Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (June 25, 2019)
Evvie is a widow and Dean Tenney is a baseball pitcher who has unexpectedly lost his arm for pitching. He rents out an apartment from Evvie to escape media attention. They become friends and begin to climb out of their disappointments into a new and loving relationship.
I picked this book because it was Jenna Bush Hager's July Book Club choice. https://www.today.com/read-with-jenna Sometimes it is fun to read along with another book club. I also caught her interview on Instagram with the author which gave me some author insights. This is a romance with a baseball theme! It is an easy read and just perfect for a summer day read. From what I remember, it was mostly closed-door romance details and little blush factor. I give it a 4 out of 4 rating.
The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Park Row; Original edition (January 29, 2019)
This is a historical fiction story about women spies during WW II. The main character has lost her husband during WW II and is struggling. She finds a suitcase in New York's Grand Central Station with some photographs and begins to investigate. Meanwhile, the story goes back to the owner of the suitcase who is a British woman who helped to train women spies to go into France for resistance missions. The story also features one of the spies, named Marie who was recruited to be a part of this spy operation. There is a lot of mystery, adventure, and danger in the story that unfolds.
I picked this book up on the cruise ship library from the cruise I took in Europe this summer when my Kindle refused to turn on... (it begin working later on). In so many of the tours I was on, I was reminded of the problems of WW II. This book also reminded me of sacrifices that many men and women have given for justice and peace. There is some blush factor in some of the romantic scenes but easy to skip over. It is easy to read and hard to put down. I give this book a 4 out of 4
The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books (July 23, 2019)
An older woman is baking pies at a nursing home in the middle of Minnesota and a Minneapolis food critic declares her pies one of the best in Minnesota. The nursing home is overrun with visitors on the days Edith is baking to the point that people are pretending to have loved ones in the home! I was hooked at this opening but was still wondering how beer was going to be a part of this story. Eventually, you read how Edith's younger, smarter, and more talented sister basically inherited the entire family farm in order to fulfill her dreams of making a beer empire. The sisters are estranged and the story goes back in forth to each of them as they struggle to make a mark in the world.
I don't drink beer and looked up a lot of things as I was reading this book. I looked up lager, stout, ale, hops and other details and I am still not sure about the differences. It really doesn't matter but I was curious. Anne B Jones from the podcast From the Front Porch recommended this book. She said..."I am a teetotaler from the south but his book made me want to go to Minnesota and drink beer." I would also add...I really want to taste the Strawberry Pie Beer! Does it even exist? I really found this book to be similar to a Fannie Flagg or Lorna Landvik book. It is charming and funny and just a great story. I highly recommend this book and loved reading it. I plan on going back and reading his book Kitchens of the Great Midwest. I rate it a 5 out of 4!
As Bright As Heaven by Susan Meissner
- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Berkley (February 6, 2018)
This is a historical fiction book about the Spanish Flu epidemic in Philadelphia in 1918. The Bright family moves to Philadelphia so that the father can be a partner and heir with his uncle in the funeral home business. The story is told chapter by chapter by the mother Pauline, and her three daughters as they share the happenings in their home and neighborhood from this historical event that killed more people than WW I did.
I couldn't put this book down and despite the fact it was set in a funeral home and was about an epidemic, I didn't find it too gruesome or depressing. Meissner is such a good storyteller and created characters that you can connect and root for. I had the feeling of ...now what am I going to read?....this was so good. I rate it a 5 out of 4!
The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (June 25, 2019)
A young single mother is struggling to make ends meet and her boyfriend's sister connects her with her friend in Scotland who runs a bookshop on a bus and needs help due to her pregnancy. She also lines up a nanny job for evenings and weekends which provides her with a place to stay. A lot of comedy results as Zoe learns how to drive a bus, deal with small towns, quirky characters, and the horrible children she is to nanny. She finds romance with her employer as she ends up being a Mary Poppins or Maria to the family who desperately needs her.
I really loved the previous book written about the beginning of the bookshop bus called The Bookshop on the Corner. This book tells the story of how Nina loses her library job and ends up buying a bus in Scotland to sell books out of. She ends up falling in love with a local sheep farmer. I think it would be OK to read The Bookshop on the Shore without reading the first Bookshop book....but I would recommend both books....so read the Corner one too!
Jenny Colgan's books have been like eating potato chips to me. I can't stop! She writes romantic comedies set in Scotland, England, or France. They are filled with quirky characters, funny situations, and the charm of living across the pond. They are not as squeaky clean as a Hallmark movie....some swear words and quick hook-ups but they are closed door for the reader. I have enjoyed the comedy, quirkiness, and settings. Jenny Colgan always describes her settings so well. I rate them all a 4 out of 4 so far!
Nina Redmond is a librarian with a gift for finding the perfect book for her readers. But can she write her own happy-ever-after?
Polly is a heartbroken young woman who turns a new page in her life . . . by becoming a baker in the town of Cornwall.
Anna Trent may be a supervisor in a chocolate factory...but that doesn't necessarily mean she knows how to make chocolate. So when a fateful accident gives her the opportunity to work at Paris's elite chocolatier Le Chapeau Chocolat, Anna expects to be outed as a fraud.
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