Stars

 

Here is the Synopsis per goodreads:

SOME SECRETS SHOULD NEVER BE SHARED

When beautiful and mysterious Rowan Baker moves in upstairs from Shane Adams, he is instantly captivated. With every encounter he becomes more intrigued, but as an experienced Private Investigator, he can’t shake the suspicion that Rowan is holding on to some big secrets.

Rowan has been on the run for years and she’s good at keeping her distance from people. But there’s something about Shane that’s completely tantalizing. Soon, her life becomes more complicated than she ever expected, making her secrets harder and harder to keep. The closer she gets to Shane, the more she fears that he won’t accept her if he learns the truth of her past. When she is forced to let go of one of her secrets, will Shane stay, or will Rowan push him so far away he can’t make his way back?

 

 

This book was pretty much infuriating the entire time I read it.  Mostly because the main character, Rowan, has some secret hidden past, she keeps talking about it to herself, and dropping names, and I just get more and more confused.  It's not about secrets or intrigue, or suspense, its just plain confusing to me.  And by the end of the book, I still had no idea who most of the people she was talking to were.  I do kinda guess her past, I have no idea if im on the mark or not, I have to read part 2 apparently to find out.

 

The synopsis leads you to figure that her life is complicated, secrets are harder to keep, and letting go of her secrets, but not once in the entire book, did any sort of dilemma like that cross her mind.  I never remembered reading anything about "omg, theres this secret that's right here, and he will leave me if he finds out!" or anything like that.  So I never got the big suspense of secrets..maybe because I was too busy being confused by the name dropping, Jolly, Talia, Lina, Jewel, all these people are brought up over and over and over, and it's just a bunch of names to me, not even glimpse of who they are, or what they have to do with the price of tea in china. 



Not Quite Dead by Sela Carsen

 

**I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review**

 

2/5 Stars

 

 

When I first requested this book, I thought it was going to be pretty good, it sounded intriguing.  I requested it thinking it was a book, a full fledged book, when I started reading it, I found out it was a 70 page novella.  I'm not a fan of novellas, only because it always seems like a really good story is left out of a crunched up tiny novella.  This one was the same, there is a LOT of potential in this book, it could have been stretched out so much more, gone so many more places, had it not decided to be a 70 page novella. 

 

It was humorous, light, nice little read, but very very rushed.  And again, I'm not a fan of novellas, so my review is probably slightly harsher than most, because of the disappointment, but for those who like novellas, and vampires and things like that, would like this one. 

Once More With Feeling by Megan Crane

 

 

**I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review**

4/5 Stars

I stayed up till the wee hours of the morning, 230am on a weeknight when I have to be up at 6.  Today dragged, but it was hard to put down. 

Hubby cheats on her with her sister, her sister doesn't care, her family is basically on the surface of things..on the sisters side, hubby goes into a coma, main character is all, I have to find myself! and reunites with BFF she basically ditched for a guy way back when, and former flame, both of which she totally forgot about until seeing a picture in the closet.  and off she goes while hubby is a coma to find herself, meanwhile he wakes up and doesn't remember cheating on her.  Does she take this second chance for her hubby? or does she move on?  I just had to know.

There are some parts of this book I didn't like.  I didn't like the denial the main character was in, I didn't like the sister, I didn't like the wishy washy "He's mine and you can't see him!" from the main character even though he pretty much ruined her life.  I didn't like the fact that the character basically forgot the bff and bf in the past.  I didn't like a lot of it, but I did like the fact that I had to keep on reading to find out what she was going to do.

I wanted with all my heart for her to move on, forget everyone, the ex flame, the hubby, the sister, the parents, the bff, forget it all and go on a travelling trip around the world and show the reader how she finds herself.  I kept screaming for her to just freaking be a independent woman already!   I didn't get what I wanted.  Instead I got reunions, I really enjoyed her reunions, and self awareness of her self absorption.

While I didn't care for a lot of it, I can't deny that the book held me in its grasp, I stayed up way to late because I had to know..JUST HAD TO!  I wish it went beyond the ending too, find out what happens afterwards, there were a lot of open endings, no resolving of family problems, ex problems, or anything.  It was pretty well written, and makes you feel some of the anger and emotions of the character and what she was feeling.  Overall it was a good book.

Bookish Countdown Survey

Bookish Countdown Survey

I am a part of a website called swap-bot, on this site, you swap various things, from lists to bookmarks to surveys to whatever.  I signed up for a Bookish Countodown Survey.  I have a series of questions to answer, hope you enjoy reading!

 

10 books already released that are on my wishlist:

9 favorite covers:

8 Not-Yet Released Books That I Can't Wait For:

7 Auto-buy Authors:

1). Laurel K Hamilton

2) Abbi Glines

3) Colleen Hoover

4) Janet Evanovich

5) JD Robb

6) Madeline Sheehan

7) VC Andrews

6 Book Boyfriends

1) Rush- from Fallen Too Far by Abbi Glines

2) Will Cooper from Slammed by Colleen Hoover

3) Dean Holder from Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

4) Four from Divergent by Veronica Roth

5) Roarke from Eve Dallas series by JD Robb

6) Lucas from Easy by Tammara Webb

5 Books I Recommend The Most:

4 Books I thought I'd like but didn't:

3 Books That Made Me Cry:

2 Books I Never Plan On Reading:

1 Favorite Genre At The Moment:

Dystopian/Post Apocalypse

This was actually pretty fun, I challenge anyone who visits this blog to do the same, and let me know if you have done so I can see!:) 

Bout of Books 11- Wrap Up

Bout of Books- Wrap up

This was my first Bout of Books, thank you to my friend Karsyn, for introducing me.  Next time I definately am going to be planning ahead, and not joining any challenges or read-a-thons prior to this one starting, I was just plain burned out.  However burned out I was, I still think I did fantastic!  Here is my final tally.

Total Audio listening time: 439.29

Total Book reading pages: 4489

Total books completed: 14

Total Challenges:  6

Challenges won: 1

Audiobooks I have read (but not completed)

Books I have completed this read-a-thon:

  



Now that this thing is over, I am hoping to sit down and get my blog looking prettier and more ME, and read of course.  I still am doing a challenge on goodreads, one week left, I'm ready to read for leisure rather than challenges now!  And my blog, I'm annoyed with it, I want it to look more me..so I'm anxious to revamp.  BoB was defin fun though! I think I will do 12 when it comes out in Jan.


So..tell me how you did? post your wrap up links, or thoughts, or anything in general to let me know what you thought of BoB 11, and your goals:)