Category Archives: Fiction/Literature

Holly Jacobs is an author whose books never fail to touch me. One of her recent ones “Carry Her Heart” had a profound effect upon me and I still think about it every few days. In “These Three Words”, Ms. Jacobs once again writes about a subject that evokes a strong response. In this book, she discusses how a couple can fall in love, get married, seemingly have everything working well for the future, and then, fall apart at the seams.

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“Bittersweet Creek” is a modern take on a mash up of “Romeo and Juliet” and the story of the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. It is a funny story which is told in first person but which alternates points of view between the two main characters. At times, the switching back and forth became a little confusing (because it happened fairly often) but on the whole, it was a good way to tell the story.

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“Too Many Cooks” by Dana Bate is a very funny book with some questionable moral decisions by the heroine of the story. Kelly Madigan is a ghost-writer for cookbooks. While she has had a troubled relationship with her mother, when her mother passes away, she is left in an emotional turmoil.

She ends up leaving her long term relationship boyfriend and moving to England without giving a whole lot of thought to her future. She justifies this because her mother’s parting thoughts for her were that she live a little more on the edge. The thing about living on the edge is that sometimes you can fall off and get hurt. Kelly learns about this the hard way when she gets involved in a relationship that is fraught when problems.

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This is a lovely book of fictional literature. While there is a romance in it (especially towards the end), the real story is about how a woman learns to reinvent herself after a mid-life crises.

Katherine finds herself unexpectedly single after her husband of many years leaves her for another, younger woman. That the woman is expecting their child makes it all the more painful for Katherine as she was unable to conceive and has now gone through menopause.

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“The Good Goodbye” is the first novel I have read by Carla Buckley. I wasn’t sure is it was a mystery/thriller or fiction/literature. It turns out to be certainly more of the latter than the former. It was almost more about teenagers than it was about adults as the focus of the story was on two younger cousins who were, as they say, “coming of age” during the story.

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This is the first book I have read by Tess Gerritsen. I have never seen the television show which is based on her long series of books about Rizzoli and Isles, so I had no idea what to expect in this book. I originally thought it was a mystery thriller but in reading the book, I would classify it as fiction/literature.

The story is told in two parts, one which is set in the near past in the United States and then Italy and one that is set in Italy in the time preceding and then part way through World War II.

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I’ve read the books in this series over the last few years. What has drawn me to them are that I love mysteries and I have enjoyed the World War II component. I enjoy many books and television series that revolve around this time (my favorite is Foyle’s War and the new series Home Fires.) Unfortunate, in this book, Ms. MacNeal has focused more on racial prejudices of the United States during the period than on the mystery or war efforts. While it was still a good read, it was not what I expected from a Maggie Hope Mystery.

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This is the second book I have read by Diane Chamberlain, the first being “The Silent Sister”. I have been thoroughly engrossed by Ms. Chamberlain’s writing – she makes me think about things in a new a different way. Her stories are not feel-good books but instead, they are books that make you feel emotions.

In “Pretending to Dance”, we are introduced to Molly Arnette, a lawyer in San Diego who is on the verge of adopting a child as she and her husband are unable to have one of their own. As the story progresses, we discover that Molly has not told her husband about her past, including the fact that she was part of an unusual open adoption. It appears that she has not told him much and that some of what she has told him are lies.

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I have read and enjoy Karin Gillespie’s previous books in the Bottom Dollar series, so I was looking forward to reading her newest stand-alone book, “Girl Meets Class”. While Ms. Gillespie’s knack for bring humor to any situation is evident throughout, I found the book to be rather predictable in its plot.

The story is about the poor little rich girl, Toni Lee Wells, who is falling further and further into trouble of her own making. While she is not lacking for money, she does seem to lack for purpose and for close relationships with her family. She goes a step too far and gets cut off cold turkey by her family.

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What a funny and enjoyable debut book by Ms. Avanzino. “Wake-Up Call” is a humorous look at the effects of motherhood and life in the suburbs.

Our heroine, Sarah Winslow wakes up one morning to a life that she doesn’t recognize. The last she remembers, she was a high powered marketing rep with an eye on climbing the corporate ladder to wealth, fame, and success. She had the lifestyle that went along with it – long days of work and longs nights of party time. She was in the top of her physical condition and was looking forward to more of the same in the future.

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