Reviewing: All Booked Up by Melody Carlson

 ...from the publisher....Empty nester and widow Riva Owen lives in the Victorian house that's been in her family for three generations, but finances have become a challenge she can no longer ignore. Her daughter is pushing her to move, and after considering all her options, Riva knows selling would be the smartest course. But she just can't bring herself to leave years of memories--and her cherished library filled with hundreds of books.

When she pursues an alternative--opening her home to women like her who have been forced to make lifestyle changes and need a room to rent--Riva is unprepared for the mix of personalities and peculiarities of her new housemates. She is even more unprepared for Marcus, the handsome and handy older brother of one of her new tenants. The possibility of finding love again feels overwhelming, even as her tenants seem to have romantic schemes of their own.

Warm your heart with a contemporary romance story of found family, booklovers, new beginnings, and an unexpected second chance at love in Melody Carlson's delightful signature style.

...my thoughts...This is a wonderful story for those readers like myself who enjoy a good story written by Melody Carlson.  She has a way with creating believable characters who resonate with her readers. All Booked Up begins with Riva, surrounded by the wonderful books in her family library. Her daughter is heading out to begin her career. 

Lonely and overwhelmed at the prospect of packing up a home that has been in her family for generations, she is hit with an idea to combat not only her loneliness but a way to keep her home in a surprising way.  Challenged to attend a grief support group, she encounters her first tenant. One thing leads to another and soon she has three tenants, all women of a certain age, who will meld together four unique personalities into one charming victiorian home.  Indeed, what starts out as a solution to remaining in her own home turns into a sometimes fun, sometimes daunting situation.  

Reaching onto the shelves of her beloved library, she has a book for each woman to read, that has incidental similarities of the reader in mind. There always seems to be one troublemaker in a crowd and Jane Austen emerges to rescue a situation that threatens to disrupt the household for good. 

All Booked up is a character study that enlightens us all about our friendships, expectations, unexpected romance and a little empathy.  I laughed a lot, got misty eyed and was glad I read this book. 

Reviewing: The Beginner's Quilt by Wanda Brunstetter

 The Beginner's Quilt is a prequel to Wanda Brunstetters's popular  Half-Stitched Amish Quilters Club series.  Fans of this series will enjoy meeting Emma as a young woman who funbled to find any talents suitable for any young woman preparing for her future.  She'd much rather pursue fishing or hiking to sewing or cooking. To help Emma along, her mother sent her to Arthur, Illinois to spend the summer with her granparents. Hopefully, in addition to building her skills for homemaking, she could also overcome the painful shyness that prevented her from making friends or enjoying the singings the Amish young people in her community enjoyed attending.

While choosing fabric for a new dress to begin sewing lessons with her grandmother, she fell in love with the lovely quilts adorning the walls of the fabric store. Lucky for her, her grandmother's friend Ida Mae Yoder, was working at the store that day and invited Emma to take quilting lessons from her.  Emma's  love for the quilting process was a turning point for this young woman and gave her the lifelong gift of making beautiful quilts.

Ivan Yoder, a friendly young man took no time to notice Emma and learn how much they had in common.  Spending time with Ivan brought Emma out of her shell and allow her to spend time enjoying so many things she avoided doing at home.  It was by chance that Ivan, Ida Mae's son, came to be such a part of that summer visit to her grandparents. Were they who God destined for them to be together as husband and wife? 

Time and nature seem to give us tests in life, and this young couple was not exception.  A lost memory of a misadventure threatens to drive a wedge between Ivan and Emma. What we take for granted will happen doesn't always occur even under the best circumstances.  Love, forgiveness and faith provide the answers to most situations in life.

This is a sweet love story and written especially for fans of Wanda Brustetter and the wholesome Amish fiction so many of us enjoy. 

The Instant Kitchen Meal Prep Cookbook

The Instant Kitchen Cookbook lives up to its name! Fast, easy recipes with a lot of variety for today's busy cook. With great information on stocking your pantry with reasonable staple items, you can cook anything in this book, becaue Coco shows you how to simply do some meal prep for fast weekday nights. I enjoyed the mixes for seasoning blends for Jo-jo potatoes, Taco seasoning, without a foil packet and a lovely recipe for tartar sauce to name just a few. With these recipes you can definitely eat out less, and enjoy home cooked meals, three times a day, seven days a week. Check this book out at your favorite bookseller and give your meal prep a new spin for a new year.