Archive | May 2025

The Dolce Vita Divas by Maddie Please

May3

The Ghosts Of The Past

The Dolce Vita Divas by Maddie Please is a most delightful contemporary novel that I read in just one sitting.

Maddie Please has created a wonderful, light-hearted read about second chances and really living life whatever your age.

All the characters are over sixty. They prove that age is no barrier to having fun. “I used to think life had passed me by and then I realized it hadn’t… Take every chance you get.” We need to grab life with both hands. We are never too old to re-write our story and to have a good ending – even an eighty-five-year-old knows how to live life. After all age is just a number.

The action is in the first person from the lead characters point of view. We get to know her intimately. Her life has been full, raising children but her first love has never left her heart. After her husband of many years left her (before the book opened), she realizes that now is the time to make some life changes.

A holiday in Capri with a friend, and in memory of another friend, offers new possibilities.

The landscape is in glorious technicolour compared with grey England. The reader can ‘feel’ the warmth and ‘see’ the vibrant colours.

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The House At River’s Edge by Rachel Burton

May3

One Last Beautiful Summer

The House At River’s Edge by Rachel Burton is a powerful dual timeline that I just could not put down. I read it in just two sittings, pausing only to sleep!

The two time periods are 1914-1919, and 1997. The chapters alternate as we follow a family through the first World War years, and again after a long-lost photograph is found. Along with the characters, we have questions about the ancestors of a family. All is not as we first thought.

The summer of 1919 was the final summer of freedom. “I hold on to the memories of that summer.” With the advent of war, lives would be changed forever. A generation of young men left enthusiastically for war. Many never returned. Those who did, had often left their minds on the battlefields. “When I sleep, I’m back there, in the trenches.” We see the devastating effects of shell shock. “They can talk about peace and armistice as much as they like; he knows he will never find peace again.” People often suffered from shell shock for the rest of their lives.

We witness the heartbreaking results when a loved one dies. “Death doesn’t care about those who are left behind.” Characters know they will never love again like they did, making decisions to support each other.

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He Should Have Told The Bees by Amanda Cox

May1

So Beautiful

He Should Have Told The Bees by Amanda Cox is an absolutely superb Christian novel that I absolutely adored.

This is a powerful read about life, love, loss and family. We learn that no one has a perfect life. We are all living lives, with private battles that no one knows about.

Sometimes what we believe about the lives of others is simply not true. We see what they choose to show us. Likewise, we are not responsible for the failings in others. “The lie still lives on inside me – the belief that my mother loved alcohol more than me… My mother has a substance disorder… It wasn’t the result of anything I did or didn’t do.” Alcohol abuse needs help and understanding in order to recover from. Often the root cause lies deep within.

We witness a character who has spent a lifetime trying to ‘fix’ her mother. “You couldn’t be the one to fill the holes in another person’s life… let[ting] God heal the wounds.” God is the Great Physician who will heal us if we just let Him in.

A character has known God but has wandered away. We witness a returning to the Father. “God help me to know what to do next… I don’t want to be motivated by my fear of all things that could go wrong. Teach me how to rely on you.” When we have faith, we do not need to fear, for God has got us and will hold us up.

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Being Dorothy: In A World Longing For Home by Michele Olson

May1

Coming Home

Being Dorothy: In A World Longing For Home by Michele Olson is a most delightful Christian tale. It is the second book in the Mackinac Island Stories but can be read as a stand-alone. I would recommend reading book one first for character continuity and progression.

Once more, the reader journeys to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. The year is 1980 and there are references to the filming of the movie Somewhere In Time in 1979 (one of my favourite movies of all time), which was the focus of book one. We meet Piper and Cam, the leading characters in the first book.

In Being Dorothy, the focus is on another couple, Gideon and Dorothy. They are special agents running from an unknown threat, and have a marriage that is in trouble.

The couple do not know God. They have been running from Him but God is relentless in His pursuit of His children.

God uses people to accomplish His will. We need to have lives that are in tune with Him. “Thank you, Piper, for your boldness… I felt the nudge.” Sometimes God will ask us to do things that requires us to step out in faith, in order to help others in their faith walk. When God says ‘do it!’ Do not question, just do it! The fate of others may rely on our faithfulness.

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