Athena by Heather Moore (The Newport Ladies Book Club series)

Athena is a self-proclaimed bachelorette—it’s better that way—no one gets hurt. But when tragedy strikes, Athena realizes friendship and love is the only way she can pull through, and she must, for the first time in her life, risk opening her heart.

The Newport Ladies Book Club series is unique in that each Newport book is written from the point of view of a different woman in the book club. The first 4 books cover the same time period and the same book club meetings. But only with reading all 4 books, will you learn the whole story of each of the women and her full character journey. Think of it as a parallel series, not as a forward-moving series.

I've had the opportunity to read and review this series from the very beginning and I have really loved it.  It's such a great idea to have books that cover the same period of time, yet each from a different point of view.  Each book tells the story of an individual while telling bits and pieces of the other women's stories as well.  

Being a lover of clean romance myself, this book really brought in all the elements that I love.  This book had more romantic aspects, and more kissing than the other books.  :)

Athena has some major challenges thrown at her all at once.  Like all the women in this series, she is trying to figure out how to deal with life's challenges while fixing the things in her life and character that she knows need fixing.  Life is hard.  No matter what your profession, religion, marital status or family make-up, life is hard.  I love that this series brings all those elements into the books.  These women band together, support each other and share a common love of books.  It's awesome.  Women everywhere will be able to connect with the characters in these books in some way or another.

In the end, I was proud of Athena.  She dug deep and found what she needed to get through.  She overcame her fears and let other in to help.  It was a struggle, but she did it. 

If you haven't had the chance to read these books yet (Oliva, Paige, Daisy or Athena), you should really give them a chance.  Pick one up.  You might just love them.  :)

You can read more about this series HERE.

Heather Moore (H.B. Moore) is the award-winning author of the historical series, OUT OF JERUSALEM (2007 Whitney Award winner), ABINADI (2008 Whitney Award winner & 2009 Best of State winner), ALMA (2009 Whitney Award finalist), ALMA THE YOUNGER (2011 Best of State winner & 2010 Whitney Award finalist), AMMON (2011 Gold Award of Excellence), DAUGHTERS OF JARED (2012 Golden Quill Best Novel), the non-fiction WOMEN OF THE BOOK OF MORMON and CHRIST'S GIFTS TO WOMEN (co-authored with Angela Eschler).

Newest releases include THE NEWPORT LADIES BOOK CLUB SERIES: ATHENA; A TIMELESS ROMANCE ANTHOLOGY: WINTER COLLECTION; HEART OF THE OCEAN (Jan 2013).

Heather graduated from Brigham Young University with a major in Fashion Merchandising and minor in Business Management—which has nothing to do with writing novels, but at least she can balance a mean checkbook and color-coordinate her kids’ school clothes.