by Nicole Bernier
And, if you keep a journal, have you thought about what will happen to it when you’re gone?
Elizabeth, author of journals left behind after she dies tragically in a plane crash, appeared to be very happy in her role of wife and mother of three young children, but her journals seem to tell a different story. In her will, she leaves her trunk of journals to her best friend Kate, but before Kate takes possession, Elizabeth's husband reads a few pages and learns that--instead of an artist getaway weekend--she was looking forward to meeting up with and spending time with "Michael." Her husband is devastated, and Kate spends the summer reading the journals that started after the death of Elizabeth's sister, and wonders if she ever knew Kate at all. She begins to examine her own role as a wife, mother, and her derailed career as a celebrity pastry chef. And Kate's preoccupation with safety in a world where terrorists may lurk around every corner, play into the book as well.
Bernier's debut novel is a bittersweet story on the delicate balance between motherhood, career, marriage, secrets and friendship, told in alternating views of journal entries and Elizabeth's reflection on her friend and her own life. It would be an interesting book club choice, with many themes to ponder.
~ Katherine
1 comment:
The Wild Wood Enquiry (Ivy Beasley, Bk 3)
By Ann Purser
In a brand-new mystery from the author of The Measby Murder Enquiry, the cantankerous golden years gumshoe Ivy Beasley keeps her mental faculties sharp with a strict regimen of crime detection. — Apart from the unwelcome noise made by the morning cleaning crew, life has been quiet at Springfields Home for the Elderly. Too quiet, in fact. Ivy and her team of sleuths, Enquire Within, have resorted to finding lost cats, and Gus is even threatening to return to his memoirs. But no sooner does he attempt to put a winning phrase together than he receives a call from his ex-wife, Katherine, who is in desperate needs of a place to hide.
Though Gus has a difficult time getting a straight answer from Kath -- just as it was in their many years of marriage -- something is most certainly afoot, and soon Enquire Within is back in business. This time they have their hands full, not only with missing pets, but missing jewels, and evidence of foul play uncomfortably close to their too quiet home …
I really enjoy all of Ann Purser's books. The Ivy Beasley series mixes humor, small-town English life and mystery. The characters are unique and you can't help but love the spunky Ivy and her fiance, Roy.
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