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The Path to the Last House Before the Sea–sad secrets
The Path to the Last House Before the Sea
by Liz Eeles
Alyssa has come to Heaven’s Cove to start life over, changing her name and her profession while harboring a big secret. She lives in a small wooden caravan on Magda’s property. Magda owns an ice cream parlor and returned a number of years ago to be close to her best friend Penny and husband Stan. Magda has her own secret that is eating away at her despite the happy face she presents to the world. Jack is taking a hiatus from his work to help out his dad Stan in the town’s only grocery store, a tiny place that the community depends upon. Their lives become intertwined as an unlikely romance develops between visionary Alyssa and nerdy Jack.
A major thread is Alyssa’s search for clues and information about a 300 year old tale of a missing couple and a smuggling ring. Her search for the truth puts Alyssa and Jack’s lives in danger. Meanwhile Jack is dealing with his soon-to-be ex-wife, her boyfriend, and his beloved adopted son.
Author Liz Eeles weaves all of these threads into a background of a wedding in Heaven’s Cove that the whole community is involved in. The setting is beautiful and the town’s residents are both kind and gossipy at the same time. If you like an interesting plot and characters in a clean novel, The Path to the Last House Before the Sea would be a great choice.
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, Women’s Fiction
Notes: #5 in the Heaven’s Cove Series, but can be read as a standalone. There are characters from previous books who make cameo appearances, but each book in the series has new characters who are the focus of the current book.
Publication: May 18, 2023—Bookouture
Memorable Lines:
A hot wash of shame flooded through him. When had he become so…? He turned into the lane that led past the village green, unable to settle on the right word for his behaviour. Arrogant, maybe? Ignorant? Boorish?
“Three point one four one five nine…” he began to mutter under his breath. Reciting the mathematical constant pi from memory, as far as he could go, always calmed him down. The number was beautiful. It was fixed and unchanging—unlike his life right now.
Alyssa crossed her fingers, just in case, and watched seagulls—tiny white dots—swooping over cottage roofs, and a child’s lost red balloon floating into the sky. The village looked like a spider’s web from up here, with paths going in all directions and the church in the centre.
Through the Liquor Glass–—not the author’s best
Through the Liquor Glass
by Sarah Fox
Sadie and Grayson find a food critic’s body under a cask at Grayson’s brewery. It soon becomes clear that someone is trying to frame Grayson for the murder. He goes into hiding, and Sadie, owner of the Inkwell pub, tries to find the real murderer. She is also dealing with maintaining the Inkwell’s booth at the local food and drink festival, and running her business during this top tourist season. Add to that her mother’s first visit to Sadie’s new home and business in Vermont. Sadie wants her mother’s approval on her new life and her new boyfriend who is currently on the run from law enforcement.
I have enjoyed all of the cozy mysteries in The Literary Pub Mystery Series by Sarah Fox, but this one was disappointing for me. The plot was well-conceived, but the execution was repetitious. Just how many times do I want to read about Sadie drinking coffee at her apartment, at her pub, and at the local coffee shop? How many times does the author need to verbalize Sadie’s emotional distress over missing her boyfriend? They were only separated for a little over a week. Sadie, in her efforts to clear Grayson, does a number of stupid, dangerous and illegal things. One example is stealing a hotel key card, breaking into a guest’s room, and returning the key card—actions which she repeats! Grayson purposely does not tell Sadie where he will hide out so she can truthfully relate that to the police when she is questioned. Despite the police having surveillance over her pub and apartment, she works as hard at discovering his location as she does at uncovering the murderer, putting herself and Grayson in even more threat of being arrested unless the murderer finds them first.
The whodunnit part of the book is interesting and surprising, but not really worth the read for me. I want to read the next book in the series as I hope this was a one off.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 3/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. Contains two recipes—a snack: Maple Butter Popcorn and a cocktail: Kiss of the Cider Woman
2. #5 in The Literary Pub Mystery Series, but can work as a standalone because the author does a great job of supplying information about each character as they appear in this book.
Publication: November 29, 2022—Kensington Books
Memorable Lines:
Even with my back to what was likely the murder weapon, I was keenly aware of its presence. It was almost as if it were emitting a palpable and dangerous energy.
When we left the cidery a few minutes later, I had a snack in hand to assuage any physical hunger pangs that might strike, but my appetite for clues remained unsatisfied.
Silence settled over our table, but it was a silence fraught with tension and apprehension. My mother stared at me from across the table and I had to fight to keep from sliding down any farther. I was already in danger of falling off my seat.
Three Sisters–survival in the midst of death
Three Sisters
by Heather Morris
I present to you a review for a book that will transport you unwillingly from Slovakia into the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. The horrors are especially difficult to read about because this novel was so well researched including interviews with primary sources, two of the three sisters who are protagonists in Heather Morris’ Three Sisters. The third sister had passed away before the author began this project. Unlike some survivors of the concentration camps, these sisters talked about their experiences to people who wanted to hear, especially their family members. These relatives were a treasure trove of information about the camps, the Nazi selections of individuals, hiding from the SS, and the kindness and treachery of nonJews.
Family, of course, is very important to Cibi, Magda, and Livi, the three sisters. Their father makes them promise to always stay together and support each other. Their grandfather gives them the mantra of “hope and strength” which they carry with them through the worst of times. Later they can joke about bad conditions by comparing them to the deprivation they experienced in the camps.
Three Sisters is a hard book to read, but another worthwhile reminder to not allow this history to repeat itself. Ironically, the last part of the book which was about happier times brought the strongest emotional response from me. This reaction is a tribute to Heather Morris as a storyteller who, despite the tragic subject matter, brings her characters to life in such a way that you feel like you really know them and you understand them as much as is possible as an outside observer.
I recommend this book. I know these characters will stay with me for a long time.
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: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Notes: by the author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Publication: October 5, 2021—St. Martin’s Press
Memorable Lines:
As the plaintive cries of their families fade, new voices—angry, hate-filled voices—greet them as they make their passage through the town. Their former friends and neighbors are hurling rotten fruit and stale bread at their heads, yelling their joy that the Jews are finally leaving. Cibi and Livi are stunned by the taunts, the full-throated bile being dispensed from snarling mouths.
…they will never forget their desperation to put something, anything, in their stomachs. These days they savor every mouthful, but, more than that, they cherish the freedom to move around the city as they choose, no longer under the watchful and penetrating gaze of a kapo or worse, an SS officer.
Cibi thinks about the space in her heart where God used to live and wonders, for a second, if the peace she feels in her sisters’ arms is a sign that maybe He never really left.
My Real Name is Hanna–extremes of human behavior
My Real Name is Hanna
by Tara Lynn Masih
My Real Name is Hanna is the story of a Jewish girl and her family who live under horrible circumstances in Ukraine to escape death at the hand of the Nazis and others. This book by Tara Lynn Masih has much potential. Many parts of the survival tale are drawn from the story of a real family that had to live underground. The first part of the book bounces around a little and then settles down into a sequential tale. Although it is a sad story, I didn’t really find myself emotionally involved with any of the characters. Parts of the narrative got my attention, such as when family members were in danger. I wanted to see them survive, but mainly I wanted the book to be over.
The author uses words from other languages freely. I like the authenticity of that but I would have appreciated a glossary, and I think young people would find that helpful as well. The area the family lives in has been occupied by many countries so there are competing cultures and languages—Jewish, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, and German.
I actually found the “Historical Notes” at the end of the book more interesting than the book itself. Unfortunately, the author includes her own political stance on current events in these historical notes. If she wants to put forth these ideas in her book, I would suggest she do it in an editorial type section separate from a discussion of the historical basis of the book. Like the author, I hope the day will come when we don’t need reminders of the Holocaust as cautionary tales against cruelty. I don’t think, however, that it is appropriate to use her historical notes as a platform for indoctrinating young people into her political views. The story should stand on its own merits, and young people are capable of reading the book and making their own moral conclusions.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Mandel Vilar Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 3/5
Category: Historical Fiction, Teens
Notes: Interest Level—Ages 12 and up
Grade Level 10-12
Publication: September 25, 2018—Mandel Vilar Press
Memorable Lines:
I see in my mind again those posters in the window, the big red letters, the lice, the blaming of Jews for the war. Someday, someone will betray us. For money, for food, for their own lives spared.
I can now hear what sounds like heavy boots approaching the house from down the lane, grinding the dirt and gravel with their murderous purpose.
When you’re hidden away, with no freedom, you crave news of the outside world as much as you crave food.
education pathways 