Thursday, June 21, 2018

Love, Lies and Wedding Cake by Sue Watson





What They Say.....Since Faye met her gorgeous Aussie boyfriend Dan, they’ve travelled all over the world to meet in amazing, crazy locations. They’ve eaten gateaux in a chateau, chocolate torte in a moonlit port, and even had stöllen kisses in a sparkling winter market. Neither of them wanted to settle down… until now.

When Dan asks Faye to marry him and to move to Australia it throws a real spanner in the works. Faye’s daughter Emma needs her here, so moving to the other side of the world – even for a hunk like Dan – simply isn’t an option. Is it?

Faye’s been down the marriage road before and it ended up with her having Ryan Gosling fantasies while her ex-husband obsessed about the plumbing. Is that what she has to look forward to? Is she ready to end her adventure? And even if she is, how can she be sure Dan is the right man for her? Because he's keeping a secret. One that could destroy everything. 

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD -BUT NOT MANY!

What I Say.....I had just come off of a downer of a book, so Love, Lies and Wedding Cake was the perfect  antidote.  It was a light easy read, and I breezed through it.

Faye is a hairdresser, a mother who has sacrificed her independence to help raise her granddaughter.  But Faye also has a hot Australian boyfriend that she gets to enjoy around her daughter's daycare needs.

When Dan proposes and asks Faye to move back to Australia, she puts her desires aside and says no, she needs to be here for her daughter and granddaughter.  Ugh.  Faye puts on a stiff upper lip and gets on with her life without Dan.

But a year later, her daughter decides to get married and move herself and her daughter to Scotland.  So now Faye wants to reconcile with Dan, but he's not answering her calls or texts.  But she decides to go to Australia for the chance to talk to him and see if their love can be rekindled.

But when she gets there she finds more complications than she is sure she wants at this stage of life.  Will it be worth it to be with Dan?  A great book about how amazing the second chapter of life can be!

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

How Hard Can It Be by Allison Pearson





What They Say.....Look, I was doing OK. I got through the oil spill on the road that is turning forty. Lost a little control, but I drove into the skid just like the driving instructors tell you to and afterwards things were fine again, no, really, they were better than fine.
Kate Reddy had it all: a nice home, two adorable kids, a good husband. Then her kids became teenagers (read: monsters). Richard, her husband, quit his job, taking up bicycling and therapeutic counseling: drinking green potions, dressing head to toe in Lycra, and spending his time—and their money—on his own therapy. Since Richard no longer sees a regular income as part of the path to enlightenment, it’s left to Kate to go back to work. 
Companies aren’t necessarily keen on hiring 49-year-old mothers, so Kate does what she must: knocks a few years off her age, hires a trainer, joins a Women Returners group, and prepares a new resume that has a shot at a literary prize for experimental fiction.
When Kate manages to secure a job at the very hedge fund she founded, she finds herself in an impossible juggling act: proving herself (again) at work, dealing with teen drama, and trying to look after increasingly frail parents as the clock keeps ticking toward her 50th birthday. Then, of course, an old flame shows up out of the blue, and Kate finds herself facing off with everyone from Russian mobsters to a literal stallion.
Surely it will all work out in the end. After all, how hard can it be?


What I Say.....I loved the first Kate Reddy book, I Don't Know How She Does It, so I was excited to get an advance copy of How Hard Can It Be?  To be honest, it can be very hard. Raising kids, navigating a failing marriage, finishing this book.

It was a hard book to read because Kate's life was like your worst day over and over again, but she owned so much of it.  Her teenaged daughter sends a picture of her ass across the school internet and her biggest concern is how many likes it didn't get.  Her son is busy killing people via video games while swearing with his friends.  Honestly, these kids both needed a swift kick.  But Kate fawns over them, keeping the butt pic a secret from her husband, doing her daughter's homework and groveling for any crumbs of kindness she can get from her teens.

Her husband is so obviously checked out and having an affair, but Kate doesn't seem to notice his lack of interest in her or their family and his daily disappearances, although he has quit his job to pursue his dream of being a therapist, forcing Kate back to work.

Kate goes back to work at her old fund, and is immediately successful, showing up younger men easily.  And suddenly an old flame shows back up into her life, stirring up feelings that she never got over.

So, the book that showed how hard it is to be a working mother ends up making a rich ex-flame the solution to all of Kate's problems.  He fixes things behind the scenes just to help her.  Blah, blah, blah.  How about Kate can solve her own problems?

The other part of the book the I didn't love was the constant description of how old and awful Kate felt like she looked, how her body, her uterus, and her skin were failing her, along with her memory.  The constant references to "Roy" as the keeper of her memories was super annoying.  I'm the same age as Kate and I don't feel that bad about myself - reading this was depressing.

That may have been why I didn't enjoy this book - it made me feel like my life was over at 47, and the only way to make it better was to find a rich man.  No thanks.  But i may be alone in my opinion, because it's got a really great Goodreads rating.

Current Goodreads Rating 4.09



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Tuesday, June 5, 2018

The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman




What They Say......In The Recipe Box, bestselling beloved author Viola Shipman spins a tale about a lost young woman and the family recipe box that changes her life.
Growing up in northern Michigan, Samantha “Sam” Mullins felt trapped on her family’s orchard and pie shop, so she left with dreams of making her own mark in the world. But life as an overworked, undervalued sous chef at a reality star’s New York bakery is not what Sam dreamed. 
When the chef embarrasses Sam, she quits and returns home. Unemployed, single, and defeated, she spends a summer working on her family’s orchard cooking and baking alongside the women in her life—including her mother, Deana, and grandmother, Willo. One beloved, flour-flecked, ink-smeared recipe at a time, Sam begins to learn about and understand the women in her life, her family’s history, and her passion for food through their treasured recipe box. 
As Sam discovers what matters most she opens her heart to a man she left behind, but who now might be the key to her happiness.


What I Say.....Sam fled her small town to live and thrive in the big city of New York.  But she isn't exactly thriving.  She's working for a jerk, but he's a jerk who has the power to fire her, and he does.

Sam slinks home with her tail between her legs to celebrate the family orchard's anniversary.  As she begins working and baking with her mother and grandmother, she finds her spirits lifting.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around why Sam would have ever felt the need to flee this perfect family in this perfect town. The best part of the book was the recipes - I want to try them all!




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Monday, June 4, 2018

Dreams of Falling by Karen White





What They Say.....New York Times bestselling author Karen White crafts evocative relationships in this contemporary women's fiction novel, set in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, about lifelong friends who share a devastating secret.

On the banks of the North Santee River stands a moss-draped oak that was once entrusted with the dreams of three young girls. Into the tree's trunk, they placed their greatest hopes, written on ribbons, for safekeeping--including the most important one: Friends forever, come what may.

But life can waylay the best of intentions....

Nine years ago, a humiliated Larkin Lanier fled Georgetown, South Carolina, knowing she could never go back. But when she finds out that her mother has disappeared, she realizes she has no choice but to return to the place she both loves and dreads--and to the family and friends who never stopped wishing for her to come home.

Ivy, Larkin's mother, is discovered badly injured and unconscious in the burned-out wreckage of her ancestral plantation home. No one knows why Ivy was there, but as Larkin digs for answers, she uncovers secrets kept for nearly fifty years--whispers of love, sacrifice, and betrayal--that lead back to three girls on the brink of womanhood who found their friendship tested in the most heartbreaking ways.


What I Say....I am such a Karen White fan.  I look forward to her books, and her collaboration books with Lauren Willig and Beatriz Williams - The Forgotten Room was ah=mazing. 

So getting an advanced copy of Dreams of Falling was a big deal for me.  I held onto it and savored it and waited until the perfect time to read it - when I was on a beach in Florida.  It did not disappoint.

Larkin heads home to help look for her mother, and stays when her mother is found injured in her old family house.  While she waits for her mom to heal, she starts digging into why her mother was in the burned down use in the first place.

Her best sources of information are her mother's caretakers since childhood, Bitty and Ceecee.  They were her grandmother's best friends, and helped raise Ivy when her mother died.

But Bitty and Ceecee aren't too forthcoming with information, and they seem worried as she keeps digging, especially around the ribbon tree.  And as Larkin tries to unravel the mystery, her mother Ivy lingers in a coma, not sure if she wants to stick around or not.

Larkin has spent years running away from all things Georgetown, from her old friends to her true love Bennett and she is terrified to be back facing all of her childhood demons.

A great summer read, in the pool, on the beach, on your couch in the air conditioning, on the Kindle app on your phone while you hide in the bathroom at work.



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