Monday, June 22, 2020

Blog Tour: I Was Told It Would Get Easier by Abbi Waxman



Title: I Was Told It Would Get Easier
Author: Abbi Waxman
Series: Stand Alone
Genre: Women's Contemporary
Published By: Berkely (June 16, 2020)
Source: ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review


Book Description:
Squashed among a bus full of strangers, mother-daughter duo Jessica and Emily Burnstein watch their carefully mapped-out college tour devolve into a series of off-roading misadventures, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

Jessica and Emily Burnstein have very different ideas of how this college tour should go.

For Emily, it’s a preview of freedom, exploring the possibility of her new and more exciting future. Not that she’s sure she even wants to go to college, but let’s ignore that for now. And maybe the other kids on the tour will like her more than the ones at school. . . . They have to, right?

For Jessica, it’s a chance to bond with the daughter she seems to have lost. They used to be so close, but then Goldfish crackers and Play-Doh were no longer enough of a draw. She isn’t even sure if Emily likes her anymore. To be honest, Jessica isn’t sure she likes herself.

Together with a dozen strangers–and two familiar enemies–Jessica and Emily travel the East Coast, meeting up with family and old friends along the way. Surprises and secrets threaten their relationship and, in the end, change it forever.






About the Author:



Hi there. I'm a chocolate loving, dog loving writer living in Los Angeles. I sit down if I can, and lie down whenever possible. If you enjoy my book and would like a personalized, signed bookplate to go in it, email me your name and address and I'll send you one!






A fun heart warming and sometimes funny story about the bonds between mothers and daughters. I loved the strong sense of girl power in this as well as what it takes to keep a family going in these times and also be a working women in a sometimes very much, male dominated world. 

Woman has a wonderful ability to dive into tough subject matters with quirky characters and very real feeling situations and events and still inject a fun loving sense of humor along with all the tough serious heart felt moments. 

Monday, June 1, 2020

Review: The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton

Title: The Last Train To Key West
Author: Chanel Cleeton
Series: Stand Alone
Genre: Contemporary/Historical
Published By: Berkley (June 16, 2020)
Source: ARC Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
My Rating: 4.5 Stars!


Book Description:
In 1935 three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton's captivating new novel.

Everyone journeys to Key West searching for something. For the tourists traveling on Henry Flagler's legendary Overseas Railroad, Labor Day weekend is an opportunity to forget the economic depression gripping the nation. But one person's paradise can be another's prison, and Key West-native Helen Berner yearns to escape.

The Cuban Revolution of 1933 left Mirta Perez's family in a precarious position. After an arranged wedding in Havana, Mirta arrives in the Keys on her honeymoon. While she can't deny the growing attraction to the stranger she's married, her new husband's illicit business interests may threaten not only her relationship, but her life.

Elizabeth Preston's trip from New York to Key West is a chance to save her once-wealthy family from their troubles as a result of the Wall Street crash. Her quest takes her to the camps occupied by veterans of the Great War and pairs her with an unlikely ally on a treacherous hunt of his own.


Over the course of the holiday weekend, the women's paths cross unexpectedly, and the danger swirling around them is matched only by the terrifying force of the deadly storm threatening the Keys.







This author never ceases to blow me away with her amazing stories. Stories that transport you back in tome to another world, another place and another time. When women were still viewed as less than a world very much in turmoil. 

Her endearing characters are so real, so raw, and so darn relatable. You want to know them, you feel like  they are friends and most of all, you end up caring greatly for them by the time their story is over.

This time her story takes us to Key West in the lives of three very different woman and the story takes place over a long Labor Day weekend during a time in our history much of the world has forgotten about during a storm, many remember. A story about three woman who are even though they are different, are still very much the same. All struggling to make something of themselves and to be different, to be strong and independent and most of all, to be happy with their life and choices.

I adored all these women. Their heartache was my heartache and their joy, my joy. I became so invested in their future and I wanted only the best for them. I truly loved every single page of their stories and I couldn't of asked for a better ending for them all.  

I love this author and she has quickly become a favorite and for good reason. She truly is talented at all that she writes and knows how to make a story, to make characters, come to life. 





*All thoughts and opinions are my own and were not influenced by the author or publisher. I was not compensated for this review.*