Description:
From the national bestselling author of The Sister Season, The Accidental Book Club and Second Chance Friends shares a new novel about a woman who discovers the spirit of the season is truly in the giving....
Jennifer Scott, the author of The Sister Season, The Accidental Book Club, and Second Chance Friends returns with her particular brand of women’s fiction, this time centered on a holiday theme with THE HUNDRED GIFTS (NAL Accent; October 27, 2015), again tackling deep and complicated issues of love, loss, family, and friendship.
With the holidays around the corner, empty-nester Bren Epperson realizes that for the first time in decades, she has no large family to cook for, no celebration to create. To fill the void, she starts teaching a holiday cooking class, and it’s a huge success—until Virginia Mash, the old lady who lives in the upstairs apartment above the classroom, bursts into her class complaining about the interruption. Rather than retaliate, Bren suggests that the class shower Virginia with kindness—and give her one hundred gifts. Together, they embark on a plan to lift the old woman’s heart. Along the way, amidst the knitting and the making and the baking, they discover that family extends far beyond blood, the best gifts can’t be bought, and that family celebrations can be reborn and new traditions established.
A touching story that arrives just in time for the end of the year, a time of reflection as we prepare for the new year ahead, THE HUNDRED GIFTS captures the true spirit of the holiday season.
My Take:
4 Stars!
Wow! I could relate to a lot in this book! The age of the main character, Bren. I could relate to everything about her and how she felt about her kids, and how her kids made her feel, her husband, and I could go on and on. Being the same age and being able to relate to the character so well, well . . . I enjoyed this one.
Bren’s friends talked her into teaching a cooking class, and she was very busy with that, yet stressing, too, while trying to get every recipe just right. Her time is spent with that right now. In the back of her mind she thought about her children. Bren is an empty nester, but not ‘just’ an empty nester, her daughter lived far away on the opposite side of the world, literally, in Thailand, and her son, well, she never really knew where he was until Bren was talking to her daughter one morning and she found out her son would be spending Christmas with her daughter. That HURT! Poor Bren! She had just been kind of beating herself up, or at least that’s what I call it, where she wonders if she’s depressed, or maybe it’s the menopause and her hormones are all screwed up. She was going through weight gain, and even though married, NO sex, husband asking her to leave him alone for right now, and whatever else. She says, “Those things are depressing too, right?”
So the Christmas bomb was dropped on her, literally, even though her daughter continually invited her to Thailand. She was afraid one day her daughter would have little Thailand-babies and they’d be running around. Bren’s heart was not in Thailand for Christmas, even though her two kids finally caught up with each other over in Asia, they at least would be together. She felt jealousy, as I know I would, and I’m sure that will happen to me one day, so it was a little refreshing reading about that in this book. It was kind of a preparation for it.
Bren’s neighbor, Virginia Mash (Smash!) starts giving the cooking class problems. It’s too loud. It smells. She sees smoke rising into her apartment. (UGH!) It’s this, it’s that, so the cooking class, instead of breaking up, decides to shower this woman with gifts!
I don’t want to get much more detailed than that so you can enjoy it! You’ll love this! There is the part where they cook Turduckens. That part is hilarious! There are some parts you can’t help but to laugh your behind off! Turducken? I don’t know what it is, either! I know I saw an ad for it on TV at KFC or Burger King one time? I can’t remember! LOL! The ladies were making shapes out of them, etc! It was just too funny!
These are just everyday ladies trying to get by with their families, friends, and the new things that make them happy now that they are empty-nesters. That really does take a toll on you, as they all learn together. The perfect sentimental book for this time off year. This book was provided to me by the Publisher through NetGalley.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Scott is the national bestselling, award-winning author of Second Chance Friends, The Accidental Book Club, and The Sister Season. Her acclaimed YA novels under a pseudonym, Jennifer Brown, have been selected as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a VOYA Perfect Ten, and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.
CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED - You'll LOVE this! It really gets you thinking about the book and what happens!
Paperback, 384 pages
Published October 27th 2015 by NAL
Please visit Jennifer Scott online at:
Facebook: JenniferScottAuthor
Twitter: JenniferBrownYA
Some of this author’s other books:
Praise for The Accidental Book Club
“The Accidental Book Club will have you laughing and crying at the same time.”
—Fresh Fiction
“The still-evolving relationships between the various women are touching...Scott has drawn an affecting tale of family, love, and forgiveness.”
—BookNAround
Praise for The Sister Season
“Emotionally honest and psychologically astute, The Sister Season is ultimately an uplifting story about the pull of the past, the need for forgiveness, and the redemptive power of familial love.”
—Liza Gyllenhaal, author of A Place for Us
“The Sister Season is a powerful, honest look at the harm that ripples out from every unkindness, and the strength inherent in the sisterly bond.”
—Heidi Jon Schmidt, author of The Harbormaster’s Daughter
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