While there was some suspense in this book, I felt a lot of it was predictable, and I often just couldn’t figure out why the characters would actually do what they did. Hannah returns to her hometown for the funeral of her older sister April, who dies by suicide in the first chapter of the book. Hannah is accompanied by her husband, Will, who is also April’s ex-boyfriend, and their daughter, Eva. While at the … Read More “In My Wake by Ruth Harrow” »
This was the second novel I’ve read by Barbara O’Neal, and while I liked When We Believed in Mermaids more, I still enjoyed this one. Set in a small village in Devon, England, four generations of women in one family — Lillian, Poppy, Zoe, and Isabel — try to heal from each other’s actions and flaws, while trying to find Diana, Zoe’s best friend from childhood, who had gone missing. Told in chapters alternating between … Read More “The Lost Girls of Devon by Barbara O’Neal” »
Over and over again, Lake Union Publishing releases books that I really enjoy and want to recommend to others, and The House at Mermaid’s Cove continues this pattern. Set in WWII, Alice washes ashore in Cornwall after her Ireland-bound ship is torpedoed by the Germans. Jack, the lord of the nearby manor rescues her, but doesn’t have completely selfless intentions… Not only is this a slow burning love story, but it’s a story about the … Read More “The House at Mermaid’s Cove by Lindsay Jayne Ashford” »
I’ve read a number of Alison Weir’s books (nonfiction and historical fiction,) and while I didn’t like this one as much as her previous ones in this series, it was still an enjoyable read. Katheryn Howard is just 19 when she becomes Henry VIII’s fifth wife, fated to be beheaded by the age of 21. A decent portion of this book, though, is focused on her life before she became queen, when she was a … Read More “Katheryn Howard, the Scandalous Queen by Allison Weir” »
What a fun piece of British chick lit! Nina is a soon-to-be-out-of-work librarian who takes the plunge, leaves city life behind for Scotland, and opens her own traveling bookstore in a big van that she can barely handle driving. And, of course, there are love interests and a best friend and other people who she helps along the way. After reading a very serious, sad book, I think I was in the right frame of … Read More “The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan” »