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2026 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


27 / 30 books. 90% done!

2026 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2026 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


39 / 50 books. 78% done!

2026 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama
- Alaska (1)
- Arizona
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- California (7)
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International:

- Australia (6)
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- England (21)
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- France (1)
- Ireland (2)
- Italy (1)
- Mexico (1)
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- The Bahamas (1)
- Vatican City (1)

My Progress:


34 / 51 states. 67% done!

2026 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


24 / 25 books. 96% done!

2026 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

My Progress:


29 / 50 books. 58% done!

Booklist Queen's 2026 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


38 / 52 books. 73% done!

2026 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


34 / 52 books. 65% done!

2026 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


22 / 40 books. 55% done!

2026 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


24 / 51 books. 47% done!

2026 Medical Examiner Mystery Reading Challenge

2026 Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


19 / 25 books. 76% done!

2026 Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


44 / 52 books. 85% done!

Shelf Reflection Candy Reading Challenge for Kids (and Adults)

My Progress:


54 / 65 books. 83% done!

2026 Countdown Reading Challenge

My Progress:


55 / 55 books. 100% done!

2026 Series Reading Challenge


23 / 36 books. 64% done!

Dragon Rambles' Law of Fives Bingo

Dragon Rambles' Law of Fives Bingo

My Progress:


70 / 125 books. 56% done!

2026 Southern Literary Reading Challenge

My Progress:


9 / 9 books. 100% done!

2026 Reading Challenge (by Linz the Bookworm)

My Progress:


36 / 60 books. 60% done!

2026 Pioneer Book Reading Challenge

2026 Pioneer Book Reading Challenge

My Progress:


10 / 40 books. 25% done!

European Reading Challenge 2026

My Progress:


7 / 50 books. 14% done!

2017 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge (retired challenge - doing old boards for fun)

My Progress:


67 / 125 books. 54% done!

2026 Reading Challenge Addict Reading Challenge

My Progress:


4 / 5 challenges. 80% done!

The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge

My Progress:


98 / 100 names. 98% done!

The Life Skills Reading Challenge

My Progress:


76 / 80 skills. 95% done!
Showing posts with label Karen Brooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Karen Brooks. Show all posts
Friday, August 30, 2019

Medieval Rags-to-Riches Romance an Intriguing, Epic Tale

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Despite the thin stream of noble blood that runs through her, Rosamund Tomkins belongs neither here nor there.  Especially after the death of her beloved grandmother, a gentlewoman who was teaching her the pretty manners of a lady.  When Rosamund is subsequently taking in by her common, disinterested mother and her greedy, abusive stepfather, she becomes little more than a servant at the family's inn.  Then, a chance encounter with a wealthy London businessman changes the 17-year-old's life in an instant.  Suddenly, she's not just a wife, but also a woman with status and a title.

When Sir Everard Blithman introduces his new wife to his latest business venture—the opening of a chocolate house—Rosamund is immediately entranced.  She's never tasted the exotic beverage, but from the get-go, she proves to be a dab hand at helping to mix it in just the right combinations to entice customers into the shop.  Although having a titled woman so involved in business is considered vulgar by London's wagging tongues, Rosamund feels more at home at the chocolate house than she does anywhere else.  While she senses there is much more going on beneath the surface of her marriage, her husband's mysterious family, and her new friendship with a handsome journalist, she doesn't realize the truth until she finds herself hopelessly entangled in a complex web of deception that threatens to destroy not just Rosamund's beloved chocolate house but everything good in her new life.  With both the business and the fates of the people she's come to love on the line, Rosamund will risk everything to save them.

Although I've been enjoying a grand love affair with chocolate for decades, I knew little about its history.  Thus, I found myself intrigued by the subject of Karen Brooks' new novel, The Chocolate Maker's Wife.  The book's colorful Medieval setting, complete with castles, knights, and the Plague, is likewise intriguing.  Naive, but kind and determined, Rosamund makes for the kind of likable, admirable heroine for whom it is easy to root.  At a hefty 551 pages, The Chocolate Maker's Wife is hardly a page-turner; it did, however, move along fast enough to keep me interested.  Despite a Big Reveal that was obvious from the get-go, the plot offered a few surprises I didn't see coming.  While I didn't end up loving this book, I did enjoy the read overall.

(Readalikes:  Reminded me a little of Chocolat by Joanne Harris)

Grade:


If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for language (a dozen or so F-bombs, plus milder expletives), violence, sexual content, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of The Chocolate Maker's Wife from the generous folks at HarperCollins via those at TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!

--

Would you like more opinions on The Chocolate Maker's Wife?  Follow along on the book's blog tour by visiting the sites listed below:

Tuesday, August 20th: BookNAround
Tuesday, August 20th: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books (postponed to August 30th)
Wednesday, August 21st: A Chick Who Reads
Thursday, August 22nd: Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile
Friday, August 23rd: Broken Teepee
Monday, August 26th: Jennifer ~ Tar Heel Reader
Tuesday, August 27th: Based on a True Story
Wednesday, August 28th: Reading Reality
Thursday, August 29th: Laura’s Reviews
Friday, August 30th: Patricia’s Wisdom
Monday, September 2nd: Jathan & Heather
Tuesday, September 3rd: Tina Says…
Wednesday, September 4th: Book by Book
Thursday, September 5th: bookish bliss and beauty
Friday, September 6th: Real Life Reading

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Top Ten Tuesday: Lazy Dazey Summer Reads

Seasonal TBR lists are my favorite Top Ten Tuesday topic, so I'm excited for this week's prompt.  With over 5000 titles on my Goodreads "Want to Read" list, I certainly don't need any more book recommendations.  Does that stop me from adding tantalizing titles from other people's lists to mine?  Heck, no!  Book recs are my favorite thing about TTT.

I won't hit you with all 5000-whatever books on my TBR list (you're welcome), but I am going to show you ten that I'm hoping to get to this summer (BTW:  I live in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, so summer lasts from about May until November!).  Before I do that, though, I want to encourage you to join in the TTT fun.  It's super simple—check out That Artsy Reader Girl for a few instructions, make your own list, and start clicking around the book blogosphere.  Nothing to it!  Have a great time spreading the love to other book blogs and get some fantastic reading suggestions while you're at it.  What's not to love?

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway (see sidebar) for A Family of Strangers by Emilie Richards.  It's a mystery novel about a woman searching for her always flawless older sister, whose frantic phone call indicates her life might not be as picture-perfect as it seems.

Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR List (in no particular order):


1.  The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman—I've heard a lot of positive buzz about this book, which features a shy bookstore employee who suddenly discovers she has a big, noisy brood of sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews.  What's a terrified introvert to do when she has to face the chaotic outside world instead of hiding behind a book?


2.  The Chocolate Maker's Wife by Karen Brooks—This novel concerns a poor, abused young woman in 17th Century England whose life changes when she's almost run over by the coach of a nobleman who offers her a job at his luxurious and exclusive chocolate shop.  Cue intrigue, danger, family secrets, and more.  I love historical fiction and this one sounds compelling.


3.  Dancing with the Sun by Kay Bratt—A friend of mine recommended this author to me.  I'd never heard of Bratt before, so I'm starting with her best-rated book on Goodreads.  It's about a grief-stricken mother who travels to Yosemite to see her daughter, who's doing an internship there.  The two embark on what is supposed to be a short hike only to find themselves lost and fighting for survival in the unforgiving wilderness.  I always like mother/daughter novels and this one sounds intriguing to me.


4.  The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan—I enjoyed The Bookshop on the Corner when I read it back in 2017, but I've yet to try another novel by this author.  Her newest sounds like another warm, engaging story about a woman looking for a new start in small-town Scotland.


5.  When We Were Sisters by Emilie Richards—After reading A Family of Strangers recently, I'm totally up for another novel by Richards.  This one concerns two women who grew up in foster care together reuniting to film a documentary.  As they reconnect, they struggle to come to terms with current woes and the past that haunts them both.



6.  The Bungalow by Sarah Jio—Jio is another new-to-me author, but this historical, about a nurse who finds a new love and an intriguing mystery on the island of Bora Bora, sounds like a tale I would enjoy.


7.  Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan—I need to read a whole trilogy for one of the reading challenges I'm doing and I've heard great things about the one that starts with this novel.  It's about a New York woman who decides to spend the summer with her boyfriend in his native Singapore.  She's shocked when she discovers that the humble childhood she imagined for him was nothing but.  Finding that her boyfriend is the country's wealthiest, most eligible bachelor means she has a target on her back.  Sounds fun!


8.  Never Look Back by Clare Donoghue—The first in a mystery series starring DI Mike Lockyer, this novel is about a police hunt for a dangerous killer.  I'm always looking for new detective series and this one sounds compelling.


9.  All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung—Stephanie over at She's Probably at the Library highly recommends this memoir about a preemie born in Korea who is adopted and raised by white parents in a small, sheltered Oregon town and her subsequent search for herself as an adoptee, an Asian-American, and a mother.  As my life has been touched by premature birth and transracial adoption, this book sounds like an intriguing read as well as an important and eye-opening one.


10.  Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly—I'm a big Kelly fan, so I'm highly anticipating her newest, which concerns a woman with dark secrets who must return to the place where they're buried.  I always dig a secrets-from-the-past-coming-back-to-haunt-the-present type novel, so this one is right up my alley.

There ya have it, ten books I'm hoping to read during the long, scorching months of summer.  Have you read any of them?  What's on your summer reading list?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave me a comment on this post and I'll gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT! 

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