Tag: forgiveness

The Seven O’Clock Club by Amelia Ireland

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Publication April- 2025-Penguin Random House-Women’s Fiction

Book Summary

Four strangers are brought together to participate in an experimental treatment designed to heal broken hearts in this surprising and heartfelt debut novel from author Amelia Ireland.

A PEOPLE MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE WEEK ∙ A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ∙ A ZIBBY OWENS MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025


Freya, Callum, Mischa, and Victoria have nothing in common–well, except for one thing: they’ve each experienced a deep personal loss that has led them to an unconventional group meeting, every Tuesday night at seven. A meeting they’ve been particularly selected for that will help them finally move on. At least, that’s the claim.

As they warily eye one another and their unnervingly observant group leader, one question hangs over them: why were they chosen? To get the answer, they are going to have to share a whole lot of themselves first. Getting Freya, Callum, Mischa, and Victoria to trust each other is vital–because the real reason they’re connected will shift the ground beneath their feet.

Riveting and wise, The Seven O’Clock Club shows us the courage needed to face your past and the joy that can be found in stepping into your future.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab- First reviewed for BookBrowse-First Impressions- 11/24

Good Grief!

Four strangers, each grieving a loss, are brought together for an experiment conducted by an aspiring young therapist. Each Tuesday at seven o’clock the proverbial onion layers are peeled back to reveal the situations that brought the four together. The therapist begins by asking each wary client to hearken back to a happy childhood memory. Through weekly conversations and outside interactions, bonds are slowly built, showing the power of sharing, trust, and speaking the truth aloud. The revelations are spellbinding, heart wrenching, and believable, making for anxious reader moments awaiting the next meeting. Startling discoveries lead to an unsettling, thought-provoking ending.

The Seven O’ Clock Club is a scientific rather than spiritual approach to grief. Unpacking feelings of guilt, learning to trust, seeking forgiveness, and finding truth, are themes in this soul-searching journey through grief.

Once Upon a Sunset by Tif Marcelo

Tif Marcelo is a veteran army nurse and holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Public Administration. She believes and writes about the strength of families, the endurance of friendship, heartfelt romances, and is inspired daily by her own military hero husband and four children. She is also the author of The Key to Happily Ever After and the Journey to the Heart series.

The author of The Key to Happily Ever After—“a true gem filled with heart, laughs, and a cast of delightful characters” (Nina Bocci, USA TODAY bestselling author)—returns with a heartwarming and charming novel about a woman who travels to the Philippines to reconnect with her long-lost family…and manages to find herself along the way.

“Diana Gallagher-Cary is at a tipping point. As a Washington, DC, OB/GYN at a prestigious hospital, she uses her career to distract herself from her grief over her granny’s death and her breakup from her long-term boyfriend after her free-spirited mother moves in with her. But when she makes a medical decision that disparages the hospital, she is forced to go on a short sabbatical.

Never one to wallow, Diana decides to use the break to put order in her life, when her mother, Margo, stumbles upon a box of letters from her grandfather, Antonio Cruz, to her grandmother from the 1940s. The two women always believed that Antonio died in World War II, but the letters reveal otherwise. When they learn that he lived through the war, and that they have surviving relatives in the Philippines, Diana becomes determined to connect with the family that she never knew existed, though Margo refuses to face her history. But Diana pushes on, and heads on a once-in-a-lifetime trip that challenges her identity, family history, and her idea of romantic love that could change her life forever.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

“Your granny, my mother. I don’t know what to think, but I think she lied.” That’ll get you hooked, for sure! Once Upon a Sunset is the fifth novel by Tif Marcelo, but the first for the Grateful Reader. It won’t be the last. The mother/daughter relationship is authentic and well developed. Marcelo adds just the right amount of family tension/drama for the reader to take sides and then change back-just like in real life. The current situation of Margo moving in with her ” baby doctor- on call” daughter, Diana, will strike a chord with many readers who have adult children or parents moving in and out of their homes and daily lives. The family drama toggles between present day and the past through the newly discovered letters between Margo’s mother, Leora, and her love, Antonio Cruz. The letters date from California, early 1933, through Antonio’s deployment to New Guinea and the Philippines, in 1945. Now single mother, Leora and her daughter, Margo, believe that Antonio died a hero in New Guinea, within days of arrival. Only after seven decades and Leora’s death, Margo discovers- her father really hadn’t died.

The reader tags along with Margo and her buddies on photo shoots and trips for their Instagram followers , but then succumbs to all the anger, exasperation, and “wonderment” as Diana weaves her way past one ex-fiance, through a delivery room fiasco, several airports, and finally arrives at Manila Bay and the opulent Las Cruces Hotel . The reader will experience the valley-lows that are brought on by decades of family lies and cover-ups, but also the mountain top- the joy of forgiveness, and new found hope in love and opportunity.

Get out your travel journal and “fly” with Tif Marcelo and Once Upon a Sunset. It’s a “first class” read! GR