The Summer Kitchen, book #32

 

Lisa Wingate is always a toss up, she goes DEEP and often sad, and sometimes I regret starting one of her books.  As was the case of this one, but I had been home for over a week on a covid-cation and I already plowed through two books.  I had a hard copy of this one I got from my mom and decided to pick up.  Let's just say that last night I was up for WAAAAY too late on the edge of my seat wondering how it was going to end. :)

With her adopted son missing and the rest of her family increasingly estranged, SandraKaye Darden is drawn to the little pink house where her Uncle Poppy once provided security. But what begins for Sandra as a simple painting project to help sell the house becomes a secret venture that starts to change everything...Cass Blue is having trouble keeping food on the table since her mother died. When Sandra shows up with sandwiches for the neighborhood kids one day, Cass has no way of knowing that the meeting will lead to the creation of a place of refuge that could reunite a divided community.  In this moving story of second chances, two unlikely allies realize their ability to make a difference...and the power of what becomes known as the Summer Kitchen to nourish the soul. (picture and description at Amazon)

Of course, after I finished I realized it was book 2 in a series, but the nice thing about her series is that while they are related by a very thin thread, you can literally pick up any book in the series at any time and you don't feel out of the loop.

Keep reading!

O:)

Melissa

Within My Heart, book #31

Determined to fulfill her late husband's dream, Rachel Boyd struggles to keep her ranch afloat with the help of her two young sons. But some days it feels as though her every effort is sabotaged. When faced with a loss she cannot afford, she's forced to trust Rand Brookston, the one man in Timber Ridge she wishes to avoid. And with good reason. He's a physician, just like her father, which tells her everything she needs to know about him. Or so she thinks . . .  Dr. Rand Brookston ventured west with the dream of bringing modern medicine to the wilds of the Colorado Rockies, but the townspeople have been slow to trust him. Just as slow in coming is Rand's dream to build the town a proper clinic. When a patient's life is threatened, Rand makes a choice--one that sends ripples through the town of Timber Ridge. And through Rachel Boyd's stubborn heart.  (picture and description from Amazon)

Happy Reading!

Melissa

Chateau of Secrets, book #30

 

A courageous young noblewoman risks her life to hide French resistance fighters; seventy years later, her granddaughter visits the family’s abandoned chateau and uncovers shocking secrets from the past.  Gisèle Duchant guards a secret that could cost her life. Tunnels snake through the hill under her family’s medieval chateau in Normandy. Now, with Hitler’s army bearing down, her brother and several friends are hiding in the tunnels, resisting the German occupation of France.  But when German soldiers take over the family’s château, Gisèle is forced to host them as well—while harboring the resistance fighters right below their feet. Taking in a Jewish friend’s baby, she convinces the Nazis that it is her child, ultimately risking everything for the future of the child. When the German officers begin to suspect her deception, an unlikely hero rescues both her and the child.  A present day story weaves through the past one as Chloe Sauver, Gisèle’s granddaughter, arrives in Normandy. After calling off her engagement with a political candidate, Chloe pays a visit to the chateau to escape publicity and work with a documentary filmmaker, Riley, who has uncovered a fascinating story about Jews serving in Hitler’s army. Riley wants to research Chloe’s family history and the lives that were saved in the tunnels under their house in Normandy. Chloe is floored—her family isn’t Jewish, for one thing, and she doesn’t know anything about tunnels or the history of the house. But as she begins to explore the dark and winding passageways beneath the chateau, nothing can prepare her for the shock of what she and Riley discover…  With emotion and intrigue, Melanie Dobson brings World War II France to life in this beautiful novel about war, family, sacrifice, and the secrets of the past.  (picture and description from Amazon)