2015 Book #103 – Surviving Valencia by Holly Tierney-Bedord

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Thriller by rebeccabook17

Title: Surviving Valencia
Author: Holly Tierney-Bedord
Date finished: 9/29/15
Genre: Fiction, thriller
Publisher: Unknown
Publication Date: June 30, 2012
Pages in book: 335
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:

A car accident robs the Loden Family of twins Van and Valencia shortly after they start college. Charmed, bright, and beautiful, they held their family together and elevated the Lodens to greatness. In their loss, a shadow is cast upon the family, particularly on the remaining child, who lacks the easy grace and popularity her older siblings took for granted.
As an adult, her life begins to turn from mediocre to amazing when she is saved by cool, artistic Adrian. The kind of happiness once reserved only for others is finally hers, until pieces of the past begin ruining what seems to be a perfect life.

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. This book tells the story of our narrator, a 30-ish year old woman who is married to a well-known and wealthy Savannah artist. Now an adult, she is still haunted by the death of her siblings (who were twins and 7ish years older than her) when she was young, and her upbringing has made her feel significantly inadequate as a person. The book alternates between chapters from the past and the present, starting when the narrator is a child and her siblings were still alive. As the book goes along, the chapters about the past eventually catches up to close to where the story began in the present so we luckily end up covering the span of the narrator’s entire life. As the story evolves, we learn a lot more about the narrator’s husband and how he hasn’t been as honest as expected.
Overall I liked this book, it kept me interested from the very beginning and honestly I didn’t want to put it down. I was a little let down with the ending, only because it happened pretty abruptly and I found it to be a tad confusing plus there were some unanswered that as a reader I probably would’ve like to know the answers to. The story switched to a different narrator for the last chapter (not saying who but be prepared for a twist) and the second narrator mentions a baby with green eyes but you really have to pay attention to small details during the rest of the story to grasp the significance of this and even then its entirely possible that there is another villain out there with green eyes. And there is a reference to the second narrator escaping but what were they escaping from and how long did they have to wait before they escaped? And there is a mention of an old and a young guy but who the heck is the old guy? Just a lot of questions. Which really, I mean the story is very engrossing, i just wish we found out what happened to the second narrator! Other than that though the story is interesting and mysterious and a bit thrilling. Honestly while I was reading it reminded me of a cross of both Luckiest Girl Alive and The Space Between Heartbeats in certain parts of the plot line. It was a great read!

The bottom line: I liked this book a lot but the ending left something to be desired for me personally. Story really draws you in though, I would recommend it!

Link to author website

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

17Sep2015

2015 Book #99 – The Virgin’s Daughter by Laura Andersen

Posted in Book reviews, Historical fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: The Virgin’s Daughter
Author: Laura Andersen
Date finished: 9/17/15 (It’s my BIRTHDAY!)
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: May 26, 2015
Pages in book: 325
Stand alone or series: Tudor Legacy Trilogy #1
Where I got the book from: Terryville Public Library

Blurb from the cover:

Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, The Virgin’s Daughter is the first book in a captivating new saga about the next generation of Tudor royals, which poses the thrilling question: What if Elizabeth I, the celebrated Virgin Queen, gave birth to a legitimate heir?
Since the death of her brother, William, Elizabeth I has ruled England. She’s made the necessary alliances, married Philip of Spain, and produced a successor: her only daughter, Anne Isabella, Princess of Wales. Elizabeth knows that her beloved Anabel will be a political pawn across Europe unless she can convince Philip to grant her a divorce, freeing him to remarry and give Spain its own heir. But the enemies of England have even greater plans for the princess, a plot that will put Anabel’s very life and the security of the nation in peril. Only those closest to Elizabeth—her longtime confidante Minuette, her advisor and friend Dominic, and the couple’s grown children—can be trusted to carry forth a most delicate and dangerous mission. Yet, all of the queen’s maneuverings may ultimately prove her undoing.

My rating: 4.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I decided to read this book since I was approved for a NetGalley of the second book in the series, The Virgin’s Spy. I don’t like to pick up a series in the middle if I can avoid it but some other times there are like 5 books ahead of the one I’m reading and I only have 2 weeks before the book is published so there isn’t really enough time. Luckily there was only one book I needed to read to catch up on the series so I was able to fit it in. This book is about a number of people though the main focus seems to be on Lucette Courtenay and Julien LeClerc. The Courtenay family has always been a close friend of Queen Elizabeth and her daughter, Anabel. When Elizabeth learns of a plot currently in the works to assassinate her, there isn’t anyone she trusts more than her close friends. Lucette is the oldest child in the Courtenay household, and Elizabeth has asked her to travel to France to try and get to the bottom of who is behind this nefarious scheme. Lucette agrees but the last thing she ever expects is to fall in love while she’s in France. A good spy though should always expect the unexpected.
Overall I really liked this book a lot. There were a lot of different view points, which was interesting and there was a combination of all the stress points I look for in a book: intrigue and romance. The characters were all interesting and I loved the dynamic between all the different royals in the story. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series and see what happens next, I wish I could just skip ahead to that book but I have some other book deadlines to get to before then. Definitely looking forward to reading the next book though, I really liked the characters and I expect that we haven’t heard the last from Mary, Queen of Scots.

The bottom line: I really liked this book a lot. It had just the right balance of romance, intrigue, and vengeance. Would definitely recommend! Can’t wait to read the next in the series!Link to author website
Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

7Sep2015

2015 Book #94 – The Space Between Heartbeats by Melissa Pearl

Posted in Book reviews, Young Adult by rebeccabook17

Title: The Space Between Heartbeats
Author: Melissa Pearl
Date finished: 9/5/15
Genre: Young adult
Publisher: Alloy Entertainment
Publication Date: September 15, 2015 (originally published November 1, 2012
Pages in book: 286
Stand alone or series: Betwixt 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:

Nicole Tepper has it all—beauty, popularity, and the perfect boyfriend. But after a party she can’t remember, she wakes up in a ghostly state, trapped between life and death. Nicole’s injured body is lying in a wooded area, but she has no idea where—or how long she has left to live.
Only one person can hear her now: Dale Finnegan, a loner classmate that Nicole has relentlessly bullied. Dale’s the last person in school who would want to help her, but he sets their tangled history aside to try to save her life. As they dig into what happened at the party, they discover her boyfriend isn’t as perfect as he seems—and neither are her friends. With the clock ticking down and her life slipping away, Nicole must face a hard truth: Was what happened to her a terrible accident? Or does someone want her dead?

My rating: 4.25 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 Nicole Tepper. After her sister died a couple years ago, her family pretty much fell apart and she worked hard to fill her life with people she could keep at a distance. She liked her boyfriend Trent because he doesn’t see past her bad girl attitude and accepts her at face value. She has her group of friends for the same reason. After a wild party one night she wakes up and no one will talk to her or even respond to her questions. It isn’t until her hand slides right through another person that she realizes something horrible, she’s a ghost. Later on her spirit ends up drifting back into her body and Nicole discovers she isn’t dead as she thought but just in and out of consciousness from the injuries she sustained and she is in unbelievable pain.
As she wanders through her daily routine, trying to make sure of everything and her presence in the spiritual world, she discovers one of her classmates can hear her even though she’s a ghost. Dale is someone she’s always made fun of to assert her popularity. But it turns out he’s the only one who can help her now. She doesn’t have any idea where her body is but she knows she doesn’t have much longer to live. And so Nicole and Dale race to figure out what happened that night and where her boy now lays before its too late.
Overall I very much liked this book. The characters were well developed and the plot line was honestly just riveting. I couldn’t put this book down once I started it, it was so good! I would definitely recommend.

The bottom line: I thought this was a great book! Would definitely 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

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

6Aug2015

2015 Book #81 – The Guilty One by Sophie Littlefield

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

Title: The Guilty One
Author: Sophie Littlefield
Date finished: 8/5/15
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: August 11, 2015
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:

A man stands on the Golden Gate Bridge, poised to jump…if a woman on the other end of the phone tells him to.
Maris’s safe suburban world was shattered the day her daughter was found murdered, presumably at the hands of the young woman’s boyfriend. Her marriage crumbling, her routine shattered, Maris walks away from her pampered life as a Bay Area mom the day she receives a call from Ron, father of her daughter’s killer. Wracked with guilt over his son’s actions (and his own possible contribution to them), he asks Maris a single question: should he jump?
With a man’s life in her hands, Maris must decide, perhaps for the first time, what she truly wants. Retribution? Forgiveness? Or something more? Having lost everything, she’s finally free to recreate herself without the confining labels of “wife,” “mother,” or “mourner.” But will this shocking offer free her, or destroy her?

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 #3 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 Maris Parker, whose daughter was murdered a year ago. As if trying to wake up each day and live with that isn’t difficult enough, her daughter’s killer’s father (Ron Isherwood) then calls her and basically offers to kill himself in a very “eye for an eye” situation where he gives up his life since his son took her daughter’s life. Plus her husband is leaving her.
Maris’ reaction to this phone call sets her (unknowingly) on a new life course. While she had planned to leave for her sister’s condo that afternoon, Ron’s call leaves her feeling unsettled and not quite ready to face the outside world. The next day she goes to Oakland to pick up a gift for her sister and its there that she meets Petra, who will help her quite a lot in the coming days actually. She ends up tagging along with Petra’s group of friends and hides herself away in a rundown apartment building in Oakland. It is there she learns that there are other people in the world who are hurting as well, if maybe in different ways. It is also in Oakland that Maris begins to find out who she is now, without the husband she’s been married to for 20 years or the child she’s raised for the past seventeen years. Maris discovers who she is as her own person again, and makes a few good friends along the way.
Overall I really did enjoy this book. There were a couple really good plot twists, both of which I actually never saw coming, and I liked Maris and Ron as main characters, they both had a lot of layers to dig through. I felt that Maris really grew as a character throughout the story. We really learned with her how to cope with the grief of losing a child, how to pick yourself up off the ground and push yourself to keep living life each and every day.

The bottom line: I really liked this book, it had a couple good shocker moments thrown in there and I thought the story line was well-paced. I was interested throughout the story and both grieved for and felt compassion for Maris’ loss. Good book, would recommend other readers to give it a try!

Favorite Quotes:
“You don’t do all of those things without building up a reserve for moments like this. Moments when the weak ones fail, the battered ones give up, the broken ones cry out for someone to take their hand.”
“How do you go back up the family tree, scrambling up the doomed bloodline, and make things right?”
“Her daughter was with her in the morning, when she stepped out of her apartment as the sun was just beginning to rise up above the distant hills.”

Link to author website
Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

24Jul2015

2015 Book #77 – The Stove-Junker by S.K. Kalsi

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: The Stove-Junker
Author: S.K. Kalsi
Date finished: 7/24/15
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little Feather books, Inc.
Publication Date: April 21, 2015
Pages in book: 334
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Rare Bird Lit / Rare Bird Books NOTE: I received this book for free from Rare Bird Lit / Rare Bird Books 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:

Part elegy, part history, part existential ghost tale, The Stove-Junker is a harrowing, lyrical meditation on loss, heartbreak, and the power of memory. In this extraordinary debut novel, S.K. Kalsi has crafted a haunting tale of unvarnished self-examination, as experienced through the story’s central character, Somerset Garden, the stove-junker. In the winter of 2012, 79-year-old Somerset travels back to his ancestral home in idyllic Drums, Pennsylvania, to renovate his dilapidated house. Burdened by the loss of his beloved wife, the long-ago disappearance of his rebellious son, and angry at God and at himself, Somerset hopes to reach a final understanding of the meaning of his life. While a blizzard barrels down from the north and “Armageddon” draws near, Somerset discovers an unnamed boy squatting on the property, a strange child who forces him to confront his past. As he unearths objects in the house that had been lost or discarded in the debris, Somerset remembers his father’s cruelty and the accident that cost him his brother’s life; he revisits the itinerant wandering of his youth, tethered to a troubled mother; he mourns the loss of his wife and ponders the decades-long absence of his son-all of whom are caught in the grip of Luzerne County’s ancient history of violence.

My rating: 1.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book was sent to me from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I decided to accept this review request even though this isn’t my usual style of book because I wanted to try something different. And while I’m glad I tried something new, I don’t think I enjoyed this book as much as someone else might have. This book was a little dark for me and a little confusing. There was a lot of rambling and some pretty gory scenes. I would think this book would appeal to possibly Stephen King fans or Dean Koontz fans due to the dark scenes and the underlying feeling of anger and fear running through some pieces of the book.
The entire story is told by our one narrator, Somerset Garden. He has lived through a tough life, some pretty awful things were done to his mother in front of him and he lost his only son when his son was eighteen. He returns to his home in PA to fix up his house, his inheritance that he has no one to leave to, before he dies in Armageddon. While staying at the house he comes across a boy who can’t remember his name. He takes the boy in but the boy develops a fever and becomes pretty ill.
There was a lot going on in this book, the narrator tends to ramble on quite a bit and sometimes I found it a little hard to follow his thought process. I think that this is actually done purposefully since our narrator is aging and preparing to die. While this wasn’t necessarily my type of book, I think it has a lot of potential as a great literary fiction novel. I would definitely encourage people who like literary fiction (and probably of the dark variety) to give this book a try!

The bottom line: I wasn’t a huge fan of this book but more so because it is not my personnel preference of books. I think this might appeal to Stephen King or even Dean Koontz fans.

Link to author website
Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

12Jul2015

2015 Book #70 – How To Marry a Royal Highlander by Vanessa Kelly

Posted in 2015, Book reviews, Book series, Historical Romance, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist, Reading Challenges, Renegade Royals series by rebeccabook17

Title: How To Marry a Royal Highlander
Author: Vanessa Kelly
Date finished: 7/11/15
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Zebra
Publication Date: June 30, 2015
Pages in book: 352
Stand alone or series: #4 in the Renegade Royals 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:

At sixteen, Alasdair Gilbride, heir to a Scottish earldom, fled the Highlands and an arranged betrothal. Ten years later, Alasdair must travel home to face his responsibilities. It’s a task that would be much easier without the distracting presence of the most enticing woman he’s ever met…
After one escapade too many, Eden Whitney has been snubbed by the ton. The solution: rusticating in the Scottish wilderness, miles from all temptation. Except, of course, for brawny, charming Alasdair. The man is so exasperating she’d likely kill him before they reach the border—if someone else weren’t trying to do just that. Now Eden and Alasdair are plunging into a scandalous affair with his life and her reputation at stake—and their hearts already irreparably lost…

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist under the “a book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit” check box since I can not think of anything more amazing than going to Scotland (or Ireland) and touring the old castles there. You can even stay at some of them, they have been converted into like hotels. Can you think of anything more awesome for a vacation? Staying in a freaking CASTLE?!
So this book was about Eden Whitney, twin to Evelyn Whitney who I believe was the heroine in book #3 in the Renegade Royals series. Eden is tired of sitting around waiting for her Prince Charming so she decides she’s going to make some moves and see if she can find him on her own. Unfortunately she does this by making out with one of the ton’s well-known rogues and even worse she gets caught by the ton’s worst gossiping matron. This recipe for disaster leads to her being shunned by the ton and having to go somewhere for the winter until some of the scandal dies down. Luckily her twin’s husband’s best friend owns a castle in Scotland that he’s finally returning to after 10 years of running away from his duties to his family.
While overall I did like the plot line of this story and I didn’t 100% know who the bad guy was going to be at the end (though I did suspect quite a bit), I did have a couple small issues. The part where the hero (Alasdair Gilbride) decides that he wants Eden for his wife (the first time he realizes it I mean) happened so quickly that I think I missed it, I even went back looking through trying to figure out when he all of a sudden decided this. And Eden seemed a little slow to catch on that she actually liked Alasdair. But Alasdair’s crazy family (while somewhat annoying for their extreme persistence) was actually really entertaining and kept me on the edge of my seat trying to find out what awful thing they were going to do next. I also thought that Edie’s mother was a very interesting character, I was continually alternating being annoyed with her and admiring her throughout the book. While it did become frustrating at times that no one was listening to the “younger folk” (Alasdair, Eden, and Donella) its definitely realistic that something like that would happen during the time period in which the book was set, when arranged marriages were prevalent. The conversations between the family members though was quite well done, there was evident tension but it was not at all stilted or awkward and did not feel rehearsed.
I loved the descriptions of Scotland since I’ve always wanted to go to Scotland/Ireland and look at the castles and just the general landscape. I’ve heard nothing but how beautiful it is and all the pictures I see online just make me want to go so much more!

The bottom line: I thought this was a very good book, definitely a great read if you are a historical romance fan! I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Link to author website
Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page