Lisa's Looking Forward To #40 - December 3rd, 2019

Back to joining up with the Waiting on Wednesday Posts, and the Can't Wait Wednesday posts hosted by Wishful Endings.  Only two books this week to share.

From my ARC list for December 3rd, 2019:

This sounds like it could be a fun one!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue meets Jane Austen in this witty, winking historical romance with a dash of mystery!

Lady Victoria Aston has everything she could want: an older sister happily wed, the future of her family estate secure, and ample opportunity to while her time away in the fields around her home.

But now Vicky must marry—or find herself and her family destitute. Armed only with the wisdom she has gained from her beloved novels by Jane Austen, she enters society’s treacherous season.

Sadly, Miss Austen has little to say about Vicky’s exact circumstances: whether the roguish Mr. Carmichael is indeed a scoundrel, if her former best friend, Tom Sherborne, is out for her dowry or for her heart, or even how to fend off the attentions of the foppish Mr. Silby, he of the unfortunate fashion sensibility.

Most unfortunately of all, Vicky’s books are silent on the topic of the mysterious accidents cropping up around her…ones that could prevent her from surviving until her wedding day.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE. 
 

Love the cover, and it sounds good!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

In this charming, feel-good debut novel, a cynical assistant at a screenwriting agency must reenact the meet-cute scenes from classic romantic comedy movies in order to help her #1 client get his scriptwriting mojo back--but can a real-life meet-cute be in store for someone who doesn't believe in happily ever after?

After seven years as an assistant, 29-year-old Evie Summers is ready to finally get the promotion she deserves. But now the TV and film agency she's been running behind the scenes is in trouble, and Evie will lose her job unless she can convince the agency's biggest and most arrogant client, Ezra Chester, to finish writing the script for a Hollywood romantic comedy.

The catch? Ezra is suffering from writer's block--and he'll only put pen to paper if singleton Evie can prove to him that you can fall in love like they do in the movies. With the future of the agency in jeopardy, Evie embarks on a mission to meet a man the way Sally met Harry or Hugh Grant met Julia Roberts.

But in the course of testing out the meet-cute scenes from classic romantic comedies IRL, not only will Evie encounter one humiliating situation after another, but she'll have to confront the romantic past that soured her on love. In a novel as hilarious as it is heartwarming, debut author Rachel Winters proves that sometimes real life is better than the movies--and that the best kind of meet-cutes happen when you least expect them.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.

With the new version of the Little Women movie coming out, this looks like it might be the perfect time for this!

 Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

The timeless classic Little Women inspired this heartwarming modern tale of four sisters from New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra.

The March sisters—reliable Meg, independent Jo, stylish Amy, and shy Beth—have grown up to pursue their separate dreams. When Jo followed her ambitions to New York City, she never thought her career in journalism would come crashing down, leaving her struggling to stay afloat in a gig economy as a prep cook and secret food blogger.

Meg appears to have the life she always planned—the handsome husband, the adorable toddlers, the house in a charming subdivision. But sometimes getting everything you’ve ever wanted isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

When their mother’s illness forces the sisters home to North Carolina for the holidays, they’ll rediscover what really matters.

One thing’s for sure—they’ll need the strength of family and the power of sisterhood to remake their lives and reimagine their dreams.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.

Final Thoughts:
Back this week after none to share last week.  Have you read any of these yet?  Are they on your TBR?  And hey, while you're here, you should go try to win some of my ARCs from Cleaning Up My TBR Post HERE.  The US only giveaway is open till Friday at midnight, there are even some 2019 ARCs that can be one of your two choices. 

Cleaning Up My TBR With a Giveaway (US Only) - Down the TBR Hole #30

This meme was started by Lost in a Story.  Here is how it works:

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

Because I have so many to do, I'm going to try to do this weekly, and do 10 at a time.


1.   You're (Not) the One by Alexandra Potter:

Most women dream of finding the love of their life. Lucy just wants to lose him...

Venice, one of the world's most romantic cities, lives by the legend of the bridge of sighs: When a woman kisses the man of her dreams under the bridge at sunset, she will be together with him forever. So eighteen-year-old Lucy seals her fate in the blush of first love with Nate.

Yet ten years later, the pair has completely lost contact-until the day Lucy arrives at Nate's luxury Manhattan apartment with paintings he has purchased from the gallery where she is newly employed. The legend has reunited the couple, and Lucy is overjoyed-until the state of their union is misery.

Can destiny be undone? In the hands of the international bestselling author Alexandra Potter, "You're (Not) the One" is a witty romance that turns on the power of a kiss.
 
My thoughts:
Doesn't really sound like one I want to read anymore.

Verdict:  Toss



2.  Breakfast at Darcy's by Ali McNamara:

When Darcy McCall loses her beloved Aunt Molly, she doesn't expect any sort of inheritance - let alone a small island! Located off the west coast of Ireland, Tara hasn't been lived on for years, but according to Molly's will, Darcy must stay there for twelve months in order to fully inherit. It's a big shock. And she's even more shocked to hear that she needs to persuade a village full of people to settle there, too. Darcy has to leave behind her independent city life and swap stylish heels for muddy wellies. Between sorting everything from the plumbing to the pub, Darcy meets confident, charming Conor and sensible, stubborn Dermot - but who will make her feel really at home?

My thoughts:  
Kind of sounds cute, again like what I was reading at the time I added it to my TBR.  But I have a feeling it's not quite the same as the romances I read these days, maybe a little too tame.

Verdict:Toss




3.  Little Women and Me by Lauren Baratz-Logsted:

Emily March is sick and tired of being a middle sister. So when she gets an assignment to describe one thing she'd change about a classic novel, Little Women is an easy choice. After all, if Emily can't fix things in her own family, she might as well bring a little justice to the other March sisters. Perhaps she can--spoiler alert!--keep Beth from dying? Or maybe she can prevent the boy next door from winding up with Amy instead of Jo?

But when Emily gets mysteriously transported into the 1860s world of the March sisters, she discovers that righting fictional wrongs won't be as easy as she thought... especially when she develops a crush on the very boy she planned to save for Jo. After being immersed in a time and place so different from her own, Emily--and not the March sisters--may be the one who undergoes the most surprising change of all.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted's winning confection is a journey of self-discovery that will appeal to fans of Little Women as well as anyone who enjoys time travel or a modern twist on an old favorite.

My thoughts:  
Hmm, I do love a good retelling like this.  But I've never actually read Little Women.  Hmm.  Decisions, decisions.  Maybe I'll keep this one for now.

Verdict: Keep



4.  Asylum by Kristen Selleck:

Across the country, hidden in plain sight, are the forgotten remains of a once-great psychiatric movement: the asylum. These crumbling castles all share a common appearance and history. They inspire curiosity, fear, and even a few urban legends.

Chloe Adams came to Birch Harbor, a small college town in the U.P., to escape the stigma of mental illness. Her new roommate Sam Klingeman, came to drink her weight in vodka and find a hot guy with a trust fund. Between Chloe's developing relationship with campus hockey hero and floor RA, Seth Maird, trying to be the voice of moderation for Sam, and her new position as teacher's assistant for the eccentric Dr. Willard, she's stayed busy enough to keep the past firmly behind her.

But the voices return...and this time, she's not the only one that can hear them.

The beautiful old dormitory she lives in is hiding a secret. A secret that will uncover a dark plot 200 years in the making. Will Chloe be able to hold onto the new life she's worked so hard to build, will she relapse into a world of her own making, or will she, perhaps, fulfill the legacy she was born into?
 
My thoughts:
Hmm, not sure, can't decide on this one.  Sounds like it could be a good one!  But since I've not heard of it much really, maybe not.

Verdict:Toss

5.   Once More Upon a Time by Patrick Thomas and Diane Raetz:

Beyond the veil lives the source of fairy tales, dark entities who are the embodiment of fable. They watch and wait for another chance to wreck havoc in the real world. None of them want anything to do with happily ever after. The fables take over humans and manipulate events to reenact their stories, each time with new, unwitting players trapped in the story cycle. If left unchecked, the death and destruction escalates to a worldwide scale. For over a thousand years the duty of stopping them has fallen on the agents of Templar Mason, known in the days of old as the Knights Templar. Witch Jillian Anderson is hunting a sorcerer who has found a way to summon the stories to the mortal plane. She must stop him before the fables can get a foothold on the real world and end their stories before they end hers.
  
My thoughts:
Eh, not sure this one sounds that great.  Maybe too much going on.

Verdict: Toss



6.  Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips:

Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse--and none too happy about it. And they've had to get day jobs: Artemis as a dog-walker, Apollo as a TV psychic, Aphrodite as a phone sex operator, Dionysus as a DJ.

Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning, and even turning mortals into trees--a favorite pastime of Apollo's--is sapping their vital reserves of strength.

Soon, what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills. Two perplexed humans, Alice and Neil, who are caught in the crossfire, must fear not only for their own lives, but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed-but can these two decidedly ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heroes and save the world?

My thoughts:
Again, while I like retellings, especially about gods, this one has low ratings on Goodreads, and not sure I care that much.

Verdict: Toss



7.  This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers:

It's the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won't stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn't sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she's failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she's forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group's fate is determined less and less by what's happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

My thoughts:  
This is still one I want to read! 

Verdict:  Keep


 8.  The Hating Game by Talli Roland:

When Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she's perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy.

After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £200,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes.

Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end?

My thoughts:
This one does still sound kind of good.  I do love the reality tv stories. 

Verdict:  Keep


9.  The Whole Package by Cynthia Ellingsen:

It's a man's world-but in this outrageous debut, the girls aren't playing by the rules. 

For lifelong friends Jackie, Cheryl, and Doris, life hasn't turned out according to plan. But after a drunken night sampling the delights at a strip club for women, the ladies stumble upon an ingenious idea and open up The Whole Package-the world's first restaurant staffed exclusively by very attractive men. Mixing business with pleasure can be risky, but for these three best friends, getting a little bit outrageous just might be what it takes to make their mark in the world. 

My thoughts:
Eh, so-so, probably wouldn't ever get to this one.

Verdict:  Toss


10.  Illuminated by Erica Orloff:

Some loves are not made to last . . . Like Romeo and Juliet, Heloise and Abelard were doomed from the start, and their romance was destined to pass into history. Yet when sixteen-year-old Callie Martin discovers a diary hidden within an antique book, their story - and hers - takes on another life. For the diary leads Callie to the brilliant and handsome August, who is just as mysterious as the secret the diary hides. Their attraction is undeniable. As the two hunt down the truth behind the diary - and that of Heloise and Abelard's ancient romance - their romance becomes all-consuming. But Callie knows it can't last . . . love never does. Will their love that burns as bright as a shooting star flame out, or will these star-crossed lovers be able to defy history?

My thoughts:
Eh, not sure this is anything I need to read.

Verdict: Toss


Final Thoughts:
Keeping three again this week out of the ten, still more gone than kept! Still haven't had time to do much unpacking to get rid of books, so real ones are still waiting to be looked over, although I have pulled 3 autographed ones out.   Once again you can see that I may have dropped some, but you can also see how many I've added during the week as well because I'm also pointing out how many books are on my Want to Read list on Goodreads each week.  This week, after taking these 7 off, I have 3,170 books listed now, and last week I ended with 3,184. Not sure if I took some books off my lists this week without realizing, or what, but hey, the number is going down, so that makes me happy!

Have you read any of these?  Would you suggest I keep any I'm tossing?  And if you're inspired to do this on your blog, please feel free to join in and share a link in the comments, since it will also get you an extra entry into my giveaway at the bottom of this post.      
 

Giveaway:
Once again this is a US only giveaway, unless you are International and see a book here you really want and would be willing to pay for the difference in the shipping through Paypal or some other way.  This week I'm upping the prize, you get to pick any two books from the pictures below, as long as they don't get traded away, or picked by last week's winner, and I will pick a surprise book from the piles to add to your choice.  Here are your choices:   

2018 ARCs:

2017 ARCs:

I'm continuing to add in my early 2019 ARCs now.  You can pick one of your two choices from the picture below, the other book you pick needs to come from the pictures above.

Once again I'm going to let you pick two, along with me throwing in a surprise third book!  Just enter the Rafflecopter below.   Disclaimer:  Unfortunately, while I've only had it happen once, I'm going to have to make a statement like other giveaways I've seen on blogs that I am not responsible for lost mail. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Release Blitz: The Spring Girls by Anna Todd

The Spring Girls by Anna Todd  

Release Date: January 2^nd, 2018  

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Four sisters desperately seeking the blueprints to life—the modern-day retelling of Louise May Alcott’s Little Women like only Anna Todd (After, Imagines) could do.

The Spring Girls—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—are a force of nature on the New Orleans military base where they live. As different as they are, with their father on tour in Iraq and their mother hiding something, their fears are very much the same. Struggling to build lives they can be proud of and that will lift them out of their humble station in life, one year will determine all that their futures can become.

The oldest, Meg, will be an officer’s wife and enter military society like so many of the women she admires. If her passion—and her reputation—don’t derail her.

Beth, the workhorse of the family, is afraid to leave the house, is afraid she’ll never figure out who she really is.

Jo just wants out. Wishing she could skip to graduation, she dreams of a life in New York City and a career in journalism where she can impact the world. Nothing can stop her—not even love.

And Amy, the youngest, is watching all her sisters, learning from how they handle themselves. For better or worse.

With plenty of sass, romance, and drama, The Spring Girls revisits Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women, and brings its themes of love, war, class, adolescence, and family into the language of the twenty-first century.

Read Today!  

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2no4u8H 

iBooks: https://goo.gl/nBaxhA  

Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/yb5y2qb7  

Kobo: https://goo.gl/TRJ7fE  

Google Play: https://goo.gl/M7it93  

Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2jtd8xo

Meet Anna Todd:

Anna Todd is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of the After series. Hailed by Cosmopolitan as “the biggest literary phenomenon of her generation,” Anna began her literary career on the social storytelling platform Wattpad. Serialized on Wattpad in 2013, After has over 1.5 billion reads on the site. The print edition, published in 2014 by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, has over 15 million copies in circulation, has been published in over 30 languages and is a #1 bestseller in Italy, Germany, France and Spain.

A native of Ohio, Anna was a voracious reader all her life, citing Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights and Fifty Shades of Grey as some of her favorites. In 2012, after discovering the world of fanfiction for fandoms like Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, The Mortal Instruments, Anna began writing as a way of continuing the stories she so loved from fanfiction community.

Connect with Anna:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorannatodd/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/imaginator1dx  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imaginator1d/  

Stay up to date with Anna by signing up for her newsletter here: https://goo.gl/KbGJ7F http://www.annatodd.com

Waiting on Wednesday: The Spring Girls: A Modern Retelling of Little Women by Anna Todd

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  So, I usually don't do this.  But I am so excited about this book that as soon as I could fit it in, I had to share it.  There is no synopsis anywhere yet, at least not on Goodreads.  But, the title kind of tells it all.  It is a modern retelling of Little Women. And it is by one of my favorite authors, one I'm currently pretty much obsessed with, Anna Todd.  So here is the cover.

That's all I've got for you.  Have you read Anna Todd?  Have you read anyone on Wattpad at all?  If not, you should totally check it out!  What book or books are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Review: The Revelation of Louisa May by Michaela MacColl

First, thanks to Chronicle Books and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  Now, I have to admit that I've never read Little Women, or seen the movie, or read anything by Louisa May Alcott.  But, I'd never read Jane Eyre until I read the book The Eyre Affair.  While this was an okay story, not sure that it makes me need to read any of her books.  I was intrigued though, as I always am, by any book that takes a look at an author's life, especially fictional books because they can add in some fun details. 

This story is about Louisa May Alcott's life when she was about 15 and her mother had to go work in another city to bring the family money.  I guess I didn't realize that the author lived in a community with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.  I really liked that bit of history that was woven into the story.  Louisa's family was also very much into the abolitionist movement,  to the point of being part of the Underground Railroad.  In the story, when Louisa's mother goes to the job she leaves Louisa in charge of the household, which includes not only doing the housework, cooking and cleaning for her father, but also watching her younger sister Beth, while her mother took the youngest, May, with her.  The household management included a "package", the runaway slave George, who showed up right as Louisa's mother, Marmee, was leaving. 

For Louisa's first time being in charge, things didn't go that smoothly, because at the same time she had a slave to protect, a slave catcher showed up in town looking for him.  And the slave catcher happened to know Henry, as well as another woman that wasn't trusted, Miss Whittaker.  One somewhat happy thing that seemed to occur was that Louisa's cousin Fred showed up.  While they used to be the best of friends, Fred had changed.  He'd grown up into a very handsome young man, and seemed to be interested in Louisa as more than a friend/cousin as well. 

When one of the players in the story turns up dead towards the end, the trials of the story soon turn into a murder mystery, one that Louisa feels she must solve, even if it means that someone she loves and respects, or feels sympathy for, is a murderer. 

I have to say the mystery was a good one, there was lots of story with actual factual bits sprinkled throughout as well.  While it gave me a bit of a history legend on some authors I didn't know that much about, as I said before, I will personally not be adding any of their books to my TBR at this time.  I think that the writing is probably done a lot like Alcott does in her books, at least it reminded me of how I think that the books were written, from what little I know of them. 

If you like the author Alcott's books, I'm guessing you'll enjoy this.  If you enjoy a good murder mystery, with some historical fiction thrown in, you'll also probably enjoy this.  I will definitely be adding it to my list of books to possibly order into the high school library where I work because of all the historical bits and the link to the authors' real lives.  I like that at the end there is even a few pages telling what everything was based on, and where truth and fiction intersected.