Carol Awards Winner – Grace Awards Winner – Selah Awards NomineeHer first love was killed in the Great War. Or was he?Marjorie Corrigan’s quiet, orderly life turns topsy-turvy when her high school sweetheart—presumed killed in the Great War—passes her in a Chicago train station. Where has he been all this time? Why hadn’t he come back to her? Suddenly her heart is full of doubts and her plans to … heart is full of doubts and her plans to marry another man in question.
Amid a whirlwind of trials and temptations, Marjorie must make a choice. Will the mystery man prove to be the cream in her coffee—the missing ingredient in her life? Will he provide the deep love her heart has been yearning for? Or will her “sweetheart” leave only bitterness behind?
Written for the General Market (G) (I): Contains little or no; sexual dialogue or situations, violence, or strong language. May also contain some content of an inspirational/religious nature. Similar romance novels in this genre may be categorized as: christian romance, inspirational romance, christian fiction, and clean, wholesome romance.more
I’m glad I found this!
I think I found this gem through a newsletter a month ago (according to the purchase date), but don’t actually recall how I found it. Regardless, it was free at the time and so I grabbed a copy and let it sit on my Kindle until last night when I was looking for a quick story to read. I had planned on purely a pleasure read and not something I needed to blog about. However, once I read it, I knew I had to share this gem with you!
I was captivated from the very start. This charming historical is told as though shared by an intimate friend. While peppered with jargon from the Roaring Twenties, it is not overdone and doesn’t feel unnatural or forced. It has just the right tone.
I loved Marjorie right away. She is a sweet, small-town girl who feels trapped by the direction her life is headed. When she makes an impulsive decision, everything changes and she is caught up in a world she had never expected.
Prohibition, speakeasies, bootleggers, and hard choices fill the pages. Marjie’s new friend and roommate flirts with a world full of the evils that Marjie had previously only heard of. Marjie’s resolve to stay away from these things is challenged when she discovers that the man she is so attracted to is a part of it all.
Her newfound determination to trust God is also tested as she navigates these new and strange temptations. The faith element is strong as Marjie clearly sees her own sin and learns that the only way she can be made clean is through the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross and is forced to humbly return to the house of her father in disgrace.
I’m so glad I found You’re the Cream in my Coffee and Jennifer Lamont Leo’s writing. I can see why this has won the awards that it has and I plan to read more of her stories soon!
Read my review of You’re the Cream in My Coffee by Jennifer Lamont Leo at AmongTheReads.net
A story that’s the real cat’s meow!
Once again I’ve gotten introduced to a new-to-me author through an audiobook. That’s right, I had heard of Jennifer Lamont Leo’s first book in her Roaring Twenties series but hadn’t read You’re The Cream In My Coffee. What did I think? Well, I really liked it! 1920s Chicago and the Marshall Fields department store came alive for me in full color. I sincerely enjoyed the small-town girl goes to the big city and finds both romance and adventure storyline. Marjorie’s struggles to find the answers she is looking for without compromising her smalltown values, her morals or her faith was refreshing in the sea of career-obsessed women stories. But I’m gonna admit it here, there were two characters that I just wanted to slap for their self-centered jerkness, they made me so mad! Anyway, I liked the element of mystery. Was it really Jack that she saw? And if so, why didn’t he come home to her after the Great War? Well, you’re just going to have to read/listen yourself to find out.
I listened to the audiobook version You’re The Cream In My Coffee and it was pretty good. The narrator’s voice was especially good for the character she portrayed. Overall the production was good though there were some rather noticeable audio editing problem spots, mainly around chapters 12-13 and then scattered through the rest of the audiobook. The issues were distracting while they happened but didn’t change my opinion of how much I enjoyed the story. I definitely plan on finding out what comes next in the series for Marjorie’s colorful friend Dot…
(I received a copy of this book from the author. All opinions are entirely my own.)
A Roaring Twenties Novel
This novel drew me immediately.
Marjorie Corrigan still mourns that Jack, her first love, didn’t come home from the war. Listed as missing, she still hopes to see him again after ten years.
Yet, time marches on, and she agrees to marry a successful young doctor. With the wedding just months away, she starts having fainting spells that send her to Chicago for medical testing.
Then she spots a man at the train station who looks just like Jack.
This novel is a page turner. Marjorie makes many decisions that lead the small-town girl down an unfamiliar path. I kept reaching for this novel to find out what happened next.
Written in first person, characters struggle with losing themselves in the pain and heartache. It tugged at my heart.