Book Review: The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn

The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant 

by Kayte Nunn

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU /

B&N / HarperCollins

  400 pages

William Morrow Paperbacks (March 3, 2020)

A cache of unsent love letters from the 1950s is found in a suitcase on a remote island in this mysterious love story in the tradition of the novels by Kate Morton and Elizabeth Gilbert.

1951. Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an isolated mental asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther’s prison but soon surprisingly becomes her refuge.

2018. Free-spirited marine scientist Rachel Parker embarks on a research posting in the Isles of Scilly, off the Cornish coast. When a violent storm forces her to take shelter on a far-flung island, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters. Captivated by their passion and tenderness, Rachel determines to track down the intended recipient. But she has no idea of the far-reaching consequences her decision will bring.

Meanwhile, in London, Eve is helping her grandmother, a renowned mountaineer, write her memoirs. When she is contacted by Rachel, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to reveal secrets kept buried for more than sixty years.

With an arresting dual narrative that immediately captivates the reader, The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant is an inspirational story of the sacrifices made for love.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Beneath a pewter sky and afloat on an even darker sea, she was reminded of Charon, the ferryman of Hades, transporting newly dead souls across the Acheron and the Styx.



“You have the blood of a lizard.” He released her and placed his palm below her collarbone. “There is a stone where a heart should be.”



I suppose I am drawn to broken things. As a boy I loved to fix, to repair and restore. The same goes for me now, except it is people not toys.



It might not have been the right decision, but it was the only one I knew how to make.

My Review:

This expertly crafted and slowly unfolding tale was a heart-squeeze and a half, and I didn’t mind that one bit. Spanning two timelines over sixty years apart, this engaging book was a hybrid of genres being equal parts women’s fiction, mystery, and historical fiction. The plot was intriguing, multi-layered, well nuanced, and deftly paced. I was captivated by these complex characters as well as Ms. Nunn’s smoothly rendered writing style, which was poignant, insightful, and hit all the feels. My attention and curiosity were well and truly captured but while my brain cells stayed abuzz, my poor coronary muscle took some abuse. But I’d gladly do it all over again and hopefully will soon as I see Ms. Nunn has a respectable listing I need to acquaint myself with.


I was provided with a review copy of this absorbing tale by TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins.

 About The Author

Kayte Nunn is a former magazine and book editor, and the international bestselling author of four novels, among them The Botanist’s Daughter and The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant. Originally from Britain, she has also lived in the USA, and now resides in Australia, in Northern New South Wales, with her family.

Find out more about Kayte at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Book Review: Dream With Me (With Me in Seattle #13) by Kristen Proby

Dream With Me by Kristen Proby

Release Date: January 21, 2020

Dream With Me, an all-new standalone contemporary romance in the beloved With Me In Seattle Series by New York Times Bestselling Author Kristen Proby.

Kane O’Callaghan knows what it is to have his work shown all over the world. His pieces are on display in palaces and museums, including the O’Callaghan Museum of Glass just outside of his beloved hometown of Seattle. Kane is a bit of a recluse, spending time on his farm alone and committed to his art. His life is full.

Until the day he meets her.

Wandering through museums is Anastasia Montgomery’s favorite way to spend her time. Not only does art feed her soul, but it inspires her own art of designing wedding cakes. When her muse seems to be gone, she finds her again among the beauty in the museums of Seattle, and the O’Callaghan Museum of Glass is her favorite. She’s never met the artist, but he must be absolutely brilliant if he can make such beautiful things out of glass.

Bumping into a grumpy stranger at the museum wasn’t in Anastasia’s plan. And then discovering it was Kane himself was absolutely humiliating.

But when she sees him again at a charity fundraiser and ends up spending an incredible, unforgettable night with the mysterious glass smith, Anastasia finds herself thinking of Kane and little else, even her precious work. Will this relationship bloom into the romance of a lifetime, or will their dreams of success get in the way of true love?

Download your copy today!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/32sHox0

Amazon Worldwide: mybook.to/DreamWithMeKP

Apple Books: https://apple.co/2NZlDjc

Nook: http://bit.ly/2NW64bF

Kobo: http://bit.ly/33uRRt1

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

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:


I’m not a fan of people, especially when they’re all in one place. That place being wherever I am. I bought my land away from civilization for a reason.


How could I explain to her that the minute my eyes fell upon her in the museum, it was like recognizing a part of me I didn’t know was missing? I knew her, right then and there. It was a kind of knowing that I can’t explain, nothing I’ve ever felt before, but my grandda used to tell me it was the same way for him when he saw my grandmother.


“Oh, now you want to act like a doctor. Earlier, you refused to put my shoulder back in place so I could just go out for lunch with you guys.” “I’m a freaking veterinarian,” she says with an exasperated laugh.

My Review:

Oh, swoon! This lovely couple was adorable, I would trade all the beautiful shoes and purses in my closet to be treated and treasured the way Kane did Stasia. I’ve only recently discovered the delightful storytelling of Kristen Proby but I was a quick convert and remain enamored and besotted with her sweet and sexy style. The characters were endearing, the storylines were entertaining and engaging, and the writing was cleverly amusing and insightfully observant. Sigh, to sum it up in one word – perfection. 

About Kristen:

Kristen was born and raised in a small resort town in her beloved Montana. In her mid-twenties, she decided to stretch her wings and move to the Pacific Northwest, where she made her home for more than a dozen years.

During that time, Kristen wrote many romance novels and joined organizations such as RWA and other small writing groups. She spent countless hours in workshops and more mornings than she can count up before dawn so she could write before going to work. She submitted many manuscripts to agents and editors alike but was always told no. In the summer of 2012, the self-publishing scene was new and thriving, and Kristen had one goal: to publish just one book. It was something she longed to cross off of her bucket list.

Not only did she publish one book, she’s since published close to thirty titles, many of which have hit the USA Today, New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestsellers lists. She continues to self publish, best known for her With Me In Seattle and Boudreaux series, and is also proud to work with William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins, with the Fusion Series.

Kristen and her husband, John, make their home in her hometown of Whitefish, Montana with their two pugs and two cats.

Connect with Kristen:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BooksByKristenProby/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Handbagjunkie Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristenproby/ BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kristen-proby Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2kBRdpj Amazon: http://amzn.to/2BD4vfq Pinterest: @handbagjunkie Website: https://www.kristenprobyauthor.com/ Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/kristenproby/newsletter-sign-up

Book Review: Hollie Porter Builds a Raft by Eliza Gordon

Hollie Porter Builds a Raft

by Eliza Gordon

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raft (noun): when two or more otters rest together, often holding hands, so they don’t drift apart

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Hollie Porter has put her old gig as a 911 operator and sad single girl in an attic-bound box, right where it belongs. She’s rebounded nicely from her run-in with Chloe the Cougar in the wilds of British Columbia, and this new life alongside concierge-in-shining-armor Ryan Fielding? Way more fun. After relocating to Ryan’s posh resort at Revelation Cove, Hollie embarks on an all-new adventure as the Cove’s wildlife experience educator, teaching guests and their kids about otters and orca and cougars, oh my.

When darling Ryan gets down on one NHL-damaged knee and pops the question of a lifetime, Hollie realizes this is where the real adventure begins. It’s all cake tasting, flower choosing, and dress fittings until a long-lost family member shows up at the Cove and threatens to hijack her shiny new life, forcing Hollie to redefine what family means to her. What is she willing to sacrifice to have one of her very own?

As Ryan’s words echo in her head—“Our raft, our rules”—Hollie has to face facts: a raft isn’t always tied together with blood and genetics. Sometimes it’s secured by love and loyalty… and occasional help from the clever creatures that call Revelation Cove home.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

“Her eyes were hopeful, despite the smear of black and blue cosmetics that make her look like she’s been assaulted by Crayolas on a bender.”

“The harnessed power of this man’s smile could bring an end to our reliance on fossil fuels.”

“But… what if I don’t want to reproduce at all?  Why is that everyone expects that as soon as you get married, you’ll start squeezing out mutant life forms?”

“I sneak into the lingerie section to find a little something for Ryan for the wedding night.  No saggy, faded Hanes for Her with tired elastic under my dress.  I’m a swanky bride, baby, all satin and lace for my undercarriage.”

“This disaster stuff – it’s a rare genetic anomaly.  Some people have naturally straight teeth or curly hair or an affinity for math; my mother has the opposite of a Midas touch.  It seems to have leaked into my DNA.” 

“She’s adorned in so many animal prints – like she crashed into a safari or a blackjack table filled with Florida retirees escaped from their convalescent home.”

“You are a breath of the freshest air.”

My Review:

I adore Eliza Gordon, her books are just a delight to read and massively entertaining.  I want to follow her around and sit at her feet while listening to her warble hilarious and pithy comments all day.  I am sure she is constantly bubbling over with naughty fun.  I do believe I am decidedly envious of those friends and family members who get to sit with her at the “big kid table” during holiday meals. 

In reading her latest missive, I frequently smirked, chortled, and occasionally cackled.  I was enchanted with Hollie Porter Builds a Raft, which is the sequel to her first, and one of my all-time favorite books, Must Love Otters.   When reading series with a time lapse between books, I often struggle to remember the nuisances of the story as well as who the characters are, given my diminishing mental capacity, poor memory and massive reading list… but that did not prove to be a problem with this story, as Ms. Gordon’s quirky and amusing characters remained fresh in my mind, as if I had stored them in Tupperware and successfully burped their containers as directed.  The writing was crisp, smart, and endlessly witty.  I specifically enjoyed the amusing and clever banter between Hollie and Ryan, who are perfectly suited to humorous verbal sparring. 

The story-line provides one hilarious, mortifying, and least expected adventure after another for the newly engaged couple.  While Hollie is more than a bit of a Calamity Jane, once her long absent mother (Lucy) shows up out of the blue waving Hollie’s picture in the newspaper, we soon learn that Lucy bring a whole new level of disaster.  Having grown up feeling as if she missed out by not having a mother around, Hollie soon learns that she appears to have been far better off not knowing her crass, loud, bling-loving, uncouth, fire-prone, hirsute, sticky-fingered, banshee shrieking, poker-playing, and somewhat obscene and felonious nuisance of a mother. 

I was fearful that between Hollie’s accident prone tendencies and her troublesome mother’s shenanigans, my beloved BBF and the world’s most perfect man, also known as Concierge Ryan, would throw up his hands in surrender.  I do just love that man!  Thankfully he doesn’t, but Hollie almost does.  I adored everything about this book, the colorful descriptions, the sparkling humor, the demon goat, the creative manner in which the chapters are titled, the cast of unique and interesting characters, and of course the otters.  I was sad to conclude the book and am currently contemplating my plan of attack to campaign Ms. Gordon into continue their story with a series of adventures, as I don’t believe I could ever get enough of this charming pair. 

Empress DJ

*** Buy MUST LOVE OTTERS on your favorite device: Amazon iBookstore Barnes & Noble Google Play Kobo BUY NEUROTICA  on your favorite device: Amazon iBookstore Barnes & Noble Google Play Kobo

Eliza Gordon has excellent taste in books, shoes, movies, and friends, and questionable sanity in the realm of love. Best leave that one alone. In real life, she’s an editor, mom, wife, and bibliophile and proud parent of one very spoiled tuxedo cat. Eliza writes stories to help you believe in the Happily Ever After; Jennifer Sommersby, her other self, writes YA and is repped by Daniel Lazar at Writers House.

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