Category: book reviews

If you had to make one decision, in an instant of trauma, in an effort to protect your child’s future, what would you do?

In this engrossing story, Scottoline examines a decision made by Jake Buckman following a tragic accident in an effort to protect his son Ryan’s future. Unfortunately, this decision involves both him and Ryan in a web of lies that just continues to grow. Jake’s wife, Pam, soon realizes something is wrong, but both Jake and Ryan insist that everything is ok, despite the obviousness that it is not. And, it seems that every day Jake and Ryan fall deeper into the pit they’ve made for themselves, and Ryan even begins to talk about suicide.

Eventually Pam learns of the Jake’s first decision and everything that has spiraled from it. A promotion she had wanted desperately is suddenly out of reach and Jake and Pam’s marriage may now be over. And Ryan can barely live with himself.

But in a startling turn of events, Jake learns something that puts his life in mortal danger. Can anything good happen after all of this?

Maybe…. You need to read the book to find out.

This author is always interesting and entertaining. I listened to this book, and I have to say that I was surprised but pleased by how it all turned out.

As this story starts, Laura McCarthy is just about fed up! She’s been taking care of the old curmudgeon across the lane for years. She’s not doing it to be neighborly exactly but because she and her husband, Matt, both want the house that the old man lives in. The old man had promised them an antique desk from the house, and implied that the house might someday be theirs. The house is known as the Spanish House, and though it’s run-down now, they each can picture the changes they would make to the old house that would fulfill their dreams. But then the old man died, and no will could be found. So, the house goes to his nearest relative, Isabel Delancey.

Isabel has her own problems. She works as a classical violinist and the husband she adored has died in a car crash leaving her and her two kids emotionally bereft. Her husband had supported her music career and the family in style. Though Isabel has tried to ignore the growing pile of bills, her solicitor has just informed her that the family’s financial situation is dire, and her music performances will no longer be anywhere near enough to support the family. When Isabel learns that the Spanish house has been left to them, she decides that moving there is the only solution for their financial survival. While she owns an extremely valuable violin, she cannot bear to part with it, as it had been given to her by her later husband.

Matt McCarthy’s desire for the house has not lessened despite its new owner. As both a contractor, and the neighbor across the lane, he offers to “help” Isabel with necessary renovations to fix the house, including giving it a working bathroom, refrigeration, electrical etc. However, the renovations seem to take forever and are exhausting Isabel’s already limited funds. She and the kids, with help from another neighbor, Byron, begin foraging in the woods, and start a garden to supplement their diets and income.

As daughter Kitty’s 16th birthday approaches, the little family seems finally to be settling in. But a developer wants to make an offer on the property, and Matt’s personality seems to be changing for the worse after an unfortunate decision made by Isabel one night.

I listened to this book, and I found it to be an engrossing and multifaceted story with enough suspense to keep this mystery lover engaged.

As this story opens, Olivia “Liv” Green, is working multiple jobs as a cleaner while her husband Jake (and his sister Katrina) are also trying to keep the family business, Paper Press, a small publishing firm, afloat. But one of her cleaning jobs is for the famous (and Liv’s favorite) author, Essie Starling. While Starling had become an intimidating recluse over the last few years, she was best known for her book series about Georgia Rory, an intrepid and adventurous heroine. But sadly, the quality of Starling’s work had been declining recently and, in a rare conversation, Liv told Essie that she thought the Georgia Rory character seem tired and might have lost her spark.

After Essie passed away unexpectedly, Olivia learned two unexpected things. The first is that she must keep Essie’s death a secret until the release of her next book some months away. The second is that Essie wanted Olivia to finish writing that book. Although Olivia had always wanted to be a writer, trying to step into the big shoes of Essie Starling would be a daunting task, especially with the looming deadline for its publication. In addition, keeping Essie’s death a secret would strain her relationship with Jake, who was already under pressure from financial commitments to his family business. But Olivia persevered and learned that she and Essie had a lot more in common than she knew.

This was a fun story, and enjoyable to read. At the same time, it was inspirational, suggesting that one should be true to oneself, and not give up on dreams.

This is nonfiction, specifically 977.3, and was the November selection of the History Book Club, which is a joint venture between the McLean County History Museum and the Bloomington Public Library. While this book was close to 400 pages long, it was a surprisingly easy to read and engaging book, and I don’t think anyone should be intimidated by the page count.

Author Berg creates a vivid portrait of the hot, dry and windy conditions that had been ongoing since summer that helped make this fire so devastating. He also discussed a fire that had occurred the day prior to the onset of the big fire called the Red Flash, which no one ever hears about. That fire had been quite large and had so exhausted the men that much of the fire equipment was put away without making it ready to go again.

Berg also discussed the most likely cause of the fire that started on the night of Sunday, October 8th. 1871, which was probably the careless discarding of a cigarette. But Berg also explained how the urban myth, that Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern and started the fire, got started. Amazingly, the Leary’s home (not O’Leary as the myth would suggest) remained standing, though the barn and all its contents (the family’s livelihood) were destroyed. As Berg described the efforts to combat the fire, and its spread across the city, he also introduces the reader to real life characters, including Marshall Field, Civil War general Phil Sheridan, William Butler Ogden, Chicago Tribune owner Joseph Medill, and others less well known.

In the aftermath of the fire, Burke discussed how the Chicago elites wanted to control the money pouring in from other cities to aid in the city’s recovery. When Joseph Medill was elected mayor in November of 1871, one of his main platforms was to rebuild the city to be fireproof, mandating brick for all new residential construction. This effectively put replacement homes out of the financial reach of the poor and many immigrant families who had been homeowners before the fire. This ongoing conflict between the elite and the working class, and the city’s immigrant population is a fascinating part of the story.

Amazingly, another fire that occurred the very same day in Peshtigo Wisconsin killed up to 2,400 people and destroyed multiple communities while another fire called the great Michigan fire destroyed many acres of ground in that state. (Amazingly, the “official” death toll for the Chicago fire is only about 300 people.) And in an interesting coincidence, a major fire occurred in Urbana, Illinois at about the same time, October 9th, 1871, which destroyed a large part of the city and led to the creation of Urbana’s first fire department, though this latter fact was brought out in the discussion of the book rather than in the book itself.

Overall, this was a fascinating discussion of the destruction and rebirth of the city of Chicago, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in Illinois history.

This book is from the Amish Candy shop mystery series by this author. In it, Bailey King, formerly a chocolatier in New York City, has been working in Harvest, Ohio for some time now. She’s been helping her Amish grandmother and their store, Swissmen Sweets, ever since her beloved grandfather died. But Bailey is now ready to expand the operation and has started to build an actual candy factory to be known as Swissmen Candy Works. But she’s having problems with her contractor, Wade Farmer. Work has slowed to a standstill and Wade is demanding extra payments. Meanwhile, the factory construction is being filmed for a TV reality show. One day Bailey stopped by the factory (with film crew in tow) to check on the progress of the factory and ha a serious disagreement with Wade and fired him from the job. 

But the next day Wade is dead, found murdered in the unfinished candy factory. Since their disagreement was filmed, Bailey becomes an immediate suspect. Of course, Bailey wants to get out from under the cloud of suspicion, so she is motivated to help find the killer. When her cousin Charlotte’s dad is charged with the crime by the local sheriff, Bailey becomes even more determined to find the killer. Even though his shotgun had been the murder weapon, Bailey is not convinced of Charlotte’s dad’s guilt, especially because the sheriff is no friend to the local Amish community. But she also needs to finish the factory before it becomes a financial liability she’ll never escape. With the aid of her boyfriend Aiden, the TV film crew, cousin Charlotte and Jethro the pig, the murderer will surely be found.

This was a fun story, perfect for gardening breaks with an amusing cast of characters.