Becki SvareOur journey through the 50 states continues with a stop in Idaho!
Book Club Pick – Idaho
Wrong Text, Right Reply by Bonnie Paulson
What is Wrong Text, Right Reply about?
As a sassy single mom running a divorcee support group, my life is all about empowering women.
Romance?
No thanks.
She’s a single mom running a group of divorcee women determined to do something new in their lives that doesn’t revolve around carpooling, pickup lanes, or late homework.
He’s a lifelong bachelor who can’t seem to get commitment right determined to figure out how to go from lonely Sunday mornings, cheesy pickup lines, and late nights out with nothing to show for it.
Savvy Donovan is a natural go-getter. Her over-zealous nature helps her recover from her own broken marriage as she tries to help friends do the same. She wants to be happy, but that doesn’t mean she wants a man.
Nope. Never again will she rely on a man. She’s resistant to any attempts at blind dates or even entertaining a dating app.
She starts a group text to make sure everyone in the group knows what’s going on with activities. She has no idea she’s added Knox Taylor, accidental bachelor with a desire to find “The One” or at the very least, fix all of the ways he’s ruined relationships in the past.
Knox doesn’t realize he’s been added to the wrong group text because he lost his phone. When he finally recovers the cell, he can’t help but get immersed in the thread about women and their wants, dreams, and desires, what makes them tick and why they wouldn’t be happy. He’s hit the jackpot on learning about the very thing he so desperately needs help with.
Bonnie Paulson on Literary Escapes Podcast
Want to know more about Bonnie and her books? Listen to our conversation on the Literary Escapes Podcast!
More Sweet Reads Set in Idaho
Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score
Genre: Sweet Romance
Can these opposites turn up the heat… without burning down the house?
House-flipping sensation and YouTube star Maggie Nichols can’t wait to dig into her next challenge. Arriving in tiny Kinship, Idaho, with only a cot and a coffeemaker, Maggie is prepared to restore a crumbling Victorian mansion in four months or less. She has her to-do lists, her blueprints, and her team. What she doesn’t have is time for sexy, laid-back landscaper Silas Wright.
The man takes flirtation to a whole new level. And he does it shirtless…sometimes pants-less. He and his service school-dropout dog are impressively persistent. But she’s not interested in putting down roots. Not when fans tune in to watch her travel the country turning dilapidated houses into dream homes. A short-term fling on the other hand could fit nicely into her calendar. After all, Maggie remembers what fun is like. Vaguely.
As their summer gets downright steamy, Silas manages to demolish the emotional walls she’s spent years building, sending Maggie into a panic. He’s the wrench in her carefully constructed plans. With the end of the project looming, she has a decision to make. But how can she stay when her entire career is built on moving on?
Juniper Bean Resorts to Murder by Gracie Ruth Mitchell
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Love, laughter, and a dead body…
Juniper Bean has big plans for her writing career. Swoony kisses, sigh-inducing happily ever afters—she’s going to write them all.
There’s just one problem: she can’t seem to stop killing off her main characters.
After accepting that a genre change is in order, Juniper sets out to do some research. What’s the best way to carry a dead body? How exactly does one pick a lock? Juniper is going to find out—with the unwilling help of her new roommate, Aiden.
But Juniper’s plans go haywire when she stumbles across an actual, real-life dead body—and before she knows it, she and Aiden are thrust into the middle of a murder mystery that seems suspiciously tied to Juniper’s past.
Who killed the girl in the woods? Can Juniper ever get the hang of mystery writing? And, perhaps the biggest question of all: Why the heck does Aiden look so good in a tweed jacket?
Murder at Mistletoe Manor by Holly Tierney
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Klarinda Snow is the innkeeper of a beautiful, historic bed and breakfast in Windy Pines, Idaho. Guests come to Mistletoe Manor to escape from their troubles while enjoying the scenic mountain town. When all seven rooms of the inn get booked on a Tuesday night in December, Klarinda is excited about having so much business, but a little confused as well. After all, her inn normally isn’t exactly a destination hotspot. The guests have barely settled in before strange things begin happening. Is this the most accident prone group of travelers ever, or is someone out for revenge?
That Fine Line by Cindy Steel
Genre: Sweet Romance
All I wanted was a quiet summer on my family’s ranch in Idaho…I didn’t think that was too much to ask. With my fiancé in California, I was back home for three months to plan my wedding. I had colors to pick, cows to milk, and a wedding dress to squeeze into.Which was why I didn’t need anybody messing with me.Especially not the guy who had dedicated his whole life to making mine a joke. The guy who filled my high school locker with frogs and my hot car with cans of tuna. I mean…I always got him back. But not this summer. Things were different now. I was engaged. I had grown up. I would NOT fall victim to Cade’s pranks, teasing, or his manly charms.If only my dad hadn’t hired the moron to cowboy for him this summer.Now my childhood enemy is living on our ranch and seems to think we have a score to settle.And all bets are off.
Love Finds You in Sun Valley, Idaho by Angela Ruth
Genre: Christian Romance
Actress Emily Van Arsdale has returned to her Idaho hometown – with an entire film crew in tow! With its stunning scenery and reputation for hosting celebrities, Sun Valley is the perfect setting for Emilys newest romantic comedy.
Tracen Lake is happy to work as a stunt consultant for the movie but not as thrilled to deal with a bunch of high-maintenance Hollywood types. But Tracen is surprised to discover in Emily a down-to-earth Idaho girl who does all her own stunts and loves the outdoors.
As filming wraps up and Emily heads off to her next gig, will she be able to leave Sun Valley – and Tracen – behind?
Dust of Eden by Mariko Nagai
Genre: Middle-Grade/YA Historical Fiction
What do you do when your country goes to war―and everyone thinks you’re the enemy?
“We lived under a sky so blue in Idaho right near the towns of Hunt and Eden but we were not welcomed there.”
In early 1942, thirteen-year-old Mina Masako Tagawa and her Japanese-American family are sent from their home in Seattle to an internment camp in Idaho. What do you do when your home country treats you like an enemy?
This memorable and powerful novel in verse, written by award-winning author Mariko Nagai, explores the nature of fear, the value of acceptance, and the beauty of life. As thought-provoking as it is uplifting, Dust of Eden is told with an honesty that is both heart-wrenching and inspirational.
Carry Me Home by Rosalind James
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Paradise, Idaho, may not be the largest town, but for newly minted professor Zoe Santangelo, it’s the first step on the path to her big break. After teaching in a small Idaho school, her next stop is the Ivy League, and no one is going to stand in her way. She’ll do what it takes to move up, to protect her students from a creepy campus stalker―and to protect her heart from Cal Jackson, the hot, hunky cowboy who keeps coming to her rescue.
After a career-ending injury, Cal has left professional football behind and come home to work the family farm. He’s determined not to get mixed up with any more city girls who don’t want to settle down with a country boy. But after he rescues sassy geologist Zoe from a snowy ditch, he can’t stop thinking about her. Can Cal keep Zoe safe from whoever is targeting her―and can he show her that having ambition doesn’t mean she has to sacrifice love?
Note: There are a couple of spicy scenes in this book.
Educated by Tara Westover
Genre: Memoir
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
A young librarian and an old curmudgeon forge the unlikeliest of friendships in this charming, feel-good novel about one misfit book club and the lives (and loves) it changed along the way.
Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely…but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane’s day that when Arthur doesn’t show up one morning, she’s instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another.
Anxious, Sloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden…and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur’s gloomy life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart―and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages.
Join us in the book club!
