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FictionWomen's FictionDebut Fiction

A spirited debut about starting over

Review by Meg Bowden

Life looks bleak for Mattie Wallace. Penniless and three months pregnant, she has just walked out on her deadbeat boyfriend with six trash bags in the trunk of her ’78 Malibu. With no friends, no family and now no boyfriend, she heads to the only place she can even barely call home: her ex-stepfather’s doublewide in a Pensacola trailer park. Reluctantly, he takes her in, and just as their father-daughter bond begins to rekindle, Mattie learns that her grandmother has died and the inheritance is hers to claim. She and her trash bags hit the road again, bound for her late mother’s hometown of Gandy, Oklahoma.

Like many mother-daughter relationships, Mattie and Genie’s was a complicated one. With no a biological father in the picture, her mother was the only family Mattie knew. A tight-lipped alcoholic, Gertie never divulged many details about her upbringing, which never bothered Mattie—until now. When she arrives at the unfamiliar home of a grandmother she never met, Mattie finds her mother’s old room has been untouched for nearly 35 years. In fact, Genie’s room looks just like she vanished from it without a trace, which—to Mattie’s surprise—is exactly what happened.

Much to her annoyance, Mattie finds herself unable to cash in on her inheritance as planned. She’s stuck in Gandy and forced to rely on its quirky citizens, most of whom are anything but charming. From a drunken priest to a Goth teenager, Mattie befriends some unexpected characters who help her survive until the money comes in. Soon enough, she learns that these small-town folks are more than just weird—they hold the secrets of her mother’s elusive past.

Grief, laughter, sarcasm, heartache, sadness—Melissa DeCarlo’s debut novel has it all. Starting out with light-hearted humor thanks to the narration of its spunky protagonist, The Art of Crash Landing evolves into a compelling, genuine story about a woman’s search for her identity. Though DeCarlo recounts Mattie’s many failures, regrets and yes, even a few crash landings, our heroine ultimately demonstrates an art that every human hopes to master: the art of letting go.  

Life looks bleak for Mattie Wallace. Penniless and three months pregnant, she has just walked out on her deadbeat boyfriend with six trash bags in the trunk of her ’78 Malibu.

RomanceWomen's FictionContemporary Romance

Leaving it all behind

Review by Susan Andersen

New York Times best-selling romance author Kristan Higgins branches out into women’s fiction with her latest novel, If You Only Knew. This is an engaging story of sisters Jenny and Rachel, who are forced to make difficult choices in an effort to turn their lives around.

Jenny’s marriage is over, and she knows it’s ridiculous to be constantly included in every aspect of her ex-husband’s new life with his perfect wife and the child he never had time to have with her. Yet over and over again, she finds herself unable to refuse their invitations. So she trades Manhattan for her hometown on the Hudson River. There, she’ll run her business and have the support of her older sister, Rachel, her husband and their triplet daughters.

Rachel thought she had the best of all lives. She’s a stay-at-home mom and married to the greatest guy in the world. Or so she believed until the evening she discovers another woman has been sexting her husband. He declares that the message was obviously sent to him by mistake and accuses her of jumping to conclusions, and she chooses to take his word. Deep inside, however, she knows it was no wrong number—and she is deeply infuriated. Even when she catches him with his coworker, she still can’t quite pull the plug on her marriage.

Jenny and Rachel’s relationships are littered with explosives, and they depend on each other even as they begin to learn more about their own strengths. Higgins deftly steers the reader through the landmines to the sisters’ emotionally satisfying resolutions with trademark wit and style. This is a must read for her legions of fans.

Susan Andersen is a New York Times best-selling author of more than 20 romance and romantic-suspense novels.

New York Times best-selling romance author Kristan Higgins branches into women’s fiction with her latest novel, If Only You Knew. This is an engaging story of sisters Jenny and Rachel, who are forced to make difficult choices in an effort to turn their lives around.
Women's FictionContemporary Romance

Baking up a new life

Review by Susan Andersen

Little Beach Street Bakery, the latest book by international best-selling author Jenny Colgan, begins during protagonist Polly Waterford’s darkest hour. She and her live-in boyfriend have just declared bankruptcy, and they’ve lost everything they built over the past seven years. And to top it off, the stress of it all has soured their relationship. Now Polly’s out of work and unable to afford a decent flat in her hometown of Plymouth, England. Over the protests of her best friend, she decides to rent the upper floor of a decrepit building in Cornwall’s tiny village of Mount Polbearne. The Mount, as the locals call it, is cut off from the rest of the world twice daily when high tides flood the causeway connecting it to the mainland, turning it into a temporary island.  

Polly’s new home is barely inhabitable, and although far from magically transformed after she puts some elbow grease into cleaning it up, her hard work does reveal a magical view. Hearing the rhythms of the sea and looking out upon its often-tumultuous waters make her feel calmer than she’s felt in months. Another bonus is the old-fashioned oven that provides her the opportunity to bake bread, a passion she’s ignored for far too long.

As Polly begins baking and making friends, she rediscovers the confident woman she’d forgotten she could be—and the two men who show interest in her help boost that confidence as well. The romantic element in this story feels a bit like an afterthought, and the relationship conflict could be resolved with one good conversation. But Colgan will make you laugh, and she peoples her mythical town—a fascinating, deftly built character in its own right—with an entertaining cast of quirky personalities that will have you rooting for a happy ending. Writing with warmth and empathy, Colgan’s crafted a story that will make readers whip through the pages in their sprint toward the makes-you-sigh-with-satisfaction conclusion.

Susan Andersen is a New York Times bestselling author of twenty-plus romance and romantic suspense novels.

International best-selling author Jenny Colgan’s latest book, Little Beach Street Bakery, begins during protagonist Polly Waterford’s darkest hour. She and her live-in boyfriend have just declared bankruptcy, and they’ve lost everything they built over the past seven years. And to top it off, the stress of it all has soured their relationship as well. Now Polly’s out of work and unable to afford a decent flat in her hometown of Plymouth, England. Over the protests of her best friend, she decides to rent the upper floor of a decrepit building in Cornwall’s tiny village of Mount Polbearne. The Mount, as the locals call it, is cut off from the rest of the world twice daily when high tides flood the causeway connecting it to the mainland, turning it into a temporary island.
RomanceFictionWomen's Fiction

Second chance love

Review by Amy Garvey

Donna Kauffman takes on the theme of second chances in her satisfying new novel, Sandpiper Island, the third entry in her Bachelors of Blueberry Cove series. The result is an emotionally rich story that delivers a beautifully researched natural setting, as well as a romance.  

Delia O’Reilly has lived her whole life in the Cove, and her diner is a local hub of gossip, community and Delia’s delicious home-style cooking. More than that, it’s her bedrock. With her parents, brother and grandmother gone, Delia’s alone in the world aside from the friends and locals who have given her a place in their hearts. Now wealthy Brooks Winstock is poised to take the diner away from her, using a forgotten loophole to claim her scenic spot on the harbor for the yacht club he plans to build. Delia’s independence and resilience are legendary, but even she’s unprepared to have her entire life swept out from under her.

Years ago, Ford Maddox, then an Army Ranger, accompanied home the body of Delia’s brother, who was killed in the line of duty. But when the grim realities of military life began to gnaw at his soul, he retired to the Cove, finding comfort in coastal Maine’s majestic natural beauty—and its isolation. Now committed to an off-the-grid life, he studies the migratory patterns of various nesting populations around Sandpiper Island, just off the coast. He can handle feathered and flippered creatures just fine, but people. . . not so much.

 Learning to love, as they find out, involves being able to accept care and concern—as well as give it

But in the lovingly imagined, tight-knit community of Blueberry Cove, no one is truly alone. Ford’s sister, Grace, who moved to the Cove to renew her connection with her long-estranged brother, is also Delia’s friend—and Grace is determined help the people she cares about find happiness. With a little prodding and gentle persuasion, Ford leaves his island to find out how he can help the woman he’s never forgotten hold onto her beloved diner.

Grace’s attempt to reconnect with her brother is just one example of the second chances Kauffman offers in the novel, but Delia and Ford provide the theme’s foundation. Though linked by their mourning of Delia’s brother and the one breathtaking night of solace and passion they shared years ago, neither of them has attempted to make anything more of their relationship. Now, both have to wonder why they have never pushed their relationship farther, when the attraction and understanding between them runs so much deeper than the physical.

There’s true emotional meat to this story—both Delia and Ford are past forty, dealing not only with the choices they’ve made along the way, but the repercussions of lives lived mostly independently. Learning to love, as they find out, involves being able to accept care and concern—as well as give it—and the chance to build something together is a revelation for both of them. As usual, Kauffman’s love scenes are joyously steamy, and her dialogue is refreshingly realistic. Sandpiper Island is another keeper from an author who continues to deliver year after year. 

Amy Garvey is a freelance editor and the author of several romances and two novels for young adults. 

Donna Kauffman takes on the theme of second chances in her satisfying new novel, Sandpiper Island, the third entry in her Bachelors of Blueberry Cove series. The result is an emotionally rich story that delivers a beautifully researched natural setting, as well as a romance.
FictionWomen's FictionDebut Fiction

A fragrant family crisis

Review by Karen Ann Cullotta

In her debut novel, Season of the Dragonflies, Sarah Creech delivers a masterful portrayal of sisterly sibling rivalry, Southern style. Creech’s own experience growing up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a house brimming with women storytellers with a penchant for the mystical inspired the novel’s setting and plot, which unfolds as the latest generation of Lenore women are swept up into a fragrant family crisis.

The unflappable family matriarch, Willow, is increasingly beset by bouts of forgetfulness, while her eldest daughter, Mya, is enjoying an affair with a younger man. But the real trouble begins when Mya’s younger sister, Lucia, suddenly returns home, throwing the family dynamics asunder with the arrival of the prodigal daughter. Both Willow and Mya soon forgive her long absence from the fold, but a joy-filled family reunion is not in the cards for the Lenore women. 

As manufacturers of a secret fragrance that has magically launched the careers of famous and successful women for decades, the Lenore women are now facing a perfumery Armageddon: The rare and mystical plants that supply the perfume’s fragrant elixir are dying. To make matters worse, two of the Lenore family’s celebrity clients in Hollywood are embroiled in a bitter feud over a movie role, with one temperamental diva threatening blackmail.

While Creech’s rollicking narrative is reason enough to keep readers riveted, she also displays a gift for describing the glorious natural terrain of the Blue Ridge Mountains. But perhaps the novel’s most laudable achievement is a surprise ending, resplendent with the best and worst that life has to offer, as Creech bravely resists the temptation to pen a neatly tied conclusion to this vibrant tapestry of family love. Fans of Sarah Addison Allen and Alice Hoffman will welcome this new literary voice.

In her debut novel, Season of the Dragonflies, Sarah Creech delivers a masterly portrayal of sisterly sibling rivalry, Southern style. Creech’s own experience growing up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a house brimming with women storytellers with a penchant for the mystical inspired the novel’s setting and plot, which unfolds as the latest generation of Lenore women are swept up into a fragrant family crisis.

RomanceFictionWomen's FictionHistorical Romance

Sultry Lowcountry nights

Review by Lois Dyer

In Kim Boykin’s latest Southern-steeped novel, Palmetto Moon, a young woman struggles for independence and the right to choose her own life path in 1947 South Carolina. 

Vada Hadley is young, beautiful, college-educated and determined to choose a future that is certain to shock her very rich, privileged parents in post-war Charleston, South Carolina. Before she can move forward, however, she must summon the courage to walk away from the society wedding of the year—her own. To do so will disappoint her mother, outrage her father and deeply annoy her wealthy fiancé.

Vada decides she really has no choice but to run away—and run she does, all the way to Round O, fifty miles south of Charleston. The tiny town sits at a country crossroads, and here, Vada is offered a position as a schoolteacher. It’s the perfect place to hide from her parents and fiancé while she considers the choices before her. In this small rural community, she will make her stand for independence.

She never expected to fall in love.

Frank Darling grew up in Round O and couldn’t wait to escape into the world beyond its confines. Fate, however, had other ideas, and he finds himself caught in the dull routine of running the family diner. At 28, he sees no hope for his future—until Vada walks into the diner. One look, and he’s entranced. Vada is equally charmed by the handsome young man; his calloused hands and open, honest manner are quite different from the entitled boys in her parents’ elite social circle.

While Vada and Frank are getting to know each other, she’s also growing closer to fellow boarding house resident Claire, a widow with three adorable boys. Both women are facing cataclysmic life changes and struggling to come to terms with the choices they must make.

As Vada grows more involved with the small town’s residents, she risks exposing the secrets behind her arrival that she has yet to share. Frank, Vada and Claire each have their own untold stories, but the question is, how will they respond when each closely guarded truth is finally disclosed?

Boykin does a marvelous job of depicting life in post-war America. The details of cars, clothing, dusty country roads and small town life are evocative of the late 1940s, and the people are drawn with depth and insight. Readers will fall in love with Frank, be charmed by Vada and cheer for Claire and her boys. An extra bonus in this excellent novel is the inclusion of recipes for the mouthwatering Lowcountry food described throughout.

Lois Dyer writes from her home in Port Orchard, Washington

 

In Kim Boykin’s latest Southern-steeped novel, Palmetto Moon, a young woman struggles for independence and the right to choose her own life path in 1947 South Carolina. Vada Hadley is young, beautiful, college-educated and determined to choose a future that is certain to shock her very rich, privileged parents in post-war Charleston, South Carolina. Before she can move forward, however, she must summon the courage to walk away from the society wedding of the year—her own. To do so will disappoint her mother, outrage her father and deeply annoy her wealthy fiancé.
RomanceFictionWomen's FictionContemporary Romance

Life and love after loss

Review by Amy Garvey

Once you find true love, life is supposed to lead into a happily ever after—at least that’s what the fairy tales promise. But real life and love come with the risk of real loss, as Holly Jefferson learns just six months after her wedding. Since You’ve Been Gone is a truly bittersweet story about a second chance at love, a novel by turns charming, funny, inexpressibly sad and finally, hopeful.  

Two years after her husband Charlie’s death in an accident, Holly Jefferson is still dreaming about him—vivid, intimate dreams that become painful when she wakes to remember she’s alone. She’s carrying on as well as she can, running her bake shop, Cake, but everyone in Holly’s life agrees “as well as she can” isn’t really well enough. When she’s not working, she’s hiding out in the house she and Charlie never got to finish renovating, with their dog, Dave. The cottage is half-completed—whole rooms abandoned, undecorated and even unheated—a sad testament to the state of her life.

A single order changes everything unexpectedly. In one of the novel’s many funny scenes, Holly delivers a cake shaped like a certain part of the male anatomy to the wealthy, eccentric property baron Fergal Argyll. As infamous as Fergal’s hard-drinking, kilt-wearing antics are, his son Ciaran’s reputation as a ladies’ man is even more celebrated. Unless you’re Holly, of course, and have very little idea who either man is.

Knight’s novel explores the tender, often uncomfortable territory of life post-loss.

Knight paints a comfortably realistic picture of Holly’s life. Like any woman reeling from a loss, she’s happier replaying her own memories than she is reading the local gossip pages, but she’s also a survivor who accepts her responsibilities. Her sister is about to have her first child, which Holly is genuinely excited about, and her business partner—and her continually on-the-fritz delivery van—provide necessary reminders of life beyond her home. But Holly is uncertain that she will ever venture beyond the small world she’s managed to reconstruct. That is, until gorgeous, unattached Ciaran takes an interest in her.

Less of an “opposites attract” story than one about the very real scars most people carry in the name of love, Knight’s novel explores the tender, often uncomfortable territory of life post-loss. Is falling in love again OK—Or even possible? Can you learn to trust again when you’ve been betrayed in the most painful way? How do you honor someone’s memory without getting stuck in the past? Ciaran is the last man Holly would expect to find her attractive, but Holly is everything Ciaran’s been looking for, even if he didn’t realize it—honest, sensible, realistic, yet undoubtedly romantic about the idea of two people joining their lives forever.

Knight’s characters are all nicely rounded—Holly’s sister Martha and business partner Jesse have their own agendas even in their devotion to Holly, and Ciaran’s father is developed with remarkable sympathy and insight. As Holly begins to understand that her happiness doesn’t have to end with Charlie’s death, her struggle to accept what she wants from Ciaran—and from her life—is deftly rendered. More than a romance, Since You’ve Been Gone is a novel about loss and letting go, but also about the way love can live on when you let it.

Amy Garvey is a freelance editor and the author of several romances and two novels for young adults. 

Once you find true love, life is supposed to lead into a happily ever after—at least that’s what the fairy tales promise. But real life and love come with the risk of real loss, as Holly Jefferson learns just six months after her wedding.  Since You’ve Been Gone is a truly bittersweet story about a second chance at love, a debut novel by turns charming, funny, inexpressibly sad, and finally, hopeful.  

FictionWomen's FictionPopular Fiction

Moms behaving badly

Review by Deb Donovan

BookPage Fiction Top Pick, August 2014

Australian author Liane Moriarty portrays elementary school drama in her latest page-turner, Big Little Lies, which comes on the heels of her first U.S. bestseller, The Husband’s Secret. At Pirriwee Public School, petty jealousies and rumors all come to the surface in one “perfect storm”—otherwise known as the annual trivia night.

Amid a large cast of kindergarten parents, Moriarty focuses on three women: Madeline, not pleased she’s turning 40; Celeste, a raving beauty whose husband is obscenely wealthy; and newcomer Jane, a young single mom who just recently moved to the pristine beachside community of Pirriwee.

Madeline and her husband Ed have a daughter, Chloe, in kindergarten, and a 7-year-old son, as well as a 14-year-old daughter, Abigail, from her first marriage. Her ex-husband and his young wife, a free-spirited yoga fanatic, have a daughter who will be in Chloe’s class at Pirriwee Public, much to Madeline’s dismay. When Madeline befriends Jane and introduces her to Celeste, whose twins are also entering kindergarten at Pirriwee, the three women and their children enter what Madeline describes as “a minefield” of school politics together—one they must start navigating on the very first day.

Over the six months preceding the school’s most eventful trivia night ever, Moriarty reveals some of those politics, as well as secrets harbored by each of these women—even as they become close friends. Bullying, infidelity and more enter the picture in surprising ways, reminding readers that everyone has secrets. Moriarty has crafted a great summer read full of perceptive glimpses into the many guises of human relationships: mother-child, husband-wife (and ex-wife) and above all, the strong bond of female friendships.

RELATED CONTENT: Read a Q&A with Liane Moriarty about Big Little Lies.

This article was originally published in the August 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

 

Australian author Liane Moriarty portrays elementary school drama in her latest page-turner, Big Little Lies, which comes on the heels of her first U.S. bestseller, The Husband’s Secret. At Pirriwee Public School, petty jealousies and rumors all come to the surface in one “perfect storm”—otherwise known as the annual trivia night.
FictionWomen's Fiction

The ultimate hometown girl

Review by Hilli Levin

In the world of Texas football, team allegiances are hard-lined, and devotion runs deep. The small college town of Walker—the setting of Emily Giffin’s seventh novel, The One & Only—is no exception. Beautiful, down-to-earth Shea Rigsby is the ultimate hometown girl: She’s happily spent all of her 33 years in Walker supporting her beloved Broncos. With a messy, less than perfect family to call her own, Shea was raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the effortlessly chic and opinionated daughter of Walker’s legendary football coach, Clive Carr.

Shea has never even considered leaving home, and she’s been working in her university’s athletic department, feeding her football obsession and spending most of the last decade either in bleachers or on the sidelines. But when tragedy strikes the Carr family, Shea’s cozy, predictable life is thrown off balance, and she starts to question her trajectory for the first time.

Emboldened by the realization of her own mortality, she plucks up the courage to pursue her dream of writing, and, with a gentle nudge from Coach, makes a call to the Dallas Post. She’s offered her dream job—taking over the Walker Broncos beat, of course—yet her professional triumph is quickly overshadowed by her relationship with the stunning star quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. Though everything seems to be coming up roses, Giffin’s story soon turns to unexpectedly dark territory where emotional and domestic abuses are uncovered.

Not surprisingly, it is Giffin’s trademark honesty that makes the reader relate to and root for Shea and the rest of her female characters amongst the chaos. Shea is certainly flawed, a bit immature and often confused about what she wants out of life, but her strength is never up for debate.

The One & Only is a poignant story about growing up and into your own skin, albeit a little later in life. Shea learns to trust and follow her heart; no matter what expectations or aspirations others may have for her. Giffin makes the world of football so accessible, the reader may find themselves turning on the game after they turn the last page.

In the world of Texas football, team allegiances are hard-lined, and devotion runs deep. The small college town of Walker—the setting of Emily Giffin’s seventh novel, The One & Only—is no exception. Beautiful, down-to-earth Shea Rigsby is the ultimate hometown girl: She’s happily spent all of her 33 years in Walker supporting her beloved Broncos. With a messy, less than perfect family to call her own, Shea was raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the effortlessly chic and opinionated daughter of Walker’s legendary football coach, Clive Carr.
FictionWomen's FictionContemporary Romance

Three lives intersect at a charming Seattle yarn shop

Review by Lois Dyer

In Blossom Street Brides, beloved author Debbie Macomber returns to the thriving community of women who frequent a knitting shop on Seattle’s Blossom Street. This time around, Lydia Goetz, the owner of A Good Yarn Shop, is worried the future of her business, while newlywed Bethanne Scranton is struggling to maintain her long-distance marriage, and Lauren Elliott has just broken up with the man she was certain she would marry.

Although Lydia’s life is busy and fulfilled by her loving family and the shop she adores, sadness hovers on the horizon. Her elderly mother is growing increasingly frail, and Lydia knows their time together is running out. She’s also faced with an intriguing mystery, one that’s creating increased interest in her yarn shop. While she’s pleased with the influx of new customers curious about the mystery, she wishes she knew who started the creative knitting campaign. Could an unknown customer, her husband or perhaps a dear friend be behind it? The possibilities are endless, and putting the pieces of the puzzle together seems nearly impossible.

Longtime knitter Bethanne is a successful businesswoman, and her family is about to expand with the birth of her first grandchild. While Bethanne’s roots are sunk deep in Seattle, her new second husband Max has a thriving wine business in California. Despite their best efforts, sharing their lives with a thousand miles between them is proving increasingly difficult. Yet how can either give up a busy, successful world and move to join the other?

Lauren Elliott is 34 and fed up with waiting for her longtime boyfriend, Todd, to propose. While moving their relationship to the next level doesn’t seem to be on his radar anytime in the near future, Lauren, on the other hand, is more than ready for commitment. Even she, however, is startled by how quickly her attention is snared by another man after she’s breaks up with Todd. Rooster is nothing like Todd, and much to Lauren’s surprise, he might just be exactly what she needs—and wants.

These three women—each caught at a crossroad and all brought together by their love of knitting—find support and validation at A Good Yarn Shop. Blossom Street Brides gives Macomber fans sympathetic characters who strive to make the right choices as they cope with issues that face many of today's women. Readers will thoroughly enjoy spending time on Blossom Street once again and watching as Lydia, Bethanne and Lauren struggle to solve their problems, deal with family crises, fall in love and reach their own happy endings.

 

Lois Dyer writes from her home in Port Orchard, Washington. 

In Blossom Street Brides, beloved author Debbie Macomber returns to the thriving community of women who frequent a knitting shop on Seattle’s Blossom Street. This time around, Lydia Goetz, the owner of A Good Yarn Shop, is worried the future of her business, while newlywed Bethanne Scranton is struggling to maintain her long-distance marriage, and Lauren Elliott has just broken up with the man she was certain she would marry.

RomanceFictionWomen's Fiction

A witty tale of modern romance

Review by Amy Garvey

Getting to “happily ever after” may not be easy for characters in romance novels, but it is always guaranteed. Unfortunately, that’s far from the case in real life, of course, which is the basis for Elizabeth Maxwell’s wryly funny debut novel Happily Ever After.    

Sadie Fuller is divorced, closer to a size 14 than a size 8, and longing for lust. Not love, not anymore—she gave that up the first time the “perfect” man unceremoniously dumped her. In fact, she’s convinced that the real-life happily ever afters that she’s been writing about as a romance novelist are just a fantasy. Look at her marriage to Roger. It wasn’t bad—it produced her beloved 11-year-old daughter, Allison, and her ex is still one of her closest friends. But it certainly wasn’t perfect, since Roger eventually realized he actually prefers men. 

But Sadie’s not throwing in the towel just yet. When her sweeter romance novels start to dim in popularity, she creates a new writing persona—K.T. Briggs. Sadie’s suburban neighbors believe she’s just another stay-at-home mom who writes the occasional romance on the side. Meanwhile “K.T. Briggs” is burning up Sadie’s computer screen with the kind of steamy erotica (hilarious excerpts included!) where less is definitely more, especially when it comes to clothing and inhibitions.

Unfortunately, all those writhing, sweaty bodies only serve to remind Sadie of her own lonely bed. So, to satisfy her own needs, Sadie takes out an ad for a friend with benefits—even though she’s really just looking for some reliable no-emotions-attached bumping and grinding. The man who answers is named Jason, and if he’s no sex god, he is at least friendly, kind and punctual. For once, Sadie’s got something close to what she wants. 

That is until a heat wave coincides with two bizarre incidents—half a chapter Sadie can’t remember writing, taking the plot of K.T. Briggs’ latest novel in a startling paranormal direction, and a run-in with a confused but gorgeous man who looks suspiciously like the hero of that book, Aidan Hathaway.

This is where Maxwell takes the ideas of true love and happy endings and turns them inside out. Faced with a fictional character in her guest room, and the possibility that she may not be the only woman in Jason’s life, Sadie is suddenly confronted with the reality that romance means different things to different people—and that her own real-life romance doesn’t have to be moonlight in Paris if she really prefers snuggling on the couch in her own living room.

Maxwell takes readers on a clever, fast-paced adventure as Sadie tries to figure out how to solve the problem of the imaginary people in her very real life, all while discovering that her own happily ever after isn’t as impossible as she once believed. Sadie’s honesty about who she is and what she wants is often funny, but it’s also touching. Happily Ever After is a novel about female empowerment at its best because it reminds us that perfect love is not one-size-fits-all, and that our imperfections are so often what make us right for the people we love. 

 

Amy Garvey is a freelance editor and also the author of several romances and two novels for young adults. She lives in Pennsylvania. 

Getting to “happily ever after” may not be easy for characters in romance novels, but it is always guaranteed. Unfortunately, that’s far from the case in real life, of course, which is the basis for Elizabeth Maxwell’s wryly funny debut novel Happily Ever After.    

FictionWomen's Fiction

The perfect recipe for happy hearts

Review by Maude McDaniel

When Lavender sends out invitations to her 85th birthday bash, it’s more than just a celebration. One of the guests might be lucky enough to inherit the Lavender Honey Farm she has so laboriously carved out of her family land, and in which her nephews are not interested. With that in mind she invites three fellow food bloggers (they call themselves the “Foodie Four”) to visit and celebrate the special occasion, and each responds from the center of a complicated life.

All of the Foodie Four are smarting from the dings and arrows of inadvertent fortune. Lavender writes a three-times-a-week food blog to express her love of the land and as a forum for organic farming and animal husbandry. What she does not tell her readers is that she has begun to see ghosts of dead friends and favorite dogs among the old trees, beehives and fragrant lavender fields that are so much a part of her life’s accomplishment.

Unexpected love rears its attractive head on a weekend retreat.

Ruby is 21 and pregnant by a husband she no longer loves, and Ginny is escaping the careless cruelty of a husband who has left her behind for years. (Unlike the famous Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, she never wants to go back to Kansas!) Valerie, a widowed ballet-dancer, and her teenage daughter, Hannah, are still mourning the loss of the rest of their family in a plane crash.

Barbara O’Neal, who also writes as Ruth Wind and Barbara Samuel, has won six RITA awards for earlier books. (She’s also a former BookPage columnist.) In The All You Can Dream Buffet, O’Neal touches on such subjects as the honorable way to deal with food animals in a meat-eating civilization, and healthy vegetable consumption. Portions of the Foodies’ food blogs also appear, including a few recipes.

And, as usual, in a top-notch romance, the men are first-rate: handsome, bright guys whom any woman would be proud to attract. Unexpected love rears its attractive head as the weekend progresses and lives are changed in the pace of a few days, but maybe the blue moon has something to do with that. A quick, satisfying read is in store for all who pick up this book for a fun time and a foodie fling.

When Lavender sends out invitations to her 85th birthday bash, it’s more than just a celebration. One of the guests might be lucky enough to inherit the Lavender Honey Farm she has so laboriously carved out of her family land, and in which her nephews are not interested. With that in mind she invites three fellow food bloggers (they call themselves the “Foodie Four”) to visit and celebrate the special occasion, and each responds from the center of a complicated life.

FictionWomen's Fiction

A night to remember

Review by Megan Fishmann

Taking a page straight out of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Margaret Hawkins begins her third novel with the preparation for a dinner party. Each year, Lydia invites a group of friends over for a midwinter meal, where they devour food, sip wine and share secrets. Except this year, Lydia has the biggest secret of all. She has just been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and with only a few weeks to live, she has to share the devastating news so that she can properly say goodbye.

Each year, Lydia invites the same six women, no matter how close (or not close) they might be at the time. These include Maura, who has spent most of her life devoted to her and Lydia’s married boss; Elaine, who is bitter after having ended up alone; Celia, whose life primarily consists of waiting on her husband and teenage son; and Norris, whom Lydia continues to invite despite the fact that no one really likes her. Little do they know that this year a blizzard will force them together overnight and alter the course of their relationships.

Lydia’s Party ably addresses the question of what legacy we leave after we die. Lydia worries that she made the wrong choices: in the men she dated, the art she created and even the friendships she established. This novel is a tearjerker, but readers will find comfort in Hawkins’ sumptuous descriptions of the party preparations and the cozy winter setting. This thought-provoking new novel will please fans of authors like Elizabeth Berg—and provide plenty of fodder for book club discussion.

Taking a page straight out of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Margaret Hawkins begins her third novel with the preparation for a dinner party. Each year, Lydia invites a group of friends over for a midwinter meal, where they devour food, sip wine and share secrets. Except this year, Lydia has the biggest secret of all. She has just been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and with only a few weeks to live, she has to share the devastating news so that she can properly say goodbye.

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