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“Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl” is the standard three-act structure for a romance or romantic comedy. “Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl” is the structure for a drama or tragedy. In her debut novel, author Hazel Hayes decides to run things backwards. Out of Love, released internationally in 2020 but just out now in Kindle format for American audiences, starts with the painful breakup and then goes back in time all the way through a couple’s first meeting. Reminiscent of movies like Memento and books such as One Day, the novel aims to answer the question, where did it all start to go wrong?
Out of Love is a first-person account, told in such a stream of consciousness that we never learn the heroine’s name. Her boyfriend is Theo, and when we first meet them, she has packed up his things at the end of their five-year relationship. The first few chapters are a very painful look at everything going wrong, at least from her perspective: His crush on a co-worker. His late nights at work. His preoccupation with the gym. His obsession with his phone. As the book goes back even further, we see everything else that has contributed to their break-up: Damaged parents. Abusive exes. Unresolved sexualities. At this point, the writing’s on the wall. Why can’t she see it?
Some books come with trigger warnings for sexual abuse, drug use, etc. This book should come with the warning that it will make you re-live your worst breakup ever. The first chapter is such a detailed exploration of all the pain the heroine goes through—the closet without his shirts, the ignored texts, the inability to eat, the badmouthing to friends—that I could barely get through it. At that point, I found the backwards structure a little frustrating, because after all that pain, I wanted to see more of the heroine. I wanted to know if she found a better partner than Theo, if she resolved the outstanding issues from her past.
Out of Love does not deliver the big twists that the novels One Day or In Five Years imparts. With reviews giving those comparisons, I was a little disappointed not to have a surprise at the end. But perhaps that is the surprise. When relationships end, looking back on them, their demises seem inevitable. In the beginning, though, they look like fairy tales.
Thanks to Dutton for the book in exchange for an honest review.
Today we are featuring three new Christmas novels that published this month and one that will be publishing in a few weeks (The Christmas Bookshop). These novels are sure to put you in a holiday mood. The publishers are giving away one copy of each, so we'll have FOUR winners for this giveaway!
Thanks to Berkley for the giveaway copy
Travel magazine writer Celeste Bell is used to being alone. Her demanding job takes her across the globe but leaves little time for friends or relationships. And after the death of her mother a year earlier, she is more alone than ever. Looking to spend the Christmas holidays in the sunny Caribbean, she is dismayed when her flight is diverted to Sea Spray Island in Massachusetts. Now it looks like she’ll have to spend Christmas there. Celeste is desperate to avoid any emotional entanglements and all holiday festivities. After the year she’s had, she just doesn’t feel like celebrating.
But that’s exactly what community center executive director Nathan White and his young daughter, Abigail, want to do. After suffering a terrible loss, Nathan is entirely focused on making sure that his daughter has a happy Christmas, especially with the knowledge that if he can’t raise money for the community center soon, it will close, and they’ll have to leave the island. When he meets Celeste, Nathan begins to feel a connection and wonders if he’s brave enough to risk his heart once more.
Visit Carrie on Twitter.
Thanks to Putnam for the giveaway copy.
Nora and her husband, Simon, have run the beautiful oak-beamed book shop in their small British village for thirty years. But times are tough and the shop is under threat of closure--this Christmas season will really decide their fate. When an elderly man visits the store and buys the one book they've never been able to sell, saying it's the perfect gift for his sick grandson, it gives Nora an idea. She and Simon will send out books to those feeling down this Christmas. Maybe they can't save their bookstore, but at least they'll have one final chance to lift people's spirits through the power of reading.
After gathering nominations online, Nora and Simon quietly deliver books to six residents of the village in need of some festive cheer, including a single dad of twins who is working hard to make ends meet, a teenage boy grieving for his big sister, a local Member of Parliament who is battling depression, and a teacher who's newly retired and living on her own. As the town prepares for a white Christmas, the books begin to give the recipients hope, one by one. But with the future of the bookshop still up in the air, Nora and Simon will need a Christmas miracle--or perhaps a little help from the people whose lives they've touched--to find a happy ending of their own.
Visit Anne Marie on Twitter.
Thanks to Putnam for the giveaway copy.
Annie Sharpe’s spark for life has fizzled out. Her kids are grown up, her restaurant is doing just fine on its own, and her twenty-six-year marriage has come to an unceremonious end. Untethered for the first time in her adult life, Annie doesn't know what to do with herself. But when she finds a winter guardian position in a historic seaside home, she decides to leave her city life behind for a brand new beginning.
When she arrives at Willow Bay, Annie is instantly enamored by the charming house, the invigorating sea breeze, and the town’s rich seasonal traditions. Not to mention, her neighbors receive her with open arms—that is, all except for the surly and rugged nephew of the homeowner, who seems intent on making Annie feel unwelcome. His grand plans for the property are directly at odds with her long-term stay. As Christmas approaches, tensions and tides rise in Willow Bay, and Annie’s future is looking less and less certain. But with a little can-do spirit and holiday magic, the most difficult season of her life will become A SEASON FOR SECOND CHANCES.
Visit Jenny on Twitter.
Thanks to William Morrow for the giveaway copy.
THE CHRISTMAS BOOKSHOP opens with Carmen laid off from her department store job, leaving her with perilously little cash right before the holidays. Too late to apply elsewhere, she only has one option – spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children, and her perfectly ordered yuppie life which does not appeal. And frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either.
But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, has a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and has a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. Carmen has no choice but to move in and take the job.
Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping? What will happen when a famous and charismatic author takes a sudden interest in the bookshop—and Carmen? And will the Christmas spirit be enough to help heal her fractured family?
Visit Jenny on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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Caroline is a cynic career woman living the high life in Manhattan where love and relationships are but a distant memory of the past.
But after a freak accident on Christmas Eve, Caroline receives a visit from a cheeky spirit of Christmas Past, Present, Yet to Come, and—most importantly—Christmas That Could Have Been. When she wakes up on Christmas Day suddenly married with three kids and living two doors down from her parents in New Jersey, Caroline has a chance to experience the life she would’ve had if she’d made a different choice.
Will small-town life as a mother and a wife make her rediscover what’s really important in life?
A modern-day retelling of A Christmas Carol… (synopsis courtesy of Goodreads.)
A Christmas Caroline was the perfect mash-up of A Christmas Carol and the film, The Family Man! Caroline is a high-powered publishing executive who has fallen out of love with the things that have grounded her, preferring money and success over creativity and connection. Even the first few pages pin her personality down perfectly, when she deals with a few of her employees with the personality of the meanest Miranda Priestly you can ever imagine. The thought of the big “C” word--Christmas--is enough to make her want to break out in hives, and she can’t wait to finish meeting up with her family for the obligatory holidays and move on with her blessed life.
But it’s obvious that even with all of her success, there is a lot that is missing from Caroline’s life. So much so, that after her freak accident, she finds herself transported back seven or so years in time, before the money and proprietary fame. She ends up living in some alternative universe, which is passed off as amnesia to her husband and children, attempting to survive an endless stream of poopy diapers, carpool lanes, after-school activities, and lacking the ever-growing security she felt she had when she had economic security.
It’s a bumpy ride, but a good one. I loved seeing the vast differences between who Caroline had been when she was a publishing executive, to who she discovers she could be when she’s a wife and mother, branching out in other ways that had been so important to her at one point in time. What’s the appropriate measure of success? I think that varies from person to person, and that is pretty apparent here for Caroline. The image of what she had always seen as “success” changes with each passing day, as well as what she feels is most important in her life.
I really enjoyed A Christmas Caroline, bah humbug! It’s the perfect read for the upcoming holidays; a well-deserved five-star experience!
Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for the book in exchange for an honest review.
She's a cat lover, coffee addict, and shoe hoarder. Besides writing, she loves reading--duh!--cooking, watching bad TV, and going to the movies--popcorn, please. She's a bit of a foodie, nothing too serious. A keen traveler, Camilla knows mosquitoes play a role in the ecosystem, and she doesn't want to starve all those frog princes out there, but she could really live without them.
Visit Camilla online:
Facebook * Twitter * Instagram
*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within seven days, then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for fulfillment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. We are not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize.
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| Photo by Eric Weber (2020) |
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Today we are pleased to feature The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman, which publishes tomorrow! Melissa is a fan of Viola's novels and is excited to add this one to her queue soon. The cover is gorgeous. Thanks to Graydon House, we have THREE copies for some lucky readers!
When Sonny Dunes, a SoCal meteorologist whose job is all sunshine and seventy-two-degree days, is replaced by a virtual meteorologist that will never age, gain weight or renegotiate its contract, the only station willing to give the fifty-year-old another shot is the very place Sonny’s been avoiding since the day she left for college—her northern Michigan hometown.
Sonny grudgingly returns to the long, cold, snowy winters of her childhood…with the added humiliation of moving back in with her mother. Not quite an outsider but no longer a local, Sonny finds her past blindsiding her everywhere: from the high school friends she ghosted, to the former journalism classmate and mortal frenemy who’s now her boss, to, most keenly, the death years ago of her younger sister, who loved the snow.
To distract herself from the memories she's spent her life trying to outrun, Sonny throws herself headfirst into covering every small-town winter event to woo a new audience, made more bearable by a handsome widower with optimism to spare. But with someone trying to undermine her efforts to rebuild her career, Sonny must make peace with who she used to be and allow her heart to thaw if she’s ever going to find a place she can truly call home. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)
"A beautifully written story about second chances. Fans of women’s fiction won’t be able to put this down." —Publishers Weekly
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Zoe’s always played it safe, just as her parents wanted. But when her great-uncle dies and leaves her a ramshackle cabin in the Scottish Highlands, she decides it’s time to change her life.
Upping sticks seems like a good idea in her cosy flat in London, but the reality is very different. There’s no electricity or running water, the roof leaks and there’s no front door. If that wasn’t bad enough, she’s moved up in the depths of winter and her scorching hot neighbour wants her out.
Rory’s got a fifty thousand tonne problem. If he can’t make Kinloch castle profitable, he’s out of a job. He needs a clear head, but there’s someone living in the cabin he saw as his own and she’s turned his world upside down.
Rory needs Zoe out of Scotland, and out of his life. The trouble is, she has no intention of leaving.
Let the games begin…
Purchase Highland Games here.
Evie takes a method approach to her work, believing her capacity to repeatedly fail at life and love is what has given her such a rich supply of material for her writing.
Her interests include reading, eating, saving the world, and fantasising about people who only exist between the pages of her books.
The first novel in her Kinloch series; Highland Games was released in 2021. Hollywood Games, Kissing Games, and Musical Games are releasing in 2022.
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| Photo by Kacy Meineke |
Kris Clink is the author of Goodbye, Lark Lovejoy and Sissie Klein is Completely Normal, which have received praise from Bustle, Midwest Book Review, Kirkus Reviews, Women.com, Lone Star Literary, Brit + Co, Travel and Leisure Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly, among others. Set in middle America, her novels are laced with love, heartbreak, and just enough snark to rock the boat for the relatable characters as they confront transformative challenges.
She’s a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and The Author’s Guild. Before becoming a novelist, she coordinated business development in medical environments and managed an office of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Since then, her work has been published in Moms Don’t Have Time to Write on Medium, diyMFA, Authority Magazine, Thrive Global, Women Writers Women’s Books, and Accent West Magazine. She is the host of Kris Clink’s Writing Table, a podcast about books and writing, where she interviews a variety of publishing professionals and authors from Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) to Camille Pagán.
Calling Texas home for most of her life, Kris now lives in Kansas. She and her husband have filled their empty nest with two spoiled-rotten pups. When not writing, Kris is playing pickleball with friends or searching for an open karaoke mic and an understanding audience. (Bio courtesy of Kris's website.)
Visit Kris online:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram
If Sissie Klein Is Completely Normal was made into a movie, who would you cast in the leading roles? Ooh! Great question and fun to consider. Anne Hathaway as Sissie, Mila Kunis as Della, Tim Olyphant as Harlan, someone resembling Philip Seymour Hoffman (RIP) as Caleb, and so many possibilities for Meg.
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Fall means changing leaves, the scent of a roaring fireplace, frost on the morning grass. It’s also a time for witches and Halloween. Since witches have been a staple of storytelling literally since Biblical times, the best stories build on that past while also offering something original and new. In the latest offering by author C.J. Cooke (we reviewed her previous novel, The Nesting, here), The Lighthouse Witches, a desperate mother brings her daughters to a Scottish island that centuries ago burned witches. It’s a perfect tale for the season.
In 1998, single mother and artist Liv takes a commission to paint an old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island. Bringing her three daughters—15-year-old Sapphire, 9-year-old Luna and 7-year old Clover, she hopes the island will help ease the pain of losing their father. But the townspeople are clannish and superstitious, and the lighthouse itself once held a prison for women accused of witchcraft. As Liv gets more drawn into life on the island, she starts to wonder about the meaning behind the mural she’s been hired to paint.
In 2021, Luna is expecting her first child and still in mourning for her missing family when she gets a call that her sister Clover has been found. But instead of the adult woman she’d expected, Luna is presented with a 7-year-old child who believes it’s still 1998 and wants to be reunited with Mummy.
What happened to Luna’s family, and how is it possible that Clover hasn’t aged at all? Could the answer have something to do with “wildings,” which the villagers say were created by witches to mimic human children and destroy their families’ bloodlines? As Luna digs up long-forgotten memories, past and present line up for a scary collision.
The Lighthouse Witches is a complicated tale that Cooke pulls off smoothly and effortlessly. With multiple points-of-view and timelines, the story is grounded by her characters. Liv, hiding an enormous secret from her daughters, tries to give them a normal life even though she doesn’t know where they’ll live when her commission ends. Sapphire, her grief over the loss of her stepfather unacknowledged, tangles with the boyfriend of the local teenage witch while clashing with her mother. And Patrick, the owner of the lighthouse, has a past that can scarcely be imagined.
Cooke hides clues in plain sight and then commits a sleigh-of-hand that would make magicians proud. The book’s ending cannot be predicted, and yet feels completely inevitable.
“Who knows why we were taught to fear the witches, and not those who burned them alive?” Once again, C.J. Cooke reminds us that the real monsters come in human form.
Jen DeLuca was born and raised in Virginia, and has recently swapped Florida for the Arizona desert, where she lives with her husband and a houseful of rescue pets.
She’s worked as an ice-show dresser, a wardrobe master, a makeup consultant, and a paralegal. She likes latte-flavored lattes, Hokies football, and the Oxford comma. (Bio courtesy of Jen's website.)
Single mother April Parker has lived in Willow Creek for twelve years with a wall around her heart. On the verge of being an empty nester, she’s decided to move on from her quaint little town, and asks her friend Mitch for his help with some home improvement projects to get her house ready to sell.
Mitch Malone is known for being the life of every party, but mostly for the attire he wears to the local Renaissance Faire—a kilt (and not much else) that shows off his muscled form to perfection. While he agrees to help April, he needs a favor too: she'll pretend to be his girlfriend at an upcoming family dinner, so that he can avoid the lectures about settling down and having a more “serious” career than high school coach and gym teacher. April reluctantly agrees, but when dinner turns into a weekend trip, it becomes hard to tell what's real and what's been just for show. But when the weekend ends, so must their fake relationship.
As summer begins, Faire returns to Willow Creek, and April volunteers for the first time. When Mitch's family shows up unexpectedly, April pretends to be Mitch's girlfriend again...and it doesn't feel so fake anymore. Despite their obvious connection, April insists they’ve just been putting on an act. But when there’s the chance for something real, she has to decide whether to change her plans—and open her heart—for the kilt-wearing hunk who might just be the love of her life. (Courtesy of Amazon.)
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