Lost December

Lost December by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Luke Crisp is a solid, good guy, close with his father and heir to Crisp's Copy Centers. When his father talks him into continuing his education at a business school across the nation, Luke finds out that most of his new friends like to party and he slowly begins the downhill slide. When one of his best friends, a Christian and a Pastor's son, dies in an accident on graduation night Luke decides to traipse across Europe with the remaining group and live it up while there's still time. When his trust fund runs out, Luke finds out who is real friends are.

Richard Paul Evans is one of my favorite authors and I can always count on him for a good read. Woven into the storyline of this novel is the age old biblical story of the prodigal son. A good story of hope, forgiveness, and unending love.



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Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas

Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas: Crafts, Decorating Tips, and Recipes, 1920s-1960s by Susan Waggoner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A wonderful look at Christmas over the decades from the 1920s through the 60s. Each decade includes a Quick Craft and a Style File area and step by step instuctions. I enjoyed seeing how the vintage decorations and trees changed throughout the years, especially during times of war. At the end of the book are recipes and images that can be scanned for your own use.



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1225 Christmas Tree Lane

1225 Christmas Tree Lane by Debbie Macomber

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Another Christmas goody from Debbie Macomber - this book, number twelve, ties up the Cedar Cove series. I would have enjoyed this book much more if I had read some of her previous books in this particular series. (I hope to catch up on the older books at some point!) Macomber has all her wonderful Cedar Cove characters getting together for the holidays and throws in litter of abandoned, adorable puppies on a Christmas Tree farm owned by Beth Morehouse's to boot.

Other books in this series:
1. 16 Lighthouse Road
2. 204 Rosewood Lane
3. 311 Pelican Court
4. 44 Cranberry Point
5. 50 Harbor Street
6. 6 Rainier Drive
7. 74 Seaside Avenue
8. 8 Sandpiper Way
9. 92 Pacific Boulevard
10. 1022 Evergreen Place
11. 1105 Yakima Street
12. 1225 Christmas Tree Lane



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House of Secrets

The three Cooper sisters have hidden a secret for 15 years, since childhood. If such a secret was exposed, it could change their lives and their fathers - but the time has come for truths to be revealed.

Bailee, 27, has always been a mother hen to her two younger sisters Gina and Piper. She learned early as her mother suffered from depression and mental illness and her father worked constantly. She never learned to make friends since the family moved around the country often and her few playmates were frightened by her mother's outbursts. There were periods in her life that are fuzzy and Bailee is afraid to examine them more closely. When the Cooper sisters' father calls them to return to their childhood home, layers and layers of memories become clear, with frightening results. Can Bailee learn to free herself from guilt and learn to move forward without constant fear?

According to the author of the book, Tracie Peterson, the surgeon general and statistics say mental illness affects approximately one in five people. This book brings to light some of the issues that friends and families dealt with due to a loved one's illness.

The Christmas Note

The Christmas Note by Donna VanLiere

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another Christmas gem! Loved, loved, loved this book as I do with everything I've read by Donna VanLiere. Small and around 200 pages, it's a quick read and honestly I hated to put it down. (My two dogs were dancing, needing to go outside and just couldn't be put off any longer or I would have read it in one bite...) Written from voice of two very different women who happen to become neighbors, loner Melissa, who still suffers from reliving a very terrible childhood and Gretchen, who suffers from a recent tragedy and has moved with her children to be near her mother. You'll discover a mystery and laugh and cry with both of them as they learn to reach out to each other and the other cast of characters in this little town.



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Remembering Christmas

Remembering Christmas: A Novel by Dan Walsh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Such a wonderful little warm your heart type of book - great to read as Christmas draws near...

Rick Denton has been on his own since he left home many years before - now living, playing, and working in Charlotte, NC for a CPA firm - and he has no intention on heading home for the holidays until his mother calls saying his stepfather, Art, has collapsed and is not responding. Could Rick please come home to help run their small bookstore? Putting his own playboy life on hold, Rick drives down to Florida, where he meets an amazing cast of characters that frequent the bookstore, including a homeless man named J.D. who hangs out waiting on his daily coffee and Egg McMuffin. Can Rick's hardened heart be softened by the turn of events of a mystery unfolding?



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The Christmas Wedding

The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Gaby is planning a Christmas wedding - her own, but she is the only person who knows who the groom will be! It's a secret! She does have it narrowed down to three men - who have all ask for her hand. It will be Gaby's second marriage, as her first husband died years ago and her family hasn't been together since. She wants all her four children to come home from all parts of the country and she teases them into coming back by sending them five videos. Romantic, sad, mysterious, and funny, this book is a wonderful read as the holidays draw closer.

I usually do not read James Patterson and this little novel is unlike his thrillers - a very, enjoyable read. Down to the very end, when Gaby was waiting up front on her groom - I was still trying to guess which one of her three friends would be the lucky man!



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The Best of Me

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Dawson & Amanda, two-star crossed sweethearts from high school, reunite when Tuck, an old friend to both passes away leaving instructions for them to carry out his funeral wishes.



As teens their love was doomed, opposites from the beginning - Dawson, poor, with only a renegade father and cousins and Amanda, from a wealthy, snobby family. Drawn together, they form an unbroken bond. But, as Amanda nears college, Dawson is wrongly accused of vehicular manslaughter, spending years behind prison bars. Fleeing the area upon release, he works on an oil rig down the coast. When they meet up almost 30 years later for Tuck’s funeral, sparks fly and memories are revived, even though Amanda is married with children. But, in the background still lurking are Dawson’s sadistic family of criminals bent on destroying both he and Amanda.



This review was difficult for me to write. Although I’ve always loved his writing style, I’m ambivalent on this particular Nicholas Spark novel. I can see that things are becoming a bit cliché even for me and it surprised me to see more violent characters thrown into the soup. Most of Spark’s novels are worth a reread, but not this one for me.





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Solomon's Oak

Solomon's Oak by Jo-Ann Mapson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Solomon's Oak - the words alone invoke strength and character...photographers come from miles away to capture the beauty of the lovely, huge White oak that sits on Solomon's farm in California, where White Oaks should never grow. Glory Solomon, now a widow, owns the farm where once her and her beloved husband took in foster boys and taught them to be kind, responsible men. Now alone with only her horses and dogs, Glory is faced with the dilemma of possibly losing the farm. On top of all this worry and grief, she is ask to foster a teenage girl, angry, broken 14 year old Juniper McGuire with her own passel of problems and Glory has trouble, even under the circumstances, saying no. When a couple approaches her with a crazy idea of hosting a pirate wedding under the famous oak, Glory runs with it - baking, preparing food, and decorating the small chapel her husband had built - all with a pirate theme. Unlucky for a her, a former policeman (with a body and a mind full of pain), Joseph happens to arrive when the "pirates" are at their worst - with guns and swords drawn! On the other hand, lucky for Glory, he also has his camera and is willing to take photos for Glory of the fun, wild wedding. Will Solomon's Oak shelter and mend all three heartbroken souls?

Real life characters with real, gritty life problems. You will cry with Glory, Juniper, and Joseph, but laugh with Glory's zany friend, store owner Lorna.

You may wonder at the beginning to this novel, but loose threads will be tied in the end.



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Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA

Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA by Kris Radish

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Married some almost 30 years, Addy Lipton is re-examining her marriage to Lucky. The same Lucky that has their garage full to the rafters with bowling balls and broken appliances, (Addy calls the Kingdom of Crap) while Addy’s car sits outside. Lucky doesn’t know that Addy dreams of running her Toyota Corolla right through the garage door and out the other side. When a much anticipated vacation doesn’t pan out and Lucky severely injures his back, Addy is thinking of calling it quits. When her wild sister, Hell, and her quirky friends get in on it – it’s men against women and hilarious events happen.



Dangerously Funny. Irreverent . Crazy, zany characters with reminders of how easy it is to slowly allow your marriage, without realizing it, to grow stale and tired.





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The Bird Sisters

The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Bird Sisters
By Rebecca Rasmussen

Twiss and Milly, quirky spinster sisters in the twilight years of their life, who still live on the home place in Wisconsin and take in injured birds, had their lives change back in 1947. Milly, beautiful and quiet, likes to cook and has begun to fall in love and dreams of a marriage with children. Sarcastic Twiss, younger by two years, has a totally different temperament – she’d rather be outdoors and playing in the dirt. Milly is her mother’s favorite and Twiss – her father’s. When their sickly cousin Bett arrives for a summer visit, the whole family is falling apart, a marriage crumbling, with Milly and Twiss trying their best to fix and patch things between their parents.

Melancholy and sad, this book is a story of a great love between sisters and great sacrifice. Be prepared as the sisters flash back and forth between the present and past. Each chapter slowly reveals the reason why the sisters are alone, except for each other, in the present time.

“Life and death- what paltry words, what tarnished bookends, what unjust summation for drawing breath one moment and failing to release it the next.”
― Rebecca Rasmussen, The Bird Sisters






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