Confections of a closet master baker

Living in the shadow of her sister isn't fulfilling for Bullock-Prado, so baking becomes the passion she abandons Hollywood for. In a book that follows the course of a day in the bakery, the memoir tells the tales of her life and her mother's influence. A lovely memoir

The return of Captain John Emmett

If I am straddling the fence on Mr Churchill's Secretary, I am not about Speller's The return of Captain John Emmett. Set after WWI, it is a mystery that will appeal to Maisie Dobbs and Ian Rutledge readers. It is well written and fully rounded characters. Bertram Lawrence survived the war in theory, but experience at the front and death of his wife and child have led him to hide from the world. Mary, the sister of a friend, asks him to look into the suicide of her brother. What will he find? Is anything as simple as it seems?

Mr. Churchill's secretary

I love the Maisie Dobbs mysteries, so I decided to give Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope series a try. Hope was born in England and raised in America by her aunt, a university professor. Hope has returned to England to sell off her grandmother's house. She is pulled into the war effort and a family secret. I really liked this but felt some of the attitudes and issues were too modern for the book. I will try the next mystery and let you know.

My Charmed life

I do migrate to memoirs and Beth Bernstein's My charmed life : rocky romances, precious family connections and searching for a band of gold called out to me. She comes from a line of wonderful women, whose stories are linked together by family jewelry. If jewelry designer Bernstein's family is wonderful, her choices in men... not so much. Will she find love or learn to find contentment in herself?