Just Finished:
Synopsis: UNEXPECTED CHANGE CAN BE LIKE A BREATH OF FRESH AIR— A LITTLE BRISK AT FIRST, BUT MAGIC FOR BODY AND SOUL...

Cartoonist Sarah Moon tackles life's real issues with her syndicated comic strip just Breathe, which is how the subject of infertility became fair game for her wickedly satirical pen. As Sarah's cartoon alter ego, Shirl, undergoes artificial insemination, it mirrors Sarah's own desperate attempts to conceive after her husband's bout with cancer. However, Sarah's dreams of the future did not include the infidelity of her now fully recovered husband. Faced with the unthinkable, Sarah asks herself, what would smart, sassy Shirl do? She'd floor the gas pedal straight out of Chicago.

She heads back to the small Northern California coastal town where she grew up. Just as she's settling in, a sudden dizzy spell lands her in the arms of somebody she never expected to meet again: Will Bonner, the high school superstar she'd skewered happily in her old comics. Now a local fireman, he's raising his teenage stepdaughter alone and looking better than ever. It is at this promising juncture that Sarah discovers she's pregnant. With twins.

The irony is delicious. Here she is, back home in a place she couldn't wait to leave, pregnant with the babies of a man she just divorced. Now her heart is calling out to a single father of a troubled girl who reminds Sarah a lot of herself. Hardly the most traditional of new beginnings, but who says life, or love, is predictable...or perfect? The winds of change have led Sarah here. Now all she can do is just close her eyes...and breathe.

My Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed this story from beginning to end. The story covers a year (maybe year and a-half) of Sarah’s life. It begins in Chicago while she is happily married to Jack, and is hopeful that she and Jack will soon be expecting a new addition to her family.

Things happen (will not divulge any spoilers here, sorry!), and Sarah finds herself back in her hometown in Northern California. There, she must go about rebuilding her life and coming to terms with her past. Unfortunately, Sarah was an outcast in school ~ an artsy type who never fit in. She soon learns that not everything is how it seemed in high school.

I enjoyed the building of her relationship with Will, a former classmate. The pacing was slow, which I appreciate. Sarah and Will were not friends in high school, so I appreciated the fact that Susan took the time to build their relationship and actually make it believable. I also enjoyed Sarah’s relationship with Aurora, Will’s daughter. The fact that they became friends before Sarah and Will did added a great likeability for me to this story.

There were a few choppy things I couldn’t get passed. The first was Sarah’s babies. In one chapter, they were three months old, and then it seemed like the next chapter they were eating cheerios, sitting in high chairs, and able to indicate when they wanted to be picked up. Evidently, there was a passage of time between the chapters, but I missed any indicators if there were any.

The second, something big happens to Aurora’s friend, Glynnis that effects Sarah, Will, and the whole coastal town where they live. But we don’t see it in the story. It’s referred to, but the story’s not told. Glynnis is supposed to be Aurora’s best friend. And the fact that Aurora is Will’s daughter and therefore, a central part to the story ~ I just thought that what Glynnis did and how they found out should have been in the story. Aurora’s reaction should have been there. The fact that it wasn’t, seemed to leave a tiny hole in the tale for me.

Verdict: This was Very Good. It would have been excellent, but there were some timing issues that I couldn’t get passed. As far as I’m concerned, Susan Wiggs rarely disappoints. This is a definite keeper.

Labels: Contemporary Romance, Mira, Susan Wiggs, Very Good

Just Finished:
Synopsis: Everyone assumes Rosa Lee Altman lived a life without passion. But buried secrets are meant to be revealed. And no one is prepared for what they discover beneath Rosa Lee's overgrown roses -- or how her legacy will change their lives with love.

The once beautiful Altman home sits empty, its gardens overgrown, its windows boarded up -- an old lady, now silent, surrounded by what passes for progress in Clifton Creek, Texas. But if some of the townsfolk have their way, this lovely reminder of times past will be sold off to the highest bidder.

When a group of community members with little in common is chosen to decide the fate of "the old Altman place," they soon learn that this home is more than bricks and mortar. It's also a place that harbors a love so strong, it still has the power to change the entire town.

My Thoughts: Jodi Thomas is a great storyteller. Her stories have a way of keeping people engaged and involved in what the characters are doing. What I like most is that her stories aren’t just about the male and female relationships, they also encompass entire communities. This story is no different.

In Clifton Creek, we have Sidney Dickerson, and orphaned professor nearing her 40th birthday, Sloan McCormick, a loner who is in town on business; Ada May and Beth Ann Rogers, retired schoolteachers who have a knack for getting into trouble (and creating some great laugh out loud moments for this reader); Lora Whitman, a newly divorced young woman trying to break free of her overbearing mother; Billy Hatcher, a young man trying to break free of a reputation he didn’t earn; Micah Parker, a widowed pastor living alone with his young son, and Randi Howard, a widowed local woman who owns a neighborhood bar. This group, with the exception of Sloan and Randi, has the unenviable task of deciding the fate of the Altman home, the former residence of the founder of Clifton Creek.

The group is immediately drawn together from a catastrophe at their first meeting and it seems hardship and sabotage follows them as they continue to meet to decide the fate of this house. As they grow closer, they become a makeshift family and support each other as some of the committee members make discoveries about themselves and their pasts that they never saw coming.

Verdict: This was Good. I should also mention that this is a loose follow-up to The Widows of Wichita County, which I still haven’t read. I think Rosa Lee is probably better than I give it credit for, but I just had problems getting through it. Mostly because my mind kept straying to what I was going to read next, so I wasn’t concentrating on what I should have been. I may have to re-read this again. You know. In the perfect world where I actually finish reading everything in my TBR pile.

Labels: Fiction, Good, Jodi Thomas, Mira

Just Finished:

Synopsis: Dakota Wylie didn't claim to understand men... But she did know that Patrick Devane was stubborn and angry and that he refused to let anyone, including his young daughter, get close. Dakota also knew she had no choice but to accept his reluctant hospitality. And he, her bold audacious company.

No woman had ever challenged Patrick so brazenly - while no man had ever seemed so daring and dangerous to Dakota. And no little girl had ever seemed so in need of a family. Now only time would tell if their destiny lay with each other.

My Thoughts: I don’t know what to say, really. I finished it. The writing was okay, not great. I’m truly conflicted is what I am. I wanted more.

Dakota Wylie is a woman of the 90’s who is transported to the 18th century via a hot-air balloon. She’s a Harvard educated librarian who believes herself to be fat and unstylish. Patrick Devane is a good-looking man with a hardened heart and no wishes to have it any other way. He’s also the single parent to 6-year-old Abigail, whom he believes is not his child so he treats her with about as much emotion as one would treat a stranger.

I really liked the history of the Revolutionary War that was involved in this novel. Ms. Bretton did a wonderful job of encompassing the war as part of the story line but not having it take over. The history itself was rich in this small book, but I really enjoyed the idea of a modern day woman being thrust back into the time where we were just the original thirteen colonies.

I did find out after I was finished reading that there were two prior books that dealt with the hot-air balloon theme: Somewhere in Time, and Tomorrow & Always. Although connected, I believe each book could stand on its own because I read this one and didn’t really feel like I was missing anything.

Verdict: This was Okay. With as much as I loved Just Desserts, I expected a whole lot more. I’m afraid that if this had been my first Barbara Bretton book, I probably wouldn’t be tempted to read more by her. Fortunately, I’ve read better from her and know she’s capable of more than what I got in this read.

Labels: Barbara Bretton, Mira, Okay, Time Travel