Scrapbooking Haul #1 May 2016

The Princess Wore Plaid (The Oxenburg Princes #2.5) by Karen Hawkins

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Print Length: 112 pages
• Publisher: Headline Eternal (21 Mar. 2016)
• ASIN: B00S53JGGI

Sizzling Scottish romance abounds in this e-novella in the Princes of Oxenburg series, a spinoff to New York Times bestselling author Karen Hawkins’s delightful Duchess Diaries series.

A princess once bejeweled but now tattered…

Royal princess Tatiana Romanovin is the beautiful, wealthy, and spoiled favorite of the King of Oxenburg. On her way to her cousin’s wedding in the Scottish highlands, she and her entourage are held up by a gang of ruffians. Frightened, her servants flee, and Tatiana soon finds herself alone in an inn with no servants, no funds, and no proof of her identity. Destitute, she accepts the offer from a sympathetic (but unbelieving) innkeeper to work for her room and board while she waits for an answer to the missive she’s sent to her cousin Prince Nikolai. With no other recourse, Tatiana scrubs floors and dirty linens, waiting for her prince to come…

A proud lord once lost and now found…

After a brutal, bloody battle with the French Navy left Lord Buchan limping and surly, abandoned by his betrothed because of his twisted leg, his lordship hides away at his manor house in the countryside. He leaves only once a week to eat at the local inn, drawn by the expert cooking of the innkeeper’s wife. One day, Buchan arrives to find that the innkeeper has a new servant, a beautiful scullery maid with a queenly air, and flashing green eyes that leave him breathless and increasingly aware of his lonely existence…

Love may find them yet…

The challenge of winning his way into Tatiana’s heavily protected heart stirs Buchan back to life…but can he and his twisted leg—and broken heart—win a proud princess whose only goal is to leave Scotland and return to the court where she’s the crowning jewel? 

Cover:  I love this cover.  It just calls to me. 

The first Karen Hawkins book I read was The Prince Who Loved Me, the first book in her Oxenburg Princes series, and with it, I found a new favourite Regency romance author with a series loosely retelling fairy tales.
The Princess Wore Plaid is a novella in that series.
And it's short and sweet.  And a Regency retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
I loved this little novella, reading it in only a day.  Definitely worth picking up, but I would recommend picking up the first two books in this series first.
I only wish that this was a full sized novel as I feel that the potential was there for it to be fleshed out.
4.5/5 stars.

Read on May 18, 2016

W...W...W...Wednesday 25/05/2016

To play along, just answer the following 3 questions:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

 

 My current read is How To Pursue a Princess by Karen Hawkins

I recently finished reading How To Capture a Countess by Karen Hawkins

I think my next read will be How To Enchant and Enchantress by Karen Hawkins

[COVER REVEAL] DEEP REDEMPTION BY TILLIE COLE, HADES HANGMEN #4

And here it is guys.  The much anticipated cover reveal for DEEP REDEMPTION by Tillie Cole, book 4 in the Hades Hangmen series.
Released July 12th.
And I can't wait.

Weekend Vlog - 21st-22nd May - Make Up, Mary Shelley & Marc

#FridayReads 20/05/16

W...W...W...Wednesday 18/05/16

To play along, just answer the following 3 questions:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

My current read is The Princess Wore Plaid by Karen Hawkins

I recently finished reading Dragonfly In Amber by Diana Gabaldon

I think my next read will be How To Capture a Countess by Karen Hawkins

VLOG | 14/05/16 | Sunshine, Swanage & Steps

May 2016 Book Haul | In My Mailbox

Booking Through Thursday 12/05/16 'Weeding'

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted byBooking Through Thursday and a different question is posted every week.

 

What do you do with books you weed out of your library? If you’re like me, you find this VERY hard to do, but you want your old books to have a good, happy life somewhere … so where do you send them? What do you do with them?

 

I really struggle with removing books from my shelves- even if they are ones I haven’t particularly liked.  I don’t even know why I struggle as much as I do.

I’ve tried to remedy the situation, out of sheer necessity, because of running out of bookshelf space.  And last year I managed a huge book unhaul of around 150 books.  Once I got into it, it was much less painful than I expected.  I think there’s the only way I could part with books- en mass.

The books that I parted with, I asked friends and family if they were interested in any of them, and the ones that were left I gave to a charity that ships them abroad.

W...W...W...Wednesday 11/05/16

To play along, just answer the following 3 questions:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

This week's W...W...W...Wednesday is once again the same as last week's I'm afraid, Dragonfly In Amber is taking me quite a while to read. 

I'm currently reading Dragonfly In Amber in Diana Gabaldon

I recently finished reading The Exile: Outlander Graphic Novel

I think my next read will be Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young

 

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

Paperback: 560 pages
Publisher: Penguin (27 Sept. 2012)
ISBN-10: 0718157842
ISBN-13: 978-0718157845Cover:I like how simple but still relevant this cover it.

The Girl You Left Behind is a hauntingly romantic and utterly irresistible new weepy from Jojo Moyes, author of the Richard and Judy bestseller, Me Before You.


What happened to the girl you left behind?
France, 1916. Sophie Lefevre must keep her family safe whilst her adored husband Edouard fights at the front. When she is ordered to serve the German officers who descend on her hotel each evening, her home becomes riven by fierce tensions. And from the moment the new Kommandant sets eyes on Sophie's portrait - painted by Edouard - a dangerous obsession is born, which will lead Sophie to make a dark and terrible decision.
Almost a century later, and Sophie's portrait hangs in the home of Liv Halston, a wedding gift from her young husband before he died. A chance encounter reveals the painting's true worth, and its troubled history. A history that is about to resurface and turn Liv's life upside down all over again . . .
In The Girl You Left Behind two young women, separated by a century, are united in their determination to fight for what they love most - whatever the cost.


If you can't wait for The Girl You Left Behind treat yourself to the prequel, Honeymoon in Paris, Jojo Moyes' irresistible ebook-only novella out now.

Going into this I was both scared and excited because I read Me Before You by Jojo Moyes last year, and it quickly became my favourite book of all time.  So I was excited to experience Jojo Moyes writing again, but also nervous because in the back of my mind I knew I would be comparing it to Me Before You, and how could anything meet the expectations.
But I really enjoyed this.
I love Jojo Moyes writing.  It's just effortless, and she really makes you fall in love with her characters.
I loved this novel.  Did I enjoy it as much as Me Before You? No.  But then I wasn't truly expecting it to.  But I did love it for it's own merit.  And I really enjoyed the duel timeline.
Definitely recommend picking this one up.
5/5 stars.

April 2016 Reading Wrap Up

Booking Through Thursday 05/05/16 'Unorthodox'

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted byBooking Through Thursday and a different question is posted every week.

What’s the most unique thing you’ve ever used a book for? (Emergency door stop? Insulation? Building blocks?)

Mine is going to be a must boring answer- because I can't think of anything!  For the most part- my books live on shelves, I read them, and that's it.  I carry my current read wherever I go.

W...W...W...Wednesday 04/05/16

To play along, just answer the following 3 questions:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

This week's W...W...W...Wednesday is the same as last week's I'm afraid, Dragonfly In Amber is taking me quite a while to read. 

I'm currently reading Dragonfly In Amber in Diana Gabaldon

I recently finished reading The Exile: Outlander Graphic Novel

I think my next read will be Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young

 

Now That I've Found You (New York Sullivans #1) by Bella Andre

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Print Length: 306 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1945253002
• Publisher: Oak Press, LLC (13 April 2016)
• ASIN: B01B0Q5QSS
• 
  

Millions of readers have fallen in love with the San Francisco and Seattle Sullivans. Now get ready to fall head over heels for the New York Sullivans!

World-renowned artist Drake Sullivan doesn't paint women. Ever. Not when he knows all too well just how destructive painter/muse relationships can be. But on the day Rosa Bouchard walks onto the cliffs outside his Montauk cottage, Drake is so captivated that he can't stop himself from bringing her to life on canvas.

Shocked and horrified by the nude photos of her that have just hit the Internet, reality TV star Rosa's every instinct is to run from her Miami home and hide. After driving all night, she ends up in Montauk, New York, where she doesn't know a soul and plans to lie low until she can figure out how to deal with the media firestorm--and her own mother, who seems all too happy to sell out Rosa's happiness for more fame, more fans, and more money. The very last thing Rosa expects is to find, and to fall for, a sinfully sexy man like Drake Sullivan.

Drake has never felt this way about anything he's painted...and he's definitely never felt this way about a woman. When they kiss, everything but sweet, breathless desire melts away. But can he convince Rosa to trust--and to love--again after such a devastating betrayal?

Cover:  Another cute romantic cover.  There's just something about these covers that I just love.  And I appreciate that the covers for this series still match- they haven't undergone a massive change.

I'm a huge fans of The Sullivans series, and I have been for a couple of years now.
I'm a sucker for cute romance books, and Bella Andre gives me that in spades.
I know going into a Bella Andre book that I'm not going to be disappointed.  Yes, some books in this series I have enjoyed more than others, but I have liked them all.
Now That I've Found You was no exception.
While it was a little too close to 'insta-love' for me to truly love it.  
Rosa is escaping a scandal.  Embarrassed and heart broken, she wants to hide, well away from the cameras that normally follow her everywhere for a reality TV show.
Drake has secluded himself away in the hope to get painting again.
When the two of them meet, maybe they find just what each other need.
A really cute read, that I blazed through in just a couple of days.
A great edition to The Sullivan series.
4/5 stars.

Read from April 16 to 19, 2016