I loved Arthur Trulov, and now that he is gone, the story focuses on Lucille who was also a key character in the first book. This one didn't have the same emotional pull or connection, I think because there were other characters with problems, it diluted the storyline. Made it quite depressing at times. Lucille's, unusual dream visitor was an interesting addition, but also took the story in still another direction. Don't get me wrong, I did like all the characters, wished them all well, the story was okay, but after Arthur I was hoping for more.

Lucille's baking still sounds delicious and had me craving sweets. So there's that.

ARC from Netgalley.

I imagined NIGHT OF MIRACLES as the sequel to Elizabeth Berg’s THE STORY OF ARTHUR TRULOVE. It was a joy, in this newest book, to meet some of my favorite characters again, catch up on what they’ve been doing, and meet the newcomers to the small Midwestern town of Mason, Missouri.

For a large part of this story, the reader spends time with 88-year old Lucille Howard, who used to live with Arthur Trulove and Maddie and young Nola. Arthur has passed away, and Maddie has moved away to attend school and raise her little girl. Lucille misses them, and she longs for her fiancé, Frank, who died before they could marry. I fell in love with Lucille when I read that she “actually cried when Maeve Binchy died. If she could have given Maeve Binchy a year from her own life, you can bet she’d have done it”. Lucille is keenly aware she is closer to death. In fact, she is visited more than once by the Angel of Death, and Lucille informs the Angel in no uncertain terms, that she is not ready. Those episodes were both hilarious and entertaining. In one of them,

“The Angel is wearing jeans, a plaid flannel shirt, sneakers. His wings are awfully ratty for
someone in service to the On High.” When he “extends a glowing hand” to Lucille, she
responds with “Not on your life,” I’m babysitting a little boy tonight…and I am not going to
die and have him wake up alone with a corpse.”

Most days Lucille spends her time conducting baking classes in her home. The orchestration of such a class is a marvel to behold.

Students are offered a choice of adorable vintage aprons she has picked up at local shops. Then,
they are presented with a perfect, beautiful coconut cake, one slice removed to reveal what looks like lemon filling. That is the “demo”. “Students are inspired the moment they walk in the door. They see what we’re going to do, I give them the recipe, and then they learn how to make it.” When both cakes are done, they are eaten. Then, Lucille offers her students “baking secrets that not everyone knows”.

The first few chapters offer interesting backgrounds concerning the newcomers.

Lucille has hired Iris as her assistant. Iris has left her husband and moved to Mason.

Jason and Abby are a couple who live next door to Lucille. Abby has just received the horrible news that she has cancer.

They have a son, Lincoln, who will be spending a good amount of time with Lucille while Abby is receiving experimental treatments in the hospital.

There are the regulars at Polly’s Henhouse:

Tiny – “who is not tiny at all, but very tall and well- padded with quite a few extra pounds” – enjoys breakfast at Polly’s most mornings where Monica, the buxom waitress who serves him
every day, is in love with him. And Tiny is in love with Monica –although neither of them is aware of their feelings for one another.

So, we have these really very sweet characters filling the first few chapters until I wasn’t sure where the story was headed. I longed to align myself with just one of these characters. By the middle of the book, however, I was hooked with how their lives intersected in satisfying and realistic ways.

This is a charming book about fond memories, seasons of the heart, hope and trust in the future, friendships – old and new – and finding the strength to make huge changes in one’s life.

Thank you, Net Galley and Random House for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A sweet story of friendships across the generations. The elderly Lucille keeps busy baking cakes for restaurants and teaching cooking classes, but she's slowing down. Several times, she bargains with the Angel of Death to let her live a little longer so she can be there for the little boy next door, whose mother has leukemia. Lucille's assistant, Iris, can't bake, but she's very smart -- and needs a project to distract her from her regrets. And then there's Monica and Tiny, who seem so right for each other -- but there are too many near-misses. A bit New-Agey for my taste at some moments, but a sweet story; it's the second in a series and I will go back to find the first one. I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley.

After reading The Story of Arthur Truluv, I was happy to see that Elizabeth Berg had written another book with the same characters. This was a feel-good book about people who live in a small town and believe in helping each other, and also finding love where you least expect it.

Night of Miracles explores the lives, loves, relationships and dreams if several citizens of the small town of Mason, Missouri. It is a charming book, told in an endearing way. This book is a sequel to The Story of Arthur Truluv, and while it can stand on it's own, the reader will gain background information on some of the characters and lots of enjoyment by reading that book first.

Elizabeth Berg has the wondrous skill of capturing the essence of her characters and their environs and showing their impact on those around them. In Night of Miracles we learn about Lucille, an 80 year old who runs a cooking school teaching others to bake, and her circle of friends. They include her next door neighbors Abby, Jason & their 10 year old son Lincoln; Maddy, her fiance Matthew, & her daughter Nola who are Lucille's daughter and granddaughter by heart; Iris, who found Mason on her drive to San Francisco, stopped and stayed; Tiny, a man who willingly helps anyone, and Monica, the woman he is interested in. It is the interactions and interdependencies of these people who make the story.

Spend a little time in Mason, Missouri with these characters. You will be glad you did!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Elizabeth Berg knows how to touch our hearts in a special way. This sequel to The Story of Arthur Truluv continues the story of Lucille a few years later who continues to live in Arthur's home which he bequeathed to Maddy. Lucille is lonely, missing maddy, her daughter Nola, Arthur and Frank - her true love. She has trouble remembering the names of her new neighbors.
Iris has moved to town from Boston two months previous. She is looking for change and to escape from regrets. It has been ten years since her divorce. Her apartment is across from Tiny's. He is a sweet man secretly in love with the waitress at the diner.
Abby, Jason, and Lincoln are Lucille's new neighbors. The family has always avoided sugar and eats a healthy diet, but that doesn't prevent Abby from getting desperately ill. They invite Lucille for dinner. And so begins the intersecting of lives with neighbors helping neighbors. Arthur's influence is an undercurrent in this lovely book. If you are looking for hope, read this book.

Night of Miracles starts out by reminding the reader of what the earth looks like from an airplane, quilt patches of farmland, neat divisions of road, perfect little boxes of houses.  Elizabeth Berg reminds us of the feeling we get when we see that: a feeling that the world can be organized and orderly.

And then she takes us into a small town, like we often imagine when we are flying over them.  She takes us into the lives of various people in town.  Lucille, a retired school teacher who teaches baking classes.  Tiny, an overweight taxi driver.  Monica, a heavy set waitress.  Iris, a new transplant from Boston.  Abby and Jason and their son, Lincoln, and the issues that arise for them.  Maddy, who has moved away but comes back to visit with her daughter.  Arthur, who died, but who is important in the lives of several characters.

This is a beautiful story about love and loss, forgiveness, sacrifice, friendship, neighbors, marriage.  I recommend it to anyone who loved The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom or Us Against You by Fredrik Backman.

This is the sequel to the wonderful book "The Story of Arthur Truluv". I suppose you could read this book as a standalone, but it would be a far more enriching experience to have read the prior book. To summarize the story of the original book, Arthur Truluv is an elderly widower who visits his wife's grave each day, eating lunch there. Unbeknownst to him, a troubled teenager named Maddy finds refuge in this cemetery, and has been watching him over some time. They eventually speak one day. Arthur is a gentle, heartwarming, loving and giving old man. They become friends, which transforms Maddy's life for the better. Arthur also has an elderly neighbor Lucille who loves to bake. She's a feisty retired teacher who never married or had children. She's reeling following the sudden death of her fiance Frank. They had known each other in high school and had reconnected after many decades. Arthur invites both Maddy and Lucille to live with him in his house, and they make a very unique and loving family. Arthur passes away at the end of the book, but he leaves the house to Maddy (who had gotten pregnant by an ex-boyfriend and now has a daughter) .

As this book begins, Lucille now lives in Arthur's house by herself, renting it from Maddy. She utilizes her extraordinary baking talents by holding baking classes at the house. The business is doing so well that she's looking for an assistant. There is a side story involving the local diner and a waitress named Monica. She's been sporting a crush for "Tiny", a very large man with a big heart who runs a trucking/cab service. Another character named Iris Winters is a divorcee with lots of regrets, who struggles with the heartache of her inability to have children. She lives on one of the other floors in Tiny's house and becomes a valued friend. Rounding out the characters in this tight knit small town of Mason, Missouri is the family of three next door to Lucille- parents Jason and Abby and their young son Lincoln. Abby is fighting an aggressive cancer, and Lucille helps out watching (and feeding) Lincoln for a couple of hours when needed.

Maddy surprises Lucille by appearing on the doorstep with her 5 year-old daughter Nola (named after Arthur's beloved wife), sporting an engagement ring. She is now engaged to her college professor. Lucille hasn't been feeling exactly spry as of late, and she's been having encounters with what appears to be a male angel. But, Lucille has too much to do between her baking and watching Lincoln, and is not ready to die just yet!

This is a gentle and easy read with likable characters in a small town setting. At the start of the book I was having trouble getting a handle on the new characters, but once Lucille burst into the picture I was settled in for a cozy ride. I enjoyed the first book just a little more than this one. Arthur Truluv was a character you couldn't help but love, but Lucille Howard doesn't fall too much farther behind. Enjoy!

I enjoyed this book and catching up with old friends from the first in the ‘Arthur Truluv’ series. Berg has a knack for creating engaging and quirky characters; I only wished there were fewer of them in this installment. It would have allowed for a more concentrated storyline and deeper dive into the personalities.

4.5 stars, rounded up

I was a huge fan of The Story of Arthur Truluv. This one took longer to draw me in. I think part of the problem was the large cast of characters and how each chapter switches from one to another. It just takes awhile to get them all straight in your head.

This is a lovely, sweet story, about the people who live in a small town and how intertwined their lives are. In style, it reminded me a bit of Elizabeth Strout’s Anything is Possible. While it took me longer to get into the story, once I did I was hooked. I came to care about each and every one of them. I laughed, I cried. This book brings out all the emotions. Read this when you need something to remind you of what’s right with the world.

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg. This heartwarming story comes at a perfect time to temporarily disengage from the current events of violence, sadness, and political rhetoric. This story brings the reader back to a time where neighbors actually cared about and for each other and acts of kindness meant something. The story is about Lucille, an elderly woman who teaches baking classes, babysits for her sick neighbor's child, and is a stand-in grandma for another child. The stories of Iris,Tiny and Monica, Abby, Jason and Lincoln, and Maddy and Nola all revolve around Lucille in one way or another - there's even an element of the supernatural. This small book will restore your faith in humanity and will remind you that love and forgiveness never go out of "fashion".

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this book.  It is being released on November 13th. I loved reading this book.  I was in the mood for a book to give me a little lift and this was perfect.  The characters in the book come together for a beautiful story of love and friendship.  Lucille loves to bake and teaches classes despite the fact that everyone thinks she should be slowing down due to her age.  When a family moves in next door, they turn to Lucille for help when they need it most.  As each new character comes into the book, I loved it more.  Each of the characters has their troubles but, it doesn't make the book depressing.  Rather, it actually made me feel that people can still be kind to one another without asking for anything in return.

Night of Miracles is the 2nd book in Elizabeth Berg's Arthur Truluv series, but if you're like me and haven't read the first one, that's OK. This novel stands on its own just fine.

I like Elizabeth Berg. I've read several of her other novels, and like them, Night of Miracles is about a community of people that feel awfully familiar. People who live, die, get divorces, have crushes, make mistakes, turn bitter, get cancer, barter with God, talk to dead loved ones.

At first, I thought I was reading a collection of short stories. Beautiful, simple stories that quickly and poignantly got to the heart of humanity. The characters changed from one chapter to the next, and each chapter felt complete on its own. I had to go back to the description of the book to confirm and I realized that the characters would meet up soon enough, and connect they did.

Lucille is grieving a companion who returned to her late in life and then was gone again too soon. Iris is grieving the loss of a marriage she thought she didn't want.  And, young Lincoln is living in fear that he'll soon be grieving the loss of his mom.

These characters come together along with others (Tiny and Monica might be able to figure out that they both like each other if they could only stop misreading the other) in the small town of Mason, Missouri, to help each other live better and love better.

With narrative that's driven by ordinary people seeking connection and community, this seemingly simple story is packed with wisdom - the essence of Elizabeth Berg's gift.

This is the second Arthur Truluv book, but don't worry if you haven't read the first one. The author makes it really easy to pick up on who everyone is, in the town of Mason, Missouri. You know how it is with small towns..... everyone knows everyone else, people are connected in multiple ways, and if you ever need a helping hand you need to look no further than next door. This is a story of love, friendship, heartbreak, sickness, and unfortunately death.
This is an excellent book. I felt so invested in all of the characters, I couldn't put the book down. Every one of the characters were ones I wanted to root for. I highly recommend this book.

Night of Miracles is a follow up to “The Story of Arthur Truluv” . While I don't think it is a necessity to read the first book, this will make more sense if the first book is read.

I love the small town book vs the big city. More often than not, books tend to be "city reads" instead of small town. The book gives you a nice warm feeling inside.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I saw the beautiful cover and got distracted enough to not realize this was a sequel, but thankfully figured it out and read The Story of Arthur Truluv real quick, which was easily done because each book is less than 300 pages. To truly get the full story of some of the characters in this book, you've got to read the first one. This is a wonderful follow-up and I just loved the new characters as much as the old. much like the first, it's about life and death in a small town. It's sweet and charming and I loved most every bit of it. There is some paranormal-ish activity, which is my only gripe. Otherwise, this is a book you could finish in one sitting and it's enjoyable enough to want to.

What a wonderful continuation of The Story of Arthur Truluv. Although it can be a stand-alone story. Those of us who are familiar with Mason, Missouri will be swept away again. The characters are so true, if quirky, that I felt every feeling and new each thought. Some new characters appear but they are written with every rich stroke as our old friends. There are supreme joys and heartfelt lows. You will laugh, and you will cry. Most of all you will be sad when it ends. I was so involved in this story that at times I forgot I was reading. Instead, I was there. I want to move to Mason soon. If I can’t, I will be re-reading Elizabeth Berg’s books until the next one comes out. Come along, you are welcome too.

Elizabeth Berg's second novel in the Arthur Truluv series is as genuine as the first. Arthur has passed away and left behind the influential characters in his life, Lucille, and Maddy to move forward, keeping in mind how he showed them to expand their hearts and live fuller lives.

Maddy is going to school and living with her daughter, Nola (named after Arthur's wife). He left his house to Maddy, and she rents it to Lucille, Arthur's neighbor who is a retired fourth-grade teacher. I have a sweet tooth, so Lucille's baking classes are a delight for me.
Lucille is a great teacher with a creative approach to each lesson. I wish I could sample some of her amazing cakes or pies.

A new set of characters including Tiny, Monica, Iris, Abby, Jason, and Lincoln, appear in this novel, and they all need a helping hand in filling up lonely or broken hearts. Each character has a relatable story, and Berg's fluid style kept me reading, with wishes for each. I like happy endings, and even if I'm pretty sure EB will give me one, she has a unique way of wrapping it up with a few surprises.

Enjoy this new novel. I hope the next one is coming soon.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

Once again, Elizabeth Berg has given readers a heartwarming story coming just in time for the holiday season. Those who have read The Story of Arthur Truluv will enjoy learning what happened to the wonderful characters from that story and will be introduced to a few new faces.

Lucille Howard is the main focus for this novel. What’s not to love about Lucille? She’s a wonderful baker and has so much love to give to others. Lucille teaches baking classes out of her home (the one she, Arthur and Maddy shared), looks after her neighbor’s son who is going through a tough time and is happily looking forward to Maddy’s upcoming wedding.

Lucille is getting on in years and decides to hire an assistant to help organize and grow her business. Iris Winters is new in town and she and Lucille make a connection right away. Iris wasn’t really what Lucille was looking for in an assistant, but she ends up being just what Lucille needed.

One of my favorite new characters is Tiny. He’s a large man with a ton of love in his heart for one woman and he’s willing to work at it to win her heart. Tiny is also a giving and loyal friend.

I loved reading this and now have the urge to start my holiday baking while wearing my grandmother’s vintage apron. Readers who enjoyed The Story of Arthur Truluv and those who love uplifting stories will want to read this one.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

This sequel to the author’s previous book THE STORY OF ARTHUR TRULUV makes much more sense to the reader who has read the first book. This book tells the reader more about the characters in the previous book and how their lives have continued after Arthur’s death. I fell in love with Lucille again. She is a feisty, older lady who bakes well and uses that talent to teach others. She is also the quintessential good neighbor, looking out for the needs of her neighbors as well as holding a special place in her heart for Maddy and Nola, her “adopted” daughter and granddaughter. The theme of the book is heart-warming and inspiring. It is one of community coming together when they face hard choices and helping each other through hard times. It is a story of acts of kindness that roll from one person who is touched by kindness to the next one that he or she does likewise for. This is a timely novel, with a theme of love and giving that is needed in today’s divided world.