Five Winters: the twists and turns of life and the search for love and motherhood

Five Winters by Kitty Johnson is a story about motherhood, friendships and love. When she lost her parents in a car accident when she was 9, all Beth Bailey ever wanted was to get married and have a family. She always pictured her best friend’s older brother, Mark, as that guy. But now, she is 35 and she is witnessing Mark marry someone else. She realizes that her dream of marriage and a family can still happen, it will just have to be with a different guy. Over the next five years, she experiences unexpected twists and the highs and lows of life and love. Beth still clings to what she knows: family, friendship while learning the meaning of love, the truth about happiness and discovering that dreams sometimes take a different road than we expected. 

I was intrigued by the premise and the eye-catching cover of Five Winters. I also understood and related to the premise of watching your crush fall in love with someone else. However, from the get go, Beth was not relatable. She made odd decisions without much thought. She is passive aggressive at times and immature at others. I didn’t care for any of the supporting characters except Mark’s parents who truly loved and supported Beth like one of their own. The story itself seemed to be all over the place. Was it about finding love? Motherhood? Overall, it was a hard book to get through. I wanted to like this story, I really tried but it was a relief when it ended. It is sad to say that I do not recommend Five Winters. 

Five Winters is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook

The Women: one woman's story in a war the country wanted to forget

The Women by Kristin Hannah is one woman’s story as she goes to war and must fight to have her and other women’s contributions in the war recognized. Twenty year old Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a nursing student who wants to make her family proud. So proud to be worthy of the heroes wall which serves as a memorial to the war heroes in the McGrath family. Someone tells her that even women can be heroes which brings a revelation, she will take her nursing skills to the war effort. She joins the Army Nurse Corps and she is not prepared for what she will encounter. With the help of her fellow nurses, Ethel and Barb, Frankie sees firsthand the chaos and destruction of war, the gamble of life and death. Little does she know that the war is just beginning as she heads home and finds a country even more divided, angry protesters as her contributions are essentially forgotten. 

I have loved Kristin Hannah’s stories since I first picked up Firefly Lane (2008). The Women is a hard hitting, gut wrenching, emotional story that shines a light on the women who put their lives on the line to serve their country only to have their country deny they were even there. It is a story of friendships and courage under fire. Part 1 focuses on the war itself as Frankie is not prepared for the carnage. It is emotional and heartbreaking, filled with moments of gasps and plenty of tears. Part 2 focuses on her return home and her struggles to return to civilian life. I was shocked to learn that for the longest time, no one knew or no one would acknowledge that women served in Vietnam. It pains me to know that the male veterans were vilified and yet the women were ignored and forgotten. Overall, The Women is another amazing story from Kristin Hannah. I highly, highly recommend it. 

The Women is available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook

The Restarting Point: friendships, adventures and starting over

The Restarting Point by Marci Bolden is the first book in her new Chammont Point series. Jade Kelly is an accomplished woman. As a wife, mother of 2 and successful marketing executive, she can now add cancer survivor to her life. While everything seems great in appearances, she realizes that she and her family need to reconnect after the stress of her treatments left Jade and her husband, Nick, basically housemates and her children are almost strangers. Jade is determined to start over, to start fresh with her new chance at life. She schedules a family vacation at a lakefront carbon. When her kids bail and Nick stays home to handle a work crisis, Jade heads to Chammont Point alone. Her vacation turns into a life-altering moment as secrets, lies and old wounds open new adventures and new relationships for Jade. With the help of family and her new found friends, Jade learns that starting over isn’t always what you thought it would be. 

The Restarting Point is my first Marci Bolden book, although I have two of her books from the Life Without Water series on my To-Be-Read list. It is a great story with plenty of drama and humor. Jade was a hard character to care for as she is very blunt and rough, almost that there is no softness to her. I felt for her as she faced certain death and survived, only to be dealt a devastating blow. However, she is surrounded by a wonderful cast of colorful characters that start to soften her rough edges, especially the flashy and outgoing Darby and the flirty Liam Cunningham. She begins to see where she sacrificed too much and the price she paid for those sacrifices. Overall, I enjoyed The Restarting Point and I am looking forward to reading more in the Chammont Point series to find out what new adventures the residents of Chammont Point can get into. I recommend The Restarting Point. 

The Restarting Point is available in paperback and eBook. 

Grown Ups: a millennial Bridget Jones's Diary

Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth is the story of Jenny McLaine who is dealing with a break up and essentially having a breakdown. Jenny’s life is falling apart, her friendships are losing stream, and she lost her job as a columnist at a feminist online magazine. She is a woman obsessed with social media. She constantly checks the likes on her posts, during work meetings, during every possible moment even during sex. As she deals with her ex and his new girlfriend, she must deal with her mother is moving in. After leaving home at eighteen to be a self-sufficient millennial but now as a woman in her thirties, adulthood isn’t all what she thought it would be. The story is told in a series of texts, emails, and social media messages, Jenny must decide how she will pickup the pieces and learn how to grow up. Will she have the strength or willpower to take such a leap?

Grown Ups was described as Fleabag, a British comedy series which ran for two seasons, meets Conservations with Friends, a 2017 book by Sally Rooney about the relationship between four people. While I have not seen the show or read the book, I was intrigued because Fleabag has received high praise. Unfortunately, Grown Ups was not what I thought it would be. I expected a humorous, gritty story about a woman who must deal with the life she has instead of the one she thought would have. It was boring. It wasn’t humorous at all and I couldn’t connect with Jenny at all. She was completely unrelatable and by the end I felt she hadn’t changed very much, if at all. Even though social media is a large part of everyone’s life now, the social media angle in books how has been overdone, in my opinion. Grown Ups is the millennial version of Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996). While it is not something I enjoyed, audiences who enjoy Fleabag may enjoy Grown Ups.

The Woman on the Orient Express: an adventure story featuring Agatha Christie

The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford is a story of Agatha Christie and her journey on the Orient Express and the adventure she has while in the exotic Middle East. Its 1928, she is still reeling from the fall out of her divorce from her husband, Archie, and her mysterious disappearance which she has no memory of. Her trip is in hopes to travel incognito and a fresh start. Along the way, she meets Katharine Keeling, a young woman who has worked as an archeologist who is traveling to join her fiancé, Leonard Woolley. One night, she saves a young woman who attempts suicide from the back of the train. The young woman turns out to be Ann “Nancy” Grandfield, wife of the Viscount Felix Nelson. The three women soon becomes friends as they journey on the train, visiting the sights along the way.  From Venice to Istanbul to Baghdad, the three women become friend, each with their own secret they are desperately trying to hide. Will their secrets be revealed? Will they be able to stop running from their past and build a new future?

The Women on the Orient Express is a great story about three women in a world which often didn’t appreciate their intelligence ot their very existence. At first, I thought the woman in the title referred to Agatha Christie but I soon realized that the woman could also refer to Katharine or Nancy as it is their story as much as Agatha’s. Ms. Christie really did travel the Orient Express and toured the dig sites of the Ur with the Woolleys. There she would meet her second husband. The book also gives the insight on the inspiration for the books that followed this journey. If you are a fan of Agatha Christie, even if you aren’t, I highly recommend The Woman on the Orient Express was an adventure story which will introduce Ms. Christie to you in ways you may have never seen her before.

The Woman on the Orient Express

is available on Amazon in paperback and on the Kindle

and

on Barnes and Noble in paperback and audiobook