Category Archives: Karma Brown

Review: Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

Title: Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown
Publisher: Dutton
Genre: Contemporary, Historical (’50s), Mystery, Women’s Fiction
Length: 335 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

In this captivating dual narrative novel, a modern-day woman finds inspiration in hidden notes left by her home’s previous owner, a quintessential 1950s housewife. As she discovers remarkable parallels between this woman’s life and her own, it causes her to question the foundation of her own relationship with her husband–and what it means to be a wife fighting for her place in a patriarchal society.

When Alice Hale leaves a career in publicity to become a writer and follows her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. But when she finds a vintage cookbook buried in a box in the old home’s basement, she becomes captivated by the cookbook’s previous owner–1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she realizes that within the cookbook’s pages Nellie left clues about her life–including a mysterious series of unsent letters penned to her mother.

Soon Alice learns that while baked Alaska and meatloaf five ways may seem harmless, Nellie’s secrets may have been anything but. When Alice uncovers a more sinister–even dangerous–side to Nellie’s marriage, and has become increasingly dissatisfied with the mounting pressures in her own relationship, she begins to take control of her life and protect herself with a few secrets of her own.

Review:

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown is an insightful novel with a dual timeline and a slight mystery element.

In 2018, Alice Hall reluctantly leaves the city for the suburbs when husband Nate finds the house of his dreams. Alice is less than thrilled with their new life, but she hopes to take advantage of the opportunity to start writing her novel.  But she is not making much progress as she whiles away her time reading through the 1950s cookbook, magazines and letters  left behind by the previous owner, Nellie Murdoch. Alice is fascinated with Nellie’s life and begins to feel a kinship with her due to her growing dissatisfaction with her life and marriage. Both Nellie and Alice are hiding secrets but will Alice’s marriage fare better than Nellie’s?

Alice is keeping some important information from Nate, but she easily justifies her choices. She is also not all ready for the changes Nate is hoping for but she keeps her doubts to herself.  With Alice’s misgivings growing, she is soon immersed in Nellie’s life.  Intrigued by the recipes in Nellie’s family cookbook, Alice begins to dabble in preparing home cooked desserts and meals. She also truly immerses herself in the ’50s as she begins dressing in vintage clothes and trying her hand at gardening. She also makes a huge decision that is directly at odds with Nate’s wishes. When carefully crafted lies, secrets and decisions begin to emerge, will Alice’s and Nate’s marriage survive in the aftermath of shocking revelations?

Nellie is just starting married life with her older husband Richard in their new home. She is quite young but hopeful for her future. Nellie creates a beautiful garden and forms an unexpected friendship with her elderly neighbor, Miriam.  Eager to begin a family, Nellie and Richard are both disappointed when a baby proves elusive. But, as her cookbook and letters reveal, all is not happy within the Murdoch household. Richard is controlling and abusive but Nellie is no shrinking violet. With few options available to women, will Nellie escape from her increasingly violent husband?

Recipe for a Perfect Wife is a riveting novel with a delightfully unique storyline and colorful characters. Alice is not exactly a sympathetic character and many of her problems are of her making. Nate is charming man but as their once happy marriage begins to deteriorate, Alice realizes her husband is keeping a few secrets of his own.  Nellie is an extremely likable woman and she quite inventive as she stealthily handles her problems on her own. With some shocking twists and very unexpected turns,  Karma Brown brings the novel to an exceptionally surprising conclusion. A very clever novel that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.

Comments Off on Review: Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

Filed under Contemporary, Dutton, Historical, Historical (50s), Karma Brown, Mystery, Rated B+, Recipe for a Perfect Wife, Review, Women's Fiction

Review: The Life Lucy Knew by Karma Brown

Title: The Life Lucy Knew by Karma Brown
Publisher: Park Row Books
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Length: 304 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

One woman is about to discover everything she believes—knows—to be true about her life…isn’t.

After hitting her head, Lucy Sparks awakens in the hospital to a shocking revelation: the man she’s known and loved for years—the man she recently married—is not actually her husband. In fact, they haven’t even spoken since their breakup four years earlier. The happily-ever-after she remembers in vivid detail—right down to the dress she wore to their wedding—is only one example of what her doctors call a false memory: recollections Lucy’s mind made up to fill in the blanks from the coma.

Her psychologist explains the condition as honest lying, because while Lucy’s memories are false, they still feel incredibly real. Now she has no idea which memories she can trust—a devastating experience not only for Lucy, but also for her family, friends and especially her devoted boyfriend, Matt, whom Lucy remembers merely as a work colleague.

When the life Lucy believes she had slams against the reality she’s been living for the past four years, she must make a difficult choice about which life she wants to lead, and who she really is.

Review:

The Life Lucy Knew by Karma Brown is an engaging novel with unusual but fascinating storyline.

Waking up from a coma, Lucy Sparks is confused by the presence of her “work husband” Matt Newman and the absence of her real life husband, Daniel London. Needless to say, she is shocked to discover that her marriage to Daniel never happened and  her memories of their wedding are an unexpected side effect from the concussion that put her in a coma. Lucy is experiencing confabulated memory disorder and gaps in her memory from the injury to her brain. Some of her memories, like her marriage to Daniel, are false, but to her, they are very real. Other memories, including her break up with Daniel and her current relationship with Matt, are frustratingly missing, maybe forever.  After she leaves the hospital, Lucy moves back in with Matt.  But will her love for Daniel prevent her from trying to trying to resume the life she shared with Matt?

Before her head injury, Lucy has a pretty charmed life. She has a successful career that she truly enjoys. She and Matt are blissfully happy. She has a wonderful friendship with Jenny and Lucy is close to her parents and sister, Alex. But after the accident, she is missing about four years of her life and she cannot comprehend why she ended her engagement to Daniel or how her friendship with Matt turned into a romance. Despite learning Daniel has moved on with someone else, she is consumed with thoughts of him. A chance encounter takes her down a dangerous path that she knows is wrong, but Lucy is so helplessly unmoored from her life in the present, she clings to the love she feels for Daniel. She is also quite aware that she is hurting Matt but will Lucy continue making the wrong choices as she tries to figure out what her “new” future holds?

Matt is an incredibly loyal, caring and compassionate man and he never hesitates to make whatever sacrifice he needs in order to be there for Lucy. He is reluctant to push her to remember what they shared but he finally attempts to jog her memory. Matt’s efforts to re-create the pivotal moments in their relationship are bittersweet and poignant especially once Lucy realizes just how confused her memories are. Matt is deeply in love with Lucy, but will his patience run out once he learns the truth about what she has been doing behind his back?

The Life Lucy Knew is an emotional novel with a clever storyline and interesting characters. Some of Lucy’s decisions are exasperating but understandable as she tries to make peace with everything that has happened to her. Karma Brown brings the novel to a heartfelt and somewhat unexpected conclusion that will absolutely delight readers.

1 Comment

Filed under Contemporary, Karma Brown, Park Row Books, Rated B, Review, The Life Lucy Knew, Women's Fiction

Review: In This Moment by Karma Brown

Title: In This Moment by Karma Brown
Publisher: Park Row Books
Genre: Contemporary, Women”s Fiction
Length: 304 pages
Book Rating: C+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Bestselling author Karma Brown is back with a morally infused and emotionally riveting exploration of one woman’s guilt over an unexpected—yet avoidable—tragedy

Meg Pepper has a fulfilling career and a happy family. Most days she’s able to keep it all together and glide through life. But then, in one unalterable moment, everything changes.

After school pickup one day, she stops her car to wave a teenage boy across the street…just as another car comes hurtling down the road and slams into him.

Meg can’t help but blame herself for her role in this horrific disaster. Full of remorse, she throws herself into helping the boy’s family as he rehabs from his injuries. But the more Meg tries to absolve herself, the more she alienates her own family—and the more she finds herself being drawn to the boy’s father.

Soon Meg’s picture-perfect life is unravelling before her eyes. As the painful secrets she’s been burying bubble dangerously close to the surface, she will have to decide: Can she forgive herself, or will she risk losing everything she holds dear to her heart?

Review:

In This Moment by  Karma Brown is an affecting exploration of unresolved guilt and grief.

Meg Pepper is a busy working mother who has never quite made peace with a tragedy that occurred when she was a teenager. Her long buried feelings of guilt come to the surface in the aftermath of a car accident involving the twin brother of her fifteen year old daughter Audrey’s boyfriend Sam Beckett. After Meg waves Jack across the road, he is struck by an inattentive driver traveling in the opposite direction. She immediately blames herself and in the aftermath, her guilt takes a huge toll on her marriage to Ryan, her career and her relationship with Audrey as Meg begins making questionable decisions.

Even before the Jack’s accident, Meg is already struggling to keep up with the details of her personal and professional lives. She is also a little resentful that Ryan does not seem to take her career seriously. Like many working mothers, she is expected to juggle the demands of her job with motherhood and the duties around the house. After Jack’s accident, Meg becomes so guilt-ridden that she cannot sleep and when she does, she is plagued with nightmares about tragic events that occurred when she was a teenager. Sleep-deprived and incredibly stressed, Meg begins making mistakes at work and at home, she and Ryan begin bickering.

Up to this point, Meg is a very involved and protective mom who tries to ensure Audrey does not make the same mistakes she made as teenager. Before Jack’s accident, Audrey never gives her or Ryan any reason to worry about the choices she makes and they trust her implicitly. Almost immediately after the accident, Audrey’s behavior begins to change but she and Ryan are slow to realize exactly what is going on with the daughter.

With trouble brewing both at home and the office, Meg becomes her own worst enemy as she refuses to talk about her profound guilt over her self perceived role in Jack’s accident.  Although Ryan knows about what happened to her as a teenager, she cannot bring herself to admit that Jack’s accident has brought all of her unresolved feelings to the forefront. Meg’s downward spiral leads to discontent in her marriage and she makes a fateful choice that threatens her relationships with everyone she holds dear.

In This Moment by Karma Brown is a poignant and thought-provoking read but some elements of the storyline become repetitive.  Meg’s guilt over her role in what happened in both the past and present seems a little extreme and it is very difficult to understand why she won’t talk to Ryan about the things that are bothering her.  Although not everything is completely resolved, the novel’s optimistic conclusion is quite satisfying.  

2 Comments

Filed under Contemporary, In This Moment, Karma Brown, Park Row Books, Rated C+, Review, Women's Fiction

Review: The Choices We Make by Karma Brown

Title: The Choices We Make by Karma Brown
Publisher: Mira
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Length: 336 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Following her bestselling debut novel Come Away with Me, Karma Brown returns with an unforgettable story that explores the intricate dynamics of friendship and parenthood 

Hannah and Kate became friends in the fifth grade, when Hannah hit a boy for looking up Kate’s skirt with a mirror. While they’ve been close as sisters ever since, Hannah can’t help but feel envious of the little family Kate and her husband, David, have created—complete with two perfect little girls.

She and Ben have been trying for years to have a baby, so when they receive the news that she will likely never get pregnant, Hannah’s heartbreak is overwhelming. But just as they begin to tentatively explore the other options, it’s Kate’s turn to do the rescuing. Not only does she offer to be Hannah’s surrogate, but Kate is willing to use her own eggs to do so.

Full of renewed hope, excitement and gratitude, these two families embark on an incredible journey toward parenthood…until a devastating tragedy puts everything these women have worked toward at risk of falling apart. Poignant and refreshingly honest, The Choices We Make is a powerful tale of an incredible friendship and the risks we take to make our dreams come true.

Review:

The Choices We Make by Karma Brown is an emotionally compelling and deeply poignant novel about friendship and motherhood.

Hannah and Ben Matthews have been dealing with infertility for six long years.  With a series of failed procedures and heartbreaking miscarriages behind them, they are nonetheless stunned by the news that Hannah will most likely never sustain a pregnancy.  Not ready to give up their dream of having a baby, Hannah suggests a surrogate but Ben would rather look into adoption.  Much to their surprise, Hannah’s best friend, Kate Cabot, volunteers to not only carry a baby for them but also use her eggs.  Hannah and Ben eagerly accept her generous offer but their excitement over the impending birth is shattered by an unexpected tragedy.

Hannah is an extremely sympathetic character whose struggle with infertility is absolutely heartbreaking.  Emotionally and physically exhausted by various treatments and negative pregnancy tests, it is still difficult for her to give up on having a child.  While the quest for parenthood has taken a bit of a toll on her marriage, she and Ben still remain close and committed to becoming parents.  However, she is vehemently opposed to adoption but she cannot bring herself to discuss her fears with Ben so she dismisses the option outright without fully explaining her reasons.  Instead she continues researching surrogacy despite Ben’s reluctance to go that route.  Since she cannot discuss the topic with Ben, she turns to Kate for support.  Kate tries to dissuade her from going any further with her plans but will Hannah’s need for a baby lead her to make a decision she will come to regret?

Happily married to her paramedic husband David, Kate is a stay at home mom to their two daughters.  The two couples are best of friends so she is absolutely shocked by David’s initial reaction to her suggestion to become a surrogate for Hannah and Ben.  She is even more surprised by Hannah’s hesitance to consider using her as surrogate but once the Matthews are out of options, David reconsiders his decision.  With David now completely on board, Kate once again offers to be their surrogate using her eggs and she is soon pregnant.  While the pregnancy is mostly trouble free, there are a few unexpected hiccups that make both couples realize how fragile happiness can be.

Hannah’s struggle to become pregnant is realistically portrayed.  The emotional impact of her infertility is almost overwhelming as she is confronted by pregnant women and babies everywhere she turns.  An unexpected pregnancy close to home is especially devastating and her happiness over the news is tempered by her envy.  Although Ben never blames her for their childless state, Hannah carries a lot of guilt and shame over her inability to conceive.  There is a bit of a disconnect between them since she is convinced their infertility affects her the most since she is the one who cannot get pregnant.  Hannah is sometimes self-absorbed and she occasionally puts her needs and desires ahead of everyone else’s.  This is especially frustrating when tragedy strikes and while some of her actions and feelings are understandable, she is insensitive instead of supportive and some of her decisions are absolutely jaw-dropping and nearly impossible to comprehend.

The Choices We Make is a truly captivating novel that delves into emotionally fraught and morally subjective topics. Karma Brown presents these difficult issues with a great deal of sensitivity in a realistic and forthright manner. The characters are sympathetic and likable but when faced with a heart wrenching decision, a cherished friendship is nearly destroyed after sides are taken and harsh words are spoken. This touching story of friendship balances joy with sorrow as it culminates with an intensely emotional conclusion that will bring readers to tears.

1 Comment

Filed under Contemporary, Harlequin, Karma Brown, Mira, Rated B+, Review, The Choices We Make