The Mother's January Reads

Apologies for the delayed January reads post, but please read on and enjoy! Hope you are all having a wonderful start to your new year!

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One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Can you imagine this predicament? The love of your life is presumed dead. For years, you grieve. You finally give yourself permission to be open to love again and find it. You get engaged to be married. And then you receive a phone call…the love of your life is actually not dead and he is coming home to you.

Synopsis: The central character, Emma, spends her 20’s with Jesse, her high school sweetheart and true love. They marry, travel the world, and build a life together far from their home town. On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse’s helicopter goes missing and he is presumed dead. Devastated and barely holding on, Emma moves back home and attempts to put together some semblance of a life. After more than three years, Emma opens herself to love and unwittingly falls for someone from her past. Shortly after her engagement and just as her life feels livable again, Emma gets the call, the one saying her first love and husband has been found alive.

Think of this book as a combination “Cast Away” and “The Notebook”. It’s a page turner that draws you into every ounce of the emotional complexity of Emma’s situation.

A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood

What an absolutely delightful read! A Snowfall of Silver is another enchanting period piece by Laura Wood and beautifully tells the story of Freya, who was a side character in Wood’s other charming novel, A Sky Painted Gold. Think of this book as a delicious, romantic indulgence and a perfect winter escape.

Synopsis: In the Autumn of 1931, eighteen-year-old and impetuous Freya Trevelyan runs away from her home in Cornwall to follow her dream of becoming a London actress. When she is invited to join a theatrical company about to start out on tour, Freya thinks the path to success is clear.

Amidst all the glamour and bustle of stage life, for the first time, Freya finds a place to belong. But can reality ever live up to her expectations? What if following her dreams, her life, and even the possibility of falling in love, turn out to be nothing like she planned?

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

Behind Closed Doors is one of the most disturbingly entertaining books I’ve read in recent memory. This domestic thriller grabbed my attention from page one, and I was utterly absorbed in the twisted world of Jack and Grace. Sickening and tragic and plotted at breakneck speed, this book gets under the skin and keeps you on the edge of your seat!

Synopsis: Grace thought her life would revolve around the care of Millie, her adored younger sister with Down syndrome. Also, she hoped if she could find a man she loved along the way, all the better. She didn’t expect to be swept off her feet by the charismatic Jack Angel, a chivalrous Prince Charming, and attorney for battered women. After a whirlwind courtship, Grace and Jack get married. It isn’t until the couple is away in Thailand for their honeymoon that the first bites of something horribly sour, and Grace’s shocking, unassailable predicament begin to emerge. As the title suggests, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Surprisingly, not as famous as her book The 101 Dalmatians, Dodie Smith’s 1948 classic I Capture the Castle is flawless in every way. Once you start reading, it’s impossible to avoid its immensely charming and slightly melancholy spell. It is a lovely, bittersweet novel that doesn’t go for the easy resolution. Perfect for the bookish reader, it’s difficult not to fall in love with it.

Synopsis: I Capture the Caste is a coming of age love story about six months in the life of enchanting narrator Cassandra Mortmain. Cassandra, an aspiring author, uses her diary to capture in words the ruined castle where she lives with her impoverished family in the middle of the English countryside in the 1930s. When the Mortmain’s first moved into the castle it was to be a romantic and bohemian home—maintained on the royalties earned by Cassandra’s novelist father—but he stopped writing years ago and the royalties from his book have been spent. Soon enough, unforeseen events spiral in and out of control when salvation and so much more arrive in the form of Simon Cotton and his brother Neil, the Mortmain’s American landlords.

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