Book Review: Nashville Sweetheart

Katie July 4, 2014 0 Comments

Nashville Sweetheart was a really cute book and I enjoyed reading it.  In fact, just when I thought things were getting “good”, my Nook decided it was time to die and I was devastated that I had to take a break from reading to charge it up again!

Nashville Sweetheart is about Country Diva Aubrey James.  She is 30 years old and has been touring for the last 11 years.  The book begins with her performing what was going to be her last show of the tour before a break – a break she desperately needed as she has been working herself to the point of exhaustion.  Her socialite boyfriend ends up surprising her on stage and proposing to her.

When one of her ex-band members decides to start running her mouth about Aubrey – even though the stories she tells are true – Aubrey decides it might just be time to start doing interviews again, even though for a long time she has kept very private and tried to stay out of the media.

She ends up telling a local show, Inside NashVegas, that she will give them the exclusive.  But when the interviewer she thinks she is going to be working with is pregnant and on bed rest, she ends up having to work with the Sports reporter instead – who had previously asked her to a party and then ditched her.

He asks her questions that ends up with her questioning herself.  Is she bring true to herself? Should she focus more on the faith she used to have but has seemed to have lost?

While a bit predictable at time, it was a cute story and I really enjoyed it. I couldn’t finish it fast enough!

Book Description

What do you do when the past you’ve been dodging shows up at your door with cameras rolling?

Aubrey James ruled the charts as the queen of country for over a decade. She’d rocketed to fame in the shadow of her parents’ death—both of them pioneers in gospel music. But while her public life—high-profile romances and fights with Music Row execs—made for juicy tabloid headlines, the real and private Aubrey has remained a media mystery.

When a former band member betrays Aubrey’s trust and sells an “exclusive” to a tabloid, the star knows she must go public with her story. But Aubrey’s private world is rocked when the Inside NashVegas interviewer is someone from her past—someone she’d hoped to forget.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Book Review: The Wicked Girls

Katie July 4, 2014 0 Comments

The Wicked Girls is a bit of 2 stories in one. And try as I might, I just could not get into the present day story. In fact, after getting about 1/4 through the book and deciding I just couldn’t focus on the modern day aspect of the story, I skipped the rest of it and instead went just to the parts from 1986 that were written in the book. Usually I try to tough it out and finish all the books I review, but with this one I just couldn’t. If it was one book just about what happened in 1986 – I would have loved it!

Back in 1986 2 girls – Jade and Bel – first meet. By the end of the day, a 4 year old that was left in their care is dead. The two older girls were charged with murder. Both girls are now out of juvenile detention centers and have resumed normal lives and new names. Even their significant others do not know about their past.

In the present day – Amber works at an amusement park where a woman turns up dead. Kirsty shows up to cover the investigation as she now works as a journalist. The two recognize each other as Bel and Jade. They had agreed to never see each other again – but here they are together once again. (And I’m not even really sure what ends up happening because I didn’t care to read enough to find out)

If you have more patience than me – you might enjoy both sides of this story.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Eleven year-old Jade and Bel met for the first time one summer day, a day that began innocently enough, but that ended in calamity: six-year old Chloe is found dead and Jade and Bel are charged with her murder. THE WICKED GIRLS, (A Penguin Original; $16.00; ISBN 978-0-14-312386-6; On sale: July 30, 2013; also available as an e-book) by Alex Marwood, follows the lives of these two girls, who will never be able to fully erase the events of that day and whose destinies are forever intertwined because of it.

Both women have tried to forget the horrific circumstances of their childhoods—Chloe’s death and the juvenile detention, isolation, and series of hard-knocks that followed it. Twenty-five years later, Jade and Bel have become Kirsty Lindsay and Amber Gordon, their true identities kept secret from their friends, families, and loved ones. Kirsty works as a journalist with two children and a loving husband. Bel, recently promoted at the amusement park in the seaside town of Whitmouth where she works, owns a house and lives with her long-term boyfriend. Neither has set eyes on the other since that fateful summer day.

But when a series of deadly attacks on women shakes the town of Whitmouth, Kirsty is sent there on assignment to cover the investigation. Amber and Kirsty, both entrenched in the growing turmoil, are forced to confront each other once again and to face the past that they have struggled so hard to hide.

As the Whitmouth murders escalate, Amber and Kirsty’s lives are threatened in ways neither could have foreseen, endangering the sense of normalcy that they have desperately struggled to maintain since changing their identities. As circumstances draw Amber and Kirsty closer and closer together, the two women are forced to make an incomprehensible decision that will cement their fates together forever.

Fans of the Academy Award-nominated film Heavenly Creatures and the novels of Rosamund Lupton and Chevy Stevens will appreciate the suspense of Marwood’s novel. Dark, fast-paced, and gripping, THE WICKED GIRLS will challenge your notions of right and wrong and leave you holding your breathe until the very end.

Alex Marwood is a pseudonym of a journalist who has worked extensively across the British Press. Marwood lives in South London and is working on her next novel.