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EuroHackie

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EuroHackie is Currently Reading

EuroHackie is currently reading

Bring on the Blessings (Blessings, #1)

by Beverly Jenkins (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: auto-buy-author, auto-read-author, category-romance-contemporary, length-novel, series-blessings-series, humorous-elements, trope-second-chance-romance, life-in-a-small-town, plot-moppets, i-own-this, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in February 2020

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EuroHackie said: " After reading and adoring On the Corner of Hope and Main, I knew I had to go back and start this series from the beginning. It was even harder for me to put down Bring on the Blessings, so I gave in and gobbled this book up in a single day. It is a l After reading and adoring On the Corner of Hope and Main, I knew I had to go back and start this series from the beginning. It was even harder for me to put down Bring on the Blessings, so I gave in and gobbled this book up in a single day. It is a lot of fun!

The series starts with our heroine, Bernadine Brown. As the blurb mentions, she has just turned 52 when she catches her husband of thirty years cheating on her with his secretary. She doesn't get mad, she gets even: she walks out, takes him to the cleaners, and comes away $275 million richer. She's always been a believer in blessings, and passing on her good fortune, so she starts asking God to show her how she can pay it back. Two years into her journey, she finds her answer: (1) the historic town of Henry Adams, Kansas, has put itself up for sale on eBay, and (2) her background and career as a social worker gives her the incentive to start a foster children project in her new town.

She buys Henry Adams and heads to town to see what she's getting herself into. The town is tiny and is decaying rapidly, but there is a core of elders who care about their town and their history and upholding the ties that originally bound the town together. They welcome Bernadine and her foster care project, so she sets to work. She's picked five children to bring to Henry Adams, and sets about finding foster families to care for them. Two of the parents are Henry Adams locals, two families move to town, and Bernadine herself takes in one of the kids.

This novel is their story.

We meet Bernadine, the children - ranging from selectively mute 7-year-old Zoey to the hotheaded headstrong teenaged Crystal - and the people who become their families: Trent July, town mayor; his father, the ultra-smooth Malachi; his grandmother, the formidable town matriarch, Tamar; his high school sweetheart who moves back to town, Lily Fontaine; the Paynes, who move to town after retiring from the military to foster one of the children; and the Garlands, a world-famous singer and her pediatrician husband, who also move in to take one of the kids. We meet this main cast of characters' friends and enemies - including former mayor Riley Curry and his 600 lb hog Cletus, both of whom provide plenty of comic relief.

I loved this. Yes, it's unrealistic how quickly and efficiently Bernadine turns the town around (and bulldozes everyone who steps into her path with her huge wealth and powerful friends), but the warmth and friendship between the OG Henry Adams people and the new people causing ripples in their wake is lush and addicting. You want to read about these people and their lives.

I loved the kid characters. They each had distinct personalities and distinct shades to their personalities. My favorite is probably Amari, the 11-year-old auto thief who ends up fostering with Trent July. None of the kids bedded down easily with their new families, but there was no unnecessary drama or angst, either. Okay, the ending was OTT, but somehow, it fit =)

There is a lot of God on these pages (even though the deity is not always referred to as such), so if that's not your thing you may wanna give this a pass. Me, I can appreciate it, being from a religious background growing up in the South.

The overarching theme of the book is second chances: we have a couple of second chance romances (with Trent and Lily hitting the very familiar Ms. Bev romantic notes), and a lot of characters starting over in their lives. Bernadine is 52; Trent and Lily are 40; Malachi is 60-something; Tamar and her friends are in their 80s. It's rather like the Golden Girls - these "seniors" are definitely still out here, living their best lives, haha.

I can't wait to dive into #2, so here I go! ...more "

progress:

(page 164 of 366)
"I just *love* these kids!" — Jan 15, 2026 07:07AM

Mar 23, 2021 09:37AM · see review

EuroHackie is currently reading

The Yellow Fairy Book (The Fairy Books of Many Colors)

by Andrew Lang

bookshelves: currently-reading, fairy-tales, i-own-this, type-e-book, length-short-story-collection, series-the-colour-fairy-books

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Dec 20, 2025 05:55PM

EuroHackie’s Quotes

“The real significance of Magellan's voyage was not that it was the first to circumnavigate the planet, but that it was the first to realize just how big that planet was.”
― Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life

tags: explorers, globe, history, magellan

9 likes

“You can get some sense of the immaterial quality of clouds by strolling through fog—which is, after all, nothing more than a cloud that lacks the will to fly.”
― Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

14 likes

“Win took another putt. Another make. “We’re not the same, you and I. We both know that. But it’s okay.” “It’s not okay.” “Yes, it is. If we were the same it wouldn’t work. We’d both be dead by now. Or insane. We balance each other. It’s why you’re my best friend. It’s why I love you.” Silence. “Don’t do it again,” Myron said. Win did not reply. He lined up another putt. “Did you hear me?” “It’s time to move on,” Win said. “This incident is in the past. You know better than to try to control the future.” More silence. Win sank another putt.”
― Harlan Coben, Drop Shot

4 likes

“Originally, the cellar served primarily as a coal store. Today it holds the boiler, idle suitcases, out-of-season sporting equipment, and many sealed cardboard boxes that are almost never opened but are always carefully transferred from house to house with every move in the belief that one day someone might want some baby clothes that have been kept in a box for twenty-five years.”
― Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life

tags: attic, cellar, hoarding, moving, storage

9 likes

“It was scary,” she said. “Win was scary.” “He also saved your life.” “Yes.” “It’s what Win does. He’s good at it—the best I’ve ever seen. Everything with him is black and white. He has no moral ambiguities. If you cross the line, there is no reprieve, no mercy, no chance to talk your way out of it. You’re dead. Period. Those men came to harm you. Win wasn’t interested in rehabilitating them. They made their choice. The moment they entered your apartment they were doomed.” “It sounds like the theory of massive retaliation,” she said. “You kill one of ours, we kill ten of yours.” “Colder,” Myron said. “Win’s not interested in teaching a lesson. He sees it as extermination. They’re no more than pestering fleas to him.”
― Harlan Coben, Drop Shot

2 likes

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