The Lonely Fajita

Finished April 10

The Lonely Fajita by Abigail Mann

This novel came to my attention through one of my students, who included it in a booklist assignment. The plot sounded interesting, and I definitely enjoyed it. 

The main character is Elissa, a woman in her twenties who has an internship at a online dating company that only pays her expenses. She lives with her boyfriend Tom in an apartment shared with two other tenants, one of whom is relatively new and the landlord's daughter, Shamaya. 

Elissa and Tom's relationship has cooled lately and Shamaya is saying the occupancy doesn't allow couples.

When Elissa sees and advertisement for ElderCare Companionship, a program where a young person gets a room in the home of a senior in return for support and companionship, in a bid to cut down on isolation. Elissa applies on a whim, although she is hoping for Tom to move to a new apartment with her. 

When Elissa gets matched with an eighty-three year-old widow named Annie, she has second thoughts, but without many options, she agrees to a meeting to confirm.

And so Elissa moves in with Annie, and things get very interesting. 

Elissa is an interesting character, with less confidence than she should have, and some good friends who want her to reach her potential, Maggie and Suki. I enjoyed seeing her grow during the course of the novel. Maggie is a primary teacher, married with no children. Suki works in the same cooperative technology building as Elissa, and is a big support for work issues, and has an active lesbian love life. 

Annie is a woman who has her own regrets and secrets, and who both learns from Elissa and teaches her things. 

I love these character-driven books with friend relationships between women of different generations and this one was no exception. A great read, with some surprises along the way. 

The Lost Love Song

Finished February 13

The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke

This book has a lot going on, with a couple of main characters, and several minor characters that move the plot along. Most of the book takes place in Australia, but there are important elements in England, Canada, and the United States. The book opens in Melbourne with the beginning of a relationship. Diana, a young but already famous concert pianist initiates a relationship with a tech nerd Arie. The plot quickly jumps ahead several years, where these two have a spark that has lasted and they've bought a home together and Arie has a successful web design company with his best friend Richard. Diana is about to leave on another worldwide tour, and Aria tries to pin Diana down on setting a date to marry. They've been engaged for years, but something always seems to keep them from making that final commitment. Diana expresses herself through music and she starts a new song to try to find her own answer to this question. After a performance in Singapore, she sits down in her hotel and continues her exploration. The next morning she gets on a flight to France, one that never arrives.

Arie is heartbroken, as is Diana's mother. And so many other people that lose someone in this tragedy. But someone else in the hotel heard that song Diana was working on, and the song has its own storyline now, moving around the world from one musician to another. It brings other relationships to new levels, and is a positive influence everywhere it spreads. 

Meanwhile in England, Australian Evie is on a multiyear trip away, trying different things, exploring different places, and mostly working to pay for rent and food. She also writes poems, but has never tried to publish them until she is inspired by a contest. She takes her poetry notebooks along with her, and they are beginning to be a major part of her luggage. When she finally makes the decision to return home to Australia, she makes her first task to reclaim her car, stuffed with all her worldly possessions and reevaluate what is important among them before choosing her next adventure. She's tired of the life she's been living overseas and longs for a more meaningful life with someone by her side that truly cares for her. 

This is a romance, but it is also a bigger novel than that. It is definitely a feel good book despite its early tragedy. I was easily caught up in the characters' lives, caring about what happened to each of them. 

Written in the Stars

Finished March 12
Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

This romance novel takes place in Seattle and is a delightful rom-com of a read. Darcy Lowell is an entrepreneur and astrologist on the verge of a big business deal, with her and her business partner Margot signing a deal with a popular matchmaking firm. The principal at the matchmaking firm that they've been working with on the deal has set Darcy up with his sister Elle, who's recently come out of a painful break-up and moved to Seattle only after that.
But things don't go well on that first date, which is per usual lately for Darcy. Darcy is feeling down, not just because of her non-existent love life, but also because her family doesn't see her unconventional career choice as a serious venture, despite her success.
Elle is also not feeling great about her life. She's tired of her brother trying to set her up, and doesn't have the energy to keep going on bad dates. When she tells a lie about the date to buy some time from her brother, she ends up making a deal with Darcy that might help them both. If it doesn't hurt them.
Both women have been burnt in relationships and are a bit wary of getting hurt again. Both have families that have some issues.
There's some intriguing things happening her, and I had trouble putting this book down. A fun and engrossing read.

Death and Other Happy Endings

Finished July 12
Death and Other Happy Endings by Melanie Cantor

Set in London, this book opens with Jennifer Cole in her doctor's office getting her results from her recent blood tests, as she hopes for help finding a cause for her low energy. She is completely unprepared for the result that she has a rare and incurable blood disorder and has only a few short months to live. Jennifer is in her early forties, divorced after her husband cheated on her when she was in depression after her third miscarriage. She lives alone and isn't currently in a relationship. After commiserating with her best friend, Jennifer is talked into writing letters to the people she has been hurt by, getting out those feelings that she's always hidden behind her niceness.
One letter is to her ex-husband and his wife (the woman that he cheated on her with). Another is to a more recent boyfriend, who also cheated on her. The third is to her older sister, a woman who she has grown increasingly distant from but used to idolize.
Jennifer decreases her hours at work, wanting the distraction that work brings, but not able to keep working full-time, and takes time to reflect on her life. She finds herself reconnecting with people, doing things that are more spontaneous, and being more open to new experiences.
The book has humour, interesting situations, and a few surprises.
An enjoyable read.

Waiting for Tom Hanks

Finished June 16
Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey

This is a novel romcom. The main character Annie Cassidy has dreams of being her generation's Nora Ephron. She is working on a screenplay, and doing freelance writing to make a living. Annie's dad died when she was just a baby, and her mother was a big rom-com fan, telling wonderful stories of Annie's dad and their special romance. Annie's mom died while she was in high school, and she responded by throwing herself in schoolwork and extra-curricular activities, becoming valedictorian and then graduating college summa cum laude in film studies. When her mom died, her uncle Don moved into the house, to provide stability, companionship, and a parental figure. Her uncle Don is a bit of a nerd with a social life mostly consisting of a Dungeons and Dragons group and the occasional comic-con outing.
Annie believes that someday her personal rom-com will happen with a Tom Hanks-like figure, some initial confusion and a great love. So she's been waiting for that to happen. Her best friend Chloe works in the coffee shop that Annie does a lot of her writing in, an independent shop owned by a young man, Nick Velez. Chloe is taking some business school courses, gradually earning a degree, but also paying for her dad's memory-care facility. The two women spend a lot of time together. Chloe is constantly trying to get Annie to go on dates, occasionally setting her up, to no success. As the book begins, the two hear about the upcoming filming of a rom-com in their very own neighbourhood.
Through a series of connections, Annie manages to get a job on set, and meet some people in the industry she longs to be part of. As she begins her employment with a meet-cute with the film's male star, spilling coffee on him, she is off to a good start, but keeps getting in her own way.
This is a fun, light read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of humour and interesting characters.

Sophie's Throughway

Finished May 2
Sophie's Throughway by Jules Smith

This short novel was fun and insightful. Sophie is a writer for an unnamed magazine, and struggling with her personal life. She has two teenagers, Bryony, who is 14, and Brendon, who is 15.  Brendon has been recently diagnosed with Asperger's and PDA. I hadn't heard of PDA before, and learned it stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance, and is often associated with Asperger's. Brendon is very bright, but is having behavioural issues, which is particularly a problem at school. At home, it has created enough issus that Karl, Sophie's husband has left the family.
Sophie has been missing work to deal with Brendon's issues, and while she has an understanding boss, and makes up her work from home as much as she can, she worries about how this affects the other staff members.
The novel has a chicklit feel to it, with the social nature of Sophie's job, and her open communication with her children, but also more substance with the insight into having a child affected by these conditions. Sophie's got a good approach to it, and is better able to handle Brendon when he is in the midst of an inappropriate episode than Karl, but she's not a saint and that makes the book feel more real.

Nine Women, One Dress

Finished April 10
Nine Women, One Dress by Jane L. Rosen

This lighthearted novel follows a designer dress through nine different women, each of them wearing it for a period of time, and each of them having their life influenced by that wearing.
The dress is the last dress made by Morris Siegel, a 90-year-old NYC garment district pattern maker, and one he knew was special as he was making it. He hopes that it will bring him one thing he has never yet achieved, the experience of creating the dress of the season. And it does.
The first woman to wear the dress is a model. She is new to the modelling business, and to New York. She is from Alabama, afraid to open her mouth to reveal her origins. She's pretty sure she doesn't want to be the model to be photographed wearing the dress of the season, but she is.
We learn Morris' story of how he came to be where and what he is, and as we get to know each dress wearer and the people around them, we learn their stories, the public ones and the private ones.
From a Bloomingdale's saleswoman to a movie actor to an executive assistant to a fine arts grad looking for work, these people all have a story.
The book is fast-moving, with a lot of characters, with many of the stories touching each other beyond the dress. It is funny, romantic, and a definite feel-good read.
I loved it and read it in one sitting, enjoying the experience thoroughly. Now if only I could get my hands on this dress, maybe it would change my life for the better too.

The Extraordinary Life of Lara Craft (not Croft)

Finished March 20
The Extraordinary Life of Lara Craft (not Croft) by Lola Salt

This send-up of chicklit is written by the duo Becky Wicks and Sarah Alderson under the pen name Lola Salt.
Lara, an attractive 24-year-old British woman, has recently been dumped by her boyfriend Carlos, a performer in the Cirque de Feteesh-Folie, Dumped for a contortionist. And then she is fired from her job with the circus.
Lara lives in a room in the apartment of her best friend Lucy. She hasn't got any money saved up, and is worried about the upcoming rent payment.
She has a date set up with a childhood friend Jamie that she hasn't seen in years. Her mother has told her that he does something in IT. She envisions him as a geek, but is pleasantly surprised when she meets him that evening. Unfortunately she both drinks too much and has a bad reaction to the food, which makes her evening memorable in an unpleasant way. Jamie does however refer her to a guy who runs a concierge company for a job.
The concierge job leads Lara to a wide variety of places around the world, from a California amateur filmmaker to an Australian cowboy to a Dubai prince, she meets a number of interesting people, makes a new friend or two, and finds that what she really wants isn't what she thought.
The writers made a couple of youtube videos of characters in the novel. One from California is shown here  and one from Bali here.
Humorous and surprising, this novel is a light-hearted read that will keep you amused throughout.

Spring Fever

Finished August 15
Spring Fever by Mary Kay Andrews, read by Katherine McInerney

This enjoyable romance is set in the small town of Passcoe, North Carolina, the home of the Quixie Cherry Soda company. Mason, the eldest son of the family who owns the company, the Bayless' family, is getting remarried to Celia, an attractive and ambitious young woman who was brought in as a consultant to help turn the company around in a tight economic environment. Mason's first wife Annajane is in attendance at the big do, mostly to please Mason's young daughter Sophie, who is flower girl.
Annajane works in marketing at Quixie, but will be leaving both the company and the town soon for a new job at the ad agency that Quixie has been a longstanding client of. Her best friend is Pokey (Pauline) Bayliss, Mason's sister. As she and Pokey watch Sophie slowly make her way up the aisle, followed shortly thereafter by a resplendent Celia, Annajane catches Mason's eyes and reads his body language, realizing that he is feeling trapped. As she begins to think that this may mean she has a second chance, Sophie collapses in pain, and the wedding comes to a halt.
In the ensuing action, as Sophie's sickness increases and Annajane urges for an ambulance, Celia is pushed to the background of the action, and Annajane finds herself alone with Mason for the first time in a long time, and they begin to talk in earnest.
As the following week unfolds, actions by Annajane and Mason in response to actions by Celia and Mason's brother Davis, result in a three steps forward, two steps back movement in their unfolding relationship.
There are good characters here, and Celia is a delightful character to hate while Annajane is easy to love. Twists and turns that keep the plot unfolding in interesting ways.
A thoroughly enjoyable example of chicklit.

The Next Best Thing

Finished August 10
The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner, read by Olivia Thirlby

This novel has been on beach read lists this summer, and I would say that would be appropriate. It's a novel with twists and turns and a feel-good ending. It has romance, career development, and emotional development. The main character, Ruth Saunders, was injured in a car accident as a young child, an accident in which her parents were killed. The accident left her with damage on her face and neck and she underwent several surgeries as a child. Since the accident, she has been cared for by her grandmother Rachel, a feisty woman with a great sense of fashion.
Ruth has always dreamed of writing for television and a couple years back decided to move to LA to give it a shot. Her grandmother, naturally, moved as well, and the two of them have been making a life for themselves. Ruth has had some TV writing jobs, and is now writing her first series. When her series gets picked up by a network, she becomes a show-runner. We see Ruth struggle with confidence, assertion, and control as she works on the series. We see the complexity of this type of work and learn some of the jargon. We see her love life develop along with her personal confidence and feel for her missteps.
To me the emphasis on her overcoming her physical disfigurement was interesting, but I am not sure that I liked how physical beauty and strength were portrayed here. Maybe I am reading too much into things though. As a light entertaining romance, it is great.

The Time of My Life

Finished May 13
The Time of My Life by Cecelia Ahern, read by Amy Creighton

This novel has a storyline that startled me and then captured me. Lucy Silchester lives in a studio apartment with her cat, goes to work translating instructions for appliances, and avoids questions about her life. But she's been receiving invitations that she finds she can't keep ignoring. The invitations invite her to book a meeting, a meeting with her life. Not only has she been avoiding other people's questions about her life, she's been avoiding dealing with her life herself.
Lucy split with her live-in boyfriend nearly three years ago, and still hasn't completely dealt with it. She is operating in automatic, making no plans for the future, just going to work and coming home and hiding from her life. But her life won't let her hide anymore. When she meets with her life, she finds it unsatisfying and tries to avoid facing up to the truth, but her life won't let her.
She finds herself spending a great deal of time with her life, facing up to the truths that she has been avoiding and a few that spin her life into new directions, and getting to know herself again.
This is a book that will have you looking at your own life, and asking yourself what you've been avoiding. It doesn't package everything up with happy endings, but it does offer hope and that dealing with reality is a lot better than not dealing with it, because your life is still there, even if you're ignoring it.

Midnight in Austenland

Finished April 4
Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale
Loved this followup to Austenland. A fun read with a strong female main character, and a bit of romance.
Charlotte is recently divorced and struggling with how to move her life forward. After an argument with her 13-year-old daughter, she digs out a list she made when she was that age about life goals. One of the easy ones still unachieved on the list is to read Jane Austen, so she does and she loves the world created within Austen's books. Wanting a holiday for herself when her ex has the two kids, she finds out about Austenland and decides that is is perfect.
Once there, Charlotte tries to immerse herself in the world, to escape her issues in real life. But her propensity for problem-solving comes to the fore and she finds herself involved is solving a crime and discovering the perpetrators.
Charlotte is a successful woman, with a growing business, two loving children, and an ex-husband who most definitely did not deserve her. She has no problem with confidence in her work life, but finds herself second-guessing her personal life all the time. It takes this situation, and a few helpful friends, to help her gain the confidence she should have personally as well.
Thoroughly enjoyable.

I Think I Love You

Finished February 12
I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson
This is totally a feel-good novel and I could hardly put it down. In 1973-74 two young girls in Wales, Petra and Sharon, are part of a group of girls completely obsessed with David Cassidy. They collect posters, pictures, facts, and share them obsessively. Petra does most of this at Sharon's house as Petra's mother definitely thinks this music and behaviour are common and not to be exhibited by Petra. She has Petra practicing the cello, aiming for a classical career. So Petra lives two lives, the ladylike one her mother expects and the secret life of teenage passion with Sharon. This goes on until the two girls attend a David Cassidy concert, one of his last, and Petra is outed to her mother.
Flash forward 24 years, and Petra discovers something that triggers a memory of that younger self. With a marriage on the rocks, and uncertainty of her own desirability, she jumps at the chance to finally meet David Cassidy. But will he be a disappointment to her fantasy?
We also follow Bill, who in the 70s was a young journalist working for the Essential David Cassidy Magazine, where he makes a living writing letters to fans from David and making up articles and other bits and pieces to fill the pages. 24 years later, he is still working in the magazine world and he too finds himself drawn to meeting David with Petra and Sharon.
This book took me back to my own childhood crushes. I watched the Partridge Family on TV, and had (have!) some of their record albums. I even had a Partridge Family board game, although I'm not sure where that ended up. Mom, if you are reading this, is it still there? I was smitten more with Shaun Cassidy myself, but definitely understand the whole scenario quite well. I loved the book and the places it took me.
I have to wonder if the young girls of today miss some of this with the easy deluge of information on the Internet.

Chinese Adoptions

Finished June 23
The Red Thread by Ann Hood
Maya has been getting over a tragedy in her life for some time. One thing she has done towards this is open an adoption agency to help people adopt babies from China. This book takes place a few years after her agency started up and is focused on a group of couples who came to the same orientation and are due to adopt their babies at the same time. We get to know the various couples and see the situations in their lives that brought them to the point of adoption. The dynamics between each couple are interesting and the situations are varied. As expected, it is mostly the women driving the process, but the men react in interesting and varied ways.
We also gradually see into Maya's past and watch as she finally comes to terms with it herself.
An interesting book, and an engaging story.

Feel-good audiobook

Finished December 14
Thanks for the Memories by Cecelia Ahern, read by Caroline Lennon
Finished this audiobook on the way home from work. It's a light romantic comedy of a book, leaving you with a happy aftertaste.
Joyce Conway of Dublin has had an accident leaving her in the hospital for a few days, and now she finds she has memories that seem to be from someone else. She also has knowledge and skills she never had before. She puzzles over these strange occurrences and begins to get back to her changed life. She moves in with her elderly father temporarily, and looks to her friends for help in detecting the cause for the changes in her life.
Justin Hitchcock is still restless and unhappy from the changes in his life. He has moved to London from the U.S. to be closer to his daughter at ballet school, and still hasn't come to terms with his divorce. He is doing a series of lectures at Trinity College in Dublin, traveling back and forth from London. Justin's younger brother Al and his wife Doris are visiting and they and his daughter help him figure out his recent obsession with a woman he met briefly in London, and the feelings he has around his first blood donation.
This is a fun and lively book, plotted around a very interesting premise. I enjoyed it.

Feel Good Novel

Finished November 22
The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes
Well Marian Keyes and has done it again and even better than before. Instead of her usual focus on one woman and her life, this book looks at the inhabitants of four apartments in a low-rise building in Dublin. We see how their lives intertwine, what issues each character is going through and how they deal with those issues.
As usual we do not have complete knowledge of any given character, but enought to get a feel for what is happening, what has happened and what may be on the horizon for them. We get glimpses into their thought processes and what motivates them.
Keyes is an expert in the human situation and with this novel she has so many interesting situtations and characters to show us that expertise that we barely even notice how long it is as we are caught up in the plot so thoroughly.
I read most of this book in a single day, and felt a sense of loss when I finished it. I want to see what else happens to these people and their friends. In many cases, I want to befriend these people and become a part of the story.
Marian Keyes never disappoints and this novel, while a bit different in scope, will keep you reading.

Chick Lit

Finished July 20
Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes, performed by Terry Donnelly
The reading of this novel was especially good and I think it really made the book come alive for me. Anna Walsh has a great job as a PR rep for a hot cosmetics company in New York City. She meets a wonderful man and has a whirlwind romance before they marry.
But the book doesn't begin there, it begins with Anna waking up in her parent's home in Ireland, with some bad injuries. She is on heavy duty painkillers and her story is revealed to us as she comes to terms with it herself.
Anna has a dislocated knee, facial lacerations, and badly injured hands (including missing fingernails). As Anne deals with her family's compassion and protection, she continues to call her husband Aidan and can't figure out why he isn't answering her or returning her calls or emails.
Anna determinedly returns to New York and to her job, and begins to search for her husband. Her search takes her to interesting places and into interesting situations and she meets people that will become longterm friends.
Meanwhile her family's lives and her friend's lives continue and she gets caught up in their situations as well.
Highly entertaining and touching, this is a great summer read.

Fiction Audiobook

Finished April 30
The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood, Read by Hillary Huber
Mary Baxter is reeling from the recent death of her only child, Stella, of meningitis, at the age of five. She hasn't been going to work, or seeing friends or doing much of anything. Her mother, now living in Mexico, urges her to begin to knit to help with recovery. Mary joins a knitting circle in nearby Providence, Rhode Island, and as she learns knitting skills, she begins to connect with the people around her.
The book flows well, but I found that having everyone in the knitting circle recovering or dealing with some sort of trauma to be a bit much. Doesn't anyone who hasn't had to deal with this join the knitting circle? It was one sad story after another and after a while I became inured to them. Another thing that bothered me was Mary's work circumstances. She didn't go to work for a considerable time, but no one there seems to have been doing her job while she was gone, and there don't seem to be any economic repercussions for her.
The book does offer hope and recovery and the stories show a variety of circumstances.

Chick Lit

Finished June 25
Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
Thought I should read the hottest summer chick lit book, and I found it a nice catchy read. The main character, Ellen has married her best friend's brother Andy. Andy's family has money, but they are warm and welcoming as they've been from the beginning of Ellen and Margot's friendship. Ellen is enjoying her photography career and feeling good about her life.
Then she runs into her old boyfriend and he appears interested in her, and suddenly everything is different in her life. As the novel brings the two old lovers back into each others' lives, Ellen is more and more uncertain about what she wants.
Ellen is a good character and I feel that she is believable in her feelings and actions.
A great summer read.