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Melody's Echo Chamber by Melody's Echo Chamber
Melody's Echo Chamber by Melody's Echo Chamber
2012 | Alternative, Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"You can hear it's making, in the same way you can hear Joni in her lonely love cabin. Just the idea of the moon cast out on the water. That paints a picture. I can hear excitement and new love all over that Melody's Echo Chamber record. When my last relationship ended a few years ago now, I pissed off to New York for a bit, just to sort of gather my thoughts, and I would take to sitting in a cafe with my headphones on, listening to a piece of music and I had put together words to it in a book. And I remember being quite pleased with something I had just written, taking my headphones off, and that music, Melody's Echo Chamber, was playing on the sound system in the cafe. I listened to it, spellbound, you could just feel the excitement in it. I was listening to that, and I just looked away, who is this? And I shut my book and felt like giving up music. It was just so fucking good. And actually at the end of a tune, you hear them all whooping in the studio. It's like when you hear the Kinks whooping during 'Victoria' – when you're hitting a certain level of energy, bang on the nose, you're allowed to record yourself whooping at your own efforts I think."

Source
  
Who wouldn't love to visit a cafe that hosts several book club meetings per day? And sells books to boot? This is such a great location, it's a little disappointing to realize that it is only fiction.

In this story, Sassy finds her best friends and room mate the only convenient suspect for murder, and decides to snoop around on her own to clear her pal's name. Throw in a little family drama at home and a business to run, and she has her hands full! This was a fun story, and I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series.

<i>I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.</i>
  
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DOUBLE SPEAK STUDIOS (8 KP) created a post

Jun 17, 2019  
Hey guys WHAT TO STREAM THIS WEEK is back. DJ and April give you 5 streams that you should not miss this week and 2 streams that only a crazy person would want to watch. Thanks for all your support and as always the TIME HACKS are included below so that you can check out the whole show or just look into the streams that you were already eyeing. Make sure you share, like, and subscribe to everything that we are doing. Have a great week streaming and we will catch you on the next one.

THE CHEF SHOW- 1:30
EMELIE-12:14
AVENGEMENT-19:32
THE JINX-30:00
CHERNOBYL-42:18
CHERNOBYL’S CAFE-50:53
NOS4A2-59:40
JAILBIRDS-1H 3MIN

     
I Never Knew (Riverside Town #4)
I Never Knew (Riverside Town #4)
Darla O’Malley | 2023 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I NEVER KNEW is the fourth book in the Riverside Town series, but I haven't read any of the others, and had no difficulties following this story or the characters involved.

Ryan is an angry young man who hides his feelings behind insults and gruffness. Elijah is the owner of a cafe, taking over when his mum and dad died, putting his own dreams on hold. Together, they are grumpy/sunshine and a delight to read about. I loved the explanations given for Ryan, to help you understand his character - the reasons for his anger and also his lack of enjoyment of sex until he met Elijah. I thought these were done brilliantly, giving details without too much drama.

Elijah has his own issues to deal with, trying to run a cafe that is leaking money with workers who don't show up. He is too nice of a guy and I was glad when he toughened up a bit on them. I don't like it when people are taken advantage of - even in books! I liked him marshmallow soft in the other areas though.

This is a fast-paced story and it works! From beginning to end, their relationship is just how it should be. Why question something when it's so right?! Elijah and Ryan got the ending I was hoping for, and I'm so very happy about that. I am definitely returning to Riverside Town and catching up on some of the others now. Definitely recommended by me.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Jun 29, 2023
  
LT
Love the One You're With
Emily Giffin | 2008 | Fiction & Poetry
6
7.2 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
Ellen and Andy have been married for exactly 100 days when she sees, for the first time in 8 years, her ex-boyfriend Leo. She agrees to meet him at a nearby cafe and the emotions that start to resurface...
Shortly after this chance encounter, Leo contacts Ellen to do the photos for an article about singer Drake Winters. Unbeknownst to Ellen, Leo is the one who is writing this article and happens to be at the shoot. Will this chance encounter lead to something new? Will she finally get the closure she has been looking for? Being married for less than a year, will she give it all up to discover what might have been?

Emily Giffin gives another tale of complicated love. Should you seek out "the one that got away" to get closure or find your happily ever after? Or do you just Love the One You're With?
  
I’ve not actually read Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe, but I was happy when I realised that this could easily be read as a standalone novel – there were only a small amount of moments when I felt like I was missing some information that came from the main novel.

It’s only a very short book, but that made it all the better for me because I prefer reading short stories over Christmas than trying to dig into a really big novel, just because I struggle for time over Christmas.

The characters were all brilliant. I loved Becca because I know people with the same attitude over Christmas as her, so it made me laugh a bit seeing people I know as Characters in a book.

It was a cheesy festive romance, and there were a few parts where I wasn’t too sure on how far the novel was going to go, but thankfully it balanced out the romance with the plot really well.
  
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LoSchussler (3 KP) rated Sweet Thing in Books

Jun 22, 2018  
ST
Sweet Thing
Renee Carlino | 2013 | Romance
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Mia Kelly thinks she has it all figured out. She's an Ivy League graduate, a classically trained pianist, and the beloved daughter of a sensible mother and offbeat father. Yet Mia has been stalling since graduation, torn between putting her business degree to use and exploring music, her true love.

When her father unexpectedly dies, she decides to pick up the threads of his life while she figures out her own. Uprooting herself from Ann Arbor to New York City, Mia takes over her father's cafe, a treasured neighborhood institution that plays host to undiscovered musicians and artists. She's denied herself the thrilling and unpredictable life of a musician, but a chance encounter with Will, a sweet, gorgeous, and charming guitarist, offers her a glimpse of what could be. When Will becomes her friend and then her roommate, she does everything in her power to suppress her passions—for him, for music—but her father's legacy slowly opens her heart to the possibility of something more.
  
Getting to Me by Caroline Rose
Getting to Me by Caroline Rose
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Rating
She pulls us in right away with her working girl narrative:

“Waitress sets the tables
two and four and six
laying placements
knife fork spoon upon napkin ”
— Caroline Rose

There is a very precise pizzicato counterpoint between strings and dirty guitar; it creates a sort of art-rock melodic swell that feels like Feist being dry with a band. I love the songwriting and there's a Liz Phair sort of resemblance both in terms of being punk pretty and having a tell-all feel to the lyrics. Yes, go on, do tell.

Rose's last release has a top single with almost 1 million plays, after just 4 years. I think this next project will get there even faster because it sounds fantastic.

The sound of the tracks that I've heard so far is light and nuanced and smart and funny and could put her right on stage at The Hotel Cafe, circa now.
  
The Shadow Between Us
The Shadow Between Us
Carol Mason | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A Moving & Poignant Novel
Carol Mason, the best-selling author of ’After You Left’ has written an incredibly moving and poignant novel in this slow-burn, very beautiful work of fiction.

Olivia moves to the pretty coastal town of Port Townsend, with her marriage on-the-rocks, and her life in pieces. She doesn’t know if things with her husband Mark are truly over, or quite why the phone call she longs for on her daughter’s birthday will never come.

After joining a letter-writing club held at her local cafe she meets Ned, an ex-soldier badly wounded in Afghanistan. This chance friendship revives unexpected emotions and memories she’d rather forget.

Can Olivia find the courage to confront what she’s hiding from and finally begin to heal the wounds that have torn her life apart?

Liv, as she is known to her husband, is an extremely intriguing character. Regularly displaying a cocktail of emotions, I could still really empathise with her. She could be caring and thoughtful one minute, but then be frank, blunt and very much to-the-point, the next moment. At times she was positively distant and unkind. She was not alone in her attitude and behaviour as some of the other characters in the story shared similar traits such as cafe owner Beth. For me, this added to and complemented this wonderful character-driven story.

THE SHADOW BETWEEN US was a very insightful and thought-provoking read about reflecting on the mistakes we sometimes make and finding hope in second chances. I
very much liked the emphasis on letter-writing, reading and quotes from favourite books, running throughout the story.

The dialogue between Olivia and Ned was lovely and liked how they had an almost immediate connection. I was very keen to see how their relationship might develop. I found THE SHADOW BETWEEN US a very enjoyable read, helped by Carol Mason’s beautiful writing which has depth and substance. The ending was very fulfilling although with an unexpected twist. I will definitely be reading more of her books in the future.

[Thanks to #NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Carol Mason for my ARC of #TheShadowBetweenUs in exchange for an honest review.]
  
Blood Kissed (Lizzie Grace #1)
Blood Kissed (Lizzie Grace #1)
Keri Arthur | 2020 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
In a world where magic and science sit side by side, and powerful witches are considered necessary aides for all governments, Lizzie Grace is something of an outlier. Though born into one the most powerful blue blood witch families, she wants nothing to do with either her past or her magic.

But when she and Belle, her human familiar and best friend, open a small cafe in the Faelan werewolf reservation, she quickly finds herself enmeshed in the hunt for a vampire intent on wreaking bloody havoc. It’s a hunt that soon becomes personal, and one that is going to take all her skills to survive–that’s if the werewolves, who hate all things witch, don’t get her first.

I love Keri Arthur and have read almost everything she has written this is a reread for me as I needed to refresh myself for the second book. It did not disappoint full of action and pent up sexual frustration between characters. I love the fact she has Belle her human familiar . Recommended.