Middle Grade Pick: On Snowden Mountain

On Snowden Mountain
by Jeri Watts
Candlewick Press
2019
193 pages
ISBN: 9780763697440

Twelve year old Ellen's father goes off to fight World War II, and her mother sinks into her deepest depression yet. Ellen has nowhere to turn except her distant Aunt Pearl. Pearl shows up, takes everything into her own hands and packs the family up to live in her small frame home at the base of the mountains in West Virginia.

Ellen is used to big city Baltimore and going to school with children her age. In the mountains, there's nothing but a one room schoolhouse, a gruff teacher, farm kids, mountain kids and a stinky skunk kid. There's nothing to do in the small village and Ellen isn't one to explore the mountain. Her mother is like a walking zombie, and Ellen fears she may end up with her mother's illness after she learns her grandmother also suffered depression.

Aunt Pearl's distance thaws out over time, and Ellen enjoys spending time with her and hearing about the past. Although her mother doesn't seem any better, Ellen gets a letter with news her father is coming home.

Issues of abuse, mental illness, poverty, depression, war and friendship are deftly handled by author Jeri Watts. Although the issues seem for a much older crowd this is a lower middle grade read that could easily be read by age eight and up.

Recommended grade 4 and up and for introspective readers who enjoy a "quiet" story.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Book Club Pick: Dating By the Book

Dating By the Book
by Mary Ann Marlowe
Kensington Books
2019
336 pages with Book Club Discussion Questions
ISBN: 9781496718211


Available June 2019

Maddie Hanson is nursing a broken heart since being left at the altar by Peter, her almost husband. Pouring her heart, money and time into acquaint indie bookstore, The Mossy Stone, Maddie struggles to keep the business afloat.

When old friend Max stops by every day, almost all day, offering to help and a partnership, Maddie is fierce to keep her store her own. Daily visitor Charlie is a local English professor, but not really love interest material. Enter old flame Dylan, the one who got away and left town to seek fame and fortune in the music industry. Dylan exudes hotness and all the ladies notice.

Maddie has no shortage of bachelors to choose from, but her writing keeps her busy. Her first book is due out soon, and when a reviewer slams it on a blog, Maddie is stunned. The writer, known as Silver Fox, claims the romance in her novel feels stilted and fell flat for him. At first Maddie is mad and sad, then she responds to the reviewer against her friend Layla's advice to ignore the guy.

Friday nights are book club night at the shop where Maddie and MEN read Pride and Prejudice, Gone With the Wind and Jane Eyre. As Maddie continues to respond to Silver Fox online under her pen name Claire, she thinks about meeting him.

Ex-Peter is warning Maddie that he wants to sell the shop, her shop! Maddie had better figure out her tangled finances and her equally tangled online "love life."

Clever cover design screams at romance readers to buy this book. This cover is my favorite of the year so far. Marlowe continues to offer readers spunky heroines, small town "feels," quirky love interests, and fun plots. You'll want to move to Orion after meeting this cast of characters.

Recommended for adult book clubs and all romance readers.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher.  I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Sweet Romance Pick: Frosted Kisses

Frosted Kisses
by Heather Hepler
Point
2015
272 pages
ISBN: 9780545792598

Available October 27, 2015

A sweet surprise just in time for Halloween!

Heather Hepler has done it again! Following the wildly successful and entertaining The Cupcake Queen, Hepler takes readers back to Hog's Hollow, a teensy town where Penny Lane's (her mother loves the Beatles, obviously)  newly divorced mother has opened The Cupcake Queen, the sweetest bakery the town has ever seen. Penny helps at the bakery, spends time with BFF Tally working odd jobs to help the animal shelter buy a new generator and pitches in with boyfriend Marcus to build a  scale model of the solar system to honor  his mother's  memory.

Penny faces hard times: this is the first year her dad won't be around for the holidays. Mean girl Charity is still a pain, but now Penny faces competing for Marcus's time with super model lookalike Esmerelda.  Penny's mom is being secretive about something and Penny plans to find out what is going on.

Penny juggles  work, school, her fractured friendship with Tally, her mother/father divorce issues, Gram's secret, volunteering, raising money and hoping/praying/dreaming that Marcus likes her. And she does it all with aplomb and humor and a few tears.

The girls are in crisis in Frosted Kisses. So many life changes are happening it's hard for Penny to take in. Thank goodness she can always depend on her true friends. Sometimes though, true friends have problems of their own. Penny may have to navigate treacherous waters on her own.

Someone is out to get Penny, leaving her cryptic messages, damaging her property and undermining her relationship with Marcus. Penny needs to get to the bottom of the mystery before something more serious occurs.

My favorite character besides Penny is Tally's "almost boyfriend" Brandon. He has a great sense of humor and always appears just in the nick of time. Readers will fall in love with him, too. Every girl should have a Brandon as a BFF,

Recommended grade 7-up. No language. A couple of sweet kisses.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Mystery Pick: Turn Left at the Cow

Turn Left at the Cow
by Lisa Bullard
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
2013
304 pages


Rife with witty repartee, Turn Left at the Cow is seriously entertaining! Middle grade readers will love sarcastic Travis and the acid tongue of Iz. Well developed characters and an old mystery will draw readers in and keep them reading. Lisa Bullard is spot on with her tween dialog and snarky sarcasm.

Set in rural Minnesota, city boy Travis feels out of it. There's no big city out here. There are cows. And dirt roads. And heads made out of butter. And all kinds of funky meat that's been in his grandmother's freezer for eons. The only reason Travis is in Minnesota at all is that he knows he's not wanted in California now that his mom has married Dale, his new step-dad.  Travis goes in search of his real father's roots, and runs away to his grandmother in "Old-McDonald ville."

Neighbor kids Kenny and Iz tell Travis that his father was a bank robber who stole money and hid it somewhere near the town before he disappeared. Travis wonders if his real father is alive. Maybe he went into hiding somewhere. Travis is desperate for answers and grills his grandmother for them. Speaking with her is like speaking to a brick wall; she doesn't want to tell him anything about his own father. Travis decides to go along with Kenny and Iz on their "treasure hunt." He wants to find the missing bank  money as badly as they do, hoping that it will give him answers about his presumed dead  father.

The unlikely trio start digging for clues  and are soon find themselves in danger. Someone else is looking for that money and that someone will do anything to find it first. Travis is questioned by the police when he shops at the local store. Someone is using marked money from the bank robbery, and the police think Travis found the money and is spending it. Why is that money suddenly showing up in town? Travis knows he didn't find the money, but just who did? And why are they spending it? To throw blame on Travis?

When Travis is threatened, the three kids work together to trap the real bank robber. Travis suspects his own grandmother may be involved, but he's afraid to confront her.

This book will resonate with middle grades and middle school readers and will entertain reluctant readers.

Highly, highly recommended grade 5-up.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)