Cary Grant: A Touch of Elegance

 

WARREN G. HARRIS

Edition read: Hardback, Doubleday, 1987.

How acquired: Bought.

First line: Even Cary Grant had to die sometime, but in Davenport, Iowa?

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: Cary Grant is my one true love. I discovered him when I was a teenager, just a few years before his death in 1986, after watching Bringing Up Baby for the first time, and I’ve been in love with him ever since.

I’ve not read a biography about him until now. I think I just didn’t want my image of him tarnished. I’ve read things over the years, magazine articles, mentions in biographies of other Hollywood stars, internet stories, and of course I was aware of his LSD therapy, the allegations of cruelty to his wives, claims of him being cold or distant on the set of his movies. But on a recent trip to Half Price Books I picked up three different books about him. I think at this point in my life I realize that he is untarnishable in my eyes. Nothing will change how I feel.*

The author touches on those stories in his biography, as well as the rumors of homosexuality. He reports the known facts, interspersed with quotes from people who knew Cary, but he never expresses an opinion or suggests whether or not there is truth to any of those claims. And yet what could have come across as dry reporting is told in an interesting, engaging, and always respectful manner.

After reading this I want to go back and rewatch a lot of Cary’s movies that I haven’t seen in awhile. And there are some movies that I’ve not yet seen as I’ve not yet found them, but hopefully someday.

*Well, I guess if I learned he murdered someone, or pulled some Harvey Weinstein shit, that might put me off, but I’m pretty confident in my devotion.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Dashing, debonair, and above all, elegant – these words will always call to mind the incomparable Cary Grant. Yet, more than anyone else, Cary Grant himself recognized the discrepancy between the sophisticated romantic hero he portrayed on screen and the private man haunted by fear and self-doubt.

In the movies, he always got the girl – from Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story to Ingrid Bergman in Notorious and Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief. But in real life, Cary Grant was unable to find happiness in love, and it wasn’t until his later years – and his fifth marriage – that he would at last meet the woman who would bring him peace and contentment.

His fans hailed him as the ultimate lady’s man, but he was also portrayed as a man’s man – outrunning a killer crop-duster in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, or brandishing a sword as a nineteenth-century soldier in Gunga Din. Who would have known that beneath this confident exterior was a frightened little boy whose mother had been taken away to a mental institution when he was ten years old, and whose father lived a double life with his mistress and their illegitimate son? It was only after more than a hundred psychiatric LSD treatments that Cary Grant could confront the pain and hurt of his early years.

Now, in a sensitive and moving biography – the first since the star’s death – veteran writer Warren G. Harris explores the many faces of one of Hollywood’s most enigmatic and best-loved idols.

He Should Have Told the Bees

 

AMANDA COX

Edition read: Trade paperback, Revell, 8/29/23.

How acquired: Revell Reads Blogger Program.

First line: Callie’s ears filled with the sound of windshield wipers slapping and Momma’s incessant muttering.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: Oh this book is good. So very good.

Beck is mourning the loss of her father, her rock, her constant in a storm. She now lives alone on their farm, taking care of her horse, her mini donkey, her chickens, her goats, and most importantly, her bees. In the apiary, a huge field with fifty beehives, is where she feels the most at home.

Callie is happily looking forward to opening her own store, where she’ll sell her hand made candles, and hold candle making classes. Then her absentee alcoholic mother shows up on her doorstep, admitting for the first time that she needs help and is willing to try rehab. Suddenly Callie is faced with the choice of either selling the building she just bought to pay for her mother’s rehab, or turn her mother away.

Beck and Callie are thrown together when they learn that Beck’s father has put his property into an irrevocable trust, and they are both the beneficiaries. They either keep the farm together, or they sell it and split the proceeds.

I repeat, this book is so very good. Descriptive and beautifully written. So much angst. Justified angst. Both Callie and Beck are beautifully written. Beck’s feelings of grief mixed with anger and betrayal were very understandable as she grapples with worry over whether Callie, a stranger, will want to sell the farm, taking away the only home Beck has ever known. On top of that she suffers from severe anxiety anytime she leaves the farm. I very occasionally have panic attacks, and the description of what Beck goes through when one hits her were very realistic. Beck starts out pretty much feeling all alone in the world now that her dad is gone, and I loved how her circle slowly widened. First there was young “Katya”, who was staying at a neighboring farm for the summer and kept turning up in the aviary when Beck was working with her bees. She was quite adorable, and precocious - the author did a good job of keeping her just this side of over the top. And then Annette, a friend of Beck’s father, who kept stopping by to drop off casseroles or desserts, and who Beck found annoying but began to realize might have been closer to her father than she knew.

Callie’s story, and her feelings, were a little more removed from my own experiences. I couldn’t imagine being in her shoes, knowing that the sale of the farm could solve all her problems, but also knowing what it would do to Beck. This isn’t a romance, but there is a burgeoning one between Callie and Luke, a friend from church who often has a booth at the same events where Callie sells her candles. I very much liked Luke and his steadying presence, he was definitely good for Callie.

And the bees. I’ve never given honeybees much thought, other than to avoid them while remembering the time when I was a kid and I stepped back from a curb and got stung on my heel. The descriptions of the aviary and all the care and maintenance Beck put into her hives was fascinating.

All in all this was a wonderful reading experience, and I look forward to more from this author.

*received from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed*

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Beekeeper Beckett Walsh is living her dream, working alongside her father in their apiary, until his untimely death sends her world into a tailspin. She suddenly finds she must deal with a new part owner of the family business--one who is looking to sell the property. Beck cannot fathom why her father would put her into the position to lose everything they built together.

When Callie Peterson is named in the trust of a man she's never heard of, she's not sure what to do. Her fledgling business has just taken wing and her mother has reentered her life asking for help getting into rehab for her lifelong substance abuse issues, making Callie's financial situation rather . . . precarious. She's sure she has no right to someone else's farm, but the money from the sale could solve her problems and give her the stability she's always craved.

As these two women navigate their present conundrum, they will discover a complex and entangled past full of secrets--and the potential for a brighter future for both of them.

Comfort & Joy

 

KRISTIN HANNAH

Edition read: Hardback, Ballantine Books, 2005

How acquired: Bought.

First line: Christmas parties are the star on the top of my “don’t” list this year.

(Synopsis below.)

My thoughts: I went into this book expecting a typical heartwarming Christmas story. You know the type, a character facing a crossroads, maybe not looking forward to all the Christmas holidaying but eventually, through friends or faith or a new love, finding their Christmas spirit. What I got was an incredible story of a woman at a crossroads, anxious to escape her life and finding…herself, her second chance at happiness…

Ok, so it still sounds like a typical heartwarming Christmas story. But it is so much more than that. And so not typical but completely unexpected.

With Christmas practically upon her, Joy, a high school librarian, is struggling to get into the holiday spirit. She’s recently divorced. She and her sister, who used to be her best friend, are estranged after her sister betrayed her in the worst possible way. On the last day of school before the Christmas break, she’s forced herself to go out and buy a tree, but when she arrives home her sister is waiting for her. Horrified at the news her sister gives her, irrefutable evidence of her betrayal (like she even needed more evidence), Joy feels suffocated and takes off. When she finds herself at the airport, she sees on the departures board a town in Canada called Hope. It turns out to be a small chartered plane, and the counter attendant points out the man who chartered it and says to check with him.

“Excuse me,” I say, trying – without much success – to smile. “I need Hope.”

Since there is one empty seat, he agrees to sell it to her.

But the plane crashes in the Olympic rain forest of Washington state. Up until this point, I was already fairly invested. The narration is in first person POV, and is engaging and lyrical. Joy’s account of the plane crash, which she describes second by second in detail, was mesmerizing and gave me chills. She survives the crash, in incredible pain but relatively unharmed, and manages to flee towards the woods just before the plane explodes, briefly losing consciousness. And then upon waking, seeing ambulances and first responders in the distance, she realizes that nobody knew she was on the plane, nobody will be missing her until school resumes after the holidays, nobody will be looking for her. So instead of walking towards rescue, she turns and walks away. This is apparently the point in the story where a lot of readers were turned off. There are a lot of reviews on Goodreads complaining about the implausibility and having to suspend disbelief. But not me. I was right there with her, hanging on her every word, never doubting her for one minute.

While on the plane she read an article in a magazine about a fishing lodge in Rain Valley, and when she realizes she is close by, she seeks it out, only to find it rundown, with a for sale sign. She doesn’t see the owner anywhere, but his son, Bobby, shows her to a room. In the morning, she meets his father, Daniel, who basically ignores her. He spends all his time making repairs around the lodge in preparation for selling it, and Joy finds herself either spending time alone, exploring and taking pictures, or hanging out with Bobby, an unhappy eight year old who misses his recently deceased mother and is angry at his father for planning to move them away. The bond that grows between Joy and Bobby is indeed heartwarming, while Daniel’s gruffness and vacillating between seeming to welcome her and ignoring her begins to hurt her feelings.

But as Joy is slowly falling for Daniel, and finding happiness and contentment at the lodge, the story suddenly took a severe left turn and went off in a direction I never saw coming. And I spent much of the rest of the book on tenterhooks, not knowing whether to be disappointed or hopeful.

To say this book just completely swept me off my feet is an understatement. I loved it. I loved it so much that when I turned the last page, I almost wanted to go back to page one and start over. In fact I’m still tempted to do so, because with the benefit of hindsight I’m sure I would pick up on things that neither Joy nor I could possibly have understood the first time around.

If I could give this book more than five stars I would.

Synopsis from dust jacket:

Joy Candellaro used to love Christmas more than any other time of the year. Now, as the holiday approaches, she finds herself at loose ends. Recently divorced and estranged from her sister, she can’t summon the old enthusiasm for celebrating. So without telling anyone, she buys a ticket and boards a plane bound for the rural Northwest.

Yet Joy’s best-laid plans go terribly awry. The plane crashes deep in the darkness of a forest. Miraculously, Joy and her fellow passengers walk away from the wrekage as the plane explodes. There, amid the towering trees, Joy makes a bold and desperate decision to leave her ordinary life behind and embark on an adventure...just for the holidays.

Following the death of his ex-wife, Daniel O’Shea has returned to the small town of Rain Valley. Now he is a single father facing his son’s first Christmas without a mother. Eight-year-old Bobby isn’t making it easy – the boy has closed himself off from the world, surrounding himself with imaginary friends.

When Joy and Bobby meet, they form an instnat bond. Thrown together by fate, these wounded souls will be touched by the true spirit of Christmas and remember what it means to be a family.

Then a dramatic turn of events shows Joy the price of starting over. On a magical Christmas Eve she will come face-to-face with a startling truth. Now she must decide: In a time of impossible dreams and unexpected chances, can she find the faith to reach for the love she has found...and the new life only she believes in?

The Witness

 

(read and reviewed pre-blog in 2003)

Wonderful book! I've always enjoyed Sandra Brown, but I believe this is my favorite of hers so far. 

The story starts out with Kendall Deaton and her infant son surviving a car wreck. The driver has amnesia, and the front seat passenger dies. Kendall decides to use the driver's amnesia to her advantage. At this point, we, of course, have no idea why or what that means. She tells the doctors he's her husband, but then tries to sneak out of the hospital late one night and leave him there, but he catches her and insists on leaving with her. After that, the story goes back and forth between the present, wherein Kendall is obviously running from something or someone, and the past, where we see her meet and marry her husband. The present story is mysterious, with the author giving us hints about stuff, and then as the past story unfolds, different incidents occur which then make you understand what was going on in the present story. But throughout the majority of the book, you are constantly wondering who the amnesiac really is. Is he really her husband, or not? And if not, who is he, and is he a bad guy or a good guy? And occasionally you find yourself wondering if Kendall is in fact a "bad guy" herself. I thought I figured out who the amnesiac was towards the end, but I wasn't positive until the author admitted it to me.

Low Tide Bikini (Pleasure Island - Bikini Quartet, Book One

 

LYLA DUNE

Edition read: Kindle edition, Composesum Publishing, LLC, 2013.

How acquired: No idea.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: At work one day I took my break and then realized I’d left my book at home. So I grabbed my iPad and scrolled to the very bottom of the books in my Kindle app, and this was the book waiting there the longest.

Initially I was a little put off by the heroine, Sam, for a stupid reason I’ll admit. She meets Brock, who is English but has been living in Wales, and when he asks where the loo is she doesn’t know what he means. And I was thinking everyone knows what that means, right? And then there was this exchange:

“Who retires at thirty-eight?”

“Pro rugby players?”

“Rugby?” What the heck was rugby? If she’d never heard of it, it couldn’t be that darn popular. But then again, if it was some kind of sport, that’d explain why she wasn’t familiar with it.

Ok, maybe she’s not familiar with it, but she’s never even heard of it? But then I told myself that there might actually be Americans who don’t know what a loo is, or what rugby is, and who might not know what Brock means when he uses other English words and I needed to get over it. Fortunately that was a short-lived thread in the book and after that Sam didn’t seem to have any trouble understanding Brock.

And after that I got pretty caught up in the story and I really liked Sam and I really really liked Brock. They both have issues to overcome, though I felt Brock’s weren’t really addressed or discussed by the two of them as much as Sam’s were. She eventually opened up to Brock about hers, and in the end he went to great lengths to accommodate her issues, at the risk of losing her, but she never seemed to give any thought to his issues. And at one point his issues did nearly cause him to lose her, but he mentioned his issues and then they moved on without actually talking about why he acted the way he did.

Regardless, I was pretty invested in their romance, I laughed several times, and I might have even teared up when the wonderful resolution came. I definitely want to read the rest of the books in this series.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Brock Knight, a retired rugby player from Wales, moves into his new beach house in North Carolina before Samantha Carlisle has a chance to relocate. When he spots her shagging trophies, he's not sure he wants her to move out. After a devastating breakup, Sam has sworn off men. In an effort to keep her distance from her sexy new landlord, she pretends she prefers women. Will Brock convince her to stay, or will she convince him she's gay?

With an ostrich farm and a slew of naughty naked seniors, Pleasure Island is loads of fun. If you like romance with plenty of sizzle and giggle, this book is for you!

Lead Changes

 

RENEE ROJAS

Edition read: Pdf, independently published 2023.

How acquired: Discovery

First line: Her mother always said that she could ride before she could walk.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: The premise of the story is what drew my interest. Kelsie is divorced from a man who is cruel and very controlling. She’s made a life for herself and her son, Ryan, but her ex still uses fear and intimidation to try and control her, constantly threatening to take her son away from her, despite not bothering to exercise his visitation rights. Her best friend convinces her to take a vacation at a dude ranch, where she meets Chance, and begins to find herself again.

At times the writing, and more specifically the dialogue, felt a bit stiff and formal. The characters rarely use contractions when talking, which often disrupted the flow. I think that some authors feel that not using contractions gives a more literary illusion, but most people do not, or I guess I should say don’t, speak that way, and to me it makes the characters a little less relatable. If they were high society or it was an historical time it might feel more natural, but for everyday people in contemporary fiction it can sound awkward.

Regardless, Kelsie is an interesting and likable character. Throughout the book the reader is given glimpses of what her life was like with Tim, as he seemed to love and cherish her until they were actually married, and then skillfully chipped away at her self-confidence, isolating her from her friends and family, making her dread doing anything to anger him and eager to please him and keep him happy. I can’t speak to the authenticity of her character as an abused wife, having never been in her shoes, but she felt real, and her reactions to Tim’s actions felt realistic.

Chance was nice enough, though there didn’t really seem to be much actual chemistry between them. And for some readers, that may not really matter. My reading leans mostly towards romance, and I tend to look for it even in other genres. But while I would have liked for Chance to be more involved, ultimately this is Kelsie’s story, and the focus was rightfully on her and her journey to letting go of her ex, chasing her own dreams, and learning to be happy.

I’m not sure if this is the author’s debut, but she has crafted a nicely plotted story and despite my criticism above, shows promise.

*received a free ARC from the author via Discovery*

Goodreads Synopsis:

Trapped in an abusive marriage, Kelsie Harris had been forced to trade her dreams of professional barrel racing for a life filled with fear and intimidation. Even after her husband files for divorce, the continual chokehold that he has on her and their ten year old son doesn't fade.

But, when Kelsie wins a week long stay at a dude ranch in central Arizona in a raffle, she not only fears stepping out of her comfort zone, but also her ex-husband's wrath for disobeying his demands.

Afraid of trusting others, she has built a wall around her heart that she deems unbreakable. But, as she gets to know Chance Masters, her trail boss for her week at the ranch, she begins to question her belief that all men are cruel and abusive like her ex-husband

In just seven days, Kelsie not only finds her true self again, but is also reconnected with her love for horses. Most of all, however, she becomes faced with an opportunity to love again, and must decide if it is worth pushing her fears aside and take a chance.

The Swindler's Daughter

 

STEPHENIA H. MCGEE

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Revell, 2023.

How acquired: Revell Reads Blogger Program.

First line: Her entire life was a sham.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: I’ve previously read one book from this author, THE SECRETS OF EMBERWILD, which I absolutely loved, so I was excited to get this book. This one started off a bit slow for me and took a little longer to get into, but once it picked up I was all in.

Lillian grew up with a very strict mother and believing her father was dead. As the story opens, she’s just learned that her mother lied to her and her father has actually been alive all these years, only recently passing away in a jail cell, and that he named her as his heir. When her mother sends her off to the small Georgia town where he lived, alone, to deal with his estate, she is angry and upset, and nervous, and scared, but also a little exhilarated. She’s never been away from home, from her mother, and thinking about selling off her father’s home and having money of her own reawakens dreams for the future.

But Lillian’s arrival in town dashes Jonah’s dreams for the future. His friend and boss has promised to sell the house to him, for they all believed his wife and her mother, the cousin and aunt Lillian never knew she had, would inherit. Jonah’s mother and younger sisters are already living in the house, and his mother planned to start her own bakery, which would hopefully provide enough support for her and the girls that Jonah could do something for himself now.

I grew to like Lillian more and more as she began to open herself to the possibilities of a future out from under her mother’s thumb, and discover the joy of having some personal freedom. While she’s not about to put Jonah’s family out on the streets, she’s also not prepared to just accept the plans already made for the house, and finds herself torn between selling it or keeping it for herself. I loved how her newfound family quickly accepted her, with her cousin Alma being thrilled to meet her and bring her into the bosom of the family. She loves her mother of course, and knows her mother loves her (while I quite frankly disliked her mother very much), but now she begins to see what a real family should be made of. It becomes a place where she feels welcome and valued for herself, not for what she can bring to the table.

I loved Jonah from the start. He feels animosity toward Lillian in the beginning. He dreamed of going to college to be an electrician, and then helping to bring electricity to his small town. But he’s also drawn to Lillian, and as secrets about her father come out and she becomes the victim of someone who does not wish her well, he can’t help but appoint himself to protect her.

This is an historical romance, but there are also suspense elements, and at one point in the back half things got pretty tense. It actually started to look like there would no happy ending for Lillian, as she finds herself suddenly the one being accused of committing crimes as the actions her father set into motion invade her life.

For a book that started out slow, it became quite fast paced, and thankfully ended with a perfect resolution.

*received via the publisher and voluntarily reviewed*

Goodreads Synopsis:

Lillian Doyle has lived her entire high-society life with her widowed mother, believing her father died long ago. But when news arrives that her estranged father only recently passed away--in jail--Lillian is startled to find that the man has left a business and all of his possessions to her, making her a rather unusual heiress.

When she goes to take possession of her father's house in a backwoods Georgia town, the dilapidated structure is already occupied by another woman who claims it was promised to her son, Jonah. In her attempts to untangle the mess, Lillian will discover not only a family she never knew she had but a family business that is more than meets the eye--and has put a target on her back.

To discover the truth and take hold of the independence she's always dreamed of, she'll have to make friends with adversaries and strangers--especially Jonah, the dusty and unrefined cowboy who has secret aspirations of his own.

Identity

 

NORA ROBERTS

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, Pdf, St. Martin’s Press; expected publication May 2023.

How acquired: NetGalley.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: I’ve only previously read six books by Nora Roberts and for the most part I’ve enjoyed them (especially BLACK HILLS which I highly recommend). But this one...just wasn’t at all what I expected I guess. I didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, but it was a bit of a slog to get through. I mean, when work is really busy it can take me longer to read a book, but this one took a month. Literally a month minus one day. Part of it was the writing style, which I do not remember from her previous books.

When she went over to join him, sat, she let out a sigh.

Smiling, Olivia reached down, gripped Morgan’s chin, gave it a gentle wiggle.

Those are just two small examples of the myriad sentences in the book with multiple commas and an absence of such words as “and” or “then”. I found it a bit jarring. And while I read an uncorrected digital galley of the book, meaning those quoted lines could of course be changed in the final copy, there are so many instances of the issue I’m complaining about that I’m confident they are not typos that will be edited or fixed but rather an artistic choice by the author.

I expected a romantic suspense story. There was very little suspense until the very end, and while there is a romance it wasn’t particularly romantic, other than the occasional passage here and there. I did quite like the hero, Miles, but as appealing as he was he didn’t seem fleshed out as much as the heroine. Which, of course it’s really her story, so that could have also been a choice the author made.

Overall, I enjoyed some parts much more than others, and I did love the relationship between the heroine and Howl, the hero’s dog. But I probably could have misplaced the book (or lost it from my Kindle app) at any point in the story and not been invested enough to really care if I never finished it. Regardless, I will continue to read Ms. Roberts’ books since I have very much enjoyed some of her in the past.

*received via NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed*

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan's job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party—attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy who'd been chatting her up at the bar—her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor.

Soon, a horrific truth emerges: It was Morgan who let the monster in. "Luke” is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder.

What the FBI tells Morgan is beyond chilling. Nina wasn't his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan's nightmare is just beginning. Soon she has no choice but to flee to her mother's home in Vermont. While she struggles to build something new, she meets another man, Miles Jameson. He isn't flashy or flirtatious, and his family business has deep roots in town. But Gavin is still out there hunting new victims, and he hasn't forgotten the one who got away.