MY REVIEW:
Grand Central Publishing|May 6, 2014|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-4555-5433-1
Still grieving the death of her prematurely delivered infant, Lila finds a welcome distraction in renovating a country house she's recently inherited. Surrounded by blueprints and plaster dust, though, she finds herself drawn into the story of a group of idealistic university grads from thirty years before, who'd thrown off the shackles of bourgeois city life to claim the cottage and rely only on each other on the land. But utopia-building can be fraught with unexpected peril, and when the fate of the group is left eerily unclear, Lila turns her attention to untangling a web of secrets to uncover the shocking truth of what happened that fateful year, in order to come to terms with her own loss and build a new future for herself.
I was literally glued to the pages of this book. I just couldn't take my eyes off the pages for even a second. The story was solid, the characters well fleshed out and original and the surprises just kept coming. I was literally rocked off my feet by the ending and had no idea what was coming as I was nearing the end. I think shock is even a mild word to describe the end, I didn't see, nor even considered this ending. What a powerful punch this story delivered. Hannah Richell has certainly penned a winner with THE SHADOW YEAR!
MY REVIEW:
HarperCollins|March 24, 2014|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-06-231686-8
A smash self-published hit inspired by true events, THE GIRL WHO CAME HOME is the poignant story of a group of Irish emigrants aboard RMS Titanic - a seamless blend of fact and fiction that explores the tragedy's impact and it's lasting repercussions on survivors and their descendants.
Ireland, 1912.
Fourteen members of a small village set sail on RMS Titanic, hoping to find a better life in America. For seventeen-year-old, Maggie Murphy, the journey is bittersweet. Though her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in Ireland with Seamus, the sweetheart she left behind. When disaster strikes, Maggie is one of the lucky few passengers in steerage who survives. Waking up alone in a New York hospital, she vows never to speak of the terror and panic of that terrible night ever again.
Chicago, 1982.
Adrift after the death of her father, Grace Butler struggles to decide what comes next. When her Great Nana Maggie shares the painful secret she harbored for almost a lifetime about the Titanic, the revelation gives Grace new direction - and leads her and Maggie to unexpected reunions with those they thought lost long ago.
I just couldn't put this book down. It was mesmerizing to say the least. Although a lot of stories have been written about the Titanic, this was an exception with a great storyline. I'll be recommending this one for sure.
MY REVIEW:
Baker Publishing Group|June 3, 2014|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-7642-1254-3
Flight instructor Jack Livingston has been raising his eight-year-old adopted niece, Natalie, since the accident that took her parents' lives. When he travels, Natalie is tenderly cared for by her Amish nanny, Laura Mast, who loves the little girl as her own.
Eight excruciating years ago, Kelly Maine's baby was kidnapped. Determined to find her child, Kelly has tirelessly pursued every lead to its bitter end. And now, with the clock ticking, one last clue from a private investigator ignities a tiny flame of hope: Just a few miles away lives a young girl who matches the profile.
Can this be, at long last, Kelly's beloved daughter?
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and was completely stumped as to who Natalie's birth mother was. At one point I thought for sure I had it figured out but I was wrong and I certainly never saw this ending coming. I was quite taken aback at finding out who really was her birth mother.
Reading CHILD OF MINE was like reading non-fiction, I had to keep reminding myself that this was a fiction novel and not a true story. It was so well-written and could have been taken out of the pages of the newspaper of the many other times we've heard about these very same cases.
Natalie had been kidnapped by her birth father and sold into the black market adoption ring never to be seen again for eight long years. Kelly Maine's jumped through every hoop possible to find the daughter she so very much missed. Lucky for her she had the backing of a wealthy couple who backed her up financially with a private investigator to help her track down possible candidates, but for years they all turned into dead ends. That is, until she heard about Natalie, could she be the one? Is Kelly's search finally over?
MY REVIEW:
Penguin Books|September 25, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-14-312227-2
"Stewart O'Nan's thirteenth novel is another wildly original, bittersweet gem like his celebrated Last Night at the Lobster.
Valentine's weekend, Art and Marion Fowler flee their Cleveland suburb for Niagara Falls, desperate to recoup their losses. Jobless, with their home approaching foreclosure and their marriage on the brink of collapse, Art and Marion liquidate their savings account and book a bridal suite at the Falls ritziest casino for a second honeymoon. While they sightsee like tourists during the day, at night they risk it all at the roulette wheel to fix their finances - and save their marriage. A tender yet honest exploration of faith, forgiveness, and last chances. THE ODDS is a reminder that love, like life, is always a gamble."
According to the above synopsis of THE ODDS from the Chapters website, the book sounds like an interesting read. However, quite the opposite is true. I just couldn't get into this story at all. I found is painfully boring and slow with no excitement or anything to even entince me to try to keep reading further. I did give it a good try and perservered through the first five chapters but just couldn't push myself any further. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
MY REVIEW:
Berkley Trade|June 24, 2008|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-425-22164-8
Davinsky Labor Camp, Siberia, 1933: Only two things in this wretched place keep Sofia from giving up hope: the prospect of freedom, and the stories told by her friend and fellow prisoner Anna, of a charmed childhood in Petrograd, and her fervent girlhood love for a passionate revolutionary named Vasily.
After a perilous escape, Sofia endures months of desolation and hardship. But, clinging to a promise she made to Anna, she subsists on the belief that someday she will track down Vasily. In a remote villate, she's nursed back to health by a Gypsy family, and there she finds more than refuge, she also finds Mikhail Pashin, who, her heart tells her, is Vasily in disguise. He's everything she has ever wanted but he belongs to Anna.
After coming this far, Sofia is tantalizingly close to freedom, family, even a future. All that stands in her way is the secret past that could endanger everything she has come to hold dear.
If you read Kate other book "The Russian Concubine", you'll love THE RED SCARF just as much if not more. This was a totally gripping read.
MY REVIEW:
HarperCollins|September 19, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-06-208160-5
For every young Chinese woman in 1930s Shanghai, following the path of duty takes precedence over personal desires.
For Feng, that means becoming the bride of a wealthy businessman in a marriage arranged by her parents. In the enclosed world of the Sang household-a place of public ceremony and private cruelty-fulfilling her duty means bearing a male heir.
The life that has been forced on her makes Feng bitter and resentful and she plots a terrible revenge. But with the passing years comes a reckoning, and Feng must reconcile herself with the sacrifices and terrible choices she has made in order to assure her place in the family and society-even as the violent, relentless tide of revolution engulfs her country.
Both a sweeping historical novel and an intimate portrait of one woman's struggle against tradition, ALL THE FLOWERS IN SHANGHAI marks the debut of a sensitive and revelatory writer.
I absolutely fell in love with this story and was astounded that a male author could write the roles of females so well. He clearly has an understanding of what and how women think, feel, and act.
Feng was forced to marry her husband after her sister died. She was only weeks away from marrying this man when she passed away and to save face, her family forced her younger sister, only seventeen to marry him instead. Feng knew her place in the new Sang household but as the years went by she became an embittered woman and plotted a revenge that she would eventually be sorry for, but once something has been done, it's impossible to take back. I was glued from the first to the last page and would have liked the story to continue on for another couple of chapters to tie up a couple of loose ends but I suppose the author has given us permission to conjur up our own endings in these matters.
I'll definitely be looking for more of Duncan Jepson's work in the future. This book comes highly recommended!
Story Description:
ECW Press|May 1, 2014|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-77041-083-1
The stigma of mental illness and the power of a mother's love come together in this achingly honest novel. Widely acclaimed for her ability to tell emotionally powerful stories that capture the real lives of women, bestselling author Heather A. Clark tackles the subject of childhood mental disorders. ELEPHANT IN THE SKY is told from both nine-year-old Nate's point of view and that of his mother, Ashely, an overworkd ad executive who struggles with a demanding workload and the worry that she's not spending enough time with her family - especially as her son's battle with mental unbalance and paranoid delusions escalates. The two narratives converge in a deeply moving tale of a family dealing with mental illness. ELEPHANT IN THE SKY is a story about unconditional love, and it articulates a complicated, real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity. It looks at what it means to be different in our society and beautifully explores the distance a mother will go to protect her child.
My Review:
ELEPHANT IN THE SKY was a riveting read. The characters were well fleshed out and the situation of dealing with mental illness was real, it was like reading a true story. I felt that Ashely and her husband were a bit slow on the uptake in picking up the fact that their nine-year-old son was exhibiting behaviours that were very inappropriate for his age and felt they should have sought help for him much sooner than when they did. However, they finally did become involved with the right people and the story moved at a steady pace holding my attention page after page after page.
This was one book I really enjoyed! Heather's first book was titled: Chai Tea Sunday and was also an excellent read.
