reecaspieces

Overview

Three powerful men converge on the banks of the Red Cedar River in the early 1900s in southern Minnesota—George Albert Hormel, founder of what will become the $10 billion food conglomerate Hormel Foods; Alpha LaRue Eberhart, the author’s paternal grandfather and Hormel’s Executive Vice President and Corporate Secretary; and Ransome Josiah Thomson, Hormel’s comptroller. Over ten years, Thomson will embezzle $1.2 million from the company’s coffers, nearly bringing the company to its knees.

The Butcher, The Embezzler, and The Fall Guy opens in 1922 as George Hormel calls Eberhart into his office and demands his resignation. Hailed as the true leader of the company he’d helped Hormel build—is Eberhart complicit in the embezzlement? Far worse than losing his job and the great wealth he’d rightfully accumulated is that his beloved young wife, Lena, is dying while their three children grieve alongside. Of course, his story doesn’t end there.

In scale both intimate and grand, Cherington deftly weaves the histories of Hormel, Eberhart, and Thomson within the sweeping landscape of our country’s early industries, along with keen observations about business leaders gleaned from her thirty-five-year career advising top company executives. The Butcher, The Embezzler, and The Fall Guy equally chronicles Cherington’s journey from blind faith in family lore to a nuanced consideration of the three men’s great strengths and flaws—and a multilayered, thoughtful exploration of the ways we all must contend with the mythology of powerful men, our reverence for heroes, and the legacy of a complicated past.

About the Author

I use stories to inspire women to claim their innate power as we collectively change the world. I grew up around a crowd of literary giants from Robert Frost to Allen Ginsberg to James Dickey, tugging at their pantlegs for a little attention. Listening to the cadence and rhythm of poets and novelists reading their latest verses I slowly found my voice. My stories start a central question: What does it mean to have a complicated family legacy? Why do we continue to mythologize powerful men? How do we take our seat at the table? What consequences arise when we speak our truth? These questions, grounded in personal experience, research and investigation translate into my essays and books. But that’s what I work on every morning. Every afternoon I’m outside–hiking, walking, biking, gardening, skiing in wild places as big as Patagonia and Penobscot Bay or as small as a neighborhood trail or park. Moving on my own or with friends seeds my writing. Writing on my own or with friends seeds my next quest. My first book, the award-winning memoir, Poetic License, was named 2021 Eric Hoffer Book Award 1st Runner-Up in Memoir; 2021 Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize Short List; 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Best Cover Design; 2020 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Finalist in Autobiography and Memoir. My second nonfiction/memoir will be out in April 2023 from She Writes Press. Subscribe to Gretchen’s newsletter to get free book chapter and more at http://www.gretchencherington.com

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Overview

From the author of The Restoration of Celia Fairchild, comes a novel about the meaning of family and the places we call home. If you love “southern summer” fiction authors like Mary Alice Monroe and Kristy Woodson Harvey you’ll love this delicious novel about family, friendship, and finding your true path in life. 

Esme Cahill thinks she has failed spectacularly: fired from her New York City publishing job, divorced from her husband, and possessing little more than a broken-down car and a pile of unfinished manuscripts, she drives home to Asheville at the request of her late grandmother, Adele, who had begged her, just before she died, to return to the place she grew up.

There she discovers the once-charming lakeside retreat run by her family is sliding toward financial ruin, so with the help of her grandfather, George; estranged mother, Robyn; and a travelling chef Dawes (maker of the world’s best grilled cheese sandwich) they set to work. In the attic, Esme unearths a trove of museum-worthy art quilts, sewn by Adele. Piecing together the inspiration behind them, Esme discovers a forgotten chapter in her family history and her grandmother’s untold story, that of a gifted artist who never received her due.

This is an always-emotional, sometimes humorous, very human novel of what it means to be family—the ties that bind us together and the unintentional hurts that can rend us apart. And, along the way, Esme learns that failure can be the first step toward the life you’re meant to find.

Review

Esme has lost her job and her husband. She moves back home after her grandmother’s death. She realizes her childhood home, a beautiful, charming lakeside retreat, is on the verge of financial ruin. On top of that, her estranged mother is there too. Esme is about to pull her hair out with all of the issues surrounding her, until she discovers a mystery…her grandmother’s untold story!

I really enjoyed Esme. She is a sweet girl but she has trouble accepting stuff that is right in front of her eyes (as most people do!). She is so set on things happening the way she expects them to, she has trouble accepting it when life does not go as planned.

This is such a cute tale with wonderful characters…I loved the chef! And the story surrounding her grandmother is marvelous.

Need a story about mending relationships with a great setting and a good bit of humor thrown in…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

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The Revenge List : A Novel 

Hannah Mary McKinnon

On Sale Date: May 23, 2023

9780778333463

Trade Paperback

$18.99 USD

368 pages

ABOUT THE BOOK:

As a therapy exercise, a woman writes a list of people she wants to forgive, and thinks nothing of it when she loses it in an Uber…until one by one the people on the list become victims of freak accidents. Set in Portland, Maine, Hannah Mary McKinnon’s breakout suspense novel THE REVENGE LIST will appeal to fans of Lisa Unger, Joshilyn Jackson, and Tarryn Fisher.

Following an epic run-in with a client who threatened to pull out of a contract at her father’s company if she doesn’t suffer some consequences, Frankie Morgan agrees to go to anger management. With the business struggling with cash-flow and her brother needing help with the medical bills for his sick daughter, she can’t risk harming the business further. But that doesn’t mean she’ll be happy about attending.

During the first session, the group is asked to spend some quiet time exploring their pasts and sitting with the emotions that generates, before making a start on a Forgiveness List—a list of people with whom they’re angry and might work on forgiving. She begrudgingly goes along with it and doesn’t worry too much when she forgets the list in an Uber on her way home. It shouldn’t matter—it was just a therapy exercise—except a few days later the first person on that list is injured in a freak accident. When the second person gets hurt, she hopes it’s coincidence. After the third is targeted, she knows it’s a pattern. And she’s in trouble. Because the next name on that list is…hers.

Review

Frankie has started attending anger management classes. She has lost her cool one too many times with clients. One of the exercises in class is to start a forgiveness list. But, Frankie’s list ends up missing. A few days later the first person on her list is injured and then the second, then the third…and Frankie sees a pattern. She knows she is in danger!

Now, this book should have been a 5 star read for me. But…I HATED Frankie. I really found her to be a giant “Karen”. One of her outbursts was legit, but not so sure about any of the others. So, I had very little patience for her antics. Yes, she was in therapy for her anger issues but it was not like she wanted to be helped. So, this twist in this book…may be more her fault. But I really, really hated her. I almost dnf-ed this book because of her. I mean common courtesy goes a long way. Ok…I am hushing.

It sounds like I did not enjoy this book, I promise, I did. My issue with Frankie is my issue, not yours. There are several amazing twists in this tale and it just keeps building with intensity as the story moves along. Plus, the ending is fantastic…And I believe there will be a sequel.

Need a thriller with a humongous twist…THIS IS IT. Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing. She now lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons, and is delighted by her twenty-second commute. Connect with her on Facebook, on Twitter @HannahMMcKinnon, and on Instagram @HannahMaryMcKinnon. For more, visit her website, http://www.hannahmarymckinnon.com.

SOCIALS:

Website: www.HannahMaryMcKinnon.com 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/HannahMaryMcKinnon (@hannahmarymckinnon)

Instagram: www.instagram.com/HannahMaryMcKinnon/ (@hannahmarymckinnon)

Twitter: www.twitter.com/HannahMMcKinnon (@hannahmmckinnon)

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/15144570.Hannah_Mary_McKinnon

BookBub: www.bookbub.com/authors/hannah-mary-mckinnon

LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/hannahmarymckinnon 

BUY LINKS:

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-revenge-list-hannah-mary-mckinnon/18745472

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-revenge-list-hannah-mary-mckinnon/1142010420

IndieBound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-revenge-list-hannah-mary-mckinnon/18745472?ean=9780778333463&ref=&source=IndieBound&title=The+Revenge+List

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Revenge-List-Hannah-Mary-McKinnon/dp/0778333469

Books A Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Revenge-List/Hannah-Mary-McKinnon/9780778333463

Overview

In one of his most accomplished, compelling novels yet, acclaimed New York Times bestseller Jeff Shaara accomplishes what only the finest historical fiction can do: He brings to life one of the most consequential figures in U.S. history—Theodore Roosevelt—peeling back the many-layered history of the man and the country he personified. 

From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, from the waning days of the rugged frontier of a young country to the emergence of a modern, industrial nation exerting its power on the world stage, Theodore Roosevelt embodied both the myth and reality of the country he loved and led.

From his upbringing in the rarefied air of New York society of the late 19th century to his time in rough-and-tumble world of the Badlands in the Dakotas, from his rise from political obscurity to Assistant Secretary of the Navy, from national hero as the leader of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War to his accidental rise to the Presidency itself, Roosevelt embodied the complex, often contradictory, image of America itself.

In gripping prose, Shaara tells the story of the man who both defined and created the modern United States.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

Review

Theodore Roosevelt was an icon in American History. He was charismatic and intelligent. This novel spans his early life with his first wife, Alice, to the Badlands and the Spanish-American war all the way to the Roosevelt’s last breath.

I learned so much about Theodore Roosevelt in this novel. It covers so many aspects of Roosevelt’s life and in such great detail. The author and the narrator brought Roosevelt to life for me. I honestly did not know half of what this man did. Now, did he make mistakes and misjudgments, sure he did. He is human. And the author portrays all of this, Roosevelt’s faults and his great deeds!

The reason for the 4 stars is this novel can get a little dry In places and it is very long. But, that is because it is so very well researched.

The narrator, Paul Michael, is on if my favorites and he sounded just like I expected Theodore Roosevelt to sound. A job well done!

Need a very good novel about a true American…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

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