Can’t Wait Wednesday – A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE by Kristan Higgins

February 1, 2023/16 Comments/by Suzanne

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in since I first started blogging, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.

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My selection for this week is A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE by Kristan Higgins. Higgins is another one of my auto-buy authors so I’m thrilled she has a new book coming out in a few months. This one sounds like it has the potential to be such a moving read, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy,

A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE by Kristan Higgins

Publication Date: June 6, 2023 by Berkley

From Netgalley:

A kid walks into your bookstore and… Guess what? He’s your son. The one you put up for adoption eighteen years ago. The one you never told anyone about. Surprise!

And a huge surprise it is.

It’s a huge surprise to his adoptive mother, Monica, who thought she had a close relationship with Matthew, her nearly adult son. But apparently, he felt the need to secretly arrange a vacation to Cape Cod for the summer so he could meet his birth mother…without a word to either her or his dad.

It’s also a surprise— to say the least—to Harlow, the woman who secretly placed her baby for adoption so many years ago. She’s spent the years since then building a quiet life. She runs a bookstore with her grandfather, hangs out with her four younger siblings and is more or less happily single, though she can’t help gravitating toward Grady Byrne, her old friend from high school. He’s moved back to town, three-year-old daughter in tow, no wife in the picture. But she’s always figured her life had to be child-free, so that complicates things.

When Matthew walks into Harlow’s store, she faints. Monica panics. And all their assumptions—about what being a parent really means—explode. This summer will be full of more surprises as both their families are redefined…and as both women learn that for them, there’s no limit to a mother’s love.

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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂

Reviews: MEANT TO BE and OUT OF THE CLEAR BLUE SKY

June 13, 2022/13 Comments/by Suzanne

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I got a bit sporadic again last week with my blogging because my son had surgery to repair a fractured/dislocated shoulder on Thursday. He’s doing well, although not excited to be in a sling all summer, and we’re all a bit tired from our travels, our stay at the hospital, and from the run-the-clock post-op care since he got home late Friday. I did manage to get a few reviews written this weekend as he has slept, so today I’ll be sharing my thoughts on novels from two of my favorite authors, Emily Giffin and Kristan Higgins. No surprise, but neither of them disappointed. Side note: how adorable are those covers?

Reviews: MEANT TO BE and OUT OF THE CLEAR BLUE SKY

Meant to Be Goodreads

Author: Emily Giffin

Publication Date: May 31, 2022

Publisher: Ballatine Books

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Emily Giffin’s latest novel Meant to Be is a captivating romance that is loosely inspired by the Kennedys, specifically John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. It’s the story of two people from very different worlds who are both trying to find their place in the world and, in the process, manage to find each other. Can their love overcome all the obstacles that stand in their way?

Meant to Be follows Cate and Joe. Joe, or Joseph S. Kingsley, III, comes from a family that is practically American royalty. His father was devoted to public service, first in the military, then in politics, and then in the space program, where he was tragically killed in an accident. Everyone in the country, including Joe’s mother, expects him to pick up his dad’s mantle and carry on with the Kingsley legacy. Joe doesn’t know how he feels about this and has a tendency to behave recklessly as he’s trying to figure out what he wants out of life.

Cate comes from a poor background, having spent her early years living in a tiny apartment with just her mom and a revolving door of men. Cate hates living this way and when she is a teenager, she finds her ticket out of poverty when she has the good fortune to be discovered by a modeling agency. When she meets Joe while on the beach doing a photoshoot, their attraction is instant. Cate wants to keep the relationship secret because if word gets out about her poor background, it’s all over for them since she doesn’t believe there’s a place for her in Joe’s world.

Giffin does an amazing job using Joe and his family to capture America’s obsession with the Kennedys and “Camelot” while at the same time creating a wholly fresh and engrossing love story of these two young people who just want to be together in spite of the pressures of class and society. Both Cate and Joe are just so well drawn. I loved the complicated dynamic of their relationship, the realistic angle as to whether their love is strong enough to withstand what would happen if Cate’s past were to be exposed. I was completely rapt by Cate and Joe’s story that I couldn’t put the book down and actually found myself sobbing by a huge unexpected twist at the end.

Meant to Be is a beautifully written story that will capture your heart, emotionally wreck you, and still manage to leave you feeling hopeful. 4 STARS

Out of the Clear Blue Sky Goodreads

Author: Kristan Higgins

Publication Date: June 7, 2022

Publisher: Berkley Books

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I was hooked on Kristan Higgins’ new novel Out of the Clear Blue Sky from the very first moment we meet the protagonist Lillie Silva, who is in the process of sedating a skunk so that she can sneak it into her ex-husband’s new house. I immediately admired Lillie’s spunk and resourcefulness and, most importantly, was instantly invested in finding out what had driven her to do such a thing.

Lillie had been under the impression that she and Brad had a great life and a happy marriage. Their only child is about to go off to college and Lillie is busy planning a wonderful European vacation for just herself and Brad. She is therefore blindsided when, on the night of their son’s high school graduation, Brad announces that he wants a divorce, that he deserves to find joy for himself and that he is in love with someone else. Lillie is further blindsided when it turns out Brad’s new woman is Melissa, a newcomer to town whom Lillie actually introduced to Brad. Needless to say, Lillie is both shocked and seriously ticked off that Brad has just turned her life upside down.

What I love about Higgins’ novels is that her characters are always so realistic and well drawn. They’re full of flaws, just like us, and they find themselves in situations that are easy to relate to. In Lillie’s case, she’s dealing with Brad’s betrayal, being an empty nester once her son goes off to college, and she also has the added challenge of how she can afford to live on just her salary. Lillie’s journey is also very realistic in the sense that it takes time for her to work past the anger and pettiness she feels toward Brad (the skunk and other assorted hilarious pranks that I won’t spoil), before she comes out on the other side ready to move forward and heal. I was cheering for her every step of the way, laughing out loud at some of her more petty moments, but ultimately rooting for her to find her own joy and show Brad what he was missing out on.

This novel was also fascinating it the sense that it’s a dual POV and the other POV we get is not from Brad, but instead from Melissa, the other woman. Melissa is a seemingly irredeemable character who ended up surprising me in the end. I can’t decide if I liked her or not, but I will say that her journey is an interesting one that kept me glued to the pages even when I wanted to shake her.

If you enjoy stories about second chances and new beginnings, with a hilarious side of revenge thrown in the mix, Out of the Clear Blue Sky is the book for you! 4.5 STARS

Review: PACK UP THE MOON by Kristan Higgins

June 14, 2021/18 Comments/by Suzanne

Pack Up the Moon by Kristan Higgins
Also by this author: Good Luck with That, Always the Last to Know

Published by BERKLEY on June 8, 2021
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Romance, Women's Fiction
Pages: 480
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Kristan Higgins’ new novel Pack Up the Moon is a beautiful story about love, loss, and grief, and it’s about how to pick up the pieces of your life and start again when the love of your life is taken away way too soon.

The story follows Joshua and Lauren Park, a newly married couple who are just perfect for each other and madly in love. Their happy lives come crashing down around them, however, when Lauren is unexpectedly and tragically diagnosed with a terminal illness and is told she probably only has 3-5 years to live.

What I loved most about this book is how Higgins chooses to unfold the story of Joshua and Lauren. Within the first few pages of the book, Lauren dies and we are presented with Joshua, the grieving widow. It is actually after Lauren’s death that we really get to know her because Lauren has spent many of her final months living writing letters for Joshua that he is to be given in the months after her death. Her thought in doing that is that it will help him better cope with her death and start to live his life again. She also tried to process her own life ending so prematurely by writing letters to her dead father. She talks to him about her fears, about how sad she is that she’ll be leaving Joshua alone and that they never had children, etc. She also communicates her hope that she will be reunited with her father in the afterlife. Each chapter of the novel presents us with either a letter from Lauren to Joshua or one from Lauren to her dad.

I fell in love with both Lauren and Joshua as I read these letters and then read the flashbacks that accompanied so many of them. Lauren is such a beautiful soul and it’s easy to see why Joshua loved her so much and is so devastated by her loss. I loved the glimpses of their life together that the flashbacks provided, and I especially loved Lauren’s letters to Joshua, which were actually quite funny at times and gave him very explicit instructions that she fully expected him to follow, from simple things like go to the grocery store to more challenging tasks like ask a woman out on a date, and because he loved her so much, of course he followed them to the letter.

Pack Up the Moon broke my heart into a million pieces, but at the same time, it gave me hope that there is a way to move forward after tragedy. Keep your tissues handy because this is a story that will make you cry your eyes out, but it will also surprise you with some humorous moments and, most importantly, it will leave you with a full heart because there’s just so much love in the story.

About Kristan Higgins

Kristan Higgins is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of more than a dozen novels. Her books have been honored with dozens of awards and accolades, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, the New York Journal of Books and Romantic Times. She is a two-time winner of the RITA award from Romance Writers of America and a five-time nominee for the Kirkus Prize for best work of fiction. She is happily married to a heroic firefighter and the mother of two fine children.

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Review: ALWAYS THE LAST TO KNOW by Kristan Higgins

June 8, 2020/20 Comments/by Suzanne

Always the Last to Know by Kristan Higgins
Also by this author: Good Luck with That, Pack Up the Moon

Published by BERKLEY on June 9, 2020
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction
Pages: 400
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Kristan Higgins is fast becoming one of my go-to authors when I’m in the mood for a moving read that focuses on family. That’s exactly what I was in the mood for when I picked up her latest novel, Always the Last to Know, and wow, does it deliver! I just finished reading and I’m sitting here with tears in my eyes as I’m writing this review.

Always the Last to Know follows the Frost family. Barb and John have been married for five decades but have gradually drifted apart over the years. They have two daughters, Juliet and Sadie, who are night and day in terms of personality. Juliet is an Ivy League graduate and a brilliant and successful architect, while Sadie is a struggling artist trying to make it in New York, currently working as an elementary school art teacher to make ends meet. Juliet is also happily married with two beautiful children, while Sadie lost the love of her life when she moved to New York to follow her dream. Because they’re so different, the relationship between Sadie and Juliet is somewhat contentious at times. Sure, they love each other; they just don’t necessarily like each other very much. Their lives all come to a screeching halt, however, when John suffers a stroke and ends up unable to care for himself or even speak.

I have to admit that the novel did start off a little slow for me, but thankfully it picked up as soon as Sadie moved home to help with her dad. I loved that the story is presented in alternating chapters between Barb, Sadie, Juliet, and John, and Higgins does a wonderful job of conveying what each of them was thinking and feeling as they are trying to navigate John’s recovery. It’s an emotional journey for everyone, as they are all dealing with personal and/or professional dramas as well. John’s chapters are of course moving since we’re the only ones who know what he’s feeling. My heart also went out to Barb as she is forced to really examine her relationship with John and where it went wrong over the years, as well as to Juliet, who is starting to cave under the pressure of always having to be the “perfect” one.

For me though, it was Sadie who is actually the heart and soul of Always the Last to Know. I was in her corner as soon as I realized she was the underdog in her family, and her journey is the one that I found myself the most emotionally invested in. Even before her dad had the stroke, Sadie has already gone through so much, being rejected repeatedly in terms of her art, and then having to choose between her art and Noah, her first love. When Sadie moves home and comes face-to-face with Noah again, I felt their chemistry so hard and was immediately rooting for them to find their way back to each other.

I don’t want to give away any major spoilers, so I’m just going to say that Always the Last to Know was an emotional roller coaster for me as I followed each of these characters. The family dynamics, the secrets revealed, and the ensuing drama all felt very realistic, not over the top at all, and everything about this family just really got to me. I cried several times the closer I got to the end of the story and even though I was still in tears when it was all over, I was very content with the way the story ended. If you’re looking for a moving story about love, family, self discovery, and second chances, look no further.

About Kristan Higgins

Kristan Higgins is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of more than a dozen novels. Her books have been honored with dozens of awards and accolades, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, the New York Journal of Books and Romantic Times. She is a two-time winner of the RITA award from Romance Writers of America and a five-time nominee for the Kirkus Prize for best work of fiction. She is happily married to a heroic firefighter and the mother of two fine children.

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