Of late my reading hasn't included a lot of works by authors found at the tail end of the alphabet - unless it's been a new release.

The way the stacks are arranged at Euclid Public Library leaves me with a tendency to stop looking in the Ss.

But last week I was headed toward nonfiction and remembered those other letters.

So it was I stumbled upon Marcia Willett. The reviews on the back of "The Way We Were" (I love that movie, though it has nothing whatsoever to do with this novel) compared her to Maeve Binchy and Rosamunde Pilcher (I've read and enjoyed their works).

Sounded like a winner.

And it was.

TWWW actually was a bit more suspenseful than I recall the works of the other authors being.

It's the story of Tiggy and Julia, young women living on the moors.

Julia is married mom to three toddlers; Tiggy is "widowed" and pregnant. Julia has an idyllic family; Tiggy is alone in the world. But they are the best of friends.

But a secret kept for 30 years threatens to come out and destroy an innocent.

I was enthralled.

Nothing like an afternoon spent imagining myself in the English countryside!

Definitely an author to recommend to my mom (who pointed me in the direction of Binchy and Pilcher years ago.)

- Tricia Ambrose

RIP Harvey Pekar