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Tomorrow Starts Today–family problems
Tomorrow Starts Today
by Jessica Redland
Join Yvonne, Paulette, Veronica, Milly, and Laughlin along with others who gather for the Cake & Craft Club held every Wednesday at the Willowdale Village Hall at 2-4 p.m. It’s open to all regardless of hobby interest or skill level. Yvonne is a widow with no family or friends—just a African Grey Parrot, Trevor, and a secret she has never shared with anyone. She is at a dead end when she sees a notification in the local paper for this group and decides to take a risk. The members of the Cake & Craft Club welcome her with open arms and extend to her the same kindness they need as well.
Despite the problems each one of the characters has with dysfunctional families and other stumbling blocks, Tomorrow Starts Today is a story filled with hope and kindness. Part of the positivity comes from the generous nature of the characters and part comes from 19 year old Saffy, Paulette’s granddaughter. She is living temporarily with Paulette after dropping out of college after the first term. Her parents are upset with her, but the creative and artistic young lady has tried to explain that she needs some time to figure out what she wants to do. Saffy has a hobby of journaling and she shares her ideas and philosophies with the group, stimulating many of them to examine their own lives and effect changes they have been hesitant to make.
The story is full of active and former romances as most of the characters are retired or approaching that age. Some are wondering if there is only one destined soulmate per person or if they are too old to be involved in romance. Some have had traumatic events that keep them from reaching out to others and some have used those traumatic events to spur them into being good listeners and sounding boards for others in pain.
“Tomorrow Starts Today” is a good title for this book. Yvonne and her friends discover through journaling and goal setting how to find their futures and act on a plan. With Saffy’s artistic flair, the projects become a cross between journaling and scrapbooking complete with washi tape, stickers, and ribbons.
I enjoyed the camaraderie, the journey to trusting others, and the gradual disclosure of Yvonne’s family mysteries. I highly recommend it.
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
Notes: 1. Clean
2. # 5 in the Escape to the Lakes series. I have read the other books in this series, and I reread my reviews and the publisher summaries to refresh my memory on the characters and events in previous books in the series. That search was actually not necessary. Although there are some minor crossover references to other books, this book is an enjoyable standalone—plot and characters are complete in Tomorrow Starts Today.
Publication: January 8, 2026—Boldwood Books
Memorable Lines:
Me! I was stopping me. It was that little voice in my head that told me that when you started spending time with people, you had to talk to them about more than the weather and everyday life. You needed to exchange stories about the past and that was where things became tricky.
“Families should be there to heal each other—not to be the ones causing the wounds.” Absolutely that, but life was rarely that straightforward.
That was the appropriate point for hugs and, as I squeezed Veronica tightly, I marveled at how long I’d gone without physical human contact and how powerful and restorative it could be.
Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes–calming teas in a crisis
Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes
by Karen Rose Smith
If you like tea shops and cozy mysteries, Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes is perfect for you. It is a clean mystery with great characters and is an introduction to a series that continues throughout to entertain and to pose puzzles captivating you with thoughts of “whodunit.” I am qualified to say that because, now having read book #1, I am only missing two books to finish off the ten book series.
Daisy Swanson, a widow with two teenage daughters, and her Aunt Ida opened a tearoom in Willow Creek, Pennsylvania. Ida has been getting serious with Harvey Fitz, owner of an expensive men’s clothing store nearby. When a murder occurs in the gardens of the tea shop, Detective Rappaport investigates with all the sensitivity of a water moccasin, accusing Ida of the murder and continuing to focus on her as the criminal in this case saying she vandalized her own house and created stories that someone was following her.
On the positive side, the reader learns how a tea shop works. Daisy and her best friend Tessa put in long hours trying to create special treats for the customers and please them with exceptional and exclusive events and service. Daisy has two gentlemen interested in her. Cade, her realtor, was her high school date to the prom. Jonas, a retired detective, has a furniture store near her shop. He stocks beautiful furniture made by Amish craftsmen and by himself.
Other threads include Vi (Violet), Daisy’s college age daughter, and Jazzi (Jasmine), a high school student. Jazzi was adopted as a baby in a closed adoption, but she is now interested in finding her biological mother.
Although I read 7 books in the series without the benefit of the background in Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes, I very much enjoyed this book. It was nice to see “old friends” and fill in some details. It is a tribute to the author, however, that she was able to keep the plot developing as she shared background information in each book.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #1 in the Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery Series
2. There are three recipes at the end of the novel.
Publication: January 2018—Kensington
Memorable Lines:
She didn’t know if he’d ever called her by her name before. It was one of those things—until you knew a person well, you didn’t really use their name. Names had power. Names conveyed meaning.
“Something good from something bad. My brother and sister and I are closer since Mom died. That’s one good thing that came from something bad. You have to look really hard sometimes, but if you do, you can find it.” Daisy liked Foster.
Adult women needed best friends just as much as third-graders.
Their Surprise Reunion–being gentle with her heart
Their Surprise Reunion
by Shelley Shepard Gray
Kayla Harding holds on to her self-respect during the hardest of times—when her husband of three years wants a divorce, when the divorce leaves her financially and emotionally devastated despite her husband’s affair being the cause of the split, and when she is literally hungry because her salary as a part-time clerk at a card shop won’t cover the most basic of expenses. Swallowing her pride she resorts to a food bank at Loaves of Love where clients and volunteers also make bread for the needy.
Sean Copeland volunteers at Loaves of Love where he meets up with Kayla and they recognize each other. They had attended the same small high school. He was a football star, and now he is assistant coach and teacher at Medina. He assumes that, like him, Kayla is at Loaves of Love as a volunteer, and she is too embarrassed to correct him.
Their Surprise Reunion takes the reader through their backgrounds and their current home situations. Sean is a widower with an adorable six year old son and a supportive extended family. Kayla’s boss has perfected meanness in her leadership style with lots of gaslighting and ultimatums. Read this romance to watch the pair struggle through the need to be honest about their pasts and their feelings for each other. Kayla is sweet and kind, and Sean treats her with the respect she has always deserved, but rarely received. The story is touching, and the characters are worthy of a happy ending. Read Their Surprise Reunion to see if the pair gets one.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: General Fiction, Romance
Notes: 1. #1 in A Matchmaker Knows Best
2. Clean
Publication: April 29, 2025—Harlequin Heartwarming
Memorable Lines:
“Personal problems don’t give folks the right to take out their bad moods on everyone else, though.”
Making someone else’s life easier was a gift that kept on giving.
Trouble Follows You–starting over as a PI
Trouble Follows You
By Bonnie Edwards
Barbara Black is the protagonist of Trouble Follows You and she tells her story from a first person point of view. Thirty-five and recently divorced from a philandering husband, she strikes out to become a Private Investigator with financial survival as her goal. She works part time following up potential insurance cheats for a larger investigations company. She drums up her own first PI case when the wife of an author Barbara had heard speak at an event is shot and the husband is accused of the murder. The husband is a creep, but claims his innocency, and Barbara takes the case.
While involved in searching out background information for her first case, she gets a second case. Her ex-husband wants her to do a deep background check on his current wife. With the promise of good monetary compensation served up with a side of potential revenge, Barbara takes the case and soon finds herself following some shady characters from Tucson to Oklahoma.
I enjoyed this cozy mystery. The plot is good with threads and motivations that keep the reader guessing. While the investigation of murder is serious, the author manages to inject humor throughout. From time to time, in cozy mysteries, the actions of the protagonist do occasionally step over the legal line and sometimes are not quite believable. Trouble Follows You drifts into these territories increasing the reader’s enjoyment. The book is, after all, fiction and a great escape from more serious tomes. The author lives in Tucson, Arizona, which is the major setting for her books.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #1 in the Adventures of Babs Black series which currently has 3 books in the series.
2. Clean cozy mystery with exactly 5 offensive words in the whole book.
3. There is another author by the same name who writes erotic romances.
Publication: December 6, 2019—Deadly Press
Memorable Lines:
I know teachers. If the plan was a cooperative one among them, they’d still be arguing about who got to pull the trigger.
“Confident, a little brassy, quite sure that she was right about everything. What I mean to say is over-confident and obnoxiously brazen, but my original statement seemed so much more proper.”
There is not much in this world that chocolate won’t solve. The combination of ice cream and chocolate is the universal cure for whatever ails you.
The Correspondent–successful epistolary novel
The Correspondent
by Virginia Evans
When we first meet Sybil Van Antwerp, age 73, she is retired from law and spends a lot of time writing letters and emails. She also reads a lot and is interested in what her correspondents are reading. She has children and grandchildren, but she lives alone in Annapolis, Maryland, and doesn’t see her family very often. During the course of reading her correspondence, we very gradually learn about Sybil—her history and her present troubles. She is a complicated character and several times in reading The Correspondent I paused to ask myself what I thought of Sybil—did I like her? What about her kept me from the immediate response a reader usually has about the main character of a book? Even at the end of the book, I am still ambivalent about Sybil, but I certainly understand her much better.
Sybil, herself, and the book have so many layers. There is true depth to the story. My book club took deep dives into it over a period of three weeks, and I don’t think we have sampled all the topics represented in this book. It is a wonderful novel for stimulating meaningful discussion.
Neurodivergence is not called out or named, but it comes to mind in thinking about Harry, a child who is the son of a judge, a former colleague of Sybil. The boy doesn’t quite fit in socially with his peers, but he is brilliant. Sybil makes the perfect “pen pal” for Harry because they have some of the same characteristics. As a child she was punished for “insolence and rudeness,” but her parents were just trying to mold her into a polite young lady as expected by society. She was blunt and didn’t have many friends.
There are so many other issues worthy of discussion, but they would most certainly bring up spoilers. I won’t do that to you. Readers should have the opportunity to see the story gradually emerge from the letters, including a continuing one that the reader doesn’t know to whom Sybil is writing. Sybil sets the word “stone” for secrets, and there are stones in this book making it a puzzle, a mystery of sorts—for the reader.
As a reviewer, I tend to go quickly from one book to the next as soon as I have composed and published my thoughts. Characters in various books can even blend together. This is not the case with The Correspondent. The characters in this book, especially Sybil, have stayed with me and come to mind frequently as I go through my day. Virginia Evans has created a fictional world with impact. Just as Sybil needed time (years in her case) to process the events of her life, the reader will need time to process them and their effects on Sybil as well.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Women’s Fiction, Epistolary
Notes: Includes discussion questions
Publication: April 29,2025—Crown
Memorable Lines:
But I think of life rather like a long road we walk in one direction. By and large a lonesome walk out in the wildness of hills and wind. Mountains. Snow. And sometimes there is someone to come along and walk with you for a stretch, and sometimes (this is what I’m getting to) sometimes you see in the distance some lights and it heartens you, the lone house or maybe a village and you come into the warmth of that stopover and go inside.
Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle, or, a better metaphor, if dated, the links of a long chain, and even if those links are never put back together, which they will certainly never be, even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seeds of a dying dandelion, isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?
…she positively exploded, went into a diatribe of her grievances against me like the projectile innards of a dirty bomb.
Lessons in Love at the Cornish County Hospital–many faces of love
Lessons in Love at the Cornish County Hospital
By Jo Bartlett
This series is the fictional account of several of the workers at St. Piran’s Hospital. It focuses specifically on two couples: Gary, a staff nurse, and Wendy, the head of housekeeping; and Danni who works in emergency medicine and her boyfriend Charlie, a children’s book author. Working on the fourth book in this series, Jo Barlett presents a lot of background about the various characters. Sometimes I felt like I had been dropped into the middle of a soap opera; and at other times, I admired Barlett’s handling of characters and situations that are serious.
Wendy had been married to Mike, unquestionably a philandering, narcissistic jerk who was the father of her two young adult girls. Now he is in a relationship with the much younger Chloe. Wendy struggles with doing the right things for her daughters as they form bonds with Chloe who is pregnant. Danni is also pregnant and is carefully cared for medically as an older mom with a first child. Both Gary and Charlie are caring and loving mates, but the women take the stage in this novel.
With relationship and medical issues, there is both trauma and drama for Chloe. Eating disorders affect several characters. Wendy struggles with jealousy over Chloe even though Wendy no longer loves or is attracted to Mike. It hurts that her daughters see Chloe as the fun “mom.” Meanwhile Chloe suffers from a deep seated and unfulfilled desire to be loved.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Fiction, Romance, Women’s Fiction
Notes: 1. #4 in the Cornish County Hospital series, but could be read as a standalone.
2. Only 6 instances of swear words and no open bedroom doors.
Publication: October 3, 2024—Boldwood Books
Memorable Lines:
…borrowing tomorrow’s trouble was a sure-fire way to suck all the joy out of life.
If death could come from a thousand small cuts, so could the death of a relationship and it felt like that day was getting closer and closer.
Everything they’d been through had taught her that love really could be found in the most unexpected of places. There was no such thing as loving too many people, or being loved by too many people in return.
Frank and Red–healing tale
Frank and Red
By Matt Coyne
Frank is a curmudgeon and a recluse. Red is a precocious six year old. Both have had a rough life in the last few years, but they approach their situations from very different perspectives. Frank is in such pain when his beloved Marcie passes away that he creates a dysfunctional relationship with his son. Red’s parents divorce causes upheaval in his life with a new home, new school and new neighbor Frank. Red faces life with enthusiasm despite the tough times. When Frank’s advice to Red about bullies has some unfortunate consequences, Frank finds himself taking on caregiving responsibilities for Red. Frank has a lot to learn from Red. Although some may initially find the plot predictable, the last part of the book is anything but predictable with lots of adventure and humor.
Frank is the ultimate grump, and Red is totally lovable. Together they make an interesting pair. The book is replete with crude language, but being British English it somehow doesn’t seem as offensive to the American ear. Short chapters are entitled “Frank” or “Red” with alternating perspectives moving the story along quickly. Red’s interactions with his new classmates are both sad and funny; it’s hard to be a new student. Red’s mother is a hospice nurse, a very caring woman who is devoted to Red and tries to shield him from an indifferent father. A fence separates Frank and Red, but its physical toppling brings about a metaphorical destruction of the barriers between Frank and Red and between Frank and the outside world that he fears.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Fiction, Humor
Notes: Offensive Language
Publication: February 1, 2024—Wildfire
Memorable Lines:
He had once heard a saying that went something like: “You don’t need a parachute to skydive once.” That’s what he was thinking about: that falling in love with someone, and allowing yourself to do so, was like falling without a parachute. And that’s okay when it’s the love of your life, because you only intend to skydive once.
And Jake, of course, whom he had absolutely no intention of playing with, inside or outside, on account of him being a dangerous cycle-path.
“You’re comfortable being miserable. You wear it like a pair of slippers.”
The Finders Keepers Library–caring and helping
The Finders Keepers Library
by Annie Rains
I was immediately enchanted by the format of The Finders Keepers Library. Each chapter begins with a quote, usually bookish, always by a famous author (from Lamott to Tolkien and many in between), and always pertinent to the content of the chapter. I am quite familiar with starting chapters with quotes, but sometimes they are obscure, obtuse, or irrelevant. Not in this book where they are charming and relatable! Each chapter also begins with a pencil sketch of flowers emerging from a book. This illustration has a special meaning because one of the main characters, Eleanor, owns the free library created by her deceased husband along with an extensive garden. They combined their hobbies in a way that engages the community.
Savannah is in between jobs and has just had a troubling medical diagnosis, lupus, that she is learning to live with. Rather than go to her parents’ home, she has a long overdue visit with her beloved Aunt Eleanor who could really use her skills with plants to get the garden in shape for the wedding of a friend of Savannah. Eleanor’s next door neighbor is Evan who was Savannah’s close friend every summer when she came to visit. When they parted ways after high school graduation, they lost touch with each other although neither forgot the “what could have been” of their relationship. Now they are at a different place in their lives. Evan is divorced and has newly become the custodial parent for his grieving daughter. Savannah’s partner of two years walked away when she got her lupus diagnosis. Eleanor has not left her house in a year since she was hospitalized from a bad fall. All of these really nice characters, plus several more, have issues to work through and obstacles in the way. Annie Rains weaves several sweet romances into this story of people helping each other. I highly recommend it.
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
Notes: 1. #1 in the Love in Bloom series
2. Clean
Publication: April 16, 2024—Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
Memorable Lines:
“If you ask me, a cup of tea and a good book is the best kind of medicine.”
“I think sometimes, when we’ve been wounded, we humans like to push people away, to prove our greatest fears.” She looked at him again. “What fear?” She shrugged. “That we’re unlovable.”
Knowing that someone loved you enough to bother you when you wanted to be alone was always better than leaving that person alone and letting them believe that no one cared.
The Ghost Orchid–so many questions
The Ghost Orchid
By Jonathan Kellerman
When you want to read a hard core mystery (i.e. not the cozy mysteries I enjoy so much with predictable characters and happy endings), The Ghost Orchid is a good choice. The protagonist of the series is a PhD. psychologist. He has a home office where he specializes in working with judges and divorcing parents when there are issues involving children. He also consults on special cases for the police, especially Milo, a detective with the rank of lieutenant.
I really like Alex as a character. He is both smart and wise and can withhold judgement until everything he needs to see comes to light. I especially like that although he is extremely talented at both detecting in the criminal realm and helping others with psychological issues, he is a humble man.
In The Ghost Orchid, the major plot line is the murder of a man and a woman, both shot while relaxing at a private swimming pool. Just determining their identities, addresses, and family connections is a major puzzling challenge. Whose home are they in and what are their occupations? The usual channels of text messages and social media don’t reveal much, but Milo and Alex keep picking at the pieces until they get some leads. When interviewing subjects, Milo takes the lead as the officer in charge of the case, but sometimes Alex’s perceptive insights are more effective and soften the interviewee. The duo is good at sharing the questioning depending on the situation.
Another plot line involves a young teenager who was adopted out of bad circumstances in Ukraine when he was five. Now, his rich adoptive parents are divorcing. The judge views this situation with compassion for the boy and asks Alex to evaluate, recommend, and treat. This minor plot line does not intersect the main one, but as a reader I found it important for understanding more about Alex. It also allowed me to come up for air after reading the tense and surprising conclusion to the major plot. Hint: when a book begins with two dead people, the ending will not be one of cupcakes and confetti. The journey through the lives of the protagonists as clues are discovered and revealed is a difficult one.
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: Mystery & Suspense
Notes: 1. #39 in the Alex Delaware Mystery series, but could be read as a standalone. I have only read a few in the series, but I enjoyed all of them and had no problem needing further background information.
2. There is a lot of swearing.
3. The author has a PhD. In psychology, but that in no way turns the novel into something pedantic.
Publication: February 6, 2024—Random House/Ballentine
Memorable Lines:
“Unknown suspect from an unknown place murdering a mystery woman? Gee, thanks for clarifying.”
Rooney’s nomadic life offered an additional fringe benefit: law enforcement tends to think locally so by shifting locales criminals avoid piling up too much iniquity in any one jurisdiction.
Time was nearly up and there’s no point in opening up worm cans unless you’re going to be sitting for a while and fishing.
Sunshine After the Rain–family heartbreaks
Sunshine After the Rain
by Jessica Redland
Can there be “sunshine after the rain” or will tragedy and bad choices just keep pushing Mel down with no hope of escape from her past? Mel is a conservation architect. She specializes in the “preservation of historic buildings.” She worked alongside her husband Flynn who handled the construction end of the business until the untimely death of their son. Mel needed answers; she wanted to blame someone. In a totally irrational response to the death, she left her husband and her home. She thought she needed time and space so she cut almost all ties with her family, not considering that all of them were grieving too.
Mel grew up in a village near Derwent Water in the Lake District National Park. Seven years after her split from Flynn, a trip back to Willowdale to celebrate her mom’s eightieth birthday cracks open the tough shell Mel has built around herself. She discovers that the owners of the historic Willowdale Hall, a local landmark, are embarking on a reconstruction. This would be a dream job for Mel. There are a lot of characters who have ties to Willowdale Hall. Many of those characters have been previously introduced in the Escape to the Lakes series, and the author uses their kindness to bring together a supportive structure for Mel as she heals. There is another large piece of sadness in the story that adds to Mel’s struggles.
There is so much grief, despair, and despondency in Sunshine After the Rain that at times it is difficult to read. At the same time, it is uplifting to see familiar characters who have gone through tough times themselves reaching out to help Mel. In addition to the obvious themes of grief and loss, there are also themes of enduring and steadfast love and hope for a better tomorrow. There is a lot of symbolism as Willowdale Hall is being transformed from a place with a lot of past sorrow into a place of restoration. There is also a motif of broken vessels being repaired to a new state of beauty.
I particularly identified with the characters’ love of the library at Willowdale Hall along with another small reading room introduced later in the book. I would love to spend time in either room surrounded by books!
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: Women’s Fiction, Romance
Notes: #4 in the Escape to the Lakes series. By the time you get to this fourth book, there are a lot of characters and relationships. I recommend you start at the beginning of the series and keep going. You will be happy you read them in sequence. Redland is aware of how many characters are involved at this point, and she includes a “Cast of Recurring Characters” as a reference for readers.
Publication: May 15, 2025—Boldwood Books
Memorable Lines:
The biting cold wind whipped my hair across my face and took my breath away. The lake was choppy but the sound of the water slapping against the beach was both mesmerizing and comforting. Closing my eyes, I breathed in several deep lungfuls of fresh air, trying to quieten the battle inside my head.
Georgia laughed at me when I told her I could hear old buildings breathe, which was rich from somebody who talked to books. I loved the phrase if walls could talk. I wish! The things these walls must have seen—the good times and bad, the joy and the pain.
Even the things that seem the most broken can be fixed with enough time, love and will.
education pathways 