Where Coyotes Howl

Author: Sandra Dallas
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: 1916: The two-street town of Wallace is not exactly what Ellen Webster had in mind when she accepted a teaching position in Wyoming, but within a year's time she's fallen in love - both with the High Plains and with a handsome cowboy named Charlie Bacon. Life is not easy in the flat, brown corner of the state where winter blizzards are unforgiving and summer heat relentless. But Ellen and Charlie face it all together, their relationship growing stronger with each shared success, and each deeply felt tragedy.

Ellen finds purpose in her work as a rancher's wife and in her bonds with other women settled on the prairie. Not all of them are so lucky as to have loving husbands, not all came to Wallace willingly, and not all of them can survive the cruel seasons. But they look out for each other, share their secrets, and help one another in times of need. And the needs are great and constant. The only city to speak of, Cheyenne, is miles away, making it akin to the Wild West in rural Wallace. In the end, it is not the trials Ellen and Charlie face together that make them remarkable, but their love for one another endures through it all.

Review: I had intended this to be my first book of 2024, and decided to get started on it early. I couldn't put it down. I stayed up until 1:15am to finish it. I cannot recommend this book enough. I tore my heart out, stomped on, stomped on it again, and again and again. And I loved it. This is a must-read for anyone who loves historical fiction, and especially for those of us who are fascinated with the West.

I would love a sequel, but there's nothing about the ending of this book that suggests there will be one.

Barbara Isn't Dying Yet

Author: Alina Bronsky
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Europa Editions, Incorporated, 2023
Pages: 192
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Walter Schmidt has lived his whole life within the narrow, "comfortable" confines of traditional gender roles: he has made it to retirement without learning how to fry an egg or use a vacuum cleaner. After all, he could always count on his wife, Barbara. But one morning she can't get up from bed anymore, everything changes.

With biting humor and great warmth, Alina Bronsky writers about how Walter, nearing the end of his life, is suddenly forced to reinvent himself as a caregiver and house-husband, and become the caring partner he never was in all his years with Barbara.

Little by little, Walter's rough facade begins to crumble - and with it his old certainties about his life and family.

Review: This had A Man Called Ove vibes, and I was not disappointed. 

The Woman in Me

Author: Britney Spears
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2023
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice - her truth - was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey - and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Review: I have a hard time giving memoirs less than five stars because who am I to judge someone else's life or their takeaways. I always find it interesting to see how others grew up and became who they are.

I missed the appeal of Britney Spears, nor do I know much about her. I was graduating from college when she became popular, and more into country music at that time anyway. However, she has certainly kept herself in the headlines over the years.

This book is written in simple language, and I think she's an interesting person (for better or worse), but it also confirms that I'm grateful I'm not famous. My final thoughts are that she would have benefited from better people around her.

The Frozen River

Author: Ariel Lawhon
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 448
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Maine, 1879: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town's most respected gentlemen - one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her loyalties lie.

Review: I wasn't sure that I wanted to read a book this thick with such heavy the
mes this close to the holidays. I decided to give it a two-chapter chance, and oh my. I couldn't put this down. This author can weave a story. I haven't read her others, but I'm going to change that in 2024. 

I loved Martha. This character, based on a real person, and this novel will stay with me for a long time.

Do not skip the author's note at the end, but don't read it until after you've read the book.

Other Ariel Lawhon Novels
The Wife, The Maid, and the Mistress (reading January 2024)

Nothing.Everything.

Author: Virginia Montanez
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Winding Road Publishing, 2023
Pages: 426
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: To her children, her pushy mother, her preacher father and her four seemingly perfect brothers, irreverent YA author Ellis Sloan is surviving the sudden demise of her damaging marriage just fine. She's her usual irreverent self, helping her teens adjust while working hard on her second novel. But inside, the words are all gone, and she has been typing gibberish into a document she deletes every day.

Her depressing monotony is interrupted when her one-time childhood nemesis and eventual first kiss re-enters her life by shouting profanity at a toppled piano outside her bedroom window. Now famous and beloved, Lincoln Hale's mysterious return resurrects memories Ellis buried deep on the prom night he never came for her and unleashes a chain of events that leads her to discover what it's going to take to finally get back to who she once was. With equal doses of humor and heart, she learns the secrets of the past, faces her paralyzing fears, and tries to repair her brokenness before time runs out on her next book and her first shot at real happiness.

Review: I wasn't sure I wanted to read something that isn't fluff this late in the year, but the first two chapters grabbed me so I kept right on going. Montanez is a local author for me, and once blogged as PittGirl.

I loved this book. I loved the characters, I loved the story, I loved the ending. This is the book I wish I would have written.

Christmas at the Shelter Inn

Author: RaeAnne Thayne
Genre: Fiction / Christmas
Publisher: Harlequin, 2023
Pages: 304
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Growing up in the Shelter Inn hotel, Natalie Shepherd envied guests who could come and go as they pleased. So when it was time to finally leave for college and put the lush green mountains around Shelter Springs - along with the cloud of loss that seemed to follow her family - behind her, she swore she'd never come back. But now her sister McKenna needs a favor. On pregnancy bed rest at doctor's orders, McKenna needs a helping hand with her two young daughters and someone to take over the inn during a hectic holiday season, and Nat can't refuse. And just when things can't get worse, she runs into her late brother's best friend, Griffin Taylor.

Griff has mixed feelings about Natalie's return. She's just as beautiful and full of life as he remembered, but there's a secret he's carried for years about her brother - and the guilt is eating away at him. Still, Christmas in this small town is filled with treasured traditions and new adventures that hold the promise of something sweet and lasting.

Review: This is very obviously a Hallmark Christmas movie-esque novel, and I loved it. This could have been a shorter novel, but if you want to fall into a Christmas novel, this is a good one. Enjoyed!

An Irish Christmas

Author: Melody Carlson
Genre: Fiction / Christmas
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2007
Pages: 192
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: For Colleen, life is spinning out of control. She just lost her husband, and her relationship with her young adult son Jamie is crumbling. Should she confess to him the secret that has been haunting her for twenty years? Jamie has a few secrets of his own. When he announces his plans to join the military, Colleen decides it's time for the two of them to take a trip together - to Ireland. The truth they discover there could fulfill both their dreams in a way neither ever thought possible.

Review: I loved this slightly predictable and maybe not entirely period correct novel. Colleen was a woman ahead of her time.

Sisters Under the Rising Sun

Author: Heather Morris
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 400
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In the midst of World War II, an English musician, Norah Chambers, places her eight-year-old daughter Sally on a ship leaving Singapore, desperate to keep her safe from the Japanese army as they move down through the Pacific. Norah remains to care for her husband and elderly parents, knowing she may never see her child again.

Sister Nesta James, a Welsh Australian nurse, has enlisted to tend to Allied troops. But as Singapore falls to the Japanese she joins the terrified cargo of people, including the heartbroken Norah, crammed aboard the Vyner Brooks merchant ship. Only two days later, they are bombarded from the air off the coast of Indonesia, and in a matter of hours, the Vyner Brooks lies broken on the seabed. 

After surviving a brutal 24 hours in the sea, Nesta and Norah reach the beaches of a remote island, only to be captured by the Japanese and held in one of their notorious POW camps. The camps are places of starvation and brutality, where disease runs rampant. Sisters in arms, Norah and Nesta fight side-by-side every day, helping whoever they can, and discovering in themselves and each other extraordinary reserves of courage, resourcefulness, and determination.

Review: This is heavier subject matter than I would typically choose at this time of year, but I liked the cover 😀 

I had a difficult time initially, getting into Sisters Under the Rising Sun. There's a big cast of characters, and the writing was choppy until the author found her groove. However, I rather quickly found myself enthralled.

Based on real people and actual events, this novel dives a side of World War II that I didn't know anything about it. I also appreciated that the author included information about her search, notes from the internees' families, and some information about the main characters post-internment / post-WWII.

A Quilt for Christmas

Author: Melody Carlson
Genre: Fiction / Christmas
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2022
Pages: 176
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Christmas should be celebrated with family. But for Vera Swanson, that's not an option this year. Widowed and recently relocated, she is lonely in her condo-for-one - until little Fiona Albright knocks on her door needing help. With her mother seriously ill and her father out of town, Fiona enlists Vera's help, and when she finds out her new neighbor is a quilter, she has a special request - a Christmas quilt for Mama.

Vera will have to get a ragtag group of women together
in order to fulfill the request. Between free-spirited Tasha, chatty empty nester Beverly, retired therapist Eleanor, and herself, Vera has hopes that Christmas for the Albright family will be merry, after all - and she may find herself a new family of friends along the way.

Review: This novel is what fans of Christmas novels and Melody Carlson have come to expect. A sweet, not-surprising Christmas story where everyone gets a happy ending.

Skipping Christmas

Author: John Grisham
Genre: Fiction / Christmas
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing, 2010
Pages: 208
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded malls, no corny office parties, no fruitcake, no unwanted presents. That's just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they'll skip the holiday altogether. Theirs will be the only house on Hemlock Street without a rooftop Frosty; they won't be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash; they aren't even going to have a tree. They won't need one, because come December 25 they're setting sail on a Caribbean cruise. But, as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormous consequences - and isn't half as
easy as they'd imagined.

Review: Tis the season to bust out the Christmas reading. I'm feeling the spirit. The kids have decorated their bedrooms already, and we've been listening to Christmas music. Over the years, I've learned to edit Christmas to be what we treasure the most. For my two youngest, it isn't Christmas if they don't have a gingerbread house to decorate. Done. My husband insists we wait until after Thanksgiving to put up the trees. Yes, trees. Done. I like sitting alone, drinking coffee, with only the lights on tree lighting the room. That time is coming soon. There's a lot we have eliminated that caused stress and not joy, and we're all happier for it.

Luther and Nora's approach to Christmas seemed over-the-top - to forgo it all together is extreme, but then again this is a work of fiction. Fun read.

The Secrets of Emberwild

Author: Stephenia McGee
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2022
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: A gifted trainer in a time women were not allowed to race, Nora Fenton prefers horses to men. They're easier to handle, they're more reliable, and they never tell her what to do. After her father's passing, Nora is determined to save her struggling horse farm, starting with entering her prize cold into the harness races at the 1905 Mississippi Fair. If she wins, she may have a chance at independence. But when a stranger arrives and starts asking disconcerting questions, she suspects he may have other motives than unseating her in her training job that is rightfully hers.

Silas Cavallero will do whatever it takes to solve the mystery of his father's death - even if it means training an unwieldy colt for Nora, who wants nothing more than to see him gone. But when mysterious accidents threaten their safety and circumstances shrouded in secrets begin unlocking clues to his past, Silas will have to decide if the truth is worth risking ruining everything for the feisty woman he's come to admire.

Review: In the 1980s, horse books were popular with pre-teens and teens. Guess who read a lot (!!) of horse books in the 80s? That's right. This took me back to that time in my life, but the story also captured my imagination. A good plot and a little nostalgia? Yes, please!

I'm looking for more books by this author for future reading.

A Royal Christmas

Author: Melody Carlson
Genre: Fiction / Christmas
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 176
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Adelaide Smith is too busy for fairy tales. She's been working hard to put herself through law school and now that the end is in sight, she's determined to stay focused on her goals. Then she receives a letter notifying her that she has been found through a DNA registry to be a direct descendant of King Maximilian V, the ruler of a small Eastern European principality called Montovia. She's understandably skeptical. This is the stuff of cheesy made-for-TV movies, not real life.

Although the pieces of this surprising family puzzle seem too good to be true, curiosity gets the best of her. At the king's invitation, Adelaide embarks on a Christmas break trip that is chock-full of surprises, including a charming village, an opulent palace, family mysteries, royal jealousies, a handsome young member of Parliament—and the chance at a real fairy tale romance with a happily-ever-after ending.

Review: I swear I saw this Hallmark movie. Not really, but it's a typical feel-good Christmastime novel. Fun read.

Cassandra in Reverse

Author: Holly Smale
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: MIRA Books, 2023
Pages: 368
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend, Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order. . .until now.

• She's just been dumped.
• She's just been fired.
• Her local cafe has run out of banana muffins
  

 Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discoveres she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated, but soon she'll discover she's trying to fix all the wrong things.

Review: This is a blend of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Oona Out of Order. Cassandra is quirky, and this is just a fun book.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Author: Beth Hoffman
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2010
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her mother, Camille, the town's tiara-wearing, lipstick-smeared laughingstock, a woman who is trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen of Georgia. When tragedy strikes, Tootie Caldwell, CeeCee's long-lost great-aunt, comes to the rescue and whisks her away to Savannah. There, CeeCee is catapulted into a perfumed world of prosperity and Southern eccentricity - one that appears to be run entirely by strong, wacky women. From the exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper, who bathes in her backyard bathtub and uses garden slugs as her secret weapons; to Tootie's all-knowing housekeeper, Oletta Jones; to Violene Hobbs, who entertains a local police office in her canary-yellow peignoir, the women of Gaston Street keep CeeCee entertained and enthralled for an entire summer.

Review: Typically I have a difficult time reading on a plane, the distractions of those around me, turbulence, interruptions by flight attendants, but not so with this novel. This book grabbed me immediately, and my 3+ hour flight was over before I knew it.

I loved the characters and imagine that the author had great fun imagining and writing their stories. Fun, quick, escapist read.

Famous in a Small Town

Author: Viola Shipman
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Graydon House Books, 2023
Pages: 352
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: For most of her eighty years, Mary Jackson has endured the steady invasion of tourists, influencers, and real estate developers who have discovered the lakeside charm of Good Hart, Michigan, waiting patiently for the arrival of a stranger she's believed since childhood would one day carry on her legacy - the Very Cherry General Store. Like generations of Jackson women before her, Cherry Mary, as she's known locally, runs the community hub - part post office, bakery, and sandwich shop - and had almost given up hope that the mysterious prediction she'd been told as a girl would come true and the store would have to pass to. . .a man.

Becky Thatcher came to Good Hart with her ride-or-die BFF to forget that she's just turned forty with nothing to show for it. Ending up at the general store with Mary is admittedly not the beach vacation she expected, but the more the feisty octogenarian talks about destiny, the stronger Becky's memories of her own childhood holidays become, and the strange visions over the lake she was never sure were real. As she works under Mary's wing for the summer and finds that she fits into this quirky community of locals, she starts to believe that destiny could be real, and that it might have something very special in mind for Becky.

Review: I'd been wanting to try a Viola Shipman book because this names comes up frequently in a FB reading group I follow. The cover of this particular books jumped out at me, as well as the title (as someone who hails from a small town).

I struggled to get into this book, and as someone who vacations in Michigan every summer, I really wanted to love it. Maybe because I'm familiar with the area and the locations mentioned in great details in this book, I was caught up in my own memories and feelings, and couldn't let myself be absorbed into the story. 

As it typically happens, I enjoyed one story/setting more than the other - in this case, I liked the modern-day timeline and the past story felt like it could have been woven in without being an alternating chapter. There were also a couple plots where the outcome was obvious long before it actually played out. I didn't enjoy the mystical theme either regarding the four women. While I've read and enjoyed books that venture into the supernatural, most of the time they're a miss for me.

I would try another book by this author before I crossed him off my reading list for good.

Hotel Laguna

Author: Nicola Harrison
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend 

Synopsis: In 1942, Hazel Francis left Wichita, Kansas for California, determined to do her part for the war effort. At Douglas Aircraft, she became one of many "Rosie the Riveters," helping construct bombers for the U.S. military. But now the war is over, men have returned to their factory jobs, and women like Hazel have been dismissed, expected to return home to become wives and mothers.

Unwilling to be forced into a traditional woman's role in the Midwest, Hazel remains on the west coast, and finds herself in the bohemian town of Laguna Beach. Desperate for work, she accepts a job as an assistant to famous artist Hanson Radcliff. Beloved by the locals for his contributions to the art scene and respected by
the critics, Radcliff lives under the shadow of a decades old scandal that haunts him.

Working hard to stay on her cantankerous employer's good side, Hazel becomes a valued member of the community. She never expected to fall in love with the rhythms of life in Laguna, nor did she expect to find a kindred spirit in Jimmy, the hotel bartender whose friendship promises something more. But Hazel still wants to work with airplanes - maybe even learn to fly one someday. Torn between pursuing her dream and the dream life she has been granted, she's unsure if giving herself over to Laguna is what her heart truly wants.

Review:  I love this time period, I love this style of novel, and I loved the cover. The story itself fell a little flat for me. It was the perfect read for me now though since I'm off to California next week.

Also by Nicola Harrison:
Montauk

The Wedding Veil

Author: Kristy Woodson Harvey
Genre: Fiction / Historical Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2023
Pages: 448
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Present Day: Julia Baxter's wedding veil, bequeathed to her great-grandmother by a mysterious woman on the train in the 1930s, has passed through generations of her family as a symbol of a happy marriage. But on the morning on her wedding day, something tells her that even the veil's good luck isn't enough to make her marriage last forever. Overwhelmed and panicked, she escapes to the Virgin Islands to clear her head. Meanwhile, her grandmother Babs is also feeling shaken. Still grieving the death of her beloved husband, she decides to move out of the house they once shared and into a retirement community. Though she hopes it's a new beginning, she does not expect to run into an old flame, dredging up some of the same complicated emotions she felt a lifetime ago.

1914: Socialist Edith Vanderbilt is struggling to manage the luxurious Biltmore Estate after the death of her cherished husband. With 250 rooms to oversee and an entire village dependent on her family to stay afloat, Edith is determined to uphold the Vanderbilt legacy - and prepare her free-spirited daughter Cornelia to inherit it - in spite of her family's deteriorating financial situation. But Cornelia has dreams of her own. Asheville, North Carolina has always been her safe haven away from the prying eyes of the press, but as she explores more of the rapidly changing world around her, she's torn between upholding tradition and pursuing the exciting future that lies beyond Biltmore's gilded gates.

Review: As with most dual-timeline novels, I preferred one time period more than another. In this case, it was the present-day story. I don't know if I was more in the mood for a cute / fluffy story, but I wasn't feeling the historical fiction piece of this novel. The "mystery" behind the veil wasn't really a mystery and the Vanderbilt story added pages, not depth. I love this author though and look forward to reading more of her books.

Also by Kristy Woodson Harvey:
The Summer of Songbirds

The Sweetness of Forgetting

Author: Kristin Harmel
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2022
Pages: 400
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: At thirty-six, Hope McKenna-Smith is no stranger to bad news. She lost her mother to cancer, her husband left her, and her bank account is nearly depleted. Her own dreams of becoming a lawyer long gone, she's running a failing family bakery on Cape Cod and raising a troubled preteen.

Now, Hope's beloved French-born grandmother Mamie is drifting away in a haze of Alzheimer's. But in a rare moment of clarity, Mamie realizes that unless she tells Hope about the past, the secrets she has held on to for so many years will soon be lost forever. Tantalizingly, she reveals mysterious snippets of a tragic history in WWII Paris. Armed with a scrawled list of name, Hope heads to France to uncover a seventy-year-old mystery.

Uncovering horrific tales of the Holocaust, she realizes the astonishing will of her grandmother to endure in a world gone mad. And to reunite two lovers torn apart by terror, all she'll need is a dash of courage, and the believe that God exists everywhere, even in cake.

Review: This book was first published in 2012, but I read a copy that was published in 2022 and included recipes not found in the original. This layered novel was heartbreaking and sad, but full of hope too (and not just because that was the main character's name). 

Some books grab you from the first page, and I was all-in early in this novel. It was obvious to me that the author was writing from a place of experience, and the author's note at the end is not to be missed.

Other Kristin Harmel Novels:
The Paris Daughter
The Winemaker's Wife

The Sisters of Summit Avenue

Author: Lynn Cullen
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2019
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Ruth has been single-handedly raising four young daughters and running her family's Indiana farm for eight long years, ever since her husband, John, fell into a comatose state, infected by the infamous "sleeping sickness" devastating families across the country. If only she could trade places with her older sister, June, who is the envy of everyone she meets: blond and beautiful, married to a wealthy doctor, living in a mansion in St. Paul. And June has a coveted job, too, as one of "the Bettys," the perky recipe developers who populate General Mills' famous Betty Crocker test kitchens. But these gilded trappings hide sorrows: she has borne no children. And the man she used to love more than anything belongs to Ruth.

When the two sisters reluctantly reunite after a long estrangement, June's bitterness about her sister's betrayal sets into motion a confrontation that's been years in the making. And their mother, Dorothy, who's brought the two of them together, has her own dark secrets, which might blow up the fragile peace she hopes to restore between her daughters.

Review: Sometimes you pick up a book and you're at the right time or right place in your life to read it. This is that book for me. Not only did the plot and characters appeal to me, so did the way the story unfolded. I may have written a different ending, but all-in-all, this was a great story.

Back to the Garden

Author: Laurie R. King
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: A magnificent house, a vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: The Gardener Estate was a twentieth-century Eden.

And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home's past: a human skull, hidden away for decades.

Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate's young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love, and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents - monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye.

Could the skull belong to one of his victims?

To Raquel-a woman who knows all about colorful pasts-the bones clearly seem linked to The Highwayman. But as she dives into the Estate's archives to look for signs of his presence, what she unearths begins to take on a dark reality all of its own.

Everything she finds keep bringing her back to Rob Gardener himself. While he might be a gray-haired recluse now, back then he was a troubled Vietnam vet whose girlfriend vanished after a midsummer festival at the Estate.

But a lot of people seem to have disappeared from the Gardener Estate that summer when the commune mysteriously fell apart: a young woman, her child, and Rob's brother, Fort.

The pressure is on, and Raquel needs to solve this case-before The Highwayman slips away, or another Gardener vanishes.

Review: My reading challenge prompt this month, is a book you chose for the cover. I saw this on display at my library and the cover did grab my attention. I don't read many mysteries anymore, even though that was one of the first genres that hooked me on reading years ago - my mom gave me her collection of Nancy Drew novels.

This particular novel didn't exactly grab me so that I forgot the world around me, but it was good enough to keep me turning pages.

#GirlBoss

Author: Sophia Amoruso
Genre: Nonfiction / Memoir
Publisher: Random House, 2014
Pages: 256
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Amoruso spent her teens hitchhiking, committing petty theft, and scrounging in dumpsters for leftover bagels. By age twenty-two she had dropped out of school, nad was broke, directionless, and checking IDs in the lobby of an art school - a job she'd taken for the health insurance. It was in that lobby that Sophia decided to start selling vintage clothes on Ebay.

Flash forward to today, and she's the founder of Nasty Gal and founder and CEO of Girlboss. Sophia was never a typical CEO, or a typical anything, and she's written #GirlBoss for other girls like her: outsiders (and insiders) seeking a unique path to success, even when that path is windy as all hell and lined with naysayers.

#GirlBoss proves that being successful isn't about where you went to college or how popular you were in high school. It's about trusting your instincts and following your gut; knowing which rules to follow and which to break: when to button up
and when to let your freak flag fly.

Review: As a brand new supervisor at a company I've been with for 20 years, in the same role, I found this book so interesting and identifiable. Some of the tips Amoruso discusses are things I've unknowingly been doing for a long time. There was so much to learn as well too. This may be my new favorite business-based book. 

Looking forward to diving into this genre to become a better leader/supervisor, employee, and person. I love my job and am looking forward to seeing how far I can take it.

The Summer of Songbirds

Author: Kristy Woodson Harvey
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2023
Pages: 368
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Nearly thirty years ago, in the wake of a personal tragedy, June Moore bought Camp Holly Springs and turned it into a thriving summer haven for girls. But now, June is in danger of losing the place she has sacrificed everything for, and begins to realize how much she has used the camp to avoid facing difficulties in her life.

June's niece, Daphne, met her two best friends, Lanier and Mary Stuart, during a fateful summer at camp. They've all helped each other through hard things, from heartbreak and loss to substance abuse and unplanned pregnancy, and the three are inseparable even in their thirties. But when attorney Daphne is confronted with a relationship from her past - and a confidential issue at work becomes personal - she is faced with an impossible choice.

Lanier, meanwhile, is struggling with tough decisions of her own. After a run-in with an old flame, she is torn between the commitment she made to her fiance and the one she made to her first love. And when a big secret comes to light, she finds herself at odds
with her best friend. . .and risks losing the person she loves most.

But in spite of their personal problems, nothing is more important to these songbirds than Camp Holly Springs. When the women learn their childhood oasis is in danger of closing, they band together to save it, sending them on a journey that promises to open the next chapters in their lives.

Review: My first book by this author and I loved it. It took me back to week-long girl scout camps that I used to love attending, and my now sacred decades long friendships with some amazing women. Just a really awesome read for us ladies with some life behind us.

During the pandemic, Kristy Woodson Harvey started a Friends and Fiction Facebook page/group with fellow authors Mary Kay Andrews, Patti Callahan Henry and Kristin Harmel (all of whom you can find in this blog). I don't even remember how I stumbled upon the Facebook group, but it's an active page with its own book club, author interviews, giveaways, etc. 

Also by Kristy Woodson Harvey:
The Wedding Veil

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Washington Square Press, 2018
Pages: 400
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to writer her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn's luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the '80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn's story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Review: Taylor Jenkins Reid has been one of my favorite authors over the last few years, but if I'm being honest, this novel was a miss. Evelyn is not a likeable person, and each husband is just more of the same. I consider this to be TJR's least imaginative novel. It was a struggle to finish.

Other Taylor Jenkins Reid Novels:
Malibu Rising
Daisy Jones and The Six
Maybe in Another Life

Forged in Love

Author: Mary Connealy
Genre: Christian Historical Fiction
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 304
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Mariah Stove is left for dead and with no memory when the Deadeye Gang robs the stagecoach she's riding in, killing both her father and brother. As she takes over her father's blacksmith shop and tries to move forward, she soon finds herself in jeopardy and wondering - does someone know she witnessed the robbery and is still alive?

Handsome and polished Clint Roberts escaped to western Wyoming, leaving his painful memories behind. Hoping for a fresh start, he opens a diner where he creates fine dishes, but is met with harsh resistance from the townsfolk, who prefer to stick to their old ways.

Clint and Mariah are drawn together by trials they face in town, and Clint is determined to protect Mariah at all costs when danger descends upon her home. As threats pursue them from every side, will they survive to build a life forged in love.

Review: I found the premise to be a bit farfetched and the author trying just a little too hard what with a gourmet male chef on the Wyoming frontier in 1870 and a female blacksmith. However, with fiction you can take certain liberties. I enjoyed the story and the writing. 

The Five-Star Weeked

Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company, 2023
Pages: 384
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Hollis Shaw's life seems picture-perfect. She's the creator of the popular food blog Hungry with Hollis and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, he leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis' perfect life - her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline - grow deeper.

So when Hollis hears about something called a "Five-Star Weekend" - one woman organizes a trip for he best friend from each phase of her life: her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties, and midlife - she decides to host her own Five-Star Weekend on Nantucket. But the weekend doesn't turn out to be a joyful Hallmark movie. 

The husband of Hollis' childhood friend Tatum arranges for Hollis' first love, Jack Finnegan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings. Meanwhile, Tatum is forced to play nice with abrasive and elitist Dru-Ann, Hollis' best friend from UNC Chapel Hill. Dru-Ann's career as a prominent Chicago sports agent is on the line after comments about a client's mental health issues are misconstrued online. Brooke, Hollis' friend from their thirties, has just discovered that her husband is having an inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Again! And then there's GiGi, a stranger to everyone (including Hollis) who reached out to Hollis through her blog. Gigi embodies an unusual grace, and, as it happens, has many secrets.

Review: So much fun and the perfect summertime escapist novel. Electra Undergrove was my favorite character and a fun villain. 

Other Elin Hilderbrand Novels:
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

The Spectacular

Author: Fiona Davis
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 368
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks knows she should be happy. Her high school sweetheart is about to propose and sweep her off to the life everyone has always expected they'd have together: a quiet house in the suburbs, Marion staying home to raise their future children. But instead, Marion finds herself feeling trapped. So when she comes across an opportunity to audition for the famous Radio City Rockettes - the glamorous precision-dancing troupe - she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer.

Meanwhile, the city is reeling from a string of bombings orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the "Big Apple Bomber," who has been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police turn in desperation to Peter Griggs, a young doctor at a local mental hospital who espouses a radical new technique: psychological profiling.

As both Marion and Peter find themselves unexpectedly pulled in to the police search for the bomber, Marion realizes that as much as she's been training herself to blend in - performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes - if she hopes to catch the bomber, she'll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. In doing so, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she's worked for, as well as the people she loves the most.

Review: I loved this book so much. I believe 2023 will be the year I have a Top 10 instead of one or two books that I remember forever.

The time period, the setting, the plot, the characters. . .everything about this book appealed to me. I was hooked on the first page all the way through the end. Why have I never read this author before? At least that's an easily remedied problem.

Now, to figure out how and when I can get to NYC this year for a show.

Update - tickets are booked to see The Rockettes in NYC this Christmas season.

Where the Sky Begins

Author: Rhys Bowen
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Amazon Publishing, 2022
Pages: 400
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: London, 1940. Bombs fall and Josie Bank's world crumbles around her. Her overbearing husband, Stan, is unreachable, called to service. Her home, a ruin of rubble and ash. Josie's beloved tearoom boss has been killed, and Josie herself is injured, with nothing left and nowhere to go.

Evacuated to the English countryside, Josie ends up at the estate of the aristocratic Miss Harcourt, a reluctant host to survivors of the Blitz. Awed as she is by the magnificent landscape, Josie sees opportunity. Josie convinces Miss Harcourt to let her open a humble tea shop, seeing it as a chance for everyone to begin again. When Josie meets Mike Johnson, a handsome Canadian pilot stationed at a neighboring bomber base, a growing intimacy brings her an inner peace she's never felt before. Than Stan returns from the war.

Now, a threat looms larger than anyone imagined. And a dangerous secret is about to upend Josie's life again. Her newfound courage will be put to the test if she is to emerge, like a survivor, triumphant.

Review: I began reading this one cautious page at a time. It's not often I read World War II novels back-to-back. This time period and subject matter is emotionally draining. However, I love Rhys Bowen's historical fiction novels, and wanted to give it a chance since it was available at the library.

Like, The Paris Daughter, this focused on a different aspect of World War II - the families and women left behind while the men went off to fight. While I think some of the challenges were glossed over and conveniences made for the sake of the story, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I was rooting for Josie, and she felt real and was relatable to me.

Other Rhys Bowen Novels:
The Venice Sketchbook
Above the Bay of Angels
In Farleigh Field
The Tuscan Child

The Paris Daughter

Author: Kristin Harmel
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Galley Books, 2023
Pages: 384
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change.

When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she trusts Juliette with her most precious thing in her life - her young daughter, playmate to Juliette's own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even in a quiet little bookshop like Juliette's Librairie des Rêves, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette's world is destroyed along with it.

More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend's bookstore reduced to rubble - and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise's desperate search leads her to New York - and to Juliette - and one final, fateful time.


Review: This was a different type of World War II that focused more on the aftermath for survivors, rather than the atrocities and difficulties that occurred during the war. 

The plot and, therefore time, advanced quickly and the author let the reader feel his/her own emotions, rather than projecting emotion and forcing the reader to feel any particular way.

This is the second Kristin Harmel novel I've read, and I plan to read all of them. She is a talented author.

Other Kristin Harmel Novels:
The Winemaker's Wife
The Sweetness of Forgetting

The Friendship List

Author: Susan Mallery
Genre: Fiction / Chick Lit
Publisher: Harlequin, 2020
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Single mom Ellen Fox couldn't be more content - until she overhears her son saying he can't go to his dream college because she needs him too much. If she wants him to live his best life, she has to convince him she's living hers.

So Unity Leandre, her beat friend since forever, creates a list of challenges to push Ellen out of her comfort zone. Unity will complete the list, too, but not because she needs to change. What's wrong with a thirty-something widow still sleeping in her late husband's childhood bed?

The Friendship List begins as a way to make others believe they're just fine. But somewhere between "wear three-inch heels" and "have sex with a gorgeous guy." Ellen and Unity discover that life is meant to be lived with joy and abandon, in a story filled with humor, heartache, and regrettable tattoos.

Review: Susan Mallery is just a fun, chick-lit author and I enjoy her novels. They're light summertime novels, or little escapes in the winter. I could relate to the characters in The Friendship List and I was hooked from the first page. Super enjoyable. The second half of the book also has its steamy moments written in Mallery's typical style. This book is an all-around good time.

Other Novels by Susan Mallery:
The Sister Effect
The Christmas Wedding Ring

Wishing Tree Series
The Christmas Wedding Guest
Home Sweet Christmas

Mischief Bay Novels
The Girls of Mischief Bay
The Friends We Keep
A Million Little Things

Montauk

Author: Nicola Harrison
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2020
Pages: 416
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Montauk, Long Island, 1938.

For three months, this humble fishing village will serve as the playground for New York City's wealthy elite. Beatrice Bordeaux was looking forward to a summer of reigniting the passion between her and her husband, Harry. Instead, tasked with furthering his investment interest in Montauk as a resort destination, she learns she'll be spending twelve weeks sequestered with the high society wives at The Montauk Manor - a two hundred room seaside hotel - while Harry pursues other interests in the city.

College educated, but raised a modest country girl in Pennsylvania, Bea has never felt fully comfortable among these privileged women, whose days are devoted not to their children but to leisure activities and charities that seemingly benefit no one but themselves. She longs to be a mother herself, as well as a loving wife, but after five years of marriage she remains childless while Harry is increasingly remote and distracted. Despite lavish parties at the Manor and the Yacht Club, Bea is lost and lonely and befriends the manor's laundress whose work ethic and family life stir memories of who she once was.

As she drifts further from the society women and their preoccupations and closer toward Montauk's natural beauty and community spirit, Bea finds herself drawn to a man nothing like her husband - stoic, plain spoken, and enigmatic. Inspiring a strength and courage she had almost forgotten, his presence forces her to face a haunting tragedy of her past and question her future.

Review: This wasn't the fastest, most absorbing read, but I did enjoy it. The ending was "argh." 

Also by Nicola Harrison:
Hotel Laguna

Summer Longing

Author: Jamie Brenner
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown, & Company, 2021
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend 

Synopsis: Ruth Cooperman arrives in beautiful Provincetown for her retirement, renting the perfect waterfront cottage while she searches for her forever home. After years of hard work and making peace with life's compromises, Ruth is looking forward to a carefree summer of solitude. But when she finds a baby girl abandoned on her doorstep, Ruth turns to her new neighbors for help and is drawn into the drama of the close-knit community.

The appearance of the mystery baby has an emotional ripple effect through the women in town, including Amelia Cabral, the matriarch who lost her own child decades earlier; Elise Douglas, owner of the tea shop who gave up her dream of becoming a mother; and teenage local Jaci Barros who feels trapped by her parents' expectations. Ruth, caring for a baby for the first time in thirty yaers, even reaches out to her own estranged daughter, Olivia, summoning her to Provincetown in hopes of a reconciliation.

As summer unfolds and friends and family care for the infant, alliances are made, relationships are tested, and secrets are uncovered. But the unconditional love for a child in need just might bring Ruth and the women of Provincetown exactly what they have been longing for themselves.

Review: Not my favorite Jamie Brenner novel as the premise seemed farfetched, but still a fun book in a great setting.

Other Jamie Brenner Novels:
Blush
Drawing Home
Gilt
The Forever Summer
The Husband Hour

Pineapple Street

Author: Jenny Jackson
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 320
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected old money Stockton family, followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood but giving up far too much in the process; Sasha, a middle-class New England girl, has married into the Brooklyn Heights family, and finds herself cast as the arriviste outsider; and Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can't have, and must decide what kind of person she wants to be.

Rife with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York's one-percenters, Pineapple Street is a smart, escapist novel that sparkles with wit. Full of recognizable, loveable, if fallible, characters, it's about the peculiar knowability of someone else's family, the miles between the haves and have-nots, and the insanity of first love - all wrapped in a story that is a sheer delight.

Review: Prior to selecting this book, I noticed that reviews were split between those that loved this book and those that didn't. There really wasn't a middle ground. Curious, I requested it from my library, and even told the librarian I was going to give it a shot and if it didn't appeal to me in the first 30 pages, I would set it aside.

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed it and read long into the night on Saturday, finishing it Sunday morning before heading to my parents' for Father's Day.

I found it to be a fun summertime escapist type novel, as the synopsis suggests. If I have one complaint, it's that the ending was odd, but that doesn't negate how entertaining the rest of the book was. Perhaps, I can see the humor in the ending as well. 

It may help knowing that it's satire before jumping in feet first.

The Soulmate

Author: Sally Hepworth
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing, 2023
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Picture a lovely cottage on a cliff, with sloping lawns, walking paths, and beautiful flowers. It's Gabe and Pippa Girard's dream home in a sleep coastal town. But their perfect house hides something sinister. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. Over the past several months, Gabes comes to their rescue, literally talking them off the ledge.

Until one day, he doesn't. When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral. . .Did the victim jump? Was she pushed? And would Gabe, the love of Pippa's life, her soulmate. . .lie? As the perfect facade of their marriage begins to crack, the deepest and darkest secrets begin to unravel. Because sometimes, the most convincing lies are the ones we tell ourselves.

Review: I can always count on this author to write a good book. I've enjoyed each one I've read. The Soulmate hooked me in the first chapter. 

Maybe more Domestic Drama than Thriller, this book has family secrets, twists and turns, flashbacks, and perspective from the dead woman herself. I would put The Soulmate in the same genre as The Dilemma by B. A. Paris. 

I couldn't put this book down.

Other Sally Hepworth Books found in this blog
The Mother-in-Law
The Good Sister

Drawing Home

Author: Jamie Brenner
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company, 2020
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Summer has started in idyllic Sag Harbor, and for Emma Mapson that means greeting guests at the front desk of The American Hotel. But when one of the town's most famous residents, artist Henry Wyatt, dies suddenly, Emma learns he has mysteriously left his waterfront home - a self-designed masterpiece filled with his work - to her teenage daughter, Penny.

Back in Manhattan, legendary art patron Bea Winstead's grief at her lifelong friend and former business partner Henry's passing turns to outrage at the news of his shocking bequest. How did these unknown locals get their hands on the estate? Bea, with her devoted assistant Kyle in tow, descends on Sag Harbor determined to reclaim the house and preserve Henry's legacy.

While Emma fights to defend her daughter's inheritance, Bea discovers that Henry left a treasure trove of sketches scattered around town. With Penny's reluctant help, Bea pieces them together to find a story hidden in plain sight: an illustration of their shared history with an unexpected twist that will change all of their lives. Drawn together in a battle for the house, Emma and Bea are forced to confront the past while facing a future that challenges everything they believe about love, fate, and family.

Review: I love this author. Drawing Home wasn't my favorite of hers, but it's still a fun summertime story. It fell short for me in the subplot concerning the returning dead-beat dad. Some of us have to deal with the actual difficulties of this situation and don't have someone with money flying in to make the problems (and people) disappear. 

Other Jamie Brenner Novels:
Blush
Gilt
Summer Longing
The Forever Summer
The Husband Hour