Reading, Writing & Pondering

  One of the new genre's that I tried last year was magical realism. I found I enjoyed it quite a bit. The Time Hop Coffee Shop by Phaedra Patrick is my latest read in this genre. Greta Perks and her husband, Jim, along with their daughter, Lottie, were stars for about a decade in Maple Gold coffee commercials. When the company replaced them with another family, they all felt lost and their family changed. In fact, Jim and Greta decided to separate for awhile and figure out how to go on--either together or separate. Greta also had the passing of her mother to grieve, along with her job loss. Now she doesn't feel like she fits in anywhere. Jim has a different set of struggles. Lottie is now a teenager and trying to figure life out from that angle. Then, Greta stumbles on a mysterious coffee shop that serves up magical brews. When Greta drinks the brew she wakes up in the town of Mapleville from the Maple Gold commercials. When she is there, life feels perfect. Her body is perfe...

    The Charmed Library by Jennifer Moorman has been a treat for me to read. I was excited to receive an arc.  Stella Parker is an Assistant Librarian in the small town in the South where she grew up. She still carries sadness from her father's death and her mother leaving the family early in her life. She also had a recent break up. She loves working with books as she is a word person. Words appear to Stella and give her insights into other people. Stella stumbles into another magical element when she is in the library after hours. She learns that some of the fictional characters she remembers have come to life. She especially enjoys meeting Jack Mathis who is Stella's first book crush and a fictional hero from a World War 2 novel.  I enjoyed this trip into a small town library adventure with Stella. I haven't read a lot of magical realism so for me this was a treat. I liked the reference to some of my favorite book characters. I enjoyed seeing Stella grow and chang...