Mariel Grey's Blog, page 3

You can photoshop your photos, but you can’t photoshop your experiences

I just returned from Thanksgiving with the family and couldn’t help but reflect on the trip. For many, Thanksgiving entails a journey in the physical sense. But just as frequently, I think, Thanksgiving is a journey in the emotional sense as well. I think we intuitively understand that seeing friends and family can create all […]

Romance is easy to write, right?

I hear it a lot. Romance is easy to write. Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl marry. Boy and girl are happy ever after. The end. Easy, right? WRONG. Consider this: I don’t believe there is another genre of book where you already know the ending BEFORE you […]

Another 5 Stars ★★★★★ for Kindness to a Veteran, a Bartender and a Grandmother

Yeah, I know. The blog title sounds like a bad joke. What does a veteran, a bartender, and a grandmother have in common? Except there’s no punchline, just something happy to report. They were the beneficiaries of kindness. I get gooey inside and emotional when I hear about random acts of kindness. To me, acts […]

Break out the Zodiac Calendar. Your Personality Might Really Be Related to Your Sign

Some of you may remember when you used to hear that old “pick-up line” asking, “What’s your sign?” Well, you might start hearing it again because there may be a scientific basis for correlating birth date with personality traits. Astrology has been studied in some form as far back as 2000 B.C. when it was used to [...]

Book Review: Waiting on You by Kristan Higgins

This is the first time I’ve read Kristan Higgins. This particular book struck me more as a chick lit kind of book than a romance. I say that because there is a tremendous amount of time spent on secondary characters, which, while sometimes amusing and other times annoying, is not the norm in a romance [...]

Book Review: The Chance by Robyn Carr

FBI agent, Laine Carrington, has been wounded by a gunshot wound. Her wounds extend beyond the physical and into the mental realm as she grapples with the aftermath of a deep cover assignment as well as her father’s disdain of her career path. On leave for recuperation, Laine decides to return to Thunder Pointe, the [...]

Kindness Gets Five Stars at Florida Starbucks ★★★★★

In this world where everything is rated, doesn’t it seem like kindness is so underrated? The simple act of kindness often gets short shrift, and yet it’s one of the loveliest things in life. Studies have shown that the person “performing” an act of kindness receives as much joy and happiness as the person who [...]

Book Review: The Secrets of a Scoundrel by Gaelen Foley

Though this story is the conclusion of the Inferno Series series, the book works well as a stand alone. The tale is fast paced and the setting moves from the English countryside to Paris and the island of Corfu. The story is well written and Gaelen Foley has a wonderful knack for getting you inside [...]

Book Review: The Accidental Duchess by Madeline Hunter

I always enjoy the books Madeline Hunter writes. I like her writing style and her characters. I’ve seen several negative reviews characterizing the heroine of this book, Lydia, as arrogant, unlikeable, etc. It’s funny because I recently finished a book by Victoria Alexander in which I found her heroine arrogant and unlikeable. While other readers [...]

Book Review: The Scandalous Adventures of the Sister of the Bride by Victoria Alexander

The story is set outside London in 1887 and the heart of the story begins when the widowed Delilah is confronted by Sam, the man with whom she had a one-night-stand when visiting New York. Mistaking Samuel Russell for a low level employee of the business partner of her sister’s fiancee, Delilah had assumed she [...]