Friday Finds (March 13)

Posted in Book memes, For the love of books, Friday Finds by rebeccabook17

FRIDAY FINDS is hosted by A Daily Rhythm and showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list. Whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

My finds this week include a memoir, a YA thriller, and of course a romance:

1. He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter’s Quest to Know Him by Mimi Baird and Eve Claxton

This book looks at a man’s life in dealing with manic depression and how it affected the daughter who was forever apart from him. I think that this will be a very interesting book, and there are a lot of “good” things being said about it by numerous sources, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. When I say good I don’t mean happy, skip down the lane holding hands good. This is quoted as being a “disturbing and profoundly moving book” and while I’m sure it will be heart-wrenching, I think it will be a thought-provoking read.

2. The Memory Key by Liana Liu

I think this sounds like its going to be a great book. At some point in the future, there is a viral form of Alzheimer’s that ravages the nation so everyone is issued “memory chips” that are installed in their brains to help them hold onto memories. The heroine’s memory chip gets damaged, so then she starts remembering odd things, but who can tell if they’re real memories or just products of a damaged memory chip? We will find out! (Hopefully)

3. The One That Got Away by Bethany Chase

This is Chase’s debut novel. Amazon compares her writing to that of Emily Giffin, who I’ve fallen in love with this year. I’m excited to give this one a try.

So those are my finds this week! Please feel free to share your finds or leave a link to your own “Friday Finds” blog posting below! Happy Friday!

9Mar2015

2015 Book #19 – The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson

Posted in Book reviews, Bookish Bingo: Jan-March 2015, Fiction, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: The Bookseller
Author: Cynthia Swanson
Date finished: 3/8/15
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: March 3, 2015
Pages in book: 336
Stand alone or series: Stand alone, her first novel actually!

Blurb from the cover:

Nothing is as permanent as it appears . . .
Denver, 1962: Kitty Miller has come to terms with her unconventional single life. She loves the bookshop she runs with her best friend, Frieda, and enjoys complete control over her day-to-day existence. She can come and go as she pleases, answering to no one. There was a man once, a doctor named Kevin, but it didn’t quite work out the way Kitty had hoped.
Then the dreams begin.
Denver, 1963: Katharyn Andersson is married to Lars, the love of her life. They have beautiful children, an elegant home, and good friends. It’s everything Kitty Miller once believed she wanted—but it only exists when she sleeps.
Convinced that these dreams are simply due to her overactive imagination, Kitty enjoys her nighttime forays into this alternate world. But with each visit, the more irresistibly real Katharyn’s life becomes. Can she choose which life she wants? If so, what is the cost of staying Kitty, or becoming Katharyn?
As the lines between her worlds begin to blur, Kitty must figure out what is real and what is imagined. And how do we know where that boundary lies in our own lives?

My rating: 4.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will count towards my “Bookish Bingo” reading challenge, marking off the “2015 Debut” square. I had seen this book being promoted in many different places but I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it. It’s a hit or miss many times with debut authors, some take a few novels to really hit their stride and others hit it out of the park right away. I have to say this book just floored me. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I haven’t felt so deeply and cried so much while reading a book since I read A Walk To Remember (back in high school I think) and yet the emotions in this book stemmed from a completely different place, the one I connected to most being love and loss of family.
This book was just fascinating. Katharyn and Kitty alternate between the two worlds in which they live, both lives feel so real and yet they are so completely different (they even exist at different points in time) that they can not possibly be connected. At first Kitty is sure that the life Katharyn leads is the dream, but as time goes on she has more and more trouble deciding what is real. She is losing memory of blocks of time, sometimes days, in both worlds. I don’t want to give away the end of the book but both Katharyn and Kitty end up forging one person in the end, reminding each what the other had lost and who they want to want to be as a person overall.
There were some slower parts in the beginning of the book that I found myself struggling through but the last 100 pages of the book I was riveted, you couldn’t tear me away from the story. There were so many emotions in this book; guilt, fear, loss, despair, love, compassion. The amount of feelings that you as the reader obtain from this book is just overwhelming. This was a great book and I can’t wait to see more from this author in the future.

The bottom line: EVERYONE READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY. SO MANY FEELINGS. (P.S. make sure you have a box of tissues handy)

Link to author website
Link to Amazon

7Mar2015

2015 Book #18 – The Marriage Charm by Linda Lael Miller

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Bookish Bingo: Jan-March 2015, Brides of Bliss County, Contemporary romance, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: The Marriage Charm
Author: Linda Lael Miller
Date finished: 3/7/15
Genre: Contemporary romance
Publisher: HQN Books
Publication Date: January 27, 2015
Pages in book: 297
Stand alone or series: #2 in Brides of Bliss County series

Blurb from the cover:

The women of Bliss County have a pact—to find husbands. The right husbands.
One already has: Hadleigh Stevens, who married rancher Tripp Galloway a few months ago. Now Melody Nolan thinks it’s her turn. Melody has recently found success as a jewelry designer, and her work is the focus of her life. She’s not exactly unhappy, but she wants more. She’s always been attracted to Spence Hogan, the local chief of police, but she’s convinced that Spence, a notorious charmer, isn’t what you’d call husband material.
Spence is a good cop who isn’t scared of anything—except love. And he’s done everything he can to preserve his reputation as a womanizer—a reputation that keeps marriage-minded women, including Melody, at bay. And yet…there’s something about Melody he can’t forget. Something his heart can’t ignore.

My rating: 2.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will count towards my “Bookish Bingo” reading challenge, marking off the “Pretty Dress Cover” square. When I saw this book at the store one of my first thoughts was “what a pretty wedding dress that is” so I thought it would fit into this category appropriately for bingo. So this book tells the story of the second girl in a group of three friends. And I can already see that the three girlfriends who have been best friends since they were children are going to magically fall in love with a group of three guy friends. I always find it interest how neat and tidy these things end up sometimes. So Melody and Spencer have a history I guess, she asked him to marry her after one hot and heavy summer when she was 20 and he said no because he didn’t want to ruin her life so then they didn’t talk for 7 years until their best friends got married. Seems realistic right?
So then the wedding throws them in each other’s paths again and then all of a sudden they are running into each other everywhere, even though they’ve managed to pretty much avoid each other for the past seven years. And then they fall in love and stuff. Honestly I was a little disappointed with this one. The conversations all felt unnatural and forced. The plot seemed unrealistic to me. I mean there was like a mystery/suspense aspect thrown in there with the robberies but I felt like it wasn’t really serious through the whole book and why would a master antique thief running an antiquities ring in multiple states care about some small town police chief? Seriously? And why didn’t we get to find out what kind of charm Melody would make for the three girls’ bracelets based on her engagement? THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE SERIES! I got to the end and I was like, what about the charm? The book is even CALLED the Marriage CHARM and we don’t get to find out what kind of charm she designates for herself.

The bottom line: I’m fairly neutral on this one. It was a cute story but not too interesting. Don’t think I’d recommend it but also wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it.

Link to author website
Link to Amazon

4Mar2015

2015 Book #17 – The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

Posted in Book reviews, Bookish Bingo: Jan-March 2015, Fiction, Magical realism, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: The Girl Who Chased the Moon
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Date finished: 3/3/15
Genre: Fiction, magical realism
Publisher: Bantam Books
Publication Date: March 16, 2010
Pages in book: 269
Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Blurb from the cover:

Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew—a reclusive, real-life gentle giant—she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.
Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes—which is a good thing, because Julia can’t seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar . . . Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she’s hurt in the past?
Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will count towards my “Bookish Bingo” reading challenge, marking off the “Magical realism” square. For anyone who doesn’t really understand what the magical realism genre is (because I didn’t really know) its basically when magic is readily accepted in the “rational world” as being normal or accepted. If you’d like to read more about the concept of magical realism as a genre, you can do so here. I really liked this book a lot. It hooked me in almost from the beginning and I couldn’t seem to put it down. Allen has such a talent for writing, as you read her books you can feel the magic in the words leaping off the pages. It is really something special to experience. I loved the plot too, the connection between Julia and Emily. One had given up her daughter a long time ago and the other had just recently lost her mother, both searching for comfort and home. It was a touching and magical (duh) story and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

The bottom line: This was a charming and magical story, I would definitely recommend!

Link to author website
Link to Amazon

4Mar2015

Waiting on Wednesday (7): 7 Brides for 7 Bodies by Stephanie Bond

Posted in "Waiting On" Wednesday, Book memes by rebeccabook17

“Waiting On” Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases.

This week’s spotlight is on:

7 Brides for 7 Bodies by Stephanie Bond

Release Date: March 17, 2015

Blurb from the cover (Amazon):

Happily never after…
Carlotta Wren’s life has taken a startling turn–she’s not sure what’s going to happen next. So when her retail job temporarily plants her in the world of wedding planning, she’s happy for the distraction–at first. Because the happily-ever-after setting only heightens the stress surrounding the decisions she faces about her romantic life. The three hot men vying for her attention aren’t going to wait forever for her answer.
On the other hand, at least the bridal show gets her away from body moving for a while, right? Wrong. Because when grooms all over Atlanta start dropping like flies, once again, Carlotta finds herself square in the middle of a murder mystery!

Why Am I Waiting?

I have read every book in the series so far, granted it was a couple of years ago that the last book came out so its been awhile since I’ve read them. But I have been waiting FOREVER for this book to come out it feels like. This is an entertaining and funny series and I think I might re-read the series before I read this book since its been so long since I’ve read any of them. I would definitely recommend giving this series a try! I can’t wait for this book, I’m so excited!

2Mar2015

2015 Book #16 – Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Posted in Book reviews, Bookish Bingo: Jan-March 2015, Fiction, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Author: Maria Semple
Date finished: 3/1/15
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: December 21, 2012
Pages in book: 326
Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Blurb from the cover:

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.
Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle–and people in general–has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.
To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence–creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter’s role in an absurd world.

My rating: 4.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will count towards my “Bookish Bingo” reading challenge, marking off the “Epistolary” square. Well I just freaking loved this book. I mean I seem to have a thing for epistolary novels in general but this book specifically was fun, playful, witty, and just riveting. I literally read it in a day, I just could’t put it down. I love Bernadette’s character, probably because I can relate to it quite a bit. She’s a little bit ADD, a little bit OCD, and a whole lot of antisocial. She is very close with her daughter,Bee, a very bright young girl who’s just been accepted to Chaote (boarding school back East). I love Bernadette’s description of living in Seattle, and I love the gnats! Hilarity ensues in Bernadette’s interactions with Audrey (the gnat next door) and they end up crossing swords a couple times throughout the book.
One of the things that I found really interesting about this book was that none of the characters ended up really being “the bad guy.” All of the adults did dumb, selfish, petty things but all of them also at other points in the book did selfless, loving things. It really made you think about how we’re all him and no one is either all bad or all good, people are selfish and weak and make mistakes. I loved that about this novel.

The bottom line: LOVED THIS BOOK! EVERYONE READ IT NOW!

Link to author website
Link to Amazon