Now that the holidays are over I always find myself needing a good book to curl up with that still feels like winter. I want to soak into this season- because it’s wayyyy too early here in Pennsylvania to start thinking about spring! Below are several gripping books that will let you sink into winter, if you like me need help to settle into this current season rather than rushing into a new one!
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
I LOVED this book! Ariel is such a good writer! This is the fictionalized account of a real historical figure. Martha Ballard was a real midwife in the late 1700s who delivered more than 1000 women in her career and NEVER LOST A MOTHER in childbirth! That’s amazing, but then add in that she was called to be a witness in a rape trial, when the accused rapist was later found dead in the river… This real life has all the makings for a compelling story and Ms Lawhon did it justice!!
Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald
This book is loosely based on a legend of a woman who disappeared from Grand Central station in the 1920s. She comes back not every year, but on certain years… Joe Reynolds is a young man working at Grand Central and he sees Nora Lansing when she returns, looking dazed and confused, and looking like she just stumbled in from a different time era. They fall in love but they have to find a way to keep Nora from disappearing again. Through trail and error they realized that Nora is somehow tied to the Grand Central Station terminal. Slowly they start to realize that while Joe continues to age, Nora doesn’t. She is stuck in time. What are they to do? Can their relationship make it? Is it asking too much of Joe to put his life on hold to live within the narrow confines of Nora’s life?
Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford
This was such a delightful cozy story in which Olivia Ford did a great job keeping the storyline bright and cheery while spinning a secondary storyline that dealt with a really heavy subject. 78 year old Mrs Quinn is coming up upon her 60th wedding anniversary. She realizes that she doesn’t feel like she has accomplished much in her life- despite it being a full life. On a whim she fills out an application to be on Britain Bakes TV program and showcase her baking abilities- something she doesn’t tell her husband about right away.
When, much to her surprise she is accepted onto the show she has to confess that she kept this a secret from her husband- which reminds her of the other secret she’s been keeping from him…
The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister
It has been a long time since a book scratched the itch for me of keeping me hooked, having some meat to it, and giving me a glimpse into some less talked about, but no less interesting parts of history! The author pieced together this captivating novel about a fictional group of women who travel to the arctic to find a man who was lost (who actually existed). Our protagonist too is someone who really existed, though we have no evidence to believe that she actually trekked into the arctic, we do know that she was a member of the Donner party.
This story opens and our main character, Virginia Reeves, is on trial for the murder of Caprice, an affluent young woman who ventured with Virginia into the arctic but never returned. The story unfolds of the 13 women who ventured into the arctic in search of another woman’s husband, only 5 of whom made it back to be at Virginia’s trial… Will Virginia be found guilty and hanged, or will she be set free?
This book offers a very interesting look at how an undertaking of this sort was tackled in a time before we yet had all of our modern conveniences!
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Set in winter in Canada in 1867 a mother’s son goes missing the same day her neighbor is found dead. As any good mother would be, she is desperate to find her son and prove his innocence. But trekking across the countryside in search of her son in the dead of winter is a perilous task. A trapper teams up to help her find her son; but they must get to him before the law does- in the eye of the law her son is as good as guilty. Will they survive long enough to save her son?
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