Pineapples and Coffee Book Reviews

If you are in the mood for something a little different, may I suggest Unfurled by Elodie Hart? Elodie Hart is a new pen name for author Sara Madderson.

• Unfurled by Elodie Hart
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• Triggers: Catholicism (rigid beliefs, zealot parent, Catholic education), virginity, club scenes with religious theme.

Unfurled is a unique read and explores a young woman’s deep seated religious ideologies, her virginity and the challenges of Catholic doctrine as it relates to one’s virginity.

As a person who was raised in the Catholic Church I’ve heard “your virginity is the greatest gift you can give your husband or your wedding day.” This is such a loaded statement, and, honestly incorrect according to what I know of the doctrine of the church. This myth and idolization of virginity is allowed to continue, but more so, the church teaches that when you marry, it is a vocation and the vows are that you are dedicating you entire self, mind, body and spirit, to your spouse, and physically dedicating yourself is part of this. Does the doctrine encourage chastity? Yes, but, the act of dedicating yourself fully, therefore giving the gift of yourself, holds more weight.

In the topic of virginity, this is a more complicated topic because of the twists and turns in the Bible and church doctrine. Virginity and celibacy are tightly woven into the doctrine, historically, one must be a virgin to dedicate themselves to the Church, however, you can not be a virgin, but practice chastity and celibacy and be allowed to join an order dedicated to the church. It’s all very complicated and relies on who is controlling the narrative.

Onto my review!

I loved this book, as always, this author has a great talent for telling a story, and while Unfurled focuses quite a bit on Bella’s sexuality, the love story between Bella and Rafe is sweet one.

Bella’s parents go on a 3 month summer vacation and Bella moves into their beautiful, posh apartment during that time. Bella meets her parent’s new neighbor Rafe who resides in the penthouse. Rafe is sex on a stick and Bella is very attracted to Rafe and Rafe to her. The interesting part of this is that Rafe is attracted to Bella immediately and contemplates Bella’s innocence and is, in fact, initially attracted to her for her lack of experience, however, Rafe does not identify her as a virgin but as someone with minimal sexual experience.

One thing leads to another and Bella’s friend uncovers Rafe as being an owner of a sex club with a program for virgins. Bella has wanted to experience sex and lose her virginity and she’s purses Rafe with questions about the club’s program for virgins. What followed is steamy, steamy, steamy!

Now, this story does have an HEA and I can’t wait for the next book in the series! I highly recommend this book!

This was an enjoyable book to listen to. The audio is too notch and the narrators are perfect.

Caiden was forever changed as a teen when his love Mia disappeared after her mother was killed. Believing Mia was dead, Caiden changed his life course, entered the military and joined Raptor as an IT/cyber operative after he was discharged from the military.

Caiden sees Mia, or who he thinks is Mia and they are, cautiously and slowly reunited after an emotional first meeting.

This story has all of the great elements of a classic romantic suspense and I truly enjoyed this story.

Absolutely a 5 stars!

Yesterday I attended Indies Invade Philly! This signing takes place in center city Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Arch Street.

As usual, this signing was amazing and full of all the beautiful goodness, happiness and joyful moments of readers meeting readers, readers meeting authors, and readers meeting narrators. I cannot express how much I enjoyed this signing.

I won’t single out too many moments, but meeting Brynne Asher was wonderful. She was a new to me author and I absolutely consumed her books over a three week period: I fell down the hole and did not wish to climb out!

I met so many more authors and Chelle Sloan, who is TikTok famous was so fun to meet!

The narrators table was utterly beautiful and they were absolutely wonderful humans! I didn’t take any photos, but the experience will be a lifelong memory! ❤️

I met many other authors and enjoyed it so much! All in all a wonderful event! If you ever get a chance to attend, I hope you will. It’s a wonderfully run event and the organizers and volunteers are amazing.

I loved this story! I did not read/listen to book one in this series, but I would like to. Troy is working through a lot in his life. He’s in the military and is pretty scarred as well as having some childhood trauma and losses. Troy’s Dad, who is a salt of the Earth gentleman, suffers a great loss and Troy steps up to help him in his time of need.

Megan is very special. She has abilities that have her wondering what path to pursue in life. She’s a caretaker and works as a fireman. After rescuing Troy’s Dad she steps in to help in a big way.

The attraction between these two is amazing, but they have a bumpy road.

This is a great romance that’s not quite run of the mill. Excellent characterizations and a very solid plot line make this book a 5 star listen. The narrator did an excellent job.

The Shell and the Octopus was unexpected. I went into this book blind because I enjoy memoirs when I know none of the details about the author or the author’s story. I knew the basic premise of The Shell and the Octopus.

The Shell and the Octopus was a story of Rebecca Stirling’s unconventional childhood growing up on her Dad’s boat with her sibling but also during her parents turbulent marriage. Eventually the marriage is over and Rebecca stays with her father on the boat as a first mate of sorts. This book leads us into Rebecca’s adulthood as well.

This memoir has a fluid timeline, so it does move around a bit as you are reading. The story exams a lot of things that include women’s perceived abilities in sailing, Rebecca’s desire for a life away from the water and her eventual return to the water and everything that makes up a life in between.

This is a wonderful memoir and takes you all over the world as well as examining complicated relationships within a family.

I gave this book 4 stars; it’s written well and the story is engrossing.

ARC provided by She Writes Press.

To celebrate Pride month, my book club read You & Me by Tal Bauer. This is a story that includes MM, friends to lovers, bi-awakening, single fathers and written in own voices.

This story is told entirely in first person POV and it’s perfect. I will be honest and say that I normally struggle with 1st person POV, but this book is so masterfully written that all if the emotions come through.

Our two main characters are Landon Larson and Luke Hale. The story is told from Luke’s point of view. Landon and Luke meet at a high school football practice as they are fathers to two boys who are stars on the varsity football team.

There are some very real emotions in the story and you get invested in the story. Ultimately, this is as much a story about fathers and sons as it is about finding true love.

Luke is very lonely at the beginning of this story and he’s hurting and a bit stuck. He and his son Emmet are in a bad place. It’s heart wrenching and it got me as the parent of a 15 year old boy; yes, I shed some tears and wished I could give Luke a big hug. Landon is big as life, he’s an amazing guy, very successful in life but has an interesting religious back story.

Overall, this is a story you’ll want to read over and over, it’s a comfort read in so many ways but also a journey of self discovery and starting over. I’ll never be over them, this story is written with so much depth, you’ll be a little sad when it’s over. I am reading this author’s latest release and will be working on his back list all summer.

This is 5 trillion star book, and I give it the highest recommendation; seriously, move Me & You to the top of your TBR!

You & Me is available in KU on Amazon.