Tag: Romance

Henderson House by Caren Simpson McVicker

Publishing Aug. 1, 2023-Inkshares-Historical Fiction, Romance- 434pp

Henderson House was provided by Galley Match for The Book Club CookBook

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Henderson House is a relaxing respite from the busy world we live in. Caren Simpson McVicker’s debut novel is a flashback to 1940’s Bartlesville, Oklahoma and the simpler life of Wednesday night church suppers, Saturdays at the local cinema, and Sunday walks in the park after church. Based on family history and stories, Caren’s main character, Mildred Henderson, turns her grand home into a boarding house after the unexpected death of her husband. Mrs. H. and her beagle, Louie, captivate readers as she uses her special gifts- sensing houses and seeing a person’s color along with an interview checklist to choose her tenants. Frank Davis, a newly hired petroleum engineer at Philips Petroleum, checks all the boxes, changing the lives of the other boarders, the Blackwell family. In a few weeks’ time readers fall in love with Mrs. H.’s wisdom and Frank’s mild-mannered, genuine interest in the family, but most importantly his attraction to spinster Bessie, and where their friendship might lead.

Our group especially enjoyed the storytelling Caren weaves into the plot, along with the suspense of family secrets and sister loyalty. One of the threads in the novel is women in the workplace in the early 1940’s. We discussed jobs women from our past generations have held, from millinery shops in south Texas to restaurants in Germany! We shared our own versions of “self-talk,” kitchen ladies from church, and the supporting roles of the “menfolk” and their impact on the story. Dinners around the table with boarders recounting the day’s activities, special recipes shared, and even cooking lessons, make food and conversation a tantalizing feature.

Our menu from Caren’s Henderson House Recipe Collection: Appetizers- The Oklahoma Club Special drink, Edna’s Award-Winning Deviled Eggs, and Corn & Bean Salad w/lime dressing. Main course three salads-Waldorf, Cucumber & Tomato, and Chicken salad. Dessert- Mrs. H’s White Cake cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting. The “take-away” gift, a Boarder Interview Kit: a teapot filled with a stack of homemade almond shortbread cookies and lemon tea.

We unanimously loved Henderson House and are anxiously awaiting the sequel.

A Delectable Recipe for Summer Reading: A copy of Henderson House by Caren Simpson McVicker, two shortbread cookies, one cup of tea. Timeless storytelling perfection.  Dorothy Schwab, Hostess

Born in Oklahoma, Caren lives in Vermont with her hubby, rescue pup, and barn cat turned happy house kitty. Caren is also a mom to two incredible humans and is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. Henderson House is her first novel.

The Sunshine Girls by Molly Fader

Publishes December 6, 2022 by Graydon House, 356 pp.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Molly Fader’s The Sunshine Girls is the story of BettyKay and how five buttons purchased as a practical joke linked students “filled with possibility” for a lifetime.  The lives and emotional perspectives of first year nursing students and their limited social choices in the 1960’s are woven with the politics and aftermath of survivors of Viet Nam and the glittering emptiness of Hollywood.

The Sunshine Girls begins at the end: the funeral for BettyKay Beecher in 2019, Greensboro Iowa. The appearance of Hollywood star Kitty Devereaux at the visitation throws the small-town into a tizzy. Kitty quickly brings BettyKay’s adult daughters, Clara and Abbie, into her Hollywood aura to share memories of nursing school days with their mother.

Fader deftly alternates timelines between 2019 and 1967 going forward; recounting the past years from alternate points of view through the eyes of farm girl BettyKay, her roommate, Kitty Simon, and Jenny, who volunteered to serve in Viet Nam to protect her brother. Fader’s compelling prose and emotional dialogue gleams through relationships; Jenny with her dad over serving in Viet Nam, angst of sisters Clara and Abbie, and BettyKay’s revealing diary entries. Characters’ mixed feelings on the war in Viet Nam and individual relief or repercussions from decisions are disclosed to form the politically historical backdrop. Fader infuses music and movies of the times, such as Star Wars, as touchpoints for readers, adding “life twists,” as puzzle pieces fall in and out of place.  

When all five buttons are located and BettyKay’s secrets revealed, healing must take place between Kitty, Clara, and Abbie.  After exposing the truth. is reconciliation possible for The Sunshine Girls?  

Molly Fader is the author of The McAvoy Sister’s Book Of Secrets. As Molly O’Keefe she is the USA Today Bestselling author of over 50 contemporary romances. She lives in Toronto Ontario with her husband, two kids and rescue dog. http://mollyfader.com/

With Love from London by Sarah Jio

Published February 8, 2022

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/251412/with-love-from-london-by-sarah-jio/

“Sarah Jio is the #1 international, New York Times, and USA Today bestselling author of eleven novels. She is the host of the ModAboutYou podcast and also a longtime journalist who has contributed to Glamour, The New York Times, Redbook, Real Simple, O: The Oprah Magazine, Bon Appétit, Marie Claire, Self, and many other outlets, including NPR’s Morning Edition. Jio’s books have been published in more than twenty-five countries. She lives in Seattle with her husband, three young boys, three stepchildren, and two puppies.”

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

“Books have feelings. Only you can unlock them. It’s easy, though, all you have to do is read the pages.” There are plenty of feelings to unlock in With Love from London. Sarah Jio shares two love stories: one with tragic timing and one with “stardust luck.” Valentina, a librarian and bookstagrammer, arrives in London as the new proprietor of The Book Garden, previously owned by Eloise, her estranged, recently deceased mother. Sara Jio draws readers into Eloise’s dream of escaping London’s East End, her unlikely life in California, and how she “finds some semblance of life again.” After Valentina arrives in London relationships of husband/wife, parent/child, and best friends are delicately explored in years of letters, shared memories, and scavenger hunts just like her mother had created when she was a child. In this dual timeline, themes of friendship and family inspire readers to examine feelings ranging from anger to understanding and from pain to forgiveness. Read With Love from London with anticipation of healing, revelations, and a new lease on life!

The Lily Garden by Barbara Josselsohn

Books by Barbara Josselsohn -The Lily Garden, Publishing July 2, 2021

Barbara Josselsohn grew up on Long Island and lived for several years in her beloved New York City before moving to the northern suburbs. She began her career as a business journalist and then turned her attention to her first love, fiction. Her novels include THE LILAC HOUSE, THE LAST DREAMER, and THE BLUEBELL GIRLS, and has two more novels slated for release in 2021.

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

“Cross that bridge when you get to it.” Seems like good advice, but not in the case of Caroline. She’s waited thirty years to return to her hometown of Lake Summers and she might be too late to save the Lily Garden. Caroline, a Chicago businesswoman and her college bound daughter, Lee, had scheduled a college tour when Caroline got word that due to a library expansion the garden her mother had created behind the library was to be razed. Caroline’s parents had met, fallen in love, and lived in Lake Summers. The beautiful, wildflower garden behind the library was where Caroline spent many idyllic hours watching and helping her mom.  

In The Lily Garden, Barbara Josselsohn weaves Caroline’s fondest and most fearful memories with her present-day turmoil. Caroline has lived with her Aunt Risa since she was twelve and has never really felt a part of the family or the business. Now Caroline is facing feelings of resentment and anger towards her aunt and herself for not returning to Lake Summers sooner. The detailed descriptions of the Lily Garden, the trails, the sunsets and twinkling star studded evenings in Lake Summers along with nostalgic Main Street and the local business readers know from The Lilac House and The Bluebell Girls are calming and reassuring. Aaron, a new resident and history professor at the nearby college, is escaping from his own heartache and searching for solace when he winds up in Lake Summers. He falls in love with the ‘rolling sheep meadows and lush green dairy farms,” on the western edge of the Adirondack Mountains.  Aaron’s attempt to connect romance and water for his thesis adds the perfect link to the past that Caroline needs as she revisits the crumbling footbridge and the overgrown lily garden.

Barbara Josselsohn brings readers feelings from the depths of despair back to high hope as her foreshadowing of new opportunities and possibilities unfolds. Will Caroline uncover her true feelings and find her voice in time to save the lily garden and her relationships? Join Caroline and Lee as they cross the drawbridge into Lake Summers for that warm, fuzzy hometown feeling, and remember, “The garden is about history and tradition and family.”  

Now head to your local “Smoothie Dudes” for your favorite drink and settle in for a “heartwarming, summer romance.”

https://www.amazon.com/Lily-Garden-heart-warming-feel-good-romance-ebook/dp/B091HBZXLN

The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews

Mary Kay and her family divide their time between Atlanta and Tybee Island, GA, where they cook up new recipes in two restored beach homes, The Breeze Inn and Ebbtide—both named after fictional places in Mary Kay’s novels, and both available to rent through Tybee Vacation Rentals. In between cooking, spoiling her grandkids, and plotting her next novel, Mary Kay is an intrepid treasure hunter whose favorite pastime is junking and fixing up old houses. https://marykayandrews.com/

The New York Times bestselling author and Queen of the Beach Reads delivers her next page-turner for the summer.

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Add The Newcomer to a book bag, head to your favorite reading spot and be whisked from a fashionable townhouse in New York City to the Murmuring Surf Motel in Treasure Island, Florida. Secrets within secrets- that was the story of Letty’s sister, Tanya, who has been found dead in her apartment with her 4- year-old daughter wailing upstairs.  Letty and Tanya have had an “on again, off again” relationship over the years, and now Letty is on the run, having promised her sister that if anything happened, Letty would take Maya far away from NYC and Tanya’s evil Ex- Evan Wingfield.

Letty and Maya find the Murmuring Surf, a “mom & pop” motel, and are easily accepted by owner Ava and her family. The retirees and snowbirds that land like clockwork are not so ready to accept “the newcomer’ to their summer paradise. These “characters” add their own Southern wit & charm to the Surf. The fact that Ava’s handsome son Joe, is a detective for the local police force adds plenty of romantic tension, along with suspense as the mystery and detective work unfolds in the bars, bungalows, and beaches of Treasure Island. Mary Kay Andrews builds just enough trust between Letty and Ava, and enough doubt and suspicion between The Surf residents regarding “the newcomer,’ that readers will refresh drinks, ignoring a possible sunburn, to find out if Tanya’s secrets are uncovered and how Letty and Maya will spend their future with no sister and mom in the picture. What will the family photo look like?  

The Murmuring Surf will conjure images of roadside motels & beach trips in the 1950’s and ‘60’s- back before online reviews & reservations kept motels in business-where cars pulled off the highway when a VACANCY sign came into view.  Hang your own flashing “no vacancy” sign on the door and treat yourself to the first beach read of the summer.