Meet Me Under the Stars

Meet Me Under the Stars by K.D. Proctor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a fun book....
First, I have to say, this isn't typically anything like I would read. It left me blushing a lot & saying "Language" out loud over & over... & then it just became part of the characters & I didnt seem to mind it as much. But again its NOT my typical book I read.
But I HAD to read this...just HAD to because the author is someone I have followed through the years & am so excited for her debut novel.
& I absolutely loved the store of the book. The characters of Charlie & Nate & this passionate love they had & then tore apart ... & the reason they have to come back together to their old stomping ground at camp, where they used to be camp leaders along with all of their old camp friends.
I feel like I should just be wearing shorts & flip flops & ratty t-shirts & hair in a braid reading it.
It was a fast read with parts that made me laugh, brought back memories, but would also make me cringe with frustration for the characters & heart ache for the people just not getting their act together to get to that happy ending.
The only reason I didnt give a full 5 stars is again, just because of my own hang ups on the content. I know some people that usually read chick-lit-beach-reads would think nothing twice of some of the stuff that had me blushing & saying "Oh gosh" ... & again, it didnt distract from the story - only made it more clearer of the passion of these two characters.
I'm sad to let Nate go... the perfect English accent boyfriend... every girl needs a Nate - I'm convinced of it.
Keep an eye out for this book if you are a fan of some hot steamy chick-lit reading... & you dont blush easily ;)

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When ratings for her popular DIY show start to circle the drain after the sudden death of her sister, Charlotte “Charlie” Conti has only one mission—to plan a comeback. But her sister had other plans. As part of the will, Charlie must work with *him* to create a memorial scholarship in her sister’s memory. The same *him* Charlie fell in love with three years ago while working at a summer camp.
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The same *him* she dumped, to protect his heart.

Sexy, British player, Nate Walsh, has sixty days to find a new job or he’ll be deported back to England where he’s no longer welcome. He doesn’t have time to work on a memorial scholarship with *her*. The same *her* who shattered his heart without explanation or warning.

The same *her* he’s never gotten over.

Unable to agree on the specifics of the scholarship, Nate and Charlie challenge each other to a winner-takes-all competition. They both know the only way to win is to turn up the heat and tempt one another with the one thing they both want: each other. But as sparks fly, their true feelings resurface. Nate and Charlie must decide if their love is worth the effort and if they can overcome their disastrous past mistakes to spend forever together. 

As Old As Time

As Old as Time by Liz Braswell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Y'all!!!! You know I love me some Beauty & the Beast & have read nearly every book out there that is related to the topic.
This is by far my favorite recently (I think Beauty by Susan Wilson still is my fav - I need to re-read & see if it still holds up)
But this one? I ADORED!!!!!
I wasn't even sure what it was about... & actually it kind of confused me because each chapter goes back & forth in time.
& I loved how PART I is exactly like the Beauty & the Beast story in the respective chapters... UNTIL....UNTIL Belle changes something up.
I LOVED THIS STORY!
It's so smart. The idea that the Enchantress that cursed the Beast was Belle's mother. I loved how the characters are the same from the movie, but TOTALLY different in the end.
I JUST CANT SAY ENOUGH ... as a huge B&tB fan, I devoured this... & am so happy that I loved it & caught off by what a fun, surprising read it was.

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Belle is a lot of things: smart, resourceful, restless. She longs to escape her poor provincial town for good. She wants to explore the world, despite her father's reluctance to leave their little cottage in case Belle's mother returns—a mother she barely remembers. Belle also happens to be the captive of a terrifying, angry beast. And that is her primary concern.

But Belle touches the Beast's enchanted rose, intriguing images flood her mind—images of the mother she believed she would never see again. Stranger still, she sees that her mother is none other than the beautiful Enchantress who cursed the Beast, his castle, and all its inhabitants. Shocked and confused, Belle and the Beast must work together to unravel a dark mystery about their families that is twenty-one years in the making.

The Matchmaker

The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was my first Elin Hilderbrand book - after hearing all about her books & how they are perfect summer beach reads. I see that.
A book that has touches of soap opera in them... drama, romance, dancer, more romance, fighting, abuse, heartache...
I enjoyed this one, the story of an old love coming back into Dabney's life... & enjoyed the corny 'matchmaking powers' of all things turning rosy or green. So corny. But the part that really got me was the "lovesick" thing. When you're lovesick, you dont need to take off work for 3 days because you hurt & cant move. That was just dumb to me.
But I did love the overall story of friendship, of family, of love that lives on ... even in the sad & heartbreaking parts.
I'll totally try another Hilderbrand book

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48-year-old Nantucketer Dabney Kimball Beech has always had a gift for matchmaking. Some call her ability mystical, while others - like her husband, celebrated economist John Boxmiller Beech, and her daughter, Agnes, who is clearly engaged to the wrong man - call it meddlesome, but there's no arguing with her results: With 42 happy couples to her credit and all of them still together, Dabney has never been wrong about romance.

Never, that is, except in the case of herself and Clendenin Hughes, the green-eyed boy who took her heart with him long ago when he left the island to pursue his dream of becoming a journalist. Now, after spending 27 years on the other side of the world, Clen is back on Nantucket, and Dabney has never felt so confused, or so alive.

But when tragedy threatens her own second chance, Dabney must face the choices she's made and share painful secrets with her family. Determined to make use of her gift before it's too late, she sets out to find perfect matches for those she loves most. The Matchmaker is a heartbreaking story about losing and finding love, even as you're running out of time.

Love & First Sight

Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Such an interesting & sweet read.
Will is blind, born that way, but wants to try whats its like to be in a real school instead of the Blind Institute. He finds his way around using all his senses & even makes friends & develops some good relationships. Especially with Cecily, a girl that cried when she first met Will & thought he was staring at her.
So what happens when Will is able to do an experimental surgery that can give him sight. & what happens when he sees what Cecily really looks like.
It's such an interesting read to think about what its really like to be blind. Not knowing colors, knowing what perspective is, even trying to understand what styles are, or description of basic things we take for granted.
& in the end, this story at the heart is about what beauty really is. How its viewed in the world & in the heart.
I really enjoyed this one.

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Love is more than meets the eye.

On his first day at a new school, blind sixteen-year-old Will Porter accidentally groped a girl on the stairs, sat on another student in the cafeteria, and somehow drove a classmate to tears. High school can only go up from here, right?

As Will starts to find his footing, he develops a crush on a sweet but shy girl named Cecily. And despite his fear that having a girlfriend will make him inherently dependent on someone sighted, the two of them grow closer and closer. Then an unprecedented opportunity arises: an experimental surgery that could give Will eyesight for the first time in his life. But learning to see is more difficult than Will ever imagined, and he soon discovers that the sighted world has been keeping secrets. It turns out Cecily doesn’t meet traditional definitions of beauty—in fact, everything he’d heard about her appearance was a lie engineered by their so-called friends to get the two of them together. Does it matter what Cecily looks like? No, not really. But then why does Will feel so betrayed?