Category Archives: Fiction/Literature

What a fun story of life in a small town. The story centers around Al Richardson and his wife Millie. Al is just three years shy of retirement – with his house paid for and all the time in the world to spend traveling and seeing the country. Millie, on the other hand, has a vision of the future which involves running the town’s one and only B&B. To get to this point, she has her eye on a run down (or is it a tear down?) Victorian house. When Millie looks at it, she sees the future; when Al looks at it, he sees dollars flying out of their savings. The two of them spend most of the book trying to convince the other that their plan is the best.

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“The Other Daughter” is a historical literature/romance book set in England in the 1920’s. Prior books that I have read by Lauren Willig were set in early periods of English history.

In this story, Rachel Woodley is a Englishwoman in her latter twenties who is a nursery governess for a demanding family in France. She receives (belated) word that her mother is ill with influenza and rushes home to help her – while losing her job because she left.

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“The Truth and Other Lies” was listed as a mystery/thriller/suspense book when I chose to read it. After finishing it, I would categorize it as fiction/literature. It is a book that was originally written in German and its reference point is Germany. Due to the translation, it is a little choppy in spots. I have read a number of recently written and translated books and find that this is an issue with all of them. Because of this, I don’t include that as a variable in numbering my review but I do note it for those who prefer not to read a book of this nature.

As I mentioned, the book is literature. There is no whodunnit as we know all along who did it and why. There is an attempt by the local police force to try to find the culprit, so perhaps that is why it is listed as such.

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The latest entry in the Thunder Point series by Robyn Carr, “A New Hope” is primarily the story of Ginger and Matt. Ginger was introduced in the last book as a young woman who is struggling to overcome her grief at losing her infant son to SIDS only one year before. When this story begins, Ginger has been able to find her feet and is starting to make a new life for herself. Matt is the younger brother of another resident in Thunder Point and is an agricultural scientist and a farmer. He is still in a state of anger over the ending of his short marriage. The story is how these two individuals learn to deal with their previous lives so they can learn to make a new one together.

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“A Cottage in the Country” is a lovely story about Maddie, a more mature woman, finding a way to start over again after having her life torn apart when she discovers the man she has been married to for most of her life has found a replacement for her. There’s more to the story and that is part of the story, but suffice to say that Maddie has received quite a blow and has been reeling for a time when this story begins.

It is also the story of Lewis, the local handyman, who has had his dreams dashed when Maddie moves to town but still finds a way to, rather grudgingly, give her a hand in settling down.

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I read many of Ms. Stevenson’s books when I was a child and teenager. As it turned out, I had not read this particular one, “Celia’s House” previously. As with other of her books that I have read, the author presents a charming face to the story but then goes a little deeper and gives us a look at some of the turbulence that is brewing below.

In this story, there is also the very slightest touch, really just a whisper, of the paranormal. Tiny clues that allow the reader to make what they will of what is being told. For me, in my reading of Ms. Stevenson’s books, this was a little out of the ordinary. I don’t usually read books that embrace the paranormal, but this touch was just enough for me to enjoy.

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“The Second Sister” is a touching story about a young woman who has lost her way and the road she takes in order to find home again. It is the first book I have read by Marie Bostwick though it is her tenth full length novel.

I was entranced by the author’s use of language – she is able to paint a visual scene just by use of letters on a page. I could see the town of Nilson’s Bay though I have never been to that part of the country. I could envision each of the individuals as if I had met them. The image of the town and the inhabitants will stay with me for a long time, I am sure.

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“London From My Windows” is the story of a young woman, Ava, who suffers from acute agoraphobia. It starts when, as a ten year old, her father trips and falls to the ground and dies. She feels guilty for not having saved him and pulls away and hides from the world as she lets the sadness and the fear consume her.

We fast forward almost twenty years and she has almost completely encapsulated herself from the outside world. She knows a few people, her mother, her therapist Diana, and her policeman boyfriend Cliff. She has a job as a police sketch artist but works only from her home. To the extent possible, she has pushed away the rest of the world. Going outside brings on horrific panic attacks. She is forced to the police station to do a sketch and her world melts down.

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“The Sound of Glass” is a beautifully written story about a family that has many, many secrets. The story begins in 1955 and, from the first moment, gripped me in the tangled web of the women who tell the tale.

The story quickly moves to 2014 when we meet Merritt Heyward. Merritt’s husband Cal, a firefighter, passed away two years before. Merritt inherits Cal’s grandmother’s house and moves from Maine to South Carolina both to inhabit the house and to leave behind her past life. She no sooner steps foot into the beautiful but run-down house when her past comes to meet her in a way she could never have planned.

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“The Flying Circus” is the first book I have read by Susan Crandall but I will certainly be going back and reading some of her earlier works. While the story deal with many serious issues, I came away from the book with a feel-good vibe.

The story is set in the 1920’s just prior to the beginning of the Great Depression. There is actually reference to the Florida land-grab, which some have seen as something that helped lead to the drop in the stock market.

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