I is for Inspiring, Impassioned, Important Stories for Women #AtoZChallenge #MondayBlogs

reviews by Susan Roberts

According to Wikipedia, "women's fiction is an umbrella term for women centered books that focus on women's life experience that are marketed to female readers". But that is a pretty dry definition. Novels that fall into women's fiction are often INSPIRING, IMPASSIONED, and take on IMPORTANT events in the life of women. Below are 4 women's fiction novels you should pick up.

The Year We Turned Forty by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

CHANGING YOUR LIFE - FOR BETTER OR WORSE?
'Life wasn't meant to be played like a game of chess, moving the people you love like pawns to win the game.'

Everyone looks back at their lives and finds a point that they wish they could go back to and make changes that would affect their current life. In this fantastic book, Jessie, Gabriela and Claire get to do just that. As the three friends are celebrating their 50th birthdays together in Vegas, they get a chance to go back to their 40th birthday. They can spend one year there and make changes to their lives. At the end of the year, they can decide whether they want to remain in the past or come back to the present. The novel follows all three women as they try to make changes in their lives at 40 always being reminded of the butterfly effect -- that even small changes can create drastically different outcomes. Will the changes they make lead to happier lives or just to different problems? The book is entertaining and the characters are very likable and the story line keeps you turning pages -will they stay or go back?? And the whole time I was reading the book, I kept asking myself, what would I change if I could go back to being 40 again! (This book was sent to me by the authors for an unbiased review)

Buy The Year We Turned 40 at Amazon

Linny's Sweet Dream List by Susan Schild

Linny is down on her luck after her cheating husband dies of a heart attack in a hotel room with his girlfriend and leaves her with a ton of debt. Now she is a widow for the second time in 5 years and has to return home to live in a run down trailer on her mother's property. The good news is that she has a loving but eccentric mom, a wonderful sister and a caring best friend. She also has a job but she doesn't know how much longer she can tolerate it. Her self esteem is at an all time low and she doesn't know which way to turn. Her sister encourages her to make a list of what she wants out of life and to start working on it - one step at a time. This story is about Linny's quest to make her dreams come true. The book is a real 'feel good' story - it's a fun read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Buy Linny's Sweet Dream List at Amazon

Paris Is Always a Good Idea by Nicolas Barreau 

Paris IS always a good idea -- not just for a place to travel but also for the setting of a novel. Since I just visited the area that the areas in Paris that this novel was set in, that made it even more fun for me. This is a light fun read with lots of descriptions of Paris and two fun characters.

Rosalie is an artist who owns a card shop in the St. Germain area of Paris. After being asked to illustrate a children's book by a famous author, she proudly displays a copy in her store window. Along comes an American tourist, a lawyer who wants to continue teaching literature and has come to Paris to think about this life. He is appalled when he sees the book because he feels that the story in the book was stolen from his late mother. He angrily confronts her and they try to unravel the truth together.

The book has a little mystery, a little romance and a lot of Paris -- it's a fun read and I highly recommend it! (Thanks to NetGalley for providing the book for a for a fair and honest review.)

Buy Paris Is Always a Good Idea at Amazon

The Promise of Provence (Love in Provence #1) by Patricia Sands

On Kat's 22nd wedding anniversary, she heads home from work expecting to have a woderful evening with her husband. Instead she finds a letter informing her that he has left her for another woman and they are expecting a baby. Being alone in your mid 50s after spending your life as part of a couple, is a scary transition for anyone but Kat has two loyal friends to help her through the worst times. She decides to do a vacation house exchange and Goes to Provence and her life is transformed gradually with the help of her new friends. I actually read this book while I was in France and I found that the descriptions of the French countryside were very well done. Parts of the book are like a travelogue and you can almost feel like you are in France. I loved this book. The setting, Kat and her best friends. Can't wait to start the next book in the series later tonight. (This book was provided to me by NetGalley for an unbiased review.)

Buy The Promise of Provence at Amazon

What do you like about Women's Fiction? Do you have any to recommend?

Susan Roberts, reviewer. Susan grew up in the Detroit area but after deciding that city life wasn't for her she moved to North Carolina after college. She and her husband have several acres of land and they enjoy gardening and canning vegetables in the summer. They travel extensively and just returned from a month in Paris. Susan reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction and thrillers. You can connect with Susan on Facebook or Twitter.

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