Can’t Wait Wednesday – NO OFFENSE by Meg Cabot
/25 Comments/by Suzanne
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.
* * * * *
My selection for this week is NO OFFENSE by Meg Cabot. My need for all the fun and fluffy reads right now drew me to this romance between a children’s librarian and a small town sheriff. The Florida Keys setting doesn’t hurt either. 🙂
NO OFFENSE by Meg Cabot
Publication Date: August 11, 2020
From Netgalley:
New York Times-bestselling author Meg Cabot’s returns with a charming romance between a children’s librarian and the town sheriff in the second book in the Little Bridge Island series.
Welcome to Little Bridge, one of the smallest, most beautiful islands in the Florida Keys, home to sandy white beaches, salt-rimmed margaritas, and stunning sunsets—a place where nothing goes under the radar and love has a way of sneaking up when least expected…
A broken engagement only gave Molly Montgomery additional incentive to follow her dream job from the Colorado Rockies to the Florida Keys. Now, as Little Bridge Island Public Library’s head of children’s services, Molly hopes the messiest thing in her life will be her sticky-note covered desk. But fate—in the form of a newborn left in the restroom—has other ideas. So does the sheriff who comes to investigate the “abandonment”. When John Hartwell folds all six-feet-three of himself into a tiny chair and insists that whoever left the baby is a criminal, Molly begs to differ and asks what he’s doing about the Island’s real crime wave (if thefts of items from homes that have been left unlocked could be called that). Not the best of starts, but the man’s arrogance is almost as distracting as his blue eyes. Almost…
John would be pretty irritated if one of his deputies had a desk as disorderly as Molly’s. Good thing she doesn’t work for him, considering how attracted he is to her. Molly’s lilting librarian voice makes even the saltiest remarks go down sweeter, which is bad as long as she’s a witness but might be good once the case is solved—provided he hasn’t gotten on her last nerve by then. Recently divorced, John has been having trouble adjusting to single life as well as single parenthood. But something in Molly’s beautiful smile gives John hope that his old life on Little Bridge might suddenly hold new promise—if only they can get over their differences.
Clever, hilarious, and fun, No Offense will tug at readers’ heartstrings and make them fall in love with Little Bridge Island and its unique characters once again.
* * * * *
I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂
Top Ten Tuesday – Book Titles That Would Make Great Band Names
/46 Comments/by Suzanne
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Titles That Would Make Good Band Names. I thought this was a fun topic and what surprised me as I was looking at the titles on my shelves was just how well so many titles would work as names for bands. My only struggle was just picking 10! Fantasy titles seem to work especially well, in my head anyway, lol. I’m imagining the titles I’ve chosen as either head-banging 80’s hair bands or something a little more modern, like alternative bands.
My son looked at me strangely when I added Turtles All the Way Down to my list, but I say if Bowling For Soup, the Barenaked Ladies, and Toad the Wet Sprocket can be band names, why not Turtles All the Way Down?
* * * * *
Book Titles That Would Make Great Band Names
(in no particular order)
* * * * *
Could you see any of these titles as band names?
Review: SHOREFALL by Robert Jackson Bennett
/18 Comments/by SuzanneAlso by this author: Foundryside
Series: Founders #2
Published by Del Rey Books on April 21, 2020
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 512
Also in this series: Foundryside
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Shorefall is the second book in Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Founder’s Trilogy and it’s also one of my most anticipated reads of 2020 because I loved the first book, Foundryside, so much. It’s always hard to review the second book in a series because of the tricky balance between enticing new readers to the series without spoiling it, but hopefully I can find that balance.
Shorefall exceeded my expectations on so many levels. Sometimes I find that middle books in trilogies feel like they’re full of filler and just trying to stretch things out to the climax of the final book. There’s none of that with Shorefall though. It’s an action-packed story that definitely furthers the plot in every way and adds layer upon layer of suspense along the way.
My favorite part about Shorefall is getting to revisit the cast of characters I grew to love so much in the first book. Sancia, Orso, Bereneice, and Gregor – my favorite morally gray, found family – are just as wonderful and easy to cheer on in this second book as they were in Foundryside, perhaps even more so as they’ve truly come together as a little family. When we meet up with them in Shorefall, it’s a couple of years after the events of Foundryside and Sancia, Orso and the gang have created their own consulting firm that revolves around the magical scriving technology. Their goal with this business is two-fold: 1) to help everyone who can, master the art of scriving, and 2) to thus take power out of the hands of the greedy merchant houses who have dominated their city for so long. I loved the Robin Hood-esque feel to what they were doing. They’re still as morally gray as ever, but their cause is a noble one.
New characters also made Shorefall an absolutely gripping read for me. An ancient (and super creepy!) hierophant, one of the first practitioners of scriving, has somehow been resurrected and is making a beeline for the city, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation in his wake. His agenda remains to be seen, but Sancia, Orso and the others soon realize that the merchant houses are the least of their problems and they must turn their attention to defeating this new enemy before he destroys them and everything they’ve been working for. I don’t want to give away anything about this character, but wow, he made my skin crawl every time he made an appearance!
What made Shorefall such an all around great read for me was just how well so many elements are woven together. There’s the high stakes action and adventure of trying to defeat this ancient creepy guy, but there’s also a deeper exploration of the magical scriving as we watch the characters pool their talents and try to use the magic in new ways to fight the enemy. And finally, we are also given a more in-depth look at the history of some of the beloved characters from the series. There’s so much going on but it all feels effortlessly woven together, which made it so easy to become fully immersed in this world and its characters all over again.
My only quibble with Shorefall is that I wanted to see Clef, one of my absolute favorite characters from the first novel, and I felt like I had to wait way too long for him to put in an appearance. Thankfully, it was well worth the wait, but I did feel myself growing a little impatient waiting for him.
Even with that quibble, however, Shorefall is still a stellar read and one that I highly recommend to anyone who is looking for a fantasy with morally gray characters that you’ll fall in love with as well as unique worldbuilding and phenomenal storytelling. The Founders Trilogy has it all!
About Robert Jackson Bennett
Robert Jackson Bennett is a two-time award winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, an Edgar Award winner for Best Paperback Original, and is also the 2010 recipient of the Sydney J Bounds Award for Best Newcomer, and a Philip K Dick Award Citation of Excellence. City of Stairs was shortlisted for the Locus Award and the World Fantasy Award. City of Blades was a finalist for the 2015 World Fantasy, Locus, and British Fantasy Awards. His eighth novel, FOUNDRYSIDE, will be available in the US on 8/21 of 2018 and the UK on 8/23.