Fall is upon us and I’ve been delving into more historical fiction and another book by Ron Rash.

“The Matchmaker’s Gift” by Lynda Cohen Loigman (2022) is a charming, magical story about love. Sara Gilkman discovers her gift as a matchmaker at age 10 on the boat coming over from Europe with her family in 1910. Living in a tenement with her parents in New York’s colorful, vibrant Lower East Side, she sees magical threads connect people who are meant for each other. When she confides in the rabbi, he says “You have been blessed with eyes that can see the light of soulmates reaching for each other.”

But she is female, too young and not married — all strikes against her being a shadchanteh. And, matchmaking in New York’s immigrant community is mostly controlled by men who are jealous of their trade and the fees they collect. So, Sara secretly connects people without telling anyone for the next decade.

In 1994 New York City, Sara’s granddaughter Abby is a no-nonsense divorce attorney. Sara helped Abby’s mother raise her and her sister, Hannah, when their father left them. Abby became a divorce attorney in an attempt to help women avoid what her mother went through. But, instead she finds herself working for a large firm with mostly rich, famous clients.

Sara knows Abby isn’t happy. Abby says she’s lucky to have such a good job. Sara says “Lucky is when you win the lottery. Not when you work 80 hours a week.” When Sara dies, she leaves her journals to Abby. They document each match she made over her lifetime. Is Sara trying to tell her something? Has Abby inherited her gift?

This is just a lovely book — heartwarming and uplifting.

“Serena” by Ron Rash (2008) is at its heart a story of good vs. evil. Pemberton travels from his logging empire in North Carolina to Boston for business and meets Serena, a beautiful woman who knows what she wants and how to get it. Once married, they return to the logging camp where they are met at the station by Rachel, a kitchen worker at the camp who Pemberton got pregnant. Her father is with her, drunk and looking for satisfaction. He won’t get it.

At the lumber company camp, Serena impresses all the workmen with her work ethic, even if they are afraid of her and the giant eagle she trained to hunt for rattlesnakes. Born in Colorado and the child of a timber man, Serena has a plan for her and Pemberton’s lives and future and heaven help anyone who gets in the way. The couple will do anything to maximize their profit at the expense of the land and their workmen.

A couple of chapters in, I thought “What unlikable characters. Do I want to read about them?” But, the inexorability of the duo’s greed and hubris sucked me in and soon I dreaded seeing where Serena’s gaze would land next.

The humor in the book lies in a Greek chorus of sawyers, one of the teams clear-cutting the forests. During breaks, they smoke (when their cigarette papers are dry enough) and opine on the Pembertons and what fresh grief they will cause next and on the state of their own employment. The team leader, Snipe, is a philosopher of sorts who shares his thoughts on everything from electro-shock treatments to his own colorful fashion sense.

The story could have been too dark and dire, but Rash has injected it with a lot of wry humor.

“The Secret Life of Sunflowers” by Marta Molnar (2022). This is Molnar’s first crack at historical fiction and she hits it out of the park. Emsley Wilson is co-owner of an auction house in Los Angeles that she started with her boyfriend (he handles the business end). It was her idea and she’s the auctioneer. But, he took up with her best friend and co-worker and now wants to dissolve the business or buy her out. Emsley’s grandmother Violet Velar is a famous artist dating back to the ‘60s when she hobnobbed with the rich and famous. She is selling her New York City home to pay for her stay in a care center and to fund a scholarship. She’s spent her life and funds on doing good for others. On a visit, Violet gives Emsley a box of old letters and a journal written in the late 1800s by Johanna Bonger, Vincent Van Gogh’s sister-in-law. Violet says they will talk about it the next time Emsley visits.

But, Violet has another stroke and dies. Emsley is heartbroken and must now deal with Violet’s estate. She has started reading the journal and is mystified about the connection with Violet. Violet never shared who fathered Emsley’s mother and she wonders if there is a connection with the Van Goghs. Then, Bram Dekker, Violet’s lawyer, arrives at the house. He’s the grandson of an old friend and former lawyer of Violet’s and will do what he can to help her.

Chapters alternate between Emsley’s life in New York trying to make sense of her life and business and Johanna’s family in Amsterdam, her marriage to Theo Van Gogh, an art dealer and friend of her brother’s, their life in Paris and what happens after Vincent dies.

And, we meet fascinating characters in both stories — a performance artist who rents the top floor of Violet’s house and an antiques dealer friend of Bram’s, along with famous artists and other people in Johanna and Theo’s life.

This is a story about strong women and how they deal with the vicissitudes of life. And, how Emsley learns from the older women how to discover what she wants and go after it.

The author did extensive research on Johanna and the Van Goghs and now has a massive library of books about them (the only way to collect books that were out of print and not in libraries was to buy them). But, I wish she had shared more in the back of the book on what was true and what was fiction. Otherwise, this is an enjoyable historical fiction offering.