Sara and Melissa Talk About...Spring Holidays

We've been running a column series (for over two years now!) to get more personal with our readers. In the past, we talked about winter holiday traditions. Now it's time to talk about spring holiday traditions!

We're always open to topic suggestions, so please don't hesitate to share those in the comments. We'd also love to know if you can relate to anything we've said or hear your own thoughts on the topic. So don't be shy. :) We look forward to getting to know you as much as we're letting you get to know us. You can find our previous columns here, in case you missed them.

Melissa Amster:                                                                                      Passover starts this Friday at sundown. In honor of the upcoming holiday, I wanted to talk about what Seders are like in my family. Seder means "order." There's a specific order to everything that happens during the Seder and I'm going to explain more about some of these steps. (Please forgive any spelling errors.) Before moving on, I wanted to share this post I wrote about different foods we eat on Passover and the meaning behind them.

Kadesh: The kiddush over the first of the four cups of wine. You can not pour your own glass of wine though, as we're supposed to feel like people are taking care of us after we had been freed from slavery, even though we still need to pour wine for someone else so they have that same feeling. Also, we must pour for someone else the way we normally would for ourselves. If we use our right hand normally, we would use that when pouring for someone else.

Urechatz: We wash our hands by pouring water from a cup over each one, but we do not say the blessing over washing hands. 

Karpas: The parsley that we dip in salt water, to remember the tears of our ancestors who were slaves in Egypt. However, karpas doesn't need to be parsley. It can be anything that grows from the ground. We put a whole pineapple on our table to illustrate this point. 

Yachatz: The leader of the Seder breaks the middle matzah (there are three matzot in a cloth carrier) and then puts one half in another small cloth carrier to be used as the Afikomen and hidden later.

Magid: The story of Passover. We start out with the youngest at the table asking the four questions, which start with "Ma nishtana halilah hazeh, mi kohl halaylot?" It means "Why is this night different from all other nights?" They then ask why we eat matzah instead of bread, why we dip twice (this does not mean dipping parsley twice in salt water, but the number of times an item is dipped into something else), why we eat bitter herbs, and why we lean back in our seats (we usually keep a pillow behind us). 

The story proceeds to answer all these questions and there are many creative ways to go about telling it. On one of the Seder nights, my kids put on a Passover skit as a fun way to tell the story. We also have objects to resemble each of the plagues upon Egypt. We sometimes include a game to keep things fresh. (My husband printed song titles one year and we had to find something in the story that fit the title we chose at random.) This is also the time we sing "Dayenu", which means "enough" and dip our fingers in the wine to count the plagues. The second glass of wine is consumed after the Magid is finished.

There's also a Seder plate at the table, which has items that are used or referenced throughout the Seder. I honestly don't know why the egg is there. I've read in some places that it's a symbol of mourning and in other places that it's a symbol of rebirth. I don't eat hard-boiled eggs either way... 

Courtesy of Food52

Rachtza: Washing hands for bread (matzah in this case). We say a prayer for handwashing this time.

Motzi and Matzah: Blessings are said over bread (symbolically) and matzah and then we get our first bite of matzah for the holiday. We're not supposed to eat any matzah until this time.

Maror and Korech: We eat the bitter herb (horseradish), but can have a piece of lettuce in place of it if one does not like horseradish root (yours truly, included). Then we make a sandwich with matzah, the bitter herb, and charoset (which resembles the mortar used when the we made pyramids during our enslavement). 

Shulchan Orech: The meal. We usually have matzo ball soup, brisket, chicken, potatoes, and anything else delicious that is also Kosher for Passover. This is also when an adult hides the Afikomen so the kids can find it later for a prize. 

Tzafun: We eat the found Afikomen. That's the last thing we can have from the meal before moving on to the rest of the Seder. 

Barech: We say the blessing over the meal. Then the third glass of wine, and we also invite the prophet Elijah in at this time to drink his wine.

Hallel: Praising Hashem for taking us out of Egypt. There's more of an explanation here.

Nirtzah: The end of the Seder. The fourth glass of wine is consumed. We say "L'shana Haba'a, Yerushalayim" (Next year in Jerusalem.) We also sing a few concluding songs if we haven't fallen asleep by then. :) There's one called "Had Gadya", which is about a goat and the song keeps building on itself. My husband found a way to make the song amusing last year, but adding all these extra words and sounds to different parts of the song.

Well, there you have it. If you have any questions or would like to know more, I'm glad to chat with you! Just for fun, here's a Billy Joel parody mash-up about Passover. 

Sara Steven:                                                                                                                              When I think of spring holidays, I think of Easter. And when I think of Easter, I think back to a time when my children appreciated a pastel-colored basket, layered with the “grass” that would eventually end up all over the floor or stuck to the bottom of shoes–the kind that would stick to candy-covered sticky fingers and somehow find its way behind furniture or under couch cushions. The grass was meant to camouflage Cadbury eggs and robin’s eggs, with jelly beans in multiple colors and flavors, but it never hid the giant chocolate bunny that rose up like Mt. Olympus above all other things–DVDs, gift cards, stuffed farm animals and the ever elusive egg coloring kit.

The baskets would always be a welcome surprise first thing in the morning, like beacons–and in those days, my children wholeheartedly believed in the Easter Bunny and I was fine with that. I am a firm believer in allowing my boys the opportunity to just be kids. To believe in something magical.                                                                                                                      Baskets were followed up by coloring all of the hard boiled eggs that sat chilled in the fridge, waiting to be dipped into plastic cups full of vinegar and disintegrated colored tabs. The kit would always contain some strange golden metal thingamajig that you’d have to use in order to lift the egg up and out of the cup; you never realize just how much hand-eye coordination you need to bring the eggs back up and to the surface, their smooth and porous shells bobbing in and out.

Sometimes the kits would come with a white crayon, used for creating unique and interesting designs on the shell, but the older child would write letters or numbers or squiggly lines, while the younger one tried to eat the crayon. 

The leftover vinegar was often knocked over, and I would forget to cover the table with anything protective, which ultimately led to subtle stains in greens and blues and purples. I’d remind myself–next year, next year I’ll cover the table with newspaper or old towels–but it never happened. We later donated the table to a friend of ours. I wonder if he ever noticed.

An all-out egg hunt would commence after egg coloring–the two of us, my husband and I, in charge of hiding all of the plastic eggs filled with candy and money, the boys in search of the loot. The anticipation of who would find what was always a wonderful feeling, but finding said plastic eggs months later with rotting candy melted inside? Not so much. We could never remember where we planted every single egg, and the kids wouldn’t always find the hidden eggs. Yet, they somehow always found the ones with money inside. 

In those days, it was a huge production, finished up by an Easter dinner of ham with all the fixings. And in later years, particularly the last few, it hasn’t been. The boys are older now. We still have a big dinner with our family, and we still have an egg hunt, but it’s not the same. No one thinks the Easter Bunny really exists. This year, the older boy (almost seventeen now) asked if we really need to have an egg hunt at all.                                                                                                            I miss the old days. Even with the basket grass and stained tables and gooey chocolate fingers. You always hear how quickly time goes by and how you can’t ever have those moments again, so cherish them, cherish them! And I try to. I really do. It feels like only yesterday my boys were looking for those plastic eggs in the backyard–not ten years ago. It can be hard sometimes when the moment feels chaotic and nuts, as can often happen when your children are on a sugar high, but I do wish for times like that again.

As for this year? We’re having a lovely brunch with our family and close friends who are like family. Our teenager has to work that afternoon–the joys of existing on the cusp of adulthood. But there will be modified baskets–I’ve done away with the grass–and there might still be an egg coloring kit (or two), and the egg hunt is a done deal. Even if the teenager, who often acts like he’s too old for something yet ends up enjoying it most of all, might protest. This is our special tradition, and I think it’s important to carry on and tweak things when needed–creating memories that hopefully my boys can share with their own children someday. 

Tell us about your spring holiday traditions!

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Book Review: Home or Away

By Jami Denison

Ten years ago, when my son was a senior in high school, I wrote a novel loosely based on his first summer playing travel baseball. Last year, when he was antsy waiting to hear whether he’d passed the bar, I suggested he finally read it. I thought it would be an amusing diversion, a memory of fun and funny times. Instead, he paced the living room floor in between chapters, anxious and regretful. “Why,” he asked me, “did you parents always have to ruin everything!”

This cry from my son’s nine-year-old self echoed through my head as I read Kathleen West’s latest, Home or Away. Like her earlier novels, Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes and Are We There Yet (reviewed here), Home or Away takes place in Liston Heights, Minnesota, a fictional suburb filled with overachieving kids and their helicopter parents. Unlike these novels, Home or Away is missing that note of satire that made the characters feel slightly exaggerated. Parents who haven’t experienced youth sports might feel that West’s portrayal of youth hockey is embellished, but those of us who’ve been there know it’s a hundred percent true.

When she failed to make the U.S.A. women’s hockey team, Leigh Mackenzie walked away from the sport, seemingly forever. She married her college sweetheart, Charlie, got an MBA, became an investment banker, and moved to Tampa. But now a job opportunity beckons her back to Minnesota, and she’s anxious to see how her nine-year-old son Gus, who’s “Florida good” at hockey, could fare in the hockey-mad environment of Liston Heights. But Leigh will have to confront her troubled past to help Gus make the A team for the Liston Heights Lions. Susy, her former best friend who made the Olympic team in Leigh’s place, is now a coach for the organization, and she knows Leigh’s deepest secret. Will Leigh make the same mistakes again in order to help her son? 

There are many threads and points-of-view in Home or Away, and West weaves them together tightly. While the book starts strong with the hockey, these stories could have any type of sport as their backdrop. Four characters get their own points-of-view: Leigh, ultra-competitive and still in pain over not making the Olympics all those years ago; Charlie, who’s put his own life in the backseat for his family; Susy, who missed her friend and never judged her actions; and finally Gus. For me, Gus’s point-of-view was heartbreaking – a nine-year-old kid keeping a journal of his hockey highlights and lowlights.  

I’ve never read a book before with a character like Leigh—so competitive, so committed to sports and winning that she’d do anything for a spot on the Olympic team. Female athletes aren’t often featured in women’s fiction and domestic thrillers, and the protagonists of West’s other novels were teachers and stay-at-home mothers. I appreciated the uniqueness and specificity of the character. 

When Leigh is forced to confront her actions at Olympic training camp all those years ago, her denials and secrecy ring true. While intimidation and sexual harassment are universal problems, it’s especially endemic in sports, where coaches have all the power and expect access to athletes' bodies. Being inside Leigh’s head as she grappled with understanding what actually happened to her was illuminating in ways that went beyond the novel.

Still, for me, the most important character was Gus. The number of times this nine-year-old fights off tears because of something an adult said to him was disheartening. Hockey becomes his entire life—there’s no mention of school, field trips, or music lessons. Other kids on his team ostracize him because he took a spot from their friend. All of this on the shoulders of a fourth grader. It’s tough to read, especially for a parent.

In her earlier books, West uses a touch of satire and a few broad strokes that enable the reader to distance herself from West’s over-the-top characters. In Home or Away, there is no such escape. These hockey parents hold up a mirror to modern parenting, which treats the successes and failures of children as life or death. Childhood is over way too quickly, and these sports obsessions make it even shorter. 

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

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Spotlight and Giveaway: Scarlet Carnation

Laila Ibrahim's latest historical fiction novel, Scarlet Carnation, published last week. We are pleased to feature it today and we have a link to an excerpt, as well. Thanks to Wunderkind PR, we have one copy for a lucky reader!

In an early twentieth-century America roiling with racial injustice, class divides, and WWI, two women fight for their dreams in a galvanizing novel by the bestselling author of Golden Poppies.

May and Naomi are extended family, their grandmothers’ lives inseparably entwined on a Virginia plantation in the volatile time leading up to the Civil War. For both women, the twentieth century promises social transformation and equal opportunity.

May, a young white woman, is on the brink of achieving the independent life she’s dreamed of since childhood. Naomi, a nurse, mother, and leader of the NAACP, has fulfilled her own dearest desire: buying a home for her family. But they both are about to learn that dreams can be destroyed in an instant. May’s future is upended, and she is forced to rely once again on her mother. Meanwhile, the white-majority neighborhood into which Naomi has moved is organizing against her while her sons are away fighting for their country.

In the tumult of a changing nation, these two women―whose grandmothers survived the Civil War―support each other’s quest for liberation and dignity. Both find the strength to confront injustice and the faith to thrive on their chosen paths.

Check out an excerpt from Scarlet Carnation!

Laila Ibrahim is the bestselling author of Golden Poppies, Paper Wife, Mustard Seed, and Yellow Crocus. She spent much of her career as a preschool director, a birth doula, and a religious educator. That work, coupled with her education in developmental psychology and attachment theory, provided ample fodder for her novels.

She’s a devout Unitarian Universalist, determined to do her part to add a little more love and justice to our beautiful and painful world. She lives with her wonderful wife, Rinda, and two other families in a small cohousing community in Berkeley, California. Her young adult children are her pride and joy.

Laila is blessed to be working full-time as a novelist. When she isn’t writing, she likes to take walks with friends, do jigsaw puzzles, play games, work in the garden, travel, cook, and eat all kinds of delicious food. 

Visit Laila online:
Website * Facebook * Instagram

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Giveaway ends April 18th at midnight EST.

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Book Review: The Wedding Veil

By Jami Denison

Southern fiction is not a genre I usually read, but I was intrigued by the description of Kristy Woodson Harvey’s latest novel, The Wedding Veil. Last summer, I visited Asheville, North Carolina, and its famous Biltmore Estate, where much of the book takes place. The chance to visit the mansion again through the eyes of Harvey’s characters was too good to pass up.

The Biltmore Estate was built by George Vanderbilt over a six-year period, opening in 1895. The 250-room home was modeled on a French chateau and run like Downton Abbey, with hundreds of servants managing the home and tenant farmers working the land. George’s daughter Cornelia inherited the estate and passed it along to her sons, George and William, who eventually helped turn the holding into a public venue, complete with winery, a shopping village, homes, and hotels.

While it’s not important to know the history of the Biltmore Estate or the travails of the Vanderbilt family to enjoy the book, it does make it easier to picture the scenes that take place there. The book is narrated by four first-person narrators in different time periods: George’s wife Edith and daughter Cornelia in the early 20th century, and 20something Julia Baxter and her grandmother Babs in contemporary times. The women are tied together by a wedding veil, an important legacy in Julia’s family. It’s supposed to bring good luck in marriage to the women who wear it down the aisle, and it strongly resembles the veil that Cornelia wore on her wedding day. But Julia bucks tradition by becoming a runaway bride, rather than taint the veil by marrying a man who cheats on her. As she takes her Virgin Islands honeymoon alone, she wonders how to get on with the rest of her life without a man by her side.

It’s a question that haunts Edith when George dies unexpectedly in 1914, leaving her to run the estate and raise their 13-year-old daughter Cornelia. Through the war years, the Great Depression, and Cornelia’s personal dissatisfaction with her life, the challenge of keeping George’s dream of the Biltmore alive is the through line of Edith’s life, even after she remarries. Julia’s grandmother Babs also considers the question, as an 80-year-old widow embarking on life for a second time.

Harvey tries hard to tie these threads together, but The Wedding Veil feels like two different stories. Both Babs and Julia are starring in romantic comedies about finding love again after heartbreak. The Vanderbilt women are in romantic dramas set in some of the most challenging time periods the world has faced, living their lives in the glare of a media spotlight. While Harvey wraps up the modern women’s stories neatly, Cornelia was last seen moving to London a few years before World War II. I was left wanting to know the rest of her story.

Harvey ends the book with an author’s note that explains her inspiration for the story and gives several recommendations for people wanting to learn more about the Vanderbilts. The Biltmore Estate website also gives a timeline on the family that includes a picture of Cornelia on her wedding day. It’s clear to see why her wedding veil would inspire a well-known writer like Harvey to base a novel around it.  

Thanks to SparkPoint Studio for the book in exchange for an honest review.

More by Kristy Woodson Harvey:

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What's in the (e)mail

Melissa:
Only on the Weekends by Dean Atta from HarperCollins (NetGalley)
A Little Bit Country by Brian D. Kennedy from HarperCollins (NetGalley)

The Homewreckers by Mary Kay Andrews from St. Martin's Press (print)

The War Librarian by Addison Armstrong from Putnam (NetGalley)

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird from St. Martin's Press (NetGalley)

The Woman in My Home by Kerry Fisher from Bookouture (NetGalley)

With Love from Wish & Co. by Minnie Darke from Ballantine (NetGalley)

Birds of California by Katie Cotugno from HarperCollins (print)

Happily Ever Island by Crystal Cestari from Disney (NetGalley)

The Treehouse on Dog River Road by Catherine Drake from She Writes Press (NetGalley)

The Life We Almost Had by Amelia Henley from Forever (NetGalley)

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz from Celadon (NetGalley)

Blurred Fates by Anastasia Zadeik from Caitlin Hamilton Marketing (print)

Sara:

The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman from Harlequin (NetGalley)

Men or Paws by/from Rich Amooi (ebook)

The Chase by Evie Hunter from Rachel's Random Resources (NetGalley)

Jami:

The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer from Harlequin (NetGalley)

Out of the Clear Blue Sky by Kristan Higgins from Berkley (NetGalley)

Marisa:

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood from Berkley (ebook)

Becky:

Rainbows End in Ferry Lane Market by Nicola May from Rachel's Random Resources (print)

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Book Review: The Custard Tart Café by the Sea

By Sara Steven

Willow has opened a custard tart café at the end of a popular English seaside pier. Her unique and magical spin on the Portuguese pastel de nata has customers queuing outside the door to taste them.

Tiago’s grandparents are purveyors of The Real Deal: authentic custard tarts made in the Algarve region of Portugal, where his family have been lovingly baking them for centuries. When he moves to England for a new job and chances upon Willow’s wondrous wares, he is out for war.

At least that’s his intention. But when serendipity brings Willow and Tiago back together at the departures desk in Bristol airport - destination Faro - outrage isn’t the only spark that’s about to fly...

Weston-super-Mare and Portugal are about to collide! (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads)

Ooh, that Tiago…

And I don’t mean that in a good way. I couldn’t help but feel for Willow, an entrepreneur who has set out to bring her custard tart café to a seaside pier. The pastel de nata that she creates doesn’t follow the traditional standards that go into making custard tarts, but I feel that is a huge reason why she gains popularity–she is taking a risk and doing something different and unexpected. Yet Tiago is completely against Willow’s free-spirited nature, going so far as to try to create chaos for this newly minted café owner. It really bothered me when she would do what she could to defend herself, only to have her words fall on unsupportive ears. 

Yet despite his muckery, Willow feels drawn to him. It doesn’t help that he’s handsome and passionate, and that they both have the “opposites attract” angle going for them. But it’s hard for her to overlook the huge differences, one of the biggest being his obvious disdain for Willow’s café. Will they ever be able to get over the issues between them, or is it better to stick to her own corner at the end of the English seaside pier and write him off forever? 

I do appreciate a good character evolution arc, and it’s quite possible that Tiago showcases that. It’s hard for him to accept the fact that an artform that his grandparents perfected and the centuries that had been put into making custard tarts within his family could so easily be erased by someone who doesn’t seem to understand just how important it can be to him and to others like him who hail from Portugal. But I still felt riled up when he and Willow would converse, due to the back-and-forth banter between them. On the one hand, it made me want to reach into the pages and provide my own commentary on the subject, yet I also looked forward to those moments between them, because there was an obvious fire brewing there, just under the surface. It was veiled up under the guise of custard tarts, but the reader realizes there is so much more there. Also, I need to mention the custard tarts--I don't think I've ever had one myself, but I want one! They sound like delicious desserts and I kept wishing that one would materialize for me, so I could experience what they taste like. Learning about the tarts and the two characters who seemed destined to collide into one another was a sweet experience!

Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for the book in exchange for an honest review.

Purchase Links:
Amazon US * Amazon UK

Isabella May lives in (mostly) sunny Andalusia, Spain with her husband, daughter and son, creatively inspired by the mountains and the sea. She grew up in Somerset on Glastonbury's ley lines and loves to feature her quirky English hometown in her stories.

After a degree in Modern Languages and European Studies at UWE, Bristol (and a year working abroad in Bordeaux and Stuttgart), Isabella bagged an extremely jammy and fascinating job in children's publishing... selling foreign rights for novelty, board, pop-up and non-fiction books all over the world; in every language from Icelandic to Korean, Bahasa Indonesian to Papiamento!

All of which has fueled her curiosity and love of international food and travel - both feature extensively in her romcoms.

Isabella is also a Pranic Healer and a stillbirth mum.

Visit Isabella online:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

Visit all the stops on Isabella's blog tour:

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Spotlight and Giveaway: The Younger Wife

Sally Hepworth's latest novel, The Younger Wife, released this week and we are pleased to feature it today. Melissa gave it five stars, so check out her review. Thanks to St. Martin's Press, we have one copy to give away!

THE HUSBAND 

A heart surgeon at the top of his field, Stephen Aston is getting married again. The only problem  is, he’s still married to his first wife, even though she’s in a care facility for dementia. But he’ll  take care of that easily, by divorcing her – even if his adult daughters protest. 

THE DAUGHTERS 

Tully and Rachel Aston are skeptical of their father’s fiancé, Heather. Heather is the same age as  Rachel, and even younger than Tully. What is it that she’s after?  

THE FORMER WIFE 

With their mother in a precarious position, Tully and Rachel are determined to discover the  truth about this new wife, and their family’s secrets, including who their father really is.  

THE YOUNGER WIFE

Heather has secrets that she’s keeping close, and reasons of her own for wanting to marry  Stephen. Will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses in all of them? 

'Smart, suspenseful, brimming with secrets. This is Sally Hepworth at her unputdownable best.' 
- Kate Morton, author of The Clockmaker's Daughter

'Completely compulsive. Sally Hepworth delivers with this stay-up-late one-more-chapter gem.' 
- Jane Harper, author of The Survivors

Credit: Mrs. Smart Photography

Sally Hepworth is the New York Times bestselling author of  seven novels, most recently The Mother-in-Law (2019), which was optioned for TV by actress Amy Poehler’s production company, PaperKite, and The Good Sister, an instant New York Times bestseller. Sally’s books have been labeled “enchanting” by the Herald Sun, “smart and engaging” by Publishers Weekly and New York Times bestselling authors Liane Moriarty and Emily Giffin have praised Sally’s novels as “women’s fiction at its finest” and “totally absorbing.” Sally’s novels are published in more than 20 territories worldwide. Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and three children. 

Visit Sally online:

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

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Giveaway ends April 12th at midnight EST.

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