It Was Only Ever You

Author: Kate Kerrigan
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Head of Zeus, 2016
Pages: 448
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Patrick Murphy has charm to burn and a singing voice to die for. Many people will recognize his talent. Many women will love him. Rose, the sweetheart he leaves behind in Ireland, can never forget him. Ava, the heiress with no self-confidence, falls under his spell. And Sheila Klein, orphaned by the Holocaust and hungry for success, will be ruthless in her determination to unlock his star quality. But in the end, Patrick Murphy's heart belongs to only one of them. Which one will it be?

Review: This was one of those books that sounded good when I found it online, but once it was in my hands, I just wasn't sure. I decided to start reading and see if the story drew me in, or if it was one I could abandon. This one was a keeper. I liked the setting and the descriptions of both people and places. The plot could have been so much more, but three women fighting for one man, what could possibly go wrong? While there were multiple "conveniences" in this novel, I loved Patrick's revelation at the very end. 

The Golden Spoon

Author: Jessa Maxwell
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Atria Books, 2023
Pages: 288
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Every summer for the past ten years, six awe-struck bakers have descended on the grounds of Grafton, the leafy and imposing Vermont estate that is not only the filming site for "Bake Week" but also the childhood home of the show's famous host, celebrated baker Betsy Martin.

The author of numerous bestselling cookbooks and hailed as "America's Grandmother," Betsy Martin isn't as warm off-screen as on, though no one needs to know that but her. She has always demanded perfection, and gotten it with a smile, but this year something is off. As the baking competition commences, things behind to go awry. At first, it's merely sabotage - sugar replaced with salt, a burner turned to high - but when a body is discovered everyone is a suspect.

Review: This is a cozy mystery with thriller vibes, and I loved it. Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None meets the board game Clue, and they join forces with The Great British Bake Off. It was a fun ride and high on entertainment value.

Beyond That, the Sea

Author: Laura Spence-Ash
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Celedon Books, 2023
Pages: 368
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she'll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she'll be safe. Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England.

As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life - summers on the coast in Maine, new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea - the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends.

Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.

Review: I loved this book so much. While it's still early, this could be my favorite book of 2023. I loved the plot, the characters, the writing, absolutely everything. It's a good thing we had no plans today because that meant I could read all day, and I finished this in just a few hours. 

Second Time Around

Author: Melody Carlson
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 304
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: When empty nester Mallory Farrell inherits her grandmother's run-down tourist shop in Portside, Oregon, it seems the only sensible thing to do is sell it. But when her former secret crush, Grayson Matthews, wants to buy the property in order to complete his plans to redevelop the funky town's business district into a soulless cookie-cutter outdoor mall, Mallory digs in her heels and decides to renovate the property herself.

With a lot of hard work and a little bit of help, Mallory makes incredible progress turning the store into an eclectic home decor shop called Romancing the Home - all while trying to ignore the depressing and decrepit apartment she's living in on the second floor. When the shop catches the eye of a popular renovation TV show producer, Mallory is thrilled - until it becomes clear that her apartment is to be part of the segment as well.

She's tempted to abandon her dreams and the town under a cloud of shame. But perhaps there's more to Grayson than meets the eye. Can he swallow his pride, change his plans, and help Mallory romance her own home - and possibly her life?

Review: I flew through this novel written by one of my go-to authors for "palate-cleansing" reads that I enjoy after a book with heavy/intense themes and plots. It is longer than it should have been with repeated details and unnecessary continual issues for the main character to address, but it was fast-paced enough to keep me interested and turning pages. It's a cute novel, not a perfect one.

If I would have had another 30-45 minutes in me, I could have finished this in one day, but my eyes weren't staying open.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Author: Amanda Flower
Genre: Historical Fiction / Mystery
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2022
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: January 1855: Willa Noble knew it was bad luck when it was pouring rain on the day of her ever-important job interview at the Dickinson home in Amherst, Massachusetts. When she arrived late, disheveled with her skirts sodden and filthy, she'd lost all hope of being hired for the position. As the housekeeper politely told her they'd be in touch, Willa started toward the door of the stately home only to be called back by the soft but strong voice of Emily Dickinson. What begins as tenuous employment turns to friendship as the reclusive poet takes Willa under her wing.

Tragedy soon strikes and Willa's beloved brother, Henry, is killed in a tragic accident at the town stables. With no other family and nowhere else to turn, Willa tells Emily about her brother's death and why she believes it was no accident. Willa is convinced it was murder. Henry had been very secretive of late, only hinting to Willa that he'd found a way to earn money to take care of them both. Viewing it first as a puzzle to piece together, Emily offers to help, only to realize that she and Willa are caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse that reveals corruption in Amherst that is generations deep. Some very high-powered people will stop at nothing to keep their profitable secrets even if that means forever silencing Willa and
her new mistress. . .

Review: My mom was a big fan of Emily Dickinson, and I liked a few of her poems. I read Because I Could Not Stop for Death at my grandfather's funeral in 1997. I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, but I couldn't not give it a try.

March is also "cozy mystery" month in one of my book groups, and Amanda Flower is a cozy mystery author. This had the feel of cozy mystery with a more involved plot and better character development. Maybe it was a little longer than it needed to be and maybe I guessed "whodunnit" before the end of the novel, but this was a good read.

It's also fun to read someone who is almost a local author. Flower lives in Tallmadge, OH which I is an area I know fairly well. My husband grew up in nearby Akron and his uncle lives in Kent. We've been through Tallmadge many times.

The House of Eve

Author: Sadeqa Johnson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2023
Pages: 384
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: 1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her her like a birthright.

Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hales from one of DC's elite wealthy Black families, and his parents don't let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William's family and grant her the life she's been searching for. But having a baby - and fitting in - is easier said than done.

With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.

Review: This was a tough read, but so good. The characters felt very real, and their stories believable. Johnson fleshes out many themes in one cohesive novel. The House of Eve will stay with me for a long time.

The Lunar Housewife

Author: Caroline Woods
Genre: Historical Thriller
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing, 2022
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: New York City 1953: Louise Leithauser's star is on the rise. She's filed some of the best pieces at her boyfriend Joe's brand new literary magazine, Downtown (albeit under a male pseudonym), her relationship still makes her weak at the knees, and the science fiction romance she's writing on the side, "The Lunar Housewife," is going swimmingly. But when she overhears Joe and his business partner fighting about listening devices and death threats, Louise can't help but investigate, and she quickly finds herself wading into dangerous waters.

As Louise pieces together rumors, hunches, and clues, the picture begins to come together - Downtown's strings are being pulled by someone powerful, and that someone doesn't want artists or writers criticizing Uncle Sam. Meanwhile, opportunities are falling in Louise's lap that she'd have to be crazy to refuse, including an interview with America's most famous living author, Ernest Hemingway. Can Louise stand by and let doors keep opening for her, while the establishment sells out and censors her fellow writers? As her suspicions and paranoia mount, Louise's own novel, The Lunar Housewife changes shape, colored by her newfound knowledge. And when Louise is forced to consider her future sooner than she planned, she needs to decide whether she can trust Joe for the rest of her life.

Review: What an interesting mashup of historical fiction and thriller. I found this novel difficult to put down from the moment I started reading, which was surprising to me. This novel within a novel is a different type of book, and I'm glad I gave it a chance.

The author took me straight back to the 1950s and did a great job capturing the times, while not losing sight of the original plot. Really well done novel.

The Immigrants

Author: Howard Fast
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Sourcebooks, 2010 (first published in 1977)
Pages: 480
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In this sweeping journey of love and fortune, master storyteller Howard Fast recounts the family saga of roughneck immigrants determined to make their way in America at the the turn of the century. 

Quick to ascend from the tragic depths of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Dan Lavette becomes the head of a powerful shipping empire and establishes himself among the city's cultural elite. But when he finds himself caught in a loveless marriage to the daughter of San Francisco's richest family, a scandalous love affair threatens to destroy the empire Dan has built for himself.

Review: I was browsing the library shelves when the title of this book jumped out at me. When I took it up to the counter, the librarian began raving about it, and said it's the best family saga she's every read. In that department, it has some stiff competition because Roses and Valley of Decision are two of my favorite books ever, but I'm ready to add a third to that list.

Sadly, this is not the book. I liked it, but this wasn't a favorite. In general I don't read a lot of male authors because they tend to write women and relationships from a male perspective, and as a female reader, they don't ring true. This novel falls into that trap.

The story was great, the cast of characters were great, however, male/female relationships fell short. The plot and tying the family into significant historical events and times is what kept me reading, and unfortunately, relationships are a lot of what this novel is about. 

I've read other books written in the 1970s and 1980s and readers were different back then, not surprising. Maybe this is one of those books that hasn't aged particularly well for present-day readers.

3 stars

We All Want Impossible Things

Author: Catherine Newman
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher, 2022
Pages: 224
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Edith and Ashley have been best friends for over forty-two years. They've shared the mundane and the momentous together: trick or treating and binge drinking; Gilligan's Island reruns and REM concerts; hickeys and heartbreak; surprise Scottish wakes; marriages; infertility, and children. As Ash says, "Edi's memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine."

But now the unthinkable has happened. Edi is dying of ovarian cancer and spending her last days at a hospice near Ash, who stumbles into heartbreak surrounded by her daughters, ex(ish) husband, dear friends, a poorly chosen lover (or two), and a rotating case of of beautifully, fleetingly human hospice characters.

As Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack blasts all day long from the room next door, Edi and Ash reminisce, hold on, and try to let go. Meanwhile, Ash struggles with being an imperfect friend, wife, and parent - with life, in other words, distilled to its heartbreaking, joyful, and comedic essence.

Review: In a word, ridiculous. In fact, I don't know why I read beyond the first few chapters. Ashley is incredibly unlikable, and I could not get past Edi going into hospice hours away from her husband and son. I could not relate to Ashley's best friend attitude with her teenage daughter and various sexual exploits.The last two chapters resonated in a personal way, but I'm not sure it was worth the journey.

Allll of this being said, We All Want Impossible Things would be a great choice for the right book club. There is a lot going on here, and could lead to great discussion.

Death at Wentwater Court

Author: Carola Dunn
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2015
Pages: 240
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In early 1923, the young Honourable Daisy Dalrymple has made a decision that shocks her social class - instead of living in the Dower House with her mother and being supported by relatives, she's decided to make her own living as a writer. Landing an assignment for Town & Country to write a series of articles on country manor houses, Daisy travels to Wentwater Court to research her first piece. There she finds a household in turmoil, filled with holiday guests and recriminations. But that's nothing compared to the uproar when one of those guests drowns in a tragic early-morning skating "accident." When it is learned that this was anything but accidental, Scotland Yard is called in and a young Chief Inspector, one Alec Fletcher is called in to investigate. And therein hangs a tale.

Review: One thing you won't see many of in my reading journal/blog are cozy mysteries. This is just not a favorite or go-to genre for me. However, I'm participating in an online reading challenge this year, and March's prompt is, you guessed it, cozy mystery.

I hit my library's cozy mystery section and looked for a thin book. I landed on Death at Wentwater Court. First published twenty years ago, this is a reissue of what is a fan favorite. I myself am a big fan of Downton Abbey, and this story takes place in the 1920s, so right about the same time. 

Since this isn't my genre, it's hard for me to recommend or not since I don't "know" what fans of this genre love or actually look for, but this was fun. It's unlikely that I'll continue with the series, but keep checking back and maybe I'll surprise us both.