The Oysterville Sewing Circle by Susan Wiggs (TLC Book Tour)

Caroline Shelby left her home of Oysterville Washington with big dreams of becoming a successful fashion designer in New York City.  Now ten years later, she has returned home with her designs stolen, her dreams crushed, and her best friend’s two kids, six-year-old Flick, and five-year-old Addie in tow.  What happened to their mother and why is Caroline now their guardian?

 Will Jenson is a Navy Seal who has returned to Oysterville where he had spent so many happy summers as a youth with his Grandparents.  Honorably discharged because of a wound, he is now a high school teacher and married to Caroline’s former best friend, Sierra.  What is the history of Caroline, Sierra, and Will?  Why does Caroline have feelings every time she is around Will?

 As Caroline attempts to rebuild her life, she realizes that domestic violence has touched many that she has known in her own home town.  She starts the Oysterville Sewing circle with her sisters for those women to find a place where they can build some solidarity.

I enjoyed this novel.  There were a lot of different story threads that were occurring at different points in time, and I liked how Wiggs expertly wove them together to get a full three-dimensional story.  I enjoyed how the novel explored domestic abuse, and loss. I loved how the women rallied together and were able to help and support each other.  I also liked how the book pointed out that domestic abuse can happen in all walks of life.  Caroline’s creativity and the look into the fashion industry were also fascinating to me.

Favorite Quotes:

“It’s terrible in a really . . . . special way.  You look at this person and realize she’s just gone.  An empty shell.”

Overall, The Oysterville Sewing Circle is an intriguing saga the covers love, loss, abuse, and fashion.  It’s a great summer read!

Book Source:  Advance Reader’s Edition for Review from William Morrow as part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you!!  For more stops on the tour, check out this link.

About The Oysterville Sewing Circle

• Hardcover: 384 pages • Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition edition (August 13, 2019)

“Stitched together with love, this is a story just waiting for your favorite reading chair. With her signature style and skill, Susan Wiggs delivers an intricate patchwork of old wounds and new beginnings, romance and the healing power of friendship, wrapped in a lovely little community that’s hiding a few secrets of its own.” — Lisa Wingate, New York Times Bestselling author of Before We Were Yours

The #1 New York Times bestselling author brings us her most ambitious and provocative work yet—a searing and timely novel that explores the most volatile issue of our time—domestic violence.

 At the break of dawn, Caroline Shelby rolls into Oysterville, Washington, a tiny hamlet at the edge of the raging Pacific.

She’s come home.

Home to a place she thought she’d left forever, home of her heart and memories, but not her future. Ten years ago, Caroline launched a career in the glamorous fashion world of Manhattan. But her success in New York imploded on a wave of scandal and tragedy, forcing her to flee to the only safe place she knows.

And in the backseat of Caroline’s car are two children who were orphaned in a single chilling moment—five-year-old Addie and six-year-old Flick. She’s now their legal guardian—a role she’s not sure she’s ready for.

But the Oysterville she left behind has changed. Her siblings have their own complicated lives and her aging parents are hoping to pass on their thriving seafood restaurant to the next generation. And there’s Will Jensen, a decorated Navy SEAL who’s also returned home after being wounded overseas. Will and Caroline were forever friends as children, with the promise of something more . . . until he fell in love with Sierra, Caroline’s best friend and the most beautiful girl in town. With her modeling jobs drying up, Sierra, too, is on the cusp of reinventing herself.

Caroline returns to her favorite place: the sewing shop owned by Mrs. Lindy Bloom, the woman who inspired her and taught her to sew. There she discovers that even in an idyllic beach town, there are women living with the deepest of secrets. Thus begins the Oysterville Sewing Circle—where women can join forces to support each other through the troubles they keep hidden.

 Yet just as Caroline regains her creativity and fighting spirit, and the children begin to heal from their loss, an unexpected challenge tests her courage and her heart. This time, though, Caroline is not going to run away. She’s going to stand and fight for everything—and everyone—she loves. , and .

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Photo by Yvonne Wong

About Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs's life is all about family, friends…and fiction. She lives at the water's edge on an island in Puget Sound, and in good weather, she commutes to her writers' group in a 21-foot motorboat. She’s been featured in the national media, including NPR, PRI, and USA Today, has given programs for the US Embassies in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and is a popular speaker locally, nationally, internationally, and on the high seas.

From the very start, her writings have illuminated the everyday dramas of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. Her books celebrate the power of love, the timeless bonds of family and the fascinating nuances of human nature. Today, she is an international best-selling, award-winning author, with millions of copies of her books in print in numerous countries and languages. According to Publishers Weekly, Wiggs writes with "refreshingly honest emotion," and the Salem Statesman Journal adds that she is "one of our best observers of stories of the heart [who] knows how to capture emotion on virtually every page of every book." Booklist characterizes her books as "real and true and unforgettable."

 Her novels have appeared in the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller List, and have captured readers’ hearts around the globe with translations into more than 20 languages and 30 countries. She is a three-time winner of the RITA Award,. Her recent novel, The Apple Orchard, is currently being made into a film, and The Lakeshore Chronicles has been optioned for adaptation into a series.

The author is a former teacher, a Harvard graduate, an avid hiker, an amateur photographer, a good skier and terrible golfer, yet her favorite form of exercise is curling up with a good book. She lives on an island in Puget Sound, where she divides her time between sleeping and waking. Visit her website at www.SusanWiggs.com, and connect with Susan on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Map of the Heart by Susan Wiggs (TLC Book Tour)

Map of the Heart seamlessly blends a contemporary family drama with a stirring World War II drama.  It is a fascinating story that draws the reader into two worlds.

Camille Adams was tragically widowed five years before.  She has been unable to move on since this tragic event and hovers over her daughter Julie, seeing danger in every corner.  Julie is a teenager going through an awkward phase and is facing bullying at school.  She wishes she could get away from her life and opportunity arises when her grandfather yearns to return to his boyhood home in France.  He had received a package of his mother’s possessions and they revealed a mystery of what happened during World War II.  Camille, Henry, and Julie set off for France. They are assisted in France by the handsome professor, Finn, who will help them unlock the secrets of Henry’s parent’s past.  What will they find?  Will Camille be able to move on?  Will Henry and Julie be able to find themselves?  What exactly happened to Camille’s husband five years before?

While the majority of this novel is set in the present, there are segments of the book told from Lisette’s, Henry’s mother, point of view in the past during World War II in France.  Lisette is a young French woman facing a perilous future.  After her father’s accident, he cannot work, and the family faces starvation.  After her young Jewish friend has been carted off, she agrees to marry Didier Palomar, the mayor of her town.  He seems her savior, but their marriage is a cold one devoid of love.  As Palomar becomes a collaborator, Lisette does what she can to fight the resistance.  Why did Henry grow up an orphan?  What happened to his parents during WWII?

I loved this novel.  Wiggs is a wonderful writer and I enjoyed the generational family drama.  I usually like the stories set in the past more, but in this case, I wanted to know what would happen to all characters, past and present.  I found the mystery to be intriguing, but even more so, I wanted to know how our characters would be able to deal with their problems and move on with their lives. 

Favorite Quotes:

“Camille could smell matchmaking a mile off. Her mom and friends and half-sisters abhorred a single woman’s status the way nature abhorred a vacuum.”

“Opening up is a risky process.  But then, staying closed up creates its own kind of pain.”

“He had been at war less than a year, and he already knew that the real heroes were not the generals and battle commanders, but the everyday soldiers and common folk who endured the war, day in and day out, often fighting just to stay alive, and burying their dead along the way.”

Overall, Map of the Heart is a wonderful book about the hard choices we all face to accept our past and move on to the future.

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow Books for being a part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you!

For more stops on the tour, check out this link:

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

] Photo by Yvonne Wong[/caption]

About Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs's life is all about family, friends…and fiction. She lives at the water's edge on an island in Puget Sound, and in good weather, she commutes to her writers' group in a 21-foot motorboat. She’s been featured in the national media, including NPR, PRI, and USA Today, has given programs for the US Embassies in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and is a popular speaker locally, nationally, internationally, and on the high seas. From the very start, her writings have illuminated the everyday dramas of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. Her books celebrate the power of love, the timeless bonds of family and the fascinating nuances of human nature. Today, she is an international best-selling, award-winning author, with millions of copies of her books in print in numerous countries and languages. According to Publishers Weekly, Wiggs writes with "refreshingly honest emotion," and the Salem Statesman Journal adds that she is "one of our best observers of stories of the heart [who] knows how to capture emotion on virtually every page of every book." Booklist characterizes her books as "real and true and unforgettable." Her novels have appeared in the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller List, and have captured readers’ hearts around the globe with translations into more than 20 languages and 30 countries. She is a three-time winner of the RITA Award,. Her recent novel, The Apple Orchard, is currently being made into a film, and The Lakeshore Chronicles has been optioned for adaptation into a series. The author is a former teacher, a Harvard graduate, an avid hiker, an amateur photographer, a good skier and terrible golfer, yet her favorite form of exercise is curling up with a good book. She lives on an island in Puget Sound, where she divides her time between sleeping and waking. Visit her website at www.SusanWiggs.com, and connect with Susan on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs

Just Breathe is the March pick for my Lakeshore Mom's book club. It was an enjoyable women's fiction novel that was a relatively quick read.

Sarah Moon has been through a difficult period in her life. Although her and her husband Jack are both in their twenties, they discovered that Jack had testicular cancer. After succesfully battling the desease, the two have been trying to get pregnant for a year using fertility treatments. Sarah's world comes crashing down when she discovers that Jack is having an affair. Sarah leaves Jack and Chicago behind and returns home to her small town on the California coast. She discovers herself as a woman without Jack and as an accomplished cartoonist. To say more would ruin the plot!

I enjoyed the book, but I wouldn't read the flap on the cover of the book again - it gave away EVERYTHING. I think some things were supposed to be left as plot twists, but I knew them going in because of the cover, which was disappointing. I liked the secondary characters, but thought they could have been a little more developed. Overall, a satisfactory read - but skip the cover summary!