Stacking the Shelves #23!

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks! And audiobooks. Don’t forget audiobooks!

Six books this week. A few more than I expected to get, but I did a lot of reading this week.

NetGalley:

It has a very well-dressed dog on the cover!

Synopsis: How do you start over when the biggest mistake of your life has more than one million views?

Forget diamonds—the internet is forever. Social media consultant Isla Thompson learned that lesson the hard way when she went viral for all the wrong reasons. A month later, Isla is still having nightmares about the moment she ruined a young starlet’s career and made herself the most unemployable influencer in Manhattan. But she doesn’t have the luxury of hiding until she’s no longer Instagram poison. Not when her fourteen-year-old sister, Dani, needs Isla to keep a roof over their heads. So, she takes the first job she can get: caring for Camilla, a glossy-maned, foul-tempered hellhound.

After a week of ferrying Camilla from playdates to pet psychics, Isla starts to suspect that the dachshund’s bark is worse than her bite—just like her owner, Theo Garrison. Isla has spent her career working to make people likable and here’s Theo—happy to hide behind his reputation as a brutish recluse. But Theo isn’t a brute—he’s sweet and funny, and Isla should not see him as anything but the man who signs her paychecks. Because loving Theo would mean retreating to his world of secluded luxury, and Isla needs to show Dani that no matter the risk, dreams are always worth chasing.

Paws in the City

Another Carolyn Brown book!

Synopsis: In a modern love story between two strangers, New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown brings small town Texas to life with inimitable sass:

A young woman with a talent for trouble.

An unplanned elopement leads to forever love.

Irresistible attraction and sizzling chemistry.

Characters that jump off the page.

Hurting hearts are healed.

Authentic Southern voice and setting.

Cassie O’Malley is on the run. In a few months her inheritance will kick in. Until then, she just needs a job and a place to stay under the radar. But when Cassie gets off the bus in north Texas and runs smack into the town sheriff, she quickly does the first thing she can think of—approach the handsome stranger on the street and pretend to be a couple. Luckily, the sheriff believes it and the man surprisingly plays along—all the way up to the courthouse, where the officer insists he marry them himself.

Wondering how she got herself into this mess, Cassie can’t believe her plan got so far out of hand. Her new husband Ted assures her that his Uncle Ash, a lawyer, will get the whole thing straightened out with no problem. Cassie will only be a bride for a day, and then she can go on her way. But as his family welcomes her with full hearts, she begins to wonder if she’ll be able to say goodbye to the first loving family she’s known in her life. Not to mention a man like Ted.

It was the blurb for Same Time, Same Place that pulled me in!

Synopsis: An utterly charming and heart-warming love story and the perfect tonic for difficult times.

Daisy is the night security guard at the Manchester Museum of Social History. She takes her job very seriously, protecting the museum from teenage troublemakers.

Nate works the day shift, though he’d be more suited as a museum guide the way he chats with the visitors. Daisy doesn’t approve: how does he find it so easy to talk to strangers?

For five minutes each day, their shifts overlap at handover. It’s the only interaction they have…until mysterious things begin to happen at the museum. Daisy notices priceless objects going missing and then reappearing, with no explanation (and with nothing on the security footage!). No one believes her except Nate, and he agrees to help her investigate.

They soon discover they have a lot more in common than they realized…and their investigation uncovers not only the truth, but new possibilities for their future.

I plan to read more non fiction books for 2022, so I thought I better start requesting some!

Synopsis: The New York Times bestselling author of Grain Brain and Brain Wash offers simple dietary and lifestyle tweaks to help you lose weight, prevent (and reverse) disease, and live a long and healthy life by reducing high uric acid levels—the hidden health risk you didn’t know you had. What do obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, fatty liver disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, neurological disorders, and premature death have in common? All can be stoked by high uric acid levels.

Our most respected scientific literature is bursting with evidence that elevated uric acid levels lie at the root of many pervasive health conditions, but mainstream medicine for the most part remains unaware of this connection. This is especially alarming because a large number of Americans don’t know they are suffering from increased levels, putting them at risk for developing or exacerbating potentially life-threatening illnesses.

Offering an engaging blend of science and practical advice, Drop Acid exposes the deadly truth about uric acid and teaches invaluable strategies to manage its levels, including: Simple dietary edits focused on reducing fructose and foods high in “purines” that can raise uric acidNatural hacks that lower levels such as consuming tart cherries, vitamin C, quercetin, and coffeeIdentifying common pharmaceuticals that threaten to increase uric acidLifestyle interventions, like restorative sleep and exerciseHow to easily test your uric acid levels at home—a test routinely performed in your doctor’s office during regular check-ups but typically ignored.Featuring the groundbreaking “LUV” (Lower Uric Values) diet, 35 delicious recipes, self-assessment quizzes, and a 21-day program for dropping levels, Drop Acid empowers readers with the information they need to address this hidden danger and live longer, leaner, and healthier lives.

I always request books by Danielle Steel

Synopsis: In this captivating novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel, five successful women play for high stakes in their careers at a boutique literary and talent agency.

Jane Addison is an ambitious young woman with big dreams of owning her own company someday. At twenty-eight, she arrives in New York to start a job at Fletcher and Benson, a prestigious talent agency. Eager to impress her new colleagues, Jane jumps right in as an assistant to Hailey West, one of the agents in the literary department.
        Hailey is dedicated to the authors she represents, but her home life is chaotic and challenging. After her husband’s tragic and untimely death, she was left widowed with three children to raise on her own.
Then there’s Francine Rivers, the stern and accomplished head of the literary department. Also a single mom after her husband’s affair with the nanny, she has overcome the resulting financial hardships, but only with unbearable sacrifice.
        Compared to Hailey and Francine, drama agent Allie Moore’s life seems much more carefree and uncomplicated. She relishes her success and loves working with the talented actors they represent—until a passionate relationship with one of her rising star clients threatens to derail her career.
        Merriwether Jones is the CFO for the agency. She appears to have it all–beauty, success, and a perfect marriage until her husband’s jealousy over her career threatens to blow everything up.
         Even though she’s a newcomer, Jane quickly realizes that there are damaging secrets hidden behind the doors of Fletcher and Benson.  As one of the youngest employees, she has the least power, but is also the least willing to accept things as they have been for years. When she puts everything on the line to right these wrongs, the consequences will leave no one unscathed.
          In this riveting novel, Danielle Steel tells the story of a group of remarkable women navigating the challenges of balancing their families, their personal lives and the high stakes of ambition at the top of their game.

I just liked the look of this one.

Synopsis: A luxurious and richly compelling new novel from the acclaimed author of Blush, about a famous family jewelry dynasty and the hidden past that could topple it all. 

One perfect diamond is all it takes to divide a family. Could one summer be enough to fix it?

The Pavlin family built an empire on love. As the first jewelers to sell diamond rings exclusively for proposals, they started a tradition that has defined engagements ever since. But when an ill-fated publicity stunt pits the three Pavlin sisters against one another for a famous family jewel, their bond is broken. No ordinary diamond ring, the Electric Rose splinters the sisters, leaving one unlucky in love, one escaping to the shores of Cape Cod, and the other, ultimately, dead. 

Now, over a decade later, Gemma Maybrook is still reconciling the reality of her mother’s death. Left orphaned and cast out by her family after the tragic accident, Gemma is ready to reclaim what should have been hers: the Electric Rose. And, as a budding jewelry designer in her own right, Gemma isn’t just planning on recovering her mother’s lost memento, she’s coming back for everything.

From Manhattan’s tony Fifth Avenue to the vibrant sands of Provincetown, Gilt follows the Pavlin women as they are forced to confront the mistakes of the past if they have any hope of finding love and happiness of their own.

That’s all I have for this week. Have you read any of these books? What’s on your list to read? Comment below!