Book Review | Book Chatter

Promises of the Heart
By Nan Rossiter
Harper, 9780062972132, February 4, 2020, 384pp.

The Short of It:

This story is full of heart. It’s a story about acceptance, new beginnings and continuing to have faith in what you cannot see.

The Rest of It:

Macey and Ben appear to have it all but the one thing they miss the most is a family to call their own. After several miscarriages, Macey is beginning to wonder if they will ever have a child of their own. Ben, although supportive, has his doubts too. Especially when Macey sets her sights on a three-legged dog at an adoption event, and then meets Harper, a little girl in foster care who is in need of a new home.

I’ve read everything Nan Rossiter has written and enjoyed all if it. She has a way of pulling you in with likable characters, beachy settings, her extreme love of animals and food and drink! Promises of the Heart is a little different in that it tackles a topic she hasn’t written about before, the foster care system, but she does so through a hopeful approach while bringing the topic into focus.

I enjoy books like this because it forces you to go a little outside of your comfort zone. There are so many children in foster care and many couples who are not able to have children of their own but deciding to foster is not an easy decision and Rossiter presents this doubt in an honest, realistic way.

If you are familiar with her other books, The Gin and Chowder Club or Nantucket, you will notice a difference in tone with Promises of the Heart but the things that remain are still solid and true; wholesome relationships, steadfast faith, and relatable characters.

The author has offered me a copy to giveaway! If you’d like a chance to win a copy, check out the details below. Please note, the book releases in February 2020 so the winner may have to wait a short while to receive it.

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

This giveaway is for one copy of Promises of the Heart and is open to the US and Canada. A winner will be chosen randomly by me. The book will come directly from the publisher/author once released. Only one entry per person. Giveaway closes on January 5, 2020 (pacific). I will contact the winner for his/her mailing address.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!
(now closed)

Source: Review and giveaway copy provided by the publisher/author.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Family Upstairs
By Lisa Jewell
Atria Books, 9781501190100, November 2019, 352pp.

The Short of It:

As the title suggests, this is a book about a family but the type of family and the secrets they hold, slowly unfold into a story that I could not easily predict, which is a good thing!

The Rest of It:

The Family Upstairs is told from alternating points of view and jumps back and forth between the present day and the events of the past. Normally, this type of book frustrates me but here, I found it to work quite well.

One thread has Lucy on the street with her two young children. What happened to her? Why are they homeless? Another, involves Libby, a young woman who was adopted as a baby. She’s just been informed that she’s come into quite a large inheritance which makes her extremely curious about her past. In the last thread, we are introduced to the “family upstairs” and the sinister things going on that are revealed in pieces, bit by bit. ALL OF IT is related.

The Family Upstairs was THE book everyone was reading over Thanksgiving break and for once, I joined in. It took a little bit of time for me to get into the flow of it. All the time jumping slowed me down until about half-way through, when I began to turn the pages faster because it was all coming together in a way that piqued my interest.

I’ve read one other Jewell book, The Girls in the Garden and that was also very good. I remember adding all her books to my Kindle after reading that one, and I was not wrong to do so. I really like her style of writing. There’s a pulse to her work, a bit of tension that I enjoy but it’s not predictable or silly. I am loving these types of reads these days.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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