Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Review: The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

Publisher: Doubleday
Pages: 317
Format: book
Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.

Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she's not the only person looking for someone that they've lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.


Kritters Thoughts:  My first book of 2025 and the first book I finished in awhile due to a lot of personal things going on and boy it felt good to finish a book!  Two plotlines going on at once, so I got out a trusty notecard to take notes to make sure I knew who was who and what was what.  In 1908, Sara Harrison Shea is dealing with the death of her daughter and her and her husband Martin are barely surviving a cold January.  In the present day, 19 year old Ruthie's mother is missing and she and her younger sister are trying to find the missing clues to hopefully find her.  

The pacing of this book is what kept me going.  From chapter to chapter, I kept reading wanting to know where these two timelines would converge and when all my questions would be answered.  If the pacing of the book matters to you, I can say this one nailed it.  

BUT the reason that it only received three stars was the confusing plot - not the two timelines, but the stories within each.  With ghosts/sleepers as part of the plot, I was so lost and confused as to who was alive and dead and had to re read a few parts again and again to make sure I got all the pieces right.    

Set in snowy Vermont, I was so thankful that I picked this up in January and read it under a blanket - the perfect place to read this perfectly paced thriller.  So if ghosts and snowy vibes are your thing, then I can completely recommend this one.  And while that may not be my thing, I still want to head into Jennifer McMahon's backlist and read more of her.    

Rating: 



Monday, December 2, 2024

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.   


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.

Friday, November 29, 2024

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.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

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.  

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.

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

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.

Sunday, September 1, 2024

August

source


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
 

Friday, August 30, 2024

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.
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