The Dress Shop of Dreams by Menna Van Praag

I adore books with magical realism, I attribute this to the class I took senior year in college on Latin American literature, hands down my favorite class.  And when you couple magical realism with a dress shop AND bookstore, I am hooked.  This is a perfect read to get you through these cold and dreary nights.

Book Description via Amazon

For fans of Alice Hoffman, Sarah Addison Allen, and Adriana Trigiani, The Dress Shop of Dreams is a captivating novel of enduring hopes, second chances, and the life-changing magic of true love.

Since her parents’ mysterious deaths many years ago, scientist Cora Sparks has spent her days in the safety of her university lab or at her grandmother Etta’s dress shop. Tucked away on a winding Cambridge street, Etta’s charming tiny store appears quite ordinary to passersby, but the colorfully vibrant racks of beaded silks, delicate laces, and jewel-toned velvets hold bewitching secrets: With just a few stitches from Etta’s needle, these gorgeous gowns have the power to free a woman’s deepest desires.

Etta’s dearest wish is to work her magic on her granddaughter. Cora’s studious, unromantic eye has overlooked Walt, the shy bookseller who has been in love with her forever. Determined not to allow Cora to miss her chance at happiness, Etta sews a tiny stitch into Walt’s collar, hoping to give him the courage to confess his feelings to Cora. But magic spells—like true love—can go awry. After Walt is spurred into action, Etta realizes she’s set in motion a series of astonishing events that will transform Cora’s life in extraordinary and unexpected ways.

The Stories we Tell by Patti Callahan Henri

I really liked this book...the characters, the setting, the story and all very well written.  A good choice for lover's of women's fiction.

From Booklist

Eve Morrison owns a successful letterpress studio known for a greeting card line she and her sister, Willa, devised while growing up in a fundamentalist household. Her marriage to old-money southern gentleman Teddy is already under stress, but the tension ratchets up unbearably when Teddy is involved in a car accident in which Willa is seriously injured. Eve can’t figure out what actually happened that night. Is Teddy having an affair? Were the two involved in the death of a homeless man? Was Willa, a recovering alcoholic, drinking? Henry paints an intriguing portrait of a woman surrounded by people who may have something to hide. Eventually, Eve is forced to recognize and face the problems in her marriage even if that means losing someone she loves. The themes of marriage, motherhood, and the price of success are standard for women’s fiction, but Henry has mastered the art of the slow reveal, leading the reader down unexpected paths. Readers who enjoy southern women’s fiction à la Joshilyn Jackson (Someone Else’s Love Story, 2013) will appreciate this emotionally satisfying novel. --Nanette Donohue

Accidents of Marriage by Randy Susan Meyers

I just didn't love this book...it was sad and depressing, which given the story line I expected, but I just didn't like *any* of the characters.  I felt so bad for the main character but I just couldn't connect with her and well him I hated.  This just wasn't a book for me :(

Book Description via Amazon

From the bestselling author of The Comfort of Lies, an engrossing look at the darker side of a marriage—and at how an ordinary family responds to an extraordinary crisis.

Maddy is a social worker trying to balance her career and three children. Years ago, she fell in love with Ben, a public defender, drawn to his fiery passion, but now he’s lashing out at her during his periodic verbal furies. She vacillates between tiptoeing around him and asserting herself for the sake of their kids—which works to keep a fragile peace—until the rainy day when they’re together in the car and Ben’s volatile temper gets the best of him, leaving Maddy in the hospital fighting for her life.

Randy Susan Meyers takes us inside the hearts and minds of her characters, alternating among the perspectives of Maddy, Ben, and their fourteen-year-old daughter. Accidents of Marriage is a provocative and stunning novel that will resonate deeply with women from all walks of life, ultimately revealing the challenges of family, faith, and forgiveness.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

There is just so much to love about this book...the writing, the characters, the pacing, the story.  Doerr managed to take a very well covered topic and come up with a complete original, completely beautiful, and utterly heartbreaking, story. 

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, May 2014: Does the world need yet another novel about WWII? It does when the novel is as inventive and beautiful as this one by Anthony Doerr. In fact, All the Light We Cannot See--while set mostly in Germany and France before and during the war--is not really a “war novel”. Yes, there is fear and fighting and disappearance and death, but the author’s focus is on the interior lives of his two characters. Marie Laure is a blind 14-year-old French girl who flees to the countryside when her father disappears from Nazi-occupied Paris. Werner is a gadget-obsessed German orphan whose skills admit him to a brutal branch of Hitler Youth. Never mind that their paths don’t cross until very late in the novel, this is not a book you read for plot (although there is a wonderful, mysterious subplot about a stolen gem). This is a book you read for the beauty of Doerr’s writing-- “Abyss in her gut, desert in her throat, Marie-Laure takes one of the cans of food…”--and for the way he understands and cherishes the magical obsessions of childhood. Marie Laure and Werner are never quaint or twee. Instead they are powerful examples of the way average people in trying times must decide daily between morality and survival. --Sara Nelson

The Look of Love by Sarah Jio

I love Sarah Jio, she has a great sense of character and setting.  She is single handedly responsible for my obsession with the Pacific Northwest.  This is a great one to pick up for the holiday break.

Book Description via Amazon

Born during a Christmas blizzard, Jane Williams receives a rare gift: the ability to see true love. Jane has emerged from an ailing childhood a lonely, hopeless romantic when, on her twenty-ninth birthday, a mysterious greeting card arrives, specifying that Jane must identify the six types of love before the full moon following her thirtieth birthday, or face grave consequences. When Jane falls for a science writer who doesn’t believe in love, she fears that her fate is sealed. Inspired by the classic song, The Look of Love is utterly enchanting.

Call Me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber

A lovely holiday read...sweet, sentimental and perfect for this time of year.

Book Description via Amazon

Mrs. Miracle on 34th Street

This Christmas, Emily Merkle (just call her Mrs. Miracle) is working in the toy department of Finley's, the last family-owned department store in New York City. And her boss is none other than Jake Finley, the owner's son.

For Jake, holiday memories of brightly wrapped gifts, decorated trees and family gatherings were destroyed in a Christmas Eve tragedy years before. Now Christmas means only one thing to him—and to his father. Profit. Because they need a Christmas miracle to keep the business afloat.

Holly Larson needs a miracle, too. She wants to give her eight-year-old nephew, Gabe, the holiday he deserves. Holly's widowed brother is in the army and won't be home for Christmas, but at least she can get Gabe that toy robot from Finley's, the one gift he desperately wants. If she can figure out how to pay for it…

Fortunately, it's Mrs. Miracle to the rescue. Next to making children happy, she likes nothing better than helping others—and that includes doing a bit of matchmaking!

This Christmas will be different. For all of them.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Very late to the party on this one, but boy am I glad I decided to join.  This is as good as everyone says it is...just go read it...if you don't believe me, trust the *almost* 8,000 five star reviews on Amazon!

From Booklist

A long journey from home and the struggle to find it again form the heart of the intertwined stories that make up this moving novel. Foster teen Molly is performing community-service work for elderly widow Vivian, and as they go through Vivian’s cluttered attic, they discover that their lives have much in common. When Vivian was a girl, she was taken to a new life on an orphan train. These trains carried children to adoptive families for 75 years, from the mid-nineteenth century to the start of the Great Depression. Novelist Kline (Bird in Hand, 2009) brings Vivian’s hardscrabble existence in ­Depression-era Minnesota to stunning life. Molly’s present-day story in Maine seems to pale in comparison, but as we listen to the two characters talk, we find grace and power in both of these seemingly disparate lives. Although the girls are vulnerable, left to the whims of strangers, they show courage and resourcefulness. Kline illuminates a largely hidden chapter of American history, while portraying the coming-of-age of two resilient young women. --Bridget Thoreson