What is Flashback Friday you ask? Â
I know… I know… As if you don’t have a million and one memes to follow! BUT we’re hoping that you might want to participate in just one more! Â
If you’re like us, you read a lot… you add a ton to your ‘to be read’ lists and you sometimes forget about some amazing things because they get pushed down either your favorites list or that pile of books you need to read. Â That doesn’t mean those books are no less amazing!
This is a way for us to highlight books that are older that maybe don’t get as much recognition now because they have been out for a while. Â Books that we read and loved or books that have been on our To Be Read lists for ages, but we just haven’t gotten around to them yet. Â
On to the details – Pick a book… any book that meets the following criteria: Â
1. Â Must have been published at least 2 years ago orÂ
2. Â Preferably is still in print or available to read
Grab our button or make your own then simply feature it on your blog… See the example below, and then come back here and link us up!! AND Spread the word!!
Jaime’s Pick
THE WINTER SEA
By: Susanna Kearsley
Publication Date: 2010
So… I haven’t read this. Â This week I decide to pick a book that has been on my to read list that I really want to make an effort to get to very soon. Â The summary has (and has had) me completely intrigued from the moment I saw it, I just haven’t worked this one into my pile. Â I’m going to change that immediately. Â Plus the cover is gorgeous. Have you read this? What did you think? Â Tell me in the comments!Â
Paullina Simons was born in Leningrad, USSR, in 1963. At the age of ten her family immigrated to the United States. Growing up in Russia Paullina dreamt of someday becoming a writer. Her dream was put on hold as she learned English and overcame the shock of a new culture.
 
 
 
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Cosmo’s Pick
Kimberly is the author of the BODY FINDER series (HarperCollins), THE PLEDGE trilogy (Simon & Schuster), and THE TAKING trilogy (coming April 29th from HarperTeen). She lives in the Pacific Northwest, the ideal place to write anything dark or creepy…a gloomy day can set the perfect mood. She lives with her husband and their three beautiful (and often mouthy) children who provide an endless source of inspiration.
   Â
THE WINTER SEA
By: Susanna Kearsley
Publication Date: 2010
So… I haven’t read this. Â This week I decide to pick a book that has been on my to read list that I really want to make an effort to get to very soon. Â The summary has (and has had) me completely intrigued from the moment I saw it, I just haven’t worked this one into my pile. Â I’m going to change that immediately. Â Plus the cover is gorgeous. Have you read this? What did you think? Â Tell me in the comments!Â
In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.
Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.
But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her…
ABOUT SUSANNAÂ
Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.
But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her…
ABOUT SUSANNAÂ
Susanna Kearsley studied politics and international development at university, and has worked as a museum curator.
Her first novel Mariana won the prestigious Catherine Cookson Literary Prize and launched her writing career. Susanna continued her mix of the historical and paranormal in novels The Splendour Falls, Named of the Dragon, Shadowy Horses and Season of Storms.
Susanna Kearsley also writes classic-style thrillers under the name of Emma Cole.
Her first novel Mariana won the prestigious Catherine Cookson Literary Prize and launched her writing career. Susanna continued her mix of the historical and paranormal in novels The Splendour Falls, Named of the Dragon, Shadowy Horses and Season of Storms.
Susanna Kearsley also writes classic-style thrillers under the name of Emma Cole.
  Â
Erin’s Pick
TATIANA & ALEXANDER
By: Paullina Simons
Publication Date: July 29, 2010
YOU GUYS!!! This series has completely gutted me and now all I can do is tell everyone I know that they need to read these books. Â I swear…Jaime is probably getting sick of me talking about it but I’m not kidding – everyone should read this series. Â Yes, the books are long but I was completely sucked into these characters lives and could not stop thinking about them and what was going to happen next. Â Don’t be afraid of the length…this story is totally worth it and I will just say, I loved Alexander in The Bronze Horseman and this book just made me love him more.
Summary
The epic saga of love and war continues the heart-stopping sequel to Paullina Simons’s beloved international bestseller The Bronze Horseman.
Tatiana is eighteen years old, pregnant, and widowed when she escapes war-torn Leningrad to find a new life in America. But the ghosts of her past do not rest easily. She becomes consumed by the belief that her husband, Red Army officer Alexander Belov, is still alive and needs her desperately.
Meanwhile, oceans and continents away in the Soviet Union, Alexander barely escapes execution, and is forced to lead a battalion of soldiers considered expendable by the Soviet high command. Yet Alexander is determined to take his men through the ruins of Europe in one last desperate bid to escape Stalin’s death machine and somehow find his way to Tatiana once again.
About Paullina
Paullina Simons was born in Leningrad, USSR, in 1963. At the age of ten her family immigrated to the United States. Growing up in Russia Paullina dreamt of someday becoming a writer. Her dream was put on hold as she learned English and overcame the shock of a new culture.After graduating from university and after various jobs including working as a financial journalist and as a translator Paullina wrote her first novel Tully. Through word of mouth that book was welcomed by readers all over the world.
She continued with more novels, including Red Leaves, Eleven Hours, The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross (also known as Tatiana and Alexander), The Summer Garden and The Girl in Times Square (also known as Lily). Many of Paullina’s novels have reached international bestseller lists.
Apart from her novels, Paullina has also written a cookbook, Tatiana’s Table, which is a collection of recipes, short stories and recollections from her best selling trilogy of novels, The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross, (also known as Tatiana and Alexander) and The Summer Garden.
    Cosmo’s Pick
The Pledge by Kimberly Derting
Published November 15th2011
I loved this book.
I was immediately connected to and felt very protective of Charlie. I loved how selfless she was, how giving she was with her friends, her parents, her sister. And yet I loved how real she was, how wanting she was of things she felt she didn’t deserve.
This story is fast paced. A lot happens in a short amount of time, but I never once felt like anything was rushed. And the author did a good job of keeping me on my toes. I was never sure of who I could trust.Â
And Max…well, swoony boys are swoony. That is all.
SUMMARY
In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she’s spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It’s there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she’s never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.
Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can’t be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country’s only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.
ABOUT KIMBERLY
Kimberly is the author of the BODY FINDER series (HarperCollins), THE PLEDGE trilogy (Simon & Schuster), and THE TAKING trilogy (coming April 29th from HarperTeen). She lives in the Pacific Northwest, the ideal place to write anything dark or creepy…a gloomy day can set the perfect mood. She lives with her husband and their three beautiful (and often mouthy) children who provide an endless source of inspiration.    
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