The Time in Between by  Maria Duenas is an enjoyable book.  It reminded me of reading books like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, To Kill a Mockingbird and Rebecca. Books that are some of my favorites and I would love to reread.  Books that I read for pure entertainment.  The  Time in Between is one of these books.

Sira Quiroga lives in Madrid with her single mother.  She knows nothing of her father.  Her mother is a seamstress and when she is fourteen years old she becomes her apprentice.  At age twenty her life is mapped out for her, including a future marriage to a young men she has known forever.

Then two events happen that change the course of her life.  Her mother takes her to meet her father and she also meets and falls in love with an attractive salesman.  It is the beginning of the Civil War in Madrid.  Sira and her handsome salesman move to Madrid.

This is the start of many problems for her.  While in Madrid eventually on her own she meets many interesting people and rebuilds her life. 

This book spans the Spanish Civil War to World War II.  If you want to lose yourself in a good book this is the book for you!!

The Well and the Mine is Gin Phillips first novel.  It takes place in 1931 during the depression. The Moore’s live in Carbon Hill Alabama.  Albert works in the mines.  He and his wife have two daughters and a son.  Tess the younger of the two girls loves to sit on the back porch near the family’s well.  The well is a comfort to her.  Then one night when she is nine years old she sees a woman drop a baby until the well.  At first no one believes Tess but then the baby is found.  This is the story of the two sisters trying to find out who the baby belonged to and why the baby was put in the well.  It is the story of the men working in the mines and their families that worry about them and it is a story of the depression.  A very good book.  Gin Phillips next novel Come In and Cover Me will be published in January. I am looking forward to reading it.