Novelas Romanticas Gratis

  To purchase from Amazon, click here   There's nothing I like better than to recommend books to people. It's no surprise, then, that this novel gave me all the feels and a lot of sighing over my "if I could do it all over again" wish to own a bookstore in a small town.  Nora and Simon operate a small bookstore in the village of Stowford, England. Nora inherited the shop from her mother, and they've been a cornerstone of the village for thirty years.  Unfortunately, unpaid taxes and a slowdown in sales has meant Nora is keeping some important news from Simon: they are in danger of losing the shop if payments aren't brought up to date by the end of the year.  Simon is oblivious to the financial pickle they're in because Nora is worried about his heart (he had a minor heart episode previously) and won't let him help much in the shop.  An elderly man stops in and purchases a special book--it's the one book that has gone unsold in the shop for thirty...

To purchase from Amazon, click here  I've read quite a few Anita Hughes novels and she has a way of putting me right into glamorous places that I'm pretty sure I won't have a chance to experience in my real life. And that's exactly what I enjoy about her novels.  This one is particularly interesting because it takes place over the Christmas holiday at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. It also involves the author of the Eloise books, Kay Thompson. A little bit of literary history tossed in with the magic of New York City at Christmas time--and romance, too. Sabrina is a struggling writer who is just scraping by when she gets hired by renowned art dealer Grayson Prescott to help write his memoir. Part of the deal is staying at the Plaza Hotel for six days and nights on his dime. Sabrina is thrilled not only for the paycheck, but also because Eloise is her favorite heroine from childhood.  What makes it even more appealing   are Grayson's stories of his time as a b...

  To purchase from Amazon click here   As I've said before Katie Fforde is one of my go-to authors when I want a comforting read.  I was pleased to find this collection of short stories from 2014 a few months back, and have faithfully kept my promise not to dip into it until the Christmas season arrived.  However, I ripped into it a few days ago, and as the author promises in the forward, these short stories are perfect for those times you want to read but can't settle down for very long. A bite here, a bite there of stories involving women during the holidays in a variety of settings: Scotland on New Year's Eve, moving into a new cottage the day before Christmas Eve; going away on a post-Christmas vacation with a partner that seems to have lost his spark.  Each story is short: anywhere from ten pages up to 25 or so. Just enough to whet your appetite. It was fun to read stories where romance bloomed in a short time, in a variety of circumstances....

  In keeping with my magical, mysterious reads for October, I grabbed Ruth Hogan's latest novel featuring a fortune telling woman who keeps everyone's secrets, no matter what.  This story bounces back and forth between present day and 1973 in the English seaside town of Brighton. Imelda Burova is young and full of life. She's taking over her mother's fortune telling business on the pier, and she's very, very good at it. Imelda spends her whole life reading fortunes, and after decades of business, she decides its time to retire.  Only retirement and Imelda just don't quite go together. As a keeper of promises and secrets, Imelda has one whopper of a secret she just can't share. She can, however, do some digging and make contact with the woman who was left as an infant in front of Imelda's storefront on the pier.  Enter Billie, who has just sold her parent's home and laid her father to rest. Newly divorced and without a job, she is at a crossroads in l...

I decided to review two books in one post this week. I was cruising along, reading at a good clip and somehow over the weekend hit a snag. However, some time at home (and I'll confess, a few late nights) had me finishing two books on my September list.  First is Aria's Traveling Book Shop by Rebecca Raisin. This is a sequel to Rosie's Traveling Tea Shop (read my review here ), but definitely isn't really necessary to read it before this one.  We find Aria and Rosie getting ready to take their campers to France so travel the fete and festival circuit. Aria's camper is chock full of books to sell, while Rosie (a former chef), creates delicious British treats to sell, along with specialty teas that often compliment Aria's books.  Aria is a young widower, and has firmly shut her heart to any possibility of ever falling in love again. She had her true love, and no one can match it. However, there is Jonathan; a quiet, handsome, and bookish ...

  Followers of my blog should know by now I read pretty much any novels set in and around libraries and bookstores. Lucky for me there are plenty of them!  The Last Chance Library is a charming novel about a small English town fighting to save their library from closure. June Jones is a library assistant at the same library her mother worked at for years, until her death eight years before.  June loves working at the library, and does it all: reference, help at the computers, shelving, and recommends--even to crabby old Mrs. B, who says every book she reads "Is shit". Only problem is the library has been left to become rundown due to endless cuts in the budget. Now the city council is going to determine if they should shut the library down completely, and replace it with a bookmobile instead.  June, along with her faithful library patrons, is horrified and determined to do whatever they can to keep the library open. June, however, has been warned her job is on t...

  Not going to lie. It hurt my heart a bit to finish this book. I, along with a whole lot of other readers, don't want to say goodbye to the Owens family. I was dragging my feet finishing this novel simply because I love this series so much. I guess you could call it a series, spread over 25 years. Alice Hoffman didn't expect to write more than the first novel, Practical Magic . That novel (I still have my original paperback) introduced me to Alice Hoffman and I've been a fan since.  However, fans kept asking for more about the Owens family, so Alice wrote three more books. But now it's time to say goodbye.  It took me a few chapters to remember the family tree, but heck my eyes were leaking not far into the story. Dang it! This novel centers around Fanny and Jet, and nieces Sally and Gillian. It also brings back brother Vincent, and two more Owens women, Kylie and Antonia, the two daughters of Sally.  Reading Magic Lessons will set you up for th...

  My bestie Candace and I share a love of Katie Fforde novels. We've been reading them for--oh gosh, about 20 years? Maybe more. First discovered her when B&N featured her novel Wild Designs way back in the 1990's. I bought the hardcover (still have it) read it super fast, and decided I would always read Katie Fforde novels whenever I could.  Unfortunately, they can be hard to get in the U.S. I told Candace we needed to visit the UK just to stock up on novels we can't easily get here. She's up for it.  I bought a used copy of A Country Escape and I'll confess I stayed up way past my bedtime Monday night so I could finish it. There is something comforting about Katie's novels--almost like having a cozy blanket wrapped around me. Her novels usually involve a female main character who is a bit older (not in her early 20's) and has an interesting career or finds herself doing something completely out of her normal life. In A Country Escape, Fran finds ...

  Click here to order from Amazon This was a fun, quick read. Jo Thomas is an English author who reminds me of Katie Fforde novels--contemporary women's fiction with a dash of romance and usually featuring a woman in her 30's-40's. This novel takes place in Sicily, Italy and involves lemons--which I adore so much. I love everything lemon. Lennie and Zelda are friends who have come to the conclusion that life in England is not going to get better. Neither of them are happy with their humdrum lives. Lennie tells Zelda about an opportunity to move to Italy and live in a small town where they will pay for you to stay and help grow the community. Sounds like a win-win, right? And that pesky part about not finding love?  Lennie and Zelda made a pact years ago that if they reached age forty without finding true love, they would get married. What could possibly go wrong with marrying your best friend? Off they go to Italy, and meet a few other people who have also taken the ...

  Buy Here:  https://amzn.to/3m1SPH3 I knew I'd love this book when it first was out in hardcover last year (2020) and it was getting so many great reviews. It took me a year but I finally bought it in paperback and vowed I would read it this month. This is a sweet, special story.  Linus Baker is living a life as dull and grey as the weather in London. He is in his early forties and every day he works at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He travels to orphanages and checks to make sure the magical children at each location are being properly cared for--and he takes his job very seriously. He's been doing the same job for seventeen years. His routine is the same every day: get up, go to work, come home and feed his cat, eat a sad salad, and listen to records. No friends, nothing. He's fully aware his life is not the best, but he's just too tired to do anything about it.  He gets a special assignment from the Extremely Upper Management--a case that i...

  Warmer temps this past week have me perking up a bit. All the snow has disappeared from my yard and that makes me happy, too. Spring is definitely around the corner, and this novel hit all the right notes    and I couldn't have read it at a better time of the year.  Rosie is a sous chef at a very upscale restaurant in London. She's been married for some time, and beginning to think it's time to start a family. However, her husband decides to start a family with another woman, and leaves Rosie on her birthday . He tells her she's "boring".  Crushed, Rosie realizes she's at a dead end career-wise and besides, she just can't continue to work where everyone knows her husband left her (for another sous chef). She impulsively (late at night, drinking wine) buys a bright pink van, affectionately named Poppy, and decides to leave London to travel the country selling baked goods and tea at festivals. It's a pretty big switch from her organized London life...

  I've been reading a lot of historical fiction this month. Maybe I'm trying to make up for the lack of it in my 2020 reading list? I have been ping-ponging between quite a few books, and not making a big dent in any of them. So, what I do when that happens is start another book. Ha! This was a quick read, and I enjoyed it very much. It was just what I needed to read. The Kitchen Front is based on an actual World War 2 contest that was sponsored by the BBC. In this novel, four women in the small town of Finley Village enter the contest hoping to be the winner. For each of them, it means a chance to change their lives for the better. Audrey is a widow with three children, barely hanging onto her home by baking pies and scones for the locals. Lady Gwendoline is Audrey's estranged sister. She is all about appearance and making her stuffy, nasty husband proud. Nell is a servant for Lady Gwendoline, and a very talented young cook. She dreams of leaving her position for somethi...

  I first read about the real-life mystery of Agatha Christie's disappearance in 1926 a few years ago and was fascinated by it. What intrigued me the most is that no one, to this day, knows what exactly happened, and why she disappeared for eleven days in December, 1926. This lead to a wave of news media and police searching for her, fearing the worst. And yet after eleven days, she's found staying at a hotel near London, under an assumed name.  Agatha Christie never explained her disappearance--never talked about it for the rest of her life. Instead, she went on to become the most popular author of all time, writing mysteries that defined the genre and made her so famous she still steadily sells books and has movies based on her works produced 100 years later. Amazing.  Marie Benedict was also intrigued by this real-life mystery and decided to craft a novel around it, with a possible explanation as to the "why" of it. It's an interesting take on ...

  If you're looking for some steam for Christmas, this is the novel to read. A contemporary romance that takes place in the Lake District of England, this was a quick read I picked up at B&N last month.  Emma Tremayne left her job in London for a quiet place to heal her broken heart. Definitely a fish out of water; a city girl in the country. Her new job with the tourist board in the town of Bannerdale has brought her into contact with the rescue team in town. They are raising money to build a new center; their current digs are pretty small and dumpy. Her idea: a calendar featuring the men-naked. One for each month. These men are super fit, handsome, and perfect for a calendar; now to just convince them. Especially one man in particular: Will Tennant. He's completely against it.  Sparks fly between Emma and Will, and for most of the novel, both are hit and miss in their interactions. But it's clear there's something building between them, and when it does explode......

  I've read Rachel Joyce's novels before, and I know I am always in for a quirky tale that hits me hard in the heart when I'm least expecting it. Her latest didn't disappoint, and I loved everything about it.  It's 1950, and Margery Benson is in her late 40's, single, and teaching home economics in post World War 2 England. She has no family, and has settled into a pretty sad and lonely life. One particular day, a student draws a picture of Margery, and once Margery sees the drawing, she loses it. She snaps, walking out of the school, quitting her job, and going home. She decides to leave it all behind and pursue her one dream-a dream from childhood that she stuffed deep down and decided would never happen. Her dream? to travel to New Caledonia in pursuit of the legendary golden beetle. Does it exist? Who knows? But Margery is determined to find it. She advertises for a companion to help her in her quest, and lively, quirky Enid Pretty is her last hope to p...

  This mystery has been on my book radar for a few weeks. I keep seeing it all over social media, and kept seeing it coming in and out of the library. I had a chance to grab a copy from my library, and settled down this week to read it and was charmed from the first page.  The Thursday Murder Club is a group of retirees living at Coopers Chase, a retirement village in the Kent countryside. It's a fairly well set up place, with plenty to do and all sorts of interesting folks. The drinks flow freely and there's gossip aplenty. Converted from a nunnery, it is a stunning spot to retire to and relax in the countryside. Ron, Joyce, Elizabeth and Ibrahim get together on Thursdays to discuss old murder cases. Elizabeth's good friend Penny, a retired detective, lives at Coopers Chase with her husband John. Only thing is that Penny is in a coma, and she's the one who kept all the files of cases she worked on years before. Elizabeth is one interesting woman ...

  I needed to escape from my October reading for a bit and found the perfect book to do just that. This novel will be out in January, 2021 so if you're a fan of Julia Kelly you'll have a few months to wait.  I'm one of those people who love all things gardening-especially flower gardens. I am, however, not one to be out in a garden working on it every chance I get. I love the results, but not so much all the work to get there. I used to have a lot of flowers in my yard, but I've scaled back massively the past few years because I don't have the time, and I've realized that whomever follows me in my house may not want a lot of flower beds around. I still have perennials, but I've gone to simple, easy to care for summer flowers and plants in pots. I still have a wish for a forever home with a field of wildflowers somewhere on the property. My partner has agreed on this, so hopefully in the future I'll have that gardening wish come true.  This novel has quit...

  I absolutely loved this book. It delivers a pretty simple message. We are so preoccupied with the "what ifs" and the "If onlys" that we sometimes forget to look at the lives we have and understand the gift they are-and continue to be as our lives unfold. Unfold in a way that should continually amaze us, but instead sends us sometimes into unhappy places. Has us trying to live a life that will make others happy, and not really make us happy.  This is Nora Seed. She's thirty-five, single, and works in a music store. She's depressed a lot and takes anti-depressants to get through her days. Her parents are dead and her older brother is very distant. The final straw is finding her cat dead. She realizes her life is empty of love and really anyone caring about her, so she decides she's done and drinks a bottle of wine and take a bunch of pills.  End of story, right? Kind of gloomy, you think? Nope. Nora wakes up in an amazing place: a library. It's a lib...

  Blogger upgraded and I discovered I can add more fonts. After years of using one particular font, I decided to branch out and use this font, called "raleway". Exciting stuff!  Hester Fox has written three novels, and I've read them all. I still love her first novel the most, but this one was pretty interesting, a mix of spiritualism, grave robbers, and a secret society determined to reanimate corpses ala Frankenstein.  Did you know there were people who were hired to sit with someone as they died, and then sit with them a few days more to make absolutely sure they were really dead? All because people were terrified of being buried alive. Can you imagine having that job?! So. The orphan in this novel is Tabby, a young woman who, with her older sister Alice, ran away from their horrible aunt and uncle ten years before. The sisters were separated, and Tabby was forced to fend for herself as a young twelve year old in 1844 Boston. Penniless, wi...

  I was very lucky to receive an ARC of this novel, mostly because I finally just last week sat down to start it. I was browsing my bookshelves and spotted it and remembered it was out in August and I definitely wanted to read this latest from the author of The Orphan Train. I'm sure this will be wildly popular and hard to get unless you buy a copy for yourself.  Before I give my review, I'll update you on my bookshelves, after the Great Weeding Project of 2020 that I did a few months ago. I'm still being pretty tidy, and not stacking any books on the floor. I'm still buying books, but trying not to buy too much! Now I can see everything fairly quickly, so it does make it easier to find something to read. Now to just circle around and pick up on the books I tried to read this summer and didn't for one reason or another. I'm very happy I did the work and cleaned up my books. All that clutter was making me feel like I couldn't read fast enough, but ...