Never Too Old for Love

June 1, 2016
In present-day England, West Country villages still exist, where everyone knows everyone else's business. So best friends Cindy Mason, a farmer's daughter, and Rebecca Peterson, daughter of the village butcher who does business with the Masons, strive to leave. Cindy saves up for acting lessons in the city, while working at the controversial new supermarket, which is threatening the hamlet's family businesses. Rebecca goes to university in Cardiff. As Harris (The Mixture as before, 2015) describes the lovely countryside, she introduces the big news about the Petersons' endeavor to raise pigs, revs up the measured pace, and stokes up some fear. Is there any truth to the rumors that reach Rebecca about Cindy's affair with a married man? Will this fray the close-knit town's relationships? Will Mrs. Mason ever be able to show her face in public again? When Rebecca's mother stops working at the shop, a handsome new assistant is hired. What role will he play? Harris' family saga, with hints of mystery and romance, is a great summer read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2018
A chance meeting between septuagenarians Mary and Bill blossoms into friendship and a loving relationship. Three years widowed, Mary lives alone and rarely sees her son, Richard, and young grandson, George, because her high-flyer daughter-in-law, Megan, wants them to have nothing to do with her. When Bill helps Mary home with her groceries and begins giving her rides to the store and, on a weekly bias, the movie theater in a nearby town, her life brightens a bit, and she reciprocates by cooking him dinner and urging him to get treatment for macular degeneration. When Richard is in a serious glider accident and abandoned by the odious Megan, Mary and Bill, along with Delia, a nurse, who leaves her position at the hospital, care for Richard and look after George. Harris' (Only Love Can Heal, 2017) latest feels like a Mills & Boon 1960s romance in terms of its gender roles and the expectations of the characters, an impression countered by mentions of a drone and a mobile phone.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)