The Changing Season

This was supposed to be a simple summer for Billy; one more lazy expanse of time before college began. He'd fill the hours playing with Jimmy – his canine best buddy – going camping and doing all the things he promised Jimmy they'd do before Billy left.

But that was before the accident that shook the entire town.

It was before the summer job that turned into something so much more than a way to get a paycheck.

And it was before Vicki.

This summer was destined to be many things to Billy, things he didn't truly understand until now. But it was definitely not going to be simple.

*May Contain Spoilers*

 

Steven Manchester writes of a time between things in his novel The Changing Season, showing readers that the time after an ending, before a new beginning, is when everything can change. William Baker has just graduated high school and is getting ready to leave for college, but there's a single summer left to enjoy, discover, and learn a few more things.

 

Billy has no idea what he wants to do with his life, a feeling a lot of people can relate to. After high school ends, it's hard to decide where your life should go. Or where you want it to go, for that matter. Billy is a likeable character who's loyal to his friends and his moral compass seems right on target. My favorite thing about Billy was his love for animals. His best friend is a rescue on four legs named Jimmy and readers will easily see how much he cares for him. Though Billy questions what he should focus on going forward in life, it'll be glaringly obvious to readers. With one summer left before college, readers will watch Billy grow from a video-game playing slob of a teenage boy into a man with direction and purpose. This growth will solidify the bond between Billy and the reader.

 

The Changing Season begins just before high school graduation. Billy and his friends, Mark and Charlie, are all looking forward to their futures. In a horrible accident, Charlie plays a critical role in the death of a fellow graduate, testing his friendships, his future, and his freedom. Billy hears his friend's confession and tries to push him to do the right thing. Meanwhile, Billy falls in love and finds a full time summer job. With the truth hanging over his head, Billy must move forward. This coming of age novel will resonate with readers and leave them with hope, as most of Manchester's novels seem to do.

 

Rating: 3.5/5 Cups

Hemingway Point

When Jess spends the summer in her late grandmother's rambling Victorian summer cottage, she uncovers heart-rending mysteries and lost love. It has been seventeen years since Jess has last visited the elite lakefront summer club where she had spent the summers of her youth. 

Now, she returns with her photographer boyfriend who wants to write an article about the distinctive old house. Sifting through old letters and pictures she finds in a hidden trunk, Jess unravels long-hidden family secrets. Including, just maybe, the secret to her own heart.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Nora Carroll brings readers into the life of Jess Carpenter, a librarian who is called back to her summer vacation home after she inherits it from her grandmother, in her novel Hemingway Point. Though the story line is crafted to capture the love of readers, the novel itself falls short of expectations. 

Carroll intricately takes readers on a journey of discovering the truth about personal history. Jess believes she knows everything about her past, but while trying to sell her newly acquired property, she learns truths she would never imagine. I loved the plot of this novel. It has a great pace and more than enough enticement to grab the attention of any reader. 

Sadly, the editing of the novel takes away from the beautiful story. There were quite a few typos throughout the book that had me lost in confusion. At times, I had trouble concentrating on the story development because of the errors. 

I also felt I was creating half of the story in my head because of the dropped quotations in the dialogue. I had to mentally separate the dialogue that was actually being spoken and what was internal. It was a rather tough process and one that left me with a heavy sense of disappointment. I had to read the ending chapter twice just to have a faint idea of what happened with Jess and her first love. 

Another once-over would do this novel wonders, as the story is truly great. 

rating: 2/5 cups

Hemingway Point
on Amazon

A Little Love, a Little Mystery

By the end of Delivered With Love by Sherry Kyle, Claire had found more than she bargained for. What started as a search for her mother's teenage love turned into a passionate journey of discovery, forgiveness, and learning to live. The novel's ending may have seemed a little rushed, and a little to perfectly tied up, but the connections with the characters were definitely strong. 

The main character, Claire, is a woman who feels like she's at rock-bottom with no light to lead her from the darkness. Kyle does a wonderful job creating a friend for the reader with legitimate worries, fears, and problems. I felt myself wanting to skip a couple pages here and there just to figure out how it would all end up. Especially when it came to Blake - the police officer neighbor with perfect abs and master chef potential - who Claire discovers is sweeping her off of her feet. <3

Although this book has a lot of twists and turns, I was a little disappointed with the outcome because it seemed overly predictable. And after the question of who wrote the letter was answered, the rest of the novel sort of fell into place. However, Kyle did leave a few ends open for the reader's interpretation, which is always fun for the reader. 

Definitely a good book and one that I would recommend, if you're searching for a novel that mixes a little love with a little mystery. 

Delivered with Love on Amazon

Friend Instead of Character

Claire is getting closer to the truth about her mother's past and Michael is a little irked at the idea...

After finding a love letter written to her mother when she was only 17, Claire decided to search for the writer. Now she's in Capitola, California getting ready to move in to the house that the letter was sent from. The owner of the house, Michael, remembers her mother, Emily, but keeps his lips tight when questioned about the past.

Broke with worry nagging on Claire's very heartstrings, Michael decides that she would be the perfect person to live in the house and take care of his mother, Geraldine, for a small pay check and free room and board. But allowing Claire to be so close to his mother threatens to bring up the past, and Emily. He worries if his mother will be able to keep his secrets hidden from Claire while they live beneath the same roof.

Readers can relate to Claire's struggle and feel connected to her within the first few chapters. The basic needs of food and shelter, and how to pay for them, is something that everyone worries about. Readers will find themselves wishing they could be one of the characters helping Claire along her journey. In the novel Delivered with Love, Sherry Kyle writes Claire with faults and virtues, something many writers have trouble with, making Claire a friend to the reader, instead of just a character.

A Path to New Discoveries

Losing someone important in your life is always a hard obstacle to overcome. A cloud of mourning hangs constantly above your head and your life becomes shrouded in a dense fog.

Especially when it's your mother. I haven't personally experienced this, but it's (sadly) something that inevitably happens. This makes Claire, the main character of Delivered With Love by Sherry Kyle, easy to relate to. In the opening chapter, Claire's attending her mother's funeral. After a long battle with cancer, her mother dies and Claire is left feeling lost, confused, and broken.

When Claire finds a love letter that was written to her mother years ago that is signed only with an initial, she is drawn to finding out who wrote it. She searches for a new connection with her mother, a connection with a sense of closure that will finally allow her to accept that her mother has passed on.

With an unreliable VW bug and a map that leads the way to Santa Cruz, a place the letter mentions, Claire finds herself on a path to new discoveries.