2016 Book #74 – The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Posted in Book Clubs, Book reviews, Fiction, Terryville - Fiction Lovers by rebeccabook17

Title: The Rosie Project
Author: Graeme Simsion
Date finished: 8/14/16
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: June 3, 2014
Pages in book: 295
Stand alone or series: There is a sequel to this, The Rosie Effect
Where I got the book from: Purchased (I believe from Book Outlet)

Blurb from the cover:

The art of love is never a science: Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.
Rosie Jarman possesses all these qualities. Don easily disqualifies her as a candidate for The Wife Project (even if she is “quite intelligent for a barmaid”). But Don is intrigued by Rosie’s own quest to identify her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on The Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie―and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

My rating: 4.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I read this book for the Terryville Library’s Fiction Lover’s Book Discussion group discussion for this month (August). This book follows a part in the life of Don Tillman, a genetics professor who has recently decided to try and find a wife to share his life with. Since Don is not skilled at social interaction (he is autistic), he decides to use a questionnaire to help him weed out any unsuitable candidates. The double sided 16 page questionnaire covers many topics, including mathematics, daily habits and personal interest. Rosie Jarman is definitely not what Don would call a suitable candidate: a barmaid, a smoker, and a woman currently experiencing many emotional issues. She is everything Don is trying to avoid in his search fora wife. But while he is helping her with a genetics project, he finds himself drawn to her personality on a number of occasions. But can he convince her to love him for who he is, eccentricities and all?
Overall I really greatly enjoyed this book. Don as a character was witty, charming, and entirely captivating. I loved the intricacies of Don’s character and how truthfully he was presented as an autistic lead role. It was really interesting to see how his character progressed through the story and how his relationship with Rosie changed his outlook on many different aspects of his life. The antics he gets into throughout the book due to his different mental abilities are hilarious. I loved this book and I can’t wait to read the sequel.

The bottom line: I loved this book from beginning to end. Don was an entertaining and endearing character and I found his antics very humorous. I can’t wait to read the sequel, The Rosie Effect. An excellent and engaging read, I would most definitely recommend!

Link to author website

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

10Jun2016

2016 Book #60 – The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Women's fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: The Wedding Sisters
Author: Jamie Brenner
Date finished: 6/9/16
Genre: Fiction, women’s fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Pages in book: 317
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:

Meryl Becker is living a mother’s dream. The oldest of her three beautiful daughters, Meg, is engaged to a wonderful man from one of the country’s most prominent families. Of course, Meryl wants to give Meg the perfect wedding. Who wouldn’t? But when her two younger daughters, Amy and Jo, also become engaged to celebrated bachelors, Meryl has to admit that three weddings is more than she and her husband, Hugh, can realistically afford.
The solution? A triple wedding! At first, it’s a tough sell to the girls, and juggling three sets of future in-laws is a logistical nightmare. But when Hugh loses his teaching job, and Meryl’s aging mother suddenly moves in with them, a triple wedding is the only way to get all three sisters down the aisle. When the grand plan becomes public, the onslaught of media attention adds to Meryl’s mounting pressure. Suddenly, appearances are everything – and she will do whatever it takes to keep the wedding on track as money gets tight, her mother starts acting nutty, and her own thirty year marriage starts to unravel.
In the weeks leading up to the nuptials, secrets are revealed, passions ignite, and surprising revelations show Meryl and her daughters the true meaning of love, marriage and family. Jamie Brenner’s The Wedding Sisters invites readers to the most unpredictable wedding of the year.

My rating: 4.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Meryl Becker, along with her husband and their three daughters: Meg, Amy, and Jo. Hugh has always had a keen interest in Louisa May Alcott, and had even written a book chronicling the life of the author’s mother, which was published when he first met Meryl. Meg Amy, and Jo are all grown up now, and through an interesting series of events all three sisters find themselves engaged within a couple months of each other. And when Hugh loses his job, Meryl realizes the only way they could possibly afford to marry off all three daughters within a year is to have all three weddings at the same time. And thus the idea of a triple wedding was born. And due to the fact that all three daughters are marrying what can only be described as “well-off” men, once the media gets wind of the triple wedding the press circus begins. As the wedding looms closer though, each sister starts to see cracks in their relationships that weren’t there before.
Overall I really enjoyed this book so much. It was tension and drama filled, it was fast-paced and I just didn’t want to put it down. I thought the book really did a great job of examining multiple types of relationships: mother and daughter, husband and wife, sister and (other) sister, and also friendship and new love. It was interesting to hear the sisters three very different stories. And the ending was heart warming and inspiring. There was a lot going on in this book between all the characters’ separate dramas but the author combined the stories flawlessly and I thought the story line flowed very well. I would highly recommend this book, this is one of summer’s must reads!

The bottom line: I immensely enjoyed this book. It was tension and drama filled and kept me interested through the whole story. I also liked the view this book gave on a number of different relationship categories. Very interesting and exciting read, I think this is a great summer read! I would definitely recommend.

Link to author website

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

30May2016

2016 Book #56 – His Wicked Wish by Olivia Drake

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Cinderella Sisterhood series, Historical Romance by rebeccabook17

Title: His Wicked Wish
Author: Olivia Drake
Date finished: 5/30/16
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Publication Date: May 31, 2016
Pages in book: 336
Stand alone or series: #5 in the Cinderella Sisterhood series
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:

MARRIAGE TO A NOBLEMAN? NOT IN HER WILDEST DREAMS. . .
The daughter of a disgraced woman and a common actor, Madelyn Swann has been shunned by the nobility. No proper lady would traipse about on a Covent Garden stage, let alone sell herself at auction to the highest bidder. So why in heaven’s name would Nathan Atwood, Viscount Rowley, make a generous offer for her hand?
Turns out Maddy is exactly the type of woman Nathan wants as his wife. Finally, he can embarrass his snobbish and cruel father, the Earl of Gilmore—and scandalize London society—with his beautiful, unsuitable bride. Then he’ll depart England forever and leave his wife behind. Having secret plans of her own, Maddy is happy to play the role … only to find that enjoying her husband’s seduction requires no acting whatsoever. But as she falls madly in love with Nathan, can she persuade him to stay with her for always?

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. I love anything involving fairy tale retellings and so when I saw this book available on NetGalley I definitely wanted to read it. It didn’t turn out to be quite the fairy-tale retelling that I was expecting but since it is part of a series I suspect that each book in the series holds a piece of the plot that ties it to the Cinderella story. For this book there was a godmother who, while not a fairy, was instrumental in bringing the two lovers together and there was also a pair of fantastical shoes. This book tells the story of Nathan Atwood, who returns home to England after spending 10 years in the Far East when he receives a distressing letter from his godmother. Nathan thinks (really hopes) that he’s returning home to a dead father but he is surprised to learn on his arrival that his father did not die from smallpox, but his brother did. Shocked that he is now the heir, Nate determines that he will marry some tawdry loudmouth in the hope of embarrassing his father. That’s where he thinks Maddy comes in. Maddy is a very successful actress who has dreams of a bigger future. Her mother was actually the daughter of a duke, shunned when she married a lowly actor. Maddy wants to find her grandfather, the Duke, and confront him over how he treated her mother so many years ago.
Overall I liked this book a lot. There were a lot of pieces included in the plot development that I really liked, including a secret granddaughter, questionable parenthood, a tawdry actress, lots of snobbish behavior, a villainous rogue, and a dimpled hero. The only thing that really did not appeal to me with this book is that I thought the development of Maddy and Nate’s relationship was not quite what it could have been. I usually like to see the relationship between the hero and heroine be full of emotion and a deep connection, but I didn’t necessarily feel that in this story. I still really liked the book and would still recommend it. I am excited to try another book in the series as I liked the author’s plot developments.

The bottom line: This was an ok book for me. I would probably read more in the series. The relationship development between the hero and heroine was somewhat lacking for me but other than that this book had some great plot developments and was highly entertaining. I would recommend it and I will try more in the series once I have time in my reading schedule.

Link to author website

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

24May2016

2016 Book #51 – People Who Knew Me by Kim Hooper

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Women's fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: People Who Knew Me
Author: Kim Hooper
Date finished: 5/24/16
Genre: Fiction, women’s fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: May 24, 2016
Pages in book: 294
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: The Reading Room NOTE: I received this book for free from The Reading Room 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:

Everything was fine fourteen years after she left New York.
Until suddenly, one day, it wasn’t.
Emily Morris got her happily-ever-after earlier than most. Married at a young age to a man she loved passionately, she was building the life she always wanted. But when enormous stress threatened her marriage, Emily made some rash decisions. That’s when she fell in love with someone else. That’s when she got pregnant.
Resolved to tell her husband of the affair and to leave him for the father of her child, Emily’s plans are thwarted when the world is suddenly split open on 9/11. It’s amid terrible tragedy that she finds her freedom, as she leaves New York City to start a new life. It’s not easy, but Emily—now Connie Prynne―forges a new happily-ever-after in California. But when a life-threatening diagnosis upends her life, she is forced to rethink her life for the good of her thirteen-year-old daughter.
A riveting debut in which a woman must confront her own past in order to secure the future of her daughter, Kim Hooper’s People Who Knew Me asks: “What would you do?”

My rating: 4.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. Reading the description of this book I was intrigued, and while not dying to read this book at first, I definitely wanted to know more. This book hooks you right from page one though and sucks you in for the rest of the story, only spitting you out at the end feeling lost and a little heart-broken. I couldn’t put this book down, the story line really progresses masterfully by alternating between the past and the present, consistently only giving the reader enough of a glimpse so that you’re dying to learn the rest of what happened. This book was about Emily Morris, who disappeared from New York a week after the tragedy of 9/11 without telling any of her family or even her husband that she was still alive. As a reader, when I first heard that she had done this I was appalled. How could she abandon her life and her loved ones without a word? What about the pain she was causing them? These are questions, I have to be honest, I struggled with through most of the book. As we learn more about Emily/Connie’s background, there is a certain understanding of why she took the path she did, but it is still heart-breaking. When Emily/Connie learns that she has cancer though, she has to start thinking about where her thirteen year old daughter Claire would go if she died. And with these thoughts come the realization that she must tell her daughter Claire the truth about her past and Claire’s parentage.
Overall I liked this book a lot. Like I said, I couldn’t put it down and I was hooked on the story from the very beginning. Some of the subject matter was tough for me since I could not at all imagine myself doing what Emily/Connie did. At the same time though, put in that extreme situation I couldn’t help but wonder, who can say what I would actually do? Emily had to deal with way too much stress on her young marriage and its no wonder that her unhappiness from that situation manifested in such an extreme way and that she walked away without looking back. That is one of the things that I ended up really liking about this book: even though some of the decisions that Emily/Connie made really turned my stomach, I couldn’t help but really think about what I would have done put in the same situation. It is easy to say I would be noble and honest when I’m not faced with making that choice and dealing with the consequences of that choice. But it is hard not to wonder if I might end up taking the easy way out. Who can say what any one of us would have done in Emily’s shoes.

The bottom line: This book had a couple of great plot twists included and even beyond the excitement of those I just couldn’t put this book down. It was like when you’re watching a video of a car crash and you know the crash is coming but you want to see really just how much the car caught on fire in the end. This book was heart-wrenching, scandalous and for me was really thought provoking psychologically. I would say this one is a must-read for this summer!

Link to author website

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

20May2016

2016 Book #49 – The California Wife by Kristen Harnisch

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Historical fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: The California Wife
Author: Kristen Harnisch
Date finished: 5/19/16
Genre: Hisorical fiction
Publisher: She Writes Press
Publication Date: May 10, 2016
Pages in book: 416
Stand alone or series: Sequel to The Vintner’s Daughter
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:

It is 1897, and Sara and Philippe Lemieux, newly married and full of hope for the future, are determined to make Eagle’s Run, their Napa vineyard, into a world-renowned winemaking operation. But the swift arrival of the 20th century brings a host of obstacles they never dreamed of: price wars and the twin threats of phylloxera and Prohibition endanger the success of their business, and the fiercely independent Sara is reluctant to leave the fields behind for the new and strange role of wife and mother.
An invitation to the World’s Fair in 1900 comes just in time to revive the vineyard’s prospects, and amid the jewel-colored wonders of Belle Époque Paris, Sara and Philippe’s passion is rekindled as well. But then family tragedy strikes, and, upon their return to California, a secret from Philippe’s past threatens to derail their hard-won happiness in one stroke.
Sara gains an ally when Marie Chevreau, her dear friend, arrives in San Francisco as the first female surgery student to be admitted to prestigious Cooper Medical College. Through Marie, Sara gets a glimpse of the glittering world of San Francisco’s high society, and she also forges friendships with local women’s rights advocates, inciting new tensions in her marriage. Philippe issues Sara an ultimatum: will she abandon the struggle for freedom to protect her family’s winemaking business, or will she ignore Philippe and campaign for a woman’s right to vote and earn a fair wage?
Fate has other plans in store in the spring of 1906, which brings with it a challenge unlike any other that the Lemieux family or their fellow Northern Californians have ever faced. Will the shadow of history overwhelm Sara and Philippe’s future, despite their love for each other? In The California Wife, Kristen Harnisch delivers a rich, romantic tale of wine, love, new beginnings, and a family’s determination to fight for what really matters―sure to captivate fans of The Vintner’s Daughter and new readers alike.

My rating: 4.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. I read The Vintner’s Daughter last year, which was Harnisch’s debut novel, and just loved it. Sara’s story was compelling and I was so glad that she found someone she loved to spend the rest of her life with. And this book, The California Wife, picks up right where the last book left us and continues on with Sara and Philippe’s story. Honestly I think that this was one of the things I loved most about this book. Even though I wouldn’t call The Vintner’s Daughter a true romance novel, there was a happy ending. And usually that is where the reader is left, with the characters walking off into the “happily ever after” fog of dawn. But this book takes the story past that point and shows what love really is. Its fights and struggles and sometimes its being the strong partner and sometimes the weak. Its not always pretty and its not always fun but it is real. And the marriage in this book felt real to me, more than most I’ve read before.
Sara and Philippe encounter a number of struggles in this book but they manage to work together to overcome their many obstacles. Interwoven with their story is Marie’s story after she moves to San Francisco to attend surgical school. Marie was also in the first book, she housed Lydia and Sara when they first arrived in New York and was working as a midwife in the city. Marie has to overcome a lot of prejudice and judgement when she decides to attend surgical school in San Francisco, but there is nothing else she wants more that to be able to help/heal people and save lives, so she pushes through and excels. It is at school that she meets Matthew Donnelly, a skilled surgeon who encourages Marie in her studies. There are many dramatic events included in the story, all of which are dealt with by Sara and her family.
Overall I really liked this book. I did not want to put it down, every time I thought that we were about to settle into a lull in the story something else would happen to keep me on my toes. Harnisch does a great job of making the plot line flow together even with months/years between events and alternating story lines. I loved Sara’s character and I loved how real her marriage was with Philippe. And I loved seeing the insights into medicine and surgery at that time through Marie’s schooling, those scenes were very interesting! All in all this was a great read and I can’t wait to see how the story continues in the next book.

The bottom line: This was a great continuation of Sara and Philippe’s story. I was a huge fan of Harnisch’s first novel, The Vintner’s Daughter, and I loved being able to continue seeing Sara’s journey. This book is poignantly raw and emotional, not sugar-coating anything for the reader but instead being true to the struggles of life after the initial “happily-ever-after.” A great read, I would most definitely recommend!

Link to author website

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

22Apr2016

2016 Book #37 – I Know What I’m Doing — and Other Lies I Tell Myself by Jen Kirkman

Posted in 2016, Book reviews, Non-fiction, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: I Know What I’m Doing — And Other Lies I Tell Myself
Author: Jen Kirkman
Date finished: 4/22/16
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: April 12, 2016
Pages in book: 240
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Edelweiss NOTE: I received this book for free from Edelweiss 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:

New York Times bestselling author and stand-up comedian Jen Kirkman delivers a hilarious, candid memoir about marriage, divorce, sex, turning forty, and still not quite having life figured out.
Jen Kirkman wants to be the voice in your head that says, Hey, you’re okay. Even if you sometimes think you aren’t! And especially if other people try to tell you you’re not.
In I Know What I’m Doing—and Other Lies I Tell Myself, Jen offers up all the gory details of a life permanently in progress. She reassures you that it’s okay to not have life completely figured out, even when you reach middle age (and find your first gray pubic hair!). She talks about making unusual or unpopular life decisions (such as cultivating a “friend with benefits” or not going home for the holidays) because you don’t necessarily want for yourself what everyone else seems to think you should. It’s about renting when everyone says you should own, dating around when everyone thinks you should settle down, and traveling alone when everyone pities you for going to Paris without a man.
From marriage to divorce and sex to mental health, I Know What I’m Doing—and Other Lies I Tell Myself is about embracing the fact that life is a bit of a sh*t show and it’s definitely more than okay to stay true to yourself.

My rating: 2.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. Also, this book will count towards my “PopSugar 2016 Checklist” reading challenge, marking off the “a book written by a comedian” since this book was in fact written by a stand-up comedian. This book is about Jen Kirkman’s experience with marriage, divorce, and what comes after. It is an honest look at what she thinks of the institution of marriage and about her life. Since she is a comedian, as you can expect there is a slightly sarcastic and humorous voice as our narrator. Many times I found myself laughing out loud while reading this book.
So I would like to preface the rest of what I’m going to write by saying that I don’t think I am the target audience for this book. At all. This book talks a lot about how awful marriage is and while that wasn’t the only point that this book was trying to make or the only thing discussed, it really turned me off to some large parts of the book. While I get that marriage isn’t for everyone, the author talked a lot about how when she was contemplating divorce she got tired of married people telling her that marriage is hard and that she should try to work harder at it. Obviously I don’t know her exact situation and no one outside of your marriage can really decide for you whether its something that is right for you, her married friends were telling the truth. Marriage is hard. It isn’t all rainbows and being madly in love all day every day for your whole life. Marriage is a lot of work. I mean think about it, you have to spend 50 years of your life attached to one person. During that 50 years countless other people are going to come in and out of your life, changing who you are as a person. Even ignoring that, people usually change over time, so during 50 years you could change who you are as a person entirely. Sometimes you change too much and your marriage doesn’t work out but otherwise you have to work at it. You have to work to find time for each other and continue to make each other feel special and just a whole lot of other crap that takes a lot of work emotionally. So suffice it to say I didn’t agree with a lot of the things the author discussed in the book. And trust me, I am not dependent on my husband in any way shape or form, I am very independent. And I am not with him because “society” thinks I need to be married or because I want someone to cook for. I am with my husband because we have fun together (some times) and because I like what he brings to our relationship. He interests me as a person, and he has since the moment I met him.
Wow that was quite the rant. Anyways, the author also discusses that marriage is awful and married people can’t understand why she doesn’t want to get married and that people with kids only care about their kids. So if hearing about any one of those things appeals to you then I would read this book. Other than that you might find it a tad frustrating, but still funny as well.

The bottom line: I just couldn’t really get into this book. It was definitely funny, there were some parts that made me laugh out loud. But I’m a married woman who is looking to have children so I think I just wasn’t in the target audience for this book that makes fun of married woman who have/want to have children for 200 pages. Was a funny read but I would probably only recommend it to people who are divorced or who have no interest in getting married or who have no interest in having children.

Link to author website

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

3Apr2016

2016 Book #28 – A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Historical fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: A Certain Age
Author: Beatriz Williams
Date finished: 4/3/16
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: June 28, 2016
Pages in book: 324
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: BookBrowse NOTE: I received this book for free from BookBrowse 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:

The bestselling author of A Hundred Summers brings the Roaring Twenties brilliantly to life in this enchanting and compulsively readable tale of intrigue, romance, and scandal in New York Society, brimming with lush atmosphere, striking characters, and irresistible charm.
As the freedom of the Jazz Age transforms New York City, the iridescent Mrs. Theresa Marshall of Fifth Avenue and Southampton, Long Island, has done the unthinkable: she’s fallen in love with her young paramour, Captain Octavian Rofrano, a handsome aviator and hero of the Great War. An intense and deeply honorable man, Octavian is devoted to the beautiful socialite of a certain age and wants to marry her. While times are changing and she does adore the Boy, divorce for a woman of Theresa’s wealth and social standing is out of the question, and there is no need; she has an understanding with Sylvo, her generous and well-respected philanderer husband.
But their relationship subtly shifts when her bachelor brother, Ox, decides to tie the knot with the sweet younger daughter of a newly wealthy inventor. Engaging a longstanding family tradition, Theresa enlists the Boy to act as her brother’s cavalier, presenting the family’s diamond rose ring to Ox’s intended, Miss Sophie Fortescue—and to check into the background of the little-known Fortescue family. When Octavian meets Sophie, he falls under the spell of the pretty ingénue, even as he uncovers a shocking family secret. As the love triangle of Theresa, Octavian, and Sophie progresses, it transforms into a saga of divided loyalties, dangerous revelations, and surprising twists that will lead to a shocking transgression . . . and eventually force Theresa to make a bittersweet choice.
Full of the glamour, wit and delicious twists that are the hallmarks of Beatriz Williams’ fiction and alternating between Sophie’s spirited voice and Theresa’s vibrant timbre, A Certain Age is a beguiling reinterpretation of Richard Strauss’s comic opera Der Rosenkavalier, set against the sweeping decadence of Gatsby’s New York.

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. I read a few of Beatriz Williams’ other books last year (Along the Infinite Sea and Tiny Little Thing) and I just loved them so when I saw that her new book was available on Book Browse I hoped that I would be selected to receive a copy, and my prayers were answered! First I have to say that I just love the cover of this book, its glitz and glamour and it really calls out to readers. The girl on the cover I think is Sophie, she is described at one of the parties in the books wearing a dress similar to the one on the cover. This book has a varied cast of characters but mostly centers around Theresa Marshall, her brother “Ox” (Jay), his fiancee Sophie Fortescue, and Theresa’s lover Octavian (“the Boy”). Theresa’s character reminded me a lot of Babe from Swans of Fifth Avenue and Tiny from Tiny Little Thing and I really connected with her character the most. After Jay becomes engaged to Sophie, Theresa asks Octavian to dig into Sophie’s family just to make sure there aren’t any huge skeletons that would mar the family name. Unfortunately this opens a can of worms that will end up drastically changing all of their lives.
Overall I really liked this book. The author did an amazing job of transporting the reader; her description of the scene at the horse track was so well done I felt like I was there with Theresa and Octavian. Honestly I could almost smell the horses. The characters were also very complex and interesting. I really felt bad for Theresa through most of the story. She may have been a difficult person but she was so in love with Octavian and I could just feel her sadness emanating from the book when Octavian started to fall for Sophie. The story line was riveting and had a couple of good twists and turns. I didn’t want to put the book down, the story really just draws the reader in. I’m not really sure yet how I feel about the ending. I think that it fit with the story line and it was a touching ending but it left me feeling a little empty I think. I actually feel very similar to how I felt about the ending of Along the Infinite Sea, I’m left feeling a little adrift. Really good story though and a great book. This is definitely going to be a summer must read!

The bottom line: This was a really great book! There were some great twists and turns and I’m not 100% sure how I feel about the ending but I couldn’t put it down! I would definitely recommend!!

Link to author website

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

16Mar2016

2016 Book #22 – Just Fall by Nina Sadowsky

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Thriller by rebeccabook17

Title: Just Fall
Author: Nina Sadowsky
Date finished: 3/15/16
Genre: Fiction, thriller/suspense
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: March 22, 2016
Pages in book: 304
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:

THEN
Ellie Larrabee’s life is perfect. She’s thriving at work, living in a fabulous apartment, and engaged to the man of her dreams. To all appearances, Ellie and Rob Beauman are a golden couple—blessed with good looks, success, and romantic chemistry that’s off the charts. Surely their future together promises nothing but happiness.
But on what should be the most wonderful day of her life, moments after saying “I do,” a shocking secret threatens to shatter Ellie’s happily-ever-after. She learns that the man she just married and loves with all her heart hides a dark past beneath his charismatic exterior. And the more harrowing truth she uncovers, the deeper Ellie is swept into a vortex of betrayal and uncertainty from which she may never escape.

NOW
On the island paradise of St. Lucia, Ellie isn’t basking in honeymoon splendor—she’s grappling with the chilling realities of her violently derailed life: Rob has blood on his hands and some very dangerous people on his trail, and only Ellie stands between him and the lethal destiny he’s facing. Rob never dreamed that Ellie would be dragged into the deadly world he’s trapped in—or used as a pawn against him. And Ellie could never have imagined how far she’d be forced to go to save the man she loves.

My rating: 4.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book is about a woman named Ellie who discovers an awful secret about her husband (Rob) minutes after the ceremony ends. While she is still in shock, a series of events occur that lead to Ellie taking some extreme measures in order to ensure her husband’s safety. The book alternates between the Then and Now of Ellie’s story, showing us glimpses of her relationship with Rob as it develops and also glimpses into both her past as well as Rob’s before they met. In the wrong hands this writing style can leave the reader completely lost and confused but Sadowsky does a fantastic job of keeping the reader on the right path and leaves subtle clues as to where we are in the timeline without having to put exact dates. I thought it was splendidly done and really increased the tension of the story.
Overall I very much enjoyed this book, the plot line was interested and the story definitely keeps the reader on their toes since it switches between the past and what is happening now. I thought that the book presented an interesting concept, what are we willing to do in order to help those that we love? Ellie and Rob both have dark pasts, events in their lives that changed them. Even though they didn’t discuss those events before they were married, they somehow knew that the other person understood their pain and emptiness. I really liked Ellie’s character, though she did some pretty screwed up stuff in order to protect Rob, I think that she was a really complex character and was just trying to do what was best for her family. There is a lot of grey area in life, decisions that aren’t necessarily good or bad but are the right decision for you to make. I thought the author did a great job of making Ellie’s decisions seem abhorrent and understandable all at the same time. I also really liked how the author was able to intertwine multiple characters and story lines all into a cohesive and (honestly) thrilling story. This was a great read, I can’t wait to see more by this author in the future.

The bottom line: Great book, the plot twists definitely kept me on my toes. Couldn’t put this one down, I would definitely recommend!

Link to author website

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

19Feb2016

2016 Book #13 – Nookietown by V.C. Chickering

Posted in 2015, Book reviews, Bookish Bingo Holiday 2015, Fiction, Reading Challenges, Women's fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: Nookietown
Author: V.C. Chickering
Date finished: 2/18/16
Genre: Fiction, women’s fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: February 23, 2016
Pages in book: 368
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:

Recently divorced, 40-something single-mom, Lucy, is lonely, bored and craving physical connection. So, when her trusted long-time married friend, Nancy, begs Lucy to sleep with her husband to save her marriage, Lucy goes for it. It’s such a success, the two friends invent a town-wide underground barter system whereby Nancy’s married girlfriends sub-contract Lucy’s divorcee friends to sleep with their husbands so they don’t have to as often. It’s a win, win, win- for a while. Then it all goes to hell in a hand-basket.
Laugh-out-loud funny, emotionally provocative and at times racy, Nookietown is a story of risk-taking, marriage, honesty and desire, and what one woman rationalizes in order to get what she wants.

My rating: 3.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book will count towards my “Holiday 2015 Bookish Bingo” reading challenge, marking off the “One-Word Title” square, since the title for this book is in fact only one word. I had heard about this book from a couple of different places, one of which was Popsugar’s 23 Books You Should Read This Winter. So when I saw it available on NetGalley I’m not even sure I fully read the description before requesting it. I mean I’m sure I knew the main premise for the story, but still I found myself surprised while reading it that there was just so much sex. It was everywhere, the main character of this book (sorry I should have introduced her already, her name is Lucy Larken (ha)) was constantly having sex (in detail) with a variety of men.
So basically, the short description of what happens is that Lucy’s friend Nancy (with Lucy’s help) starts a service where married women can basically subcontract out the sex part of their life to a lonely divorcee who isn’t interested in getting married again. Takes some of the pressure off her so she isn’t being begged for sex constantly and she doesn’t have to feel guilty about always saying no to sex. Lucy meets and dates a couple of guys while she’s involved in the program, but she doesn’t divulge her “side-business” to them. Lucy is recently divorced and is having a hard time not only getting back out into the dating world but also feeling desirable. So when she starts participating in the Program and starts being so appreciated by these other womens’ husbands just for having sex with them, she starts to feel wanted again and starts to get her self-confidence back.
Overall I thought this was a really interesting premise for a book and I definitely don’t think I’ve ever read anything like it before.I did have a lot of issues with the book but most of them were more personal issues that I don’t think would necessarily affect other readers. I’ll just run through my issues with the book really quickly. Kit was a shitty friend. In the beginning-ish of the book she tells Lucy about how hard Lucy’s divorce was on her (KIT). Like Lucy’s divorce affected and upset Kit so much. As soon as she said that I was like no way get the F out of here. Another issue I had with the book was that the idea would never work. I don’t know any women who would willingly go tell their husband to sleep with another woman, never mind arrange it for them. Nuts. Another thing is that if Lucy really did get pregnant the way she meant to from Peter, that is messed up beyond reason. Just awful awful stuff. Anyways I think those were my main issues, there were a couple of other things but they were small issues. I think that the premise behind this book was just so difficult for me to comprehend and wrap my mind around that it made it harder for me to enjoy the story. That being said though, this book was interesting and had some really great points on marriage and relationships as a whole as well as the importance of being grateful for what you have in life.

The bottom line: I thought that this was an interesting book and actually had some good thoughts about marriage and forgiveness and being grateful for what you have. So yes I would recommend it. Just be warned though, there is lots of sex. I wasn’t expecting that much sex.

Link to author website

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

7Feb2016

2016 Book #10 – A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison

Posted in 2016, Book reviews, Fiction, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges, Thriller, Women's fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: A Small Indiscretion
Author: Jan Ellison
Date finished: 2/6/16
Genre: Fiction, women’s fiction, suspense
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: January 20, 2015
Pages in book: 318
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: BookBrowse NOTE: I received this book for free from BookBrowse 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:

At nineteen, Annie Black trades a bleak future in a washed-out California town for a London winter of drinking and abandon. Twenty years later, she is a San Francisco lighting designer and happily married mother of three who has put her reckless youth behind her. Then a photo from that distant winter in Europe arrives inexplicably in her mailbox, and an old obsession is awakened.
Past and present collide, Annie’s marriage falters, and her son takes a car ride that ends with his life hanging in the balance. Now Annie must confront her own transgressions and fight for her family by untangling the mysteries of the turbulent winter that drew an invisible map of her future. Gripping, insightful, and lyrical, A Small Indiscretion announces the arrival of a major new voice in literary suspense as it unfolds a story of denial, passion, forgiveness—and the redemptive power of love.

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. Also, this book will count towards my “PopSugar 2016 Checklist” reading challenge, marking off the “a book set in Europe” square as probably about half of the book took place in Europe (London, Paris, Ireland, etc.). This book was sent to me for participation in Book Browse’s Book Talk. I have never participated in an online book discussion before but I am looking forward to it! I think this book will be particularly interesting to discuss due to the moral and ethical questions raised by some of the events in the novel. The discussion group for this book opens on the site on February 9th so if anyone else is interested in joining in on the discussion you are welcome!
Anyways, so this book is about Annie Black. The book starts off in September 2011, when her son Robbie is involved in a significant automobile accident that has left him in a coma. The narrator (Annie) tells the reader at the beginning of the book that her marriage had fallen apart days before her son’s accident. From there, Annie uses the book as a sort of journal/letter where she talks to her son Robbie. As the book unfolds, Annie explains to Robbie how her and his father came to be together, and the events that shaped not only their relationship in the beginning but also her as a person. The story for Annie really began in 1989 (22 years ago) when she leaves her childhood home to travel (first to Maine to confront her father but this is explained later on in the book) to Europe to start over and find her place in the world.
Overall I liked this book. It had a really interesting story line, definitely different from anything I’ve read before. There was a lot of commentary strung into the story on marriage and forgiveness, which I enjoyed a lot. For some reason though the story line just didn’t really grab me. There were some good plot twists but I saw them coming so it took away from the surprise a little for me. And while I wouldn’t say that overall I was thrilled with this story, there were a lot of things that I liked about the book. One of the things was that I found it interesting that even though Annie is extremely flawed, we are still lead to feel sympathy for her as the main character of the book. While I personally had trouble connecting to some of the characters, there were complex layers of wants and needs in each character in the book.

The bottom line: I liked this book, it was interesting and had some great toughts included in the story on marriage and forgiveness. I would recommend it for reading.

Link to author website

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