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2024 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (Hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


30 / 30 books. 100% done!

2024 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama (1)
- Alaska (1)
- Arizona (1)
- Arkansas (1)
- California (11)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut (2)
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (3)
- Georgia (4)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho (3)
- Illinois (4)
- Indiana (4)
- Iowa (1)
- Kansas (1)
- Kentucky (2)
- Louisiana (1)
- Maine (1)
- Maryland (1)
- Massachusetts (4)
- Michigan (1)
- Minnesota (2)
- Mississippi (1)
- Missouri (1)
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska (1)
- Nevada (2)
- New Hampshire (1)
- New Jersey (1)
- New Mexico (1)
- New York (10)
- North Carolina (4)
- North Dakota (1)
- Ohio (3)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania (2)
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina (1)
- South Dakota (1)
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (4)
- Utah (5)
- Vermont (2)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (3)
- West Virginia (1)
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming (2)
- Washington, D.C.* (2)

International:
- Argentina (1)
- Australia (6)
- Austria (1)
- Bolivia (1)
- Canada (4)
- China (2)
- England (27)
- France (2)
- Ghana (1)
- India (1)
- Indonesia (1)
- Ireland (4)
- Italy (1)
- Poland (2)
- Russia (2)
- Scotland (4)
- The Netherlands (1)

My Progress:


51 / 51 states. 100% done!

2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


52 / 50 books. 104% done!

2024 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge


36 / 50 books. 72% done!

Booklist Queen's 2024 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


52 / 52 books. 100% done!

2024 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


51 / 52 books. 98% done!

2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


37 / 40 books. 93% done!

2024 Pioneer Book Reading Challenge


18 / 40 books. 45% done!

2024 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


25 / 25 cozies. 100% done!

2024 Medical Examiner's Mystery Reading Challenge

2024 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

My Progress


5 / 26.2 miles (4th lap). 19% done!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


51 / 100 books. 51% done!

2024 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

My Progress:


99 / 109 books. 91% done!

Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


52 / 52 books. 100% done!

Disney Animated Movies Reading Challenge

My Progress


139 / 165 books. 84% done!

The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge

My Progress:


88 / 100 names. 88% done!

The Life Skills Reading Challenge

My Progress:


45 / 80 skills. 56% done!
Monday, November 23, 2020

Historical Family Drama Another Heartfelt Story from Chamberlain

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Even though there's a terrible war raging in Europe, 25-year-old Tess DeMello is safe in her tight-knit Little Italy neighborhood living a happy, contented life.  She's engaged to her childhood sweetheart, pursuing a career as a nurse, and looking forward to a future full of love, adventure, and joy.  In a moment of weakness, however, her life is changed forever.  She finds herself pregnant with a stranger's baby.  Kicked out of her home by her mother, Tess is alone and terrified.  With no other choice, she breaks off her engagement, leaves school, and flees to North Carolina, where she'll beg her baby's father for enough money to start a new life in some far-flung city.  

To Tess' surprise, 27-year-old Henry Kraft suggests they marry and raise their baby together in his tiny hometown of Hickory.  While this seems like the perfect solution, Tess soon finds that an opinionated Italian woman from Baltimore is not exactly what Henry's family and friends had in mind for him.  While she does finally find some purpose and acceptance by volunteering at a polio hospital, her strained relationship with Henry brings only distress and worry.  Not only is he definitely concealing something from her, but he treats Tess with politeness rather than affection.  What is he hiding?  What will it take for a regretful Tess to find happiness in her strange new life?

The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain is a compelling novel set in an interesting time period and populated with complex, well-drawn characters.  None of them are perfect—all are authentically flawed.  While not all of them are likable, their individual conflicts and dramas keep the story engrossing, even when the plot gets a bit predictable.  The tale did throw me at least one curveball, though, which led to a surprise ending that I loved.  While I didn't end up absolutely adoring The Stolen Marriage, overall, I found it heartfelt, intriguing, and, ultimately, hopeful. 

(Readalikes:  Reminds me a lot of Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain and a little of At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen)

Grade:


If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), mild sexual content, and violence

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

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Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie

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The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth



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2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
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2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction

2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction

2023 - Middle Grade Fiction

2023 - Middle Grade Fiction

2022 - Middle Grade Fiction

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2021 - Middle Grade Fiction

2021 - Middle Grade Fiction

2020 - Middle Grade Fiction

2020 - Middle Grade Fiction