Tag: womens fiction

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Lost Girls of Ireland

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By Susanne O’Leary

The picturesque beach of Wild Rose Bay is the last place Lydia Butler thought she’d be. But having just lost everything, the run-down cottage she inherited from her Great Aunt Nellie is the only place she can take her daughter, Sunny. Hidden away in a tiny Irish village, she can protect Sunny from the gossip in Dublin, and the real reason they have nowhere else to live…

The cottage is part of the old coastguard station and other eccentric residents are quick to introduce themselves when Lydia arrives. Lydia instantly feels less alone, fascinated by the stories they have about Nellie, and she’s charmed by American artist, Jason O’Callaghan, the mysterious man who lives next door.

But the longer Lydia relaxes under the moonlit sky, the more the secret she’s keeping from Sunny threatens to come out. And as she finds herself running into Jason’s arms, she knows she must be honest and face up to the past she has tried to forget. Has she finally found people who will truly accept her, or will the truth force her to leave the cottage for good?

I love Ireland! I love everything about Ireland and cannot wait to go back there someday. It may seem weird to pick a book to read based on the setting. Yet, I did. Well, that and the synopsis. I was attracted to the story of a woman who’s lost everything and how she healed. I wanted to meet the residents of Wild Rose Bay. 

I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it either. It was….ok. 

Lydia inherits a house from her great aunt and moves there with her daughter after her husband dies. There’s a tiny bit of a mystery surrounding the life her great aunt lived. I had hoped for more in that storyline but honestly, it wasn’t much. She simply fell in love with a German soldier whose plane crashed on the island. That was it. 

We meet our main character, Lydia, whose life has been full of fundraisers, dinner parties, designer clothes, opulent restaurants and an all-around higher class of living. She finds herself penniless after finding out her recently deceased husband was involved in several illegal business deals. Forced to sell all she has, she finds out she’s inherited a house in a small village. 

I really didn’t like Lydia at all. While we know she’s gone through a lot, there’s just no character growth. Her daughter solves most of their problems and what Sunny isn’t able to solve, everyone else in the village does. So, Lydia really doesn’t need to do much to adjust to this new life outside of working jobs she once thought were beneath her. She even inherits more money halfway through the story. There really isn’t a sense of struggling. 

There’s a love interest which seems really out of place and suddenly, really intense at the time when Lydia isn’t even sure she’s staying at the cottage. Jason seems odd and out of place and just as two dimensional as Lydia. 

I did like the setting. I love Irish cottages and have always dreamt of living in one. The seaside was atmospheric and chilly and altogether lovely. I also really liked the town and the people. I was more interested in their lives than Lydia’s. 

All in all, this was just ok. Not terrible. Not overly enjoyable. 

My rating: :star: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Half Sisters

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Virginia Frankel

A single lie becomes a defining moment in a family’s life in an unforgettable novel of psychological suspense.

After being gone for two decades, Maddy’s half sister, Emily, is back in town to settle their late father’s estate. Emily’s not the troubled girl Maddy remembers from their volatile childhood. Apparently, all is well. It can’t possibly matter anymore that Maddy married Emily’s first love, but the pictures Maddy finds on her husband’s phone tell a different story. Suspicions of an affair are hard to ignore.

Then again, Maddy hasn’t been herself lately. She’s increasingly confused. She’s losing items that are precious to her. She forgets where she’s going. The line between what’s real and unreal has become a blur. Even the damning photos have disappeared. Though her state of mind starts to become everyone’s cause for concern, Maddy refuses to believe she’s losing her grip on reality. But the one thing she can’t deny is the secret from the past that rewrote all their lives—a secret that’s ready to come out. 

NOTE – Thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for an eArc in exchange for an honest review. 

ALSO NOTE – POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!

This book was really, really….odd. 

The synopsis says one lie becomes a defining moment. While one lie might have started the whole ball rolling, it takes several to unravel it. Very strange. 

Let’s talk about the characters. I couldn’t find one character that I could really get behind. But then again, there’s so many lies and twists and turns that I’m not sure we’re really allowed to get to know them. And none of them are likable which was disturbing to me. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where I completely disliked every single character in it. Even Maddy’s parents aren’t all that great and we don’t really get too much of them. 

If there is any character development, it’s that they all wound up as even uglier versions of themselves than when the story started. 

The storyline was quite predictable. I knew right away Maddy was being gaslighted. But even if she wasn’t, there was no one in her life who wanted to help her. Everyone immediately took sides and there really was no explanation as to why. That was confusing to me. 

The ending was also confusing. The story ramps up, comes to a climax and then…that’s it! Maddy drives away and it’s all over. It’s almost like the writer just petered out, stopped writing and turned in an incomplete assignment. 

Overall, I can’t recommend this book at all. 

My rating: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Party Crasher

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Sophie Kinsella

It’s been over two years since Effie’s beloved parents got divorced, destroying the image of the happy, loving childhood she thought she had. Since then, she’s become estranged from her father and embarked on a feud with his hot (and much younger) girlfriend, Krista. And now, more earth-shattering news: Greenoaks, the rambling Victorian country house Effie called home her whole life, has been sold.

When Krista decides to throw a grand “house cooling” party, Effie is originally left off the guest list–and then receives a last-minute “anti-invitation” (maybe it’s because she called Krista a gold-digger, but Krista totally deserved it, and it was mostly a joke anyway). Effie declines, but then remembers a beloved childhood treasure is still hidden in the house. Her only chance to retrieve it is to break into Greenoaks while everyone is busy celebrating. As Effie sneaks around the house, hiding under tables and peeping through trapdoors, she realizes the secrets Greenoaks holds aren’t just in the dusty passageways and hidden attics she grew up exploring. Watching how her sister, brother, and dad behave when they think no one is looking, Effie overhears conversations, makes discoveries, and begins to see her family in a new light. Then she runs into Joe–the love of her life, who long ago broke her heart, and who’s still as handsome and funny as ever–and even more truths emerge.

Note – Thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for this eARC in return for an honest review. 

I have always liked Sophie Kinsella. I was a huge fan of the Shopaholic series. I found it sweet, endearing and witty. So, I had high hopes for this book. 

Honestly, I can always tell I struggled with a book when I go to write the review and find that not much of the book stuck with me. 

First, it took me a while to get into this book. Once there, however, it was cute. Nothing super special and nothing quite as charming as The Shopaholic series. Effie is a cute albeit underwhelming main character way too focused on her Dad and step-mom’s divorce. She seems to have tunnel vision where this situation is concerned when she could devote some of her attention to her own life.

Her sister, Bean, is charming and almost annoyingly optimistic. Her brother, Gus, seems to have his head in the clouds, oblivious to what is going on with his family. The stepmom, Mimi, is a bit of a mystery later on in the book, not acting at all like she’s just been through a divorce. And her dad is ridiculously obsessed with his new, bouncy girlfriend, he doesn’t see his family falling apart. The idea of him allowing Krista to rule over his family, regardless of her intentions, was frustrating in the extreme. I wanted to snap her spandex as much as I wanted to slap Effie’s dad. Him sitting silent while several guests bashed his youngest child was infuriating. 

The main theme of this book is family dynamics, or family dysfunction. There’s a lot these characters say to each other that isn’t heard and a lot unspoken that speaks volumes. I thought the premise of Effie running around and hiding in her former house was only going to be part of the story. I didn’t realize it would be the whole story so some disappointment there. 

There was a nice chemistry between Effie and Joe and some memorable moments, like when Bean finally loses it, smashing plates and all, towards the climax of the book. But that’s probably the very best moment in the book. 

Overall, I found this a little silly. A grown woman creeping around at a party her family is attending so she can find a childhood toy felt a little immature for a writer who’s produced some real gems. Not upset I read it but this is a one and done for me. 

My rating – :star: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Christmas Dress

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Courtney Cole

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow and Custom House for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

One Dress. Two Women. The Magic of the Holiday Season.

When hopeful fashionista Meg Julliard must return to her hometown of Chicago to manage her late father’s apartment building, she thinks her dreams of making it in the fashion business are over. Add in her father’s eclectic roster of tenants who all need Meg’s attention (ASAP!), a host of building related disasters, and a handsome handyman she keeps embarrassing herself in front of, and this has all the makings for the worst Christmas she’s ever had.

Ellie Wade, one of the building’s longtime residents, is also not feeling the Christmas Joy this year. She is preparing to move into a nursing home (reluctantly), and is in the process of sorting through her belongings to downsize. Every corner of her apartment holds memories, some good, some bad. But there’s one dress she hesitates to pack up as it represents both the best and worst night of her life.

Ellie and Meg strike up an unlikely friendship and the story of Ellie’s dress comes out. Ellie gifts the gorgeous dress to Meg, hoping that it will bring her more luck, on the condition that she wear it to the building’s Christmas party.

The dress magically fits, and while it eventually leads to the best night of Meg’s life, it also acts as inspiration for Meg to follow a life-long dream of her own, a dream that will help save the crumbling Parkview West, and restore it to its former glory, and keep it as a safe home for all of the current tenants.

The dress and the magic of the holiday season helps both Meg and Ellie find their own happy endings. 

This book was like a Hallmark Christmas movie wrapped up in a book. It has a girl who’s life is at a crossroads, a handsome boy with a past, a snarky best friend and an older woman full of wisdom. 

I loved every bit of this book. After losing her Dad, Meg Julliard moves into the old, dilapidated apartment full of senior citizen formerly owned by her Dad. The building needs an overhaul and of course, money is in short supply. She meets Ellie, one the residents, who gives her an old dress full of magic. A little magic plus a stubborn “concierge” and a hot handyman who likes to donate his talents and time to anything Meg needs makes for a perfect Christmas romance. 

One of the first things I loved about this book is the romance is just that – romance. Not sex. I’m sure this is an unpopular opinion but I don’t need a bunch of sex or steamy scenes in order to make a book romantic for me. Innuendo goes a long way for those of us more old-fashioned readers. 

Every single character right down to the cat was interesting. I loved each one of them! I loved their stories and how they created a family atmosphere within the building. Each one had their own stories and what I really loved was how the author touched on each story without allowing the story to lag and become inundated with details. 

The main character, Meg, sorta comes of age in this story. But so does the building. As Meg grows and grieves and remakes herself, the building undergoes the same, revealing some life saving history that actually probably exists in many of the older Chicago buildings downtown. 

It’s true there were some cheesy moments and, like any good Hallmark movie, it’s totally predictable but there were some nice surprises along the way. All in all, this was very enjoyable. A very nice Christmas read for the upcoming season. 

My rating – :star: :star: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

If The Shoe Fits

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By Julie Murphy

After having just graduated with a degree in shoe design, and trying to get her feet on the ground, Cindy is working for her stepmother, who happens to be the executive producer of America’s favorite reality show, Before Midnight. When a spot on the show needs filling ASAP, Cindy volunteers, hoping it might help jump-start her fashion career, or at least give her something to do while her peers land jobs in the world of high fashion.

Turns out being the only plus size woman on a reality dating competition makes a splash, and soon Cindy becomes a body positivity icon for women everywhere. What she doesn’t expect? That she may just find inspiration-and love-in the process. Ultimately, Cindy learns that if the shoe doesn’t fit, maybe it’s time to design your own.

Cinderella meets The Bachelor. 

Ideally, I’m over retellings, especially the main Disney princess stories. And you couldn’t pay me enough to watch The Bachelor. So why would I even consider reading this book? 

One reason – Plus size female protagonist. In my own mind, that’s exactly what I am – a plus-size, real life heroine!

After watching a few blips and blurbs from Julie Murphy’s instagram, I knew this book was for me. I read it under 24 hours and wasn’t disappointed – not even once. 

I’ve read a few stories where the author threw in a plus-size character, I guess for good measure. However, no one has told it from a real fat girl’s perspective. Julie Murphy got into my head and laid bare all my fears, all my feelings, all my self-doubt created by a skinny world, all the rejection I have dealt with due to my weight, even my fashion struggles and she did it while making me laugh. 

For that, Julie Murphy has found in me – a fat girl – a huge (no pun intended) fan! I read this book and for the first time in all my 52 years decided to cross the word “ugly” out of the phrase “fat and ugly”. I went to my full length mirror and saw a plus-size, dimpled, double chinned beauty looking back at me. 

The story of a fat girl winning a prince should be told over and over and over again until Hollywood gets it, until the fashion world gets it and until plus size men stop writing “slim, active girls need only reply” in their dating profiles. 

This is a book I will read over and over and over again. I will take this book out and read Cindy’s story whenever I feel bad about myself. I will remember how she took bits and pieces of a LuMac collection and strutted down a runway like the Queen she was! 

Thank you, Julie Murphy, for showing us fat girls some love, for telling us through this book we are beautiful and we DO deserve to get the prince in the end!

My rating – :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: