Summer Reading 2023 by Jana Richards

I have a confession. During the pandemic, I stopped reading fiction. I can’t exactly tell you why, except that I was probably watching too much TV. That, and I just couldn't sit down and concentrate long enough to read. Probably the same reason writing has been so hard the last couple of years.

In the past few months, I’ve picked it up again, at least when it comes to audio books. I can take audiobooks on my walks in the neighborhood, to the gym and on long drives. This summer, my goal is to sit down with my Kindle or a print book (hopefully both) and actually read. Here’s some books I’ve listened to so far this spring/summer, and a couple I hope to sit down and read soon: 

Nora Roberts’ Three Sisters Island series – (Dance Upon the Air, Book 1, Heaven and Earth, Book 2 and Face the Fire, Book 3)

I hadn’t read or listened to a Nora Roberts book in a while, so this series has been a real treat. This paranormal romance combines witchcraft and fantasy with mystery and revenge. The story takes place on Three Sisters Island off the coast of New England, which, according to legend, was created by three sisters who fled the chaos of the Salem witch trials. These sisters, Air, Earth and Fire, were real witches with real power. They created the island, making it rise out of the ocean. It became their home and refuge. But a curse hangs over them, and a malevolent force wants to destroy them. Before she died, the one called Fire cast a protective spell over her descendants and those of her sisters to last for 300 hundred years.  

Three hundred years later, the malevolent force is back and wants revenge. Our three heroines, and their love interests, must defeat it or die. So much fun!

Verity by Colleen Hoover

Wow, this one grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go. Lowen Ashleigh is a writer commissioned to finish a series of books by famous author Verity Crawford after she’s incapacitated in an accident.  Lowen is drawn to Verity’s husband Jeremy and her son, especially after she reads Verity’s unpublished autobiography. In it, Verity reveals her darkest secrets, secrets that would surely cause Jeremy to leave her. But is the autobiography real, or simply an exercise Verity used to fuel her writing? With her growing feelings for Jeremy, should Lowen show him the writing? This is a stay up all-night psychological thriller. I really have to read more Colleen Hoover books!

Pretend You’re Mine by Lucy Score

I love Lucy Score’s humor, her characters and the emotion she pours into the stories. PRETEND YOU’RE MINE is book 1 in the Benevolence series and is a classic fake boyfriend/girlfriend story. Luke wants his family to get off his back and quit trying to get him to date again. Harper was on her way to start a new life when she meets Luke, and she needs some place to stay. Luke proposes she lives with him and pretends to be his girlfriend for one month until he deploys overseas with the National Guard. What could possibly happen in a month? Plenty.

The Dover Café at War by Ginny Bell

I love World War II stories and this series is a lot of fun. In 1939, the Castle family, headed by the sometimes abrasive Nellie Castle, owns a café in Dover, England just as the world is on the brink of war. The audiobook version of the first two books in this series (so far only the first two books are in audio) are a joy to listen to, owing to the skill of the narrator, Bea Holland. She does a great job of men and women’s voices, and several different British dialects. She even does a decent Canadian accent on a guest appearance by a Canadian soldier. Each story features one of the Castle siblings and their true love story. I can’t wait for the next story to come out in audio!

Books I want to read:

I’ve got two print books sitting on my night table waiting for me, both given to me by my daughter:   

The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham

I remember reading this book as I sat in the waiting room of my optometrist’s office in March 2020, a day or two before things shut down completely. Since then, it’s been sitting on my night table, taunting me. THE FORGOTTEN HOME CHILD is about finding family and home and is based on the true story of British Home Children. In the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century, Britain sent thousands of orphaned and destitute children to Canada. They often ended up as indentured labourers on Canadian farms and treated poorly. Fifteen-year-old Winnie and her three friends form a tight-knit group and manage to survive on the streets of London until they are caught stealing food. They are eventually sent to Canada, and once there are separated. Winnie wants nothing more than to escape her harsh conditions and find her friends again. I really need to finish this book!

The War Widow by Tara Moss

My daughter Rachel gave me this book last summer when we were cleaning out the spare bedroom in her house to make room for the baby. I haven’t started this one. The blurb tells me that it’s 1946, and the heroine of the story, Billie Walker, is back home in Sydney, Australia after serving as a war correspondent. Unfortunately, her father is now dead and her husband Jack disappeared in Europe. Since the newspapers will no longer hire her, preferring to give jobs to returning soldiers, Billie decides to reopen her father’s private investigation firm. When the son of European immigrants goes missing, she is hired to find him. According to the blurb: "Billie finds herself on a dangerous new trail that will lead her up into the highest levels of Sydney society and down into its underworld.” Like I said, I do love a World War Two story!

What are you reading this summer?