2015 Book #90 – A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan

Posted in ARC August, Book reviews, Fiction, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: A Window Opens
Author: Elisabeth Egan
Date finished: 8/26/15
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: August 25, 2015
Pages in book: 384
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Fans of I Don’t Know How She Does It and Where’d You Go, Bernadette will cheer at this “fresh, funny take on the age-old struggle to have it all” (People) about what happens when a wife and mother of three leaps at the chance to fulfill her professional destiny—only to learn every opportunity comes at a price.
In A Window Opens, beloved books editor at Glamour magazine Elisabeth Egan brings us Alice Pearse, a compulsively honest, longing-to-have-it-all, sandwich generation heroine for our social-media-obsessed, lean in (or opt out) age. Like her fictional forebears Kate Reddy and Bridget Jones, Alice plays many roles (which she never refers to as “wearing many hats” and wishes you wouldn’t, either). She is a mostly-happily married mother of three, an attentive daughter, an ambivalent dog-owner, a part-time editor, a loyal neighbor and a Zen commuter. She is not: a cook, a craftswoman, a decorator, an active PTA member, a natural caretaker or the breadwinner. But when her husband makes a radical career change, Alice is ready to lean in—and she knows exactly how lucky she is to land a job at Scroll, a hip young start-up which promises to be the future of reading, with its chain of chic literary lounges and dedication to beloved classics. The Holy Grail of working mothers―an intellectually satisfying job and a happy personal life―seems suddenly within reach.
Despite the disapproval of her best friend, who owns the local bookstore, Alice is proud of her new “balancing act” (which is more like a three-ring circus) until her dad gets sick, her marriage flounders, her babysitter gets fed up, her kids start to grow up and her work takes an unexpected turn. Readers will cheer as Alice realizes the question is not whether it’s possible to have it all, but what does she―Alice Pearse―really want?

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for ARC August reading challenge, it is #11 on list from my sign up post. I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book is about Alice Pearse and her family: her husband, Nicholas, and her children, Margot, Oliver, and Georgie. Alice is a book-lover so I felt an instant connection with her character. I am not a mom yet but I hope to someday be one and a lot of the issues presented in this book are ones I have thought about many times already. When Nick leaves the law firm he’s been working at pretty much his whole career to open his own firm, Alice and Nick decide that Alice should go back to work full time until Nick’s new firm is up and running. Alice finds a job at Scroll, a company that is supposed to lead us into the book stores of the future. Unfortunately, not everything always works out the way we’d imagined at the start.
Alice’s job is time consuming and sometimes (like many jobs, mine included) it runs over into her personal time. And unfortunately (as is the case with many stressful jobs) her time with her family sometimes suffers because of her dedication to her job. I have to say this issue is one of the things that really bothered me about this book. Nick ends up with an attitude through most of the book about Alice’s dedication to her job. When he was working hard at his law firm and she was taking care of the kids, he was a dedicated worker. But when the roles are reversed Nick says that Alice is “obsessed” with her job. Just because she wants to do good work and she’s dedicated why does that make her obsessed? Also why is this a good excuse for Nick to get so drunk he ends up passing out on the couch every weekday afternoon? Alice had to take care of the kids mostly on her own for like ten years and she never had to get drunk every day. And then he has the nerve to ask her if she is the person she wants to be when he was the one who was too drunk at noon to answer the phone and pick up their sick daughter from school? Are you kidding me? So anyway suffice it to say I was not a huge fan of Nick’s character. I wanted to punch him in the face most of the time but Alice seemed to like him overall so I guess he can’t be all bad.
Overall I really liked this book. I am going to warn you there are a couple sad parts but I think those might have been the parts of the story I found the most touching. Obviously I also felt quite a bit of anger for some of the book but there was a lot of tenderness described in the story. Also a lot of the issues Alice faces through the story are ones that I will have to face sometime in the future. Alice is right, you can’t do it all. Sometimes you have to prioritize and those priorities don’t always have to be fixed, actually they shouldn’t be. Your job shouldn’t come first every day but there are days where you might need to put it first and I think that’s ok.

The bottom line: There were just so many feels. And the main character was highly relatable for me so this one really was a good one for me. I would definitely recommend.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

22Aug2015

ARC August – Check in #3 – 8/22

Posted in 2015, ARC August, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Three weeks down now, I’m a bit behind but I’m not exactly panicking at this point (only a little). I got even less done this week than last, hoping to have a little time to catch up over the next week! ARC August, which is hosted by Read.Sleep.Repeat is a reading challenge that centers around catching up on reading your ARC’s! And I definitely needed the encouragement this month since I have a long list of them to get done.

My progress:

1. Awake by Natasha Preston – Read & reviewed during Week 1
2. On The Way: A Working Woman’s Field Guide by Robin Lake – Read & reviewed during Week 1
3. The Guilty One by Sophie Littlefield – Read & reviewed during Week 1
4. Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner – Read & reviewed during Week 1
5. Imaginary Things by Andrea Lochen – Read & reviewed during Week 2 plus an author interview!
6. Steele Resolve by Kimberly Amato – Read & reviewed during Week 2
7. Melting Steele by Kimberly Amato – Read & reviewed during Week 2
8. 33 Cecils by Everett DeMorier – Read & reviewed during Week 2
9. Friction by Sandra Brown – Read & reviewed
10. We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh – Read & reviewed
11. A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan
12. Goddess of Suburbia by Stephanie Kepke

Books read August 16th-22nd:

Friction by Sandra Brown – 4 stars

We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh – 3 stars

That’s it for this week unfortunately! The Terryville Fair is coming up next weekend so that will be a busy time for me but I am hoping to get some reading done before then so hopefully I can catch up. Have a happy Saturday everyone!

22Aug2015

2015 Book #89 – We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Posted in 2015, ARC August, Book reviews, Fiction, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: We Never Asked For Wings
Author: Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Date finished: 8/22/15
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: August 18, 2015
Pages in book: 320
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Language of Flowers comes her much-anticipated new novel about young love, hard choices, and hope against all odds.
For fourteen years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children—Alex, now fifteen, and Luna, six—in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life.
Navigating this new terrain is challenging for Letty, especially as Luna desperately misses her grandparents and Alex, who is falling in love with a classmate, is unwilling to give his mother a chance. Letty comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives, but one wrong move could jeopardize everything she’s worked for and her family’s fragile hopes for the future.
Vanessa Diffenbaugh blends gorgeous prose with compelling themes of motherhood, undocumented immigration, and the American Dream in a powerful and prescient story about family.

My rating: 3.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for ARC August reading challenge, it is #10 on list from my sign up post. I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. I have seen this book a lot in the last month or two as a must read book for summer so when I saw it was available on NetGalley I thought I would try reading it. This is the story of Letty Espinosa and her two children, Alex and Luna. Letty’s mother has raised Alex and Luna since they were babies while Letty works three jobs. But when Letty’s parents suddenly move back to Mexico, Letty is forced to face motherhood in a way that she has never had to before.
I liked this book. It had an interesting story line and was different from anything I’ve read before. There are some political commentary undercurrents about immigration towards the end but mostly I think this book is about Letty’s character growing and discovering what it means to be a mother. I didn’t end up loving this book because I had trouble forming a deep connection with the characters. It was great to see the characters evolve through the story, especially Letty, but at the same time I couldn’t form a personal connection with the story. When Letty got Alex drunk I honestly couldn’t read the book anymore that day I was so disturbed. I loved how supportive Rick’s character was though, he was like a constant pillar of strength. And Luna is just a little cutie. I couldn’t understand how Letty’s parents could leave them so suddenly but its probably better that they did, it forced Letty to stand on her own two feet. While there were pieces of this story I didn’t love, I liked the book overall.

The bottom line: I thought this story had a sweet ending even if I did get a bit freaked out along the way. It was interesting to see the characters grow through the story. I would recommend!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

18Aug2015

2015 Book #88 – Friction by Sandra Brown

Posted in 2015, ARC August, Book reviews, Reading Challenges, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

Title: Friction
Author: Sandra Brown
Date finished: 8/18/15
Genre: Romantic suspense
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: August 18, 2015
Pages in book: 416
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Crawford Hunt wants his daughter back. Following the death of his wife four years ago, Crawford, a Texas Ranger, fell into a downward spiral that left him relegated to deskwork and with his five-year-old daughter Georgia in the custody of her grandparents. But Crawford has cleaned up his act, met all the court imposed requirements, and now the fate of his family lies with Judge Holly Spencer.
Holly, ambitious and confident, temporarily occupies the bench of her recently deceased mentor. With an election upcoming, she must prove herself worthy of making her judgeship permanent. Every decision is high-stakes. Despite Crawford’s obvious love for his child and his commitment to being an ideal parent, Holly is wary of his checkered past. Her opinion of him is radically changed when a masked gunman barges into the courtroom during the custody hearing. Crawford reacts instinctually, saving Holly from a bullet.
But his heroism soon takes on the taint of recklessness. The cloud over him grows even darker after he uncovers a horrifying truth about the courtroom gunman and realizes that the unknown person behind the shooting remains at large . . .and a threat.
Catching the real culprit becomes a personal fight for Crawford. But pursuing the killer in his customary diehard fashion will jeopardize his chances of gaining custody of his daughter, and further compromise Judge Holly Spencer, who needs protection not only from an assassin, but from Crawford himself and the forbidden attraction between them.
FRICTION will keep you on the edge of your seat with breathtaking plot twists and the unforgettable characters that make Sandra Brown one of the world’s best-loved authors. It is an extraordinary novel about the powerful ties that bind us to the ones we love and the secrets we keep to protect them.

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for ARC August reading challenge, it is #9 on list from my sign up post. I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. I am a HUGE fan of Sandra Brown’s books, one of my first posts ever on my blog I talked about her book Deadline that I had read in 2013. There was a huge plot twist in the end that I never saw coming and it just floored me. I think that was my main issue, because Deadline really took my so much by surprise I was sitting through most of this book waiting for the other shoe to drop and for there to be that WTF moment and it happened but it wasn’t the shocker that I thought it would be. So I finished the book almost like still waiting for something more to happen instead of just enjoying what I was reading. So I guess my advice with this book is just to enjoy it and not look too much into the story because it is a good story but if you think too hard you’re going to make it harder for yourself to enjoy it.
Anyways so this book was about Judge Holly Spencer and Crawford Hunt, a Texas Ranger who is petitioning for custody of his daughter (Georgia) from the girl’s grandparents. I guess when Georgia was still a baby, her mom died and then Crawford came like unhinged and the grandparents had to take care of the baby for awhile and now they don’t want to give her back. Which honestly is one of the few things I ended up not liking about this book. Crawford’s father-in-law Joe was like a complete jerk to him and thought he should’ve gotten more of what was coming to him than he did. Crawford so obviously loved that little girl I don’t understand why Grace and Joe were trying to keep her from her own father, it still makes me mad just thinking about it. Moving on, Holly was the judge deciding whether Georgia would be returned to her father or not. But before Holly made her decision, a freaky scary guy came into the courtroom and started shooting up the place. Crawford helps to save Holly’s life and then from there we have to try and figure out who the shooter was.
Overall I really liked this book, it had a great story line and it was a quick read for me even though it was a fairly long book. I really just love how Brown draws you into the story and you just have to know what’s going to happen so you keep reading (even if its way past your bedtime). Her books are continually ones that I end up with book hangovers because I just can’t ever seem to get to a point where I can put it down and go to sleep. This book was another good one of hers, though I have to be honest Deadline is still my favorite I’ve read of hers so far. The tension between Holly and Crawford literally crackles and you can feel the magnetic pull between the two. No matter how hard they try to fight it, they are drawn to each other time and again. This book will keep you on your toes through the end!

The bottom line: I really enjoyed this book, I was hooked into the story from the beginning. It was a good suspense, I wouldn’t say it is my favorite written by this author but it is a good book! I would recommend it.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

16Aug2015

ARC August – Check in #2 – 8/15

Posted in 2015, ARC August, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Two weeks down now, halfway through the month and I think I’m making good progress. I didn’t get as much done as I had planned this week but we all need a little down time once in a while! ARC August, which is hosted by Read.Sleep.Repeat is a reading challenge that centers around catching up on reading your ARC’s! And I definitely needed the encouragement this month since I have a long list of them to get done.

My progress:

1. Awake by Natasha Preston – Read & reviewed during Week 1
2. On The Way: A Working Woman’s Field Guide by Robin Lake – Read & reviewed during Week 1
3. The Guilty One by Sophie Littlefield – Read & reviewed during Week 1
4. Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner – Read & reviewed during Week 1
5. Imaginary Things by Andrea Lochen – Read & reviewed plus an author interview!
6. Steele Resolve by Kimberly Amato – Read & reviewed
7. Melting Steele by Kimberly Amato – Read & reviewed
8. 33 Cecils by Everett DeMorier – Read & reviewed
9. Friction by Sandra Brown – Up next after I finish the book for this month’s book discussion
10. We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
11. A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan
12. Goddess of Suburbia by Stephanie Kepke

Books read August 8th-15th:

Imaginary Things by Andrea Lochen – 4.25 stars

Steele Resolve by Kimberly Amato – 2.75 stars

Melting Steele by Kimberly Amato – 2.5 stars

Thirty-Three Cecils by Everett De Morier – 3.5 stars

So that is what I have accomplished this week! Lots still to read, I didn’t have these on my original sign up post but I realized that I have 2 more ARC’s that I need to read for 9/1 and therefore will likely read in August. So that makes a total of 6 more books to read before 8/31. And with the Terryville Fair coming up at the end of the month, I lose a whole weekend to that. Lots of reading to do!! Will have to fit everything in.
Happy reading to you all!

16Aug2015

2015 Book #86 – Thirty-Three Cecils by Everett De Morier

Posted in 2015, ARC August, Book reviews, Fiction, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: Thirty-Three Cecils
Author: Everett De Morier
Date finished: 8/15/15
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Blydyn Square Books
Publication Date: 2015
Pages in book: 270
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Author/Publisher NOTE: I received this book for free from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

In 1992 – when Amy Fisher dominated every news channel – there lived two men. The first was a once prominent cartoonist who had a very public fall from grace. The other was an alcoholic who worked in a landfill. Both lived in in different parts of the country and led completely separate lives – until their paths crossed. You know their names. And for over twenty years, you thought you knew their story – until their journals were found and authenticated in 2014. And what we thought we knew – what the old news clips and the old stories wanted us to think – were all wrong.

My rating: 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for ARC August reading challenge, it is #8 on list from my sign up post. I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book is about a never solved mystery of who killed business partners Walker Roe and Riley Dutcher (also known as Dutch through most of the book). Walker Roe is very well known in Erie, Pennsylvania because he recently spent time in jail for bank fraud and for counterfeiting money. Walker is trying to put his life back together now that he isn’t in jail anymore and take care of his daughters. Dutch is a recovering alcoholic who has decided to travel through the United States since he’s never left his small town of Binghamton, New York. These two men were murdered and the case was never solved, mostly because the two men were the only witnesses to some strange events in the months leading up to their murders, events no one else could really describe because they weren’t there.
Fast forward to some amount of years later (I think it was twenty-ish but can’t remember exactly) and some college kids discover the long lost journals of Walker and Dutch. And from these journals we as the reader are finally able to answer some long-burning questions we would have in this fictional world including who is the murderer and how did Walker and Dutch end up becoming business partners in the first place? The journals tell the whole story of what happened to Walker and Dutch.
Overall I ended up really liking this book. This wasn’t something I normally would have picked up on my own but I’m really glad that I read it. The story line was really interesting and I was hooked in the story pretty much from the beginning. The only plot line point that bothered me a little bit about this book is why didn’t the police ever find the journals? I’m sure that the police would have searched Walker’s office at the liquor store to see if they could find anything leading them to a suspect, and they just never noticed the box with the journals in it? This didn’t bug me a ton but just a little annoying voice. There were some slow parts of the story for me but I was interested throughout the story so I was able to get through the slow points. I was pretty sad that Abby and Liz ended up losing their father because their relationship was pretty outstanding considering everything they had been through as a family. This was a good book though and I’m glad I got a chance to read it!

The bottom line: I ended up really enjoying this book. There were a few slow parts but the story line was great. I would recommend it.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

13Aug2015

2015 Book #85 – Melting Steele by Kimberly Amato

Posted in 2015, ARC August, Book reviews, Fiction, Mystery, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: Melting Steele
Author: Kimberly Amato
Date finished: 8/12/15
Genre: Fiction, mystery/suspense
Publisher: Little Crown Productions
Publication Date: May 19, 2015
Pages in book: 175
Stand alone or series: #2 in Jasmine Steele series
Where I got the book from: Author/Publisher NOTE: I received this book for free from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

We live in a digital age where everything you do, say and are, appears online. Nothing is ever really gone when you upload those photos, leave a bullying comment or surf mature websites. Detective Jasmine Steele is faced with a series of murders all tied to technology and the ever expanding Dark Web. Out of her element she needs to trust others in order to fully understand what she is faced with. In order to solve these cases, Steele has to put aside her obsession with those that killed her brother and tried to kill her. How can she do that when breadcrumbs all lead back to a powerful man who is connected to both prior cases? She has to find her focus before she loses herself to her own desire for revenge. Past obsessions can easily become crippling addictions.

My rating: 2.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for ARC August reading challenge, it is #7 on list from my sign up post. I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.This book continues the story of Detective Jasmine Steele, picking up about 14 months after where the last book left off. Jazz has been in physical therapy and recovery pretty much this whole time (she got pretty beat up in the end of the first book) and physically she’s finally starting to feel close to normal again. Unfortunately she can’t seem to let get of the case that got away from her. She almost died at the end of the first book, was so close in fact that she had a conversation with her grandmother who told her to just let this whole thing go. But she becomes a woman obsessed with getting justice for her brother and sister-in-law. She begins to “fall down the rabbit hole” as she calls it. And really she’s just making it more difficult for herself; she so much wanted to get Frankie back in the first book and now she’s risking her relationship with her (again) by pushing her away and keeping her out. It’s so frustrating to see how much Frankie just wants to help or at least find Jazz help, but Jazz doesn’t want to talk to anyone. And Jazz really needs to talk to someone; she’s having very intense, awful nightmares where she can feel everything including being physically assaulted. She really needs to talk to a therapist about what the dreams mean and how to move past them and how to deal with the fact that she killed someone.
Anyways so in this book Jazz and her partner (Will) will have to solve a triple homicide case. It ends up being a much bigger case than just that and ends up involving a lot of different technology, including a program called the Dark Web which allows users to access basically an online black market. Jazz is able to connect some of the goings-on to Irving Garrison, the ultimate villain from the first book who she’s been obsessed with the past 14 months. And while all this is happening, Jazz and Frankie are also trying to decide whether or not they should adopt another child plus Frankie’s trying to deal with Jazz pushing her away again.
Overall I liked this book, it was a little less gory than the first book, which I appreciated, but I also thought there was a little less suspense and action in the plotline than the first book. I felt more like this book was an important piece of the story but was acting as a middle part to the story where we are building up to a grand finale, which I’m assuming is coming in the third book. I did find some of the transitions into new days or new scenes to be a bit short or choppy and sometimes I had trouble following the flow of information. Also some pieces of Jazz’s inner monologue seem almost forced or awkward. Other than that this was a good continuation of the series I think and I’m looking forward to finding out what happens in the third book in the series.

The bottom line: I thought this was a good mystery novel, it felt more like a filler book to keep the series going but those are important too. Good mystery, looking forward to Book #3.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

12Aug2015

2015 Book #84 – Steele Resolve by Kimberly Amato

Posted in 2015, ARC August, Book reviews, Fiction, Mystery, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: Steele Resolve
Author: Kimberly Amato
Date finished: 8/11/15
Genre: Fiction, mystery/suspense
Publisher: Little Crown Productions
Publication Date: March 3, 2015
Pages in book: 153
Stand alone or series: #1 in Jasmine Steele series
Where I got the book from: Author/Publisher NOTE: I received this book for free from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Jasmine Steele’s life was exactly where she had wanted it to be. She had the love of her life, a job as a detective and never gave up on her dream of writing the next great novel. It’s true what they say about life, it changes without warning, and Jasmine’s dreams slammed to a halt the minute her brother was killed. Between guilt, becoming the guardian of her nephew, hiding her grief – she lost her soulmate, her dreams and ultimately herself. Now Steele is now faced with a series of murders that pulls her back into her brother’s case and puts everyone around her in grave danger. Forced to face her demons, Steele must find out who the killer is before she loses someone else she loves. The killer doesn’t care who dies, especially if it keeps Steele quiet – permanently. Sometimes your worst enemy is yourself.

My rating: 2.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for ARC August reading challenge, it is #6 on list from my sign up post. I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Detective Jasmine Steele, who is now the guardian of her seven year old nephew following the tragic accident that her brother and sister-in-law were killed in the year before. Jasmine is having trouble adjusting not only to handling her grief but also the new responsibilities that have been thrust upon her. In doing her best just to get through each day she has ended up pushing away the love of her life by putting up a wall between them, something she deeply regrets.
And while she tries to think of a way she could possibly fix the mess that her life is, things get even scarier. Someone calls and threatens both her and her nephew Chase. And then as she starts to dig deeper into the case, she realizes that her friends are also in danger, including the woman she is still in love with. Since Jazz is a detective with the police force, she knows better than anyone how to hunt down a killer. The problem though is what if the killer was hunting her first?
Overall I thought this was an fairly good book. I wouldn’t say it was my usual style, it was a little dark and bloody. The mystery story line was quite good though so if you like gory mysteries then I would definitely give this one a try. This to me just screams beach read, I always think reading scary books like this is less scary when you’re in the bright sun and surrounded by a calm ocean. Anyways, while for me the story line started out a tad slow, once we got into the whole hunt down the killer thing I was hooked. And while we deal with the immediate threat in this first book in the series, there is still a larger threat looming ahead that Jazz must face at some point in the future. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series (Melting Steele, up next!) and I peeked ahead and noticed that there is going to be a third book in the series as well.

The bottom line: I thought this was a good mystery novel, it kept my interest and was a fairly quick and easy read. This is what I consider a good beach read but I know that’s fairly subjective.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

10Aug2015

2015 Book #83 – Imaginary Things by Andrea Lochen

Posted in 2015, ARC August, Book reviews, Fiction, Magical realism, Reading Challenges, Women's fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: Imaginary Things
Author: Andrea Lochen
Date finished: 8/10/15
Genre: Fiction, Magical realism
Publisher: Astor + Blue Editions
Publication Date: April 27, 2015 (How funny, that’s my wedding anniversary)
Pages in book: 312
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Author/Publisher NOTE: I received this book for free from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Burned-out and completely broke, twenty-two-year-old single mother Anna Jennings moves to her grandparents’ rural Wisconsin home for the summer―her four-year-old, David, in tow. Returning to Salsburg reminds Anna of simpler times―fireflies, picnics, Neapolitan ice cream―long before she met her unstable ex and everything changed. But the sudden appearance of shadowy dinosaurs awakens Anna from this small-town spell, and forces her to believe she has either lost her mind or can somehow see her son’s active imagination. Frightened, Anna struggles to learn the rules of this bizarre phenomenon, but what she uncovers along the way is completely unexpected: revelations about what her son’s imaginary friends truly represent and hidden secrets about her own childhood.

My rating: 4.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for ARC August reading challenge, it is #5 on list from my sign up post. I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book is about Anna Jennings, a twenty-two year old woman and the mother of four year old David. You find out about David’s father in pieces throughout the story, but suffice it to say he has not been involved in David’s life. Anna has just lost her job in Milwaukee and is moving two hours away to her grandparent’s home in Salsburg until she can get back on her feet. Her grandparents have taken her in from time to time throughout her life, the last time being when she was pregnant with David. Anna’s mother, Kimberly, is a hard woman who never seemed to care much for Anna, so Anna is determined to never be that kind of mother to David. I thought it was truly touching how devoted she is to David as a parent. And though I’m not a parent myself, I’ve heard that many first time parents have numerous moments of self-doubt, whether they’re making the best decisions for their child or not. I could hear through Anna’s narration the thoughts that many first time parents must have. I thought her character was well developed and portrayed perfectly.
While staying with her grandparents, Anna begins to notice that David has some unusual play pals. The first time she almost sees them she thinks it is just a big dog, but when she begins to see them clearly she realizes that they are dinosaurs. That’s right, dinosaurs. And no one else can see them except her and David. She shouldn’t even really be able to see them because in actuality they’re just figments of David’s imagination. But they seem real as day to her, she can even feel and smell their hot breath while playing hide and seek one day. At first she’s worried about whether they’re going to hurt her son but she slowly starts to calm down when she realizes that the dinosaurs are protecting David. But what is it that David needs protecting from?
I don’t want to say too much else because I don’t want to give good plot points away. And the reason I’m not doing that is because everyone should go read it for themselves. Now. Go buy the book! This book was fantastic, I honestly just couldn’t put it down once I started reading it. I thought the idea of Anna being able to see David’s imaginary friends was just so creative and unlike anything I had ever read before. Also the plot of this book was just captivating. Every time I thought we were about to come up on a slow part of the book, something else would happen that kept me on my toes. I was literally on the edge of my seat for the last 50 pages at least. Great story line and great characters, I will definitely be reading Lochen’s previous book and anything in the future. Everyone go read this book!
And be sure to check out my other post from today, I got to chat a little with the author, Andrea Lochen, about this book and her other books.

The bottom line: I loved this book, I definitely recommend reading it! Especially if you are a women’s fiction or magical realism fan! Great read!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

8Aug2015

ARC August – Check in #1 – 8/8

Posted in 2015, ARC August, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Woo hoo! One week down! ARC August, which is hosted by Read.Sleep.Repeat is a reading challenge that centers around catching up on reading your ARC’s! And I definitely needed the encouragement this month since I have a long list of them to get done.

My progress:

1. Awake by Natasha Preston – Read & reviewed
2. On The Way: A Working Woman’s Field Guide by Robin Lake – Read & reviewed
3. The Guilty One by Sophie Littlefield – Read & reviewed
4. Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner – Read & reviewed
5. Imaginary Things by Andrea Lochen – Up next!
6. Steele Resolve by Kimberly Amato
7. Melting Steele by Kimberly Amato
8. 33 Cecils by Everett DeMorier
9. Friction by Sandra Brown
10. We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
11. A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan
12. Goddess of Suburbia by Stephanie Kepke

Books read August 1st-7th:

Awake by Natasha Preston – 3.25 stars – Also stay tuned for an interview with this author soon to be posted (hopefully)

One the Way by Robin Lake – 4.0 stars

The Guilty One by Sophie Littlefield – 4.0 stars

Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner – 3.75 stars

So! That’s where I ended up this week. Make sure to check in early next week, I’ll be posting an author interview with Andrea Lochen, author of Imaginary Things. Happy reading!