This turned out to be Colleen Coble week! Learn which book surprised me by how much I liked it, which one I wish I would have skipped, and which book is perfect for the Hallmark movie lovers out there.
Featuring:
Smitten Book Club by Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, Diann Hunt
Smitten by Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, Diann Hunt
Where Shadows Meet by Colleen Coble
Haven of Swans by Colleen Coble
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If you're a woman who appreciates connecting with other women in community with vulnerability and compassion, please join us in the Solidarity Sister! Facebook group at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/716800349946338/
The Solidarity Sister! Book Club has begun and runs through the end of May. We're reading Brené Brown's Gifts of Imperfection over a period of 15 weeks, and connecting via Zoom and Marco Polo. Find more info in the FB group. Sign up at https://forms.gle/ZHpfhd8hwCpw6NL2A
FB: The Solidarity Sister Podcast IG: @solidaritysister.kristinwilson
This turned out to be Colleen Coble week! Learn which book surprised me by how much I liked it, which one I wish I would have skipped, and which book is perfect for the Hallmark movie lovers out there.
Featuring:
Smitten Book Club by Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, Diann Hunt
Smitten by Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, Diann Hunt
Where Shadows Meet by Colleen Coble
Haven of Swans by Colleen Coble
*************************************
If you're a woman who appreciates connecting with other women in community with vulnerability and compassion, please join us in the Solidarity Sister! Facebook group at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/716800349946338/
The Solidarity Sister! Book Club has begun and runs through the end of May. We're reading Brené Brown's Gifts of Imperfection over a period of 15 weeks, and connecting via Zoom and Marco Polo. Find more info in the FB group. Sign up at https://forms.gle/ZHpfhd8hwCpw6NL2A
FB: The Solidarity Sister Podcast IG: @solidaritysister.kristinwilson
Kristin:
Hello and welcome to another book review episode of Solidarity Sister with Kristin Wilson. This week turned out to be Colleen Coble week. I've listened to a number of Colleen Coble's books in the past, but somehow when I was looking up books to read on the Libby app this week, I discovered several that I hadn't listened to yet, so I downloaded those and I've been working my way through them. The surprise review of the week for me was Where Shadows Meet. I first read the description of this book to my 17 year old son, and we both agreed that it sounded kind of ridiculous. Hannah is distraught when her parents are murdered. But what makes it worse is that she should have been at home with them, not meeting her forbidden love, Reece. Unable to face the community and her guilt, she runs away and marries him. But Reece isn't the man she thought he was. He controls her completely, and when she gets pregnant, against his wishes, he pushes her down the stairs as she approaches her due date. When she wakes in the hospital and he tells her the baby died, She knows she's had enough. She runs again. Years later, Hannah has become an expert on Amish quilts, and her visibility allows Reece to track her down. He begs her to come back, saying he's changed, and sends her a picture of their daughter. This couldn't be real, could it? Hannah is certain this is just another way he's trying to manipulate her, but the chance, no matter how slight, of seeing her daughter won't leave her mind. When another member of her old community is found murdered by the same poison that killed her parents, old fear surfaced. Was Reece the one who killed her parents in order to get her away? And is he killing again to get her back? So honestly, the storyline just sounded kind of awful to me. But I listened to it anyway. I don't know. And I was like, how is she an expert on Amish quilts? Like, what the heck? But surprisingly This one turned out to be really good and I loved the way that Colleen weaved this book that theoretically the character Hannah would have written about Amish quilts throughout the storyline. The quotes that were there. There was definitely, you know, a heavier theme of domestic violence, but also there were themes of faith and overcoming, redemption, forgiveness, repentance, not for every character, but for those who chose to progress in a positive and forward manner. And so I. was surprised. I actually thought it was really good. And it is one that I would recommend. And I think it was better than the description made it out to be. On the other hand, Haven of Swans went the other way for me. It is actually the only one of Colleen's books that I regret listening to. The character of Gideon was just too dark for me, and Gideon's end was too brutal for my blood. I like suspense and some crime and some romance, but I don't like it to get too graphic or too dark, and I am not in for bedroom scenes either. The other two books that I want to bring up from this week's, I covered eight Colleen Coble books total. Were actually collaboration books written by Colleen Coble and three of her author friends. The other three friends are Kristen Billerbeck. Denise Hunter and Diane Hunt. These books were smitten, and then the second one is called Smitten Book Club. The book Smitten takes place in the town of Smitten, surprise! And the people in this town, it's a small area, they rely heavily on the lumber industry. And word comes that the lumber mill is going to close and 500 people are going to lose their jobs that in this small town, 500 people is a huge percentage of the people that are there. So they're concerned about what are they going to do? How are they going to handle this? And a close knit group of women think that they've got this plan to turn Smitten into a destination romance location. They want to put in a spa. They want to have skiing. They want to have fun activities, restaurants, things that would be for honeymooners, people celebrating their anniversary, just be a really a getaway place. And there is a former resident of Smitten whose name is Sawyer Smitten and he was the town's hometown hero. He's a country music sensation, and he wants to come home to Smitten to hold his wedding there, which makes for great publicity. So the first book is all about that, and that is Smitten. The second book is called Smitten Book Club. I'm going to read you the description for that one. Smitten. Book Club. The thick, leathery tome Heather pulled out of the dusty cardboard box was definitely coming home with her. Not only was the gentlewoman's guide to love and courtship an appealing curiosity by virtue of its title, it was also written by Smitten, Vermont native Pearl Chambers, a local gentlewoman from three generations back. Little did Heather know the repercussions this little curiosity would have on her and her friend's romantic exploits. When Heather and her fellow book club members begin passing the book around, their respective interpretations are unleashed on their respective love lives. For better, for worse. Is it a mystery, an idealist fantasy, an intimation of Jane Austen? As romantic love finds its way to each woman, the guide proves itself both surprisingly prescient and hilariously irrelevant. What's more, a handwritten inscription indicates that the arcane book might hold the only extant clues leading to buried gold. Exactly what one of the members needs to keep her house. How could they not go treasure hunting? In this remarkable collaborative novel, besties Colleen Coble, Kristen Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, and Diane Hunt tackle the tale of The Gentlewoman's Guide by writing for one book club member apiece. Smitten Book Club is a hopeful, hilarious story of friendship and healing written by friends for friends. If I were to only recommend one of these two books, Smitten Book Club absolutely gets my vote. Both of them have four different sections, each written by one of those four authors. So there's eight couples coming together total in these two books. I feel like Smitten Book Club had better writing and it was a more cohesive storyline overall. Having this book, The Gentlewoman's Guide, And that search for the gold gave a bridge that tied the four different shorter stories together. Honestly, also one of the characters in Smitten in the first book was kind of annoying to me. So that was another win for the Smitten Book Club. Smitten Book Club was definitely really fun. If you are someone who enjoys sweet, fun, light, closed door romances, Smitten Book Club would be a great choice for you. My favorite Colleen Cobles are still the Rock Harbor series and the Aloha Reef series at this point. None of the eight books that I went through this week beat those out. She is a pretty prolific writer and she does a good job of bringing together suspense, action, and romance without passing my threshold for being too dark or gory or graphic, with the exception of Haven of Swans. So that's it on the book review topic this week. We're still running our Solidarity Sister Book Club. This Thursday night on Zoom, we'll be discussing Guideposts 3 of Brene Brown's Gifts of Imperfection. Find out how to join us in the show notes. Thank you for being part of the Solidarity Sister community. We needed you.