Books July, August & September!!

 Hey Y'all!

It's been awhile on our book blogs, and I'm positive I've forgotten a few. I still have a few to share, so here we go!

First off I've continued the Bridgerton series, by Julia Quinn, with books 4 & 5. It deviates rather largely from the series at this point, both are good but in my opinion the books are always better (than the TV show or movie adaptations).

Penelope and Colin's story is fairly accurate to the most recent TV season, some things are changed to make it make sense on TV, some are change for other reasons, but the "meat" of the story is the same.

Eloise's story hasn't been adapted yet, but it's a rather quick love story and mostly in letters no one knew about so we'll see how that pans out in the TV series in the future... Her getting to know Sir Phillip's children was a big chunk of the story, and I don't see that being the route the show takes with her, assuming she gets her own season.

SPOILER: Skip to after the photo if you don't want to read...

In the books Marina is a Bridgerton cousin we never "meet". However, we've met her in the show, as a Featherington cousin, who is already pregnant and attempts to marry Colin. She then attempts to force a miscarriage, which fails, and eventually marries the brother of her babies father, Sir Phillip. In the book Sir Phillip does marry her for the same reason, his brother dies in war. I wonder how this will pan out, if we get Eloise's story.

An excerpt from the prologue of Romancing Mister Bridgerton:

...But no, she had to go and fall in love with Colin Bridgerton when he fell off a horse and landed on his bottom in a mud puddle. It was highly irregular, and highly unromantic, but there was a certain poetic justice in that, since nothing was ever going to come of it.

Why waste romance on a love that would never be returned? Better to save the windswept-moor introductions for people who might actually have a future together.

And if there was one thing Penelope knew, even then, at the age of sixteen years minus three days, it was that her future did not feature Colin Bridgerton in the role of husband.

She simply wasn’t the sort of girl who attracted a man like him, and she feared that she never would be.

An excerpt from To Sir Phillip With Love:

Eloise Bridgerton smoothed the well-read sheet of paper across her lap. There was little light by which to read, even with the full moon shining through the windows of the coach, but that didn’t really matter. She had the entire letter memorized, and the delicate pressed flower, which was actually more pink than red, was safely protected between the pages of a book she’d nipped from her brother’s library.

She hadn’t been too terribly surprised when she’d received a reply from Sir Phillip. Good manners dictated as much, although even Eloise’s mother, surely the supreme arbiter of good behavior, said that Eloise took her correspondence a bit too seriously.

It was common, of course, for ladies of Eloise’s station to spend several hours each week writing letters, but Eloise had long since fallen into the habit of taking that amount of time each day. She enjoyed writing notes, especially to people she hadn’t seen in years (she’d always liked to imagine their surprise when they opened her envelope) and so she pulled out her pen and paper for most any occasion–births, deaths, any sort of achievement that deserved congratulations or condolences.

She wasn’t sure why she kept sending her missives, just that she spent so much time writing letters to whichever of her siblings were not in residence in London at the time, and it seemed easy enough to pen a short note to some far-off relative while she was seated at her escritoire.

I've yet to find books 6 or 7 at a good price, but I did recently find 8 at a Goodwill, so I have it ready when I eventually come across the others.

This next book was also good, but a bit different than what I'm used to reading from Debbie Macomber:

The Trouble With Angels, didn't know this was a series of books until just now. This is book two, and it focuses on three angels, and three individual stories. Each one is different, but it's easy to follow. 

When irrepressible angels Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy set out for the City of Angels to grant three rush Christmas prayer requests, they are sure they can help without resorting to, er, divine intervention. But they soon find it will take more than one miracle to teach their precious lessons of love—as well as make three special holiday dreams come true!

Angels Shirley, Goodness and Mercy have been sent to Los Angeles to act as prayer ambassadors for three difficult cases. Shirley finds herself assigned to Karen Woods, a young girl who has been having nightmares since her parents painful and messy divorce. Mercy is sent to Catherine Goodwin who is praying her grandson finds a love that will rival the one she experienced years before and Goodness finds herself with a demanding case. Assigned to Paul Morris, Goodness must help the pastor to regain the faith he has lost since the death of his wife.

I found Paul's story the least interesting, but all three were good. I didn't love this style of writing/reading so I won't seek out the others, but if I came across them I'd probably read them.

Lastly, and I know it's not last, it's just the last one I took a picture of. I know I read a few other couple hour read books, but nothing too great or too bad, therefore not entirely memorable...

This book I didn't even finish, I just couldn't:

Little Vampire Women just wasn't for me. I really enjoyed Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, so I thought this sounded good too... I was wrong. The writing wasn't great, and the story was a bit boring. They can't all be winners.

What have you read this month? Any recommendations? Leave them in the comments below!

Have a great day,

Craftin' Wife