Monthly Archives: December 2022

Dec29

Outfoxed- by Melinda Metz- a review

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I received this book from Kensington Books in exchange for an unbiased review.

This was a great story. I was pulled in immediately by the premise of the legend of the fox that brings good luck and love to the people who encounter it. The town of Fox Crossing is a pretty cool place to live. Even though this is part of a series, this book can be read as a stand- alone with no problem.

The protagonist of the story, Victoria Michaud, is the owner of a shop with an eclectic offering of used goods. She dresses with abandon and I loved that about her. That she chooses to be her quirky self and doesn’t set any store by anyone who might think she looks odd is refreshing and makes her a unique character. She’s also a giving soul who helps her community in many ways. The relationships she has with her brother, Henry, is great as well. He’s come back to town after moving away after high school. He spent his teen years being bullied by a number of young men of the town due to his weight.

The antagonist, Bowen Gower, is one of those bullies. He is also back in town after having moved away and making a successful career in the city. He’s back to settle his grandfather’s estate. His sister, Tegan, is also on the scene. She’s had a hard life moving from job to job. Her brother was the golden child and she was shunted to the side. Their relationship is fractious at best. The sister is also a unique character, artistic and caring.

The sister of the antagonist and the brother of the protagonist were best friends for a couple of years in high school, each relying on the other to get through some rough times.

The side characters in the book are delightful. The man who owns the bar (named Banana) where the antagonist’s sister works is a particular favorite. I loved his personality and warm, giving, nature.

When Victoria realizes the boy who was the baseball hero who made her brother miserable for years is back in town, she is determined not to engage with him. Except, they both saw the fabled fox at the same time.

Giving no credence to the superstition about the fox, she is doubly determined to ignore the man.

The story unfolds in an enjoyable way. The friendship between the two outcast friends from high school was actually my favorite part of the book. The scenes where they reconnect are particularly enjoyable. They still have great affection for each other and reading their scenes made me smile.

There’s a secondary story about bullying by one young girl to another in the book. In my opinion, the underlying theme of the book is really about bullying and its aftermath and ways to resolve those issues and move past them. The love stories are incidental to that theme and are so well told, it’s a delightful read. This book has something for everyone. Friendship, love and family.  I highly recommend it.

Dec5

Review – Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton

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This is a fictionalized story based on the very real kindertransport trains and ferries taking Jewish children out of Nazi Europe. The real woman who convinced Eichmann to allow the first 600 children to be transported to London, when England agreed to provide visas for them, was named Geertruida Wijsmuller. She saved a large number of Jewish children’s lives, first by taking two and three, and sometimes as many as ten, out of Germany and into the Netherlands. She started doing this in the mid-1930s. The situation became more urgent after Hitler invaded Austria. Many countries closed their borders and refused to allow Jewish people entry visas. Tante Truus, as she had the children call her, worked with some highly placed people in England to pressure their parliament to allow children to be evacuated and held in two summer camps until foster families could take them in. After the war, she was granted Righteous Among the Nations status.

The story in this book centers on two families. One a wealthy Jewish chocolatier who has a wife suffering from cancer. They have two sons, Stephan and Walter. The other, a barber, a Christian grandfather who has a widowed daughter-in-law with two daughters. One is Zofie-Helene and the other Johanna. Their mother is a journalist who is very outspoken against the Nazis.

The story starts with both families living their normal lives and Zofie and Stephan becoming close friends. She’s mathematically gifted and he’s interested in being a playwright.

The chapters alternate between their stories and the story of Tante Truus and her rescues of small groups of children and the dangers she faces in that endeavor.

With Truus in the Netherlands and the others in Vienna, I wondered in the early parts of the book how she was going to help them being as they are quite a ways apart.

When Germany annexes Austria with not so much as a shot fired and seemingly overnight, Stephan’s family’s life undergoes a massive change. His father is taken to a camp and he goes into hiding as he is of an age where the Nazis want to inter him in a camp as well. His brother is only five and, at this time, they were not taking children that young to the camps.

Zofie’s mother, a Christian, eventually gets taken by the Nazis due to her unwelcome stories pointing out their conduct which she won’t stop writing even though she is pressured to do so. The two girls are left with their grandfather.

The story unfolded at a good pace. Some of the parts were very hard to read. The author depicted the utterly senseless cruelty of the Nazis and their adherents very well. It always amazes me how terribly awful these people could be to other people. And how the population turned on people who had been their friends and fellow citizens just days prior.

The author also did a good job showing the fear and terror of the ordinary citizen and why so many didn’t speak up to try to stop the atrocities they witnessed. A great part of the population was cowed and if they spoke up, they would be punished severely as well. Some of them tortured and murdered merely for voicing an opinion—or for nothing at all, even an imagined slight.

It was a harrowing read but one I recommend for several reasons. One, the story of the main characters in Vienna seems to be a reflection of what a lot of families went through during this time. Two, the story of Geertruida Wijsmuller is a story of how one person can make a massive difference in the lives of so many. One voice, one brave soul, she saved so many and gave them a chance at life and that is amazing. And third, with the seeming resurgence of some of the awful ideas the Nazi’s had, this is an important read. We must never, ever, let these things happen again and the author of this book makes what happened to Jewish people, as well as anyone who disagreed with the Nazi ideals in that time, all very real and relatable with the characters she created.

This one is well worth a read.

Dec1

Review: Christmas by the book by Anne Marie Ryan

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I was attracted to this book by the blurb and, ultimately, it didn’t disappoint. It did take me a while to get into, though. The first chapters introduced a lot of characters in a short period of time. I’m someone who has a hard time with names in real life so it’s better for my reading enjoyment to be introduced with a cast of characters in a more drawn out process. I had to keep going back a few pages to recall who was who.

Once everyone was established in my head, though, things got better and I enjoyed the story more.

The protagonist’s mother founded a book shop in a small English village when the protagonist was young. The bookstore with the flat on the second floor is the only home she’s known for her whole life. She didn’t have a father in her life as she grew up.

The heroine’s husband was raised by a wealthy family in London and he’s always been a disappointment to his father as he chose to marry the heroine and help run the bookshop and not run the family business.

The husband had a heart attack a few months prior to the events in the book and the heroine has been babying him and keeping secrets from him about the health of the revenues of the business. They have one child who is on her gap year.

They bought a copy of the book that covers the Christmas Day soccer game between the Allies and Germany in WWI when they were very newly married. It has never sold. Until the day a man comes in looking for that very volume for his grandson who has leukemia.

This action plants the idea for them to give away six books to people in their area. They ask on Twitter for people to nominate a deserving recipient.

They choose books and wrap them.

When the six people are chosen, the wife randomly addresses the books without knowing which will go to whom.

The reminder of the book is introducing us to the people chosen and the impact on their lives of the book they were randomly gifted as well as how the heroine and her husband deal with the pending sale and closure of the store since they owe massive taxes.

The one issue I had with the book was the secret keeping the wife did. The store got in deep financial trouble over a period of many months and she didn’t tell her husband. That bothered me. A lot.  They seemed to have this perfect marriage which I thought made it completely unforgivable that she would keep such a big secret. That they were going to lose their home and livelihood based on her failure to be a good steward to the business and lying about it. It was a massive problem for me. And he forgave her way too easily.

The story itself, other than the lying to the spouse, was lovely and shows the power of the written word. How it can make a difference in a life. It was a worthwhile story as well as entertaining. A warm, fuzzy, Christmas read with life lessons for all six recipients as well as the bookshop owners.

4 stars.