Book Review: "Meet Me in Paris" by Kristin Harmel

C’est magnifique!! I had a feeling when I picked up this book that it would leave me all kinds of emotional, but wow! This was sappy and beautiful and moving and just excellent.

“It’s in our nature as human beings to search for logical explanations for everything, but sometimes, all we need to do is find space in the quiet to listen to what our hearts are telling us.”

Julia has returned to Paris after nearly 30 years, bringing her daughter, Piper. Julia is dying, and wants this trip to be full of memories her daughter can cherish. Piper meets a handsome waiter and Julia surprises herself by falling for an American man, but how can she tell him she’s dying?

Jackson, a singer, had the biggest song of the 1990s. He’s in Paris to kick off a tour he hopes will revive his career, but he’s not counting on love, too. Ninety-nine-year-old Henry wrote Jackson’s big hit, inspired by his love for a French woman during WWII. He thought she died during the war, but he was wrong—so he’s returned to Paris to see if, despite her dementia, she remembers him at all.

Lou and George became friends as soldiers in Vietnam, and are in Paris for a tour for veterans. But there are secrets both have kept from one another. Shelby is on a trip with her two best friends, supposedly celebrating her divorce. However, celebrating is the last thing she wants to do, and when she meets Russ, a bar owner, she finally starts to see the woman she knows she is.

These stories, as well as a few others, unwind over several days. Kristin Harmel said she was inspired by Love Actually, so that was more than enough incentive for me! I was fully engaged in all of the stories, and just wish Lou and George’s story got as much page time. But this was such an amazing book.

Book Review: "Happier Here with You" by Amy Gail Hansen

This book was an unexpected surprise! I selected this as one of my Amazon First Reads for June. I really loved it and hope more people find it!

Maggie is a food historian and director of a museum. She loves her job but it’s been hard recently, juggling work responsibilities with caring for her 5-year-old daughter Hannah. She doesn’t have time to spend cooking or relaxing, and as a widowed mother, she feels horrible about it.

One day, she gets a letter from her great-aunt Alice, inviting her and Hannah to visit her farm in Wisconsin. Maggie barely remembers Alice—for some reason she never visited through the years. But little by little she starts to remember the time she spent with Alice when she was very young, and how much she enjoyed the farm.

When she and Hannah arrive at the farm, it’s as if no time had passed for Maggie and Alice. Having the time to slow down and bake together and catch up relaxes Maggie and helps her recapture her love of cooking. And then she meets Brady, a handsome local chef, who reawakens her heart.

When Maggie offers to organize Alice’s box of family recipes, she makes a startling discovery. Apparently before Alice inherited the farm, it played an important role in history—and finding the details could open the door to a whole new chapter of their lives.

This book combines found family, food history and recipes, romance, and historical fiction. I loved the town where the book was set and found the characters really enjoyable.

Book Review: "The Safekeep" by Yael Van der Wouden

“She belonged to the house in the sense that she had nothing else, no other life than the house, but the house, by itself, did not belong to her.”

I’ve wanted to read this book since it was published in 2024. I could’ve sworn I bought it but never could seem to find it. Until I discovered the book on the floor of my car’s backseat—I guess it must’ve fallen out of a bookstore bag!

In the summer of 1961, in the sleepy Dutch province of Overijssel, people have finally moved beyond WWII. Isabel lives alone in her late mother’s country house, and serves as its caretaker, but it will eventually go to her older brother Louis when he decides he wants it.

Isabel is a woman who strictly adheres to routine and discipline. Appearances matter to her, and although she rarely sees anyone other than her timid young maid, she believes she is doing exactly what she is supposed to. But when Louis introduces his new girlfriend, Eva, to the family, Isabel takes an immediate and visceral dislike to the woman.

These feelings are exacerbated when Louis has to travel for business and he asks if Eva can stay with Isabel for a month. Eva tries to befriend Isabel, strikes up conversations, tries to help, but Isabel cannot spend an extra moment in her presence. Until one night, when Eva cuts through Isabel’s icy reserve and they begin a passionate relationship.

This is a gorgeously written book. None of the characters—especially Isabel—is particularly appealing but I couldn’t help but be drawn into this story. It’s beautiful, frustrating, emotional, and memorable, and you need to let it unfold for you. One of the most remarkable debut novels I’ve read in some time.

Book Review: "The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl" by Bart Yates

Isaac is 96 years old, a historian and journalist, who is writing his memoir. But how do you summarize a life? He decides to focus on 12 different days throughout his life, days which truly had an impact.

Isaac’s story begins in Utah in 1926, when eight-year-old Isaac and his twin sister Agnes are trapped in an avalanche. From that point on, the book focuses on a specific day every eight years. Sometimes the circumstances are dramatic, like when Isaac is aboard a warship during WWII, and sometimes they’re simpler and more joyous.

While some people appear in one vignette only to never be heard from again, the core characters are Isaac, Agnes, and Isaac’s best friend, Bo. Aggie is the fiery, opinionated one, who cares fiercely for her brother, and Bo is truly affable and loyal to both Dahl siblings.

“…few things on earth are more frightening than the possibility of love.”

I enjoyed how the story was told but at times it felt very Forrest Gump-like, with Isaac popping up at different points in history. And while I’ve always been a fan of Bart Yates’ writing, some of the events chronicled seemed very overdone, like the Dust Bowl and the Civil Rights Movement.

This was our book club pick for October. Some people were conflicted, some really found the book moving. I fell somewhere in the middle, although there were places that made me feel real emotion.

Book Review: "Mrs. Nash's Ashes" by Sarah Adler

This was so lovely and heartwarming! And funny story: I was reading this while on a work trip last year and I proceeded to leave my book in the seat pocket of my first flight, only to discover I lost it shortly before getting on my next flight. I was rather unhappy, but bought a new book, and finally restarted this one!! (It was well worth the wait.)

Millie recently lost her elderly best friend and roommate, Mrs. Nash. But before she died, she told Millie all about the great love of her life. Not her husband, but Elsie, a woman she met when they were both stationed in Florida during WWII. Millie was so taken by her friend’s story that she vowed to find out what happened to Elsie. And that’s why she’s heading to a nursing home with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s ashes in a baggie.

Frantic to get to Florida before Elsie passes away, Millie finds herself caught in travel hell when all flights are grounded. Somehow she wears down the resistance of Hollis, a handsome but aloof writer who was in her ex’s graduate program. Hollis thinks Millie is a little loopy and naive, but he worries about her safety, so he invites her to drive down to Florida with him.

Hollis can’t believe the trouble Millie is going to, and he keeps telling her he doesn’t think it will end well. But truthfully, Hollis doesn’t believe in love or happy-ever-afters, while Millie does with her whole heart, even though she’s been hurt before. And although they experience one disaster or roadblock after another, the more time they spend together, the more Millie realizes Hollis is rooting for her journey to succeed.

With dual timelines, hilarious banter, fun supporting characters, and some super-steamy steam, this is a celebration of love and finding someone who will bring out the best in you. Just loved it!!

Book Review: "The Excitements" by CJ Wray

This book was such a fun romp, with some incredibly memorable and endearing characters!

Josephine and Penny Williamson are two sisters in their late 90s. They’re two of Britain’s most revered female veterans of World War II, having served their country as members of the Women’s Royal Navy and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. But while they’d have every right to rest on their laurels at this point in their lives, both sisters are still hungry for adventure, for the “excitements” that make everything more interesting.

Archie, their beloved great-nephew, is truly devoted to Josephine and Penny. He’s always been fascinated by the stories they’ve told him over the years of their involvement in the war, and he’s so proud of every accolade they receive. And when they’re chosen to receive the Légion d’honneur for their part in the liberation of France, he’s the one to arrange and accompany their trip to Paris.

But while Archie’s great-aunts appear to be slowing down a bit, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Their return to Paris reawakens memories of the actual things they were up to during and after the war, things that might be hard to believe. And while there are secrets and regrets to deal with, Penny definitely has some plans up her sleeve for one last heist.

All too often older characters are portrayed as curmudgeonly or only capable of doling out advice, so these ass-kicking, Morse code-using nonagenarians were absolutely a hoot. The narrative shifts between past and present, and is funny, moving, and just so entertaining.

Book Review: "The Jeweler of Stolen Dreams" by M.J. Rose

Powerful and magical. M.J. Rose has done it again!

This dual-timeline novel is focused on French jeweler Suzanne Belperron. In 1942, she was ahead of her time in terms of her jewelry creations, with color and form, and she counted heiresses and royalty among her customers.

But while Belperron was world-renowned for her jewelry, perhaps her greatest contribution to society was secretly getting countless Jewish families out of France since WWII began. As the Nazis draw closer to discovering her secret, the risks increase, until the unthinkable happens.

In 1986, Violine is an appraiser for an auction house who is asked to visit the home of a political candidate and son of a former Senator. He has inherited a house full of valuable items that he’d like Violine to appraise.

She’s wowed by everything, but feels particularly drawn to a vintage trunk. Since childhood, Violine has had the ability to determine the provenance of an object and feel the secrets of its owners. What she discovers inside the trunk, a secret cache of precious jewels, awakens nightmarish visions. What are they, and to whom did they belong?

The lives of Suzanne and Violine intertwine as she tries to find out more about the jewels. But what will her discoveries mean, not only to history, but to her own life?

I don’t read much historical fiction, particularly set during WW2, but I always make an exception for M.J. Rose. I’m so grateful to Get Red PR Books and Blue Box Press for inviting me on the tour for this book.

Book Review: "Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks" by Giovanni Ruscitti

This was a moving memoir about discovering one’s heritage.⁣

Did your parents or grandparents ever tell you stories about your family’s history? Giovanni Ruscitti used to hear stories of his parents and grandparents’ life during World War II in Cansano, Italy. Cansano was invaded by the Nazis and the town’s residents had two choices: stay and get killed, or flee.

Following the war, the town was destroyed. Ruscitti’s parents and grandparents immigrated to a small town in Colorado in the 1950s and 1960s. But in 2013, he traveled to Cansano for the first time with his parents, along with his wife and a few of his children. His eyes were opened as the stories of his heritage came to life in front of them.

This was a tremendously moving and beautiful account. I’ll admit that as a third-generation American I lack the connection to my heritage that Ruscitti has, so that enhanced my enjoyment of this story.

Thanks so much to Get Red PR Books for inviting me on the tour and providing a complimentary copy of the book!! Grateful to Giovanni Ruscitti for sharing his and his family’s story.