The Secret To Southern Charm by Kristy Woodson Harvey

 

Description:

After finding out her military husband is missing in action, middle sister Sloane’s world crumbles as her worst nightmare comes true. She can barely climb out of bed, much less summon the strength to be the parent her
children deserve.

Her mother, Ansley, provides a much-needed respite as she puts her personal life on hold to help Sloane and her grandchildren wade through their new grief-stricken lives. But between caring for her own aging mother, her daughters, and her grandchildren, Ansley’s private worry is that secrets from her past will come to light.

But when Sloane’s sisters, Caroline and Emerson, remind Sloane that no matter what, she promised her husband she would carry on for their young sons, Sloane finds the support and courage she needs to chase her biggest dreams—and face her deepest fears. Taking a cue from her middle daughter,
Ansley takes her own leap of faith and realizes that, after all this time, she might finally be able to have it all.

Harvey’s signature warmth and wit make this a charming and poignant story of first loves, missed opportunities, and second chances and proves that she is the next “major voice in Southern fiction” (Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author).


My take:  I really enjoyed the second installment of Kristy Woodson Harvey’s Peachtree Bluff series. The Secret To Southern Charm is about a family of women (and the men who love them) who are stronger than they think and will learn that family is everything – in good times and bad. They live in a small coastal Georgia town where secrets are hard to keep and people love to talk. Ansley is at a point in life where she’s pulled from all sides – her mother is ill, her adult daughters seem to have cornered the market on personal crises, and her past love has resurfaced. Something’s gotta give! I love Harvey’s easy writing style that makes her characters and plot relatable in a few ways. It all wrapped up in a satisfying way that has me excited for the next book. I know it will be a while but I also know it will be worth the wait.


About the author:

Kristy Woodson Harvey is the bestselling author of Dear Carolina (Berkley/Penguin Random House, 2015), Lies and Other Acts of Love (Berkley/Penguin Random House, 2016) and the Peachtree Bluff Series, beginning with Slightly South of Simple (Gallery/Simon & Schuster, 2017).

Dear Carolina was long-listed for the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, has been optioned for film and has appeared on numerous “ must-read” lists.

Lies and Other Acts of Love was a Romantic Times top pick, a Southern Booksellers Okra Pick and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize.

Slightly South of Simple was a Southern Bestseller, a Barnes & Noble Bestseller, one of PopSugar’s picks for “Ultimate Summer Reading” and one of Glitter Guide’s “Must-Reads for April.”

The Secret to Southern Charm, the second book in the Peachtree Bluff series, releases April 3, 2018.

She blogs with her mom, Beth Woodson, daily on Design Chic, the inaugural member of the Design Blogger Hall of Fame sponsored by Traditional Home and winner of Amara’s Best Luxury Blog, sponsored by Roberto Cavalli, about how creating a beautiful home can be the catalyst for creating a beautiful life and loves connecting with readers at kristywoodsonharvey.com.

Harvey is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s school of journalism and holds a master’s in English from East Carolina University, with a concentration in multicultural and transnational literature. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications and websites, including Southern Living, Traditional Home, Parade, USA Today, Domino, Our State and O. Henry. She has been seen in Women’s Health, The Washington Post, US News and World Report, The Huffington Post, USA Today’s Happy Every After, Marie Claire’s The Fix, Woman’s World, Readers’ Digest and North Carolina Bookwatch, among others. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and six-year-old son where she is working on her next novel.



The Secret to Southern Charm is available on April 3, 2018 from your local bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble Target, Books-a-Million, Indiebound and wherever books are sold! It is being simultaneously released in paperback, hardback, e-book and audio, so check out your favorite version!


The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth

Description:

Small, perfect towns often hold the deepest secrets.

From the outside, Essie’s life looks idyllic: a loving husband, a beautiful house in a good neighborhood, and a nearby mother who dotes on her grandchildren. But few of Essie’s friends know her secret shame: that in a moment of maternal despair, she once walked away from her newborn, asleep in her carriage in a park. Disaster was avoided and Essie got better, but she still fears what lurks inside her, even as her daughter gets older and she has a second baby.

When a new woman named Isabelle moves in next door to Essie, she is an immediate object of curiosity in the neighborhood. Why single, when everyone else is married with children? Why renting, when everyone else owns? What mysterious job does she have? And why is she so fascinated with Essie? As the two women grow closer and Essie’s friends voice their disapproval, it starts to become clear that Isabelle’s choice of neighborhood was no accident. And that her presence threatens to bring shocking secrets to light.

The Family Next Door is Sally Hepworth at her very best: at once a deeply moving portrait of family drama and a compelling suburban mystery that will keep you hooked until the very last page. (publisher)

My take:  The Family Next Door is Sally Hepworth’s newest novel and quite different from her earlier works. It’s an engaging suburban drama about the families who live on a cul-de-sac. Everyone thinks the other families are living perfect lives while theirs is far from perfect. As the curtains are pulled back on each family the others will be surprised by the secrets revealed and some will be life-changing. A few relatable moments, some drama, and some mystery all combine for a book I read in two days. Recommended to fans of the author and family dramas with a Desperate Housewives vibe.


About the author:

Sally Hepworth is a former event planner and human resources professional. A graduate of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, Sally started writing novels after the birth of her first child. Sally has lived around the world, spending extended periods in Singapore, the UK, and Canada, and now writes full-time from her home in Melbourne, where she lives with her husband and three young children. She is currently working on her next novel.


 

US Giveaway: The Night The Lights Went Out by Karen White

THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT

Berkley Trade Paperback | March 27, 2018 | ISBN: 9780451488404| $16.00

*

About the book:  (provided by the publisher)

In THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT, recently divorced Merilee Talbot Dunlap moves with her two children to Sweet Apple, Georgia. It’s not her first time starting over. But her new beginning isn’t helped by an anonymous local blog that reveals for the whole town the scandalous affair that caused her marriage to fail. And Merilee’s new landlord, the proud, irascible, Atlanta born-and-bred 93-year-old Sugar Prescott, certainly isn’t helping.

 

But off Sugar’s property, Merilee finds herself swallowed into Sweet Apple’s most elite ranks—its inner circle of wealthy school moms—thanks to her blossoming friendship with the belle of the town, Heather Blackford. But behind the tennis whites, shiny SUVs, and immaculate women, lurk generations of secrets and resentments. And Merilee quickly learns that, in a town where appearance is everything, sins and secrets can be found in equal measure in the dark woods on Sugar’s property, and within the gated mansions of her newfound friends . . .

 

THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT is what would happen if ABC’s Revenge followed the machinations of Southern PTA moms instead of Hamptons elite.  For readers of Dorothea Benton Frank, Mary Alice Monroe, and Pat Conroy, this novel delivers everything her readers love and more.


About the author:

Karen White is the New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including the Tradd Street series, The Night the Lights Went OutFlight PatternsThe Sound of GlassA Long Time Gone, and The Time Between. She is the coauthor of The Forgotton Room with New York Times bestselling authors Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig. She grew up in London but now lives with her husband and two children near Atlanta, Georgia.

photo credit: Marchet Butler

 


Praise for Karen White:

“PLUMBS THE DEPTH OF HUMANITY, OF LIFE AND DEATH AND TRAGEDY AND PERSERVERANCE” The Herald Sun“GOTHIC GOLD” The Atlantan “ULTIMATE VOICE IN WOMEN’S FICTION” Fresh Fiction “EMOTIONALLY SATISFYING” Kirkus Reviews • “HER ICONIC MELLIFLUENT, INNOVATIVE NARRATIVE IS HAUNGTINGLY BEAUTIFUL” RT Book Reviews • “CHARACTERS WITH DEPTH” The Fayetteville Observer “ENGROSSING” Parkersburg News and Sentinel (WV) •

“VIVID” Library Journal “SENSITIVE, PRECISE, AND POWERFUL” RT Book Reviews


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Last week on Bookfan:

   

Reading plan for this week:


 

The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman

  • Title:  The Recipe Box
  • Author:  Viola Shipman
  • Genre:  Fiction; Food/recipes
  • Pages:  336
  • Published:  March 2018 – St. Martin’s Press; Thomas Dunne Books
  • Source:  Publisher

Description:  Growing up in northern Michigan, Samantha “Sam” Mullins felt trapped on her family’s orchard and pie shop, so she left with dreams of making her own mark in the world. But life as an overworked, undervalued sous chef at a reality star’s New York bakery is not what Sam dreamed.

When the chef embarrasses Sam, she quits and returns home. Unemployed, single, and defeated, she spends a summer working on her family’s orchard cooking and baking alongside the women in her life—including her mother, Deana, and grandmother, Willo. One beloved, flour-flecked, ink-smeared recipe at a time, Sam begins to learn about and understand the women in her life, her family’s history, and her passion for food through their treasured recipe box.

As Sam discovers what matters most she opens her heart to a man she left behind, but who now might be the key to her happiness.  (publisher)

My take:  The Recipe Box is about a young pastry chef who leaves her job in New York when she can’t stand to work for her obnoxious boss one more second. She heads home to Michigan and her family’s orchard/pie shop where her mom and grandma will give her some much-needed TLC.

It’s a story about family, tradition, and learning to trust – yourself and others. Scattered throughout are scrumptious sounding recipes for various baked goods featured in the novel. I plan to try some so this book will go on my cookbook shelf next to my own family cookbook. Recommended to fans of charming, uplifting novels and foodie fiction.


About the author:

Viola Shipman is a pen name for Wade Rouse, a popular, award-winning memoirist. Rouse chose his grandmother’s name to honor the woman whose heirlooms and family stories inspire his fiction. To date, The Charm Bracelet and The Hope Chest have been translated into over a dozen languages and become international bestsellers. The Charm Bracelet was named a 2017 Michigan Notable Book. Rouse lives in Michigan and writes regularly for People, Good Housekeeping, and Coastal Living, among other places, and is a contributor to All Things Considered.


 

Spotlight/US Giveaway: How To Love The Empty Air by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz

About HOW TO LOVE THE EMPTY AIR
Vulnerable, beautiful and ultimately life-affirming, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s work reaches new heights in her revelatory seventh collection of poetry. Continuing in her tradition of engaging autobiographical work, How to Love the Empty Air explores what happens when the impossible becomes real―for better and for worse. Aptowicz’s journey to find happiness and home in her ever-shifting world sees her struggling in cities throughout America. When her luck changes―in love and in life―she can’t help but “tell the sun / tell the fields / tell the huge Texas sky…. / tell myself again and again until I believe it.” However, the upward trajectory of this new life is rocked by the sudden death of the poet’s mother. In the year that follows, Aptowicz battles the silencing power of grief with intimate poems burnished by loss and a hard-won humor, capturing the dance that all newly grieving must do between everyday living and the desire “to elope with this grief, / who is not your enemy, / this grief who maybe now is your best friend. / This grief, who is your husband, / the thing you curl into every night, / falling asleep in its arms…” As in her award-winning The Year of No Mistakes, Aptowicz counts her losses and her blessings, knowing how despite it all, life “ripples boundless, like electricity, like joy / like… laughter, irresistible and bright, / an impossible thing to contain.”


A poem from HOW TO LOVE THE EMPTY AIR

“O Laughter”
O, Laughter, you are not forgotten.
My body is the jam jar you flew into.You thought it’d be so sweet. You didn’t
Realize it was made by crushing the most

gentle of things. O, Laughter, Grief sees
itself as a knife, carving out what needs

to be seen. See yourself as an ice skater,
the knives on your feet. Sometimes the pain

bursts out of me like a flock of starlings.
My throat releases everything but you.

Laughter, be the slyest magician. Make me
think it’s easy work: this levitation.

I’ll willingly step into the box, if you’d just
cut me in half, spin my parts around,

then make me whole again.


About Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is the author of seven books of poetry, including The Year of No Mistakes, crowned the Book of the Year for Poetry by the Writers’ League of Texas. She is also the author of two books of nonfiction, most recently Dr Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine, which spent three months on the New York Times Best Seller List. Recent awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the ArtsEDGE write-in-residency at the University of Pennsylvania and the Amy Clampitt Residency. When not on the road, she lives in Austin with her husband Ernest Cline, author of the New York Times bestselling Ready Player One.

Praise for HOW TO LOVE THE EMPTY AIR

“Grief is one of the most impossible things to put words to…Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz does the impossible.”
Sarah Kay, author of No Matter the Wreckage

“Aptowicz is something of a legend in NYC’s slam poetry scene. She is lively thoughtful, and approachable, looking to engage the audience with her work and deeply committed to the community that art and slam poetry can create.”
Jo Reed, NEA

“With candid couplets and tercets, lyrical repetition and a voice both rhythmic and unaffected, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz elucidates the hollows of grief, the beforelife, and the getting on with it.”
—Melissa Broder, author of The Pisces and Last Sext
“As a reader who understands the particular hole the loss of a mother leaves, and as a reader who understands how a particular relationship with geography can breed longing, How to Love the Empty Air sung to me. But it will sing to you, too. Because Aptowicz is so skilled about writing the specific with arms wide enough to welcome all. This is a book that will tattoo itself on all the places you love to look at most.”

—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us


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Sunday Post

Book arrivals:  (linked to Mailbox Monday)

        

Last week on Bookfan:

   

Reading plan for this week:


 

The Italian Party by Christina Lynch

  • Title:  The Italian Party
  • Author:  Christina Lynch
  • Genre:  Historical Fiction
  • Pages:  336
  • Pub. date:  March 20, 2018 – St. Martin’s Press
  • Source:  Publisher

Description:  Newly married, Scottie and Michael are seduced by Tuscany’s famous beauty. But the secrets they are keeping from each other force them beneath the splendid surface to a more complex view of ltaly, America and each other.

When Scottie’s Italian teacher―a teenager with secrets of his own―disappears, her search for him leads her to discover other, darker truths about herself, her husband and her country. Michael’s dedication to saving the world from communism crumbles as he begins to see that he is a pawn in a much different game. Driven apart by lies, Michael and Scottie must find their way through a maze of history, memory, hate and love to a new kind of complicated truth.

Half glamorous fun, half an examination of America’s role in the world, and filled with sun-dappled pasta lunches, prosecco, charming spies and horse racing, The Italian Party
is a smart pleasure. (publisher)

My take:  This novel grew on me – little by little – until I couldn’t put it down. It’s about secrets and lies in a marriage, in government, in cultures – and the nuances involved in all.

It’s about Italy during the 1950s (post WWII years) when other governments (communists and democracies alike) vied to influence change in the country. Intrigue, mystery and glamour combine for a look at important changes that could have far-reaching effects throughout the continent.

I loved the characters, the descriptions and the historical references that seemed familiar yet were truly unknown to me. I would see the film if one is made. This was a nice change-of-pace novel for me and I find myself craving a Campari and soda. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for sending a copy.


About The Author:

Christina Lynch’s picaresque journey includes chapters in Chicago and at Harvard, where she was an editor on the Harvard Lampoon. She was the Milan correspondent for W magazine and Women’s Wear Daily, and disappeared for four years in Tuscany. In L.A. she was on the writing staff of Unhappily Ever After; Encore, Encore; The Dead Zone and Wildfire. She now lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. She is the co-author of two novels under the pen name Magnus Flyte. She teaches at College of the Sequoias. The Italian Party is her debut novel under her own name.

 

Website: http://christinalynchwriter.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christinalynchauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/clynchwriter


Praise for The Italian Party:

“Set in Siena in 1956, this debut novel is a spy thriller, comedy of manners, and valentine to Italy, spiked with forbidden sex and political skulduggery…The ending is unexpected, with the author displaying a sophisticated, nuanced view of love and marriage that feels very modern. Or maybe it’s just Italian.” —Kirkus Reviews

 

“[Lynch’s] affection for and knowledge of the Italian people and way of living are evident: her food descriptions in particular are droolworthy. Readers will be rooting for Michael and Scottie through the story’s many adventures and intrigue, while political and social commentary add an extra layer of depth.” —Booklist

 

“The story plays like a confectionary Hollywood romance with some deeper notes reminiscent of John le Carré and Henry James. Scottie is a resilient main character who might have been played by Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn in a 1950s movie adaptation of this entertainingly subversive take on that seemingly innocent period.” —Publisher’s Weekly

 

“In her gracefully written debut, as effervescent as spumante, Lynch dramatizes the allure and power of secrets – in politics and in marriage – while depicting with sly humor the collision between the American do-gooder naïveté and Italian culture. Italophiles and anyone interested in spying and the expat experience will love the spot-on social commentary.” —Library Journal (Starred Review)

 

​”This novel is dashing, fun, sexy and witty—a fun read on multiple levels.”​—The Historical Novel Society

 

“Imagine Beautiful Ruins plus horses; Toujours Provence with spies, a mystery and sex. The Italian Party is a fizzy, page-turning delight that begs for a Campari and soda!” —Julia Claiborne Johnson, author of Be Frank With Me

 

“Christina Lynch has accomplished a rare American literary feat with this captivating novel whose keen political edge and historical resonance feel very timely.  Her grasp of mid-century Cold War culture, of sexual identity, the world of personal secrecy and intimacy, trust and betrayal, naive patriotism and profound national identity, are swirled into a page-turner that is both a genuine romance and a thoughtful spy story.” —Patricia Hampl, author of The Florist’s Daughter

 

“Tremendous fun! Wives with big secrets, husbands with bigger ones, swirling around a 1950s Siena teeming with seduction and spycraft.” —Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author of The Travelers and The Expats

 

“Christina Lynch’s hapless American newly-weds give us plenty to worry about as they dig their way into the dark heart ofItaly (1956) and into the even darker heart of the CIA. They give us plenty to laugh about, too, in this volatile mixture of old-world charm and cold-war politics.” —Bob Hellenga, author of The Fall of a Sparrow


 

Spotlight and US Giveaway: The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth

Description: (content provided by the publisher)

Sally Hepworth wrote THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR while pregnant, and edited it with a newborn at her side. So, naturally, being relatively housebound, she spent a lot of time wondering what her neighbors were up to. The result of Hepworth’s guesswork is a more suspenseful, more propulsive, and more secret-laden book than anything she’s written before.

Hepworth’s suburban-set story centers on the people of Pleasant Court. There’s Essie, a young mother grappling with its constant demands. Her mother, Barbara, is the perfect grandmother to her two young daughters, doting, and there to help at the drop of a hat. But it’s new-to-the-neighborhood Isabelle who proves a breath of fresh air for Essie. Their budding friendship, while just what Essie needs, sounds the alarm for those close to her. Because Isabelle’s choice of neighborhood was no accident… Then there’s Ange. Is her photographer husband’s client just that, or something more? Fran, meanwhile, is keeping her husband at arm’s length. She made a regretful decision during a lull in their marriage, and is now struggling to cope with the consequences.

You may think you have the people of Pleasant Court all figured out, but Hepworth proves otherwise, throwing in some serious curveballs.


About the author:
Sally Hepworth is a former event planner and human resources professional. A graduate of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, Sally started writing novels after the birth of her first child. Sally has lived around the world, spending extended periods in Singapore, the UK, and Canada, and now writes full-time from her home in Melbourne, where she lives with her husband and three young children. She is currently working on her next novel.


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Dreaming in Chocolate by Susan Bishop Crispell

  • Title:  Dreaming in Chocolate
  • Author:  Susan Bishop Crispell
  • Genre:  Contemporary Fiction; Magical Realism
  • Pages:  288
  • Published:  February 2018 – St. Martin’s Griffin
  • Source:  Publisher

Description:  With an endless supply of magical gifts and recipes from the hot chocolate café Penelope Dalton runs alongside her mother, she is able to give her daughter almost everything she wants. The one sticking point is Ella’s latest request: get a dad. And not just any dad. Ella has her sights set on Noah Gregory, her biological father who’s back in town for a few months – and as charming as ever.

Noah broke Penelope’s heart years ago, but now part of her wonders if she made the right decision to keep the truth of their daughter from him. The other, more practical part, is determined to protect Ella from the same heartbreak. Now Penelope must give in to her fate or face a future of regrets.

Dreaming in Chocolate by Susan Bishop Crispell is a heartwarming story of love, hot chocolate, and one little girl’s wish for her mother.  (publisher)

My take:  This was a sweet story about Ella, a little girl who has good reason to cross things off her list of things to do. One of those items is to meet her dad, someone she’s never met. Her mother never revealed his identity so there’s no one else for Ella to ask. When her friend’s uncle comes to town to help his family Ella takes an immediate liking to him. Ella sees possibilities. Could her mother as well?

Dreaming in Chocolate is a story of love, hope and the possibility of second chances. The magical part is very light and, even though I’m a fan of that sub-genre, I was okay with that. It’s the second book I’ve read by Susan Bishop Crispell and I look forward to seeing what she writes next.


Praise for Dreaming in Chocolate:

A Redbook.com most anticipated book of 2018

“Readers looking for a feel-good story with a little bit of enchantment sprinkled in will eat this one up. A pleasantly sweet tale about true love, fate, and family.” – Kirkus Reviews

“Crispell’s (The Secret Ingredients of Wishes, 2016) sweet tale offers a nice mix of magic and romance … the characters are likable, and the family’s attempts to make Ella’s last days happy are touching and uplifting – Booklist.com


 

Sunday Post

This is my first Sunday Post in a month. I spent most of February helping my mom and siblings take care of my dad who was ill with recently diagnosed cancer. He passed away this week and the funeral will be next week. He was a wonderful man and at the moment I can’t imagine life without him.

 

Book arrivals:  (linked to Mailbox Monday)

      

The last few weeks on Bookfan:

    

  

Reading plan for this week:

My go-to comfort read author: