One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery

One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery

Published by Canary Street Press ISBN 9781335006301

Trade paperback, $18.99, 320 pages

From the publisher:

Don’t come home for Christmas. . .

Julie Parker’s kids are her greatest gift. Still, she’s low-key joyful that they want to skip a big Christmas this year. Her son Nick is romancing his bride Blair with a belated honeymoon, while her daughter Dana plans to purge every reminder of the guy who dumped her. Again. Julie’s excited to hole up for the holiday with Heath, the (much) younger man she’s secretly dating.

Her plans go from cozy to chaotic when her kids change their minds and plead for Christmas at the family cabin in memory of their beloved father. Julie can’t refuse, despite being nervous about the over-the-top traditions her grown children still enjoy—and anxious about how they’ll feel when they meet Heath and realize she’s been lying to them for months. She has justified her deception by insisting to herself that they’re not serious, despite the spark she feels whenever he’s near.

As the guest list grows in surprising ways, from Blair’s estranged mom to Heath’s beautiful young ex, Julie’s secret is one of many to be unwrapped. Over this complicated and very funny Christmas, she’ll discover that more really is merrier, and that a big, happy family can become bigger and happier, if they all let go of old hurts and open their hearts to love.

My thoughts:

I have always enjoyed Susan Mallery's books, but One Big Happy Family may be my favorite yet. As a mom to two grown adults, Julie is so relatable. She owns a tow business that she hopes her son Nick is ready to take on more responsibility in the business, just as she did as she took over for her father.

Julie's ex-husband (and Nick and Dana's father) passed away in January and this will be the first Christmas without him. Nick's wife Blair knows that it will hard for him and she is willing to forgo their planned Maui trip to spend Christmas at the family cottage in the mountains as they have always done.

As any good mom would do, Julie sacrifices her time with her (hot and younger) new boyfriend Heath for a family Christmas. Anyone who has done a big family holiday vacation will smile at the organizational skills that Julie shows as she plans menus, decorating, chore charts, and gift-wrapping to make everything go smoothly. (We all have someone like that in our family, right?)

As the number of people who will be staying at the cabin begins to grow, from Heath and his two young children to his ex-wife, to Dana's once-and-for-all-ex-who-broke-her-heart-for-the-last-time, to Blair's unpleasant estranged mother, secrets begin to bubble to the surface that may cause problems for more than one person.

I truly enjoyed these characters, Mallery makes them so real. From Dana's heartbreak to Blair's dealing with her IBS, to Julie's unwillingness to let anyone help her when she is vulnerable - we all know these people (and maybe are some of them). The Christmas setting was wonderful, and One Big Happy Family is the book I will gifting to many people this holiday season. I give it my highest recommendation. I adored it and I'd love to get an invitation to stay at Julie's family cottage for the holidays.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Fall 2024 Blog Tours.

Time To Fall In Love With Books

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Time to Fall in Love With Books

Summer is officially over and now it’s the season to fall in love with books. This month’s Book Report takes us to three different eras from the past with books that have flown under the radar.

If you just can’t let go of summer, Suzanne Rindell’s sweet Summer Fridays will keep the summer vibe going. The novel takes place in 1999 New York City, when AOL was the hot thing. 

Sawyer works as an assistant at a publishing house and is planning a wedding to her live-in college boyfriend Charles who is beginning his career as a lawyer. She is not so much planning a wedding as allowing her future mother-in-law to completely take over the wedding planning.

Charles is working long hours with his attractive colleague Kendra. This doesn’t really bother Sawyer until Kendra’s boyfriend Nick sends her an email insinuating that Charles and Kendra are having an affair.

Nick and Sawyer strike up an online email friendship, which leads to Nick joining Sawyer on her summer Friday lunches in a local park. Sawyer and Nick have a platonic relationship, but could it be more? Does Sawyer have more in common with Nick than Charles? You’ll have to read Summer Fridays to find out. Fans of the movie You’ve Got Mail will be delighted.

I liked the New York City setting here, and the characters are interesting. I read Suzanne Rindell’s historical novel The Other Typist and loved it, and Summer Fridays is very different from that book but just as wonderful.

Madeline Martin takes the reader to WWII England in The Booklover’s Library. In Nottingham, England, Emma is a young widow with a seven year-old daughter Olivia. The war against Germany is just ramping up, and Emma is having a difficult time finding a job, as widows and married women are discouraged from working. 

While Emma is able to secure a position at the Booklover’s Library in a chemist shop, she must hide the fact that she has a child. They live in an apartment building, and we meet some of the other tenants, including a grumpy older man and an older widow who is willing to care for Olivia part-time.

As Germany begins to bomb England, a program begins where people are encouraged to send their children to the countryside becasue it is thought they will be safer from the bombing that is happening in the cities. 

Since Emma must work at her job to support herself and Olivia, she makes the difficult decision to send Olivia to the countryside to a family she doesn’t know. Olivia sends Emma letters begging to come home, and Emma struggles with the decision she made.

Martin does an incredible job putting readers in the shoes of Emma. As we read, we wonder what would we have done in Emma’s place. The author also paints such a vivid picture of life during war in England. 

The author did a great deal of research into the lending libraries found in chemists shops at this time. I was fascinated by Emma’s job and found myself wanting to learn even more about them than I found in the Author’s Notes at the end of the book. If you liked historical fiction, The Booklover’s Library is one you will definitely want to read.

For the Nonfiction fan, Scott G. Shea’s All the Leaves Are Brown shares the true story of the rise and fall of the 1960’s super group The Mamas and The Papas. 

Shea traces the beginnings of the group, starting with a detailed biography of the group’s leader and songwriter John Phillips. We follow John’s story from his childhood as the son of a military man, through his troubled teen years, and his love of music.

Along the way, John (who was already married) falls in love with a much younger Michelle Gilliam, and eventually they end up with Canadian folk singer Denny Doherty and the vivacious and amazing singer Cass Elliot to become the Mamas and the Papas.

Shea shares the ups and downs, the love triangles, the rampant drug use (that part just astonished me- so many drugs!), the talent, and the incredible music they made during the last part of the 1960s. The Monterey Pop Festival that John Phillips created with others is described in great detail and I found that very interesting. 

After reading All the Leaves Are Brown,  I immediately put on a Mamas and Papas playlist and wow, they were fantastic. This one is for fans of 1960’s music, Fleetwood Mac, and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones & the Six.

Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell- A

Published by Dutton

Trade paperback, $18, 432 pages

The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin- A

Published by Hanover Square Press

Trade paperback, $18.99, 432 pages

All the Leaves Are Brown by Scott G. Shea- A-

Published by Backbeat

Hardcover, $32.95, 422 pages

The Booklover's Library by Madeline Martin

The Booklover's Library by Madeleine Martin

Published by Hanover Square Press ISBN 978 13350000392

Trade paperback, $18.99, 432 pages

From the publisher:

In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.

When the threat of war in England becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In the wake of being separated from her daughter, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, and a renewed sense of purpose through the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing and the work at the lending library forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.

As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times.

My thoughts:

I truly enjoyed Madeline Martin's Last Bookshop in London (my review here ) and so I was happy to hear that her newest novel  The Booklover's Library also has books at the heart of the story.

I had never heard of lending libraries located in a chemist shop in England. The system of A subscribers (who pay a higher subscription price and get first selection of the newest and better books) and B subscribers (who pay less and get the new books after the A subscribers have read them) intrigued me. I also found it fascinating that the library workers had to take a rigorous aptitude test. As I manage a used bookshop located in a branch of the New York Public Library, I was so involved in this part of the story.

As the story went on, I became very invested in Emma and her young daughter Olivia's story. As a widowed mother who had to work to support her child, Emma struggled with her decision to keep Olivia home with her in a city that may be targeted by German bombs or send her daughter off to the countryside with strangers and then with her estranged in-laws. I empathized with Emma and would not know what to do in that situation.

Fans of WWII historical fiction should definitely put The Booklover's Library on their To-Be-Read list. Martin clearly did her research (as she details in the Author's Note at the end) and she draws the reader in with her relatable characters and the situation they find themselves in. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Fall 2024 Blog Tours.

Some Great Reads For Labor Day Weekend

Reprinted from auburnpub.com 

We’re in the dog days of summer as they call it. What to read as we try to make it last as long as we possibly can? This month’s Book Report has some suggestions.

Summer is a time for weddings, and Alison Espach’s novel The Wedding People is set at a fancy Newport, Rhode Island resort. Phoebe has checked into the Cornwall Inn not realizing that she is the only person there not attending the wedding of Lila and Gary, two people she doesn't know. 

Phoebe has come to the Cornwall Inn intending to end her life. Her husband left her for another woman after several unsuccessful attempts to have a baby, her career as a literature adjunct professor at a St. Louis college is stalled, and her cat died.

As Phoebe is preparing to end her life, Lila, the bride, bursts into her hotel room. Lila is a whirlwind, talking a mile a minute about her wedding problems, demanding to know why Phoebe is at the hotel. When Phoebe explains her situation, Lila is furious that Phoebe’s plan would wreck Lila’s perfect wedding.

Lila has planned each and every detail of the week-long wedding celebration. She is a bridezilla, yet she opens up to Phoebe and they form an interesting bond that ends up with Phoebe becoming the maid of honor.

We meet the members of the wedding party and the family, and Phoebe even has a flirtation with a handsome man in the hot tub. The characters in The Wedding People are so well-drawn, especially Lila, who in lesser hands could have been a one-dimensional character, but the author gives her such depth.

The writing is filled with wit, and the subject of depression is dealt with sensitivity. I enjoyed The Wedding People immensely. Read With Jenna chose it as her August read and it was a Book of the Month option.

Read With Jenna’s July pick was Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark. This one is a much darker story. Patch is a young boy with one eye, being raised by an alcoholic mom, and picked on by bullies.  

When he sees the girl he has a crush on being attacked by a man, he rushes in to save her and the man takes Patch instead. Patch’s best friend Saint, a young girl who is a bit of an outcast as well, is determined to find out what happened to her best friend no matter the cost.

Saint hounds the local police, who are stymied in their investigation into this and other missing girls in the area. The local police chief is devastated by Patch’s disappearance.

All The Colors of the Dark continues through the next 20 years, combining a missing person mystery with a serial killer thriller with a friendship and love story. Serial killer stories are not a genre I enjoy reading, but All the Colors of the Dark captured me with relationship between Patch and Saint, and the several twists and turns before the ultimate resolution. It was also a Book fo the Month selection.

If you can’t wait for the next installment of Bridgerton on Netflix, give Eloisa James’ new historical romance Viscount in Love a read. Dominic is a viscount engaged to a suitable young woman. When he finds himself guardian to his young niece and nephew after his brother and sister-in-law tragically die, his fiancee up and elopes with another man. 

Dominic finds himself attracted to his ex-fiancee’s sister Torie. Torie enjoys spending time with the children, but she fears that Dom wants a nanny and she is determined to marry someone who loves her.

Torie is illiterate, seemingly incapable of learning how to read, but she can remember everything she has heard. She is very intelligent and Dominic is impressed with her. Can he convince Torie that he loves her and that they should be together?

James writes spicy, witty, literate romance novels, and even though you know how things will turn out, the fun is in getting there. 

If thrillers are your favorite, Chris Bohjalian’s The Princess of Las Vegas is a good one. It tells the story of a Princess Diana impersonator in Las Vegas who finds herself in the middle of an organized crime conspiracy of murder involving cryptocurrency. 

When her estranged sister shows up with a new boyfriend and the teenage girl she adopted, things really get messy- and dangerous. You’ll race through this one, and Bohjalian manages to make each of his books unique, something you can’t say for many mystery/thriller writers. 

Happy Labor Day!

Magical Meet Cute by Jean Meltzer

Magical Meet Cute by Jean Meltzer

Published by MIRA ISBN 9780778334415

Trade paperback, $18.99, 400 pages

From the publisher:

From the author of the buzzy The Matzah Ball comes a romantic comedy for fans of Sally Thorne, about a lonely potter who drunkenly creates a golem doll of her perfect match—and meets the man of her dreams the next day.

Is he the real deal…or did she truly summon a golem?

Faye Kaplan used to be engaged. She also used to have a successful legal practice. But she much prefers her new life as a potter in Woodstock, New York. The only thing missing is the perfect guy.

Not that she needs one. She’s definitely happy alone.

That is, until she finds her town papered with anti-Semitic flyers after yet another failed singles event at the synagogue. Desperate for comfort, Faye drunkenly turns to the only thing guaranteed to soothe her—pottery. A golem protector is just what her town needs…and adding all the little details to make him her ideal man can’t hurt, right?

When a seriously hot stranger mysteriously turns up the next day, Greg seems too good to be true—if you ignore the fact that Faye hit him with her bike. And that he subsequently lost his memory…

But otherwise, the man checks Every. Single. Box. Causing Faye to wonder if Greg’s sudden and spicy appearance might be anything but a coincidence.

My thoughts:

I have enjoyed reading Jean Meltzer's romance novels for many reasons. Her characters are interesting and not the stock "perfect" romance protagonists, they have serious issues to deal with- Avital in Kissing Kosher has a chronic health issue (as does Meltzer herself), Dara in Mr. Perfect On Paper has General Anxiety Disorder, and Faye in Magical Meet Cute was subjected to trauma and abuse by her mother as a child.

Meltzer is Jewish and I am not so I find learning about Jewish cultures and traditions enlightening. In Magical Meet Cute Faye is artistic and has mystical beliefs, and the reader learns more about what that entails. 

I am familiar with the Woodstock area of upstate New York, which most people know as the place where the famous 1969 concert was held. The Woodstock of today is filled with artists, musicians, and a tight-knit community of caring people. In Magical Meet Cute, even that Woodstock is not immune to the problems of the world, where anti-Semitism has reared its ugly head.

The novel is a romantic comedy- Faye's sometimes comical efforts to discover if Greg is a golem she conjured and her elderly neighbor Nelly is a hoot- but the serious tones of anti-Semitism add gravity to the story. There are a few twists here (one which I guessed) but the big mystery is finding out who Greg really is, and I was totally invested in that.

Although I don't usually read romances with magical elements, I truly enjoyed Magical Meet Cute and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good romance with intriguing characters and a small town setting.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Summer 2024 Blog Tours.

Time To Refill Your Beach Reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com:

Time to Refill Your Beach Reads

Summer is going by much too fast and it’s time again to refill your beach reads. I’ve got some wonderful suggestions for you to toss in your beach bag as you head out on vacation or just to your front porch.

Kate Quinn’s WWII historical novels are popular (The Alice Network,The Rose Code). Her new novel The Briar Club takes place during the Cold War. Set in a boarding house in Washington D.C. run by an unpleasant widow and her teenage son, the story begins with two dead bodies in the house. 

We flash back and forth in time as the story is told by the women who rent rooms in the house. Each of the women have secrets they don’t want known, and each of their stories are intriguing. Quinn does a remarkable job keeping each woman’s voice distinct as they band together through the dramatic climax. Quinn is in top form here.

Liz Moore’s new mystery novel The God of The Woods also tells a story from differing points of view. When thirteen year-old Barbara Van Laar goes missing from her Adirondack summer camp, people fear that it is a repeat of an incident from fourteen years ago- her nine year-old brother disappeared from the same area, never to be found. 

Like Kate Quinn’s book, the story shifts back and forth in times, and Moore does a masterful job keeping everything straight in the reader’s mind with chapter headings that indicate the timeline. The story is propulsive, and the reader feels dropped right into the Adirondack camp. Although this book is almost 500 pages, you’ll fly through it as you wait to discover what happened to Barbara- and her brother.

For something on the lighter side, take a trip to Italy in Steven Rowley’s The Guncle Abroad. Five years later we meet with our friends from the delightful The Guncle. Patrick’s resumed his acting career, and he is charged with accompanying his young niece and nephew to Italy where their widowed father is marrying a wealthy heiress.

The children want Patrick to convince their father not to get married, and Patrick is stuck in the middle- and unhappy that the children have taken a shine to their oh-so-cool future step-aunt. Once again the humor and love shine in this delightful story, and it had me laughing out loud at Patrick’s caustic comments. 

Kirsten Miller’s Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books also has humor at its core, albeit a more satirical type. Lula Dean is determined to make a name for herself by starting a  campaign to rid her small Southern town of “inappropriate” books from the public library. (The fact that the town’s librarian Beverly is her archenemy has nothing to do with it.)

Lula opens a Little Library in her front yard and fills it with wholesome books from her own library for people to read. Unbeknownst to her, Beverly’s daughter has been swapping out Lula’s books for books on the “banned list”, but putting the covers from Lula’s books on the banned books. Now when people choose one of Lula’s books, they are getting something very different. 

Lula is thrilled with the popularity of her Little Library, and the people of the town are changed in profound and delightful ways as they read books that expand their minds and souls. This one is a funny and timely read.

For nonfiction fans, Sloane Crosley’s memoir Grief Is For People tells the story of two events that changed Sloane deeply. First, she returns to her New York City apartment to discover that someone has broken in and stolen her jewelry. Sloane becomes obsessed with trying to discover who stole her jewelry, going to extreme lengths to get answers. 

One month later, her former boss, mentor, and good friend goes into his barn and hangs himself. Sloane is devastated by this, and shares the story of her relationship with her friend over the years, looking for answers as to what happened to him.

Her writing is piercing and moving, and she makes us feel like we knew her friend almost as well as she did, sharing his idiosyncrasies in vivid style.

Fans of yacht rock music will enjoy Michael McDonald’s memoir What a Fool Believes, co-written with his friend, actor Paul Reiser. McDonald is best known for being an intregal member of the Doobie Brothers, but his journey through the music scene of the 70s and 80s is so much more, and a terrific and sometimes terrifying, ride to take with him. 

Enjoy the rest of summer, may it slow down.

The Backtrack by Erin La Rosa

The Backtrack by Erin LaRosa

Published by Canary Street Press ISBN 9781335009456

Trade paperback, $18.99, 304 pages

From the publisher:

ABOUT THE BOOK:

From the author of FOR BUTTER OR WORSE and PLOT TWIST comes a new speculative contemporary romance. One woman is sucked into the past—and shown glimpses of what her life could have been—as she listens to nostalgic hits on her old CD player. For fans of Rebecca Serle and Allison Winn Scotch.

When pilot Sam Leto jet-setted out of small town Georgia, she promised she’d never be back—even though it meant leaving behind her best friend, Damon Rocha. Now on a forced vacation home to pack up her childhood house (and help her injured grandmother), Sam is unexpectedly hit with nostalgia from her teens--especially her bedroom, perfectly preserved from the time she left all those years ago. Sam discovers an old CD player among her teenage possessions, and in listening to the burned disc inside, she receives flashbacks from her past life--senior prom, graduation, leaving home. But the memories aren't as she remembers them. They show an alternate past. What could have been. If she never left Georgia all those years ago, would she now have the life (and love) she always wanted for herself?

My Thoughts:

I liked that Sam has an unusual occupation- she's a pilot who flies international routes. We don't see that often in romance novels. Sam and her in-flight crew play the "What If" game with passengers. They seat people together that they believe will make a connection- friendship or romantic- and see if anything develops.

When Sam's old CD player from high school plays a disc her marching bandmate and best friend-wannabe-boyfriend Damon gave her, she sees snippets of an alternate life she could have led- the ultimate "What If" game. It begins with the night that changed everything: the night Damon asked to kiss Sam and she said no.

In Sam's alternate past, she says yes and each song on the disc plays out a different incident related to the song and her life. Sam writes down what happens in each incident and tries to piece together what it could possibly mean.

Now that Sam is back in the hometown she ran away from after high school, she has to face Damon as she cares for her sassy grandmother. (I love a good sassy grandmother!) Does Sam have romantic feelings for Damon and does he still feel the same for her? If so, what do they do about it?

The Backtrack brings the reader back to their own high school days, and I'm guessing many will relate to the outsider status that Sam and Damon shared. It creates a nostalgic feeling in the reader, and readers may reflect on their own "What If" moments from that time.

Anyone who came of age in the 2000's will truly enjoy all the music references, and there is a playlist at the end of the book.

I enjoyed the nostalgic aspects of the story, and the romance of the guy-she-got-away-from is well-done. While I don't usually look for magical aspects in a story, I found this one intriguing. I recommend The Backtrack.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Summer 2024 Blog Tour.