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Ruff and Tumble by Lucy Gilmore

Adorable puppies, emotional pasts, and a happily ever after!

Ruff and Tumble was a bestseller at Inklings this summer and it is easy to see why.. Adorable puppies, emotional pasts, and a happily ever after... the perfect read to submerge yourself in! 

"If there was a way to hide a heavily pregnant golden retriever under a desk, Hailey had yet to discover it."

Hailey is a production assistant for the Puppy Cup. It is pretty much what it sounds like, puppies "playing football". The Puppy Cup is an yearly event where rescue dogs simulate playing football during the football season. Hailey therefore knows all things puppy and all things football. Especially the Seattle Lumberjacks.

What she doesn't know is family. She lost her parents young and grew up in the foster system. She is a pre-teen by the time she is adopted and her adoptive father leaves her too soon. She has no one, just the puppies. It is a lonely life but she is going through the motions and making it work. She loves her job, she loves fostering pups, and takes immense joy in finding homes for all the rescue dogs used in the Puppy Cup after the event. 

Cole's entire life is football. His family has dedicated their whole lives to his career. His sister is his manager and his father sees the career he was not able to have on Cole. Cole must succeed for them, for his team, and his fans... Except he is not sure he can. A past injury is hurting more than he is letting on and he needs a way out. Hailey and her puppies might not be the way out he needs exactly, but he knows a way they can help with the transition. 

They meet in an elevator with a big mama golden retriever ready to pop. The elevator is old and breaks down. The moments that followed were tense but also very beautiful. Their relationship was fun to read. Hailey knows football well and has a lot of things to say, not all -if much- very nice. Cole appreciates the honesty. She sees him for who he is and not just 'the' star quarterback. The problems start when she realizes he is failing to see there is more to life than football. That yes, his family will be devastated when they learn he can't play anymore, but he at least has a loving family, something she can only dream of. 

The book is cute and fun to read, how could it not be with so many puppies? But it also pulls at your heartstrings. A great weekend read!

1- Cascade Killer, Cascade Vengeance, and Cascade Predator by Rob Phillips ($17.75 each, Latah Books)

Rob Phillips mystery series has been selling well since day one! Hundreds of copies have flown out of the door and we are so glad to see a very local author succeeding. The books are fast paced, full of intrigue and mystery, and being set all right here in Washington it is easy to lose yourself to the story. 

2- Witches Get Stitches by Juliette Cross ($18.99, Juliette Cross)

This is the third book in the Stay a Spell series (though they can be read as stand alone) and it is just as charming as the previous books. Set in Louisiana the Savoi sisters are slowly coming into their own. Violet dreams of opening her own tattoo shop, which will cater to the supernaturals in need of permanent charms. Nicco, her business partner, needs one more than most, but can she do one so powerful and can they resist each other in the meantime?  

3- Neon Gods by Katee Robert ($14.99, Sourcebooks)

A modern day retelling of a Greek Mythology classic by an author right here in Washington. It reimagines the story of Hades and Persephone. A surprise unwanted betrothal arranged by Persephone’s mother to Zeus, has Persephone crossing the river Styx and seeking refuge with Hades. The romance between them develops quickly and it is not for the faint of heart. 

4- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesey ($22.99, HarperOne)

From a revered British illustrator The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is a modern fable for all ages that explores life's universal lessons, featuring 100 color and black-and-white drawings. It has been read by many of our own staff and is loved by all. 

5- American Marxism by Mark R Levin ($28, Threshold Editions)

Publisher Marketing: “In American Marxism, Levin explains how the core elements of Marxist ideology are now pervasive in American society and culture-from our schools, the press, and corporations, to Hollywood, the Democratic Party, and the Biden presidency-and how it is often cloaked in deceptive labels like "progressivism," "democratic socialism," "social activism," and more […] Levin exposes many of the institutions, intellectuals, scholars, and activists who are leading this revolution, and provides us with some answers and ideas on how to confront them.”

6- Ruff and Tumble by Lucy Gilmore ($8.99, Sourcebooks Casablanca)

The third book (if we count Rob Phillips’ books as one) on our list from a local Washington author! The book kicks off with a pregnant golden retriever about to pop in a broken elevator. The main characters Cole and Hailey must unite forces to avoid catastrophe. The book is full of heart, puppies, and a romance to remember. 

7- Pax by Sara Pennypacker ($8.99, Harperteen)

Pax is a compelling story of friendship between a boy and his fox. These two have been inseparable since Petter rescued Pax. But when Peter’s dad enlists in the military he is ordered to let go of his fox friend. He goes to be with his grandad and missing his dad, his fox, and full of grief he embarks on a journey to get his fox back. In the meantime Pax is waiting for Peter and also having an unexpected adventure.

8- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline ($17, Ballantine)

With the release of Ready Player Two, over eight years after the release of Ready Player One, people are finding their way back to this great Science Fiction tale. The year is 2045 and most of humanity spends their days lost inside a virtual world called OASIS. When the creator of that world dies he leaves a quest and the first to solve it inherits his fortune.

9- Dune by Frank Herbert ($10.99, Ave Books)

Whenever it is announced a movie is coming out based on a book, you bet the book will sell well. The new Dune movie comes out in October and old fans of this classic are rereading it while also inspiring others to pick it up. Dune is a blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics. It has won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is now considered one of the greatest science fiction series of its time.

10- Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton 

It is not often we have kids' board books on the bestseller list. Sandra Boynton is a popular American cartoonist, children's author, songwriter, producer, and director. Since 1974, Boynton has written and illustrated over sixty children's books! All adorable.  This classic book encourages youngsters to imitate the sounds made by Boynton's seriously silly signature animals. 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Review by Krystal Griswold

Regret is something that we all have wrestled with, it is a part of human existence. What if we made a different choice, would our life be better or worse? This is an impossible question that can send us deeper down into despair and keep us bound, if we let it. 

Matt Haig brings this human struggle into the light and beautifully explores what would happen if we could choose a different life. In “The Midnight Library”, we follow the story of Nora who has battled with crippling anxiety and depression. Her life has been full of failures, loss, and doubt. The overwhelming despair she feels wins the fight for her life and instead of death she finds herself in the Midnight Library. Here she has the opportunity to come face to face with all of the things she hoped for herself but didn’t get the chance to have. 

This book puts to words what many of us have felt when we are faced with our own what if’s. We all want to know if our life has meaning, if we were meant for something more, or if we will ever find true happiness. The story gives the reader permission to explore these personal questions for their own lives and put themselves in Nora’s shoes. 

As we follow Nora’s journey, we begin to see that regret has many layers. The choices that we thought would bring us the life we wanted, turn out not to be what we expected them to be. We get to see how the dreams of others can impact our own, how the pressures of society sculpt our ideas of happiness, and how fear plays a role in our decisions. 

If you have ever battled with anxiety, depression, or suicide, this book will bring healing to your soul. I am very thankful for the author's transparency and willingness to put his heart on the pages. Because of Matt’s own journey to find freedom, he is showing others how to find it as well.  

One of the biggest lies that depression will tell us is that our life isn’t worth anything. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We all have a unique purpose and our own journey to get there. Don’t let the comparisons of others, your past mistakes, or doubt of the future cut your story short. 

If you are wrestling with life’s big questions, this book is a great place to start. It gives you a chance to step into the life of someone else who is struggling with the same things. This book will give you a friend and let you know the most important thing of all: you are not alone. Happy reading friends! 

Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean and Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez

Review by Sue Domis

Two young adult novels have stood out for me this year.  Each story centered around  young women. The first novel is Toykyo Ever After.  It takes place in Northern California and moves on to Tokyo. The second book is a sports novel in Argentina.  The books are both about a girl maturing and involves a love story.  I enjoyed each book for different reasons.  One, because it involved soccer and a strong willed character, and the other because of the locations and the love story.

    Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean is a book about best friends and has a close mother daughter relationship.  Izumi Tanaka is a high school girl growing up in a small Northern California college town.  Her mother is a botany professor and is a single parent.  Izumi's mother has never talked about or identified Izumio's father. Izumi and her friend discover a poem written to her mother by a love interest that was written the same year Izumi was born.  This begins a search to find out who the author is.  With help from the internet the girls discover a man who attended the same school, at the same time Izumi's mother did.  Then we are reading about life in Japan and the Japanese royal family.  Is Izumi part of that family?  The novel follows Izumi and her mother coming to grips with the truth which her mother had never shared.  Eventually, after much arguing, Izumi's mother allows Izumi to try to contact her father.  After reading a lot about the small California town Izumi grew up in, the next location is Japan, as Izumi tries to be accepted by  a very large Japanese royal family,  The young girl tries to follow. proper social   etiquette but she makes some painful  mistakes.. A handsome young imperial guard is assigned to Izumi and may be a love interest for her.  This was a book that was fun to read.  There is a lot of family, friendships, and trying to fit in.  And may I say again there is a lot of romance in it to enjoy.

   Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez is another book about a young school girl. This book takes place in Argentina.  Camila is a young student and she is a soccer player.  Camila's brother is a beginning professional player, & his close friend Diego. is already a popular pro. Camila and Diego grew up together. It's no surprise that Camila is also a good player.  She plays on her school  team and wants to play on a women's professional team.  Camila's parents don't approve of women playing sports and don't even know about her goal.  After one of Camila's school games, because of her power and fury, she is nicknamed Furia.  Furia spends her life at games, practices and working to keep her grades up.  As Diego becomes more successful and popular. he starts to pressure Furia to give up her soccer goals to become part of his life as his wife.  This is a feminist book about girls and women being strong in their lives and endevours.  It's about not giving up their dreams and hard work to live in a man's shadow. Camila's mother became pregnant at a young age and had to give up her greams and marry Camila's father.  Their marriage is an unhappy one.  Camila's father cheats on her mother and drinks a lot.  Furia doesn't want to be forced into another unhappy situation.  

   Furia and Toykyo Ever After are about different girls in different countries, but they are both about independent young women who are willing to work to become a success on their own merits.  Each book is well written and they are  very powerful and inspiring.

Our Favorites in August and its links:

- Mexican Gothic print/audio

- The Bookshop of Second Chances print/audio

- Ruff and Tumble print/audio

- Greenlights print/audio

- Tad and Dad print

- Neon Gods print/audio

I love suspense thrillers!

They make a great summer read:  take one to the beach or on your next camping trip. Here are three that came out this year that impressed me as the best of the bunch. Get ready to be spooked by these new page-turners!

Local Woman Missing gets my award for a twisty ending. I promise that you will not see it coming! Eleven years ago, within the span of a couple of weeks, two  women and a young girl go missing. Today, a young woman named Delilah staggers out of the woods with a horrendous story to tell. With narration alternating between the present and the time of the crime we find out about Delilah, her mother and  the other woman gone missing. It seems all families have their secrets. And some of those secrets are deadly.

The Sanatorium wins the award for atmosphere and setting.  Deep in the Swiss Alps sits an abandoned TB sanatorium. An astute investor renovates it to become Le Sommet, a premier 5-star resort hotel. Our main character, Elin, is invited by her estranged brother to meet his fiancee, the assistant manager of the newly opened hotel. Le Sommet is stark and modern, and yet somehow reminiscent of its dark Edwardian past. This contradiction just adds to the creepy gothic feel of the novel. Then there’s a murder-or two--or three. Top that off with an avalanche that isolates the hotel from the rest of the world and you’ve got an eerie, sinister serial killer thriller. It was just what I was in the mood for!  Although the plot was a little unrealistic and required a certain amount of suspension of belief it was very entertaining. I found myself reading past my allotted time!

Finally, there’s Such a Quiet Place. I award it “Best Character Development”. Ruby and Harper live in a gated community on an idyllic lake.  Most of the residents have their working lives entwined  with the local college. Besides that, they are all mostly the same age and have similar interests. That sense of community is put to the test when one of the resident couples is found dead in their home. Consequently, Ruby is convicted of the crime and sentenced to 20 years in prison. After just 14 months she is out while discrepancies in her case are being sorted out and she awaits a new trial. Rather than leaving the community, she unexpectedly returns to Harper’s home. She swears she is innocent and she’s here to prove it--and to make the guilty party pay. Such a Quiet Place rips the cover off a quiet neighborhood and lays bare the secrets hidden there. It’s an honest look at how people might react to a disturbing event, herd mentality, and the fact that everyone is broken in some way or another.

Why wait for Halloween to get some shivers?  Grab that patio chair and icy lemonade. Find some shade or go poolside. Or just relax and crank up the AC!  There are some really good new suspense thrillers out there to enjoy.

Review by Luanne Clark

A huge thank you to everyone that joined us for Bookstore Romance Day!

If you missed the opportunity to order online and/or couldn't attend, we've kept a few signed copies instore (pictured).

You can order those through our website (just do a quick search for the titles you want), in-person, or by sending Anne a message (anne@inklingsbookshop.com).

Books, Music, and Prizes

Inklings Bookshop, English Country Market, Gasperetti’s Floral, Caffeine Connection Cafe, Pet Pantry and Yakima Beads Rocks and Candy Emporium have joined for a Saturday of music, a large raffle prize, a few prize bags, and a meet & greet with 7 amazing local WA authors this Saturday, August 21st., for the third Bookstore Romance Day. The music will start at 1pm, with the book signing starting at 2pm. The event will go until 4. 

With that in mind, we at Inklings would like to tell you a little more about the authors joining us this Saturday!

Please note that many of these titles are independently publish and it is hard for us to carry them on  a regular basis, so some of them might only be available on the day or as a special order.

• Dalyn Weller

The most local of all the locals! Dalyn Weller is right here in Yakima and you might know her from her devotional book previously sold in-store. What you might not know is that she also writes, as she puts it: Inspirational Romances with a bit of grit. She will bring two titles with her on the day, Love Happens at Sweetheart Farm and I’ll be Yours for Christmas.

• Katee Robert

Katee Robert is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author and her books have sold over 1 million copies! Her latest book, a retelling of Hades and Persephone: Neon Gods, has been printed and reprinted a few times since its release June 1st. 

• Asa Maria Bradley

Asa Maria Bradley is a bestselling author of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. She grew up in Sweden surrounded by archaeology and history steeped in Norse mythology, so it is no surprise that her books have plenty of that! She now lives in the Pacific Northwest and we are lucky to benefit from all her creativity and experience. 

• Lucy Gilmore

Lucy Gilmore (or you might know her as Tamara Morgan), is an Inklings bestselling author! Isn’t that lovely? You might remember meeting her when she came to visit us with her Christmas themed book: Puppy Christmas, in 2019. Her newest book carries the same charm and wit and we are sure you will love it: Ruff and Tumble. Besides, if you own a puppy, you just have too!

• Shelli Stevens

Shelli is another New York Times Bestselling author to join us! She says she read her first romance novel when she snatched it off her mother’s bookshelf at the age of eleven. One taste and she was forever hooked!  

• Marie Tremayne 

If you fell in love with the British TV shows Bridgertons and Downtown Happy, here is a local author to give you a historical romance fix. She graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. in English Language and Literature. While there, a copy of Pride and Prejudice ended up changing her life, and she decided to study the great books of the Regency and Victorian eras. Now she enjoys writing her own tales set in the historical period she loves.

• Anna Alexander

Anna Alexander is the award winning author of the Heroes of Saturn and the Sprawling A Ranch series. With Hugh Jackman’s abs and Christopher Reeve’s blue eyes as inspiration, she loves spinning tales of superheroes finding love.

We believe there is a book for just about everyone between these fabulous 7 ladies. Come support your local stores and these great authors on the 21st! We look forward to seeing you. 

 Let’s Talk About Hard Things by Anna Sale

review by Tony Hoffart

Let’s Talk About Hard Things is a collection of stories and anecdotes that illustrate the challenges and benefits of making the effort to talk about difficult topics with those we love.  The author, Anna Sale pulls some of the stories from her podcast; Death Sex and Money.  She named the podcast after the things that affect all of us, but are difficult if not forbidden to be discussed in polite company.  The book is divided into five parts corresponding to the topics covered; Death, Sex, Money, Family and Identity.  

I found the topic of Death to be soothing in a way.  I’m the sort of person who gets awkward when trying to talk about death or soothe someone in mourning, and Sale confirms that this is normal.  The people who often think they are good at it can actually be the worst.  Being frank and honest in conversations about death should be your guiding star.  

The topic of Sex starts with the relatively benign aspects of sexual preferences and then shifts to an eye-opening account of extreme infidelity.  It’s hard to withhold judgement with some of the stories, but the perspective is that these things need to be discussed.  Sex is humanity at our most vulnerable, and thus conversations about it can be fraught.  

The topic of money is also about priorities.  Money defines us in ways we don’t like to admit.  Sale touches on the different ways people relate to money from a psychological standpoint. The accounts she provides show how a difference in priorities could make one person’s seemingly rational spending can be seen as a serious betrayal in their partner’s eyes.  I feel like money is the topic we all need to be better at talking about and this chapter has a lot of insight.

Family felt like more of a medium for hard conversations than a topic of them to me.  Family can be challenging to talk with candidly because they know us so well.  They know our hot buttons and might have created a few, and sometimes resist our attempts to change.  This chapter talks about letting go, about choosing when to stand our ground, and when to chill out on our own personal take letting our brethren have their own views.  Sometimes we can choose to be right, or choose to have peace.  We need to decide which path is correct for us.

Identity talks about politics and social issues.  Having lived through the past 5 years, I don’t imagine anyone reading this doesn’t understand how fraught these topics can be. The accounts in the book grapple with the question of how do we have a particular identity or view whilst maintaining relationships with people who don’t share that identity or sometimes openly disdain it.  The answer of course is you have to listen and decide if the relationship is more important than your respective identities.  There isn’t any magic to simply respecting another person’s viewpoint.

Ultimately, the book is just a sampling of just a few of the wonderful interviews Sale’s podcast covers.  And while I found it helpful and nuanced, it did in the end feel like a long-form flyer for the podcast, which to be fair I am definitely adding to my Spotify playlist.  It is a valuable book in it’s own right. If you want an enjoyable and helpful take on the topic, this book is a good one.  If you want a deeper dive, you may want to go straight for the podcast.