Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good by Kathleen Flinn

Yet another memoir interspersed with recipes? Hasn't that been done to death? Kathleen Flinn proves the answer is no. In this delightful book that moves seamlessly between time periods, Finn gives us an intimate glimpse into her life. I don't know who Kathleen Flinn is (probably a famous chef or cook?) but this book is a fantastic look at no only her own life in 1970s Michigan but how her family operated even before she came along. There are fantastic passages like "Burnt toast makes you sing good. Be thankful; no matter how little you've got, someone's always worse off than you. You can't give anything away, it always comes back. [My parents] handed down these simple life lessons to me as surely as they did their recipes."
I can't tell you yet how good the family recipes are, but I can tell you that I can't wait to read the rest of Ms. Flinn's story.

If You Only Knew by Kristan Higgins

A recent "Smart Bitches, Trash Books" podcast episode called Kristan Higgins an author who writes "all the feelings" (or something close to that) and this book certainly brings them all out.

The book is about the changes two sisters are going through, different points in their life. Jenny Tate is a well-known wedding dress designer. She's had a modern divorce; she's still friends with her ex and his new wife. In fact, the book opens with Jenny attending the new wife's baby shower. And yes, the ex didn't want to have kids while he was with her. But she's moving out of town, and hopefully these meet ups will lessen. And luckily, she has a hot new landlord to distract her. A hot, new landlord with a tragic backstory.
But Jenny's story line pale for me in comparison to that of her sister, Rachel. Rachel has what appears to be a perfect marriage. A man she loves, two gorgeous little girls, house, etc. But an unexpected text reveals that her marriage isn't as picture-perfect as she had thought.
Are their stories ones we've read in romance before? Certainly. But with her usual flair, Higgins manages to make something old fresh again.

What to Do with a Duke by Sally MacKenzie

In the 1600s, the Duke of Hart's great-something-grandfather seduced a woman who then cursed the family. If the men didn't marry for love, they wouldn't live to see their heir born. Also, she set up a spinster house which was to be available to any single woman, past a marriageable age, along with a stipend. 

Miss Hutting, Isabelle "Cat" Catherine, is the oldest daughter of the village vicar. Most of her nine siblings still live her parents' tiny house and she is desperate for privacy. So when the previous resident leaves rather abruptly, Cat knows that the house is meant to be hers. Too bad two of her friends are also anxious to have the house. And too bad the handsome Duke really seems to believe in the curse...
While not my favorite MacKenzie (I didn't buy that her friends would be so vindictive), I'm liking the setup for the series and am already ready to read the next book in the series.
This book goes on sale next Tuesday!

The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan

This was a well-written book that I was able to zoom through. It seems well-researched and might might work well as a book club book where members try out keeping journals and being grateful, tracking how it works for them.

However

----------------------------Do not read if you enjoyed the book ------------------------------------

One of the main complaints I read about "TheHappiness Project" was that the author was a rich, white woman writing about her problems. I had the same problem with this book and it just started out by grating on my nerves when the author tells of a series of events that should have frustrated her but then explains how she was able to turn it around and be grateful for every single one. Every… single… one. This sort of forced gratitude doesn’t seem like a pleasant sensation to me. It seems wrong, like she was putting up a false front. And the name dropping! But I kept reading. That, and the fact that, objectively, I could tell this was a well-written book was why it ended up with three stars. It's nothing new under the sun but readers new to the idea of gratitude should really enjoy this book.

Starting Over by Stacy Finz

I've read one of Finz's "Nugget" stories all the way through and flipped through the other two. None really caught my interest and I was ready to write off the series. But I saw this one on NetGalley and was curious as to how Ms. Finz was going to pair Nathan "Nate" Breyer. I had liked him in the first book, a business-like man who was enigmatically kind toward his sister and agreed to donate sperm to his best friend so that she and her partner could have a child. Nathan is now dealing with the consequences of that action, in love with his biological daughter but unsure how much he can contribute to her life without overstepping the bounds of his original agreement. I wish we could have seen more of that struggle but it was resolved well (I thouhgt). Ms. Finz specializes in off-beat families/romantic pairings, and, though not quite as gritty, remind me very much of Brenda Novak.
I rather liked Sam Dunsbury, the woman who reminds Nate so much of the fiancee who dumped him the night before their wedding. Sam actually did the same thing, leaving the man she was to marry hours before the wedding. Rich playgirl, that's what he's mentally categorized her as.
Sam thinks Nate's hot but can't understand the hostility he seems to have for her. She knows that she hasn't worked before but also knows that this is the kind of job that she can excel at. Hell, she's been doing it for free for years.
I loved watching the dance of these two proud people. And really enjoy that this book actually has the feel of a small town. We're not hit over the head with "Hey- this is a small town," it just is. There were definitely some misunderstandings that could have been cleared up if they had just <i>talked</i> to each other. Also, the end was a little too pat. Pages and pages of misunderstandings that cleared up in a few paragraphs? A little rushed. But, overall, an enjoyable book.

Second Chance Summer by Jill Shalvis

New series from Jill Shalvis. An okay start but I wasn't really feeling this particular book. I have a feeling other Shalvis fans may disagree. Definitely not bad enough for me to give up on the series.
The Kincaid family is an unusual one. Aidan and his brother, Gray, found out later in life that his father had two other families, twin boys and a girl. Eventually, all of the sibling ended up living with his mother. Their father was nowhere in sight. Now the family is struggling because their father mortgaged the family resort. When he sees that ex-flame Lily is back in town, he's stoked to see her.
Lily Danville is back in Cedar Ridge, not by her own doing. Her boss in San Diego had ordered her to leak some gossip to the press and then not only fired her, but blackballed her, when it all went south. Now Cedar Ridge Resort, working for her best friend Jonathon, is her only option. Even though it's the place where she lost both her sister and her father. And that was part of my problem with the story, how she worked her way through that (not a spoiler, this is a romance people). She is not very happy to see Aidan. He was a big part of the worst part of her life. Just because he's a super-hot firefighter/search and rescue dude doesn't mean that she's going to fall into bed with him. Except that, again, romance novel.
As I mentioned at the beginning, an okay story but I really didn't feel like Lily worked through her issues. There was more than a whiff of "magic wang" about this story.

Followed by: My Kind of Wonderful

The Pedestriennes: America's Forgotten Superstars by Harry Hall

Endurance races seem to be growing in popularity as your "Tough Mudders" and 100 mile races get into the news more and more. But this is not a new phenomenon. In the 1800s,  endurance/fast walking was great entertainment. People used to pay good money for people like Robert Barclay Allardice, Captain Barclay, to walk for up to 6 day with little to no respite. In fact, Barclay managed the feat of 1,000 miles in ~1,000 hours, an astonishing thought at the time (and even now quite frankly.)
By the mid-1800s, women were looking to cash in on similar feats. And there were some big names who did some amazing things. Most of the book is taken up with Ada "Madame" Anderson who walked 4,000 quarter miles in 4,000 hours (1,000 miles in just over 166 days). When she succeeded, pedestrianism exploded. But then, as always seems to happen, the tide turned.
This book could have used some better editing (words misspelled and even missing) but it was an interesting look at an early endurance sport.