Black 'n' Gold Girl's Book Spot

  The Story (from the publisher's website ):  Answering a woman’s desperate call for help, young Navy widow Helen Devries opens her Whidbey Island home as a refuge to Choi Eunhee. As they bond over common losses and a delicate, potentially devastating secret, their friendship spans the remainder of their lives. After losing her mother, Cassidy Quinn spent her childhood summers with her gran, Helen, at her farmhouse. Nourished by her grandmother’s love and encouragement, Cassidy discovers a passion that she hopes will bloom into a career. But after Helen passes, Cassidy learns that her home and garden have fallen into serious disrepair. Worse, a looming tax debt threatens her inheritance. Facing the loss of her legacy and in need of allies and ideas, Cassidy reaches out to Nick, her former love, despite the complicated emotions brought by having him back in her life. Cassidy inherits not only the family home but a task, spoken with her grandmother’s final breaths: ask Grace Kim—Eunh

The story (from the publisher's website ): Hope blooms at Meadowland If any place on God's earth was designed to help one heal, it is Meadowland. Surely here, at her brother-in-law's Kentucky farm, Rose and her daughters can recover from the events of the recent past--the loss of her husband during the 1918 influenza epidemic, her struggle with tuberculosis that required a stay at a sanatorium, and her girls' experience in an orphanage during her illness. At Meadowland, past troubles become rich soil in which faith can grow. Dirk Meadows may have opened his home to his late brother's widow and her girls, but he keeps his heart tightly closed. The roots of his pain run deep, and the evidence of it is written across his face. Badly scarred by a fire and abandoned by the woman he loved, Dirk fiercely guards his heart from being hurt again. But it may be that his visitors will bring light back into his world and unlock the secret to true healing. Order today from: Amazo

The Story (from the publisher's website ): "This tale of second chances and brave choices swept me away."--Jocelyn Green, Christy Award-winning author of Shadows of the White City It is 1755, and the threat of war with France looms over colonial York, Virginia. Chocolatier Esmée Shaw is fighting her own battle of the heart. Having reached her twenty-eighth birthday, she is reconciled to life alone after a decade-old failed love affair from which she's never quite recovered. But she longs to find something worthwhile to do with her life. Captain Henri Lennox has returned to port after a lengthy absence, intent on completing the lighthouse in the dangerous Chesapeake Bay, a dream he once shared with Esmée. But when the colonial government asks him to lead a secret naval expedition against the French, his future is plunged into uncertainty. Can Esmée and Henri'sshared vision and dedication to the colonial cause heal the wounds of the past and reunite them? Order toda

My Review: This book is one giant swoon and proof that closed door romances are just as sexy as ones that are not. The Siren of Sussex is indeed Mimi Matthews’ most romantic book to date. I was only 4 chapters in and knew that Ahmad and Evelyn’s chemistry was going to be insane and it was. Good lord. When I say this book is one giant swoon, I mean it. The pages fairly crackle with sexual tension. It’s a slow burn of the best kind! I love every page from the unbelievably intimate dress fittings with Ahmad and Evie to the girlish gossip over potential suitors to the early morning gallops with Hephaestus in Rotten Row. Ms. Matthews doesn’t skim over the hardships that people of color and women were faced with either. It’s raw at times, but at its core rings of hope and resilience. This is the best kind of story. Since The Siren of Sussex is the first in a new series, I hope that these characters make a return. I’m VERY intrigued by a certain novel reading captain. Very intrigued indeed. N