women's fiction

Cover of Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly by Marie Bostwick

Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly

By Marie Bostwick

Rated by Gregg W.
Nov 6, 2023

Hello and welcome to #NoWaitWednesday, where we shine a spotlight on a book in the New Release section of one of our Library branches that's just sitting there ready for a lucky patron to check it out. Since we're getting deeper into November, some of you might be looking for a title that will bring some warmth into your lives, since the winter months are growing both shorter and darker. Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly by Marie Bostwick, this week's pick, will please readers who love warm, syrupy, emotional southern fiction novels by the likes of Mary Kay Andrews, Jill Shalvis or Susan Mallery

Cover of "Scent of a Garden" by Namrata Patel

Scent of a Garden

By Namrata Patel

Rated by Gregg W.
Sep 26, 2023

Hello and welcome to #NoWaitWednesday, where we spotlight a book that's ready and available on the New Release shelf at one of our Library branches. Hot, ready, and best of all - no waiting!

"Scent of a Garden" by Namrata Patel introduces us to Asha "Poppy" Patel, daughter of a family of successful hoteliers in Napa Valley, California. When Poppy was young, she discovered that while tending her grandmother's garden, she has a special gift for identifying scents - so much so, that as she grows up, her family steers her away from the family business and into a prestigious career working as a

Cover of "Banyan Moon" by Thao Thai.

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

By Thao Thai
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Gregg W.
Jun 21, 2023

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of New Title Tuesday, where we take a closer look at a new release that's hitting the publishing world this week.

Summer is in full swing, and some of our patrons might be looking for a deeply immersive novel - something that grabs us and transports us to another place and another time. Banyan Moon, a debut novel by Thao Thai, is a sprawling, epic, multi-generational novel that focuses on interweaving mother-daughter relationships through three generations of fierce, independent women that stretch from the modern Florida coast to back, years ago, to the

Cover of COVER STORY by Susan Rigetti

Cover Story

By Susan Rigetti
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Gregg W.
Apr 5, 2022

Welcome to #NewTitleTuesday where we say hello to one of the many books that make their debuts on the library shelves this week. 

America LOVES the bad guy. Or, at the very least, we love reading about them, watching movies or documentaries about them, or listening to podcasts about them. From Elizabeth Holmes to Frank Abagnale, Jr to the Tinder Swindler, we are fascinated by people who lull others into a false sense of security while at the same time ripping them off. With today's pick, COVER STORY by Susan Rigetti, we find a familiar tale of a con artist, but the novel approaches things

The Cover of IMPOSSIBLE US by Sarah Lotz

The Impossible Us

By Sarah Lotz
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Gregg W.
Mar 22, 2022

Hello and welcome to NewTitleTuesday, where we take a look at a new book that gets released into the publishing world this week. Today's novel is a love story - well, let me stop right there, as it's not exactly a love story, it's a love story that goes wrong. In the beginning, anyway.

The novel begins with Nick, a struggling novelist, who accidentally sends a furious text to a wrong number. Bee, who works on refurbishing cast-off wedding dresses, gets the text and she, snarkily, sends a message back. They both begin a relationship of sorts over the phone, with both of them feeling the unique

Cover for The Once and Future Witches with floral background

The Once and Future Witches

By Alix E. Harrow

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Dec 15, 2021

“Witchcraft isn’t one thing but many things, all the ways and words women have found to wreak their wills on the world.”

“A witch is just a woman who wants too much”.

The Once and Future Witches is a deftly told historical feminist fantasy novel about three sister witches who help bring witching back into the world. The story unfolds alongside the late 1800s suffragette movement, and the women's movement soon turns into the witch's movement as the ways of witching slowly spread through town, and women reclaim the power they lost to time.

The novel is rich with historical details but also

Picture of stormy sky with black/purple clouds on top of a dry dusty landscape in west Texas. Title is in white, all capital letters across the clouds.

Valentine

By Wetmore, Elizabeth
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Lisa H
Nov 8, 2021

Valentine, by Elizabeth Wetmore is a hauntingly powerful, and beautiful debut novel set in Odessa, Texas in 1976. Wetmore has created four main characters with deep narratives, and all intertwined in ways that make the reader truly understand them in various ways. The detailed characterizations help to draw an accurate divide between age, class and race in west Texas in the mid-1970’s.

The story takes an emotional toll, right from the start when Gloria Ramirez, a fourteen-year-old Hispanic girl, who projects a tough-girl image, is attacked and raped after getting into a stranger’s truck. So

Purple background with three paper red and white flowers and profile of black Nigerian girl

The Girl with the Louding Voice

By Abi Dare
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Lisa H
Jun 7, 2021

The Girl with the Louding Voice, by Abi Dare, is a powerfully unforgettable story about Adunni, a 14-year-old Nigerian girl who wants nothing more than to go to school and become a teacher. Her mother encourages her to continue with her education and find not just her voice but her “louding voice”. Adunni’s life becomes hard and arduous after her mother’s death when her father, who is in need of money for himself and her brothers to survive, “sells” her to a much older man to be his third wife. What follows is a life of abuse and misery and a discontinuation of her schooling. Throughout her

Deerskin

By Robin McKinley
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Anne G
Feb 21, 2020

     You know, sometimes you just need some escapist fantasy about self-discovery in women.  McKinley's seventeen-year-old girl Lissar was just the ticket for me last night. Deesrkin is a beautiful, haunting, and sometimes painful coming-of-age story that ends with a message of hope.  The first half of the fantasy fiction is really about the traumatic aftermath of a violent assault and rape by the heroine's own father.  These dark themes are handled appropriately, realistically, and with great compassion but they do make for some hard reading in the gateway fantasy.   

     If you have any

The Giver of Stars

By Moyes, Jojo
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Lisa H
Oct 7, 2019

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes is historical fiction at its very best!  Set in 1939 Southern Kentucky, the lives of five strong female characters come together to form and operate the Packhorse Library, where they deliver by horseback, books, magazines and newspapers to those living in remote, rural areas.

One of the main characters, Alice, an Englishwoman, marries an American and is brought to Kentucky where she hopes to start a new, dazzling life with her husband. That is not to be the case.  Alice finds living with her husband and her father-in-law to be stifling and oppressive. Alice

The Atonement Child

By Francine Rivers
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Cheryl M.
May 13, 2019

The Atonement Child had me in its grips from the beginning and held me until the last word. The story centers around three women from the same family. Dynah Carey, a college student at a Christian university; her mother Hannah; and her grandmother, Eve. Dynah becomes pregnant through a rape and must decide if she will keep or terminate the pregnancy. As the novel progresses, each woman tells her unique story around the charged topic of abortion. This is the first Christian fiction that I have read, and I was a little unprepared for the emphasis on Christian doctrines of faith. However

The Harvey Way

By Carolyn Meyer
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Heather McCartin
Apr 8, 2019

In the late 1800s and early-mid 1900s, the Harvey Girls were considered to be elite hostesses and servers for entrepreneur and businessman Fred Harvey.  Harvey developed the concept of the ‘Harvey House’ dining areas along various railways across the United States, including the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe.  These hospitality restaurants worked in tandem with the railways in order to provide first class service to passengers and railroad employees.  Meals were served promptly on a strict schedule and all Harvey Girls were expected to follow a strict code of conduct that included a

The Help

By Kathryn Stockett
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Heather McCartin
Dec 5, 2018

The Helpthe debut novel by Kathryn Stockett, published nearly ten years ago, has the remarkable ability to remain relevant in today’s polarized climate of questions and the search for truth and justice.  Here we meet three different women: Skeeter Phelan, Aibileen Clark, and Minny Jackson, all wanting to change the status quo without knowing how or when to start.  Set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, there is a strong divide between the races that results in violence and fear among the residents as the Civil Rights Movement continues throughout the nation.  The power struggle exists in the

The Marriage Of Opposites

By Alice Hoffman

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Jul 31, 2018

I absolutely love this book and consider it one of my "top 10" favorites! I did not expect to like it when a friend lent me her copy to read, but it blew me away. 

Alice Hoffman's writing is so rich in detail that it's mesmerizing. The Marriage of Opposites is historical fiction set during the 19th century, based on the real life of Rachel Pomie', the mother of Camille Pissarro who became a famous artist and one of the fathers of impressionism. Most of the story is set on the island of St. Thomas, and then ultimately in Paris. Rachel Pomie' is a girl that does not like rules and is constantly

I'll Be Your Blue Sky

By Marisa De los Santos

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Jul 1, 2018

I loved this book! Clare is a recent college graduate engaged to be married but is starting to have second thoughts. The weekend of her wedding, Clare has several chance encounters with a stranger named Edith, an elderly woman who happens to be staying at Clare's wedding venue. Clare's conversations with Edith change the trajectory of Clare's life. Without giving away any plot details, the book alternates between Clare's present and Edith's past. As Clare searches to uncover the mystery of Edith's past, she learns more about herself and what's important in life. 

I'll Be Your Blue Sky is

The Natural Way of Things

By Charlotte Wood

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Mar 31, 2017

The Natural Way of Things opens dramatically as Yolanda discovers she is being held captive in the Australian Outback. She is one of a small group of women who all have a curious, not immediately obvious, connection: they have all been part of public sex scandals. While the story leaves a lot unanswered and is incredibly dark in content and description, the beautiful writing was enough to keep me engaged until the end.

The story follows Yolanda and another captive, Verla, as they try to navigate survival in the extreme conditions they awoke to after being drugged and kidnapped. They sleep

A Hundred Pieces of Me

By Lucy Dillon
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Emily D.
Feb 8, 2017

If you love dogs (and I sincerely hope you do), you'll love this heart warming story of a woman finding her place in the world and a dog finding a home. Gina Bellamy suddenly finds herself trying to figure it all out on her own after her recent divorce. As she struggles to find herself in all the clutter of life she decides to keep only one hundred essential things. Little does she know, she will find that Buzz, a neglected and anxious greyhound, fits perfectly in her new life and happy moments.

 

More on Lucy Dillon:

I have read all three books by Lucy Dillon that Johnson County Library

The Atomic Weight of Love

By Elizabeth J. Church

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Jan 22, 2017

The Atomic Weight of Love is an outstanding debut novel. Meridian Wallace puts her dreams of a Masters and PhD. on hold and follows her husband, Alden Whetstone, to Los Alamos, New Mexico where he helps develop the atomic bomb. Meridian’s unfinished scholarly work in ornithology leads her to question her life with Alden, who becomes more interested in his work and must lead a rather secretive life. Clay Griffin, a Vietnam veteran, changes the course of Meridian’s life when he teaches her the value of an equal relationship and following her own path. Meridian’s growing interest in women’s

Eligible

By Curtis Sittenfeld
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by Rachel N.
Sep 11, 2016

Eligible is a retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Set in modern day, the five Bennet sisters are all back at home after Mr. Bennet has health issues--though some of the sisters have never left. CrossFit, reality shows, fertility treatments, and dating make for some humorous situations. I found the plot enjoyable, funny, and sometimes refreshingly real when dealing with more serious situations. Unfortunately, I did not like our main character, Liz, very much. Liz is important as the glue that hold the Bennets together, but her modern-day past was a bit disappointing for me

Eight Hundred Grapes

By Laura Dave
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Rachel N.
Jul 22, 2016

Georgia Ford runs away from problems in her own life and goes straight to her place of comfort: home. Unfortunately for Georgia, with her parents heading in different directions, her brothers not on speaking terms, and the uncertain future of the family vineyard, life at home is not what she was expecting. Georgia finds that among all her family's issues, she is still unable to escape her own.

This novel is all about the complexity of life's interruptions and how they affect relationships. I was hooked by the end of the first chapter when I found out why people out for a drink were staring at

Miller's Valley

By Anna Quindlen
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by LeeAnn B.
May 11, 2016

Miller’s Valley is a coming of age novel about Mimi Miller, a girl growing up in the 1960s in rural Pennsylvania. Mimi and her family live on the same farm their family has lived on contentedly for generations. But things in Miller's Valley are beginning to change. Mimi’s dad is a farmer, but he’s really the fix-it man for the entire town. Mimi’s mom is a nurse who still manages to be around to raise Mimi and her two brothers. Mimi’s aunt, Ruth, also lives in a little house on their farm. In fact, she hasn’t left the inside of her house for many years. Over the years, their valley has been

What We Find

By Robyn Carr
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Lisa J.
Apr 29, 2016

Denver neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan has reached a low point and needs a break. After being named in a wrongful death lawsuit, her medical partners being indited for fraud, and a miscarriage and break up with her boyfriend, Maggie is yearning for the peace of the mountains where her father's country store and campground on the Continental Divide Trail reminds her of less complicated times. Cal Jones is an early arrival to the campground and is there for a specific purpose; letting go and moving on after his wife's prolonged illness and passing. Of course, he doesn't share that right away and

Lilac Girls

By Martha Hall Kelly
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Lisa J.
Apr 4, 2016

It's September 1939 and as Hitler invades Poland with his sight set on France, the paths of Caroline, Kasia and Herta are set on a course that will change their lives forever. Socialite Caroline Ferriday lives in New York City and volunteers at the French Consulate, helping French nationals visiting the United States. She also organizes aide for French orphanages. Kasia Kuzmerick is a Polish teenager who sees her way of life disappearing with the occupation of Hitler and she works as a courier for the resistance movement in Poland. Meanwhile, German physician, Herta Oberheuser, frustrated at

Our Souls at Night

By Kent Haruf
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Caitlin P
Mar 24, 2016

A quick read with a poignant message, Our Souls at Night is a moving story of two elderly neighbors who find themselves lonely after both their spouses have gone, one by choice and one by death. In an act of bravery, Addie visits her longtime neighbor, Louis, and propositions him to be her sleeping partner. Addie has no hidden agenda or sordid intent; just a desire to sleep next to another person again. Taking her up on her offer, Louis and Addie get to know each other all while sharing their nights together. A wrench is thrown into their arrangement when Addie’s six-year-old grandson needs to

The Boston Girl

By Anita Diamant
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Caitlin P
Mar 8, 2016

The Boston Girl is a classic tale of a first generation American woman in the early 1900s trying to start a better life. Addie Baum, an ambitious and likeable Jewish woman now in her eighties, tells the story of her youth to her twenty-two year old granddaughter. Her misadventures in a world unimaginable to her family are touching and amusing, though a little too familiar. At its core, this is a historically based coming of age novel intended for adults about the search for knowledge, love and self.

I rate this book a seven out of ten mostly due to its predictability. I had high expectations

My Name Is Lucy Barton

By Elizabeth Strout
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Cheryl M.
Feb 25, 2016

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout is a novel to be read slowly and savored for its richness of story. At less than 200 pages, it is a novel with a simple plot: a woman, Lucy, is in the hospital for a prolonged stay, and her mother is visiting her. Lucy has been estranged from her mother since her marriage. She is grateful for her mother's presence, while at the same time she wants more than her mother is capable of giving her. In other words, the novel is rich in family dynamics and the complexities of the human heart.

What we as readers learn over the course of

A Girls Guide to Moving On

By Debbie Macomber
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by Lisa J.
Dec 22, 2015

Leanne and Nichole are unlikely friends and confidants. When Leanne learns that her son Jake is cheating on his wife Nichole, she is sorely disappointed to find her son following in his father's footsteps. Sean, Leanne's husband has been cheating on her for years and up to this point she has just accepted and ignored his infidelity. After telling Nichole of Jake's indiscretion she admires the way Nichole instantly refuses to accept Jake's behavior and immediately moves to dissolve their marriage. Leanne draws courage from Nichole and leaves her cheating husband of thirty years. The two women

My Real Children

By Jo Walton
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Diane H.
Oct 17, 2015

The science fiction aspect to this book is both obvious and subtle. The major plot point of the book is pure science fiction - parallel universes. The main character, Patricia Cowen, experiences two separate lives, stemming from a decision she makes shortly after college.

Once we reach the divergent paths, the chapters alternate between the two realities. From there, the story is pretty straightforward domestic fiction – the daily trials, tribulations, and joys of the main character.

What I found fascinating was how world events differed between these two lifelines. It makes me wonder about

A Hundred Summers

By Beatriz Williams
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Heather B.
Oct 15, 2015

In 1931, Lily Dane is dragged along to a college football game by her best friend Budgie Byrne, where Lily instantly becomes smitten with Nick Greenwald. Despite the fact that Budgie is generally the popular one, Nick quickly falls for Lily as well. There is one major stumbling block to their happily-ever-after, however--Nick is Jewish, and while Budgie warns Lily that this will be unacceptable to their high society friends and family, Lily refuses to believe it. She concedes that her mother might be a problem, but Lily is convinced that even she can eventually be brought around. It is

A Small Indiscretion

By Jan Ellison
Star Rating
★★

Rated by Helen H.
Aug 18, 2015

I’m not sure Ellison’s family drama with its slow reveal shouldn’t be called A Series of Significant Indiscretions, as there are so many. Both past and present. The true title, A Small Indiscretion, leads a reader to believe that our protagonist, Annie Black’s happiness is at risk by the revelation of a past mistake. But really, she and her family might have overcome any part of her past, if only she will behave as the adult she’s grown into instead of the nineteen year old self she fled from twenty years ago.

When we first meet Annie she is a young, single American working in a London