Slightly South of Simple - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

I expected the characters in this book to have more of a Southern "voice" (it takes place in Georgia) but they didn't. That's okay. I still enjoyed the story. My big complaint was that it ended a little too abruptly for me. However, it's the first book in a series, so maybe that's why everything wasn't as neatly tied up as I wanted.

First Paragraph:
    I still have dreams about that yellow-and-white striped bikini, the one I was wearing the night I met Jack, my first bona fide summer love. I was fifteen going on sixteen, the perfect age, when your hair tints that summer blond that hairstylists become super-stars for emulating. You have filled out enough not to be gangly but not so much that you can imagine a one-piece being in your future.

Teaser at 83% on my Kindle (I stretched the excerpt to three sentences instead of just two):
    I knew already from having children and grandchildren that time moved quickly; the days were long, but the years were short. And I knew for certain that no matter how many fights they had or how many times I had to change sheets or clean up dirty dishes or babysit all day for one grandchild after I'd been up all night with another, I would look back on these months of having my children home with me, back where they belonged, with incredible joy and wistfulness. These were the good times, even when they were hard.

Genre: Women's Fiction
No. of Pages:  479 Pages
Amazon Link: Slightly South of Simple
Copyright: 2017

Synopsis:
     Caroline Murphy swore she’d never set foot back in the small Southern town of Peachtree Bluff; she was a New York girl born and bred and the worst day of her life was when, in the wake of her father’s death, her mother selfishly forced her to move—during her senior year of high school, no less—back to that hick-infested rat trap where she'd spent her childhood summers. But now that her marriage to a New York high society heir has fallen apart in a very public, very embarrassing fashion, a pregnant Caroline decides to escape the gossipmongers with her nine-year-old daughter and head home to her mother, Ansley.
     Ansley has always put her three daughters first, especially when she found out that her late husband, despite what he had always promised, left her with next to nothing. Now the proud owner of a charming waterfront design business and finally standing on her own two feet, Ansley welcomes Caroline and her brood back with open arms. But when her second daughter Sloane, whose military husband is overseas, and youngest daughter and successful actress Emerson join the fray, Ansley begins to feel like the piece of herself she had finally found might be slipping from her grasp. Even more discomfiting, when someone from her past reappears in Ansley's life, the secret she’s harbored from her daughters their entire lives might finally be forced into the open.
     Exploring the powerful bonds between sisters and mothers and daughters, this engaging novel is filled with Southern charm, emotional drama, and plenty of heart.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by I'd Rather Be At The Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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Faultlines - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

    Maybe it's because I have a son or because I was born and raised in Texas or maybe because the man character's name is Sandy, but Barbara Taylor Sissel's Faultlines spoke to me deeply. The story tells of a family torn apart by an automobile accident in which Sandy's son was believed to have been driving. Drinking was involved. He and his passengers were seriously injured, one of them fatally. The wreck has far-reaching consequences. 
   If you enjoy books that delve into family relationships in true-to-life situations, you'll enjoy Faultlines too. I definitely recommend it.
FYI: I saw no errors or typos in this book, which I always appreciate.


First Paragraph:
     Jordy wasn't dead.
     Sandy plucked that single fact from the sea of information she was hearing from the police sergeant, and she clung to it as tightly as she clung to the phone. Behind her, she felt the bed shift when Emmett sat up. She felt his warmth, his sleepy unawareness - his beforeness, and she envied him. "What is it?" he asked, and he was close enough that his breath on her bare shoulder made her shiver.

Teaser (from 28% on my Kindle):
    But there had always been so much goodness in her life, enough that at times she felt compelled to apologize: I'm sorry my childhood was so happy, stable, abundant. It was only after she learned that the one blessing she longed for most - a child - would be denied her that she thought there was a price for having been given so much when she was young, that possibly there was such a thing as too much good, too much joy.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Mystery
Book Length: 305 Pages
Amazon Link: Faultlines
Author Website: Barbara Taylor Sissel

Synopsis (from Amazon):

It’s the phone call every parent dreads: in the middle of the night, Sandy Cline learns that her twenty-year-old son, Jordan, has been in a car accident. Her nephew, Travis, was also in the car, along with Travis’s girlfriend. All three are alive—but barely. The car was smashed against a tree along a remote and winding road, beautiful but deadly, in their rural Texas Hill Country town.

In the wake of the car crash, the close-knit family is tested like never before. Jenna, Travis’s mother, blames Jordan—as well as her sister, Sandy—after reports surface that Jordan had been driving. As the young adults struggle to survive, tension between their parents escalates. But when trust is broken and a shocking family secret is exposed, it creates a perfect storm of harrowing consequences. Rumors in the small town spread like wildfire. When details of the accident are questioned, Sandy and Jenna wonder if their family has been destroyed beyond repair.

As always, there’s much more to the story…if the family is to survive, they will have to come together to confront the terrible truth and overcome their pain. But are some betrayals unforgivable?

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.

Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by I'd Rather Be at the Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link up HERE

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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Broken Pieces - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

    Many of my favorite books have plots that revolve around dysfunctional families. Broken Pieces definitely fits that description. Sometimes sad, sometimes delightful, often touching, this is a lovely story, set in a small town.

First Paragraph(s):
    My father stood at my front door as if he'd simply run out for bread and forgotten his keys.
    A slight gray stubble dappled his chin and the line of his jaw, his appearance a far cry from the practiced, clean-shaven face he sported the one time I saw him each year.
    Frustration and disbelief tangled inside me.

Teaser (from 8% on my Kindle):
    I worked alone. I lived alone. I liked it that way.

Genre: Women's Fiction
Book Length: 284 Pages
Amazon Link: Broken Pieces
Author's Website: www.KathleenLong.com

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
    Destiny Jones is doing just fine on her own, thanks. From her thriving one-woman carpentry business to the loving support of her small-town community, Destiny has constructed a life as sturdy and polished as her best cabinets. Twenty years ago, Destiny’s world collapsed when her mother died and her father, Albert, abandoned his daughter to pursue acting in New York. His devastating exit taught Destiny a lesson in self-reliance that has kept her safe—and alone—ever since.
    Now Albert Jones is back, begging for a second chance. Destiny suspects he’s simply staging another performance, starring himself as the prodigal father. Should she act on her misgivings? Or listen to her inner child, who still yearns for a family? When Albert divulges a shocking secret, Destiny’s life will again be turned upside down.
    Kathleen Long’s warm, wise novel reveals the armor that has protected us in the past is often the very thing we must shed to fully live and love. 

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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The Hurricane Sisters - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

Dorothea Benton Frank has become one of my favorite authors. Like other books of hers that I've read, The Hurricane Sisters takes place in the Low Country of South Carolina. This story focuses not only on the relationship between three generations of women but also on abuse of women and date rape. 
The author portrays the older characters as vibrant individuals with full and interesting lives, which I always appreciate. The Hurricane Sisters is a worthwhile read and an entertaining story.
FYI: The story is told in alternating points of view in first person.

OOOPS! I just realized that I messed up and posted my Tuesday post on Friday! Oh, well. Hope you enjoy it anyhow.

First Chapter / First Paragraph:
(Prologue)
     My husband, Clayton, and I were at the police station getting my mother, Maisie, out of jail for brushing up against the wrong side of the law. Her actual charges were still unclear. She claims it is not against any law in the state of South Carolina to take a llama for a walk on the open road. He was, after all, on a leash. The local police beg to differ, saying this is a case of animal cruelty, endangerment, and reckless behavior. Legal or not, it wasn't normal. I was glad they brought her in to the police station until I could get there because her behavior surely demonstrates a lack of sound judgment. Or not. Maisie was crazy like a fox and we all knew it. So I sat and waited while Clayton made things right between the Town of Mount Pleasant and Maisie by writing a check.

Teaser (from Page 223 in my trade paperback edition):
Martha Lou's was one of those places you'd only know about if you were from Charleston or if a local took you there. The location was in, how do we say this diplomatically, a reemerging neighborhood, the building was as pink as a bottle of Pepto-Bismol featuring a sort of fabulous fish mural on the exterior wall, and the interior decor was a little to the left of chic.

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction
Length of Book: 393 Pages (trade paperback)
Amazon Link: The Hurricane Sisters
Author Website: Dorothea Benton Frank

Synopsis:
(Partial blurb from Goodreads)
     Once again Dorothea Benton Frank takes us deep into the heart of her magical South Carolina Lowcountry on a tumultuous journey filled with longings, disappointments, and, finally, a road toward happiness that is hard earned. There we meet three generations of women buried in secrets. The determined matriarch, Maisie Pringle, at eighty, is a force to be reckoned with because she will have the final word on everything, especially when she's dead wrong. Her daughter, Liz, is caught up in the classic maelstrom of being middle-age and in an emotionally demanding career that will eventually open all their eyes to a terrible truth. And Liz's beautiful twenty-something daughter, Ashley, whose dreamy ambitions of her unlikely future keeps them all at odds.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at ADailyRhythm.com

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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