Put a Tent Over the Circus

Author: Joe Bullick and Jennifer Gill Kissel
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc., 2012
Pages: 88
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: The true story of a boy's life as a foster child in Pittsburgh during the Great Depression. Joey's mother, a single Catholic girl, struggled to give him a home, but in desperation places him in foster care. Joey is torn by his devotion to his mother and his love for the Fitzpatricks and life in the blacksmith shop. When tragedy strikes, Joey experiences the power of love.

Review: Such a sweet story. Despite unfortunate circumstances, Joe Bullick's childhood was filled with love, and he had every opportunity to succeed. Many of the locations mentioned in this book are familiar to me. I really enjoyed this very short book.

The Daughters of Erietown

Author: Connie Schultz
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2020
Pages: 480
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: 1957, Clayton Valley, Ohio. Ellie has the best grades in her class. Her dream is to go to nursing school and marry Brick McGinty. A basketball star, Brick has the chance to escape his abusive father and become the first person in his blue-collar family to attend college. But when Ellie learns that she is pregnant, everything changes. Just as Brick and Ellie revise their plans and build a family, a knock on the front door threatens to destroy their lives.

The evolution of women's lives spanning the second half of the twentieth century is at the center of this beautiful novel that richly portrays how much people know - and pretend not to know - about the secrets at the heart of a town, and a family.

Review: I loved this book - the setting, the plot, the characters (flawed though they are). The Daughters of Erietown felt real to me, as if these people could be my next door neighbors. Set in 1950s, and following the McGinty family into the 1970s, the story is still relevant in 2020.

Troubles in Paradise

Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2020
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: After uprooting her life in the States, Irene Steele has just settled in at the villa on St. John where her husband Russ had been living a double life. But a visit from the FBI shakes her foundations, and Irene once again learns just how little she knew about the man she loved.

With help from their friends, Irene and her sons set up their lives while evidence mounts that the helicopter crash that killed Russ may not have been an accident. Meanwhile, the island watches this drama unfold - including the driver of a Jeep with tinted windows who seems to be shadowing the Steele family.

As a storm gathers strength in the Atlantic, surprises are in store for the Steeles: help from a mysterious source, and a new beginning in the paradise that has become their home. At last all will be revealed about the secrets and lies that brought Irene and her sons to St. John - and the truth that transformed them all.

Review: This is the last book in this trilogy, and while it was the weakest of the three, it was still great fun. This was a fun winter escape that I read on the heels of a winter storm that dropped 10" of snow on us. I really enjoy Elin's writing.

Other Elin Hilderbrand Novels:
The Five-Star Weekend
Summer of '69
The Blue Bistro
Golden Girl
The Hotel Nantucket
The Island
The Castaways

The Winter Street Series
Winter Street
Winter Stroll
Winter Storms
Winter Solstice

The Winter in Paradise Trilogy
Winter in Paradise
What Happens in Paradise
Troubles in Paradise