Pages & Paws

Writing, Reading, and Rural Life With a Border Collie

Monthly Archives: June 2022


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‘Radio Ha Ha’ is on The Air

Radio Ha Ha: The most sparkling and heartwarming romcom you will read this year by [Kiltie Jackson ]Radio Ha Ha

By Kiltie Jackson

We’ve been asked to “spotlight” this book. So here ya go:

About the Book

Will a blind date on the radio blossom into romance on the airwaves?

DJ Marky Sparks is hanging onto his career by a thread – he needs a miracle.
Steven Byrne has an invite to his brother’s “Couples Only” party – he needs a date.
Matilda ‘Mats’ Davidson has dumped her cheating boyfriend – she doesn’t need anything.

A drunken email brings these three strangers together and changes their lives in ways they couldn’t have foreseen.

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7 Summer Hits & Misses

Kimber the Magnificent: It’s summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime! Finally!!

The weekend forecast is for boatloads of sun and temperatures skimming the upper 80s/low 90s. That’s unusual here in the soggy pacific Northwest. But after months and months of drooling skies and overcast, Mom and I are ready for sunshine and warmer temps! Yea, Lassie!

One of us is so excited about summer that she’s been slacking on posting (Hi, Mom). So we’re gonna take care of that today, catching you up on what we’ve been reading.

We’re gonna include some Seriously Pawsome Reads and some Kitty Litter Box candidates. Seven in all. In no particular order.

Ready? Set? Let’s go!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBER the Bookish Dog

Kimber the Magnificent here. You probably noticed I nosed my way into Mom’s ‘bookish’ blog awhile back. Kind of like the way I nose into a New York steak. Top sirloin. Meatloaf. Whatever. Nobody’s perfect.

Anyway, Mom says a whole raft of new readers have recently joined us. I’m not sure what that means. But if Mom’s happy, I’m happy. See my tail wagging? We wanted to say Thank you and Welcome!

Also, for any of you looking for any last-minute gift ideas, today’s my birthday. I’m six! Just sayin’.

Now then. Since it’s my birthday today and some of you may be new readers, Mom thinks some “introductions” may be in order. So here goes:

My name is Kimber. I’m a “rescue dog.” Part Golden Retriever. Part black Lab. A lot Border Collie. That accounts for my smarts and my speed. Mom says both are Off The Charts. Whatever that means.

By way of background, I joined my forever family in August 2016. I was about ten weeks old. (Not that I’m keeping track. But Mom is. You know how moms are.)

One of my baby pictures. I know. I’m adorable.

Mom calls me “Kimber the Magnifcent.” I don’t know why. She just does. But you can call me Kimmi. All my friends do.

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Teaser Tuesday: ‘Here, There Be Dragons’

Kimber’s Kommentary:

Hello and welcome to another Teaser Tuesday! As always I hope you’re well this Tuesday and loving on your four-legged friends (even if some of them are felines. Nobody’s perfect again.) We’re enjoying sunshine and some warmer weather. Finally. 


Here are the rules:

1: Grab your current read 2: Open to a random page 3: Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page that are SPOILER FREE.

Today’s Teaser Tuesday features The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, Here, There Be Dragons. Written and illustrated by James A. Owen.

Ready? Great! Here we go!
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TEASER TUESDAY: Beyond the Stars

Hello and welcome to another Teaser Tuesday! As always, we hope you’re well this Tuesday and loving on your four-legged friends (even if some of them are felines. Nobody’s perfect.)

We’re enjoying sunshine and some warmer weather. Finally. 

Anyway, here’s how Teaser Tuesday works:

1) Grab your current read. 2) Open to a random page or two. 3) Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on those pages that are SPOILER FREE.

Today’s Teaser Tuesday features Beyond the Stars, by Doreen D. Berger.

Ready? Great! Here we go!

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Action Abounds in ‘Revenge on a Cruel World’

Revenge on a Cruel World by [Rick Clements]Revenge on a Cruel World

By Rick Clements

Via: Reedsy Discovery

Genre: Thriller

Summary:

If you thought the Great Depression was bad, think again. How about a computer theft by a mathematical genius that mangles the worldwide banking system, causes a financial tsunami, and threatens to topple governments around the globe?

That’s the main storyline in this fast-moving, action-packed novel.

Note: We received a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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‘Stirring Up Love’ Serves Up Heaping Helping of Fun, Romance

Stirring Up Love

By Chandra Blumberg

Montlake Publishing, 2022

Via: Author Request

Release Date: July 26, 2022

Genre: Fiction – Romance/Humor

Pages: 372

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Summary:

A sassy, saucy story about a feud-fueled romance where two rivals with a passion for food and community come together in ways they never expected.

Simone Blake and Finn Rimes are as different as it gets. Simone has just returned from a corporate stint in Chicago where everything went sideways. She’s inherited her grandfather’s barbecue restaurant, Honey and Hickory. Determined to make a go of it and prove that she’s a competent professional who knows what’s what, Simone plans to put her restaurant and her hometown on the map.

So does Finn Rimes. Only from a different angle. A chef thinking big, Finn dreams of opening his own culinary school.

Sparks soon fly like fireworks on the Fourth of July when Finn shows up on Sim’s turf – the local farmer’s market – to market his own brand of barbecue sauce and hopefully raise some cash for his would-be culinary school.

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‘Waterbury Winter’ Warms Hearts

Waterbury Winter

By Linda Stewart Henley

She Writes Press, 2022

Genre: Fiction

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Summary: Two lost souls reach for love and second chances during a freezing New England Winter.

“The transformative value of art is in making the ordinary extraordinary.”

Basic Plot

It’s Christmas Eve. Barnaby Brown thinks back eighteen years when he lost his teaching job. His twin passions, painting and his wife Anna, also died that year. Now forty-five years old, a widower and an alcoholic, Barnaby’s working a dead-end job at the local hardware store.

Once a promising young artist, Barnaby has been on a downward spiral since loss and alcohol dragged him down. He’s lived a reclusive life after the deaths of his parents and his wife. He now prefers the company of his wise-cracking parrot, Popsicle, to companionship with other humans. Yearning to start over, Barnaby dreams of going to California and resurrecting his dreams of a painting career.

“It’s like painting. You have to reach beyond the vanishing point on the horizon for something important you can’t quite see, but know is there.”

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