The Lost Wife / Alyson Richman / 358 pages

Josef, a young man studying medicine, and Lenka, a young art student, meet and fall in love and marry in Prague shortly before World War II.  Both are Jewish.  Josef comes from a wealthy family that is able to secure passage to the United States shortly after the Nazis invade.  Lenka makes the decision to stay behind with her family and hopefully reunite safely with her husband.  The chapters alternate from Josef's and Lenka's perspectives.  Lenka's story takes us through her family's experience of being in the concentration camps.

Where the Crawdads Sing / Delia Owens / 368 pages

This is the author's first fiction book and she scores a home run with it!  It takes place in a quiet town on the coast of North Carolina.  It begins in 1969 when Chase Andrews is found dead.  Chase is a young, handsome, and popular man in town.  The suspect for the murder is Kya Clark.  Kya is nicknamed "Marsh Girl" because she grew up isolated in the marsh outside town.  The author tells the story between the present with the murder investigation and trial and the past with the childhood and growing up of Kya.  Kya's family one by one abandons her and she is left to survive on her own.  The backdrop of the marsh of North Carolina is vividly described in the book and the author makes you feel you are there.  This is not a book I would have chosen on my own, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend !!

Last Christmas in Paris / Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb / 366 pages

This story takes place in England and France during World War I.  It is written in letter correspondence form between the two main characters and also their letters to minor characters.  Evie Elliott is a young woman in England who falls in love with her brother's life long best friend Thomas Harding.  Thomas goes off to war and he and Evie correspond during the entire war.  The book is broken up into sections by the years 1914 - 1918.  Their letters change over the years and the reader sees their relationship develop from just friends to a more personal and intimate relationship.

The Kennedy Debutante / Kerri Maher / 368 pages

This book is a novel about Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, the fourth child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.  The story begins in 1938 London when Joseph Kennedy was the United States ambassador to England. Kick and her older sister, Rosemary, are presented to the Queen and Kick begins her debutante season with the upper society of London.  She meets and falls in love with Billy Hartington, the future Duke of Devonshire.  The story follows their love affair as the Kennedy family returns to The United States with war looming. A couple years later  Kick finds her way back to England and she and Billy reunite. The couple battles to overcome the differences between their religions to finally marry, which distances Kick from her family.  Just a fwe months later Billy is killed in the war.  The story ends with Kick continuing to live in England, which she calls home.  In an Author's Note the author gives a brief summary of Kick's life following the end of the novel.

Rosie Dunne/Ceclia Ahern/434 pages

Rosie Dunne's dream is to manage, and eventually, own a luxury hotel. She loves everything about the hotel experience, down to the little soaps. Her best friend since they were five is Alex. Alex's dream is to become a doctor. The friends are partners in crime growing up in Dublin until Alex's family moves to Boston for his dad's job for their senior year of high school. They remain long distance best friends via email and IM. Rosie's acceptance to Boston College to study Hotel Management and Alex's Harvard acceptance means they will be back together again until Rosie's life goes off track and keeps her in Dublin. Everyone around them seems to know they are destined to be together as more than friends, even Rosie and Alex, but the two never seem to be on the same page at the same time.


The novel is told entirely in email and IMs, birthday cards and wedding announcements. Ahern really puts the characters, especially Rosie, through the wringer. Rosie is one resilient Irish lass.

Before I Go/Colleen Oakley/312 pages

At twenty-seven, Daisy Richmond is a breast cancer survivor. She has undergone a lumpectomy, radiation and chemotherapy and came through with flying colors. But the day before her four-year "cancerversary", she receives devastating news: her cancer is back and it's spread to several other places, including her brain. With surgery to remove the tumor in her brain and the possibility of a clinical trial, she may have a little more than six months to live. Without those things, maybe four. Her most urgent concern is not of her own health or mortality, but that of her husband's future without her. First and foremost, he must graduate on time with his DVM and PhD. Second, her wonderfully intelligent but decidedly impractical husband will need a new wife to take care of him. So instead of concentrating on her own health and spending what time she has left with loved ones, Daisy goes on a hunt for Jack's new mate.


Written in a much lighter tone that the subject matter would suggest, this novel tends to skip over the physical aspects of cancer and spends much of the time in Daisy's head. Not overly sentimental, it's a decent first novel.

Of Metal and Wishes / Sarah Fine / 321 pages

Of Metal and Wishes is about this young girl, Wen, who lives and works in a slaughterhouse factory in China with her father who is the factory’s doctor.  Supposedly, the slaughterhouse is haunted by the ghost of a young boy who died on the killing floor almost a decade prior and grants wishes to those who ask (or really, deserve).  One day, Wen is humiliated by a boy from a group called the Noor (a hated lower class in China who works the dirtiest of jobs for cheap) and decides to test this so-called ghost and asks him to prove himself to her.  She learns much more than she could have ever imagined and not necessarily in a good way.  She finds out more about the “ghost,” learns her heart is not as hard as she thinks it is, and discovers more about herself than she ever thought.

The book was an interesting one… It grabbed you in the beginning then lost you closer to the middle and dragged on only to pick back up and really pull you in to the point you could not put the book down.  It can be very graphic (it is paranormal after all) but it makes the story very vivid and come to life. However, this book did not go according to how I thought it would and even the ending was somewhat surprising.

Under the Wide and Starry Sky / Nancy Horan / 496 pages / 14 discs

   How much do you really know about Robert Louis Stevenson? You probably can say he published Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but how about who or what he really was? This wonderful and engrossing novel is just the ticket. Fanny van de Grift has left her husband and taken her children to Europe. She is tired of her husband's philandering and has decided to study art in Belgium. After settling in Paris due to a misunderstanding, her life takes an abrupt turn as tragedy engulfs her family. Fanny takes her children to a quiet art community to recover where she meets a young brash Scot named Stevenson. It is this meeting that will change the course of two families and will impact the publishing world with wild adventurous tales.
   I will admit to not knowing a lot about Stevenson but this book by Horan changed a lot of my thinking. For those of you remembering how in depth her research was for Loving Frank you will not be disappointed. Fanny and Robert are good and yet bad for each other. Robert finds his muse and proves his talent for adventure tales all the while battling his fragile health. Fanny struggles to find her place besides being "Mrs. Stevenson" and fights some dark demons herself. The narrator chosen for the audio was brilliant. Kirsten Potter has a voice that just brought Fanny to life and we lived her anger, frustration and absolute joy in life. I think this would be a great book club selection but I will warn you several sections just needed a stronger editor or maybe just skip those years altogether. I can't imagine all the work Horan must have done to even get a grip on what this couple did in their life time. This is a tremendous work that will reward you and make you curious to read those adventure stories once again.

Six Degrees of Reading: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.

Bend in the Road / Nicholas Sparks 341 p.

Miles hasn't recovered from the devastating loss of his wife.  As a sheriff, he is looking more evidence solve this crime.  Through his son, Josh, he meets Sarah who also has a troubled past.  Both are cautious as their relationship grows.  Neither realize just how closely their pasts are linked.

The Last Summer: A Novel by Judith Kinghorn. 433 pages

Clarissa Granville is a young woman who has been born into money and knows where her life is headed. She is to marry and hopefully marry well. The summer of 1914 is where it all changes. She meets the only son of the housekeeper, Tom Cuthbert. Her pre-planned life isn't a sure thing anymore. Against the wishes of her mother, Clarissa begins a friendship and the two of them fall in love over the course of the summer. But the whispers of war changes the lives of the Granvilles and also the relationship between Clarissa and Tom. The two of them swear eternal love but that love will be tested again and again in the following years.
This is what I call an epic saga book. One of those that follows many characters for a large portion of their lives. The novel starts a few months before the beginning of World War I and will eventually end in 1930. There is some romance in the book but there are other social issues intertwining with the characters: Women's rights such as voting, independence from conventions, the fraying of the class structures are some of the issues that are touched on. I highly recommend this because the main heroine isn't always likeable. She is willful and some of her actions are downright questionable. But this is good. A cookie cutter female character isn't a good fit for this novel. Clarissa is a challenge to root for sometimes and the ending has a twist I didn't see coming. Excellent read for those hot summer evenings.
  6 Degrees of Reading: Summerset Abbey by T.J. Brown, The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley, Ashenden by Elizabeth Wilhide.

The Shoemaker's Wife/Adriana Trigiani/475 pages

Enza and Ciro live on the same mountain in Italy but in separate villages. Their first meeting is when Ciro is called upon to dig a grave for Enza's treasured youngest sibling, Stella. While Enza has always known the security and warmth of a big family and loving home, Ciro and his brother were raised by the nuns in the covent where their mother took them after their father died. For different reasons, they both end up going to America either to start a new life or make money for their families. Of course, they have never forgotten each other and over the course of years, they reconnect time and time again until they finally marry.

This was my book club selection for November. I can see how my tastes have changed over the years because this is a book that would have appealed to me when I was much younger. Now, the abundance of description and slow-moving storyline isn't my cup of tea. Fans of historical fiction will enjoy it.