This was a sweet love story, split between 18-year-old Betty set in 1951 and 84-year-old Boop in modern time. Young Betty lives with her Jewish grandparents at their South Haven resort, where she dreams of being crowned a beauty queen, going to college in NY, and having a successful career as a fashion magazine editor. But life throws her a curveball when she meets and falls in love with the handsome Abe, who could only … Read More “The Last Bathing Beauty by Amy Sue Nathan” »
If you’ve ever seen the movie Sliding Doors, then you already have an idea of how this book will play out, just with a criminal defense attorney as the main character. I really wanted to like this one more than I actually did. Lila Bennett, a wildly successful criminal defense attorney, has a husband who has been depressed for years, a best friend who doesn’t know Lila is sleeping with her husband Sam, and a … Read More “The Two Lila Bennetts by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke” »
I don’t usually read much Holocaust-related fiction, especially since I’ve read so many real, first-hand accounts in diaries, memoirs, etc. And — mostly since I’ve had my own children — it’s just not something I usually gravitate toward anymore. But I’m glad I didn’t realize that this book had so much of that because I would have missed this one and it was so good. I can’t recommend it enough. So far, it has an … Read More “Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees” »
I really struggled with the characters and their decisions in this book, but I really enjoyed the story itself, along with the writing. Rachel has a whirlwind romance with Dhruv and after eloping, moves to Mumbai (from New York.) While there, she experiences culture shock to the extreme, and even more so when her mother-in-law Swati arrives unexpectedly to move in with them, and Dhruv doesn’t stop her even though Rachel has absolutely no interest … Read More “Mother Land by Leah Franqui” »
This one sat on my shelf for a while, and I struggled to pick it up, but I should have started it the day I received it since so far it’s in my top three books published in 2020! This book begins in 1947, when Janey Everett, war photojournalist confronts Irene Lindquist (aka Irene Foster) in Hawaii, a famous pilot who went missing on an around-the-world flight. Janey is writing a book about Sam Mallory … Read More “Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams” »