Fledgling by Octavia Butler

Ha, so remember when Aarti hosted A More Diverse Universe back in November? I signed up and started reading a book for it and then the book became really difficult for me to finish. I ended up finishing it up on New Year's Day--symbolic of my goal to honor all my commitments this year! (or something, I'll spin anything)

Anyway, I did not like this book at all. By the time I did finish I had a strong distaste for it. It's good to know this, though, the book has been on my shelves for years and now it's off and now I've also tried this author I always wanted to try so it's not like all is lost.

So the book starts out with Shori waking up and knowing nothing but as she feeds on raw meat and stuff like that she starts to feel better. But she's completely lost her memory. So she's wandering around on the road and this guy stops to help her but then she realizes she wants to drink his blood and he realizes he wouldn't mind hooking up with her and to be honest that's where the book started to lose me. Because how am I supposed to care about this guy who is attracted to this girl who looks like a child even if she's really 53 years old? I mean ew.

Anyway Shori is a genetically modified vampire and vampires live in clans and feed off symbionts which is what this dude becomes to her. And some other people. They get to live longer and stuff as symbionts--it seems as though the thorny consent issues in vampire feeding are sort of addressed but it's not very satisfactory to be honest. So someone is hunting her family down and she doesn't know who because she barely knows who she is and so the book is the story of that.

It was just...boring. Too much information. Not enough reason to care? Too many things that kind of turned my stomach. I could guess reading Ana's review that maybe the reason I didn't like this book is precisely because it was less about story and more the "parable" the back of the book says it is. Ana liked the book MUCH more than I did by the way!

But like I said, I'm glad I read it. And Aarti I'm sorry it took me so long to post! And I know a lot of people have read this and I'd like to hear what you thought because well it's at least worth talking about?

Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick

Yay, Matthew Quick for writing optimistic books in situations that are not entirely optimistic.

Like this book right here. Sorta Like a Rock Star is about Amber Appleton who lives on a bus with her mom and her dog. She does have good friends who help take of her...namely the mother of her one of her friends, but for the most part this is far from an ideal situation. Her mother is an alcoholic and all her best friends are kids she was put in a club with--basically other ~rejects from society.

But Amber is a force of nature, she's really super upbeat despite her situation and she participates in a lot of really cool things in her community. Like teaching English at the Korean Church or visiting the elderly and creating games to make their time more fun. Oh and she totally sneaks in her dog. And she fights with her friends to keep her favorite teacher's job. She's just really cool, you know? And it's so adorable like when she talks about how she came to do the job, she's like, "here's how I got this gig..." ♥♥♥

Tragedy strikes though and everything changes for Amber. Her entire world changes and it's hard to know if the Amber Appleton everyone knew before will ever come back? Will she? Read the book and find out! :)

One of the things I love about Matthew Quick's characters are how real they feel--just really fleshed out. Amber, of course, seems like a really cool kid but Quick doesn't sugar coat what might be her flaws either. She gets mad when people are ungrateful for what she does, she sometimes crosses the line or doesn't understand what is appropriate or inappropriate behavior, she takes pride in being "sorta like a rock star" to the people she helps. But those are just flaws, they aren't the only things she is. And it's true for all the characters, which is just so great. Relationships are hard, but they can work in the end, we just have to have big open hearts to forgive!

Amber gets down at one point in the book, and recalls how she first started trying to make herself more than what she is after seeing the her mom's kid at heart nature. As she's reflecting she thinks, "truthfully, --five years later--no one really takes me all that seriously. At best, I'm just an interesting blip in people's lives--an amusing footnote.....Sometimes I wonder why I try at all. What's the point?"

Aw, I related to this and it made me sad--but I feel like it's a really spot-on observation for optimistic, cheerful, helpful people. The world sits and takes notice so much of things that are darker are more depressing...or if someone is happy or tries to exude cheer, I think it's easy to forget the whole of who they are or the fact that it's work. It's work to remain positive when things don't seem positive, and it takes work to love others and be as generous as possible and that work should never be taken for granted or belittled.

Which is why I love this book, because in the face of things that are dark and hard and very very sad, Quick makes a declaration that Amber is more than an interesting blip in people's life. It's really very beautiful and upbeat without downplaying that life and relationships are also hard. I cried at the end and I think you will, too. And it also made me want to be more like Amber--open hearted and caring for groups and people who might otherwise get overlooked. Human kindness, it gets me everytime.

A long time I did receive a review copy of this book...it's sad it took me so long to read it!

The Sister Season by Jennifer Scott

This book arrived in the mail with a pretty cover which immediately made it appealing. But then I flipped through it and realized Jennifer Scott is Jennifer Brown and it flew to the top of my list.

The Yancey sisters are gathering at home near Christmas because their father has died. They haven't seen each other in a long while, but they want to support their mother during this time. As soon as they are all under the same roof, though, tensions rise.

This book is set at Christmas but don't worry about it being too much of a Christmas story. It's heavy and sad and each character has a lot to work through. The focus is on these relationships and the odd sense of grief that hangs over them more than it's about the holiday in anyway though that does factor into the background.

Each character gets point of view chapters which works pretty well, since you're never sure what the truth is of something that happened. And as is typical for family dramas, they make a lot of bad choices that lead to misunderstanding.

I really did feel so sympathetic for the sisters and I felt I was able to understand where each of them were coming from. The book kept me turning the pages at a rapid rate and led to a dramatic and emotionally satisfying conclusion!

Review copy received from publisher!

Mini Reviews: Mysteries! The She by Carol Plum-Ucci, Creep by Jennifer Hillier, and Evidence of Life by Barbara Taylor Sissel

I read The Body of Christopher Creed a few years ago and really liked it and proceeded to buy like every book by Carol Plum-Ucci. But as has been the case in my reading life for the past few years they sat on my shelf for a long while. Well, I'm trying to read through some of these books I still want to read that I've owned forever, so the other day I picked up The She.

And I liked it! It's about a kid, Evan, whose parents died in a terrible storm when he was but a wee thing. And he believes there's a monster out there in them waters called The She that takes the lives of sailors. But it's a legend! Or so he thinks until a similar experience happens to a classmate. A teacher asks him to talk to her and so he does and fun times ensue. He starts realizing that maybe there was more stuff surrounding his parents death than he originally thought and

I really like Carol Plum-Ucci's concept of mystery...she drags lots of stuff into it like faith and reason. In this book in particular the contrast is really starkly drawn, Evan is the character of faith and his brother is the character of reason--someone who has devoted his life to basically blocking out mystery. And...you know I like this in a mystery simply for the reason that in life most mysteries don't get solved. So often there's not a clue at the end of the yellow brick road that tells us what it was all about, why life ended up the way it did, why horrific and horrible things happen. We can sometimes know that Mr. Green did it in the conservatory with the lead pipe, but the whys aren't always so obvious....by which I mean all the steps that lead to such a fateful place. So...I don't know a mystery that acknowledges that there's still a lot of mystery in the horror is fine by me. So I really liked that about this book, this push and pull between what can be proved and what remains mysterious.

And I really love her characters, they just pop off the page for me. For a short book she manages to draw them convincingly, I enjoy spending time with them in this short part of their lives. I didn't like this book as much Christopher Creed, but I liked it a lot and need to finish the rest of the books I have by her! Pubbed by Harcourt Children's Books and I bought it.


This book was sent to me over a year ago for review...I KNOW THE SHAME. But when I went on a trip about a month ago, I thought it would be a good plane read. And it was! It's a pretty standard thriller like this...almost verges a bit on...indulging the side of people that might enjoy reading about violence like this and sexual violence even, but even so there were things I liked about it. It was pretty straightforward with the action, but not without its surprises. I almost want to talk about it in a bit more detail based on something I read on Gillian Flynn's site today, but alas.

There were some cute nice touches I liked--the main character Sheila Tao (oh yeah POC main character also a plus!) likes this mushroom swiss burger she likes and after she goes missing, her fiance discovers this restaurant and likes the burger, too! (you know without knowing she did) I just realized I didn't say what the books was about! It's about this professor who is a sex addict, but when she breaks off one of her illicit affairs to get married, the guy doesn't take it very well and becomes dangerous.

Anyway, this is reminding me I do want to read the sequel at some point! Lots of language and explicit sex in this one, though, guys. Published by Pocket Books. And oh look it's on sale for quite cheap right now! (affiliate link)

Evidence of Life was sent to me this year, so no guilt with this one having languished around for ages! It was a nice book! Abby's husband and daughter go missing in a hurricane and as she sets out to find them, she discovers that not everything might be what it seemed. This book felt a little thin on plot...I found myself skimming to get to the end, but the prose was pleasant enough and the mystery was enough to keep me reading. I really don't have much to say about this, but it would probably make a nice beach read! Pubbed by Mira!

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell

I heard a few good reviews for this book and new year new chance to jump on the train early for the good reads of the year, right? Plus the cover.

It's a probably a good thing I waited to read this once I was out of my happy holiday haze and back into the world is a cold brutal place mode, because one of the very first things that happens is they drag their dead parents decaying bodies all over the house and things pretty much go everywhere. It is very gross. But I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit here.

This books is about Marnie and Nelly and their next door neighbor Lennie. Marnie and Nelly are like 15 and 12 and their parents are awful. Their dad molests them and their mom is an addict, and their life in general is just terrible. But we only know them through the eyes of Marnie and Nelly because they are dead when the book opens. And it takes awhile to really learn why/how, like almost the whole book. So if you decide to read this don't worry too much about that.

Anyway, they bury their parents in the backyard and try to hide the reality of where they are. But it's not so easy, because Gene, their dad, owes a lot of money to someone. And it's drug money which makes everything very complicated. Lennie, their next door neighbor, is a registered sex offender, but really he's just an elderly gay man who once propositioned a teenage prostitute--without realizing how young he was. This doesn't make it right, of course. In fact, Lennie's own awareness of this--the fact that he knows why what he did was wrong (putting his own needs above the kid's) is part of what endeared him so much to me as a character. Anyway, he becomes a bit like a stand-in father to the girls.

This book is pretty gritty, there's no nice glossing over of anything but it's pretty engaging as well, I read it all relatively quickly. And for the most part I liked it, but..I do think it's interesting that it's like a story about these two teenage girls and all THE MEN in their lives. There is only really ever one adult woman mentioned who has an interest in them, their guidance counselor, but it's not like she takes a true active interest in their lives. But there are ALL kinds of men. So that's kind of interesting/odd/sad.

An enjoyable read with some dark humor and nice writing but unlikely to stay with me for a long time. Gorgeous cover, though!

Rating: 3.75/5
Things You Might Want to Know: profanity, violence, all of it
Source of Book: Received from publisher for review
Publisher: Harper

Review: A Month of Sundays by Ruth White

Garnet's mother decides to move to Florida and leave her behind with an aunt, uncle, and cousins she's never met while she looks for a job. Garnet is at first very upset by this...her Aunt June is her father's sister and Garnet never met her father. But once she arrives, she realizes she quite likes this side of the family she's never met and she starts to make new friends and understand her family history in a new way.

Her aunt thinks she's come for a reason and tells her that she's looking for God. She's visiting a different church every week and invites Garnet along. Sounds like an interesting set-up right?

Well, not exactly. I found the book to be confusing in terms of what it was saying about faith. I think maybe the author was going for a "learn to live with the questions" theme, but it was so sloppily executed. I can't really discuss what I mean without major spoilers so be forewarned, MAJOR SPOILERS:

Garnet's aunt has cancer which is the reason she's looking for God. Garnet meets a boy she really likes and his father tries faith healing on her aunt and it works. And then....NO ONE thinks it's actually God that healed her! The pastor's son thinks it's mind over matter, Aunt June thinks she did it (with a sort of..we are all god kind of concept), the pastor thinks HE did it...I mean...I was honestly flabbergasted. (I've never said that before!) Considering the book is set in the 50s and in the South, all of these reactions seems really bizarre to me. Don't misunderstand! I'd be perfectly fine with some of the characters not actually believing it's God but with the setting and the time period I think and just...the culture of faith healing I feel like this is terribly inauthentic. Like White wanted to write a story about faith and that culture but not actually lend it any credibility by allowing her characters to have any faith in God. Okay the more I write about this the more it annoys me. But anyway! There's also this really weird ending to the book which is big and huge and tragic and kind of shoved in there with no resolution. Basically this entire story was really bizarre to me. END SPOILERS

Has anyone else read this?

Rating: 2/5
Source of Book: ARC received from publisher
Publisher: FSG

Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

It's like being in love, discovering your best friend.

I don't really like World War II stories. And it's not because they are bad or whatever, it's just that I think I've had an oversaturation of them. There are so many WWII stories out there and most of the ones I've been exposed to are told from a European or American perspective. Admittedly, I still have an interest in stories about the Asia Pacific part of the war and also even the Russian part. Or the experience of Japanese Americans in the States. Anyway, point is, a book about World War II in England is just not that interesting to me on the premise alone.

So despite a few early glowing reviews, I was just not that interested in Code Name Verity. (also I didn't like the title, tbh) But...I don't know I've been having such a rough reading year and the reviews were all SO good and then Ana mentioned in her review that it had some of the things I enjoy and look for in story...so I decided to give it a shot. I'm so glad I did, because despite the fact that this book feels very English and very World War II, I loved it.

I'm not going to bother with the premise too much because I agree it's best to go into this book knowing as little as possible. It does start a little slowly with a lot of details about planes and other confusing (kind of boring) things. But not in any way that's a slog to get through, just...the book isn't immediately riveting. It has a very beautiful and deep friendship at its heart, the kind that will make your heart explode. I mean this is what I'm talking about when I say I long for deep complex relationships that aren't romances in stories.

And it's exciting and it plays with your mind. And it's so heartfelt, but also goes all the places it needs to go. And the language is beautiful! And I think there are all kinds of other interesting things going on in the book--it's very rich. The sense of war and doom pervades the story, but so does the existence of hope.

There aren't a lot of books that I've really loved this year, but Code Name Verity is one that I really loved reading and completely enjoyed. Short review, I know, but what else can I say that hasn't been said? Read it!

Rating: 4.75/5
Source of Book: egalley
Publisher: Hyperion

Review: The Divorce Party by Laura Dave

And he laughs. She tries not to. She bites the inside of her lip and tries not to laugh too. This is the painful part. Love doesn't leave you. Not all at once. It creeps back in, making you think it can be another way, that it can still be another way, and you have to remind yourself of the reasons that it probably won't be.

Laura Dave's The First Husband was one of my favorite books last year and I knew immediately I'd want to read more of her stuff. But..I hesitated for whatever reason. (probably the stacks of books I have 95% of which I want to read right now) Anyway last week I randomly heard about divorce parties and the concept was familiar to me, like I thought I'd seen it on a TV show or something. But then I realized I had a book called THE DIVORCE PARTY in my TBR pile and I decided to read it on a whim.

And you know, I guess I had a little bit of that fear that The First Husband had been a one hit wonder for me and I wouldn't like her other books but I shouldn't have worried at all, because this book was so lovely and so good and hit on some of the same ideas that struck me with the The First Husband about love and commitment.

The Divorce Party is about two women, Gwyn and Maggie. Gwyn is Maggie's mother-in-law to be that Maggie has not yet met. She's going to meet her for the first time at Gwyn's divorce party, an event that's supposed to bring healing to the family and assure everything that things will be okay after the divorce. This would be an awkward circumstance for anyone, but it becomes a big deal for Maggie when her fiance, Nate, tells her the morning of the party a little secret he's been keeping...his family is wealthy. It's a bit of a jolt to Maggie since they have been scraping together enough money to open a restaurant together and this is a huge thing he didn't tell her. And when she gets to his parents home, she learns there are even more secrets he's kept from her.

Gwyn, on the other hand, knows a secret her husband doesn't think she knows. and she's going to use it to her advantage at the divorce party. She's struggling with the fact that she still loves her husband and would do anything to make their marriage work even though he's just no longer interested.

I loved this book so much. I loved both Maggie and Gwyn and I think that it's possible to identify with both of them. Maggie who is so used to running and not committing learns the one guy she does want to commit to has been keeping things from her. And Gwyn who faces the worst kind of rejection of all--loving someone and being willing to forgive them big things and having them reject your history and your love.

The story takes place in one day and follows both women as they deal with the shifting nature of their relationships. And it explores these ideas about information and what information you need to have in a relationship and what you do with it and what's forgiveable as an omission and what's not. And it's about love and how sometimes it ends and that's not always one person's fault that even if you love big and hard and well your relationship might not survive. And also about how our past is part of who we are and maybe there is no such thing as starting over. And there's some great symbolism with red velvet cakes and hurricanes and it's just fab.

It's a beautiful, deeply felt book and I loved it. Also the writing is gorgeous. It's one of those books that just feels so true.

Rating: 4.5/5
Things You Might want to Know: Some profanity and sex
Source of Book: bought it
Publisher: Viking

Review: How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

How to review this book? When I finished it I was almost certain I wouldn't try because I just really really loved it and any description felt like it would be lacking. But alas, when I asked which books you'd be most interested in hearing about this is the one most of you picked.

How to Save a Life is a dual narrative book. It is both Jill's story and Mandy's story and how their stories intersect and what that ends up meaning for them. Jill's father died in a car crash and he was the parent she was closest to. And she was really close to him, and she's still grieving. It upset everything in her life and she hasn't been able to quite get back to normal. And now her mom wants to adopt a baby. It was something she and Jill's father always planned to do and now her mom, Robin, really wants to make it happen. She connects with Mandy via an internet forum and they reach an agreement. Mandy is a little bit different in her requests, she has really special circumstances, but Robin agrees to them. And so Mandy gets on a train and comes to live with Robin and Jill until her baby is born.

Jill does not want this at all, she doesn't want her mom to adopt another baby and she's not ready to have Mandy come live with them. So she's really resistant and prickly and things are tense between her and Robin. Meanwhile, she's still in an on again/off again relationship with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, Dylan, knew her dad and it's just kind of hard for them to let each other go, even though it's pretty clear from the start of the book that's something that needs to happen. And Dylan knows about Mandy and actually really connects with her which increases the tension in their relationship.

Mandy is lying about a lot of things and as those things come up, tension increases. Jill wants to know the truth about Mandy and enlists a friend, this new guy she met, to help. As the truth comes out, everyone is forced to a crisis point where a decision must be made.

This book you guys....it's so good. Please please ignore that it sounds like an after school special in description. It's so deep and true and beautiful and heartfelt. The characters feel so freaking real, I don't exactly know how Zarr does it, but Jill especially I felt like I knew so well, she was just so...ugh repetition, but REAL to me. I liked Jill a lot as a character because while she was flawed and sometimes cruel and selfish, she was also really self-aware and in a lot of pain. She pushes away the people who are kind to her, the people she most wants to be close to and she even knows she's doing it and it's wrong but she doesn't know how to stop and that's something I can really relate to. And she works in a bookstore! So of course she's really cool. And I felt so so much for Mandy, her story is totally heartbreaking. For how well Jill knows herself, Mandy doesn't know herself AT ALL. She lives her life by the terrible advice her mother gave her which all pretty much centered around how she could make herself useful and attractive to a man. If a man didn't take notice of her or love her than certainly she had no worth. So she's always thinking about the things her mother said and she's just so hungry to be loved and so desperately lonely and it's just the saddest thing ever and leads her to throw herself at people who don't really care about her. And she had this one night stand with a boy, and he treated her really well and she cared about him and she thinks her baby might have been conceived then..in love. On the best night of her life. And that's why she's keeping it. (the other option of who the father is easy to guess after just a few pages of the book)

But as Mandy sees the family Robin and Jill have she starts to wish for it for herself. She starts to think about her baby and she starts to get (rightfully) angry that she doesn't have the power to choose the life for herself that she really wants. Robin gets to make all the decisions because she has the money and she had all the love.

And Jill starts to fall for this new guy and she feels this thing every time she's around him, like this feeling of home and later on she realizes it's chemistry and I just loved loved loved that description of chemistry so much I had to mention it in my review.

How to Save a Life is this beautiful near perfect story about the pain we carry around inside us and the way that pain can be turned into something else, something life saving and live giving when we come together as people. It's about how we save each other, how there is always hope that we can save each other when we learn how to just reach out. This book is just overflowing with hope--urgent, beautiful, surprising hope waiting to just reach out and grab your heart, wrap its fingers all around it and never let go.

Read also my review of Once was Lost

Rating: 5/5
Things You Might Want to Know: mild profanity
Source of Book: ARC received from publisher
Publisher: Little, Brown




Affiliate Links are used in this post.

Review: This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

Zombie stories can be about any number of things...I mean sure they are about zombies, but usually the zombies are just a device used to tell some other more human story. Some books are more successful at this than others for sure. When I first read Courtney Summers new book was about zombies I was surprised and pleased. I enjoy zombie stories. A lot. And I also I love Summers' books. She depicts the inner world of her protagonists better than most authors I know, I always feel what they feel. And her books are tightly plotted, can't put em down stories full of intensity so a zombie book seemed perfect.

And I was right! I loved This is Not a Test, a zombie story that is about living. The will to live, the desire to live, the purpose and meaning of living. Not it's not a heavy philosophical book at all, it's just a very grounded story about a teenage girl who is happening to live through the zombie apocalypse, an event that pales in comparison to the kind of pain she is already living with on a daily basis.

Sloane is at home just trying to survive her abusive father when it happens. The world has gone to the zombies. A few days later the action picks up again and she's with a group of other students from her high school and they've managed to make it back to their...high school. (in other news, Sunnydale High was built on the Hellmouth y'all) But the high school is actually a really good place to go, there's tons of food and other resources, such as running water from the water tank and heavy furniture to blockade the doors. Sloane doesn't really know the other students that well...she once spent the night at Grace's house when she was younger, a night she often thinks of as perfect, because Grace had the perfect family she wanted. One of the boys once dated her older sister, Lily, who left Sloane behind six months ago. Sloane dealing with Lily leaving and what that meant to her as a person is a huge story line in the book. Otherwise, she doesn't know them that well and the days it took them to get in the high school led to some regrettable circumstances so tensions are high. Two groups from among the students, with divided loyalties.

So you have the outer, "surviving the zombies" story line going on, and then you also have Sloane's inner story. Sloane isn't actually sure she wants to live anymore, she's still grappling with the truth that her sister left her behind with their abusive father six months prior, and she's all alone. And she envies Grace and her twin brother Trace for their closeness and for anyone who has someone to live for, because Sloane doesn't actually know what she should be living for. She wants to die. And she tries to make that happen at one point in the book which leads to a whole bunch of stuff happening that CHANGES EVERYTHING FOREVER.

This is a book about zombies, and yet it's not. It's exciting and moving and it feels so real life. Anyone who has ever been lonely or felt betrayed by someone they loved or come to see someone they depended on in an entirely different way will relate to Sloane's story. It's about growing up and taking ownership of your own life. And there's all this other cool stuff in it, too, about the way we use people for our own survival. The characters in This is Not a Test take big risks and they get their hands dirty. They do "bad" things to get by and while they have to live with the weight of that, it doesn't make them irredeemable forever.

The book is fast paced, the emotions are real, it's everything I've come to expect from Courtney Summers. I'm just sad I have to wait so long of her next book, All the Rage.

This is Not a Test comes out in June, but you can preorder it now. (affiliate link)

Rating: 4.75/5
Things You Might Want to Know: profanity and sex..kind of.
Source of Book: Review copy via netgalley
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Read also my review of Fall for Anything and Some Girls Are

Review: The Survival Kit by Donna Freitas

Life was fragile and love was too. At any moment, even our happiest ones, our world could shatter and we wouldn't see it coming. There was only more loss ahead, showing its ugly face when we least expected it. The Rose I became when my mother died, the girl who didn't want to see people, who couldn't have fun, who didn't want to be touched, who refused her friends' help--the Rose I was before Will--was pulling me down again, an anchor tied to my legs, permanent and unforgiving, denying any effort I made to get away. I thought I had lost her but I was mistaken.

I loved Donna Freitas's This Gorgeous Game and since she is another one of those Catholic writers (but this book has nothing to do with faith whatsoever so don't be put off if you're not into that like I am) I'm drawn to I was pleased to learn she had a new book out. But I did not learn about this from book blogs, what happened there? I only learned about it by accident because I was looking her up on Amazon for another purpose. Anyway, I expected to enjoy the book, what I did not expect was to love it as completely and purely as I did. This Gorgeous Game was good, but The Survival Kit is everything that makes reading worthwhile.

Rose's mom died unexpectedly of cancer...sort of. She'd had cancer before so they always sort of knew it could come back, but it came back quickly. And Rose's life was overturned and ever since her mother died, she feels like she died too. She's distant from her boyfriend, she can't listen to music, she can't do the activities she used to love because she's grieving and she feels like she's lost herself. And then she finds that her mom has left behind a survival kit for her, like the survival kits she used to make for the parents of her kindergarten students. The kits holds several items to help Rose through her grief. The purpose of the items isn't obvious, and Rose's mom tells her in a note to use her imagination.

And so Rose starts with the items and tries to figure out their purpose and how they can help her. And that leads to new opportunities for her and introduces her to new people, and gives her courage to make decisions that were difficult for her to make before, decisions she needs to make. And it's not...easy, but the kit takes her a journey towards beginning to heal and maybe find a life again.

And I look at that description and I think...gosh it sounds so cliche but this book is so deeply moving, it's so heartfelt, it's bursting in every word with hope and love and tenderness, I have no way to express how beautiful it is. I sat in the sunshine and read it and I felt things...like the stirrings of hope in my own heart, like the desire to embrace life in it's finest moments or better yet, to find those more meaningful moments in life.

Also it's romantic in the best possible way. The romance is convincing and feels so high school but in a really good way, and it's also not the entire point of the book which makes it even better, it's a wonderful part of a journey for Rose. And Rose is of course likable but not without her flaws. Some of her own struggles and shortcomings become apparent with the struggles over her father's alcoholism and some of the story line with her brother. But it's all so understandable.

I just can't recommend The Survival Kit enough, especially if you are looking for good contemporary YA, this is pretty much as good as it gets. It's not sentimental or cliche or trite. It is instead, life affirming, deeply felt, and honestly hopeful. It's not only a tale about grieving and healing, but also about finding the person you were meant to be all along.

Rating: 5/5
Source of Book: Bought it
Publisher: FSG

Review: Spin by Catherine McKenzie and Thoughts on Chick Lit part 431,567

Shortly before her 30th birthday, Katie gets a call to interview for her dream job--writing at her favorite music magazine. In order to celebrate both her birthday and this interview, her friends take her out on the town the night before and she gets really drunk. So drunk in fact, that when the time for the interview rolls around, she's still pretty gone. As you can imagine, the interview goes horribly. Katie is upset and tries to turn things around for herself when she gets a call from the parent publication...they have a freelance opportunity for her. If all goes well, they might reconsider her. Katie is thrilled but surprised to discover what they want her to do. They want her to go undercover at a posh rehab facility and spy on a famous celebrity who is there for their gossip magazine. Desperate for the chance to redeem herself, Katie jumps at the opportunity and soon finds herself checking into rehab.

At first she doesn't thinks she really needs it, but as she spends time in the facility and working the steps she starts to realize some things about her life and what she was doing that could stand to change. And she makes friends and meets a cute guy and starts running and it all leads to the inevitable...the decision about the hugely big problematic reason she's in there.

I loved this book from start to finish. It's been ages since I've read a book that was as funny and real like this one. I liked Katie and I think McKenzie did a good job of allowing you to see her outside the scope of her own first person narrative if that makes sense. Like to the reader, it's clear Katie has a drinking problem even if Katie is in deep denial about it herself. And while the realities of addiction may not seem as dark and heavy in this book as they are often treated in media or are in life, they are still very real. There are suicide attempts, and acts of desperation, and facing the cold hard facts about yourself and your history. So it didn't really bother me. Things like Katie's manipulation of the people around her and the lies she's told all catch up to her.

And the pop culture references were so perfect because they all resonated with me. You know how sometimes you read a book full of pop culture references and you just sort of go with it, but you don't really care about half of them? Well this one was awesome and used ones I liked in a way that made me happy so it was perfect. :)

I loved the book, the conclusion was perfect, and it made me start thinking about the term chick lit again. Because I would have called this book chick lit without hesitation a few years ago as a way to classify it, but in recent years the term has become very outdated, not to mention how contentious it is. It's just recently, strangely, popped up again in discussion I think because Sophie Kinsella's new book just came out. I've read some of these pieces with interest because of my own history with the genre. I genuinely love these books when they are written well, and if I hadn't ever started writing about books online I would never have known there were so many feelings about them.

I've heard that chick lit has now been reclassified as romantic comedies, which bothers me to be honest. A book like Spin for example, has a romance but the romance is hardly the point of the story. It's Katie's story of self-discovery and while she happens to fall in love as well, that love story is very secondary to Katie's own story. And that's how a lot of chick lit books are and always have been. They often get dismissed as frivolous books about women shopping and longing to fall in love with the right guy, but they are primarily books about women finding themselves (for lack of a better term). And that's the reason, of course, that in my early twenties I fell so in love with these books, because I was on that same journey, and it was the first time I felt like someone was writing about my stage of life in a way that was heartwarming and relateable, with a light, comedic touch while never mocking me. This isn't to say all chick lit was good--it wasn't. I read sooo many at the time, and quite a few were bad. I actually think, for example, that Sophie Kinsella is highly underrated, to write a book with as light a touch as she has, that seems so effortlessly funny and interesting while still telling a real story is not that easy or others would have done it.

I understand, of course, why chick lit is a problematic term, and I agree that it's ridiculous that all books by women get classified as chick lit in some circles. But I don't think romantic comedies are the right term either, and women's fiction just sounds like a more acceptable way of saying the same thing as chick lit. I don't know how else to classify these books, but I know them when I read them.

I guess moving away from the term chick lit might be beneficial. This interview with Sophie Kinsella and some of the following comments irritated me beyond belief. But all I ask for is an acceptable replacement term! And also, of course, a little more respect for these writers and their readers.

Anyway! I really loved Spin and I highly recommend it for people who love funny, heartwarming, novels.

Rating: 4.5/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Profanity
Source of Book: Received from publisher for Review
Publisher: William Morrow

Review: Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren F. Winner

When the joy and intensity of conversion wears off, what's next? What if after spending years believing in God, you suddenly find yourself up against a wall wondering if God does in fact exist? Life comes in three stages, right? Beginning, middle, and end, what's in the middle?

These are some of the things Lauren Winner addresses in her new book. I'm having a hard time formulating thoughts, because the book is more a collection of loosely related anecdotes about the journey in the middle of faith than a straightforward narrative. It's a lovely book, though, beautiful, compulsively readable, moving, unflinchingly honest. It's given me a lot to think about, and inspired me in some small ways which..I don't know whenever something inspires me lately it feels like a miracle.

Let me tell part of what I love about this book. Lauren Winner is an academic and a bookworm. There is no journey here that is separate from being a reader which is something I really related to. She derives a lot of inspiration and comfort from poets and authors and their journeys and what they've put down on paper for the ages. So you find in this book, Anne Sexton and Emily Dickinson and Jane Smiley and John Updike. She also finds meaning out of seemingly small moments in life, which I often do as well. She takes things in and mulls them over. As she's searching for the "what next" she tries different things. I really appreciated all of that.

The life of faith is not an easy one, but for whatever reason it is something that is hard to give up. I don't even know how to explain this since faith has always been there present in my life. And for a lot of people, in the beginning, when you first decide this is something you want to do, or you first find yourself believing that God is a lot more real than you ever thought he was before, it's exciting and there's a lot of joy. And you do things because you want to and there's like this hunger inside to lives this life of faith, to press close to God, to know his people. But that can't last forever, and eventually life rears its ugly head and things are hard, and you're left wondering if God is really real or all those things you once believed so fervently are true. Sometimes it happens with one big thing or maybe it's a gradual wearing away. And for Winner it was a combination of things but I think a lot of it was her divorce. Divorce is so frowned upon in Christian circles, marriage is seen as so sacred. So...getting a divorce would be a huge thing, I think, for a Christian, and especially someone like Winner who is a public Christian in many ways.

The book is divided into three sections kind of loosely based around the wall, movement, and presence. The second section where she sort of focuses on a Lent period in her life is where she also discusses the hiddeness of God in great length. I related to this part a lot. One of the things she talks a lot about is how good it is to go to church. And it made me feel really sad because I know this is true. But I haven't really been a part of a church for a long time, and I know it's problematic, but I have a problematic situation. I grew up in an evangelical church and I liked it. I like the style of worship, the kind of fellowship. I like the freedom in the service, I like wearing my jeans to church, heck I LOVE house based churches where the most significant meetings are held in living rooms, and it's impossible not to get close and talk for hours and deeply with the other people in your church. I don't really do superficial all that well. And yet, at the same time, I'm becoming increasingly liberal in both my politics and my theology. I often feel suffocated in churches when I visit now, either suffocated or bored. (which she also addresses) So many of the churches I visit have sort of bubble gum happy sermons and worship music and it's exhausting for me to concentrate. And before you start preaching at me, I know it's selfish. I know that part of going to church is setting aside self and I know that genuine relationships with people I wouldn't necessarily befriend otherwise is all part of community. And I miss it, I really do. I miss that sort of hard earned, heart breaking intimacy of truly sharing your life with a group of people thread together only by your shared desire to love God. But I feel like the churches I visit don't even allow for that sort of thing, everything is a smooth and polished surface and I don't know how to break through. And I don't know what to do with my anger over certain issues either, it flashes up so fast when things like homosexuality come up and I don't know how to be a part of a people with a heritage of hate. So while I was reading Still, I thought, she's so right, church is important and it's good to go to church and I should start all over again looking for a church. Who knows, maybe I will! I know that I am robbing myself and that it is hindering me in my spiritual life to stay away.

The boredom thing really got me too, because it's also true. I used to love theology. Like I loved discussing it and reading about it and I hungered for more, and now I can barely be interesting. Every once in awhile I'll look at the blogs in my google reader for example and find an article or two to read, but for the most part I find myself apathetic. And like I said, church services themselves bore me.

But it's not all negative! The last section she talks about moving towards something, new sort of remaking your faith in a new way. And I really really loved this part, especially the chapter on cooking and baking because it was kind of profound. But there's a coming to peace, with the unknown and the uncertainties and finding a way forward in a new kind of faith.

The book is lovely and for anyone who has ever wondered what exactly is going on in their spiritual lives, it's an invitation to consider many things. I recommend it!

Rating: 4.5/5
Source of Book: Received for Review
Publisher: HarperOne

Review: The Accidental Bride by Denise Hunter

It's been awhile since I've read some Christian fiction...probably since the Inspys selection process...and truth be told I find myself reading less and less because so much of it is romance and I've grown quite tired of the genre. but every once in awhile, I like to pick one up for the comfort read and to have an idea of what's going on in the genre. Denise Hunter has written some books I've enjoyed before, so I dug into The Accidental Bride this weekend.

Shay Brandenberger is a single mom raising her daughter on a ranch in Moose Creek and struggling to pay the bills. Her husband left and then passed away and she's several months behind on the mortgage. When a friend asks her to help out in their Founder's Day celebration, she agrees to do so. The role she has to play is going through with a marriage ceremony. But it turns out the groom in the ceremony is her ex-boyfriend--who left her at the courthouse years ago on the day they planned to marry. But..someone is meddling and they use the old marriage license Shay and Travis signed years ago to make their wedding legal and real.

Sounds crazy right? And Travis does still love Shay. In fact, he came back to town to take care of his parent's ranch and in hopes of making up with her. When he realizes how much trouble she's in financially, and the fact that they are now legally married, he strikes a deal with her--he'll help her get her finances straight in exchange for a five month trial of marriage. He doesn't expect or want sex or anything, though.

Shay agrees but very reluctantly. She hates accepting charity and she lives in constant fear and worry about what others are saying about her. She grew up less privileged and doesn't really want to accept what she perceives as charity, but at the same time she really doesn't have a choice. So she agrees to the temporary arrangement...but as you can imagine Shay still has feelings for Travis so things get complicated quickly.

As a quick escapist read this works. Hunter has a nice breezy style and Moose Creek seems like a fun place. I like the way she writes romance in that I get that melty feeling in my stomach in all the right places. I believed that Travis and Shay loved each other and I could understand Shay's hurt over being left and her reluctance to trust Travis again. So if I was just...wanting to turn my brain off and enjoy a quick read, a romance without sex (and very little spiritual content as well) than The Accidental Bride worked.

But unfortunately I couldn't turn my brain off and as I was reading I started to wonder if The Accidental Bride was a good example of why I no longer enjoy romance as much. Let me explain why. This will contain somewhat detailed plot discussion so read no further if you have an aversion to spoilers!

After Travis left Shay she returned home and got married quickly. Eventually this guy left her and her daughter. But Hunter makes it clear throughout the book that Shay never loved him like she loved Travis in fact it's questionable if she even loved him at all. Her marriage and even her daughter felt like pure plot devices. Her daughter easily accepted Travis and even started calling him Dad right away which felt inauthentic to me based on their situation. At one point there's an indication that Shay's husband had called her frigid and while it's used in the book to show why Shay is so insecure with men, it's also just sad that she obviously didn't love her husband. And she bore no awareness that he probably realized that and that's why he left. I'm not excusing him leaving it was just frustrating that the book was like POOR SHAY and that the her first marriage had to be invalidated and regarded as ultimately meaningless in order not to be a threat to the romance of Travis and Shay. And see...I just don't need that. I don't need to believe there's just one person you ever really love in life. I would have preferred a story where Shay rediscovered her old love but had still had a happy marriage. In fact, I think that the reason she hadn't merely lost her husband to death but he left her first was to build a stronger case for Travis/Shay forever. So that really bugged me. And also of course, the plot was pretty convoluted. I think the premise is cute but there are a couple of points where Shay sees evidence that Travis dated before he returned home and maybe has an ongoing relationship. Instead of confronting him and talking about it though, she just gets mad and hurt. And eventually that drives him away. And yet that's never really addressed, that she should have just asked him, that she was playing an active role in damaging their relationship in the present.

The Sex Stuff

Okay so this interests me. Because Shay and Travis have a legal marriage they eventually start sleeping together. And the book says it's okay because they are married. This was FASCINATING to me, because it means that basically the book endorsed the view that a legal/government marriage is what matters in so far as when you can have sex. (sex is a big issue for evangelical Christianity lol) And I don't know, I guess I think the heart commitment is more important. They started having sex before they'd committed to each other but it wasn't a "sin" because they had a legal marriage. I mean..really? I just feel like the legal documents are not the most important part.

So....yeah. I just don't know. The faith stuff felt fairly superficial and all of the quibbles above..I just don't know if romance or Christian romance is working for me anymore or if it's just this particular book.

Rating: 2.5/5

Things You Might Want to Know: Christian fiction

Source of Book: Received for review

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

The bell above the diner’s door jingled and—despite her most valiant effort—Shay Brandenberger’s eyes darted toward the entry. An unfamiliar couple entered—tourists. She could tell by their khaki Eddie Bauer vests and spanking-new hiking boots. Look out, Yellowstone.

When her heart rate returned to normal, she checked her watch and took a sip of coffee. Five minutes till she met Miss Lucy at the Doll House, forty till she met John Oakley at the bank. What if he said no? What would they do then?

“Mom . . . Earth to Mom . . .” Olivia waved her hand too close to Shay’s face, her brown eyes widening.

“Sorry, hon.” The one bright moment of her Saturday was breakfast with her daughter, and she couldn’t enjoy it for the dread. “What were you saying?”

Olivia set her fork on her pancake-sticky plate and heaved a sigh worthy of her twelve-year-old self. “Never mind.” She bounced across the vinyl bench, her thick brown ponytail swinging. “I’m going to meet Maddy.”

“Right back here at noon,” Shay called, but Olivia was out the door with the flick of her hand.

The diner buzzed with idle chatter. Silverware clattered and scraped, and the savory smell of bacon and fried eggs unsettled her stomach. She took a sip of the strong brew from the fat rim of her mug.

The bell jingled again. I will not look. I will not look. I will not—

The server appeared at her booth, a new girl, and gathered Olivia’s dishes. “On the house today.”

Shay set down her mug, bristling. “Why?”

The woman shrugged. “Boss’s orders,” she said, then made off with the dirty dishes.

From the rectangular kitchen window, Mabel Franklin gave Shay a pointed look.

So Shay had helped the couple with their foal the week before. It was the neighborly thing to do.

Fine. She gave a reluctant smile and a wave. She pulled her wallet from her purse, counted out the tip, and dragged herself from the booth, remembering her daughter’s bouncy exit. Lately her thirty-two years pressed down on her body like a two-ton boulder.

She opened the diner’s door and peeked both ways before exiting the Tin Roof and turning toward the Doll House. She was only checking sidewalk traffic, not hiding. Nope, she wasn’t hiding from anyone. The boardwalks were busy on Saturdays. That was why she hadn’t come to town for two weeks. Why their pantry was emptier than a water trough at high noon.

She hurried three shops down and slipped into the cool, welcoming air of Miss Lucy’s shop.

“ ’Morning, Miss Lucy.”

“ ’Morning, dear.” The elderly woman, in the middle of helping a customer, called over her rounded shoulder, “It’s in the back.” Miss Lucy’s brown eyes were big as buckeyes behind her thick glasses, and her white curls glowed under the spotlights.

“Okeydoke.” Shay forced her feet toward the storeroom.

A musty smell assaulted her as she entered the back room and flipped on the overhead fluorescents. She scanned the boxes of doll parts and skeins of yarn until she found what she was looking for. She approached the box, lifted the lid, and parted the tissue.

The wedding gown had been carefully folded and tucked away. Shay ran her fingers over the delicate lace and pearls. Must’ve been crisp white in its day, but time had cast a long shadow over it. Time had a way of doing that.

Her fingers lingered on the thin fabric. She remembered another time, another dress. A simple white one that hung on her young shoulders, just skimmed the cement of the courthouse steps. The ache that squeezed her heart had faded with time, but it was there all the same. Would it ever go away?

Shaking her head, Shay turned back to the task at hand. The gown seemed too pretty, too fragile to disturb.

Oh well. She’d promised.

She pulled it out and draped it over the box, then shimmied from her jeans. When she was down to the bare necessities, she stepped carefully into the gown. She eased it over her narrow hips and slid her arms into the long sleeves. The neckline was modest, the gathered skirt fuller than anything she ever wore. Here in the air-conditioning it was fine, but she would swelter next Saturday.

Leaving the button-up back gaping, she hitched the skirt to the top of her cowboy boots and entered the store.

Miss Lucy was ushering the customer out the door. When she turned, she stopped, her old-lady shoes squeaking on the linoleum. “Land sakes.”

Shay took two steps forward and dropped the skirt. It fell to the floor with a whoosh.

“Fits like a glove,” Miss Lucy said. “And with some low heels it’ll be the perfect length.”

Shay didn’t even own heels. “My boots’ll have to do. Button the back?”

Miss Lucy waddled forward, turned Shay toward a small wall mirror flecked with time, and began working the tiny pearl buttons.

Shay’s breath caught at her image. She forced its release, then frowned. Wedding gowns were bad luck. She’d sworn she’d never wear another. If someone had told her yesterday she’d be wearing this thing today, she’d have said they were one straw short of a bale.

Miss Lucy moved up to the buttons between her shoulders, and Shay lifted her hair. The dress did fit, clinging to her torso like it was made for her, wouldn’t you know. Even the color complemented her olive skin.

Still, there was that whole bad luck thing.

And what would everyone think of Shay Brandenberger wearing this valuable piece of Moose Creek heritage? A white wedding gown, no less. If she didn’t have the approval of her closest friends and neighbors, what did she have? Not much, to her thinking.

She wanted to cut and run. Wanted to shimmy right out of the dress, tuck it into that box in the storeroom, slip back into her Levi’s and plaid button-up, and go back to her ranch where she could hole up for the next six months.

She checked the time and wished Miss Lucy had nimbler fingers. Of all days to do this, a Saturday, when everyone with two legs was in town. And she still had that infernal meeting with John Oakley.

Please, God, I can’t lose our home . . .

“I’m obliged to you, dear. I completely forgot Jessie was going out of town.”

“No problem.”

“Baloney. You’d rather be knee-deep in cow dung.” The woman’s marionette lines at the sides of her mouth deepened.

“It’s one hour of my life.” A pittance, after all Miss Lucy had done for her.

Miss Lucy finished buttoning, and Shay dropped her hair and smoothed the delicate lace at the cuffs.

“Well, bless you for being willing. God is smiling down on you today for your kindness.”

Shay doubted God really cared one way or another. It was her neighbors she worried about.

“Beautiful, just beautiful. You’ll be the talk of the town on Founders Day.”

“No doubt.” Everyone in Moose Creek would be thinking about the last time she’d worn a wedding gown. And the time before that.

Especially the time before that.

Third time’s a charm, Shay thought, the corner of her lip turning up.

“Stop fretting,” Miss Lucy said, squeezing her shoulders. “You look quite fetching, like the gown was made for you. I won’t have to make a single alteration. Why, it fits you better than it ever did Jessie—don’t you tell her I said so.”

Shay tilted her head. Maybe Miss Lucy was right. The dress did make the most of her figure. And she had as much right to wear it as anyone. Maybe more—she was born and raised here, after all. It was just a silly old reenactment anyway. No one cared who the bride and groom were.

The bell jingled as the door opened behind her. She glanced in the mirror, over her shoulder, where a hulking silhouette filled the shop’s doorway. There was something familiar in the set of the man’s broad shoulders, in the slow way he reached up and removed his hat.

The sight of him constricted her rib cage, squeezed the air from her lungs as if she were wearing a corset. But she wasn’t wearing a corset. She was wearing a wedding gown. Just as she had been the last time she’d set eyes on Travis McCoy.

Review: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

So awhile back when I was but a wee book blogger, I read Dawn of She is Too Fond of Books review of Bel Canto and knew that I wanted to read it myself. I bought it at a Borders (RIP) one weekend and then it promptly sat on my bookshelf for years. I continued to read good review after good review and continued to not read it. This year I decided to finally read it, and sure enough I waited until December. (some books have been on my shelves longer just sayin. Bel Canto should feel lucky!) There was a lot of pressure involved though, okay? Raych said about this book, "Unless you are one of those who totally hated this book, in which case you may have no soul." Pressssssssure.

Okay so the premise of Bel Canto is that a special party is being held at the home of the Vice President in an unnamed South American country. It's being held in honor of a Mr. Hosokawa and to make it really special, they have invited his favorite opera singer. Opera is Mr. Hosokawa's reason for living essentially, so even though he has no plans to actually make whatever business deals he's there to make, he indulges in this exceptional party planned in his honor. The opening pages describe his love for opera and I have to admit they were completely breathtaking. I don't love opera in the same way, but I certainly love music and thought it was very moving.

So anyway they are at this party and the president was supposed to show up, but he doesn't want to miss his soap opera so instead he stays home. But the terrorists were counting on him being there and they don't realize he's not...and so they take the party hostage anyway. They feel like somehow they have to be able to strike negotiations with the country anyway. And they are assigned a negotiator, and so the story goes.

So basically what happens is you have all these people from different countries stuck together in the house and they can't all speak each other's language but there's one man there that's a translator of many languages. But more importantly, there's Roxane Coss who's an opera singer and when she sings, she is able to unite them in a way that only music can do. And it's beautiful. And during this time...four and a half months of stand-off with all these people stuck together in this house, they slowly start to build relationships of trust even with their captors. After all, a lot of them are young, teens, and you can find of feel the tragedy of their lives even if it's never explicit on the page. And since the terrorists aren't exactly cruel a lot of relationships spring up and the people bond. They fall in love, they feel deep affection for one another. They appreciate the wit, skills, and intelligence of each other. They even come to appreciate, in this sort of secluded life, different things they never had before, whether that be relationships or the time to spend on one's true passion and they often wonder, "how can I go back to life before?"

The beauty of Bel Canto is that you're reading along and you're realizing all of these things with them, you're watching them build a brand new kind of life together and destroy the sorts of walls between them and the whole time you're just feeling so much dread. You know that it can't last, that in fact there are terrorists and there are hostages and there's a whole outside world that is continuing on try to figure out this situation, and Patchett weaves that feeling of impending doom into the narrative masterfully and then suddenly the next thing I knew, I was sobbing.

I feel like Bel Canto is on the one hand, a love letter to opera or even more importantly the arts. It's through the early appreciation of the arts, one character tells Roxane Coss that he can now love her. It's the music that humanizes them all and breaks down walls. It's music that even after terrible things happen gives them hope in the world again.

"All of the love and the longing a body can contain was spun into not more than two and a half minutes of song, and when she came to the highest notes it seemed that all they had been given in their lives and all they had lost came together and made a weight that was almost impossible to bear."

I also think the music together with the exploration of time is interesting. It's only in forgetting time and imagining no past or future that many of the characters are able to enjoy the present. It's as if time has frozen for them and only in that freezing of time do the barriers come down and humanity prevails.

In a weird way, this reminded me a little bit of the film Joyeux Noel which I highly recommend! They are completely different in setting, etc. just the idea of people setting aside their differences and seeing each other's humanity are similar.

Anyway I loved the book, the writing is beautiful and the story is a heartrending and gorgeous tale.

Rating: 4.75/5
Things You Might want to Know: A very little language
Source of Book: Bought it
Publisher: Harper Perennial

Review: The First Husband by Laura Dave

I have spent the year so far struggling with reading. I think my mind and inner reader have demanded a slow down and when I acknowledged that and still refused to do it, she shut down on me. It got so bad that I had started wondering what I ever enjoyed about reading in the first place. While intellectually I could recall all the reasons I've always defended reading and found it enlightening, emotionally I simply couldn't connect. I've been struggling with depression this year, for a reason to keep on keeping on and to me the ultimate manifestation of that had to be the fact that I could no longer read.

And then, behold, a gift from the reading gods. I read two books in quick succession that I loved so much I cannot express my gratitude for them. I was reminded why I love to read, why I need to read, why books must always be a part of my life. Stories have a way of shooting out threads of hope and light beyond the darkness that can sometimes surround us. Words claw their way past the defenses we don't even know we have constructed. They remind us we are not alone, they help us find out way. They are not on their own enough, of course, but they can often be the tool that reaches us when we feel unreachable.

You are my Only by Beth Kephart was the first, I'll share more about that later because it's a brilliant work. But today I want to tell you about The First Husband.

The First Husband is what I would call chick lit. Setting aside all the ways in which that term is offensive, I have always thought chick lit was essentially this: a book written about a woman who goes through a period of self realization, often heavy on the humor and heart. Forget shoes, forget the romance, the reason I always loved chick lit in the past was because I felt like for the first time ever someone was taking my stage of life seriously and telling a story about it. I suppose if I were to go back and read the books I loved most then, now, I might feel differently, but at the time that's why I loved chick lit. I don't read much anymore, it's a genre, in my opinion, that is incredibly difficult to write. So when people jumped on the bandwagon and tried to have that light breezy voice that was necessary, the humor often felt overdone and ridiculous. And it can't be just funny, it needs to hit on some essential truth. The market was flooded and then it was renamed romantic comedy or just women's fiction, but I always felt some loss for the kind of book I had loved that seemed harder and harder to find.

So when I say The First Husband reminds me of chick lit, it's really really important to me that it's understood that it's a compliment and there's no reason in my mind anyone should shy away from reading it for that reason. It's a beautiful and heartfelt book with just the right amount of humor.

Annie Adams is pretty content with her life. She's a successful travel writer, she's living with her boyfriend of five years, and she has a dog she adores. But when her boyfriend breaks up with her, it sets a series of events in motion that cause her to reflect on her life and decide if she is really living the life she wants to be living. When her best friend gives her the advice to "be the opposite of you" she does just that and ends up married to the first guy she meets after the break-up and moving across the country.

There are many things she doesn't know about her new situation that kind of hit her in full force and more stuff happens and she's forced to decide if this is really what she wants when it's so completely opposite of what she thought she always wanted.

The First Husband is about so many things. It's about love and deciding what you can live with and what you can't live without. It's about making choices and understanding freedom in a new way. In my opinion, Annie faces down what she fears, which is essentially commitment. And it's all written with a light touch, so you can empathize, laugh, and enjoy her story.

I really love how the book is framed from Annie's perspective as a travel writer. Her experiences traveling around the world and her understanding of the psychology of travel are so true and insightful and are the perfect way to mark her own travels in life. One of my favorites was this:

"In the end--even if no one wants it to be so complex (or so simple)--every place offers its own special treasures. But no place offers all of them. Which no one wants to hear. Because it puts it ultimately in our hands, doesn't it? What we choose to live with, and what we choose to live without."

The First Husband is pure delight. It's everything a good book should be--funny, smart, relateable, wise, and full of heart. I can't recommend it enough.

Rating: 4.75/5
Things You Might Want to Know: some language?
Source of Book: Review copy
Publisher: Viking (Penguin)

Review: Incognito by Gregory Murphy

First of all, it must be said that Berkley has some of the most stunning and lovely book covers that the computer screen does not do justice to. When I received this book in the mail I was immediately more interested in it than before because the cover is absolutely enticing, really evoking a sense of mystery.

And I was more pulled in when I started reading, because it's set in what is apparently The Gilded Age...a time period I enjoy reading about in New York City. Incognito tells the story of William Dysart, an attorney trapped in a loveless marriage who has no idea how to pull himself out of the miserable life he has created for himself. He is assigned a case where he meets a beautiful woman who he immediately has an interest in. He's curious about her reasons for not wanting to sell her land to a woman powerful enough to chase her off of it anyway. He feels there is more to the story than he is being told. Additionally, he is beginning to remember and uncover things about his own past that are causing him to question his present and future.

Incognito is described as a mystery and while there are certainly mysterious elements to the story, I feel it is more accurately described as the journey of one man to transform himself. I couldn't help but be very involved in the story. I felt deeply for William and while his choices at times frustrated me, I understood his motivations. I really liked so many things about the book, for example, the way he at first found Sybil only pretty but as he got to know her he began to wonder how he had never considered her beautiful. I liked that William at times feels downright despair, a fear of being in love having led him to the most miserable of all marriages, and his pursuit for justice. And yet he's almost unwilling to do anything about getting out of it. Because a lot of times when you're down and depressed it's just a lot more comfortable to stay that way. I even liked that the mystery is quite a slow burn because the characterization more important, even though characters like Arabella were quite one dimensional. I especially enjoyed visiting the time period in the book, and seeing William learn a new story to tell himself about his past.

Incognito makes a great afternoon read if you want to visit the lives of the wealthy in New York city in the past, enjoy a little mystery, and at times, some very lovely writing.

Rating: 4.25/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Some sex
Source of Book: Review copy received from publisher
Publisher: Berkley (Penguin)

Review and Giveaway: Relic Master: The Dark City by Catherine Fisher

Catherine Fisher has written some popular YA books, Incarceron and Sapphique which I have not read. Apparently they are brilliant dystopian works of art. I don't know if that's true or not, but I can say that the first book in the Relic Master series, The Dark City, is a very fun middle grade fantasy.

I've said often that I'm not a huge fan of fantasy, but that's not true. I actually quite enjoy it when it's written for a younger audience. I'm not exactly sure why, but it's a lovely fit.

The Dark City introduces to us Galen and Raffi, who I suspect are the main characters throughout the series. They are relic master and his apprentice. Essentially, I think this means they are magical and have third eyes and can see and sense and manipulate certain objects that also have magical power called relics. But, alas the world they are living in is deeply unfriendly towards them, their capital city has fallen and the Watch has taken over and they try to kill all the Keepers and keep the magical relics for themselves. Galen and Raffi get tricked into making a trip to find some powerful relics in order to get one of their own back. Only Galen has a secret. He had an accident some time back and has lost all his power. Raffi is not yet fully trained so they are vulnerable. They meet a girl along the way who is looking for her lost father..or is she? Can they make it to their destination without being killed?

I was pretty easily swept up into this story which was clearly set in an alternate reality and yet not too complex with pages upon pages describing the weird lands and creatures. One thing that was really interesting to me is that the Relic Keepers are framed as the Order..they must pray and have faith even though darkness is threatening to defeat their world. It's interesting to me that created religions and faith systems often play a big role in the fantasy books I stumble across. Is this common?

Anyway, completely enjoyed this one, it's the first in a series of books but they all come out pretty quickly this summer so no waiting, yay!

Rating: 4/5
Source of Book: Received for review
Publisher: Dial (Penguin)



About the Series
Welcome to Anara, a world mysteriously crumbling to devastation, where nothing is what it seems: Ancient relics emit technologically advanced powers, members of the old Order are hunted by the governing Watch yet revered by the people, and the great energy that connects all seems to also be destroying all. The only hope for the world lies in Galen, a man of the old Order and a Keeper of relics, and his sixteen-year-old apprentice, Raffi. They know of a secret relic with great power that has been hidden for centuries. As they search for it, they will be tested beyond their limits. For there are monsters-some human, some not-that also want the relic's power and will stop at nothing to get it.

RELIC MASTER is a four book series. Each book will be released over four consecutive months this summer:
Book One: The Dark City, May 17
Book Two: The Lost Heiress, June 14
Book Three: The Hidden Coronet, July 12
Book Four: The Margrave, August 9

Each book will include a piece of the map of Anara, the world of RELIC MASTER, on the reverse of the jacket. Collect all four books and you will have the complete map.

You can learn more about the series by visiting The Relic Master website!

GIVEAWAY!

Two lucky people will win copies of The Dark City. You must have a United States address to enter. I will choose winners on June 15th. Winners will be emailed.