Word by Word

Creating myself one word at a time.

I’ll just get the obvious out-of-the-way. I LOVE Melinda Leigh’s books. Honestly, I can’t even remember how I stumbled upon her Midnight series, but I quickly devoured the first three, which were the only ones available at the time. I now pre-order her books as soon as they are available. I highly recommend all that …

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There are times when I open a book and it takes me to another place. There are times when it takes me to another time. Sometimes it’s an escape for a couple of hours. With David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon, it was an uncomfortable trip to another time and just a bit north …

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For any reader of a book series, the ultimate payoff is evolving with the characters of the books. Watching events and situations unfold over a number of tales, so that by the time you get to the eleventh book the characters, and thus the reader, are in a very different place. In Tasha Alexander’s eleventh …

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I’m late to the fan base for A Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I’ve had this book on my “to be read” list for many years, along with others that I will get to soon! Recently, my high school senior shared that this is her favorite book, so much so that her …

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One of the reasons I love historical fiction is how it sheds light and reality on our ancestors—that’s if it’s done the right way. We spend so much time thinking about the “good old days.” People have always been nuanced, imperfect and life has never been white and black.   In the novel Hanging Mary …

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Books

The feeling I have this week must be the same feeling kids in my junior high had when they were chosen first for [insert any group sport]. I joined NetGalley and will now be reviewing books for publishers as they are published. I. AM. SO. EXCITED. The special feels. They are so great. Those of …

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Haunted Library book

I don’t remember what I was reading in first grade…or second…not even third. I begin to have vague recollections around fourth with Roald Dahl’s The BFG and The Babysitter’s Club books. There is nightly tradition in my house. My son and I curl up in my bed with the book we’re currently reading together. We …

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Counterfeit Heiress cover

I’ve been madly reading the Lady Emily Mystery series from Tasha Alexander over the last few weeks. According to my Goodreads shelf, I finished the first in the series in mid-August. So, I was very excited when I won an ARC from Goodreads of the ninth Lady Emily mystery that comes out in just a …

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That Summer

There are times when I grab a book, knowing very little about in, and read/listen to it because I needed something and it was available at my library. Not too long ago I was traveling to some not-so-exotic location for work. I had a drive ahead of me and needed a quick audio book to …

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Stacks of books

There is a corner of the Internet where I spend a lot of time. It’s the corner with the readers and writers of books. It’s the place where you hashtag “amreading” or “amwriting” proudly. It’s the corner where people support each other with writing sprints or beta reading their work. This corner of the Internet …

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