The Last Boyfriend (Book 2 of the Inn Boonsboro Trilogy) by Nora Roberts

From Goodreads: A new novel of a shared past, a fresh start, and a lifetime of love. — #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts introduces you to the Montgomery brothers -- Beckett, Ryder, and Owen -- as they bring an intimate bed-and-breakfast to life in their hometown. — Owen is the organizer of the Montgomery clan, r... more »unning the family’s construction business with an iron fist -- and an even less flexible spreadsheet. And though his brothers bust on his compulsive list-making, the Inn BoonsBoro is about to open right on schedule. The only thing Owen didn’t plan for was Avery McTavish...

Avery’s popular pizza place is right across the street from the inn, giving her a first-hand look at its amazing renovation -- and a newfound appreciation for Owen. Since he was her first boyfriend when they were kids, Owen has never been far from Avery’s thoughts. But the attraction she’s feeling for him now is far from innocent.

As Avery and Owen cautiously take their relationship to another level, the opening of the inn gives the whole town of Boonsboro a reason to celebrate. But Owen’s hard work has only begun. Getting Avery to let down her guard is going to take longer than he expected -- and so will getting her to realize that her first boyfriend is going to be her last…

My thoughts:
I had meant to save this book to read at the beach, but one night when I went to bed I found that all the books I am currently reading were either downstairs, in my purse or out in the car and this one was on the nightstand so I started it.  Once I started reading I just wanted to keep going with it.  I read The Next Always in January and knew I wanted to see what happened with the brothers, friends, Inn and the ghost.  It has elements from other series and stories, but is still it's own story.  In book one Clare and Beckett fell in love and got engaged overcoming obstacles like widowhood, children and a crazy stalker.  This time around organized and meticulous Owen starts to realize that his first childhood girlfriend, when they were 6 and 8, is still as alluring as she was then but both he and Avery worry that going somewhere as a couple might have repercussions in their friend and working relationships.  Avery is renting the space for her restaurant as well as her apartment from Owen's family company and she sees him all the time socially and professionally. 

Along with the relationship element of the story, more is revealed about the Inn's ghost and what she wants and who she is.  Owen and Hope spearhead the research into her past to identify her.  Lizzy has some surprising connections to the present day group.  As a backdrop to their story is the completion of the Inn and the parties, showers and weddings that are held there.  Everything seems to come together perfectly for the Inn and there are some new businesses in the works that I hope to see more of in the third book in the trilogy which is due out in November.


Product Details:

ISBN-13: 9780425246030
ISBN-10: 0425246035
Publication Date: 5/1/2012
Pages: 352

Spell Bound (Hex Hall #3) by Rachel Hawkins

Overview

Hailed as “impossible to put down,” the Hex Hall series has both critics and teens cheering. With a winning combination of romance, action, magic and humor, this third volume will leave readers enchanted.

Just as Sophie Mercer has come to accept her extraordinary magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium Council strips them away. Now Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of her sworn enemies—the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the Prodigium. Or at least that’s what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her magic, Sophie isn’t as confident.

Sophie’s bound for one hell of a ride—can she get her powers back before it’s too late?

My thoughts:
At the end of book 2 I just had to know what was going to happen, so I logged on with my Kindle and bought book 3.  Unfortunately the first night I was too tired to get very far.  I changed that the next day when I managed to finish the rest of the book.  I am a little sad as I think this might be it for the series.  Things wrapped up pretty well by the end, but that doesn't mean there isn't more that could be done.  According to Hawkins blog, Disney bought three books and her plans were to wrap things up by the end of book three, but she isn't against doing a bit more playing around with the world that Sophie lives in.

The end of book two was so tension filled that I was very glad that I waited until now to read the books since I was able to read them pretty much right after the other with no waiting in between.  While I love finding series when they are new, waiting for the next book can be hard and trying to keep track of each different set of characters and worlds they live in can start to get confusing, so there are times when procrastination pays off!

Sophie is without her powers at the start of this book, they are buried inside of her locked away by the spell she underwent before her removal was to take place.  She steps out of the Itineris to find herself in the forest with the Brannicks, who she thinks are the enemy of all Prodigium, but Cal has sent her there to find her mother so she trusts him and goes.  Turns out that not all is as it seems.  Someone high up in Prodigium society has been spreading rumors that are far from true about humans and those hunting Prodgium.  Just as someone has been raising demons on Graymalkin Island, right by Hecate Hall, not all the fires and destruction blamed on the Branicks and The Eye have been done by those groups.

Just as they are developing a plan of action, Sophie, Archer and Cal find themselves being magically transported back to a very different Graymalkin Island and Hecate Hall.  A spell has brought all the students back to create a force to take over the human world.  During the planning and battles that take place, a few things happened that made me pretty sad.  Archer learns the truth about his past and Cal sees what will be his future.  Sometimes knowledge is a good thing, but that doesn't always lessen the pain in can cause.

This series was really well done. I was glad to see on her blog that she is supposed to have a new series starting this summer as I really did enjoy her writing style and her way with characters.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9781423121329
• Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children
• Publication date: 3/13/2012
• Pages: 336
• Series:Hex Hall Series , #3

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

Overview

A modern gothic novel of love, secrets, and murder—set against the lush backdrop of Provence

Meeting Dom was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me. When Eve falls for the secretive, charming Dom in Switzerland, their whirlwind relationship leads them to Les GenÉvriers, an abandoned house set among the fragrant lavender fields of the South of France. Each enchanting day delivers happy discoveries: hidden chambers, secret vaults, a beautiful wrought-iron lantern. Deeply in love and surrounded by music, books, and the heady summer scents of the French countryside, Eve has never felt more alive.

But with autumn’s arrival the days begin to cool, and so, too, does Dom. Though Eve knows he bears the emotional scars of a failed marriage—one he refuses to talk about—his silence arouses suspicion and uncertainty. The more reticent Dom is to explain, the more Eve becomes obsessed with finding answers—and with unraveling the mystery of his absent, beautiful ex-wife, Rachel.

Like its owner, Les GenÉvriers is also changing. Bright, warm rooms have turned cold and uninviting; shadows now fall unexpectedly; and Eve senses a presence moving through the garden. Is it a ghost from the past or a manifestation of her current troubles with Dom? Can she trust Dom, or could her life be in danger?

Eve does not know that Les GenÉvriers has been haunted before. BÉnÉdicte Lincel, the house’s former owner, thrived as a young girl within the rich elements of the landscape: the violets hidden in the woodland, the warm wind through the almond trees. She knew the bitter taste of heartbreak and tragedy—long-buried family secrets and evil deeds that, once unearthed, will hold shocking and unexpected consequences for Eve.

My thoughts:

This is my very first TLC Book tour.  I have read lots of posts from other bloggers on different tours, but this was my first opportunity to take part in one.  I am the last stop on the tour so if you are interested in reading other thoughts about the book, click on the link and you should be able to find all the other hosts posts to give you more information.

At first the amount of description the author gave made me a bit worried, there was so much detail about the colors and scents, but that gave way to such a well told story that I was glad to have all the extra details to engage my senses.  Central to the story are Eve and Dom, a couple who meet by chance and engage in a whirlwind courtship that leads them to live in an isolated home without phone or Internet access far from friends and family.  It sounds romantic at first, no need to work unless you want to and lots of time to read and reflect, but then the questions creep in.  Why won't Dom reveal anything at all about his first wife?  Why does he become so hard and cruel?  Why does he not admit to knowing someone who clearly recognizes him from the past? 

It called to mind Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and then Eve is reading the book, which honestly was the first book she mentioned reading that I have actually read.  As she does he own searching into the past there continues to be the presence she feels in the house with her.  Is it Rachel, the first wife who mysteriously disappeared two years ago or is it the long ago inhabitants of the house that had it's start hundreds of years ago.  Is it the child who hid the picture book in the hay loft?  And who is the woman whose story is intertwined with Eve's, how does she play into the present, why is she also seeing ghosts of her past?

This story had me not wanting to put it down, it pulled me in from the first sitting and kept me reading to find out.  Now I really want to pull out my copy  of Rebecca and reread it.  I;ve been reading so much in the YA dystopian genre lately that I needed this to pull  me out of it for a little bit and give me a more subtle but real mystery.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780062049698
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 8/9/2011
• Pages: 400

Here's the tour post and where the master schedule resides: http://tlcbooktours.com/2012/01/deborah-lawrenson-author-of-the-lantern-on-tour-march-2012/.  I am the last stop on the tour so you can checkout what other bloggers thought.

Author's Website here.
Author's Blog:  here.
Facebook page:  here.

The Next Always by Nora Roberts (Book One of the Inn Boonsboro Trilogy)

Overview

"America's favorite writer" (The New Yorker) begins an all-new trilogy-inspired by the inn she owns and the town she loves.

The historic hotel in BoonsBoro, Maryland, has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumored hauntings. Now it's getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. As the architect of the family, Beckett's social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there's another project he's got his eye on: the girl he's been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen...

The launch of a new Nora Roberts romance series always raised pulse-raising possibilities, but the first of her Inn Boonsboro trilogy is a pleasure onto itself. At its center are Beckett Montgomery, an architect with ambitious plans and a longstanding crush, and Clare Brewster, a young widow bookstore owner who has returned to her hometown. Roberts places readers inside the crosscurrents of small-town America, showing us how relationships evolve and hit speed bumps. With its French-flap cover, an attractive paperback original.



My thoughts:
This is my first library loaned e-book.  Our local library started carrying them last Friday and I checked this one out.  I made the mistake of clicking seven day loan instead of fourteen and felt a bit pressured as this was a busy week, but I managed to get it done before today.  I feel like my reading time has really dwindled lately.

This book was a nice comfortable read.  It reminded me a bit of her Sign of Seven trilogy and the In the Garden trilogy.  The characters had similarities to me to the ones in those books, but it was still a fun read.  Clare owns a bookstore, my dream job even though I know tons of them are going out of business, and Beckett is an architect who works with his family and still does a lot of the physical work as well.  His family is renovating an inn and they are making it into a one of a kind place.  There is a resident ghost who I will be interested to see more of in the second book due out in May.

Clare and Beckett have a grown up romance, she has three young boys and is a widow whose husband died in war and Beckett lost his father young and has always had a crush on her.  They move around obstacles and learn to trust each other.  They encounter the types of issues real people face, kids and job demands, trust and misunderstandings, and everything else.

I love how at the inn they are making each room different and to reflect a couple from a different book, like Elizabeth and Darcy.  It made me want to read the books the characters were taken from!


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780425243213
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Publication date: 11/1/2011
Pages: 352
Series: Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy, #1
Product dimensions: 5.30 (w) x 8.20 (h) x 1.10 (d)