It’s not often that I finish a story with multiple primary characters and feel satisfied that I know each of them as well as I’d like, but Jodi Thomas more than delivers the goods in The Widows of Wichita County. When an oil rig explosion in Clifton Creek, Texas, leaves only one survivor, too badly…
When they were girls, Kate, Ashley and Caroline McKenna made headlines with their father Duncan when they sailed around the world and won a prestigious race. The eight years since have been less successful for the McKenna family. Duncan is an alcoholic who lost the family boat. The youngest daughter, Caroline, is a wild child,…
I’d been curious about Marian Keyes for a while but I wasn’t curious enough to try her books on my own – I waited until one came up for review. My curiosity is assuaged but by no means satisfied. This boring story of a woman’s struggle to put her life back together went nowhere fast….
Since I often find the plots to be long and terribly slow-moving and the characterization to be both flat and unrealistically glamorous, the family saga is usually one of my least favorite forms of fiction. Sheltering Rain, a debut novel from the United Kingdom, is blessedly different. Joy, her daughter Kate, and her 16-year-old granddaughter…
I feel cheated. Between Sisters started off boring, but I held out hope that there might be some meaty, emotional issues to make the boring stuff worth it. Nope, just a little emotional manipulation and a convenient miracle. I could read Catherine Anderson for that. Divorce attorney Meghan Dontess is the best at what she…
Laura Wolf debuted in the burgeoning chick-lit field last year with Diary of a Mad Bride. The heroine of that book, Amy Thomas Stewart, returns in Mad Mom-to-Be, again clutching a definitive guidebook in one hand and an endless to-do list in the other, her often-befuddled husband, relatives and friends trailing behind. Recovered from the…
Slow Hands is the debut novel of playwright Lynne Kaufman, whose uncluttered prose and unique voice make her a welcome addition to contemporary women’s fiction. Sara Russack acts as narrator; she is a marriage and family counselor with an established practice in San Francisco and specializes in women’s issues. Sara is at an impasse with…
Emilie Richards’ The Parting Glass, sequel to Whiskey Island, continues the story of the three Donaghue sisters. While it’s not as enthralling as the earlier book, it’s a good, as well as surprising, follow-up. The Parting Glass picks up very near where Whiskey Island left off. Megan Donaghue is preparing to marry her fiancée, Niccolo…
The Last of the Honky Tonk Angels is a true sequel to The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch in that the action of the story picks up right where the first one left off in Mooney, Texas. Since I very much enjoyed Lucy Hatch I was eagerly anticipating the sequel. I’m pleased to say that…
Since I have enjoyed Robyn Carr in the past, I have much of her backlist in the TBR pile. Down by the River is the first book I’ve read in her Grace Valley series, and though it was pleasant, I didn’t feel like I really got to know any of the characters very intimately. I…
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