My Book Retreat

Maggie Griffin's comfortable life in Boston, with a challenging teaching job, a lifelong friend as roommate and a handsome boyfriend is starting to unravel. A potential layoff, her friend's upcoming wedding and the boyfriend's new coworker all come together to throw things a bit off-kilter. Then a trip home to Mystic, Connecticut, to help her friend with wedding plans brings her ex-boyfriend, Cameron, into the picture. It certainly makes for an interesting summer.

Mystic Summer by Hannah McKinnon is a wonderful summer read. It made me feel like summer was already here. I enjoyed following Maggie as she makes her way through many changes on a path to a more fulfilling life. While there is a bit of a romantic storyline, it's more about Maggie's relationships with friends and family, and her quest to figure out what she wants out of her future.

This was an easy, light read but definitely engaging and it even dealt with some serious topics along the way. I found the d…

It's Monday again and time for another reading recap. I'm nearing the end of the Sci-Fi Summer Read-a-Thon, hosted by Michelle at Seasons of Reading and haven't gotten as far in the book I chose for that as I was hoping. I'll do a bit more reading tonight and tomorrow night and see if I can make it to the end. Hopefully I'll have enough time to spend reading.


What I'm readingSo what am I reading for the readathon? It's The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey. I'm really enjoying it and excited to see how it ends. Once I finish that, I will go back to The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Two very different books!

After that, I think I will pick up Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, which is my June book club selection, as long as it becomes available from the library in time! 

What I'm writing
I wrote a review last week of The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton, who has become one of my favorite authors.


What my kids are readingM, who is in 3rd grade, finished Wonderstruc…

Laurel Nicholson has a secret. When she was 16 years old, she witnessed a shocking crime, but she never told a soul about it. Now, 50 years later, she is drawn to uncover the truth behind the crime before her mother, Dorothy, the one person who knows the truth, dies. Dorothy is remembering her past as a young woman in London during the Blitz, before she met Laurel's father and became a loving wife and mother. Her past is what Laurel needs to uncover if she is to understand the motive behind the crime.

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton is an epic drama full of mystery and family secrets. Laurel's story was a bit more relatable as she is in more modern times, dealing with an aging, dying mother and her family all around her. Dorothy, on the other hand, lives in 1940s London and longs to be more than she was born into. She latches onto a woman who epitomizes what she wants her life to be, while struggling to hold onto the hometown boy who is content with what he already has.

I lov…