Firefly Distributed Lines Archives - What's Better Than Books?

Source: Firefly Distributed Lines

21
Sep
2023

#BookReview A Storm of Infinite Beauty by Julianne MacLean @FireflyDist @AmazonPub #AStormofInfiniteBeauty #JulianneMacLean #LakeUnion #FireflyDist

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

Title: A Storm of Infinite Beauty

Author: Julianne MacLean

Published by: Lake Union Publishing on Sep. 12, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 300

Format: Paperback

Source: Firefly Distributed Lines

Book Rating: 9/10

From the bestselling author of Beyond the Moonlit Sea comes an atmospheric tale of how one woman’s search for the truth uncovers long-hidden secrets and rocks the very foundation of her world.

Scarlett Fontaine is a true Hollywood legend—a singer, actress, and beloved fashion icon. But Scarlett dies tragically at just thirty-six years old, leaving behind no children. Or so the story goes…

Gwen Hollingsworth is the curator at a museum dedicated to Scarlett’s life. She’s also sole heir to Scarlett’s fortune as a descendant of the star. But all is not well in Gwen’s world. She’s dealing with a messy marital separation and is struggling to move forward. So when Peter Miller, a biographer and photojournalist, comes to the museum with shocking claims about Scarlett—a life of exile in Alaska, a baby born in secret—Gwen’s whole world is turned upside down.Again.

Determined to uncover the truth, Gwen and Peter set out for Alaska together but soon find themselves on a path toward something far deeper and more meaningful than either of them ever expected.

A Storm of Infinite Beauty takes readers on a breathtaking journey from a lush vineyard in Nova Scotia to a rustic lodge in Alaska where old family secrets are revealed and the quest for true happiness begins.

Review:

Immersive, emotional, and vivid!

A Storm of Infinite Beauty is set in Valdez, Alaska and Wolfville, Nova Scotia, in both 1964 and 2017, and is told from two different perspectives; Gwen, a young woman who spends her days running a museum dedicated to Scarlett Fontaine until a biographer shares some intriguing information that sees her travelling to Alaska to unravel the secrets surrounding one year of her late, legendary family member’s life, and Valerie/Scarlet, a young girl whose life is changed forever after she spends a year of heartache, loss, and tragedy in Valdez before heading to LA to follow her dream of becoming an actress/songwriter.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are resilient, brave, and scarred. And the plot is a moving tale about life, loss, family, secrets, desperation, friendship, survival, grief, marital discord, and the devastation of the Great Alaskan earthquake.

Overall, A Storm of Infinite Beauty is a heartfelt, sentimental, affecting read by MacLean that does a lovely job of interweaving historical facts and compelling fiction into an insightful, heart-tugging tale that is atmospheric and highly absorbing.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

Thank you to Firefly Distributed Lines for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

About Julianne MacLean

Julianne MacLean is a USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including the contemporary women’s fiction Color of Heaven Series. Readers have described her books as “breathtaking,” “soulful” and “uplifting.” MacLean is a four-time Romance Writers of America RITA finalist and has won numerous awards, including the Booksellers’ Best Award and a Reviewers’ Choice Award from Romantic Times. Her novels have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been published in over a dozen languages.

MacLean has a degree in English literature from the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a degree in business administration from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. She loves to travel and has lived in New Zealand, Canada, and England. MacLean currently resides on the east coast of Canada in a lakeside home with her husband and daughter.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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06
Sep
2023

#BookReview The Beauty of Rain by Jamie Beck @writerjamiebeck @FireflyDist @AmazonPub #TheBeautyofRain #JamieBeck #Montlake #FireflyDist

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Women's Fiction

Title: The Beauty of Rain

Author: Jamie Beck

Published by: Montlake Romance on Jul. 18, 2023

Genres: Women's Fiction

Pages: 332

Format: Paperback

Source: Firefly Distributed Lines

Book Rating: 9/10

Two devoted sisters at a tragic breaking point discover the beautiful and painful truths of being alive in a powerful novel by Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Jamie Beck.

Winning the lottery changed Amy Walsh’s life, but the cost was greater than she could bear. In the aftermath, she struggles to find joy and purpose. Only one thing feels certain now—she will never spend one cent of the prize money on herself.

Worried, her older sister, Kristin DeMarco, invites Amy to live with her family while she heals. Unfortunately, this arrangement leads to trouble for Kristin: Divided focus affects her career. Her daughter prefers Amy to her. And Amy’s unsolicited opinions provoke tension between Kristin and her husband.

Meanwhile, Amy is making drastic plans of her own, which include giving away all her money. But first she must convince Kristin not to squander her most valuable asset—time with her family.

As the sisters help each other reimagine their futures, life’s unpredictability sends them to surprising places that test their love and resilience. Will they learn to live in the now, before it’s too late?

Review:

Memorable, sincere, and heartbreaking!

The Beauty of Rain is an intimate, pensive, emotionally-charged novel that sweeps you away to Old Greenwich, Connecticut and immerses you into the lives of two sisters. Amy Walsh, a young woman who is struggling to find a reason to go on after winning the lottery and subsequently losing her husband and son in a tragic accident, and Kristin DeMarco, a mother of two who is finding it harder and harder to juggle her sister’s mental health, a demanding career, and a family she doesn’t see as much as she should would like to without the constant help of a little white pill.

The writing is effortless and polished. The characters are multi-layered, genuine, anxious, and supportive. And the plot, including all the subplots, skillfully intertwines and unravels into a touching tale about life, love, guilt, grief, family drama, secrets, friendship, happiness, self-discovery, marriage, overwhelming responsibilities, the day-to-day struggles of experiencing extreme loss, and the special bonds that exist between sisters.

Overall, The Beauty of Rain is a beautiful mix of hope, heart, tragedy, and healing that is not only a heart-wrenching, emotive, lovely novel by Beck but one which I don’t think anyone could possibly read and not be thoroughly absorbed and utterly moved.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

Thank you to Firefly Distributed Lines for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

About Jamie Beck

Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Jamie Beck’s realistic and heartwarming stories have sold more than three million copies. She is a two-time Booksellers’ Best Award finalist, a National Readers’ Choice Award winner, and critics at Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist have respectively called her work “smart,” “uplifting,” and “entertaining.” In addition to writing novels, she enjoys dancing around the kitchen while cooking and hitting the slopes in Vermont and Utah. Above all, she is a grateful wife and mother to a very patient, supportive family.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Website.

01
Sep
2023

#BookReview In the Likely Event by Rebecca Yarros @FireflyDist @AmazonPub #IntheLikelyEvent #RebeccaYarros #Montlake #FireflyDist

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Contemporary Romance

Title: In the Likely Event

Author: Rebecca Yarros

Published by: Montlake Romance on Aug. 1, 2023

Genres: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 348

Format: Paperback

Source: Firefly Distributed Lines

Book Rating: 9/10

When Izzy Astor gets on a plane to go home, she isn’t expecting much. It’s the usual holiday travel experience: busy, crowded, stressful.

Then she spots her seatmate, who is anything but ordinary. Nate Phelan sports dark hair, blue eyes, and a deliciously rugged charm that Izzy can’t resist. Their connection is undeniable. Izzy never believed in destiny before, but she does now.

Just ninety seconds after takeoff, their plane goes down in the Missouri River.

Their lives change. They change. Nate goes on to a career in the military while Izzy finds her way into politics. Despite a few chance encounters over the years, the timing never feels right.

Then comes a high-stakes reunion in Afghanistan, where Nate is tasked with protecting Izzy’s life.

He’ll do anything to keep her safe. And everything to win her heart.

Review:

Romantic, thought-provoking, and absorbing!

In the Likely Event is a poignant, intimate tale that sweeps you away into the life of Izzy Astor and Nate Phelan, two teenagers who, after having an instant connection and surviving a plane crash together, spend the next several years separately following their dreams while fondly anticipating and savouring the few days they sometimes get to spend together until an unexpected meeting on the war-torn streets of Afghanistan has them not only trying to survive but finally confronting the long-buried hurts, secrets, and feelings they’ve built up over the last ten years for each other.

The prose is sentimental and tender. The characters are independent, supportive, and layered. And the plot is a compelling, touching tale of life, love, family, honesty, kindness, communication, acceptance, self-discovery, grief, loss, understanding, forgiveness, romance, taking chances, and new beginnings.

Overall, In the Likely Event is another emotive, thoughtful, beautiful read by Yarros that reminds us that life is complicated and messy, timing is everything, and sometimes, perhaps, things are just truly destined to happen.

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

Thank you to Firefly Distributed Lines for gifting me a copy in an exchange for an honest review.

About Rebecca Yarros

Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and lover of all things chocolate, coffee, and Paleo. In addition to being a mom, military wife, and blogger, she can never choose between Young Adult and New Adult fiction, so she writes both. She's a graduate of Troy University, where she studied European history and English, but still holds out hope for an acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Her blog, The Only Girl Among Boys, has been voted the Top Military Mom Blog the last two years, and celebrates the complex issues surrounding the military life she adores. When she's not writing, she's tying on hockey skates for her kids, or sneaking in some guitar time. She is madly in love with her army-aviator husband of eleven years, and they're currently stationed in Upstate NY with their gaggle of rambunctious kiddos and snoring English Bulldog, but she would always rather be home in Colorado.

Photo by KATIE MARIE SENIORS

26
Aug
2023

#BookReview The Hollywood Jinx by Sariah Wilson @sariahwilson @FireflyDist @AmazonPub #TheHollywoodJinx #SariahWilson #Montlake #FireflyDist

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Contemporary Romance

Title: The Hollywood Jinx

Author: Sariah Wilson

Published by: Montlake Romance on Jul. 25, 2023

Genres: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 299

Format: Paperback

Source: Firefly Distributed Lines

Book Rating: 8.5/10

When Hollywood comes to small-town Ohio, the scene is set for an unpredictable romance in a fun and flirty novel by Sariah Wilson, the bestselling author of The Chemistry of Love.

The small town of Patience needs a financial boost. Temporary librarian and aspiring film-score composer Jane Wagner’s plan? Invite movie star Nick Haddon to the town’s harvest festival and stand back for the tourist surge. No one thought he’d say yes—much less that he’d bring a documentary crew to stream his visit.

Given Nick’s affinity for trouble, his reputation and films are tanking. Patience is the perfect stopover on a journey of self-improvement and his chance to put good karma out in the universe. Spending time with a sweet and lovely guide like Jane is a bonus. But Jane’s heartbroken past keeps her on guard against men. Especially when they’re jinxed.

The truth is, Jane’s falling hard. But she can’t ignore the differences between them. He’s famous. She isn’t. He’s here for two weeks. This is her home. Where can it possibly lead? She’ll see. Because day after blissful day, Nick’s encouraging Jane to trust again and, best of all, to dream beyond Patience.

Review:

Romantic, hopeful, and sweet!

The Hollywood Jinx is a heartwarming, sassy tale that takes you to the idyllic town of Patience, Ohio and into the life of the hardworking, kind Jane Wagner as she juggles the renovations of her family-owned B&B, the responsibilities of being the temporary librarian and town mayor, the organization of the town’s much-needed revenue making annual festival, and a growing attraction for a movie star who’s only in town for two weeks.

The prose is smooth and light. The characters, including all the supporting characters, are fun-loving, supportive, and endearing. And the plot is a heartfelt, flirty blend of tricky situations, tender moments, humorous hijinks, self-discovery, new beginnings, friendship, family, happiness, romance, community, and love.

Overall, The Hollywood Jinx is a charming, witty, adorable read by Wilson with characters I couldn’t help but root for and a swoon-worthy ending that left me smitten, satisfied, and already looking forward to reading whatever she comes up with next.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

Thank you to Firefly Distributed Lines for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

About Sariah Wilson

USA Today bestselling author Sariah Wilson has never jumped out of an airplane, never climbed Mt. Everest, and is not a former CIA operative. She has, however, been madly, passionately in love with her soulmate and is a fervent believer in happily ever afters—which is why she writes romance. She grew up in southern California, graduated from Brigham Young University (go Cougars!) with a semi-useless degree in history, and is the oldest of nine (yes, nine) children . She currently lives with the aforementioned soulmate and their four children in Utah, along with two cats named Pixel and Callie, who do not get along. (The cats, not the children. Although the children sometimes have their issues, too.)

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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