Jencey's Corner

Anton Discalafani’s The After Party is one of the best novels of the summer according to PopSugar.  This novel entertains us with a tale of friendship between to two women back in the 1950s.  The story is set in the 1957 and through flashbacks of the two women’s childhood.   The women are both named Joans. Synopsis: Joan and Cece have been together since elementary school.  They share a history that is hard for many to understand even her husband.    The story is told from Cece’s point of view, and her role in Joan’s life as her caretaker.  When her mother died she went to live with Joan’s family.  Joan’s parents expected her to keep tabs on their daughter.  The story flips between Joan and Cece’s growing up years to the present of 1957.  Now that Cece has her own family and baby how can she keep the same role?  Does Joan want her to?   Can she break the ties of her past? My Thoughts: I enjoyed t...

We are excited to have Christine Breen to share her debut novel HER NAME IS ROSE. In the novel the author explores the relationship between mothers and daughters.  How does that relationship become impacted by adoption? Synopsis:  When Irish gardener Iris Bowen could not conceive a child, she turned to an Irish adoption agency. There she found a young American exchange student who wanted the best for her infant daughter, but had one request: that the child be named Rose. Now, Rose has grown and is stepping out on her own at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Although a gifted violinist, she questions her talent as she struggles to meet the impossible demands of her brilliant but harsh teacher. Meanwhile, Iris has yet to fulfill her late husband’s last request that she find Rose’s birth mother, so that if anything happened to Iris, Rose would not be left alone in the world. However, when Iris receives some worrisome results on a breast scan, her husband’s words be...