The Women by Kristin Hannah – 480 pages ARC from St. Martins Press and Netgalley for an honest review Book Blurb: Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched,...
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters – 307 pages Book Blurb: July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old...
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon – 336 pages ARC from Doubleday, PRH audio and Netgalley for an honest review Book Blurb: Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of...
Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle – 272 pages ARC from Atria and Netgalley for an honest review Book Blurb: Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the...
A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke – 400 pages ARC from Avid Readers Press and Netgalley for an honest review Book Blurb: Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk...
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See – 368 pages ARC from Scribner for an honest review Book Blurb: According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and...
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters is a novel not to be missed. I went into the book completely blind, and it served me well. I still can’t believe this is a debut.When Ruthie, the youngest in a large Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia goes missing, her family is wrought with grief. Joe, one of the protagonists suffers the most as he was the last person with Ruthie. His life is shattered in many ways, both physically and emotionally. Not a day goes by where he doesn’t feel guilt and/or shame for his behavior. We learn early on that Ruthie was taken by a woman unable to hold a pregnancy. She is overprotective to a fault for fears of Ruthie (now Norma) getting hurt or recognized. Norma has dreams that relate to her family, but she was too young at four years old to have any real memories of her earlier family. Norma’s parents completely ignore her dreams by shushing them away.There is a lot of grief in this book, but there is also many lessons about forgiveness and hope. Peters also touches on alcoholism, discrimination, and terminal illness. At its heart, this book centers around the meaning of family, the hope of reunion and the ties that bond one person to another.I will be first in line to pick up Peters next book. The writing was exquisite.@amandapetersauthor #Catapult 📘 Have you ever been berry 🫐🍓 picking? #newbookreview#bookreview#bookreader #TBR #addtoTBR #booklover#bookstagram#goodbookfairy#goodbookfairybookreview ... See MoreSee Less