♥ Sandi ❣ ’s Comments (group member since Jan 02, 2022)

♥ Sandi ❣ ’s comments from the Let's Read Together... group.

Finally got this one started today. Read the first 5 chapters and will pick it up again tomorrow.

This is the discussion for Part# 3 ~~ Chapter 16 Cold Page 184 thru the end

This is free flowing, so no spoiler indications are necessary. This is the end of the book and anything can readily be talked about.

Thanks - hope you enjoyed the read

This is the discussion for Part #2 Chapters 8 Why? Page 95 thru Chapter 15 Searching Page 183

This is free flowing, so no spoiler indications are necessary. Please do not mention anything past Chapter 15 Searching Page 183 - take that to the next folder. Thanks

This is the discussion for Part 1 Prologue page 1 thru Chapter 7 The Corner Pages 92

This is free flowing, so no spoiler indications are necessary. Please do not mention anything past - Chapter 7 page 92 - take that to the next folder. Thanks

Oh good! Hope to start it by about midweek or a bit later.

Septembers book will be The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

Synopsis ~~
The uplifting true tale of the couple who lost everything and embarked on a journey of salvation across the windswept South West coastline. Now a Top Ten Sunday Times Bestseller 'The landscape is magical: shape-shifting seas and smugglers' coves; myriads of sea birds and mauve skies. Raynor writes exquisitely . . . It's a tale of triumph: of hope over despair; of love over everything . . . home was no longer about bricks and mortar. It was a state of mind' The Sunday Times Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall. Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey. The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.
'The Salt Path is a life-affirming tale of enduring love that smells of the sea and tastes of a rich life. With beautiful, immersive writing, it is a story heart-achingly and beautifully told.' Jackie Morris 'What an absolute glorious and moving book. It deserves all its praise!'

Hope you can join in this month...Enjoy...

I have one more book to finish - it a long one tho - and I will get started on this book.

I haven't read it yet, but planned to soon.

Where is my post? Sigh....I probably forgot to post it after I previewed it. I have done that before...BOO! This should have been posted on Saturday July 26th Luckily this book was also being read by another group, so I can cut and paste what I wrote there.

This book, for me, started to lose a bit of it's luster. By the time I got to the third section I just wanted everything revealed and it over with. McAllister is a favored author, but this one just wasn't up to standard I thought. It was a complex murder mystery, with the murderer running, the wife waiting and looking for answers and the hostage negotiator blaming himself. By the end all is revealed, but it felt like a long way to get there. I am still asking myself if there was anything in the second third of the book that was worthwhile? It was during that portion that I fell out of step with the story and just wanted the facts and for it to end. Even tho this is not my favorite by McAllister it was a good story, albeit a prolonged second part of the book, that I felt needed editing way down.

Oh sorry. I will keep that in mind when I select books.

This is the discussion for Part 1 Forward page 1 thru Chapter 6 Pages 63

This is free flowing, so no spoiler indications are necessary. Please do not mention anything past - Chapter 6 page 63 - take that to the next folder. Thanks

This is the discussion for Part #2 Chapters 7 thru Chapter 13 Pages 65 thru Page 128

This is free flowing, so no spoiler indications are necessary. Please do not mention anything past Chapter 13 Page 128 - take that to the next folder. Thanks

This is the discussion for Part# 3 ~~ Chapter 14 Pages 129 thru the end

This is free flowing, so no spoiler indications are necessary. This is the end of the book and anything can readily be talked about.

Thanks - hope you enjoyed the read

Idle Grounds by Krystelle Bamford is the August 2025 book.

Synopsis ~~
On a New England morning in the late 1980s, a group of young cousins wander deep into the woods on their family’s property, drawn in by uncanny visions and the disappearance of one of their own—but the farther they go, the stranger their surroundings become.

Lingering at the edge of a family party, a troop of cousins loses track of the youngest child among them. With their parents preoccupied with bickering about decades-old crises, the children decide they must set out to investigate themselves—to the rickety chicken coop, the barn and its two troublesome horses, and into the woods that once comprised their late grandmother’s property. The more the children search, and the deeper they walk, the more threatening the woods become and the more lost they are, caught between their aunt’s home in the present day, their parents’ childhood home just through the trees, and the memory of the house their grandmother grew up in. Soon, what began as a quest for answers gives way to a journey that undermines everything they’ve been told about who they are, where they came from, and what they deserve.

Disquieting and delightful, Idle Grounds is a rich exploration of the interior lives of children and a gripping meditation on birthright, decline, and weight of family history. A fable of the distortions of privilege and the impossibility of keeping secrets hidden, this is a novel about straying from home—only to come back unraveled, unsettled, and irrevocably changed.

I hope you can read along and that you enjoy the story. Thanks

Just got to this point. We still don't know who is behind all this. I have enjoyed the book so far. But still have so many questions. Why would someone want to kill Luke? Why did the Smith woman wait so long to contact Cam? Who is 'they'?

One section left.

As far as Cam, no opinion yet. Not liking or disliking her. She may be the main protagonist, the one who tells the story, but the actions of her husband (??) are my main focus.

Ok - we are into the story now!! Nothing makes sense to me yet. A man, happily married and a new father, from just out of nowhere does this unthinkable act. Now on the run as a murderer. And why let Isabella out? Is there a prior relationship there that she won't open up to because of her husband?

Telling Cam he loves her almost makes it seem like he is being forced to do what he has done. Was someone else there - off camera? Someone else pull the trigger?

I really like McAllister as an author. I haven't read her for a long time, but I have never been disappointed in any one of her stories.

I just started this one - along with 3 other books, so it will be a minute before I make any decent progress.

I really wanted to like this book more than I actually did. I don't read a lot of dystopia and/or futuristic novels, but when I do I tend to like them. I thought this one started off well, but then it seemed to get stale and there was even a section that seemed very scattered and did not have a lot of connection to the story.

I was surprised at the ending and where Lee decided to spend the rest of her days working.

Ok I have 90 pages left for this book to make some changes. For some reason I am thinking that maybe Lee is going to find out that she is the experiment - instead of the Consultant working on this experiment. There needs to be some twists or a curve ball because right now things are starting to get a bit boring. We see Lee opening up to more socialization and doing more things, like volunteering and making new friends, but this AI experiment seems to be going no where quickly. Where is loneliness going to raise it's ugly head?