Recently I read:
For 20 years, Kayla, Antoinette, and Val have performed their own special summer ritual. Once a year, the old friends put aside their daily, separate lives to drink champagne, swap stories, and swim naked under the Nantucket stars. This time though, one of them swims out from the shore and doesn't return. After the surviving friends emerge from their grief, they realize that the repercussions of their loss go far beyond their little circle, and they begin to uncover layers of secrets, and their connections to each other, that were never revealed on the beach. What has made their friendship strong now has the power to destroy their marriages, families-and even themselves.
Description from Goodreads:
In 2011, Sarah Jio burst onto the fiction scene with two sensational novels--The Violets of March and The Bungalow. With Blackberry Winter--taking its title from a late-season, cold-weather phenomenon--Jio continues her rich exploration of the ways personal connections can transcend the boundaries of time.
Seattle, 1933. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, goodnight and departs to work the night-shift at a local hotel. She emerges to discover that a May-Day snow has blanketed the city, and that her son has vanished. Outside, she finds his beloved teddy bear lying face-down on an icy street, the snow covering up any trace of his tracks, or the perpetrator's.
Seattle, 2010. Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge, assigned to cover the May 1 "blackberry winter" storm and its twin, learns of the unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth. In the process, she finds that she and Vera may be linked in unexpected ways...
My thoughts:
Description from Goodreads:
A full moon, a twenty-year old friendship-
and a Nantucket night no one would ever forget...For 20 years, Kayla, Antoinette, and Val have performed their own special summer ritual. Once a year, the old friends put aside their daily, separate lives to drink champagne, swap stories, and swim naked under the Nantucket stars. This time though, one of them swims out from the shore and doesn't return. After the surviving friends emerge from their grief, they realize that the repercussions of their loss go far beyond their little circle, and they begin to uncover layers of secrets, and their connections to each other, that were never revealed on the beach. What has made their friendship strong now has the power to destroy their marriages, families-and even themselves.
My thoughts:
First off, I have never read Elin Hilderbrand before but I had heard good things. I mainly remember picking up this book because I liked the cover and the "feel" of the book. Yes - the actual way it felt in my hand. I am strange and sometimes that is the way I choose a book.
The setting is wonderful. Nantucket Island. It seriously made me want to take a trip there. With that being said, the story was insane. There was so much going on at once. I felt sorry for Kayla. I felt that everyone kinda screwed her.
On a whole, I liked the story and the book. I hated the ending. I think that I will give Hilderbrand another chance at some point, but this book just left me mad.
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I also read:
In 2011, Sarah Jio burst onto the fiction scene with two sensational novels--The Violets of March and The Bungalow. With Blackberry Winter--taking its title from a late-season, cold-weather phenomenon--Jio continues her rich exploration of the ways personal connections can transcend the boundaries of time.
Seattle, 1933. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, goodnight and departs to work the night-shift at a local hotel. She emerges to discover that a May-Day snow has blanketed the city, and that her son has vanished. Outside, she finds his beloved teddy bear lying face-down on an icy street, the snow covering up any trace of his tracks, or the perpetrator's.
Seattle, 2010. Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge, assigned to cover the May 1 "blackberry winter" storm and its twin, learns of the unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth. In the process, she finds that she and Vera may be linked in unexpected ways...
My thoughts:
This is my favorite book of the moment. I read another Sarah Jio this year, The Bungalow, and it was wonderful. It is hard to say that I like this one better since I loved that one too. She needs to get very busy writing because I want to read everything she does. I still have Violets of March to go and then she has a new book coming out this spring.
It is beautifully written. The story is amazing. I have to say that there are points that you have a few things figured out before they happen, but I promise you will no be disappointed. It is a wonderful story of the love of a mother and what length she would go to in order to protect her child. It also has a very good ending.
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I am linking up with Book Club Friday once again.
i love anything by Sarah Jio :) she always make me smile and adore her stories.
ReplyDeletehappy weekend!