The Butterfly's Daughter - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

I enjoy books where I learn something while being engrossed in a good plot. In The Butterfly's Daughter, the subject was monarch butterflies. Mary Alice Monroe takes readers on a young woman's journey to fulfill her recently-deceased grandmother's wish for the two of them to go to Mexico. The granddaughter's quest parallels the flight of monarch butterflies in their annual migrations south. This is also a coming-of-age story. 

The book begins with a prologue, in which the grandmother tells an ancient fable to her 21-year-old granddaughter. Each chapter also begins with brief factual information about the monarch butterfly's migration. The action in Chapter One starts like this:

First Paragraph(s):
    Esperanza Avila had told the story so many times over the years that it was accepted as truth--even by herself. She'd meant only to blanket her granddaughter's frightening loss, not to mislead her. She saw the story she'd created as a safe, happy cocoon for her to grow up in.
    But in the end, she'd created a lie. Now she was caught in her own trap of deception. The only way out was to tell Luz the truth, no matter how painful that truth might be.

Teaser (from page 256 in trade paperback):
There were moments in the past three years of recovery when she felt such despair that she didn't think she could make it past another day without using. Moments like now. At these low points when her hands shook and her gut roiled, she'd go to the garden and put her hands deep into the earth. 

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction
Book Length: 382 Pages (trade paperback) plus a reader's group guide.
Amazon Link: The Butterfly's Daughter
I picked this up from the book exchange shelf at the senior center. It was published in 2012.

Synopsis: Every year, the monarch butterflies - las mariposas - fly more than two thousand miles on fragile wings to return to their winter home in Mexico. Now Luz Avila makes that same perilous journey south as she honors a vow to her beloved abuela - the grandmother who raised her - to return her ashes to her ancestral village. As Luz departs Milwaukee in a ramshackle old VW Bug, she finds her heart opened by a series of seemingly random encounters with remarkable women. In San Antonio, however, a startling revelation awaits: a reunion with a woman from her past. Together, the two cross into Mexico to await the returning monarchs in the little village Abuela called home, but they are also crossing a border that separates past from present . . . and truth from lies.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by I'd Rather Be At The Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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Slightly South of Simple - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

I expected the characters in this book to have more of a Southern "voice" (it takes place in Georgia) but they didn't. That's okay. I still enjoyed the story. My big complaint was that it ended a little too abruptly for me. However, it's the first book in a series, so maybe that's why everything wasn't as neatly tied up as I wanted.

First Paragraph:
    I still have dreams about that yellow-and-white striped bikini, the one I was wearing the night I met Jack, my first bona fide summer love. I was fifteen going on sixteen, the perfect age, when your hair tints that summer blond that hairstylists become super-stars for emulating. You have filled out enough not to be gangly but not so much that you can imagine a one-piece being in your future.

Teaser at 83% on my Kindle (I stretched the excerpt to three sentences instead of just two):
    I knew already from having children and grandchildren that time moved quickly; the days were long, but the years were short. And I knew for certain that no matter how many fights they had or how many times I had to change sheets or clean up dirty dishes or babysit all day for one grandchild after I'd been up all night with another, I would look back on these months of having my children home with me, back where they belonged, with incredible joy and wistfulness. These were the good times, even when they were hard.

Genre: Women's Fiction
No. of Pages:  479 Pages
Amazon Link: Slightly South of Simple
Copyright: 2017

Synopsis:
     Caroline Murphy swore she’d never set foot back in the small Southern town of Peachtree Bluff; she was a New York girl born and bred and the worst day of her life was when, in the wake of her father’s death, her mother selfishly forced her to move—during her senior year of high school, no less—back to that hick-infested rat trap where she'd spent her childhood summers. But now that her marriage to a New York high society heir has fallen apart in a very public, very embarrassing fashion, a pregnant Caroline decides to escape the gossipmongers with her nine-year-old daughter and head home to her mother, Ansley.
     Ansley has always put her three daughters first, especially when she found out that her late husband, despite what he had always promised, left her with next to nothing. Now the proud owner of a charming waterfront design business and finally standing on her own two feet, Ansley welcomes Caroline and her brood back with open arms. But when her second daughter Sloane, whose military husband is overseas, and youngest daughter and successful actress Emerson join the fray, Ansley begins to feel like the piece of herself she had finally found might be slipping from her grasp. Even more discomfiting, when someone from her past reappears in Ansley's life, the secret she’s harbored from her daughters their entire lives might finally be forced into the open.
     Exploring the powerful bonds between sisters and mothers and daughters, this engaging novel is filled with Southern charm, emotional drama, and plenty of heart.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by I'd Rather Be At The Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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Good Grief - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

Author Lolly Winston does a great job of taking readers through a grieving widow's mourning. I enjoyed this touching and realistic novel. The writer's style and humor appealed to me too.

Opening:

How can I be a widow? Widows wear horn-rimmed glasses and cardigan sweaters that smell like mothballs and have crepe-paper skin and names like Gladys or Midge and meet with their other widow friends once a week to play pinochle. I'm only thirty-six. I just got used to the idea of being married, only test-drove the words my husband for three years: My husband and I, my husband and I... after all that time being single!

Teasers:
Page 118 in Trade Paperback (LOVE this description):
We creak past the living room, which is crowded with antiques that remind me of old ladies. Wingback chairs with tea party posture. Pedestal tables with demure padded feet.

Page 151:
You think, This is it: I'm at the bottom now. It's all uphill from here! Then you discover the escalator goes down one more floor to another level of bargain-basement junk.


Genre:  Women's Contemporary Fiction
Amazon Link: Good Grief
Book Length: 355 Pages (including reading group guide)
Copyright 2004

Synopsis:
The brilliantly funny and heartwarming New York Times bestseller about a young woman who stumbles, then fights to build a new life after the death of her husband. Thirty-six-year-old Sophie Stanton loses her young husband to cancer. In an age where women are expected to be high-achievers, Sophie desperately wants to be a good widow - a graceful, composed Jackie Kennedy kind of widow. Alas, Sophie is more of a Jack Daniels kind. Downing cartons of ice-cream for breakfast, breaking down in the produce section of supermarkets, showing up to work in her bathrobe and bunny slippers--soon she's not only lost her husband, but her job and her waistline as well. In a desperate attempt to reinvent her life, Sophie moves to Ashland, Oregon. But instead of the way it's depicted in the movies, with a rugged Sam Shepherd kind of guy finding her, Sophie finds herself in the middle of Lucy-and-Ethel madcap adventures with a darkly comic edge. Still, Sophie proves that with enough humor and chutzpah, it is possible to have life after loss.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by I'd Rather Be At The Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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Miami Morning - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

     From South Africa to South Beach, Miami Morning gives a deep and fascinating look into Leila Payson's world as a teacher, community volunteer, daughter, and friend. Author Mary Clark takes us into the character's thoughts and dreams through her life choices and relationships with others, including a mysterious man with a book who keeps popping up. "Miss Pacer" is an interesting character who leads an introspective life.
     I lived in Miami for quite a few years, so I especially enjoyed visiting the area again through the pages of Mary Clark's story. She nailed the setting and "feel" of that locale.

First Paragraph:
Present Day.
     Leila Payson walked from her pale yellow bungalow toward the opening horizon, listening to the call of birds rising above the primal hum of dunes. She had risen early the first morning of her forty-something life, seized by an eager sense of being on the threshold of accomplishment.

Teaser (from 17% on my Kindle) (Leila is thinking about a fight she had stopped between two girl students.)
     She'd seen these fights before, with the girls using every means to inflict as much damage as they could, even slamming their opponent against the floor, lockers, or the concrete planters in the courtyard. Without a tradition of long-understood rules of combat, the ferocity was frightening; rather than a ritual dance, a rite of passage, or defending a romantic interest, as it was with boys, this came from a primeval source, protecting and asserting the girl's core identity.

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction / Literary
Book Length: 202 Pages
Amazon Link: Miami Morning
Author Website/Blog: Literary Eyes

Synopsis (from Amazon):
Leila Payson, affectionately nicknamed “Miss Pacer” by her students, is always pushing the boundaries in her efforts to achieve her goal of becoming a better teacher and human being. Before settling in to her life as a Social Studies teacher and volunteer at the local playground, Leila spent a year teaching in South Africa where she met an occupational therapist and others working within the disability community. Now, years later, when a student discovers he is going deaf and asks her for help, Leila embarks on a pivotal journey that calls on her to employ everything she’s learned and earns her both allies and rivals. And while she juggles work, family, and adventures with her diverse group of friends, a mysterious man with a book keeps appearing at her favorite places. Come along for the ride as Leila Payson faces challenges and opportunities with spirit and courage … and a bit of humor, too.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

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Key Largo Blues - #BookBeginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

     In the "About the Author" section of Key Largo Blues, Lynne M. Spreen writes: "Many novels and movies feature the coming-of-age story, in which young people figure out who they are and what they want to be. That's compelling, but so is this: what happens afterwards, twenty or thirty years later, to these interesting people?"

     I love stories about older characters. In Key Largo Blues, Karen Grace is fifty when she goes through major life changes. Her career is in shambles and she is recently divorced after thirty years of marriage. As the book opens, Karen is starting her life anew, building a business, and taking chances. It isn't always easy to start over in midlife, and the author shows her character's doubts, challenges, fears, and triumphs. Key Largo Blues is a book with many layers and one I'm sure I'll read more than once.

     Key Largo Blues is the sequel to Dakota Blues, but the book stands alone. You'll enjoy it even more, however, if you read Dakota Blues first. I'm proud to feature Lynne M. Spreen and other fabulous indie authors on my blog.

Book Beginning:
     Staging was everything.
     Karen Grace closed her windows against the possibility of noise. Key Largo teemed with Christmas Eve revelers, and the marina was like a parking lot, what with fishing charters and pleasure boats coming and going. So Karen took precautions. She couldn't afford to blow her scheme. In one hour, the show would go live.
     And the show, if successful, would launch her business. In the past year, her safe and happy life had imploded. Now footloose and broke, she considered the optics. Her new client had to think Karen was calling from a high-end office building, not an old camping trailer.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
She was accomplishing so much. The degree to which she could focus, living alone in the trailer with no social life, was thrilling. It was also somewhat depressing.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Older Adult (OA)
Amazon Link: Key Largo Blues
Book Length: 275 Pages
Author Website: Any Shiny Thing

Synopsis:
When Karen Grace turned fifty, she lost her husband and her job. Now she’s starting over, and this time, she’s determined to build a new life on her own terms. However, she’s being pulled in multiple directions: her family and friends want more of her time, her hometown sweetheart wants a commitment, and her fledgling business is on life support. With the hard-won confidence of midlife, Karen knows what she needs to do, and pays the heartbreaking price for pursuing her dreams. While grieving that decision, another challenge lands: Frieda’s granddaughter arrives on her doorstep in Key Largo, pleading for refuge. In this life-affirming sequel to Dakota Blues, Karen Grace completes her journey, deciding what can be saved and what must be jettisoned as she navigates passage into the second half of her life.

Disclosure: The author provided me with an advance copy of Key Largo Blues; however, that did not affect my review of the book.

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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Broken Pieces - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

    Many of my favorite books have plots that revolve around dysfunctional families. Broken Pieces definitely fits that description. Sometimes sad, sometimes delightful, often touching, this is a lovely story, set in a small town.

First Paragraph(s):
    My father stood at my front door as if he'd simply run out for bread and forgotten his keys.
    A slight gray stubble dappled his chin and the line of his jaw, his appearance a far cry from the practiced, clean-shaven face he sported the one time I saw him each year.
    Frustration and disbelief tangled inside me.

Teaser (from 8% on my Kindle):
    I worked alone. I lived alone. I liked it that way.

Genre: Women's Fiction
Book Length: 284 Pages
Amazon Link: Broken Pieces
Author's Website: www.KathleenLong.com

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
    Destiny Jones is doing just fine on her own, thanks. From her thriving one-woman carpentry business to the loving support of her small-town community, Destiny has constructed a life as sturdy and polished as her best cabinets. Twenty years ago, Destiny’s world collapsed when her mother died and her father, Albert, abandoned his daughter to pursue acting in New York. His devastating exit taught Destiny a lesson in self-reliance that has kept her safe—and alone—ever since.
    Now Albert Jones is back, begging for a second chance. Destiny suspects he’s simply staging another performance, starring himself as the prodigal father. Should she act on her misgivings? Or listen to her inner child, who still yearns for a family? When Albert divulges a shocking secret, Destiny’s life will again be turned upside down.
    Kathleen Long’s warm, wise novel reveals the armor that has protected us in the past is often the very thing we must shed to fully live and love. 

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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Late Fall - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

   In Late Fall, author Noelle Adams shows amazing insight into the feelings and concerns of her protagonist, a 71-year-old woman who moves from her long-time home to a retirement village. The author shows her character's introspection and reveals her personality in the ways she reacts to the experience of living with others after many years alone. Ellie is a strong, independent woman with lots of life left in her. Although the character seems much older than 71 to me (maybe that says something about my own age!), the result is a touching story that I won't soon forget.

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction
Book Length: 276 Pages
Amazon Link: Late Fall
Other Books by This Author: HERE

First Paragraph:
    Almost every morning for the last twenty-five years, I've walked a dirt path that leads from my backyard to a little graveyard in the woods.
    On this, my last morning, I do it one more time.

Teaser at 9% on my Kindle:
I don't want to be surrounded by a lot of annoying retired people and forced to participate in ridiculous activities I'm expected to enjoy just because I have gray hair.
    I didn't like games and ice cream socials when I was younger, and I sure don't want to put up with them now.

Blurb: 
     This is life. After summer, the green leaves always change colors and fall off the trees. Dogs die, no matter how much you love them. Land is sold, even if you used to tell yourself you were going to die on the property. And people get old.
     Even me.

[Longer synopsis here]

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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The Little French Guesthouse - #BookBeginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

    I just finished reading The Little French Guesthouse, and now I'm tempted to buy a ticket to France. How I'd love to spend a month in the French countryside and stay in a cozy guesthouse like the one described in Helen Pollard's well-written romance. My passport is ready! 
    Not only is this a romance, it's also a story about taking chances. The plot takes an unusual turn as Emmy becomes more than a pampered guest and ends up helping run the resort. Will the challenges thrust upon her cause her to reexamine her life?
    I enjoyed getting to know Pollard's characters and being immersed in the day-to-day operations of running a country retreat. I'm looking forward to reading more stories by this talented author, including this book's sequel, Return to the Little French Guesthouse.  

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Book Length: 344 Pages
Amazon Link: The Little French Guesthouse
Author Website: Helen Pollard Writes

Book Beginning:
     I wish I could tell you it happened like it does in the movies. You know the kind of thing. The heroine standing proud, oozing restrained fury. The audience's satisfaction as she delivers a reverberating slap across her lover's face. Her dramatic but dignified exit from the screen.
     Believe me, there was nothing dignified about it. All I did was stand there shaking, rage and adrenaline coursing through my body like rabid greyhounds, my mouth flapping open and shut as I tried to find the words. Any words.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
They weren't just fond of each other, or used to each other, or putting up with each other, or taking each other for granted. After thirty-five years, they were still in love.

Synopsis from Goodreads:
     Sun, croissants and fine wine. Nothing can spoil the perfect holiday. Or can it? 
     When Emmy Jamieson arrives at La Cour des Roses, a beautiful guesthouse in the French countryside, she can’t wait to spend two weeks relaxing with boyfriend Nathan. Their relationship needs a little TLC and Emmy is certain this holiday will do the trick. But they’ve barely unpacked before he scarpers with Gloria, the guesthouse owner’s cougar wife. 
     Rupert, the ailing guesthouse owner, is shell-shocked. Feeling somewhat responsible, and rather generous after a bottle (or so) of wine, heartbroken Emmy offers to help. Changing sheets in the gîtes will help keep her mind off her misery. 
     Thrust into the heart of the local community, Emmy suddenly finds herself surrounded by new friends. And with sizzling hot gardener Ryan and the infuriating (if gorgeous) accountant Alain providing welcome distractions, Nathan is fast becoming a distant memory. 
     Fresh coffee and croissants for breakfast, feeding the hens in the warm evening light; Emmy starts to feel quite at home. But it would be madness to walk away from her friends, family, and everything she’s ever worked for, to take a chance on a place she fell for on holiday – wouldn’t it? 
     Fans of Jenny Colgan, Lucy Diamond and Nick Alexander will want to join Emmy for a glass of wine as the sun sets on the terrace at La Cour des Roses.

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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Felicity's Power - Book Beginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

     They met in San Francisco, back in the days when hippies roamed Haight-Ashbury and free love and idealism ruled. But Felicity yearned to see the world, and Marek planned a future with more stability. Forty-three years later, is the spark still there?
     I enjoyed this book on many levels. The description was lovely, the characters were appealing, and I'm a sucker for second-chance love stories. It was also fun to read a book that features older characters who are still active, interesting, and sexy. I'll be looking for more books by this author.

Book Beginning:
     "You're right, of course. This dream is going to blow sky high, just the way Owen's did a hundred and fifty years ago."
     A woman's voice. Rich, throaty. Lazy. Marek Sumner looked up from the lecture notes he'd been shuffling together. Audacious, slanting brown eyes scrutinized him, taking his measure in a leisurely way.

The Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
     High above, the night sky was amazingly clear. Diamond stars winked cheerfully, and the moon sent a shiver of light across an ink sea. It was good being here.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Romance
Book Length: 226 Pages
Amazon Link: Felicity's Power
Author's Website: J. Arlene Culiner

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
     San Francisco, 1971: hippies in the streets, music and revolution in the air. The evening Marek Sumner opened his door to the wild-looking Felicity Powers, he knew nothing would ever be the same again. But even love and passion couldn’t keep them together.
     Forty-three years later, having lived in the world’s most dangerous places as a foreign aid worker, Felicity is back, still offering him love, passion, and adventure. But why would Marek risk having his heart broken a second time? Now a well-known author, he loves his calm, solitary life in an isolated farmhouse. He and Felicity are just too different; their relationship could never work.
     But Felicity is just as fascinating and joyful as ever, and that wonderful sexy magic is still there too. As for love, perhaps it’s even deeper and more delightful the second time around.
                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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A sweet Texas romance, available in paperback and ebook formats: 
Amazon Link

Jewel - Teaser Tuesday and First Paragraph / First Chapter

Jewel by Bret Lott is an engrossing and beautifully written story. The author delves deep into the main character's fears and dreams, and he does a great job of portraying the reality of the Deep South in the 1940s and 1950s, especially regarding treatment of children with Down's Syndrome. Jewel is a book I won't forget.

First Paragraph:
     I was born in 1904, so that when I was pregnant in 1943 I was near enough to be past the rightful age to bear children. This would be my sixth, and on that morning in February, the first morning I'd known I was with child, I'd simply turned to Leston in bed next to me, the room gray from a winter sky outside the one window, that sky not yet lit with the sun, and I'd said, "There'll be no more after this one."

Teaser (from Page 80 in my hardback copy):
     But I let that fear hole up inside me until February, praying each day something might happen: that my baby would smile up at me when she came to, that she would roll over, that the sound of a baby's laugh might escape her and make its way into the house.
     Nothing came. Now she was five months old.

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction / Family Saga
Book Length: 358 Pages
Amazon Link: Jewel
Author's Amazon Page: Bret Lott

Synopsis:
In the backwoods of Mississippi, a land of honeysuckle and grapevine, Jewel and her husband, Leston, are truly blessed; they have five fine children. When Brenda Kay is born in 1943, Jewel gives thanks for a healthy baby, last-born and most welcome. Jewel is the story of how quickly a life can change; how, like lightning, an unforeseen event can set us on a course without reason or compass. In this story of a woman's devotion to the child who is both her burden and God's singular way of smiling on her, Bret Lott has created a mother-daughter relationship of matchless intensity and beauty, and one of the finest, most indomitable heroines in contemporary American fiction.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at ADailyRhythm.com

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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