On My Bedside

At the expense of my full DVR, I’ve been spending my evenings after the littles are in bed reading rather than watching the tele. 

The Night Circus

This is a beautifully written and mesmerizing story.  I enjoyed every word on every page. I very, ever so rarely read a book twice, but if I did this would probably be one on that list.

From Amazon:  The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.  But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.  Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

Stuck With You

This was a free Kindle download and was cute.  A cute story with cute characters.  A mindless way to spend a couple of spring nights and, at zero dollars, was priced right.  I wouldn’t pay money to read this one, but if you come across it free or at the library and have a few hours to blow then I say “why not?”

Amazon says:  Two feuding divorce lawyers.  One infectious “love bug” virus.  The symptoms are hard to resist . . .  Paige Hart is blessed and cursed with a large, loving and. . .colorful Southern family. As the only lawyer in the clan, she can’t say no when her cousin needs her help in a messy, no-holds-barred divorce. Tax attorney Paige squares off with Ross “the Snake” Bennett-one of the slickest divorce lawyers in the county. The case is going as well as an acrimonious, zinger-filled, wrangle of epic proportions can go until exposure to an infectious bug with an unusual side effect lands both lawyers in quarantine together.

Dunaway’s Crossing

Another free Kindle download of the day … I pretty much gobble up any historical fiction set in the deep South and this was no exception.  It has all the good stuff…birth, death, love, shame and humility.  It’s easy to read, entertaining and quite enjoyable.

Goodreads says: One rural town beset with disease,  Two women secluded in a remote cabin,  Only one man stands between them and death. Nineteen year-old Bea Dot Ferguson leaves her wealthy Savannah home and travels to rural Pineview, Georgia where her pregnant cousin lives. Her purpose: to escape her abusive husband, who knows her shameful secret. Immediately Bea Dot realizes she’s left one perilous situation and landed in another as Pineview has been infected with deadly influenza. Only with the help of war veteran Will Dunaway can Bea Dot escape contagion. But can he also help her escape her husband’s wrath?

The rest of my summer (and likely fall and winter) reading list may or may not include:
Evermore, Delirium, Insurgent, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, A Discovery of Witches, Matched, Defending Jacob and, if they come out this year as promised, The Golden Lily and Written in My Own Heart’s Blood  (OMG…I have been waiting on this since 2009!).

I’d love to know what’s on your bedside or in your beach bag this summer!
xoxo