Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Wednesday Reads and Helping a Friend

Here’s what I finished reading this week:

Book #28

Dates read: June 12-18
Title: Deseré
Year of publication: 2017
Author: Maria McKenzie
Genre: Historical romance
Series:  N/A
# of Pages: 295
Paper or plastic: Trade paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from book: Deseré, a skilled seamstress and slave, lives on a South Carolina cotton plantation. Fair-skinned and astonishingly beautiful, she is owned by a kindly master and given his permission to marry the man she loves, a carpenter enslaved on a neighboring plantation. Yet when her master dies before her wedding and his nephew inherits the plantation and its slaves, Deseré’s marriage is indefinitely postponed, pending consent from her new owner.
    Lawyer Anthony Sinclair arrives from Ohio on the mend from a broken heart, leaving behind a career derailed by scandal. Owning a plantation presents a vibrant opportunity. Yet torn by inklings of abolitionist beliefs, Anthony struggles with the damning prospect of owning human beings.
    Upon first seeing the alluring Deseré, Anthony is immediately dazzled by her golden skin, shimmering blond hair and ocean blue eyes. Yet Deseré perceives the tall, dark-haired and handsome “Masta” Anthony as rather stupid. He knows nothing about running a plantation, nor being a planter. But as long as he allows Deseré to marry the man she loves, she will be happy.
    Anthony, however, desires Deseré for himself. To what lengths will he go to win the forbidden love of a slave? Will owning Deseré be the only way Anthony can ever posses her while her heart belongs to another man?
My thoughts: Historical books tend to have a lot more detail than contemporary, which is probably why I don’t always pick up historical books. But Maria is a writer friend. We both belonged to the now defunct Cincinnati chapter of RWA and I’ve sat next to her at a book signing. I never bought her books before, though. Now her home and others are being threatened by a landslide. They are trying to raise $300,000 to fix it (since the city isn’t stepping in) and I donated what I could. But I thought, why not buy one of her books, too? So I picked the one with the pretty cover (and it is pretty, isn’t it?). There are portions in this book that did drag on for me (because…historical), but it sure picked up speed toward the end. I enjoyed reading this and if you like reading historical romance, I highly recommend this one. And if you’re interested in helping the author and her neighbors save their homes, you can find out more about the fundraiser here: https://www.facebook.com/donate/467184900488172/2315952668442824/.

So… Hubby moved the birdfeeder on Saturday. The birds are back and happy (haven’t seen the ducks return, though). We’ll see if the neighbor still complains. And if they do, should we care?

Happy Reading!

Stacy

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I read Desiree last year - it was really good!

That landslide situation is awful, something that no one could have predicted and isn't covered by insurance. This sort of thing could happen to anyone whose house is on a slope. I donated a couple weeks ago - glad to see you did, too!

Unknown said...

Hmm, not sure why my comments are showing up as unknown.

- Jennette Marie Powell

Stacy McKitrick said...

Jennette - Yeah, Maria's situation is really horrific. I really feel for them. As for you posting as Unknown, maybe Blogger is being stupid today?

LD Masterson said...

Okay, I know I've missed a bunch of posts but what's up with the birdfeeder and the complaining neighbor. You need one of those "Previously on Stacy's Rantings..."

Stacy McKitrick said...

Linda - We put a birdfeeder in the backyard (more toward the eastern side of the property) about a month ago. Neighbors two houses east of us complained the birds were perching on their patio furniture and leaving a mess. So we didn't fill the feeders and I missed the birds! So we moved it to the western side of the property (and our yard isn't all that big!). Birds are happy. Don't know about the neighbors. We do have a retention pond behind our houses, and they have bushes in their yard, so I'm thinking some of the bird stuff is due to that (and they just moved into that house a few months ago, so they don't know what's normal and what's due to our feeder). I wrote about it on June 10th. With a picture, even! :D

Todd R Moody said...

You are perfectly within your rights to have that bird feeder. Ignore your high-maintenance neighbors.

Stacy McKitrick said...

Todd - That high maintenance neighbor is a lieutenant in the Air Force. :D