Pictures of You

Pictures of You

by Caroline Leavitt

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis:  Two women running away from their marriages collide on a foggy highway, killing one of them. The survivor is left to pick up the pieces, not only of her own life, but also must go back and deal with the devastated husband and fragile, asthmatic son the other woman left behind. Together, they try to solve the mystery of where April was running to, and why. By turns riveting and unsettling, Pictures of You looks at the choices women make-the roads they choose-to be loved.

From GoodReads

Review:  My feelings about this book are mixed.  There are parts of the story that I very much enjoyed and that I thought were believable and then there were parts that seemed to be plucked out of nowhere and did not fit with what we knew about the characters.  We hear that back stories of Isabelle Stein and April Nash before the accident and we learn about why there were running away.  We get clear, at least what I originally thought were clear, pictures of who they were as people.  As the story goes on we learn more and more about April Nash that didn't seem to line up with what we knew about her earlier in the book.  At one point I thought she had a mental illness.  Then we learn more and more about Sam, April's and Charlie's son.  Charlie is not the most believable character and  he does and believes some strange things (I know this seems cryptic but I don't want to give anything away).  The book does not end with how we think it will end but the end is probably much more realistic than what we all hoped would happen.  My review may seem more negative than positive but I did really get carried away in the story and I did enjoy most parts of it.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Veronica's Grave

Veronica's Grave

by Barbara Bracht Donsky

Genre: Memoir

Synopsis:  When Barbara Bracht's mother disappears from her life-no one tells her that her mother has died-she is left a confused child whose blue-collar father is intent upon erasing any memory of her mother.  Forced to keep the secret of her mother's existence from her younger brother, Barbara struggles to keep from being crushed under the weight of family secrets as she comes of age and strives to educate herself, despite her father's stance against women's education.

Told with true literacy sensibility, this captivating memoir asks us to consider what it is that parents owe their children, and how far a child need go to make things right for her family.

from the back of the book

Review:  Barbara Donsky tells us the story of her life as she grew up with her family after her mother died.  The memoir is written in such an easy-going way that makes it very fast to read and it made me forget that I was reading the true story of Donsky's life.  At times I thought I was reading an engaging fictional book and I had to stop to remind myself that this story was not made up.  Donsky spends very little time talking about her earliest memories of her mother and the changes that occurred in her early life after her mother "went missing" as she called it in the book.  Most of the story is about Donsky's life growing up in New York City with her father, step-mother (who she called mom) and her two brothers, and then her life after she turns 18 when she manages to escape the clutches of her family. 

While I found the look back at her life and what life was like for a woman in that day and age very captivating, I struggled with understanding the connection to how Donsky felt about her missing mother.  From the title and the summary of the story, I would assume that most of the book is about how Donsky struggled in her life to live without her mother but more of the struggles in the book were those she had with her controlling father.  Donsky does bring up at various times throughout the book about how she felt about living without her mother but those seemed to be more afterthoughts than part of her story.  I very much appreciated the end of the book when Donsky visits her mother's grave and the reflection that she includes about her life and the impact her mother's death had on her feelings and insecurities growing up.  I just wish that these reflections had been a larger part of her story throughout the book rather than just added in the last few pages of the book.

I was sent this book in exchange for an honest, fair review.  Thank you for sending me the book!

Rating: 3.5 stars

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

E.K. Johnston

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Veronica Mars meets William Shakespeare in E.K. Johnston’s latest brave and unforgettable heroine.

Hermione Winters is captain of her cheerleading team, and in tiny Palermo Heights, this doesn’t mean what you think it means. At PHHS, the cheerleaders don't cheer for the sports teams; they are the sports team—the pride and joy of a tiny town. The team's summer training camp is Hermione's last and marks the beginning of the end of…she’s not sure what. She does know this season could make her a legend. But during a camp party, someone slips something in her drink. And it all goes black.

In every class, there's a star cheerleader and a pariah pregnant girl. They're never supposed to be the same person. Hermione struggles to regain the control she's always had and faces a wrenching decision about how to move on. The assault wasn't the beginning of Hermione Winter's story and she's not going to let it be the end. She won’t be anyone’s cautionary tale.

Review: I didn't notice the summary of this book comparing it to Shakespeare before I started reading; I have to admit that I was confused about the book's title, and I thought that the choice of characters' names was unusual.  After I finished the book, I did some research, and apparently "Exit, pursued by a bear" is one of Shakespeare's most unusual stage directions, from the play "The Winter's Tale".  After reading a summary of the play, I still don't see the connection to the plot of this book, but it is clear that almost all the major characters got their names from Shakespeare's play - Hermione (the beautiful, virtuous queen), Leo (Leontes, the king), Polly (Paulina, Hermione's friend), the secondary characters Dion, Clement, Tig, and Amy, and even the completely unnecessary coach's daughter Florry.  I also read up on Veronica Mars, and it seems like the only similarity the book has to that show is that Veronica was drugged and raped at a party, too.  So I think the publisher's summary is a little sensationalist....

This is a hard book to review, because it deals with rape.  I have absolutely no personal experience with rape, so I can't speak to how realistic Hermione's emotions are after she was raped.  I thought it was interesting that she didn't know how to feel herself, and that she kept questioning whether her feelings and behavior were right or normal.  At the end of the book, the author pointed out that she wanted Hermione to have a strong support system, and she did - her parents, best friend, cheerleading squad, minister and police officers were staunchly kind, supportive and on her side - that certainly helped Hermione cope with her situation.  Is this a typical environment for a rape victim?  I would guess not.  It did make the book feel a little Disneyfied - smart, beautiful, talented, blonde cheerleader gets drugged and raped at a party; sure, she suffers from some malicious gossip, but her friends stand up for her in all the best possible ways, and she copes amazingly well with all the fallout.

BUT, I couldn't put this book down, and I haven't felt that way about a book in a long time.  Johnston's writing was so easy and enjoyable to read, even while dealing with difficult topics.  I loved the strength that Hermione displayed throughout the book, and I loved seeing her amazing friendship with Polly. 

Rating: 4 stars

Who Do You Love

Who do You Love

Jennifer Weiner

Genre: Women's Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are eight years old when they meet late one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she's intrigued by the boy who shows up all alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy's taken back to the emergency room and Rachel's sent back to her bed, they think they'll never see each other again.

Rachel, the beloved, popular, and protected daughter of two doting parents, grows up wanting for nothing in a fancy Florida suburb. Andy grows up poor in Philadelphia with a single mom and a rare talent that will let him become one of the best runners of his generation.

Over the course of three decades, through high school and college, marriages and divorces, from the pinnacles of victory and the heartbreak of defeat, Andy and Rachel will find each other again and again, until they are finally given a chance to decide whether love can surmount difference and distance and if they've been running toward each other all along.

With honesty, wit, and clear-eyed observations about men and women, love and fate, and the truth about happy endings, Jennifer Weiner delivers two of her most memorable characters, and a love story you'll never forget.

Review: Another entertaining read by Jennifer Weiner!  I didn't love this book as much as some of her others, primarily because I couldn't see why Andy was so interested in Rachel when they were younger.  During Rachel's high school and college years, she was completely spoiled and materialistic, and Andy seemed so down-to-earth that it was hard to imagine what he saw in her.  I am not at all interested in reading books about women who need to use a specific fancy brand of lip gloss, and I even debated putting the book down when Rachel was in a sorority because it was just so ridiculous.  But I made it through that part and loved watching Rachel move past that stage of her life.  While it was frustrating to skip around in time and miss huge chunks of the characters' lives, it was interesting to watch Rachel and Andy meet up again and again.  Kind of reminded me of the book One Day.

Rating: 4 stars

The Chocolate Cupid Killings

The Chocolate Cupid Killings

Joanna Carl

Genre: Mystery

Summary (from Goodreads): Ninth in the scrumptious-and national bestselling-Chocoholic Mystery series. 

TenHuis Chocolade is wall-to- wall with chocolate hearts for Valentine's Day. But Lee is getting no love from Private Detective Derrick Valentine. He's looking for their employee-a woman Lee and her Aunt Nettie have been harboring for an underground railroad-type organization that aids abused women. Luckily, they manage to not spill the cocoa beans and clue him in. But the situation becomes a complex confection when Valentine meets his end. And it's Aunt Nettie who becomes a suspect. Lee will have to find a way to free Nettie of guilt without exposing the innocent-and find a killer with a bitter heart that's definitely not made of chocolate...

Review: I was working on puzzles with Nathaniel in the children's section of the library, and Amelia wandered over saying she had picked out all her books.  So I sent her over the adult fiction section of the library and told her to pick out a few books for me to read.  She seemed unsure about how to pick out books for me, so I told her to grab ones that had interesting titles or covers or plots on the back of the book.  This is one of the ones that she chose for me (and the only one that I finished - the others were not my style at all!)  There's the long explanation for why I read this particular book.

This cozy mystery is clearly part of a series, and while the beginning of the book gave pertinent background information, there were definitely things I felt like I had missed because of not reading the first eight books in the series.  It was interesting enough, but a little confusing (perhaps because of all the characters, who would be well-known to readers of the series).  I was mostly mystified as to why Lee felt like she needed to solve all these mysteries herself without police assistance.

Rating: 2 stars

One True Loves

One True Loves

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Genre: Romance

Synopsis: In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse.  They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of  their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts.  They travel the world together-Emma as a freelance writer, Jesse as a production assistant on the sets of nature documentaries-living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.

One their first wedding assignment, Jesse is on an assignment in the Aleutian Islands when his helicopter goes missing over the Pacific.  Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

Emma moves home in an effort to put her life back together.  Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again.  When she and Sam get engaged, it feels like her second chance at happiness.

That is, until Jess is found.

Emma now has a husband and a fiance.  But who is her one true love?
from the back of the book

Review:  I have never read a book by this author before but I really enjoyed the ease in her writing style and how I was swept away in the flow of the story.  This book carries you through two romances, one with Jesse and one with Sam.  As a reader, you fall in love with both couples and once Jesse returns it is hard to decide who you want Emma to end up with.  You feel Emma's pain as she grieves over losing Jesse and then you feel her pain as she is torn between her two loves.  Emma really reflects on what it means to love which is thought-provoking to the reader.  I could not put this book down and read it all in one day.  I am definitely going to look up more books by this author!

Rating: 5 stars

Wedding Season

Wedding Season

by Darcy Cosper

Genre: Chick Lit

Synopsis: Joy Silverman and her boyfriend, Gabriel Winslow, seem perfect for each other.  Living together in New York City, they have everything they want and everything in common-most important, that neither one wants to get married.  Ever.

But when Joy finds herself obligated to attend seventeen weddings in six months (including those of her father, mother, younger brother, and five of her closest girlfriends), the couple is forced to take a new look at why they're so opposed to marriage when the rest of the world can't wait to walk down the aisle.  As the season heats up and the pressure mounts, Joy must confront what it means-and what it costs-to be true to one's self.

from the back of the book

Review:  I have not been in a read mood lately and I thought that lighter chick lit books might help me start reading again so I picked up this book at the library just by looking at a random shelf (alphabetical order-letter C) and knew nothing about it.  It did get me reading again but then part way through the book I stopped to read another book and I thought about not even finishing this book because I just wasn't that interested in what happened to Joy.  Joy had 17 weddings to attend in six months but that just made the book repetitive and uninteresting.  The author does try to make each wedding different and more interesting by creating a huge variety in the cast of characters but then the characters come off as caricatures of a culture.  Joy has quite the mix of friends!  Joy is adamant that she does not want to get married and she does not believe in marriage.  Her beliefs are tested while so many of her friends tie the knot.  What happens later in the book didn't fit with what we learned about Joy and the ending leaves us unsatisfied.  While I wouldn't say that I didn't like the book, this book was just blah.

Rating: 2.5 stars