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The Guest House by the Sea–difficult situations
The Guest House by the Sea
by Faith Hogan
Esme, with the help of Marta, an energetic Basque woman, operates the Willows, a 200 year old guest house, following the tradition of the women in her family. The Guest House by the Sea focuses on several weeks during “the season” and the guests who abide there.
Esme is in a high state of frustration because she broke her leg and is mostly blind. So she spends her days in a dome chair welcoming guests and sharing wisdom with those who stop to chat with her. Some of the wisdom comes from the guest register that starts each page with a handwritten quote. When Esme has a guest read a quote, it always seems to apply to that person even though they were written in the book prior to the season’s start.
The cast of characters is diverse and each will tug at your heartstrings as they arrive at Ballycove hoping for space and peace in which to get a grip on their problems. Joel is a lonely engineer staying for weeks to help on expensive repairs to the church’s roof. Cora is a homemaker and teaching assistant with a husband set in routines. After thirty years together, she wonders if she has only staleness left in her future. Phyllis is watching her husband slip away in the same dementia that stole his father. Their son Rob, a widower, and his son Josh join them. As the result of a pregnancy test, Niamh comes to the Willows by herself with a pill to “take care of it” in the words of Jeremy. She is his long-time mistress and co-worker, but she learns a lot about Jeremy, herself, and their relationship through this process.
All of these guests are people you would want to know; they will pull you into their stories. Not all of them will have happily ever afters, but they are all seeking fulfilling lives and you will want that for them. Nothing in this book says that life is easy, but it doesn’t moan and whine while the characters deal with their problems either. Ballycove and the Willows are a great backdrop for their stories and their growth.
Faith Hogan is an Irish writer with lots of books to her credit. I plan on reading more by this author.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Fiction, Romance, Women’s Fiction
Publication: June 8, 2023—Aria
Memorable Lines:
Her heart had missed a beat, in the way it does when you’re young and it feels as if the simple things are absolutely momentous.
She was blessed to have a husband like him. Michael was a true blue. He’d be sleeping in that same bed until the day he died, if he had a choice. So why did she feel this heavy weight of emptiness instead, as if her marriage was some black hole and she was in danger of falling in and suffocating while life went on without her? Perhaps being out here in Ballycove would do her good, give her some perspective on things.
“Maybe, but I think you’ve attracted good people to you because you’re kind and you have a generous spirit. You have probably helped more people than you know over the years, with your wise words.”
All You Need is Love–teddy bear shop setting
All You Need is Love
by Jessica Redland
Boy meets girl, but everything after that is a complication in All You Need is Love. Some of the characters you’ll love, and some you’ll want to send packing. Jemma lives in London with three flatmates; the four are devoted friends. Due to her mom’s health problems, Jemma feels compelled to return to her hometown of Whitsborough Bay. Scott, who travels a lot for his job, and Jemma have a chance encounter and are immediately drawn into a relationship. Sam, a neurologist, has recently moved to London to escape memories of his much beloved Nikki.
The plot is much more interesting than it sounds in a skeletal summary, but almost anything above the basics would give away too much and ruin the reading experience. There are huge issues of secrets and trust. Grief and how to deal with it is another major theme. There are certainly happy moments in the book, but it deals with a number of hard challenges too. Often characters in this book respond to these difficulties by blunting the pain with alcohol which, not surprisingly, makes situations worse rather than better. The characters have moral decisions to make. One, in particular, involves adultery which one character proclaims she would never knowingly do to another woman and her family. Yet, she did take the offender back for a second chance. Either the author or the character is inconsistent in this one instance. Although I did not like the way the author jumped around in time and between characters prior to uniting the two plot lines, in general, it was an interesting read. As a bonus, if you like teddy bears, you’ll get warm fuzzies from the setting.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Boldwood Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: General Fiction (Adult), Women’s Fiction
Notes: There are a lot of casual vulgarisms—both British and American—in this standalone novel.
Publication: March 11, 2021—Boldwood Books
Memorable Lines:
She seemed to move from anger and frustration to listless disinterest in the space of a day, and back again. It was like having a hormonal teenager in the house, lashing out at anyone and everything.
Time seemed to slow down. The chatter, laughter and clinks of glasses faded into the background and it felt like there were just the two of us in a bubble on our own as he waited for my reaction, an expression of hope tinged with fear in his eyes.
How funny that we were from the same small seaside town yet we’d found each other in the third largest city in Europe.
I’ll Be Seeing You–aging
I’ll Be Seeing You
by Elizabeth Berg
Aging. A theme as old as the passing of time. Elizabeth Berg addresses it in her memoir I’ll Be Seeing You. She describes the challenges of growing old while trying to help her aging parents as they grow even older. It’s tough. We all know that. And it’s different for everyone. Rather than unhelpful generalizations, Berg shares her very personal story—mostly stressful, often frustrating, and sometimes funny.
Berg’s parents, in their late 80’s, are faced with the need to downsize and move to accommodations that are safer and provide opportunities for a continued happy life, but with more constraints. Her father has Alzheimer’s, and her mother is angry and feels suffocated. Berg and her siblings try to help, to make the transition as easy as possible. In the almost year-long transition process she “learned a lot about them, and just as much about myself.”
Berg is an excellent writer. She explores her own aging, her relationship with her parents, and the couple’s love for each other with sensitivity and honesty. Berg turns a tale of aging, decline, and loss into a page turner that explores confronting the inevitable hurdles in life rather than being victimized by them. Although the most visible theme is aging, love permeates the tale with the kind of affection and devotion that lasts a lifetime.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Random House for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Memoir
Publication: October 27, 2020—Random House
Memorable Lines:
A kind of wild optimism that was in all of us that has eroded as it must with the tired realities of life, with the anvil of aging that has fallen on our parents and will fall on us, too, should we live that long.
I am, as is easy to see, full of hope. But I have to remember something I always forget: you can’t tell anyone else how to experience something. People live behind their own eyes. I’m not the one with the broken arm.
Yes, life is a minefield at any age. Sometimes we feel pretty certain that we know what’s coming. But really, we never do. We just walk on. We have to. If we’re smart, we count our blessings between the darker surprises. And hope for a fair balance.
The Christmas Calendar Girls–an advent calendar that helps others
The Christmas Calendar Girls
by Samantha Tonge
Fern, Davina, and Cara bond over children who attend the same school in Birchwood Estate. With different personalities and strengths they value each other rather than hold jealousies. In The Christmas Calendar Girls by Samantha Tonge, the ladies work together to save the food bank that is a lifeline for so many in the community, from the addict to the unemployed parent struggling to provide.
It’s the busy Christmas season and late to begin a project to raise money, but Fern has an idea to save the food bank and engender community spirit and good will. Her friends jump on board to help.
All is not smooth sailing, however, with the project and its changing deadlines or in the “calendar girls’ ” personal lives. Fern is a widowed journalist trying to find a new normal for herself and her daughter Lily. Perhaps she is ready to have a relationship again. Kit, a former client of the food bank, stirs her heart, but is he ready for romance? Davina has always been close to her twin boys, but the more sensitive of the two begins pulling away and the pair get into a fight at school. Cara is fantastic with food, very creative, and a doting, stay-at-home mom. Suddenly she seems to have lost it all as she burns foods, uses the wrong ingredients, and forgets school notices and weather appropriate clothing for her kids. She fears the onset of early dementia.
Watching these characters grow as they lean on each other and gradually reveal their secrets and rooting for them as they try to help those less fortunate, makes for a gentle, interesting, and inspiring story. Birchwood Estate will never be the same.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Aria for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Publication: October 3, 2019—Aria
Memorable Lines:
That’s what Cara’s homely place was like…If it was a person it would have been a welcoming aunt, who always had your favorite biscuits in and never forgot to send birthday money.
“Bringing everyone together, friends and family, over food and drink, with the purpose of helping people facing difficult times…your idea really does encapsulate everything that the festive season should be about.”
Sometimes I worried I’d never meet another man. I didn’t need one to look after myself and Lily. But I wanted the company. The closeness. I missed that.
Goodness, Grace, and Me–it’s complicated
Goodness, Grace, and Me
by Julie Houston
Complicated relationships are at the center of Julie Houston’s Goodness, Grace, and Me. Harriet (Hat) has been best friends with Grace since they were eleven, and they both idolized Amanda who along the way picked up the title “Little Miss Goodness.” Twenty years later, Grace and Harriet assume they are rid of her influence when she suddenly re-enters their lives. Despite all warnings, Harriet’s husband Nick becomes involved in business with Amanda’s husband and thus Amanda. Grace’s brother continues to be under Amanda’s spell.
Life is not easy for Harriet, mother of three, who had to return to teaching because of economic problems. Also Nick’s mother has come to live with them. Although her situation is complicated, Harriet pushes hard for stability for her family.
This is my second Julie Houston book to read and I like it much better than the first. The main character is strong, likable, and has moral character. There is a subplot involving Harriet’s mother, possible dementia, and a secret. I wasn’t sure how the plot would sort itself out, but it did and I enjoyed watching it happen.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Aria for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4.5/5
Category: General Fiction (Adult), Women’s Fiction
Notes: Includes some British vulgarisms but they are not terribly offensive compared to those found in Julie Houston’s Coming Home to Holly Close Farm.
Publication: February 19, 2019—Aria
Memorable Lines:
I can only ever sulk for a maximum of five minutes, by which time I’ve usually had enough of giving the cold shoulder treatment and need to start talking again. Life is just too short to spend it in silence.
Admittedly, I did most of the hard graft but I lightened the proceedings by blasting out T.Rex’s “I Love to Boogie”, so that even Kit forgot he was a fully paid up member of the moody brigade and jitterbugged round the furniture with the Hoover.
…wrapping a duvet around her against the almost damp cold which had settled in the sitting room like a melancholic maiden aunt who has outstayed her welcome, I went back through the hall to ring the doctor’s surgery.
If My Moon Was Your Sun–the Great Forgetting
If My Moon Was Your Sun
by Andreas Steinhöfel
Illustrated by Nele Palmate
Translation by Matthew O. Anderson
If My Moon Was Your Sun is the poignant tale of ten year old Max who kidnaps his grandfather from an assisted living facility where he lives because he is gradually losing his memory. Max takes his grandpa to Grandpa’s favorite place where he first kissed his future wife and asked her to marry him. They are accompanied on their adventure by Miss Schneider who relives her younger days by dancing through the meadow.
I was provided with a digital version of this book for reviewing purposes, but the actual book has a CD audiobook with classical music by Georges Bizet and Sergei Prokofiev. The original story was created as part of the Ohrenspitzer project for children’s concerts. There are annotations throughout the book indicating the musical work and composer that accompanies each segment of the book. Most of the compositions are by Prokofiev, so I listened to some of his works and can only imagine how wonderful the union of the story, artwork, and music must be.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Plough Publishing House for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Children’s Fiction, Parenting and Families
Notes: accompanied by CD audiobook
Publication: November 1, 2017—Plough Publishing House
Memorable Lines:
The special thing happened when you let yourself sink slowly into the tall grass and pressed your hands into earth, which was firm and yet soft too, as though it could breathe. You closed your eyes, you breathed deeply in and out, and in no time at all you felt rooted and alive. Your thoughts became clear and orderly: the right thoughts flowed through your mind like cool, wet silver, and the wrong thoughts burned up like rust in a very hot fire.
To keep the Great Forgetting away from Grandfather when it tried to grab hold of him, it was sometimes enough to hug him tightly, offering nearness and security.
Watching Miss Schneider dance was like watching the sun spill itself over the earth. Stiff arms and legs, now in motion, suddenly seemed touched by eternal youth, and from their graceful movements a lightness flowed throughout the valley.
education pathways 