Delivered with Love by Sherry Kyle

★★★★☆
An old love letter found in the glove compartment of a young woman's inherited 1972 Volkswagen propels her to leave her life in Los Angeles and go to the small town of Capitola, California.There her dream of finding the writer of the letter leads her on an unexpected journey that changes her life forever.

Claire James, age twenty-three, is ready to make it on her own. When she's fired from her job as a waitress and subsequently kicked out of her sister's home, she sees it as an opportunity to start over. But even before moving, a thirty-five-year-old love letter written to her mother keeps Claire stuck in the past. Michael Thompson, a middle-aged real estate agent, wants to keep the past where it belongs—at least until his grown daughter is married. But, then a young woman comes to town . . .

To be honest, I read this book because it was a freebie, and I debated whether to give it 3- or 4-stars.  It was better than a 3 but not as good as a 4.  :)  Delivered with Love is a sweet, Christian fiction book.  I felt at times like some of the characters were not extremely well-developed.  There are several instances where the book is very predictable as well.  But the overall story is sweet, and there is a really cute love story, so I ultimately decided to give it 4-stars.  :)  I probably would have been disappointed had I paid full price for it, but it made for a good freebie read.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

★★★★★
Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:
 
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
 
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
 
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
 
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
 
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women-mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends-view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.
 
I loved The Help!  This is such a great book!  I couldn't put it down.  This is one where some of my household to-do's got neglected because I was reading.  The main characters in this book are so quirky and likable.  You mentally root for them the whole time.  Although this book is a work of fiction, it is amazing to me that this time was not so long ago, a time where inequality was part of life.  This story is filled with emotion, both good and bad, and it is so moving.  I am definitely going to see the movie just to experience it again.  I hope I'm not disappointed in the movie!  I'm not one for re-reading books regularly, but I may just re-read this one!!  Definitely recommended.