Hi there! I'm checking in from vacation in beautiful Gatlinburg and soaking up every moment of it. Thanks for joining me for Thinking Out Loud Thursday—a time to share what's on my mind and invite you to link up and do the same.
At a recent work event, we had the chance to hear author Colleen Murphy speak, along with her daughter Lauren. Inspired by their talk, our workplace book club chose to read Colleen’s book and hold a discussion about it. Here’s a quick summary ~
Colleen Murphys’ daughter, Lauren, suffered severe brain damage after a tragic accident. Lauren remained in the hospital unidentified for several hours, she was not expected to survive. This story is a raw, honest account of the pitfalls and challenges a family faces while navigating life through brain injury.
Murphys Don’t Quit shows how one family combined a never-give-up attitude with faith, hope, and love. Throughout the chapters, readers see not just the highs, but the heartbreaking lows. Due to the family’s Irish wit, humor often diffuses the devastating subject matter. Through the many grueling hours of therapy and by visiting specialists all over the country, Lauren was able to find her way back to a life filled with purpose and is now a highly sought after inspirational public speaker.
This is the fourth book in the Max Rupert and Joe Talbert series. I've loved this mystery series and this book was no exception! Here's the summary ~
A homicide detective hunts down his wife's killers while struggling between his thirst for revenge and a twinge of conscience forbidding him to take the law into his own hands. Homicide Detective Max Rupert never fully accepted his wife’s death, even when he believed that a reckless hit-and-run driver was to blame. Haunted by memories both beautiful and painful, he is plagued by feelings of unfinished business. When Max learns that, in fact, Jenni was murdered, he must come to terms with this new information—and determine what to do with it. Struggling to balance his impulses as a vengeful husband with his obligations as a law enforcement officer, Max devotes himself to relentlessly hunting down those responsible. For most of his life, he has thought of himself as a decent man. But now he’s so consumed with anguish and thoughts of retribution that he finds himself on the edge, questioning who he is and what he stands for. On a frozen lake at the US–Canadian border, he wrestles with decisions that could change his life forever, as his rage threatens to turn him into the kind of person he has spent his entire career bringing to justice.
This book had been on my TBR list for quite some time, so when one of my book clubs selected it, I was happy to bump it to the top. I’d heard a mix of opinions beforehand, but I ended up really enjoying it. There were several twists and turns that genuinely caught me by surprise.
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos.
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?
An exquisite homage to Louisa May Alcott’s timeless classic, Little Women, Hello Beautiful is a profoundly moving portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.
This was a bonus pick for Amazon First Read in April. I'm so glad I picked it up! It's still a free selection if you have Kindle Unlimited. It's a fun little read that doesn't necessarily end the way you think it would. It's 100 pages, so the perfect length to read in one sitting.
Reuben thought he’d spend the rest of his life with Beth, until she broke his heart six months ago. He’s not even remotely over her, so he’s devastated to hear she’s getting married—this weekend.
Now he’s faced with the ultimate question: what should he do on the day of the wedding? Grieve? Disrupt the ceremony? Or do everything in his power to pretend it’s not happening?
Enlisting the help of his friends, Reuben is all set to mark the occasion with distraction on a grand scale: Ferraris, champagne, and a VIP box at the races.
But on the morning of the Big Day, Reuben gets a phone call that not only derails his elaborate itinerary: it may well change his life completely…
If you’ve been a fan of Emily Henry’s signature blend of romance and wit, Great Big Beautiful Life offers something a little different—and truly special. In this thought-provoking novel, Henry steps into deeper emotional territory while still delivering the sharp dialogue and chemistry her readers love.
The story follows Alice, a charming celebrity journalist, and Hayden, a serious biographer, as they compete to write the life story of the mysterious Margaret Ives—a former socialite who has been hiding from the spotlight for decades. Both are invited to a remote island where Margaret begins to unravel her past—but gives each writer a different version of her story. What follows is a twisty, layered exploration of truth, memory, and the power of storytelling.
With dual timelines, unexpected revelations, and a slow-burn romance, Great Big Beautiful Life is more than a love story—it’s a reflection on how we choose to remember, and how those memories shape who we become. This book will stay with you long after the final page.
Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century.
When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.
One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.
Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication.
Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.
But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.
And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad . . . depending on who’s telling it.
Book 5 of the Max Rupert and Joe Talbert series was as intriguing as the others! In this mystery, Joe discovers that a man with his same name - who may be the father he never knew - has been murdered. Like in the other four books, there a story within the story too. I'm going to miss the characters in these books! Here's the summary ~
Joe Talbert, Jr. has never once met his namesake. Now out of college, a cub reporter for the Associated Press in Minneapolis, he stumbles across a story describing the murder of a man named Joseph Talbert in a small town in southern Minnesota.
Full of curiosity about whether this man might be his father, Joe is shocked to find that none of the town's residents have much to say about the dead man-other than that his death was long overdue. Joe discovers that the dead man was a loathsome lowlife who cheated his neighbors, threatened his daughter, and squandered his wife's inheritance after she, too, passed away -- an inheritance that may now be Joe's.
Mired in uncertainty and plagued by his own devastated relationship with his mother, who is seeking to get back into her son's life, Joe must put together the missing pieces of his family history -- before his quest for discovery threatens to put him in a grave of his own.
Overall, May was a great reading month! Just a reminder - don't forget to make your Amazon First Read selection.
Now it's your turn - what are you thinking about today? Link up and share!
