Friday Book Reviews by Robyn Daniels: Moriyama, Knupp and Wind

Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat

Naomi Moriyama

♥♥♥

I enjoyed the recipes available in this book. I believe changing to food from these recipes twice a week would help overweight Americans. When menopause hits, even Japanese women can get broad of the beam. With that said, Westerners reading the recipes with an interest toward cutting back can find menu ideas. Note: Breakfast is the biggest meal.

 Several reviewers who have lived in Japan agree with my foreign student experience. They were not exposed to as much sugar as I ate during childhood. Consequently, in private it was not uncommon to see petite females inhale sweets at lightning speeds. We fixed homemade candy. They stuffed it in faster than we could make it.

Before making a major lifestyle change, do some more reading. It is a well written book.

The Boy Next Door

Amy Knupp

♥♥♥♥

An up and coming Kansas writer, Amy Knupp ratchets up tension just having Zach Rundle, a young neighbor, climb a tree to reach the second story where Lindsay Salinger is sleeping as she cares for her ailing father. The descriptive made words more than just words.

These longtime neighbors have ignored each other since Zach’s drunken brother killed Mrs. Salinger on impact in a neighborhood car crash while Lindsay drove. Lindsay has survivor’s guilt.

These two have long been attracted. Zach left the taint of being a Rundle behind and has made a good career in Wichita construction. Lindsay’s work makes her notice Zach’s young nephew in the sole care of the elderly great grandma. Lindsay works for something like Child Welfare for the state. She tries to get the boy’s irresponsible father to bond with his son. She fails. Then she goes to work on Zach to step up while he still believes his grandmother is up to caring for the little boy.

Watching the emotional growth of all the characters throughout the book evolve in subtle and more obvious ways made this an interesting character study.

Meant to be Married

Ruth Wind

♥♥♥♥♥

A multigenerational feud between two once wealthy families re-ignites every generation or so. The most recent start-crossed lovers, Elias Santiagos and Sarah Greenwood, lose their first chance at love. It costs both of them more than the other knows. Their families are both proud. His family is not pleased with Sarah’s return to Taos, New Mexico over a decade later.

Her father’s illness draws her home to try and make amends for their over decade long breach.

Elias and Sarah have an interesting book which pulls the reader into their angst. Yet the reader feels that special once in a lifetime deep love some are lucky enough to find in their youth.

Sarah has survived by removing all long buried anguish and numbing her mind (dissociative disorder for the severe trauma which overwhelms people). Her coping methods don’t work once she is pulled between two proud men–her true love and her father. One thing which helps her is herbal tea provided by Elias’ grandmother. The woman gives her both the chance to rest and sleep well despite the stress. Her guidance sparks Sarah find her own healing. Elias finds he can grieve his losses to heal.

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Reviewed by Robyn Daniels

Friday Reviews: Samuel, O’Neal, Samuel

FRIDAY BOOK REVIEWS

 It’s a feast for Barbara Samuel fans today at Writing Sluts. Besides using her own name, Barbara also writes as Barbara O’Neal and is well-known to and much-loved by category romance readers as Ruth Wind. Hope you enjoy! ~ Robyn Daniels

No Place Like Home

Barbara Samuel

****

There is a lush lyrical beauty to this book about Jewel Sabatino, a displaced Pueblo, Colorado native. She’s been away twenty-five years and now hungers to return to her Italian roots. It helps an aunt left her a house when she became homeless. Jewel returns with her seventeen-year-old son, Shane, and her best friend, Michael, dying from AIDS. She needs to get past the long estrangement from her father. Michael needs to connect with his brother, Malachi, while there is time. Jewel is taken with the motorcycle man when he arrives.

Her colorful characters are well written with depth. The importance of family and mending fences resonates in this book. The chicken wing and apple pie recipes are worth buying the book.

You will cry especially if the author touches on one of your hot button issues. If you sense your reading slowing, you will be like many readers who don’t want to leave these wonderful characters.

The Lost Recipe for Happiness

Barbara O’Neal

****

With a wonderful voice, a mastery of prose and a variety of interests, Barbara writes compelling characters. It is hard not to become invested in those characters’ choices and ponder their outcome. Her mastery of foreshadowing amazes. Reading Barbara is like watching an epic motion picture. For the Southwest recipes alone, buy the book.

Elena Alvarez sees the world through a chef’s senses. Her favorite memories are tied to food. Often the reader feels immersed in the chef’s kitchen, which is a predominantly male environment. Elena gets a shot to become a chef but must work with the last chef now demoted to sous chef. The man has his demons of alcohol and a dark past. Elena has hers–lack of certainty, a tendency to self sabotage, survivor’s guilt, and a battered body ill suited to Aspen, Colorado’s cold climate.

In a pleasant turn her scarred body has not slowed her healthy sex life. Yet real intimacy is impossible for her. She is attracted to the restaurant owner but feels unworthy. Her dog, Alvin, helps her win over his fourteen-year-old troubled daughter. Alvin’s daily walks serve to keep Elena’s body moving. There are ghosts, insights into other cultures, fun, and conflict to spare. Read on.

The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue

Barbara Samuel

***

A realistic book of marital infidelity when one yanks off the Bandaid. Barbara guides the reader with good characters, a feast for the senses, and the skill of a master writer. She captures the feelings of being an empty nester in lyric prose. These neighbors—Trudy Marino, the wronged wife. Roberta, an elderly Black woman newly widowed. Jade, her granddaughter who arrives newly divorced from Dante, an incarcerated charmer, user, and loser. The man just has not grown up, yet. Add Shanelle, who has worked her way up from white trash to a home, blue collar husband, and two boys. Her husband doesn’t want her to write. Finally, there is Angel, a visitor from Spain who restores Trudy’s confidence and leaves her with a wonderful souvenir. Of course, the book has a ghost.

Samuel covered an array of current topics from poor health insurance to how men show their emotions. She is truly gifted.