When two brothers and their wives get a chance to leave everything behind and run a bed and breakfast in Vermont, they leap at the chance, not knowing that what they once knew would forever change. With family relationships damaged by past pains, and a woman with a secret who helps them in exchange for a safe place to stay, their first major booking is a wedding with a spoiled bride-to-be. Sorting out the business end with personal issues can be a challenge, and for this family, it's no different.

A lot of characters fill the pages, and each one has their own backstory and talent to offer the bed and breakfast. The scenery and inn are ideal and the charm of each character blends well with their own desires to artfully run their new business together as a family. Their new employee with a secret brings a quiet mystery to it and even though there's a lot going on, the author deftly combines each story.

Many of you may know I was a big fan of Skipping a Beat so I admit I was hoping for the same emotional intensity and spark, and although there were several moments that tugged at my heartstrings, it did tie up a bit too nicely in the end for my taste. Portions of Dawn's story, a woman with a secret, and the brothers' relationship with each other, didn't feel as authentic as did Alyssa's and Kira's. Alyssa, with her once globetrotting spirit now finds stability as her comfort, and Kira's previously organized and ordered life is thrown upside-down by the business, felt more tangible and heartfelt than the other players to the story. It may not have captured the magic Skipping a Beat held for me, but I do believe Sarah Pekkanen's new novel has a little something for every reader, and is a sure choice for a beach read this upcoming hot summer. Check out other readers' reviews at Goodreads.com.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher: Washington Square Press, a division of Simon & Schuster

Release Date: 5/6/2014

Pages: 352

Sarah's other books are:

• The Best of Us
• These Girls
• Skipping a Beat
• The Opposite of Me

New York Times' bestselling Author Lisa Scottoline says, "Sarah Pekkanen is one of my favorite authors of women's fiction."

About the Author

Sarah Pekkanen is the internationally bestselling author of The Opposite of Me, Skipping a Beat, TheseGirls, and The Best of Us as well as a series of linked short stories for ereaders. Her work has been published in numerous magazines and newspapers. She lives with her family, including a rescue dog and cat, in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Visit the author:

• On her website
• On Facebook
• On Twitter

If you want a secret kept safe, Muriel is the one to tell it to. In her entire life, the only connection she had with her beautiful and worshipped mother, Lidia, and equally mesmerizing sister, Pia, are the things she's seen or gone through with them, or because of them. Never once, though, has Muriel broken her promises and told a soul. With her father emotionally absent and bonded to his only son, Logan, and Lidia and Pia always excluding others, Muriel continues to be the outcast in a family of four who accidentally had a fifth.

Now an adult at twenty-three and living in New York with an entry level job, Muriel still keeps her promises, but limits her time with family. She prefers Sundays securely snug in the comfort and safety of her tiny fourth-floor walk-up apartment, eating popcorn while on the bed and reading the Times. Planning the day starts off like any other, but when her perfect sister Pia, now living in Connecticut with the perfect husband, house, and daughter, unexpectedly calls to spend Sunday with her, little does she know her entire life will change. What Muriel once thought about her family turns upside-down and sideways as relationships are scrutinized, past events are inspected again, all because of one more secret Pia has to share.

No matter how odd it may sound that I loved a story so sad and heartbreaking, Two Sisters resulted in just that. Beautifully written, Muriel's sad story is oftentimes difficult to read, frustration seeping in for the reader as Lidia and Pia dig at Muriel, cruelly teasing Muriel's hair, shape, and more. With reminders that being the odd man out in any situation can feel horrible, within a family, it can be damaging.

I couldn't put down Two Sisters and ended up flying through it in a day. It was an excellent change of pace from my current reading preferences, and I enjoyed every page. With truly nasty, unlikable characters throughout, Muriel's the ultimate underdog, and I cheered her on. While things tied up a little too neatly for my preferences, I loved Muriel's story, her quiet attempts to bond with her sister and mother tugging at my heartstrings.

Mary Hogan has a gift when writing the voice of the tortured soul excluded from others, and I'm eager to read more from her. I've heard that this is her first foray into adult fiction, with seven previously published books in the YA genre, so I'm excited to dive more into her work when her next adult novels come out.

Book club readers will definitely feel inclined to share their own personal family stories after reading Two Sisters. There is much to think about and mull over with others, and the simultaneously sweet and harsh message that sometimes you have to look at who you are, instead of always thinking everyone else is the problem, might hit home for many. The words lift from the page, pulling you into Muriel's world and I happily went into it, no matter how sad it sometimes could be.

FTC Disclosure: I accepted this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: 3/4/2014
Pages: 384

About the Author
Mary Hogan is the award-winning author of seven Young Adult novels, and is also a writer for several national magazines, including her most recent article featured in Woman's Day about her mother, sister, and herself. (I'm going to have to read that one now, too!)  She lives in New York City with her husband and her dog Lucy. Two Sisters is her first mainstream adult fiction book. And it is good.

Visit the author:

• On her website
• On Facebook
• On Twitter
• On Goodreads

What the... why did I wait this long to read Susan Gregg Gilmore after winning Bermuda Onion's giveaway in 2010? The author will be at the Virginia Festival of the Book this weekend so it finally gave me the deadline I needed to put it to the top of the list. Again, why did I wait?

This heartwarming tale of Catherine Grace in the 1970s in Ringgold, Georgia was a sweetheart read and I enjoyed the evolution of one young girl wanting more out of life. Dreaming about bigger and better beyond her town while spending every Saturday sitting at the Dairy Queen picnic table eating her favorite Dilly Bars, Catherine Grace never knew that by the time she was eighteen, she would learn leaving home doesn't always work the way you want it to, and it certainly isn't always the answer to fulfilling your dreams.

At the young ages of six and four, Catherine Grace and younger sister Martha Ann lost their mother in a fluke accident when she was picking blueberries by the river. Without their mother, they are raised under the compassionate eye of their father, Ringgold's favorite preacher (third in the family line of watching over the town's flock) and Gloria Jean, the next-door neighbor who becomes their surrogate mother. It's Gloria Jean who actually becomes my favorite character, the firecracker who doesn't go to church, has been married five times, and always knows just the right shade of nail polish to wear for every event. For Catherine Grace and Martha Ann, she is their guide for all things young women need to learn.

At once sweet, insightful, and forgiving, Susan Gregg Gilmore's debut novel genuinely tugged at my heartstrings, and just like *that* (snaps fingers), I was tearing up. I was touched by the heartfelt writing and Gilmore's knack to believably grow Catherine Grace's perspective from a young girl to her teen years and finally, the blessed adulthood she's been waiting for. With eclectic and quirky characters throughout town representing every spectrum of any town in America, Ringgold humorously becomes representative not just of towns in the South, but most importantly of people everywhere. Ranging from gossipy and spiteful to loving and thoughtful, Ringgold has it all. The ending certainly tied everything in a perfect bow, but each endearing moment Catherine Grace experienced made me absolutely fine with it.

Susan Gregg Gilmore's debut was a sweet delight to read and I'm looking forward to the next book from her on my shelf. I can't wait to her speak at the Virginia Festival of the Book!

Passages of Note (an example of an unexpected chuckle while reading):

"Lord, thank you for bringing your children together tonight for fellowship. We praise you for all you've given us, and please guide us as we prepare for our Christmas pageant. Touch Jimmy Blanchard with your healing power 'cause his mama says he has mono, and uh, you better go ahead and touch Lucy Mills while you're at it. And, one more thing, we know you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, but if you could lead the Ringgold Tigers to victory Friday night, well, we'd love to win one before the end of the season. In your name we pray, Amen." (p.104)

Others said (I know there are more out there! Let me know so I can add your link.):
Bermuda Onion

FTC Disclosure: I received this copy autographed by the author from blogger Bermuda Onion in her giveaway in 2010.

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Release Date: 6/9/2009
Pages: 304

About the Author

Susan Gregg Gilmore is the author of Looking for Salvation at the Diary Queen and The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, she attended the University of Virginia and graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin. She has chaired book fairs, taught Vacation Bible School, while also writing for the Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and the Chattanooga News-Free Press. She lives in Nashville with her husband and has three daughters.

Follow the author:

• On her website
• On her blog
• On Facebook
• On Twitter

The introduction of Adriana Trigiani's work for me has been with the two audiobooks for Very Valentine and Brava, Valentine. Let's put it this way - I am so enamored with the audio versions, that I just can't imagine the character of Valentine not voiced by the incomparable Cassandra Campbell. You better believe that when the final book comes out, I will be downloading the audio straightaway. Does anyone know when that third book is coming out?

In Very Valentine, The Angelini Shoe Company is part of the shrinking world of family-owned small businesses in Greenwich Village, and with their primary product being original designs of handcrafted wedding shoes, combined with mismanaged financials, it is soon uncovered that this business might not be around for too long. But Valentine is the last single woman in the Angelini family (as Trigiani calls her), and come hell or high water, she will do what she can to find a way to save the family business. With a new relationship forming with sexy chef Roman Falconi, Valentine travels back to Italy with her smart and sassy grandmother, Teodora, to learn new techniques and designs that she might be able to bring back to America to rejuvenate the business.

A fun and endearing story, Adriana Trigiani knocked it out of the park with this one for me. I was in the mood for a story about family and friendships, and combined with the Italian countryside, culture, and people, for a good part of the story, it just couldn't go wrong. It was hilarious, it was heart-warming, it just was all the things I needed to read right now. And the characters! Who can read this book (or listen to it), and not love Teodora, Valentine's grandmother? You have no soul if you can experience this book and just not fall madly in love with her.

These were characters so magically developed that to experience this in an audio format made it all so true to life and each one virtually bounded out of the story and into my heart. The angst between the in-laws and *the* family itself were superbly genuine, and when the story moves to Italy, it felt right.  (Although I might be a teensy bit biased with that since, well, I love all things Italia).

What we all know about Adriana Trigiani, is that what makes her stories so memorable and tug at our heartstrings, is her ability to describe the family dynamic perfectly. Trigiani is a master artisan herself, of character development and the intertwined relationships of the large Italian family. With that expert comedic flair, she just rounds out the story perfectly.

And what can I say about the über-talented Cassandra Campbell? Once again at the helm of another best-seller, Campbell voices the character of Valentine and the family with an authenticity that is unquestionable. Like Trigiani, there is nothing pretentious with Campbell's work - both are delivered phenomenally, and it is a solid performance all around. This is a good pairing, and I can't wait for more. I'm almost done with Brava, Valentine, and again I ask, when does the third one come out?

*Bonus*

You have to check out Adriana Trigiani on the Today Show - click here to see this clip of her promoting Brava, Valentine. It is this personality that comes out so resoundingly successful in her stories. She is hilarious!

About the Author

Adriana Trigiani is an accomplished author with thirteen books under her belt. Her bio on her website is filled with oodles of insight, so to really get to know this quirky and down-to-earth author, click here.

Millions of fans know her best for the Valentine series, and especially Big Stone Gap. I'm excited to read everything by her.

Click here to visit the author on her website.

Click here to visit the author on Facebook.

Click here to follow the author on Twitter.

FTC Disclosure - I downloaded this audiobook from iTunes. Go. Experience this fun for yourself, too.

Life as a successful lawyer's wife and mother to two adorable sons, Kelly really should feel like she has it all. At this stage in life, these things should be comforting and being a stay-at-home mother should be all she needs. Right?

Unfortunately, Kelly's just starting the initial stages of a mid-life crisis. A recent scare with her first mammogram test, and a general feeling of being unsettled leaves her feeling as though she's within her life, but feeling as though she is missing...something.

And here I was, worried I wasn't ready for a thoughtful summer read! Here, Home, Hope by Kaira Rouda, to be released May 1st by Greenleaf Book Group, is like being with friends, commiserating over marriages, children, and life in general. I adored this book - it fit perfectly in my own life right now. Haven't we all questioned whether or not we're at where we want to be, where we thought we should be, at this stage? It's not as though you don't love what you have, it's whether or not you feel grounded, as if you're really living your life.

Let's be honest - problems are all relative. While one person appears to have the perfect life, it's not fair to say that they should just be appreciative of what they have and get over it. More often than not, they do realize that they should be grateful for what they have, and this is what compounds their guilt even more.

And this is exactly why I loved all of the characters - they are all real. They are flawed, insecure, confused, and going through one hell of a time right now. Kelly, at the middle of it all, feels that lack of confidence weigh her down even more. Should she start her own business? What could she do after being out of the job market for fifteen years? While she commits to making changes both in her professional and personal life, she begins to put little notes throughout her home as reminders, which are oftentimes both humorous and sad. And although she has friends, they're going through their own issues, too. Along for this personal ride is "borrowed" daughter, Melanie, struggling with tough emotional issues and anorexia, which makes the summer dramatically different than Kelly anticipated.

Here, Home, Hope by Kaira Rouda makes me want to sit at the beach on a summer afternoon and look back at my own choices, make changes when necessary, and appreciating what I have as I ultimately become who I want to be. Kaira Rouda has made her jump into contemporary fiction with a story that is inspirational and heartwarming, one that is going to be loved by many. It is a refreshing reflection on finding beauty in everything that makes you exactly who you are.

If you like Kristina Riggles' The Life You've Imagined or Sarah Pekkanen's Skipping a Beat, then you'll find a reassuring hug from Kaira Rouda's Here, Home, Hope.

About the Author

Kaira Rouda is an award-winning entrepreneur, marketer, consultant, speaker and author of 20+ years. She is the bestselling author of Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs, founder of Real You and brand creator of Real Living, the first national women-focused brand in real estate. Her first novel - Here, Home, Hope - will be released in May 2011.

Visit Kaira Rouda by visiting her website by clicking here.
Visit Kaira Rouda on Facebook by clicking here.
Follow Kaira Rouda on Twitter by clicking here.

FTC Disclosure: Thanks to the author for providing me a copy of her book in exchange for my honest review.

Business travel this week in Minneapolis and Memphis has made me so homesick. I return to Florida on Friday, but tonight, I am in my hotel room in Memphis, listening to the rain and what I think might be a distant, yet intermittent, tornado siren. I've heard that there may be tornadoes tonight and so to find comfort in it all, I've closed my night with crying through the last few chapters of the heartfelt and endearing The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry.

Ginny Selvaggio is twenty-six years old, and she's spent her whole life comforted with food. But not eating food, instead making it. Taking recipes and creating dishes, searching food blogs and trying new things. She is an adventurer in her life by searching the internet and reading new food techniques to try out, but she is an adventurer only inside her house. She's never moved out of her parent's home, and with their recent, unexpected deaths, along with her sister wanting to sell the house and move Ginny into her home, Ginny's feeling a little overwhelmed.

To cooking she goes. The process of caramelizing onions reassures her, the smells of chocolate occupy her during moments of stress, figuring out how the combinations of a spice with something sweet will enhance each. This is how she copes with it all. And right now, the oddest thing is happening. When she makes the recipes of those who have died, they come back to visit, sitting on the stool in the kitchen, only staying long enough while the smell of their food lingers. And because she can interact with them, she asks them questions, putting her on a path to find out who she really is, to find out why she is the way she is.

Ginny is something most people aren't. She's literal. Blunt. If you tell her that she's beating around the bush, she'd probably be confused and, while not looking right at you, respond with something like "I'm not beating around a bush. I'm standing right here." Not surprisingly, this type of personality doesn't win her a lot of friends.

And because this book is about cooking, and especially cooking the recipes from family that mean the most, I want to write a clever post with analogies of Ginny's cooking and Jael McHenry's beautiful writing, because the story is a fulfilling creation that leaves the reader, the one consuming, satisfied and full with happiness. But then I want to stop myself because I think that's what everyone else would do. Then, I think, as long as I share with you this important fact from me, it will be okay: this is a book I loved. I loved the quirkiness of Ginny, the tough outer shell of her sister Amanda, the soft comfort of their housekeeper Gert, and Gert's son, the confused and heartbroken David. I read the last half in two hours, making mental notes of each recipe I'll be cooking in my kitchen this weekend when I get home. I already like to cook, but this story gave me an even deeper, more holistic and appreciative view of it. The creation of equal parts sadness, family, love, and food into one flourishing finish of a story that will be devoured quickly, left me with a craving for Jael McHenry's next book. 

If you like a dash of magical realism, along with cooking, recipes thrown into it all, then I'm pretty sure you'll like this book.

About the Author

Jael McHenry is a talented and enthusiastic amateur cook who grew up in Michigan and Iowa before moving from city to city along the East Coast: Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and now New York, where she blogs about food and cooking at the Simmer blog, http://simmerblog.typepad.com. She is a monthly pop culture columnist and Editor-in-Chief of Intrepid Media, online at intrepidmedia.com. Her work has appeared in publications such as the North American Review, Indiana Review, and the Graduate Review at American University, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing. In her senior year at Tufts University she appeared as a semi-finalist on the “Jeopardy!” College Championship, where she made a killing in consolation prizes. The Kitchen Daughter is her first novel.

Visit the author on her website by clicking here.

Follow the author on Twitter by clicking here.

Visit The Kitchen Daughter on Facebook by clicking here.

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Many thanks to Lisa with TLC Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to read this book. Upcoming tour stops are listed below - if you haven't visited the blogs below, now is the time!

All of the blogs reviewing this book and other books on tour can be found by clicking here.

Monday, April 11th:  girlichef

Wednesday, April 13th:  Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Thursday, April 14th:  She is Too Fond of Books

Friday, April 15th:  Book Club Classics!

Monday, April 18th:  The Singleton in the Kitchen

Tuesday, April 19th:  Back to Books

Wednesday, April 20th:  Coffee and a Book Chick

Thursday, April 21st:  Books Like Breathing

Monday, April 25th:  Simply Stacie

Tuesday, April 26th:  Book Reviews by Molly

Wednesday, April 27th:  Kahakai Kitchen

Thursday, April 28th:  2 Kids and Tired

Monday, May 2nd:  The Brain Lair

Tuesday, May 3rd:  Stephanie’s Written Word

Friday, May 6th:  Book Addiction

Monday, May 9th:  Farmgirl Fare

Tuesday, May 10th:  Overstuffed

Wednesday, May 11th:  Books, Movies, and Chinese Food

Friday, May 13th:  The Literate Housewife Review

Yes, yes. You know I've been struggling with audiobooks lately, right? But... it's probably not hard to figure out how incredible I thought The Help by Kathryn Stockett was with the these two clues:

I finished all eighteen hours in 2 and 1/2 days.

My husband loved it. And he only listened to the last four hours on our road trip Friday night.

I felt this story was an experience, and since it is written in the true Southern charm and dialect of extraordinary women, it's one I believe can only be fully appreciated by listening to the audio version.

I couldn't stop listening to it. Every waking, non-working moment while I traveled to Dallas for business last week was spent with this audiobook. While I applied my make-up or steamed my business suit before the meeting, I listened to the words of Kathryn Stockett come to absolute life in the voices of sweet Aibileen, sassy Minny, and young and compassionate Skeeter. Enraptured. That is what I was. Compelled by the music of the voices speaking through, I was swept up in this incredible story.

The Help is Kathryn Stockett's story of three women in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. Not only was it a turbulent time in America's history with the beginnings of the civil rights movement, feminism, the rumblings of Vietnam, the assassination of Kennedy, and more, all of this was even more tightly drawn in Mississippi. Told from the three women's perspectives in their own chapters, Aibileen and Minny are maids working in the homes of white families, and Miss Skeeter is a young white woman who, like many others who grew up in wealthy white families in the South during that time, was raised by a black woman. And as Miss Skeeter is the idealistic young woman determined to become a writer, she is advised to write something that makes her uncomfortable as she composes it. It is only then when it is uncomfortable will it be something truly valuable. While each character has their own personal turmoil that they contend with privately, it is together that they find a common ground and friendship that is unshakeable. Kathryn Stockett has crafted a classic of the deep South and the black women who worked for, and raised, the white families in one of the most tremulous moments in American history.

Without question, I loved this story. Tears sprang to my eyes when the audio concluded. All stories have to end, but this one... this one I wanted to keep going. I immediately missed the characters as soon as it ended. The narrators excelled at relaying the perfect Southern charm into the rhythm and atmosphere, and as the book is written exactly as one would speak, the audio leaps to life and creates an experience unlike any other audiobook I have listened to. Because of this, and in advance of the film to be released by Dreamworks Studios this year in August, I needed to share with you these amazing narrators and where you can find them. I can't wait to do a deeper dive into the film's cast later as well. If Dreamworks can capture the same magic that Kathryn Stockett created in her writing that was beautifully produced in the audio version, then we could potentially see a multitude of Academy Award nominations issued in 2012.

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The narrators of The Help and their characters in this audio production (along with my thoughts):

Aibileen, narrated by Bahni Turpin. Aibileen is an older woman, having raised seventeen babies in her career. She is the voice of reason in the story, the one to which others seek out and find comfort in. With a gorgeous voice, Turpin is engaging through and through. There is just this easy fluidity to her narration that hypnotized me each time Aibileen's sections came up. And she was perfect for the voices of the children, the ones Aibileen cared for. I found myself smiling, easily picturing in my mind her interactions with the little girl Mae Mobley.

I have become a diehard fan of Bahni Turpin and loved her voice so much that I have just downloaded the audiobooks Precious and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks since she's the narrator for both!

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Minny, narrated by Octavia Spencer. A sassy woman who could possibly be the best cook in all of Mississippi, Minny has a hard time holding down a steady job because she's not one to keep her thoughts to herself. If she doesn't like something, why hold back? Octavia Spencer had the perfect voice! I laughed each time Minny interacted with Miss Celia, a sweet Marilyn Monroe-esque woman who suddenly is launched into high society when she left her poor upbringing to marry a wealthy man. The problem is that she can't take care of her house, and even cooking is a disaster. She secretly hires Minny for these things so she can hopefully impress her husband. Octavia Spencer's voice sparkled in the tough scenes of an abusive relationship with her husband and then later made me cheer out loud. Loved, loved her. I cannot imagine anyone else reading for Minny and can't imagine anyone else playing her in the film.

So, according to Entertainment Weekly, I was thrilled that Octavia Spencer is going to play the role in the film! Yay!! She is also a veteran actress of Hollywood and has also known Kathryn Stockett for ten years and was a factor to the inspiration for the character of Minny.

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Miss Skeeter, narrated by Jenna Lamia. The character of Miss Skeeter has graduated from college and returned to Jackson, Mississippi. Miss Skeeter was raised by a black woman named Constantine, one that she considers more motherly than her own blood. But now Constantine left after years working for the family, and no one is talking about why Constantine left. Was she fired, or did she quit? Haunted by this absence in her life, Miss Skeeter also doesn't want to be like every other girl in Jackson who gets married and has kids, and is instead determined to be a writer. Jenna Lamia carries the voice of this naive and sweet young girl to the forefront. Her voice smoothly cut through the story to poignantly deliver the youthful idealism representative of the 1960s.

Audiobook listeners may also recognize her from The Secret Life of Bees, which placed her as a finalist for Best Female Narrator in 2003, and Girl With a Pearl Earring. She also is an established actress and was in The Fighter, alongside Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg.

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About the Author

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing, she moved to New York City where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. She currently lives in Atlanta with her family. The Help is her first novel.

Visit the author on her site by clicking here.

Vist the author on Facebook by clicking here.

Happy Reading (Listening),

Coffee and a Book Chick

I've been reading books that are making me bawl my eyes out lately, and this one did the job exceedingly well. Sarah Pekkanen fleshed out real people in an effortlessly convincing way, and has a fierce heart-tugging story line to go along with them.

Julia and Michael are high school sweethearts from West Virginia. They grew up with dysfunctional families and as soon as they graduate, they move to Washington, DC to begin a new life. Incredibly smart and always antsy, it's Michael who takes them completely away from their shabby upbringing by creating an incredible, yet simple, product that turns them into multi-millionaires when the company goes public on the stock exchange.

As they grow up into this rich life, they also begin to grow apart from each other. They become, to Julia's dismay, like one of the tragic operas she loves - a distant marriage of two people living separate lives. If not for her friend, Isabelle (who has her own heartbreaking story), Julia would be very much alone. Life has become altogether different than what was planned.

No, our marriage was more like spending an afternoon at the beach while the tide receded. You could be lying right there on the soft sand and not even notice the microscopic changes - the waves pulling back, inexorably pulling back - while the sun warmed your back and the happy shouts of children filled your ears. Then you'd look up from the last page in your novel and blink, feeling disoriented, wondering how the ocean had moved so far away and when everything around you had changed. (p. 37)

But it's after her husband suffers cardiac arrest during a meeting, whereupon he is dead for over four minutes, that becomes the strangest of them all. When he comes back, he's ready to change in a completely different way. Julia's astonished as he emphatically states that he valued the wrong things in life, and he's going to give away his millions and spend more time with her. He asks her to give him a few weeks so that he can prove how much they can be the couple they once were. But can Julia really give up the lifestyle that she's become accustomed to?

Skipping a Beat is told from Julia's perspective with the occasional flashback to help round out the story line, and I found her to be compelling and relatable. Now, mind you, she lives in a $9 million home and has hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry, but it didn't matter to me. Julia is very much the girl from her days before money, but she certainly has gotten used to the extravagant luxuries. Because of this, she's realistically conflicted, and the ease of which it's written made it simple to place myself in her shoes. She could be me, or one of my friends.

My first thought was exactly as Julia's: If he wants to fall back in love again, can't they do that and still keep all the money? For her husband to start giving everything away just so he can spend more time with her, to fall back in love with her? Wha?! But, but, I spluttered to myself... what about the ease of life, the convenience of having everything that you want? How can he give all of that away?

I loved, loved this book. With characters I couldn't get enough of, from Julia's best friend Isabelle to the brilliant and quirky kid named Noah, this book was a treat from start to finish. And with it all, Julia's love of opera kept me even more entranced. I had forgotten how much those soaring tragedies can pierce right into you - it's because they so easily represent real life.

And that is how I fell in love with it all. The book, the characters, the vision Michael had to draft a new marriage with Julia. I found myself clutching the book, hunkering down in my couch, turning the pages. My husband asked me if I was going to bed, and I could only weakly wave my hand to him over the back of the couch, as I prayed that he wouldn't walk around to see why I wasn't talking. Yep. I was a blubbering mess.

Sarah Pekkanen has created a new lifelong fan in me. I'll be eagerly awaiting her next book and will get The Opposite of Me to tide me over. And also downloading opera to my computer like there is no tomorrow.

About the Author

Sarah Pekkanen is also the author of The Opposite of Me. Her work has been published in People, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Baltimore Sun, among other publications. She writes a monthly column for Bethesda Magazine and lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband and three sons.

Visit the author on her website by clicking here.

Visit the author on Facebook by clicking here.

Follow her on Twitter by clicking here (@SarahPekkanen)

FTC Disclosure: Thank you to the author for providing me a copy of her book in return for my honest review.

Happy Reading,

Coffee and a Book Chick

Many of you are aware that I've struggled to find a good audio book, and only a few this year have been exceptional to me. Thankfully, those successes have convinced me that I need to continue to include audio as part of my book experience. Had I listened to A Fair Maiden, by Joyce Carol Oates as my initiation to it all, however, I probably would have waited even longer before picking up my next audio book.

Katya is sixteen-years-old and is a nanny to a wealthy family in New Jersey. While in the park with the children, she meets Marcus, a man in his sixties who seems harmless enough. She agrees to visit him in his stately mansion and becomes "friends" with him. Soon, though, the friendship she believes she's developed becomes something quite different, and altogether deeply disturbing.

It's not as though A Fair Maiden isn't interesting. It is. The characters were interesting. The storyline was interesting. The narrator was decent. But this story, for some reason, even with all of these elements combined into a dark and unsettling relationship with shocking moments, still wasn't memorable enough for me. There was a part of me that felt I had heard this story many times before, so I was struggling to find the uniqueness. Although I was engaged enough that I listened to the short six hours in one Sunday afternoon, and while I hoped for Katya to break away from the life she lives and the men she seems to always be around, I concluded the audio and didn't feel a significant emotion for it.

I will point out that while I'm not squeamish about most things in books, there were scenes in which I felt became even more disturbing simply because I was listening to it happen versus reading it. That, I found, was difficult.

So perhaps, in fact, it was memorable for me? I'm still up in the air on this one. Have you read it? This was my first time experiencing Joyce Carol Oates. I know she is a popular author, so I will certainly try her work again.

Happy Reading,

Coffee and a Book Chick

Four women in Haven, Michigan find that life in a small town, whether they've just returned or have never left, can be just as tumultuous and disappointing, as it's ever been. Are they living the life they've imagined?

Maeve is the proprietor of the local convenience store and the mother of her daughter, Anna, a Chicago city lawyer. Maeve never thought that the convenience store was going to be her career, but she's been waiting twenty years for her husband to return after he left her and Anna one day with no word. Recently, she's been receiving letters from him, promising her a better future.

Anna has lost a close friend and mentor at the Chicago law firm and has been granted bereavement leave. Returning to Haven isn't easy, but she's not sure where else to go. She's always been strong, almost cold, but coming back to Haven means she might have to deal with her ex-boyfriend, the man who might be the love of her life, who she broke up with before they left for different colleges.

Cami is an old high school friend of Anna, who has recently returned back to Haven with her tail tucked between her legs after submitting to her gambling addiction and stealing money from her boyfriend and losing it all. She returns to her father's home - to a man who doesn't hold back from expressing his emotions of anger and resentment drunkenly and violently. [One nagging little gripe: My only issue with her is that she ends every statement with "yeah." So, for example: "Everything is good, yeah?" I subconsciously began tallying up how many times she ended her sentences like that.]

Amy, once overweight in high school, has now become obsessed with maintaining her successful weight loss. She's engaged to the son of the town's richest developer who happens to be planning to renovate Haven to appeal to tourists and Maeve's convenience store is one that will soon be destroyed. Amy's dream to have her perfect wedding, though, is on track. So she thinks, until the stress of wedding planning and wondering if she's making the right decisions has her doubting. Recently, she's bumped into Ed, an overweight and friendly guy who has a dog that just happens to get along with her own dog. Will the life she's imagined be what she's needing?

Ultimately, I liked this story a lot, even though each character frustrated me with Amy disappointing me completely. I cheered her on and for just a moment, I thought she had grown a backbone, but then...she didn't. With each chapter alternating between the primary characters making it a quick read, and although I wanted just a touch more from specific secondary characters, Kristina Riggle successfully exposes the lives of four women who feel like they just may have missed out on life.  After a while, each character finds that there is a beauty and sadness in realizing that it may be possible that the life being lived right now isn't any better or worse than what imagination can bring.

Moral of the story? Make good choices, people. But, no matter what, never look back.

My favorite passage is when Amy is trying on her wedding dress. Although she's lost the weight that she felt has held her back, her mother has never lost her own weight. While sitting in the boutique as Amy admires herself in the mirror, her mother tries on her mother-of-the-bride outfit and it is a disaster for her. While the boutique owner and Amy try to reassure her mother that she looks fine, she waves off the compliments. She knows she doesn't look the way she wants to, and Amy realizes that she needs to hold her tongue on issuing any reassurances:

"You look lovely," I tell her.

"Not hardly," she answers, but waves away further protest and starts digging in her purse. I know enough to give up at this point. Persistent argument will only escalate, and she'll just get more and more vicious with herself in an effort to convince us she truly is hideous. (p. 270)

This struck a chord with me. I know that if I don't feel good about myself, no amount of compliments will make me happy. I hate how we as women do this to ourselves.

Thanks to the Crazy Book Tours team for sending me a copy of this book for review!

Happy Reading,

Coffee and a Book Chick