MURDER AT HONEYCHURCH HALL (Hannah Dennison)

I'm not positive how I feel about this book, but I'm kind of looking forward to the next installment so I can decide if I plan to continue reading the series.  I found it to be a little bit cluttered at first, like a room that needed to be organized before you could really enjoy it, but the characters grew on me as the novel progressed. 

Kat Stanford and her widowed mother have plans to open an antique business together, or at least those are Kat's plans.  Known as Rapunzel (for her luxurious hair) to her fans, Kat is a popular television personality specializing in in antiques.  She has just quit her TV hosting  job to start their new venture.  She decides to drive to Devonshire to track down her mother, who has purchased a dilapidated carriage house on the grounds of  crumbling estate called Honeychurch Hall.  Kat is horrified at the horrible conditions at the cottage and decides to stay on to help out her mother, who claims that her recent injuries are the result of sabotage attempts by other people on the estate who want her cottage for themselves,  All of the estate people- family, faithful retainers, and visitors - are quirky and a little confusing.  Eventually there is a murder, which Kat gets involved in solving, and in the end Dennison ties all of the story lines together.  I wouldn't give it 5 stars, but Murder at Honeychurch Hall shows promise once you sort everyone out.  It will be interesting to see how things develop in the next installment!

THE LAST CAMELLIA (Sarah Jio)

Sarah Jio never ceases to delight me.  She has a special talent for interconnected past/future story lines and I couldn't put this one down.

The stories of Addison and Flora are set 70 years apart.  The two women have much in common: they share a love of botany, both have secrets that threaten to destroy their lives, and both are fascinated by Lady Anna Livingston, the late mistress of Livingston Manor, and the unanswered questions surrounding her mysterious death.

Flora, whose family bakery in the Bronx is on the verge of failing in 1940, agrees to travel to the English countryside to find the supposedly extinct Middlebury Pink camellia.  The international flower thief who hires her assures her that all she needs to do is identify the plant and for them so they can steal it, leaving Flora with enough money to provide financial security for her parents.  She doesn't plan on falling in love with the Livingston children or on the looming presence of World War II interfering with her plans.

In the year 2000, Addison, a garden designer, and her writer husband, Rex, head to England to spend the summer at his parents' newly purchased estate, Livingston Manor.  Rex is surprised at his wife's sudden agreement to leave her business after her protests that she is too busy to abandon her work for so long, but Addison has secrets that threaten her present happiness and leaving the country seems to be the best solution.  Desperate to hide the shame and horror of her unhappy childhood from her husband, Addison is shaken when she realizes that there is no easy escape from her past, even thousands of miles away from home.

Suspense, romance, intrigue, and history...this novel has it all.  It's one of those novels that you can't wait to get back to (if you are able to put it down)!  Jio is truly an exquisite writer and I look forward to reading the rest of her work.

THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF (Charlotte Williams)

I picked this novel up because I liked the look of the cover and the title.  It is a true modern-day gothic, complete with friendly psychopaths, relationships that aren't what they seem to be, and an old, old Welsh mansion set on a steep cliff overlooking the sea.

Handsome actor Gwydion Morgan consults psychotherapist Jessica Mayhew about his supposed button phobia, which he fears might interfere with his upcoming movie role.  It turns out that he also has a recurring nightmare that Jessica finds intriguing.  Jessica becomes WAY too involved with the Morgan family, believing that Gwydion's dream may have some connection to the untimely death of a young woman 20 years ago.  Because she has been recently betrayed by her now-contrite husband, Jessica throws herself into finding solutions for both Gwydion's problems and the mystery of the death of the family's au pair. She also finds herself attracted to the handsome, but fragile, young man.

This novel would make a great Lifetime thriller.  I really enjoyed the ending.  Williams has definite potential! 

A NANTUCKET CHRISTMAS (Nancy Thayer)

For some reason I was suddenly in the mood to start thinking about Christmas.  Thayer's A Nantucket Christmas has everything a reader could want to get them into a sort of schamltzy holiday mood, including an abandoned puppy (Snix), an older couple (Sebastion and Nicole) who have found love and contentment a second time around, a scheming daughter (Kennedy) who wants her parents to get back together, a self-involved ex-wife (Katya), and a little boy (Maddox) who just wants a dog to love.  Wrap this all up in wonderful images of Nantucket at the height of the holiday season and you have an irresistible little holiday book.  It is predictable, but who cares?  I could almost smell the Christmas tree while I was reading.  The novel is told from multiple points of view, including the 4-year-old boy's and the dog's.  Who knew that a human writer could have such insight into how a dog thinks?

One of the most memorable events in the novel is when Kennedy remarks to her mother that Maddox would like a dog but that it would be too much with the new baby, especially since Kennedy herself was allergic to animals.  Her mother's response is, "You are?"  Obviously Kennedy's mother used her supposed allergies as an excuse not to allow her to have daughter to have a pet.  Annoying!

This is a quick and enjoyable read, not too deep and there are no surprises, but it has charm and will definitely put you in a Christmas mood.

BIG LITTLE LIES (Liane Moriarty)

Moriarty's newest novel has gotten a lot of press, but I was a bit worried.  I love her books, but her last, The Husband's Secret, wasn't my favorite.  My fears were unfounded, though.  Moriarty has hit a home run with this one!  It's sort of a reverse mystery.  We know from the outset that someone has been murdered at the school's annual trivia night, but we don't know who, how, or why. Comments from "witnesses" and police are interspersed throughout the chapters, heightening both the humor and the suspense factor.

Single mother Jane moves to the close-knit Piriwee Peninsula community and enrolls her son, Ziggy, in the local kindergarten.  Jane is a loner, withdrawn and quiet, and she volunteers no information about the identity of Ziggy's father.  On kindergarten orientation day she meets stylish Madeline, mother of Chloe,  the type of  hyper-organized, energetic mother that both fascinates and frightens us. Maddie is infuriated and saddened that her teenage daughter has become close to ex-husband Nick, who abandoned her and their newborn daughter years ago, Now Nick and his wife Bonnie have a daughter in the same class as Maddie's younger daughter, Chloe. Completing the trio of mother-characters is strikingly beautiful Celeste, pampered wife of incredibly wealthy and impossibly handsome Perry, with whom she has rambunctious twin boys.  Celeste also has some secrets.

Moriarty is a wonderful writer, and this novel is unique.  With each chapter we learn more and wonder more about the death, which is referenced copiously throughout the novel.  The social network at the school is fascinating, with social climber. parents who bully, and more intrigue than anyone would ever expect from a class of kindergarten parents.  Each of the characters is interesting, some lovable and others entirely hateful.  Moriarty deftly explores the consequences of "big little lies."  You won't want to put it down!

I SEE YOU (Patricia MacDonald)

Imagine, as a normal, established, law-abiding citizen, suddenly being thrust into the impossible position of have to choose between (1) giving up everything you have worked for over he years to protect a loved one or (2) having your life and reputation, as well as the lives of your loved ones, irrevocably destroyed. Confronting the reality of dealing with a brilliant psychopath puts Hannah and Adam, comfortably middle-aged and doting on their adorable granddaughter, Sydney, in this terrible dilemma.

I don't want to say any more about the plot of this novel because words cannot express the suspense and desperation evoked by MacDonald in this novel. Suffice it to say that MacDonald is one of the best writers of psychological thrillers that I have ever read and if this is a genre that you enjoy you should be running to the library to check out this book.  You won't be able to put it down!

THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS (Theresa Caputo)

Not everyone believes in an afterlife and many scoff at the idea of mediums.  No matter what your ideas on the topic of spiritualism, you'll enjoy this memoir.  Theresa Caputo is personable and unapologetic about her gifts.  She shares herself with her readers in a very personal way, recounting her first experiences with "talking with dead people," her tormented, anxiety-ridden childhood teenage years,and  her acceptance and development of her psychic abilities.  She talks about being a wife and mother and about her friend and mentor Pat, who guided her in controlling and directing her encounters with "spirit."

By far the most interesting aspect of "There's More to Life Than This" is Caputo's discussion of the evolution of the soul and Heaven, which makes perfect sense to me in light of my Catholic beliefs.  She believes that our souls live multiple lives, basically moving closer to God with each incarnation.  Some people, the ones who seem to have it figured out, are "old souls" that are closer to perfection.  She suggests that we ask the spirits of those that we have lost to protect and watch over our loved ones and that we open ourselves to the small signs that they leave for us to let us know that they are around. One of the most profound (to me) ideas that she puts forth is that we each need to surround ourselves with positive energy, a sort of buffer of light to deflect negative energy and help us to be open to good things.  I for one found reading this book to be a powerful and uplifting experience.  It helped me to clarify some things.  I'm glad that I picked it up!

THE SUPREME MACARONI COMPANY (Adriana Trigiani)

I am a big fan of Adriana Trigiani, but I didn't LOVE this novel.  It was worth reading, but it was a little flat compared to some of her other novels.  It was almost as if Trigiani was relating a story (which, of course, she is) without engaging the reader with all of the little nuances and details that she usually provides.  It seems as if she skimmed over some major events when I would have preferred to immerse myself in the minutiae.  I wonder if she was under deadline to finish a beautiful story but just didn't have time to pay attention to the characters as much as she usually does?  I wanted more from Valentine.  I wanted to know more about her ambition and how her love for Gianluca really stacked up against her drive to create beautiful shoes, because it kind of seemed to me as if he, the world's ideal man (in my my humble opinion), got shortchanged in this whole marriage business.  He moved to New York from Tuscany (who really does that?) for Valentine's career, leaving his family and business behind, he played house-husband quite a bit, and generally held things together while Valentine did her thing, making time for him whenever she needed something.  The Supreme Macaroni Company is full of memorable characters and has a really interesting premise.  I really liked the story, but I wish it hadn't left me wanting more.