Guest Book Review: The Simplicity of Cider

By Caryn Strean

As cliche as it sounds, there's something to be said about curling up with a good book on a rainy day. With last weekend's weather in the Midwest less than ideal, it was the perfect time to devour Amy E. Reichert's newest, The Simplicity of Cider. What made it even better was the story takes place from summer to fall so a warm blanket was the icing on the cake as I read about the Lunds and their apple orchard.


We first meet protagonist Sanna Lund who has grown up in Door County, Wisconsin, a tourist town, along with her father, Einars. Sanna has been spending her time trying to bottle the perfect ciders, not realizing all the work and money it takes to keep the family orchard running.

So her father hires Isaac, a single father running with his young son from California, looking for any escape from their previous life. After a minor accident with Einars, Sanna is forced to accept the help as she realizes these two have more to them than meets the eye.

This novel's relatable characters quickly got to me. I understood Sanna's stubbornness to fight for what she wanted and not to let her orchard go. As a mother, I felt for Isaac's instinct to do right by his son, no matter what it cost. Even Einars cut corners to make sure Sanna was able to fulfill her dream of creating ciders.

A perfect read for fans of The City Baker's Guide to Country Living and The Promise of Pierson Orchard, this is also a book that would be a great read for a weekend after a stressful week or one to generate lots of discussion at your book club. A bit predictable in parts but a light-hearted escape into the Lunds' world. I look forward to reading Amy's first two novels.

Thanks to Gallery for the book in exchange for an honest review.

Caryn Strean is a mom by day and reader by night. Asking her to name her favorite book is like asking her to choose a favorite child. Her friends call her The Book Whisperer. Caryn can be reached on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

More by Amy E. Reichert:

What's in the mail

Melissa A:
Before You Were Mine by Em Muslin from HQ Digital (e-book via NetGalley)
He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly from Minotaur Books
Secrets in Summer by Nancy Thayer from Ballantine
It's Always the Husband by Michele Campbell from St. Martin's Press
The Weekenders by Mary Kay Andrews (paperback) from St. Martin's Press

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid from Atria (e-book via NetGalley)

A Face to Die For by Andrea Kane from Bonnie Meadow Publishing
Stars Over Clear Lake by Loretta Ellsworth from St. Martin's Press
The Rules of Love and Grammar by Mary Simses from Hachette
All that Glitters by Tracy Krimmer from Lola's Blog Tours
Single-Minded by Lisa Daily from St. Martin's Press
I'll See You in Paris by Michelle Gable (paperback) from St. Martin's Press

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins from BookSparks
Hello Sunshine by Laura Dave from Simon and Schuster (e-book via NetGalley)
The Party by Robyn Harding from Gallery (e-book via NetGalley)
The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion from BookSparks
The Gypsy Moth Summer by Julia Fierro from St. Martin's Press
Working Fire by Emily Bleeker from Lake Union

Melissa A and Sara:
The Beta Mum, Adventures in Alpha Land by/from Isabella Davidson (e-book)
Crossing the Street by/from Molly D. Campbell (e-book)
The Internet Made Me Do It by/from Jennifer Ammoscato (e-book)

Sara:
Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan from Doubleday (e-book)

Jami:
Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza from Doubleday (e-book)
The Child by Fiona Barton from Berkley (e-book via NetGalley)
Best Friend for Hire by Mary Carlomagno from Laura Rossi Public Relations
The Right Side by Spencer Quinn from TLC Book Tours (e-book via NetGalley)
Final Demand by Deborah Moggach from The Overlook Press (e-book)

Book Review: All the Best People

By Sara Steven

Mental illness is something most of us don’t talk a whole lot about. In recent years, it’s become more accepted to have open conversations about it, yet I still feel as though an individual’s struggles, or the ripple effect it can have on families and loved ones often remain behind closed doors. What I appreciated most about All The Best People is the eye-opening revelations, the inner fight the main character, Carole, has within her, and the various points of view that are given from her support system.

Carole has witnessed what mental illness can do to a family, having lived through it herself. Her mother, Solange, had been sent to live in a mental hospital when Carole was just a child. There were experimental treatments in those days, various medications meant to help the patient, only it hadn’t helped at all. It made her mother worse. So, when Carole begins to hallucinate and hear random voices in her head, she’s terrified.

Carole’s daughter, Alison, is also terrified. She notices the changes her mother is going through and has no clue on how to help her. It’s also made Alison feel as though she’s not important to her mother anymore, that the focus has shifted and she’s been left behind. She’s afraid to say anything, not to Carole, not to her father, no one would understand, and even if she said something, they likely wouldn’t believe her.

Solange has glimpses of her former life from time to time, in the moments of lucidity. When her urgent need to take care of the baby she remembers being ripped from her arms doesn’t overcome her, and it often does. She yearns for the days when life was simpler, when she was happy with Carole’s father, before he changed. Before her world became so distorted and jumbled.

Three generations provide their own voice on the skeletons in the past, and the struggles of what they’re dealing with in the present. I felt absolutely moved when provided with the thoughts Carole has, the need for forgiveness from Solange, and Alison’s need to have her mother back. Yoerg has done a fine job of bringing truth to this family’s struggles, of helping to provide a voice for those who feel as though they are losing their identities. It reminded me of just how brave we can be when faced with adversity, and how we’re all deserving of respect and compassion, as well as human decency.

Thanks to Berkley for the book in exchange for an honest review.

More by Sonja Yoerg:

Spotlight and Giveaway: It Happens in the Hamptons

It Happens in the Hamptons is Holly Peterson's latest novel and it just came out this week! To celebrate, William Morrow has one copy for a lucky reader!

When Katie Doyle moves across the country to the Hamptons, she is hoping for summer employment, new friends for her young son, and a chance to explore a new love affair with a dazzling, handsome investor. What she finds is a strange cocktail of classes, where society’s one-percenters vacation alongside local, hard-working people who’ve lived in the Hamptons for generations. Though she’s looking forward to their move, Katie is wary about mingling with her boyfriends’ East Coast elite circles. She soon discovers Southampton isn’t all that it seems to be on the surface—and neither are the people who live there.

As George takes Katie on a whirlwind tour of country clubs, haute couture, and lavish events, she is amazed to witness sudden whims become dire needs, extra-marital affairs blossoming right and left, and people purchase friends and loyalties like a pair of shoes. Even the middle-class put on a determined façade while maneuvering like sharks among the wealthy summer invaders.

The more Katie becomes immersed, the more she learns the secrets of both types of people, the upper crust and middle of the road. The combustion between the classes becomes explosive as the summer goes on and betrayals, a sexual predator, and a missing person will keep you turning the pages. It’s not until Katie meets Luke, a local marine biologist and teacher, that she begins to question what it is she really wants. She begins to understand the life she’s begun for herself may not be the one she came for.

“Hugely entertaining! Put Holly Peterson’s It Happens in the Hamptons on your list of guilty pleasures this summer.”
— Elin Hilderbrand, author of The Identicals

Holly Peterson is the New York Times best-selling author of four books. Aside from It Happens in the Hamptons, she has also authored an entertaining book, Assouline’s Smoke & Fire: Recipes and Menus for Entertaining Outdoors, and two previous works of fiction — The Idea of Him and The Manny. She was a Contributing Editor for Newsweek, an Editor-at-Large for Talk magazine and an Emmy Award–winning Producer for ABC News, where she spent more than a decade covering everything from global politics to trials of the century. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, Town and Country, Vogue, Departures, Elle Décor, The Daily Beast, Harper’s Bazaar, and numerous other publications.

Visit Holly online:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Pinterest


How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends May 16th at midnight EST.

Giveaway: May and June books we're looking forward to reading

Every two months, we're featuring EIGHT books we're interested in checking out. (We know there are many, many more, but we're just highlighting a few that haven't received their time in the spotlight yet.) Here are the books we've chosen for May and June. There is one copy of each book available to give away and we will choose FOUR winners to each receive TWO books at random.

See our previous bi-monthly posts for some other great reads you might have missed.

We've been doing this now for a year and hope to keep it going a while longer. This time around, we're going to share a teaser or mini-synopsis of each book. (All courtesy of Amazon.)


May:

Mid-Life Ex-Wife  by Stella Grey 
(May 2nd)

"Nora Ephron meets Bridget Jones's Diary in Guardian columnist Stella Grey’s heartrendingly honest, witty memoir about her online odyssey to find real love in a virtual world."

*Thanks to HarperCollins for the giveaway copy.

After the Fall by Julie Cohen (May 2nd)

"From the author who brought you Dear Thing comes After the Fall--a poignant, beautifully heartbreaking novel about what it means to be family, the ties that bind us, and the secrets that threaten to tear us apart."

*Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the giveaway copy.

The Book of Summer 
by Michelle Gable (May 9th)

"Inside the faded pages of the [Nantucket] Cliff House guest book live the spellbinding stories of its female inhabitants: from Ruby, a bright-eyed newlywed on the eve of World War II to her granddaughter Bess, who returns to the beautiful summer estate."

*Thanks to Thomas Dunne for the giveaway copy.

Crossing the Street 
by Molly D. Campbell (May 9th)

After her ex left her for her sister, Beck never imagined she would live in a suburban town of Ohio, writing erotica, and befriending an 80 year-old neighbor and her eight year-old great-granddaughter. And that's before the crazy stuff starts...

*Thanks to Molly D. Campbell for the giveaway copy.

June:

The Summer House 
by Hannah McKinnon (June 6th)

"When Flossy Merrill summons her children to the beloved family beach house to celebrate their father’s eightieth birthday, both cherished memories and long-kept secrets come to light in this charming and lyrical novel from the author of The Lake Season and Mystic Summer."

*Thanks to Atria for the giveaway copy.

City Mouse by Stacey Lender (June 6th)

"It's hard to keep up in a crowd where everyone competes for the most perfectly manicured home and latest backyard gadgets..."

*Thanks to Goldberg McDuffie for the giveaway copy.

The Salt House by Lisa Duffy (June 13th)

"In the tradition of Jodi Picoult and Lisa Genova, this gorgeously written, heartbreaking, yet hopeful debut set during a Maine summer traces the lives of a young family in the aftermath of tragedy."

*Thanks to Touchstone for the giveaway copy.

The Swallow's Nest 
by Emilie Richards (June 13th)

"Three women fight for the chance to raise the child they've all come to love."

*Thanks to MIRA for the giveaway copy.




How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends June 7th at midnight EST.

Orly Konig goes the distance...plus a book giveaway

We're pleased to introduce Orly Konig today and feature her debut novel, The Distance Home. Melissa A was thrilled to find out that Orly lives in a neighboring town and hopes to meet her soon. They can talk about the joys of having curly hair in person. She's here to talk about what inspires her to write.

Orly Konig is an escapee from the corporate world where she spent roughly sixteen (cough) years working in the space industry. Now she spends her days chatting up imaginary friends, drinking entirely too much coffee, and negotiating writing space around two over-fed cats.

She is a co-founder and past president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and an active member of Writers In The Storm blog and Tall Poppy Writers.

Visit Orly online:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest

Thanks to Forge Books, we have one copy of The Distance Home for a lucky reader!

Synopsis:
Sixteen years ago, a tragic accident cost Emma Metz her two best friends—one human and one equine. Now, following her father’s death, Emma has reluctantly returned to the Maryland hometown she’d left under a cloud of guilt.

Sorting through her father’s affairs, Emma uncovers a history of lies tying her broken family to the one place she thought she could never return—her girlhood sanctuary, Jumping Frog Farm.


Emma finds herself drawn back to the stable after all these years. It’s easy to win forgiveness from a horse, but less so from her former friend Jillian, their once strong bond destroyed by secrets and betrayals. But despite Jillian’s cold reception, for the first time in years, Emma feels at home.

To exorcise the past, Emma will have to release her guilt, embrace an uncertain future, and trust again in the healing power of horses.

Orly Konig's The Distance Home is a powerful and sparkling women's fiction debut novel of second chances, friendship, and healing. (Courtesy of Amazon.)

Where the Writing Started

I’ve always been a reader, although I can’t point a finger at one author or book and say, “that’s the one that made me want to write.” I never even imagined myself as a writer growing up and the couple of attempts at creative writing during my school years were far from brilliant.

I wrote plenty of articles for trade publications during my corporate days, but fiction, nah, that was the world I went to when I wanted to escape from the real world.

And yet here I am, celebrating the debut of my first novel.

For me, it wasn’t so much the need to tell a story as a need for an outlet. I’d made the switch from corporate to freelance, and was adjusting to my new world as a mom.

My reading habits had always been quite eclectic but I found myself reading more and more women’s fiction. Those books touched me in a way others didn’t. They were the friends I went to when I felt overwhelmed or unhappy or lost. Through those books, I felt less isolated.

When I started writing on that very first manuscript, it wasn’t with the idea of becoming a published author. I was looking for those “friends.”

There’s a quote I keep close to my computer –
“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” – Flannery O’Connor

My characters sort through emotional upheaval. They confront the people who hurt them. They change their lives in 300 pages.

My characters do the things I can’t always do. Through them, I can release the pressure building inside me. The characters I write about don’t speak for me and they don’t deal with the issues I’m going through at that period in my life. But through their emotional journeys, I can release my own fears and heartaches and dreams.

My stories are the family and friends I can’t always open up to. Through them, I can spread my wings. The stories don’t reflect who I am or what I do. But through them I can explore new ways of becoming whole again.

And that’s why I write.

Thanks to Orly for visiting with us and Forge Books for sharing her book with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends May 14th at midnight EST.

Book Review: Catch Me If You Cannes

By Becky Gulc

I have loved both of the books I’ve read by Lisa Dickenson to date, The Twelve Dates of Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street, so I was so happy to get the opportunity to review her latest paperback release, Catch Me If You Cannes. Doesn’t it have a wonderful cover? It definitely has ‘holiday read’ appeal. So what’s it all about?

WARNING: reading Catch Me If You Cannes may result in embarrassing outbursts of belly-aching laughter on public transport. Romantic, funny and full of Cannes Film Festival magic, it's perfect for fans of Giovanna Fletcher, Paige Toon and Mhairi McFarlane.

Jess has decided it's time to get out of her comfort zone and live a little. So when her best friend Bryony, a journalist on a gossip magazine, is sent to cover the Cannes Film Festival, Jess decides to seize the day and go along for the ride. Two weeks of sun, glamour and exclusive entry into celeb-filled parties is just the kind of adventure Jess needs.

Reality soon bites though when Jess and Bryony find they're staying in a dingy hotel far away from all the action and Bryony's expenses budget barely covers a glass of local wine. Undeterred, the two women are determined to live like the elite and enjoy one fancy night out to begin their holiday. So what if they have to tell a few white lies along the way? It's just this once. No harm done . . . right?

Full of hilarious one-liners, sparkling blue seas and plenty of romantic moments, Catch Me If You Cannes is the story of two friends, a few white lies and one very sticky situation . . . (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon UK.)

This is exactly the kind of book I’d be wanting to take on a beach holiday with me. Unfortunately for me, I had to read it at home, but the good news is I still feel like I kind of had a holiday! The synopsis says fans of Paige Toon would enjoy this book and I couldn’t agree more. I love Paige’s books (especially for their escapism) and Lisa is fast becoming a firm favourite of mine, as well.

One thing I enjoyed about this book was the lack of build-up, no setting the scene in the UK before these friends head off on their adventure. Sometimes it can feel like books don’t quite get going until the characters reach their destination when you know it’s coming. That is not the case with this book; it’s full steam ahead - action-packed and a fun adventure in Cannes from the very beginning. In this sense, I enjoyed the mystique of Jess’s day to day life back home and what she might have wanted to escape from by going on holiday.

I loved the friendship between Jess and Bryony. Quite different characters, but so well suited, and their strong bond was clear throughout. It was their friendship, and the situations they got themselves into that made this a superb read. This is a very funny book. I’m not someone who often laughs out loud at books, but this was one of them. It also kept up the pace throughout and with this made me read it quite quickly; an easy quick read but in a lovely way!

The setting of Cannes was amazing I could clearly picture the characters there. The visit tying in with the film festival lends itself to all kinds of funny scenes with the people they meet along the way. Would love to see these characters have another adventure.

Thanks to Sphere for the book in exchange for an honest review. Visit all the stops on Lisa's tour!

More by Lisa Dickenson: