Suzy Q Homemaker

Sisters Lindsay and Kerrie Ann have known hardship from an early age. Without guidance from their neglectful mother, their only aid came from an unlikely source, a retired exotic dancer by the name of Miss Honi Love. When the girls’ mother was sent to prison, Miss Honi tried unsuccessfully to save them from being separated and sent into foster care.

Thirty years later, Lindsay is still trying to reconnect with her sister. The owner of a bookstore in the sleepy California seaside town of Blue Moon Bay, she was lucky enough to have been adopted by a loving couple. Unbeknownst to her, Kerrie Ann has suffered a very different life. Bounced from one foster home to the next, she ran away as a teenager before becoming a drug-addicted single mother. Now, newly sober, Kerrie Ann is fighting to regain custody of the little girl who was taken from her.

Neither sister’s expectations are met when they’re finally reunited. But as the two sisters engage in the fiercest battles of their lives, they are at last drawn together despite their differences, restoring belief in the unshakable bond of family.

Don’t let the cover fool you: this book isn’t just chicklit.  In fact, I’m not sure what the cover of this book has to do with the story, but Once in a Blue Moon drew me in from the beginning and didn’t let me go.  I had to know what was going to happen!  Would Kerrie Ann get her daughter back?  Would Lindsey lose her bookstore in a corporate battle over Blue Moon Bay?

These questions kept me reading late into the night.  I felt particularly drawn to Kerrie Ann as she struggled to change her life in order to get her daughter back.  She had so many problems and made so many mistakes in her life, but I could feel her determination to change.  It was a joy watching her grow as a person and a mother with the help of her sister, Miss Honi, and Ollie, a co-worker in the bookstore.

The characters were colorful and believable.  I loved Miss Honi’s directness and the way she was able to be like the mother hen to Lindsey and Kerrie Ann.  I was fascinated by Lindsey’s job as a bookstore owner, and it was fun to learn little things about the profession through her character.  Her store and home were in question at the beginning of the book, as a big time corporation was trying to buy the property in order to build a resort.  I can’t imagine being in her position and having to deal with lawyers on a regular basis in order to fight for her business and her own property.  From the beautiful descriptions of Blue Moon Bay, I would want to fight for it, too.  I could almost smell and hear the ocean as Lindsey went for her morning jogs.

When I finished Once in a Blue Moon, I was left with a good feeling in my heart.  This is one of those books that makes you want to call up your sisters just to tell them that you love them.

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Review copy provided by One 2 One Network.

Tags: book reviews, giveaways

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