Finally Friday -The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner

 Jennifer Weiner is a reliable author and when I pick up her books, I know I'll get a good tale, an interesting character, and be entertained. The Breakaway is another  winner.

Abby Stern is thirty three, comfortable in her  plus-size skin, does gig jobs, and has a childhood sweetheart. Good friends, her bike, and a Philadelphia cycling club keep her busy. 

cover blurb: Yet Abby can't escape the feeling that something isn't right...or the memories of one thrilling night she spent with a man named Sebastian two years previously.  

Abby gets a last minute invite to lead a cycling trip from NYC to Niagara Falls - a chance to get away and think about her life.  cover  blurb - things get complicated fast. Sebastian is on the trip, and her mother Eileen (body shaming past inflictions) shows up. 

Over two weeks and seven hundred miles, strangers become friends, hidden truths come to light, a teenage girl unites riders...and Abby is forced to reconsider everything she believes about herself, her mother, and the nature of love. 

Hop aboard this bike trip and see what happens. 

Whatever Wednesday - The Year of Second Chances by Lara Avery

I picked up The Year of Second Chances by Lara Avery on a whim at the library. The blurb sounding in intriguing:  I read the words on my laptop screen, "Before you freak out, it's really me."

Robin Lindstrom is reading an email from her dead husband, Gabe, who signed her up for a dating app a year after he died. She's thirty three years old and has been hibernating at their old Minnesota farmhouse. 

She gives the dating  world a whirl, opens up her heart to some strangers, makes some weird friends, learns to trust the world, and still loves Gabe with all her soul. However, she knows she won't lose him.  She'll gain more in life too. 

This book is funny and poignant and Avery captures the horror of dating again, and also the opportunities to engage with others.  Can Robin emerge from her cocoon to rediscover all the messy, wonderful, horrible things in life?  

Take a chance and read this book to find out. 

Monday Moments - Trouble in Paradise by Robert B. Parker

Begin your Monday with Trouble in Paradise.  Robert B. Parker has written another Jesse Stone winner. This is the second with this police chief, but is a standalone book.  I don't usually go back to back in a series, but these are quick page turners.  

cover blurb: Parker's sentences flow with as much wit, grace, and assurance as ever. Stone is a complex and consistently interesting new protagonist.   I heartily agree. 

Stiles Island is an exclusive  wealthy enclave separated by a bridge from the small town of Paradise. What happens when that bridge is blown up? What happens when Stone finds that two women he's dated - local realtor, Marcy Campbell and also local attorney Abby Taylor have been kidnapped. 

How does Jesse Stone figure out that a fresh out of prison James Macklin, along with a very bad man nicknamed Crow, are in charge of this scheme? Casualties mount. The stakes run high. 

For a town called Paradise, there is a lot of trouble brewing and Jesse Stone must focus.  (But, ex-wife Jenn is back and tugging at his heartstrings)  Keep reading and have a "blast".  

Finally Friday - Fun Read - Night Passage by Robert B. Parker

Finally Friday and time for a fun no brainer book. Thanks Linda Hoffman for your thrift book purchases. 

Night Passage by Robert B. Parker is first in a series with a new character, Jesse Stone.  (Parker is known for his Spenser novels).  Anyway, Jesse Stone is thirty five, newly divorced,  borderline alcoholic, and dumped from his LAPD detective job. He gets a call from a Massachusetts town called Paradise and is hired as the new police chief. Is this a new start?

cover blurb  For what is on the surface a quiet New England community quickly proves to be a crucible of political and moral corruption - replete with triple homicide, tight Boston mob ties, flamboyantly errant spouses, maddened militiamen, and a psychopath-about-town who has fixed his violent sights on the new lawman. 

Jesse Stone must use his unnerving quiet power and skills to uncover all the dirt and emerge a hero.  Or does one false move lead to  death?  Keep turning  the pages and find out.  This is a quick read with underlying humor and some "oh wow" moments.  Good brain candy. 
 

Whatever Wednesday - Dame Agatha Christie

 1926!   The Murder of Roger Ackroyd      Dame Agatha Christie

I almost don't need  to say more.   I picked this book for our PA book club.  Let's go old school.  It was listed as THE  BEST Crime Thriller  Novel EVER on a few lists. 

What  the heck! Let's give it a go.  I was not disappointed. 

I went through an Agatha Christie phase back in junior high and high school.  Hercule  Poirot, Jane Marple - oh the best detectives.  The clever plots.  The small town settings.  The subtle clues I never got. 

This book is amazing  considering 1926      Seriously.   How  did she come up with this?
 

I'm not  going  to give away plot or characters or possibilities.  You MUST read this book and just  bow. 

Kudos Dame  Agatha.  I guessed everyone in  the damn village, and then said, "WTF?"

Oh yeah!        Enjoy, my friends.   Re-visit the BEST. 

Monday Moments - Earth Day

Our earthly ball a peopled garden - Goethe 

In this broad earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag

Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed of perfection - Walt Whitman

I look to the sea

Frozen earth

Blooms of spring

Happy Earth Day!

What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?  Henry David Thoreau

 

Finally Friday - Spring in San Saba

Spring Saturday in San Saba, TX.   Hill Country.  Ray and I visited Aunt Pat on solar eclipse weekend.  One chore was a new flag for James' grave and trim up the area.   

Nifty decoration as you look over the land

Ray in hog heaven - using the tractor

Gorgeous sunset

Ray and me with a heart cactus

That's a round-up of spring in San Saba   (look out for snakes - rattlers on the move.  None slithered out on this trip)