Lots of canning this week! First I did 10 pints and 4 quarts of green beans, and then I canned 4 pints and 7 half pints of Cinnamon Peach jam. I had peaches everywhere, and I’ve still got peaches left in the freezer. I’m going to make Amaretto Peach Jam soon. Doug likes the combination of Amaretto and Peach, but I have to go out and get the Amaretto.
I didn’t grow green beans, and I don’t have a peach tree (yet). I picked them up at a local farm (Darnell Farms). We’re almost through a half-pint of peach jam already.
I just love Fall, when all the produce starts coming in, and especially later when the leaves start changing. Expect some great pictures later when that starts happening.
I did want to share a rainbow we had a couple of weeks ago. It was so bright and complete. It’s the best one I’ve seen in a while.
Emily’s heart soars as the stone cottage on the cliff comes into view – it is just as she remembered. As she pushes open the weather-beaten door, she wonders if returning to this place will be a chance to start again…
Heartbroken and searching for a new beginning, Emily is shocked to learn she has inherited her great-aunt Violet’s cottage. She remembers summers spent running through its rose garden, but she hasn’t seen her great-aunt in years… So why did she leave her Clifftop Cottage?
Deciding this is the fresh start she needs, Emily travels to the seaside village of Dovecote. Not long after she arrives, she bumps into her childhood love, Will. As he runs his hand through his chestnut-brown hair, she can’t help but think of what happened between them all those years ago…
When Will offers to help redecorate the cottage, Emily is unsure. He broke her heart once before; could he do it again? But she is soon distracted when she finds a leather diary dating back to the Second World War hidden inside an old desk. Turning the pages, she discovers a wartime romance she knew nothing about. Why did Violet keep this secret?
As Emily and Will grow closer while investigating her family history, she wonders if Dovecote could be the place she finally calls home. But can she trust Will to help her uncover a long-buried family secret? And, if she does, will this forgotten diary mend her broken heart, and give her the happy ending she’s looking for?
BOOK REVIEW
Right after enduring a breakup, Emily arrives at her great-aunt’s cottage in Dovecote, which to her surprise, she has inherited. When she finds Violet’s diary, however, everything starts to make sense.
The descriptions of the horror, loss, and heartache of the London Bltz during WWII are well done. The weaving together of the two timelines works well and makes sense. The descriptions of Clifftop Cottage completely bring it alive for the reader, and I could imagine myself there. The present-day romance between Emily and Will, however, is a bit predictable.
The secret being kept by Violet in the 1940s is one with which Emily can identify, and their stories meld together pretty well. Sometimes dual-timeline books do not work, especially if one of the timelines is in the present day, but in this case the present-day inclusion makes sense, as Emily and Violet share much in common.
The novel has LGBTQ+ main characters, but the publisher’s book description does not mention that. It is made clear, however, early in the book. Fans of WWII and LGBTQ+ fiction may enjoy this novel.
Although this is the second book in the Dovecote Cottages series, it can be read as a standalone.
My rating is 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on sites with no half-star option.
Thank you to Bookouture for a spot on the book tour and the free copy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura writes uplifting escapist women’s fiction with heart and a dash of humour. She was born in Ireland and spent parts of her childhood in France and South Africa. Laura now lives in the south-west of England, where she works in Financial Services, and is locked in a constant battle against her ever-growing to-be-read pile.
When Alice Sanborn and best friend Jerushah cross paths with a bounty hunter in rural northern Vermont, the teens stage a daring rescue for former slave Sarah Johnson—but winter weather, politics, and challenges of mountain life bring more danger. It’s March 1850 in small-town Vermont, and tempers flare over the “right kind” of Abolition. When the two fifteen-year-olds suspect Alice’s older brother William is taking dangerous risks to shelter a fugitive hiding at the inn, they see Sarah’s safety at risk. With help from the skillful but mysterious Solomon McBride, the girls head toward the wilder countryside along the Canadian border. Perils abound, including back at home. Is it all Alice’s fault? What should she do? Even a teen can take strong action—but which way is right, and how can she choose?
BOOK REVIEW
The Long Shadow is a young adult novel set in Vermont prior to the Civil War. Best friends Alice and Jerushah have also become friends with a formerly enslaved child, Sarah Johnson, who had previously escaped to Vermont and is waiting on her parents to join her. When a bounty hunter arrives, looking for a man who escaped slavery and is being hidden by Alice’s brother William, the three girls and a friend, Solomon, find themselves on an adventure aimed at protecting Sarah, but they are all soon in danger. This is Book 1 of The Winds of Freedom series.
This is a well-written YA novel that does a great job of describing what life was like in 19th Century Vermont prior to the start of the Civil War. With Alice, the reader experiences Vermont farm life, including daily chores, caring for newborn lambs, and participating in a sugaring off. But another reality of life at that time was that the United States was heading towards a civil war, and the people who had escaped slavery were seeking refuge. I loved the relationship between Alice and her friends, the growth of Alice on her journey, and the willingness of so many people to help Sarah and keep her safe. I used to think that once an enslaved person escaped to the North, they were free, but money-hungry hunters of people were allowed to capture them even in free states, and the author portrays this so well in the person of Henry Clinton, bounty hunter.
The descriptions of the wilds of Northern Vermont at that time are beautifully done, and the book is impeccably researched. There is love, danger, and heartbreaking loss woven into this story of a tumultuous and terrible time in the history of Vermont, and of the United States. Highly recommended.
My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no half-star option.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Storytelling is Beth Kanell’s native language – and she learned it from her mother, who taught her to fill in the blanks as a story emerged. As a single parent in Vermont, for years she told stories “on the side” and developed a specialty in tales for teens (always starting with something scary!). Endlessly in love with Vermont, she began bringing the most fascinating parts of its history into her narratives, and discovered that what she really likes after all is writing fiction that explores the lives of young people caught up in the force of change. She is also a non-stop mystery reader, so she grapples for new and unusual plot twists, as well as the magic of the Green Mountain state.
PURCHASE LINK
*Click on the cover to purchase The Long Shadow
**Soon I will be reviewing Book 2: The Ardent Flame, and Book 3, The Bitter and the Sweet
It was a hectic July! We had the grandkids all month, and I was busy every minute. I lost some weight just following them around. Then the last week they were here, we picked up another family member, quite unexpectedly.
Doug was mowing outside, and a teeny kitten came running up to him full-tilt, with no concern apparently for the mower or for interacting with a human. His eyes were all matted, and he was skin and bones. We recognized him as one of the kittens of a feral cat that my cousin has been feeding. We knew she had had babies and they were living in an old, unused barn. But this baby was all alone and starving, and upon checking the barn, we found Mama and the other babies had departed and ditched him.
Doug brought him in and fed him milk with a syringe, and a couple of days later, Mama and his siblings moved underneath our shed, so we tried to reunite them. Again, they all moved and left him behind, and so he became part of our family. His name is Oliver PeeWee, or Opie for short! We still need to get our two dachshunds on board, however. Hopefully, they will accept him soon. They are starting to warm up. Cautiously.
The vet said he was about four weeks old, but only weighed 9 ounces! He has quickly gained weight since then. He has his own room and a much better living situation. He’s eating solid food as well. Some eye drops are clearing up his eye condition quickly.
We are going to try to trap the mama cat and get her spayed once she’s done feeding her kittens so this doesn’t happen again. We’re hoping some shelters will take the other kittens, but who knows?
Here are photos of Opie, both when Doug first found him and after he started improving:
I’ve also been busy with my reviews editor duties for Historical Novels Review, the magazine of The Historical Novel Society. The August issue just came out, and I’ve been sharing the reviews with the authors and publishers. The next issue comes out in November. There are four issues a year, and the mission is to share recently published (and forthcoming) historical fiction novels with as many people as possible.
THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG
On Tuesday, I’ll be reviewing The Long Shadowby Beth Kanell. This is the first book of her Winds of Freedom series, which has three books so far. I’ll be reviewing the whole series. On Wednesday, I’ll be reviewing My Great Aunt’s Diary as part of a Bookouture book tour. I’ll participate in Top Ten Tuesday, time permitting. I’m also trying to get some Indie reviews out now that the hectic part of summer is over
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