Wife by Wednesday by Catherine Bybee | Book Review

STATS: 
Author, Catherine Bybee
Kindle edition, 223 pages
Published, October 4th 2011
Publisher, Montlake Romance
Series, The Weekday Brides #1

DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS:
Blake Harrison:
Rich, titled, and charming…and in need of a wife by Wednesday. Blake turns to Sam Elliot, who isn’t the businessman he expected. Instead, Blake is faced with Samantha Elliot, beautiful and feisty with a voice men call 1-900 numbers to hear.

Samantha Elliot:
Owner of matchmaking firm Alliance and not on the marital menu…that is, until Blake offers her ten million dollars for a one-year contract. And there’s nothing indecent about this proposal. The money will really help with her family’s medical bills. All Samantha will need to do is keep her attraction to her new husband to herself and avoid his bed.

But Blake’s toe-curling kisses and sexy charm prove too difficult for Sam to resist. It was a marriage contract that planned for everything…except falling in love.

MY THOUGHTS:
I really liked this book.  It was an easy and fast read. I am not a big series reader, but I heard good reviews for these and I was in the mood for something light. It was very predictable but also enjoyable.
So far - the only problem I have with this series is that the books aren't in order by day of the week.  I know that may sound strange, but Wife by Wednesday is the first book in the series and Married by Monday is the second.  You just have to pay attention when shopping for the next in the series.
I will be starting on book #2 soon. 

The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs | A Book Review

STATS:
Author, Susan Wiggs
Published, April 30th, 2013
Publisher, Harlequin MIRA
ebook, 432 pages
Series:  Bella Vista Chronicles (Book 1)

DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS:
"SOMETIMES YOU STUMBLE ACROSS A TREASURE WHEN YOU'RE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY."


#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs brings readers to the lush abundance of Sonoma county in a novel of sisters, friendship and how memories are woven like a spell around us.

Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their rightful owners. People like Annelise Winther, who refuses to sell her long-gone mother's beloved necklace—despite Tess's advice. To Annelise, the jewel's value is in its memories.
But Tess's own history is filled with gaps: a father she never met, a mother who spent more time traveling than with her daughter. So Tess is shocked when she discovers the grandfather she never knew is in a coma. And that she has been named in his will to inherit half of Bella Vista, a hundred-acre apple orchard in the magical Sonoma town called Archangel.
The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen. A half sister she's never heard of. Against the rich landscape of Bella Vista, Tess begins to discover a world filled with the simple pleasures of food and family, of the warm earth beneath her bare feet. A world where family comes first and the roots of history run deep.
And in a season filled with new experiences, Tess begins to see the truth in something Annelise once told her: if you don't believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you've not made the right kind of memories.

From one of America's most beloved writers, The Apple Orchard is a story of family ties—both old and new—and of the moments that connect our hearts.

MY THOUGHTS:
This happened to be on of those perfect books for me.  I love present day, mixed with historical fiction, romance, and mystery. I wasn't expecting all the history and the fact that I would learn a little about Denmark during WWII and their role of saving Jews from the Nazi's.
In fact - it wasn't at all what I expected but in a good way.  There are so many family secrets and lies and mysteries.  It doesn't help that the one person that could explain most of it is in a coma.
I loved watching Tess form relationships with those around her. The story ties thinks up pretty well but still leaves room for another book. It even has recipes.  I will most certainly read the next book in the series. 

The House Girl | Book Review

STATS:
Author, Tara ConklinPaperback, 400 pages
Published, November 5th, 2013
Publisher, William Morrow Paperbacks

DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS:
Virginia, 1852. Seventeen-year-old Josephine Bell decides to run from the failing tobacco farm where she is a slave and nurse to her ailing mistress, the aspiring artist Lu Anne Bell. New York City, 2004. Lina Sparrow, an ambitious first-year associate in an elite law firm, is given a difficult, highly sensitive assignment that could make her career: she must find the “perfect plaintiff” to lead a historic class-action lawsuit worth trillions of dollars in reparations for descendants of American slaves.
It is through her father, the renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers Josephine Bell and a controversy roiling the art world: are the iconic paintings long ascribed to Lu Anne Bell really the work of her house slave, Josephine? A descendant of Josephine’s would be the perfect face for the reparations lawsuit—if Lina can find one. While following the runaway girl’s faint trail through old letters and plantation records, Lina finds herself questioning her own family history and the secrets that her father has never revealed: How did Lina’s mother die? And why will he never speak about her?
Moving between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, this searing, suspenseful and heartbreaking tale of art and history, love and secrets, explores what it means to repair a wrong and asks whether truth is sometimes more important than justice.  

MY THOUGHTS:
This book had been on my reading list since before it came out.  The description of the book reminded me of The Kitchen House and I always enjoy books from this time period.  I was lucky to see it available at my local used book store.  With my book credit and their great prices, I only paid $3.50 and that is something I can always appreciate. This book is written in a structure that I really like.  It has alternating chapters telling the story of Lina in the present time and Josephine in the 1850's.  It is also beautifully written and there seemed to be little fluff.  Everything is relevant and important pieces to the story.  Lina.  I grew to like Lina.  She is a young lawyer working for a cut throat firm.  Everything is about the win and the money.  Mostly cases involving business and not overly people related.  When the reparations case falls in her hands, she is a little surprised that it is something the firm agreed to work on.  Lina's father is an artist, as was her mother, and her mother has been gone since she was 4.  Lina has a lot of questions about her mother's death and her father is finally ready to talk to her about, twenty years later.  Josephine.  You can't help but love Josephine.  She is a slave and works as a house girl.  She is bright and pretty and has known no other life than that at Bell Creek.  She has an interesting relationship with her Missus.  Although she is a slave and being kept there as property, the Missus defies the law and teaches her to read and write.  She has her basic needs met and sleeps in the attic of the main house, not the slave quarters.  The two stories melt wonderfully into each other.  The mystery of finding out who created the paintings is interesting to follow.  And the idea of being able to prove the ancestry of a slave is amazing.  The story also gets you thinking about a time period in our history that people seem to want to forget.  It also makes you consider what is owed to the descendants of the slaves.  One of my favorite quotes, "Two hundred and fifty years of nameless, faceless, forgotten individuals.  Yes, they were America's founding fathers and mothers as mush as the bewigged white men who laid the whip upon their backs". Overall - I loved this book.  I would recommend it to anyone who likes Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, and books that make you think a little deeper into history.     

The Wives of Los Alamos | A Book Review

STATS:
Author, Tarashea NesbitPublished, February 25, 2014
Publisher, Bloomsbury USA
eBook, 240 pages

Description on Goodreads:
Their average age was twenty-five. They came from Berkeley, Cambridge, Paris, London, Chicago—and arrived in New Mexico ready for adventure, or at least resigned to it. But hope quickly turned to hardship as they were forced to adapt to a rugged military town where everything was a secret, including what their husbands were doing at the lab. They lived in barely finished houses with a P.O. box for an address in a town wreathed with barbed wire, all for the benefit of a project that didn’t exist as far as the public knew. Though they were strangers, they joined together—adapting to a landscape as fierce as it was absorbing, full of the banalities of everyday life and the drama of scientific discovery.

And while the bomb was being invented, babies were born, friendships were forged, children grew up, and Los Alamos gradually transformed from an abandoned school on a hill into a real community: one that was strained by the words they couldn’t say out loud, the letters they couldn’t send home, the freedom they didn’t have. But the end of the war would bring even bigger challenges to the people of Los Alamos, as the scientists and their families struggled with the burden of their contribution to the most destructive force in the history of mankind.
The Wives of Los Alamos is a novel that sheds light onto one of the strangest and most monumental research projects in modern history, and a testament to a remarkable group of women who carved out a life for themselves, in spite of the chaos of the war and the shroud of intense secrecy.

My Thoughts:

I was really looking forward to this book.  I love Historical Fiction as well as Historical accounts of WWII.  It is one of my favorite time periods to read about.  With that being said, I did not enjoy this book.  It was nothing like what I expected.

This book is written in first person plural.  What that means is that the narrator is "we".  It was told as if this group of women was "we".  After a few pages I really thought that the real book would start.  I was looking for people.  People with names and lives and relationships.  That is not what I got.

I did learn a few things and was able to get a good idea of what it might have been like to be one of these ladies.  And maybe that was the entire point.  But overall it just made me mad.  I couldn't get over the style of writing and desperately wanted first person accounts.

It is important to note that I received this book via NetGalley in return for a honest review.  All opinions and views are mine.

The Stillness of Chimes | Book Review

STATS:
Author, Meg MoseleyPublished, February 18, 2014
Publisher, Multnomah
Paperback, 352 pages

Description from Goodreads:
When Laura Gantt returns to Georgia to handle her late mother's estate, she hears a startling rumor---that her father staged his drowning years ago and has recently been spotted roaming the mountains.

With the help of her former high school sweetheart, Laura searches for the truth. But will what they find destroy their rekindled feelings?

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book and the closer I cam to the end, the faster I wanted to read.  It has the perfect combination of love and mystery.  And I really didn't see parts of the ending coming before they happened.  I like it when a book is able to surprise me a little.

The character of Laura is wonderful.  I love that she can still have love and forgiveness for parents and for those that she discovered played a huge part in life.  Some of those, she never knew where such a big part.

Laura and Sean were school friends and sweethearts.  Sean was pretty much taken in by her father after his own abusive father went to jail.  Sean thought that he and Laura would be together forever but her father drowning changed it all. 

Now Laura's mother is also dead and she comes home to tie up the estate.  Little does she know that there are rumors that her dad never drowned.  In fact, people say that he disappeared out of choice.  If true, it could change everything that Laura believed to be true.

I loved finding out if her father was truly alive.  And if she and Sean could ever get back what they lost.  And if her parents had major secrets that she didn't know about.  And of course, what in the world was going on with Ardelle.  I would totally recommend it.

I received this book from Blogging For Books in return for a honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are mine. 

Beautiful Ruins | Book Review

STATS:
Author, Jess Walter
Paperback, 337 pages
Published, April 2, 2013
Publisher, Harper Perennial

Description from Goodreads:
From the moment it opens—on a rocky patch of Italian coastline, circa 1962, when a daydreaming young innkeeper looks out over the water and spies a mysterious woman approaching him on a boat—Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to the back lots of contemporary Hollywood, Beautiful Ruins is gloriously inventive and constantly surprising—a story of flawed yet fascinating people navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

Description from Amazon:
The acclaimed, award-winning author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets returns with his funniest, most romantic, and most purely enjoyable novel yet. Hailed by critics and loved by readers of literary and historical fiction, Beautiful Ruins is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962...and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later.


My Thoughts: I added the descriptions from two different places because I am not sure that either of them really give you an idea of what takes place in this book.  There are so many things happening and so many characters that it is hard to narrow it down. It all starts in the 1960's in Italy in a small, remote village hotel.  It takes you back and forth between the 60's and present day.  It also gives you a few chapters of seeing what happens to the main characters during the 70's, 80's, and 90's to explain where they ended up. I am a huge lover of Historical Fiction and I love the fact that it had history and present day in order to get some closure for the events that happened in the 60's.  I did feel that the complete back stories of the smaller characters in present day was a little irrelevant.  They weren't the characters that I was dying to find out about. Overall, I really liked the book.  I didn't love it.  I did love the characters of Dee and Pasquale though and I really enjoyed the ending to their story.

The In-Between Hour | Barbara Claypole White

Stats:
Paperback, 384 pages
Published, December 31, 2013
Publisher, Harlequin MIRA

Description from Goodreads:
What could be worse than losing your child? Having to pretend he's still alive...

Bestselling author Will Shepard is caught in the twilight of grief, after his young son dies in a car accident. But when his father's aging mind erases the memory, Will rewrites the truth. The story he spins brings unexpected relief…until he's forced to return to rural North Carolina, trapping himself in a lie.

Holistic veterinarian Hannah Linden is a healer who opens her heart to strays but can only watch, powerless, as her grown son struggles with inner demons. When she rents her guest cottage to Will and his dad, she finds solace in trying to mend their broken world, even while her own shatters.
As their lives connect and collide, Will and Hannah become each other's only hope—if they can find their way into a new story, one that begins with love.

My Thoughts:
First, I need to thank TLC Book Tours and Barbara Claypole White for providing me with a free copy of this book to review. And I love the fact that Barbara took the time to autograph the copy before sending it out.
When I started the book, I was hooked.  It is beautifully written and characters and places truly come alive with her writing. 
The had a few themes that I think are really important.  One of those is mental illness.  Will's father is suffering with Alzheimer's.  He remembers the past, but not that his grandson has died in a car accident.  From the descriptions, Will's mother also most likely suffered from being Bipolar.  Hannah's father and grandfather had a history of depression and now her adult son is also dealing with depression and has recently attempted suicide.  It also shows us that what happens in childhood can affect us as adults.
Will has to return to his childhood town to take care of his father due to the fact that his father has been thrown out of the nursing home.  He and his father rent a cabin from Hannah and their lives begin to intertwine.
Will has to face the fact that his son is dead and not only grieve him but also his father that is being lost to disease.  Hannah has to try to help her son after moving him home.  And Will and Hannah soon find comfort in each other.
It really was a wonderful book and I cannot recommend it enough. I look forward to reading more from Barbara Claypole White.

Other stops on this tour:
Find them here.

Barbara Claypole White
Connect with Barbara on her website www.barbaraclaypolewhite, Facebook, or Twitter @bclaypolewhite.

A January Bride | Book Review

STATS:

Author, Deborah Raney

Published, December 24th, 2013

Publisher, Zondervan

eBook, 120 pages

Genre, Fiction, Romance, Christian Lit

Series, A Year of Weddings, #2

Description from Goodreads:
Who can work in a house that's overrun by contractors and carpenters? Not Madeleine Houser, a successful novelist who gladly accepts the help of her octogenarian friend, Ginny, to arrange for a temporary office in the charming bed and breakfast owned by Ginny's friend, Arthur. Maddie’s never met the innkeeper––but a friendship grows between them as Maddie and Arthur leave messages for each other each day. To Maddie’s alternate delight and chagrin, she seems to be falling for the inn’s owner––a man who's likely many years her senior––and who she’s never even met.

My Thoughts:
I really loved this story. Maddie is a woman that has given up on the idea of love and marriage. She believes that her life can be full and enjoyable with her writing career, taking care of her mother, and loving her sister's daughters. All this changes when she moves from New York to Kansas to be near her mother in the nursing home. She is remodeling her house and is unable to write with all the noise and distraction. But her neighbor, eighty-four year old Ginny, has other plans for her.

Ginny arranges for her to write at a local Bed and Breakfast. The owner is widowed and there are very few guests since the death of his wife. Since Ginny tells Maddie that she is friends with the owner, and was also good friends with his deceased wife, Maddie assumes that he is elderly also.

Arthur is the owner of the inn. He is a collage professor and still grieving his wife. Maddie and he don't meet one another in the beginning, and she too believes that Art is elderly like Ginny.

Art and Maddie begin leaving notes for one another each day and both begin to feel they know the other person. Both see the letters as a highlight of their day. They also think that it is a "safe" relationship due to the age difference that they have mistakenly believed. Once these two meet, they have to overcome feelings of grief and past heartache.

This is the second book in the series that I have read and I plan on reading them all. Once again, I loved the story and the writing. It was a very fast read. Each book in the series is written by a different author but all share a common theme. It is a brilliant idea to not only get you to read a series, but also to give you new authors to discover.

It is important to note that I received this book via NetGalley in return for a honest review. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

My Favorite Books of 2013

I really enjoyed reading in 2013. I found new authors to love and also new genres that I enjoyed. I signed up with NetGalley and was able to read books that I would have otherwise passed over or never known about. So - I decided to do my favorites of the year.

* A Favorite New Author - Sarah Jio. I read all her books this year. I would be completely happy if she wrote a novel a month. I love her writing that much. The Bungalow, The Violets of March, Blackberry Winter, The Last Camellia, and Morning Glory. They were all wonderful.

* A Surprise Like - Sharp Objects by Jillian Flynn. This is not a genre that I read often. I never pick up horror-thriller-suspense on purpose. I read great reviews on this book and saw it at Target and brought it home. Completely disturbing, but awesome.

* Best Historical Romance - (not to include Sarah Jio novels) The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley. I had read not so wonderful reviews on her The Orchid House, so I was a little hesitant to read this one. But I was able to get it from NetGalley and I was pleasantly surprised. I loved it! It just goes to show that reviews are not all they are cracked up to be at times. Just because someone else doesn't love it, doesn't mean that I won't.

* Favorite Christian Fiction - Forever, Friday by Timothy Lewis. This was the sweetest book. Who wouldn't like a husband that sends them a love postcard every Friday for 60 years?

* Favorite Holiday Read - Mistletoe and Magic by Katie Rose. This was a lovely little Christmas story with a touch of ESP.

And what do I look forward to in the reading world for 2014?

* The next Sarah Jio novel - Goodnight June
* Getting back to reading Diane Chamberlain. She has never disappointed me. In fact, The Secret Life Of CeeCee Wilkes is still a top favorite of mine.

* Reading more Sarah Addison Allen. After reading and loving The Peach Keeper, it is a real nobrainer that I would give her another try.

* Reading the last published Kate Morton novel. I loved all three of her novels when I read them and I can't believe that I have put off The Secret Keeper this long.

* I am also excited about working with TLC Book Tours.

Christmas in Apple Ridge | Book Review

Stats:
Author, Cindy WoodsmallPaperback, 576 pages
Published October 9th, 2012
Publisher, Waterbrook Press
Genre, Christian Fiction, Romance

Description from Goodreads:
Experience the holidays with the Plain folk of Apple Ridge, Pennsylvania, in these touching novellas centered around love, romance, heartache, and restoration from best-selling author Cindy Woodsmall.

The Sound of Sleigh Bells
Beth Hertzler is unable to let go of a past tragedy, but when she discovers a large, intricately carved scene of Amish children playing in the snow, something deep inside Beth’s soul responds. Determined that her niece meet the gifted artist, her aunt tracks him down, but it’s not that simple – will Jonah be able to offer Beth the sleigh ride she’s always dreamed of and a second chance at real love?

The Christmas Singing
Mattie thought her childhood sweetheart adored her until he abruptly ended their engagement on Christmas Eve. Brokenhearted, Mattie moves away and pursues her longtime dream of becoming a cake decorator, and even finds a new beau. But when Mattie is forced to return home three years later, will learning the truth behind Gideon’s rejection restore her Christmas joy – or open the door to even deeper heartbreak?

The Dawn of Christmas
Sadie enjoys her freedom away from home and her mission trips to Peru, but after four years, her Old Order Amish family insists it’s time to come home and settle down. Levi, a bachelor who distrusts women after a family heartbreak, also has no desire for romance. To keep their families from meddling in their lives, Sadie and Levi devise a plan—but soon discover that the walls around their hearts are breaking down. Can they let go of their prejudices, learn to trust each other, and embrace a future together?

My Thoughts:
This was a wonderful collection of Amish Christian Fiction for the Christmas Season. Cindy Woodsmall wrote three separate novellas and combined them nicely into this one book. I will briefly review each story.

The Sound of Sleigh Bells
This is the story of Beth and Jonah. Beth is a business woman that works in her families story. She is still in mourning over the loss of her fiance. She also travels once a year to find Amish goods to sell to both English and Amish stores. One her trip she finds a carving that she loves and tells the story owner that she would like to buy more to sell. She sends her aunt to met with the carver, Jonah, and her aunt starts to play matchmaker.
Jonah has his own story and grief to overcome and together, they just may be able to find more than they are looking for.

The Christmas Singing
This is the story of Mattie and Gideon. They have been childhood sweethearts and are going to be married, but Gideon calls off the marriage and gets married to an English woman. This is very upsetting to Mattie and she moves away to start a business and be closer to her brother. She has been away for three years but is forced to return.
She runs into Gideon who tells her the real reason that he called off the marriage to her. Then she is forced with the decision of a life with Gideon or with Sol.

The Dawn of Christmas
This is the story of Levi and Sadie. Sadie was engaged once and found that she could not trust her fiance after finding him with her cousin. She left and went on a three year mission trip to Peru. When she returns home, she is determined to remain single.
She is literally thrown together Levi and when Sadie saves him after an accident. Levi is also determined to stay single after friends of his have gone have experienced heartache. One of those friends is the old fiance of Sadie. The two join forced to stay singe and soon find out that they may have found what they weren't looking for.

Over all - they were all wonderful Christmas stories. I really love to read novellas since they are fast and easy reads.



**It is important to note that I received this book from Waterbrook Press via Blogging for Books for an honest review.

NEW Children's Books | Book Review

We recently received some awesome children's books to review. Today I would like to share three of them with you.

Author, Helen Docherty
STATS: Hardback, 32 pages
Published October 1st, 2013
Illustrator, Thomas DochertySourcebooks Jabberwocky

Description from Goodreads:
One dark, dark night in Burrow Down, a rabbit named Eliza Brown found a book and settled down...when a Snatchabook flew into town.
It's bedtime in the woods of Burrow Down, and all the animals are ready for their bedtime story. But books are mysteriously disappearing. Eliza Brown decides to stay awake and catch the book thief. It turns out to be a little creature called the Snatchabook who has no one to read him a bedtime story. All turns out well when the books are returned and the animals take turns reading bedtime stories to the Snatchabook.

My Thoughts:
This was such a sweet story and it was educational to boot. It teaches children about the quality of sharing and also to be able to speak their mind in a nice way.
Elisa is determined to find out where the books are going. Snatchabook is stealing the books from Burrow Down and he has no one to read to him. He soon finds out that you Elisa is willing to share her books if he only asks.
It is a precious story about loving bedtime, sharing, and asking for things instead of just taking. Lessons that any parent would like to pass along to their children.

Author, Charles Ghigna
STATS: Boardbook, 20 pages
Publihsed September 2nd, 2013
Illustrator, Ag JatkowskaPicture Window Books

Description from Goodreads:
Iguanas, pandas, tigers too its a letter parade just for you!
From the Learning Parade series. For ages 1-3. Board books.
Author Charles Ghigna, also known as Father Goose, charms with lyrical rhyming text that is engaging and fun for even the youngest readers! This series helps preschoolers learn the basics: letters, numbers, shapes, and colors. Bright and delightful illustrations make the concepts come alive.

My Thoughts:
While this book was a little young for my 5 year old, it totally reinforces letter recognition. Young children will love the bright, colorful pictures and older kids are able to pick out the letters on the page.
It is an adorable way to learn the alphabet and start to put words with letters. The rhyme is wonderful and the book as a great flow. It is a wonderful pick for the young children.

Author, Karen KilpatrickSTATS: Paperback, 24 pages
Published July 9th, 2013
Illustrators, Tara L. Campbell and Matthew WilsonPumpkinheads

Description from Goodreads:
Find out what listening is really worth as Sage makes music from the sounds of the earth. Banging away on her drum, Sage can really make a racket! Stopping to listen to the world around her, Sage learns that music surrounds her in the simplest of sounds. This sensory exploration teaches the value of listening and inspires and awareness of the beautiful music nature creates.

My Thoughts:
While the book is about Sage making music, it is also a great lesson for children to take the time to listen to the "music" around them. The sounds that are sometimes overlooked. Those of the animals, birds, and insects around us all the time. It is a wonderful story that reminds parents and children to slow down and take in the world around them. You never know what you might hear.
This is a very colorful book which helps to hold the attention of the smallest child. The artwork in the book is amazing and goes with the story very well.It is also written in beautiful rhyme.

It is important to note that I received these Kindle editions as a courtesy from the publishing companies via NetGalley in return for a book review. That being said, the feelings expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced by an outside source.

Edisto by Padgett Powell | Book Review

Stats: 

Paperback, 192 pages

Published April 15, 1985

Description from Goodreads:

Simons Everson Manigault ('You say it 'Simmons.' I'm a rare one-m Simons") lives with his mother, an eccentric professor (known as the Duchess), on an isolated and undeveloped strip of South Carolina coast. Convinced that her son can be a writer of genius, the Duchess has immersed Simons in the literary classics since birth ("Like some kids swat mobiles, I was to thumb pages") and has given him free rein to gather material in such spots as the Baby Grand, a local black nightclub. ("It was an assignment. I'm supposed to write. I'm supposed get good at it.")

My thoughts:

I was looking at books on NetGalley and Edisto caught my attentions. It is set in the South in the 1970's. I love books set in the South when they are written well and truthful. Edisto is one of those books.
The narrator is a twelve year old white boy named Simons. He lives with his mother, who surrounds him with literature and wants him to be a writer, and has an absent father. He is very bright and has an incredible vocabulary.He meets a mixed race man named Taurus, and is then immersed in the African American culture of south Carolina.
While it is hard to believe that a twelve year old boys speaks the way Simons does and acts the way he does, the writing style is wonderful. The book is fast paced and fairly short. It is a great coming of age story and it's comparison to Catcher in the Rye is inevitable.
I would highly recommend this book.

More from the Author:  Visit his website.

My previous review:  The Longings of Wayward Girls

It is important to note that I received this book from NetGalley in return for a book review. That being said, the feelings expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced by an outside source.

The Longings of Wayward Girls by Karen Brown | Book Review

STATS:Paperback, 336 pages (I had a Kindle version)
Published July 2, 2013
Washington Square Press
Series - No

Description From Goodreads:
It's an idyllic New England summer, and Sadie is a precocious only child on the edge of adolescence. It seems like July and August will pass lazily by, just as they have every year before. But one day, Sadie and her best friend play a seemingly harmless prank on a neighborhood girl. Soon after, that same little girl disappears from a backyard barbecue—and she is never seen again. Twenty years pass, and Sadie is still living in the same quiet suburb. She’s married to a good man, has two beautiful children, and seems to have put her past behind her. But when a boy from her old neighborhood returns to town, the nightmares of that summer will begin to resurface, and its unsolved mysteries will finally become clear.

My thoughts:
I am so glad that I was able to get an ARC of this book on NetGalley. From the first page of a news report about missing girl Laura Loomis, I was drawn completely in. The story is mainly focused on Sadie Watkins, who is now an adult. it alternated between summers in the 1970's to her present day which is the summer of 2003. But it did take a little reading to see how Laura and Sadie are connected.
Throughout the book, you see the longings of Sadie as a child to have a "normal" mother and of her as an adult trying to find peace with a recent miscarriage. The story turns out to be as much about a Town haunted with missing children as that of Sadie being haunted by her past.
I truly enjoyed this book even if it was a little macabre. It reminded me of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn that I read earlier this year. I completely recommend it to anyone ready to but down the beach reads for fall.

More About the Author: Visit her website.

My Previous Review: The Chaneysville Incident

It is important to note that I received this Kindle edition as a courtesy from Washington Square Press via NetGalley in return for a book review. That being said, the feelings expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced by an outside source.

Just One Day | Book Review

Just One Day

by

Sharla Lovelace



Description from Goodreads:

She has nothing but time . . .

Twenty-four hours. That’s how long Andie Fremont has to say yes—or no. At forty-four with a daughter in college, she’s no young kitten with starry-eyed ideas of what love is. Still, when the man who is everything she should want pops the question with a ring he knows isn’t her style, during a party she didn’t want to have, Andie balks. Something tells her that it isn’t right.
Looking to clear her head, Andie hits the Texas highway in search of an answer. And when she stumbles upon an old roadside diner she decides waffles might be it, at least for now. What she didn’t expect to find was Jesse Montgomery. The man who stole her heart and broke it all in one day, two decades earlier.
As a Texas-size storm takes shape outside, the electricity between Andie and Jesse builds inside. Suddenly Andie is faced with more than just yes or no. As the storm clears there are two men who will want answers  

My Thoughts:
Just One Day is a novella. I was needing something that would be a fast and easy read. This was it! I main character, Andie, is a woman. What makes this different from what I usually read is that she is not a twenty something looking for love. She is a forty something with a past and a life and real problems. She is totally believable and even thought the story is shorter than a novel, you really get to know her since it is packed with information and still has little to no "fluff". The descriptions of the party on the yacht and the storm were amazing.  You could feel like you were there with her.  The twists and turns in the book were unexpected and wonderful. I think that the story of a woman having to make tough choices about her relationships is pretty common in a romance novel and we think we know what is going to happen.  This book really surprised me and kept me wanting to know more. This is the first Sharla Lovelace that I have read and I look forward to reading more from her.  Overall - I think that it is well written, a nice story, and perfect when you are looking for something quick and attention grabbing.  
Happy Reading!
Kyetra

Other reviews this week -
Forever Friday by Timothy Lewis
Change The World Before Friday - Mark Kimball Moulton (Children's Book)

It is important to note that I received this book from NetGalley in return for a book review. That being said, the feelings expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced by an outside source.

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Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize that they were the big things.

-  Robert Brault

Books 'n' Bloggers Swap is Now Open!

Books 'n' Bloggers Swap is taking sign ups NOW!



I just happened to find this swap hosted by Chaotic Goddess Swaps!  If you have never heard of them, please go over and check it out.  You can find swaps to participate in and even get your own swap listed.

It sounds like the perfect swap for book lovers.  All you have to do is send out:

One book you read and loved

One book you haven't read yet but think that your partner would enjoy

and

One book from your partner's wishlist!

So - you get 3 books in return!

Sign-ups close on 06/09/13,  so head on over and sign up!

Book Club Friday | Those Who Save Us

This Week I Read: 

Description From Goodreads:
For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.
Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.
Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.

My Thoughts:
I saw this book reviewed last week and it happened to be at the used book store when I went on Saturday.  I thought maybe it might be a sign.
All the other Holocaust era books that I have read have been from a Jewish point of view. I loved that this book is told from a German point of view instead of a Jewish point of view.  
I like that the book in no way tries to say that what happened in Germany during WW2 was not the fault of the German government.  I believe that it was but I also believe that there were good Germans that tried to do the best they could.  People seem to forget that they could be killed also for going against the SS and Hitler.
It is great story of survival and just how far a person will go to stay alive and protect a child.  It is so worth the read.  Even to me who likes all things cleared up in the ending.  This one just leaves you with an understanding that sometimes the past is the past and you can't judge someone when you don't know what they have been through.

I am linking up with:

Book Club Friday | Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet & Sharp Objects

This week I read:

Description from Goodreads:
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.
This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry's world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While "scholarshipping" at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship - and innocent love - that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.
Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice - words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.
Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.
My Thoughts:
It is about lasting friendship, romance, hope, and the relationship between a father and a son, and forgiveness. 
The relationship between Henry and his own father played a huge roll in where Henry's life ended up.  He made decisions for his son that not only impacted him, but those of others. 
I must say that I really liked this book.  I didn't love it, but I liked it.  I could find a few things that weren't completely cleared up for me in the end.  
 The story is mostly told by Henry.  It is told in the present day, which in this case is 1986, and in the 1940's during WW2.  WW2 is one of my favorite time periods to read about and since it also had a bit of mystery, it made it worth my time.
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I also read:

Description on Goodreads:

WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart

Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker’s troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille’s first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.

NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg
Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.

HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle
As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.
With its taut, crafted writing, Sharp Objects is addictive, haunting, and unforgettable.

My Thoughts:
This is not the type book I usually read.  I would pass it over a hundred times at the bookstore.  But after reading reviews of it last week, I picked it up Friday night.
Once I started reading, I loved it!  I mean and I really loved it.  Parts of the story were pretty easy to figure out.  One to many psych classes for me.  But the ending was a little tricky.  I loved that what you thought was the truth, just might not be.  I would totally recommend it and I can't read to others by Gillian Flynn.

I am linking up with  -

Book Club Friday | The Cradle & The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

This week I read:

The description from Goodreads: 
Early one summer morning, Matthew Bishop kisses his still-sleeping wife Marissa, gets dressed and eases his truck through Milwaukee, bound for the highway. His wife, pregnant with their first child, has asked him to find the antique cradle taken years before by her mother Caroline when she abandoned Marissa, never to contact her daughter again. Soon to be a mother herself, Marissa now dreams of nothing else but bringing her baby home to the cradle she herself slept in. His wife does not know-does not want to know-where her mother lives, but Matt has an address for Caroline's sister near by and with any luck, he will be home in time for dinner.
Only as Matt tries to track down his wife's mother, he discovers that Caroline, upon leaving Marissa, has led a life increasingly plagued by impulse and irrationality, a mysterious life that grows more inexplicable with each new lead Matt gains, and door he enters. As hours turn into days and Caroline's trail takes Matt from Wisconsin to Minnesota, Illinois, and beyond in search of the cradle, Matt makes a discovery that will forever change Marissa's life, and faces a decision that will challenge everything he has ever known.
Elegant and astonishing, Patrick Somerville tells the story of one man's journey into the heart of marriage, parenthood, and what it means to be a family. Confirming the arrival of an exuberantly talented new writer, THE CRADLE is an uniquely imaginative debut novel that radiates with wisdom and wonder.
My Thoughts: 
I picked up this book at Dollar Tree.  It looked nice if you judge a book by it's cover (and I do).  The description was interesting so I thought that I would give it a try. 
This really was a great read and was worth my time.   It is a story about what really matters in life and how choices effect so many people.  Good things can happen at odd times.

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I also read:

Description from Goodreads:
In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage-clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend’s attempts at commitment, Iris Lockhart receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital—where she has been locked away for more than sixty-one years.
Iris’s grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. But Esme’s papers prove she is Kitty’s sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in Esme’s face. 
Esme has been labeled harmless—sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But she's still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit?
A gothic, intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will haunt you long past its final page.
My Thoughts:
This is another book that I knew nothing about.  I saw it in our local used book store.  It had history and mystery so I decided to give it a chance.
I am glad that I did.  The book was very interesting.  There are no chapters.  Just one ongoing story told from  3 different angles.  Kitty, Esme, and Iris.  
It is very sad to see how people were treated years ago and what little you had to do to be put in an insane asylum.  There are so many secrets and it keeps you thinking about what could have been.
The one thing that I didn't love was the ending.  It just ended.  It stopped.  That was it.  While what happens in the last few pages is easy to figure out, there is not a lot of closure for the characters.

Linking up with -

Book Club Friday | The Violets of March

Description from Goodreads:
A heartbroken woman stumbled upon a diary and steps into the life of its anonymous author.
In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after.
Ten years later, the tide has turned on Emily's good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life.
A mesmerizing debut with an idyllic setting and intriguing dual story line, The Violets of March announces Sarah Jio as a writer to watch.   My Thoughts: This was my third novel by Sarah Jio.  I now have to wait for her new book to come out.  And I can't wait. I loved this book.  From the moment I picked it up, I could not put it down and read it in a little over a day.  It had the perfect mix of history, mystery, and love.  Which all of Sarah Jio's novel have in common. I love Emily and Bee.  Their relationship changes throughout the book and both come to terms with their pasts.  It was a great read!   *** If you love Sarah Jio, she has two books that I know of that are being published in 2013.  The Last Camilla is coming in late May, and Morning Glory in November.    I am linking up with Book Club Friday and Literary Friday.  

 

Book Club Friday | Two Books This Week

This week I read:

Description from Goodreads:
While in the midst of a breakup-induced depression, Aurélie Bredin, a beautiful Parisian restaurateur, discovers an astonishing novel in a quaint bookshop on the Ile Saint-Louis. Inexplicably, her restaurant and Aurélie herself are featured in its pages. After reading the whole book in one night, she realizes it has saved her life—and she wishes more than anything to meet its author. Aurélie’s attempts to contact the attractive but shy English author through his French publishers are blocked by the company’s gruff chief editor, André, who only with great reluctance forwards Aurélie’s enthusiastic letter. But Aurélie refuses to give up. One day, a response from the reclusive author actually lands in her mailbox, but the encounter that eventually takes place is completely different from what she had ever imagined. . . . Filled with books, recipes, and characters that leap off the page, The Ingredients of Love by Nicolas Barreau is a tribute to the City of Lights.  

My thoughts:

I picked up this book at Target.  I had not heard anything about it and bought it solely from the jacket description.

It was a bit slow in the beginning but I was glad that I stuck it out.  Aurelie is very likable and you have to feel for her at times.  The characters are great, the story is sweet.  There are a few phrases in French, but they are mostly common and well known.  The last few pages of the book are even the recipes to the special dinner that occurs in the book.

It is not on my all time favorite list, but it was a nice read.

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I also read:

Description from Goodreads:
The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.
Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.
Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.
Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

My thoughts: 
This is another Target find that I stumbled upon.  I knew the second that I read the jacket, it was a book right up my alley.  Mystery, love, history & present day, all together.
The fact that there were orphan trains in the early 1900's was very interesting and sad at the same time.  Vivian is wonderful.  You feel so sorry for her and can't wait for her to get some happiness.  The same is true for Molly. 
I was unable to put this book down once I started, and absolutely loved it!

I am linking up with Book Club Friday and Literary Friday.