Rutabaga's Reads 2023: Part 15

If you’re familiar with my blog, you’ll know that where a YA compilation post has cropped up, you’ll soon see an inspirational fiction (IF) compilation post. Presenting the second IF post.

A Match in the Making (Feb. 21, 2023) by Jen Turano.

<This is the first novel in a series.>

It’s the summer of 1888, and 25-year-old Miss Gwendolyn Brinley has accepted a paid companion position for the Newport summer season, which turns into an assistant matchmaker position, of which Gwendolyn has no experience whatsoever. Her thoughts of a relaxing summer away from being a paid companion to her dramatic cousin, Catriona Zimmerman, fly away after she’s tasked with the daunting prospect of finding advantageous matches for Mrs. Parker’s rich clientele (who pay Mrs. Parker in sparkly baubles, especially those from Tiffany & Co.). Traditionally, only the feminine set were aware of matchmakers, but after Gwendolyn overshares with Mr. Walter Townsend, she suddenly finds herself with Walter as the first male client. Walter is wealthy, handsome and annoying. An undeniably successful businessman, he’s looking for a new mother for his three unruly children (nine-year-old Oscar and five-year-old twins Priscilla and Samuel). Love doesn’t seem to be a factor in Walter’s pursuit of a new wife, only that he “rubs along nicely with her.” Gwendolyn encourages him to value love and get involved in his children’s lives, for he really doesn’t know them at all. Walter is struck by Gwendolyn – by her beauty, yes, but also by her confidence and her way with his children. As Ethel, Walter’s mother, puts it, Gwendolyn “certainly is uncommonly competent.” That is high praise from Mrs. Ethel Townsend, a Knickerbocker as well as a Townsend. As Gwendolyn’s Newport Season is besieged by society ladies, society matrons and the male set to boot, how will she find the love match she’s so determined to find for Walter? Will it come out that Gwendolyn is a woman of means, complete with an estranged grandmother in Boston society, and not a woman of low social status?

            As expected from a Turano novel, Gwendolyn is a dynamic character in a delightful historical fiction tale. The first in The Matchmakers series brims with a fun plot as Gwendolyn simultaneously wanders through society misadventures and puts critical thinking to play. Generously sprinkled with humor, self-assurance and tenderness, this novel is buoyant and the characters distinct. I always find Turano’s stories to read quickly, as she makes the adventures of the upper crust far more than poise, proper decorum and perfect comportment. She paints word pictures, dropping us into a time we wish we could visit (but I refuse to wear a corset).

The Secret to Happiness (May 2, 2023) by Suzanne Woods Fisher.

<This is the second novel in a series.>

Her world is upside-down, her life is topsy-turvy. Callie Dixon (age 28) has recently been fired from her dream job as an executive chef after making a colossal mistake, and she fears that the symptoms she’s been experiencing (also recently) are signs of a chronic disease. She is floundering, though she struggles to admit it. She escapes to Cape Cod and her Aunt Marnie Dixon’s Main Street Creamery. The living space above the Creamery – small for Marnie and her daughter, Dawn (also 28) – is now like a shoebox with Callie there for an indeterminate amount of time. She doesn’t want to share her fear and is existing like an empty shell of the cheery, chatty person she’s always previously been, so Dawn drags her to a community class about the secret to happiness. The class is led by Bruno Bianco, a curiously gloomy fellow, and he gives her his book. They have some tough conversations, but Bruno is relentless and makes her face what she’s been avoiding. An unexpected bright spot in Callie’s life comes in the form of Leo the Cowboy. He’s a six-year-old who loves all ice cream. He’s got an important job at the Creamery; he’s their taste-tester! She does wonder who his single, mystery father is. She pictures a “round-faced, chubby computer geek,” and she’s impressed by Mystery Dad’s ability to give his son “all that he needed to make his life feel complete, his value and worth intact, with none of the pressure that Callie had felt from her own father.” What does Callie want in life? Has she been living for herself? Is there a secret to happiness?

            Emotional depth is ablaze in this second novel in the Cape Cod Creamery series. Callie’s steeply feeling the loss of her amazing career, fear of the future of her health and the nagging pressure of her dad, who seems to think life-altering events are as easily fixable as putting a bandage on a paper cut. Meanwhile, Dawn is stressing over a wedding venue and entrusting her mom to handle the ice cream making when Dawn and Kevin (Collins, 28) are on their African safari honeymoon. Dawn also wishes Callie wasn’t staying with them, as they’ve only ever been competitive with each other thanks to their dads, highly competitive brothers. There is faith and dawning realizations, emotional turmoil and happiness in unexpected places. It’s a sweet romance, though it’s not overly saccharine, with a hopeful tone sprinkled with new friendships and, progressively, optimism for the future.

            Favorite line: “Nothing is impopsicle.” – Dawn Dixon

            Book One: The Sweet Life

Yesterday’s Tides (Jan. 24, 2023) by Roseanna M. White.

<This is a standalone novel with familiar characters from previous series.>

Today is 1942. Yesterday is 1914. Two world wars. Two generations. In 1942, Evie Farrow is as familiar with England as she is Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Each day is much like the last one except for the Germans’ underwater missiles. When intelligence officer Sterling Bertrand washes ashore near her family’s inn, she determines that he will pull through despite his significant injuries, burns included. Inn-bound for weeks, Sterling is anxious to track a certain SS officer, but he’s also deeply intrigued by Evie, who holds secrets of her own. Why does a civilian receive hand-delivered correspondence from the Coast Guard (a.k.a. Coasties)? Why does the route of the SS officer he’s tracking trace a similar route that Evie’s traversed?

            In 1914, Louisa Adair is much more than the innkeeper’s daughter. She doesn’t only greet guests staying at the inn, including Englishman Remington Culbreth and Edgar Grenshaw, Rem’s cousin, she’s also the inn’s primary handywoman. There isn’t a cistern or a motor or a pipe that Louisa can’t manage. What’s not so easy to manage is Remington’s family. She isn’t good/sophisticated enough for Edith Culbreth. When Rem and Louisa are separated by an ocean, it doesn’t appear that their relationship will survive. Yesterday’s tides have ripple effects on the next generation. What will the outcome be?

            I can always count on Roseanna M. White to craft novels that make history interesting, contain clean romance and a detailed plot. This one holds the weight of family drama across generations, and it was initially confusing trying to piece together which of Evie’s nicknames for her family (not only by blood) matched which loved one. But putting those together was part of the puzzle, and I love puzzles. I love the incorporation of so many other familiar names from Louisa and Rem’s time, like Barclay Pearce and the Duke of Stafford. This Christian fiction, historical romance novel is smart and sweet with emotion that is raw and real, the prejudice and color issues of the time frustrating no matter the era. In this novel, the legacy of yesterday provides a good foundation for tomorrow. “Yesterday, today, tomorrow. Forever.”