'Tis the Season by Lorna Landvick

'Tis the Season

I have been a huge fan of Lorna Landvick's since I first read "Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons." She writes in the spirit of Fannie Flagg (author of "Fried Green Tomatoes." So when I saw her new book, I had to pick it up. I have to say, it was a little hard to get into at first. My disclaimer here is that my two kids are home sick today, so I was reading it in between hugs, medicine, doctor's visits and snacks.

Landvick uses a series of e-mails and letters to move the characters along. Caroline, the main character, is an heiress gone wild. Her drunk rampages have become the thing of legends. When an "apology" letter she wrote gets in the hands of a gossip writer, all her friends find out what she really thinks of them. As she starts seeing her friends turn away from her, she starts accepting the role she's played in her crazy life. She starts trying to make amends with people from her past and reaches out to her former nanny and a couple who owned a ranch where she was sent as a child. Surprising to her, she hears back from her nanny and the cowboy who remember her dealing with a difficult period of her life.

Landvick does a great job of inserting the right amount of humor and grace in the story. As we hear more about Caroline and her life, she moves from spoiled heiress to a lost soul. You can't help but root for her and her true friends.

I enjoyed the book and managed to read it in one day despite playing nurse all day. It's a sweet story and would be great for someone looking for a light read.

Book Review: "Grace" by Richard Paul Evans

Grace by Richard Paul Evans

What a wonderful book! I read the entire book in under an hour and a half. The story follows a young man who befriends a runaway during a time when child abuse was ignored. In addition to dealing with his own family's concerns about money and illness, the young man learns about the beauty and cruelty in life as he falls in love with Grace.

Not quite a tearjerker for me, but definitely a book to make you think. There's a realization that none of us do enough to protect the children we briefly come in contact with because we are sometimes too afraid to become involved.

It's a quick read that compares itself to "The Little Match Girl" in terms of theme. The story is well written and the input from Grace's journal at the beginning of each chapter does a great job of setting up the coming action.

If you want a good book that's a quick read, Grace is for you.