Hardscrabble by Sandra Dallas

After reading In Cold Blood and The Hazel Wood, I needed something a little lighter! Enter Sandra Dallas' Hardscrabble, a children's novel about homesteading in 1910 Colorado.  Sandra is one of my favorite authors, and her new adult novel, The Patchwork Bride, is due out in early June.  I simply can't wait!

Here's what I love about Sandra Dallas.  She writes about pioneers, homesteaders, and folks who lived hard lives in the settling of the West and Mid-West. Her main characters are always women, and they're women you would love to know. Strong, loyal, hardworking women who just want the best life they can manage--often times, at the end of a long, rough road.  

Hardscrabble is no different, but it's softened for a younger audience. It centers on the Martin family, who travel to Mingo, Colorado after their farm fails in Iowa.  Belle, her mother and six siblings meet her father at the train station, and soon approach their new home: a sod house.  It's a long way from the beautiful farmhouse they left in Iowa, but they're starting over on a homestead. Neighbors include Lizzie, a single woman living on her own claim, determined to prove up and have her own farm. Two characters from Dallas' adult novel The Diary of Mattie Spencer also live nearby, and I was happy to see them all these years later, thriving and enjoying the rewards of their hard work.  

The novel moves through nearly a year on the homestead, and of course life is not easy, and filled with bad weather, threats to crops, and tragedy. It's nothing we haven't read about in other novels set in the homesteading years of the United States, but Dallas writes from Belle's viewpoint, and that makes it all simply told, with a bit of sass and humor thrown in-just as a young girl would be today.  Certainly fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder will eat this one up.  

This was a quick read, but a lovely, quiet one. It helped reset my internal reading clock a bit.  If I read too many dark themed novels in a row, I get bummed out.  While not everything is smooth sailing for the Martin family, the obvious love in the family, the cheerful attitudes, and the strong presence of Beck Martin, their father, help keep things moving along and light even in sad times. Lizzie's presence as a strong woman on her own, fixing wagons, planting crops, baking, and raising chickens is a bright spot, and a glimpse at the changing world in 1910.  She doesn't want to get married and have to give up her homestead before it's proven to be hers, and she can own it free and clear. 

All in all, a delightful, quick read on one of my favorite subjects: pioneering.  

Rating:  4/6 for a sweet story about the Martin family starting all over again in Mingo, Colorado in 1910. Good times and bad make this a novel about sticking together, working through problems, and loving each other. 

Available in hardcover and ebook. 

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Hardscrabble by Sandra Dallas

The Great Christmas Knit-Off by Alexandra Brown

Christmas isn't Christmas to me without some deliciously fun novels where there's romance, holiday happenings, and quirky characters.  The Great Christmas Knit-Off by Alexandra Brown fits the bill perfectly, and I've found another author that I just can't get enough of--so much so that I'm going to dive into her backlist in January.  

This is a pretty simple story, set in a "too impossible to be real" village in England.  Sybil lives in London, and is still coping with her horrible fiasco of a wedding-that-didn't-happen months before.  A Star Wars themed wedding, Princess Leia buns, and no groom.  In fact, the groom ran off with Sybil's twin sister, Sasha.  Humiliated, Sybil is miserable and with Christmas coming, she's looking at a lonely day spent in her apartment with her dog, Basil.  

Sybil's friend Cher rings her and invites her to visit the little village of Tindledale for a long weekend.  Sybil takes Cher up on her offer, and through a series of mishaps, Sybil finds herself staying at the B&B in Tindledale with wine-stained clothing and stinky shoes.  But at her lowest, Sybil finds friends, and lucky for her, there's a haberdashery (knitting shop) nearby.  Sybil LOVES to knit, and is quite good at it.  It's what keeps her calm, and someday she wants to own her own shop and sell her knitted creations. 

Sybil falls in love with Tindledale and the people who come into her life.  Hettie owns the haberdashery, and she's in danger of being pushed out by her nephew, who wants the land to build ugly housing and ruin the quaintness of Tindledale. Can Hettie and Sybil find a way to work together and make both of their lives happier?  And can Sybil heal her broken heart?

Folks, I'm telling you this is the perfect Christmas story to read.  I had a smile on my face the whole time I was reading it!  Pure fun and escapism, and lucky for me, the first in a series set in Tindledale.  I can't tell you how happy that makes me.  Fans of knitting and crafting will certainly want to read it--although you'll have to put down your knitting needles.  Perfect for friends, Moms, and Grandmas.  A light comedy filled with characters you get to know and enjoy.

Rating:  8/10 for the pure enjoyment I got from this novel.  Fun and quirky, featuring a not so perfect main character with a lovable sidekick.  The village of Tindledale is a character that will be hard to forget.

Available in paperback and e-book.  

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The Great Christmas Knit-Off by Alexandra Brown

Love by the Book by Melissa Pimentel

I'm the midst of my last full semester of grad school, and while I fully embrace the knowledge that I will be stressed out, tired, and trying to finish all my assignments on time, I still have to accommodate my reading addiction.  

All of you out there who share my inability to get through a day without reading for at least an hour understand the absolute necessity of this! Luckily, I was asked to read and review a kicky book that will either make you never want to date again, or conduct your own experiment into the mysteries of dating and finding the love of your life.  

Love by the Book is a novel by Melissa Pimentel based on something she did while living in London in 2009:  buying dating how-to books and using their methods to actually meet and date men.  And that's just what Lauren Cunningham does, with a definite mixed result.  Lauren moves to London after a messy break-up (which you find out more about towards the end of the novel).  She finds a great roommate and a job at a museum.  She's just offered her stay-over sex dude Adrian some eggs for breakfast.  Because, as we all know, it's a nice thing to do and eggs are just eggs.  But Adrian freaks out, thinks she's asking for a commitment, and doesn't let the door hit him in the tushy on his way out.  

Lauren decides to read a dating guide each month for a year, and follow the rules in an attempt to discover A) just what works with men, and B) have lots of sex.  Lauren's escapades are sometimes partially successful, but most often leave her scratching her head and thinking twice about her "study".  And meanwhile, there's the  guy who runs the bookstore...who thinks she's an idiot for buying those books, and with whom she has great conversations about literature and life.  Could he be the one she's looking for?

Lauren is certainly a character, as well as her flatmate Lucy.  I will say this novel is Bridget Jones tossed in with Sex and the City.  There's plenty of booze, sexual encounters, and cigarettes.  It is a fun romp and an enjoyable read.  And what happens at the end of Lauren's journey?  Does she figure it out, or does she give up?  And what has she left behind at home?  

I will say the one thing that puzzled me about the book was her past relationship with Dylan.  It got a bit lost and I never really understood what exactly this relationship was until I was almost done with the novel.  It really could have been left out or explained pretty directly right up front.  I didn't think it had much to do with the novel as a whole but just provided a plot device for Lauren to move to London.   

Valentine's day is coming up!  For all those single ladies out there, spend February 14th pampering yourself, eating something good, and reading this book.  It's a fun look at love and dating in 2015.  

Rating:  7/10 for a clever use of dating "how-to" books put into practice.  Lauren's dating experiences go from so-so to disasters to not-so-bad, but all are fun to read about! 

Thanks to Penguin for a review copy!  

Available in paperback and ebook.  

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Love by the Book by Melissa Pimentel

Love and Lament by John Milliken Thompson

This novel got my attention because it's about a young woman growing up in the post-Civil War South and follows her life into  a new century and World War I.  I didn't realize quite how much I would connect with Mary Bet Hartsoe until the very end of the novel, when this very moving sentence had me reaching for the tissues:

"It would have to be enough, then, to know, as her father did, that grief lasts as long as memory, though the tissue of life grow around it like a wound protected from the world and shielded from the heart.  Grief and love are the only things that endure."

Oh Mary Bet, I understand completely.  She's a wonderful character:  honest, strong, and independent.  She comes from a family of 9 children, and as she reaches the age of 15, most of her siblings are dead.  I come from a family of 10 kids; a brother and a sister passed on years before I was even a thought; they've been gone since the 1950's--what seems like so long ago.  Only my oldest brother and sister remember Kim and Mark.  

Mary Bet  finds herself and her brother Siler the only remaining siblings; Siler is older and attends a school for the deaf 150 miles away.  He's always been extremely talented in fixing things up around their home; they have a way of using their hands to speak to each other--their own sign language.  He's a smart young man, but tormented by the idea that he may end up losing his mind like their father and grandfather.  Does grief affect their minds, or is it really mental illness?  How do you know?

Siler's decision to take a walk on railroad tracks one day haunts Mary Bet for years afterwards.  Why did he do that?  What was he thinking?  Did he deliberately not feel the train coming, or was he so lost in thoughts that he was caught off guard? Was it an impulsive decision, or long thought out?  She feels guilty, like she missed a sign from Siler.  When my sister Patti passed away last October, so suddenly, so heartbreaking,  with so many unanswered questions, I didn't think I would ever know peace about it.  And maybe I still don't--maybe that road is still unfolding, and the journey I need to take is not over.  I get Mary Bet.  I'm sorry if I spoiled a bit of the story for you, but Siler's  story so resonated with me that I had to share that with my readers.  It is a crucial turning point in the novel and connects you to Mary Bet's grief and love.

This novel came at a good time for me.  I don't think I could have read it a few months ago without putting it down and not returning to finish it.  It was at times painful to read--how does someone keep moving on with all that sorrow? I've never wanted to think about losing any of my siblings, but it did happen sooner than any of us expected.  While I have always held a spot in my heart for my brother and sister born and died so long ago, long before I was born, losing Patti was painful on a level I had never experienced before.  I do not want to experience that again.  I plan on all my brothers and sisters staying healthy and vital until we're each in our 90's.  

So.  I did love this novel.  It was a bit healing for me to read about Mary Bet, her family, and her life in North Carolina.  At the end, she is hopeful. And really, that is all we can ask for sometimes.  I would recommend this for anyone who loves to read about the South, young women finding their voices in the early 20th century, and a well written, sweetly sad story.

Rating:  7/10 for wonderful characters--especially Mary Bet and her father; a quick pace, and a peek into life as a single woman in the early 1900's.  

Available in paperback and e-book.

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Love and Lament by John Milliken Thompson