Darcy O

Darcy O reviewed a book.

“Chef Queenie Wake has been fired again. When will she learn her way is not always the right way and that a patron wants to be served what he orders? Since her latest job in New York City came with a free hotel room, Queenie has nowhere to go – nowhere, but home. And home is North Star, Texas,...”

“Chef Queenie Wake has been fired again. When will she learn her way is not always the right way and that a patron wants to be served what he orders? Since her latest job in New York City came with a free hotel room, Queenie has nowhere to go – nowhere, but home. And home is North Star, Texas, somewhere she ran from 10 years earlier.

Queenie does go home to North Star, where her older sister, Merry Carole and Merry's son Cal live. Queenie is heartened to be reunited with her sister and nephew, but memories of her mother and her family's reputation in the small town surround her. And then there's the real reason she ran – rancher Everett Coburn.

Merry Carole owns a hair salon in North Star and Cal is the starting quarterback of the football team. But small town folk aren't ones to forget the past or to allow those they believe to be inferior to rise above them. How will they react to Cal as starting quarterback?

Queenie helps out at the hair salon and accepts a job cooking last meals for death row inmates. But is that enough to keep her in North Star?

I loved the characters in author Liza Palmer's "Nowhere but Home." Texas, big hair, football and family combine in this fun read. ”

Darcy O rated a book.

• Rated 4 stars

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Darcy O reviewed a book.

“Review of "The House Girl" by Tara Conklin

In Tara Conklin's "The House Girl," lawyer Lina Sparrow is tasked with finding someone to be the face for a class action suit her Manhattan law firm is handling that seeks reparations for descendants of American slaves.

Lina is drawn...”

“Review of "The House Girl" by Tara Conklin

In Tara Conklin's "The House Girl," lawyer Lina Sparrow is tasked with finding someone to be the face for a class action suit her Manhattan law firm is handling that seeks reparations for descendants of American slaves.

Lina is drawn to the story of Josephine, a slave in the home of now-famous artist Lu Anne Bell. There are those in the art world who are disputing the Bell family's claim that the paintings were done by Lu Anne, but instead were the work of her house slave, Josephine.

Lina convinces her boss to let her track down what happened to Josephine's possible descendants. Lina is also dealing with the death of her mother, which happened several years ago, but which she and her father never talked about.

I really enjoyed author Conklin's "The House Girl," especially Josephine's story and learning what the life of a slave had been like. Conklin's chapters switched between Lina in the current day and the ways of a corporate law firm back in time to the 1850s and Josephine's story of runaway slaves. I highly recommend it.”