It's Never Too Late

Two more books to check off  the 26 Books in 2015 Challenge!

#9 A book with color in the title

One Lavender Ribbon by Heather Burch

One Lavender Ribbon makes use of one of my favorite storytelling devices: past and present story lines that interweave...usually with a mystery of the past being unraveled in the present. As a lover of history, the idea that the past can (and does) effect our present intrigues me. Decisions made have lasting consequences, which in One Lavender Ribbon brings heartache, betrayal, secrets, love, and redemption to multiple generations. This story doesn't present life in a nice, neat package. The characters are flawed. The make flawed choices and don't handle some situations well at all, but through it all you see the power of learning from the mistakes of the past, of striving to right wrongs you've caused, of fighting for what's important, of redemption on earth in all its messy glory.

#13 A book with a female heroine

Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin

A book with a female heroine who lives her life in books and not in life. I would love to spend my days reading book after book after book. As it is, I probably do spend more time than I ought reading (as can be attested by the state of cleanliness in my home). A librarian by trade, I would be rich if I had a dollar for every person who (mistakenly) assumes that I sit in my office and read books all the livelong day. Oh that that were true! Alice, the heroine of Wonderland Creek, is a librarian during the Great Depression who had literally run into a light post due to the distraction of a good book. She reads every chance she gets, which causes some difficulties in her personal life (nearly burning down her parents' kitchen, neglect of her long-term boyfriend, naivete of how life really works. A series of events flings her into a small mountain community in eastern Kentucky...and suddenly Alice learns that life must be lived. This was a thoroughly enjoyable read with mystery, self-discovery, and good old fashioned feuding families.