The Good Left Undone by AdrianaTrigiani

 Adriana Trigiani has returned to Italy for her multigenerational novel, The Good Left Undone, coming out in April. Meet the women of the Cabrelli family including Matelda Cabrelli Roffo, the family matriarch in the present-day timeline of the story.

Matelda, facing the final years of her life in Viareggio, Italy, decides it is time to part with her family secret about her mother Domenica Cabrelli. Matelda narrates the story of her mother starting in 1920 when Domenica, an intelligent, high energy 11-year-old girl, befriends the town outcast, Silvio. When Silvio is once again attacked by a group of boys and nearly loses his eye this time, Domenica helps the doctor attend to Silvio’s injured face, realizing her purpose in life.

When she is older, Domenica studies to become a nurse, but before her education is complete, she is sent away from Viareggio because a fuss was raised by the Catholic priest when Domenica gives  a young mother a pamphlet about birth control. Domenica goes to Marseilles, France, for further training while the situation she created in Viareggio calms down. However, a world war alters her plans completely.

An aspect of World War II that many may not know is that much like the Japanese were interred in camps in America during the war, Italians living in Great Britain were interred in camps there before being removed to other countries. Domenica’s life is drastically changed when one of the ships ferrying the prisoners across the seas is attacked by the Germans. When she is finally able to return home, she will have a new last name and a 6-year-old Matelda.

Adriana Trigiani is the New York Times bestselling author of 18 books in fiction and nonfiction. She is also an award-winning film director and screenwriter, playwright, and television writer and producer. She wrote and directed the award-winning major motion picture Big Stone Gap, based on her debut novel, filmed entirely on location in her Virginia hometown. She lives in Greenwich Village with her family.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting February 27, 2022.

I would like to thank PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

 

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth

 Sally Hepworth falls short of her previous novels in her latest, the Younger Wife. Readers are supposed to find Stephen Aston magnanimous – loving husband, wonderful father, successful cardiac surgeon, blah, blah, blah --  but how so when he already is married and is making plans to divorce his Alzheimer’s-inflicted wife Pam  to marry a woman younger than his adult daughters? Furthermore, his daughters are hanging out with the new younger wife-to-be instead of being up in arms that their father would treat their mother this way.

Everybody has secrets in this story, except seemingly for Stephen with his outward cheating on his sick wife. He takes the new woman to dinner with friends of his and Pam’s. Only one person rings true in that scenario – a friend of Pam’s who stands up for the ailing wife. Stephen also takes the homewrecker to professional functions.

While Stephen seems to be living out in the open with his mistress, readers learn that both of his daughters have serious problems as well as does his mistress -- problems involving rape, kleptomania, and alcoholism

While readers usually have to brace themselves for a mind-blowing ending in Hepworth’s books, this time they will be puzzling over it instead.

Having read all of Hepworth’s novels, I found myself disappointed in this one, hoping it is just a one-off. She is the bestselling author of eight novels including The Good Sister. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family.

 

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian seems to be channeling Agatha Christie in his latest novel, The Lioness, in which a party of nine travelers to the Serengeti dwindles down in this mystery-thriller-historical fiction all rolled up into one fast-paced book. Hollywood actress Katie Barstow is getting married, and just for fun she wants to take special people in her life on an after-honeymoon photo trip to Africa.

The expedition is hardly underway when the vacationers are overtaken by Russian mercenaries. The political climate in 1964 was such that Moscow was meddling in Africa as it was believed that Africans would embrace the Russian model of socialism as part of a plan for modernization. But what did that have to do with a group of people whose lives were involved in acting, writing, and publicizing in Hollywood? Just who was the target of this attack?

Each chapter is introduced with a gossipy blurb about one of the safari bound, be it about Katie, her psychologist brother, her actress friend, or her recent co-star. Bohjalian builds suspense throughout the mystery by bringing one chapter to a close in the midst of high dramatic tension and plunging into the next chapter from a different character’s point of view.

A trip to Africa is treacherous enough with all the things that could happen such as animal attacks and snake bites without confrontations and threats by ruthless Russian thugs.  The number in the vacationing party diminishes  as the tension builds toward a climax of betrayal and more killings. Those who survive will never be the same.

Chris Bohjalian is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 24 books. His books have been translated into 35 languages. A few of his books have been made into movies, and his The Flight Attendant became a big series hit for HBO. His books have been chosen as Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Hartford Courant, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, and Salon.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting February 17, 2022.

I would like to thank Doubleday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

 

 

 

The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson

 Following the success of her first book in this series and spurred on by her fans, Kentucky author Kim Michele Richardson’s second book, The Book Woman's Daughter, will arrive in stores in May. Cussy Mary, the beloved book woman, takes a backseat in this story as the protagonist is her daughter Honey Mary-Angeline Lovett.

When Honey’s parents are arrested for violating miscegenation laws, 16-year-old Honey must survive without them in the rugged Kentucky mountains or else be caught and sent away to the orphans’ home or to the House of Reform, neither a kind option. With a lawyer’s help, Honey can stay in Troublesome Creek with a guardian designated by her parents.

Blue-skinned like her biological parents and Cissy Mary because of a genetic condition called methemoglobinemia, Honey can cover up the blue with socks and gloves, as those are the only areas on her body that turn blue.  While those who know her love her, Honey is an outcast among others.

When Honey’s guardian Loretta passes away, Honey decides she must show the courts that she can take care of herself. Turns out, the old packhorse library route is to be started up again, and with Cussy Mary’s faithful mule Junia, Honey secures the job delivering books to those living remotely in the Appalachians.

The husband of one of her patrons soon proves to be the villain of the story as he not only runs Honey off his property, threatening her so she does not bring reading material to his abused wife, he also preys on two women in Troublesome Creek, one a miner working to support herself and her child after the death of her husband and the other a troubled young girl with a pet rooster.

When the state challenges Honey’s status as someone her age trying to become emancipated, the decision for Honey to be on her own or sentenced to the House of Reform until she is 21 is in the hands of a judge.

Kim Michele Richardson, best known for The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, brings history to life as she is inspired by both the “blue people” of Kentucky and the brave packhorse librarians who contributed to increased literacy levels among those isolated in the hills.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting February 1, 2022.

I would like to thank Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.