Review: "Mothers and Daughters" by Rae Meadows

Description from the publisher's website:

"Samantha is lost in the joys of new motherhood—the softness of her eight-month-old daughter's skin, the lovely weight of her child in her arms—but in trading her artistic dreams to care for her child, Sam worries she's lost something of herself. And she is still mourning another loss: her mother, Iris, died just one year ago.

When a box of Iris's belongings arrives on Sam's doorstep, she discovers links to pieces of her family history but is puzzled by much of the information the box contains. She learns that her grandmother Violet left New York City as an eleven-year-old girl, traveling by herself to the Midwest in search of a better life. But what was Violet's real reason for leaving? And how could she have made that trip alone at such a tender age?

In confronting secrets from her family's past, Sam comes to terms with deep secrets from her own. Moving back and forth in time between the stories of Sam, Violet, and Iris, Mothers and Daughters is the spellbinding tale of three remarkable women connected across a century by the complex wonder of motherhood."

I remember receiving this one in the mail as a "surprise" review copy. It's not often that I receive a surprise book and am quite this excited to receive it. I had seen Mothers and Daughters appearing in other blogger's mailboxes and was hoping that I would receive one as well. The cover is vibrantly beautiful and I really enjoy books focused on motherhood and how our world changes as we enlarge it to include our offspring.

I really enjoyed Mothers and Daughters. There was something magical about the way in which Samantha, a new mother, learns about her family history despite the fact that her mother has passed. I thought that was really well done. Samantha was mourning the loss of her mother and being able to discover more about her family history gave her a new connection to the mother that she had lost and was so desperately missing.

This is a fantastic choice for those who enjoy women's fiction with a little mystery and history thrown in for good measure. I enjoyed the way that the narratives, those from both the past and the present, wove together and were formed into a complete story. The ending was great and left a little room for my imagination to continue on with the story, a feature that I enjoy. My thanks to Henry Holt and Co. for sending me this review copy.

Review: "Homecoming" by Cathy Kelly

I generally prefer to write my own book descriptions, but this one says it better than I could, so this is borrowed from the publisher's website:

"Eleanor Levine left Ireland seventy years ago with little more than a suitcase and her mother's handwritten recipe book. Now, a lifetime later, she's returning from New York with hard won wisdom and memories of her own. A renowned psychoanalyst, Eleanor knows there's one final journey she has to make...

Lovely young actress Megan Bouchier didn't have to chase success - it arrived effortlessly. Fame was what she always wanted until a disastrous affair made her the wrong kind of headlines - now Megan needs a place to hide...

Darkly beautiful Rae is a wonderful wife, a loyal friend and a dedicated community carer. From Titania's Tea Rooms she dispenses tea and sympathy to everyone - until a painful secret from her past threatens everything she holds dear.

Big-hearted teacher Connie O'Callaghan has given up on love. She's cheerfully approaching forty and besides, why does no man ever match the heroes in her beloved romantic novels?

As Eleanor re-reads her mother's comforting words and watches life unfold from her window in Dublin's pretty Golden Square, she slowly becomes drawn into the lives of Megan, Rae and Connie. But can treasured wisdom handed down from mother to daughter really be relevant today? And what are the ingredients for a life well lived?"

I generally enjoy books with multiple plot lines (think Marian Keyes, some Jill Mansell) the best, but I did have a few problems this one. Homecoming is so intent on telling these four individual's stories in completion that I found it confusing at times. I found myself flipping back and forth through the book in order to figure out what exactly was going on, and I generally don't have that problem. I also found it to be a bit long for my tastes. Once again, I generally don't have a problem with long books as long as they've captivated me, but I found that this one lagged in the middle for me.

Overall it wasn't a bad book, just a book that posed some problems for me personally. The plots and characters were interesting and I would certainly give Cathy Kelly another try in the future. Perhaps it was just this one that didn't do it for me. My thanks to HarperCollins Canada for providing me with this review copy.

Review: "The Last Will of Moira Leahy" by Therese Walsh

Maeve Leahy is a busy professor of languages at a University in New York. Scholarly and serious, she leaves little time in her life for memories and reflection, especially concerning her twin sister Moira, who she lost nine years ago.

When anonymous letters and a childhood relic that Maeve hasn't seen in years rock the foundation upon which she has built her current life, Maeve finds her long-buried memories surfacing and she finds herself travelling across the ocean in pursuit of the closure that she needs if she is going to break out of the shell that surrounds her life and truly learn to live.

The Last Will of Moira Leahy is told in two parallel narratives. One thread of the story tells of Maeve Leahy's present-day life, while the other recalls childhood memories of both Moira and Maeve. These narratives weave together seamlessly and beautifully, giving the reader a sense of Maeve's current predicaments and the background as to why she is the way that she is today.

What strikes me the most about this book is how beautifully it is written. Walsh chooses such beautiful words, such beautiful language, making this a book to be savoured slowly and read once again after you have finished it the first time. I loved how the words rolled off of the page, and I even found occasion to read some of the sentences aloud, just to hear how they sounded out loud. It's not often that I find books that are written so beautifully, so carefully, and I would recommend it on that point alone.

Walsh's book is on the reading list of Catherine McKenzie's Facebook group "I Bet We Can Make These Books Bestsellers", a group that encourages readers to come together and experience books that McKenzie feels have not received enough attention despite how good they are. I have agreed with the vast majority of her recommendations in the past and I wholeheartedly agree with this one as well.

If you're looking for a book written with the utmost of thought that has a compelling plot and an almost surreal conclusion, then I highly recommend picking up a copy of The Last Will of Moira Leahy.

Review: "A Scandalous Secret" by Jaishree Misra

Neha and Sharat appear to be the golden couple of Delhi. At first glance, they seem to have it all- money, social connections, glamour and class. The two are happily married and childless but they appear to be fulfilled. However, their picture-perfect world is about to be shattered.

When Neha was a young, naive student of 18 she became pregnant. Unable to provide for her unborn child, emotionally or financially, Neha made the decision to give the child up for adoption. She determined that she would never have contact with the child again, vowing to give her a better life. Neha has never told her secret, even to her husband, fearing that it would complicate his political aspirations, but Neha's child, Sonya, is now a full-grown woman determined to trace her roots.

Will Neha and Sharat's marriage be able to survive the revelation of this secret? And will Sonya's appearance in their lives complicate things beyond what they can handle?

Jaishree Misra has penned a poignant novel detailing both the heartbreak of giving your child up for adoption as well as how keeping secrets from your spouse can forever affect a marriage. A Scandalous Secret is women's fiction with heart. The story is well-written and captivating, and it only took me two days to read it. I enjoyed the fact that it felt realistic, that these events could be taking place anywhere in the world at this very moment. Hiding secrets from the ones that you love, even if you feel that it is for the best, is apparently universal.

Armchair travellers such as myself will enjoy this one. I really enjoyed the depictions of life in Delhi. There were so many differences between Canada and Delhi, but at the same time there are so many similarities, and I added Delhi to my list of places that I would one day want to explore when I finished reading A Scandalous Secret.

Well-written, thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable, A Scandalous Secret is a book that I can easily recommend to fans of women's fiction and armchair travellers alike. My thanks to HarperCollins UK for providing me with this review copy.

Review: "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" by Claudia Carroll

Annie and Dan were the perfect couple. Young and in love, it was always expected that the two would end up married and would live happily ever after. Fast-forward several years and Annie and Dan feel more like roommates than husband and wife. Having moved to the tiny village of Stickens right after they got married so that Dan could run his successful veterinary practice, Annie works a job that she hates and has to deal with a critical mother-in-law and a "friend" who is more like an enemy. Annie, an actress by trade, is thrilled when she learns that she has landed a role in a Broadway musical, but is less excited when she learns that it will take her away from her home and her husband for a full year as she relocates to New York City.

Does Annie and Dan's marriage have what it takes to survive a year apart, or will the end of the year find them more distant than ever?

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? is an absolutely delicious piece of British chick lit. I loved the plot, especially because it focused on the trials that real marriages between people who truly love one another go through. I love examinations of both marriage and motherhood when reading women's fiction and although there were no children involved in this book, the examination of marriage was both interesting and realistic.

Claudia Carroll writes with a skilled hand. I tend to favour British chick lit over all of the other chick lit that I read. I've loved the genre since I picked up my first Jill Mansell and I've been hooked ever since. Having devoured Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? I have found a new favourite author in Claudia Carroll. I found the book to be witty and interesting, and I took away something about the nature of relationships when I finished it.

I can highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a book that is fun yet has a substantial and interesting plot. My thanks to HarperCollins UK for providing me with this review copy!

Review: "The Queen of New Beginnings" by Erica James

I have quickly become a new fan of Erica James! Her chick lit is fun, funny, fast-paced and interesting. I found her book to be an easy read (but not unintelligent or dumbed down) and I can highly recommend her books if you're looking for something light to read over the holidays. I gravitate towards lighter reads over the holiday season because I find them easy to follow despite the fact that I seem to be doing a million other things at the same time.

What do you get when you combine a man who has been through heartbreak and is desperate to escape it all and you combine that with a woman who enjoys making herself into someone that she is not? You get The Queen of New Beginnings. After being publicly humiliated by his girlfriend and his former writing partner, Clayton Miller leaves London seeking anonymity in the country. He is in desperate need of a housekeeper to run the household and keep him out of the public eye so he quickly hires Alice, who is doing a favor for a friend by temporarily working as a housekeeper for her company. Alice, a voice over artist, enjoys creating persona's for herself as she takes on these cleaning jobs and introduces herself as Katya, a woman from Latvia.

Alice isn't the only one hiding things. It quickly becomes apparent that Clayton is hiding things about himself and his fame as well. Although the two get off to a rough start they quickly find themselves bonding in their odd situation, and Alice finds herself revealing things to Clayton about herself that she has previously kept private. The two form an unlikely friendship and their story comes to a surprising conclusion.

The Queen of New Beginnings is a fun, light, and satisfying read. I genuinely cared about each of the characters and the cast of supporting characters were interesting and lively as well. The plot was familiar in the sense that it followed a fairly typical pattern, but that made reading it all the more comforting for me. This was an enjoyable read and Erica James has an extensive back list that I will certainly be tracking down in the future.

My thanks to Sourcebooks for providing me with this review copy.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays to all of my blogging, reading, and author friends! I hope that you all enjoy your time with your family and friends!

Review: "The Bungalow" by Sarah Jio

Having loved Sarah Jio's debut novel, The Violets of March, I of course jumped at the opportunity to read her newest release, The Bungalow, ahead of publication. The Bungalow releases on December 27th, and it's the perfect gift to pick up for yourself following the holiday rush. You spent all that time cooking and shopping and wrapping and preparing, so it's time for a treat for you, right?

Sarah Jio's second novel tells the story of 21-year-old Anne. It's 1942 and war has broken out. Anne is engaged to be married to the handsome and kind Gerard. It has always been expected that Anne and Gerard would be married as soon as it was appropriate. They are both from similar backgrounds and the match is acceptable for both families. As she hears news of her friends and acquaintances enlisting and leaving to serve their countries, Anne can't help but feel that she should be doing more than just getting married and producing babies. When Anne finds out that her best friend Kitty has signed up to serve in the Army Nurse Corps in Bora-Bora, Anne decides to put her own nursing skills to use and she signs up as well.

Anne and Kitty arrive on the island and immediately begin putting their nursing skills to work. It's busy there, but Anne feels useful and manages to make the most of her days. One day she meets a mysterious soldier stationed on the island named Westry, and the two happen upon an abandoned bungalow hidden by the beach. Anne and Westry's relationship quickly develops into something deeper, and as their secret bungalow changes, so do they.

Anne is convinced that she and Westry will find some way to make their relationship work even after the war ends, but when Westry is redeployed things are forever changed between the two of them.

I was immediately surprised at how quickly I was sucked into the plot of The Bungalow. Generally I'm not one for historical fiction, but I was engrossed by this story right away. Jio incorporates a good deal of history and background about the war into her pages but the information never becomes dull or dry, and I found myself wanting to know more. The Bungalow isn't just about history, though. She incorporates romance and scandal and heartbreak into the pages, making it likely to appeal to a wide range of readers. I especially enjoyed the parts of the book that focused on the friendship between Anne and Kitty. I imagine that war would change people in unimaginable ways, and it certainly affects the relationship between these two childhood friends in ways that I wasn't expecting.

My only criticism would be that the ending wrapped up too neatly for my tastes. The conclusion was a little too coincidental for me, but that didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.

A story spanning many decades, and one that seamlessly switches between the past and the present, The Bungalow is a book that you won't want to read only once. My thanks to both the publisher and the author for sending me this review copy.

Review: "All Is Bright" and "Love, Accidentally" by Sarah Pekkanen

When Sarah Pekkanen generously offered her readers a chance to win one of 500 copies of her newly released short story, Love, Accidentally, you can bet that this book blogger was frantically waving her hand and screaming, "Pick Me! Pick Me!". I'm a huge fan of Sarah's and I'm eagerly awaiting the release of her next book, These Girls (coming in 2012 to a bookstore near you!), so I was happy to have something to tide me over until then. Since I had yet to read the short story that Sarah released last year (the latest story works independently, but complements her first one), I bought that and settled in for a good read (or two!).

All Is Bright is the story of Elise. Having recently split up with her childhood sweetheart Griffin because she loved him, but not enough, she is mourning the loss of his mother from her life. Having lost her own mother when she was young, Elise was able to depend on Griffin's mother for the comfort and support that she so desperately needed growing up, and Elise is unable to think of a future without her.

Love, Accidentally is the story of Ilsa, Griffin's new girlfriend. After a chance encounter with Griffin leads to one of the best dates of her life, Ilsa finds herself falling head over heels for him. However, will dealing with her sister's crumbling marriage and Griffin's ex-girlfriend's presence in their lives be too much for the new couple to endure?

I truly enjoyed both of these stories. They were both so well-written and I would love to see these stories weave their way into a full-length novel. My only complaint is that both were too short. I would have loved the stories to be 40 or 50 pages long each rather than the 20 or so that they both ended up being. It's not that Sarah didn't adequately tell the story in that length, because she did, but that it felt like it was over before I had gotten a chance to really get lost in it.

The real treat for me was the two-chapter teaser for These Girls included with Love, Accidentally. Reading the preview made me want to drive over to Sarah's house and wrestle a manuscript from her. She can, without a doubt, write and I'll be the chick spending all day reading it the day that it comes out.

All is Bright and Love, Accidentally are both available as eBooks right now.

Book Blogger Holiday Swap Gift Has Arrived!

When I got a package pick-up notice in the mail the other day, I was hoping that it was the package from my Book Blogger Secret Santa. I stood in an incredibly long line with a bunch of other people waiting to mail things and pick up packages and I was rewarded with a tantalizing box with my name on it! I toyed with the idea of waiting to open it until Christmas but didn't last more than 12 hours with my resolve (Hey! Give me credit! 12 hours is a long time!). Once I had the hubby packed off to work and the kids packed off to school I ripped into it, and I am so excited by what I found! Inside my package was:

Nearlyweds by Beth Kendrick (a book from my wishlist)

Your Roots Are Showing by Elise Chidley (another book that was on my wishlist)













    and The Vaccilations of Poppy Carew by Mary Wesley (different cover than the one I have here), a book that my Secret Santa enjoyed herself and that fits my love of all things British! One of the great things about the swap, in my opinion, is getting to know new bloggers and enjoying books that they have enjoyed!













My Secret Santa also included two bars of Dove chocolate (mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm), pink nail polish, and a purple bangle bracelet, things that I mentioned that I enjoyed when signing up for the swap.

My Secret Santa this year was the incredibly thoughtful Charlotte of Charlotte's Library who blogs about fantasy and science fiction books for children and teenagers. If you haven't checked out her blog yet, I would encourage you to do so! A big thank-you to her: her carefully chosen gift was a bright spot in an otherwise dull week, and she chose some great books for me despite the fact that chick lit and women's fiction are not genres that she generally reads and reviews.

If you have a Secret Santa post up, please feel free to leave the link to it in the comments. I love to see what was chosen for others as well!