Book List: A Romance with Lots of Southern "Characters," Seven of the Longest Days Of My Life and 4 Sweet and Short Romances

Book list time again. Here are three more random finds from the Fiction display at the library.

The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square by Rosina Lippi: This was a fun read and a nice break after the seriousness of Show of Hands that I had read just before this one. This is a romance set in a small town in South Carolina. It is chockful of interesting Southern "characters" and, although a little too stereotypical at times, they add a lot to the story. Interesting to read about the interplay of different personalities where everyone is a little bit crazy. Overall, a fun book.

A Week of This (a novel in seven days) by Nathan Whitlock: I was sold by the idea of a novel where everything happens in seven days. That seemed interesting. Perhaps I was thinking of seven seasons of 24 rolled into one novel--that couldn't be farther than the reality of this book. A Week of This tells the story of Manda, her husband and various relatives. Every single character in this story had a horrible childhood and is now an unhappy, economically strapped, stressed out adult. Realistic? Maybe. Depressing? Definitely. Had to force myself to finish this one. I was slightly motivated by the idea that maybe something good would happen--it never really did.

Sweet Treats by Wanda E. Brunsetter, Birdie L. Etchison, Pamela Griffin and Tamela Hancock Murray: This is actually four short stories--each written by a different author. All four stories are romances based around an online cooking class called "Sweet Treats." Each story is around 90 pages long and follows a somewhat predictable girl meets boy storyline. One unexpected surprise for me was that all four stories are about Christian characters and include little "lessons" on living a Christian life and trusting in God. I'm a Christian who usually feels my faith is a very private matter so I am sometimes turned off by too much "preaching." However, these did not turn me off and I really enjoyed these simple stories. It was like reading four little mini-novels. Apparently there is a whole series of these four story books. Apparently there is also quite a bit of this Christian fiction out there, but I never ran across it in my library in Ohio. I've read a couple others by accident since I moved to Texas including Stranded in Paradise.

I just grabbed five or so more novels when I went to the library this week. Will keep you posted on how they turn out.