The Italian Wedding

 

The Italian Wedding by Nicky Pellegrino was part of the 3-novel volume that I needed to purchase in order to read The Food of Love Cookery School. I loved The Food of Love Cookery School (still trying to convince my husband we need to take a cooking class in Sicily - now that he watched a Hallmark movie about a cooking school in Venice, he's more intrigued by the idea of a cooking school). I simply liked The Italian Wedding. 

It was the perfect book to read on the plane on the first leg of my Italy trip. (And no, I'm not in Italy yet.) I was initially disappointed that so much of the novel took place in England, but gradually, there was more and more of the story set in Italy. At this point it's very obvious that I love reading books based in Italy, especially when they deal with food!

What was also cool is that in this novel, the main character, Pieta, is a wedding dress designer making her sister's wedding dress and helping her plan a dream wedding. The first leg of this trip I'm on is to attend my daughter's wedding. Lots of connections there!

Pieta's mother, Catherine, helps with the construction of the wedding dress. And as they sew and bead, Catherine tells Pieta about how she and Pieta's father met and fell in love. Until that point, Pieta had a very  hard time imagining her mother before she was her mother. 

This was a very enjoyable novel to read, had my mouth watering in parts, got me really excited to visit Italy (counting the days), and it would make a great Hallmark-type movie.

I look forward to reading The Villa Girls, the third novel in this volume.

La Vie, According to Rose

When I started reading La Vie, According to Rose, an Amazon Prime First Read selection by Lauren Parvizi, I thought, hey, didn't I just read this book? The plot of this one was remarkably similar to Italian for Beginners which I'd just finished. Both stories were about older sisters watching their younger sisters getting married. Both were raised by single parents. Both had jobs that had disappointed them. They had been disappointed by relationships with men. They needed a break. Biggest difference was in Italian for Beginners, Cat runs to Rome. And in La Vie, According to Rose, Rose heads to Paris. Both women end up staying in apartments with women who help them discover themselves.

And, as I mentioned in my review of Italian for Beginners, "Holiday in Rome" is an important part of each story. Partway thru La Vie, According to Rose, I watched the movie for the first time. Definitely gave me a better appreciation of both books.

Romance isn't my thing, and you'd think after reading a book so similar to this one - that was set in Rome, which this one was not, that I wouldn't have been able to finish this one. But it was a sweet book, had a nice message, and was a pleasurable read.

Italian for Beginners

 Until now, I'd only read historical fiction from Kristin Harmel. Italian for Beginners was quite a bit different as it was a romance novel. But it was set in Rome. And well, you know, I'm getting excited about my trip. Harmel did an excellent job of evoking Rome. I can't wait to get there!

Funny thing... after finishing Italian for Beginners, I started a book I'd downloaded from Amazon Prime First Reads for free called La Vie, According to Rose by Lauren Parvizi. And the stories are so similar. And both books reference the classic movie "Roman Holiday" so that's what I watched last night. Great movie.

How are the two novels similar? In both novels, the protagonist gets overlooked for an anticipated promotion at a job that doesn't seem to make her happy. In Italian for Beginners, Cat's younger sister has just gotten married. In La Vie, According to Rose, Rose's younger sister is in final countdown to get married. Both Rose and Cat lost one of her parents at a young age and was raised by a single parent who was overbearing and in some ways not up to the task of single parenthood. Both Rose and Cat take on the responsibility for making everyone happy. And both love watching the movie "Roman Holiday." Although not originally. Cat hadn't watched the Audrey Hepburn movie for her own personal reasons until she's already in Rome. Rose has always loved the movie. I'll add in more of a comparison once I finish La Vie, According to Rose.

Cat's life isn't going the way she'd ever envisioned. Her grandmother embarrasses her at her younger sister's wedding. The promotion that she expected to get at work goes to her boyfriend, the brother of her roommate/best friend. After taking a break from said boyfriend, she goes on a date with the owner of the restaurant where her sister got married. A perfect date. Until she learns something about the guy. She realizes that even though she thinks that her father and her sister can't get along with out her, she needs to get away. A co-worker helped her come to this realization. In totally non-Cat behavior, she's doing something spontaneous. The co-worker reaches out as Cat to a guy that Cat had a relationship with when she was an exchange student in Rome 12 years earlier. He turns out to not be the guy she thought he was.

Things go from bad to worse. But from the bad, many wonderful things start to happen. Cat makes some great new friends and begins to come to terms with things that happened to her earlier in her life. Cat learns to take care of herself, not just everyone else. It was really a lovely story.

Romance is not really my thing. But in this novel, Cat was a hobbyist photographer. Her photo outings have gotten me so excited for my upcoming trip. And hey, it takes place in Rome.

One True Loves

I wasn't at book club when they selected One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid as our April title for our "romance" (genre) month. I was surprised to see a contemporary title selected as usually they go with classics. (And it will be streaming on Amazon Prime beginning tomorrow. Is that why they selected this one?)

I was happy to give this novel a try. I was even happier when I got intrigued right away and enjoyed reading about Emma and her two loves, Jesse and Sam. Both Emma and Jesse were anxious to flee Acton, Massachusetts, where they both grew up. They went to college in Los Angeles and after graduation, they stayed. They were living their dream life, traveling the world. Emma was a travel writer and Jesse worked on environmental documentaries. After a few years, it was only natural that they got married.

The novel starts with Emma and her fiancé, Sam, having dinner with Emma's parents when Emma gets a phone call - from her husband. Huh?

The story unfolds in an engaging way. Where was Emma's husband that she thought it was okay to have a fiancé, too?  Will Emma have to make a choice between the two men?

I'd definitely recommend this one and am looking forward to watching the movie.

She's Up to No Good

While I was waiting for one of my library books to become available, I picked up She's Up to No Good by Sara Goodman Confino, one of my two Amazon First Reads from July. (In case you're unfamiliar, if you're an Amazon Prime member, you get to pick one - or sometimes two - titles from a list of free books every single month. Most of them have been pretty good.)

For months after Jenna's marriage falls apart, she's living in her childhood bedroom at her parents' house in Maryland, only doing what's necessary to get through the days. Her elderly grandmother is planning a trip to her hometown in Massachusetts. Jenna volunteers to drive her grandmother up there. Maybe a change of scenery would do Jenna good.

This book reminded me of two of the books I'd recently read, The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner and The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti by Jennifer Probst. But what made She's Up to No Good stand out was Evelyn, Jenna's grandmother. She is a hoot. she manipulates words, has no filters. She'd probably drive me mad if she was my mother or grandmother. But reading about her, I loved her!

Evelyn had been a girl in a large Jewish family growing up in a Massachusetts fishing village. Many of the fisherman families are Portuguese. A Jewish girl falling in love with a Portuguese boy is a no go in the 1950s. That's the story that Evelyn shares with Jenna, bit by bit, as they make their drive and spend time together in the rented cabin where they are staying.

It's a typical romance story. Then again, it's not. It's a story about getting to know your family, about family secrets, and about second chances. I enjoyed it. It was a nice break after The Handmaid's Tale.

The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti

I am really not sure why I picked up The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti by Jennifer Probst after I didn't really love the first book of hers that I'd read, Our Italian Summer. I guess it's because I truly am a sucker for books that are set in Italy.

I did enjoy The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti a little bit more than Our Italian Summer probably because my expectations were a little bit lower. It's also quite possibly because The Secret Love Letters... did a much better job of evoking Italy than Our Italian Summer did. There were a few inaccuracies in this one such as referring to Tuscany a few times. The book was set in the Amalfi coast, not in Tuscany. The other was something about spaghetti and meatballs which is a decidedly American dish and you will never find that in an restaurant in Italy. I made a note about Coca Cola, too. But can't decipher that now.

Otherwise, as romance goes, not a bad story. And as I said, this gave me much more a feel for Italian than One Italian Summer did.

You might like this one. It's not bad. But I can't truly recommend.

 

Book Lovers

How could a book lover who also loves Hallmark movies not love Emily Henry's latest, Book Lovers?

After my last finish (The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle), I needed a book that was going to captivate me and that I'd be able to tear through. Book Lovers was that book. 

Emily Henry starts the novel with her character talking about Hallmark movies. I was hooked! And truly, the plot of the novel could easily be a Hallmark movie. Nora is an intense book agent in NYC. She's very cutthroat, her clients love her for what she can achieve, but they call her "the shark" behind her back. The only relationship she is able to hold on to is with her younger sister, Libby, and her sister's family.

She approaches Charlie, a NYC editor, to see if he'd be interested in a novel by one of her hot authors. Charlie is not interested in that at all. He thought the author's last novel was terrible. And their meeting did not go well at all.

Story then jumps ahead a few years. Libby is pregnant with her 3rd child and needs a little break before the baby comes. She invites - coerces - Nora to accompany her to Sunshine Falls, NC, the setting of one of the novels that Nora represented. The one that Charlie seemed to hate. Libby has a list of things that Nora needs to accomplish on this month-long getaway. Silly things like wearing a flannel shirt, dating a local, riding a horse. Silly things like that.

It's Nora and Libby's first morning in NC. Libby is being a pregnant slug so Nora walks into town and who does she spy in the coffee shop but a guy who looks exactly like Charlie. What do you know? It IS Charlie! They get thrown together repeatedly. The banter between these two main characters is what makes the book so enjoyable. It is just such smart, witty banter. And they can read each other like a book!

I really enjoyed Beach Read. Enjoyed People You Meet on Vacation even more. I loved Book Lovers. If I need a little break from heavier reading and Emily Henry has a new romance novel out, that is what I will choose to read. Highly recommend.

 

The Cookbook Club

On one of my rare entries into a store this past year, I walked into Barnes & Noble with my daughter while she was attempting to pick up a book. I browsed, picked up The Cookbook Club by Beth Harbison. It must have struck my fancy as I added to my ToBeRead list. After finishing Night and This Tender Land, I was wanting something light to read and this was available from the library.

I had a preconceived notion about what this novel would be like and it was nothing like what I imagined. I expected a novel with a bunch of people in a club where they worked on recipes from a particular cookbook for each month. That part was true. But I also expected the story to somehow be connected to the recipes or the cookbook or  the cookbook author. That wasn't the case at all. 

Beth Harbison clearly has a love of cookbooks. My cookbook collection isn't too shabby either but... when I'm in a need a recipe, I typically head to google and search and print the recipe that most strikes my fancy.

Margo, Aja and Trista are each at a crossroads. Trista has just purchased a bar and has come up with the idea of a cookbook club basically to find like-minded testers for the recipes she hopes to cook and serve at her bar. Margo has just been dumped by her jerk of a husband when she comes across the ad for the cookbook club. Aja is hoping that she can learn how to cook! The three definitely bond over food and this is a wonderful book for foodies. However, the book is more about the women's friendships and the choices that each one makes during a difficult time in her life. Oh... but the food...

If only I wasn't going to be on Weight Watchers for the rest of my life! I'd love a cookbook club! It has given me the idea, though, that if I ever bond with people also following WW, a  WW dinner club might be something fun. Who can make the most delicious healthy food?

One thing that really struck me, though, was what Margo had to go through cooking for her husband. He was truly obsessed with a healthy diet so she wasn't allowed to use butter, real cheese, make fresh pasta, and so on. To think that I think I make things tough on my husband! He can use anything as long as he weighs and measures out what he's using. And he can't use a lot of the foods that I want to limit. I'm nothing like Margo's ex-husband. Although her complaints did give me a window into what my husband might be thinking.

There's also a bit of home improvement stuff in here. As part of Margo's divorce settlement, she's gotten the dilapidated farm house that has been in her husband's  family for years. An old college friend of hers is in need of an escape so in return for free rent, he is doing some renovations for her. I sure hope that future Cookbook Club meetings will be held at Margo's farmhouse.

If you need something light and "a bit cheesy" (pun intended) to read and food is one of your things, you might want to pick this one up.

The Matzah Ball

I will admit this here. I am a sucker for a good Hallmark movie. I pretty  much restrict myself to the weeks before Christmas. But when I watch these little gems, I get fully drawn in.

Jean Meltzer's holiday novel, The Matzah Ball, is the perfect plot for a Hallmark movie that I'd enthusiastically watch. This year's favorite Hallmark holiday movie was Eight Gifts of Hanukkah. I mean... who doesn't like to see "themselves" represented in a holiday movie?

(A little aside here. On what would have been Betty White's 100th birthday last week, I watched her Hallmark movie, The Lost Valentine. What a wonderful movie. It will be on again on Valentine's Day. If Hallmark movies are your thing, I highly recommend this one. Now back to the book...)

The Matzah Ball is the story of Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt and her summer camp archenemy, Jacob Greenberg. They were at camp together just one summer, but that summer was memorable for both of them.

Rachel is a writer living in New York. Despite having chronic fatigue syndrome, she has made a rather full life for herself by writing from home. She's the daughter of a big Long Island rabbi. But Rachel has a secret. She loves Christmas. She secretly watches Hallmark Christmas movies under the blanket when she's staying at her parents' house. It's such a big secret that she won't really tell her parents that she writes Christmas romance novels under a pseudonym. She's had 4 holiday movies made from her novels. Her home office is also a big secret. It's a room perpetually decorated for Christmas, complete with a train that goes around the room once per hour. To Rachel, a visit to Santa is better than a trip to a therapist.

Jacob is a big event planner headquartered in Paris. Jacob comes to New York to pull off his biggest Jewish event ever, The Matzah Ball. It's supposed to be an upscale event. No little grocery store bags of Hanukkah gelt (chocolates) here! To add some prestige to the event, he asks Rabbi Goldblatt, Rachel's dad, to light the big 10-foot menorah. Dr. Rubenstein, Rachel's mom, invites Jacob to Shabbat dinner. She lets Rachel know that Jacob will be there and suggests that it would be lovely if Rachel came as well.

Earlier that day, Rachel's publisher informs Rachel that she won't be getting a new contract. Unless... unless she writes a Hanukkah romance novel. Rachel throws up her hands. Hanukkah is just Hanukkah. Christmas is where the magic is. How can she possibly write a Hanukkah romance novel? Once she learns about Jacob's big event, The Matzah Ball, she is determined to snag a ticket to the sold-out event. For research and inspiration.

You can guess what comes next. But it might be more difficult to predict the specifics. Or how Rachel and Jacob make it from Point A to Point B. I knew how the story was going to end, but that didn't diminish the pleasure I took reading the novel. I only wish I'd heard about it earlier so I could have read it in November or December rather than at the end of January!

Vacation Read 2: The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany

 

The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany was recommended as a great vacation read. And why not? Lori Nelson Spielman's novel is about an Italian family that's been cursed over the generations. The second-born daughter in each family is cursed in that she will never find love.

Emilia, a second-born daughter, is pretty content working as a baker at her grandfather's Brooklyn deli. (Yes, I loved that she lived and worked in Brooklyn.) Her younger cousin, Lucy, also a second-born daughter, is hungry for love. Lucy (and her mother) are sure that the curse is real.

Their great aunt, Poppy, also a second-born daughter, wants Emilia and Lucy to accompany her on a trip to Italy. She insists that she's going to meet the love of her life on the steps of the Ravello Cathedral on her eightieth birthday. In doing so, the curse will be broken. Her goal is to prove to Emilia and Lucy that it is possible to find love.

I had thought that The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany was going to similar to Our Italian Summer. I read that one in March. That novel which had me feeling no sense of Italy was about the relationships between a mother, a daughter, and a granddaughter. I thought  The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany was going to be more about the relationships between the great aunt and her two nieces than a romance. (I mean really... YIKES! Two romance novels in a row!) They weren't similar at all. And unlike Our Italian Summer, The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany gave me a much better feel for Italy. 

This novel had more depth than what I think of as a typical romance. I liked the characters (except for the grandmother... she reminded me of a witch from the start) and I was rooting for the Poppy, Emilia, and Lucy.

I probably enjoyed reading this one on vacation more than I might have enjoyed it reading it at home. But isn't that often the case?

Vacation Read 1: People We Meet on Vacation

Doesn't People We Meet on Vacation sound like a great book to read on vacation? It was, even if Emily Henry's newest novel, People We Meet on Vacation, wasn't as much as the people that you meet on vacation. More about  the people you go on vacation with.

Poppy and Alex meet on the first day of college. They're coincidentally from the same small town. The two of them couldn't have been more opposite. Then... on the last day of freshman year, the driver that Poppy was sharing a ride home with was none other than Alex. They connected on the ride home and spent time over the summer vacation together.

Poppy has never felt at home in their small town which probably contributed to her strong sense of wanderlust. She convinces Alex to go on vacation with her. And that starts a new tradition. Every summer after, the two of them go on vacation together. They travel on the cheap until Poppy gets her dream job as a travel writer. She actually gets paid to "go on vacation." Then she's able to treat Alex to a great trip on her job. For a few more years. Until things get weird between the two of them and the summer vacations end.

She's got her dream job, living in her dream city, but she's just not happy. Her best friend, Rachel, asks her what she felt was missing in her life that used to make her happy. She realizes that without the possibility of a summer vacation with Alex, that's what she is lacking. Out of the blue, she texts him and asks him if he's free to go away for a few days. I'll spare you the rest of the story.

I loved reading about some of the adventures that Poppy and Alex had on their trips. There's a loose reference to the title when Poppy is able to be whomever she wants to be while on vacation. Almost like a character. And as much as she loves seeing new places, she loves the interactions that she has with people while she's traveling. I'm not much of a romance novel reader so this whole creating a new persona to interact with people you're going to meet was my favorite part of the novel.

I read Henry's novel, Beach Read, in October. Of the two, I preferred People We Meet on Vacation.
 

Love Lettering

I never really expected to love Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn. I am so not  a romance novel reader. (And if I read a romance, I like the main character to be an older woman, divorced, finding love after a bad relationship.)

Like the last book I read, perhaps I liked this one more than I might have because it is set in Brooklyn, New York. In Park Slope to be exact. The novel gives a great feel for what it's currently like living in Brooklyn. Because I was familiar with a lot of the locations, I was able to visualize them in my head as I was reading which only added to my enjoyment. (It also had me really missing wandering the streets of Brooklyn. Oh, and the food. I miss the food!)

I came across this novel when I was looking for books on how to learn to hand letter. It's an art form and one I'd literally like to try my hand at. The main character of Love Lettering is Meg, a hand lettering artist who creates custom-made planners for New York City elite. I loved reading Meg thinking through her planner designs and what types of lettering she'd use.

I also loved how a secret message leads her to start a friendship with quirky Reid, a "quant"working on Wall Street. Both Meg and Reid are constantly looking for signs in what they see around them. I love how Meg, who loves New York, attempts to show Reid, who hates New York, New York City thru her eyes. When Meg and Reid meet, the only thing he likes about New York City is the food. Yes, the food! And both he and Meg love exactly the kind of quirky little mom-and-pop places to eat that I love and miss so much! Part of the way Meg tries to enlarge Reid's appreciation of New York City is through a game that Reid develops. I love that whole game playing thing, too.

Yes, this is a romance novel. But it's so much more. It's about women's friendships, parent/child relationships, finding a work/life balance. I think if you're like me you don't enjoy reading romance novels, you might not like this. Unless of course you're also into custom planners (I create my own very uninspired bullet journal). Then you might really like this novel a lot.

These Tangled Vines

 

The other night, I decided to drop Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It was the March book for my New Jersey book club. I hadn't realized that the book was so long until I got the book from the library's waitlist a few days before the book club meeting. I got about one-third of the way through the book before the meeting, and I've been going back to it between the fiction books that I've been reading. Without the motivation to talk about the book, I've kind of lost my desire to finish it. It's interesting enough, and I love Goodwin's writing style. But our times right now are turbulent enough and I need a book that will distract me.

When I finished Kindred the other night, I had nothing on deck from the library to read. I went to my kindle app and checked my Amazon Prime first reads that I haven't yet read. These Tangled Vines by Julianne Maclean was my May selection. The reviews on Goodreads were great. I'm still mourning over my canceled Italy trip from last fall which is why I'd selected this particular title in the first place.

Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

If Fiona has learned anything in life, it’s how to keep a secret—even from the father who raised her. She is the only person who knows about her late mother’s affair in Tuscany thirty years earlier, and she intends to keep it that way…until a lawyer calls with shocking news: her biological father has died and left her an incredible inheritance—along with two half siblings.

Fiona travels to Italy, where the family is shocked to learn of her existence and desperate to contest her share of the will. While the mystery of her mother’s affair is slowly unraveled, Fiona must navigate through tricky family relationships and tense sibling rivalries. Fiona both fears and embraces her new destiny as she searches for the truth about the fateful summer her mother spent in Italy and the father she never knew.

Spilling over with the sumptuous flavors and romance of Tuscany, These Tangled Vines takes readers on a breathtaking journey of love, secrets, sacrifice, courage—and most importantly, the true meaning of family.

These Tangled Wines isn't full-blown women's fiction nor is it a full-blown romance. I'd say it's more about life choices that one has to make as a result of romance. I loved so many of the pieces of the novel but was disappointed when in my mind, they didn't add up to enough. Being my nitpicky self, there were three details that no one critiquing noticed but that bugged me. Tallahassee is not near a Gulf beach. (Why was from Fiona from Tallahassee anyway?) There was a lot of coffee drinking in this novel. But percolator? If an Italian offers you "coffee" and you say yes, you will get an espresso. And in the 1980s, writers weren't parking themselves at coffee shops in Italy to spend all day writing. In fact, in 2015, the last time I was in Italy, I can only think of two "coffee shops" that I stopped into where sitting and writing even for a short while would be a possibility.

What I loved the most was when the "family" that worked at the winery in the summer of 1986 gathered together outside to have dinner. The food, the wine, the camaraderie... and I could feel the atmosphere. I wanted to be there.

I can't recommend this  novel nor would I not recommend it. For me, it was a nice break from what I've been reading. 

When can I go to Italy again???

Okay, let me get this off my chest straightaway. Beach Read, the title, the cover, totally misleading! I knew from reading the summaries that Emily Henry's Beach Read was about two writers, each suffering from writer's block. That's why I picked up the book. I thought the fact that the setting was a beach was going to be a bonus. I love the beach. I love reading about the beach. This novel had so few references to the beach and almost no scenes that took place on the beach. Like I said, totally misleading.

I'm not a romance reader, typically, unless the romance is between a divorced mother of three or an older woman. But Beach Read was the right book for  the right time for me. Just how many tell all political books can one person read in a row. I enjoyed the snarking repartee between January and Augustus. I enjoyed the friendship between January and Shadi. I wouldn't say I really cared about the characters, but I was curious about them and how they ended up where they were at the start of the story. This was an easy, comfortable read.

Now I can get back to reading something a bit more serious. 

The Sorrows of Young Werther

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's first novel, written in 1774, The Sorrows of Young Werther, was the classic novel that Books and Beer Club selected to read this month. We weren't sure if we were going to attempt a Zoom book club meeting or miss another month. Mid-month, one of the members suggested this "short" book so that we could read it and be ready for our normal meeting date.

This is definitely a book that I never would have selected on my own. Written in German and translated into English, some of the language was a bit flowery and "old" for me. The story, however, is timeless. Werther is a young man who is resisting what society - and his mother - would have him to - go into diplomatic service - so he can pursue the arts. He's a passionate young man and believes that everyone should be so passionate. He meets a young woman, Lotte, who is responsible of the care of her younger siblings after the death of her mother. Werther falls in love with the children and falls in love with Lotte. Sadly, as is often the case, Lotte is promised to another. Werther meets her intended, Albert, and the three of them form their own sort of alliance.

The novel plays out in letters that Werther is writing to a dear friend back home with many messages to his mother. Sometimes these letters reference people and things that we're not familiar with as part of the story. At the end of the novel, it is implied that the dear friend becomes the narrator and finishes up the telling of Werther's story.

I'm not sure for whom I'd even recommend a book such as this. It was relatively short and quick to read and was a better read than many of the romance titles that the club has read in the past.

The Last Letter from Your Lover

Romance novels aren't my usual genre. However, I am a sucker for a book that includes written correspondence. In this case, the letters were love letters. If the story is good - and this one was - and that crucial element is included, I'm in.

The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes starts with Jennifer recovering from a bad car accident. She's got amnesia and can't remember what's come before. She finds a letter, what appears to be a love letter, while straightening up in her bedroom... and that starts to jog her memory. She eventually finds more and more letters, and after a chance encounter at a cocktail party, she seems to remember a big huge chunk of what's been missing from her life since the accident.

Interspersed with Jennifer's post-accident story are chapters which fill us in with details of the back story. Many of the same characters are in that story so the book was confusing at first. I didn't realize I was reading a "current" story and a back story.

The book then picks up many years later. Ellie, a journalist who is focusing too much on a bad love relationship and not enough on her career, is tasked with writing a story that connects the 1960s to the 2000s. She goes to the archives of her newspaper and is handed a folder. In the folder, she finds some love letters. She's then determined to find out more about the lovers who sent and received those letters.

Other than the confusion in the beginning, this is a well-crafted story. It wasn't too schmaltzy for me. There is some reference to asbestos and since I'm much more of a historical fiction fan, I would have really loved this book had that part been much more developed.

In any event, I'm really glad that I picked this up when I wasn't sure what to read next.

Romance in April

I'm going to be blogging about this book as I read this book. Why?

After Forever Ends is the book selected by Books & Beer Club to read for our romance (genre) month, April. I wasn't at the March meeting when this was selected. When I started reading the book, I had to wonder if I was reading the correct book. It sure seems like a Young Adult novel. While that works for science fiction and fantasy (my least favorite genres), it doesn't really work for romance.

I had to purchase the book since it was only available for sale and not at any library. I'm still trying to figure out if it was self-published. If not, I wouldn't recommend that any author use Melodie Ramone's editor. Punctuation is horrible. Dialogue is improperly punctuated throughout. (And I'm already thru about 25% of the novel. So it's not like the punctuation was bad the first few pages... or chapters.)

I don't understand the time setting of the novel. Silvia is telling her granddaughter her life story. At the time of the telling, she's 86 years old. Okay. That makes sense. We go back to when Silvia starts  new boarding school. As the reader, I expected Silvia to be 15 years old in the 1930s or maybe 1940s. Yet the references to popular culture at the time of Silvia's boarding school days are things that were going on when I was already an adult. And I'm no where near 86 years old. In other words, 86-year old Silvia was 15 in the 1980s. Does that make sense? Maybe if I continue reading, I'll see that the novel ends sometime in the future.

(Took a break to read The Nest. Getting back to After Forever Ends this evening. Book club is in just 5 more days. I've got a lot of reading to get done.)

Book club was this evening. According to my Kindle app, I've got an hour and 45 minutes remaining to complete the book. I wasn't too worried about hearing any spoilers at the meeting. I was also in pretty good company. Three people liked the book (although one agreed with many of my complaints). A few were on the fence about it. And the large majority really didn't enjoy reading it at all. I wasn't the only one who felt that the book was endless and weren't able to finish on time. 

That didn't stop us from having a great book discussion. In addition to talking about the writing and editing (or lack there of) and author's purpose, we talked about the characters and the plot. And the setting. This was probably one of our more focused on the book discussions.

We've decided as a group that we need to take better care when selecting books based on reviews of people we don't know. Especially when it comes to romance. (Personally, I'm not sure why we don't substitute romance with some other genre that isn't on our annual rotation. I might suggest that next time.)

I'm so close to finishing the book. I suppose that I will finish it.

I finished After Forever Ends over the weekend. I'm not sure how the kindle app really learns your reading speed. When I stopped reading on Wednesday, it said I had about an hour and 45 minutes remaining. After about 20 minutes of reading, it said I had over 2 hours remaining. I'd made a commitment to finishing the book so I stuck with it. I'd heard at book club that I wasn't missing much by not reading through to the end. And I suppose that was correct.

The main character, Silvia, jumped around a bit talking about the children (hers and Lucy's) growing up and becoming adults. There was a lot of jumping around and I needed to keep reminding myself whose child belonged to whom. In reality, I suppose all the children belonged to all of them, Silvia, Lucy and the twins. The book ends with Oliver's illness and death and how it impacts Silvia, Alexander and Lucy. (Not a spoiler. In the opening paragraph, you learn that Olive has been dead a few years.) And then it ends.

Silvia started her story by telling it to her favorite granddaughter, Kitty. This was a loose thread that wasn't tied up at the end of the book. It was as if Silvia had been telling the story to herself.

Melodie Ramone wrote a 5-star review for herself on goodreads.com. In her review, she wrote about how most of the story came straight out of real life. I do wonder which character Melodie was/is. It makes me wonder if she decided to write down a family story - because this would be an awesome family story - and someone who read it said, "You should publish this. It's a great family saga." Even though it's something that would only completely interest someone close to the author. I'd love to have something so detailed about my grandparents, parents or siblings. But to read it about a stranger's family, not so much so. I also wonder, with regards to the poor editing, if it was published by a vanity press. My first thought was self-published, but there is a publisher noted.

In the end, I did give the book a rating of 2-stars on goodreads as opposed to a 1-star. Mostly because I was able to finish it. But would I recommend it? Not at all... unless you're a family member of Ramone. Then I'd highly recommend it.