Book Reviews

Love Letters

by Bryan Mooney

Katie Kosgrove, owner of a used bookstore, bought some boxes of books at a flea market.  However, she never thought that her purchase would change her life.

Hidden in the books were love letters from Jack to his wife.  As Katie attempts to find Jack, both of their lives transform as a result of the letters.  The truth eventually comes out of the circumstances of Jack writing the letters. 

This satisfying book leaves the reader with the awareness of the power of love.

The Photograph

By Virginia Ellis

Maddy Marshal celebrated her seventeenth birthday on December 7, 1941, the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed.  Maddy's brother, Davey, was married to Ruth who  had just suffered her second miscarriage and was gravely ill.

When the war started, Davey joined the marines leaving Ruth with Maddy and his mother in Pennsylvania.  Eight weeks later, Davey sent a telegram to Ruth from Florida where he was in training.   He had found a place for her to stay and wanted her to come to Florida and bring Maddy with her.

Soon after arriving in Florida, a group photograph was taken at a USO.  That night an unexpected misfortune occurred that changed their lives forever.  Ruth discovered that she was able to see things that were happening to the people in the picture that led to secrets and deception. 

This captivating story is sure to keep the reader's interest.

Sister of My Heart

By Chitra Benerjee Divakaruni

Two cousins, Anyj and Sudha, born on the same day in Calcutta, India grew up in the same house with their mothers and an aunt.

The girls  bonded as if they were twins, even though they were different in their personalities.  There was, however, a dark family secret that was discovered by Sudha that threatened their bond.

This fascinating story of life in India will keep the reader turning pages and has a surprising ending.

Three Sisters

By Susan Mallery

Andi Gordon, a pediatrician, bought a house on Blackberry Island, near Seattle where she planned to open her medical practice.  The house was one of three historical homes built that became known as the three sisters.

Andi, as well as her two neighbors, each had family secrets.  The friendship of the three women will change their lives, and they discover that sometimes sisters are made, not born.

A Dark Dividing

by Sarah Rayne

When Harry Fitzglen, a journalist, is assigned to write a feature story on a new art gallery opening, he learns that in reality he is to try to find information on Simone Anderson who has photography on display in the gallery.

Simone's intriguing past is mysterious and is connected to another mystery that occurred nearly 100 years ago. 

Readers that enjoy psychological thrillers will find this book hard to put down.

Night Road

by Kristin Hannah

Lexi Baill found a "home" at the age of fourteen with the Farraday family whose twins became Lexi's inseparable friends after years of foster care.  In their senior year of high school, a bad decision changes life for everyone.  This novel addresses the lessons in life, courage to forgive and acceptance of the consequences of one's actions.

The House I Loved

by Tatiana de Rosnay

Rose Bazelet, a widow, lives in the house that she moved into when she married Armand Bazelet.  She and her brother had a lonely childhood with no parental love and she found that Armand's mother, Odette, was like the loving mother that she never had.  The three of them lived in the house on the rue Childebert.

Since Armand and Odette's death, Rose made a living by renting property that joined her house to a florist and a bookstore owner.

When Napoleon III started to renovate Paris into a modern city, Rose received a letter informing her that her house as well as the entire street would be torn down.  Unlike the others on the street, Rose fights back.  She refused to move and secretly stayed in the basement waiting for the workmen to begin tearing down her house.  To pass the time in the basement, Rose started writing letters to her dead husband, telling her life story and revealing a thirty year old secret that even her husband never knew.

This is a story that will keep the reader's interest to the very end.

Another Piece of My Heart

by Jane Green

Andi, at the age of thirty-seven, met and married the man of her dreams--Ethan.  Ethan was divorced and the father of two girls, Sophia, age eight, and Emily, age eleven.

From the start, Sophia was a wonderful loving child; however, Emily resented Andi from day one.

Green writes a story that will interst women as she relates the difficulty in Ethan and Andi's marriage and the trials that Andi goes through when Emily has life changing consequences that affect everyone in the family.