Open Book February #anopenbook
Today, I’m joining Carolyn Astfalk and Catholic Mom for An Open Book.
Here’s what I’ve been working on or reading this past month.
Amazon Synopsis: All Mackenzie (Mac) Hawkins wanted was a peaceful, low-key summer. She had it all figured out. She would break up with her boyfriend and spend the summer with her sister, Abby, and best friend, Tessa. Everything was going as planned until Hunter Keating moved in next door with his carefree and confident personality. He had his own set of plans until she interrupted them, forcing them both to run to what was comfortable, leaving the other hurt. As she navigates how to deal with her abandonment issues from her mother and trust issues with her father, she comes to realize God uses messy, ordinary lives to fulfill His will.
My review: This is a new FQP book (just published on January 21) and I highly recommend it. Ideal for teens or young adults searching for a compelling novel with realistic and well-developed characters as well as a great story. I wish I had this kind of book when I was a teen.
The Stations of the Eucharist: From Melchizedek to the Book of Revelation by Denise Mercado
Review: Denise Mercado’s book is a timely and profound exploration that bridges the rich tapestry of Old Testament covenants with their ultimate fulfillment in the New Testament. This book provides a transformative guide that takes the reader from head knowledge to heart devotion. By examining key biblical moments that prefigure the Eucharist, Mercado draws out the richness of God’s eternal covenant, helping readers encounter the mystery of the Eucharist in a deeply personal way. This book is an invitation to not just learn about the Eucharist but to experience it as the spiritual nourishment God has provided throughout salvation history. A truly inspiring devotional for those seeking to deepen their love for the Eucharist.
Rev. Eric L. Boelscher STL, Pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Crescent Springs, Kentucky
My review: This is an excellent book that takes the reader from the Old Testament to the New Testament and describes “The Stations of the Eucharist.” Fascinating read. Highly recommend.
Come My Beloved: Inspiring Stories of Catholic Courtship, edited by Ellen Gable and Kathy Cassanto
Amazon Synopsis: Come My Beloved: Inspiring Stories of Catholic Courtship is a celebration of faith and enduring love. This compilation includes 12 courtship/dating stories which will inspire, captivate and entertain readers. Included are the following stories: A widow with eight children meets a widower with six children; a woman prays to God for a husband and years later, finds herself falling in love with a seminarian; a man asks his live-in girlfriend “What if we stopped having sex?” and is greeted with tears of joy; an atheist falls in love with her Catholic Prince Charming; a couple meet through a Christian introduction service. What these couples have in common is a deep faith in God and faithfulness to the Catholic Church’s teachings.
Ideal book for Valentine’s Day! And only .99 on Kindle.
Amazon Synopsis: In this uplifting sequel to her award-winning memoir Crazy Love, Eileen Leamy tells “how God remade me after losing the love of my life,” giving her comfort, strength, and a path forward. Stay With Me is her often humorous, always poignant testament to how God’s love brought her through devastating grief into a joy-filled life.
My review: Beautiful book that continues the author’s journey through grief with God’s unconditional love after the death of her husband, Harry. Recommend!
The Midnight Dancers: a Fairy Tale Retold by Regina Doman
Amazon Synopsis: When teenaged Rachel Durham finds a way that she and her eleven stepsisters can sneak out of their Chesapeake Bayside home after midnight, their troubled fundamentalist father enlists the help of Paul Fester, an ex-soldier and traveling juggler, to find out what the girls are up to. A modern retelling of Grimm’s fairy tale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.”
My review: I recently reread this book. My review from 15 years ago reiterates my love of this book.
The Midnight Dancers is the fourth in Regina Doman’s series of “Fairy Tale Novels,” and this, by far, is my favorite of her four books. The story takes place in Bayside, Maryland and is a new take on Grimms’ “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” and involves twelve sisters (six sisters and their six stepsisters) who are being raised in an extremely strict Christian household with little or no room for freedom.
The book’s main character, Rachel Durham, 18, is the oldest daughter who believes that goodness is not interesting and she yearns for adventure. Her father, a colonel in the army, and worried about his daughters and stepdaughters, he secretly enlists the help of an army friend, Paul, a medical student and part-time juggler, to keep an eye on the girls. Her stepmother is a rather unlikeable woman who seems to only speak to Rachel to ask her to take care of her younger brothers or to clean up a mess.
Rachel and her sisters discover a secret door (an old Underground Railroad escape, no doubt) in their bedroom which leads outside and which brings them to an old cave by the beach near their house. Every night, the girls decide to venture outside (in the dark) and swim in the bay, visit with boys and eventually take a boat to a forbidden island. Daytime becomes monotonous and tiring (“the light is boring” metaphor). Keeping this secret from their parents, the girls’ new taste of freedom brings them into many different kinds of trouble.
Paul knows about the ventures, but doesn’t at first share this information with the girls’ father, since he is keeping an eye on them, trying to make sure they don’t get into any more trouble. In the climax of the book, he is shown to be the epitome of goodness (with some metaphors to Christ-like behavior) and the girls, most especially Rachel, finally realize that goodness is anything but boring.
I would highly recommend this book. It is a delightful read with a little bit of everything: romance, suspense and action. For the most part, the characters are rich, well-developed and believable. Because of the mature nature of some of the themes, I would recommend it for ages 13 and up. It is a compelling, entertaining page-turner not only for teens, but also for adults who are looking for a great story and solid, engaging writing.
Rapunzel Let Down by Regina Doman
Amazon Synopsis: A teen summer romance in New England has disastrous consequences when the daring son of a conservative senator forms a secret relationship with the isolated daughter of a reclusive scientist. A modern retelling of the classic tale ‘Rapunzel.’
My review: This is another Regina Doman I recently reread. It’s one of my favorites and the most controversial of her books. It is definitely the darkest of her novels, and it’s not appropriate for innocent, naïve teens. However, adults will enjoy this compelling story. My review from 12 years ago is below:
Like her other novels, Regina Doman’s new book is based on a fairy tale, this time Rapunzel. As usual, Doman puts a modern spin to the story. To her credit, though, she is able to give us a totally different story filled with twists and turns while at the same time keeping it close enough to the original tale. In the summary of the book, the author asks “Can sex destroy love?”
Hermes and his family are spending the summer in their New England summer house. Hermes is 18 and has been raised in a faithful Catholic family and his father is a prominent politician. Hermes is “sick and tired of sharing his life with his father’s political career and his overbearing older brothers.” He and his brothers eventually discover a house nearby with a tower; one of his brothers dares him to climb the tower. The dare ends up with Hermes falling, but not before discovering there is a girl in the tower.
Hermes eventually climbs the tower successfully. He meets and becomes infatuated with 15-year-old Raphaela, a girl with unusually long hair, smart but innocent. She is kept in the tower supposedly for protection by her adoptive mother, a radical feminist doctor who is part of “Womyn,” a group that believes men are the reason for whatever is wrong in the world.
However, Hermes can’t seem to stay away from Raphaela, despite the fact that visiting her is dangerous for a variety of reasons. This attraction leads him to make selfish choices and the couple eventually become sexually active (these scenes are brilliantly done, without graphic description). The answer to the author’s question “Can sex destroy love,” is illustrated as we journey with the characters throughout the rest of the story.
Surprisingly enough, Hermes’ secret visits to Raphaela continue for weeks; that is, until Raphaela begins exhibiting nausea, fatigue, breast tenderness. Her mother, the radical feminist doctor, recognizes the symptoms, asks her when her last period was, then gives her a pregnancy test which turns out to be positive. Knowing that an unknown male has made her daughter pregnant, she sets a trap. Hermes is eventually arrested and Raphaela taken away. Raphaela, the previously sheltered naive girl, is surprised to be pregnant but happy until her mother and feminist friends convince her that she should have an abortion. Eventually, she comes to realize that her mother is going to force her to abort. So she escapes to keep her unborn baby safe. She disguises herself and spends times in various places in order to stay hidden from her mother and her radical feminist friends.
Eventually, Raphaela is kidnapped and taken to an undisclosed location. The climax of the novel was compelling and I was clicking ahead quickly on my Kindle to read.
The strength of this particular book is Doman’s ability to illustrate the consequences of immoral sexual behavior. Even though this was the darkest of her Fairy Tale novels, this has become my favorite. I had a hard time putting this book down. It is written beautifully, the characters are well-developed and believable, the story fast-paced.
Note to parents: this novel deals with mature themes and there are scenes of sexuality and violence (although not graphic).
Highly recommended for 17 and up.
The Oystercatcher of Southwark by Erica Colahan
Amazon Synopsis: Philadelphia, 1897—On the shores of the Delaware River, Italian Catholic Mary Paragano dreams of a happily ever after. However, when she defies her family and runs away to marry Jakob, a Jewish boy, her fairy tale takes an unexpected turn. Disowned by her father, abandoned by Jakob, and pursued by a jealous gangster, Mary’s life spirals into tragedy, culminating in accusations of attempting to harm her own children and a harrowing end in an asylum.
Philadelphia, present day—Bella, Mary’s great-great-granddaughter, grapples with the aftermath of her recent divorce. Amidst her pain, a mysterious stranger named Sophie enters her life, claiming to be related to Jakob, the man who left Mary to her devastating fate over a century ago. Together, Bella and Sophie unravel the layers of Mary’s haunting past, question the stories they’ve been told, and uncover the impact of these historical secrets on their modern-day lives.
Based on the remarkable true story of the author’s great-great-grandmother, The Oystercatcher of Southwark takes readers on a poignant journey through the immigrant neighborhoods of South Philadelphia. This deftly woven novel explores the profound love of a mother for her children and the redemptive hope that transcends time.
My review: This was an interesting book (and even more compelling because it’s based on a true story), and it kept my attention throughout. I also enjoyed the setting, as I’m originally from the Philadelphia area. Excellent historical fiction. Highly recommend.
