Author: Laila Ibrahim

I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this sequel to Yellow Crocus, but I did. All the main characters are back and, after the Civil War has ended, they are pulled, for various reasons, back to the South. Conditions there are hardly any better for the “freed” slaves and it looks as though they may never get back to their lives in Ohio.

Goodreads Rating ****

Author: Marissa Stapley

It was interesting at the beginning of each chapter to learn about the mating relationships of different birds and animals. It was fun to watch for that specific bird or animal to show up in the chapter I was reading. What was less interesting was reading about the relationships of the four main characters – a mother and her three adult daughters.

Goodreads Rating **

Author: Joanna Goodman

I follow a group on Facebook called Literary Hoarders. When this book was promoted I checked at our library and, although it was out at the moment, it was in their collection. I picked it up just a few days ago and I couldn’t put it down.

Maggie and Gabriel live next to each other in rural Quebec and begin meeting in the cornfields that border their properties. Maggie’s father is a staunch Englishman while Gabriel’s family are French. Although married to a Frenchwoman himself, Maggie’s father forbids her from seeing Gabriel. Maggie is sent to live on a distant farm where she finds herself pregnant. Maggie is uncertain whether her baby is Gabriel’s or the result of her rape by her uncle. Maggie cuts off all contact with Gabriel. When the baby is born Maggie’s father makes arrangements for it to be taken away and Maggie only catches a glimpse of her daughter. The book follows the lives of Maggie and her daughter, Elodie (“Melody without the M”).

It is a fact that during the 1950’s in Quebec unwanted and unadopted children were placed in orphanages run by the Church. Under Duplessis reign in Quebec he initiated a scheme to turn all orphanages into mental institutions thereby acquiring more Federal funding for the province.

Elodie has never been adopted and is eventually diagnosed as mentally retarded; her life in the orphanage was not good, but life in a mental hospital was almost unbearable. Although it isn’t an easy path, Maggie, Gabriel and Elodie eventually are able to connect.

Goodreads Rating * * * * *

Author: Lisa Jackson

This apparently is a rewrite (by the author) of an earlier book. I’ve read and enjoyed Lisa Jackson’s books before but I don’t think I’d ever read the first version of the book.

A child born from a one-night-stand between two cousins has been adopted with the understanding that the adopted mother and her son would disappear from Boston where the wealthy family involved wanted to avoid a scandal. Of course eventually they want the child back again and therein lies the story.

The book was predictable but, that being said, I couldn’t put it down and read it from start to finish over the weekend.

Goodreads Rating * * *