Stacking the Shelves #51!

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!

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I’m back to requesting a lot more books! However, I think I may have gone a bit overboard this week.😬. But, I’m excited to read all of them. I had one wish granted, and a “surprise” approval.

NetGalley:

I saw this in a NetGalley email, read the blurb, and thought it looks good.

Synopsis: Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman.

It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.

When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important “firsts”: She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But it’s not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils––and rewards––of putting her heart on the line.

Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures—and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.

This was a wish and it was granted. I think I wished for it because it’s a song lyric by Yes, and now I can’t get it out of my head. ♫ “Owner of a lonely heart…” ♫ Is the song stuck in your head now?

Synopsis: From the author of How to Save a Life comes a heartfelt story of two people finding the courage to choose love, no matter how hard it may be.

Gemma thought she had her future all mapped out—a wonderful husband, a cute apartment, plans to start a family. But just months after her wedding, illness took her husband from her. And now she’s trying to think up new dreams, when all she really wants are her old ones back.

Across town, Dan’s also rethinking his life. He’s about to meet his twelve-year-old daughter, Casey, for the very first time. She’s tracked him down because she needs a place to stay for the summer while she receives treatment for a brain tumor at the city hospital, and Dan is terrified he won’t be up to the task of caring for her—after all, he’s spent his entire life only having to look out for himself.

But when fate—with the help of Gemma’s scruffy terrier, Bear—brings these three strangers together one hot July morning, cracks begin to appear in the walls they’ve each built to protect themselves. And soon it becomes clear that this summer could change everything.

Will Gemma, Dan, and Casey be brave enough to let love in and build a new life together? Or will they let fear keep everything they’ve ever wanted just out of reach?

This is the second book in her popular By the Book Mysteries series. I loved the first book so I have high hopes for this second book.

Synopsis: Don’t miss the second installment of this gripping and funny bookish cozy mystery series by Tamara Berry! This case isn’t just cold, it’s practically frozen shut…

In the aftermath of solving their first murder, bestselling author Tess Harrow and her teenage daughter Gertrude have decided to stay in Winthrop permanently. Now that they’ve made some updates to their cabin in the woods, they’re turning to the family hardware store that Tess inherited and converting it into the town’s first independent bookstore. But when renovations unearth bones from a cold case and send them toppling—literally—onto Tess’s head, the work comes to a grinding halt. With the whole town convinced that her grandfather was a serial killer, Tess has to call in a fellow horror author for reinforcements. Together, they’ll come up with a perfect story to make all the clues fit…and solve a mystery more than thirty years in the making.

I’ll admit that I don’t remember requesting this book, it’s not a genre I usually read, nor an author I usually read. It’s #32 in her Dark series (I haven’t read any of the series). But, the series has great reviews, so I have high hopes that I will enjoy it.

I probably did request this because of the wolves on the cover! 😂 🤣

Synopsis: Embrace the seductive call of the latest novel in Christine Feehan’s #1 New York Times bestselling Carpathian series.
 
Vasilisa Sidkorolyavolkva is a Lycan of royal blood. She knows what is expected of her, but all she wants is to be out from under her family’s watchful eyes. There is a fire inside her that is building. A restlessness coupled with a sense of growing dread. Every day she feels the weight of the legacy passed down through generations. The prophecy that says a man will come to claim her as his mate, and that she will guard his soul. She knows nothing about him except that he is hers. But nothing seems real until the night she meets him in the flesh….
 
Afanasiv Belan is a Carpathian, an ancient one. In all the centuries of his existence, no one has ever affected him like Vasilisa. He can see into her mind and feel what is in her heart. They are so alike, warriors bound by honor and plagued by secrets. They both know they must reveal the darkest parts of their souls if they hope to survive and protect the ones they love.
 
But if they claim each other as lifemates, it will change them down to the bone. They will become something more—something feared by both of their kinds….

I loved the blurb for this book and I enjoy a second chance romance.

Synopsis: For fans of Colleen Hoover and Rosie Walsh: this book will break your heart… then put it back together.

Two years together. Twenty years apart. One day to change their story.

Benjamin’s world is turned upside down the day he meets Clara. Instinctively, he knows that she is his person and he is hers, but the events of one of their last nights at university will take their lives in very different directions.

20 years later, an explosion is reported in the city where Clara and Ben met, and she is pulled back to a place she tries not to remember and the first love she could never forget. Searching for Ben, Clara prays that twenty years of silence is about to end.

But is it too late to put right what went wrong?

This just looked cute.

.Synopsis: Fans of Katie Fforde, Phillipa Ashley and The Vicar of Dibley will love this heartwarming and witty new novel from Julie Houston.

Three devoted sisters… One complicated family.

When Rosa Quinn left her childhood home in Westenbury, she never expected to return over a decade later as the village vicar. But after a health scare and catching her boyfriend cheating, Rosa jumps at the chance to start over and live closer to her triplet sisters Eva and Hannah.

But Rosa’s isn’t the only recent return to the village, and when her role in the parish throws her into the path of her ex, she begins to wonder if she’s made a terrible mistake. Meanwhile, Eva and Hannah face their own troubles, as secrets about their family threaten to emerge.

Can Rosa make a life for herself in Westenbury? Or will the sisters discover that you can’t run away from the past?

Blog Tours:

Another Christmas book. I like Beth Moran, so this looked good.

Synopsis: Curl up with the perfect cosy read and the latest novel by the bestselling author ofJust the Way You Are.

‘Every day is a perfect day to read this.’ Shari Low.

After the end of a long-term relationship, local weather girl Bea Armstrong has been avoiding her family, and their inevitable ‘I-told-you-sos.’ But with Christmas fast approaching, she is finally on her way home to Charis House, the school in Sherwood Forest that her mum and dad run in their old family home. And to top it all off, the insufferable Henry Fairfax – who her parents have always wanted her to marry – has also been invited. 

Relief comes in the shape of a last minute interview for her dream job. There are just a few minor problems… The interview is in Scotland, Bea has no car, and the snow is falling already. The only solution is for Henry to drive her – could this Christmas get any worse….

But during an unforgettable two day interview, a stay in a log cabin and a nightmare journey through the snow, Henry turns out to be nothing like she thought.  And when Bea’s first love and recent ex shows up, Bea has a difficult choice to make….

Reading Beth Moran’s fabulous novels makes every day better. Feelgood, satisfying, with smart characters and gorgeous settings, it’s impossible not to fall in love with a Beth Moran story. Perfect for all fans of Jill Mansell, Julie Houston, and Jenny Colgan.

I read the first book in this series, The Siren of Sussex, and really enjoyed it, so I’m excited to continue this series.

Synopsis: A London heiress rides out to the wilds of the English countryside to honor a marriage of convenience with a mysterious and reclusive stranger.

Tall, dark, and dour, the notorious Captain Jasper Blunt was once hailed a military hero, but tales abound of his bastard children and his haunted estate in Yorkshire. What he requires now is a rich wife to ornament his isolated ruin, and he has his sights set on the enchanting Julia Wychwood.

For Julia, an incurable romantic cursed with a crippling social anxiety, navigating a London ballroom is absolute torture. The only time Julia feels any degree of confidence is when she’s on her horse. Unfortunately, a young lady can’t spend the whole of her life in the saddle, so Julia makes an impetuous decision to take her future by the reins—she proposes to Captain Blunt.

In exchange for her dowry and her hand, Jasper must promise to grant her freedom to do as she pleases. To ride—and to read—as much as she likes without masculine interference. He readily agrees to her conditions, with one provision of his own: Julia is forbidden from going into the tower rooms of his estate and snooping around his affairs. But the more she learns of the beastly former hero, the more intrigued she becomes…

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