Bella: An Appalachian Love Story & Jagged Dawn: Logan's Beginning

 

Bella-An Appalachian Love Story and Jagged Dawn-Logan's Beginnings by Valerie Davisson

Fiction - Novellas

2020 Vaughn House Publishing 

Finished on November 17, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

For the first time ever under one cover, enjoy these two companion stories-prequels to the Logan McKenna Mystery series.

BELLA: An Appalachian Love Story

Over fifty years ago, high in the hills of Appalachia, Bella's story begins. Norah, Logan McKenna's great-grandmother, falls in love with Giovanni, a young immigrant from Italy searching for his place in the world. Each must face trials they never expected, but from their love, Giovanni creates his masterpiece--Bella, a hand-crafted violin with unparalleled sound that accompanies each generation that follows.

JAGGED DAWN: Logan's Beginning

Unexpected events launch faithful wife and mother, Logan McKenna, battered and wounded, into an unknown future and a life she would never have predicted. A lesser woman wouldn't survive, but with inner strength grounded in the love of family and friends, Logan not only faces her problems head on, but also rediscovers the joy of living--including playing Bella, her beloved violin, and cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway in her gleaming, sapphire-blue '58 Corvette.

Easily read in a single sitting, I allowed myself to linger over these stories, which transport fans of Davisson's Logan McKenna mystery series back to both Red Sleeve, West Virginia and Irvine, California. The first novella alternates between past and present, with details about Logan's great-grandmother's youth, as well as the budding relationship between Norah and Giovanni, the talented craftsman from Italy. I found the second (contemporary) novella more engaging, most likely due to my familiarity with the location (I grew up in Southern California), as well as the dramatic turn of events and likeable main character. Both of these novellas present an engaging back story that makes the reader want to know more about Logan McKenna and what happens to her in the series to come. Valerie Davisson has written nine novels in this mystery series, and I look forward to reading the first installment, Shattered. 

Looking Back - Little Altars Everywhere

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells
Fiction
1996 Harper Collins (first published in 1992)
Finished in December 1997
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good!)

Publisher's Blurb:

"We are swinging high, flying way up, higher than in real life. And when I look down, I see all the ordinary stuff--our brick house, the porch, the tool shed, the clothesline, the chinaberry tree. But they are all lit up from inside so their everyday selves have holy sparks, they'd go and kneel in front of them and pray and just feel good. Somehow the whole world looks like little altars everywhere."

Little Altars Everywhere is a national bestseller, a companion to Rebecca Wells's celebrated novel Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Originally published in 1992, Little Altars introduces Sidda, Vivi, the rest of the spirited Walker Clan, and the indomitable Ya-Yas. It is now available for the first time in hardcover.

Told in alternating voices of Vivi and her husband, Big Shep, along with Sidda, her siblings Little Shep, Lulu, Baylor, and Cheney and Willetta--the black couple who impact the Walkers' lives in ways they may never fully comprehend--Little Altars embraces nearly thirty years of life on their plantation in Thorton, Louisiana, where the cloying air of the bayou and a web of family secrets of once shelter, trap, and define an utterly original community of souls.

Who can resist the rich cadences of Sidda Walker and her flamboyant, secretive mother, Vivi? Here, the young Sidda--a precocious reader and an eloquent observer of the fault lines that divide her family--leads us her mischievous adventures at Our Lady of Divine Compassion parochial school and beyond. A Catholic girl of pristine manners, devotion, and provocative ideas, Sidda is the very essence of childhood joy and sorrow.

In a series of luminous reminiscences, we also hear Little Shep's stories of his eccentric grandmother, Lulu's matter-of-fact account of her shoplifting skills, and Baylor's memories of Vivi and her friends, the Ya-Yas.

Beneath the humor and tight-knit bonds of family and friendship lie the undercurrents of alcoholism, abuse, and violence. The overlapping recollections of how the Walker's charming life uncoils to convey their heartbreaking confusion are at once unsettling and familiar. Wells creates an unforgettable portrait and funny attempts to keep reality at arm's length. Through our laughter, we feel their inevitable pain, with a glimmer of hope for forgiveness and healing.

An arresting combination of colloquialism, poetry, and grace, Little Altars Everywhere is an insightful, piercing, and unflinching evocation of childhood, a loving tribute to the transformative power of faith, and a thoroughly fresh chronicle of a family that is as haunted as it is blessed.

My Original Notes (1997):

Excellent! Just as good as Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Made me laugh and cry. What a marvelous author. Interesting device to use different characters' voices for each chapter. Varies the story's point of view. [I must not have encountered this before, but it's very common in the books I read now!] Highly recommend!

My Current Thoughts:

I wish I could remember more about this novel and I no longer own a copy, so I can't glance back and see if I highlighted any passages. Funny that I had never read (or noticed) a book with alternating points of view! I do believe it's time to reread both Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (which I talked about here) and Little Altars Everywhere. I think I need to devote an entire month to rereading some of my favorites!