Lighter Stories of Love and Second Chances

At age seventy-two, Emma Hanley has finally made a plan to get out of small-town Palmetto, South Carolina, and travel the globe with her husband. But when he dies suddenly, just before their departure, she's taken up with the problems of her grown children. Her once free-spirited daughter, Dora, turns to compulsive shopping and a controlling husband, hoping to blot out her wayward past. Her son, Bobby, still lives with her, struggling with the illness that robbed him of his childhood promise.

But then Dora’s old flame Jake Carey returns to Palmetto with a broken heart and a gift for gardening, and soon the town is filled with mysterious, potent botanicals and resurgent memories. Before long, Jake and his group of helpers begin to unearth the secrets that have divided the Hanleys for decades.

Jackie's review:
"This is a lovely story of quirky small town familial strife and healing magic. It concerns the Hanleys--Emma, just widowed at 72 at the cusp of making a dream come true; her daughter Dora who is very unhappy and in the deep grips of compulsive shopping that's bankrupting the family; Bobby, Emma's son, who has a mental illness that has rendered him a loner and a couch vegetable; and Jake who moves back to his hometown with a broken heart and a green thumb. This is a light but touching story of how these flawed but redeemable people grow into being their truer selves with the magic of some long hidden plants and the reality of second chances."


In the tradition of Marisa de los Santos and Anne Tyler comes a moving debut about a young mother's year of heartbreak, loss, and forgiveness...and help that arrives from unexpected sources

Four months after her husband's death, Janie LaMarche remains undone by grief and anger. Her mourning is disrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of a builder with a contract to add a porch onto her house. Stunned, Janie realizes the porch was meant to be a surprise from her husband—now his last gift to her.

As she reluctantly allows construction to begin, Janie clings to the familiar outposts of her sorrow—mothering her two small children with fierce protectiveness, avoiding friends and family, and stewing in a rage she can't release. Yet Janie's self-imposed isolation is breached by a cast of unlikely interventionists: her chattering, ipecac-toting aunt; her bossy, over-manicured neighbor; her muffin-bearing cousin; and even Tug, the contractor with a private grief all his own.

As the porch takes shape, Janie discovers that the unknowable terrain of the future is best navigated with the help of others—even those we least expect to call on, much less learn to love.

Jackie's review:

"Fay's debut novel takes us through the heartache, confusion, and ultimate renewal of a
young widow's first year without her husband. A fluke bike accident leaves Janie widowed
with a pre-schooler and an infant to care for in a world gone very dark to her eyes.
Festering wounds grow worse when a contractor shows up at the house to build a porch
contracted by her husband months before. But slowly Janie comes to see that help is
there for her--her crazy aunt actually gets her involved in some good ideas, the young
priest can offer more wisdom than she ever dreamed, her family continues to blossom and
grow and carry her with them. And the chance at new love might just be waiting for her
on that new porch. This isn't as simple a story as it sounds--Janie is bitter, not a
paragon of gentle widowhood, there are complications aplenty from the many 'good
intentions' that crowd her life, and choices are not easily wrestled into order."

Twenty-five-year-old Julie Jacobs is heartbroken over the death of her beloved aunt Rose. But the shock goes even deeper when she learns that the woman who has been like a mother to her has left her entire estate to Julie’s twin sister. The only thing Julie receives is a key—one carried by her mother on the day she herself died—to a safety-deposit box in Siena, Italy.

This key sends Julie on a journey that will change her life forever—a journey into the troubled past of her ancestor Giulietta Tolomei. In 1340, still reeling from the slaughter of her parents, Giulietta was smuggled into Siena, where she met a young man named Romeo. Their ill-fated love turned medieval Siena upside-down and went on to inspire generations of poets and artists, the story reaching its pinnacle in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.

But six centuries have a way of catching up to the present, and Julie gradually begins to discover that here, in this ancient city, the past and present are hard to tell apart. The deeper she delves into the history of Romeo and Giulietta, and the closer she gets to the treasure they allegedly left behind, the greater the danger surrounding her—superstitions, ancient hostilities, and personal vendettas. As Julie crosses paths with the descendants of the families involved in the unforgettable blood feud, she begins to fear that the notorious curse—“A plague on both your houses!”—is still at work, and that she is destined to be its next target. Only someone like Romeo, it seems, could save her from this dreaded fate, but his story ended long ago. Or did it?

From Anne Fortier comes a sweeping, beautifully written novel of intrigue and identity, of love and legacy, as a young woman discovers that her own fate is irrevocably tied—for better or worse—to literature’s greatest star-crossed lovers.

Jackie's review:

"I picked this book up after two very trusted book reviewer friends said "read it". And I'm glad I did. It's saved from being a fluffy love story by the interweaving of Shakespearean, and earlier, myths or truths (who knows which--that's what makes it fun and very, very interesting). Yes, it deals with "Romeo and Juliet", and who they may have really been--in the past and now in the present. There is much use of the "curse on both your houses". There is intrigue, crime, secrets, poisons, stalkers, art, religion, politics...this book's got a lot going on. All set in a beautiful local in Europe. With castles. It's great for folks who like smart romances with a bit of mystery to them."