This OR That Giveaway № 59 ~ The Favorite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry OR Here I Go Again by Jen Lancaster #HereIGoAgain #TheFavoriteDaughter

 

I have sooooo many books!

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to cull my collection and to share some of the many books I have. I get to clear off some of my shelves to make room for more books and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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The Favorite Daughter
by Patti Callahan Henry
Paperback ~ Pub date June 2019

Ten years ago, Lena Donohue experienced a wedding-day betrayal so painful that she fled the small town of Watersend, South Carolina, and reinvented herself in New York City. Though now a freelance travel writer, the one place she rarely goes is home--until she learns of her dad's failing health.

Returning to Watersend means seeing the sister she has avoided for a decade and the brother who runs the family's Irish pub and has borne the burden of his sisters' rift. While Alzheimer's slowly steals their father's memories, the siblings rush to preserve his life in stories and in photographs. As his secret past brings Lena's own childhood into focus, it sends her on a journey to discover the true meaning of home. 

Read my thoughts here.

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Here I Go Again
by Jen Lancaster
Paperback ~ Published January 2013

Hilarious new fiction from the New York Times bestselling author of Bitter Is the New Black and If You Were Here.

Twenty years after ruling the halls of her suburban Chicago high school, Lissy Ryder doesn't understand why her glory days ended. Back then, she was worshipped...beloved...feared. Present day, not so much. She's been pink-slipped from her high-paying job, dumped by her husband, and kicked out of her condo. Now, at thirty-seven, she's struggling to start a business out of her parents' garage and sleeping under the hair-band posters in her old bedroom.

Lissy finally realizes karma is the only bitch bigger than she was. Her present is miserable because of her past. But it's not like she can go back in time and change who she was...or can she? 

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Release Day! The Favorite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry ~ My Thoughts #TheFavoriteDaughter #TallPoppy

Happy Release Day!!



Congrats Patti
on the release today of
The Favorite Daughter!

The Favorite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry
Print and e-book, 368 pages
Published June 4th 2019 by Berkley Books

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Bookshop at Water’s End, here is a lush, heart-wrenching novel about the power of memory, the meaning of family, and learning to forgive.

Ten years ago, Lena Donohue experienced a wedding-day betrayal so painful that she fled the small town of Watersend, South Carolina, and reinvented herself in New York City. Though now a freelance travel writer, the one place she rarely goes is home—until she learns of her dad’s failing health.

Returning to Watersend means seeing the sister she has avoided for a decade and the brother who runs the family’s Irish pub and has borne the burden of his sisters’ rift. While Alzheimer’s slowly steals their father’s memories, the siblings rush to preserve his life in stories and in photographs. As his secret past brings Lena’s own childhood into focus, it sends her on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.

    

Indiebound

My thoughts about The Favorite Daughter~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First lines—"The wedding for Colleen Donohue, Lena to her family and friends, and Walter Littleton was ready to begin one spring afternoon."

I loved The Favorite Daughter! It is a story full of interesting family dynamics and a little bit of mystery as I tried to determine just exactly which daughter is the 'favorite daughter'.

Colleen runs from her wedding and stays away from her family for ten years, that is, until that same family draws her back when their dad starts declining. She has to face the people who betrayed her, while still trying to be supportive of her dad.

As the siblings work to compile a memory book for their dad's birthday party, some things from the past just don't add up. Family secrets? Or misremembered memories?  

"Memories aren't always the truth. They aren't always true." 

The Favorite Daughter is a spellbinding story that grabbed me from the very first chapter and had me racing to the end. It has interesting characters dealing with an issue that a lot of people are having to deal with—elders losing their memories—and a plethora of other challenging family issues. I highly recommend that you to add it to your summer reading list.

I received a copy of The Favorite Daughter from the publisher and this is my honest opinion of the book.

About the author

Patti Callahan Henry is the New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels including The Bookshop at Water’s End, The Idea of Love, The Stories We Tell, and Driftwood Summer. As Patti Callahan, she’s the author of the USA Today bestseller Becoming Mrs. Lewis. Short-listed for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and nominated multiple times for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Book Award for Fiction, Patti is a frequent speaker at luncheons, book clubs, and women’s groups.

Connect with Patti

Website | Newsletter | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

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Release Day: The Bookshop at Water's End by Patti Callahan Henry ~ My Thoughts

Happy Release Day!!

The Bookshop at Water's End

The Bookshop at Water's End by Patti Callahan Henry
Print and ebook, 352 pages
Published: July 11th 2017 by Berkley

The women who spent their childhood summers in a small southern town discover it harbors secrets as lush as the marshes that surround it...

Bonny Blankenship’s most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Amid the sand dunes and oak trees draped with Spanish moss, they swam and wished for happy-ever-afters, then escaped to the local bookshop to read and whisper in the glorious cool silence. Until the night that changed everything, the night that Lainey’s mother disappeared.

Now, in her early fifties, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor, and her marriage crumbles around her. With her troubled teenage daughter, Piper, in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children. During lazy summer days and magical nights, they reunite with bookshop owner Mimi, who is tangled with the past and its mysteries. As the three women cling to a fragile peace, buried secrets and long ago loves return like the tide.

Congratulations Patti

on the release today of

The Bookshop at Water's End

My thoughts about The Bookshop at Water's End ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"We are defined by the moods and whims of a wild tidal river surrounding our small town, cradling us in its curved basin. We don't shape it; it shapes us."

The Bookshop at Water's End is a wonderful story of women and families who return to Watersend to try to make sense of their lives, lives that are starting to spin out of control. 

Bonny and Lainey were best friends and they come together that summer to support each other. They are both looking for answers and direction. They want to make changes in their lives and along the way they learn about themselves, and each other.

"We were all doing the very best we could: as women, as mothers and as daughters. We hurt each other; we heal each other; we mend and we break and we try again, until we can't and the headstone has its final say. And yet still our hearts reach out for both love and forgiveness, granted and accepted."

I love this kind of story where women friends are there for each other, supporting and loving, no matter what. The Bookshop at Water's End is an engaging, beautiful story full of memorable characters that I just savored to the end.

I received a copy of The Bookshop at Water's End  in exchange for my honest opinion.

About the author

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, including the upcoming The Bookshop at Water’s End (July 2017).  A finalist in the Townsend Prize for Fiction, an Indie Next Pick an OKRA pick, and a multiple nominee for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Novel of the Year, Patti is a frequent speaker and luncheons, book clubs and women’s groups. The mother of three children, she now lives in both Mountain Brook, Alabama and Bluffton, South Carolina with her husband.

Connect with Patti

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Book Spotlight and a Giveaway! And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry

And Then I Found You

And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry

Hardcover, 261 pages

Published April 9th 2013 by St. Martin's Press

Kate Vaughan is no stranger to tough choices.

She’s made them before. Now it's time to do it again.

Kate has a secret, something tucked away in her past. And she's getting on with her life. Her business is thriving. She has a strong relationship with her family, and a devoted boyfriend whom she wants to love with all her heart. If Kate had ever made a list, Rowan would fill the imagined boxes of a perfect mate. But she wants more than the perfect on paper relationship; she wants a real and imperfect love. That's why, when Kate discovers the small velvet box hidden in Rowan's drawer, she panics.

It always happens this way. Just when Kate thinks she can love, just when she believes she can conquer the fear, she's filled with dread. And she wants more than anything to make this feeling go away. But how?

When the mistakes have been made and the running is over, it's time to face the truth. Kate knows this. She understands that a woman can never undo what can never be undone. Yet, for the first time in her life she also knows that she won’t fully love until she confronts those from her past. It's time to act.

Can she do it? Can she travel to the place where it all began, to the one who shares her secret? Can the lost ever become found?

And Then I Found You gives new life to the phrase "inspired by a true story." By travelling back to a painful time in her own family's history, the author explores the limits of courage, and the price of a selfless act.

My thoughts about And Then I Found You ~~

Okay, I first have to talk about the cover, that's just what I do. This one is so beautiful, with all the blue, and then it makes me wonder why she is standing outside watching that house in the distance that looks so inviting.

Now about the story. Patti is such a fabulous writer that when I started this book, I did not want to stop reading. In fact, I 'saved' it for a time when I knew I could get some quality reading time in. And I was not disappointed.

'I hope that whatever it is you want that you don't give up just because someone else asks you to do so. Anything you want, Katie, anything, don't let someone else talk you out of it.'

And Then I Found You was an emotional ride with love, heartache, forgiveness, family, separation, laughter, and tears. And it is based on a true story involving the author's family. What courage it must have taken to dig through all these events and feelings and to be able to put all of that emotion down on paper.

'She had tried everything to outrun the pain of losing both Jack and her daughter: moving away, coming home, no dating, too much dating; anything to keep her mind away from the memory. People talked about heartbreak, but in Kate's opinion, hearts don't break, they merely ache and throb until you learn to ignore that same heart all together.'

Thank you Patti for writing such a heartfelt book and for sharing such an intimate part of your life with us. It was an amazing read!

About the author

Patti Callahan Henry is the National Bestselling author of six novels with Penguin/NAL (Losing the Moon, Where the River Runs, When Light Breaks, Betweeen the Tides, The Art of Keeping Secrets, and Driftwood Summer).

Patti is hailed as a fresh new voice in southern fiction. She has been short-listed for the Townsend Prize for Fiction and has been nominated for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Fiction Novel of the Year. She is a frequent speaker at luncheons, book clubs and women’s groups where she discusses the importance of storytelling and anything else they want to talk about.

Patti grew up as a Minister’s daughter, learning early how storytelling effects our lives. She grew up spending her summers on Cape Cod where she began her love affair with the beach, ocean, tides and nature of the coast. Moving south at the tender age of twelve, she found solace in books and stories. While attending Auburn University, she met a southern boy who later proposed on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, next to a historic lighthouse overlooking the Sound. After earning her Master’s degree in Child Health, Patti worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist until her first child was born.

Patti is a full time writer, wife and mother living with her husband and three children outside Atlanta on the Chattahoochee River where she is working on her next novel.

Connect with Patti

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

Giveaway Time!!

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Patti Callahan Henry ~ Live Chat at BookTrib

Tuesday, June 25th at 3:30 ET you can chat with Patti Callahan Henry over at BookTribChat!

During the chat you can:

• Ask Patti questions directly
• WIN a free copy of her latest book, AND THEN I FOUND YOU
• See Patti's fabulous, creative writing space where all the magic happens

Click here to enter the chat. 

Back in the day, a long time ago, I posted my thoughts about one of Patti's books, Coming up for Air. I loved it and when I went back and looked at the post, (take a look here) written in 2011, I was kind of shocked at how much I have grown since then. Back then, I just wanted to have a place to log what books I read and how I felt about them. I never dreamed that The Book Bag would be what it is today! It's really kind of amazing to me! 

Anyway, Patti has a new book out And Then I Found You.
And I can't wait to read it!

About the book

Henry returns with her best, most personal and moving story to date. AND THEN I FOUND YOU (St. Martin’s Press; April 9, 2013, Hardcover) is inspired by her family's personal experience with adoption. The novel explores one of the most difficult decisions a mother could face and tells the story of the bravery it takes to find one’s place in the world and a miraculous reunion that changes everyone’s lives forever.

Henry’s sister, Barbi, placed her baby daughter for adoption over twenty years ago. She chose the family carefully and then waited. Twenty years later she heard from her daughter, Catherine. Catherine had stumbled upon her birth certificate and discovered her birth mother's name. After requesting permission from her parents to locate her birth mother, Catherine performed a Google search. Her birth mother’s name didn't pop up, but her novelist sister's did. Catherine couldn't believe the resemblance and immediately sent a Facebook request to Patti and her birth mother. And so their story begins. The anniversary of that Facebook reunion - of their family reunion three years ago - happens to coincide with the publication of the book in April. One could never have planned that.

In AND THEN I FOUND YOU Henry creates the wonderful characters of Kate, Jack, and Emily to capture the emotional truths of the way families connect and what happens when the lost becomes found. The story will resonate with anyone who has ever longed for a second chance, a new beginning and the joyful change that reunions bring to a family. You won’t forget the courage, heartbreak, healing, and redemption made possible in Henry’s capable hands.

Synopsis of the book from Goodreads 

Kate Vaughan is no stranger to tough choices.

She’s made them before. Now it’s time to do it again.

Kate has a secret, something tucked away in her past. And she’s getting on with her life.  Her business is thriving. She has a strong relationship with her family, and a devoted boyfriend whom she wants to love with all her heart. If Kate had ever made a list, Rowan would fill the imagined boxes of a perfect mate. But she wants more than the perfect on paper relationship; she wants a real and imperfect love. That's why, when Kate discovers the small velvet box hidden in Rowan's drawer, she panics.

It always happens this way. Just when Kate thinks she can love, just when she believes she can conquer the fear, she’s filled with dread. And she wants more than anything to make this feeling go away. But how?

When the mistakes have been made and the running is over, it’s time to face the truth. Kate knows this. She understands that a woman can never undo what can never be undone. Yet, for the first time in her life she also knows that she won’t fully love until she confronts those from her past. It’s time to act.

Can she do it? Can she travel to the place where it all began, to the one who shares her secret? Can the lost ever become found?

And Then I Found You gives new life to the phrase “inspired by a true story.” By travelling back to a painful time in her own family’s history, the author explores the limits of courage, and the price of a selfless act.

See you in the chat-room! 

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Coming Up for Air by Patti Callahan Henry

On the coast of Alabama, there is a house cloaked in mystery, a place that reveals the truth and changes lives... 

Ellie Calvin is caught in a dying marriage, and she knows this. With her beloved daughter away at college and a growing gap between her and her husband – between her reality and the woman she wants to be – she doesn’t quite seem to fit into her own life.

But everything changes after her controlling mother, Lillian, passes away. Ellie’s world turns upside down when she sees her ex-boyfriend, Hutch, at her mother’s funeral and learns that he is in charge of a documentary that involved Lillian before her death. He wants answers to questions that Ellie’s not sure she can face, until, in the painful midst of going through her mother’s things, she discovers a hidden diary – and a window onto stories buried long ago.

As Ellie and Hutch start speaking for the first time in years, Ellie’s closed heart slowly begins to open. Fighting their feelings, they set out together to dig into Lillian’s history. Using both the diary and a trip to the Summer House, a mysterious and seductive bayside home, they gamble that they can work together and not fall in love again. But in piecing together a decades-old unrequited-love story, they just might uncover the secrets in their own hearts… ~~synopsis from Goodreads

 

My thoughts on Coming Up for Air ~~

Hmmm - I stayed up way too late trying to finish this book. And darn it, I could not finish the last 40 pages or so. But I went back and reread, oh, the previous 10 pages or so and then moved forward and savored the ending.

I loved this book and did not want it to end. I got totally caught up in Ellie trying to figure everything out. I thought the flashbacks to the Civil Rights era were very informative and I was immersed in that time period for a short time.

In reading her mother's diary, Ellie learns that her mother was not the woman that she thought she was. She was very surprised with what she learned.

That got me thinking about how little I know about the lives of my parents before they were my parents. How sad that that part of my personal history is gone. It would have been interesting to know what my parents were like as 'real people.'

Here are some great lines that I marked in the book as I was reading ~~

"The choices we make when we're broken are sometimes the most awful of all our choices"

"But your mother wanted to make sure you weren't a wildflower in her botanical garden"

"Thought what? That if you knew that girl, you could know the woman who was your mother?"

"We all become the person we are from the person we were - if that makes sense - and I don't believe you mother was any different. Does it really matter how she became that way?" 

Authors website ~~ http://www.patticallahanhenry.com