Babyland - Holly Chamberlain

By Tracy -


Released July 2005

Holly Chamberlain
Kensington

Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth

I have very mixed feelings on Babyland. The heroine, Anna Traulsen, is engaged to marry a wealthy businessman. The couple do not want children, so Anna is shocked when she discovers she's pregnant, no thanks to failed birth control. She reveals the news to her fiance, expecting him to flip, but he acts delighted instead.

Anna isn't sure she wants to become a mother. Add in morning sickness, the thought that her career as an event planner may become affected, and the knowledge that she loves, but isn't really in love with her significant other. Her life is suddenly complicated and she's not sure what to do.

Babyland is a chick lit story in theory, but it's not always light and comical, and I'm going to bet that throws many readers off. It takes time to warm up to Anna's character because she does spend a whole lot of time complaining about her circumstances. She does change along the way, and once that happens, I really settled in and loved the story.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

By Tracy -
Image
Release Date: June 12, 2018



Since childhood, Keiko Furukura has been different. She thinks differently. She can be blunt. It's what causes her parents to worry that she'll never fit in with the normal world. When she takes a job at a convenience store while in college, they're happy enough. They're not as happy that she's now in her 30s and still working for that store.

Keiko is actually quite happy. She has a routine. There's a precise order to the things she must do each day. When a new employee comes in and starts to question why things must be so precise, he starts to make Keiko wonder if she's really where she should be.

I wasn't sure what I'd think of Convenience Store Woman. It was addicting. I was instantly drawn into Keiko's world. I loved the descriptions of her job and her life. She may not be your average person, but that's what made her so much fun.

The convenience store itself was appealing. What I wouldn't give to be able…
Read more

200 Fast & Easy Artisan Breads - Judith Fertig (Cookbook)

By Tracy -
Released August 2009

www.fireflybooks.com/robertrose

Bread making is a soothing activity that I've always enjoyed. Judith Fertig's 200 Fast & Easy Artisan Breads: No-Knead, One Bowl appealed to me because using only one bowl obviously cuts down on dishes.  The question became just how effective are these recipes.

I invested in a KitchenAid years ago because kneading is not something I always enjoy. If I have stress I want to burn off, kneading is a wonderful action. If I simply want to fill the house with the scent of freshly baked bread, kneading is a time consuming pain. All recipes in 200 Fast & Easy Artisan Breads require no kneading. Simply beat the dough with a wooden spoon and you're done.

I'm going to work my way through the book one recipe at a time. Using the very first recipe, I measured and mixed the flour, yeast, salt and water and got started. The entire process took less than ten minutes and that's including the time it took to open a new bag…
Read more

Dreams of Falling by Karen White

By Tracy -
Image
Release Date: June 5, 2018



Karen White's Dreams of Falling spans several decades. It starts back in the 1950s with three best friends who get to travel to Myrtle Beach after graduating high school. Things lead to a secret that two of the three have kept hidden for decades.

Skip forward in time. Larkin left South Carolina after a horrible act of betrayal shattered her world. She's a talented copywriter in New York City with no plans to ever return to her hometown.

When her grandmother calls her, she's torn. She never wanted to return, but her mother, Ivy, is missing. Larkin makes the trip back to the place she swore she'd never see again. It's there that Larkin starts to uncover the truth about her grandmother, her mother, and herself.

Dreams of Falling wasn't a horribly fast-paced novel. It meanders back and forth between the 1950s and the 2000s. It details the experiences of Larkin's grandmother and her best friends, the secrets they hide, and skips back t…
Read more