The Fixer-Upper by Mary Kay Andrews

The Fixer-Upper by Mary Kay Andrews  Publisher: HarperCollins, June 2009

The delightful New York Times bestselling author returns with a hilarious novel about one woman’s quest to redo an old house . . . and her life.

After her boss in a high-powered Washington public relations firm is caught in a political scandal, fledgling lobbyist Dempsey Jo Killebrew is left almost broke, unemployed, and homeless. Out of options, she reluctantly accepts her father’s offer to help refurbish Birdsong, the old family place he recently inherited in Guthrie, Georgia. All it will take, he tells her, is a little paint and some TLC to turn the fading Victorian mansion into a real-estate cash cow.

But, oh, is Dempsey in for a surprise when she arrives in Guthrie. “Bird Droppings” would more aptly describe the moldering Pepto Bismol-pink dump with duct-taped windows and a driveway full of junk. There’s also a murderously grumpy old lady, one of Dempsey’s distant relations, who has claimed squatter’s rights and isn’t moving out. Ever.

Furthermore, everyone in Guthrie seems to know Dempsey’s business, from a smooth-talking real-estate agent to a cute lawyer who owns the local newspaper. It wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the pesky FBI agents who show up on Dempsey’s doorstep, hoping to pry information about her ex-boss from her.

All Dempsey can do is roll up her sleeves and get to work. And before long, what started as a job of necessity somehow becomes a labor of love and, ultimately, a journey that takes her to a place she never expected–back home again.

Dempsey is in a mess of trouble at her job where she become entangle in a political scandal.  When all is lost she escapes to her father who gives her the job of restoring and flipping the house he has inherited.  While tackling this job, Dempsey discovers herself and grows to love the small town life.   This was a good read.  My rating: 3.5 stars

Courage of Fear by Barbara Boyer

Courage of Fear by Barbara Boyer is her debut novel illustrates how one person can show both courage and strength in their life.  Publisher: Ocean Moon Publishing, January 2009

Angela Hearly-Peterson had it all–a beautiful, adoring husband, a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, even a Pulitzer Prize for her bestselling inspirational memoir Wrestling With the Demons. Little does Angela know it’s all about to come crumbling down. Her husband Jackson–the beloved “moon to her sea”–has a secret gambling problem and has lost their entire fortune. In debt to Las Vegas casinos, he commits an almost unspeakable act that will send Angela’s life into a downward spiral. She flees the West Coast for her family compound on Nantucket, where she plans to end the miserable charade that her life has become. The island remains home to people who still love Angela and remember the little girl she used to be before fame and fortune struck. One man in particular has been waiting for her return. Leo, her unrequited high school boyfriend, still holds a torch for Angela and believes that they will end up together. Slowly, the motley group of islanders bands together to coax Angela back from the edge.

Oh man, I had to wait a couple of minutes before I can finish reading the last few pages.  This inspirational story bought flowing tears to my eyes and will capture your heart.  I really loved this story.  My rating: 5 stars

*new-to-me author

The Girl Most Likely To by Susan Donovan

The Girl Most Likely To… by Susan Donovan. Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, December 2008

Kat Cavanaugh was sixteen when she hitchhiked out of Persuasion, West Virginia and vowed never to return. Who could blame her? She’d just stumbled upon her father’s adulterous affair, found out she was pregnant, got dumped by her boyfriend, and kicked out of her house and school . . . all in a single afternoon. Twenty years have gone by and Kat’s back—gorgeous, rich, and looking for an apology from everyone who’d turned their backs on her. First on that list is Riley Bohland, the boy who broke her heart before she could tell him about the baby.

But Kat didn’t count on Riley having his own axe to grind, or that he’d be just as delicious as he was at sixteen. She also didn’t count on her heart opening at the sight of him. When their anger ignites a passion intense enough to burn through two decades of secrets and lies, Kat must question everything she thought she knew about her past. And what about her future? The only place to find the answers may be in Riley’s arms…

This is the story of Katherine Cavanaugh who left Persuasion, West Virginia, at sixteen, kicked out by her parents and boyfriend, alone and pregnant and vowed never to return.  She was taken in by a lovely woman who cared for her and her baby son.  Twenty years later, Kat returns to Persuasion with revenge on her mind only to discover that everything including the life of her son was built on lies.  Can the lies from the past give her the life she craves?   This was an enjoyable story. [3.5 stars – liked it]

*new-to-me author

Here Today, Gone to Maui by Carol Snow

Here Today, Gone to Maui by Carol Sno.  Publisher: Berkley (Penguin), January 2009

When Jane Shea’s boyfriend, Jimmy, invites her to spend a week at a swanky resort in Maui, she’s thrilled-of course-but nervous, too. She worries about missing their flight. She worries about losing her luggage. It never even occurs to her that she might misplace Jimmy.

But paradise has a way of attracting trouble, and Jane hasn’t even managed to learn the hula or paddle under a waterfall before Jimmy disappears. When the police suggest that Jimmy has drowned, Jane thinks things can’t get any worse-but her troubles have just begun. This is one vacation the guidebooks never prepared her for.

This is about Jane Shea and the trip to Maui that never was.  Jane worries a lot. She makes list. Things have to be organized for her life to be as planned.  When her boyfriend, Jimmy, invites her to spend a week in Maui, Jane worries that he’ll never show up, but he does and life as she planned it is okay until they land in Maui.  On a recent diving excursion, Jimmy disappears and Jane believes he has drowned. Once the police is alerted, the man that Jane thought she knew was a lie and we watch Jane struggle with the truth when it finally hit her and the clues she should have paid attention to.  I enjoyed this story and the mystery surrounding Jimmy and his comeuppance. I was very glad at the conclusion.  [3.5 stars – really liked it]

*new-to-me author

Life’s A Beach by Claire Cook

Life’s A Beach by Claire Cook. Publisher: Voice, May 2007

When Must Love Dogs was published, the Chicago Tribune called it “pitch-perfect” and the Washington Post declared, “Readers will hope that Claire Cook will be telling breezy summer stories from the South Shore of Massachusetts for seasons to come.” Luckily for her legions of fans, Cook returns with another sparkling romantic comedy that’s reminiscent of Must Love Dogs in all the right ways, but very much its own animal — about a relationship-challenged single woman, her quirky-to-put-it-mildly extended family, and the summer the shark movie came to town.

Life’s a bit of a beach these days for Ginger Walsh, who’s single at forty-one and living back home in the family FROG (Finished Room Over Garage). She’s hoping for a more fulfilling life as a sea glass artist, but instead is babysitting her sister’s kids and sharing overnights with Noah, her sexy artist boyfriend with commitment issues and a dog Ginger’s cat isn’t too crazy about. Geri, her BlackBerry-obsessed sister, is also nearly over the deep end about her pending fiftieth birthday (and might just drag Ginger with her). Toss in a dumpster-picking father, a Kama Sutra T-shirt-wearing mother, a movie crew come to town with a very cute gaffer, an on-again-off-again glassblower boyfriend, plus a couple of Red Hat realtors, and hilarity ensues. The perfect summer read, Life’s a Beach is a warm, witty, and wise look at what it takes to move forward at any stage in life.

This is about a woman’s struggles with what she wants out of life and the world around her.  Virginia Walsh is a 41-year old single woman who lives in the finished room over the garage of her parent’s house.  After a varied work experience, Ginger is presently a sea glass artist, babysitter to her sister’s kids and an on-again, off-again girlfriend to Noah, who is  a glassblower.  They both have issues and when her parents announce that they are selling their home, Ginger begins a journey that will ultimately give her satisfaction at where her life is going.  [4 stars – really liked it]

Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou

Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou. Publisher: Random House, September 2008

For a world of devoted readers, a much-awaited new volume of absorbing stories and inspirational wisdom from one of our best-loved writers.

Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou’s path to living well and living a life with meaning. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight.

Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that led Angelou to an exalted place in American letters and taught her lessons in compassion and fortitude: how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less religious mother, and grew to be an awkward, six-foot-tall teenager whose first experience of loveless sex paradoxically left her with her greatest gift, a son.

Whether she is recalling such lost friends as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a “lifelong endeavor,” or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice–Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family.

Like the rest of her remarkable work, Letter to My Daughter entertains and teaches; it is a book to cherish, savor, re-read, and share.

“I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native Americans and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you.”

–from Letter to My Daughter

This is a book of captivating narratives and inspirational wisdom that illustrates the road of her early life to the stage that she’s at now. [3 stars - liked it]

Summer Blowout by Claire Cook

Summer Blowout by Claire Cook.  Publisher: Voice, June 2008

Bella Shaughnessy is addicted to lipstick with names like My Chihuahua Bites and Kiss My Lips, an occupational hazard, since she works as a stylist and makeup artist for her family’s small chain of beauty salons in Marshbury, Massachusetts, along with her four half-brothers and -sisters. The owner is her father, Lucky Shaughnessy, a gregarious, three-times-divorced charmer with Donald Trump hair, who is obsessed with all things Italian and still carries a torch for his first wife, Bella’s mother. After Bella’s own marriage flames out spectacularly when her half-sister runs off with her husband, Bella decides she has seen enough of the damage love can do. She makes a vow: no more men.

Then Bella meets a cute entrepreneur at a college fair, and despite their bickering, they can’t seem to stay away from each other. He also gives her a brilliant business idea, one that just might allow her to share her makeup expertise with the world. A small, well-tressed dog finds her way into her life, and her heart, and she decides to chance that, too. When the whole clan heads to Atlanta for a big Southern wedding, sparks fly–in a summer blowout no one will ever forget.

This hilarious, rambunctious novel is pure Claire Cook: full of juicy conflict and unconditional love.

Bella Shaughnessy is swearing off men, especially now that her half-sister is dating her ex-husband.  Bella works as a stylist and makeup artist in the family’s beauty salon business.  Her life is not what she expected until she works a wedding party and their pet dog, Precious, is left in her care.  Bella become attached to Precious not willing to give her up by dying her fur and re-naming her Cannoli.  At a college fair, Bella meets Sean Ryan and from that moment on becomes a tug of war/will between the two whether they’ll be more than just friends.  I loved this book because you got to see the emotions of a strong-will woman who know what she wants, but don’t know how to ask for it and as I stated above, it’s a feel-good book.   I definitely plan to read other books by this author.  [4 stars - really liked it]

*new-to-me author

Everything Nice by Ellen Shanman

Everything Nice by Ellen Shanman. Publisher: Bantam Discovery, July 2008

In a smart, sexy, wickedly funny new novel, the acclaimed author of Right Before Your Eyes introduces an unforgettable and irresistibly real heroine: Michaela“Mike” Edwards, a woman who is forced to reinvent herself— and discovers that the biggest risk is not taking one at all….

Fiercely independent and seriously lacking in social graces, Mike Edwards doesn’t do sugar and spice. Instead she writes great copy and stays above the fray—until mishandled office politics get her unexpectedly fired. Suddenly the young ad hotshot finds herself doing the unimaginable: moving back in with her widowed father, hiding from her lecherous mentor, rethinking her entire career—and trying to unravel complex feelings for her best guy pal, an Aussie journalist named Gunther.

For Mike, a few wrenching twists of fate are leading to a job she never expected: teaching “life skills” to seventh-grade girls. But sometimes the best makeovers are the ones you never see coming. Because with a classroom full of kids who need her, a best friend who’s fast becoming something more, and a family she’s only just discovering, Mike has a few surprises in store…and she’s about to discover that going places in life doesn’t have to mean going it on your own.

This is about life changes and affirmations. Micheala (Mike) Edwards was raised by her father without a woman’s influence and it shows in everything she does and her actions are not very people-friendly.  Things change when everything in her life fall down and she has sunk so low that at age 31, she’s moved back home with her father who has found a new love and is finally moving on with his life.  With a new family Mike begins to learn that for her to really enjoy her life she has to change and step by step and day by day, Mike grows.  I found this to be an emotional story that I will read again.

*new-to-me author