The Nest

The Nest

by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis: Every family has its problems.  But even among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly dysfunctional.  Years of simmering tensions finally reach a breaking point on an unseasonably cold afternoon in New York City as Melody, Beatrice, and Jack Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo, freshly released from rehab. Months earlier, an inebriated Leo got behind the wheel of a car with a nineteen-year-old waitress as his passenger.  The ensuing accident has endangered the Plumbs' joint trust fund, "The Nest," which they are but months away from finally receiving.  Meant by their now-deceased father to be a modest midlife supplement, The Nest's value has unexpectedly soared along with the stock market, and the Plumb siblings have been counting on the money to solve a number of self-inflicted problems.

Melody, a wife and mother in an upscale suburb, has an unwieldy mortgage and two looming college tuitions for her twin teenage daughters.  Jack, an antiques dealer, has secretly borrowed against the beach cottage he shares with his husband, Walker, to keep his store open.  And Bea, a once-promising short-story writer, just can't seem to finish her overdue novel.

Can Leo rescue his siblings and, by extension, the people they love?  Or will everyone need to reimagine the futures they've envisioned?  Brought together as never before, Leo, Melody, Jack, and Beatrice must grapple with old resentments, present-day truths, and the significant emotional and financial toll of the accident, as well as finally acknowledge the choices they have made in their own lives.

from the book jacket

Review:  I am not sure how this book got so much hype.  It is uninteresting, lacks a plot that moves somewhere, and has unlikable characters.  If I had not been reading it for a book club, I would have abandoned it after the first several chapters because those chapters only focus on describing the characters who I found to be petty and self absorbed.  All they worry about is the money that they know will be coming to them and how to get the money back from Leo.  They seem to have no concern for anyone in their family but themselves.  The book gets slightly better over half way through the book which is why I did not rate this a 1 star book.  The f word is used over and over again in this book which was completely unnecessary.

Rating: 2 stars

United As One

United As One

by Pittacus Lore

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Synopsis:  It has all come down to this.  One final chance to defeat the Mogadorians.  We will save this planet-or we will die trying.  But it's going to take all of us...including you.

If we're going to win this war, we need to eliminate their leader first.  And now I have the power to do so.  To get to him, though, we're going to need an army of our own.

We know you didn't ask for any of this. Neither did we.  Lorien chose you, as it did us.  It gave you Legacies so you could help defend the world.  We can train you to use your new abilities.  We can show you how to fight.  But it's your decision if you want to join us. You will have to put your life on the line, and not everyone may survive.  Not all of us have.

They killed Number One in Malaysia.

Number Two in England.

Number Three in Kenya.

Number Eight in Florida.

...And Sarah Hart in Mexico.

They've taken my home, my family, my friends, and now the person I love more than anything.

I am John Smith.  I am Number Four.  I have nothing left to lose-and that is their biggest mistake.

Review:  I enjoyed reading this series but I am glad that it is finished.  This book, as well as several others in the series, moved very slowly at times.  In this book's case, the first couple hundred pages were lacking action.  The series had to end with a major battle between the Garde and Setrakus Ra so I was not surprised by the ending in any way, shape or form.  The ending was predictable and somewhat anticlimactic.

Rating: 3.5 stars

To see my review of I Am Four, click here.
To see my review of The Power of Six, click here.
To see my review of The Rise of Nine, click here.
To see my review of The Fall of Five, click here.
To see my review of The Revenge of Seven, click here.
To see my review of The Fate of Ten, click here.
To read my review of I Am Number Four, The Legacies: Lost Files 1-3, click here.
To read my review of I Am Number Four; Secret Histories: Lost Files 4-6, click here.

Mother Bruce

Mother Bruce

by Ryan T. Higgins

Genre: Picture Book

Synopsis:  Bruce the bear likes to keep to himself. That, and eat eggs. But when his hard-boiled goose eggs turn out to be real, live goslings, he starts to lose his appetite. And even worse, the goslings are convinced he's their mother. Bruce tries to get the geese to go south, but he can't seem to rid himself of his new companions. What's a bear to do?

from GoodReads

Review:  I don't get to read picture books very often any more and I'm so glad that I asked my kids if I could read them a picture book last night instead of a chapter book.  This book was quite funny and had me giggling at the grumpy bear and his trials.  The humor in this book pokes fun at some things (locally sourced food, organic, etc) and is very clever.  I probably laughed more than my kids.  I love the expressions on Bruce's face throughout the book.  Definitely a fun read!

Rating: 5 stars

A True Princess

A True Princess

Diane Zahler

Genre: Chapter Book

Summary (from Goodreads): Twelve-year-old Lilia is not a very good servant. In fact, she's terrible! She daydreams, she breaks dishes, and her cooking is awful. Still, she hardly deserves to be sold off to the mean-spirited miller and his family. Refusing to accept that dreadful fate, she decides to flee. With her best friend, Kai, and his sister, Karina, beside her, Lilia heads north to find the family she's never known. But danger awaits. . . .

As their quest leads the threesome through the mysterious and sinister Bitra Forest, they suddenly realize they are lost in the elves' domain. To Lilia's horror, Kai falls under an enchantment cast by the Elf King's beautiful daughter. The only way for Lilia to break the spell and save Kai is to find a jewel of ancient power that lies somewhere in the North Kingdoms. Yet the jewel will not be easy to find. The castle where it is hidden has been overrun with princess hopefuls trying to pass a magical test that will determine the prince's new bride. Lilia has only a few days to search every inch of the castle and find the jewel—or Kai will be lost to her forever.

Review: I liked this book a lot; it reminded me of the story of the Princess and the Pea.  It is about a girl names Lilia who is a servant and runs away because she is going to be sent to a mean family.  Her friends Kai and Karina go along with her, but Kai becomes enchanted by the Elf King's daughter.  Lilia has to find Odin's clasp so that the Elf Princess will let Kai go.  I like this book because everything turns out fine in the end.  I liked Lilia because she was brave and kind.  It's the kind of book that I like to read because most of the characters are nice, the characters go on adventures, and it was a kind of mystery.  Oh, and because it was about a girl.

Rating: 5 stars

The Good Dream

The Good Dream

by Donna VanLiere

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  Tennessee, 1950: Still single and in her early thirties, Ivorie Walker is considered an old maid-a label she takes with good humor and a grain of salt.  But when her mother dies, leaving her to live alone in the house she grew up in, to work the farm she was raised to take care of, she finds herself lost in a kind of loneliness she hadn't expected.

After years of rebuffing the advances of imperfect yet eligible bachelors from hers mall town, Ivorie is without companionship, but with more love in her heart and time on her hands than she knows what to do with.  Her life soon changes, however, when a feral, dirty-faced boy who has been sneaking onto her land to steal from her garden comes into her life.  Even though he runs back into the hills as quickly as he arrives, she's determined to find out who is because something about the young boy haunts her.  What would make him desperate enough to steal and eat from her garden?  But what she can't imagine is what the boy faces, each day and night, in the filthy lean-to hut miles up in the hills,  Who is he?  How did he come to live in the hills?  Where did he come from?  And, more important, can she save him?  As Ivorie steps out of her comfort zone to uncover the answers, she unleashes a firestorm in the town-a community that would rather let secrets stay secret.

from the book jacket

Review:  This book has an ease to the writing style that is simple and sweet.  I am squeamish about child molestation so there was a time where I thought I would abandon the book as I just can't stomach hearing about sexual abuse in a crude way but I stuck with the book and the story definitely improved.  The story is told in alternating perspectives, Ivorie's and the boy's.  Later in the book there are chapters told from Ivorie's brother, Henry's perspective.  At first I didn't understand why his voice was added but he does uncover a very important piece of the puzzle about who the boy is.  The story is one of hope and love.

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Good Good-bye

The Good Good-bye

by Carla Buckley

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis:  On her way to her nineteenth wedding anniversary celebration, Natalie Falcone leaves the struggling restaurant she owns with her brother-in-law, Vince.  She doesn't speak to him on her way out; they haven't spoken in months.  Out on the sidewalk, she gets a phone call every mother dreads: It's from a hospital emergency room in the town where her daughter, Arden, attends college.  Arden's been in a fire, along with Natalie's niece, Rory-Vince's daughter and Arden's best friend.

Natalie rushes to the hospital and learns that both Arden and Rory lie unconscious, and that another student has died in the blaze.  The police suspect arson.

As the investigation mounts, Natalie struggles to piece together the elusive details of Arden's and Rory's freshman year.  Growing up, Rory was charming, popular, and charismatic, while Arden was artistic, perceptive, and reserved.  They were different yet inseparable, more like sisters than cousins.  But the case unearths a different portrait-of a complex friendship, a love triangle, a fight, and a girl who was struggling more than anyone realized.  To discover what really happened that tragic night, Natalie's and Vince's families must confront the one truth that ultimately emerges: Nothing is ever exactly what it seems.

from the book jacket

Review:  I really enjoyed this book as I read it and it kept me reading with its use of suspense.  I had to know how the fire started and what really happened to Arden and Rory.  But the more I think about the book, my opinion of the book drops.  All throughout the book I felt like I was supposed to know more than I already knew but nothing was said outright so everything was to be inferred.  I never knew if my inferential thought was correct though as it was not confirmed by the end.  There were some secrets about Arden that we learn about in the book but yet we do not understand her motivation behind her actions.  The same goes for Rory.  Natalie and Rory are supposed to be best friends, more like sisters, but I found it hard to like Rory because she is portrayed as taking advantage of Arden at every turn with Arden not doing a thing about it.  I don't understand by Arden needed to stay friends with Rory.  That is just one unexplained situation in the book.  There were just too many secrets in this book.

Rating: 3 stars

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

by Fredrick Backman

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis:  Elsa is seven years old and different.  Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy-as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy.  She is also Elsa's best, and only friend.  At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother's stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

When Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa's greatest adventure begins.  Her grandmother's instructions lead her to an apartment building full of misfits, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones, but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

from the back of the book

Review:  The writing in this book isn't bad, I just wasn't interested in the story any longer.  I read the first hundred pages and while I thought the beginning when Granny was still alive to be interesting, after Granny dies, the story goes no where.  The beginning is full of stories about Miamas, Granny's make believe world that she brings Elsa into.  I just didn't care about Miamas and I figured the rest of the book would be about the lands in Miamas and the characters there.  This just wasn't a book for me.

Rating: abandoned