2015 Book #123 – The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Posted in 2015, Book reviews, Bookish Bingo Holiday 2015, Fiction, Reading Challenges, Thriller by rebeccabook17

Title: The Girl on the Train
Author: Paula Hawkins
Date finished: 12/22/15
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publication Date: January 13, 2015
Pages in book: 323
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: My friend Val from work

Blurb from the cover:

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?
Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.

My rating: 4.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will count towards my “Holiday 2015 Bookish Bingo” reading challenge, marking off the “Thriller” square, since, well, it was very thrilling. I was on the edge of my seat for a good part of this book! Anyways, this book tells a number of stories but I found that the main focus was on Rachel Watson through the book. The chapters are told from three different points of view: Rachel, Anna (Rachel’s replacement) and finally Megan, a woman who is missing for most of Rachel and Anna’s chapters. Rachel is an alcoholic who has lost her job but still rides the train into London each morning and back in the evening so that she can fool her roommate into thinking she still has a job. Rachel also hasn’t gotten over her ex-husband, who was cheating on her at the end of their marriage and has since moved in with his mistress and had a baby with her.
One night Rachel gets so drunk that she blacks out, though she does remember getting off the train at the station where her ex-husband, and coincidentally the missing woman, lives. Rachel wakes up the next morning with cuts and bruises all over, and she can’t remember what happened or how she got home. All she knows is that something very bad has happened. She spends the next few weeks trying to piece together what has happened to Megan and also trying to remember what happened that night to see if maybe she had some involvement in Megan’s disappearance.
Overall I really liked this book. A couple of the plot twists I did see coming but most of them I did not expect, and the book 10)% did not end how I would have expected it to end. This was a fast-paced thrilling read that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. All of the characters in this story are seriously flawed and have staggering issues that they’re dealing with. It is interesting that in the beginning of the story Rachel watches Megan, who she calls “Jess” at the time, through the train window and imagines the perfect life that she has, when Megan’s life is very far from perfect. I’m interested to see how this book is going to translate to film, it is currently scheduled to be released in movie theaters in October 2016. I would definitely put this one on your to read list (if you haven’t read it already)!

The bottom line: This book has had a lot of hype during 2015 and I can understand why. It was a great, fast-paced read. I would definitely recommend!!

Link to author website

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

21Dec2015

2015 Book #122 – A Match For Marcus Cynster by Stephanie Laurens

Posted in 2015, Book reviews, Book series, Bookish Bingo Holiday 2015, Cynster family series, Cynster Next Generation, Historical Romance, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: A Match for Marcus Cynster
Author: Stephanie Laurens
Date finished: 12/20/15
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Mira
Publication Date: May 26, 2015
Pages in book: 442
Stand alone or series: Cynster family series #22, 3rd in Cynster Next Generation series

Blurb from the cover:

Duty compels her to turn her back on marriage. Fate drives him to protect her come what may. Then love takes a hand in this battle of yearning hearts, stubborn wills, and a match too powerful to deny. #1New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens returns to rugged Scotland with a dramatic tale of passionate desire and unwavering devotion.
Restless and impatient, Marcus Cynster waits for Fate to come calling. He knows his destiny lies in the lands surrounding his family home, but what will his future be and with whom will he share it?
Of one fact he feels certain: his fated bride will not be Niniver Carrick. His elusive neighbor attracts him mightily, yet he feels compelled to protect her—even from himself. Fickle Fate, he’s sure, would never be so kind as to decree that Niniver should be his. The best he can do for them both is to avoid her.
Niniver has vowed to return her clan to prosperity. The epitome of fragile femininity, her delicate and ethereal exterior cloaks a stubborn will and an unflinching devotion to the people in her care. She accepts that she cannot risk marrying and losing her grip on the clan’s reins to an inevitably controlling husband. Unfortunately, many local men see her as their opportunity.
Soon, she’s forced to seek help to get rid of her unwelcome suitors. Powerful and dangerous, Marcus Cynster is perfect for the task. Suppressing her wariness over tangling with a gentleman who so excites her passions, she appeals to him for assistance with her peculiar problem.
Although at first he resists, Marcus discovers that, contrary to his expectations, his fated role is to stand by Niniver’s side and, ultimately, to claim her hand. Yet in order to convince her to be his bride, they must plunge headlong into a journey full of challenges, unforeseen dangers, passion, and yearning, until Niniver grasps the essential truth—that she is indeed a match for Marcus Cynster.

My rating: 3.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will count towards my “Holiday 2015 Bookish Bingo” reading challenge, marking off the “Romance” square, since (duh) it is a historical romance novel. I have been waiting and waiting to read this one and even though I bought it months ago I’m just getting around to it. My schedule from August through November was really just packed full of ARC reviews so I didn’t have time to read this one until now. Obviously I very much enjoy the Cynster series, and after being introduced to Niniver and hearing a little more about Marcus in the last book The Tempting of Thomas Carrick (about Marcus’s sister and Niniver’s cousin) I couldn’t wait to dive into this book. Niniver’s father was murdered in the last book and after a series of unfortunate (but fast-moving) events she is left in charge of the Carrick Clan.
Fast forward to a year later, and Niniver is encountering a problem that she can’t handle on her own. Remembering Marcus’s vow to help her should she ever need it, she traipses on over to his house and persuades him to assist her in her situation. In order to do that Marcus basically has to pretend to be her boyfriend. Marcus originally doesn’t think that this is a good idea because he knows that they are attracted to each other and he doesn’t want to be tempted but once he realizes that the Lady might be making something happen, he decides to go along with the plan.
Overall I thought this book was ok. I honestly had some trouble with the plot line now that I’m looking back on it. The whole thing seems just a little far-fetched to me I guess. I still enjoyed it and I am excited to read more in the series but the plot just didn’t pull me in this time.

The bottom line: I would recommend this book, especially if you like historical romance. I would probable preface that with saying that some of the other books in the series I enjoyed more than this one, but I love the Cynster series and I am excited that it is continuing with the Next Generation.

Link to author website

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

9Dec2015

2015 Book #121 – Tiny Little Thing by Beatriz Williams

Posted in 2015, Book reviews, Bookish Bingo Holiday 2015, Fiction, Historical fiction, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: Tiny Little Thing
Author: Beatriz Williams
Date finished: 12/8/15
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication Date: June 23, 2015
Pages in book: 354
Stand alone or series: Can be read as a stand alone but there are other novels starring characters in this book (Along the Infinite Sea is about Tiny’s sister Pepper and The Secret Life of Violet Grant tells Vivian’s story somewhat I think)
Where I got the book from: Terryville Public Library

Blurb from the cover:

In the summer of 1966, Christina Hardcastle—“Tiny” to her illustrious family—stands on the brink of a breathtaking future. Of the three Schuyler sisters, she’s the one raised to marry a man destined for leadership, and with her elegance and impeccable style, she presents a perfect camera-ready image in the dawning age of television politics. Together she and her husband, Frank, make the ultimate power couple: intelligent, rich, and impossibly attractive. It seems nothing can stop Frank from rising to national office, and he’s got his sights set on a senate seat in November.
But as the season gets underway at the family estate on Cape Cod, three unwelcome visitors appear in Tiny’s perfect life: her volatile sister Pepper, an envelope containing incriminating photograph, and the intimidating figure of Frank’s cousin Vietnam-war hero Caspian, who knows more about Tiny’s rich inner life than anyone else. As she struggles to maintain the glossy façade on which the Hardcastle family’s ambitions are built, Tiny begins to suspect that Frank is hiding a reckless entanglement of his own…one that may unravel both her own ordered life and her husband’s promising career.

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will count towards my “Holiday 2015 Bookish Bingo” reading challenge, marking off the “Multiple POV” square, since this book is told alternating between Tiny and Caspian’s points of view. I really wanted to read this book after reading Along the Infinite Sea recently by this author, I wanted to see what more I could get of a background story on the Schuyler sisters. Tiny (Christina Schuyler) has always done the right thing, she’s always been the perfect daughter and the now she’s the perfect wife. But she’s tired of being perfect, and what she really wants is just to be herself, whoever that might be. When on a chance encounter she meets Captain Caspian Harrison, she asks him to help her disappear. The story line alternated between 1964 when Tiny asks Caspian to help her escape from her fiance and her family and 1966 where Tiny is obviously married so as the story unravels between the two time periods the reader is left to wonder what exactly ended up going down in 1964. And also what the hell is going on in 1966 because there is some shady stuff going on behind the scenes! In 1966 Tiny is married to Frank Hardcastle, who is running for Senator. And now here to help him is his handsome cousin Caspian who recently lost one of his legs in the Vietnam War.
I really did enjoy this book. I didn’t give it as great of a rating only because I found it to be slow in the beginning of the book. I can’t tell if it was the book (pretty sure it wasn’t) or my crazy schedule that only allows me to read for 10 minutes at a time while trying not to get distracted (most likely the reason) but whatever the case I just had trouble getting into the book and it didn’t give me a ton of enjoyment. Once I got mid-way and the story picked up for me though it was better and the end had a great twist that I never saw coming which I always love. Overall this was a solid, good book for me and I would definitely recommend reading it!

The bottom line: This book was a little slow to get into for me, most likely because of my limited available reading time and less likely because of the book. The ending really was quite riveting though, I didn’t want to put it down! Would recommend this one!

Link to author website

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

5Dec2015

Bookish Bingo – Holiday edition!

Posted in Bookish Bingo Holiday 2015, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

I have singed up to participate in the Bookish Bingo reading challenge! This challenge is hosted by the Pretty Deadly Reviews blog and will run from December 1st, 2015 through the end of February (of 2016). I participated in a Bookish Bingo earlier this year and had so much fun with it I wanted to do it again! I though that this is such a creative idea, combining reading with a game! I am very excited to do this reading challenge again, especially since it helps me to complete one of my goals for 2015 (one reading challenge per quarter)!

So here is the bingo card:

winter-bingo-1024x1003

I’ve been working a lot and with the holidays coming up I’m not sure I’ll be able to read as many as I did last time I did the challenge but we’ll see how it goes! The host site has some great recommendations for each of the categories if any of my readers are also interested in participating!

Happy reading everyone!

1Sep2015

ARC August – Check in #4 & Wrap up post

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

I can’t believe it’s September already! August just flew by but I’m glad I was able to get through my entire list of ARC’s I had scheduled to read in August. I think that my success is in part thanks to my participation in ARC August. 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 had a long list of them to get done.

My final update:

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 during Week 3
10. We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh – Read & reviewed during Week 3
11. A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan – Read & reviewed
12. Goddess of Suburbia by Stephanie Kepke – Read and reviewed
Bonus! 13. Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie – Read and reviewed

Books read August 23rd-31st:

A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan – 4.0 stars

Goddess of Suburbia by Stephanie Kepke – 3.25 stars

The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie – 4.25 stars

August turned out to be a pretty successful month! Looking forward to reading some new books in September/October from my favorite authors I’ve been waiting to catch up on. Happy reading everyone!!

1Sep2015

2015 Book # 92 – Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie

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

Title: Sisters of Versailles
Author: Sally Christie
Date finished: 8/31/15
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: September 1, 2015
Pages in book: 432
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:

A sumptuous and sensual tale of power, romance, family, and betrayal centered around four sisters and one King. Carefully researched and ornately detailed, The Sisters of Versailles is the first book in an exciting new historical fiction trilogy about King Louis XV, France’s most “well-beloved” monarch, and the women who shared his heart and his bed.
Goodness, but sisters are a thing to fear.
Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters—Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne—four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.
Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife. The race is on to find a mistress for the royal bed as various factions put their best foot—and women—forward. The King’s scheming ministers push Louise, the eldest of the aristocratic Nesle sisters, into the arms of the King. Over the following decade, the four sisters—sweet, naïve Louise; ambitious Pauline; complacent Diane, and cunning Marie Anne—will conspire, betray, suffer, and triumph in a desperate fight for both love and power.
In the tradition of The Other Boleyn Girl, The Sisters of Versailles is a clever, intelligent, and absorbing novel that historical fiction fans will devour. Based on meticulous research on a group of women never before written about in English, Sally Christie’s stunning debut is a complex exploration of power and sisterhood—of the admiration, competition, and even hatred that can coexist within a family when the stakes are high enough.

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 wasn’t included on my sign up post but it will be my last book for the challenge. I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book is about the five Mailly Nesle sisters, four of whom were mistresses of King Louis XV, the fifth deciding to stay loyal to her husband, which appears to be rare for this time period. Louise is the eldest sister and a couple years after she marries she inherits a position in the Queen’s court. It is there that she meets the King and becomes his mistress. The next two eldest girls, Pauline and Diane, are sent to a convent after the death of their mother. The two youngest, Hortense and Marie-Anne go to live with their aunt after their mother’s death.
I loved this book. I thought it was extremely interesting, it was hard for me to put down. And I think that it is even cooler that it is based on actual events from the 1700’s. Since this is fiction not everything from the story is factual but there were actually 4 sisters who all slept with the same King apparently. I don’t want to give away too much from the story line so I won’t say much about the actual plot but there is enough romance, intrigue, love, revenge, death, and power to make all kinds of readers happy. I thought this was a great book and I can’t wait to see more from this author!

The bottom line: I very much enjoyed this book, it was full of power, intrigue, revenge, and love. I would definitely recommend!!

Link to author website

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

27Aug2015

2015 Book #91 – Goddess of Suburbia

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

Title: Goddess of Suburbia
Author: Stephanie Kepke
Date finished: 8/27/15
Genre: Women’s fiction
Publisher: Booktrope Editions
Publication Date: August 10, 2015
Pages in book: 218
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:

Suburbia meets scandal in this hopeful and honest portrayal of that moment in every woman’s life when it’s time to make a change, even if that means risking losing it all. Goddess of Suburbia by Stephanie Kepke is a must-read for women looking to reconnect with their passions, and live authentically. When pillar of the community and PTA mom, Max, allowed her husband, Nick, to record a sex video of them on his cell phone, she thought of it as simply a way to keep Nick interested and entertained during his frequent business trips. But suddenly, Max is trending everywhere—her video lighting up the blogosphere and Twitter, thanks to the fact that she’s a genuine, imperfect woman. Now the paparazzi are chronicling her every move; her daughter wants to disown her; and her marriage has completely fallen apart. Just as things can’t get any more chaotic, Max’s college boyfriend, shows up two decades after he broke her heart. Now Max must learn to stop going through the motions of her life on auto-pilot and start living authentically, or risk forever being a suburban lemming running towards the cliff of old age.

My rating: 3.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for ARC August reading challenge, it is #12 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 Max Green, who overnight turns into a local celebrity when a sex tape of her is leaked to the press and spreads in popularity on the internet. Everyone starts being all judge-y, which honestly I felt was pretty stupid since the sex tape was of her having sex with her husband, not some random stranger. I don’t want to go too far into plot and what goes on because there was a lot happening and I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone with spoilers.
Overall I liked the book. It was edging towards fast-paced and it kept my interest throughout the story. Max really grew as a character through the story and it was excellent to see her ending up more sure of her strength than ever. It was hard to watch her suffer in the beginning of the book, she suffered from a lot of self-doubt and it affected a lot of different pieces of her life. She had support from her best friend Andi, who was a little too pushy at a couple points but that was exactly what Max really needed to get her but in gear and figure out what she was doing with herself. One of the things I didn’t necessarily like about this book was that I didn’t think the bad guys really got their karmic punishment in the end. I know everything ended the way it did on purpose for the sake of the children in their family but I really thought that there should have been some kind of punishment served in this scenario. Other than that and the lengthy amount of time that Max suffers from self-doubt, I ended up liking the story a lot and I liked most of the characters. It had a sweet ending and I was happy that Max ended up happy and fulfilled in the end!

The bottom line: I liked this book ok. There was a lot going on and it was a pretty quick read so it was easy to stay interested.

Link to author website

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

26Aug2015

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

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