Pages & Paws

Writing, Reading, and Rural Life With a Border Collie


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Why ‘My Mother’s Secret’ Will Melt Hearts

Hardcover My Mother's Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region BookMy Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region

By Alina Adams

Publisher:  The Donohue Group, 2022

Genre: Historical Fiction/Historical Romance

Pages: 305

Via: Blog Tour

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

***

“Hope, my earthly compass

It’s luck, it’s a trophy for bravery…

We only need to learn how to wait

We must be calm and stubborn.”

Real estate lawyer and San Franciscan Lena Burns doesn’t understand why her mother is so aloof. Also:

  • Why is Mama Regina so impassive and ambivalent?
  • What happened in Regina Solomonova’s past, when she fled Moscow for a God-forsaken patch of ground in Eastern Russia called Birobidzhan, the world’s first Jewish Autonomous Region?
  • Why does Mama Regina not trust herself to make good decisions?
  • Did something happen to Regina before she married an American G.I. and left the USSR for San Francisco after World War II?
  • Why did Mama Regina leave her homeland, and who did she leave behind?
  • What did Lena’s father mean with his deathbed question: “You couldn’t’ tell, could you?”

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Holmes & Watson at Top of Their Game in ‘Murder in Keswick’

Murder in Keswick

A Sherlock Homes Mystery

By William Todd

SpellBound Books, 2022

Genre: Fiction/Mystery/Suspense

Via: Book Blog Tour

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

“The game is afoot.” It’s the catch phrase for literature’s most famous detective. And there are plenty of twists, turns and “gaming” going on in William Todd’s delightful page-turner, Murder in Keswick.

Told in the third person by Dr. Watson, the story opens aboard a train bound for Keswick, England in 1898. Disembarking, the duo soon learns that a well-respected resident of the area has turned up dead. And while Watson is looking forward to a relaxing holiday in the bucolic countryside, Holmes quips that nothing is more relaxing than solving a murder, even if he’s informed that “this sort of thing never happens here.”

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Until Next Sunday

Until Next Sunday

By Audry Fryer

Publisher: Of Ink & Pearls Publishing Co., 2021

Genre: Historical Romance

Via: Book Blog Tour

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

Story

Rosina leaves Italy to build a better life. But after joining her brother and his shrewish wife in America, Rosina finds disappointment and disillusionment. She never expects to find love in this place – until she meets a shoemaker’s apprentice named Gianni.

When Rosina becomes ill and is hospitalized, their future is at stake. All they have is their shared letters. Each week she tries to survive the long, lonely days until Gianni’s next Sunday visit.

Will fate bring Rosina and Gianni together once more? Or are they destined to remain star-crossed forever?

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13 Book Tour Dos & Don’ts

“What’s a “book tour”? you ask. Glad you asked.

A “book tour,” also known as a “book blog tour,” is when a book goes on a virtual tour across the internet, hosted on various book blogs. These tours allow a book to gain more exposure to potential readers. Tours can also be an effective way for authors to promote their books, especially if they’re indie or self-published authors. (Find out more here.) 

Stretching….

Mom and I get boatloads of book tour invitations. (Here a tour. There a tour. Everywhere a tour, tour.) We ignore most of them. We’re either not interested in the book being promoted or our schedule is already jammed.

But they can also be fun. A chance to meet new people. Explore new books. Find new authors. Make new friends. Sniff out a nice, thick, juicy steak…

Wait. Where was I?

Oh yeah. Blog tours.

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