Review: The Vineyard at Painted Moon by Susan Mallery

 

What do you do when you think you have nearly everything in life you ever wanted but then the rug is swept out from beneath you? In the Vineyard at Painted Moon we meet Mackenzie Dienes who has the great job, great friends a great home and marriage or so it appears. The thing is that everything in her life is wrapped up with her husband and when Mackenzie and Rhys decide to divorce she is hurt and grieving but also realizes she may lose everyone and every thing she values in her life.

Mackenzie's story is one of getting to know herself all over again. She slowly picks up the pieces of her life and creates a new and more fulfilling life for herself. There are bumps and surprises, tears and laughter, anger and forgiveness along the way. 

The secondary stories in the book are good as well. I particularly enjoyed Stephanie's story. This book is definitely heavy at times but worth the read.

Teaser Tuesday: Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn

 

Teaser Tuesday is newly hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker. To play along, just do the following:

- Grab your current read 

- Open to a random page 

- Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. 

My teaser this week is from Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn:

Then he drops his eyes to the bar, to my card and ads one more thing. "I would say I like you so much, Meg."

One Day at a Time

 I have not made a blog post in nearly two years. I have struggled with what to write so I wrote nothing here and I'm a little sad about that. While I have been thinking about what to write it dawned on me that I could share this uncertainty. Maybe someone else has felt the same way - either about writing or some other endeavor or life in general. 

We all know what the past year has been like. Everyone has had to change their life in some way. People have lost their lives (either to Covid or other illnesses {we lost two family members last year and a dear friend at the beginning of this one} or accidents) and families and friends are left to mourn and figure out how to carry on. People we love and care for have had to deal with so much. I don't mean for this post to be completely sad and melancholy but I want to acknowledge that the past year has been hard and different for EVERYONE for a multitude of reasons. 

I believe there has also been joy, though. I know that my husband and our kids and I spent a lot of time last summer going on walks and hikes on our local trails. Yes, we were socially distancing and doing our best to keep others and ourselves safe but we were also TOGETHER a LOT! We were (and are) very thankful for that! We played a lot of games together (UNO Flip is a particular favorite). I learned that I can draw when my daughter started a doodle project that she invited others to participate in - in order to spread joy. I crocheted an entire blanket that looks like an old-fashioned patchwork quilt and we love it. We watched a lot of funny videos because laughing helps SO MUCH! My kids started playing Among Us then got their friends to play with them virtually. We continued to practice our daily Gratitude and we prayed - a lot.

It's true that I didn't blog. I wrote fiction here and there but not really all that much. I was at a loss for direction with my own writing when our world was in turmoil in so many ways. I felt like writing fiction and love stories was a little frivolous. I'm over that now, though! I feel that now more than ever the occupants of planet earth need good stories with happy endings and I hope to provide some of them. I need to focus on revision and get my series done and submitted but I feel like I can work on that again - one day at a time. 

How have you all been doing? What did you struggle with and how have you endured and come through this past year?