The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman

 

My thoughts

This book is so good. So touching and informative. The author researched it well and added in personal aspects that are in the "author's notes." It's a love story and so so much more. It's about a woman's struggle to be accepted as a pharmacist. In a time when women were expected to stay home and have babies. To keep house. Men just weren't ready to accept that their wives would want a job. 

There is also the healing/magical aspects to this story. As a female the main character, Augusta, was influenced by her aunt. After Augusta's mother died from diabetes her father brought in Esther to help him take care of his two daughters. Esther taught Augusta, whom she called Goldie, how to make potions that could cure or help in so many ailments. Esther came from Russia and learned these things from her mother. She was not accepted as a healer in her country either. Females were just not meant to help.... Right!

Augusta fell in love with a young man, Irving, but things just kept getting in the way. In his way that is. He wanted nothing more than to marry Augusta and have a long happy life together. Things were not going as expected. Then the unforgivable happened.

Sixty years go by and Augusta is on the brink of turning eighty. She's moved to a retirement facility and there she and Irving are once again reunited. She's filled with a lot of anger and he with a lot of hope. At least for a while. The two have such a past that it is apparent to the other residence that at least one is in love with the other. 

You read about each character and how things happened the way they did and why. I loved Irving and Augusta. Augusta is very strong willed and angry at Irving but with good reason. She does share some of the blame for things though. She was told by her aunt not to do what she did. 

This book is absolutely adorable. It told from back in the twenties and in the eighties. You learn everything about what happened before Augusta and Irving are finally back together. Face to face and possibly finding a new way to work things out. Even in their golden years could they possibly find love. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #StMartinsPress, #MacMillan, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this story.

Five big stars. 

About

It's never too late for new beginnings.

On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs—an active senior community in southern Florida—she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father’s old pharmacy—and the man who broke her heart sixty years earlier.

As a teenager growing up in 1920’s Brooklyn, Augusta’s role model was her father, Solomon Stern, the trusted owner of the local pharmacy and the neighborhood expert on every ailment. But when Augusta’s mother dies and Great Aunt Esther moves in, Augusta can’t help but be drawn to Esther’s curious methods. As a healer herself, Esther offers Solomon’s customers her own advice—unconventional remedies ranging from homemade chicken soup to a mysterious array of powders and potions.

As Augusta prepares for pharmacy college, she is torn between loyalty to her father and fascination with her great aunt, all while navigating a budding but complicated relationship with Irving. Desperate for clarity, she impulsively uses Esther’s most potent elixir with disastrous consequences. Disillusioned and alone, Augusta vows to reject Esther’s enchantments forever.

Sixty years later, confronted with Irving, Augusta is still haunted by the mistakes of her past. What happened all those years ago and how did her plan go so spectacularly wrong? Did Irving ever truly love her or was he simply playing a part? And can Augusta reclaim the magic of her youth before it’s too late?

The Fabled Earth by Kimberly Brock

 My thoughts

This is my first book by Kimberly Brock. I almost didn't read/listen to it. I'm so very happy that I did. It was so good. A bit of magic mixed in with history. Descriptions that took my breath away. This book had so many feelings. It kept me turning the pages. Even a couple of things that I was afraid would not be cleared up certainly were. In the best way.

This is about three women. More but mostly three. Cleo, Audrey, and Frances. A few secondary characters that you will love. Maybe a couple you won't like but they may grow on you. But the story is about a town and a small island. About things that happened in the past that shaped how the future of the town would be. Back when people were discriminated against for the color of their skin and ethnic makeup. Be it Black or Indian. 

You learn a lot about each women throughout. Each chapter is told from or about each one with Fables written in at times to keep you knowing what happened back when Cleo was young and had first come to the island. The friendships that some made. How the boys/men pretty much did what they wanted. They didn't have many cares. They drank and pretended to hunt. Had parties and bonfires. You get to know a few of the boys better.

The magic of the water. The tunnels that run under some buildings. The library. And the theatre. I loved reading about these things. It makes you feel like you are right there. The boarding house and the boy named Jimmy. I adored him. 

This book is well researched. I listened to that Author's notes at the end of the audio and it was very interesting. I think she did a great job with this book. It's a wonderful story. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #HarperCollinsFocus, #HarperMuse, for this ARC. This is my true thoughts about this book.

Five big stars.

About

Inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island, The Fabled Earth is a sweeping story of family lore and the power of finding your own voice as Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide with a changing world.

1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year's party at Plum Orchard is a lively young men from some of America's finest families come to experience the area's hunting beside a local guide; a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week's end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined.

1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly thirty years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend - and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she's raised a ghost--someone who hasn't been seen since that fateful night in 1932.

As a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape and shifting tides reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect to illuminate the life-changing power of finding truth in a folktale.

The Fabled Earth :

Is great for book clubs with its included discussion questionsMakes a great gift for readers of Alice Hoffman, Kate Morton, Sarah Addison Allen, and Emelia HartNew York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger called Brock’s The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare, “Complex, compelling, and beautifully crafted.”

In The Garden Of Monsters by Crystal King

IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS

Author: Crystal King

ISBN: 9780778310570

Publication Date: September 24, 2024

Publisher: MIRA Books

Italy, 1948

Julia Lombardi is a mystery even to herself. The beautiful model can’t remember where she’s from, where she’s been or how she came to live in Rome. When she receives an offer to accompany celebrated eccentric artist Salvador Dalí to the Sacro Bosco—Italy’s Garden of Monsters—as his muse, she’s strangely compelled to accept. It could be a chance to unlock the truth about her past…

Shrouded in shadow, the garden full of giant statues that sometimes seem alive is far from welcoming. Still, from the moment of their arrival at the palazzo, Julia is inexplicably drawn to their darkly enigmatic host, Ignazio. He’s alluring yet terrifying—and he seems to know her.

Posing for Dalí as the goddess Persephone, Julia finds the work to be perplexing, particularly as Dalí descends deeper into his fanaticism. To him, she is Persephone, and he insists she must eat pomegranate seeds to rejoin her king.

Between Dalí’s fevered persistence, Ignazio’s uncanny familiarity and the agonizing whispered warnings that echo through the garden, Julia is soon on the verge of unraveling. And she begins to wonder if she’s truly the mythical queen of the Underworld…

Author Bio: 

Crystal King is the author of In The Garden of Monsters, The Chef’s Secret and Feast of Sorrow, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and was a Must Read for the MassBook Awards. She is an author, culinary enthusiast, and marketing expert, and has taught at multiple universities including Harvard Extension and Boston University. She resides in Boston. You can find her at crystalking.com. 

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Excerpt

Prologue

Bomarzo, Italy, 1547–1560

It took me years to find Giulia Farnese, but no time at all to win her confidence. I did so with an unassuming cherry rose tart. It had been nearly a hundred years since I last looked upon her face, but from the moment she pulled the golden tines of her fork away from her lips and she looked to me, not her husband, I knew my influence had taken hold.

“You truly are a maestro, Aidoneus,” she said, closing her eyes to savor the sweet, floral flavors. “And a welcome addition to our kitchen.”

“Madonna Farnese, you flatter me.” I gave the couple a polite bow, my gesture more fluid than human custom, and turned back to my earthly duties.

“It seems you will eat well when I am gone,” Vicino joked behind my back. “But don’t eat too well, my beauty, or you won’t fit into those lovely dresses.”

Giulia laughed, and my heart warmed. Oh, she would eat well, I vowed. Very well.

* * *

The next day, as Vicino Orsini gave his wife a peck on the cheek and vaulted onto his horse, I watched from the rooftop terrace, my gaze lingering on the horizon where earth met sky—a threshold I knew all too well. Then, with a flick of the reins, he led his men down the road into the valley. They were headed to Venezia to escort the Holy Roman Cardinal, Pietro Bembo, to Rome. Afterward, Vicino would depart for Napoli and Sicilia on business for Papa Pio IV.

Jupiter had blessed the region of Lazio with a warm spring, and a week after Vicino left, Giulia asked me if I wanted to take a walk. I suggested we explore the wood in the valley below the palazzo. She readily agreed, which did not surprise me. It was impossible for her to ignore the aphrodisiac qualities of my food, let alone the timbre of my voice, and the brush of my hand against hers. The first time she startled at my warmth— no human runs as hot as I—but she did not ask me to explain. In all the centuries past, she never has. This alone stoked the fire of hope within me.

She led me on a thin path through the verdant tapestry of the forest, where sunlight, diffusing through the emerald canopy, dappled the woodland floor with patches of gold. Beneath our feet, a carpet of fallen leaves, still rich with the scent of earth, crunched softly. We moved through clusters of ancient evergreen oaks, their gnarled limbs reaching out like weathered hands, and past groves of squat pomegranate trees with their ruby-hued fruits catching the sunlight and casting a warm, inviting glow.

Upon reaching a clearing surrounded by several large tufa stones jutting up through the grass and weeds, I was immediately drawn to one of the stones embedded in the hillside. The exposed side was round and flat, and it hummed, a song of the earth, a low vibration that warmed the deepest depths of me.

Giulia could not hear the humming, but she was surely aware of it in some hidden part of her, for she turned to me then.

“I love this wood,” she said, her arms outstretched toward the

stone. The early morning light brightened her features, making

her blue eyes shine.

“I can see why.”

She twined her hand in mine. “I come here often to bask in the feeling. The moment I arrived in Bomarzo, I felt like I had been called home, to my true home. And this wood, this is why. It re-minds me of a fairy tale, or a place from the ancient, heroic myths.” It was then that I had the idea. The stone—it hummed be-cause the veil to the Underworld was thin there. Perhaps…yes… if the wood was enhanced, and energy from the darkness was better able to pierce the surface into this realm I would no longer have to spend years attuning to Giulia when she reappeared in the world. Instead, she would be drawn closer, and I would

find her faster. It would work. I was sure of it.

“Vicino doesn’t like me walking here alone. Too many wolves and bears, he says.”

I could sense a wild boar in the far distance, but no wolves or bears. “I think we’re safe here.” I gestured toward one of the big misshapen rocks. “Sometimes I like to imagine rocks as mythical creatures. Like that one. It could be a dragon poised to fight off danger.”

“Ooo, I can see it. The big open mouth, ready to take on any wolf, or even a lion.” Her enthusiasm was exactly what I had hoped for.

I waved my arm toward the large, round, smooth rock be-hind it. “And that should be a great big orco, with a mouth wide open. And it eats up and spits out secrets.”

“An ogre that spits out secrets?” Giulia laughed.

“Oh yes. This orco would tell all. Ogni pensiero volo.” I made my hands look like a fluttering bird.

She wore a wide grin. “All thoughts fly! How perfect. But if he eats up secrets, there should be a table inside this orco. It could be his tongue.”

As we wandered through the wood, dreaming up new lives for the monstrous rocks left eons ago by a force of nature, I was delighted to see how invested she was in the game.

“There are so many stones,” she said, clapping her hands together. “We could make a whole park of statues. I will write Vicino tonight.”

I did not expect it would be quite so easy. Usually it took a long while to convince Giulia of the merit of my ideas. But the pull of the Underworld was strong here and my influence was far greater than it would have been in Paris, or some backwater hill town in the wilds of Bavaria or Transylvania.

On the walk back, she paused by another enormous stone that jutted out of the ground, the size of a giant. She leaned against it. “Can you keep a secret?” she asked coyly.

“Of course.”

“This secret is only for you.” She leaned forward and grasped the edge of my cloak, pulling me toward her. Our lips met and she melted into me.

In the years following, as Vicino began work on the garden, a change was palpable in the air. Each evening, as the twilight deepened, a subtle energy began to emanate from the heart of the valley. I found contentment not just in the evolving grove, but also in my closeness to Giulia. Our time together, so abundant and intimate, felt different. I had never waited so long to make my attempt, but I nurtured this earthly bond, knowing it was essential for the garden’s growth.

The day finally arrived when Vicino ushered Giulia into the heart of the Sacro Bosco—the Sacred Wood—the name he had fondly bestowed upon the garden. As she crossed the threshold, I sensed it—a strengthening of our connection, more profound than ever before. It was time.

That night, the chicken with pomegranate sauce I prepared was met with Giulia’s usual lavish praise, although I knew she took in the single pomegranate seed garnishing the dish as a courtesy, not a desire for the fruit. As she savored each bite, I felt a loosening in the ethereal shackles binding her heart. A vivid, red-hued hope blossomed within me.

Post dinner, I retreated to the palazzo’s highest balcony, my gaze drawn to a nascent light in the wood below. The light, though barely perceptible, was imbued with a power that seemed to bridge the realms of mortal and divine. A faint green luminescence that whispered of unwanted things to come. It pulsed like a languid heartbeat, beckoning to something—or someone.

I was immediately compelled to find Giulia. Amidst the soft murmur of the salon where she played with her children, I enveloped her in my senses and the flower of hope within me withered. Her heartbeat, steady and unsuspecting, echoed the rhythm of the garden’s glow.

Excerpted from In the Garden of Monsters by Crystal King © 2024 by Crystal King. Used with permission from MIRA/HarperCollins.

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There Are Rivers in the Sky Elif Shafak

 

My thoughts

What a book. This is a new to me author and this book is so hard to describe. It's definitely going to be at the top of my favorite books for this year. This is such a good one. One you won't want to put down and you definitely can not just skim through it and understand what is going on.(in case you do that)

This book is told from three timelines and about three people. In 1840 when a baby boy is born on the banks of the River Thames. Named King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums by his people. He is destine to do some very important things. Author has a memory like no other. He never forgets anything thus is considered a genius. He is obsessed with the sacred tablets that hold poems dating back centuries to Mesopotamia. He starts out with a job in a publishing house and eventually is dedicated to deciphering the sacred tablets in the museum. He travels to Mesopotamia to find the missing tablets. The rest of a poem. His story is sad and exciting. He is such a good young man. I loved this character.

Then in 2014 we meet 9 year old Narin. A Yazidi girl who lives with her grandmother. The Yazidi people are called devil worshippers and treated bad. As you learn more about this young girl your heart will be broken. The things that happened to these people. I had no idea. From ISIS taking them. Killing the men and boys and selling the girls to be used as sex slaves. The older women buried alive just to save on a bullet. You learn what happened in to Narin. 

Then you jump into 2018 and meet Zaleekhah, a young water scientist. She was raised by her uncle after the tragic deaths of her parents. Zaleekhah lives on a house boat. She is a very smart woman who has taken her life in her own hands and decided to live for herself. Though she does plan to end her life in one month. A lot will happen before that. She is separated from her husband of three years and her uncle really wants her to go back and try to make things work. Do whatever she has to to get things back the way they should be. But Zaleekhah has other plans. 

This all starts with a drop of water. A snowflake. A tear. How water plays a role in this story is told in a beautiful and heartbreaking way. What is happening in the world is the name of progress is sad. Buried cities. Buried people. Whole areas just wiped out. Yet in the midst of all of this you meet these three people and they give you a lot to think about. Or they did me. This book is just so good. Easy to read and easy to keep up with all that is going on. It's long but also a fairly quick read. One I highly recommend.

Thank you #NetGalley, #Knopf, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

FIVE huge stars.

About

From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two rivers, all under the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time. "Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf... you won't regret it." (Arundhati Roy)

In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives. 

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time. 

In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything. 

A Place To Hide by Ronald H. Balson

My thoughts

I've never read any of this author's books. I've also never read about Holland during WW2. This author did a great job of capturing my attention and holding it throughout this sad story. Based on actual events that happened during the Nazi's occupation of Holland and what happened to the Jewish people who had lived there peacefully up until this point.

There are a few major characters in this book: Theodore "Teddy" Hartigan, Karyn Sachnoff, Sara Rosenbaum, Julia Powers, and Saul and Deborah Rosenbaum. A few secondary characters. 

Teddy is telling this story to Karyn. He lived it and she is writing it for him. Teddy promised to help Karyn look for her sister Annie. Karyn and her sister were separated when the Nazi's started taking people. Some children were adopted by good and decent people and their names changed. Karyn and her sister Annie were among the adopted children. Teddy is a very old man of 92 living in an assisted living facility who wants his story told. His grandchildren and other people need to know what he did and what happened during the time he worked in Amsterdam in the US Consulate.

This story is set in 2002 Silver Spring, Maryland,  but the story being told is set back in 1938- and set in Holland. Teddy is telling this story. It is a setting that I've not read before and I've read quite a few historical books. While this is a fiction book it is based on actual events that happened during this time. You get to know Teddy and Sara. They become a couple. Sara is a Jewish woman. They met when Julia, a coworker of Teddy's, talks him into going out one New Years to celebrate. He had lost who he thought was the love of his life when he took the job. He is a U. S. citizen. 

This is a very emotional story in many places. A love story also. The love between Teddy and Sara. How they worked to help save Jews from being sent to camps. Rounded up and taken from their homes. And the children. Oh my what they did to these children. I haven't read about this part either. The Nazi's hated Jews so bad that they sent children to death camps because they were useless. Loud and cost to much to keep. The ones old enough to work were spared. Old people were sent to the death camps also. In this story you learn about a group that helped place many of these children in homes. They were adopted and saved from slaughter. They never saw their biological families again though. It was tough I'm sure on the parents and the children but they loved their babies enough to give them up. To let them live. 

Teddy tells a story here that will definitely make you weep in places. The love between he and Sara is so strong. The friendships they make are unforgettable. Teddy was a strong man who only wanted to help. Now he tells his story. 

This book is fiction but based on actual facts. Well researched and written. I'm so glad I read this one. I learned things and that is always good.

Thank you #NetGalley, #StMartinsPress, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

Five big stars.

About

From the winner of the National Jewish Book Award

Theodore “Teddy” Hartigan is the scion of a wealthy Washington, D.C. family who place him into a comfortable job at the State Department and a placid diplomat’s career. In 1938, as Hitler’s inexorable rise continues, Teddy is re-assigned to the US Consulate in Amsterdam to replace fleeing staff

Teddy’s job is to process visa applications, and by 1939, refugees from Nazi-conquered Poland, Austria, and other countries are desperate to secure safe passage to America. As Hitler sweeps through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Holland, the screws tighten and law after virulent law is passed to threaten the lives, indeed the very existence of the Jewish people. When Teddy and his girlfriend Sara are introduced to an orphaned young girl named Katy, who has been abandoned on the grounds of a nursery school, they agree to adopt her. Teddy comes to realize that he holds the key to saving lives, whether five, fifty, or five hundred—and makes the dangerous and selfless decision to join with underground groups and use his position at the Consulate to rescue those with no other avenue of escape.

Powerful and dramatic, National Jewish Book Award winner Ron Balson’s A Place to Hide explores the deeply-moving actions of an ordinary man who resolves, under perilous circumstances, to make a difference.

The Paris Daughter(The Lost Daughters, #5) by Soraya M. Lane

 

My thoughts

This has been one of the best series I have read. This is book 5 and it's even better than the last. Each was better and they are all so good. Very emotional books that keep you turning the pages until the very end.

This book takes place in the 1930s and in current times. It goes back and forth as you learn about each couple, or each woman. 

Evelina's story is told from back in the 30s. She lives with her parents and two younger sisters. Her parents have decided it is time for Evelina to get married but she has other plans. She wants to go to Paris. She makes designs for dresses and wants more than anything to get a job and make a lot of money. She goes through so much to get where she wants to get. Of course she is at the mercy of men and their telling her what she can and can't do. She met and fell deeply in love with Antoine. I did not like or trust him from the beginning. But she loved him. 

Blake has a box that contains what is suppose to be her great grandmother's gift left for her own daughter who she gave up for adoption many years ago. Blake's grandmother has been deceased for quite a few years but she wants to find out what the contents are exactly. She leaves London and travels to Paris to start a search. There she meets Henri. Henri is a pretty good guy. He helps her by introducing her to his mother who has connections that just might help Blake find what she's looking for. Of course there is a love connection and a heartbreak. But can love prevail? 

This was such a good book and a quick read for me. I didn't want to put it down. It's a very emotional story and very informative. It's well written. It has all you would want from a story and this series. From Blake being given the box to learning more about Hope who ran Hope's House for unwed mothers. I think Hope was great. I was happy to learn more about her in this story. 

I look forward to the next book. I wish it was already ready so I could devour it also. 

About

Paris, 1939: Gazing out at the glittering skyline, Evelina clutches the letter from her love in shaking hands. “I know I do not deserve you, my darling, but I pray that you will change your mind. You have my heart, and I hope that nothing will keep us apart…”

London, present day. Blake gazes down at a scrap of shimmering silver velvet attached to a faded dress design, tracing the details with wonder. They were left with her grandmother at Hope’s House, a home for unmarried mothers, before she was adopted. Now her beloved grandmother has passed, the beautiful fabric and the designer’s signature are the only clues Blake has about her biological family. Will she be able to unravel the decades-old family secret?

Blake can’t get the intricate drawing, and what it could reveal about her family, out of her head. Armed with a plane ticket, a Paris address and the details of a handsome fashion curator named Henri, Blake is determined to find out the truth about her talented great-grandmother Evelina’s life. Perhaps doing so will help Blake get her old spark for designing back, after her dreams have sat forgotten for so long.

Soon Blake is walking down the Champs-Élysées and enjoying intimate dinners with Henri, who is researching Evelina’s work as one of Paris’ most celebrated designers, whose bold designs rivalled Coco Chanel’s. As Henri and Blake grow closer, they uncover Evelina’s legacy, and her forbidden romance that set the fashion world ablaze.

As Blake discovers the impossible choice that caused Evelina to flee the most romantic city in the world, she wonders if she too could risk everything for love. Could hearing tales of her great-grandmother’s bravery encourage her to take a chance on a new life with Henri? Or will the fallout of Evelina’s heart-wrenching past drive Blake back home?

A completely addictive and emotional novel about family secrets, forbidden love and having the courage to follow your dreams. Perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore, Lucinda Riley and Victoria Hislop.

This novel can be enjoyed as a standalone.

Before We Were Us by Denise Hunter

 

My thoughts

I don't usually read Christian fiction or contemporary  romance. This was also a first one for me by this author. 

I enjoyed the book. It didn't wow me but it was good. Good enough to warrant a five star rating. I could not put less as I found nothing wrong with the book except that it was one I could put down and come back to multiple times. It's well written and all of the characters are likable. It did give me feelings and that is always a plus. I had sad and happy tears with this book. Sad when things went bad and so happy with the way it all worked out. This is a sweet story. A love story. A story with hope. Also amnesia... 

Lauren and Jonah have a beautiful story and how he presents that to her later was the best. They are so in love but only after a rocky start. Of course there is the rocky start. But when an accident befalls Lauren and she forgets things then it's not so great. She can't remember ever liking Jonah much less being in love with him. 

Can Jonah win Lauren's love back? Will she leave and stay gone? What is to happen between these two? It's a love story with a few ups and downs. Big moves and returns. Finding a lost soul along the way and maybe having a relationship with said lost person. I can't say more than that. I won't give anything away. That is where forgiveness comes in though. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #ThomasNelsonFiction for this arc.

Five stars.

About

She can’t remember. He can’t forget.

When Lauren Wentworth wakes up in the hospital after falling from a ladder, she has more questions than answers. Way more. She knows where she is—the wilds of New Hampshire. But she’s apparently lost the last four months of her life.  Is she really contemplating forfeiting her big-city dream job for a position at a rustic resort? And how did her number one nemesis become her adoring boyfriend?

Jonah Landry is crushed to learn Lauren has forgotten their entire summer together. Terrified of losing her for good, he determines to help her remember their deep connection as she finishes her obligation to the resort. But soon it becomes apparent Lauren doesn’t want to remember falling in love with him or rethinking the entire course of her career. She wants to pretend the summer never happened and move on with her life. Without him.

As Lauren falls back into the steady routines of resort work with Jonah, she’s relieved her memories haven’t returned and remains resolute about her big-city future. But as autumn leads into winter, she begins to see glimpses of the Jonah she’s forgotten. Will she be able to resist the steady love of this patient man? Or Is her heart destined for its own freefall?