Category: Conversations with Kav

Just a fun little book tag wherein I reveal some hidden truths about my TBR pile(s)

How do you come across books to add to your TBR?

Well, I’m always happy to take suggestions from bookish friends. 🙂 And our Reader’s Choice Week keep my wishlist well-stocked. I’m always finding Instagram a great resource since I get to see what other people are reading and all the announcements for new releases. Plus Closed Door Romance is brimming with new-to-me authors to try out.

Social Media shout out to book tuber, bookstagrammer, blogger etc who adds the most to your TBR.

Narelle Atkins’ YouTube channel. Should have mentioned her in the first question. She reviews one book a week and I find her reviews really helpful and insightful. https://www.youtube.com/@NarelleAtkinsAuthor

Narelle also has a blog where she reviews books and does a weekly ‘Preorder Roundup’ which is a great way to get a look at upcoming releases. https://www.narelleatkins.com/blog/

Book that has been on your TBR the longest.

Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem. I don’t know why I’m always passing it by for something else. The Hollywood setting might have something to do with it, even though it’s historical. I’m determined to read it before the year is out!

Most recently added book?

All’s Fair in Love and Blackmail by Gracie Ruth Mitchell. She’s on my read-to-zero list so I best get to it!

Which book will you read next?

Ummm….I just started a book and I usually don’t plan ahead. I just pick whatever I’m in the mood for. I have a feeling it will be Canyon of Deceit by DiAnn Mills. I have it on preorder and it comes out on Tuesday.

Most anticipated book and why you haven’t read it yet?

This seems like a trick question because, logically, the most anticipated book should also be the one I’d read next but….The Best Kept Secrets by Sarah M. Eden. It’s obviously been on my TBR longer than Canyon of Deceit but I’m in a suspense-y mood sooooo…..

Book that you added to your TBR because of the hype?

The Queen’s Cook by Tessa Afshar. I’m scared – it’s biblical fiction!

Book that you added even though you knew you weren’t going to read it?

Ha! Probably The Queen’s Cook!

Any books that you will be removing from your TBR without reading?

You Were Made For This World : Celebrated Indigenous Voices Speak to Young People. It’s a lovely book – the illustrations are stunning and I’ve read some of the stories/poems but not all of them. It’s more of a coffee table book that I’d pick up and read a story or two from time to time. I borrowed it from the library and there are lots of holds on it so I’m going to return it, though I’ve added it to my ‘for later shelf’ and will definitely check it out again.

How many books are on your TBR?

Oy – counting them up makes me anxious but here we go:

Chirp audio books – 6

Audible audio books – 4

Library books – Christian Fiction – 13

Library books – Cozy Mysteries – 13

Print books I purchased – 5

So, how about you? Feel like exposing some of your TBR secrets with all your book besties? Inquiring minds want to know how many books are on your TBR. I’m kinda hyperventilating at my 41. When you add them all up it makes it seem so daunting!

True Confession: I’m much more easy going about heroine occupations than hero’s. There’s only one that really doesn’t appeal to me at all. Otherwise I’m open to pretty much any kind of job -librarian, teacher, shopkeeper, cafe owner etc. All those typical jobs that so many of us are familiar with. BUT I absolutely LOVE it when a heroine has an unusual career. Could be a non-traditional one – like carpenter, mechanic etc. or something unique for the time like a female doctor in the 1800s. So I thought it would be fun to share some of the most unique careers we have found our fictional heroines working at.

But first: aren’t you dying to know the one occupation that I really don’t want to read about? My feelings are quite intense and I blame Hallmark. 🙂

I just can’t relate to upwardly mobile, workaholic corporate type heroines. Think practically every Hallmark movie where the Scroogey heroine must close a deal by Christmas Day and it always involves a corporate takeover of a family inn or shutting down a toy shop or trying to buy the land out from under a hardworking farmer. I just can’t anymore. And the high powered business world just isn’t something I can relate to in general, so I tend to avoid stories and movies with that occupational trope these days.

Some of my favourite unique occupations for heroines:

Margot De Wilde is a codebreaker in England during the Great War. I wasn’t sure how I would relate to Margot since I have a major math-phobia. I thought it would be hard to connect with her analytical mathematician’s mind but I was sooooo wrong!

Love Michelle’s scientific mind and her canny inventions. She puts both to good use to meet all kinds of challenges Mary Connealy’s heroines are always independent mavericks who thrive in traditional male roles.

Tess O’Rourke is adjusting to to her new role as a small town police chief with a force totalling eight officers.. Her big city experience isn’t enough to win over wary residents…or automatically bring about the respect of those officers. She’s faced with prejudice and resistance both inside the precinct and out.

Love that Kate is the adventuring rodeo cowgirl — nice twist as that’s usually the hero’s claim to fame. And that she’s restless and antsy and unsettled about whether she’s capable of staying put in one place. Again, that’s usually the brooding hero’s role. And while, Kate isn’t quite brooding, she’s definitely sassy and opinionated and often grumpy.

Chloe Humphrey’s is a 24-year-old computer whiz and has just accepted a position as Director of Technology Services at a small town college. She’s just a little bit awkward, a touch nerdy and so easy to like…even for this technology adverse reader!

The carpenter’s daughter is also a carpenter and while her career choice defines Sarah to a certain extent, there’s so much more to her story. Profoundly beautiful. “…if you define yourself with the truth of God’s love, you will always have an anchor. Because his love will never change.”

This has got to be the most unusual job I’ve read about. Ottlie supports her family with the traditional Indian skill of beetle wing embroidery! And that is exactly what it sounds like. Embroidering actual beetle wings onto fabric to create haute couture gowns!

Giveaway Opportunity:

So how about you? Do you have strong likes and dislikes as far as occupations go for the heroines in the books you read? And what’s one of the most unusual occupation you have read about? Share your thoughts in a comment and I’ll enter you in a draw to win a $10 Baker Book House ecard (or Amazon for Canadians).

Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday September 6 2025

I have Opinions on the careers I love to see in my fictional heroes. Strong likes and equally strong dislikes. In some instances, a hero’s occupation can turn a book into an auto-buy OR send me running away in abject horror. 🙂 (Told you I had opinions). Let’s get the unappealing (to me) ones out of the way first.

Careers that I really don’t want to read about:

1. Billionaires – I have made the occasional exception because I’m a fan of the author but lately I’ve been so turned off by real life billionaires behaving so badly that I just can’t any more. Totally unappealing.
2. Politicians – Again — to0 many cases of politicians behaving badly in real life for me to be able to see a politician as a hero I could (or maybe even want to) relate to. The exception might be a small town career – like mayor or councilman.
3. Trophy hunter – little ol’ vegetarian me just can’t relate to a a guy who kills animals for fun. I’m talking the kind of hunters that pay big bucks to go on a safari and leave most of the animal’s carcass behind, just taking a token trophy to display. Or they ‘hunt’ from the comfort of a helicopter and mark their success by number of animals killed. I have no problem with heroes who hunt out of necessity, for food, protection etc.though I wouldn’t sit down with them over a venison stew…bwahahaha!
4. Actors/Musicians – I’ve read some books featuring heroes with these occupations (Toni Shiloh’s The Love Script, for example, is fantastic!) but they aren’t my go-to. Just not into the whole Hollywood hype and glitz and glamour scene.

Careers that have me swooning before I even start reading!

1. Librarian/bookseller/author – I’d be surprised if there’s a reader alive who doesn’t love a hero with a bookish streak! I especially love finding a librarian hero because they are so rare. Nothing quite so toe-curling as a guy who has dedicated his life to serving the public one book recommendation at a time! Swoony sigh!
2. Veterinarian – the animal lover in me has always had a soft spot for guys working in this career. I blame James Herriot. 🙂 Read all his book in my teens and have watched various adaptations of ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ throughout the years. And really, what better profession to highlight a hero’s compassionate, gentle, caring side?!
3. Firefighter – so cliche, I know, but…
4. Cowboy – This one doesn’t make sense since cowboys work on ranches with cattle that are heading to slaughter eventually (remember, I’m a vegetarian) but I’m still drawn to well-written cowboy hero, contemporary or historical. I feel like cowboys represent integrity and honesty and hard work – the backbone of a pioneering spirit. And they are often portrayed in romances as kind of grumpy protective which is always fun. 🙂
5. Pastor/Minister – this one is tricky to write, I think, but I’ve read some really good romances featuring a pastor hero. Love the scope for faith elements this occupation brings to the story plus, I appreciate when an author realistically showcases the unique struggles, insecurities, etc that come with this calling.
6. Farmer/Gardener – no surprise that I’m attracted to these professions because I love gardening and have always yearned to live in the country. I’ve read a few farmer hero romances (there seem to be more ranchers than farmers which isn’t the same thing at all) but I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book featuring a professional gardener. I would love to though.
7. Carpenter/craftsman – and really any blue collar kind of job. I’m not drawn to corporate CEO types at all. I guess I’m drawn to a simpler kind of life and am looking for something relatable for my fictional hero worshipping. 🙂

Giveaway Opportunity

Time for you to join in the chat! Share your thoughts on what makes a good fictional hero career, and what doesn’t, in a comment below and I’ll enter you in a draw for a $10 Baker Book House gift card. (or Amazon card if you’re in Canada)

Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday August 30 2025

Can’t believe that I’m saying this but….it’s time to start wrapping up summer! Can’t say I’m not looking forward to the the change of seasons – I’m an Autumn baby so fall’s my favourite. In honour of the transition I thought it would be fun to take a look at our summer reading in review so I’ve prepared some questions that you’re at liberty to answer…or not. Answer one or two or all….but you might want to pay extra attention to the last questions ’cause there’s a giveaway attached to that one! So…here we go:

What was your first read of the summer (June – August) ?

Sadly, a three star book for me. Not a great start to my summer reading!

What was your most anticipated summer read? Doesn’t have to be a summer release, just a book you looked forward to reading this summer.

I was desperate to read this book in January when it released but at first it wasn’t available in Canada and then it was at a crazy price – $60. I kept checking the online bookstores and voila – the price finally went down to $12.00 earlier in the summer so I grabbed it! Now it’s back up to $35! Makes absolutely no sense. Glad I kept checking the website.

What was your most read genre this summer?

Can’t say I’m terribly surprise about this stat ’cause I have been craving mystery and suspense like crazy this summer. What shocked me was how many more contemporary romances I read versus Historical. I need to up my Historical reading in the fall!

Who was your Summer Book Boyfriend Crush?

There is something so toe-curling about a grumpy, gruff, bear of a guy who is completely besotted with his pint-size pixie of a daughter. I melted so many times! And when Emmett goes into full protective mode – whether on behalf of his daughter or Hazel – well, hand me a fan and clear off my fainting couch!

What was a summer book purchase?

Soooo many!!!!! I might have a bit of a bookish problem 🙂 so I’m sharing the latest one I bought…August 15th.

What book brightened your day?

The author’s signature humour shines throughout this story. So many laugh out loud moments! Often courtesy of a trio of unruly children, especially the youngest imp and her special frog friend. H-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s.

Share the title of a book you wish you’d read this summer in a comment or an email to me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. and I’ll add you to the draw. If you name is chosen, you will win a copy of that book. Please check out edition options available for your country:

US – your choice of a paperback or ebook edition

Canada – your choice of paperback, ebook or audible (where available)

International – ebook with a US Kindle account.

Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday August 23 2025.

Can you believe we’re more than halfway through the summer already? Can’t say I’ll miss the heat when the autumn comes. We’re already getting back to school advertisements and the stores are stocking up with school supplies. I always get the itch to buy notebooks and pens etc. ’round about now. I might have succumbed at the Dollar Store recently, but, in my defence they had the cutest composition journals! And nifty eraser tape. Coloured pencils. Gel pens in a rainbow of colours. Oy. I may not be going back to school but I still can’t resist!

Ahem, but we’re not here to talk about all that. Today is going to be a smorgasbord of topics in random order. Feel free to join in the conversation in the comments and, if you do, I’ll enter you in a draw for a $10.00 Baker Book House gift card. Speaking of which…the perfect segue to our first topic:

Baker Book House Online Woes! I have been having issues logging on to the BBH site to place my orders for a while now. It used to be hit and miss and then I couldn’t log in on my laptop but I could log in on my computer only I haven’t been able to sign in at all this week. (Apologies to Connie and Cindy, last week’s winners who are still waiting for their wins. Well, Cindy has a long wait since her book doesn’t release until October so we have a bit of leeway there!)

I’ve sent two help emails to Baker Book House without any response. I’m not sure what else I can do. I have a MacBook Air laptop and an Apple computer – not sure if that could play into it? What’s happening: either I get nothing when I click on the ‘sign in/my account’ button OR I do get the log in box but nothing happens when I fill it out. Sooo frustrating. So, I thought I’d ask if anyone else has been having the same problem? And if so, did they find a solution? Any suggestions?

Funny AI Update: Literally the week after I posted my AI blog, my yahoo email suddenly decided to bestow an AI assistant upon me. Every time I opened an email, the helpful AI ass’t would summarize the body of the text for me, getting the simplest things all muddled up in the process. So ridiculously annoying, since emails are usually brief and to the point anyway, so really why would I need a summary of four or five lines?! And hilarious that it couldn’t grasp the important points of an email text.

On top of that this irritating AI ass’t ‘helpfully’ prioritized my emails so that when I signed on, I only got the emails the AI thought were important. It took me nearly a week to realize that I could click on an ‘all’ button and see all the emails and by then I had over fifty of them. So if I’ve missed an email somewhere along the way recently, that might be why. AI always defaulted to ‘priority’ email list and I’d have to manually select ‘all’ every single time I went into my email. Gah!

I finally discovered a cleverly hidden ‘opt out’ button and was able to go back to my plain old un AI email. Phew! Of course, then the email popped up a message box and wanted to know what it did wrong. I was very thorough in my reply and now I’m feeling kinda guilty lest I hurt it’s feelings. 🙂

Garden Woes: Those ripening, juicy red tomatoes? Yeah, the chipmunks enjoyed them. Well, they took a bite out of each one and tossed the rest. Sigh. Now I’m picking barely orange tomatoes and letting them ripen on my counter.

Best Reads Summer Book Bingo Update: We already have 7 Bingo Blackouts and a slew of line Bingos with more coming in every week. Woohoo! I finally found my holiday romance so I’m a Blackout too. Just a reminder that you have until midnight EST time on August 31 to get your Bingos in. So…just three more weeks of summer reading. If you need a refresher here’s the original post: https://kavsbestreads.ca/2025/06/01/conversations-with-kav-summer-reading-fun-giveaway/

Re Giveaways: just a reminder to always check the editions available in your country for the giveaways. I’ve tried to make it as clear as possible by adding ‘+Giveaway’ to the blog title if there will be a book giveaway that day and then listing the options in red under the ‘Giveaway Opportunity’ at the end of each blog. Not every review will necessarily include a giveaway, so do look for that ‘+ Giveaway’ after the title, as well as the giveaway options listed after the review.

But today there is a giveaway! Add to the conversation in the comments below (especially if you have solutions to my BBH woes) to be entered for a $10.00 Baker Book House gift card. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday August 16 2025.

Did you know that the phrase ‘dog days of summer’ refers to the hottest and most humid period of the season? Which kind of describes the weather since May actually. Oy. I wish I had a pool I could cool off in like this doggo. 🙂 Fun Fact: the term goes way back to Ancient Greece and Rome who thought the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star added to the intensity of the sun’s heat.

Anyway, in celebration of these lazy, hazy dog days of summer, I thought it would be fun to chat about dogs (and pets in general) in our fiction. Oh – and I also have a couple of random ‘gardening in extreme heat questions’ for all you Southern Gardners so read to the end.

So – dogs (and pets) in fiction. Are you a fan? A dog lover in general? I wish we had the ability to share photos in the comments, I’d love to see your fur babies! This is my grandpuppy, Tobey. I’m the go to dog sitter when needs arise. He’s a wonderful cuddlebug but he’s also stubborn. Doesn’t like to retrace his steps on a walk – in other words always wants to head away from home into infinity. lol So I rigged up a basket on my rollator (walker) and when he balks at turning around I scoop him up and give him a ride for a bit. We get lots of snickers around the neighbourhood. And now the poor little guy has a heart murmur and asthma so riding in the basket has become more of a necessity.

Do you have a favourite fictional dog hero/heroine? Or author who knows how to write ‘dog’? A pet peeve of mine is when a dog or other pet is included in a story but barely referenced other than to say ‘let the dog out’ or ‘fed the cat’ — I mean, why bother adding an animal into the story at all if you aren’t going to develop its character and the relationship between hero or heroine and pet.

I can think of a ton of fictional canine examples but I will restrain myself and just share this one. Clyde from Sandpiper Cove (Hope Harbor #3). This is what I said about Clyde and his human in my review: “You can tell a lot about a hero by the way he treats a dog. And Clyde will tell you that Adam is a keeper. Some of my favourite scenes are between this life-battered pair. A man who has had a rough start in life and the abused dog he rescued. Both are wary of getting too close to people, finding comfort and safety in their solitude.”

Extreme Heat Gardening Questions:

I know there are a few avid gardeners in the crowd so I am making an urgent appeal. Our growing season is so out of whack that some plants flowered early, others sped through their flowering period and others seem frozen in time. Not dying off but not blooming either. So I have questions – especially for gardeners who work with these conditions all the time.

1. My tomato plants are looking hale and hardy — I’ve been good about watering them regularly and I even have lots of green tomatoes…only they have been green for weeks. Not rotting but not ripening either. I read that they will kind of go dormant in extreme heat but will go back to their normal growth cycle once there’s relief from the heat. But it’s been…wow, over three weeks for some of my plants. Is there anything I can do to help ripen the tomatoes? Or is it just a waiting game? Which really doesn’t make sense since a lot of our off season tomatoes come from Mexico which is super hot, so why would they ripen there and not here? Help!
2. For my flowers that bloomed early. If I cut them back will they bloom again? (Shasta daisies, asters, flax, wild geraniums, bee balm…perennials.) I’ve already dead-headed the daisies and one kind of bee balm and did a get a second flowering but I’m wondering since the weather is so warm, will I get new growth if I cut it all back?
3. I have a really pretty purply-pink aster that literally turned gray over night after a thunderstorm and days of severe heat. It’s like all the pigment got zapped out of the petals! Happened to my daisies too. One day they were pretty white petals with bright yellow centres, the next day the petals were gray and the centres were black!!!! I feel like I’m growing. a Munster Family garden. How do Southern gardeners stop the weather from messing with their colour palette?!

Giveaway Opportunity:

Come chat in the comments and I will add your name into a draw for a $10 Baker Book House gift card (Amazon for Canadian readers.)

Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday August 2, 2025.

My Technologically stunted brain has a really hard time comprehending all the AI chatter around books and publishing making it’s way around social media. I feel like I’m always joining in the middle of a conversation and I can never catch up. So…I thought, who better to turn to then all you clever Best Readers?

I know a lot of you follow authors on FB and through newsletters and I’m thinking you’re getting a more complete picture of the issues around AI and books so here we are! I’m going to share the little bit I know and you can fill in the blanks for me, okay? Here we go! 🙂

AI and Plagiarism

I stumbled upon a huge controversy online about a general market indie author who was accused of using AI to plagiarize another author’s work. From what I can grasp, she used some kind of AI platform that actually took an original story from another author and tweaked it to be just different enough for the plagiarizing author to pass it off as her own. I can’t grasp how this could even be possible! It must be so scary for authors because it seems like it would be impossible to protect their copyright. I mean, it would be so random to even discover that your work has been stolen.

The other angle I read about is where an author can use AI to beef up their own story by requesting the AI to make it more like another author’s writing style! Whaatttt???? How is that even possible? That seems so futuristic!

AI Authored Novels?!

This one really blew my mind. There are actually books being ‘written’ by AI. From what I can understand, a human feeds in a few general plot points like a rough outline and the computer does the rest. I became aware of this when I began reading weird (to me) messages on Instagram from authors reassuring followers that they actually write their own stories – no AI authorship involved! I have a really hard time wrapping my mind around this concept!

AI in audio books

This one really irks me because I got roped into buying a book that was actually narrated by AI. I know some of you use a text to speech app to iisten to kindle books and I can see how that might be beneficial though I’ll admit to being a bit of an audio snob and really love talented voice performers. 🙂

It’s one thing, though, to go into a listening experience knowing you’re listening to an AI production, but to actually pay the same amount you would for real live narrated book is truly irksome.

AI Generated Book Covers

It just occurred to me that maybe that’s why the faceless and cartoony covers have become so prevalent. They must be AI generated, right? And likely a huge financial savings in book productions. But I hate the idea of computers taking over the artistic design of talented artists and photographers.

AI Search Help(Not!)

This one really irritates me. You know, when you go to search an online store and AI keeps ‘helpfully’ correcting your ‘typos’ so you never get the result you want? Soooo annoying.

Example: Northargyle Abbie by Janelle Leonard. No matter how many times I type that title on Amazon, it corrects my ‘mistakes’ the second I click ‘search.’ Northargyle Abbie automatically becomes North Argyle Abbey and, of course, I don’t get any results. Gah! That happens a lot with quirky titles, like the puny-y ones unique to cozies too. So frustrating!

Well, that about sums up all I know about AI Controversies and the book industry. Do you have any deeper insights? Heard more online chatter about this topic and how ti is affecting authors? I’d love it if you would share in the comments.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

Contribute to the conversation in a comment and you will be entered in a draw for a $10 Baker Book House gift card. (or Canadians will receive an Amazon.ca gift card)

Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday July 19 2025.

I got to thinking that in all the Reader Choice Week flurry we don’t spend a lot of time looking at indie books. A few were mentioned last week, most by hybrid authors like Laura Frantz and Jody Hedlund, but I knew there must be more out there so I went on the hunt and came up with a few that caught my fancy. I’ve shared them below and I thought it would fun if today’s conversation could be about Indie Summer Releases – books releasing in July or August. Mention as many as you like, but highlight one that you would like to win in the giveaway. If your name is drawn, that will be the book you will receive.

The Start of my Indie Summer Reading List

Riding By Faith (Iron Grace Brotherhood #1) by Susan Lyda – motorcycle club of redeemed men who have a ministry to help people. Strong found family vibes. Sounds really different. Has anyone read this author before? Release Date: July 4

It’s been an age since I’ve read anything by Myra Johnson so this one caught my eye. A rancher and a widow with a young son, looks like the meet-cute is a rescue situation which always draws me in and leaves me in a puddle of swoons! Some complicated family dynamics too. Release Date: July 7

Jo Grafford’s name has come up a number of times in Bingo entries (looking at you, Tracey!) so this one caught my eye. Plus, the tagline says: “A cowboy allows a friend to arm-twist him into serving as a bodyguard to a princess in hiding.” Count me intrigued!

I have heard of Amy R. Anguish but I have never read any of her books…yet. This one is a Cinderella retelling, first in a new series and it has some clever twists. The heroine is an aspiring artist, her stepsister steals one of her drawings and passes it off as her own. The ball is replaced by a contest at an art gallery and the hero is the owner of the gallery and his last name is Prince. Right now it’s only listed as ebook but I’m hoping it will release in paperback as well. Release Date: July 22

The summer is the perfect time for a rom/com and this one looks fun. I’ve read Nicole Lam’s Love Inspired novel but haven’t tried any of her indie books. This one is a best friends to more trope which I love. The heroine makes a perfect boyfriend list and then sets about looking for The One while her best friend eggs her on with a dare. If she doesn’t find the guy in two month, she has to be his date to his sister’s wedding. Release Date: August 8

I got really excited when I found this one because I’ve read the first two books in this series and somehow lost track of it. And it’s set In Prince Edward Island! This one features a fake dating trope which is always fun. Can’t wait to see what the author does with it. Release Date: August 25

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

Your turn! Are you anticipating an Indie Releases in July or August – Christian Fiction or Closed Door only please! Share some titles in a comment and indicate which one you would like to win if your name is drawn.

Giveaway Options: Canada and US: Paperback or ebook, International: ebook with a US Amazon kindle account.

Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday July 12 2005