Week of July 7, 2025

Ahhhh, this was a true 5⭐️ week. It started with a few decent reads, and then I got a solid 5⭐️ book with One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune which gave me everything I’d want from a summer romance book. Everything. (See details of the book, below, #4.) And then to top that off, I picked up Transcend and Epoch by Jewel E. Ann, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Wow. Those books kept me up all night and left me in a daze for an entire day after finishing them, and I needed a break. Not actually a break from reading, but a break from something new. I needed to rehash my thoughts from these two books. So for the first time ever, I went back and actually re-read those two books again the next day instead of moving on to something else. Details of those two are below in book #s 5 and 6. Again, wow. Just wow. And then we ended the week with the final part of the Transcend story, Fortuity, which is technically a standalone, but ties up Nate’s life. And through that book, I found a lot of mid-life female vulnerability that was really touching. So this was a big week of reading for me. Loved every minute.

• As always, here’s my rating scale for your information:

  ⭐️ Did not like this book, would not recommend. Lots of errors, plot holes, not worth the effort to read, most likely didn’t finish. But I’m giving this author a single star for making the effort to publish a book. Not everyone’s even gotten that far, so yay for you.

  ⭐️⭐️ Didn’t really like it, multiple issues with style, plot, syntax or characters. Most likely forced myself to finish it. Would consider other books by the same author but I might have to be convinced.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoyed the book. Perhaps there were issues with plot or style but it was an enjoyable read. I could see recommending it if it were of a specific genre or trope or series. Most of what I read could easily fall into this category and I’d be a happy camper.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a good book. Like a really good book. I will think about this book when I’m finished, and there’s a really good chance I’ll buy it for my personal library if it was a KU read. I’d recommend it to other readers of the same genre or trope. I’ll definitely search out other books by this author, probably as soon as I’m finished reading.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow. Just wow. Amazing book, amazing story. If there were flaws in the book I’m completely overlooking them because in my mind the book was sheer perfection. I didn’t want the book to end and I’m immediately adding it to my favorites and my re-read pile. And if there’s an audio version I might have to buy that, too. I have a book hangover, I miss the characters, and I feel actual, physical loss in my life when this book is finished.

Thanks for joining me this week! Let’s dive in!

1. Silent Is the Heart, by Dianna Roman ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   Kindle Unlimited, 234 pages.

   Genre/tropes: MM Romance, second chance, first love, disability

   Easton lost his voice during an extended coma after a traumatic event at age 17. During the subsequent rehabilitation, Aaron was assigned to him as his speech therapist and the two formed a bond. Aaron taught Easton some basic ASL while he also helped him regain some of his speech, and Easton developed a serious crush on Aaron. Fast forward eight years and Aaron finds his way back to the same rehabilitation facility, now a broken man after the death of his husband and is reeling financially. As director of the facility, he looks up the one patient he remembers fondly, Easton, to see how he’s doing now. He finds Easton, now an angry grown man, and the two butt heads. Aaron thought he could turn to Easton for a friend to lean on, but Easton only wants to hurt Aaron for the abandonment he felt when Aaron left him suddenly.

   I liked this story a lot, and I liked the development of Easton and Aaron’s relationship. There was a mystery component to the book with Aaron’s husband Jason, which threw a little bit of drama into the plot and that was good. Jason was an easy character to despise. All in all I liked this book.

2. All the Missing Pieces, by Catherine Cowles. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 402 pages.

   Genre/tropes: Contemporary Romance, mystery/suspense

   True crime podcaster Ridley rolls into a small town to dive deep into a 10 year old unsolved abduction of 16 year old Emerson, sister of town sheriff Colt. Ridley’s theory is that Emerson’s abductor is actually the same person who ultimately went on to abduct and kill her own twin sister, though no one knows this theory of hers. Colt doesn’t like Ridley digging into Emerson’s past and stirring up trouble, and it seems like the perpetrator of this crime may still be around and not taking too kindly to secrets being unearthed, and people start getting hurt. The romance and mystery plots collide in this book in a good way. Lots of twists, I didn’t see the end coming. The romance part of the book was good, you could feel the sexual tension between Ridley and Colt from the beginning and it was evident where that was going. It was a good book!

3. Only the Small Bones, C.P. Harris ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 356 pages.

   Genre/tropes: MM Romance, Abuse, mental health, dark, slow burn

   Tragedy galore in this book. It was so hard to read the flashback chapters. So hard. William, abducted as a young teen, uses his success later in life to form Freedom Fighters, an organization to combat human trafficking. When he gets a call that some kids have been rescued, he finds a broken, mute young man strapped to a gurney in the hospital. William immediately takes him into his home to nurse him back to health before sending this young man off to get more counseling, but nothing will make this young patient speak. William’s nightmares return from his own disturbing past, and lines blur with this handsome young man. And as much as William knows that the opening up to this man about his past is the only viable option, he also knows that the past will probably cause him to lose this man that he’s starting to fall for.

   There was so much co-dependency and troubling psychology in this book, but it was really beautiful nonetheless. I’ve said it many times: there’s something incredibly tender about seeing these damaged characters finally allow themselves to love and be loved and I just live for it. This is certainly one of those books. I already think I’m adding this to my re-read stack. After sleeping on this book and thinking about it non-stop, I already have questions and need to dive back in.

4. One Golden Summer, by Carley Fortune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Edition, $10.99, 396 pages

   Genre/tropes: Contemporary romance

   I read Every Summer After last year and I liked it… until I didn’t like it. If you know, you know. But luckily, I had let enough time lapse between that book and this one that I could go into this book with a fresh mind and forget all about Sam and Charlie and Percy from before and see them with new eyeballs. Honestly, seeing Charlie through Alice’s lens and Nan’s eyes made him far more appealing and humble than he deserved to be in the first book. Alice, being a shy photographer who spends her time looking at life through a lens rather than participating in it, takes her grandmother to Barry’s Bay for the summer to recover from hip surgery. There she let’s her hair down, literally and figuratively, and discovers that a photo she took as a teenager which launched her photography career, was one which captured the spirit she longed to embody and she goes after it with gusto. And through that discovery she finds love. And Charlie. It’s a wonderful story. A great beach read, a great romance, a great redemption story, all around feel good book. Highly recommend. You don’t need to read Every Summer After to enjoy this book.

5. Transcend, by Jewel E. Ann ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Edition, $6.99, 307 pages

6. Epoch, by Jewel E. Ann ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Edition, $6.99, 351 pages.

   Genre/tropes: Contemporary Romance, paranormal

   These books are a duet and go together as part 1 and part 2, so they need to be talked about together. I’m not even going to really summarize these here, I’m just going to ramble, because they were really something. I’ve read several books by Jewel E. Ann, only one of which I didn’t like. And I can honestly say I have no idea where her inspiration for her books comes from - she’s very original with her plots and story lines. No two are alike! And this duet was really unique.

   Swayze and Nate and Griffin are mired in an incredible love triangle. Add in Daisy, and it’s a super complex love rectangle. This book makes you think outside the box of love, spirituality, your perceived existential belief system, everything. It was just really, really good. On the surface, it’s a spicy romance. Very spice, actually. Swayze and Griffin alone are a wonderful romance with an amazing sex life. Their story is great - Griffin is an awesome character, complex and swoon-worthy in his own right. His patience and love for Swayze is what epic love stories are made of. His daily question of “So tell me about your day, Swayz,” and her giddy reaction to his interest in her can’t help but make you smile as you read it. Similarly, Nate’s story of overwhelming loss is just as devastating and I challenge ANYONE not to fall for him. His devotion to his first love Daisy, despite the years that have passed, is amazing and gut wrenching. That love is what nearly wrecks Swayze as she comes to realize that she embodies the soul of Daisy reincarnated and she knows Nate intimately, although she doesn’t have Daisy’s feelings of love. But this sense of belonging that she has with Nate destroys Griffin. Her obsession with trying to heal Nate’s guilt over Daisy’s death and preventing her killer from hurting anyone else forces Griffin to sacrifice his relationship with Swayze and make a clean break for his own peace of mind. This book wrecks you and puts you together many times over, and you’re never quite sure who you’re rooting for in the end, other than for love to win out.

   I lost sleep after I was finished with these two books. They brought up a lot of topics of fate and destiny and obviously the concept of reincarnation, and they really made me think. This isn’t the first time I’ve thought about these things, and like everyone else, I’ve had countless deja vu moments in my life. These books were way more than that, though - Swayze knew details, not just moments of recognition. But, I had an experience once, in my late teens, on my first trip to London with a travel group. I found myself in what felt like very familiar territory. I was incredibly comfortable in that city, which was odd seeing as I was a girl from suburban Philadelphia and I was on my first ever trip to Europe. I knew my way around London as if I’d been there forever. I knew which Tube stops to get on and off to get where we needed to go, and I knew where the shops and tourist areas were that we were aiming to visit. This was in the early 1980’s, way before the internet, way before Google. It’s not like I studied maps before I got there, I just somehow, innately, knew my way around London. I couldn’t explain it then, and the kids I was with said, “wow, that’s cool” and that was that. I’ve been back about three times since then, and I haven’t had the same experience, but it was profound at the time. That memory has never left me, and it was the first time that I really grasped the concept of a soul. It’s comforting, honestly. There are a lot of things I’d still like to do and may not get a chance in this lifetime, so the thought of being able to come back again and do life again is appealing! But if there is another chance somewhere down the line, I hope my soul finds someone like Griffin in my next go around 🙂

7. Fortuity by Jewel E. Ann ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   Kindle Edition, $6.99, 397 pages

   Genre/tropes: Contemporary romance, second chance, single parent

   This book is technically a standalone book, but it’s really the conclusion to the Transcend duet, above. This is Nate’s story, post Swayze. And it’s the appropriate conclusion for now 46 year old Nate with the appropriate woman in mature 41 year old Gracelyn. He’s fulfilled his promise to his beloved but deceased Jenna, his daughter Morgan’s mom, to travel with her and not let her be an average kid. So they finish up eight amazing years of world travels with a final summer in San Diego, living on the beach. And they meet the next door renters, 10-year old Gabe, recently orphaned and now living with his aunt Gracelyn, who is single and has sworn off men after a string of heartaches that has left her broken. But Gracelyn’s openness about her heartache was wonderful to see. Nate never considered allowing another woman other than his daughter into his heart, and Gracelyn never considered lifting her “man ban,” but even the best plans fail. And when precocious (and at times cringey) Morgan and closed off Gabe find the substitute mother and father figures that they so desperately need, it’s like fate put them together.

   At the risk of baring my soul here, I know I’m fortunate to have been married for 30+ years and hearing the “I love you’s” from my spouse is always wonderful. But this quote that I saw in this book stuck with me and made my belly flutter and brought literal tears to my eyes. It was at a point in the book when Gracelyn and Nate were new at exploring their physical feelings for each other, and they couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. And although they are mature, consenting adults, they still need to be safe and they couldn’t find a condom so they had to stop in their tracks. And this is what Gracelyn had to tell herself about that moment:

   “My female psyche has been weakened over time from a roller coaster of ups and downs—acceptance, love, hope, rejection, disdain, abandonment. As often as I tell myself that things like wrinkles, great hair, and perfectly toned muscles don’t define me, I’m often crippled by self-doubt. Just because I’ve lost hope … lost the desire to find lasting love, doesn’t mean I’m immune to the sheer elation of someone desperately wanting my touch … my kisses … my body. So I’m doing my best to pause time and feel this moment, to imprint the need and anguish he’s feeling because he can’t have me the way he needs me. Tomorrow and a million tomorrows after that, Nate won’t need me, but now he does. It’s hard to explain how feeling needed means more than feeling loved.”

   I can feel this last sentence in the depths of my being. There were a lot of very valid and relevant feelings and topics in this book for women in my age group, and that’s so nice to see. So many books out there are written with young women in mind, and that’s fine. But this was so relatable for me and I loved it. Absolutely loved it.

   This book is a very sweet ending to a great and complex story. And the fact that Nate’s eight years of travels end up with him writing a memoir called “Transcend” is appropriate. Well done, Jewel E. Ann.

AUDIO HONORABLE MENTION: I finished the audiobook for Oleander by Scarlett Drake this week. I read the book in April, and immediately purchased the audio for it after hearing just a small snippet on the author’s instagram account. The voice I heard was spot on for the character of Jude and I couldn’t resist. And let me just say that this audio was absolute *chef’s kiss* perfection. I listened to it when I was on my walks and on my long drives to and from the beach, and I couldn’t have loved it more. Oleander is a MM romance, and is aptly described as a modern day Great Expectations. The book was excellent, but the audio book was simply stunning. This is one I will listen to many times over, without a doubt. 1000/10 recommend.

That’s it for this week! As always, you can keep up with all of my reading on my Goodreads if you want to. https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12921106-karen

Love, Karen