Author Meg Donohue has a spiderweb of storylines that are wrangled carefully, allowing the many characters to have a starting point, a change, and a new beginning.
With so many characters, it’s a marvel how she accomplished this with fluidity and clarity. The Memory Gardener will perfectly satisfy fans of Alice Hoffman.
It’s also well-suited for anyone who thinks one mistake in their past has to define their entire life. Donohue shows that there is forgiveness, misunderstandings, and relationships that can be built despite one’s regrettable history.
An enchanting tale of the power of memory and the nourishing magic of gardens from the USA TODAY bestselling author of the “sparkling, witty” (Katie Crouch, New York Times bestselling author) How to Eat a Cupcake.
Lucy Barnes is a gardener with an uncanny ability to know exactly which scent among her flowers will illuminate to a person a key from their past that might change their future. Sadly, after a tragedy ten years ago, she no longer uses her gift and has fled her hometown.
But six months after her mother's death, Lucy awakens to find her mother's unmistakable…
Regrets. Doesn’t everyone have at least one huge one? Maybe a series of smaller ones? Terri-Lynne DeFino is a master at breaking down troubled people with enormous regrets and putting them back together one ingredient at a time. That may take decades—skillfully handled through time hops with each chapter. Didn’t You Used to be Queenie B? plays upon the parallels of financial insecurity and the dangers of wealth. Either one can play a role in a person’s mental health disintegrating.
Gale’s descents are ones that Regina recognizes all too well. To truly be his mentor—a role she never envisioned for herself—she has to be there to guide him whether it’s about cooking or addiction recovery. Likewise, he’s her mentor in how to be part of a chosen family—how to let people into her world when she’s comfortable giving compassion to people but never accepting any. Despite how much they have in common, they aren’t both Yang and Yang. They are very much a Yin and Yang together. Yang being: forward/aggressive action; making the rules; being in charge. Yin being: taking orders; playing with creativity; taking small steps where there’s certainty in the outcome. Both of them change because of each other and their supporters, Kyle and Marco.
Terri-Lynne DeFino crafts the human experience with characters on polar opposite sides of success and brings them together showing humanity’s commonalities. Everyone is flawed. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone can rise from the ashes with the right support and resources. There’s no personified villain in Didn’t You Used to be Queenie B? DeFino makes the characters their own villains in a remarkably grounded way. She spoils readers with her artful stories.
For everyone who loved The Bear! An utterly winning, crowd-pleaser of a novel about a disgraced celebrity chef, her striving protege, and their path through the kitchen to redemption.
Regina Benuzzi is Queenie B-a culinary goddess with Michelin Star restaurants, a bestselling cookbook empire, and multimillion-dollar TV deals. It doesn't hurt that she's gorgeous and curvaceous, with cascading black hair and signature red lips.
She had it all. Until she didn't.
After an epic fall from grace, Queenie B vanishes from the public eye, giving up everything: her husband, her son, and the fame that she'd fought to achieve. Her…
I highly recommend if you like serial killer thrillers that are more about the psychology than the gore.
The protagonist, Reni, has a lifelong battle with complex PTSD. I think Frazier handled that along with grief, depression, narcissism, and other traits honestly with the information on mental health available today.
Massage therapist Farrah Wethers and her best friend, June, book an event away from home at a serene lake resort. Or is it? A CEO is murdered and June is next in the killer’s crosshairs! Is danger lurking in every shadow or is Farrah being paranoid?
