★★★★☆ The Loop takes place in Hope, Montana. Wildlife biologist Helen Ross is sent to the town of cattle ranchers as part of a government project to study and protect wolves reintroduced to the area. She meets the powerful, womanizing rancher Buck Calder and, against his father’s wishes, begins working with his sensitive, estranged 18-year-old son, Luke.
Author: Flash Mama
The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans
★★★★★ Wilderness. Action. Adventure. Romance. An epic story spanning decades and continents, The Smoke Jumper has it all, making it an appealing read for many different types of readers. Smokejumpers Ed Tully and Connor Ford are best friends. When Julia Bishop, a social worker, enters the picture, the two men find themselves in love with the same woman.
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
★★☆☆☆ Every once in a while, you run across a book that has all of the makings of a great read, but in the end, it just doesn’t work for you. This was the case for me with Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.
Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan
★★★☆☆ A well-written, heartbreaking story, this novel explores the challenges of motherhood, mental illness, and how things are often not what they seem. Little Disasters serves as a good reminder that you never know what someone else is going through, no matter how together they seem.
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
★★★★☆ Emma and Jesse are high school sweethearts who marry and leave their small-town life behind for an adventurous life. When one of those adventures goes wrong on their 1st anniversary, Emma is left alone and devastated. Just when Emma has found love and happiness again, Jesse reappears with a harrowing story of survival.
Learning Astrophotography
As a lifelong learner, the best, most fulfilling days are the ones when I learn something new. There’s nothing as thrilling as the feeling you get from learning a new fact, making a discovery, or having an “Aha!” moment. I recently had the chance to be part of a magical learning experience as a participant in an Our State Magazine Photography workshop in the Outer Banks, led by two phenomenally talented photographers.
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
★★★★☆ This beautifully written book opens with estranged siblings Byron and Benedetta Bennett reluctantly meeting after the death of their mother, Eleanor, to hear her final wishes. She leaves them an hour-long recording and a frozen Black Cake to eat together “when the time is right.”
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
★★★★★ Like many of CoHo’s romance books, this book starts with an unusual meeting between our main characters. When Tate Collins finds a drunken Miles Archer camped at her brother’s front door, she isn’t impressed.
What Never Happened by Rachel Howzell Hall
★★☆☆☆ As a child, Coco was the only survivor of a deadly home invasion that killed her entire family. She now writes obituaries for her hometown paper, owned by her college best friend. When elderly women start disappearing from Catalina, Coco begins to believe there’s a serial killer on the loose.
The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church
★★★☆☆ The Last Carolina Girl is Megan Church’s debut novel. Set in 1935, Leah Payne is living a happy, simple life in Holden Beach when tragedy strikes, making her an orphan. She is forced to leave the people and town that she loves to live with a foster family in Matthews, N.C.