First off I loved Darien's Gee's first novel Friendship Bread: A Novel. This newest offering from her is a sort of sequel to Friendship Bread. Gee revisits some of the former characters from Friendship Bread but not all which is one of the two complaints I had about this novel. We do catch up with Madeline and Hannah. I wish we could have re-visited Julia and her family in this novel and so it felt a little false to me that she didn't pop up again.

This novel can be read as a stand alone novel but I still think it would be a good idea for the reader to read Friendship Bread first though since Gee does bring up events from the previous novel and you may be a little bit lost in places without the introduction.

This novel centers around four women living in Avalon, Illinois. The first is Isabel Kidd dealing with the anger she still feels towards her late husband. The second woman is Ava Catalina who is in mourning for the man and life she lost when he unexpectedly died leaving her with a young son to raise. The third women is Yvonne Tate a sexy plumber trying to build up her business in Avalon and also trying to find the one. Last we have Frances Latham, who is in the process of trying to adopt a girl from China.

All of the women end up meeting and getting embroiled with the Scrapbooking Society due to Bettie Shelton the head of the Scrapbooking Society going far and wide to recruit women and men to join in with her love of scrapbooking. Though it is called "The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society" the Avalon Ladies are not exactly front and center here. Though scrapbooking is a theme that Gee tries to tie the novel into you don't really see the payoff to that particular group until the very end.

My second complaint was due to the vignettes that Gee has inserted in certain places in the novel. These broke up the flow of the novel and though were interesting I couldn't always find the thread that connected them to the other people in the story. I actually started writing down names to see if they appeared elsewhere in the novel later and was 100 percent frustrated with the introduction to so many people.

I would still recommend this novel to anyone out there looking for something to read that reminiscent of Maeve Binchy's later novels.

Please note I received this novel for free via the Amazon Vine Program. ( )

I was lucky enough to win an ARC. I loved the characters, especially Bette, and all the storylines all wove together well. I enjoyed reading this and appreciate the chance to read it. ( )

Another outing with the ladies of Avalon, Illinois. Darien Gee’s books are chick lit at its most charming. Getting to know her ladies is a pleasure. I look forward to more from this author. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book. All the character's stories came together throughout the book. There were a couple of great twists that developed until the end of the book. But honestly, I thought the ending was underwhelming. I couldn't give the book the full five star rating because of it. I kind of felt like I was left wanting more or just left on a hook. Maybe there is more for another story but who knows. ( )

I find these kinds of books kind of boring at times. It wasn't that the stories were disinteresting, rather that when you are following so many connected stories, you never truly relate to one character. Some of the characters were a bit shallow but this is one for a pool side read. I ended up skipping the last few chapters, I needed to return the book to the library and I wasn't so involved that I felt the need to find out what happened in the end. The most interesting part of the book was the way scrapbooking was used to bring all of the characters together and served to tie in the theme of friendship and love. ( )