Reviews with TLC

A Week in Summer by Maeve Binchy is a sweet short story filled with reminders that life and love are rarely as simple as we'd like. People are complex and relating to one another isn't always as easy as we'd like. Yet, there can be moments that change everything often seeming serendipitous. Binchy writes characters in relatable dilemmas that feel like they could be real sometimes with an interesting twist that changes the perspective of both the characters and the reader. A Week in Summer  exposes a couple who seem to have drifted apart and fallen into a bit of a rut in their routine to a new way of looking at not only the world but their relationship in the process. Binchy's development of the couple in the story and the connection to the past that showed them the possibility for a future made me think about life and the connections in my own life. A Week in Summer explores the complexities and the simplicities of life and relationships in what is far more than the v

The Beautiful Little Things by Melissa Hill pulled me in gently but firmly. The characters felt almost too real at every turn. The breakdowns in communications and the assumptions made about each other and situations felt all too familiar. I cheered them on, shook my head at bad decisions, and urged them to just talk to each other. Hill creates the kind of family drama and tension that often accompanies big changes in life with a nuance that felt voyeuristic at times. The Beautiful Little Things tells the story of a family navigating love, relationships, disappointment, guilt, and most of all, grief. As the family tries to navigate through unspoken resentments and unfair assumptions about one another, they are also navigating grief over their beloved matriarch and their perceptions of her perfection leading them to lash out and create havoc for all even while using her last journal as a guide to find their way back to each other. The Beautiful Little Things is all about navigating th