The Secret Book Society

Finished July 19

The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin

This historical novel focuses on a group of women struggling for control in their own lives in 1895. A widow, Lady Duxbury, has invited select women to tea at her home. She has sent a separate note via private means letting them know that it will involve more than tea, and that they have been asked for a reason. 

Eleanor Clarke is a young woman from a titled background, whose American husband wanted her to elevate his standing in society. He is brutish and cruel, limits her time with their young son, and controls almost everything in her life. The one thing she still has some autonomy for is her clothing. He also beats her in private, leaving marks mostly hidden by her clothing. 

Rose Wharton is an American woman from a loving family and married her husband, the second son of an Earl for love. But now his elder brother, the present Earl, is ill and Rose's husband will become the Earl soon. The current Earl is, for lack of a better word, training his brother for his duties and sets expectations on Rose as well, none of which she meets. It doesn't seem to matter how hard she tried, the Earl is always disappointed and Rose feels her husband is also disappointed in her. He has begun to limit her reading material, and be critical of her. Rose has struggled to be accepted in English society, due to her being American, and longs to make friends and have a happier life. She also suspects that she might be pregnant and is worried about telling her husband. 

Lavinia Cavendish is the oldest daughter in a titled family. She is emotional and bookish, and her grandmother was sent to a madhouse. Her father has been critical of her strong emotions lately, and has limited her reading material, and also her mother's reading material. It was her mother who was invited to tea, but she feels Lavinia will benefit from the opportunity. Lavinia's younger sister is soon to be presented and her father is worried about reputation. There is the threat of sending Lavinia away, similar to how her grandmother was treated. 

As the women open themselves to each other, connect through reading books, and begin to have that external support system, they also become more confident in themselves. Lavinia, in particular, finds writing poetry lets her express her emotions safely on the page and lets her be more calm in her daily life. She also attracts a suitor who is more progressive and understanding in nature than her father. 

This was an interesting study of women's lives in high society at a certain time, and emphasizes how little control they had over their own activities. I enjoyed it, and the ending seems to open the possibility for future books. 

The Confession Club

Finished July 16

The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg

This novel is the third in a loose series set in the small town of Mason, Missouri. They have recurring characters with a focus on different characters in each book. Here, the focus is on Iris, a middle-aged woman who moved to town a few years ago. She is divorced and now teaches baking classes. As the book begins, Iris agrees to help out a friend who has taken on a complicated cake for a get-together that day. The cake takes hours to make, and Iris is pleasantly surprised when her landlord Maddy has unexpectedly returned to town with her seven-year-old daughter Nora and helps with the cake. When the two deliver it, they find a group of women wide-ranging in age who meet weekly for food and sharing confessions. The confession part started at one of their meetings and has proven to be cathartic and helpful and they take turns sharing. The women invite Iris and Maddy to join the group, making representatives from every decade from the 20s to the 70s. Maddy finds herself sharing her insecurity about her life and her urge to return to Mason from the city where she had moved for her art career. She is concerned how her husband will feel about her hard-to-describe urge to leave the city and has avoided talking about the details with him. 

Iris is also having an experience she finds unsettling, an attraction to John, a man she's met recently who has been squatting in an abandoned farmhouse outside of town. John is kind and handy, but also suffering from PTSD from Vietnam and guilt over actions in his past. He's attracted to Iris as well, but is also concerned about his own mental state.

I was really struck by this group of women, sharing details of their lives that are difficult, embarrassing, and deeply personal. They are at different stages in life, and face a variety of life circumstances. They are honest with each other, but also have senses of humour that help lighten the atmosphere when it becomes weighty. I always enjoy Elizabeth Berg as she depicts everyday human struggles so clearly. Her books always leave me thinking. 

The Creaky Old Barn

Finished July 8

The Creaky Old Barn by B.E. Baker

This is the second in the Irish Escape series that I recently started and wanted to follow the characters into their adventure. 

Natalie is just arriving in Ireland with her five children, with her plan to run the estate as a hotel coming together. She's been getting the website in order, and arranging things remotely with the previous owner and the housekeeper that she's kept on. Her new vehicle is ready and waiting and her kids, four daughters and a five-year-old son are interested in what their future entails. She moves into the largest home outside the estate house itself.

Samantha is ready to throw herself into the horse side of their business getting to know the horses they now own. When she hears that Vanessa is having second thoughts she makes a pitstop in Colorado and sees what is happening there. Her experience as a nurse practitioner, and her support as a good friend both prove helpful to Vanessa in rededicating her to the new adventure. She even gets Vanessa's oldest and troubled son on board. 

Samantha moves into the small cottage near the barn, but finds it is in worse shape than she expected, without even a working bathroom. She begins an intense renovation with a focus on getting the bathroom up and working, before her belonging arrive. She also looks for help from the previous owner's stable manager. 

Vanessa and her three kids move into the other house on the property and start to get settled, but Vanessa finds that her focus on her son's recovery and mental health may interfere with her own chance at a new relationship.

I liked the slow start that romance has here, with all three women unattached. Vanessa, as a widow, is the one most ready to move forward and that makes sense. But we see that elements of the past have followed all of the women here, and may affect how they can settle into their new homes. 

There is hope here, but also setbacks, and some miscommunication thrown in as well. Enjoyable and entertaining enough to interest me in continuing the series. 

The Crumbly Old Castle

Finished July 3

The Crumbly Old Castle by B.E. Baker

This women's fiction novel follows three women as they travel and consider their lives. The women met as children at riding school and horses are still in all their lives. Since they became adults they've taken a vacation together every year, often within the United States, but this year they have a Irish vacation planned. While they all grew up in Florida, only one of them still lives there. Vanessa married Jason, a guy she met when looking for a job when she was in college, got an accounting degree and supported Jason as he agreed to buy his brother out of the construction equipment business they would inherit from their father. When Jason died a few years ago and then Covid hit, she struggled to keep afloat, accepting help from his brother Jeremy who still works for the business. She has three children. 

Samantha married, but didn't have children. She still lives in Florida where she works as a nurse practitioner, trains horses, restores and resells properties with her husband, and is generally happy with her life. 

Natalie lives in Texas with her husband and five children. She is very involved in her children's lives, is highly organized, and works part-time managing social media for several small businesses. So it is a surprise to her when she arrives at the airport to find that she is a day early for her flight. She is embarrassed at this lapse from her usually planning, but decides to return home. She finds her husband in bed with another woman, although her presence wasn't noticed by them, and she leaves immediately. In shock, she stays at a hotel near the airport and goes on a rage-induced clothing shopping spree. 

Samantha's husband makes an unreasonable ultimatum just before she leaves and she finds herself questioning her life as it is. 

For Vanessa, the last few years have been rough, with her husband's unexpected death, keeping the company afloat, and her oldest son's injury derailing his sports goals and sending him to drug abuse. He's been in rehab three times, and she gets a call just as she's leaving that he's been caught again at school. Her husband's brother Jeremy was going to be watching the kids and the business while she's gone, and although she's worried, he assures her that he will deal with her son's drug abuse situation as well. 

Once in Ireland, it doesn't take long before they confess their situations to each other, and determine to make the most of their trip. From visiting historic sites, to engaging in new experiences from hawking to attending hurling games, and of course horseback riding, they find the support they need from each other and from new friends they make along the way. 

When Natalie and Vanessa find even more betrayal in their lives, the consider their futures and what they really want for themselves and their children. 

I really enjoyed the Irish experiences they had, and the friends they made as they travelled. I also found these characters interesting. My only criticism is that they end of the book seemed rushed, with lots of details either skimmed over or not even mentioned. I couldn't help but wonder if the book was originally intended to stop earlier in the story and the author was convinced to take the story forward within this first book in the series. I do plan to read the second book to see what happens next. 

There are hints at future romances for these women, but with their lives undergoing other unexpected disruptions, that's not a priority.

Every Time We Say Goodbye

Finished June 18

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner

This is the third book in the series The Jane Austen Society. It is set mostly in 1954-1955 with flashbacks to a related storyline in 1943. The main character is Vivien Lowry, a British playwrights. She's recently premiered her second play on the London stage, but it wasn't well received by critics. Her contacts, which include several well-known women including Peggy Guggenheim, Daphne du Maurier, and Ava Gardner, arrange a job in Italy for her, working on the script of an American director. Many of those working on the film have left the United States due to the McCarthy investigations, including her fellow writer American Jew Levi Bassano, a young man who served with a Field Photo unit in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. The lead actress in the film is American Claudia Jones, a beautiful biracial woman who passes for white. As she engages with the film community in Rome, we see other real people enter the story, including a young Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, and Gina's husband Milko Skofic. Vivien becomes friends with Claudia, who recently starred in a film as a nun and who is making some life decisions of her own. We also see the strong influence the Vatican had on the film industry at the time. 

Vivien is still coming to terms with the disappearance of her fiancé David, who had been captured by Italian forces during the war and then gone missing. She hopes to be able to gather more information while she is still in Italy. 

An Italian director is looking to do a film about a young woman known only as La Scholaretta, who was a partisan during the war and who was executed for the assassin of a Nazi SS Commander. He also has a personal connection to her story. In the 1943 portion of the plot, we see this young woman in the hours surrounding the assassination and her motivations and actions during this time.

I found it interesting to see how these two plots came together and how the repercussions of the war were still being felt during this time. As part of the series, this book centres women who make their own careers and decisions and who support each other doing so. 

I also enjoyed learning that the author is Canadian. 

When the Mirror Cracks

Finished April 21

When the Mirror Cracks by Jan Coffey (penname of May McGoldrick)

This novel has a lot going on. One of the main characters, Christina Phillips, is grieving the loss of her newborn child, but has chosen to attend an important business meeting for the company her mother and stepfather started and for which she works for. Her stepfather has passed away recently, and the decision was already made to sell the company. There are three companies bidding for ownership, and the Istanbul has been chosen as the place they will present their offers and Christina's mother and the board will decide. The company is a gaming company and Christina and her estranged boyfriend are also very involved in the company's development.

The location was also chosen for another reason. Christina was born in Turkey, and moved to the US with her American mother when she was just a toddler. She doesn't remember her early life and her mother has never shared information about her father's identity with her. 

The other main character is Zari Rahman, a Kurdish woman who fled Kurdistan in Iraq when war and chemical weapons made living there untenable. Her husband had fled to Turkey before her, and she followed him to Ankara after giving birth to their daughter, but she found he was no longer there. We know a little about her life during this time, and learn more over the course of the novel. 

Zari had brought her daughter to a hospital in Istanbul years ago, hoping for treatment and has found a community of other Kurds that she is supported by. Her daughter is now grown and starting her own career while still struggling with her health. 

As Zari's and Christina's paths cross, they find they have much in common around the relationships in their lives, but we also see major differences.

Christina's life has the benefit of money and status, while Zari's life as a refugee has been uncertain and traumatic. 

I found this to be a really intriguing read with a fascinating plot and lots of social commentary underlying the story. 

Alice Rue Evades the Truth

Finished April 16

Alice Rue Evades the Truth by Emily Zipps

This book was such a fun read. It has humour, real emotions, a crazy fake relationship, the reality of life struggles, and so much more. 

Alice has had a hard life, losing both her parents and spending middle and high school trying to care for her father through his health challenges. The hospital is still a difficult place for her to be. Alice works as a night receptionist in an office building in Portland, Oregon. As the book opens, Nolan Altman, a man who works in the building there and who Alice has had a crush on even though they've barely spoken, had a medical incident. Alice administer CPR and calls for help and saves his life. Nolan is in a coma, and it is unclear whether he will ever recover. 

Due to a crazy remark Alice made during the crisis and a comment by one of the EMTs attending, Nolan's family believes that Alice is his girlfriend and they embrace her into the family. His sisters Van and Marie, his parents, his aunt and uncle all take over her life. Mainly it is the women who take over, with the men quiet and supportive. Alice tries to deny the relationship right away, but is again misunderstood. As she gets deeper into the family and the way they care for her, she finds it harder to tell the truth. 

As a result of news coverage of the story, Alice is reconnected with her cousin who has recently moved back to town. They were very close as children, but her cousin's family moved away as her own family faced its crisis. The two women work through the realities of the situation they had no control of at the time, and begin to build new bonds as adults. Her cousin is married with two young children and she finds herself drawn into their family life as well. 

Also as a result of media coverage, Alice finds her work situation changing. She is moved to the day shift, and begins to make friends with one of her co-workers, as well as other people who don't sleep during daylight hours. Dare she hope for a different life for herself?

During all this Alice finds herself drawn to someone else, Nolan's sister Van, and is unsure what to do about her growing feelings. The more she learns about Nolan, the less interested she is in him, and she doesn't feel any connection there. 

This is a story of a young woman finding that there may be a happier life for her outside of how she exists now. Her life is changing on all fronts and she realizes that she can make friends and find connections. A hopeful and happy read. 

The Weekend Crashers

Finished January 16

The Weekend Crashers by Jamie Brenner

This women's fiction novel has three female characters that we follow over the course of a few days. Maggie Hodges is in her 40s, raised her adult daughter as a single mom, and works at a clothing store in New York City. She started the job when her daughter was young, and stayed. The owner, an older woman named Elaine, is a woman that has invested in a variety of businesses.

Piper Hodges, 23, daughter of Maggie has been working as a model since being discovered by a reputable agent. Piper lives with her boyfriend Ethan, and has paused her college education to focus on modelling. 

Belinda Yarrow owns a small hotel in small town Pennsylvania with her husband of 35 years, Max, something they bought into decades ago after a crisis in their marriage.

All three of these women are knitters. Belinda runs knitting retreats on a regular basis, with some people coming regularly. Elaine grew up in the town Belinda's hotel is in and told Maggie about the retreat.

As the book opens, Piper is doing a show in New York City, and Maggie has scored a ticket. For unknown reasons, as Piper is walking onto the runway, she faints and collapses. 

We can see Piper is less enthused about her modelling career than her mother is. Piper has other interests, and hasn't made big money so far, and she finds herself feeling relieved that this may end her career. Maggie is worried about her daughter in many ways, including that she is in a serious relationship at such a young age. This may be because Maggie herself got pregnant with Piper when she was quite young and gave up her college education to be a responsible mom. She wants Piper to have more options.

Maggie brings up the knitting retreat as a way to take Piper's mind off her mishap and have some mother daughter time. 

Belinda's husband has booked another group into the hotel on the same weekend as the retreat, a bachelor's party where the focus is on outdoor expertise and survival skills. They've also had an offer from a chain to buy the hotel and Max is eager to move to another stage of life. Belinda isn't so sure. 

As we see the possibilities for people who truly care about each other want different things in life, we also see how throwing two disparate groups of people together by change can create interesting situations. 

I think I liked Belinda best of the characters, perhaps because she is closest to me in age, I found her insightful, thoughtful, and good at her job. She isn't as good at communicating her own wants and isn't always diplomatic when she does.

Each women grows in some way during this weekend and its aftermath, and many of the men face issues of change as well. I enjoyed the read. 

We Need No Wings

Finished December 19

We Need No Wings by Ann Dávila Cardinal

This novel really caught my attention and kept it. The main character is Tere Sanchez, an English professor at a New England university. She is currently on leave, almost a year after her husband was unexpectedly killed in an accident. She has been having a very hard time moving on. As the book opens, she is out looking after the garden that her husband loved so much when she found herself having a very unusual experience, she levitates. At first she thinks she might be going crazy, but after having more such experiences, and making some discrete inquires of an older aunt, she remembers that her family is said to be descended from the family of Saint Teresa of Avila, who was also known for levitation. 

On an impulse, she decides to travel to Spain, to Avila, and see what she can learn, both from the place and from a distant cousin who lives there. Her Puerto Rican Spanish will make it relatively easy to get along. 

She lets her son, who lives in California, as well as a university colleague who was a close friend of her husband, know that she's gone to Spain. Once in Avila, she starts by trying to find her relative, a task harder than she expected, and unexpectedly begins to make friends with some locals. The landlord at her apartment helps, as well as a young homeless man that she takes under her wing. When she decides to rent a bicycle, she also finds an friendship forming with the owner of the bike shop.

Her inquiries into Saint Teresa lead her to churches and museums, and give her insight into how women were treated then, and how little has changed in some ways. 

I loved this book and Tere's story of mid-life change. 

Francine's Spectacular Crash & Burn

Finished October 10

Francine's Spectacular Crash & Burn by Renee Swindle

The title character of this novel completely drew me in. She's a people pleaser, a young woman who was both dependent on her mother in some ways and supportive of her mother in others. When her mother dies suddenly, she is lost. She knows how the close relatives she has will react and avoids telling them, doing the necessary tasks when someone has died. Francine is also a hard worker at her job, a social media company called Peeps that connects people to others with the same interests. She is a glorified secretary for her boss Hayden, doing work that includes not only booking meetings and such but personal tasks like laundry and getting her coffee.

Soon after her mother's death, Francine hears a ruckus out on the street and ends up rescuing ten-year-old Davie from a group of bullies trying to take his iPad. After more encounters with Davie, the two connect in a way, both feeling like outsiders and suffering from loss. When Francine discovers that Davie's foster mother is Jeannette, a strong-willed woman with a temper that Francine had a crush on in high school, she grows close to her as well. 

As Francine struggles between trying to move forward with her newly rekindled interest in photography, and meeting new people, she also finds herself drawn to Jeanette for reasons in addition to wanting to maintain a relationship with Davie.

Francine has undeserved guilt and makes some bad choices, but she is well-intentioned and lonely, and she ends up finding friendship and support in unexpected places, and finding the strength to pull herself out of her own mess. 

I really liked Francine and found myself caring about her and about Davie. Highly recommended. 

The Summer of Yes

Finished September 2

The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh

This is a great summer novel, perfect for vacation reading. The main character is Kelsey Worthington. One day, on her way to work, after picking up her boss's coffee for a favour, she is hit by a car that jumped the curb. The next thing she knows is waking up in a hospital bed. She is lucky to not have more serious injuries than she does, and she begins to reconsider some of her life choices. 

When the other bed in her room is taken by legendary businesswoman Georgina Tate, she thinks of it as an opportunity. Not necessarily to further her career in publishing, but to get her out of her rut. 

As the women exchange advice, Georgina finds herself swept along in Kelsey's plans to have a summer of saying yes to opportunities. 

One of her first steps once she is out of the hospital is to reengage with her best friend, and then to take a leave of absence from her job to work on her own writing dreams. 

Georgina has focused her life on her business, leaving little room for the family that moved away from her years ago. Now that she is facing health issues, she too is thinking about her life and what she gave up in her quest for business success. 

This is a tale of second chances, risk-taking, and being open to what life offers you. A book that is full of emotions. 

The Truth According to Us

Finished August 30

The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows

This is an historical novel set in the summer of 1938 in a small town, Macedonia, in West Virginia. Layla Beck is the daughter of a senator and niece of a man in charge of the Federal Writers' Project, one of the programs under the New Deal. She has refused to marry a man of her father's choosing, so he has cut her off financially and had her assigned to write a pamphlet on the history of Macedonia under the Federal Writers' Project. Layla has expectations of where she is being sent that are quite unlike the reality that she finds herself placed in. Layla's point of view is mostly shown through letters between her and her friends and family. 

She is boarding in the house of Jottie Romeyn, a woman with a strong personality whose household also includes two of her married sisters Minerva and Mae (except on the weekends when they visit their husbands), her nieces Willa, twelve, and Bird, as well as the girls' father Felix. Felix travels a lot for work and is only home occasionally. Willa is the main narrator in the book, and it opens with her and her aunt Jottie watching the town Decoration Day parade. Willa is observant and beginning to be interested in the nuances of the world of the adults in her life. At the parade, she watches as her aunt has encounters with two people she doesn't know, but notes. She has questions about them, her aunt, and her father, and begins to investigate. 

Meanwhile, as Layla arrives in town, she finds the various members of the household eager to help her in her research, as is the town librarian. She learns not only the stories that the town officials are eager to tell her, but also the lesser known stories, some of which contradict the official stories. 

We also see Jottie's point of view as she deals with a man from her past, Felix's expectations, and her own feelings. 

I really enjoyed seeing Willa discover the secrets of her family and community, Jottie bringing her own strong will to the fore for herself and those she cares about, and Layla discovering her own skills and asserting independence for herself. This novel deals with history that can sometimes be uncomfortable, but is also important to be able to deal with the world as it is for the characters. With the strong female characters, including Minerva and Mae, I enjoyed this novel immensely. 

The House in the Water

Finished August 9

The House in the Water by Victoria Scott

This novel has two timelines. One is in 2013, where Meredith has fallen in love with a dilapidated estate on an island in the Thames river. The house hasn't been lived in for years and needs a lot of work. She convinces her husband Philip to agree to them buying it. Most of the money will come from Meredith, an inheritance after the recent death of her parents. She and Philip have been through a lot and she has left her job in finance to recover and sees the house as an opportunity to go in a different direction, hosting events and offering rooms to guests. 

The second timeline is in 1942 when Ellen, a skilled nurse, has been transferred from a hospital in Egypt to this house turned hospital for those undergoing what we now refer to as PTSD. The atmosphere is very different from the psychiatrist she worked with in Egypt, and she doesn't always agree with the brutal methods she witnesses and assists with. Arriving just after Ellen is a pilot who has been sent there for help so that he can return to duties. Pilots are badly needed. The two connect and find themselves drawn to each other. 

Philip is also a pilot, and thus is away a lot. Meredith finds herself seeing people in and near the house and hearing them as well. She doesn't know if she is seeing ghosts or if there is really someone there. She also finds that some in town aren't supportive of the changes that she and Philip have put forward for the house and thus finds herself often lonely. 

As the two women adjust to their new home and the work they face, they both undergo changes, learning new skills and becoming more adept and courageous when facing challenges. 

I really enjoyed this read.  There are themes of mental health and isolation, as well as growth. 

The Good Women of Safe Harbour

Finished July 30

The Good Women of Safe Harbour by Bobbi French

This novel follows Frances Delaney through the last weeks of her life. She's recently been diagnosed with a disease that will end her life, but hasn't told anyone about it. She has no close friends, has never had a romantic partner, and lives alone. 

She's grown very close to the teenager in the family she is a housekeeper for. They are very well-off and busy and part of her job had been seeing over young Edie when her parents aren't home. This is her final week of work as she worries that her illness is affecting her ability to do things. When she given notice she doesn't tell them why she is leaving, just recommends someone else. Edie is going through her own issues and relies on Frances in a way that is that of close friends. The two have shared many things as Edie has grown up. Now she finds that Edie is determined to stay part of her life and help her in this time. 

We see Frances' backstory gradually as she reminisces of her childhood growing up in a small fishing town in Newfoundland, and dealing with her mother's grief after her father's death. Beside her all the time was her best friend Annie and Annie's mom was also a big support in her life. We learn the trauma she went through as a teenager and why she left Safe Harbour and moved to St. John's. 

Edie encourages her to return to Safe Harbour and reconnect with Annie, and the results are interesting and involve forgiveness on both sides. 

This is a moving story of a woman that felt like an outsider all her life, with a deep yearning for connection, but without natural social skills. I liked seeing the stories of all three characters at the centre of the novel, Frances, Annie, and Edie. They are strong in different ways, and their friendships are very close and complex. Highly recommended.  

Whispering Pines

Finished July 27|

Whispering Pines by Kimberly Diede

The first of a series set in Minnesota, this one moves between Minneapolis and the lake country, with a small detour to Fiji. As the novel opens single mom Renee Clements is let go from her twenty-year career with a company. Stunned, she decides to take the time to spend it with family. When she lets her children know that evening, they decide to take the rest of December into the new year to spend with each other, doing things they enjoy. From Christmas with extended family, renewed contact with her late husband's family, to a trip to an exotic locale, they reconnect with each other and Renee reconnects with her parents and siblings. When her father takes the opportunity to give our envelopes to every family member from Renee's aunt Celia, who died earlier that year, each takes the time to plan when to open the envelopes, which contain personal letters from Celia and information on their individual inheritances. 

Celia has inherited the lake resort that she spent summers in as a child, which has sat unused for a few years, with minimal maintenance. As she determines what to do with this property that needs so much work, she also finds that her family is more than happy to chip in and do the work necessary. Renee's college freshman daughter, is dealing with a man she dated who's become too controlling for her, and doesn't seem to be taking no for an answer. Renee's teen son worries about his advanced team sports opportunity and whether he will be torn away from that and his friends. 

There is a lot going on, and we get glimpses of what other gifts aunt Celia has made that will be expanded upon in later books in the Celia's Gifts series. 

I really enjoyed the central idea of the book that had Renee rethinking her life and how she wants to spend it. The community that she finds herself part of, with both family and friends is also a great message about the importance of human connections. I would definitely be interested in reading more in this series. 

The Story Collector

Finished July 24

The Story Collector by Iris Costello

This story has three narrators in three different timelines. In 1915 London, Katarina has taken over the bakery started by her parents after they emigrated from Germany. But with the beginning of the Great War, public sentiment turns against her as a representative of the country England is at war with, and when rioters attack, she is lucky to escape with her life. Helped by an English friend, she ends up taking over an abandoned restaurant in a different part of the city, and calls herself Kat, changing her clothing style and acting like a good English woman. She still worries about her brother, who she argued with before her troubles, and who left for the continent. She also worries about her secrets being revealed. Kat has another skill besides baking, divination. She has read the Tarot from a young age, and senses spirits. She begins doing this again to help bring hope to the women she serves. 

In 1918, German nurse Miriam is serving in a prisoner-of-war camp and besides her medical work assists a fellow German doing language research. He is recording as many English speakers as he can, documenting the variation in language use. One of the soldiers admitted to the camp is mute. He never speaks, and no one knows his name. They call him Prisoner X. When Miriam is attacked on her way back to her room one evening, Prisoner X intervenes and she appreciates his help. They begin to grow close, but he is in danger due to his actions, and the Germans are sensing the end of the war isn't far away.

In the present day, Edie is grieving the violent death of her beloved husband, and decides to spend some time alone in Cornwall at the family cottage that once belonged to her great grandmother. As she begins some renovations on the cottage, she discovers a wooden chest with mysterious contents. When strange events begin to happen, she feels wary, worried about violence following her from London. But she continues to dig for the truth even as she begins a new art commission. 

As these three stories begin to converge in interesting ways, we see how secrets can take generations to come to light, and how the resiliency of all these women serves them well. 

A very enjoyable read. 

Sunrise by the Sea

Finished July 11

Sunrise by the Sea by Jenny Colgan

This novel, set on an island in Cornwall, is both a romance and a story of personal growth for the female character, commonly known as women's fiction. It is the fourth book in the Little Beach Street Bakery series, but the first one I've read in the series. 

This one focuses on a young woman, Marisa Rossi, who works as a registrar. Both of her parents were Italians who moved to England, and she spent many summers in Italy with her maternal grandparents, connecting strongly with her grandfather. He has recently died, and she isn't taking it well, retreating into herself, working from home as much as possible, and even avoiding her very social roommate. 

When he decides to move in with friends, he makes arrangements for her to rent a guest cabin on a nearby island, Mount Polbearne. His uncle owns them, but with no paved road and a cool summer, the cabins haven't been renting.

With some assistance, Marisa manages the move, and finds that the Russian-born school piano teacher lives in the adjoining cabin, and does all the lessons at home. He also plays aggressive sounding music late into the night. She wears noise-cancelling headphones as she works, but finds the late night playing disturbing enough to put a note under his door. 

As she follows her therapist's guidance to move gradually out of the depressive situation, she also attempts to be more friendly with her neighbour and finds herself making both unexpected local friends with the bakery owner, and forging a new close relationship with a distant relative. 

This is a book about feelings and community, about coping with things in life that are difficult, and about healing in our own individual ways. It's also about being open to new experiences, and shows the way that smaller communities have a strength that shows under strain. 

A very enjoyable read. 

Too Good to Be True

Finished June 6

Too Good to Be True by Sheila O'Flanagan

This novel is a combination of genres. Partly romance, partly women's fiction, it follows two Irish adults as they navigate whirlwind romance, the realities of living with someone else, family dynamics, and career issues. 

Carey Browne is a woman who works as an air traffic controller, and can handle unpredictable situations in her work. She lives with a co-worker, has a weakness for shoes, and is confident in herself. She and her friends from work party a lot, but they take their jobs seriously. When she takes some downtime to visit a former co-worker who now lives in New York City, she meets Ben Russell. Ben and his older sister Freya are close and after he had an up-and-down career experience in the tech field, they joined forces to run a wellness store. They now have several branches, and Ben has a meeting with a supplier in New York. There is chemistry between the two and after a few days together, Ben proposes marriage and Carey accepts. They make it real in Las Vegas. 

When they get home, they go back to their real lives, Carey moves in with Ben, and they break it to their families. Neither family takes it well. So that and the realities of living together, with Carey's work schedule that can have her working very early or very late, takes a toll on the new relationship. 

They also discover that neither of them have revealed all their relationships from the past, When exes start giving them a hard time about moving on, and they become aware of some of those secrets, Ben and Carey start to question everything about their relationship and emotions get very heated. 

We see things from both their viewpoints, and see their family dynamics, their dating history, and their fear of vulnerability. 

They both grow as a result, on both the personal and professional fronts, and we them move forward from just living their lives to planning their futures. I found this a quick read despite the length of the novel, and enjoyed the different storylines within the main story. 

The Book Club Hotel

Finished March 3

The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan

This novel is a book about female friendship with a touch of romance. Erica, Claudia, and Anna have been friends since college, which was nearly twenty years ago. Once a year they meet for a week at a hotel, and discuss a book that they've all read. Usually it is in the summer, but a personal crisis for one of the women delayed it, and they made tentative plans to go in mid-December instead. 

Erica has made a satisfying career as a crisis consultant, in demand all around the world. For the last few years, she's met a man Jack on a regular basis for intimacy, but says that she isn't interested in a relationship.

Claudia was dumped suddenly by her partner of ten years a few months ago, when he left her for someone younger. She's an accomplished chef, but has become tired of the negativity and grandstanding that often part of high-end restaurant kitchens. Now she's lost her job and is considering whether a career change might be in her future. 

Anna married Pete and has created a comfortable and loving home for him and their twins. Now that the twins are in their senior year of high school, Anna is focused on the loss of her purpose as a hands-on mom, already missing them. She can't see the possibilities for her and Pete as empty nesters. 

It is Erica's turn to plan their book club meeting, and she's chosen a charming hotel in small town Vermont. This is totally unlike her normal choices of luxury city hotels, and the other two know that there must be a reason for this choice.

There is a second storyline involving Hattie, the owner of the Vermont hotel who was widowed shortly after the hotel opened. She's been struggling to fulfil the vision her husband Brent had for hotel, and being a mom to her young daughter. She has a lot of support from the community, which is great. Some of the hotel staff that Brent hired have been causing her headaches though, and she isn't sure how to deal with them. 

As the two storylines meet, the characters become involved in each other's lives, and find new connections, new dreams, and a more promising and meaningful future. 

This is a feel-good story, with lots of Christmas cheer. I enjoyed seeing the four women grow and become more comfortable in their own choices. 

Lessons in Chemistry

Finished May 28

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

I started this book months ago but kept setting it aside as it is so good I didn't want it to end. The ending is satisfying though, so I feel good about finishing it now. The novel takes place in the early 1960s in small town southern California, but the story reaches back further. While it starts with an incident in 1961 that has Elizabeth meeting Walter Pine and thus setting off a new career in television for her, we quickly jump back ten years earlier when Elizabeth Zott, a chemist at Hastings Research Institute met Calvin Evans, one of the head research chemists there. 

Seeing how the two met gives an insight into how chemistry both in the scientific sense and in the sense of human attraction is at play here. Elizabeth is a feminist because she's had to be to get as far as she has, dealing with multiple barriers along the way. 

We see her dysfunctional childhood, the loneliness of her life, and her drive for science. As we get to know Calvin, we find he has also had a difficult childhood and has had to make his own way through similar efforts to those of Elizabeth. However, because he is a man, one he proved his intelligence, it all became much easier. 

As they grow closer, we see how in some ways he makes things easier for Elizabeth, supporting her research, ensuring she has the supplies she needs, and in others making things harder because now she has been labelled as a woman who is sleeping her way to job success. 

When things go wrong and Elizabeth is left to fend for herself as a single mother and she struggles to support herself, her daughter Amelia, and their dog Six-Thirty. Six-Thirty had found Elizabeth and claimed her and they bonded quickly. 

There is so much in this book: love and loss; the fight for sexual equality, the subtle acts that work away at a person just trying to live their life. I loved this book so much.