The Selection

The Selection

Kiera Cass

Genre: Young Adult Dystopia

Summary (from the publisher):  For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself--and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined

Review: I had a hard time knowing how to rate this book.  On the one hand, it's a very light book based on a royal version of The Bachelor, clearly written for teenage princess-wannabe-girls, with very little action or conflict of any kind, and OF COURSE it has a love triangle.  But, it's fun and cute, and I read the entire book in less than 24 hours because I couldn't put it down.  And I just added the sequel to my hold list at the library.  :)  I guess I have a secret liking for fairy tales.

I liked the fact that the main character stayed true to herself throughout the competition, although I thought some of her romantic decisions were questionable.  Prince Maxon was a very likable character, who generally showed good judgment and sensitivity to the girls, and seemed to want to change society for the better.  This book has frequently been compared to The Hunger Games, which isn't very fair, since this book is light on the dystopia, doesn't touch much on social issues, and has no death or violence. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Pandemonium

Pandemonium

Lauren Oliver

Summary (from the publisher):
I’m pushing aside
the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana
and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.

Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite

Review:  I am a little tired of young adult dystopian/fantasy trilogies that contain love triangles, especially when the characters seem to fall in love instantly with little reason behind it.  BUT, I still liked this book.  In fact, I liked it a lot better than Delirium, the first book in this trilogy.  Pandemonium had more action, more conflict, more bravery, more real emotion, and a lot more love than the first book.  It was a quick absorbing read, with an ending that most people describe as a dramatic cliffhanger - but I completely saw it coming!

Rating:  4 stars

The Wives of Henry Oades

The Wives of Henry Oades

by Johanna Moran

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary: (from the publisher)
When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected—and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children.

    For months, Henry scours the surrounding wilderness, until all hope is lost and his wife and children are presumed dead. Grief-stricken, he books passage to California. There he marries Nancy Foreland, a young widow with a new baby, and it seems they’ve both found happiness in the midst of their mourning—until Henry’s first wife and children show up, alive and having finally escaped captivity.

    Narrated primarily by the two wives, and based on a real-life legal case, The Wives of Henry Oades is the riveting story of what happens when Henry, Margaret, and Nancy face persecution for bigamy. Exploring the intricacies of marriage, the construction of family, the changing world of the late 1800s, and the strength of two remarkable women, Johanna Moran turns this unusual family’s story into an unforgettable page-turning drama

Review:  I would have given the first half of the book 4 stars, and the second half 2 stars, so I averaged them to get my rating.  The story of the Oades family's trip to New Zealand, their life in Wellington, and their capture by Maori was well written and interesting, and I would like to have read even more about those times.  Margaret was a very strong character who held her family together through difficult times, and I hoped that she would have a happy ending.  Unfortunately, her character underwent a significant personality shift as soon as she discovered that Henry had married again, and she became weak and spineless.  I found the endless trials and discussions with lawyers very boring, the mean behavior of the neighbors not understandable, and the character of Nancy both kind and crazy at the same time.  I also felt that the story focused too much on the wives and not enough on Henry; his behavior seemed inexplicable.  And sorry if this is a spoiler, but the ending was completely unsatisfying.

Rating: 3 stars

One Moment, One Morning

One Moment, One Morning

by Sarah Rayner

Genre: Women's Fiction

Summary (from the publisher):
The Brighton to London line. The 07:44 train. Carriages packed with commuters. One woman occupies her time observing the people around her. Opposite, a girl puts on her make-up. Across the aisle, a husband strokes his wife's hand. Further along, another woman flicks through a glossy magazine. Then, abruptly, everything changes: a man collapses, the train is stopped, an ambulance called. And for three passengers that particular morning, life will never be the same again: there's Lou, in an adjacent seat, who witnesses events first hand; Anna, who's sitting further up the train, impatient to get to work; and Karen. Karen is the man's wife. Telling the story of the week following that fateful train journey, "One Moment, One Morning" is a stunning novel about love and loss, secrets and lies, family and - above all - friendship. Memorable and moving, gripping the reader from the very first page, it's a stark reminder that sometimes, one moment is all it takes to shatter everything. Yet it also reminds us that somehow, despite it all, life can and does go on

Review:  The writing was generally easy to read, yet not remarkable, but I found the frequent flashbacks hard to follow.  The main characters were likable and easy to relate to, although Lou's connection with the other women seemed a little forced, and her struggles seemed entirely separate from the main happenings in the book.  While I liked her character a lot, she could have been removed from the story with little impact.  The primary focus was on Karen's ability to deal with her husband's death and help her small children through their grief, and I felt that this was done effectively and movingly.  Otherwise, the ending for each character was very predictable.  All in all, an enjoyable read, but not a very memorable book.

Rating: 3 stars

The Fever Tree

The Fever Tree

by Jennifer McVeigh

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis: Frances Irvine, left destitute in the wake of her father’s sudden death, has been forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and emigrate to the Southern Cape of Africa. 1880 South Africa is a country torn apart by greed. In this remote and inhospitable land she becomes entangled with two very different men—one driven by ambition, the other by his ideals. Only when the rumor of a smallpox epidemic takes her into the dark heart of the diamond mines does she see her path to happiness.

But this is a ruthless world of avarice and exploitation, where the spoils of the rich come at a terrible human cost and powerful men will go to any lengths to keep the mines in operation. Removed from civilization and disillusioned by her isolation, Frances must choose between passion and integrity, a decision that has devastating consequences.

The Fever Tree is a compelling portrait of colonial South Africa, its raw beauty and deprivation alive in equal measure. But above all it is a love story about how—just when we need it most—fear can blind us to the truth. 

From the publisher

Review:  To be honest. I almost abandoned this book 50 pages in.  The beginning was not interesting and I also felt that there were parts missing.  For example, in the first chapter, Frances' father is alive but in the second chapter, he's already been dead for a week or two.  There wasn't enough emotion from Frances regarding her father's death and her dilemma of going to marry her distant cousin who lives in Africa or live with her aunt and be a nursemaid.  There were times that I felt like I was walking in to the middle of a conversation and I was supposed to have heard the beginning (this happened throughout the book).  But I was curious to see where the story was going.  It picked up a little after she got on the boat but it didn't really pick up until she got to Africa.  Her life in South Africa and the life of diamond miners was quite interesting.  The author portrays the stark life in South Africa but also the beauty that can be found in nature.  They story was a somewhat typical romance story but set in a different location.  I did find the characters unlikable at times.  Frances' cousin is a doctor in South Africa and he expects Frances to quickly abandon the lifestyle that she has always known and adapt quickly to an impoverished life in South Africa.  I felt this was extremely unlikely as a girl who has always had everything done for her to decide, hey no problem I can cook, clean, and do laundry?  I understand that she needed to grow up and stop being selfish but that couldn't happen quickly.  Frances herself was unlikable because she was quite selfish at times.  (I know this review is getting long for you Marcie but I'm torn).  In summary, it was an interesting story that had some flaws.

Rating: 2 1/2 stars

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

by Jan-Phillipp Sendker

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis: A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats  spans the decades between the 1950s and the present.  When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.

From the book's website

Review:  This review is difficult for me because I was left not knowing what to think of it when I finished reading.  I so wanted to talk about this book with someone and really delve into the depths of the story. There were some parts of this story that were very unbelievable but perhaps are truly part of the beliefs of the Burmese culture.  There are also times when the author poses multiple deep meaning questions all in a row and that seemed to be just too much going on in Julia's mind at one time.  But otherwise I loved this book.  There was mysticism and romance.  The story that U Ba, the man who finds Julia to tell her about her father, captures you and builds this beautiful story that you can't help to keep reading.  The ending to me was not quite complete and I really wanted to know more.  But overall this story is beautifully written and a unique story.

Rating 4 1/2 stars

Garden of Stones

Garden of Stones

by Sophie Littlefield

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (by the publisher):
In the dark days of war, a mother makes the ultimate sacrifice Lucy Takeda is just fourteen years old, living in Los Angeles, when the bombs rain down on Pearl Harbor. Within weeks, she and her mother, Miyako, are ripped from their home, rounded up-along with thousands of other innocent Japanese-Americans-and taken to the Manzanar prison camp.

Buffeted by blistering heat and choking dust, Lucy and Miyako must endure the harsh living conditions of the camp. Corruption and abuse creep into every corner of Manzanar, eventually ensnaring beautiful, vulnerable Miyako. Ruined and unwilling to surrender her daughter to the same fate, Miyako soon breaks. Her final act of desperation will stay with Lucy forever...and spur her to sins of her own.

Bestselling author Sophie Littlefield weaves a powerful tale of stolen innocence and survival that echoes through generations, reverberating between mothers and daughters. It is a moving chronicle of injustice, triumph and the unspeakable acts we commit in the name of love.

Review: Perhaps my review of this book is colored by the fact that I had just finished reading another book about the Japanese internment camps, but I did not like this book as much as I expected to.  (Sorry, Becky!)  The story starts with a murder when Lucy is an adult, then flashes back to Lucy's life as a child, then flashes forward and back again several times.  I found myself much more interested in Lucy's life as a child in the internment camp, and so the murder investigation in the flash-forward times seemed distracting and even unrelated until the very end of the story.  And although Lucy was a strong and likeable character as a child, she didn't seem to have a voice at all in the flash-forward parts of the story, and so it was hard to get a sense of her as an adult.  While I expect that the troubles Lucy and her mother encountered in the camp were depressingly possible, I found her story too bleak and the ending too hopeless to make this book enjoyable to me.

Rating: 3 stars