Review: The Oysterville Sewing Circle

The Oysterville Sewing Circle

About the Book:

At the break of dawn, Caroline Shelby rolls into Oysterville, Washington, a tiny hamlet at the edge of the raging Pacific.

She’s come home.

Home to a place she thought she’d left forever, home of her heart and memories, but not her future. Ten years ago, Caroline launched a career in the glamorous fashion world of Manhattan. But her success in New York imploded on a wave of scandal and tragedy, forcing her to flee to the only safe place she knows.

And in the backseat of Caroline’s car are two children who were orphaned in a single chilling moment—five-year-old Addie and six-year-old Flick. She’s now their legal guardian—a role she’s not sure she’s ready for.

But the Oysterville she left behind has changed. Her siblings have their own complicated lives and her aging parents are hoping to pass on their thriving seafood restaurant to the next generation. And there’s Will Jensen, a decorated Navy SEAL who’s also returned home after being wounded overseas. Will and Caroline were forever friends as children, with the promise of something more . . . until he fell in love with Sierra, Caroline’s best friend and the most beautiful girl in town. With her modeling jobs drying up, Sierra, too, is on the cusp of reinventing herself.

Caroline returns to her favorite place: the sewing shop owned by Mrs. Lindy Bloom, the woman who inspired her and taught her to sew. There she discovers that even in an idyllic beach town, there are women living with the deepest of secrets. Thus begins the Oysterville Sewing Circle—where women can join forces to support each other through the troubles they keep hidden.

Yet just as Caroline regains her creativity and fighting spirit, and the children begin to heal from their loss, an unexpected challenge tests her courage and her heart. This time, though, Caroline is not going to run away. She’s going to stand and fight for everything—and everyone—she loves.

My Comments:

Have you ever read one of those books that just ties up too neatly?  Well, this is one of them.  While I enjoyed the story and admired a lot about Caroline, there were quite a few events in the book that made me raise my eyebrows--why in the world would any sensible person make THAT choice?  As a romance novel, I knew the ending of the Will/Caroline story right away, but some of the subplots has resolutions that I just didn't think rang true.  

Like many of Susan Wiggs' other books, this is set in a small town where everyone knows everything about everyone, or do they?  I wonder if she is setting up another series?  The setting was wonderful and I would like get better get to know some of the sewing ladies.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  B-

Review: Starlight on Willow Lake

Starlight on Willow Lake (The Lakeshore Chronicles)

About the Book:

When caregiver Faith McCallum arrives at the enchanted lakeside estate of Avalon's renowned Bellamy family, she's intent on rebuilding her shattered life and giving her two daughters a chance at a better future. But she faces a formidable challenge in the form of her stubborn and difficult new employer, Alice Bellamy. While Faith proves a worthy match for her sharp-tongued client, she often finds herself at a loss for words in the presence of Mason Bellamy—Alice's charismatic son, who clearly longs to escape the family mansion and return to his fast-paced, exciting life in Manhattan…and his beautiful, jet-setting fiancée. 

The last place Mason wants to be is a remote town in the Catskills, far from his life in the city, and Faith McCallum is supposed to be the key to his escape. Hiring the gentle-hearted yet strong-willed caregiver as a live-in nurse gives his mother companionship and Mason the freedom to return to his no-attachments routine. For Faith, it means stability for her daughters and a much-needed new home. When Faith makes a chilling discovery about Alice's accident, Mason is forced to reconsider his desire to keep everyone, including his mother, at a distance. Now he finds himself wondering if the supercharged life he's created for himself is what he truly wants…and whether exploring his past might lead to a new life—and lasting love—on the tranquil shores of Willow Lake.

My Comments:

...and they all lived happily ever after.  It is published by Harlequin, has a cover like that and is written by Susan Wiggs; of course they all lived happily ever after.  While I enjoyed the book and found it to be a heartwarming read, I have to admit that things just seemed a little too cleanly wrapped up in the end.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  B-

The Beekeeper's Ball: My Review

The Beekeeper's Ball: Bella Vista Chronicles Book 2

About the Book:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs returns to sun-drenched Bella Vista, where the land's bounty yields a rich harvest…and family secrets that have long been buried. 

Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the sleepy Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking school—a unique place for other dreamers to come and learn the culinary arts. Bella Vista's rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel's project…and the perfect place for her to forget the past. 

But Isabel's carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when swaggering, war-torn journalist Cormac O'Neill arrives to dig up old history. He's always been better at exposing the lives of others than showing his own closely guarded heart, but the pleasures of small-town life and the searing sensuality of Isabel's kitchen coax him into revealing a few truths of his own. 

The dreamy sweetness of summer is the perfect time of year for a grand family wedding and the enchanting Beekeeper's Ball, bringing emotions to a head in a story where the past and present collide to create an unexpected new future. 

From "one of the best observers of stories of the heart" (Salem Statesman-Journal), The Beekeeper's Ball is an exquisite and richly imagined novel of the secrets that keep us from finding our way, the ties binding us to family and home, and the indelible imprint love can make on the human heart.

My Comments:

I loved this one.  Isabel is about to open a cooking school on the family estate.  At the same time, her half sister, the heroine of The Apple Orchard is planning her wedding.  Thrown into the mix to keep things interesting are Cormac O'Neill, who is there to write a biography of her grandfather, who was a Danish resistance fighter during WWII and Jamie, a pregnant young woman who hires on as the beekeeper and you have the makings of a story that is more than the standard romance.  In The Apple Orchard, Isabel and Tess discover each other and they learn that their father (who neither woman knew) had been the birth son of Annelise and their grandfather, rather than the son of his mother.  In this story they learn why. We hear Isabel's grandfather tell the story of the war years and their aftermath.  We also learn that Isabel has been through battles of her own, and cheer as she sheds the shields she carries because of them.  

If it is important to you, Isabel is in bed with a man before marriage but the scene is not explicit.

I complained about the unrealistic end to The Apple Tree.  This one seemed much more realistic, but it did have one unlikely part, that is probably a cliffhanger for the next book.  We also never hear for sure what happened to Jamie's baby, so that will probably be covered in the next book too.  Still, I'm giving this one an A- and would like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  

Book Review: The Apple Orchard

The Apple Orchard

About the Book:

Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their rightful owners. People like Annelise Winther, who refuses to sell her long-gone mother's beloved necklace—despite Tess's advice. To Annelise, the jewel's value is in its memories.

But Tess's own history is filled with gaps: a father she never met, a mother who spent more time traveling than with her daughter. So Tess is shocked when she discovers the grandfather she never knew is in a coma. And that she has been named in his will to inherit half of Bella Vista, a hundred-acre apple orchard in the magical Sonoma town called Archangel.

The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen. A half sister she's never heard of.

Against the rich landscape of Bella Vista, Tess begins to discover a world filled with the simple pleasures of food and family, of the warm earth beneath her bare feet. A world where family comes first and the roots of history run deep. A place where falling in love is not only possible, but inevitable.

And in a season filled with new experiences, Tess begins to see the truth in something Annelise once told her: if you don't believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you've not made the right kind of memories.

My Comments:

For most of this book I loved it.  I loved watching Tess as she traded the convenient relationships of work for the deeper relationships of family and love. I liked the flashbacks to WWII and the 1980's.  I smiled as  Tess met and fell in love with a wonderful guy, and when she was willing to sacrifice that love for the good of a family.  However, at the end the book became very unrealistic and too many unlikely things had to happen in a short period of time for everything to work  out well.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  B

Review: Return to Willow Lake

Return to Willow Lake (The Lakeshore Chronicles)

About the Book:

Sonnet Romano’s life is almost perfect. She has the ideal career, the ideal boyfriend, and has just been offered a prestigious fellowship. There’s nothing more a woman wants – except maybe a baby…sister? When Sonnet finds out her mother is unexpectedly expecting, and that the pregnancy is high-risk, she puts everything on hold – the job, the fellowship, the boyfriend – and heads home to Avalon. Once her mom is out of danger, Sonnet intends to pick up her life where she left off. But when her mother receives a devastating diagnosis, Sonnet must decide what really matters in life, even of that means staying in Avalon and taking a job that forces her to work alongside her biggest, and maybe her sweetest, mistake – award-winning filmmaker Zach Alger. So Sonnet embarks on a summer of laughter and tears, of old dreams and new possibilities, and of finding the home of her heart. At once heartbreaking and uplifting, Return to Willow Lake plumbs the deepest corners of the human heart, exploring the bonds of family, the perils and rewards of love, and the true meaning of home. Profoundly emotional and resonant, this is Susan Wiggs at her finest.

My Comments:

What do you get when you combine the friend who is a guy with a reality tv show and a sperm donor father who is trying to manipulate you life?  In this case, you get a charming romantic novel that explores what parenting and love are all about.  Sonnet seems to have it all--the glamorous  New York City job, the handsome boyfriend, the good friend who is male, and finally, her father in her life.  Over a short period of time she gives up the job and the boyfriend and seems to lose the friend.  She is afraid of losing her mother, and finds out that her father isn't what she thought.  Working on a reality tv show with a famous star and some poor children from New York City gives her yet more food for thought.

I really liked Zach.  He seemed so comfortable in his own skin, so grown-up, so caring.  Sonnet was the opposite, always striving toward something, always trying to please others.  I liked the idea that there are those under our noses who need help and it doesn't take moving mountains to make a difference in people's lives.  

The book included pre-marital intimate scenes but they weren't terribly graphic.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  B.  

Summer at Willow Lake

Summer at Willow Lake (The Lakeshore Chronicles)

About the Book:

Olivia Bellamy has traded her trendy Manhattan life for a summer renovating her family's crumbling holiday resort. Tempted by the hazy, nostalgic memories of summers past - childhood innocence and the romance and rivalries of her teens - it's the perfect place to flee after her broken engagement. But what began as an escape may just be a new beginning...As Olivia uncovers secrets buried thick with dust, one by one her family return, their lives as frayed at the edges as the resort. Her father and the mystery woman in the tattered black and white photograph. Uncle John, who's trying to be a father again to his teenage kids. Connor Davis, the first love she never forgot. Laughter is ringing around Willow Lake once more. This could be Olivia's summer of a lifetime!

My Comments:

I'm old.  I have to admit it, I'm old; I'm the age of the parents of romance novel heroines, not the age of the heroines.  This isn't a completely new revelation, but when reading a book with dated flashbacks, when those flashbacks take you to the ancient days of the 1970's and involve people's parents, well, it sort of reminds me that even though I have a seven year old, I'm not as young as I used to be.

Summer at Willow Lake  features Olivia and Connor, a couple in their late twenties in 2006.  They met at her grandparent's summer camp where they were both campers, and later, counselors.  She was from a family with money, and was the granddaughter of the owners.  He was there on scholarship, the son of the alcoholic caretaker.  He was the handsome heart throb of every female his age; she was overweight and insecure and never really fit in.  Somehow they became friends and stayed that way, until that final summer. 

Ten years later, the camp has been closed for some time and she has just ended her third engagement.  Her career is "fluffing houses", staging them for sale.  Her grandmother asks her to refurbish the camp, which has been mothballed for almost ten years, in time for her fiftieth wedding anniversary.  It just so happens that the only contractor in town is Connor.  

Besides Olivia and Connor's romance, we learn of Olivia's father's first romance and see the beginnings of the romance of Daisy (see my review of Marrying Daisy Bellamy) and of Olivia's cousin Dare.  

I found the story to be enjoyable but the setting implausible.  The summer camp has been out of business for ten years, but all the equipment is in good shape, all it needs is cleaning.  While Grandma had other plans for the property, Daisy believed her when she said she wanted it refurbished for a party--and this was a big operation, we aren't talking about a small amount of money.  

The book contains several intimate scenes that happen outside of marriage.  We watch them undress,but after that we have to use our imaginations about what happened. 

The book is the first in a series and as such we are treated to teasers about a lot of people, though Olivia and Connor get their happily ever after in this book.  

Because of the implausibility of some of the setting, I'l give the book a B. 

My copy was a freebie from Amazon but it's not free now.  

Book Review: Marrying Daisy Bellamy

Marrying Daisy Bellamy (The Lakeshore Chronicles)

About the Book: Daisy Bellamy has struggled for years to choose between two men—one honorable and steady, one wild and untethered. And then, one fateful day, the decision is made for her.

Now busy with a thriving business on Willow Lake, Daisy knows she should be happy with the life she's chosen for herself and her son. But she still aches for the one thing she can't have.

Until the man once lost to her reappears, resurrected by a promise of love. And now the choice Daisy thought was behind her is the hardest one she'll ever face….

Spoiler below

I have mixed feelings about this book.  On the one hand it was a great read with very human characters who readers really got to know in a lot of ways.  They are characters who made mistakes in life but still managed to find their way.  It is a romance novel but there is more to the plot than there is to the average romance novel.  

Spoiler:  What I didn't like about the book was a divorce that happened not because two people hated each other, not because one had done something unforgeable, not because family was pulling them apart, not even because an old flame returned to her life; no a divorce happened to the parents of a young child because they just lacked that spark they thought they should feel.  Maybe I'm lucky, having such a wonderful husband and all that, but I think one thing wrong with our society today is that too many people are chasing the greater happiness they think they could have if they would only.....and not making themselves and their families happy where they are.

If such things are important to you, it is noted a couple of times that characters had sex, but it wasn't graphic.  

Grade:  B-

Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley.