Mercy Snow

Title: Mercy Snow
Author: Tiffany Baker
Published: January 14th 2014 by Grand Central Publishing
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Genre: Fiction

I think it is a love hate relationship that I have with Tiffany Baker - I love her books, I get excited when I hear that she has a new one coming out, but at the same time, I dread them. Maybe it is me, maybe I become too invested in the characters, but by the end of the book, I find myself depressed. I adore the broken characters and even though I hope for the best, I know that they face the inevitable.

Ms. Baker draws full characters that seem to be stuck in a situation that they have very little to no control over, I do not want to say that they are victims of their circumstances, but there are no other words to describe them. Mercy Snow takes place in the paper mill town of Titan Fall, New Hampshire where the once thriving industry is in a down turn, the Androscoggin River is heavily polluted and the town has been hit with an accident involving a church bus and a much-loved young woman dead.

The McAllister family owns the mill and rules the town, but this accident has hit too close to home for them. Nate was in love with Suzie his whole life, but Suzie has a secret, she has seen Cal in town with another woman and now with Suzie is dead and the McAllister’s need to control this situation before everything is lost.

Enter the Snow children, Mercy, Hannah and Zeke. The last thing that this town wants is to be reminded of their father Pruitt and yet Mercy will not let go. She is determined to have this town remember her family and when the bones of Gert Snow are revealed and her relationship to the McAllister’s is brought to light.

There is not one character wasted in this book. Even Fergus the bus driver and his wife Hazel have intricate parts. At times, I think that Hazel took center stage and held all the pain that everyone was feeling.

There is magic in this book. The people, the places, the unspoken communication between Hannah and Gert, and the healing of the towns ailments. The answers were there and it did not begin with a red mitten, that is what might have caused the downfall, but it took a bunch of ragtag orphan’s to open the windows and bring light back to this town and the people and struggles that were being faced.

The Dress Shop of Dreams

Title: The Dress Shop of Dreams
Author: Menna van Praag
Expected Publication: December 30th 2014 by Ballantine Books
Format: eBook; Paperback, 336 pages
Genre: Magical Realism
Source: Netgalley

Magical Realism, not a genre I am familiar with or one that I intentionally went looking for, but that is what I found from the first page of this book. I found myself sinking into the lives of Cora and all those that entered the little dress shop, a place of wonder that just seemed to know the right music to play when a person walked through the door.

At first, I was not too sure how everyone fit together, but as the story went along, I realized that I was reading a braid. I know that sound funny, but all the couples, or the people that should have been couples were interwoven in the most curious of ways.

Cora Carraway – Orphaned as a young girl and was raised by her grandmother in the dress shop. She has grown into a brilliant scientist who is now questioning the death of her parents. She spends her days lost in her own world where the only constant is numbers.

Ella Sparks – Cora’s grandmother. The owner of the dress shop, on All Saints’ Passage, who spends her days sewing beautiful dresses that make the owner’s realize their true potential (wear this dress and you’ll find what your missing: confidence, courage, power, love, beauty, magnificence….) by sewing a special little star into the seams of the dresses with her needle and red thread weaving possibility into their dreams.

Walt – Since he was four years old, Walt has been in love with Cora but she has never taken notice of him. He spends his days working in the bookshop that he has dreamed of his whole life and recently has taken a second job as the Night Reader on the local radio station narrating books that appeal to his female listeners, but embarrasses him.

Father Sebastian – Spends his days listening to the confessions of others but is hiding his own secret.

Dylan – Who is replying to the letters that Walt has been receiving at the station. This is the outlet that he needs to help him stay in touch, since so much of his time has been taken up caring for his ill father. Listening to the Night Reader has opened up emotions that he thought were long since dormant.

Officer Henry Dixon and his wife Francesca – Henry never stopped loving his wife and until that decisive moment, Henry had no idea why Francesca wanted to take their son Mateo back to Italy. Once all the words were said, the picture became clear and Henry loved her even more for it.

Milly – who closed herself off from the world, after the death of her husband, until she heard the Night Reader. With the perfect dress from the shop, she was going to make Walt fall in love with her. Little did she know, but her heart was really in love with someone else.

Intertwined with passages of the books that Walt is reading on air, the Dress Shop of Dreams takes the reader through the trials that each face in finding the one true person that they are meant to be with. Part romance, part magic, the Dress Shop of Dreams grabs the reader from the very first moment and holds on until the very last page, the very last word, when the writing in the journal that Walt’s mother had left for him is revealed. Walt has spent years trying to decipher the symbols in this journal. He knows that it has to be important, but he just cannot decode this message. That is until the right person discovers the answer. That is an awesome moment and the perfect ending to this wonderful book.

Son of God

Diogo Morgado ... Jesus
Sebastian Knapp ... John
Greg Hicks ... Pilate
Darwin Shaw ... Peter
Joe Wredden ... Judas
Roma Downey ... Mary, Mother of Jesus

Until I had read other reviews, I had no idea that this was a repackaging of The Bible miniseries, so I did not go into it with tainted eyes and a feeling of it being a misrepresentation.

What I did come away with was a beautiful movie that highlighted the familiar parts of the New Testament. You would have had to already know the who’s and why’s but for the most part, the story played out. Beginning with a quick replay of the Old Testament to get the viewer up to speed, then delving into all the stuff that I remember from Sunday school ending with a brutal depiction of the crucifixion and closing with the resurrection.

Are there things that I would have preferred that they correct before the movie hit the big screen? Of course, but that would have involved Roma Downey never having had plastic surgery and the voice coach hired to help Diogo Morgado paying better attention, and Mary, Mary, and the other Mary being better defined for the viewer.

Overall, would I recommend it? Yes. Do I now think that I just might have to rent The Bible to see all the other parts that I missed? Yes

Berried to the Hilt

Title: Berried to the Hilt
Author: Karen MacInerney
Published: November 8th 2010 by Midnight Ink
Format: Paperback, 278 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: A Gray Whale Inn Mystery #4

First I have to get off my chest my absolute dislike of Karen MacInerney going back and forth calling the same character Eli and Eleazar. Yes, I know that Eli can be an abbreviated version, but the first couple of times, my brain wanted to separate the two into two different people.

Berried to the Hilt has a couple of things going on. Innkeeper Natalie Barnes has been volunteered to be the judge of Cranberry Island’s annual cranberry bake-off which has half the island stopping by with little samples, a lobsterman has found what appears to be the remains of Davy Blue’s pirate ship, treasure hunters and academics are now camped out at her inn until ownership can be decided, a food writer from New York is work’cationing at the inn, and then there is the body of one of the treasure hunters who appears to have been stabbed by Eli/Eleazer’s sword.

Natalie’s life is a balancing act but she is determined to prove Eli/Eleazer innocent even if it involves a harrowing midnight run to find a killer before she has to be up bright and early to bake muffins for her guests.

This is an easy going series. The recurring characters are interesting and just when Natalie gets herself in too deep, her dependable fiancé is there to help her whether it be finding a killer or creating a salad dressing and one day they just might be able to get around to setting a wedding date. That is unless another body turns up.