The Beach Trees

Author: Karen White
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2011
Pages: 432
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: From the time she was twelve, Julie Holt knew what a random tragedy can do to a family. At that tender age, her little sister disappeared-never to be found. It was a loss that slowly eroded the family bonds she once relied on. As an adult with a prestigious job in the arts, Julie meets a struggling artist who reminds her so much of her sister, she can't help feeling protective. It is a friendship that begins a long and painful process of healing for Julie, leading her to a house on the Gulf Coast, ravaged by hurricane Katrina, and to stories of family that take her deep into the past.

Review: This was my first book by Karen White, and what an introduction it was. From the first words on the first page, I was hooked. I loved the cast of characters, and there was just so many unknowns that started unfolding right away. Fantastic summer reading choice.

The Girl from the Savoy

Author: Hazel Gaynor
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher, 2016
Pages: 448
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Dolly Lane is a dreamer; a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back and spur her on to make a better life.

When she finds employment as a chambermaid at London’s grandest hotel, The Savoy, Dolly takes a step closer to the glittering lives of the Bright Young Things who thrive on champagne, jazz and rebellion. Right now, she must exist on the fringes of power, wealth and glamour—she must remain invisible and unimportant.

But her fortunes take an unexpected turn when she responds to a struggling songwriter’s advertisement for a ‘muse’ and finds herself thrust into London’s exhilarating theatre scene and into the lives of celebrated actress, Loretta May, and her brother, Perry. Loretta and Perry may have the life Dolly aspires to, but they too are searching for something.

Now, at the precipice of the life she has and the one she longs for, the girl from The Savoy must make difficult choices: between two men; between two classes, between everything she knows and everything she dreams of. A brighter future is tantalizingly close—but can a girl like Dolly ever truly leave her past behind?

Review: Well, it wasn't A Memory of Violets, nor was it the best attempt at telling a story from multiple perspectives. It's a three-star read.

What I liked most about this novel were the little bits of wisdom sprinkled throughout. I read them, and then I had to re-read them. For example,"Hope is a dangerous thing, darling. It is usually followed by disappointment and too much gin." Unfortunately I have more complaints than praises; the characters didn't reveal their secrets in a timely enough manner, I did not buy into the authenticity of Loretta, Teddy's chapters did nothing to move the story forward either, and the twist didn't have an emotional impact.

Ugh, I just didn't love this, and I had wanted to be swept away like I had been in A Memory of Violets. Disappointing maybe, but not a terrible read. I expected more from Hazel Gaynor.

Hazel Gaynor Novels
A Memory of Violets
Before Dorothy
The Girl Who Came Home

Coauthored Novels
Fall of Poppies
Meet Me in Monaco

The Friends We Keep

Author: Susan Mallery
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Mira, 2016
Pages: 384
Rating: Highly Recommend

Review: After five years as a stay-at-home mom, Gabby Schaefer can't wait to return to work. Oh, to use the bathroom in peace! No twins clamoring at the door, no husband barging in, no stepdaughter throwing a tantrum. But when her plans are derailed by some shocking news and her husband's crushing expectations, Gabby must fight for the right to have a life of her own.

Getting pregnant is easy for Hayley Batchelor. Staying pregnant is the hard part. Her husband is worried about the expensive fertility treatments and frantic about the threat to her health. But to Hayley, a woman who was born to be a mom should risk everything to fulfill her destiny—no matter how high the cost.

Nicole Lord is still shell-shocked by a divorce that wasn't as painful as it should've been. Other than the son they share, her ex-husband left barely a ripple in her life. A great new guy tempts her to believe maybe the second time's the charm…but how can she trust herself to recognize true love?

Review: This is the second book in the Mischief Bay series. I enjoyed book one, The Girls of Mischief Bay, but I loved this one. You could read them as stand-alone novels, but I suggest reading it as a series.

I identified with each of the characters for different reasons, and all of them have stand-alone and unique story lines.

It's disappointing that I have to wait until next February to read more about the the goings on in Mischief Bay. In the meantime, perhaps I'll start another Susan Mallery series. I am enjoying her writing style.

Other Susan Mallery Novels
One Big Happy Family
The Christmas Wedding Ring
The Friendship List
The Sister Effect

The Vineyard at Painted Moon

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

Life After Life

Author: Kate Atkinson, read by Fanella Woolgar
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Hachette Audio, 2013
Pages: 560 (12 discs)
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Ursula's world is in turmoil, facing the unspeakable evil of the two greatest wars in history. What power and force can one woman exert over the fate of civilization — if only she has the chance?

Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.

Review: I really wasn't sure about this novel when I picked it out. It sounded different in the creative sense, and I figured I had nothing to lose by trying it out. The librarian mentioned that she had loved it, and that she'd be curious to hear what I thought.

This isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. You should have heard me trying to talk about it to my husband. He looked at me as though I had a second head on my shoulders and to hear myself tell it, I could totally understand why.

We all come into circumstances or situations in which we are required to make a choice. This book explores how our choices or decisions can send our lives in any number of different directions, with disastrous or beautiful consequences.

I liked the book until the last disc, then I found myself completely lost. I ended up being thoroughly lost, but I'm going to go back to that librarian who said she liked it, and maybe we can talk this out.

This isn't one I'd recommend, but if you do read it, I'm curious as to what your thoughts are.

What the Lady Wants

Author: Renee Rosen
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2014
Pages: 448
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In late-nineteenth-century Chicago, visionary retail tycoon Marshall Field made his fortune wooing women customers with his famous motto: “Give the lady what she wants.” His legendary charm also won the heart of socialite Delia Spencer and led to an infamous love affair.  

The night of the Great Fire, as seventeen-year-old Delia watches the flames rise and consume what was the pioneer town of Chicago, she can’t imagine how much her life, her city, and her whole world are about to change. Nor can she guess that the agent of that change will not simply be the fire, but more so the man she meets that night.…

Leading the way in rebuilding after the fire, Marshall Field reopens his well-known dry goods store and transforms it into something the world has never seen before: a glamorous palace of a department store. He and his powerhouse coterie—including Potter Palmer and George Pullman—usher in the age of robber barons, the American royalty of their generation.

But behind the opulence, their private lives are riddled with scandal and heartbreak. Delia and Marshall first turn to each other out of loneliness, but as their love deepens, they will stand together despite disgrace and ostracism, through an age of devastation and opportunity, when an adolescent Chicago is transformed into the gleaming White City of the Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893.

Review: This book is not a literary masterpiece, not even close, but when I have to follow up something like The Nightingale, I need fluff and inconsequential reads. I also love reading anything set during The Gilded Age. It's just so fascinating to me.

The author comes right out and states that she took a lot of liberties telling the story of Marshall Fields and Delia Caton. I recommend this novel.

Other Renee Rosen novels
Let's Call Her Barbie
Windy City Blues

The Nightingale

Author: Kristin Hannah
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2015
Pages: 448
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: In love we find out who we want to be. In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne's sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.

With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France--a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

Review: This was everything I heard it would be. It was engrossing, intense, heart breaking, and uplifting. I felt all the feels, as they say. You must read this. Must.

Kristin Hannah is one of my go-to authors anyway, but this was beyond anything she's written in the past. Amazing.

Other Kristin Hannah Novels
Angel Falls
Home Front
Summer Island
The Enchantment
The Four Winds
The Great Alone
The Women
True Colors

Promise Me This

Author: Cathy Gohlke
Genre: Historical Fiction / Christian Fiction
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Pages: 416
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Michael Dunnagan was never supposed to sail on the Titanic, nor would he have survived if not for the courage of Owen Allen. Determined to carry out his promise to care for Owen’s relatives in America and his younger sister, Annie, in England, Michael works hard to strengthen the family’s New Jersey garden and landscaping business.

Annie Allen doesn’t care what Michael promised Owen. She only knows that her brother is gone—like their mother and father—and the grief is enough to swallow her whole. As Annie struggles to navigate life without Owen, Michael reaches out to her through letters. In time, as Annie begins to lay aside her anger that Michael lived when Owen did not, a tentative friendship takes root and blossoms into something neither expected. Just as Michael saves enough money to bring Annie to America, WWI erupts in Europe. When Annie’s letters mysteriously stop, Michael risks everything to fulfill his promise—and find the woman he’s grown to love—before she’s lost forever.

Review: I wasn't sure I could stomach another novel about the Titanic, but this one sounded a little different. This ended up being more about life moving on after the sinking, and how survivors were then thrust into the Great War.

While predictable, the story itself was sweet and entertaining. It was exactly what I had expected from Christian Historical Fiction.