Book Review: Saving Grace by Fiona McCallum

Walk, no RUN out and buy this book.  What a simply delightful read!!  Fiona McCallum's newest novel, Saving Grace, should be relished with a lovely cup of tea and an afternoon full of good reading!!!  This book will be available in April 2013.

Emily's life is in a bad way.  Her beloved Grandmother has just passed away and she is stuck in a loveless marriage out on the farm.  Fed up with all that's going wrong in her life, she meets an amazing friend in Barbara, the seller of her new puppy, Grace.  With the encouragement from this new found friend, she finally gathers the courage to leave her husband and her old life of comfort behind.  

 With Grace in tow, Emily begins a new chapter in her life, and ends up renting an old farm house of her own.  This house has more than one memory for her father, who is her only other cheerleader in the quest for a new beginning.  Her mother, mortified that she's not only left her husband, but more so that it will make her look bad, is not impressed with the dilapidated house.  Yet, Emily sees great potential and starts to work on what soon will become her home.  On the property she finds a beautiful orchard of fruit trees, and her and Barbara get to work baking and cooking away.  It is those fruit trees that get her wheels turning of things she can do with this big and beautiful house.

Emily is slowly learning that life in a small town is about more than the stares she's getting and begins to embrace her new life.  Together with Grace, Emily and Barbara embark on a journey that could potentially change Emily's luck and life.  Maybe even a male suitor or two?

Again, I absolutely loved this book.  It's an easy read that will simply put a smile on your face.  I'm very much looking forward to her next novel to continue to story of Emily and Grace!! 

Thank you Net Galley and Harlequin Enterprises Australia for an ARC of this book!! 

Aussie writers - HELP!?!?!?!?!?!?

Whew, as usual, my posts are about as neurotic as I've been lately, but here I am!  I think!  As you know we moved from Denver to Australia in January.  Then in June my husband decided he wanted to move back to the US, we packed up AGAIN and moved back to Denver.  Ok all is good, NOT.  After only 8 days in Colorado he once again decided to uproot us and return us to Australia so here we are!!
So now that we are here I've joined a group on Goodreads - my personal favorite social networking site (if that's what you want to call it) and joined a group of Australian readers.  That group does the best thing in that they have reading challenges to help me get my reading back on, and wow, does it work!  Their Winter Challenge, from June - July (funny since I'm used to that being summer) asked the readers to pick 12 books based on certain particulars and read them.  Lucky for me I have SO many books on my To Be Read shelf, I was able to read everything on my list except for one!  Fantastic!  Reduces my bookshelves and gets me reading too!  So in doing my homework picking the books for my challenges, I've learned that Australia does not import books.  In order for them to be sold here (at MUCH higher prices than I'm used too) they must be printed and published in Australia.  Not good for me since I'm not familiar with most Australian writers.  The newest Challenge for my group is asking for us to read an Aussie writer's YA novel.  Ok, first, I'm not overly excited about the whole YA phenomenon, yes I read Twilight and The Hunger Games, but I find that the overwhelming majority of most YA books involve vampires or werewolves, which frankly, just isn't my thing.  Nonetheless, I've read one, creepy as it is, called Doll House by Anya Allyn. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13565822-dollhouse 
 It was a really great read, but it is a trilogy and I'm not sure I'm interested in reading any more, but who knows.  So I'm asking for help of anyone who knows great Australian writers for me to explore.  I'm open to any and all suggestions, but prefer fiction to non-fiction and probably a little more believable than vampires and werewolves. 






On another note, I've just read one of my most all time favorite writers, Sarah Allen Addison's The Peach Keeper http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8546358-the-peach-keeper

and can not recommend it enough.  It is a most magical book that is just an absolute beautiful read.  She is an amazing writer and I can't wait for more.  For some reason, the only reason I didn't devour her books as soon as they were released was because I always want to have a great book on hand!  She is wonderful!

Happy Reading kids and hope to hear some suggestions from you soon!!!!

P.S. - This weekend is the first weekend of Spring in Australia - lookout beach, here we come!!!