MADreads

Curl up with a good book

April 9th, 2007 Emily - Lakeview

Best known for the novel Bad Girl Creek, JoAnn Mapson is a master of writing novels that should be known as “curl-up-with-a-good-book” books.  Most of her stories feature a multitude of female characters and her newest is no different.  The Owl and Moon Cafe follows the lives of four generations of women working and living at a charming small town eatery.  Third generation Mariah loses her university teaching job and is forced to move back home with her daughter Lindsay just as Mariah’s mother Allegra is diagnosed with leukemia.  Thirteen-year-old Lindsay spends much of the book struggling to get through a difficult and potentially illegal science project in order to win a scholarship while Lindsay’s great-grandmother Gammy is busy running the cafe and praying.  Mapson inserts love interests for both Mariah, in the form of a Scottish cafe customer and Allegra, in the form of her oncologist and these men help to ease the pain of the womens’ misfortunes.

This story presents an honest portrayal of the ravages of cancer on a family while keeping the characters well developed, the story moving along and the characters optimistic.  The author makes the struggles of each woman appropriate to her age and situation while crafting a great story.

Entry Filed under: Recreational Fiction