sarahsbookstack's Reviews (2.55k)

While I was disappointed that this was never in Chris's voice (I mean, is he can do a 20 minutes speech, he can get to tell good story in his own words)but only his father's, I did appreciate it.

I wanted to read this because I have a cousin and a sister in law with Down Syndrome. This book even made me learn a few things about Down Syndrome that I didn't know. 

I do like the concept of trying to be just 1% better everyday. It's going to look different for everyone. But I wish the focus had been more on Chris and why he wanted to complete an Ironman. It was kind of told but more glossed over.

Artemis Lancaster and Charlie Jonquil have a very deep dislike for one another ever since they first spoke. A mishap at a party finds them in a precarious situation and will be forced to marry or be scorned by society. 
They are called to his mother's estate to do a final reading of his late father's (Lucas)will where they both agree that they will have to put on the performance of a lifetime for their families.

I knew I would love this book but didn't know I would LOVE IT!! I cried so many times with these beautiful people that Sarah has written.

The Jonquils and Lancaster's are my two favorite fictional families EVER! This book is the conclusion of both families series of books. You will definitely get the most out of reading every story that comes before and the book Forget Me Not (the book about Mater... the matriarch of the Jonquils)

I felt so much for Artemis and the way her father treated her as if she wasn't there. She has such loving siblings, but it takes her a long time to break down the walls she's built up enough to see how much they love her.

I love how these two find their way to loving each other. I love how much Lucas's influence on both of them is shown. I loved seeing my favorite of the whole series, Adam, and him letting down his "Dangerous Duke" persona in ways that just make me cry so hard!

This book was amazing and a very great end to two families stories. (Though I hold out hope for even more books in which these characters can appear🤞)

This was so good! You COULD read this possibly as a standalone but I would recommend reading book 1 first. 
But also, Kerry has a seamless way of writing that brought moments from book 1 back to my mind effortlessly!

This story is Jenna/Lily's and Josh's. Jenna has run so many times after something that happened when she was 16. Her father, Dwight, is holding something over her head and cones back into her life to threaten her and Josh. But there's someone else who's watching them.

There are a couple of timelines. Jenna now and Lily then. I like getting to see what her life growing up was, even think it wasn't great. She had this terrible secret and her parents were just horrible people that lorded it over her! It broke my heart to learn how Josh's brain injury came about.

I cannot wait for the conclusion with Lucas's par of the story!

Desi and he husband Peter and daughter Jules are at their home in the mountains to try and repair their broken marriage (unknown to daughter Jules). Peter and Jules have always been close and he's taught her survivalist ways and how to be safe in the wilderness.

Desi's brother Tommy and former lover Carter both show up unexpectedly. They will both shake loose she secrets that Desi had long held close to her chest.

Jules is falling for a local boy, Will. They have a near death experience but Jules training kicks in and gets them to relative safety. This was a very tense part of the book and I even started to tear up.

I didn't really like Peter. He was so standoffish and I could tell that he never really loved Desi all that much. Desi herself is a little bit of an enigma and I don't always understand the different ways she acted, but I could see her love for her daughter even if they fought or ignored each other more than they got along.

Another fun and fast book. I enjoyed it a lot but still liked 1 better.

In this one, Ania and Jerome set up a bait for The Leopard at a party. They are going to steal a necklace that Ania's father made. They will plant it to look like The Leopard did it.

This didn't seem to have as much action as the first book and Ania and Jerome don't seem that close at this moment that I work for them. Hope they get back to what they were in book 3.

The Rosenfeld's moved to Colorado from Chicago for a new beginning for their family.
Their son Harry has a hard time fitting in. Always getting in trouble and beat up by others. Reuben, the dad, purchases the town paper and wants to bring it back to life and better than ever but the town likes it the way it is. Ardith, the mother, has an affair with a local that everyone loves. There is a death that will tear people's lives apart.

This was a great read. Family/domestic drama with a little bit of mystery. This book shows us that there are problems everywhere but it's how we handle them they makes or breaks us. It's a very character driven novel.

I love well written and researched historical novels. I think this is only my second book read on the topic of the 1906 massive San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires that displaced so many lives, both the rich and the poor.

In the year before- young Sophie, an Irish immigrant, answers a mail-order bride ad to escape the awful tenament she lives in in New York. Martin Hocking is looking for someone to wed to take care of his daughter who hasn't spoken since her mother died. He wants to look good to his business associates.

Sophie discovers her husband's dark secrets in the form of Belinda, a heavily pregnant woman that shows up on her doorstep claiming she's married to Sophie's husband but under a different name.

Then the earthquake strikes. Sophia now has to survive and get her young daughter Kat from under his thumb.

I really liked how Sophie and Belinda bond I've stuck an awful thing that's been done to both of them. I truly could not put this book down. It's a beautiful story of survival in many different forms. I felt right there in the story with them. I like that this story was interwoven with a transcript between Sophie and a US Marshall in the aftermath of the earthquake and seeing all these (most of the time hard) truths come out.