March 21st, 2025
Home | Log in!

On Top Shelf
THE CHRISTMAS PACTTHE CHRISTMAS PACT
Fresh Pick
THE SECRET HISTORY OF AUDREY JAMES
THE SECRET HISTORY OF AUDREY JAMES

New Books This Week

Reader Games

Reviewer Application

🌸 Spring Fling Giveaways


March Into Romance: New Releases to Fall in Love With!

Slideshow image


Since your web browser does not support JavaScript, here is a non-JavaScript version of the image slideshow:

slideshow image
As Lady Phoebe and her betrothed say their vows of holy matrimony, a killer has vowed unholy vengeance on the town�s chief inspector . . .


slideshow image
A soldier-turned-duke and a widow: a forbidden love story awaits!


slideshow image
Pregnant sheriff. Abducted baby. Can they solve this deadly mystery in time?


slideshow image
A cowgirl with grit. A cowboy with control. Will they tame each other�s hearts?


slideshow image
A sculptress. A war. Will ambition or love define her future?


slideshow image
"WILDLY ENTERTAINING"
Coffee & crime were never so much fun!


slideshow image
Can a painful past and a deadly secret heal a fractured relationship?


slideshow image
Saving the ranch and his heart�one business plan at a time.


slideshow image
A twist on Shakespeare�s classic�romance, comedy, and a little meddling!


slideshow image
Disappearing girls, a blood moon, and a thriller that will keep you guessing.


slideshow image
A Stray Pup, A Second Chance, and a Killer on the Loose�Wagtail�s About to Get Wild!


The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County

The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County, March 2024
by Claire Swinarski

Avon
Featuring: Cooper; Esther Larson; Iris
272 pages
ISBN: 0063319888
EAN: 9780063319882
Kindle: B0C7VZZRK7
Paperback / e-Book / audiobook
Add to Wish List


Purchase



"A Wonderful Story of Family"

Fresh Fiction Review

The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County
Claire Swinarski

Reviewed by Susan Dyer
Posted March 9, 2024

Women's Fiction Contemporary | Saga

I had no idea what to expect when I started reading THE FUNERAL LADIES OF ELLERIE COUNTY, but I loved every minute of it. I was instantly invested in these wonderful characters and they kept me very surprised. Claire Swinarski shows how much she knows about Wisconsin with this wonderful story as she describes living there perfectly. I lived in Wisconsin for six years and while reading THE FUNERAL LADIES OF ELLERIE COUNTY, I felt like I was right back in that beautiful state. 

Esther Larson has been living her lake life and cooking for funerals at her church for seventy years. She is taken by a scammer on the internet and sends Hazel thirty thousand dollars. She believes the person she knows as Hazel is a single mom with a young child and she, being the caring person she is, doesn't hesitate to send the money. Now Esther is receiving many letters from her bank and she is worried she is going to lose her family home. Esther’s granddaughter, Iris is falling in love with Cooper, the son of a TV chef. Cooper suffers from PTSD while working as an EMT during a tragic shooting. His family is renting her home while in the Northwoods for Ivan's wife's funeral. His father has a huge secret that will break the reader's heart. THE FUNERAL LADIES OF ELLERIE COUNTY is going to put the reader's emotions on a crazy rollercoaster ride just like it did to me. One minute, I was laughing out loud and the next I was trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

THE FUNERAL LADIES OF ELLERIE COUNTY is the first time I've read Claire Swinarski, but it won't be the last. This story is so heartwarming and unforgettable. It is almost as if Claire wrote the story just for me. Now I am on the hunt for her backlist books and that makes me very excited. I was sad when THE FUNERAL LADIES OF ELLERIE COUNTY ended because I wasn't ready to leave my new lake friends. The sense of community and small-town America is appealing to me and left me missing the small towns that I have lived in. I strongly recommend THE FUNERAL LADIES OF ELLERIE COUNTY to anyone who likes a great contemporary family story that you will have a hard time putting down.

Learn more about The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County

SUMMARY

Armed with a Crock-Pot and a pile of recipes, a grandmother, her granddaughter, and a mysterious young man work to bring a community together in this uplifting novel for readers of The Chicken Sisters.

Esther Larson has been cooking for funerals in the Northwoods of Wisconsin for seventy years. Known locally as the “funeral ladies,” she and her cohort have worked hard to keep the mourners of Ellerie County fed—it is her firm belief that there is very little a warm casserole and a piece of cherry pie can’t fix. But, after falling for an internet scam that puts her home at risk, the proud Larson family matriarch is the one in need of help these days.

Iris, Esther’s whip-smart Gen Z granddaughter, would do anything for her family and her community. As she watches her friends and family move out of their lakeside town onto bigger and better things, Iris wonders why she feels so left behind in the place she is desperate to make her home. But when Cooper Welsh shows up, she finally starts to feel like she’s found the missing piece of her puzzle.

Cooper is dealing with becoming a legal guardian to his younger half-sister after his beloved stepmother dies. While their celebrity-chef father is focused on his booming career and top-ranked television show, Cooper is still hurting from a public tragedy he witnessed last year as a paramedic and finding it hard to cope. With Iris in the gorgeous Ellerie County, though, he hopes he might finally find the home he’s been looking for.

It doesn’t seem like a community cookbook could possibly solve their problems, especially one where casseroles have their own section and cream of chicken soup mix is the most frequently used ingredient. But when you mix the can-do spirit of Midwestern grandmothers with the stubborn hope of a boy raised by food plus a dash of long-awaited forgiveness—things might just turn out okay.

Includes Recipes   


What do you think about this review?

Comments

No comments posted.

Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!

 

 

 

© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net  all rights reserved Privacy Policy