women’s relationships

Review: ALL THE SUMMER GIRLS by Meg Donohue

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I had the chance to hear Meg Donohue read from her new book at my local fave indie bookshop (The Concord Bookshop) where I purchased her ALL THE SUMMER GIRLS. This is a great summertime read as it’s set on the Jersey Shore.

Three longtime girlfriends, Kate, Dani, and Vanessa, reunite for one long weekend at the beach. Each one has her own issues and problems: Kate’s fiance has just broken up with her and she then learns she is pregnant; Dani has substance abuse problems and can’t keep a job, meanwhile she is trying to write a cathartic novel; Vanessa is feeling tied down as a stay at home mom and has learned that her husband has strayed. All three are still feeling the loss of Kate’s twin brother, Colin, who tragically drowned when they were last at the shore several years earlier. Each of them also carries her own guilt and secrets about that final night, too.

All in all I liked this book. Ms. Donohue’s writing is fluid and the characters are well-developed. I did feel a bit “old” reading this. The characters are all twenty-nine and still getting their lives together. (I’m in my forties and twenty-nine seems a long time ago!). They all also have experienced a lot of drama! While I liked the subplot of the secrets surrounding Colin’s death, I didn’t feel like I got to really know him as a character. He was definitely headed for self-destruction, and I wasn’t entirely sure why each girl blamed herself so much for his death, but I did like the theme of self acceptance and self forgiveness that came through at the end.

If you are looking for a summer read about friendship and self growth, then take a look at ALL THE SUMMER GIRLS!

Review: DOLLS BEHAVING BADLY by Cinthia Ritchie

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A while ago, Cinthia Ritchie contacted me and asked if I’d like to read and review her book DOLLS BEHAVING BADLY. It sounded interesting and funny, so I said yes. In the course of reading this book I misplaced it (it fell under the seat in my car!) so it took a while for me to read and finish it.

DOLLS BEHAVING BADLY is the story of Alaskan single mom, Carla, and her attempts to make it through the grind of daily life. She has a highly gifted young son, Jay-Jay, a pregnant sister, Laurel, an ex that she still hooks up with (Barry), a long dead but still present Polish grandma, and a teenage babysitter who pretty much has moved in with them (Stephanie). Her best friend has her own issues and Carla and she work together at a Mexican restaurant  – “Mexico in an Igloo”. Carla has been inspired by a speaker on Oprah to keep a diary and take control of her life. Add to this a new love interest, anthropologist Francisco, and Carla’s secret side occupation (making erotic, X-rated Barbie dolls) and you have the makings of a laugh-out-loud story with zany antics and characters that are so human and flawed that they become highly lovable.

I laughed out loud while reading this book and couldn’t help but root for Carla and her family. I loved the setting of Alaska (the only state I’ve never visited!) and the fact that while all these people had their problems, they were all just doing their best to get through life.

Thanks, Cinthia, for sending me your book to read!

Review: LOOKING FOR ME by Beth Hoffman

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I really enjoyed Beth Hoffman’s first novel, SAVING CEE CEE HONEYCUT. (Here’s a link to my earlier review of “Saving Cee Cee Honeycut”: https://drbethnolan.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/review-saving-ceecee-honeycutt-by-beth-hoffman/). I follow Beth on twitter and she seems like an incredibly nice person. Plus she has that “Southern writer touch” that I love so much in novels. So – I was quite thrilled to receive a copy of LOOKING FOR ME through Net Galley recently. I saved it a bit so that I could savor it while I read it. I love Ms. Hoffman’s characters and I knew that I would not want this story to end!

In LOOKING FOR ME, Teddi Overman is an artist – a furniture restorer – who owns her own shop in Charleston, S.C. Teddi comes from a humble family in Kentucky, and in flashback we are told her back story. Years ago her beloved and sensitive brother, Josh, has left and not returned. The family comes to believe that he is now dead, perhaps dying in an accident in the woods or from exposure. Teddi has some ghosts from her past to deal with, along with her incomplete grieving of her loss of Josh. Then events occur which suggest that maybe Josh is still alive. Teddi must return home and face the past – and the present.

Once again, I loved Ms. Hoffman’s characters and her story-telling! These people stayed with me so much, I actually dreamed about them one night. 🙂 This story’s sense of hope and strength left me feeling positive. I highly recommend it -especially as a summer read!

Thanks, Net Galley and Pamela Dorman Books, for my copy – it made my day!

Review: “The Forgotten Garden” by Kate Morton

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I’ve been on a Kate Morton kick lately, started by “The Secret Keeper”. I also loved “The House at Riverton”, but had some problems getting through “The Distant Hours” (I found it too gothic and too much like “The House at Riverton”). Friends had suggested “The Forgotten Garden”, but it was always out at the library. I finally broke down and purchased it for my kindle. I think this may be my favorite of her books.

Similar to her other books, “The Forgotten Garden” moves back and forth in time as we learn the story of Nell, a little girl found on the Brisbane docks by a dock worker and taken home as raised as one of his own. Nell is much beloved by her family, but her father feels he must tell her the truth on her twenty-first birthday: she is not their biological child and she most probably has family in England. Nell is crushed by this news and becomes determined to figure out where she is from and how she ended up on a ship going to Australia. She has vague memories of being taken there as part of a game by “the authoress”, and waiting for her or her mother or father to return for her, but no one did. She also has distant memories of playing in a garden maze and going through to a little cottage where “the authoress” lived.  Nell starts to piece together the story of her life, and travels to England to see where she is from and to see what she can learn. However, she unexpectantly “inherits” her granddaughter, and her plans are put on hold. Eventually, time passes and Nell does not return to England; her granddaughter, Cassandra, grows up, and Nell decides, as she is dying, to tell Cassandra her secret so that she can figure out the rest of the story. Cassandra then travels to England to figure out the mystery of who her grandmother really was.

I loved reading this story, which switched viewpoint and time period often. At points we were with Nell in the 70’s. Some times we were in present day. Some times it was a young girl, Eliza’s, story from the turn of the century – or Eliza’s story when she was living at the manor in 1910. As the book progressed,though, the viewpoints and storylines converged into one, and at the end, all the questions were answered. Of course a forgotten garden plays a large role here – complete with all that symbolizes!

Highly recommended!

Review: A Trilogy of Stories by Karen Kingsbury

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A while back I received the “Kingsbury Collection” to review through “Blogging for Books” and Waterbrook Multnomah, a Christian publisher. This 700+ page collection has three complete books in it: Where Yesterday Lives, When Joy Came to Stay, and On Every Side.

In Where Yesterday Lives, young professional Ellen Barrett returns home after her father’s sudden death from a heart attack. Ellen’s family (five siblings) has grown apart over the years. Outwardly they are polite and civil, but emotionally they are torn asunder by old rivals and jealousies, along with some painful memories and bitterness. Ellen’s marriage is currently on rocky soil and she returns to her hometown alone to face her family and a barrage of memories, including memories of her younger years with boyfriend Jake Sadler. It isn’t long before a very sad and lonely Ellen is reconnecting with the man she used to love, while trying to deal with her dysfunctional family and distant husband.

I have to say, this is the first of Kingsbury’s works that I’ve read. I was drawn right into this story for various reasons, and was struck by how well Kingsbury captures the agony and inner turmoil that occurs when a parent dies suddenly. The build-up to Ellen contacting her old boyfriend had me wanting to yell: “Danger, Will Robinson!!” at her. At the essence of this story, however, is a message of forgiveness and hope and a reminder of the power of prayer and of faith. I really enjoyed it!

In When Joy Came to Stay reporter Maggie Stovall is on the verge of a breakdown. She has spent years trying to forget and move on from some difficult and painful decisions that she made when younger. However, Maggie’s choice to not be truthful to her husband, or even to herself, about her past leads her to a collapse and time recuperating in a psychiatric hospital. Meanwhile, her husband is left to figure out what happened and why and begins to realize that his “perfect” wife may not be the same woman he thinks he knows. Again, a strong message here of forgiveness and self-forgiveness (which is often the toughest to achieve!), with a focus on the importance and power of faith. Just a note – this story had the feel of a Mary Higgins Clark suspense novel at times!

The final story, On Every Side, Jordan Riley is an attorney working to take down a statue of Jesus in a public park (as a violation of the separation of church and state), while new reporter and child advocate Faith Evans (aptly named!) is working to somehow keep the statue up. Jordan has lost his faith due to hardships he suffered as a child, and the statue just happens to be located in his boyhood hometown. Who will win the battle? Kingsbury based this story, in part, on a similar true legal case involving a religious statue in a park.

As I said earlier, this was my first experience reading Ms. Kingsbury’s books and I did enjoy them. Her work has strong Christian themes and her characters (some of them at least) are often struggling to reconnect with their faith. I like how “real” they seem, though, and the problems faced are often the ones we encounter in day-to-day life.

thanks, Blogging for Books, for my review copy!

Quick Review: “The Midwife’s Revolt” by Jodi Daynard

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“The Midwife’s Revolt” was a Net Galley find for me. It tells the story of Lizzie Boylston, a young woman left widowed at the start of the Revolutionary War, as she struggles to get by, to deal with the war and her farm, and to basically survive in 1770’s Massachusetts. Lizzie is friends with Abigail Adams and holds their relationship quite dear. In time she is pulled into intrigue and acts as a spy (dressed as a boy). Lizzie is a strong character, and this book follows her daily life (she is a midwife), her trials and tribulations, her relationships with her family and friends, and even has a little romance, intrigue and mystery added in. I felt while reading it that I was reading a fictionalized account of a person’s diary for that time period. Daynard has done her research here in accurately depicting a detailed picture of everyday life in the 1770’s in New England. At 440 pages it took a bit to get through, but I felt I was travelling along with Lizzie through the war, and read a bit each day.

A great historical novel for those who like this period and genre!

Thanks, Net Galley and Opossum Press for my copy.


Quick Review: “Mr. Churchill’s Secretary” by Susan Elia MacNeal

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A few months ago I read “Princess Elizabeth’s Spy” by Susan Elia MacNeal (see my review here: https://drbethnolan.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/quick-review-princess-elizabeths-spy-by-susan-elia-mcneal/ . I really enjoyed this period cozy mystery about Maggie Hope, a code breaker and typist to Churchill during WWII. I decided to go back and read the first book in this series: “Mr. Churchill’s Secretary”. I purchased the book from Amazon for my enjoyment (technically my husband purchased it for me because I ordered through his account while he was in Europe on business – lol).

This book introduces Maggie Hope, a British-born but American-raised twenty-something, living in London and working as a typist during WWII. Maggie has a host of friends, both male and female, all with their own subplots/developments. Her parents are deceased for many years and she has been raised by her aunt in Boston. Maggie is a math whiz, and she yearns to be a code breaker. Instead she is a typist. The more Maggie works, though, the more she uncovers. Is there a spy amongst them? What really happened to her father? And is there a coded German message right in front of their faces?

I really enjoyed this first story of the series! MacNeal is a strong writer and I enjoyed how much I learned from reading this novel. This is a cozy mystery in that it is not overly violent or graphic; however, there is a wealth of (what I presume is well-researched!) information about London during WWII, espionage, and life in the 1940’s.

I look forward to more Maggie Hope mysteries from Ms. MacNeal.


2012 is not over yet! Review of “The Secret Keeper” by Kate Morton

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Several weeks ago I was ordering everyone books from Amazon for Christmas and I saw this title under recommendations. It looked so intriguing that I bought it for myself for Christmas! “The Secret Keeper” starts with British teenager Laurel hiding from her younger sisters in her treehouse, when a stranger comes to their home and she witnesses her mother stab the man to death. The police rule that the homicide was self-defense, and the man is thought to be a local criminal, and so Laurel moves on and seems to forget that day.

Fifty years later, Laurel’s mother, Dorothy, is turning eighty, and close to death. She begins to tell Laurel that she has some regrets and that all is not as it seems. However, Dorothy is losing her faculties as well, and Laurel can’t get the whole story from her, so she seeks to solve the mystery herself. Just who was the man her mother killed that day, and why did he seem to know her mother? Added to these questions are some items Laurel finds hidden away: a book with an inscription, a thank you note, a picture of her mother and her friend Vivien, a small doll and an old fur coat. Will she figure out the past before Dorothy passes on?

This story is told in various voices: Laurel as a teen, Laurel in the present, Dorothy as a young girl, Dorothy as a young adult, Vivien as a child, Vivien as a young adult, etc. We move from the present to the fifties in England, to London during the Blitz, to Australia pre-WWII. I loved this style and the way the story unfolded slowly and step by step. I did not guess the ending, but once it was revealed I saw that all the clues were right before me the whole time. I really enjoyed Morton’s writing style and will look for other books by her.

Recommended for those lovers of historical fiction – WWII era – with a dash of mystery and romance thrown in. Definitely one of my fave reads of the year!

Review: “Cascade” by Maryanne O’Hara

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I heard great things about this novel, so I knew I needed to read it. Then I saw that the author will be speaking at the Concord Bookstore next week, so I knew I had to buy it since the wait list at the library was soooo long. I read it last week and just loved this compelling and thought-provoking novel!

“Cascade” is the story of Desdemona Hart Spaulding, an artist in the 1930’s, who has married for comfort, not love, and who feels too confined in her hometown of Cascade, Massachusetts. Dez’ father has owned and ran the town’s Shakespearean theater, but he passes away at the start of the novel, leaving the theater to Dez’ husband, Asa, the town’s well-respected pharmacist. As the story starts, Dez has befriended a local travelling salesman, the Jewish artist Jacob Solomon. Dez dreams of leaving Massachusetts with Jacob and going to New York to draw and be free. Her husband, of course, has other ideas. Behind this storyline is the back story of the town itself: Cascade is being considered for demolition so that the state can create a water reservoir for the people of Boston. The townspeople, led in part by Asa, are trying to save their town, and Dez uses her art as a way to help the cause. Will the town be spared? Will Dez’s feelings for Jacob lead to actions she may regret? Will she stay forever at home with Asa or become the artist she feels she is capable of being?

I just loved reading this book. It is beautifully written with a well-paced, well-plotted story. The symbolism of the river and the damming of the river tying in to emotions and the release of emotions and feelings really spoke to me. While I loved this story, I didn’t love Dez. I thought she was extremely self-centered and self-serving. However, Dez’s actions, as well as Jacob’s, seemed fairly true to life to me. Sometimes the people you hold most dear disappoint you.

I loved, loved, loved it —

I also loved the cover!!

And this is a great You Tube book trailer:

Review: “Wildflowers from Winter” by Katie Ganshert

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Through Blogging for Books, I received a free download of “Wildflowers from Winter” to review.
In “Wildflowers from Winter”, Bethany Quinn returns to her home (which she vowed to leave behind forever) when her childhood friend’s husband dies. Bethany is uncomfortable with her mother, her friend, and her town. She hasn’t spoken to her friend in years. She relishes the time she spends with her grandfather, who owns a farm where she spent many happy childhood hours.

Evan Price is her grandfather’s farmhand, and her friend’s brother-in-law. Bethany and Evan clash from the start. Bethany is a high-powered city architect who is tough and seemingly careless. Evan is a hard-working farmer and a Christian. He’s somewhat disgusted by Bethany self-centeredness. Bethany is derisive of his faith. When a further tragedy and then a work crisis strike, Bethany is drawn to stay at home and begins to rebuild and rethink her life’s decisions.

I really enjoyed reading this book! At first I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a good fit for me as I thought I might find it predictable. I liked the story and character development. It was well-written. I also found the discussions of faith realistic.

Thank you, WaterBrook Press, for my copy!

You can visit Katie Ganshert’s website:

www.katieganshert.com