Night of Miracles - Review

Night of Miracles  🌟🌟🌟🌟
by Elizabeth Berg
Published November 13 2018 by Random House

Books that are very sweet or saccharine are usually a big turn off.  But when there is literally sugary sweetness, as in cookies and cakes, and lots of them, count me in.  And with this author,  I am 100% in, knowing it's going to be a moving experience, as it was.

Lucille, alone in life but never lonely with all her good friends, has opened her house to baking classes, so there is much to drool over while she describes her goodies. Ancillary characters either work  in or go to the local restaurant for breakfast -- some will order an Overnight French Toast which makes its own syrup.  Yes, lots of sweetness.

As in Arthur Truluv, the characters that Berg has created are people you would want to know.  My favorites were Iris, a recent divorcee from Boston, trying out small town Missouri for the first time, and Tiny, a thoughtful, kind taxi driver and friend to all.  Oh, and little Link, Lucille's precocious neighbor boy whose mother has cancer.  

I enjoyed this tremendously, through lots of tears (happy tears and sad too), and recommend to anyone, especially if you liked Arthur Truluv.  If Ms. Berg writes more of these small town tomes, count me in.  

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.  4.5 stars.

Bring Me Back - Review

Bring Me Back  🌟🌟

by B. A. Paris
Published June 19 2018 by St. Martin's Press 

I have read all three of B A Paris'  books and find they follow a pretty similar pattern:  Intriguing start; slow, repetitious and annoying in the middle; and a surprising, out of left field ending.  At least she has had in all her efforts two-thirds of a good book in the making.  But to me that's not really enough.  When I read a chapter detailing events from one perspective,  and then the very same events are recounted from another perspective, the progress of the story stalls out and makes zero headway.  Even moreso when characters are on the unlikeable side.  My mind starts wandering...and wondering if I should finish.

I finish most things that I start, but here I admit to skimming some of the Russian doll rhetoric and much of the dialog.  The Layla and Ellen "transformations" were quite unbelievable in my opinion but I won't say any more than that.

An ARC  from NetGalley and the publisher.