Books Are Sanity!!!

     Book Summary: If you like Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, you'll love Esther and her best friend, Sophie, in book one of the By the Sea Cozy Mystery series! Oceanside High students Esther and Sophie prefer life between the covers of their favorite books, but they open an entirely new adventure and begin an exciting new chapter when the Stuart twins, Parker and Paisley, move from Great Britain to an old mansion in Esther and Sophie's small beach town. The girls score invitations to a celebrity author's book-launch party at the twins' mansion, but after the selfies are snapped, someone goes missing, and everyone is a suspect. Used to hiding behind her glasses and cardigans, Esther has secrets that only her cat and Sophie know. But when someone's life is at stake, what will Esther risk to solve the mystery and save her friends?   My Review: This was a fun YA cozy mystery! I loved the small seaside town and the friendship between Esther and Sophie. The...

  Book Summary: She never dared to dream of a love of her own. He never dreamed marriage would be his most dangerous exploit. Eloise Morris always puts her family first, and she spends her days working hard to support them. Marriage has never been part of her plans, but when Eloise is suddenly faced with the prospect of losing their family farm she does the unthinkable and accepts an offer of marriage... from a man who is little more than an outlaw. By rights, Aaron Harder should have been dead by now. Long ago, he chose to live fast and die young. Against all odds, he's somehow still standing. But hiding out with money burning a hole in his pockets, waiting for the day a bounty hunter will come to take him to the gallows, is not living. When fate hands him a chance to do one good thing with his miserable life, he grasps it and offers himself to Eloise Morris as her husband in a marriage of convenience meant to save her family from ruin. Now if Aaron can only get Elois...

  Book Summary: A geek, and proud of it, twelve-year-old Pete is determined to win the school science fair in an effort to convince his sports-enthusiast dad into accepting science as a worthwhile endeavor and for once be proud of Pete. Upon discovering a giant seed in the forest, Pete figures he has the grand prize wrapped up in a nutshell. When the seed sprouts into a baby, the science fair is off—no one can know the truth about Pete’s newly “adopted” brother, Sprout. Not even his dad. But when Sprout grows at an alarming rate, his skin turns green in the sun, and he exhibits super-hero-like plant powers, Pete fears he won’t be able to protect his new brother for long from those who would view Sprout as a threat. To make matters worse, Pete fears his dad likes Sprout more than him.  My Review: This is one middle grade novel you do not want to miss! Franks has a hit on her hands. I loved Pete, Spro...

  Book Summary:  What is a fisherman to do when he catches a mermaid in his net? Let her go—or fall in love? A Regency Romance Cornwall, 1815 As a well-respected fisherman in the Cornish seas, Trevik Honeysett provides a living for many poor families in the southwest of Cornwall. Despite the most powerful fishing companies attempting to cut off his own ability to fish, Trevik refuses to give up. However, when he discovers a mysterious, injured woman entangled in his net, things become much more complicated—especially when suspicions arise that she is, in fact, a mermaid. Knowing he might very well lose his workers to their superstitious beliefs, Trevik decides to uncover just who the woman is. The only problem is…she can’t remember. In truth, Morvoren Hollow knows exactly who she is. She merely needs to keep her identity a secret long enough to accomplish what she’d set off to do. Fortunately, pretending to be a mermaid will keep Society away long enough to do jus...

   Book Summary:   After five years of finishing school in New York, Celeste McCurdy is ready to wash her hands of the snobbery of big-city life and be free of thoughts of Charles, the overly charming suitor who left her without a word. It's time to return home to her small Colorado town. Despite her failed relationship with Charles, Celeste yearns to marry, and she knows just the man to handle her heart with care: her childhood love, Logan. Poor and endlessly kind, he is the polar opposite of the type of men she knew in New York. Logan Jones has been dealt a difficult hand in life, forever fighting to make ends meet in his desperation to avoid the pitfalls of wealth that poisoned his family. But when his longtime friend returns to town, Logan finds a compelling reason to accept his unwanted inheritance. Because even as Logan and Celeste are drawn together, a complication arises: Celeste's former suitor has come for the woman he let go of—and Logan won't giv...

 Book Summary: The paths of life that brought them together are destined to tear them apart. Burke Jones began his life as a nameless orphan, dreaming of one day being a renowned doctor with a home and family to call his own. Sophie Kingston, daughter of an influential East Coast family, was destined to be an important and beloved part of Baltimore Society. Life has not gone quite as either planned. Now living in the home of a family friend, Sophie joins the lady on a journey to the tiny town of Hope Springs in Wyoming Territory. It is unlike any place she’s ever known. And the resident doctor is a mystery as well. Burke knows he isn’t the success he’d always imagined he would be, and seeing it through the eyes of this newly arrived Society lady only drives that home. As Hope Springs begins to weave its magic, Sophie discovers more than she’d ever imagined, in both the town and its doctor. And Burke, who has always guarded his heart, begins to wonder if there might be ...

Book Summary: For the first time in her life, Clara Everton has done something truly improper. She has written to a gentleman she hardly knows, just for the sake of avoiding an unwanted marriage proposal, and perhaps to prove to herself that her first London season was not such a disappointment after all. As one letter grows into many and her feelings for James Thayne deepen, Clara begins to wonder if a letter is as innocent a thing as she once thought. Meeting Mr. Thayne in person shakes her hopes, and she must reconcile herself to the unexpected truth. As circumstances continue to bring them together, Clara can't help but question whether opening her heart to Mr. Thayne is riskier than protecting it. He thinks she is a stand-out beauty. She knows he is charming on paper. Both hope for romance, but when letters are no longer enough, Clara must face the truth and decide whether to let go of pride or protect her heart.   My Review: Debut author Shelly Powell has hit a h...

  Book Summary: She’s bad at reading signals. He’s sent all the wrong ones. Jenny… Of course Noah would come back, and right when my life is a mess. I swear we had the best carpool friendship. Until he asked me out, then changed his mind, and then asked me out again, only to ghost me. I hate him so much. Almost as much as I love him and miss him—the old him before he became the worst ever. My crush on him may have been obvious and embarrassing, but now that he’s in carpool again, I’m making sure the only thing getting crushed around here are his hopes for making things right. Noah… I’m the worst. I chose my job and my assignment over the best person I’ll ever know. I have so many secrets I might as well be an international spy. Except there’s nothing glamorous about me. Especially my career. I’m working in phone support just to be in Jenny’s carpool again. It’s not a great plan, but at least it’s taking me in the right direction—towards a future with Jenny. This time,...

  Book Summary: Will the magic of Christmas bring these two newlyweds closer together, or will the ghosts of the past lead them into a destructive discovery from which not even a Dickens’s Christmas can save them? Mistletoe is beautiful and dangerous, much like the woman from Lord Frederick’s Percy’s past, so when he turns over a new leaf and arranges to marry for his estate, instead of his heart, he never expects the wrong bride to be the right choice. Gracelynn Ferguson never expected to take her elder sister’s place as a Christmas bride, but when she’s thrust into the choice, she will trust in her faithful novels and overactive imagination to help her not only win Frederick’s heart but also to solve the murder mystery of Havensbrook Hall before the ghosts from Frederick’s past ruin her fairytale future.   My Review: Delightful? Yes! Full of intrigue and mystery? Yes!  Unputdownable! Absolutely!!!  I couldn’t seem to read the pages fast enough. This i...

 Book Summary: There’s nothing Marietta Stelle loves more than ballet, but after Christmas, her dreams will be over as she is obligated to take her place in Edwardian society. While she is chafing against such suffocating traditions, a mysterious man purchases the neighbouring townhouse. Dr Drosselmeier is a charming but calculating figure who wins over the rest of the Stelle family with his enchanting toys and wondrous mechanisms. When Drosselmeier constructs an elaborate set for Marietta’s final ballet performance, she discovers it carries a magic all of its own. On the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, she is transported to a snowy forest, where she encounters danger at every turn: ice giants, shadow goblins and the shrieking mist all lurk amidst the firs and frozen waterfalls and ice cliffs. After being rescued by the butterscotch-eyed captain of the king’s guard, she is escorted to the frozen sugar palace. At once, Marietta is enchanted by this glittering worl...