Book Review- The Sweetness of Forgetting

I read The Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristin Harmel on my vacation in Hilton Head for a Gallery Books blog tour.

From Goodreads:

At thirty-six , Hope McKenna-Smith is no stranger to bad news. She lost her mother to cancer, her husband left her for a twenty-two year old, and her bank account is nearly depleted. Her own dreams of becoming a lawyer long gone, she’s running a failing family bakery on Cape Cod and raising a troubled preteen. Now, Hope’s beloved French-born grandmother Mamie, who wowed the Cape with her fabulous pastries for more than fifty years, is drifting away into a haze of Alzheimer’s. But in a rare moment of clarity, Mamie realizes that unless she tells Hope about the past, the secrets she has held on to for so many years will soon be lost forever. Tantalizingly, she reveals mysterious snippets of a tragic history in Paris. And then, arming her with a scrawled list of names, she sends Hope to France to uncover a seventy-year-old mystery.

Hope’s emotional journey takes her through the bakeries of Paris and three religious traditions, all guided by Mamie’s fairy tales and the sweet tastes of home. As Hope pieces together her family’s history, she finds horrific Holocaust stories mixed with powerful testimonies of her family’s will to survive in a world gone mad. And to reunite two lovers torn apart by terror, all she’ll need is a dash of courage, and the belief that God exists everywhere, even in cake. . . .

I have a couple of books by Kristin Harmel on my bookshelves but I've never read anything by her before.  If all of her books are as touching as this one was, then I can't wait to read them.

This was such an emotional book--both happy and sad.  I have always been drawn to Holocaust stories.  My grandfather was Jewish and while I was not raised in any religion, I have always found myself interested in this period in history.  I've done reports on the tragedy when I was in school and I've read tons of books on the subject- both fact and fiction.  So I knew right away that I wanted to read this book.  I've also always loved a good love story and this one was heartbreakingly beautiful.  So I pretty much devoured this book.  I couldn't put it down.

The background that Hope finds out about Mamie was just fascinating and engrossing.  I was just so drawn into her past life.  But then the current life of the three women, Mamie, Hope, and Annie, was just so real, in a sad way.  Yet the book was heartwarming at the same time.

It slightly reminded me of a Nicholas Sparks book but with a intriguing history to it.  This book was just what I needed right then and I adored it.

I gave this book a rating of 4.5/5.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2012 Reading Challenge 150+: 56
Completely Contemp Challenge 2012: 2012-14

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free Gallery and Pocket Book Blog Tours for an honest review.

Book Review- Happily Ever After

I finished reading Happily Ever After by Harriet Evans back in July for a Gallery Books blog tour.

From Goodreads:

At twenty-two, Eleanor Bee is sure about three things: she wants to move to London and become a literary superstar; she wants to be able to afford to buy a coffee and croissant every morning; and after seeing what divorce did to her parents—especially her mum—she doesn’t believe in happy endings. Elle moves to London. She gets a job at Bluebird Books, a charmingly old-fashioned publisher. She falls out of bars, wears too-short skirts, makes lots of mistakes, and feels like she’s learning nothing and everything at the same time. And then, out of the blue, she falls in love, and that’s when she realizes just how much growing up she has to do. Ten years on, Elle lives in New York, and you could say she has found success; certainly her life has changed in ways she could never have predicted. But no matter where you go and how much you try to run away, the past has a funny way of catching up with you. . . .

It took me a while to get into this book.  There was just something about Ella that annoyed me.  I could never really put my finger on what it was though.

But once Ella fell in love, I got more into it.  And when she got heartbroken, I could totally relate to her.  And I liked reading about how she grew through the years.

I also liked the "books" aspect of the story.  I found it interesting as I've always wondered if I should have been an editor.

I liked the ending.  Everything summed up nicely and its what I wanted to happen.

I gave this book a rating of 3/5.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2012 Reading Challenge 150+: 54
Completely Contemp Challenge 2012: 2012-12
2012 Mammoth Book Challenge: 4

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free Gallery and Pocket Book Blog Tours for an honest review.

Book Review- The Kitchen Daughter

I just finished reading The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry for a Gallery Books blog tour.

From Goodreads:

After the unexpected death of her parents, painfully shy and sheltered 26-year-old Ginny Selvaggio seeks comfort in cooking from family recipes. But the rich, peppery scent of her Nonna’s soup draws an unexpected visitor into the kitchen: the ghost of Nonna herself, dead for twenty years, who appears with a cryptic warning (“do no let her…”) before vanishing like steam from a cooling dish.

A haunted kitchen isn’t Ginny’s only challenge. Her domineering sister, Amanda, (aka “Demanda”) insists on selling their parents’ house, the only home Ginny has ever known. As she packs up her parents’ belongings, Ginny finds evidence of family secrets she isn’t sure how to unravel. She knows how to turn milk into cheese and cream into butter, but she doesn’t know why her mother hid a letter in the bedroom chimney, or the identity of the woman in her father’s photographs. The more she learns, the more she realizes the keys to these riddles lie with the dead, and there’s only one way to get answers: cook from dead people’s recipes, raise their ghosts, and ask them.
 
I really enjoyed reading this book.  I liked seeing life through the eyes of a young women with Asperger's.  Since I've had several students with Asperger's, this topic interests me and I love finding out more about it.  And I loved the food aspect of the book--the recipes and all the imagery that Ginny uses as a self-soother.  The words were so descriptive and flowing (and made me hungry and wish I could cook well!)  This was such a character-driven story, although there was one little surprise at the end.  I wouldn't say that it was a quick read, but it very easy to get absorbed into!
 
I gave this book a rating of 4/5.
 
This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2011 100+ Reading Challenge: 32
 
*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free Gallery and Pocket Book Blog Tours for an honest review.

Book Review- The Baby Planner

I just finished reading The Baby Planner by Josie Brown for a Gallery Book Tour.

From Goodreads:

The Nanny Diaries meets The Wedding Planner in this smart, dishy novel from the author of Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives—featuring a woman who runs San Francisco’s premier baby planning company and the mommies-to-be who seek out her services.

Katie Johnson may make her living consulting with new moms on the latest greatest baby gadgets no parent should be without, or which mommy meet-ups are the most socially desirable, or whether melon truly is the new black, but the success of her marriage to her husband, Alex, depends on controlling her own urges toward motherhood.

He's adamant that they stay childless. Sure, Katie understands that he's upset over the fact that his out-of-town ex-wife rarely lets him see their ten-year-old son, Peter. But living vicariously through her anxious clients and her twin sisters' precocious children only makes Katie resent his stance more deeply.

While helping a new client—Seth Harris, a high tech entrepreneur who must raise Sadie, his newborn daughter, as a single parent after the tragic death of his wife in childbirth—maneuver the bittersweet journey from mourning husband and reticent father to loving dad, Katie’s own ideals about love, marriage, and motherhood are put to the test as she learns ones very important lesson about family: How we nurture is the true nature of love.

At first, I dove into this book.  A baby planner job?  Maybe I should have gone that route!  I sympathized with Katie.  I wanted her to get pregnant and have a baby.  And from the very first page, I absolutely HATED Alex, Katie's husband.  I couldn't see what Katie saw in him at all.  How was he her "Mr. Right?"  They didn't have anything in common and he was always such a jerk to her.  Ugh.

But I loved how the new job grew.  And how Katie became so close with the women who were pregnant.  I was so absorbed in the book.  Until about two-thirds of the way in.  Then it just got too much for me.  Too much happened all at once, and while I definitely think that every good story needs a climax, there was too many in this book and it kind of turned me off.  And while Katie had every right to turn as bitter as she did, she didn't do it in a way that still had my sympathizing for her (if that makes any sense--I'm trying not to give it away).  And the ending just kind of...ended.  I don't feel that there was any real conclusion to one of the biggest issues.

Oh well, I liked that I learned about the baby planner job and still like the way that Josie Brown writes.

I gave this book a rating of 3.5/5.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2011 100+ Reading Challenge: 27

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free Gallery and Pocket Book Blog Tours for an honest review.

Book Review- The Love Goddess' Cooking School

I just finished reading The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melissa Senate for a Gallery Books blog tour.

From Goodreads:

Camilla's Cucinotta:
Italian Cooking Classes
Fresh take-home pastas and sauces daily
Benvenuti (Welcome!)

Holly Maguire's grandmother was the Love Goddess of Blue Crab Island, Maine–a Milanese fortune teller who could predict the right man for you, and whose Italian cooking was rumored to save marriages. Holly has been waiting years for her unlikely fortune: her true love will like sa cordula, an unappetizing old-world delicacy. But Holly can't make a decent marinara sauce, let alone sa cordula. Maybe that's why the man she hopes to marry breaks her heart. So when Holly inherits Camilla's Cucinotta, she's determined to forget about fortunes and love and become an Italian cooking teacher worthy of her grandmother's legacy.

But Holly's four students are seeking much more than how to make Camilla's chicken alla Milanese. Simon, a single father, hopes to cook his way back into his daughter's heart. Juliet, Holly's childhood friend, hides a painful secret. Tamara, a serial dater, can't find the love she longs for. And twelve-year-old Mia thinks learning to cook will stop her dad from marrying his phony lasagna-queen girlfriend.

As the class gathers each week, adding Camilla's essential ingredients of wishes and memories into every pot and pan, unexpected friendships and romances are formed–and tested. Especially when Holly falls hard for Liam . . . and learns a thing or two about finding her own recipe for happiness.
 
I've been reading so much YA lately (which I love) that I've forgotten how much I love a really good chick-lit book.  Thanks to Melissa Senate for reminding me.
 
The basic plot was the same as in most chick-lit books.  Girl gets heartbroken but gets over the guy, grows stronger, and finds a new love.  But I loved the characters in this one.  Especially Liam and Mia. 
 
Liam seems like such a great guy.  He's a great dad (which is so hot), is a gentleman, and romantic!  It doesn't seem like there are guys like that out there any more.  And Mia was such a fun twelve year old.  Sometimes tweens can seem annoying but Mia seemed more mature for her age.  A great kid!
 
And I loved all the cooking in the book.  I am not a good cook.  But I wish I was!  I liked the recipes at the end and I copied one down that didn't seem to hard so I could attempt to cook it later.  I look forward to seeing what Melissa Senate writes next!
 
I gave this book a rating of 4/5.
 
This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 141
 
*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free by Sarah from Gallery and Pocket Book Blog Tours for an honest review.