Welcome! I am featuring Tamera Lynn Kraft today. Ms. Kraft includes faith, adventure, mystery and suspense in her stories along with setting them in the past. Tamera Lynn Kraft has been married for thirty-nine years with two married children and three grandchildren. Readers can interact with the author through her website, Facebook, and Twitter. You can sign up for her newsletter here.
Alice’s Notions by Tamera Lynn Kraft is set in Burning Bush, West Virginia in April of 1946. Alice Morgan Brighton has returned to Burning
Bush after the death of her husband, Joe in the war. She has decided to use her savings to open
Alice’s Notions. Burning Bush has not
been doing well and needs something that will help attract tourists. Alice has come up an idea and runs it past
Mr. & Mrs. Toliver. She wants to
have a barn quilt tour. Quilt patches
will be painted on various barns around the town and, hopefully, the tourists
will stay to eat and shop. Gwendolyn
Toliver is all in favor of the notion and immediately sets to planning. Rick Morrison, Alice’s landlord, raises
objections to Alice opening a shop and the tour. Rick is evasive about his business dealings,
and he takes numerous out of town trips.
Alice signed up to sponsor a European refugee, but Greta Engel from
Germany is not what she expected. When
Alice sprains her ankle just days before the opening of Alice’s Notions, she
has no choice but to let Greta stay. What
should be a wonderful opportunity for the Burning Bush ends up dividing the
townspeople and causing dissention.
During the planning, Alice notices that some of her friends are becoming
secretive and there is something off about the tour plans. Does someone have a different agenda for the
barn tour? Who are they and what is
their plan? Alice intends to find out,
but she does not know who she can trust.
Alice’s Notions is nicely written,
and the story has a steady pace. It has
a good flow and smooth transitions. Alice’s Notions is a story with intrigue, mystery, suspense, romance, and overcoming
prejudices and anger. The author
captured the setting of a small town in a rural area along with how the people
felt and acted. Ms. Kraft captured the
time-period with the language, dress, and people’s attitudes after the
war. It helped that the slang from the 1940s
was included along with films and books.
I did, though, tire of Rick’s use of “dame” and “doll” when referring to
Alice (it was annoying). Greta Engel was
a wonderful addition to Alice’s Notions.
In the story the author showed how people felt towards Germans after the
war. Townspeople would call her Alice’s
servant or girl (and other derogatory names) which properly reflected how
people felt (it wasn’t right, but it was the attitude after the war based on
fear and prejudice). Greta’s misunderstanding of American slang added humor to
the story (just the right touch). I
enjoyed seeing the relationship progress between Greta and Alice. Alice changed over the course of the book as
well. She returned home to Burning Bush
because she was afraid to live alone in New York City without her husband. Alice was timid in the beginning. If she is to thwart the evil that has invaded
her town, she must step up. The mystery
was well constructed, and there will be twists that will surprise readers. There is romance (of course) but it was not
over-the-top. There is one steamy kiss. Otherwise, the relationship progressed at a
pace congruent to the era. I am giving
Alice’s Notions 4 out of 5 stars (I liked it).
Alice’s Notions is an engaging novel that will sweep you back to a small
town in 1946 that is the unlikely hotbed of a conspiracy.
Alice's Notions is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Chapter's and Christianbook.com. Thank you for visiting today and reading my review. I will return on Tuesday with my thoughts on Murder at the Mushroom Festival by Janet Finsilver. May you have a day filled with blessings. Happy Reading!
Kris
The Avid Reader
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