Well...

Before reading Summer of Two Wishes, I read several books that I never blogged about. I'm trying hard to get back into the blogging mojo.


Here are the books I read prior to Summer of Two Wishes. And a few thoughts on each one.

Best Friends Forever- Jennifer Weiner finished 7/31/09

This was a good book...not quite what I was expecting...I guess I don't really know WHAT I was expecting. Two best friends reunited after being apart for several years. I guess I had hoped the storyline would be different than it was, but surprisingly, I kept going back for more. This was an ebook. This was also a new author for me! (another goal for this year was to read as many new authors as possible).

Tangled Up In Love by Heidi Betts- finished 8/28/09

This turned out to be an awesome book. This is the first book in the "Chicks With Sticks" series. I heard about this from my friends in the Robyn Carr chatgroup. Once I heard it had a knitting theme, I knew I'd like it. Since I like books that take place in some type of store and are centered around a group of friends. This was ANOTHER new author for me. Sadly, this was the only book I finished in August.

Any Minute- Joyce Meyer Finished 9/6/09

This was a great book. I recently realized that I like storylines where characters have the perfect life, then suddenly something catastrophic and life changing happens to them. The woman in this book didn't realize how lucky she was. She just wanted to go, go, go, and always seemed to want more, more, more. She didn't seem to appreciate anything. I had originally seen this on a website...I can't remember where, and knew that I wanted to read. I was even tempted to buy it, but decided to hold off, which is a good thing because my library eventually got the ebook, so I got to read it for FREE. Free is good. I would definitely reccomend this one. I do enjoy reading some Christian Fiction and this was definitely a good one.

92 Pacific Blvd.- Debbie Macomber Finished 9/8/2009

#9 in Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Series. It was ok. Not my favorite, but I didn't hate it either. Can't wait to read more.

Loves Me, Loves Me Knot- Heidi Betts Finished 9/19/2009

This was #2 in the Chicks with sticks series. I think I liked this better than the first book. This centered around Gage and Jenna, Ronnie's good friend. who were recently divorced. Also gave us a little background for the next book--Knock Me For A Loop. Can't wait to read that one!

The Castaways- Elin Hilderbrand Finished 9/19/2009

This was definitely one of my favorite books for the year. I loved reading about all the relationships/love triangles among this group of friends. I wish more authors would write storylines like this. This was an ebook and also another first time author for me! ALSO one that I had considered buying, but held off, and was delighted when it showed up at my library!!
I definitely plan to read more books by this author. She's a nice change from the cutesy little romance books I normally read.

No Time To Wave Goodbye- Jacquelyn Mitchard

I usually like to follow this author's new releases, and have yet to be disappointed by one of her books. I was walking around Barnes and Noble one day, when I came across this book. I was beyond delighted when I realized this was a SEQUEL to a book I read a long time ago...Deep End of the Ocean. This takes place 19-20 years later, and reflects on the aftermath of Ben's disappearance and the reunion of him and his family. Unbeknownst to Beth, Vincent writes a screenplay based on this exact event. Later the family suffers all over again, when Ben's baby is found, but luckily she is found and SAFE! This is another one that will go on my favorites list for the year. I hope they do a movie based on this book, even a made for tv movie would be great!

The Christmas Bus- Melody Carlson Finished 10/20/2009

I had been planning to read this anyway, but it became free in the Kindle Store, so I downloaded it to read on my ipod. A Very cute, feel-good Story. I have read two books by Melody Carlson now, and really enjoyed both of them. Can't wait to read more. I recommended this to several of my book reading friends, I liked it so much. It took place in a bed and breakfast inn, one of my favorite types of settings!

Lakeshores Christmas- Susan Wiggs Finished 10/31/2009

This is part of another one of my favorite series. The Lakeshore Chronicles by Susan Wiggs. I liked this book, but it seemed like it was a struggle to finish it. I kept putting it down to read other books. I didn't really care for alot of the storyline, although the library closure storyline was interesting, and I did like Maureen. I was just hoping that it would be more about Daisy Bellamy, since she is my favorite character in that series. Oh well. At least we only have to wait a few months for the next book!

Shades of Blue- Karen Kingsbury Finished 10/25/2009

This was ANOTHER one of my favorite books. I think it was while reading this book that I realized I liked storylines where people have the perfect life, then something catastrophic happens to them. I have been waiting for this book since I found out she was writing it. This would make an awesome movie.

Ok...so this brought me up to a total of 52 books read for the year.

Summer of Two Wishes- Julia London

I started Summer of Two Wishes on Saturday night (10/31) and once I started this book, I pretty much could NOT put this book down. I whipped through it and finished it a day later on 11/2/09 at 1:17am. When I went to bed, I started off on page 158 and figured my goal would be to get to page 200..well I passed right by page 200, and soon I figured "ok I'll stop at 300", which soon became "well why don't I just finished this book!" So that is what I did. I found myself not wanting to put this book down, only wanting to wait and see what happened. I had never really read a book with storyline before (the closest thing was the 9/11 series by Karen Kingsbury and even that was quite different). This was also my first book by Julia London, but definitely not my last! She writes mainly Historical romance, which I'm not that into, but she does also have some Contemporaries which I will definitely check out. I joined her fan page on facebook, where I read that she will have future books set in Cedar Springs, Texas, where Summer of Two Wishes Took Place. This is very exciting because (I'm hoping) it means that there will be a sequel to this book.

Here's a little blurb: Macy's first husband ,Finn, was killed in Afghanistan, while fighting in the war. She was devastated to lose him, but 3 years after he died, she married Wyatt. 7 months after THEY married, Macy finds out that Finn is, in fact ALIVE! This turns her life, as well as everyone's elses' lives upside down while Macy decides what she wants to do, or better, who she wants to be with. Basically she can either declare her marriage to Wyatt void, and stay with Finn, or divorce Finn, which would automatically make her marriage to Wyatt valid. She takes far too long to make this decision (in my opinion) and chooses Finn. In the meantime, she finds out that she is carrying Wyatt's baby!! But STILL chooses to stay with Finn. She says she loves both men, but she always has and always will love Finn. And poor Wyatt soon realized that he'd always been competing against Finn.

I was on Team Wyatt through the entire book. I didn't like Finn, and his mother drove me crazy. It drove me nuts how Finn just ASSUMED that Macy would come back to him, not even giving Wyatt a second thought. Finn and his Mom seemed really put out that Macy Moved on with life after Finn died. Isn't that what you'd expect someone to do? Even though I didn't like these characters, they obviously made the book what it was. And it was funny to see the drama between them. I cheered when Macy and Finn found that Wyatt had sold Finn's ranch, AFTER Macy put Wyatt through hell while she was deciding to go back to Finn (I think she knew what she would do all along). And I also cheered when Wyatt refused to give Finn's dog back. He deserved SOMETHING out of this horrible deal that he got.

I think it would be awesome if the sequel was centered on Wyatt's life. :)

Wow, I can tell I loved this book because I had a ton to say in my review!!

This is book #53 for the year. My "current" goal is to get to 75.

Finished 11/2/2009