Novelas Romanticas Gratis

  I spent the New Year's weekend starting four different books and waiting for one (or more) to grab me and not let go. The Wife Upstairs was the winner! It's a quick read, and the plot loosely based on Jane Eyre gave me some idea of what to expect, although there was a twist ending to this thriller.  I'll start out by saying I didn't like one person in this whole novel. Not one. Jane is new to Alabama, and all you really know about her is that she was in foster homes for most of her life, and now she's landed a job as a dog walker in the expensive gated community of Thornfield Estates. Jane steals bits and bobbles from the people she works for-after all, she's barely making a living, and they have so much they don't miss what she takes and pawns for extra money.  One day, she meets Eddie, the enigmatic and handsome man who lives in Thornfield Estates and recently lost his wife in a boating incident. Bea and her friend Blanche were on a boat together ...

This is the second Shari Lapena novel I've read, and wow! she can really spin a heck of a domestic thriller.  The End of Her is about Patrick and Stephanie, a happily married couple and new parents to twin girls. Patrick is a partner in an architectural company, and Stephanie has left her job to stay home with the girls. Both are struggling with having two colicky babies that don't sleep and cry all the time. Stephanie is so sleep deprived she forgets to shut off the stove, and sometimes leaves the front door wide open. She just can't remember doing those things. There's not enough coffee in the world for her to stay functioning normally. Visits to a pediatrician for help don't really go as planned; the girls' doctor simply says they will stop being colicky sometime, and it will end abruptly. Meanwhile, Stephanie, and Patrick, too, are having major sleep deprivation.  One day, a woman from Patrick's past appears, and threatens to blackmail Patrick if he doe...

Another novel that was high on my can't wait to read list. I picked it up from the bookstore and was a bit surprised at the length-419 pages. It's a hefty paperback. It wasn't a book that I could zip through, either. It took me a few weeks to dig in and finish it. I'm on the fence about it; I think I'm in the middle of loving it and not loving it.  I think, upon reflection, that I was expecting more of a Fannie Flagg-esque story, and this was not at all a Fannie Flagg flavored story. It starts with the sudden death of Henny Broek. She's happily thinking of Michael, the love of her life. He's back in town, and she just spent the day with him. She absentmindedly steps onto the road and is hit by a truck. Instantly dead. Henny is only 33, and can't believe she's dead.  The story unfolds as Henny hangs around, watching her friends and her family cope with her sudden death. Henny has no idea why she's still around, but decides after a few days that ma...

I'm not a huge fan of pies; I'd rather have a piece of cake. But, gosh darn it the pies in this novel sound completely delicious, along with all the other food (hello fried chicken and biscuits) that glides through the lives of the folks in Wicklow, Alabama. I am a lover of biscuits. Lord I love biscuits. But they are on the "think twice before I stuff my mouth" list as I attempt one more time to be more mindful of what I eat and why I eat it. Trying hard to eat more protein and less not-so-great-for-me carbs. Basically, lots of lean protein (greek yogurt, low fat cottage cheese, chicken breasts, lean beef) and lots of veggies. I've even said goodbye to my summer gin and tonic and am either not having a cocktail at all, or one that comes in at 100 calories instead of 200. And having one instead of two. I'm starting my third week, and I sorely miss pasta. Thankful my Bud is along for the ride, and willing to eat what I make, and willing to find alternatives to ...

This novel fits into my Halloween reads perfectly: it involves mind tricks, ghosts, and a complicated family dynamic that leads the heroine down a dark path. The Winters is a thriller that starts off quietly enough: you get foreshadowing from the opening pages; you know something has gone terribly wrong. But then you're introduced to our heroine, who remains nameless throughout the novel. At first I thought I had just missed her name, but no, it never comes up. Hmmmm.... Meeting on the Cayman Islands where she works a drudge of a job for a horrible boss, Mrs. Winters-to-be meets Senator Max Winter, and they quickly fall in love. She's not at all what his first wife, Rebekah, was, and she becomes obsessed with Rebekah. Tall, blonde, beautiful, classy; killed in a car accident on the grounds of Asherley estate, Max's family Long Island mansion. There's Dani, Max's teenage stepdaughter, who is still grieving the death of her mother, and is a handful. She's angry, ...

This was a quick read I found at the library as I was checking in books. At first I thought it was a YA novel, but I discovered shortly after that is was actually a middle school novel. I never would have guessed, because it was well written, had great pacing, and well developed characters. I can't wait to read the next in the Cassidy Blake series! Cassidy is pretty young; I think she's about 12 in this novel. She has a gift: she can see the dead. Not only that, but she can cross over into the "Veil" and see all of the restless spirits, and how they are each in their own little time bubble, trapped between life and death. Her sidekick, Jacob, is a young boy who saved her from drowning--and yes, he's a ghost. After her accident, she's got this crazy gift. And to add to the story, her parents are famous authors of ghostly tales. She doesn't dare tell her parents what she's capable of now, a year after her near fatal accident.  Expecting to go on the fami...

I read Mary Simses' first novel The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop and Cafe  last year, and while I enjoyed it, wasn't wowed by it.  In her second novel, Mary Simses does a much better job keeping my interest, but I still have some issues with characters and plot.   Grace Hammond is a 33 year old New Yorker who comes home to Dorset, Connecticut one summer to stay with her parents while the ceiling in her apartment is repaired after a water leak in the apartment above hers.  She's also just broken up with her boyfriend, and lost her job.  A whole lot of misfortune all at once.  Fleeing to her parent's house gives her time to lick her wounds and figure out what she's going to do when she returns to New York.   That summer, director Peter Brooks is in Dorset filming a movie that is semi-autobiographical.  He's a son of Dorset, and people are very excited to have a famous director and his stars descend on the town.  Grace and Peter were friends ...