IT’S MONDAY! WHAT ARE YOU READING?📚

Good Morning!

It’s the start of another week. It’s Monday! What are you Reading is hosted by Kathryn from Book Date, this is a weekly event to share what we’ve read in the past week and what we hope to read, plus whatever else comes to mind. I’m done un-packing so as far as reading goes, my week should be filled with it!!📚🙄

Last weeks Reads:

“Exceptional… This is the best kind of anthology, consistently excellent and inventive.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review

The latest Mystery Writers of America story collection, featuring surprising, page-turning twists on the genre from some of the top bestsellers and award winners in crime fiction

It’s been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories—a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there’s something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water.

No matter how or where they appear, strangers are walking mysteries, complete unknowns in once-familiar territories who disrupt our lives with unease and wonder. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers such as Michael Connelly, Dean Koontz and Joe Hill. 

Four sisters. One family secret. And a chance to fix the past…

Kate Hannigan is in charge of her late mother’s estate, and she has a plan: divide everything evenly, including the old family house on the harbor. What she doesn’t realize is that her mother changed the will. Now, a family secret hangs in the balance.

Meanwhile, her sister, Amelia, a struggling off-Broadway actress, enlists her hapless construction boyfriend to help with a local project, but he’s more interested in summer tourists.

Second-youngest, Megan, is preoccupied with her divorce… but not too preoccupied to make a dating profile, much to her sisters’ mortification.

Baby of the family, Clara, is single and refuses to date. She puts her teaching job above all else. Until a crushing revelation calls to question everything she knew to be true… including her reputation.

Head to Birch Harbor, Michigan and visit the Hannigan sisters who fix up and open The Heirloom Inn, the most storied bed and breakfast on Lake Huron. Birch Harbor is a romantic women’s fiction series by the author of The Farmhouse.

Current Reads:

In this warm and moving anthology, a group of bestselling authors and writers pay tribute to legendary, larger-than-life New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank and her literary legacy.

Inspired by the title Dorothea Benton Frank planned for her next book—Reunion Beach—these close friends and colleagues channeled their creativity, admiration, and grief into stories and poems that celebrate this remarkable woman and her abiding love for the Lowcountry of her native South Carolina—a land of beauty, history, charm, and Gullah magic she so brilliantly brought to life in her acclaimed novels. 

From Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author, a sequel to Summer of ’69.

From Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author, comes a heartwarming, humorous interview from the hereafter with Pat Conroy and Dorothea Benton Frank, two beloved icons of Southern literature.

From Patti Callahan, bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis and Surviving Savannah, comes The Bridemaids, a story about a trip to the South Carolina beach.

From Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author, Mother and Child Reunion, a heartwarming story set under the warm South Carolina sun.

Reunion Beach also features letters, short stories, poems, and essays from:

Mary Norris, New York Times bestselling author and staff writer for The New Yorker

Cassandra King Conroy, bestselling and award-winning author of Tell Me A Story

Nathalie Dupree, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author
Marjory Wentworth, former Poet Laureate of South Carolina
Gervais Hagerty, author of In Polite Company

Jacqueline Bouvier Lee, Peter Frank, Victoria Peluso, and William Frank
Infused with Dorothea Benton Frank’s remarkable spirit, Reunion Beach is a literary homage and beautiful keepsake that keeps this dearly missed writer’s flame burning bright.

Sail over to Birch Harbor, where family secrets tangle against a heartwarming backdrop of new beginnings.

Reeling from the fallout of her late mother’s estate, Amelia Hannigan and her sisters thought they had put family secrets behind them. But settling the matriarch’s affairs was just the beginning. When Amelia unearths a cryptic diary entry, a new mystery takes shape: the whereabouts of the women’s long-lost father.

Meanwhile oldest sister Kate is happy to work on turning a piece of family history into a charming bed and breakfast… until it’s time to hire out for major repairs. The only local who can take on the job is Kate’s old flame, who happens to the man with whom she shares a crushing secret.

Megan is waiting on a job interview and a divorce, and the best distraction is to help Kate fix up the looming property on the harbor. It would be a manageable task, if she weren’t also helping Amelia hunt down their missing dad.

Clara has some answers, but not all of them. When new questions start emerging about her own history, she has a chance at true personal closure… if she can put her personal life before her teaching career for once.

Lighthouse on the Lake is the second installment in the Birch Harbor family saga. These romantic women’s fiction titles are best enjoyed in sequential order:

Book One: House on the Harbor
Book Two: Lighthouse on the Lake
Book Three: Fireflies in the Field
Book Four: Cottage on the Creek

Reading Next:

How do you start a new chapter when you haven’t closed the book on the last one?

Eighteen months ago, Autumn Divac’s husband went missing. Her desperate search has yielded no answers—she still has no idea where he went or why. After being happily married for twenty years, she can’t imagine moving forward without him, but for the sake of their two teenage children, she has to try.

Autumn takes her kids home for the summer to the charming beachside town where she was raised. She seeks comfort by working alongside her mother and aunt at their quaint bookshop, only to learn that her daughter is facing a life change neither of them saw coming and her mother has been hiding a terrible secret for years. And when she runs into Quinn Vanderbilt—the boy who stole her heart in high school—old feelings start to bubble up again. Is she free to love him, or should she hold out hope for her husband’s return? She can only trust her heart…and hope it won’t lead her astray.

Step into the vineyard with Susan Mallery’s most irresistible novel yet, as one woman searches for the perfect blend of love, family and wine.

Mackenzie Dienes seems to have it all—a beautiful home, close friends and a successful career as an elite winemaker with the family winery. There’s just one problem—it’s not her family, it’s her husband’s. In fact, everything in her life is tied to him—his mother is the closest thing to a mom that she’s ever had, their home is on the family compound, his sister is her best friend. So when she and her husband admit their marriage is over, her pain goes beyond heartbreak. She’s on the brink of losing everything. Her job, her home, her friends and, worst of all, her family.

Staying is an option. She can continue to work at the winery, be friends with her mother-in-law, hug her nieces and nephews—but as an employee, nothing more. Or she can surrender every piece of her heart in order to build a legacy of her own. If she can dare to let go of the life she thought she wanted, she might discover something even more beautiful waiting for her beneath a painted moon.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!💜