Review: K. L Montgomery’s Wedding War

A few weeks ago I wrote that one of my guilty pleasures was reading Romance Novels. Actually I like Romance Movies too.

My favorite Romance Novelist happens to live on the Delmarva Peninsula near Rehoboth and writes under the pen name of K.L. Montgomery. Recently the 5th book in her Romance in Rehoboth Series, Wedding War, was released.

When a big chain wedding store comes into Rehoboth, the area’s bridal shop and men’s formal wear shops take notice. They fear for their livelihood. Under normal circumstances they would come together to battle the big bad bully. Only problem, the two families have been in a feud with one another for over 20 years.

But that doesn’t stop Hannah Robinson and Jason Friday from coming together to create a plan to put Über Brides out of business in Rehoboth and save their families business.

As they work together they unravel the secret of the feud and fall in love. The final plan come comes to a hilarious conclusion at the end with help of other area businesses that have felt the impact.

Each of the books are stand alone stories, take place in the resort town of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. One don’t really need to be read in order. There are common characters in the stories, but they are often just pass through character in the stories. In Wedding War all of the couples whose stories were told in the first four books appear in this one. And when one of those familiar characters makes an appearance it’s like meeting up with an old friend and one of those couple delivers a surprise.

Reviews of the 1st four book:

The first book, Fat Girl, written in 2014 is the story of Claire Sterling who is approaching 40 moves back to her parents home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after discovering her husband has had an affair with a much younger woman, to begin Divorce proceeding. Her adventures includes her gay best friend, writing a syndicated blog in the New York Times and the hazards of being a “Fat Girl” dating in the new world of online dating.

I have to say I think that the title “Fat Girl” isn’t really a good title for the book. Yes, she is a lady who has have problems with weight fluctuations during the years of her marriage, in fact from puberty. The story is so much more than that. Ms Montgomery considers herself an author who writes stories of positive body images, this one does that in an amazing way. Some of the best part of the story are of Claire’s NY Times columns and reactions from them.

She encounters some ups as well as many or more downs. There are quite a few surprises though out the book. A few that will make you sad, and others will almost make you stand up and cheer.

Of course, I am an older male (I’m nearly 60 and maybe that in itself is a story to tell) and Romance Novels aren’t really the top of the list of reading material, but I found the story entertaining and well worth the time it takes to read it.

The second book of her “Romance in Rehoboth” series is “The Flip”

In “The Flip” Andrew and Sonnet come together 10 years after their High School graduation. Andrew’s Great Aunt Penny left her house to both him and Sonnet, who grew up in the house next door.

They both agreed that the best thing to do is take a look at the house and do whatever work was needed to sell the property near the beach in Rehoboth and split the profits.

During school the two competed against each other, even though they walked in two different worlds. Andrew, a jock who excelled in his classes naturally, while Sonnet was the nerd who worked hard to get top grades. As their senior year was closing the two were nearly tied for Valedictorian. A honor she did just edge him out.

The house wasn’t like they remembered. It needed to be cleaned of items that were left there by Aunt Penny and needed plenty of repair work. It turned into two month project that saw the friendly enemies become friends and more.

It is told from two viewpoints, that of Andrew and Sonnet. I found Ms Montgomery to be quite good with the voice of a 28 year old young man who has a dream. A dream that once Sonnet learns she does what she can to make that dream come true. Even as the repairs to the house requires more and more money and attention.

Sonnet also has a dream. She is actually a Rocket Science working at Wallops Island, Virgina and wants to get her doctorate from MIT. Just prior to the beginning of the story her application to MIT was turned down.

In my view the ending was predictable, coming to it though was an enjoyable adventure. I really enjoyed the summer of “The Flip” through the eyes of Andrew and Sonnet and how the house that was a big part of their youth brought the two together for an amazing adventure. One that is full of unique people and out of the ordinary problems.

The third book, is “Plot Twist“.

The story is told in dual person narrative by Lindy and Meric. Lindy is a school teacher in her 30’s still living at home with her parents. Meric is an accountant who has just divorce his cheating wife. He discovered her and his business partner together in their marital bed. The story is the typical story of how they meet one another, grows to love one another without telling the other one, and come together at the end of the story.

It is also a story of a backstage romance. Two actually. Although the first is just one of the plot twists. Claire and Jack, the couple in Fat Girl, the first book in the series has written a Rehoboth Pirate musical. The musical is being performed in the club that Drew, from The Flip owns. After casting and rehearsals are in process two of the Principal Players get together and then decides to run off to Mexico. This leaves a big gap that bring Lindy and Meric together as the two new Principals and a need to rewrite a portion of the musical as opening night nears.

One amusing side plot has to do with a Meric’s dog, which one day is stolen from him by his ex-wife, with a scheme devised by the one you’d least expect to get him back.

So as to leave none of the series out the 4th book is Badge Bunny.

This is the story of Chris, a state trooper, and Brynne, an ER Doctor. It is at the ER where the two first meet. Even though Chris was drawn to Brynne at this first meeting, Brynne was less than impressed. She had earned the title Badge Bunny at a time she had an attraction to cops, but after being hurt by one, she has ruled them out.

Of course time and nature brings the two together and each are invited to the off beat wedding of Andrew and Sonnet, the couple from The Flip where disaster strikes with Chris and Brynne saving the night.

Even though the books can be read in any order, I would suggest that one reads The Flip prior to Badge Bunny since in its own way is a sequel to The Flip.

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Biography from Amazon:
K.L. Montgomery grew up in Greencastle, Indiana, and studied psychology and library science at Indiana University. After a career as a librarian, she now writes novels and wrangles three sons and four cats at her home in rural Delaware, which she shares with her husband and the aforementioned creatures. She has an undying love of Broadway musicals, the beach, the color teal, IU basketball, paisleys, and dark chocolate.

Visit K.L.’s website at www.klmontgomery.com and sign up for her newsletter. You can follow her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GreenCastles, Twitter (@KLMontgomery8) or Instagram (k.l.montgomery)

The Chestertown Tea Party

The Rebels throwing the Tea into the Chester River during the 2018 reenactment. Photo by SG Atkinson
The Rebels throwing the Tea into the Chester River during the 2018 reenactment. Photo by SG Atkinson

During the 18th century the Maryland Eastern Shore town of Chestertown was a major seagoing port. The port town on the Chester River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, joined others in the cause to protest against King George III of Great Britain when asked to pay what they felt was unreasonable taxes.

In the Spring of 1774, just a few months after citizens of Boston dressed as Indians dumped a load of tea into the Boston Harbor, the town of Chestertown brought forward a list of grievances now known as the “Chestertown Resolves”.

Legend has it that on May 23, 1774 townsmen boarded the Geddes, a trade ship with a load of tea, and openly dump the tea into the Chester River. While the “Resolves” are a part of record, there isn’t any primary evidence that the event occurred. It wasn’t until the local newspaper published a story from oral history in the late 19th century that the event was first record.

Since the mid 1970’s the town of Chestertown has held an annual Tea Party Festival on Memorial Day weekend. The highlight of the weekend is an reenactment of the protest against the British. Thousands come to the town each year to get a taste of the 18th century.

Whether or not it’s a legend or the truth, Chestertown did join in the protests that helped form a new, independent nation. And as much as the 19th century fountain in the town’s central park, its Colonial and Victorian Homes, and Washington College, the tea party has become a part of the town’s history.

Full text of the Chestertown Resolves:
Chestertown Resolves
1st- RESOLVED, that we acknowledge his majesty George III, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, to be our rightful and lawful sovereign to whom we owe and promise all dutiful allegiance and submission.

2nd – RESOLVED, that no duty or taxes can constitutionally be opposed on us, but by our own consent given personally, or by our own representatives.

3rd – RESOLVED, that the act of the British parliament of the 7th of George III, chapter 46, subjecting the colonies to a duty on tea, for the purpose of raising revenue in America, is unconstitutional, oppressive and calculated to enslave the Americas.

4th – RESOLVED, therefore, that whoever shall import, or in any way aid or assist in importing, or introducing from any part of Great Britain, or any other place whatsoever, into this town or country, any tea subject to the payment of a duty imposed by the aforesaid act of Parliament: or whoever shall willingly and knowingly sell, buy or consume, in any way assist with the sale, purchase or consumption of any tea imported as aforesaid subject to a duty, he or they, shall be stigmatized as enemies to the liberties of America.

5th – RESOLVED, that we will not only steadily adhere to the foregoing resolves, but will endeavor to excite our worthy neighbors to a like patriotic conduct, and to whoever, amongst, shall refuse his concurrence, or after complying, shall desert the cause, and knowingly deviate from the true spirit and meaning of these our resolutions, w will mark him out and inimical to the liberties of America, and unworthy member of the community, ad a person not deserving our notice our regard.

6th – RESOLVED, that the foregoing resolves be printed, that our brothers in the and other colonies may now our sentiments as therein contained.

Signed by order of the Committee, W Wright, Clerk

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Information about the Chestertown Tea Party Festival can be found at www.chestertownteaparty.com

I have photographed the Annual Tea Party for many years and have been the “Official” Tea Party Photographer for the past couple of years.

Not Enough Steps

For years my doctor has been telling me that I should walk a 10,000 steps in a day a few times a week. He even suggested that I should get a pedometer to keep track. I never got one, mainly because I thought that through my work as an event photographer there are many days that I already walked that far and for one particular event I didn’t really want to know how far I walked during that day.

That event is the Chestertown Tea Party. The Annual Chestertown Tea Party is during Memorial Day weekend and for the past several years I have been one of their principle photographers, as well as being part of the planning committee.

Recently I got a new phone. One that has a Health app that keeps track of my walking/running activities.

Since I have gotten it, I have covered and walked a couple of those events that I suspected I walked over 10,000 steps. To my amazement so far I have yet to reach it. The nearest I came was 9000 and that was with a combined photowalk and covering an event.

The few events I have covered since getting the new phone has been around 6,000 steps with a daily average of 2500.

Will Tea Party reach that 10,000 steps? A goal that once was considered easily reach, but now looks as it is much harder to reach than I thought. I’ll let you know.

Photo: Under the Rainbow

Photo by SG Atkinson: Under the Rainbow
On the evening of May 14, 2019 there was a wonderful Rainbow seen in Kent and Queen County, Maryland. It was also a rainbow that I usually wouldn’t see.

For the past several weeks I have been working on Church Hill Theatre’s upcoming production of Jesus Christ Superstar as an assistant Stage Manager. I am also photographing the show. Each show has Head Shots taken of the cast and production team. Tuesday was the night for me to shoot the Head Shots.

I don’t always take a lot of equipment to do the Head Shots, but with a cast of thousands (ok only 31) I took in a little more than usual. I had a break and had tore down the equipment and decided to take them out to my car.

As I exited the theatre the Rainbow was out. My experience is that rainbows often fade quickly. This one didn’t since I was able to run back into the theatre, grab my camera and get back to take this shoot. Yes, it wasn’t as pronounce as it was when I first saw it, but still clearly visible.

Billie Burke, The Good Witch

When the Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, first appeared in the movie The Wizard of Oz you could see and feel the glamour of the lady who played the part. What many may not have realized was the actress who portrayed Glonda, Billie Burke, was 53 years old.

Billie Burke was born Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke on August 7, 1885 in Washington DC. Her father, Billy Burke, was a Barnum and Baily circus clown. She feminized his first name to Billie and took that as her stage name. As a young girl he moved the family to England to start a troupe of clowns on his own. She was educated in England and France.

She began her stage career at the turn of the 20th century first in England and then to New York. She was considered by famed Broadway Showman Florenz Ziegfeld as one of the 10 most beautiful women of all time. He married her in 1914 and they had a daughter Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson (1916-2008).

Shortly after her marriage she appeared in her first silent film in the title role of Peggy (1916). Even though she would make a number of silent films she also returned to her first love, the stage. In 1921 she retired from both the stage and films to live the life as Mrs. Ziegfeld.

1929 was a terrible year for the Zeigfelds. They lost their savings with the Wall Street crash. He was able to staged a revival of Show Boat and things were looking brighter until his death on July 22, 1932. This caused Billie Burke to return to films.

Since films were no longer silent she was able to speak on camera. She worked most often at MGM. There were some times when she was loaned to Hal Roach studios, where she appeared as Mrs. Topper in the three Topper fantasy films, played Oliver Hardy’s wife in Zenobia (1939) and earned an academy award nomination for her performance in Merrily We Live (1938).

She worked constantly throughout the 1940s and the 1950s retiring in 1959. Even though it was obvious she was having trouble remembering lines she said “Acting just wasn’t any fun anymore.” Her last film role was in John Ford’s 1960 film Sergeant Rutledge.

Billie Burke died on May 14, 1970 at the age of 84.

Happy Mother’s Day

Photographs by SG Atkinson: A Weeping RoseI’ll begin this by wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day. This goes out to all of the mothers, grandmothers, and sons and daughters of those mothers. May it be a special day.

My mother passed away the day after her 74th birthday in 2012. A year that I consider one of the worst years of my life. Between her death and something that occurred on Mother’s Day that year changed my life.

Perhaps the only thing that kept moving forward in life was that I was a caregiver for my Grandmother. A few years earlier, when my father’s health was failing, I made a promise that I would take care of her. He was her only child and I the eldest grandchild. It was a promise I kept until her death at 100 in 2015.

While I was her care giver the art of photography, which I ventured into in 2011, grew as did my desire to document the world around me through my photography. I began my photographic project “Delmarva Scenes” during those years and upon her death continued it to this day.

Today I try to live one day at a time. We don’t know how long we have. Or how long we have with those that we love.

It’s probably very fitting that today it is raining. Tears from the skies for those mothers who we are no longer able to say Happy Mother’s Day.

Random Thought on a Cloudy Friday

Beginning in the Spring, running through the Summer and into Fall, it seems as if everyone wants sunny days with low humidity so they can have fun on the water. Obviously that doesn’t always happen.

Many Springs days are like today. Overcast with change of rain. As a photographer who mostly work outdoors unless you are looking for a rainy day to shoot, it’s not a good day. But one does need time inside to edit and days like this are good for that.

Then again Fridays for me are nearly always one of those days that I catch up for what has gone on during the week and to look ahead to the upcoming weekend.

Photo: On The Road

Photo by SG Atkinson: On the Road
They say that every picture tells a story. And some of the best photographs are the ones that make the viewer come up with the story. That is what was my mission when I shot this photograph.

In case you are wondering, it was not a shot that I staged just something that happen during a photoshoot.

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Note: I have been photographing events and other happenings near me, mostly in Kent County, MD, since 2012. On Thursday’s I will be posting one of my photographs, some fairly recent and others not so much recent. My photography page is at SGAtkinson.com

The Eagles – Hotel California

Hotel California is considered the best song by the Eagles by many even though it only reached the top of the American Top 100 Chart for one week, May 7, 1977.

The song was written by Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey with Don Henley doing the vocal and ends with a guitar interplay between Felder and Joe Walsh.

It was the second single from the Album of the same name, even though it was the first song written for the album and became the album’s theme. That album is their second greatest selling album, Eagles Greatest Hits (1971-1977) and was nominated for the Best Album Grammy, losing to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.

https://youtu.be/yYkL5igsG4k

Russian Tsar’s

Originally and during most of its history, the title tsar which is derived from Caesar, meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term. In other words, a ruler who has the same rank as a Roman or Byzantine emperor.

Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) – Ivan was the first to assume the title of Tsar. He was born on August 25, 1530. From 1533-1547 he was the Grand prince of Moscow assuming the title of Tsar of Russia in 1547 holding it until his death on March 18, 1584. It is most probable that he was murdered.

Peter I (Peter the Great) – He was born on June 9, 1672 and ruled Russia from May 7, 1682 until his death on February 8, 1725. It was a jointly rule until 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V. While Peter ruled he carried out a policy of “Westernization” an expansion that transformed the Tsardom of Russia into the Russian Empire.

Catherine II (Catherine the Great) – She is sometimes referred to as an epitome of the “enlightened despot” and reigned as Empress of Russia for 34 years, from June 28, 1762 until her death on November 17, 1796. Born on May 2, 1729 she was the wife of Peter III, who ruled as Emperor for six months before his assassination. Some believe that Catherine may have been the leader of the rebellion that made her Empress. She was Empress during the American Revolution, but refused to side with either party.

Alexander I – Emperor of Russia from March 23, 1801 to December 1, 1825. He was born on December 23, 1777 the son of Paul I. He succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered, and ruled Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. During a trip to Southern Russia, he caught a cold, which developed into typhus. He died in the southern city of Taganrog on December 1, 1825. Since he was childless at his death his younger brother Nicholas I became emperor when the middle brother declined the title. He was the godfather of Alexandrina Victoria, who ruled as Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Nicholas II – The last Emperor of Russia. Born on May 18, 1868 the eldest son of Alexander III. He ruled from November 1, 1894 until his forced abdication in 1917. After his abdication he was excelled with his family to Tobolsk, Siberia in the Urals. It was there at 2:33 on morning July 17, 1918 that he and the royal family was executed.

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“6 Things to Consider” was published by from 2007 until 2017. In January of 2018 the Web site was discontinued due to a technical issue. However the posts, over 1000, were saved and one will be republished each Tuesday here at my “View from the Shore”