I recently had the chance to read a great book which I loved, called When We Last Spoke by Marci Henna.
Let me tell you about it! How about the description from the back cover first?
Humor, heartbreak and triumph are served with whipped cream and lots of local nuts in this heartwarming tale of family, friendship, and forgiveness in Fireside, Texas.
Meet Juliet Cranbourne, local radio personality and owner of a whimsical kitchen gadget store, and her sister Evangeline, a fruit tree geneticist who works for Oregon State University.
When a rift due to their orphaned past affects their sisterhood, Juliet convinces Evangeline to come home for Christmas and choose headstones to honor grandparents Walt ( a tenderhearted, good looking rancher) and Ruby ( a blue-ribbon fiddler, fabulous cook, and expert in the art of making family feel loved. As they cruise through Fireside in Ruby’s Thunderbird, Juliet hopes that healing memories will somehow smooth rough roads ahead.
Does the tremendous love that marked Walt and Ruby’s lives still have the power to renew their sisterhood and help them find their place in the world?
And here are some of the things other people are saying about this book:
“How can you not love a book, and the characters it contains, after y0u read this line: ‘Ruby had recently re-upholstered it ( an office chair) with deerskin off the buck she had shot through through the kitchen window last fall.’ In Fireside, Texas where people put mayo on their childrens’ heads to kill the lice, and mean old women still wear pillbox hats, people seem to do what my people do, but do seem a lot more fun at it.”
- Rick Bragg, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, author of All Over but the Shoutin’, Ava’s Man, and the Prince of Frogtown
My Thoughts
This was a really great book, although I am not southern enough to fully understand some of the colloquialisms mentioned throughout the book. They weren’t too difficult to figure out though. This isn’t a fast-paced, action filled book. It is the story of a family, and as we all know, sometimes families aren’t the makings of an action film (Speaking of film, this story is currently in development for either TV or film- I saw both mentioned, so I’m not sure which).
The majority of this story is set in the past, when Juliet and Evangeline are children. I do however wish there was more information on what happened in the years between childhood and the sisters’ eventual estrangement. Perhaps that will come up in another book in the series. I sure hope so. Also, I want to own a store like Juliet’s! I definitely look forward to more books by this author!
Also, the author is giving away a free Kindle version of the book on Amazon from February 20-24. So check that out at the link below!
My copy of the book also came with a DVD featuring a video trailer. You can also check that out on YouTube here.
Trailer on YouTube (http://bit.ly/WWLS_TRAILER_HD)
About the author:
Marci Henna was born in Austin, Texas and lived as a child in Kenya, East Africa with the Wakamba tribe where her parents managed a medical research station. She later moved to the Hill Country ranch which has been in the family since the 1800’s and currently lives in Austin.
Facebook (http://bit.ly/FiresideNovels)
Twitter (http://bit.ly/twitter_MarciHenna)
GoodReads (http://bit.ly/WWLS_GoodReads)
FiresideTexas.com (http://bit.ly/FiresideTexas_URL)
Buy:
Softcover (http://bit.ly/WWLS_softcover)
Kindle (http://bit.ly/WWLS_Kindle)