Email this review to a friend.

Susan Hamilton Hayes, fortyish librarian at the Charleston County Library, returns home one afternoon to pick up some materials for a presentation and finds her husband in the arms of a twentysomething, "surgically improved", New Age bookstore manageress. From that moment, Susan embarks on a journey of self-discovery and reconciliation with some haunting memories of her childhood. The author weaves a captivating tale: Susan's coping with infidelity, her teenaged daughter's maturation, and the mysterious death of her father is juxtaposed with her diversions into the past, back to Sullivan's Island in 1963 where a wise Gullah housekeeper named Livvie is the stabilizing force in her life. Frank's wisecracking Susan will elicit guffaws from the reader, especially as the soon-to-be-divorced woman unaccustomed to the modern dating scene.

Reviewed by Susanne W., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Southern Literature

See more titles featured in Beach Reading

See more titles featured in Dixie Chicks

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Life brings twists and turns, delights and horrors, and Judy Blume captures them all in this brilliant novel. Caitlin and Vix are summer sisters. Every summer they leave behind Santa Fe and join Caitlin's father and his family on Martha's Vineyard. The story covers their friendship over the summers from pre-teen when they are discovering themselves to their early adult life. The story is told through the eyes of Vix, an insecure, emotional teen with a family life that ages her well beyond her years who is the complete opposite of the beautiful, charismatic, and very wealthy Caitlin. Her unique perspective and commentary on events makes the story both real and memorable.

Reviewed by Diana S., Main Library

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Rural communities have a unique spin on life, and Harveyville, Kansas in the 1930s is no different. The quilting group, the Persian Pickle Club, had its own code concerning loyalty, charity, and justice. Times were difficult, but they still shared talents around a quilting frame and precious scraps of fabric for their craft originals. These actions and others created a bond that empowered these women to live with dignity and purpose. You will be charmed with how they did it their way.

Reviewed by Ann G., Steele Creek Branch

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Set in rural North Carolina, Walking Across Egypt is a sweet, funny, down-home tale about seventy-eight year old Mattie Rigsbee. Though she is starting to show a few signs of a failing memory (for example, in a particularly funny passage, she sits in a rocking chair from which she has removed the bottom), Mattie is still a feisty, strong-minded lady. She is a devoutly Christian widow who makes a mean pound cake and misses having someone to cook for and to love. She would really like to have some grandchildren, but her children aren't complying, so she opens up her heart and her home to Wesley Benfield, a hapless juvenile delinquent who needs Mattie as much as she needs him. With this brief, warm novel, author Clyde Edgerton once again shows he is a masterfully witty storyteller.

Reviewed by Lynn L., Hickory Grove Branch

Read the Author Interview with Clyde Edgerton

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in Dixie Chicks

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

A group of five women in the small town of Hope Springs, North Carolina are compiling a cookbook using their recipes and some from the community. The project broadens them as they share experiences, trials, joys, and the discovery of true friendship. Their personalities, backgrounds, and experiences may differ, yet they share common ground. As they exchange their recipes, each comes to realize the importance of nourishment to the body, soul, and spirit. J. Lynne Hinton is a pastor in Asheboro, North Carolina, a small town similar to the community of Hope Springs.

Reviewed by Melissa K., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in First Novels

See more titles featured in Dixie Chicks

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Father Tim Kavanaugh has retired from his position as Rector at Lord's Chapel in the sleepy village of Mitford, located in the mountains of North Carolina. He and his wife Cynthia are adjusting to their new-found freedom when Father Tim is offered an interim position with an even smaller parish on Whitecap Island on the coast of North Carolina, some six hundred miles away. Father Tim takes the position and moves to Whitecap, opening himself to a host of new adventures. A pleasant read with very few surprises, this book could be retitled Mitford by the Sea.

Reviewed by Bettie S., Main Library

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

When a proper southern lady has had her fill of small town gossip about the love child her recently deceased rascal of a husband left behind, you'd better get back because the fat is about to splatter. Couple that with the audacity of a jack-legged preacher kidnapping her newly appointed ward, and you won't be able to stand the heat, for Miss Julia will surely raise the roof. With a twist here and there, this hilarious story zips along at highway speed. If you like intrigue, action, and a little romance you will devour this gem of a book.

Reviewed by Vera M., Beatties Ford Road Branch

Read the Author Interview with Ann B. Ross

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in Beach Reading

See more titles featured in Dixie Chicks

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Nora Bridge left her husband and two daughters years ago. Since then, she has found success with her own radio talk show and loyal fans that actively seek her advice, but she has always felt a deep sense of loss and regret. Nora’s daughter, Ruby, has spent her life hating the mother who left her. When scandalous photographs of Nora posing naked with another man surface, Ruby agrees to write a tell-all article about Nora for a national magazine. However, what Ruby learns on Summer Island will change the way she sees her mother, herself, and everything around her. With Summer Island, Kristin Hannah has created a family whose experiences with sorrow, joy, and love will touch your heart.

Reviewed by Christine B., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Beach Reading

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

In Memory of Junior spins a tall tale of the Bales-McCord clan, a rural North Carolina family, and their oddball, deep rooted cultural and social proclivities regarding sickness, death and burial rituals of family and friends. The book is narrated by each character as he presents his perspective of events that leads to the wrong people being in the wrong grave with the wrong grave markers. As the confused plot unravels and everyone is properly committed to the grave and correctly labeled, Uncle Grove makes a priceless observation: "You're history longer than you're fact". Fun reading all around.

Reviewed by Deborah O., Main Library

Read the Author Interview with Clyde Edgerton

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Raney, a humorous novel by North Carolina author, Clyde Edgerton, relays Raney Bell Shepherd’s personal account of her tumultuous first two years as a rural, ultra-conservative southern bride, to Charles Shepherd, a flaming liberal whose best friend is black. Though they make beautiful music together (literally), the newlyweds work to harmonize their discordant viewpoints and become one, even as Raney’s staunch Baptist background threatens to blow them apart. An entertaining and thought-provoking novel in which the characters squarely deal with change and the issues at hand.

Reviewed by Deborah O., Main Library

Read the Author Interview with Clyde Edgerton

See more titles featured in Southern Literature

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Grace, Amelia and Hannah all live in Olive Pruitt’s boarding house in Pennsylvania and even though they are very different, they become fast friends. When Amelia inherits a house, she convinces Hannah and Grace to come with her to Covington, NC to inspect it. Once there, they fall in love with the area and decide to all move to Covington over the objections of their grown children, proving that even in your sixties, friendship is one of the most important ties in life. This well-written book by Joan Medlicott, filled with nice people in ordinary situations, will remind you how important friends can be.

Reviewed by Karen K., Morrison Regional

Read the Author Interview with Joan Medlicott

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

The women of Troy Hill are ordinary women living in the blue-collar neighborhood of Troy Hill in Pittsburgh, Pa., where their families had lived for generations. In this neighborhood, the men went to work and women stayed home with the children and neighbored. They took this duty seriously, watching out for one another and taking care of each other as their children grew up and they were often left on their own. The women have interesting stories to tell about their families, their friendships and their community. Clare Ansberry writes easily about the history of Troy Hill and the women that attribute their long life to service, friendship, faith, and kindness.

Reviewed by Karen K., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

The author's second novel Miss Julia Takes Over finds Hazel Marie missing without a trace, and the police are busy with other matters. Miss Julia is a woman of few words who stands firm and forges on because "who will take care of this if I don't?" Julia, Lloyd, his mother Hazel Marie, and Julia's housekeeper Lillian have formed a friendship as a result of living together in Julia's home. So Julia hires private investigator, J.D. Pickett, to find the missing woman. Julia and Lloyd partner with him. Together they go on a chase across North Carolina, including the North Carolina Motor Speedway at Rockingham! This is a fast-paced, witty and entertaining read, with depth enough to leave a lasting impression.

Reviewed by Melissa K., Mint Hill Branch

Read the Author Interview with Ann B. Ross

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

There are times in a person’s life when he or she could use a little help from above. In this particular case, Greg Bennett has lived most of his life in a self-centered, selfish way, always hurting others, personally and in his business. Only when he has been hurt can he start to redeem himself. Among the most poignant of his regrets are those about the woman he left behind and the child they conceived. Despair brings help from three delightful and highly unusual angels named Shirley, Goodness and Mercy during the Yule season. ______________________________

Reviewed by Joanna M., Cornelius Branch

Read the Author Interview with Debbie Macomber

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Medlicott continues the story of Grace, Amelia, and Hannah who live in a farmhouse in Covington, North Carolina in this sequel to her successful debut, The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love. The women are protesting the takeover of their quaint community by Georgia developers who want to create condominiums and strip malls. They are independent, outspoken, and ambitious – qualities which are seen as threatening in this rural area. Grace is opening a tearoom. Hannah is training a manager to run her greenhouse. Amelia is falling in love with a man she met in a fender-bender. Through it all, the friends provide each other with advice and encouragement. Gardens of Covington takes readers to a charming community similar to Jan Karon’s Mitford.

Reviewed by Megan M., Main Library

Read the Author Interview with Joan Medlicott

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

In the Second Thyme Around Perdita Dylan and Lucas Gillespie meet again after ten years of divorce. She's now a gardener rather than an artist and he's a chef instead of a stockbroker. Set in the English countryside, they must keep their former marriage a secret, make a television show (that he wants and she doesn't), take care of a sick aunt who's not really related, and grow crosnes (Chinese artichokes). They do all this and along the way discover the grown-ups they have become and the love that has never died. ______________________________

Reviewed by Jamie ., Myers Park Branch

See more titles featured in Chick Lit

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

On a quiet morning in 1896, in a small German circus town, a boy named Bram and an elephant named Modoc were born within minutes each other. Bram became a master elephant handler and his constant companion, Modoc, grew to massive size with an exceptional intelligence and an amazing gentleness. Their friendship extended far beyond that of trainer and trainee, and it was strengthened through their encounters with anti-semitism, a dangerous sea voyage, and the unpredictability of life under the big top. Their story spans eight decades and crosses three continents. It is a story filled with love and loss, yet the bond that connected this small man and his huge companion could never be broken. The story behind this bond can never be forgotten. It is an exceptional story that will thrill readers young and old.

Reviewed by Susan M., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Infused with the fervor of holiday spirit, the colorful townspeople of Mitford gather to compete in a snowman building contest. Main Street becomes a hive of activity as news of the contest spreads. The promised prize of a dozen donuts from Winnie Ivey's Sweet Stuff Bakery ignites fierce and imaginative competition among the participants. In this brief tale, Karon masterfully draws the reader into the midst of the joyous festivities, and into the lives of her familiar cast of congenial characters. Though this delightful book is small, it is big enough on charm to fill the heart with Christmas cheer. ______________________________

Reviewed by Deborah O., Main Library

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

See more titles featured in `Tis the Season

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Meghann Dontess is a cutthroat divorce attorney with little life outside the office. Estranged from her little sister ever since Meghann left home at sixteen, she has convinced herself that she doesn’t need anyone in her life. When a client’s disgruntled husband threatens her peaceful but empty existence, she turns to her sister and begins to heal the gulf between them. She helps plan her sister’s wedding, gets to know her niece and faces every situation with strength and humor, but rarely with tact. She learns to open herself up to the joy and pain having a family can bring. Kristin Hannah has written an emotional story with interesting characters, a moving plot and a happy ending.

Reviewed by Karen K., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Anna Lutz Abbott, a mid-thirtyish mother and hairdresser, decides to get a firm grip on her life by moving out of her father's house and returning to the Isle of Palms, a magical coastal address where all who walk there are swept up into an idyllic cosmic dance and become one sweet sound in that lowcountry universe. As she struggles to declare her independence and reaffirm her status as a woman ripe-for-romance, Anna comes to terms with some thorny issues from her past: her mother's death, the circumstances of her daughter's birth, and her relationship with her father. Dottie Frank has created another strong, lovable "steel magnolia". Her Sullivan's Island heroine even manages to make an appearance in this rollicking but sentimental tale.

Reviewed by Susanne W., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Summer has returned and the girls are back in full force. Carmen, Bridget, Tibby, and Lena are set to go their separate ways once again, carrying the "traveling pants" (unwashed, of course) with them as a symbol of their friendship and as a source of good luck. Lena can't stop thinking about Kostos, Bridget wants to rekindle her relationship with her grandmother, Tibby goes to film school, and Carmen deals with a mom who is falling in love. Through laughter and tears, Ann Brashares explores the issues surrounding love, family, and friendship in this sequel to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Reviewed by Christine B., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

“The bees came the summer of 1964, the summer I turned 14 “according to Lilly Owens, who looks back on her life-changing year living in South Carolina. Lily’s mother died when she was four and she blames herself. T. Ray, Lily’s father, grows impatient when she sees bees in her bedroom. Racists assault Rosaleen, Lily’s black nanny. Lily and Rosaleen flee Sylvan for Tiburon, a town written on the back of her mother’s Black Madonna picture. The black bee-keeping Boatwright sisters give them refuge and teach them about bee-keeping and worshiping the Black Madonna. Sue Monk Kidd prefaces each chapter with a bee fact and compares the life cycle of bees to humans in her debut novel. She captures the resilience of the human spirit.

Reviewed by Megan M., Main Library

See more titles featured in Tear Jerkers

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

There is a refreshing sweetness to Clyde Edgerton's Lunch at the Piccadilly. His characters are an extremely funny bunch of Southerners living ordinary lives in extraordinary ways. At the Rosehaven Convalescent Center, Mrs. Lil Olive is one of the lucky ones. Her nephew visits often, takes her and her friends to the mall cafeteria, and best of all, Lil's driver's license will not expire until she's 97. She and her friends convene daily on the rest home porch for socializing, but the action really starts rocking when freelance evangelical preacher and songwriter, L. Ray Flowers moves in. Inspired by the residents, Flowers develops a revolutionary idea to combine churches and nursing homes. The reader is quietly touched with the humanity of Edgerton’s amazing characters while shaking with laughter.

Reviewed by Susan C., Independence Regional

Read the Author Interview with Clyde Edgerton

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

When Faith's husband is transferred from Texas to Minnesota, a "stupid godforsaken frozen tundra," as Faith describes her new home, she feels overwhelmed by her twin toddlers and lonely for friendship. All that changes when she meets four unique friends and they begin the Freesia Court Book Club, soon to be renamed Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons. This fast paced novel spans four decades and touches on everything from the everyday issues of raising children and recipe swapping to the more serious issues of spousal abuse and family secrets. A wonderful story of five friends that will make you laugh out loud in one chapter and want to cry in the next. Landvik captures the essence of female friendship in this heartwarming novel.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

In Joan Medicott’s third outing The Spirit of Covington, the ladies lose their beloved farmhouse to a fire. Will the “Ladies of Covington” survive? Hannah, Grace, and Amelia are separated and their relationship is put under a microscope. Each woman faces the past and the present before looking to the future. Laura, Hannah’s daughter finds new love and faces strong feelings from the past that could affect her future. Will the farmhouse arise again? You bet!!

Reviewed by Linda B., North County Regional

Read the Author Interview with Joan Medlicott

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Lara enters a breast cancer chatroom to gather information for an upcoming doctor’s visit. She "meets" Susan a breast cancer survivor and forms an online friendship. Soon they begin to share personal information about their lives including jobs, husbands and children. Rarely more than a few days pass without an e-mail, as the women strengthen their friendship with supportive and loving messages. They serve as a support system to each other as each face crises in their lives, both large and small. The well-written e-mails between these two strong women will make you smile and weep as they get to know each other and you get to know them.

Reviewed by Karen K., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Hope Springs, NC is the small-town setting for this engaging story exploring the friendships of five women. Having worked on their church’s cookbook committee, the ladies realize how much they value and care about each other. As they continue to confide and trust in one another over such issues as personal faith, cancer, and family problems, their bonds grow stronger. Although the Community Garden Club never meets, the club’s newsletter with its gardening information and pithy, sometimes earthy, personal advice introduces each new shared experience. This wonderfully understated novel allows the reader to see the depth of understanding among the women. With friends like these, regardless of the questions and doubts that arise from personal crises, one finds that hope springs eternal.

Reviewed by Charles D., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Imagine not being able to fulfill your basic needs because you are being held captive as a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War. Porter Halyburton, a Navy pilot from Davidson, North Carolina, and Fred Cherry, an Air Force pilot, courageously endured such barbaric conditions for eight years. Their heartwrenching, personal accounts are brought to life in Two Souls Indivisible. Written much like a novel, Two Souls places you inside the vicious prison walls that held well over five hundred United States servicemen captive during the Vietnam War. Tortured, denied the opportunity to shower, held in solitary confinement for extensive periods of time, and operated on without the use of anesthetics were some of the things these courageous men had to endure for eight years. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Vickie C., West Boulevard Branch

See more titles featured in NOVELLO Festival of Reading

See more titles featured in War is Hell

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

This uplifting book describes the history of the Red Hat Society, which was formed by Sue Ellen Cooper, a California graphic artist, as an antidote for middle-aged women who feel unappreciated and invisible in today’s society. Cooper was originally inspired by Jenny Joseph’s poem "Warning" which includes the lines:

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.

When Cooper started sending red hats to her friends as birthday presents, she created a trend. Soon her friends were hosting teas in public places, decked out in red hats and purple dresses, and they gained public attention wherever they went. Chapters started forming all over the country. The book includes colorful drawings of Ruby Red Hat, the official mascot of the Red Hat Society. This is an inspiring work which should encourage women to have fun.

Reviewed by Mady K., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Marking a day [11-19-1999] as being unusual, author Lynne Hinton proceeds to reveal to her reader through the voice of her main character, Jean Clover Witherspoon, a rich and powerful story, in the first person, entitled: The Last Odd Day. Born in the Carolina mountains to a mother who is Cherokee and father who is a blind man, Jean shares many unique moments that weave the fabric of her life in a novel of only 182 pages. "In the end, it isn’t how you count things that matters, it’s how the things that matter count," Jean tells her neighbor Maude. There are many rich analogies throughout this short novel that enrich your heart as you become acquainted with Jean Witherspoon. The charming way the author describes the truisms that Jean recounts in life from teenage to seventies are what draws a reader through this wonderful story.

Reviewed by Diane W., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Anyone who belongs to a church will love Philip Gulley's books. This is his 4th book, the only fiction book, the other three are non-fiction. All are delightful and you can either see yourself or another member of your congregation. It also takes you back to simpler times. In this particular book the congregation is always looking for ways to increase the church's profit margins. One person in particular brainstorms a progressive nativity scene that will involve the whole town. With this comes chaos, but out of the chaos the true meaning of Christmas is drawn. This book makes you laugh and think why it is that the occasions that change the least are often the very occasions that change us the most. A good read!

Reviewed by Carol S., South County Regional

Read the Author Interview with Philip Gulley

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

See more titles featured in `Tis the Season

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

The Same Sweet Girls, or SSGs as they call themselves, met in college, freshman year, when they all got in trouble with the dean during a school activity and were confined to their dorm as punishment. Almost 30 years later they’re still meeting twice a year for a weekend of friendship, support and silliness. This book is told from the point of view of three of the six “girls”, switching back and forth from chapter to chapter. From the point of view of these narrators, you learn the past of the six women and follow their story as they deal with the present. This book won’t change your life, but it will make you appreciate your own friendships, both old and new.

Reviewed by Karen K., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Penny is just a tad angry with her conservative and frugal husband, Daniel. She wants to do more than bake luscious cherry cheesecakes and banana muffins for the colorful locals, but he wants to keep their partnered enterprise, “Muldoon’s Tea Rooms” under undivided attention. Here is where Sadie falls off her diet wagon, and while gobbling down a luscious dessert inadvertantly sees her husband with a belle femme, while Henry Blackstock comes in to console himself after his socialite wife tells him that she will, by golly, construct a ‘conservatory’ for her book club - not caring a whit that she will destroy his beloved garden in the process! Belfast, Ireland is the setting for this amusing novel about a tea room where a gaggle of fascinating characters sip their Prince Wales tea, share their fantasies, heartaches, and secrets, and give the reader an entertaining glimpse into another world not unlike our own.

Reviewed by Rosanne L., Matthews Branch

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

This is a story about four women from different walks of life becoming friends through a knitting club, through each one's troubles and tribulations. Lydia owned the yarn shop; Carol, who longed for a baby; Josephine, from high society, better than everyone else - or so she thought; and Alix, so very different from the rest. This heartwarming story will help you understand why our friendships are so special and how we are so bound together, no matter what background we come from. Definitely a page turner!

Reviewed by Emily C., Matthews, NC

Read the Author Interview with Debbie Macomber

See more titles featured in Hobbies: Fact and Fiction

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

This novel, the latest in the Circle of Quilters series, transports us back in time as we learn about the ancestors of the current Elm Creek Quilters. This story takes us on a journey to California during the roaring twenties with bride and groom, Elizabeth and Henry Nelson. They leave the comfort of their family homestead in Pennsylvania to strike out on their own, only to find loneliness and hardship. Swindled out of their life savings they are forced to begin working for others on the land they thought was theirs. We are transported back even further to the 1800s as we get to know Rosa Diaz and her ancestors. How Rosa, Elizabeth, Henry and the Jorgensen’s learn to live with each other is a moving tribute to the pioneer’s persevering spirit.

Reviewed by Sherry J., Sugar Creek

See more titles featured in Historical Fiction

See more titles featured in Hobbies: Fact and Fiction

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

When Mary Baxter's only child dies suddenly, she is completely lost. She feels like she can't do anything to ease her grief. When her mother suggests knitting, Mary thinks there is no way she could concentrate enough to learn how to knit. But, reluctantly she joins a knitting circle and starts learning. As Mary learns various knitting techniques, she also gets to know the members of the knitting circle. As she spends time with the other members Mary begins to realize that she is not the only person suffering. Finally Mary begins to open up to the group about her own loss and realizes that knitting helped save her from her grief. The Knitting Circle is a heart-warming book about the power of relationships.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Hobbies: Fact and Fiction

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Those who enjoy McCall Smith’s series, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, will like the Isabel Dalhousie novels as well. Isabel, a philosopher, views the world through the lens of moral ethics. Once she becomes aware of an injustice, her conscience requires that she take steps to find a solution. This habit often prompts her to get involved in the affairs of others against the better judgment of her friends. In this installment, Isabel discovers a mystery involving some valuable paintings. Her investigation leads to some unusual discoveries. The Isabel Dalhousie novels are set in Edinburgh and are peppered with references to Scottish literature, music, art and poetry. These are gentle novels for those who prefer introspection over action.

Reviewed by Catie R., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Series Fiction

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Hairdresser Lacy Brown travels to the town of Mule Hollow with her best friend and colleague Sheri to start a new life. What she is not doing is answering the “WIVES NEEDED” newspaper ad from the town! Quirky, accident-prone Lacy “announces” her presence in town by getting into a car accident with Clint Matlock. It doesn’t take long for Lacy to find ways to shake up the small town (and Clint) and she joins forces with a group of matchmaking, middle-age Christian women. But while Lacy is trying to help others find love, she unwillingly falls in love herself. This is the first in a series of romance novels by Clopton about the residents of Mule Hollow. It is fast-paced and fun with a faith message.

Reviewed by Jeanenne R., Steele Creek Branch

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Learn to play the violin, made it on to my list after reading this refreshing warm-hearted tale from Debbie Macomber. Twenty wishes, a new Blossom Street novel follows the life of a group of widows who gather one valentine’s night to celebrate friendship and decide to act on their own hopes and wishes for the future. Anne Marie wants to go to Paris with someone she loves, Eloise wants to go on a hot air balloon ride and Barbie wants to find a love that will change her life. All of the women begin fulfilling their wishes, but maybe not the original intent of the wish. After reading this inspiring novel you’ll be making your wish list too.

Reviewed by Sherry J., Sugar Creek

Read the Author Interview with Debbie Macomber

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

This is the fourth book in the Elm Creek Quilting series, and so far the most interesting historically. Sylvia Compson decides she wants to find her family's quilts made during the Civil War. She finds the quilts in an old trunk in her attic, but wrapped in the quilts she discovers a memoir written by her great great aunt Gerda. In the memoir, Sylvia discovers shocking new clues about her family's mysterious history, including evidence that their quilts were used as signals to runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. This is a great book to read if you're a historical fiction fan!

Reviewed by Amy H., Steele Creek Branch

See more titles featured in Historical Fiction

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

In the follow up to her debut novel Love Walked In, de los Santos reacquaints readers with Cornelia and Teo as they adapt to life as a married couple living in upscale suburbia. Will Cornelia be satisfied with the quiet and stability she craves after the thrill of life in Manhattan? How does the couple learn to navigate the challenging terrain of modern day marriage? Narrated in the voices of three major characters – free spirited Cornelia, society “viper” Piper and child genius Dev - the author expertly weaves themes of friendship, trust, motherhood and love. The poetic language will appeal to fans of literary fiction, while authentic, well-developed characters and a compelling plotline will have those looking for a good story reading into the night.

Reviewed by Staci F., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Fathers and Sons

See more titles featured in 2008 Holiday Gift Guide

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

When Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett and Ally meet in Palo Alto, California in the late 1960’s, they are all housewives taking their children to the park. Over the next few years they begin writing and critiquing each other’s work – some even getting published. As the country changes radically over the next few years, dealing with Vietnam, the women’s movement and putting a man on the moon, The Wednesday Sisters, as they began calling themselves, deal with life changes as well. Each woman is changed by their friendship and each finds themselves somewhere in their life they never expected to be. This is a wonderful story that celebrates the power of friendship.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Chick Lit

See more titles featured in Books for Book Clubs

See more titles featured in Historical Fiction

See more titles featured in Feel Good Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.