Review: A Quilt for Christmas by Melody Carlson

Publisher: Revell

Pages: 176

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Christmas should be celebrated with family. But for Vera Swanson, that's not an option this year. Widowed and recently relocated, she is lonely in her condo-for-one--until little Fiona Albright knocks on her door needing help. With her mother seriously ill and her father out of town, Fiona enlists Vera's help, and when she finds out her new neighbor is a quilter, she has a special request--a Christmas quilt for Mama.

Vera will have to get a ragtag group of women together in order to fulfill the request. Between free-spirited artist Tasha, chatty empty nester Beverly, retired therapist Eleanor, and herself, Vera has hopes that Christmas for the Albright family will be merry, after all--and she may find herself a new family of friends along the way.

Kritters Thoughts:  A sweet little story that is perfect for the busy season of Christmas with a great cast of characters and maybe a little too sweet of a plot!  Vera has recently located to this condo to be near family that ended up moving from that location, so she is very alone and not ready for a Christmas season.  A family who also recently relocated to this condo community ends up on her doorstep and in need of some help and maybe they can help her too!!  

I don't want to share too much because this book is just too sweet.  The cast of characters that come together to help this family are so fun and eclectic and I loved that they each were given a moment to have a journey or evolution.  Each of the cast contributed to the story and each received something from someone else in the group - it was so great to see each of them have a moment or two in the story.  

I loved that this book was just one of those easy reads that is perfect to get into during a time of the year that can be busy with a lot of other things going on.   

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Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: A Little Christmas Spirit by Sheila Roberts

A Little Christmas Spirit

by Sheila Roberts

Publisher: MIRA

Pages: 320

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Single mom Lexie Bell hopes to make this first Christmas in their new home special for her six-year-old son, Brock. Festive lights and homemade fudge, check. Friendly neighbors? Uh, no. The reclusive widower next door is more grinchy than nice. But maybe he just needs a reminder of what matters most. At least sharing some holiday cheer with him will distract her from her own lack of romance…

Stanley Mann lost his Christmas spirit when he lost his wife and he sees no point in looking for it. Until she shows up in his dreams and informs him it’s time to ditch his scroogey attitude. Stanley digs in his heels, but she’s determined to haunt him until he wakes up and rediscovers the joys of the season. He can start by being a little more neighborly to the single mom next door. In spite of his protests, he’s soon making snowmen and decorating Christmas trees. How will it all end?

Merrily, of course. A certain Christmas ghost is going to make sure of that!

Kritters Thoughts:  A sweet Christmas story perfect to get you into that holiday spirit.  Lexie Bell is new in town, a teacher with her young son who is trying to put the pieces back together after life has sent her over some speedbumps.  She is trying to do it all herself and it is not going well, and sometimes life sends you help and just the right help right when you need it.  The other main character is her neighbor, Stanley, who is mourning the loss of his wife and not excited about another holiday season, but maybe this one will be different.

There are so many Christmas romance books and while this one may have some romance in it, the main focus was on Lexie and Stanley and how they entered each other's lives and gave what they could and it was exactly what the other needed.  I adored watching their relationship grow and how much they really complimented each other in the most platonic of ways.  

If you have read too many and watched too many Hallmark books and movies, then go for this one and you will still feel that Christmas glow, but less of the romance!    

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from HarperCollins.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: The Colony Club by Shelley Noble

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 384

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  When young Gilded Age society matron Daisy Harriman is refused a room at the Waldorf because they don’t cater to unaccompanied females, she takes matters into her own hands. She establishes the Colony Club, the first women’s club in Manhattan, where visiting women can stay overnight and dine with their friends; where they can discuss new ideas, take on social issues, and make their voices heard. She hires the most sought-after architect in New York, Stanford White, to design the clubhouse.

As “the best dressed actress on the Rialto” Elsie de Wolfe has an eye for décor, but her career is stagnating. So when White asks her to design the clubhouse interiors, she jumps at the chance and the opportunity to add a woman’s touch. He promises to send her an assistant, a young woman he’s hired as a draftsman.

Raised in the Lower East Side tenements, Nora Bromely is determined to become an architect in spite of hostility and sabotage from her male colleagues. She is disappointed and angry when White “foists” her off on this new women’s club project.

But when White is murdered and the ensuing Trial of the Century discloses the architect’s scandalous personal life, fearful backers begin to withdraw their support. It’s questionable whether the club will survive long enough to open.

Daisy, Elsie, and Nora have nothing in common but their determination to carry on. But to do so, they must overcome not only society’s mores but their own prejudices about women, wealth, and each other. Together they strive to transform Daisy’s dream of the Colony Club into a reality, a place that will nurture social justice and ensure the work of the women who earned the nickname “Mink Brigade” far into the future.

Kritters Thoughts:  Told in two different time periods, one in Washington, DC in 1963 as women recounting the long road that they took to establish the first social club for women.  The second timeline where most pages took place started in 1902 as a group of women came together to discover the need and the path to create a social club where they could come congregate and have a space that was designed just for them!  

I loved this book.  The characters were fantastic and I was drawn in by their will to get this project completed and make a space for women when the only space they were to be in was the home.  I love reading a book about women defying the expectations of their moment in time and pushing the boundaries as to what is "allowed" of a woman.  There were two women who caught my eye and I loved reading about them - Daisy Harriman, a socialite who when trying to travel to New York City without her husband is denied a hotel room and this is the beginnings of the women's social club.  Nora Bromley, a young woman who had a drive outside of herself to become something at a time when women had very low expectations to "become something".  She wanted to become an architect and create buildings and spaces that would help people live and heal from mainly tuberculosis.  

As it is spoiled in the synopsis of the book, a murder almost halted this project completely and while I didn't read the synopsis first, it made the book shocking for me and I enjoyed reading how scandal did and always will affect things.  

I love a book that grasps my attention from the beginning, but keeps me reading wanting to know where all the characters will end up.  AND I love a historical fiction book that encourages me to do outside research and find out where the truth and fiction intersect.  My first historical fiction read by Shelley Noble and by no means will be my last.  

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Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: The Lucky Escape by Laura Jane Williams

Publisher: Avon

Pages: 368

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  ONE CANCELLED WEDDING

When the day finally comes for Annie to marry Alexander, the last thing she expects is to be left standing at the altar. She was so sure he was Mr Right. Now, she has no idea how she could have got it so wrong.
 
ONE UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER

After a chance meeting with Patrick, an old friend who reminds her of who she used to be, Annie takes a vow of her own: she’ll say yes to every opportunity that comes her way from now on.

ONE SPARE TICKET FOR THE HONEYMOON

Could a spontaneous trip with Patrick be the way to mend Annie’s heart? She’s about to find out as she embarks on her honeymoon – with a man who’s nother husband…

Kritters Thoughts:  What a fun ride!  Annie has a wedding that gets called off as she is entering the church and her gracious ex's in-laws still insist she takes the honeymoon as a vacation in exchange for what their son did to her.  And after a bit of mourning, she decides to say yes and take that vacation along with a former friend who has re-entered her life, and oh what a trip it was! 

I love a HEA, especially when I enjoy the journey.  This book had just the right ups and downs and I couldn't put it down because I wanted to know how Annie and Patrick would come together.  With an extra layer, I have traveled to Australia and while I didn't visit all the places they did, it was fun to go back in time and revisit some of the places that I did a few years ago.  

This was my first Laura Jane Williams and I loved it so much and would love to read a few of her backlist books when I am ready for a sweet romance.  

Rating:

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Avon.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

August

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What a great month of reading! Lots of days spent at the beach with a book in hand and a few days off where I could spend extra hours! 

1. The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore

2. The Summer I Found You by Jolene Perry

3. The Lucky Escape by Laura Jane Williams

4. Say More by Jen Psaki

5. The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle

Total pages read, clicked and flipped: 1,827

Where Have I Been Reading?:

Louisiana 

Oregon

Australia
 

Review: The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore

Publisher: Kensington

Pages: 384

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease.

At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate.

Kritters Thoughts:  Who knew that leprosy was not just in the Bible?  Based on a real leprosy community in Louisiana with fictional characters, this book did for me what I love historical fiction to do - makes me want to dive deep into google and learn all the things about something/someone that I knew nothing about.  

Mirielle West is the wife of a film star and after a few medical mishaps, she is diagnosed with leprosy and is shipped off to a community where many patients have been living for different lengths of time with the hope of a cure so they can return home.  Mirielle West has quite the character journey and I enjoyed watching her grow and evolve along with the other patients that were in the community.  

This is my second Amanda Skenandore book and I hope to catch up on the backlist and anticipate the future books.  I loved how she built the characters and the surrounding and the ride she took us on! 

Rating:

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: The Fields by Erin Young

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Pages: 352

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Some things don't stay buried.

It starts with a body, a young woman found dead—torn to bits—in an Iowa cornfield on one of the few family farms still managing to compete with the giants of Big Ag. This is the heart of the Corn Belt, where drones spray crops from above and corn is perfected in labs to grow faster, better. When Sergeant Riley Fisher, newly promoted to head of investigations for the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office, arrives on the scene, an already horrific crime becomes personal when she discovers the victim was a childhood friend, connected to a traumatic event in her own past.

Fisher's investigation grows complicated as more victims are found, each murder more harrowing than the last. The crime spree grabs headlines and becomes a factor in the reelection campaign of the governor, a friend of Riley's father. Suddenly, this sleepy part of farm country is at the center of a media storm and Riley isn't sure who she can trust anymore.

Kritters Thoughts:  Whenever I am in a reading slump, I usually gravitate to mysteries as the pacing can get me back into my reading game.  The pacing of this book was great, from page to page and chapter to chapter, I wanted to see where this would all end up.  But the thing that didn't completely work for me, was the amount of storylines trying to maintain in one book.  I felt as though the author was piling and piling on and at a certain point it seemed too much.  

A young woman is found dead in a corn field and not just any corn field but one that is fighting the formation of big agricultural companies and trying to keep farming small, so they already have enough drama on their hands before a dead body is found.  This is the first murder of a few that happen in the book and slowly but surely the reader finds out how everything is connected.  Following a young investigator Riley Fisher, the reader is taken on a ride to solve all of the things.  

The first in a series of two that follow Riley Fisher as she investigates crimes in her home town and I did enjoy her as a character so hope to read the second one and see if the plot gets a little more pulled together in a sequel.  

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Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: A Fatal Inheritance by Lawrence Ingrassia

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Pages: 320

Format: audiobook

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Weaving his own moving family story with a sweeping history of cancer research, Lawrence Ingrassia delivers an intimate, gripping tale that sits at the intersection of memoir and medical thriller Ingrassia lost his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew to cancer—different cancers developing at different points throughout their lives. And while highly unusual, his family is not the only one to wonder whether their heartbreak is the result of unbelievable bad luck, or if there might be another explanation. Through meticulous research and riveting storytelling, Ingrassia takes us from the 1960s—when Dr. Frederick Pei Li and Dr. Joseph Fraumeni Jr. first met, not yet knowing that they would help make a groundbreaking discovery that would affect cancer patients for decades to come—to present day, as Ingrassia and countless others continue to unpack and build upon Li and Fraumeni’s initial discoveries, and to understand what this means for their families. In the face of seemingly unbearable loss, Ingrassia holds onto hope. He urges us to “fight like Charlie,” his nephew who battled cancer his entire life starting with a rare tumor in his cheek at the age of two—and to look toward the future, as gene sequencing, screening protocols, CRISPR gene editing, and other developing technologies may continue to extend lifespans and perhaps, one day, even offer cures.

Kritters Thoughts:  I will always enjoy taking in non fiction via audio.  This book accompanied me on many trips to the grocery store and hours cleaning my sweet home.  

Lawrence Ingrassia is not only a journalist, but a subject matter in his book.  He comes from a family that has been greatly impacted by cancer and through telling his family's story he is able to share how cancer research slowly came about to find that there is some hereditary nature and some testing for genes to predict if a patient is more prone to developing cancer then others.  

There were so many moments when I was reading this book that I kept remembering that this research was happening during my lifetime and I was so disappointed at the many lives that were affected by the slow progress of research.  AND those many people that didn't know about the preventative tests that could have given them information where they could have made different decisions with their lives.  When we are in a time where information is swirling 24/7 at the highest speed, to know that there is medical information not getting into the hands that need it, was sad to read about.  

After finishing this book, it made me want to look and find more non fiction medical books to dive into.  

I read the audiobook version of this one and the narrator was great.  He shared the story with feeling and compassion in providing very difficult stories of these families who have been so gravely impacted by cancer.  

Rating:

Audiobook Challenge 2024: 3 out of 24

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: The Idea of Love by Patti Callahan Henry

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Pages: 256

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  As we like to say in the south: "Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story."

Ella's life has been completely upended. She's young, beautiful, and deeply in love—until her husband dies in a tragic sailing accident while trying to save her. Or so she'll have everyone believe. Screenwriter Hunter needs a hit, but crippling writers' block and a serious lack of motivation are getting him nowhere. He's on the look-out for a love story. It doesn't matter who it belongs to.

When Hunter and Ella meet in Watersend, South Carolina, it feels like the perfect match, something close to fate. In Ella, Hunter finds the perfect love story, full of longing and sacrifice. It's the stuff of epic films. In Hunter, Ella finds possibility. It's an opportunity to live out a fantasy – the life she wishes she had because hers is too painful. And more real. Besides. what's a little white lie between strangers?

But one lie leads to another, and soon Hunter and Ella find themselves caught in a web of deceit. As they try to untangle their lies and reclaim their own lives, they feel something stronger is keeping them together. And so they wonder: can two people come together for all the wrong reasons and still make it right?

Kritters Thoughts:  A Patti Callahan Henry romance story has full characters in a great setting and realistic ups and downs.  Ella has just had her world turned upside down by a man and doesn't know how to put her feet on the ground and then she bumps into Hunter.  Hunter has come to this small town in South Carolina to work on his next project, but upon meeting Ella he doesn't want to tell her the truth about his project, so he lies.  BUT Ella is lying also.  

I loved these characters.  Ella and Hunter were fantastic characters AND the supporting were characters were just as great.  Patti Callahan Henry really creates these characters that you want to get to know and want to see how their arc will go.  With the reader knowing all the things, you can watch as these two discover the truth and see how they react - and I loved it!  

Even though you know with a romance that we will end happily ever after, I still enjoyed the journey of this book.  For the romance genre, if the journey isn't worth it then the story is just ok.    

This book made me want to get all caught up on Patti Callahan Henry's backlist.  

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Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

July

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A busy month of plans, not many quiet moments of reading.  I had lots of fun plans this month and it was full of new experiences, but not many times where I could curl up with a book.  A quieter August is on deck!   

1. A Fatal Inheritance by Lawrence Ingrassia

2. The Lincoln Deception by David O Stewart

3. The Fields by Erin Young

Total pages read, clicked and flipped:  934

Where Have I Been Reading?:

Iowa
 

Review: The Summer of Fall by Laura Lippman

Publisher: Scribd Originals

Pages: 62

Format: eARC

Goodreads:  “Lucky! I’M LUCKY, GODDAMMIT!” So Laura Lippman keeps telling herself throughout the course of a year when she seems everything but. Her marriage crumbles; a beloved friend dies suddenly; her sister’s health fails. Everything and everyone is falling apart. The calamities reach a symbolic climax in the summer of 2022, when she and her mother both suffer bad falls. (Her mom is ninety-one; Lippman herself is merely “exceptionally clumsy.”) Still, she insists, she is lucky.

And in many ways, she is. She has a great kid and a career she loves, and she’s healthy and more or less happy. Yet even a resilient optimist like her can’t deny that life’s catastrophes are indiscriminate and seem always to hit at once.

In this wry and honest memoir of a truly lousy time, she gives an intimate look at her private life — perhaps less hair-raising than her award-winning crime thrillers, but no less engaging. And it’s relatable. Even the most fortunate experience heartache, loss, and physical breakdown of some kind. Lippman’s account of her own hard knocks reminds us that, eventually, adversity comes for everyone.

But she has a more important message: While misfortune might not be a choice, how we respond to it is. Lippman chooses to be a happy warrior. When her friend Terry Teachout, the renowned theater critic for The Wall Street Journal, dies without warning in January 2022, she finds solace in the fact that he’d recently found joy in a new romance. When two friends make the spontaneous decision to marry during a writer’s workshop in Italy, she throws herself into the role of officiant, despite the flatlining of her own marriage. When she ruins her shoulder in a fall, she refuses to swap her fun shoes for something more sensible. She won’t let sorrow and pain get the best of her. Blessings abound, godammit, and there’s still so much to celebrate.

Kritters Thoughts:  I am a Laura Lippman fan, I have nowhere near read all of her books, but when I saw this book come across Netgalley I was excited to read some non fiction that Laura Lippman wrote and even more so wrote about her own life.  She was an avid writer but also journaled her own life and this little book came from her writing as she recounted a summer that was possibly one to not remember!  

With a separation/divorce, physical injury, family drama and more, after reading this book I wanted to go have a beverage with Laura Lippman and just gab about the ups and downs of life.  I loved that yes I read about a horrible summer, but also got a glimpse behind the curtain of the humanity of an author as they try to keep writing and working while life knocks them around.  

I would love to read more of these by other authors that I love and see both their personal life and professional life as they collide.  

Rating:

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Publisher: Harper

Pages: 272

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.

Kritters Thoughts:  A book I read solely because I saw that a mini series was created and I am a stickler for reading the book before watching the movie, the show or the whatever! So I picked up this book recently and read it and what a story.  I was glad that I could see someone's interpretation of it on screen and see how even the hardest of moments would be portrayed on a screen.  

Based on a true story, Lale Sokolov was a Jew who went to Auschwitz and eventually became the man who tattooed the incoming Jews; he aligned himself with the SS soldiers and was able to help his fellow men and women through various ways to survive the horrors that took place in Auschwitz.  Because of the way he took care of others, it saved his life so many times.  

It is hard to say I loved this book because most of it took place in a concentration camp, but to see humanity still trying to take care of each other in any way possible and to see a love story emerge, it was something else.  

Rating:

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.