The Summer That Made Us. Robyn Carr

Published:Harlequin - MIRA
Date: 5th September 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages:  336
Genre: Mainstream Fiction
Source: Publisher and Little Bird Publicity
Rating:
                   

For the Hempsteads, two sisters who married two brothers and had three daughters each, summers were idyllic. The women would escape the city the moment school was out to gather at the family house on Lake Waseka. The lake was a magical place, a haven where they were happy and carefree. All of their problems drifted away as the days passed in sun-dappled contentment. Until the summer that changed everything. This is now...  Torn apart, none of the Hempstead women speak of what happened that summer, and relationships between them are uneasy at best to hurtful at worst. But in the face of new challenges, one woman is determined to draw her family together again, and the only way that can happen is to return to the lake and face the truth.

As always Robyn Carr has written a well crafted story that fully engaged me all through the book The Summer That Made Us.  It has many threads to it, many issues and themes that ebb and flow as the story unfolds.

This is a story about relationships mostly - that of sisters and cousins, plus some of the people that surround them. As it starts out it is rather obvious that you could put a capital D on dysfunctional for many but not all of the family members.

There is Lou and Jo, two sisters - once such good friends, now estranged. Two families who grew up close to each other, spending time as children at a lake house in Minnesota. Two families of thre girls each. However one summer everything turned to ruin and they never went back...

Until Meg wants to go back to that house. She is dealing with cancer, she has had her last ditch treatment and it is time to see will it work... or not. Charlie her sister wants to make that happen for her and does so. As Charlie begins her renovations there, her cousin Krista turns up, just out of prison.  We are also introduced to Hope, Krista's sister and all is not right in the state of Denmark for sure in her life. 

We see things from all their points of view which does help  me the reader be sympathetic towards them and to wish the best for them. I am not always engaged by so many characters in one book with issues and things to deal with. But the fact that they are all related and have been affected by the same family dynamics and tragedy, pulled me in. It perhaps lost a little though in the focus being on so many, not much, just a tad, it left me feeling a little distant from the full emotion of the characters.

Each woman grapples with her own life, moving towards resolution, new hope, forgiveness and healing in various forms as the story is retold and understood.  Another well told story from Robyn Carr.

Robyn Carr is an award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 50 novels, including the critically acclaimed Virgin River and Thunder Point series, as well as highly praised women’s fiction titles such as Four Friends, What We Find, and The Life She Wants. Robyn has won a RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America, and in 2016 she was awarded RWA’s Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the genre. Her novels have been translated into 19 languages in 30 countries. Originally from Minnesota, Robyn now resides in Henderson, Nevada, with her aviator husband; they have two grown children. When she isn’t writing, Robyn puts her energy into community service: she has mentored a seniors’ memoir-writing group, attends book club chats in and out of state whenever possible, and is working with her local library on the Carr Chat Series, a program centered on fundraising and visiting author events that bring writers, their books, and the community together.

Something Like Happy. Eva Woods

Published: Harlequin - Graydon House
Date: 5th September 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 384
Genre: Mainstream Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley and Little Bird Publicity
Rating:
        

Annie Hebden is stuck. Stuck in her boring job, with her irritating roommate, in a life no thirty-five-year-old would want. But deep down, Annie is still mourning the terrible loss that tore a hole through the perfect existence she'd once taken for granted—and hiding away is safer than remembering what used to be. Until she meets the eccentric Polly Leonard.

Bright, bubbly, intrusive Polly is everything Annie doesn't want in a friend. But Polly is determined to finally wake Annie up to life. Because if recent events have taught Polly anything, it's that your time is too short to waste a single day—which is why she wants Annie to join her on a mission…

Something Like Happy could have been a sad, emotional read, and to some extent it is, however it is also enchanting and uplifting. 

Annie has gone through a lot and really is in a dark place, she struggles through each day not really caring.  And to make matters worse Annie's mother doesn't recognise her as she has early onset Alzheimers. Until one day she meets up with the inimitable Polly. Polly who is keen to live one hundred days doing something happy every day. However Polly has a journey to make as well - she has a brain tumour that means she on some level knows her days are short.

Polly is quite madcap, yet it turns out she is the best thing out for Annie. Through her Annie begins to come back to life while it slowly ebbs from Polly. The things they do are mostly simple but the proof is in the changes that come into Annie's life. And for Polly she has a new found friend who stays with her in her bid to live out her last days fully. They make a formidable team.

Much of the story takes place in a hospital and we meet the chocolate loving, Scottish doctor - Dr. Max and another one who seems serious but when you scrape the surface has his own burdens to carry. Polly has a brother George and Annie has a flatmate - Costas, both characters who come to life and are very much part of the story. 

For me this book worked. At one point I wondered if  I would keep going as I have a sister with a brain tumour so it felt a little close to home, however the story is told with the right amount of irreverence, compassion and love that it became a celebration of life and the reminder that each of us have  a limited time in which we can choose to live all the sad and happy moments of life with whole heartedness.

Indigo Lake Jodi Thomas

From the Pen of Jodi Thomas.

The two main characters in INDIGO LAKE came from two different worlds.  Blade had no family who cares about him and Dakota was sometimes smothered in her responsibilities.  Both were looking for someone, the right person, to fill the longing, but neither would admit it.

Dakota Davis had heard her grandmother's dark stories about the Hamilton house all her life.  When she turned off the county road heading toward home, she thought she was seeing a ghost standing knee-deep in Indigo Lake.

Blade Hamilton had inherited a house he cared nothing about.  After driving all day to look at it, he'd decided to sell it all, land, house and heritage.  He hadn't known about his father and he didn't need an old crippled house with wild roses growing almost to the roof.

As they get to know one another they begin to care and the love they share seems to cut their problems in half.

I love writing stories about people who become so real to me that I wake up nights worrying about them.  That's how it was with Blade and Dakota.  And Dakota's sister was too good a character to let her story end so she will be the star of her own Christmas short story in October.

Good news for Ransom Canyon fans: WINTER’S CAMP is included in the back of INDIGO LAKE!

Hope you enjoy both,

Jodi Thomas 

http://www.jodithomas.com/

www.facebook.com/jodithomasauthor

www.twitter.com/jodithomas/

Published: Harlequin
Date: 18th July 2017
Format:e-ARC
Pages: 432
Genre: Western Romance
Source: Publisher via NG
Rating:
            

Blade Hamilton is the last of his line. He's never even heard of Crossroads, Texas, until he inherits land there. Riding in on his vintage Harley-Davidson, Blade finds a weathered ranch house, an empty prairie and a dark river that cuts a decisive path between the Hamiltons' land and that of their estranged neighborsWhen Dakota helps a stranger on the roadside, she isn't prepared for the charisma of the man on the motorbike—or for the last name he bears: Hamilton, of her family's sworn enemies.

Lauren Brigman feels adrift. Unhappy in work and unlucky in love, she knows she ought to be striving for more, but she's never truly at peace unless she's at home in Crossroads. If the wider world can't satisfy her, is home truly where her heart is?

Indigo Lake by Jodi Thomas is #6 in the Ransom Canyon series, and what can I say but that I loved this visit to Crossroads Texas. Its another one of those places I'd love to live or ... at least visit.

We have ourselves a bit of feud between the  Hamilton and Davis family, it seems there has been some bad blood in the past and if Grandmother is to be believed its best that they don't approach each other. However Blade really likes the pint sized Dakota and if anything he is about to put that feud to bed.

We also catch up with Lauren and Lucas and Tim and that other one Ryan, all linked together by a happening when they were teens. We've watched the attraction between Lucas and Lauren wax and wane, and wondered whether they will ever find their way together. Plus Tim and Lauren are best friends and might even enjoy sleeping with each other. I ask you! Where is all this going!

Something very fishy is going on at Ryan's ranch, there a few bodies and something that just does not seem right. Dan Brigman is sheriff and he wants to find out just what it is.  So before we know it Blade is sworn in as a deputy with little pay and an eighteen hour day or more. 

This is a place where you can expect shootings and danger. We're talking a good cowboy story. Where people are locked up in the local jail for their own safety and the town looks after them. 

I loved the humor and the turn of phrase that makes this series so fun to read. All that I expected was there. I was just sorry I couldn't get to visit with all the beloved people of the town, but I hope to make the acquaintance of some of them next time. There sure needs to be a #7 and more!

And delighted to see that Jodi says she is going to have a story for Dakota's sister, who happens to be blind. Yay. Going to be an October happy read.

Some Kind of Wonderful. Sarah Morgan

Some Kind of Wonderful
Sarah Morgan
Published: Harlequin
Date: 29th December
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 384
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source:Publisher via NetGalley


In Some Kind of Wonderful, Sarah Morgan returns us to Puffin Island for the second story in this series.  This time she takes up the story of Brittany  - an archaeologist returning to Puffin Island with broken wrist after falling into a hole because she was laughing so much. The Islanders are sympathetic towards her because Zack is back around the island, and they show it in their usual nosey but caring way. Zack and Brittany were married when she was eighteen. But only for ten days and then he walked out with a note on the pillowcase.

The Islanders are sympathetic towards her because Zack is back around the island, the man she was married to for ten days and then he walked out with a note on the pillowcase.

Zach's early story drew me in, he was a poor abused kid, then Philip and his wife, who run the Puffin Island Camp took him on when he fell in love with flying, after Philip took him up in a plane. Zach has been touchy about others pitying him. He has learned that he can only rely on himself and that he can neither trust others nor himself to be worthy of trust. However he has set up a lucrative business for himself plus he helps out at the camp.

I loved how the story developed, with Brittany now ten years older and wiser. With Zach showing his true self, and his kind caring ways with children and animals. And ultimately his growth as the story progresses until he is at a place where he is ready to take the necessary steps to make a lot of people very happy, including himself.

Puffin Island is a delightful place, full of community spirit and beautiful beaches and forest. It's a place any reader would most likely love to visit and even live. Sarah Morgan writes well, her small community romance stories are fast becoming one of my top favourites.