"Just Fine with Caroline" Review

"Just Fine with Caroline"
by Annie England Noblin
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Release Date: Oct 11, 2016

Source: sent by publisher

My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Summary from goodreads.com:

From the author of Sit! Stay! Speak! comes a tender, terrific novel complete with long-buried secrets, a three-legged pot belly pig, and an irresistible dog—an unforgettable story about love, friendship, and community. Perfect for fans of Mary Kay Andrews and Mary Alice Monroe.

Caroline O’Connor never dreamed she’d be back home in Cold River, Missouri, the Ozark Mountain town where everyone is ‘up your business.’…they mean well as they drive you crazy. She thought she’d left town for good, but now she’s back, helping to care for her New York born mother—struck with Alzheimer’s, and prone to saying and doing anything—and her father, the beloved local doctor frustrated he can’t cure his own wife.

As for Caroline, she’s doing ‘just fine’ coping with her parents, her brazen cousin Ava Dawn’s marital disasters, her mostly-deaf dog…and with Noah Cranwell, far-flung relative of a local family mostly infamous for running moonshine, an ex-veteran who’s come to Cold River with troubles of his own.

Caroline believes she knows everything about Cold River and the people who live in its hills and hollers … but sometimes life’s greatest surprises happen closest to home.

My Review:

"Just Fine with Caroline" is the first book in the author's new Cold River series, set in a small town in the Ozarks. The small town setting and quirky characters are the main attraction in this story. The romance is there, but it's really all about those characters, relationships, and interactions that you can really only find in a small town.

I think a lot of people can identify with Caroline. She's a very likable character, and she really always tries to do the right thing for everyone she cares about. This includes her mother, who has Alzheimer's, her doctor father, her trouble-finding cousin, Ava Dawn, her childhood friend, Court, and her fur friend, Yara. Then comes Noah, the long lost grandson of one of the town's most notorious and mysterious citizens. Family secrets are unravelled as new relationships grow.

I loved the town and characters, but sometimes the story meandered off track a bit. I perfer a tighter story, but that's a matter of personal preference. The family mystery was a bit predictable from the start, it wasn't a shocking revelation at the end. There was an interesting sub-story about Caroline's fascination with prohibition era, I would have loved for that to have been developed even more to mirror the current story.

The author has an authentic small town, Southern voice, which I appreciate. Sometimes this type of voice can come off forced and fake, but Noblin's characters come across so natural. This made the story believable and highly readable at the same time.
 
Main Characters: 4/5
Supporting Characters: 5/5
Setting: 5/5
Romance: 3.5/5
Uniqueness: 3/5
Cover: 4/5
Writing: 5/5

Bottom Line:Overall, this is a nice read for fans of small town fiction. The story could have been fleshed out a bit more, but fans of quirky characteres and small town comraderie will not be disappointed.

disclosure: I received an E-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Disclosure: I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Spotlight: "The House at the End of Hope Street"

"The House at the End of Hope Street"
by Menna van Praag
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Source: received from publicist
Release Date: April 4, 2013

The following description is from goodreads.com:

From the author of the “real page-turner” (Seventeen) Such a Rush comes an unforgettable new drama that follows friends-turned-lovers as they navigate the passions, heartbreaks, and intrigue of country music fame.

Bailey wasn’t always a wild child and the black sheep of her family. She used to play fiddle and tour the music circuit with her sister, Julie, who sang and played guitar. That ended when country music execs swooped in and signed Julie to a solo deal. Never mind that Julie and Bailey were a duet, or that Bailey was their songwriter. The music scouts wanted only Julie, and their parents were content to sit by and let her fulfill her dreams while Bailey’s were hushed away.

Bailey has tried to numb the pain and disappointment over what could have been. And as Julie’s debut album is set to hit the charts, her parents get fed up with Bailey’s antics and ship her off to granddad’s house in Nashville. Playing fiddle in washed-up tribute groups at the mall, Bailey meets Sam, a handsome and oh-so-persuasive guitarist with his own band. He knows Bailey’s fiddle playing is just the thing his band needs to break into the industry. But this life has broken Bailey’s heart once before. She isn’t sure she’s ready to let Sam take her there again…

Author Bio (from the publicist)
Menna van Praag, author of The House at the End of Hope Street, is a freelance writer, journalist and Oxford graduate. She is also the author of Men, Money and Chocolate, an international success, already translated into twenty-six languages. She lives in Cambridge, England, with her husband and son.
For more information please visit http://www.mennavanpraag.com, and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publicist/publisher in exchange for a blog post.

"Brooklyn Story" Mini Review

"Brooklyn Story"
by Suzanne Corso

Publisher: Pocket
Release Date: Dec 28, 2010

Source: sent by publisher

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary from goodreads.com:

To me, some people lived in the real world and others lived Brooklyn. . . .It’s the summer of 1978, and Samantha Bonti is fifteen years old, half Jewish and half Italian, and hesitantly edging toward pure Brooklyn, even if her dreams of something more are bigger than the neighborhood girls’ teased hair. She lives in Bensonhurst with her mother, Joan, a woman abandoned and scarred in a ruinous marriage, poisoned with cynicism, and shackled by addictions; and with her Grandma Ruth, Samantha’s loudest and most opinionated source of encouragement. As flawed as they are, they are family.
Samantha’s best friend is Janice Caputo, a girl who understands, as well as Samantha does, this close-knit community of ancestors and traditions that stand like roadblocks, this insular overcrowded little world of controlling mobsters who mold their women like Jell-O; and of the wannabes, the charismatic young guys who are willing to engage in anything illegal to get a shot at playing with the big boys. Yet, Samantha has something Janice doesn’t—a desire to become a writer and to escape the destiny that is assumed for all of them in the outer reaches of Bensonhurst. And it’s to be had just across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Then comes Tony Kroon.
Older than Samantha, Tony is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, half-Sicilian, half-Dutch mobster wannabe. A Bensonhurst Adonis. Taken in by his adoring attention, and empathetic to Tony’s own struggles with identity, Samantha is falling in love, even when she’s warned never to ask imprudent questions of Tony’s life. Even when her family and friends warn her to stay away. Even when Samantha knows she’s too smart to fall this deep . . . but the last thing she wants is the first thing to happen. Unable to resist Tony’s seductive charms, Samantha soon finds herself swallowed up by dangerous circumstances that threaten to jeopardize more than her dreams. Grandma Ruth’s advice: Samantha had better write herself out this story and into a new one, fast.
Told from the adult perspective, this is a powerful, true-to-life novel of leaving the past to history and the future to fate—of restoring hope where there was none, and reaching for dreams in an inspiring promise of paradise called Manhattan.


My Mini Review:

Naive Brooklyn girl, Samantha, falls for a handsome guy and ends up moving too fast and finds herself in an abusive relationship. This isn't really the type of book I like to read, I'd recommend it to those who like a very raw, gritty read. The book doesn't gloss over any of the seedy details. Parts were very hard to read, some scenes really made me squirm.

There wasn't much else going on besides Samantha's relationship with Tony, which to be honest was quite a downer. This story was tough to read and I found myself cringing throughout the book, thinking "No, why is the poor girl doing this??" I just felt really bad for her and wanted to help her.

Main Characters: 3/5
Supporting Characters: 3/5
Setting: 3/5
Romance: 1/5
Uniqueness: 3/5
Cover: 3/5
Writing: 4/5


Bottom Line: This one just wasn't for me, it was way too gritty and uncomfortable.

 

"Holly's Inbox: Scandal In the City" Review

"Holly's Inbox: Scandal In the City"
by Holly Denham

Source: sent by Sourcebooks in exchange for honest review

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Review:

Holly doesn't have the job her parents expect her to have, she's a receptionist. Her love life is chugging along slowly with her boyfriend, Toby. She has a few office nemeses, but her friendships with Jason and Aisha keep her afloat. When she unexpectedly gets a promotion, even more backstabbing starts. And the worst thing is that Toby hasn't even noticed she has a new job!

The format of the book, being entirely told through emails, made the 525 pages fly by! I wouldn't have thought that a book with a so-called gimmick would be so emotional! I really think that instead of being gimmicky, the author used the format to cut right to the chase, no beating around the bush. You could tell how cold Toby was sometimes by his short, uninterested emails. You could feel the platonic love between Holly and her best friend, Jason. When Toby and Holly had troubled times, it was absolutely heartbreaking and so real to read her emails begging for him not to leave.

The first part of the book is mostly fun and light, then the real scandals come out and the book becomes totally unpredictable!

Main Characters: 4/5
Supporting Characters: 4/5
Setting: 3/5
Romance: 4/5
Uniqueness: 5/5
Cover: 4/5
Writing: 4/5


Bottom Line:This is such a fun read, the interesting concept makes it unique. It's definitely women's fiction with a lot of heart.

"Georgia's Kitchen" Review

"Georgia's Kitchen"
by Jenny Nelson

Source: sent by booksparkspr in exchange for honest review

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (or if you've read the book already- 3 Forks!!)

My Review:

Georgia Gray is a chef at one of the best restaurants in NYC and she's engaged to marry Glenn, an entertainment lawyer. But in a flash, everything goes down the drain. The playboy owner of the restaurant fires her after they get a bad review, even though it's his fault! Then her engagement gets broken off-all in the same day! She escapes to Italy, where she finds a new job as a chef, and a handsome new love interest, and maybe even finds herself.

This was a nice piece of women's fiction, nothing too terrible happens, but nothing too exciting happens, either. I think cooking fans would be love this, as well as those in the restaurant business. However, I was expecting more out of the romantic storylines, but both of her love interests fizzled fast!!

I like the message of empowerment the book gives to women and Georgia was very likable. She was strong but vulnerable at the same time. I really liked how she took a stand and didn't look the other way when she found out about the drug problem Glenn had been hiding from her.

There were a lot of secondary characters in the book, but I never really connected with any of them besides Georgia. The bulk of the novel was about the restaurant industry itself, which wasn't really my cup of tea.


Main Characters: 4/5
Supporting Characters: 3/5
Setting: 3/5
Romance: 2/5
Uniqueness: 3/5
Cover: 2/5
Writing: 4/5


Bottom Line: This book was a little slow and didn't have enough romance for me. I'd recommend it to cooking enthusiasts and those in the restaurant industry.