Louisa grew up in an affluent and respected family in Maine. Since then her and her family have spent every summer in the Fitzgerald’s large house on the shore. This year Louisa and the kids go to the house themselves but not all it right. Louisa’s father, a respected judge has Alzheimer’s and her mom is pretending it’s alright. Louisa and her husband are arguing over money. Matty gets his heart broken and Louisa finds out that she has a half sister from an affair her father had years ago. Kristy comes to Maine to confront her father after her mother’s death. She did not expect to fall in love and learn to deal with the news about her father and his family. This was a very entertaining story and I recommend reading it

Amazing book that speaks to women to take back their rights from the men in their lives. To speak up for themselves even when they die… the audio book was wonderfully done. Highly recommend ????

Another wonderful, engrossing novel by one of my favorite authors, Jean Grainger. This is the sequel to If These Walls Could Talk. It takes place in two timelines, 1920 and the present. Jeannie, who gave up her baby daughter Orla 50 years ago, returns to Ireland with her grandson to try to reconnect. A hundred years ago we meet Billy and his mom, British citizens, who have become involved in the IRA's resistance movement against the British occupation. Grainger weaves both stories together very skillfully. Her characters are very relatable and human.

This was a mystery. A missing British woman Monica Felder fails to show up in France for a cooking class. Chief of Police, Bruno discovers she was accompanied by an Irish man and now both are found dead. She has been stabbed, and it looks like he has hung himself. This seemed very interesting. However, there were so many characters, some British, some French and some American that I had a difficult time keeping them straight. In addition since it took place in France, there were quite a few French phrases, which was frustrating since I don't speak the language.

A historical fiction novel propelled by a mystery. A young bookbinder is on a hunt for the truth of the story after she finds a written confession of a murder hidden in the binding of a burned book. This letter hints at a story of forbidden love, a lost fortune and murder. Lillian Delaney , apprentice to a bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, feels trapped between the oppressiveness of her father's failing bookshop and still being an apprentice in a man's profession. When she is given this burned book during a visit to a collector, she finds hidden beneath the binding, a fifty year old letter speaking of love, fortune and murder. She is pulled into the mystery of young lovers, a story of forbidden love, and discovers there are more books and more hidden pages telling their story.

I loved this book and it was over 600 pages. I don't usually like long books but this one was so good I didn't want it to end. I felt like I was right there with all the characters. I read it faster than I read 300 page books that are just ok.

You would think that a book of short stories there would be more than 1 story of any redeeming value. My favorite was "The Lunar Eclipse." Clearly author Nat Cassidy wants to be Stephen King. First Mr. Cassidy needs to become a writer and leave the horror to the expert. I guess 13 is unlucky for me to have selected this book toward Tic-Tack-Toe Summer Reading challenge.

A wonderful read if you like art history.this book is for art lovers and those who want to learn more the time of the art’s creation, through the eyes of a child

The first book by Feeney I read was Daisy Darker a long time ago and I loved it, so when I came across this interesting title, I figured it would probably also be great. IT WAS SUCH A WILD RIDE. If you're good at guessing twists, you won't be with this one. And there were several. READ IT.

John Searles writes a fictionalized account of Helen Gurley Brown's rise to the top as editor-in-chief (since 1965) and creator of " Cosmopolitan" magazine as we know it. In the decades that she gained reknown, she supported and freed women's sexual independence and self-awareness out of the confinements of the 1950's, to the glittering decades of the 70's, 80's and 90's.