Book Review: Whispers (Glenbrooke #2) by Robin Jones Gunn

The second book in the Glenbrooke series follows Teri, a character we met in the first book as a Spanish teacher at the Glenbrooke high school. This book is different from the rest of the series in that it is set in Hawaii and not Glenbrooke. It is easy to find that Robin Jones Gunn is in love with Hawaii with how many stories she has set there.

Teri travels to Hawaii for summer vacation to spend a few weeks with her sister and with the hopes of rekindling a relationship she had with a man named Mark from the previous summer. When she gets to Hawaii she finds things are not as she planned. She does find romance, but it is not the one she's looking for. Is it the one she needs?

As I've found so far all RJG books are good. I just wish this book had kept its self more in Glenbrooke as this is part of that series. It is attached because of Teri being a Glenbrooke resident and she was an important character in the first book, but the only part that is "in" Glenbrooke is talking to Jessica.

I read this book for pure pleasure. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Book Review: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

From the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants comes a story of time travel, romance, and saving the future.

With a plague overtaking their time, Prenna James and her family join a group of people who travel back in time to 2012.  On this travel, her father didn't make it and as her brother was a victim of the plague, it left only Prenna and her mom among the others.

The time travelers have many rules to follow, two of them being not telling anyone who they are and not allowing them to get close (especially physically) with anyone of the current time.  Unfortunately for Prenna she becomes close with one Ethan Jarves.

The story isn't about romance.  That's a side plot to what's really going on.  A supposedly homeless man wants Prenna to change the course of the future.  Something bad happens on a certain date and he knows if it can be stopped the dystopian future that awaits them will not be so messed up.

This story is technically science fiction but it feels like it goes along with the realistic fiction I liked to read and I think that's what helped me enjoy it more.  I have read The Traveling Pants series and this book is the first thing outside that of Brashares that I have read.  It shows me she is able to write successfully about other characters.  I'm going to have to check out other stuff by her.

I read this as a review request from Netgalley.com using the Kindle app on my phone.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

"Anita slapped Teri's leg, and Teri bit her lip.  'I don't mean, going out with the whales, I mean going out to sea to see the whales.'  She rolled her eyes at Anita.  This was not going well."
P.75 Whispers (Glenbrooke #2) by Robin Jones Gunn

Secrets (Glenbrooke #1) by Robin Jones Gunn

Not only the first book in the Glenbrooke series but the first adult book Gunn wrote as her previous work had been with Christy Miller, Sierra Jensen, and the like.

Jessica Morgan is running away.  From what?  She won't tell anyone.  She's running to Glenbrooke where an old friend has a job as a teacher waiting for her.  On her way to her new home she gets in a bad car accident which leaves her with no car, barely any money, and stitches on her upper lip.  The accident causes her to meet her hero, Kyle, a firefighter who rescued her.  She has a hard time dealing with her relationship with Kyle because she does not want him to get close to her.  If anyone finds out about her secret they could treat her differently, but more importantly it could get back to the thing she's running away from.

Robin Jones Gunn is a master at writing Christian romance.  I haven't read her teenage works, though that's what she's most famous for.  I've pretty much enjoyed everything of hers that I have read and this was no exception.  It's simple, sweet, and easy to read.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

"The scar was easily seen.  The whitish, half-moon shape perched half on her lip and half on her face, about a quarter of an inch from the corner of her mouth."
P. 56 Secrets (Glenbrooke #1) by Robin Jones Gunn

Book Review: Wildflowers from Winter by Katie Ganshert

I was pleasantly surprised by this book.  I thought when I picked it up it would be an okay read, but I did enjoy it more than I thought I would.

Bethany Quinn's life is falling apart.  She finds out from her mom that her childhood best friend, whom she hadn't spoken to in ten years, is losing her husband to the clutches of death.  Then her favorite person in the whole world, her grandfather, dies of old age.  Add to that losing her precious job with an architectural firm and her boyfriend being transferred halfway across the country.

Bethany's grandfather left her his farm, a farm she loved and cherished as a child but wouldn't give a second or even a first glance to now.  She had left behind her old life in Peaks when she went away to college and she didn't want to go back.  For her, she felt, there was no turning back.

The joy in the story is not in the ending, but in the journey.  Bethany had a tragedy upset her life as a child and it caused her to turn her back on God.  The journey between the pages of this book, will they lead her back to the Father?

I got this book from Waterbrook Multnomah, but it's been a while so I don't remember exactly how I received it. I don't think it was a review request.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

"Bethany didn't strike him as the type who'd venture out in the cold to brush a horse.  Come to think of it, Bethany didn't strike him as the type who'd venture out in any weather to brush a horse."
P. 33 Wildflowers from Winter by Katie Ganshert