For the Love of Reading......#WOYBS & Share Your Shelf

Welcome to my What's On Your BookShelf post. The #WOYB link party is hosted by Deb, Jo and Sue....all gals I follow on a few other link parties. I love their blogs. Go check them out. #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge

I also decided to link this with #shareyourshelf hosted by some great bloggers I follow, like Joanne. I'll link it on the week they post theirs, which I think is the first Thursday of each month. 

My rating system:

⭐ DNF (which there's a reason), story lacking any depth, grammatical or spelling errors (too many), just did not enjoy it and enough to it that I wouldn't recommend. Don't bother reading

⭐⭐ Story line is a bit all over the place, struggle to read it but maybe it had some redeeming parts. Characters  or story line weren't believable or too unrealistic. I wouldn't want to read it again. Too many storylines going on at the same time. Read it or don't read it.

⭐⭐⭐ Solid story line and characters. I liked it but didn't necessarily LOVE it, but I didn't HATE it either. I may have felt that it dragged on, or had parts that weren't necessary to the story. Maybe was a little hard to follow. Probably wouldn't recommend but it wasn't a total disaster.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ A really great read that I enjoyed picking up each time. I enjoyed it from front to back. The characters and storyline were really good.  As someone said "a truly good book, but missing the cherry on top".  Go ahead and read it

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This book knocked it out of the park and I couldn't put it down. OR it was a book that really opened my eyes to something or taught me something about someones life. One I have bookmarked and even taken notes. It left me wanting to read more by the author or more in the series. Definitely go read. 

I've probably already said it....I love my rating system, but I'm not always great at following it. I hate leaving low ratings...lol. 

I started September thinking that I hadn't read many books in August but I actually did. I read 9! 

What I read in August: I read a lot of Cozy mysteries and a few Inspirational (faith based) suspense books. 

Meet Your Baker by Ellie Alexander ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was my first Ellie Alexander cozy mystery. So many on the cozy mystery pages I follow and podcasts I listen to speak highly of them so I decided to finally read one. This was a fun read. It takes place in Ashland, Oregon which is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I enjoyed the cast of characters. Family, new friends, old friends and old loves, broken hearts. This one has a little bit of everything. The amateur sleuth Juliet (her parents loved Shakespeare) returns home to help in her family's bakery. There's also rival businesses involved, and the murdered person? The newest board member of the festival. I always have fun trying to guess the who-dun-it, and this one had me guessing. 

Home Sweet Homicide by Rosalie Spielman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The newest book in the Series, I nabbed this one as soon as it released. I have read all of these on Kindle but wouldn't mind owning the whole series in physical form. We find Tessa (the sleuth) being asked to be the maid of honor in the wedding of her first love (they have a great friendship now)...of course there's a murder, actually a few of them and they happen to be the grooms fiancee's exes...fingers are pointing someone is out to sabotage a wedding and it kept me guessing. 

The Lives we Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days by Kate Bowler ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I listened to this and it was beautifully done. I ended up buying the physical copy. I listen to Kate Bowlers podcast, Everything Happens. She reads 100 blessings for different scenarios that we go through...in the description it says "we live in a world that demands relentless perfection....might our everyday existence be worthy of a blessing?" It is divided into sections; Bless this ordinary life, Bless this Tired life, Bless this Grief Stricken life, etc. and each one has blessings attached to it. 

Save the Fate by Mary Karnes ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I read this book for our Murder They Write reading challenge. Augusts challenge was a cozy mystery with a wedding theme. I actually won this book in a giveaway on the Murder They Write FB page during an author takeover (I've won several books which has been fun). This one wavered between 3 and 4 stars. Wedding planner Kate returns to her hometown with her daughter and reconnects with old friends and old loves. When another old friend (who has become a pro athlete) and his fiancee arrive in town, enlisting Kate as their planner she is excited. Until he turns up dead and one of her best friends is a prime suspect. Oh, and her old/new love is the detective on the case. There are a few different themes thrown in which are partly what caused a bit of a lower rating. I'm thinking once I read a few more in the series it'll come together. 

Her Duty Bound Defender (Mountain Country K-9 Unit #2) by Sharee Stover ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I found this book last year in a little free library and just got around to reading it. I enjoyed it and discovered there are, I think, 5 in the series. Since this was the second in the series, I checked the 3 others out as soon as I finished. These are part of the Love inspired Suspense series, inspirational romance. In the first book, pregnant and newly widowed Naomi goes to the site where an old friend and classmate was murdered and it subsequently attacked by masked gunmen. She is rescued by an agent with the K-9 unit who has been watching her. He is part of a K-9 task force who is trying to solve the cases of a group of men who have been killed by what looks to be a serial killer. They all have two things in common..The Young Ranchers Club they were a part of and Naomi, who several of them played a cruel joke on in HS. So the question is.....is she just the victim or a killer. 

Each book plays out with the main focus of the task force, but also that each agent gets caught up with a separate crime that they end up having to solve. In this case, it's her husbands death and the attacks on her. It's a fun series, easy to read. I enjoyed seeing how each of the K-9 officers functioned. So fascinating. 

Baby Protection Mission (Mountain Country K-9 Unit #1) by Laura Scott  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

In book one we're introduced to the K-9 task force  and the main officer is Ashley Hansen and her Labrador Retriever. Not only is she trying to track down a killer, but now has a kidnapping case on her hands. Cade McNeals sister has been kidnapped right in front of him and the kidnapper attempts to steal her son from Kade. Ashley intervenes and as more attacks happen her job becomes to keep everyone safe and alive. 

I think if I was just judging on enjoyment, they'd all get 5's but they just might not be for everyone.

Chasing Justice (Mountain Country K-9 Unit #3) by Valerie Hansen ⭐⭐⭐⭐

In the 3rd installment, we're introduced to Selena and her Malinoise Shepherd. Each agent makes an appearance in the other books, but they all have a cameo in one of the books. Selena's cameo is protecting an ex-love from being killed and proving he's innocent of a murder he's been doing time for. 

It's a fun series. I'll read them all and probably more in the love inspired suspense books. 

I'd Rather Be Reading..The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel ⭐⭐⭐

I listened to this one and while it was entertaining, it wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped it would be. It was only a 2 hour listen. 

Excerpt from Goodreads. 

For so many people, reading isn't just a hobby or a way to pass the time--it's a lifestyle. Our books shape us, define us, enchant us, and even sometimes infuriate us. Our books are a part of who we are as people, and we can't imagine life without them.

I'd Rather Be Reading is the perfect literary companion for everyone who feels that way. In this collection of charming and relatable reflections on the reading life, beloved blogger and author Anne Bogel leads readers to remember the book that first hooked them, the place where they first fell in love with reading, and all of the moments afterward that helped make them the reader they are today. Known as a reading tastemaker through her popular podcast What Should I Read Next?, Bogel invites book lovers into a community of like-minded people to discover new ways to approach literature, learn fascinating new things about books and publishing, and reflect on the role reading plays in their lives.

What I'm Currently Reading:

Death Checked Out (Larkspur Library Mysteries #1) by Leah Dobrinska

This book is going to be my September read for the Murder They Write challenge. The prompt this month is Book with leaves on the cover. I just started it, but I'm enjoying it. I never knew Leah had a cozy series until she was on an author takeover. I did an ARC for one of her other series last year, so this was fun and I found it on Hoopla. Greta is the library director of the Larkspur library. She's one who sees life through rose colored glasses, mostly as a coping mechanism from the death of her sister and an ex-boyfriend. When she stumbles upon a dead body and becomes a suspect, she takes matters into her own hands. 

SuperCommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg

I shared about this one....I'm still reading it. It kind of took a back seat. I need to get back into it. My plan was to read 10 pages a day to keep me reading it, but I haven't been good about it. It's a good book, I just forget because it's on my kindle and, you know, "out of sight out of mind."

Sociopath by Patric Gagne

Again, another one I need to get busy reading. This one has been harder for me to get into. Not sure why. I may try getting it on audiobook but I think there's a long wait. Hopefully next month I'll have it finished. 

If I want to finish the 52 book club challenge I need to get focused on the prompts. One thing I won't do is read a book I don't think I'll like for the sake of fulfilling a prompt. I need to sit and look through some I just finished to see if any work, but I don't think they do. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin