Tag: womensfiction

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#BookReview: The Bookshop By The Bay by Pamela Kelly

To Mothers And Daughters And Best Friends Forever! Yes, the title is a line from near the end of the book. But I thought it summed up the book quite well – this is ultimately a story of girl power, of friends and family and the family you choose. It is a lighter-side Hallmarkie type tale where there is some amount of drama, but most of the tale is women finding their paths at various ages and stages of life. Yes, there is some romance here (though with no sex scenes, for the clean/ sweet crowd), but really the focus really is squarely on the various women at hand. While the men are never *quite* caricatures, there is certainly a fair amount lacking in their characterizations and indeed even ultimate importance to the story, but that is perhaps to be expected with the type of tale crafted here. Foodies – and those aware that Kelley has written at least two fiction tales specifically about a restaurant – will love the descriptions of the meals and drinks here. This is clearly designed, from its storytelling to its cover to even its early June release date, to be designated a “beach read”, and it absolutely feels comfortable in that type of space. Very much recommended.

This review of The Bookshop By The Bay by Pamela Kelly was originally written on January 1, 2023.

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#BookReview: Snap Out Of It by Maddie Dawson

Perfect Example Of A ‘Maddie Dawson Book’. This book really is a perfect exemplar of Maddie Dawson’s tales and style of storytelling. You’ve got a perfectly imperfect character, this time pushing Senior Discount age. You’ve got the dose of magic. You’ve got the hilarious and zany “wtf” moments. You’ve got the various family and friend and business dynamics that are all wholesome yet with their own dramas. In a real world so full of so much death and strife and destruction and turmoil, Dawson’s books are always a great escape and a solid respite from all of that, and this one is no exception to this rule. That it is timed to release at the New Year is perfect with its particular themes and actions. Overall truly an excellent departure from so much of both reality and even many books, and very much recommended.

This review of Snap Out Of It by Maddie Dawson was originally written on December 17, 2022.

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#BookReview: Welcome Aboard by Jessie Newton, Tammy L. Grace, Ev Bishop, Kay Bratt, Violet Howe, Judith Keim, Patricia Sands, and Elizabeth Bromke

Solid Series Introduction. This is an introductory book to a very loosely coupled set of tales of middle aged women going on cruises for various reasons, written by a swath of women’s fiction authors. Here, we get the prologue – essentially the “inciting incident”, to use technical terms – for each of the eight actual tales in the series. And each one completely works, in its own ways. I truly want to see how each of these stories play out, and I’m glad that they’ll all release within a couple of months of each other, essentially one every couple of weeks or so, as that makes it quite easy indeed to finish one right as the next one releases. 😀 I’ve read a few of these authors before (Bratt, Keim, Bromke) and *know* how good storytellers these ladies are. I’m trusting that the company they keep is equally strong, and based on the prologues in this collection I’m expecting that my trust is well placed indeed. And yet the loosely coupled nature of this collection means that if you read this particular book and find that one or another tale doesn’t quite strike you… you lose nothing in skipping that particular book. So get this one, read it – and get ready for some great tales on the high seas. Very much recommended.

This review of Welcome Aboard by Jessie Newton, Tammy L. Grace, Ev Bishop, Kay Bratt, Violet Howe, Judith Keim, Patricia Sands, and Elizabeth Bromke was originally written on December 11, 2022.

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#BookReview: My Husband’s Lover by Jess Ryder

Solid Mystery/ Suspense. This is an interesting tale told mostly from the perspective of a wife whose husband had informed her (before the events of this book) that he had had an affair – and now she’s trying to pick up the pieces of her life. The other perspective we (sporadically) get is mysterious… until it outs itself in a rather shocking twist. Ryder here manages to convey the isolation of her environment well – isolation that this American didn’t realize was possible at all on that particular island across the pond. And she uses this isolation well to both increase the sense of danger and to convey the emotions swirling around her central characters. Truly a solid read within its genre, and very much recommended.

This review of My Husband’s Lover by Jess Ryder was originally written on October 13, 2022.

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#BookReview: Wherever The Wind Takes Us by Kelly Harms

Discover Yourself And Push Yourself Further Than You Ever Dared. This title of this review is pretty well exactly what happens in this tale of a forty something mother finally having enough and breaking away from the only life she has known as an adult. Along the way, we get the beautiful and sometimes charming waters and towns along the US Eastern Seaboard – and a *lot* of sailing terminology. The techno-babble didn’t bother me too much as a *long* time reader of military technothrillers (where Clancy infamously spent seemingly dozens of pages on the first *nanoseconds* of a nuclear detonation in The Sum Of All Fears, among numerous other examples), but perhaps it could be more of a problem for someone whose experience is more exclusively within the women’s fiction/ romance genres (where this book squarely resides). An excellent tale that almost begs for a sequel to more fully explore the new setting the characters find themselves in at the end. Very much recommended.

This review of Wherever The Wind Takes Us by Kelly Harms was originally written on October 1, 2022.

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#BookReview: A Brighter Flame by Christine Nolfi

All Too Real Story Of Sisters And Family. Finishing this book early on my own brother’s birthday, when between the three brothers we actually have at least some similar events happening in our own lives as what the sisters go through here has been… interesting. Even for those without such a direct personal connection though, this is a strong tale of sisters, family, suppositions, realities, and learning to love and forgive even after years apart and deep misunderstandings. Yet again Nolfi does a tremendous job with the topics she chooses to write about, and while somewhat rare in some cases, everything she includes here is all too real for at least some people. This is a fictional story of real heartbreak and of real ways of finding oneself even at times when others think that you either have it all or have nothing at all, and Nolfi manages to explore these ideas with her usual skill. Yet again a great book for any readers who may be new to her, even if the ultimate topic is yet another publisher-directed fad. 🙂 (Seriously, without giving the topic at hand away, let’s just say that there have been at least a handful of books also from Amazon Publishing covering it in their own ways over the last couple of years in particular. :D) Still, read *this* one. Nolfi puts her own spin on it and really emphasizes the full family with all of its benefits and detriments, and she really pulls everything off quite well. And hey, guys… there’s even some minimal baseball in here. (Though Phillies, *really*, Christine? #GoBraves #ChopOn!) Very much recommended.

This review of A Brighter Flame by Christine Nolfi was originally written on September 20, 2022.

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#BlogTour: Snowed In For Christmas by Sarah Morgan

For this blog tour we’re looking at Sarah Morgan’s seeming annual Christmas story, this time a Hallmarkie type tale set primarily in Scotland. For this blog tour we’re looking at Snowed In For Christmas by Sarah Morgan.

Here’s what I had to say about it on Goodreads:

Hallmark Scottish Christmas. Let’s be real here, this book is essentially a Hallmark Christmas movie set in Scotland. How you feel about the entire tale will likely be pretty close to how you feel about the sentence prior to this one in this review. There are three different romance tales at play here, between each of three siblings – Ross being the sacrificial lamb with a made up girlfriend to distract his parents from his sisters’ issues but who becomes all too real, Alice with an all too real fiancee, and Clemmie with plans of her own… who then has her own story from there. Along the way we also get to see the conflict between Ross and his dad, both of them successful businessmen who love to talk about anything *other* than business with each other. Ultimately, Morgan weaves her magic and makes all of this work quite well – if pretty much exactly within the Hallmarkie mold. Still, this is yet another solid hit for Morgan, and exactly how good of a hit really depends on exactly what the reader themselves feel about this type of story – Morgan’s bread and butter. I happened to think it worked quite well, and it is very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book description, author bio, and social media and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: Snowed In For Christmas by Sarah Morgan”

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#BookReview: Take It From Me by Jamie Beck

They Say To ‘Write What You Know’… In this tale, Beck does an excellent job showing a middle aged mother struggling with empty nest syndrome (though this term is never really used in the book) and a new neighbor who is secretly a very feminist-forward progressive who also happens to be a struggling author in hiding. Beck is, herself, a middle aged mother whose children have left the nest and an established author who changed genres just a few years ago from romance to women’s fiction. As someone who has previously reviewed her books before and after that shift, she has proven herself to be an equally strong storyteller in either space. Here she manages to wrap different aspects of her own (publicly discussed) life into a compelling tale that also shows some other clear real-world correlations, with other recent books from Amazon Publishing – including at least The Magic Of Found Objects by Maddie Dawson and Other People’s Things by Kerry Anne King – also spinning their own tales around the common theme of ‘humanizing’ kleptomania. Beck weaves her own tale here and shows both common aspects (shame, fear of being misunderstood, etc) across the other books as well as her own distinct aspects (how it can impact a long term marriage, young adult children, etc) and again, shows her own skill as a storyteller in the process. As a long time reader of both Beck and Amazon Publishing in general, this was thus quite intriguing in many ways – though even someone who doesn’t have that experience will find a well written, compelling tale here. Truly an excellent work, and an solid representation of Beck’s style for any readers who may be new to her work. Very much recommended.

*Note: To be clear, I am not claiming that *every* aspect of these characters is inspired by the author’s real life. Only that the broadest outlines – middle aged mother whose kids have left home and an author who has direct insight into the “real world” of publishing – echo what Beck has herself publicly discussed being.

This review of Take It From Me by Jamie Beck was originally written on September 18, 2022.

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#BlogTour: A Secret In The Family by Leah Mercer

For this blog tour we’re looking at a great bit of escapist fiction that starts quite slow but becomes quite explosive in the end. For this blog tour we’re looking at A Secret In The Family by Leah Mercer.

Here’s what I had to say on Goodreads:

Slow Burn That Becomes Explosive. This is one of those books that starts out quite slow – we don’t even really get a hint of the overall mystery until around the 25 – 33% mark – but then builds out to become quite explosive indeed. And when you think you have it all figured out… well, you might have most of the general idea… but there are still some shocking particulars to come. Overall a decent book of this author’s style, it could potentially be argued that others of her books are stronger, but this one was still completely enjoyable and a great distracting read. A perfect escape for when it seems like political ads or debate are all you see or hear across the media spectrum. Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book description, author bio, and social media and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: A Secret In The Family by Leah Mercer”

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#BookReview: Our Stolen Child by Melissa Wiesner

Heartfelt And Intriguing Tale That You Still Want To Throw Out The Nearest Window. This is truly a heartfelt and intriguing tale that explores the ethics, legalities, and emotions of both sides of an issue that is close enough to being all-too-real as to be scary. In this era of IVF, frozen eggs/ embryos, surrogate parents, and similar and related concepts, the central premise here of a lab screw up resulting in one couples’ embryo being implanted into nd successfully borne by a complete stranger… is truly scarily plausible, at minimum. Wiesner does a truly phenomenal job throughout this tale of showing the very real questions and emotions of such an issue from nearly every (female) angle – emotional, legal, ethical, relational, etc. The male characters… are a bit more one dimensional and lacking. They work well enough for the purposes of this story, but they’re never given the thought or care that the female characters are.

And yet, that isn’t what actually makes you want to throw this book out the nearest window. *That* comes from just how desperate both of these women are to have kids, that they’ll put themselves and everyone around them through such trauma and drama. I understand the perils of the childless, to a point. But as someone who is happily child *free* (yes, there is a difference – the “less” are those such as the women here that can never let go of the desire to have children, the “free” are those who have chosen to not have kids or who have embraced and celebrate that they will never have kids)… I admit that I’ll never understand the childless crowd. There is so *much* to be said about being childfree and how satisfying and fulfilling the childfree life can be, and Wiesner’s tale here shows just how fraught and horrifying the childless life can be.

But that last paragraph was a bit of a digression. Seriously, Wiesner does a phenomenal job here with the tale she has chosen to tell, to the level that it is abundantly clear that she herself is somewhere in the less/ free space or is *close* to someone who is. Very much recommended.

This review of Our Stolen Child by Melissa Wiesner was originally written on September 9, 2022.