Magical Monday

 The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown (HarperCollins, 13 February 2024).

Cassie Andrews is a bookseller at a family-run bookshop in New York City.  One evening, when she's alone in the store, Mr. Webber, a long time customer dies while her back is turned.  She's shocked and devasted, as he was a favorite of hers.  

Tidying up after the emergency personnel leave, she finds a small leather book on the floor.  It has a note from Mr. Webber, telling her the book is a gift from him.  The title page says it's The Book of Doors.  Curious, but exhausted, she takes the book home with her.

Once at home, she's thinking about a trip she once took to Venice while she goes into her bedroom to put the book away.  To her surprise, on the  other side of the door is the street she remembers from her years-ago visit.

Over the next few days, she and her roommate Izzy experiment with the book.  

But, as anyone familiar with magic knows, magical objects are always desired by people with evil intent, specifically, a mysterious woman who can control more than Cassie has ever experienced.

Soon, Cassie is being chased throughout the world and through different eras, learning how the book works as she runs.

This book was so much more than I expected.  There is a fret over it too much. It was one of those that I wanted to read quickly to find out what happened, but at the same time slowly enough that I could savor the lovely prose.

Highly recommended for lovers of fantasy and time travel!

Gareth Brown wanted to be a writer from a very young age, and he completed his first novel as a teenager. For the last twenty years he has worked in the UK Civil Service and the National Health Service while writing in his spare time. 

Gareth lives with his wife and two impudent and highly excitable Skye terriers near Edinburgh in Scotland. The Book of Doors is his first published novel.

Upbeat books (for grown-ups)

Many of these books begin with a not-so-wonderful incident, but you'll be smiling through your yawns by the final page, because you're going to want to read every one of them in a single sitting.

The Sweeney Sisters by Lian Dolan (HarperCollins, 28 April 2020).

Maggie, Eliza, and Tricia Sweeney grew up as a happy threesome in the idyllic seaside town of Southport, Connecticut. But their mother’s death from cancer fifteen years ago tarnished their golden-hued memories, and the sisters drifted apart. 

Their one touchstone is their father, Bill Sweeney, an internationally famous literary lion and college professor universally adored by critics, publishers, and book lovers. When Bill dies unexpectedly one cool June night, his shell-shocked daughters return to their childhood home. They aren’t quite sure what the future holds without their larger-than-life father, but they do know how to throw an Irish wake to honor a man of his stature.

Grown-up Pose by Sonya Lalli (Penguin Publishing Group, 24 March 2020).

Adulting shouldn’t be this hard. Especially in your thirties. Having been pressured by her tight-knit community to get married at a young age to her first serious boyfriend, Anu Desai is now on her own again and feels like she is starting from the beginning. 

But Anu doesn’t have time to start over. Telling her parents that she was separating from her husband was the hardest thing she’s ever done—and she’s still dealing with the fallout. She has her young daughter to support and when she invests all of her savings into running her own yoga studio, the feelings of irresponsibility send Anu reeling.

Ghosting by Tash Skilton (Kensington, 26 May 2020).

Dumped by his fiancée, not only is Miles couch-surfing across New York City, but downsizing has forced him to set up shop at a local café. Also, he no longer believes in love. Not a good look in his line of work…helping people find love as a ghostwriter for a failing dating site.

Zoey’s eccentric L.A. boss sent her packing to New York to “grow.” But beneath her chill Cali demeanor, Zoey’s anxiety makes her terrified to venture beyond the café across the street into the big city…

Finding themselves competing for space at Café Crudite, the only thing Miles and Zoey think they share is their daily battle for last day-old biscotti and a mutual dislike of each other. They don’t know they’re both writers, creating “authentic” profiles for rival online dating services. They think they have absolutely nothing in common. . . . until they meet anonymously online while pretending to be their clients and sparks fly.

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs (HarperCollins, 7 July 2020).

In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother’s charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes caretaker for her ailing grandfather Andrew, her only living relative—not counting her scoundrel father.

But the gruff, deeply kind Andrew has begun displaying signs of decline. Natalie thinks it’s best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans to close the bookstore and sell the derelict but valuable building on historic Perdita Street, which is in need of constant fixing. There’s only one problem–Grandpa Andrew owns the building and refuses to sell. Natalie adores her grandfather; she’ll do whatever it takes to make his final years happy. Besides, she loves the store and its books provide welcome solace for her overwhelming grief.

Miss Cecily's Recipes for Exceptional Ladies by Vicky Zimmerman (Sourcebooks, 9 June 2020).

When her life falls apart on the eve of her 40th birthday, Kate Parker finds herself volunteering at the Lauderdale House for Exceptional Ladies. There she meets 97-year-old Cecily Finn. Cecily’s tongue is as sharp as her mind, but she’s fed up with pretty much everything. 

Having no patience with Kate’s choices, Cecily prescribes her a self-help book with a difference. Food for Thought: a charming 1950s cookbook high on enthusiasm, featuring menus for anything life can throw at the “easily dismayed.” So begins an unlikely friendship between two lonely and stubborn souls - one at the end of her life, one stuck in the middle - who discover one big life lesson: never be ashamed to ask for more.

Cozy Monday - What I read on my vacation

The Lost Traveller (County Cork #7) by Sheila Connolly.  (Crooked Lane hardcover, 8 January 2019.)

Pub owner Maura Donvan discovers  a body in the ravine behind the pub. And then, the Irish gardaí reveal that the victim’s face has been battered beyond recognition. 
Who is the faceless victim? Who wanted him dead? And why was his body dumped in the backyard of Sullivan’s Pub? 
Even after the dead man is finally given a name, nobody admits to knowing him. In the tight-knit world of Leap, no one is talking―and now it’s up to Maura to uncover the dark secrets that lurk beneath the seemingly quiet town. 



Death in Provence (Penelope Kite #1) by Serena Kent.  (HarperCollins hardcover, 19 February 2019.)

This charming new series features Penelope Kite, retired from her forensics job in England.  Tired of being an unpaid nanny and chauffeur for her ungrateful stepchildren, she impulsively buys a fixer-upper near the country village of St. Merlot.  
A few days after her arrival, she finds a body floating in the pool, and must find her way around the unfamiliar French legal system.  
Her background in forensics is a big help, and with the help of her old boss and her best friend, she's able to unravel the mystery.



Murder at the Mill (Iris Grey #1) by M.B. Shaw.  (Minotaur hardcover, 4 December 2018).

Another charming series opener, the protagonist here is artist Iris Grey.  In an effort to escape the drama of her crumbling marriage, she rents a cottage in a Hampshire Village.  
She's commissioned to paint a portrait of famous crime-writer Dominic Wetherby, owner of the property on which the cottage is located.
At the Wetherby's Christmas Eve party, the mulled wine is in full flow - but so too are tensions and rivalries among the guests. On Christmas Day, the youngest member of the Wetherby family, Lorcan, finds a body in the water. A tragic accident? Or a deadly crime? With the snow falling, Iris enters a world of village gossip, romantic intrigue, buried secrets and murder.