The Holiday Honeymoon Switch

Finished November 12

The Holiday Honeymoon Switch by Julia McKay

This fun holiday romance has a lot happening, and was a page-turner for me. On the evening before her wedding, Holly Beech's fiancé Matt tells her that he won't go through with the wedding, that they aren't really 'in love' with each other, and that he's met someone else. Holly is at her best friend, Ivy Casey's apartment getting ready for the wedding, and Ivy is left consoling her and feeling that she was right in her sense that Matt wasn't the right man for Holly. 

Holly can't bear to go to the luxury Hawaiian resort that her parents paid for, and since it is nonrefundable, she suggests that her and Ivy trade vacations. Ivy, a graphic designer, has an art vacation every year, where she uses her favourite oil pastels to create landscape pictures. Ivy has compartmentalized her art and makes it special for this time only. She has booked an eco-cabin in the Hudson Valley for this year. 

Both women are in for surprises when they arrive at their destinations. Holly finds the host of her cabin, who drops by to help her figure out some of the technology involved, is her high school academic rival Aiden. Ivy finds that someone else is already in the honeymoon suite at the Kauai resort, Matt and his new girlfriend. As she tries to find a place to stay in the popular season there, the extremely attractive bartender at the resort, Oliver, comes to her rescue. As both women weigh the decision to engage in a new relationship, they also must come to terms with their own issues, of confidence and routines. 

This is a novel of friendship, of unexpected love, and of taking chances. Thoroughly enjoyable. 

Sugar Plum Poisoned

Finished November 12

Sugar Plum Poisoned by Jenn McKinlay

This was a fun read. It is the fifteenth book in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series, and the first one I've read. This one is set on the central characters' home turf of Scottsdale, Arizona. The two main characters are Angie Harper and Melanie DeLaura. The two, alone with Angie's husband Tate own Fairy Tale Cupcakes. They have franchised the business to other locations, with Tate being the one going on the road and do this side of the business. Angie and Melanie run the local shop, along with counter help staff. 

The book opens with news that a close friend that Angie made before her marriage is coming to town and wants them to do catering for her several nights. Shelby Vaughn is a singer, just starting to make it big, and she will be playing Christmas shows at a hotel in town. 

Once she shows up, it becomes apparent that something is off about her relationship with her manager. Doc. He seems very controlling, and questions begin to emerge about whether he is acting in Shelby's best interests. 

When he is found dead in Shelby's dressing room, things get more tense. There seem to be plenty of people around that have issues with Shelby, Doc, or both, and Angie and Melanie take it upon themselves to protect Shelby while getting at the truth. 

Melanie also has Christmas dinner to plan as she is hosting it this year for the first time and the size of the gathering keeps getting bigger. 

I enjoyed the mystery as well as the interesting cupcake ideas. There are quite a few recipes at the back of the book for those readers interested in trying them out. 

The Glass Maker

Finished November 11

The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier

This novel takes place over several time periods, all following one character, Orsola Rosso of Murano, Italy. Chevalier uses a very interesting device to do this: imagining that time flows differently in this area of the world. The story starts in 1486, with Orsola at nine years old, the eldest daughter in a family of glass blowers. She makes her first acquaintance with a female glassblower in another family in Murano, Maria Barovier. Women don't generally work with glass, although they play a key role in the family, and sometimes have a role in the family business as well, in the background. They also have a social position and traditions that accompany that. When Orsola is seventeen, her father, the maestro of their family glass shop, dies in a workplace accident, she is encouraged by Maria to try her hand at lampwork, a technique of making glass beads that was beginning to be practiced by women as a way to gain some independence and bring additional money into the household. 

The family is struggling, and her oldest brother, Marco, doesn't have the full training to take charge, and yet he must. Their father's assistant Paolo must serve as a teacher and mentor, guiding Marco and his brother Giacomo in their work. But Marco is impetuous and temperamental and it is the women in his life who must manage this, first his mother, and then his wife. Maria also provides helpful advice in their difficult situation. We also see the importance of the merchant for the family. He is the one who takes their work and sells it, not only locally but also internationally. He also indicates what type of product he is looking for and has the power to accept or decline new products. For the Rossos, this merchant is Gottfried Klingenberg, a German who has specialized in glass. It is around this time she also meets a man who joins the business, one who will hold her heart as the years pass by. 

The first jump in time is to 1574, but Orsola is only a year older at eighteen. As we follow her through the years, which, while they flow slower than the rest of the world, don't flow at an even rate, we see her grow in her skills and adjust to new tastes in the market. 

We also see her family change, grow and contract, and add new members from outside the initial family group. We also see major historical events, such as plagues, Napoleon's conquest of Venice, and wars. 

I alway enjoy Chevalier's writing, with strong female characters at the center, and this one brings in a new aspect with the large time frame it encompasses. This also gives us insight to cultural change, in the society in which Orsola lives, but also in the city she lives in and the larger world. The introduction of a slave to the story in a gondolier named Domenego brought in another social element, one inspired by a painting the author saw. She used real life characters in some time periods that added to the historical settings. For me, this was also an introduction into an industry I knew only a little about before. 

Paris by the Book

Finished November 8

Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan

This is a novel I really enjoyed. Leah and her family live in Milwaukee. She is the primary breadwinner and her husband Robert is a writer. He often goes away for short periods of time without notice to write. This time, he doesn't return. As Leah reports him missing and begins to search for clues to his disappearance, she finds a reservation for four plane tickets to Paris, a place they had dreamed of visiting for years. 

Once in Paris, they sightsee, planning to return before school starts again in the fall, but when they find an unfinished manuscript that Robert had been writing, and that it is set in Paris, Leah and her daughters Daphne and Ellie find a bookstore that mirrors the one in the manuscript, and buy it from the woman who owns it. They move into the building, living above the bookstore, with the owner, an older woman, living above them. 

They also begin looking after the woman's twin grandchildren, who are younger than Daphne and Ellie, and whose father travels a lot for his job. 

As the trio adjust to their new life in Paris, they also all privately keep an eye out for Robert, sure that he will appear at some point. 

There is also an interesting layer about two of the most popular French children's books, Madeline by Bemelman and The Red Balloon by Lamorisse. 

The book is told from Leah's point of view and captures her emotions well. She thinks back on how she and Robert met and ended up together, and about some of the difficulties they had in their marriage. She feels both loss of his presence and relief of him not being there. Leah had wanted to be a filmmaker, and had studied in that field, but her need to create a stable environment for her family had her giving up her dream, while Robert still pursued his. 

This is not a light novel, but it is one that is very relatable in the complexity of relationships and life dreams. 

Miss Mabel's School for Girls

Finished October 31

Miss Mabel's School for Girls by Katie Cross

This is the first book in a teen fantasy series set in another world. As the book opens, Bianca Monroe is running through Letum Wood, having just been accepted into the school. Bianca has a motive for applying to the school, one where young women hone their skills as witches. This motive is revealed relatively early in the book, but then we see how Bianca has to manage her expectations about how her initial goal would work out. She must undergo tests and trials as she tries to get out from under the curse that Miss Mabel has set on her, her mother, and her grandmother. 

I enjoyed the story, particularly the two friends that Bianca found early in her studies, Lida and Camile. Lida's skills in particular were important for Bianca. 

This is a story that grew on me. Miss Mabel is an evil character that is easy to hate, but she is also constantly surprising. The other teachers seem minor characters until the end of this first novel in the series. As Bianca's family situation was gradually revealed, it became more interesting. 

There are four main books in the series, with some that fit before or between them. 

The Life Impossible

Finished October 31

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

This is a story of life, of loss, of connection. It is about appreciating the world, and how everyone has their own story. 

The story is structured around emails by a man to his former teacher, and her response. Her response is the major portion of the novel and tells of her life, particularly when she received an inheritance from a former fellow teacher of a house in Ibiza, Spain. 

The narrator, Grace Winters is a retired math teacher. She tells of the brief friendship she had with Christina, an art teacher, particularly one Christmas that they spent together. Christina left for Spain soon after, and Grace went on to marry, have a child, and experience loss. Mathematics is both a comfort and a coping mechanism. Whenever she feels overwhelmed, she does math in her head. 

When she decides to go to Spain to see this house, she doesn't know what to expect, but it certainly isn't this ugly little house in the middle of nowhere. She finds she has also been left a car, and a list of recommended things to do. There is also a plan that she isn't aware that involves one of Christina's friends. The experience she undergoes changes her life forever. It takes her grief and loss, and her depression and takes her out of them, to see the world around her, in all its beauty and pain. Grace finds that she has been given a task, but also an opportunity, and she must open herself up to this experience as she faces her past and her pain and recognizes that others have their own stories that also resonate with her.

There is an amorphous being that is part of this story, a life presence from another place, that has power that Grace learns to draw from. This is a tale that feels both fantastical and relatable. A very interesting book that is hard to define. 

November Reviews for the 18th Canadian Reading Challenge

This is where you link up your reviews for books meeting the challenge that were read in November. 

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