fiction

You know how you start to read a book and you think… It’s got potential but I don’t know if I can get into it?  A book with two timelines that tends to drive you nuts with the bouncing around and then you discover something odd…. and suddenly you are hooked and totally invested?   Well, that happened with me with The Lost Bookshop.   Let me tell you more. 

The Basic Details for The Lost Bookshop

Title: The Lost Bookshop
Author: Evie Woods
Publisher: One More Chapter
Pages: 448
Intended Audience: adult
Genre: magical realism, Contemporary romance, history, women’s domestic life, fantasy,
Available formats: paperback, kindle, audio

Evie Woods is Irish and loves to draw the unexpected and somewhat magical into her works.  She tells a good story between the everyday and the magical.  Weaving together worlds into something new that is very believable. 

In The Lost Bookshop we catch Henry searching for a bookshop that can’t be found.  He’s caught references to it, but can’t really track it down. And in his same timeline we find Martha.  A lady running away from a domestic situation that isn’t safe, finding herself working as a maid for a most unexpected lady.   As Martha gets caught up in Henry’s search we learn the story of Opaline and her bookshop. 

Looking Deeper

I’m not going to say this is always the easiest book to read, and I’m not a fan of reading two different timelines and trying to sort things out. BUT those divergent timelines worked really well together and caused their own little surprises in the end. 

Domestic abuse and generally just the poor treatment of women is a fact in both timelines.  I was horrified at the treatment of Opaline at the hands of her brother and the “institution” she was placed in.  How could people be like that?  Institutionalized cruelty has always dumbfounded me. 

I LOVED Opaline’s resilience though, and I love how Martha took, learned and survived.  This is very much a story of survival for both women.  The touch of magic/fantasy throughout was an added bonus.  You were left wondering, just might this bookshop pull out next?  What book or words of encouragement does Martha need?  What is the story that Martha is having penned?   The mysterious help she received from the lady of the house left me with a certain amount of wonder and lots of curiousity.  I never did get that fully assuaged. 

When all the pieces finally fit together you are left with a great sense of satisfaction.  I was so pleased by the end of this story, it’s made me go out and hunt down other works by this author. 

I’m half way through The Story Collector, and want to read to read about the mysterious bakery on rue du Paris.   Doesn’t that sound intriguing?   I think Evie Woods has gained a new fan!   🙂 Go out and read The Lost Bookshop today!!!  

So after having enjoyed the Lemon Sugar series I was eager to try the next book by Carolyn Finch.   Sunshine in a bottle takes on the life of Indi.  Indi is a hairstylist with a troubled relationship with her mother.  Her mother has turned her life around and developed a whole Wellness Centre that she has lift to Indi (with some conditions) at the time of her death.  Indi’s plan… sell the whole thing!  Wants nothing to do with her mom and her legacy.  Too much pain sitting there for her to want to deal with it.  Life intervenes, and thus Sunshine in a Bottle is written. 

Basic Details for Sunshine in a Bottle

Title: Sunshine in a Bottle
Author: Carolyn Finch
Series: Blyss Series
Publisher: Carolyn Finch Writes
Pages: 311
Intended Audience: adult
Genre: women’s fiction, wellness, weight loss, romance
Available formats: paperback, kindle

My Thoughts

I enjoy Ms. Finch’s style of writing. After thoroughly enjoying the Lemon Sugar series, I was positive I would like this book as well. And though I did enjoy her style, I was less than enamoured with Sunshine in a Bottle.

What did I like?   I loved the people connection.  You could palpably feel how much people wanted to help Indi heal from her past pain.  They very much wanted Indi to become the best that she could be.   I loved that.  It’s great to see people drawing together to help someone become more than. 

The romantic element was okay, but kinda meh for me.  Of course you can see that opposites will attract, but this one seemed too forgone a conclusion.  

The whole emphasis on the paleo diet.  I’m sorry I was just lost on this one.  Her sickness, and everything as a result of allergies and her diet.  Just seemed to really be pushing a way of eating and then adding in things that didn’t really add up.  Like ancient people would be so focused on making hollandaise sauce? And isn’t it making a whole lot of assumptions about what people ate and how we can modernize it? It seemed a bit too pat for me I guess. And it could honestly be that I am being too much of a skeptic. 

The total diet and complete change of life was a bit too much for me.  In the end it took away from my enjoyment of the story.  It came out as too predictable, and too “neatly” tied up.   I have zero desire to follow up with the rest of the series. 

I enjoyed the good family connection exemplified in the literal Sunshine in a bottle. Finding a way to recreate scents and shine forth good memories.  I really that part.   Well done that! 

Now if I were reading just for a quick weekend getaway enjoyment I might have liked it more as it was a feel good story.   I’d give it a three stars rating. 

 

 

The first book in this series randomly popped up in my kindle unlimited suggestions and I thought hmmm… might be interesting, but maybe not.   Let’s try it.  And so read In the Company of Men and was hooked. 🙂   I have to admit to some skepticism though since a rather leery of anything slightly romance-y.  BUT I LIKED IT!   I did.  I was so surprised.  In the Company of Men made me laugh, made me worried, raised my suspicions, and surprised me.   Good stuff eh?  🙂  And so I want to tell you about Carolyn Finch’s Lemon Sugar Series. 

The Basics Details for In the Company of Men

Title: The Lemon Sugar Series
Author: Carolyn Finch
Series: Lemon Sugar
Publisher: 
Pages: 376
Intended Audience: adult
Genre: mystery, historical fiction, crime fiction, history, women’s fiction, cozy mystery,
Available formats: paperback, kindle

Three books in the series.

• In the Company of Men
• Cafe on Crescent
• Hope and Dreams

All follow a similar theme.  Gal has a need … provide for her family in a male-dominated world of the 1920’s.   Runs into issue, with a touch of mystery about it, meets a guy who is willing to prove useful/helpful, lots of feel good emotions, and a story well-told.  TOTAL win for me.  🙂 

Author is Carolyn Finch who is a new author to me.  I do plan on finishing this series and then hope to find others by her.  She produces feel good stories with a romance element that doesn’t make me gag.  🙂  Ms. Finch loves to read and grew up as part of a farming community.  This lifestyle is steeped in her blood and she still loves living on the farm. 

So What Did I Think?

It was so refreshing to delve into romantic women’s fiction and not have my gag reflex stimulated.   The romance in this read was realistic and not the central focus.   And I laughed!   Oh my, the number of times I laughed, and at one point even entered a cry of dismay.  That of course created conversation twixt me and a coworker and who knows… maybe I encouraged her to try this series!  🙂 

Set in the 1920’s I loved the quiet romance and the promise of a new life.  I loved how both the men and woman wanted to do what is right and good.  The not so nice people were fairly obvious and easy to not like (making it super easy to cheer for the good folk).  I loved the men being men and the women being women.  No gender confusion, just the simplicity of men and women being who they are. 

I do have to admit to some dismay at the speed of the romance.  But I’ve read a number of historical books where in the older west relationships proceeded fairly quickly, so this wasn’t totally unexpected.  But the romance wasn’t central to the story and events would have played out well with or without it, so nice to have a story like this.   Both of the first two books in this series were similar in style, I expect Hope and Dreams to be the same. 

The Beast Player is another book I read last summer while on vacation that has just stuck with me, so I’m going to tell you about it.   We have interpersonal connections,

The Beast Player is a story about a young girl, bereaved of her family, who finds herself in the unique position of being able to talk to terrifying beasts while living far away from her people. A coming-of-age story where change is vital for man and beast.

Basic Details for The Beast Player

Title: The Beast Player  Book 1
Author: Nahoko Uehashi, translated by Cathy Hirano
Series: The Beast Player
Publisher: Square Fish
Pages: 368
Intended Audience: 12-18 years
Genre: fantasy, epic fantasy, women and girl issues, 
Available formats: hardcover, paperback, audio, kindle

Nahoko Uehashi is a Japanese author who primarily writes fantasy books. She is an associate professor at a Japanese university.  She attained a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology.  The indigenous peoples of Australia are of interest to her.   Writer of several books, The Beast Warrior is the second in this series. 

Digging Deeper

One of the things I appreciated in this read was that it didn’t read like a translated work.  The story proceeded as I expected it to without feeling stilted due to translation issues.  You could tell it came from another culture, but it fit so well with the storyline, so it felt like part of the story. Just like you would expect with any book written by someone raised in another culture.  Your culture influences everything about you doesn’t it? 

I also just liked this journey of discovery.  Enjoying seeing Elin develop an understanding of her past, and learning how to be the person she was meant to become was just intriguing.   She was pushed out, pulled in, and learned over time to ask for better.  And in the end, her people learned and did better.  A good thing that eh?  

Artwork and more

Artwork is minimal and varies from chapter to chapter as part of the heading.  Simple drawings that have something to do with what the chapter is about.   

You’ll find the chapters have smaller chapters/sections within them, all numbered.  This breaks the long chapters up into readable sections. 

I loved how each of the main characters stayed true to themselves.  Elin’s mothers devotions to her beasts (to the extent she died for them).  Joeun, who took her in, and then the teachers at the Beast Academy, the leaders of the land, and the living shields who protect her.  Each glimpse of these people just open up their characters a bit more.  My favourite character I think was the Ialu one of the royal shields. A strong, silent man with a love of carpentry and a fierce deadly intense quality to him.  A quiet thinking man with reflexes quicker than a cat.  Such an interesting character, I could read a book just focused on him.   Isn’t it great to have books with fascinating characters in them? 

At times I found the story a little bit slow and I just wanted things to move along.  Helped me develop a bit of patience I suppose that eh?  🙂   You will learn a lot about a variety of animals, mostly the Toda and the Royal Beasts.  Animal care is a big focus of how the story develops.   Be prepared for some politics, there are people in battle just so you know.  

I’m glad there is a second one in the series called Beast Warrior.  The second picks up the story 10 years later.  I hope it will give a solidly satisfying ending, I’ll find out when I get it eh?   But Beast Player is do definitely worth the read!