Twice Shy, Sarah Hogle [100 books to read in a lifetime .txt] 📗

“Not to pile on, but you really do.”

He devours me with a deeply meaningful look that gives rise to goose bumps. Anticipation. “The second wish, though.” His tone is light. Considering. But his gaze is anything but. “Do you suppose it’s legally binding?”

The second wish . . . “Which one was that?”

“For the intrepid explorer . . .”

Ahh, of course. “Finders Keepers rules apply.”

“Well, I did find you,” I point out. “A coincidence for the history books.”

“I believe in a lot of unbelievable things. Coincidences might not be one of them anymore, though.”

I’d have to agree. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that Gemma used Wesley’s picture to catfish me. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence led Violet to bring Wesley and me together at Falling Stars.

It feels like fate. The best myth of them all.

“So.” He bends down to kiss my nose. I scrunch it, and he smiles like he’s the winner here. “Finders keepers.” Then he dips his head as though to kiss my mouth but only hovers there. “How does that sound?”

“Like heaven,” I murmur against his lips. A happy, low little sigh stirs from his chest, and it’s a fire ignited, a permanent mark made on the universe. I am seen. I am heard. Understood. Somebody knows that I am here, and it matters to them. If I were to look up at the sky right now, I think I’d see our names in the stars, a new constellation twinkling into being just for us. M + W.

The passionate kiss that follows the declaration of love is the essential ingredient to every romance to ensure it bakes properly, so naturally that is the part that comes next. His mouth meets mine at long, longest last—my heart brightens, glowing in the dark—and somewhere, way out on the black water, there is an extraordinary splash.

5 Rising Stars for the Mighty & Majestic Falling Stars Hotel!

By Clark William

THE DAILY TIMES

A BLOUNT COUNTY PROPERTY with nineteenth-century boardinghouse roots followed by an early-1900s turn as a hotel has been brought back to life by Maybell Parrish, the great-niece of Victor and Violet Hannobar, as well as Wesley Koehler, the resident groundskeeper and founder of animal sanctuary The Farm Upstate.

The latest incarnation of this historical landmark is a mash-up of its origins: a hotel as well as a boardinghouse. Parrish has grand plans for it (which are too numerous for this author to include in one article), such as an upcoming writer’s retreat, an artist’s workshop weekend, a biannual treasure hunt, a paranormal investigator weekend—the house, rumored to be haunted, is close to 140 years old—and a corn maze with crop circles.

If you’re in the market for a respite from the stresses of life, leave them all at the door and step into this fanciful Appalachian Brigadoon. Meals and laundry services are provided, but if you still aren’t convinced, there are twenty-seven farm animals (and counting) on the grounds to feed and play with. Enjoy Turner Classic Movies nights in the ballroom and tea parties on Sunday afternoons, and make pen pals out of past guests as well as guests to come. Finish that manuscript you’ve been meaning to write for years now while enjoying a donut in Maybell’s Coffee Shop on the first floor. Don’t forget to pick up your own Fraser fir sapling if you want to take a little piece of the Smokies home with you.

Extended board is low-income friendly, forgoing a big up-front deposit. Parrish and Koehler have transformed the property not only into a vacation destination in the scenic Smoky Mountains, perfect for getting away from it all, but also into a temporary home for two families in dire straits after recently losing their houses to wildfires.

Rich with history and all the comforts of the modern age, the Mighty & Majestic Falling Stars Hotel is a world of its own, where life is a little more whimsical (no guest has yet succeeded in finding all six secret doors) and the air just a little easier to breathe. So what are you waiting for? Your best memories are still on the horizon—all they need is you. Come to the Top of the World to discover the magic for yourself.

Acknowledgments

Once upon a time, a young lady who’d dumped her boyfriend was tricked into reconnecting with him thanks to their scheming mothers, who claimed the young man was horribly ill with pneumonia and that writing him a letter would cheer him up. Carol wrote Bill a letter, then received one back from him the next day, before he could have feasibly received hers. She discovered he was perfectly fine, but fate had already been set in motion—sixty-one years later, here I am. Grandma, thank you for telling me that story, which I then mashed up for my own use (Victor and Violet appreciate it), and for putting your hands on my shoulders when I was an emotional fourteen-year-old, saying, “I understand you.” You are a pink-haired legend.

Thank you, Jennifer Grimaldi, for being a fantastic agent and brainstorming partner. I don’t remember which phone call it was, but you mentioned coffee shop AUs somewhere along the line and I knew I had to use it.

Thank you, Margo Lipschultz, my editor, who found promise in this story buried under a whole lot of junk I didn’t need, and for changing my life when you acquired my first book. Thank you also to Tricja Okuniewska for all of your hard work; to my UK editor, Anna Boatman at Piatkus, for wanting another story of mine; and to a whole slew of extraordinarily talented individuals at Putnam who’ve had a hand in bringing this book to the world: Sally Kim, Ashley McClay, Alexis Welby, Nishtha Patel, Tom Dussel, Alison Cnockaert, Maija Baldauf, Marie Finamore, Elora Weil, Nicole Biton, Ivan Held, Hannah Dragone, Tiffany Estreicher, Christopher Lin, and Anthony Ramondo.

THANK YOU to all you beautiful humans who gave my debut novel, You Deserve Each Other,