In a Nutshell Reviews

In a Nutshell Reviews are my version of mini-reviews, because sometimes, you just want the highlights.

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Family Tree by Susan Wiggs
Published by William Marrow on August 9, 2016
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Fiction

Goodreads

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a powerful, emotionally complex story of love, loss, the pain of the past—and the promise of the future.

Sometimes the greatest dream starts with the smallest element. A single cell, joining with another. And then dividing. And just like that, the world changes. Annie Harlow knows how lucky she is. The producer of a popular television cooking show, she loves her handsome husband and the beautiful Los Angeles home they share. And now, she’s pregnant with their first child. But in an instant, her life is shattered. And when Annie awakes from a yearlong coma, she discovers that time isn’t the only thing she’s lost.

Grieving and wounded, Annie retreats to her old family home in Switchback, Vermont, a maple farm generations old. There, surrounded by her free-spirited brother, their divorced mother, and four young nieces and nephews, Annie slowly emerges into a world she left behind years ago: the town where she grew up, the people she knew before, the high-school boyfriend turned judge. And with the discovery of a cookbook her grandmother wrote in the distant past, Annie unearths an age-old mystery that might prove the salvation of the family farm.

Family Tree is the story of one woman’s triumph over betrayal, and how she eventually comes to terms with her past. It is the story of joys unrealized and opportunities regained. Complex, clear-eyed and big-hearted, funny, sad, and wise, it is a novel to cherish and to remember.

I live for stories like this! Could you imagine finding out something wonderful and terrible, and then going into a coma for year? That's what happened to Annie. She woke to a lot of hard truths, but she was also back with her family. The best part? She was reunited with the love of her life. YES!

This story was told flipping from past to present. I got to learn about Annie and Fletcher together and how their paths diverged. I was ecstatic that they found their way back into each other's lives. I also got pretty warm and fuzzy from a few of the supporting characters storylines. There were parts that made me rage! But some of what Annie lost wasn't worth fighting for. This was quite a journey for Annie. As she physically recovered, she also had to come to terms with her dream changing. She no longer desired those things from her past, and now, she had to figure out her future. 

Such a wonderful and heartwarming story! There were lots of happy tears, and I was overjoyed that Annie was finally able to have it all.

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Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal
Published by Pamela Dorman Books on April 18, 2023
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction

Goodreads

A story of a couple from two very different restaurant families in rustic Minnesota, and the legacy of love and tragedy, of hardship and hope, that unites and divides them

Mariel Prager needs a break. Her husband Ned is having an identity crisis, her spunky, beloved restaurant is bleeding money by the day, and her mother Florence is stubbornly refusing to leave the church where she’s been holed up for more than a week. The Lakeside Supper Club has been in her family for decades, and while Mariel’s grandmother embraced the business, seeing it as a saving grace, Florence never took to it. When Mariel inherited the restaurant, skipping Florence, it created a rift between mother and daughter that never quite healed.

Ned is also an heir—to a chain of home-style diners—and while he doesn't have a head for business, he knows his family's chain could provide a better future than his wife's fading restaurant. In the aftermath of a devastating tragedy, Ned and Mariel lose almost everything they hold dear, and the hard-won victories of each family hang in the balance. With their dreams dashed, can one fractured family find a way to rebuild despite their losses, and will the Lakeside Supper Club be their salvation?

In this colorful, vanishing world of relish trays and brandy Old Fashioneds, J. Ryan Stradal has once again given us a story full of his signature honest, lovable yet fallible Midwestern characters as they grapple with love, loss, and marriage; what we hold onto and what we leave behind; and what our legacy will be when we are gone.

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club was my first experience with Stradal's writing, and I rather enjoyed it. 

This book made me simultaneously happy, sad, and nostalgic. This tale spanned generations, and I got to see how this supper club changed the lives of all involved. Rotating through different points of view, I met all these people, learned about their struggles, shared their joy and their pain. I developed an affection for this supper club and all the people who were part of that world. But it seemed the universe was always striving for balance because for every good thing that happened, something devastating followed. 

I had a lot of emotions, but overall, I appreciated getting to spend decades with these people.

Have you ever been to a supper club?
Let us know in the comments!