The Beginning of Everything by Jackie Fraser

 

Jess has run away from a domestic situation and leaves nearly everything she owns behind. Her journey takes her to Wales, where she takes refuge in her small tent in a cemetery. The ele

ments are harsh, and Jess finds an empty house with electricity still on and she respectfully moves in.  All is well, until the owner of the house finds her.

Her discovery, and the kindness of the owner result in Jess finding an unaccountable friendship and happiness, as together they restore the house. Jess and Gethins’ friendship is exactly what each needs to heal from their past relationships, and their self-doubt keeps the pages turning.  An utterly charming book, though you will find yourself wanting them to get on with it!

The book will be published September 26, 2023, by Random House. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

 

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue

 

A warm and melancholic tale of coming of age in Ireland, 2010. Rachel and James meet at the bookshop where they are both trying to earn enough to live on. Alone, they can’t but their fabulous chemistry lets them believe they can do it together. They move into a flat on Shandon Street and they discover the most important relationship in their lives to date…best friends.

Rachel has always known that James is gay, but he starts the journey well in the closet (though everyone who knows him, know!). Rachel is finishing her English degree and both of them are ready for love to find them. The twists and turns and complications – and betrayals—that lead them to their next phase are shattering… for both of them and their friendship.

Importantly, access, or lack thereof to reproductive healthcare in Ireland at the time, and the rest of the world now, is a central theme in this book. The journey of those most personal of decisions is traced both for the characters  and the law.

The book deals with serious subjects in a respectful and often humorous way. A very good read—Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Knopf, for providing the review copy. The book was released on June 27, 2023 and is available now.

Love, Holly by Emily Stone

 

 

 

  

Holly and her beloved sister Lily are on the way home for the holidays. A stop for coffee, a change in the weather, and their lives spin out of control in ways neither would have ever believed.

I loved this novel, for its willingness to let bad things happen to good people who find themselves in irreparable situations. It is full of great characters, wonderful art, and the reactions of its characters to art. We get to experience rural England alongside London, and we get to be part of two lovely, though damaged, families.  

If I say more, I’ll be forced into spoiler territory, so I’ll just say that this was a lovely book by an author who’s become a “don’t miss” for me. The book releases September 26, 2023 and will be great for the holidays.

 

The Sweetheart List by Jill Shavis

 

This was a lovely romance, set in a small town on Lake Tahoe. Harper, the protagonist is looking for a new start and adopts the “spark joy” mantra for her new life.  She wants to start a bakery in this place from her childhood that holds happy memories.

Right away Harper encounters challenges.  The weather, the condition of the property, the sexy bartender next door, and the homeless teen who needs someone to help.  The story is well told and easy to read and qualifies as one of the best romances of the year.  If that’s what you want, don’t miss this one!

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the early copy!

One Summer in Savannah by Terah Shelton Harris

 

This book begins with a Content warning: Sara, our protagonist, was raped and became pregnant from that incident. She has moved far from her Savannah home—to Maine—to escape the constant scrutiny of the town where the rape occurred, far from the rapist’s family to a jurisdiction where they have no rights to Sara or her child.

Sara has maintained her isolated existence for nearly a decade, keeping in touch with her father via video calls, and putting her life on hold. But when he faces a final, terminal medical diagnosis, Sara regrets being away so long and returns.

There she must revisit all the consequences of putting a pillar of the community’s son behind bars, as well as her father’s mortality. The book is well written and sensitive—often heartbreaking. Set in the outskirts of Savannah, the ocean and islands of the deep south help set a temperature for the novel and its characters. There is southern charm and hospitality, but also undertones of class, racism and pride that make this book so readable.

My only problem with the book results from my legal background. The book posits that no one knew of Sara’s pregnancy, yet we are also told she was a witness, subject to cross examination, at her rapist’s trial. He had top notch lawyers, but he was still sentenced before her pregnancy became evident. I didn’t find that credible. I also had trouble with the lack of overbearing heat in Savannah in the summer but am willing to accept that one acclimates to extremes.

I enjoyed the book and admired the characters and look forward to reading this debut author’s next one. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the early copy.

The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner

 

Abby Stern is a thirty-four-year-old, curvy, single woman who has found herself. She walks dogs and other gig economy jobs to pay her bills, lives in a tiny, cluttered but comfortable apartment and is all but engaged to Mark, a gorgeous doctor Abby first met as a pre-teen at fat camp when he was at least double his adult, buff size.

Then she meets Sebastian while fueled by copious amounts of tequila at her friend’s bachelorette party. Let’s just say sparks fly, but they don’t exchange numbers.

Fast forward to Abby’s best friend, who runs a bicycle tour group, who needs Abby to lead a group. Abby is an avid cyclist but has never run a group on her own. Because she loves her friend, and cycling, she agrees, and the next ten days are filled with enough crises to fill several books!

The cycling is almost a character in this book, and since I know the author is very much into the sport, I often felt like I was chatting with a good friend about it and daydreaming about the lovely Empire Trail. But each of the dozen participants complicated that dream in ways that I would never have guessed. One of the participants is Abby’s mom, thin, elegant and body obsessed. Another one is a pregnant teenager. And the most complicating one, is Sebastian. The one-night stand.

Weiner never just writes a love story without hitting major social issues, though her answers are admittedly best only for her character. This book is no different. Empowerment of women, abortion rights, weight shaming, sex shaming, aging, social media limitations and even the weather fill this lovely journey with clouds. Not everyone will agree with how they are handled, but the story will be hard to put aside.

Props to the author and editors for the title! Breaking Away was one of my favorite movies in the seventies, and the tie in with the bikes was fun!

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

Must Love Flowers by Debbie Macomber

As a long-time fan of Debbie Macomber books, I was delighted to see her return after a threatened retirement! Must Love Flowers didn’t disappoint—Macomber’s characters are not the run of the mill twenty-something romance novel heroines and heroes, but fully fleshed people with real problems.

The four main characters, Phil, Joan, Maggie and Nick have all experienced major setbacks in their lives and bond over their individual grief. Phil and Joan are in their 50s, Maggie and Nick are in their twenties. The fact that Maggie boards with Nicks Mother, and Nick works for Phil’s landscaping business, creates interesting situations and tangles that are so delightful to read. I also appreciate the lack of explicit sex in Macomber’s books—she artfully weaves the romance, including physicality, without overwriting it for her reader. It’s a great book, thoughtful and educational, especially where the processing of grief is concerned.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Ballantine for the advanced copy!

California Golden by Melanie Benjamin 4*

 

 

Melanie Benjamin is well known for her historical novels and I was delighted to find the history chosen for this book to be more recent. It deals with the cultural challenges of two sisters left to fend for themselves in the era of free love, surfer movies and the women exercising their rights to compete in sports, specifically surfing. The book addresses a wide range of issues from racism to the drug culture, neither glossing over the hardships faced by people pulled into various lifestyles.

Mindy and Ginger tried to keep their family together, but neither of their parents had the girl’s interest at heart. Left to find their own places in a world of dangerous and competitive surfing, the girls chose opposite paths. Their stories are frustrating and heartbreaking. Having lived through this era, I don’t always respect the decisions the characters make, but it was fascinating to read it from a different perspective.

Golden California will be released on August 8, 2023, in time for a few last trips to the beach, either to read, or hop on a surfboard!  Thanks to the Publisher, Random House Publishing Group Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC.

Rootless, by Krystle Zara Appiah: Wonderful writing, disappointing ending. 3*

 

I read this book because I loved learning about the culture of Ghana in another debut book, Maame, by Jessica George. Because I’d read that one and loved it, I was prepared to meet more multidimensional characters and fascinating settings with the same type of background. In that regard, I wasn’t disappointed. I loved the characters…Efe whose childhood trauma shaped her adult choices and ability to make decisions and speak up for herself. Her husband, Sam, whose own childhood was marred by the abandonment of his mother. These characters were faced with the same problems most young people starting out face: financial, work life balance and the shift of responsibility that happens when children come along. I never doubted that Sam and Efe loved each other, even when they individually sought relationships with others. But once their daughter was born, they seemed to stop listening or hearing each other. Sam wanted a traditional family. Efe couldn’t overcome her PPD and disconnect in a way that let her give that to him.

Without giving away the wonderful plotting and weaving of the characters in their dual locations of London and Ghana, I must confess that the ending ruined this book for me. The author had the skill…she showed it throughout the novel, to deal with a complicated ending, and in my opinion, she just didn’t. As a reader, I was insulted. I felt too invested in the characters and the way they worked through issues to accept the ending choice of the author. That’s why I’m not giving my usual 5 star. Maybe she’ll get a chance to do a script for the movie version and can rewrite it!  I hope so.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine for the review copy. The book is available now.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese...Oprah picks another 5 star book

 

This year has been a treasure of wonderful books and Abraham Verghese’s new release is at the top. Beginning in 1900 in Travancore, South India with the arranged marriage of a twelve-year-old girl to a forty-year-old man who owns agricultural land days away from her home, the story unfolds as they characters grow and change and love and die. Each character is so lovingly rendered that the reader falls for them too, with all their strengths and weaknesses. Centered around a community of Saint Thomas Christians, we follow our original couple and their family through the tumultuous times of independence in India, the revolt against the caste system, industrialization, and modernization.

Verghese is a doctor, and his love of medicine and knowledge is shared by many of his characters as they fight for basic healthcare, Conditions that are inexplicable, and those that are. Some of the best scenes are set in a Leprosarium, where we learn compassion and hope for those on the farthest edges of society.

To say the writing is both beautiful and wise would not do justice to the storytelling and the delicate care this author gives to his characters as well as his readers. The book is 736 pages long, but you will be sorry it isn’t twice that. It’s that wonderful.  It was released on May 2, 2023 by Grove Press.

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J Ryan Stradal

For anyone with roots in the Midwest, reading a J Ryan Stradal book is like a visit home. For me, it is full of all the things I loved about growing up there, and all the reasons I left. That part of the company both fills you up, and breaks your heart, and that’s exactly what I want good fiction to do. Stradal delivers this in spades.

The Lakeside Supper Club stands to represent all the local eateries that specialize in a good old fashioned and prime rib, especially on Saturday nights. This story follows the family as the business of the supper club ebbs and flows and supports the families who work and live there. It contrasts with the chain restaurant, Jorby’s, which was the legacy of another family, and illustrates how big business has either prospered, or destroyed, the locals.

Stradal does a wonderful job bringing these characters to life. Florence, who we follow over her full timeline, is the stubborn old woman we are probably related to, but she’s quite a marshmallow inside. Her daughter, Mariel, represents so many of the sad things we experience in life—poverty, death, miscarriage, isolation, etc.—that we can’t help but root for her and her only child, Julia. And Julia represents what we want most for children—hope, respect for nature and history, but most of all fulfillment.

This is a story of hardship and love, legacy, and individualism. It jumbles timelines a bit and there are a LOT of characters to keep track of, but going home is like that, isn’t it?

Bravo to Stradal for another great book. Though… does ANYONE know what the twelve great salads of Western civilization are? So much to learn!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Viking for the ARC. This goes on my gift giving list for summer readers!

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

 

Lucy had an awful childhood, marked by absent parents and a sister whose illness always took precedence over Lucy’s life. After losing her fiancé and her unborn child to miscarriage, she takes a job in a community and becomes attached to Christopher, a young boy whose parents are killed and who finds himself in foster care after foster care. The two of them connect, and Lucy longs to foster Christopher, but with no home, car, or money, can’t meet the qualifications. She just wants to be his mother.

Jack Masterson is the author of dozens of popular children’s books, but mysteriously stops writing. Together with his Illustrator, a game, The Wishing Game, is created, and only children who’ve been invited by the reclusive Jack can play. Why they were chosen, and the unfolding game tells a story so heartbreaking and whimsical, that the reader wants them all to win.

This is a well written, sweet story with just enough adventure and romance to soften the most bitter of us. It’s written in a style that will delight middle grade readers, though it’s listed as sci-fi and Women’s fiction. None of the whimsy seemed too far-fetched, and the book is equally entertaining to those of us who are older.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine for the ARC of this delightful story. It will be released on May 30, 2023.

 

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin. Best book of the year for me. 5++*

 

I should start by confessing to almost be a Cronin fangirl. Fell for his writing in his literary works, Mary & O’Neill and The Summer Guest, books totally in my wheelhouse. Then he wrote the Passage Trilogy. Most all my readers know that I am not a sci-fi fan… I want things based in real worlds and real emotion. I credit both Cronin’s skill and artistry for giving me a sci-fi apocalyptic trilogy that yes, I could love. Literary Sci-Fi is obviously a thing! I eagerly anticipated each volume and was never disappointed.

And now he brings us The Ferryman. Literary Sci-Fi? Yes. Maybe even post-apocalyptic. But what shines brightest in this gorgeous novel are the unforgettable, flawed but endearing characters and settings that change with a page turn to be first what we think they are, and then something else entirely. It’s frightening, and it’s magical.

Ultimately, this book is a tribute to dreams, and those who work to make dreams come true. It is a tribute to storytelling, and the value stories provide to make life understandable, bearable. It is also a tribute to art, and love, and family, and the sea, which frames the story. It makes the reader ask Big questions, about humanity, religion, history and the future. You will not soon forget the people you come to know and care about in this book. I can’t wait to read it again. And you know I never re-read books!

Best book so far this year. Thank you NetGalley and Random House- Ballantine for the ARC. The book will be released on May 2, 2023

Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano 5*

 

Family dynamics play the main role in this novel of the Padavano family, Charlie, the father whose standard greeting to his wife and four girls give the book its title, and the four wonderfully drawn characters of the daughters and their lives in Chicago in the sixties and seventies. Catholic mores, a strong mother who believed in appearances, and daughters thrust into a world where all the rules are changing set the stage as we get to know Julia, Sylvie, Cecelia and Emmeline and the people who become important to them. Regardless of their differences, these sisters share a bond that is as strong as their literary heroes, the March sisters from Little Women.

But the complications of life in the twentieth century create situations that tests even strong bonds. As the young women grow into their lives, death, marriage, education, children, and careers turn them away from their core. But above the complications, love and beauty, art, and family help to bring them back to center.

I am a fan of Ann Napolitano’s work and loved Hello, Beautiful. It is a long book, but I hated to see it end. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers copy.

Maureen, a Harold Fry Novel by Rachel Joyce

 

Maureen, A Harold Fry Novel by Rachel Joyce

Maureen is an unhappy woman living life in her small English town the way she feels is expected of her. Cleaning her home, making sure the coffee cups handles all line up and caring for her husband, Harold. Only Harold’s life included his work, friends, and a walk across the country to visit one of them as she died. The thing both Harold and Maureen share is their grief—their son David has committed suicide. Harold learns acceptance on his long walk and encourages Maureen to make the pilgrimage to the garden of the friend, a woman, whose impending death inspired his healing walk, and where, he says, David, their son, is.

In an action out of character, Maureen takes their car and sets out to drive to this place, to get away from the grief she feels living with a calm Harold, and to find both herself and David. It’s a beautiful story of how women can isolate themselves in routine, and only when Maureen faces calamity along the way to she appreciates the gift she’s been given.

This is the third book of three by this author dealing with these characters, but even without having read the earlier books, this one made sense and emotional and resonant.

I received an ARC of Maureen from the publisher, Random House, and it is on sale February 7, 2023

Maame by Jessica George. Wonderful debut!

Maame by Jessica George

 

Maddie is the twenty-five-year-old daughter of Ghanian descent who is the glue supporting her dysfunctional family. As her father slips away with Parkinson’s disease, her brother enjoys independence from all responsibility, since Maame (Maddie) takes care of everything, and even her mother leaves her in charge, to spend every other year in Ghana. So, Maddie stays home and is her father’s caretaker. Stuck in a job that doesn’t value her, with a few close friends from high school and no social life, Maddie bears the burdens of family without reprieve.

When her mother returns, Maddie takes the opportunity to find out how life can be and moves out. And it all falls apart.

The name Maame, what her mother has called her from childhood, means Woman, and implies that she carries the weight of the family on “heavy shoulders.”  Despite the burden, this book is more a tale of discovery and growth than sorrow and shame. George’s voice is fresh and gives a peek inside Ghanian culture as an immigrant, but also the story of how family values mold and guide characters, even when they reject them.

Thank you to St Martins and NetGalley for this ARC. Maame goes on sale January 31,2023.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center. Another win: 5*

 

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

Sadie is a talented, starving young artist living in a not quite ready for habitation apartment owned by friends. She has finally, after years of hard work, placed as a finalist in an international portrait competition. She’s going to get her chance, and then…

She doesn’t remember. She doesn’t remember why she was in the street, or who helped her. She vaguely remembers a kind, handsome man, and she knows her evil stepmother, who may not be so evil, waiting in the hospital.

 With the diagnosis that she has an operable brain injury, Sadie is forced to make a decision that will effect the rest of her life. Will she be able to compete after the surgery? Will she even be able to paint? And who was that kind, handsome, man?

In true Katherine Center form, these questions are answered with humor, empathy and quite a bit of emotion. The things Sadie must go through to reach her own conclusions are heartbreaking, but beautiful. Plus, we get to learn all sorts of new, mostly unknown, facts about the brain and how it works.

Another winner for Katherine Center, who bring joy to literature and isn’t embarrassed to love romance novels---anymore.

Hello Stranger goes on sale July 11, 2023. Thanks to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this copy.

A serious 5 star, but not an easy read. Lessons, by Ian McEwan

 

Ian McEwan is, without argument, one of the best novelists or our time. Lessons might be a blueprint of life, or just a chapter in the unwritten novel of the twenty first century, which Roland Baines, the protagonist, longs to read.

The novel covers Roland’s life, from first memories until old age. McEwan skillfully intertwines the history of the last century into his character’s lives, and those of us lucky enough to have lived through the same events relish the authenticity, factual as well as emotional. Sometimes, it was happening to us. Sometimes we were just distant observers. Along with a fair rendering of time, we are gifted with beautiful prose and fascinating characters. We have the pleasure of growing up and growing old with many of them. I highlighted pages of lines I loved, but as a woman of the age, this was one of my favorites. Describing his widowed mother, Roland says “... she had aged and shrunk, she couldn’t sleep, the skin under her eyes showed deep wrinkles like a walnut.”

This is a book to savor. It isn’t a quick and easy read and will need your attention and time. There are Lessons to learn if we are open to them.

How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies. 4*

Clever idea, and I can’t wait to try the recipes. I’ve read many writing craft books, and many cookbooks. This is a new approach, though if I apply the pie baking to my work every time I get stuck writing… well, it’s not the time of year to count calories.

 I did wonder how the author expected writers to analogize things like leaf lard” to what felt like standard writing advice. She has a friendly, open voice that will appeal to seasoned writers as well as newcomers. Easy to read, and inspiring, with wonderful illustrations.

 

I read an advanced reader copy provided by the publisher, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and NetGalley.

One Last Gift by Emily Stone. Great Christmas season read!

 

There are always so many books that come out for the holiday season that it’s hard to choose which ones to read. Do you go with a romance with cookies and sleigh bells? Ski adventures or tropical holidays? Or the Hallmark miracles and hot chocolate variety? 

One last gift is a bit of all of them, and if you want something to just sink into this year, I recommend it. Emily Stone has given her complex characters lovely, quirky personalities and while there is definitely romance, it isn’t the kind of direct, formulaic trail we usually follow. For one thing, there’s a lot of loved one who die. Cassie, our heroine, is a brilliant event planner stuck in a dead-end job with an ogre of a boss. Yet the banter and love she and Tom, her brother, as well as their best friends Hazel and Sam, share, makes you wish you had people like them in your life.

But tragedy strikes and turns this dynamic on is head. While Cassie tries to solve the treasure hunt her brother gives her every year, she finds more than the promised gift at the end. I won’t put spoilers in here, but I will remember these characters and the lessons they learned. Like don’t wait to tell people you love that you do.

Published by Random House/Ballantine on October 11, 2022. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.