Review: Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

When I first suggested to my skype book club that we read a romance for February I thought it was sort of an original idea and admittedly I was trying to torture these literary fiction loving ladies just a little bit. I have since discovered that LOTS of book clubs read romances for February and I succeeded in torturing my club mates. Love you guys!

Actually a different club member suggested this particular book. It's an historical which is not my preferred kind of romance, I far prefer contemporary romance (and really romantic suspense). But I had been wanting to read Lisa Kleypas so it seemed like a good idea.

To be honest with you, I thought this was a pretty good romance though it was riddled with romance cliches. The writing style of the author was lovely and flowed easily,I was never distracted by choppy sentences and it was adequately descriptive.

The story is opens with Evangeline Jenner, who is a bit of a wallflower, going to Viscount St. Vincent (Sebastian) and asking him to marry her. He'll get her inheritance which he desperately needs and she'll get safety from a marriage her family is trying to force her into. He loves his woman and likes to bed a different one every night and she is of course, innocent and a virgin.

Once married of course he starts feeling crazy about her and she likes him more than she was willing to admit to herself as well. But they have some obstacles to overcome in learning to trust each other, to run the business her father left behind, and avoid people trying to kill them.

What made this work as a romance for me was the fact that I enjoyed the characters and believed in their chemistry. I found the dialogue funny at times, and the writing descriptive and pleasant to read. It was an easy and fun read. It wasn't perfect, I'm not a fan of the sex is so great and then they fall in love storyline, or the man whore becomes reformed for his one true love, but I was able to overlook that for the most part.

Discussing it with the book club was interesting. Most of the women in the book club apparently don't like romance at all. Here are the general questions asked and comments made:

1) Why do women read this stuff?
2) How do they come up with so many ways to say you know, that?
3) It was so predictable it was boring.
4) Men in real life aren't like this.

I don't know why, but I enjoy reading romances occasionally. I LOVE reading epic romances (this was not one). I don't mind that they are predictable, I think they can be very fun, often humorous. I think they are ultimately comfort reads for me, they don't take long and can be very fun. I prefer ones that don't have explicit sex, like, for example Christian romances or Georgette Heyer. I certainly couldn't read nothing but romance, not even close, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I enjoy them from time to time. I will probably give Lisa Kleypas's contemporary novels a try sometime.

Rating: 4/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Explicit sex and profanity
Source of Book: Bought it
Publisher: Avon

Review and Book Club Follow Up: The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

When I was a teenager, I wasn't allowed to go see rated R films. I wasn't always obedient, though, so when some friends invited me to go see The English Patient, I was so there. And wow...did I love it. In fact, I have only seen this film once, but it's a powerful example of the way a film or story can sear itself onto your brain, into your life. I have very vivid memories of it, of the way it captivated me emotionally. I wept through the conclusion of it, my friend told me I sank down into my seat to hide my tears. (By the way, it's true...be sure your sins will find you out. My parents did and I was grounded.)

To this day, when asked, I usually list it as a favorite movie. I had often pondered reading the book but feared I wouldn't find the book nearly as interesting as the movie. Now, I am grateful for the way the film is so firmly embedded into my mind because I'm fairly certain I would have given up on the book if I hadn't had the story structure and visuals of the film to rely upon.

The English Patient is not the kind of book you pick up and think you will read through easily. At first I wasn't too worried, it wasn't that long and I figured I would read it quickly enough. I was very wrong. It took me quite awhile to read this book as I often had no idea what I was reading. I had to go back and reread sections and I was still confused. I had a hard time latching onto any timeline or cohesive plot. If I didn't have the images of the film in my mind, or if this wasn't a book club pick, I would never have been able to complete it.

The English Patient takes place mostly at an abandoned convent in Italy where a man who has been severely burned is cared for by a nurse who is suffering from severe fatigue of caring for the dying. A few other characters come into their lives..Carvaggio who was a thief that was caught in the act and tortured, and Kip, who dismantles bombs. Their stories are all told in bits and pieces throughout the book.

The writing is at times beautiful, there is no doubt about that. The themes of the book can be picked out, and there were a few times where I did want to keep turning the pages! But overall, while I'm glad to now say that I've read the book, I'm unlikely to pick up more books from this author. It was too much work with not enough pay-off for me. I do want to rewatch the movie though and I'll let you know if I still love it.

Rating: 4/5 (I can recognize the quality of the writing)
Things You Might Want to Know: There are some sexual references and a bit of language.

Book Club
Unlike with 13 Reasons Why, we actually found little to discuss about the story itself in book club! We spent a fair bit of time talking about how much better the movie was (okay that was only me), how difficult the writing was, etc. We did manage to touch on some themes from the book and discuss the overall character development. Most book club members seemed particularly sympathetic to Kip and Hana, while I really didn't care deeply about anyone. Honestly, I loved the movie for the tragic love story (love those!) and it wasn't quite as powerful in the book. I think we are all glad to have read the book, but we probably won't be rereading it!

Have you read The English Patient? Did we totally miss the importance of this book? Do share your thoughts!

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Book Club Follow-Up

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a book that was impossible to miss when it first made the blog rounds. In fact, I actually accepted advertising for the book on this blog! It was impossible to miss this book because the premise was so chilling and yet so relevant to the lives of teenagers.

Thirteen Reasons Why is about Clay, and how one day he comes home and finds a box full of tapes. Surprised to discover this ancient form of technology (which by the way I use daily in my job. ;) he's curious about what it is. He's shocked to discover that the tapes were made by Hannah Baker, a girl in his class who killed herself not long ago. As he listens, he learns that these tapes were made for the people who Hannah considers responsible for driving her to give up on life...as a means to explain why she did it.

This book is absolutely riveting. The book is told with both Hannah and Clay narrating..essentially, we hear Hannah's voice on the tape, and then Clay's reaction. And poor Clay! He seems like such a nice kid, who had a genuine interest in Hannah. And yet, he has to listen to these tapes to discover why he's on them...what role he played in Hannah's decision.

Hannah's story slowly unfolds and it isn't pretty. Some of the things are hard to read and will be harder for the reader who has experience with them. And this poor girl certainly does get slammed. Yet at the same time that I grieved for Hannah, I grieved for every troubled teenager featured on the tape who would feel responsible for Hannah.

There are aspects of this story that stretch the boundaries of believability. For example, it seems there isn't one ounce of parental responsibility in this town. You will read this and wonder where all the parents are. There are decisions Hannah makes that seem extreme. There were times I wondered how she could be composed enough to pinpoint why she wanted to kill herself and not get the necessary help. Yet at the same time, this book powerfully brings home the truth that the way you treat people matters.

Here is one of my favorite passages that sort of sums up the theme of the book:

"You don't know what goes on in anyone's life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person's life, you're not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can't be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person's life, you mess with their whole life. Everything....affects everything."

This is not an easy read, but I think it would be a great book to read with your teen, in order to open up the lines of communication. While you know how Hannah's story ends, the book does not end on a hopeless note.

Rating: 4/5
Things You Might Want to Know: there's some sexuality

My New Book Club


For all of my life, I have longed to be in a book club. The closest I ever came was shortly after college when a few friends and I met weekly to discuss Christian non-fiction, such as Mere Christianity and St. Augustine's Confessions. Apparently, this longing was shared by other avid readers and bloggers and one day on Twitter we decided to start our own online book club. Due the complications involved with the technology we use for our book club, we're pretty maxed out on membership, but if you are looking for a book club, I highly recommend giving this a try!

Thirteen Reasons Why was the first book chosen by our book club. What an excellent book club pick this book is! There is much to discuss and there was quite an array of opinions! Some club members had absolutely no sympathy for Hannah. Several of us agreed that we couldn't understand where the parents were and why there was so little adult involvement in the teenagers lives.

It's interesting to talk about suicide because inevitably there will be those who think that suicide is selfish. And while to a rationally minded person this is true, it's impossible to understand the extreme pain a person must be in to sink this low. It was clear that Hannah lacked support and we all know you can't get through this life without the support of others. Could she have reached out more for it? Probably. But she didn't.

We did agree that the book should have included a more comprehensive list of signs someone is contemplating taking their own life. While these things were touched upon in the story, they weren't fully fleshed out. It also seemed to be the general consensus that nothing Hannah suffered was impossible to overcome. She helped make the way to her own destruction.

If you have a book club, I highly recommend Thirteen Reasons Why as a great pick for discusson!

So...since so many of you have read this...what did you think?