Novelas Romanticas Gratis

January sped by and now I'm staring February in the face.  Of course all the books I've asked for through the library are now rolling in, so I've got a glut to read.  Gee, twist my arm.  😉  But before I get to what I'm reading for February, I've got a quick review of The Guests on South Battery by Karen White. I'll tell you right now that I absolutely adore this series.  This is fifth book in the series, so please don't start with this one, but start at the beginning with The House on Tradd Street.   You'll be a bit lost, and darn it, come into the story after all the really good stuff happens between Melanie and Jack.  **Warning:  spoiler alert** Melanie is returning to work as a realtor specializing in historic homes in her hometown of Charleston, SC.  Work continues on her home, as do the odd paranormal events that come with her home.  Jack is working on a book, and having twin babies means they need a nanny.  Melanie's latest...

Life's been pretty hectic the past few years, but I've always had a plan to update the look of my blog.  Of course every time I started to seriously think about it I'd get a compliment on the look of my blog, so I felt I shouldn't change it.   But the time has come.  I've been blogging about books since March of 2010-- hard to believe it.  I 've changed , so it's time for a fresh look!  Th e current look to my blog isn't permanent; I'll be experimenting a bit until I find a look that reflects how I feel about books, blogging, and life in 2017.  So be patient, and don't be s urprised if you see multiple blog looks over the coming months.   Meanwhile, I'll continue to blog every week about books I love.   Cheers!   Yours in Books The Bookalicious Babe 

It's not a new publication (2003), but hey--that's what makes books such a treat.  It's a new book if you've never read it before.  The tale of this book for me goes back a few years.  When I'd shelve books in the fiction section of my bookstore, this was a constant restock and it always seemed to be sitting face out on the shelf.  I looked at it time and time again for years  but never picked it up.   Forward 14 years, and I'm thinking of what topic I can talk about for my first book talk of 2017.  I usually read non-fiction books that have a medical aspect to them for my book talks at my hospital, and this time I thought I'd try a fiction novel with a medical element.  Moloka'i came to mind immediately.  Aha! Now I had a reason to read it.  It was just the historical fiction novel I needed to read in January. Moloka'i takes place in Hawaii from 1891 through 1970.  It's a historical span that saw Hawaii move fro...

I'm not the best at admitting I have DNF's (did not finish books) every month.  My method of picking up multiple books and starting them, then setting them down (sometimes for weeks at a time) has been a part of my reading life for years.  I didn't really ever think of it as DNF but rather "moving on" to read something else with the expectation that I would eventually come back to that book and finish it.  Sometimes I do, but most times I don't.  I think the more you read, the more you realize not every book is a good fit; it can depend on the time of year, what's going on in your life...lots of things.  Usually for me it's all about the mood I'm in and what I want to read to fit that mood.  Forcing myself to read outside of that mood usually leads to an unhappy Sue and an unfinished book.  That's the case with Homegoing .  A friend loaned me her copy months ago, and I was eager to read it after hearing some really great reviews from others I k...

Katie Cravens is a successful CEO of Pasta Pronto, her very own diet frozen food company; she's a size 2, and happily engaged to a lawyer.  Everything sounds great, right?   Except Katie comes home one day and finds her finance in bed with another woman.  And there are candy wrappers all over the floor!  Her finance's last zinger, as he moves out, is that his lover doesn't worry about what she eats, and that's what makes her more attractive than Katie.  Ouch.  That hurts.   Katie's blows continue, as her company struggles to survive a recall notice on one of her meals after it makes people sick.  Hoping to save her company, she agrees to partner with the Caramelli family in Italy, famous for their restaurants and quality Italian cuisine. Luci Caramelli invites Katie to Italy to go over paperwork and meet each other.  Luci's twin brother Luca is the moody, extremely sexy chef who doesn't want to partner with Katie and consi...

Kicking off the new year with a dystopian teen novel about a future America where there is no disease, everyone has everything they need, and no one goes hungry.  Sounds great, right? Well, everything has a price.  With medical advances and a system that has people who have accidents going to revival centers coming out good as new a few days later...it creates a whole lot of people living, and not so many dying.  So the world came up with scythes.  These are special people who are trained, and become for life, someone who goes out and "gleans" people.  Gleaning is another word for killing, murdering, finishing someone off.  When a scythe shows up at your door, your life is over.  Some scythes use statistics to decide who will die, others take a random approach.  Each scythe must glean approximately 250 people a year, which equals about 5 million people world wide.  Not nearly enough people as those who died from disease, accidents, ...

I spotted this paperback at my local bookstore and picked it up, not expecting much at all.  What I got was a wonderful collection of short stories about a fictional village in England called Notwithstanding.   Each chapter is another story about someone who lives in or around the village.  I spent some time trying to figure out the time frame, but eventually gave up when I realized that there was no firm time frame; rather the families and stories remained the same and lent a familiar air to other stories.  I got a sense of the history of this village being knitted together each time I started another tale.   The stories range from humorous, to sad, to tender, to simply fond memories about people and events.  Some of my favorites:  Mrs. Mac and her ghostly husband; Colonel Barkwell and his disastrous dinner (was the fish bad?), the beautiful house that a young man never wants to leave; the big fish that must be caught in order to save the baby bi...

My first read of 2017 was about Paris and kale.  Yes, you read it correctly.  Sounds a bit strange, but actually it was an interesting read about moving to a completely brand new environment and having a bit of a rough time adjusting.  Paris may appear to be a dream, but it can often times prove to be a difficult place to make a new home.  Kristen Beddard was living in New York City, happily single, when she met Philip at work.  They dated, fell in love, and got married with the realization that Philip's job was sending him to Paris for long periods of time and the best plan was to move to Paris and live there for the next five years.  Kristen had been to Paris years earlier, and loved it.  She was excited to go, and read heaps of blogs about Americans living in Paris.  She thought she was prepared, and was headed to a lovely life, complete with ballet flats, red lipstick and, hopefully, a job teaching in English. She was, sadly, wrong on all coun...

The new year always gets me revved up to read.  A whole year ahead for me to discover, explore, and digest the books that make their way into my world.  I'm hoping to bounce back into my reading groove and have challenged myself to read 100 books this year.  I know people have read 150, 200, 225 in a year;  that's a pretty lofty goal for me, even reading 3 or 4 at a time.  Life sometimes keeps me from reading as much as I'd like, and keeping my blog does take up some time each week.  So far there are no weddings planned for 2017, no big trips to take, nothing on the horizon to interrupt the flow of my reading mojo.  I am hoping to retrain myself to sit still long enough to read large chunks at a time.  I'm certain I can easily meet my goal of 100 books, and hope to exceed my expectations! Too many years of having too much to do has left me with a habit of only reading 20 or so pages at a time, then feeling the urge to get up and do something else,...