Women’s Fiction – Page 2 – Kav's Best Reads

The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady + Giveaway

Margaret, Rose, Jane, and Fran had a good thing meet every week in the quiet of their peaceful chapel and knit prayer shawls. No muss, just ministry. That is, until their pastor boots them out of the church in his last-ditch effort to revive the dwindling congregation.

Uptight Margaret isn’t having it. Knitting prayer shawls where people can watch is the most ridiculous idea she’s ever heard of, and she’s heard plenty. Prayer belongs in the church, not out among the heathen masses. How are they supposed to knit holiness into these shawls if they’re constantly distracted by the public? But with no choice, the others embrace the challenge. They pack their knitting bags and drag Margaret–grumbling the whole way–to the mall with them. She can’t wait to prove them all wrong when it fails miserably, and show the pastor that she always knows best.

Without the familiar mold the group has been stuck in, their own losses, pain, and struggles rise to the surface. And the people and situations they encounter every time they try to sit quietly and knit are taking them a lot further out of their comfort zone than they ever imagined. Can they find the courage to tackle the increasing number of knotty issues they learn about in the community–or will the tangle be too much to unravel?

Sharon Mondragon’s debut is warm and delightful, full of real laughter, grief, and personality. It beautifully illustrates the power of women across generations to reach people for Christ.

My Review:

published in 2021

This is a case of trusting a book recommendation even though the only thing you know about ‘The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady’ is that it has an odd title:-) Even though it’s not your usual type of read. No ticking genre and trope boxes or studiously examining every nuance of the synopsis first. Nope. Just a cautious reader fuelled by a bit of bibliophile bravery who went in blind! Gasp! That’s waaaayyy out of my comfort zone! All because a friend said: “Pssst, this is a good book. You should read it.” And, yowza! But am I ever glad I did!

Heartwarming and charming, but hard hitting too. A plot with a faith thread so significant that the whole story would unravel without it. Beautifully written, with such relatable characters! Ladies who could easily be sharing a pew with you at church on Sunday.

I love how this little group of prayer shawl knitters know next to nothing about each other even though they’ve been meeting together for years! Until their pastor shakes up their orderly little world and casts them out of the prayer chapel and into the community, encouraging them to (gasp) knit and pray in public!

Bwahahaha! Humour abounds, especially when it comes to Margaret’s jaded view of their new situation. Her acerbic tongue and blatantly forthright nature had me alternating between laughter and despair because we’ve all known a Margaret or two. Fran, Rose and Jane all have softer personalities which makes for a nice contrast and creates some interesting conflict.

But it’s when they start to meet people in their community that this story takes on a life of its own. A mix of humour and heartache all jumbled together as these four ladies interact with strangers. People who are in need of their unique gifts and talents, if only they have the courage to share.

So many moving stories woven together — especially as we learn about the personal challenges of each knitter. Their back stories intertwine with the lives of new friends and it’s easy to see God’s hand in it all. I reached the end with tears in my eyes and hope in my heart. What an exceptional debut novel!

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

This giveaway is for a print or ebook copy. Winner’s choice.

US – available in print or ebook — winner’s choice

Canada – available in print or ebook or audible (if available) — winner’s choice

International – ebook copy if you have a US Kindle account.

If you would like a chance to win a copy of The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady , leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you add an email to your comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it’s easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday February 17 2024.

Dysfunction Junction

When three women receive an unexpected phone call that leaves them reeling, they have no other choice but to reckon with a lifetime of memories they’ve long tried to bury. Only in facing the past will they find their path forward.

Frances Mae Livingston’s firm grip of her family’s destructive history makes her hold her husband and four children even closer. But she’s losing bits of herself while proving to everybody and her mama that she’s enough. There’s no way she’ll repeat her mama’s mistakes, even if it kills her.

Annabelle McMillan didn’t have trouble kicking the Eastern North Carolina dust off her feet. The tough part was replanting herself in familiar soil. Now she’s blending her old life with her new husband, stepson, and unborn child. And battling old memories of abandonment and new fears of rejection.

Dr. Charlotte Winters has built a career around helping others sort through their emotional baggage. She’s also spent a lifetime refusing to unpack her own. So what if Charlotte doesn’t recall all that her mama did to her and what her daddy didn’t do for her? Her only mission is to help others help themselves…until the women from her past and the man in her future undo her well-sewn life.

At the junction of healed and hurting, broken and whole, and past and present, three women wrestle with their inability to forgive and forget in this riveting Southern family drama about sisterhood from award-winning author Robin W. Pearson.

My Review:

I’m having a hard time finding words to express the impact this novel had on me. Maybe because I too am the product of a dysfunctional family. So there are some hard truths within these pages and I had to do some reckoning right along with Frankie, Annabelle and Charlotte. And oh, but my heart hurt for them…and for me. Therapeutic bibliotherapy at its best.

The story is told through three points of view as each sister marries memories from her past with the reality she is trying to make work in the present. The flashbacks are heartbreaking as all three are products of neglect and abuse. It colours the way each sister views life and love and even their own rocky relationship.

I had a favourite sister in the beginning, but my loyalty was no longer divided by the end. These women are survivors. Overcomerers filled with grace. Their journey is unimaginably hard and emotionally complex but it’s a redemption story worth reading.

I listened to the audio book expertly narrated by LaNecia Edmonds who did an amazing job giving each sister a distinctive voice. She really captured their personalities and brought an extra energy to the author’s vibrant storytelling. A great author/narrator pairing.

My thanks to the publisher, Dreamscape Media and Net Galley for providing me with an audio copy of Dysfunction Junction.

The Best Summer of Our Lives + Giveaway

Twenty years ago, the summer of ’77 was supposed to be the best summer of Summer Wilde’s life. She and her best friends, Spring, Autumn, and Snow–the Four Seasons–had big plans.

But those plans never had a chance. After a teenage prank gone awry, the Seasons found themselves on a bus to Tumbleweed, “Nowhere,” Oklahoma, to spend eight weeks as camp counselors. All four of them arrived with hidden secrets and buried fears, and the events that unfolded in those two months forever altered their friendships, their lives, and their futures.

Now, thirtysomething, Summer is at a crossroads. When her latest girl band leaves her in a motel outside Tulsa, she is forced to face the shadows of her past. Returning to the place where everything changed, she soon learns Tumbleweed is more than a town she never wanted to see again. It’s a place for healing, for reconciling the past with the present, and for finally listening to love’s voice.

My Review:

A dual timeline multi-layered coming-of-age story steeped in secrets and drama.

While technically there is a historical timeline and a contemporary one, the actual years are 1977 (when the girls are eighteen) and then twenty years later in 1997. (It makes me feel so old to have been alive in what is considered a historical era now!)

The greater portion of the story takes place in 1977, when the girls were camp counsellors during what was supposed to be the ‘best summer of their lives.’ It didn’t quite turn out that way and this is where I admit that the amount of teenage drama was just a bit much for me.

It’s a milestone summer for these four friends and each of them harbours secrets that threaten the foundation of their friendship. So, lots of tension…in fact, a lot of the time I felt like I was reading an angsty YA novel, which isn’t my go to literary escape so I struggled to relate to these characters. And I really didn’t like Summer (who has the most POVs, unfortunately.) It’s universally accepted that she is selfish and opinionated and self-absorbed and there’s not much character growth, even into the contemporary timeline until the very end of the book. And it really bothered me that her friends and even the adults in her life kept enabling Summer to stay that way. They were always finding excuses for her behaviour and shrugging it off instead of confronting her — even lovingly — and not standing up for the people she hurt by her behaviour. So, not a Summer fan until very close to the end.

She did have a faith journey that plays a greater role in the last part of the book. There are hints of it in the 1977 timeline, but I honestly didn’t connect it to a faith thread until much later. It felt a bit like magical realism…only maybe I’d call it mystical realism…or spiritual realism? And, while I do enjoy that kind of trope, I like to know about it going in and this one took me by surprise so I felt a bit off kilter.

I would have enjoyed spending more time with each of the girls in the contemporary timeline. There’s a real connection between that fateful summer in 1977 and the way each of their lives turned out but I feel like that part of the story was rushed and I would have liked more of a balance between the eighteen year olds and their thirty-eight year old counterparts.

I did like the way the author wrapped things up — bringing the girls full circle and allowing them to deal with the issues that pulled them apart twenty years earlier. A big takeaway for me is the understanding that even the strongest friendships can be fragile at times and require nurturing. And that no matter how far we stray, Jesus is always right beside us, waiting to be invited back into our lives.

Though I had a paperback copy from the publisher, I listened to the audible edition narrated by Suzy Jackson and I feel like her performance helped me to become more engaged with the story.

Book provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications Inc.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

This giveaway is for a paperback copy — available to any reader any where in the world so — yay- another International Giveaway.

If you would like a chance to win a copy of The Best Summer of Our Lives, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you add an email to your comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it’s easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday August 26, 2023

A Sweethaven Summer + Giveaway

Random Retro Read

Campbell Carter has come to Sweethaven in search of answers about her mother’s history. Just before losing a battle with cancer, Suzanne Carter sent letters to childhood friends from her hometown of Sweethaven, Michigan. Suzanne’s three friends — Lila, Jane, and Meghan — haven’t spoken in years, yet each has pieces of a scrapbook they made together as girls. Suzanne’s letters have lured them all back to the idyllic lakeside town, where they meet Campbell and begin to remember what was so special about their long Sweethaven summers. As the scrapbook reveals secrets from the past, old wounds are mended, lives are changed, and friendships are restored — just as Suzanne intended.

My Review:

published in 2012

Somehow I completely missed an entire Courtney Walsh series! (Hanging my head in bibliophile shame.) I discovered this book on audible and just had to dive in. Excellent narration by Vaness Daniels – she delivers all the emotion and angst in perfect detail. And, since this is a Courtney Walsh book, you know there’s gotta be some angst!

Told from multiple points of view — we get both the past and present in compelling snippets that lead to redemption and hope. Largely through twenty-four year old Campbell’s POV as she comes to grips with the death of her mother and the quest to discover who her father is. But we hear from the women, now in their early forties, who summered together in Sweethaven all through their teens. And everyone has secrets! I’d classify it as Women’s Fiction with romantic elements.

This is a great introduction to the town of Sweethaven and the series. From reading the synopses of the next three books, I get the feeling that each story builds on the previous one. There is some wonderful closure in the lives of some of these characters, but there’s also a cliffhanger ending for one plot thread. Not enough to discourage a reader who likes her endings all wrapped up with a bow. More like an enticing teaser for the next book. 🙂

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

ebook available to anyone, anywhere who has a .com Kindle account

US — paperback or ebook — winner’s choice

Canada — paperback or ebook (via a gift card to Canadian Amazon)

If you would like a chance to win a copy of A Sweethaven Summer, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you add an email to your comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it’s easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday July 22 , 2023.