Rosepoint Publishing

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick #AudiobookReview #bookclub #TBT

Bookclub at the YMCA

Another book I’d have never picked up, but a book club read that turned enjoyable. An author from the UK, this debut now among her six novels, but the most successful. I was told it was turned into a movie, but have not found evidence of such on the internet. She generally writes “uplifting, life-affirming fiction.”

My Thoughts

It’s a simple book. Sweet plot.

Arthur Pepper is a widower who has settled into a deep depression following the death of his wife of forty-plus years. At sixty-nine years of age, he has developed a routine that varies little from minute to minute—none of which has to do with his children, his neighbors, or the simple act of shopping for groceries. He has little interest in anything outside of his fern and garden.

So it is upon facing the first anniversary of her death that he has decided to clear some of her belongings and it is in this project that he discovers a gold charm bracelet that he has never seen before, well hidden.

Finding a telephone number on one of the charms, he can’t resist calling it, as he can’t imagine how or why Miriam would have a charm with an Indian telephone number on it. It begins the odyssey to find out more about her life before himself.

I loved how each of the charms left a tiny hint as to what the next charm might have represented and the amazing story behind each. The stories were touching, hilarious, tragic, simple, and powerful. Each a testament to the woman he married who had never shared her life (and that was an early difficult part to understand).

The characters are well developed, each conveying the story of their experience with his wife. Each of the adventures in which Arthur was led opened a new door to the woman he thought he knew. It was inspirational, compulsive, and emotional, a book you’ll enjoy if you love light, fast, and fun reading.

Many thanks to our local well-stocked library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own as well as my interpretation of the consensus of the book club participants.

Book Club Thoughts

The publisher provides questions for discussion at the book club, aided this time by questions additionally posed by the library.

A few of the items specifically examined were:

►How was Arthur Pepper changed? Obviously from a grieving and depressive widower to one who discovered there was still life out there that confirmed the love from Miriam for him was genuine.

►Was the book really an adventure, mystery, or family life fiction? All three, although Amazon has it classed as Later in Life Romance, Contemporary British & Irish Literature, and Travel and Vacation Fiction.

►Can intergenerational friendships work? Extended discussion appeared to agree that it could.

►The question was posed as to the favorite character. There were a number of lively and completely diverse characters. This led to an extensive discussion on all the adventures and the character each introduced as the reason for the charm. Most were…charming. Many, including myself, noted Mike as being particularly interesting and generous, while some also noted Bernadette as being a bit too much or as the busy-body opposite to the positive characters.

Book Details:

Publisher: Harlequin Audio
Narrator: James Langton
Publication Date: May 3, 2016

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Phaedra Patrick - author — Phaedra Patrick – author

The Author: Hello and welcome to my author page! If you click the yellow ‘Follow’ button, Amazon will send you an email when I have a new release, or if there’s a special deal you might be interested in.

I’ve always wanted to write books but came to it the long way around. I originally studied art and marketing and then worked as a stained glass artist, film festival organiser and communications manager. I won several awards for my short stories and have now written six novels, four of which became USA Today bestsellers. I live with my family in Saddleworth, UK, where I write full time.

My debut novel, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, was translated into twenty five languages worldwide and was optioned by a major Hollywood film studio.

My second novel, Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone (named Wishes Under the Willow Tree in the UK), was made into a Hallmark movie in 2021.

My third novel, inspired by my love of stories, is The Library of Lost and Found. It was selected as ’The Great North West Read,’ to be read across 300 libraries in the UK in 2019.

My fourth is titled The Secrets of Love Story Bridge (The Secrets of Sunshine in the UK) and my fifth, The Messy Lives of Book People (titled The Book Share in the UK) was the Barnes & Noble fiction pick for June 2022 in the USA.

I hope you enjoy my sixth novel, The Little Italian Hotel, a warm, uplifting escape about the power of love, friendship and following your dreams.

Please visit my website at http://www.phaedra-patrick.com for more info, writing tips and to sign up to my newsletter. You can also get in touch with me via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The YMCA Bookclub

Rosepoint Reviews – June Recap – July Heat and Firecrackers

June first ushered in a whole new lifestyle and schedule around here with the sudden emergency we experienced with the CE.

Notified that his Loop (cardiac implant) went off, he was sent to Emergency at our nearby hospital where he ended up with a whole new device. Unfortunately, he proved to be allergic to the wound adhesive and round two occurred one week later. He got his staples out two days before his birthday. Needless to say, I’ve taken a blog sabbatical. His estimated full recovery is expected to be eight weeks.

Now with the heat dome and temps at the century mark, the water garden isn’t looking too healthy and my mosquito fish (the Rosy Red Minnows) agreed it was too much for them. The Mystery snails are quite happy with each other, but it’s a struggle to keep that water temperature below 85^o F and that won’t work for them either, sad to say. We don’t usually experience these temps, so the whole thing must obviously be my fault.

The veggie garden doesn’t need a whole lot of attention except for some water. Going to the YMCA is out for the CE, although I might try to do one or two days a week, including book club next week and Bingo the next. One of our Navy buddies has passed away, a friendship of almost sixty years, so our son will be driving us to Texas. Yes, Texas in July. From the frying pan to the fire.

The CE and I did have six books we struggled to finish and I to post. The links on the titles are to our reviews that also include purchase information.

Rosepoint Reviews - June Recap

eBooks

Abigail Trench by Randy Overbeck (buddy read with the CE)
Mayhem in the Mountains by Jane Loeb Rubin

Audiobooks

Ironwood by Michael Connelly
Still Alice by Lisa Genova (book club)
The Divorce by Freida McFadden
Lorne by Susan Morrison

Favorite Book of the Month

The CE loved Randy Overbeck’s book. It was unique and very timely as well as thought-provoking. I greatly enjoyed it as well and can recommend for our America250 celebration. The favorite book for June:

Favorite for June – Abigail Trench

My Reading Challenges page…I’ve been lucky to turn on the computer. My Goodreads count won’t be accurate anyway but opening page shows 75 books (eleven behind schedule). I think it’s obvious I’ll have to edit the goal. Also, I have several audiobooks finished but not posted.

To my readers and fellow bloggers, I appreciate every open and like, and thank you so much for taking the time to check out my posts and leave your comments.

A little light summer reading.

Abigail Trench: A Novel of Washington’s Spy Ring #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Abigail Trench by Randy Overbeck

A buddy read with the CE. His review below.

Book Blurb:

A vivid, propulsive Revolutionary-era thriller with the spy-craft verve of the streaming hit TURN: Washington’s Spies and the electricity of 1776’s New York that Hamilton lovers will recognize, this story is inspired by the lone female operative in Washington’s spy ring.
In occupied New York, a schoolteacher with everything to lose turns information into a weapon, threading between Redcoats and rebels as plots against Washington gather steam.
After rogue Redcoats assault her and strip her family’s Long Island farm, Abigail Trench fights to survive in New York City—tutoring in a high-ranking British officer’s Water Street household by day, navigating taverns, informants, and soldiers by night. Through Abigail’s keen eyes—and a counter-narrative following a principled British major—the novel renders the moral gray zones of occupation with gritty intimacy. As rumors swirl of a strike at General Washington, Abigail’s vantage inside upper-crust parlors and rough waterfront rooms makes her an ideal courier—and a target.
This historical thriller delivers high tension, textured world-building, and a captivating heroine who put it all on the line for freedom.

My Review:

I always enjoy reading historical fiction, especially those stories using real events and persons. This book is very timely and focuses on the historical Culper Ring and Robert Townsend, one of the main support characters, aka Samuel Culper Jr., or Agent 723.

The protagonist is a young teacher from London seeking employment in New York after she and her father moved there from Long Island. Serendipity had a hand in introducing her to a British officer’s family with two small children seeking a tutor. She meets Molly and Jamie at a hanging. Molly is the antithesis to the Major’s wife and provides great street credibility along with descriptive scenes of 1776 New York City.

Abigail has ample reason to dislike the British but manages to plaster on her “teacher’s smile” when around the officers, conferring with the Major while she is tutoring the children in another room of his mansion. It’s the perfect setup to overhear British plans for war. It’s difficult to play the cloying female around the arrogant British officers, but in the role she accepts—nay—forces upon Robert Townsend, she steps into the treacherous world of espionage as Agent 355.

I love the way Abigail faces the fear, forces herself to calm, then dissolves when it’s safe. This is not a role to be taken lightly and is fraught with danger, intrigue, and suspense.

While Molly and Jamie school her on keeping arms’ length from the soldiers, Robert is heavy on spy craft instruction, and their closeness fosters a romance. He is brilliant in his work, creating a perfect cover while setting up a system of codes and a network of carefully curated contacts.

Depiction of the cruelty and the terror of the people quietly builds throughout the novel, manifesting a quiet tension. Townsend was never caught and, indeed so careful in his position that his name was only linked to the spy ring in 1930. That he might have had a lover who passed him major sources of information is neatly woven into the narrative as the tutor who may have shared vital information. She is portrayed very believably as an eighteenth-century teacher/tutor, strong, principled, but with proper feminine frailty.

I enjoyed the storyline and the recognizable events, familiar and historical facts, and that Agent 355 was a woman—this could have been her—why not? Still, I had a little problem with the romance and the epilogue.

I read Crimson at Cape May, Book 2 of the Haunted Shores Mysteries in September 2020 and greatly enjoyed that ghost mystery. This historical fiction is somewhat of a departure from those books.

My Rating: Four point Five Stars

His Review:

Before the Revolutionary War, the people in “The Colonies” were simply subjects of the King of England. Many had come from London to escape the cold, rainy weather and the diseases that were a constant part of life in England. They had come to escape poverty and fulfill the dream of a better life. The “Red Coats” were their own countrymen working to maintain order.

Their entire life changed after the “Declaration of Independence.” Didn’t the colonials understand that they enjoyed all of the benefits of British rule including the “Red Coats” to protect them? The climate changed as George Washington trained an army that chose to fight those British soldiers and the Red Coats were very angry that they were not shown the respect that they felt was due them.

Revolutionaries were gathered and hanged including Nathan Hale. He exclaimed as they put the rope around his neck on the gallows, “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” Abigale watched in angry silence as he died thrashing at the end of that rope and her first love was gone. The crowd was disbursed.

Most of the people were first-generation Americans or recently arrived people looking for a better living in the “New World.” General Washington had the army of revolutionaries who felt that all of the taxes required of them were going to England without any benefit provided to improve this country. The revolution, which began as a protest, devolved into a fight for freedom from the soldiers who abused them, burned their homes, and conscripted many to military service.

Reading this book will enlighten the reader as to why the war was necessary. Similar to the French Revolution, the people required recognition for their struggle and the thankless taxes sent to the King. A new perspective of the Revolutionary War! 5 stars – CE Williams

Last year, I read Red Shadows at Saugatuck, Book 4 of the Haunted Shores Mystery (a paranormal fantasy), and greatly enjoyed it as well.

His Rating: Five Stars

Many thanks to the author for providing us with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is our own.