Summer + Books

Mine has been lovely, warm, and something like a movie. I float in and out of days with my heart tangled in everything. Crunching away at popsicles on the front porch. Jamming old-time music with friends and family. Soaking up the sun. Dancing partway into the night. Teaching the new puppy how to shake. Laughing when he doesn’t. Taking walks. Picnics. Going to the waterfall by myself and asking all the questions I don’t have answers for. 

I wish I could keep the season forever. What about you? If you could circle back into summer, over and over, without it ever getting cold, would you? 

THINGS I’VE DONE SO FAR THIS SUMMER: 

• Started a new novel (think Regency + amnesia + dashing Scottish hero)
• Danced at four square dances
• Brought home a collie pup named Sheb 
• Attended an amazing writers conference 
• Went to Topsail Island Beach

MUSIC I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO ON REPEAT: 

• Gentle on My Mind by the Petersens 
• All My Loving by the Beatles 
• Hazel Eyes by Sabrina Jordan 

RECENT BOOKS I’VE READ: 

• When Hope Sank by Denise Weimer
• Driving Force by Lynette Eason and Kate Angelo
• No Match for Love by Karen Thornell
• Protecting the Mountain Man’s Treasure by Misty M. Beller 

What have you done, listened to, and read this summer? 

Have you read any of Amanda Dykes’ books?

Which of her book covers are your favorite so far (although, I admit—that question is a little unfair when they’re all so breath-stealing). 

Check out her new release. Here’s a bit about the book: 

A lost treasure. A riddled quest. The healing power of friendship.

Legends are tucked into every fold of the Colorado mountains surrounding the quaint town of Mercy Peak, where residents are the stuff of tall tales, the peaks are taller still, and a lost treasure has etched mystery into the very terrain.

In 1948, when outsider Mercy Windsor arrives after a scandal shatters her gilded world as Hollywood’s beloved leading lady, she is determined to forge a new life in obscurity in this time-forgotten Colorado haven. She purchases Wildwood, an abandoned estate with a haunting history, and begins to restore it to its former glory.

But as she does, her every move tugs at the threads of the mountain’s lore, unearthing what became of her long-lost pen pal Rusty Bright, and the whereabouts of the infamous Galloping Goose Railcar No. 8, which vanished years ago—along with the mailbag it carried, whose contents could change the course of countless lives. Not to mention the fabled treasure that—if found—could right so many wrongs.

Among the towering mountains that stand as silent witnesses, the ghosts of the past entangle with the courage of the present to find a place where healing, friendship, and hope can abide amid a world forever changed.