Category: Romance

It is fun to find a new series and immerse yourself in it for a couple of days, which is all the time it took me to read these three books by Denise Grover Swank and Christine Gael.

The Sullivan sisters: Celia, a housewife; Stephanie, a veterinarian; and Anna, a wildlife photographer, are each at a crossroad in their lives. Celia’s husband has abruptly left, Stephanie is mourning her husband’s death in a boating accident, and unmarried Anna is finding less and less fulfillment in a job that requires constant travel. In addition, they have their widower father, Red, to contend with as he battles dementia and becomes both more cantankerous and more a danger to himself and others.

Over the course of three books we follow the sisters on their journeys of love, loss, and personal rediscovery. Celia, the sensible housewife, who has always acquiesced to her former husband, finally has the opportunity to live freely. Stephanie discovers something about her deceased husband that throws her whole marriage into suspicion. Funny, gregarious Anna, faces her own mortality. Like any siblings, they bicker and compete, but go into full-on “sister mode” when one is is trouble.

The books read like an entertaining nighttime soap, just on the fringe of reality, until the final book, which downgrades to a daytime soap with a wild, uncharacteristic ending. Despite that, they are fun and mostly well-written, with smooth transitions from one sister’s story to another. I enjoyed them. They make no apologies about being quick, light reads and in the end we should all be so lucky to come from a family that supports each other like this one.

Book 1: Finding Tomorrow

Book 2: Finding Home

Book 3: Finding Peace

8.5/10 Stars

When you enter a newsstand at an airport, one of the writers whose books you are sure to see is Carolyn Brown. Prolific, engaging, and appealing to the masses, her style is good flight reading.

Brown aims for a middle aged female audience. Her protagonists are usually women in their forties or fifties, recently divorced or widowed, and starting over. Eventually a new romance will appear and the plot will take a redemptive turn. It’s formulaic, but it works. The Family Journal is no different.

Lily is ready for a change. Her husband has left her for a more glamorous replacement. Her two kids, Holly, age fourteen, and Braeden, age twelve, are turning more and more into modern, entitled brats. (Of course, when you give them everything and spend no time with them, it’s to be expected, right?)

Lily’s solution is to uproot the kids from their Austen, Texas apartment and move them to her grandparents’ house in the small town of Comfort. The only catch is that the house has a renter, Mack Cooper, who teaches vocational agriculture at the local high school. The plan is to share the house. Mack will be downstairs and Lily and the kids will be upstairs. The kitchen and living room will be common areas.

In the house, Lily discovers an old journal with entries from several generations of female ancestors. While the book’s title is dedicated to this find, it is a small subplot, except for the fact that Lily is now creating her own destiny and will have her own entries to add.

At this point pretty much ANY prediction you can make from the start of this plot is going to materialize later in the book. You can guess how the kids are going to react after their mother moves them away from their friends, takes away all their devices, and makes them ride the bus. You can also guess what will evolve from Lily’s family moving into the house with Mack Cooper. Secondary story-lines with Lily’s ex and Mack’s narcissistic twin brother also turn out how you’d expect. A heavy dose of karma, good and bad, for everyone.

Carolyn Brown is an above average writer. The book kept my attention and there are plenty of interesting things that happen to Lily’s family. But, aside from the extreme predictability, I chafed against a couple of things. First of all, Lily and Mack keep calling her Holly and Braeden “great kids.” They are not great kids. Parents breaking up does not give kids a free pass to behave the way these kids do–unkind, selfish, whiny, and constantly asking for this and that. I couldn’t stand them. Second, I didn’t like some of the morality and language. I find that type of writing tactic to be a crutch as a way to gain a larger reading audience.

At the end, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING was wrapped up in a nice little bow. Ladies and gentleman, we’re starting our descent. Please put your seats and tray tables in an upright position and power down your electronic devices. Thank you for flying with us. (Couldn’t help it.)

8/10 Stars

Katherine Center’s sassy females are just so dang likeable! And some of these life-altering events are big, things we can only pray we never have to experience.

Our sassy female in How To Walk Away is Maggie Jacobsen. Her event is….a spoiler that I’m not going to divulge here. Let’s just say that everything was in place for her life and her future and what happens next sends those plans down in flames. (hehe)

What makes How To Walk Away a reader’s escapist delight is the journey. That journey is fun, witty, karmic, and emotional. There is something life-affirming to the style Katherine Center uses because it’s something many of us have experienced–your life is headed in one direction, gets derailed, and you end up in a better place than you could’ve imagined. And though that derailment isn’t very fun as it’s happening, the ending would not have been possible without it. When it’s all over, you’re a little stronger, a little wiser, and a lot happier–just like these characters.

I know, vaguest review ever. I’ll just conclude by saying that Maggie’s journey is worth the read. (Mine was a zippy 3 hours. I could not put the book down!)

8.5/10 Stars

Disclaimer: While sassy females are going through that process of mourning the life they knew, they sometimes get frustrated and angry. Those emotions can bring out some choice words. One particular choice word that starts with F appears about 10 times in this book. I’m very much not a fan of that language, but it’s there and it didn’t keep me from reading. Still, now you know.

I should start a new section called “unputdownables.” The Lost Husband would definitely fit into that category. Most importantly, though, I think I have found a new author whose books I want to read.

The last time I finished a book in two days was The Bette Davis Club, an unmitigated disaster, in my opinion. The Lost Husband was also quick reading, but for different reasons. No talking down to the reader, no ridiculous, selfish characters (OK, one selfish character, but she has to be selfish to assist the story.) Just an entertaining plot peppered with unpredictability that makes the reader want to return again and again.

Libby has been a young widow for three years. Two of those years have been spent living with her mother, who takes more passive-aggressive pleasure in criticizing Libby and running off to pedicure appointments than supporting her and allowing her to mourn. Libby’s two children, Abby and Theodore (Tank,) are resilient as most children are, but still fragile. Unfortunately, Libby has no other options.

Then one day, out of the blue, Libby receives a letter from Aunt Jean. She’s offering Libby room and board on her goat farm in exchange for help running the place. “Crazy Aunt Jean,” Libby’s mother’s sister of whom she has only vague memories. Most of what Libby knows about Aunt Jean comes from her mother’s venomous opinions with a hearty side dish of hatred. These sisters are the epitome of oil and water. Still…anything is better than living with her narcissistic mother, Libby decides, and one day later she’s off to a goat farm in Atwater, Texas.

The rest of the story centers around Libby’s new life in these unforeseen circumstances, the people she meets (there are some terrific supporting characters in Aunt Jean, O’Connor, and Sunshine,) and the healing process Libby is finally allowed to explore. Everyone has some secret or past challenge they are trying to overcome, allowing for extra character dimension and some interesting subplots, and no one is who they seem when Libby initially meets them. The story is told in first person, so we see everything through Libby’s eyes and feel it all through her emotions, which are relatable and authentic.

The book walks the line of “froth,” but I didn’t care. I enjoyed every minute with it and look forward to reading more from Katherine Center. Not every book has to be earth-shattering and life-changing. Some can just be good old-fashioned escapism. You’ll find that in The Lost Husband. Delightful from start to finish.

9/10 Stars

8/1/18 Here’s a fun tidbit: last night I was poking around on Goodreads and came across a Q&A section on the author’s page. I wrote that I was impressed with her comment to an aspiring writer, and quickly received 2 responses. It’s always a treat when authors interact with readers.: